By the way, in case you haven't figured it out already, the POV changes a lot from between Remus and Tonks, but I think its pretty obvious when I do change it. Hopefully not too confusing for you all. And also, I would like to thank the two very kind people who reviewed my story. Feedback whether positive or negative is always appreciated and just because I do not beg for half a page for people to leave me reviews, does not mean I don't like them. ;)
Chapter Three-Strangers in the Night
"If one of us dies-"
Remus felt a flash of déjà vu as he listened to the grizzled ex-auror in front of him. Not so long ago, they had executed the flawless Advance Guard to pick up Harry from his Aunt and Uncle's house and Moody had said the same thing. It had gone remarkably smooth thanks mostly to meticulous planning and a well thought out letter from the young auror standing to his right.
"Mad-Eye, please." Tonks said, hands on her hips. "This obsession with you and death is getting ridiculous. People are going to start thinking your paranoid or something."
Moody either missed the sarcasm or chose to ignore it. "Right, well that's that, we've gone over the routine. And again the signal warning if one of is captured or hurt stands as-"
"Mad-Eye, we KNOW." Tonks exclaimed.
He bristled as he turned on her. "You may be in a rush now young missy, but when your out on the line of danger, you'll be glad that you listened. Constant vigilance!"
"Perhaps we ought to go now before we lose track entirely." Remus suggested.
"And remember, with these three in question, it's 'Curse first ask questions later'." Moody said.
"Lovely mantra." Tonks snorted.
"DO YOU THINK THIS IS A JOKE?!?!?!"
"I think that this overly dramatic meeting is a joke, yes."
Remus stared at Tonks in awe. She either was extremely daft or very, very brave.
Moody looked furious. "When you are out there on the lines, young Tonks and all you have is your-"
"-your own guts to rely on, when your brain is numb with terror and when your wand arm is frozen in fear- those guts are what determines if you live or if you die." Tonks finished dramatically for him.
For a moment, Remus thought Moody was going to explode but to his complete surprise, his face twisted into an unmistakable smile. "Good." He said. "Very good."
"And you thought I didn't listen." Tonks grinned.
"Can't deny that I suppose," he said taking a small swig from his side flask. "You and that blasted be-bop music that's addled your brain... Right-" he said abruptly, ignoring her sticking her tongue out at him and turning back once again into the cold, tough auror he usually was. "Lupin, Tonks- you two stay together on the corner of the alley. Me and Dedalus here will take the other end of the road."
Dedalus looked a little less short of completely terrified but he nodded furiously when Moody said his name.
"Good luck men." Moody growled.
"-and women!" Tonks said indignantly.
Moody snorted before turning away and hobbling down the road.
"AND WOMEN!" Tonks shouted.
Moody said nothing and Dedalus gave them a helpless look before trotting after the old wizard.
"I think Moody's sexist." She stared after the retreating figures of the other two wizards. "Is Dedalus alright you think?"
"He's fine. He's always been an excitable fellow but I think putting him next to Moody doesn't really help his nerves."
"Oh. Well I suppose we ought to go stand guard then, hm?"
"Yes." Remus said leading the way down the road.
"Er," Tonks said suddenly.
"Yes?" he said, turning around to face her.
"Do you really think that there's going to be an attack tonight?" she asked, skepticism written all over her face.
"Well there's always the possibility…" he noticed the raised eyebrow, "but to be perfectly frank, no. Not really."
Tonks grinned. "I thought so too. Well, good to know I'm not alone at least."
Remus gave a small smile. "Moody is somehow convinced that three Death Eaters could come to eat at one of the pubs on this road and so it would be perfect to follow and track them down. Unfortunately the last time he was this positive about the location of supposed Death Eaters, I had to spend almost two days outside a snow covered cave in the middle of a frozen wastleland."
"By yourself?"
"That was during the first Order, Sirius was supposed to come and take over my shift but never came."
"How typical sounding for Sirius." Tonks said rolling her eyes. "Did you get frostbite?"
"All for nought."
She laughed and Remus smiled at the young witch walking next to him. He hadn't gotten to talk to her much since their last mission together and was rather looking forward to doing so tonight. She was quite enjoyable to talk to. He looked about the alley and wished he had brought a warmer cloak. It was very cold already.
"I suppose we should wait here." He said gesturing to some overturned crates and barrels at the end of the alley. "How does that sound to you, Nymphadora?"
