A/N: Just so you know guys I'm about to hit the road and I'm not sure what type of internet connection anyone can get in the lake district. So bear with me if I don't update for a little while, I will be writing even if I'm not posting. Enjoy Esther

Nightmares and Nightclubs

A cold dark shadow filled the once bright sunny room. The lights flicked off. The man stood, laying a protective hand on his daughter. He looked around, the hooded figures surrounded them. He took a last look at his beautiful daughter and lovely wife. The man's wife had a tight grip on her daughters hand, her eyes held a look of terror as they shot around the room looking for an escape. The leader of the dark figures, and the biggest, stepped forward.

"Kill him," The dark figure said in a voice that was deep and gravely, " He's nothing but filth."

A spell shot out from the wand of the figure to the left of the leader. The man's life was gone from him before he hit the floor. There was no splendour or valour in his death, he was simply dead. His daughter gave a small gasp, but did nothing more. His wife on the other hand, shouted at the figures.

"You horrible monsters!," She howled at them, "What are you going to do! Kill all of us? Will you even go so far as to kill my child?"

"No." the leader leered, "We will take your daughter with us. We will turn her into one of us. You had your opportunity, but you wanted none of it, and so now we will kill you, as well."

This time it was the figure to right of the leader who cast the deadly spell. The woman, like her husband, was dead instantly, her hand now loose in her daughters. The daughter burst in to tears as the figures closed in around her. She did nothing to stop them.

"Mum! Dad!," Tonks yelled. A hot sweet covered her body and the bed sheets were tangled around her. Gaston her owl looked up from the mouse that she had given to him when she got home from her guard shift. It hadn't been that long ago, but she had hoped to get a least a few hours sleep before having to go into work that day. Fat chance she had of doing that now.

She untangled her self from her sheets and poured herself a glass of water. Sitting by the window hoping for a breeze, she was rewarded with none. It was early but it was summer and the sun had already been up a full hour. The air even now had a sticky feeling of persistant heat. Tonks noticed that her hair had gone back to it's natural length and colour. She concentrated hard but could only gather enough energy to shorten it. It didn't matter. She would fix it after her shower, for now it was at least off her neck.

The dream had been the same one she had had when she was younger. Over and over again that dream had invaded her sleep as a child. Slowly after the war the dreams had stopped. Till now, the last time she had had the dream was a week before Christmas when she was 10 years old. It was different now, her parents still looked like they had when she was a child, but she looked like she was now. Now she thought about it, the figures had changed too. They weren't all the same, nameless masses, but now Tonks had put the names and faces of caught Death Eaters together.

A shiver went down Tonks spine, despite the heat. She tried to push the dream from her mind, but the haunted feeling she felt was hard to shake. Knowing sleep was not an option she showered and dressed for work. Before she left she wrote a short note to her parents. It said very little, but just writing it made her feel more calm. She sent the letter off with Gaston and made her way to work.

Remus had been on Harry watching duty from noon till now. It had been a terrible day for it. The invisibility cloak he had covering him from head to toe did nothing to alleviate the days heat. The sun sat high in the sky and shade was hard to come by. Sweat had drench Remus from the second that he had stood in the sun covered by the cloak.

There was another reason too that Remus did not enjoy his day of Harry watching. The boy looked so melancholy. He trudged around the muggle house and neighbourhood with the same frustrated energy that Remus saw daily in Sirius. He watched helpless, as the muggle yelled at him to 'go away and stop watching the news'. Remus wiped his brow, wishing there was some way he could reassure Harry that something was being done. That things were happening and he would know about them soon. But there was no way, this was how it must be, it was on Dumbledore's orders.

Harry slouched up to his room and Remus could see him flop down on his bed through the window. Remus glanced at his watch, his shift was over. He kept his eye on Harry's window as he made his way over to Mrs Fig's house. He knocked just softly enough as not to confuse the neighbours. The curtain twitched, after a few seconds Mrs Fig opened the door, seemingly to let one of her many cats out.

As soon as Remus was in the door he tore the cloak off. The relief was instant and he moaned with delight. Hestia Jones stood in the hall, a look of horror on her face. Remus looked down at the cloak in his hands. The thing would reek of his sweat, probably even be damp from it. Remus gave Hestia an apologetic look.

"Conkleanti." said Remus prodding the cloak with his wand. The cloak gleam red from the cleaning charm. Hestia looked doubtful but took the cloak none the less.

"Thanks," she muttered before turning to leave.

