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Clunk, clunk, clunk.

"Wait a minute…" Dumbledore said.

Clunk, clunk… CRASH! Thumpa, thumpa, thump!

Everyone in the room who had a wand raised it, ready.

"Way to go, Tonks! You ruined our element of surprise! Black's bound to notice our presence now!" a man's muffled voice growled.

"Oh, like your clunking around in that wooden leg of yours didn't give you away before I tripped!" a woman's muffled voice retorted. "Ow, my bum," she groaned.

"Quit dallying and get up here, Nymphadora!" the man barked.

Inside the room, Lupin perked up at the sound of his wife-to-be's name.

"Don't call me that!" the woman snapped.

Clunk, clunk, clunk.

"Get ready," Harry said, aiming his wand at the door entrance.

BANG! The door burst off its hinges and shattered on the opposite wall, creating a cloud of dust in which two figures stepped into the room.

"STUPEFY!" the two voices yelled at the same time, sending jets of red light into the room.

"Protego!" Dumbledore and Snape shouted, reflecting the jets of red light.

"Stupe--" the woman started to say.

"No, Tonks!" the man growled. "I recognize one of those voices! Is that you, Albus?"

"Ah, Alastor! So nice to see you!" Dumbledore said and walked over to the man.

"Where's Black?" Mad-Eye Moody asked.

Snape pointed to the black dog still stunned on the floor.

"No, seriously," said Tonks.

"Black is an Animagus. It's sad that our so-called top-notch Aurors couldn't figure that out," Snape sneered.

"Yeah, like you figured it out before you were told!" Harry snapped.

"Watch your tongue, Potter!"

Lupin had now walked over to Tonks and sat down in front of her, looking up, tail wagging.

"Er… hello," Tonks said with a smile to Lupin. "You're a little friendly for a wolf, aren't you?"

"Yeah, he's your future husband," a rather congested Mary Suewriter said.

"Excuse me?" Tonks said, looking at Mary Suewriter.

"That's R--"

"Haven't you done enough damage here?" Harry snapped at her. "Don't ruin their relationship, too!"

Mary Suewriter sobbed and hid her face in her hands.

Moody looked around the room, his electric-blue eye zooming around in its socket. Suddenly, both of his eyes stopped on Pettigrew. "What the--" he began.

"Alastor, I assume you know Peter Pettigrew," Dumbledore said with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes.

"Uh…"

"Perhaps Mr. Black should explain… if he's still sane enough to…" Percy said, walking over to the Stunned Sirius.

"What's Mad-Eye doing here?" Ron asked Dumbledore.

"Ah, that's right! He was coming here to interview for the job of back-up Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher."

"Wha--"

"Harry, it's a creation of my own genius. Since the job appears to be cursed, I decided to create a back-up position… just in case."

Lupin gave Dumbledore a hurt look and Moody said, "Hey, you didn't tell me anything about the job being cursed!"

"I didn't? It must have skipped my mind. So, Alastor, how did you and your young friend manage to find us?"

Moody smiled his lopsided smile. "Well, I came to the school for the interview with you, as you already know, Albus, but you weren't there."

"I just tagged along so I could see Hogwarts, again," Tonks interrupted. "And I wanted to see how Moody'd do in an interview." Tonks snickered.

Moody gave Tonks a quelling look and then resumed his tale. "I decided that you must have been detained somewhere, perhaps against your will, so I decided to poke around the school a bit… and when I got to the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher's office to search it, I found this old crumpled-up piece of parchment," Moody held the Marauder's Map in his gnarled hand, "It has all these labeled dots with people's names on it. Very interesting thing… Well, since it looked like a map of the Hogwarts grounds, I decided to look for you to see where you were on the map, Albus. But, I got sidetracked…"

Tonks snickered. "As soon as he saw Sirius' name on that map, he got all worked up. I think he might have forgot all about that job interview. The next thing I know, he's tearing down the hall, saying, 'It's him! He's here! I'll get him, I know it!' and I have to sprint to catch up to him…"

"Well, anyway, I saw someone dragging a large black dog into that tree over the passage that lead us here, so I waited for a little bit of time and then followed him… and then Tonks gave us away when she tripped on the stairs and fell down…"

"I think they heard us before that," Tonks mumbled, rubbing her sore backside at the memory of falling down the stairs on it.

"And then, well, you know the rest…"

"Do you want me to revive him now, sir?" Percy asked Dumbledore, pointing to Sirius.

"Of course… I think Sirius has a right to tell his tale…" Dumbledore said with a smile.

"Okay, then. Rennervate." Percy said as he pointed his wand at Sirius. Sirius sprang up and looked around the cabin. He stared, wide-eyed at Moody and Tonks. Immediately, he transformed into a man and ran up to Moody.

"Don't listen to anything they might try to tell you! I'm guilty; entirely guilty! I killed all of those Muggles and Pettigrew! That man over there's a fake! Just turn me over to the dementors now!"

"That's not true!" Pettigrew said. "I'm the real Peter Pettigrew. I faked my own death and framed Sirius. But I'm on your side now! I swear! Sirius just has a death-wish!"

"Hullo, second-cousin!" Tonks said to Sirius. Sirius looked up and grinned.

"Hiya Nymphie!"