She scowled at him and he managed to hide his smile. He was growing very fond of irritating her like that. When he saw how much it bothered her that night he was introducing her to Harry during the Advance Guard, he had used it to his advantage every chance he got. They hadn't seen each other very much since then, just briefly passing one another at Grimmauld Place or other locations where they had to change watch shifts. Everyone else in the Order had started to call her by Tonks but he remained persistent, making an obvious point of calling her Nymphadora to her face every time they saw each other. And her reaction every time, was priceless.
"It's Tonks!" she said furiously, throwing herself onto one of the nearby crates. "Just Tonks! Tonks! Tonks! Tonks!"
"I heard you the first time."
She huffed as she folded her arms looking cross, but her dark eyes were twinkling. "Everyone else calls me Tonks, why not you?"
"I forget." Remus lied. "And I prefer to call people by their first names; it makes things much less awkward and uncomfortable."
"But Tonks is basically my first name." she insisted.
"You told me your name is 'Nymphadora Tonks'." He said. "And I'm afraid that the knowledge has stuck with me so that now I can only think of you as 'Nympadora'."
She visibly winced and he smiled as he turned away to look down the deserted alleyway.
"Has anybody ever tried to give you a nickname besides 'Moony'?" she asked suddenly.
"Unfortunately yes. But they were all so terrible no one could bear to use them, especially me."
"Tell me one."
"No."
"What if I was to give you a nickname?"
He looked over at her. "Then I'd never speak to you again."
Tonks grinned. "How about 'Remmy'?"
Remus visibly winced. "How about I start calling you 'Dora'?" he retorted.
She grimaced. "It's bad. But not as bad as the whole name itself. What about Rem?"
"How about 'Nym'?"
"Re?"
"WHAT?"
She shugged, "I dunno. Just trying to come up with terrible names. What if I just called you 'Professor'?"
"Please don't."
"Why?"
"Because it makes me feel very old." Remus admitted.
"Alright Professor." She said smugly. "So tell me, does Sirius have a nickname?"
"Besides 'Padfoot'? None."
"Maybe I'll start calling him 'Siri'."
Remus smiled as this triggered a once forgotten memory. "One girl he went out with at one time in school called him, 'Si-si', and he got so fed up he broke up with her within the week."
"Si-si?" Tonks laughed. "God no wonder." She sighed and shuffled her feet about on the crate, trying to keep warm. "Well you're lucky; at least 'Remus' is a good name."
"If not highly ironic."
"Mine's ironic too." Tonks said. "'Gift of the nymphs', I mean- what was my mum on? I got the gift of clumsiness."
Remus smiled. "I still think it's a very nice name. Very elegant."
"Elegant." Tonks snorted. "Just what I want to be."
"Well unfortunately there's nothing we can do about them now. We can only blame our parents-"
"Perhaps weird names just run in the family, the meaning of my mum's name is kinda kinky sounding, it means 'the chained princess'."
"Ah." Remus said uncomfortably.
She grinned at his unease. "So, if my math is correct-you would have been at school the same time my mum was."
"She was a seventh year." Remus said immediately. "I was a first year."
Her grin widened mischievously. "Did you do the math already?"
Remus's mouth opened but he could not think of anything to say in reply to this. The truth was he had done the math, in fact, the first day he met Tonks. He had figured out the age gap between them and was slightly disturbed by the fact that he was closer in age to her mother than her. Not that it mattered of course; she was just a fellow Order member, and now a good friend, nothing more-
Tonks sighed loudly as she kicked up her feet. "The name is Tonks…just Tonks." She said holding her wand up in front of her as if it were a muggle gun.
Remus chuckled softly.
She looked at him curiously. "You actually got it. Hardly anybody gets that joke."
"Well I am a half-blood." Remus said. "Seeing James Bond at the local cinema was a rather large part of my childhood."
"I used to watch James Bond a lot with my father." Tonks said. "He loved muggle movies and so he insisted on getting a telly when him and my Mum married."
She leaned against the brick wall and smiled. "Martini dry, shaken not stirred."
"I could do for one of those right now." Remus sighed, stamping his feet to keep from getting cold.
"I could do for any alcoholic beverage right now. This has got to be the stupidest mission I've ever done. A few Death Eaters MIGHT be eating today, at one of the pubs down the road and MIGHT be walking this way and MIGHT be thick enough to randomly walk down this particular alley. So what are we doing here? If we want to track them, wouldn't we follow them into the nice warm pub?"
"I think that might be why Alastor has us waiting outside. He knows we probably can't resist the temptation."