"Wait," said Remus, "You're helping get Harry to the headquarters aren't you? Well we really need to get together and work out a plan. So if you're free, tomorrow, at the headquarters, say, half five?"

"Yes I'll come straight from work, that'll be fine."

Mrs Fig began waving her arms, "Hurry up I can't stand with the door open all day. People will begin to think I'm crazy."

Remus shared an amused look with Hestia before she disappeared beneath the cloak.

Tonks had buried herself in her paper work as soon as she got to work. The effect was that she was able to push her dream from her thoughts and her in tray was looking healthier then it ever had. By lunch time the fact that she had next to no sleep was catching up with her. She sent a memo to her best friend Trish Martin, who worked in the reception of the department of magical creatures, to come and meet her for lunch. Then set off to meet her at the muggle café that was just around the corner from the Ministry.

As Tonks came to the elevator Tonks notice the bright red hair of the man waiting by the doors. She was about to say hello when she worked out it wasn't Arthur, there was far to much of the bright red hair to be Arthur.

"Charlie." Tonks smiled.

"Tonks." replied Charlie.

"Thought you where your dad."

"Ha. No. I came in with my brothers, Fred and George, they're sitting their apparition test. Just came down to say hi to Dad."

"Do you have long to wait for your brothers?"

Charlie glanced at his watch. "Yeah, the line was massive, the witch at reception said it would be about an hour and half, about 15 minutes ago."

"Oh well if you want, you can come grab something to eat with Trish and I."

"Trish Martin, Trish? You guys still friends?"

The doors finally opened and memos flow out of the empty lift. They both hopped in.

Tonks hit the ground floor button. "Yeah. She works here too."

"Oh. Well fancy that. Yeah I'll grab some food with you guys."

The two of then made their way to the café, talking on the way, about old school friends. The conversation, continued when they meet up with Trish, although Trish and Charlie did go on about her job in the magical creatures department for awhile. By the end of her lunch hour Tonks was feeling a lot less tired, she even agreed, after much convincing, to go for a drink with Trish after work that day.

Remus walked in to the kitchen at number 12 Grimmauld Place, the Weasleys, Hermione, and Sirius were all taking their seats around the table. The heat from the day still trapped in the kitchen made Remus feel as if he had put the invisibility cloak back on. He sat groggily down next to Hermione. He was a little disappointed not to see Tonks at the table, but she rarely came for dinner two days in a row.

"No Tonks with us tonight?" asked Molly as she dished out the stew.

It was Charlie who answered, " I bumped into her today, had lunch with her and her friend Trish Martin. They were going out for a drink after work today."

"That's a shame." muttered Molly.

"No way. Trish Martin? She still hot?" asked Bill.

As that conversation degenerated into nothing more than boy talk, other conversations broke out along the table. Fred and George sat huddled together planning some scam, Ron and Ginny sat listening intently to Sirius telling a story about some old school prank, and Molly and Arthor chough up on each others day. Hermione started to tell Remus all about SPEW. Remus listened politely, although not at all convinced that Hermione really had the best understanding of the mind set of house elves.

In amongst the large Weasley family, Remus not for the first time in his life, felt the twinge of grief. He could never expect a family like this. In fact he could not even expect to one child, as he had been in his own family. The child would surely take on his condition, and if not how could he put his own child in such danger as to have him for a father. The thoughts darkened his mood. He tried to push them from his mind, he knew that he would only dwell on them tonight on his shift if he didn't.

Remus left the hot kitchen and it's occupants behind, soon after he had finished his dinner. He could tell that Sirius had been holding back comments about Tonks and himself all night, and he didn't fancy being around Sirius when he finely let one slip. In fact he didn't really feel like being around anyone. His lonely shift at the ministry that night, that promised to be cooler than his shack, would be a welcome one.

Wiz Bar's entrance was hidden down one of the halls to public toilets in Leicester square. Like the entrance to Diagon Alley, it required a patterned knock on the bricks with a wand to open. Once inside you paid five silver sickles to enter the club. The main bar was to the right of the front door and the floor of the club went down in 3 different levels, the last levels being the dance floor. Tonks who had morphed her hair into a bright purple bob for the outing made her way to the bar with Trish. It was early still and they got served quickly.

The bartender had hair that stuck up in all directions,and a stud stuck through his lower lip, that he absentmindedly wriggled with his tongue. He was fast and effective at his job and what was more he seemed to enjoy serving drinks to the happy club goers.

"You right there ladies?" He shouted above the music.

"Two bug snot shooters and two double violent vodkas and cranberry." Tonks shouted back.

