A/N: Hello again. So here's the new Chapter, hope you like. I've gone back and fixed up a lot of the grammar and spelling mistakes in Chapters 1-6, so hopefully they read much more smoothly. Anyway enjoy.
Chapter 8: A Good Price on Cauldron.
The kitchen of number twelve was full of smells and sounds, two more prominent then any other, that of cooking and teenage. When he closed his eyes Remus imagined that he was 15 again and, back at Hogwarts. They were some of the happiest days of his life, he had felt like he truly belonged. If he thought about it, he realised that that was what the Order was now. Was he just chasing the ghost of what was? Had the Order become the thing he was living for? Remus wasn't sure he would like the answers to his thoughts, so he opened his eyes and stopped thinking. His eyes fell on Tonks as she sat at the table, and for a second time that night he felt 15.
"Hey Tonks," Ginny and plonked herself down next to Tonks, "Can you morph your face in to anything? I mean like anything?"
Tonks scrunched up her face for a while, then when nothing thing happened she tucked her head into her chest and put her hands to the sides of her head. Remus sat down quickly beside her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Tonks dear," Mrs Weasley had turned around from the stove and was looking at Tonks with grave concern, " Are you alright?"
"Oh, Ginny!" said Fred.
"You broke her." said George.
"Tonks?" Whispered Remus, trying to keep the deep concern from his voice.
Without warning Tonks throw her head back and looked directly at Ginny. Ginny screamed in terror before falling of her chair in fits of laughter. "Wow," groaned Tonks, "Shouldn't have thrown my head back like that."
"You're Ok then?" Remus felt a little stupid about how concerned he was, now.
"Yeah besides the hang over." Tonks looked down at her nose. "And it didn't even work. Merlin I can't concentrate on anything today."
"Hang over," Uttered Mrs Weasley turning back to the stove with unnecessary vigour.
"Oi, Sirius," yelled George down the table, "Better stop writing that letter to the Ministry. Tonks is only Hung over."
"And to think," said Fred, "handing in an Auror killer might just have got them to clear you."
Sirius grinned his roguish grin, "Damn! There goes my opportunity."
Ginny pulled herself on to her chair as Tonks sat dejected. "It did." Ginny finally managed. "it turned into a pig snout." And then Ginny was in fits of laughter again.
"Yes, I did something!" Tonks stuck her tongue through her teeth as she smiled in victory.
"Good work, Nymphadora." Mocked Remus.
"It's Tonks." snapped back Tonks.
"Oh yes. Sorry." Remus didn't hide the cheeky grin that had spread across his face.
Tonks slapped Remus arm. " You Bludger. You called me that on purpose!"
"Nymphadora, would I call you Nymphadora on -" Remus got no further Tonks had thrown her hands over her ears.
"Ahhhh. Stop it. Sirius your friend is mean."
Sirius laughed harder than Remus had seen him laugh in weeks, "Well of course he is, he's my friend."
"Right. All of you start acting your age or I'll send you all to bed with no dinner." Mrs Weasley said, thought she said it with a smile.
Sirius looked over at Remus, a sly smile crossed his face at the sound of the word bed, and that sent a bolt of fear through Remus. "Padfoot, don't." Warned Remus.
Sirius put his hands up in surrender.
The sounds of Saturday morning cartoons was clear. The walls were thin in Tonks Notting Hill apartment. The sound of a passing police car blotted out the cartoons for a moment. It wasn't early, but Tonks still wanted at least another hours sleep. She turned over and buried herself under her bed clothes. It was no good, the day was already hot and soon the heat of her bed sheets became to much and she was forced to throw them off. The sounds of the cartoons were just as loud as before.
"Muggles and their Stupid TV's." said Tonks groggily as she slouched out of her bed.
It wasn't that she hated TV's. in fact when she was little she used to be fascinated for hours by her muggle grandparents TV. Even now she liked to go to the movie theatre with her muggle friend, Charlotte, from down the hall in number 104. No, she just hated TV's on Saturday mornings when she wanted a lie in.