"Well maybe you could resist it." Tonks said cheerfully. "But I know that I'd rampage into that bar so fast for any bloody-"
"Are you really cold?"
"Hell yes." She said, arms wrapped around her for warmth.
He untied his cloak and draped it gently around her rather thin frame. She looked up at him, beaming. "Thanks, but aren't you cold yourself?"
"I'm fine." He said as he stuck his hands in his pockets.
"Well if your sure." She said suspiciously. "But if I see your teeth start to chatter just the tiniest bit, I'm giving it back."
"Alright, Nymphadora."
She snuggled under his tattered and heavily patched cloak and glared at him, but it quickly fell into a smile. "Nymphadora…" she said. "What on earth kindof a name is it?"
"It could be a Bond girl name." Remus suggested.
She looked at him in surprise and started laughing. "I'm impressed! I never even thought of that before. "It's such a corny and overly gaudy, weird name-"
"You don't give it enough credit I think, Nymphadora really is a lovely name."
"ARGH! That's it. I'm going to go and legally change it!" she declared, her hands over her ears. "It's so stupid-"
"Names are important." Remus said seriously. "You'll always have your name. You may have nothing else in the end but when you die, it's the one thing that stays and belongs to you for the rest of time."
"Very deep." She said looking up at him in surprise.
"But very true." He sat down heavily on a nearby crate and looked up the road watching a nearby couple looking in an old shop window. "I'm falling a bit behind these days with Order work. I need to talk to a couple of members, such as Hestia and Mundungus-"
"Mundungus was totally trying to feel me up before I came over." Tonks interrupted. "Ever since I asked him to describe the Dursley's home a few weeks ago, he's gotten the idea that I'm interested in him or something."
Remus grimaced at the rather unpleasant thought. "Did you give him an incentive perhaps?"
"Ugh no. I just asked him, 'Mundungus, you've seen the house Harry lives at…what's it look like?' He talked to my breasts the entire time."
Remus bit his lip to keep from laughing.
"You think it's funny?" Tonks said in mock rage. "I was ruthlessly given the old eye by Mundungus Fletcher and you think its funny?"
"Hardly." Remus said seriously. "But your reaction is amusing."
"Men." Tonks said in exasperation. "You're all the same."
"I expect that you're receiving the most attention because your one of the few women…young women, I should add, that is single and attractive in the Order."
Tonks raised an eyebrow. "You think so?"
Remus felt immediately awkward. He hadn't intended for it to sound anything other than an obvious fact. "Well," he said slowly. "That's just the way it is. I'm sure if Mundungus Fletcher thought his actions through and considered it, that's what he'd say too."
She laughed and Remus relaxed. He looked back up the road again and sighed. It was going to be a very long night. Possibly as bad as the empty snow-cave incident during the first Order.
"Hey-" Tonks said quietly. "Do you hear that?"
He frowned as he strained to hear something and did indeed here music from onhere of the nearby apartments playing.
"Isn't that-?"
Tonks jumped to feet still wearing Remus's cloak which was a little too big for her and dragged slightly on the ground.
"What's the name of that song?" she said spinning around to the beat of it. "It's a muggle song, I know-"
Remus listened to the lyrics and yet couldn't remember for the life of him what it was so he settled instead for watching Tonks dramatically slow dance with an imaginary partner to the song.
Strangers in the night,
Exchanging glances,
Wondering in the night,
What were the chances?
We'd be sharing love,
Before the night was through…
He laughed as she did a spin with her imaginary partner and pretended to be doing a bizarre mixture of the tango and a waltz. She looked over at him and before he could stop her, she grabbed hold of his hands, pulling him to his feet cutting him off before he could protest-
"It would be terrible of you to let me dance by myself." She said, taking unsteady steps around the alley while still holding his hands.
Something in your eyes,
Was so inviting,
Something in your smile-
Was so exciting,
Something in my heart,
Told me I must have you…
She led them nearly right into a dumpster and Remus caught her before she tripped. She moved forward only to step painfully on his toes. Half laughing she attempted an apologetic curtsey and fell backwards over a bunch of boxes.
Strangers in the night,
Two lonely people-
We were strangers in the night,
Up to the moment
When we said our first hello,
Little did we know,
Love was just a glance away,
A warm embracing dance away, and-
Tonks was laughing so hard she couldn't seem to summon the strength to stand. Her smile was contagious. Every time she smiled or laughed, he was doing it too. Remus was laughing as he tried to pull her up and was struggling to lift her back onto her feet which seemed too unsteady to support herself. Nearby a neighbor was shouting out of their window to the apartment that was playing the music complaining about the loud noise.