Trish shoot Tonks a look, "Someone wants to get pissed."

"Yeah and fast. Then I can go home and get some sleep."

"Why are you so tired anyway?" Trish pointed over to a table and stools in a comer that wasn't as loud as the rest of the club. They made there way over and Trish continued her inquiry. "So come on, spill. Who have you been up all night with?"

"Truthfully no one." They raised their shot glasses and downed the green liquid.

"Ok. I believe you about being up all night with no one, but you're being to evasive, there is someone? And another thing, why have you been up all night by yourself?"

Tonks was torn between which question to answer. One would reveal the order, the other her feelings for Remus. As she was sure that Trish would find out about Remus sooner or later, and saying anything to Trish about the order was out of the question, Tonks went for telling her about Remus.

"I might, sort of have a bit of a thing for this guy."

Trish beamed, "Yes, tell me more."

"Oh Trish, he is the sweetest, kindest guy. He's funny. He's smart, and not just academically, he's really clued into things too. And… I don't know how to explain it…. he's calm, level headed."

"Sound better then some of you old boyfriends. What's his name? More importantly what does he look like?"

"His names Remus and he's got amber eyes and he's not much taller then me. What else… he's got a sad smile that will break your heart."

"Hair colour? Buff? Lean? Tanned? Pasty?"

"God Trish. His hair is sort of a light brown colour. He's on the lean side…. Ok very lean. And he's generally got a paler complexion, but last time I saw him he did look as if he had spent a few hours in the sun. Any thing else you want to know?"

Trish thought for a moment, "What does he do for a living?"

He's an unemployed werewolf, leaving in an abandoned shack, and doing odd job for a secret organisation ran by a man everyone thinks is mad, Tonks thought. She didn't want to lie to her friend but the truth did sound bad. "He's had heaps off different job's, from a gardener to a defence against the Dark Arts teacher. He's doing some freelance surveillance at the moment."

"How old is this guy?"

"Older."

"How much?"

"You're just going to make a big deal about it."

"Only if it is."

Tonks took a deep breath, "He's 35 or he might be 36. I don't know when his birthday is."

"Ohhh. I was being to think he was like 60. That's not to bad. How did you meet him?"

He's best friends with my convicted murder of a cousin, Sirius Black, Tonks thought. She grasped around for the connections, "He's friends with Mad-Eye, knew him from way back when. Got the intro through Mad-Eye and then I've just bumped into a few times since."

Trish looked a little unbelieving, but swallowed it, "Ok. So Remus. Hmmmm."

Just then two guys came to their table and started to chat them up. Trish as usual, flirted right back at them accepting their offer to buy them another round. They were good looking wizards, but Tonks felt no inclination to behave like her friend. Her mind was now full of thoughts of Remus. It was if telling her friend about him made her like him even more. There was no more denial and she could now accept the full extent of her feelings. Still she wasn't one to pass up a free drink.

The club was getting busy now and they had to wait for a while as the guys bought them drinks. Tonks watch like a hawk as the drinks were being poured and the guys picked them up to bring over, the Auror in her never really turned off, but they added nothing to them. They both took their drinks and the four of them headed to the dance floor.

It wasn't long before Trish had firmly attached herself to the taller of the two. The shorter of the two, who's name had been Tim or Jim, the noise in the club had made it hard to work out what he had said, now started to make his moves on Tonks. Tonks, turned off not only by the fact that thoughts of Remus still floated round her head, but all so that Tim/Jim was in fact quite a bit shorter then her, wanted nothing of him. She downed her drink and made her excuses about wanting another drink, before walking away from him.

Tonks wasn't sure how it had happened, but somehow she had stayed at the club till the small hours of the morning. Watching as the club goers moved more and more away from any sense of class and down into the depths of debauchery. The men looking around the room looking from girl to girl as if buying a piece of meat. The girls striking poses that they hoped would put them in the best light. Every now and then a girl would flick one of the boys a knowing glance and the two would begin talking, knowing all along where their actions would lead them that night.

Usually Tonks would not notice this game that went on around her, but her lack of interest to play had brought the facts of this game under a harsh light. So instead Tonks drank more to try and hide from her discovery. The effect was that by the time Trish had come over to her to leave, Tonks was amazingly drunk.

Now with her head hanging over her toilet in her small flat in Notting Hill, Tonks calculate how many hours of sleep she could get, before she had to be up for work.

The bartender in this chapter is a real person. He's a work mate of mine and he saw me writing the other day and asked me to write him.

Oh and guys as always review I love to know what you all think.