The pounding in her head that had occupied her thoughts the day before was now gone and Tonks was glad. The bouts of queasiness had also left with the help of a good nights rest. Then again, it could have been something in the special tea that Molly had made for her after dinner.
Gaston, Tonks owl, was perched on top of one of the two chairs in the room, his back turned away from Tonks. The owl was down to two owl treats and there was a feather in his water. Tonks looked at the bird with disbelief before picking up the water bowl and pouring out the water. She cleaned and refilled bowl before putting it back on the window ledge. Then she went to the fridge where she pulled out a dead mouse, she plonked it down on the plate with the owl treats.
"You're the fussiest owl in London I reckon." Tonks told the owl, "Tomorrow I'm doing a morning Harry watching shift. So do you know what that means?"
Gaston speared a small vacant looking glance before going back to the dead mouse,.
"That means that I will not be stupid again and I will go to bed early and I wont go out and I wont get drunk."
"Someone saw you." said Dumbledore grimly.
Remus was sitting in the dusty drawing room of number 12, Sirius was sitting beside him on the Couch. Sirius lips were pursed together, one hand was pressed up against his temple, his face looked pale and drawn. His eyes danced with a anger and pain. Dumbledore stood in front of them, his robes somehow immune to the dust clouds.
Remus had been thinking of pulling up the old carpet in his shack today. A quick trip to the headquarters to thump Sirius for his comments the night before, thought Remus. But it wasn't to be so easy. Remus had found Dumbledore talking to Sirius when he had arrived. Seeing as no one had told him to leave he had sat down next Sirius.
"What were you doing?" Remus asked.
Sirius shrugged his shoulders. "Went to get some milk."
"Milk?!" Remus ran a hand down his face.
"I understand you feel trapped here Sirius, but you going out like that was irresponsible. You weren't just risking your own safety but the safety of the order. You could have compromised our position here." Dumbledore said with finality.
"I know. It wont happen again Albus." Sirius said to the floor.
"I'm sure it wont." said Albus, " I have to go now. I know I can trust you to do the right thing Sirius."
Remus and Sirius both a gave the old man a nod before he glided from the room.
"Milk?" Remus said as the door closed.
Sirius shrugged, " I don't know. It was stupid. I'm just so sick of being here. Of being stuck here."
There was no anger in his voice but only defeat. It scared Remus. Sirius had been the one who could never be defeated. Now beside Remus sat the deflated version of his friend.
"I know. It's going to be hard." said Remus, "Look why don't we see if we can get those Weasley boys together and get a good game of poker going?"
Sirius raised an eyebrow, "That could be fun. Those twins are shifty enough."
The two men got up out of the dusty room in search of poker players. The carpets in Remus shack a distant memory, all that he could think of now was helping his friend.
It was just starting to get dark outside Number 12. Sirius looked much happier then he did that morning. The twins had proven to be quite a challenge for Sirius, but in the end, he still proved he could out play them in poker. All day the Weasley boys, Sirius and Remus had traded stories of Hogwarts mischief, luckily Molly had been upstairs with the girls trying clean one of the bathrooms.
They now sat around the dinner table attacking Molly's stew. The girls looked tired and grumpy from their days cleaning. A strained conversation had started up at the other end of the table to Remus, but he could still hear what was being said clearly.
"Harry wants more information." pleaded Hermione.
"I thought Dumbledore had told you what you where allowed to tell Harry?" warned Molly.
"Yeah, Nothing!" said Ron.
"Isn't there some way? Not using owls? There has to be." Hermione looked down the table to were Remus and Sirius were.
"Look you two," Said Arthur, "Dumbledore has made you promise not to say anything because it's in Harry's best interests. This is Harry's safety we are dealing with so the two of you best be sticking to what you've been told. And I don't want to have this conversation again."
Remus had never heard Arthur tell his children off, but he could tell by Hermione and Ron's silence on the matter that it was a rare occurrence, and one not to be argued with.