Ever since that night,
We've been together.
Lovers at first sight,
In love forever.
It turned out so right,
For strangers in the night…
"I give up!" Tonks snorted. "I cannot dance, I cannot sing- you're very lucky I didn't sing along to that or you'd be pleading for mercy. It's like the equivalent of Augury song torture or something."
Remus managed to pull her to her feet and straighten his cloak on her as she dusted off some of the dust she had collected.
"I think I have cobwebs in my hair." She said, shaking her head like a wet dog.
Remus wasn't sure if it would be rude to dust her hair off for her. Most women seemed very touchy about their hair.
But before he could think of what to do, she screwed up her face-eyes tightly shut and seconds later her hair turned into a baby blue coloured bob.
"What do you think?" she asked him, displaying her hairstyle.
"Err, its-"
"Don't answer that." She said screwing up her face again. A second later her hair was a bright Weasley red. "How about this?"
"I don't-"
"Wait a second-" she said hastily, screwing up her eyes. Her hair was now neon green. "Oh, I bet I look like an overgrown, mutant leprechaun or something. I don't know. What's your favorite colour?"
"I like pink." Remus said before he could stop himself.
"Oooh." Tonks said with a saucy grin. "You're a real man aren't you? Most blokes won't admit such a thing."
"When I say I like pink, I mean that I like it on you."
There was an awkward pause as Tonks raised an eyebrow as she stared at him.
"I mean," Remus said hastily. "It'd look terrible on me, but it suits you very well."
"How so?"
"Well…" Remus floundered for a moment before coming up with something to say. "Pink is a unique colour, mostly symbolic for feminine qualities and passiveness."
Tonks's face lit up in an amused smile. "Did I detect a note of sarcasm in that hoarse voice of yours, Professor Lupin?"
"Since when was it that professors were exempt from using sarcasm? And I don't believe that I was."
"It was clearly sarcasm. You were being terribly rude to my pink hair."
"Was I really? I'm so sorry."
"I still detect it…"
He chuckled and turned away, looking down the dark shadow covered alley. When he turned back to look at her, her hair was a bright, bubble-gum pink in a short spiky style. "Lovely." He said.
"You think so?"
"Yes."
"You're not just pulling my leg?"
"I'm not really the type of person that pulls anybody's leg."
"Sirius might beg to differ. All those school stories he keeps telling me seem to suggest otherwise."
"Which ones?" Remus asked in exasperation.
"Well he did relate to me an amazing and actually surprising tale about you and several suits of armor, a very complicated spell and an unsuspecting school population."
Remus smiled. "Oh yes, that was a good one."
Tonks pulled him down to sit beside him on a crate. He tensed automatically but Tonks was smiling strangely.
He cleared his throat and was about to say something stupid about anything at all when he felt a wand tip on the back of his neck.
His mind immediately jumped to the outrageous idea that the supposed Death Eaters had found them and were going to capture them both. He leapt to his feet sending up bright red sparks with his wand as the warning signal to Mad-Eye and Dedalus.
Tonks let out an unexpected scream of laughter and doubled over, falling onto the alley ground as she was seized with crippling laughter.
"What-?"
Two loud cracks filled the alley as Mad-Eye and Dedalus appeared, wide-eyed.
Moody immediately started sending jinx's in all directions, causing a nearby mangy, stray cat to let out a yowl of surprise and duck under the dumpster for safety.
"What happened?" Dedalus squeaked, looking from Remus to Tonks who was now snorting loudly.
"I have no idea." Remus confessed.
Tonks sat up with a gasp. "Remus! I-I-" But she burst out laughing again as she caught sight of him.
He turned to Dedalus, "What do you-" Then he stopped short as he watched Dedalus start to smile widely. "What's so funny?" he asked suspiciously.
Dedalus let out a high pitched giggle before he too joined Tonks in laughing hysterically.
Moody had ceased cursing the dustbins and turned looking furious to them all. "What-" he snarled as he clunked forward. "Is so damn FUNNY?!?!"
Remus shrugged helplessly and noticed Moody's gaze go to the top of his own head. With a frown he nervously felt the top of his head. It felt normal. "What?" he asked desperately.
Moody rounded on Dedalus and Tonks who were still laughing as they pointed at Remus.
"Pink…" Tonks wheezed, clutching her side. "I couldn't resist-" and she burst out laughing again.
"Pink." Remus repeated flatly. "My hair is pink?"