"It's Tonks! Tonks! Is that so hard to remember?!"

"You know, you're gonna die! And you're gonna marry Moony! And Moony's gonna die! And so's Moody! Hey, you can all join the club!" Sirius giggled in a hysterical sort of way.

"Didn't you fix him?" Harry asked Snape.

"Fixed? No, I haven't been fixed. I still have--"

"Not like that, Sirius! I meant mentally."

"I tricked you! You're such a gullible character!"

"What's all this about?" Moody barked. "I think somebody owes us an explanation!"

Mary Suewriter enthusiastically stepped in and, before anyone could stop her, told them the whole tale. Without omitting any details.

"You mean he," Tonks gestured to Lupin, "is really a werewolf who is my future husband and father of my child?"

"Exactly!" Mary Suewriter said.

"And I'm going to be killed along with him in a final battle against someone who's supposed to be dead?"

Mary grinned and nodded. "But you still make a cute couple, lying under the enchanted ceiling, looking as if you're merely sleeping…"

Tonks shook her head. She was pale and trembling and her hair had turned a shocking blond-white symbolizing extreme shock. "I'm sorry, but I don't believe this at all…" she shook her head, backing up towards the exit of the room.

Moody silently looked at Mary with both eyes, not saying a word. Mary shuddered; she had always found Moody to be a creepy character and had personally been glad when he had been killed.

"Is this the truth, Albus?" he asked, calmly.

"It appears so," Dumbledore replied with a nonchalant shrug.

"It can't be!" Tonks suddenly yelled, her hair taking on a furious red. "It just can't be!" She shook her head, tears springing up in her eyes.

"Oh boy, who wants to bet that one's going to turn into another nutter?" Snape said. "I'm betting a galleon that she loses it."

Lupin raised a paw, indicating he would be willing to bet against Snape.

"Do you even have a Galleon to bet with, Lupin?" Snape jeered. Lupin growled at him, feeling the urge to maul Snape. Surprisingly, this had nothing to do with the wolf inside him. "Very well, you're on. But if you don't have a Galleon, I'm taking your… wait a minute, you don't have anything of value for me to take." Lupin snarled again, showing his teeth. "Hmm… do you have any pictures of Lily?"

"Please don't talk about that, again!" Harry moaned.

"You have to believe me, Tonks!" Mary Suewriter said. She was hoping that she could get her third favorite pairing together just a little earlier to amend her mistakes with her other pairings.

"No! It's not true! It's not true!" Tonks cried out, shaking her head, tears now rapidly falling down her face. "I can't just die like that!"

"It's okay, Nymphie!" Sirius said, patting her on the back rather hard so that she nearly fell flat on her face. "Not only are you dead, but you're also fictitious! Like me and Moony!" Sirius grinned and sang, "Me 'an Moony! Moony 'an meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Fictitious and deeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaadddddd! Dead as a dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorknob!" Now Sirius incorporated a dance to his song involving jumping up and down on the old and long-abused floorboards. Now, this and the combination of Tonks' streak of bad luck did not bode well.

"Is he quite alright?" Tonks asked, pausing in her hysterics.

"He was the second to go crazy," Harry said solemnly.

"Second? Who was first?" Tonks asked.

"Her," Harry said, gesturing to a still grinning Mary Suewriter.

"What?" Mary Suewriter asked. "Oh! Hey, Harry! I just thought of something! If I killed Ginny, would you marry me then?"

"No! I would never marry the murderer of my wife-to-be!"

"Okay, then. Let's say that an accident happened to her that killed her involving some slippers, Taco Bell takeout, and a deranged squirrel, that I have a complete alibi for. Would you marry me then?"

"Er…" Harry said in response to Mary Suewriter. He then turned to Tonks, who was now watching Sirius jumping in circles around her, and said, "I rest my case."

"Yeah, she's definitely crazy…" Tonks replied with a nod. She seemed a lot calmer now and was coping with these strange events that had happened so far this night.

"Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" Sirius sang as he began to jump harder in his circle around Tonks. "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"But, if she's crazy, is what she's saying true?" Tonks asked Harry.

"True blue!" Sirius sang.

"Unfortunately, yes," Harry replied, "It's true." Lupin gave Harry a look. "Er… what I meant to say is that it is unfortunate that you die, not that you get married to a werewolf and have a son." Lupin looked satisfied.

Tonks mulled this over for a while. Slowly, her hair resumed its normal bubble-gum pink color and she gave a slight smile and said, "Well, I suppose if I love him enough to marry him in those books then he must be a good man." Lupin looked at her with gratitude, his tail thumping on the floor. "But, we're still going to have to date first before I marry you… just to make sure…"

If wolves could smile, Lupin would be grinning like a giddy idiot.

"Moony an' Dora sittin' in a tree!" Sirius sang and jumped more rapidly in his circle. "K-i-s-s-i-- AAAAAARGH!" As Sirius had been singing, the floor finally cracked and broke, sending both him and Tonks falling through the floor in a haze of dust and splinters.

This is the end of Chapter 9. I hope you all enjoyed it. I would like to thank Mina-chan AMD, Ogreatrandom, The Amazing Chez, craziigirl, Flamespirit-eth, DariaM, and Jellicle-in-the-box for reviewing for the previous chapter! Please leave lots of reviews!