"Right thanks for the feed mum, but I've got places to be. People to see." Bill broke the silence and dashed towards the door.
"Wait you haven't had dessert yet." cried Molly at Bills back.
"That's cool, I'm full." Bill waved, "Hi Dung. There's left-over's in there."
Mundungus Fletcher ran into the room a look of desperation on his face. A cold shiver ran down Remus back, Dung was meant to be on Harry watching shift.
"What the hell are you doing here. Your meant to be watching Harry!" yelled Remus.
"Errr…. Yeah…. about that. You see…" Dung looked around at all the angry faces in the room. "Dumbledore not here, is he?"
"Yeah he's hiding under the kitchen sink! Why the hell aren't you watching Harry!" Sirius was moving towards Dung, flinging chairs out of the way as he went.
"The kid's fine. He's fine I just saw 'im." Dung quickly spat out, "Figg's with 'im. I swear. Now can we get 'old of Dumbledore through that fire?"
Sirius was still closing in on Dung. Dung staggered backwards to the fire place muttering inaudibly.
"What happened Dung?" asked Sirius in a low treating voice. Sirius was only inches from Dung now. He wasn't touching him yet, but his fingered flexed as if at any moment Sirius would strike him.
Behind Dung, Arthur had thrown some floo powder on to the fire place yelling out, "Headmaster Dumbledore's office, Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry". Dung spun around a dove his head into the fire.
The room went quite as everyone strained to hear Dung side of the Conversation. Remus could see Hermione and Ginny holding each others hand, the twins had stood up on the chairs to try and get a better view of the action, and Arthur now had his arm around Molly.
"Hello there Dumbledore, sir. Oh, and hello Severus, didn't see you there lurking… if anyone is one of those Snape, it's yo-… yes. There is a reason. You see something showed up at Little Whinging tonight. Harry was able to… well he's fine, his cousin looks a bit worse for wear, haha, the great- … you're right, that's not funny… well they could have been Dementors. I didn't actually see them my self. You see I was-"
Where Dung was would have to wait. At that moment Sirius, still standing next to him, reached down and pulled him from the fire by the scruff of his shirt. Then with one quick movement he punched Mundungus square in the nose. Hermione squealed, and the twins grunted in admiration. Remus dashed forward unsure if he wanted to pull Sirius back or punch Dung as well.
The fire burned bight green and Remus was spared from making a decision by Dumbledore stepping into the room. The fire roared green again and Snape stepped into the room too. Dung, who was still sprawled out on the floor, blood flowing freely from his nose, stopped squirming and looked up at Dumbledore.
"If you were watching Harry, why didn't you see the Dementors?" Dumbledore's voice was flat and low. He stood with his back towards Remus, but Remus could tell his eyes would be burning with anger.
"I..I…I left." stuttered Dung in barely a whisperer.
"YOU LEFT! WHY" Remus wasn't sure if he was imaging it or not, but the room seemed to shake with Dumbledore's anger. His words bounced around the room like echo's.
"There… there w-w-was these … these cauldrons. Goo-good price."
Snape moved faster then Sirius had, bringing his foot down hard on Dung's already bloody nose. Dung let out a howl of pain and Dumbledore raised a hand to tell Snape to back down.
"These Dementors, they came after Harry and his cousin? How did Harry get away?" Dumbledore's voice became flat and dangerous again.
Dung had his hand to his nose, "I don't wnow. That old bag wig, must'a welped"
"Harry would have used a Patronus. He would have used magic." gasped Remus.
Dumbledore took a deep breath to steady himself, " The ministry will know already. I'll have to go to sort this out now."
Arthur grabbed his travel cloak off the back of chair, "I'll come too. The ministry already know I'm fighting with you."
Dumbledore gave a curt nod and the two men soon disappeared into the green flames.
A/N: hope you all liked it. Please review, otherwise I worry that the only person to read this is my mum. Thanks.