The roars of laughter confirmed his answer. Remus couldn't stop himself from grinning and before he could get a grip on himself he started to laugh as well. It really was funny if he were to admit it to himself. And quite clever.
"Will you all," Moody growled. "SHUT UP?!?!"
Dedalus and Remus managed to sober up instantly at the ex-auror's wrath but Tonks rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Oh, come'on Mad-Eye!" she exclaimed. "It was funny! Even Dedalus was laughing!"
What was left of Dedalus's smile vanished instantly. "No I wasn't." he said nervously.
Moody glared at Remus's hair. "This has got to be the most unprofessional and immature thing I have ever experienced! Tonks, you have ruined the entire mission-"
"Alastor-" Remus said, coming to the young witches's defense. "I was the one who over-reacted." He felt himself start to smile again from the ridiculousness of the situation and bit his lip to keep from laughing. Tonks caught his look and let out a small laugh.
"SHUT UP!" Moody snarled.
They both regained their composure as Moody turned away from them both with angry huff.
Remus tentatively looked over at Tonks who had been trying to look at him again from the corner of her eye. Upon catching the other's gaze they quickly turned away, covering their snickers the best they could.
Moody turned around, and Remus forced himself to appear as stern-faced as he could appear. He made a conscious effort to look far away from Tonks who he knew would only cause him to start laughing. Moody tapped Remus hard on the head with his wand and Remus watched his reaction to see what had happened.
The deep lines on the old wizard's face deepened as he tapped Remus again with the wand. And again…and again…
Tonks was now quite obviously snickering.
Moody rounded on her. "Alright lass!" he bellowed. "The fun is up! What's the counter-spell?"
"Counter-spell?" she repeated blankly. But Remus had been watching her eyes and knew she was lying. "I don't know it."
"Don't KNOW it?" Moody hissed.
She shook her head keeping her expression completely innocent. "I forgot."
"Forgot?" Moody repeated looking absolutely irate. "You FORGOT?!?!"
"Its fine Alastor, we'll take care of it later." He said quickly, rubbing his head where Moody had hit him hard with the wand.
Moody rounded on him. "You look ridiculous Lupin."
Remus nodded. "I'm well aware of it, but fortunately my hair color does not prevent me from participating in this mission."
"You look like a bloody poofer."
"Thank you." Remus said dryly.
Tonks snorted and Moody whipped around so fast, Remus thought he might fall over.
"And YOU, missy!" he bellowed, sending flecks of spit at her. "You have the most infuriating and most immature behavior of any auror I've ever met!"
"And you have a rubbish sense of humour." Tonks retorted.
Suddenly from the end of the alley there came the noise of a dustbin being pushed aside. All four of them turned, wands drawn towards the source of the noise. Tonks was the first to take few steps forward down the shadow covered alley, but she was all but thrown aside as Moody came up from behind and wrenched her backwards by the scruff her borrowed cloak from him.
"HEY!" she exclaimed.
"It could be dangerous." Moody said shortly as he moved forward.
Tonks drew breath quite quickly as she stood up to her full height, her face furious. "Oh yes!" she said angrily. "I couldn't possibly send a spell in the right direction because I'm a woman! My breasts might get in the way."
Remus felt his ears immediately burn pink at the topic of the conversation, but Moody simply glanced over his shoulder looking irritated.
"Stay out of this lass."
"No! I am a member just as well as you are and I'm an auror too. I know what I'm doing! Don't tell me it's too dangerous or some other porlock crap-"
"Just shut up and stay behind me."
"Oh you're right." Tonks said sarcastically, her eyes flashing. "What on earth was I thinking that I could help you all? I have a uterus! That promotes me to the rank of invalid!"
Remus noticed that she had the infamous 'Black' family look when she got angry.
"Excuse me Dedalus," she said pushing past the short wizard and sitting down on a nearby crate. "I have to sit down and take a breather- its just too difficult, my ovaries are tying me up today."
Dedalus looked absolutely terrified at the mention of female anatomy, he was practically stuttering. Moody turned back to Tonks, his face arranged in a furious scowl.
"Shut it." He said nastily as he clunked forward into the shadows. There was a brief moment of perfect silence and still before-
BOOM! Burning light filled the alley way with a burst of sound that was similar to that of several cannons. Dedalus gave a terrified squeal before toppling over but Tonks was still glaring at Moody who had set off the enormous explosion with his wand.
"And the purpose of that was…what?" Tonks asked dully.
"Frightened off any would-be attackers!" Moody shouted as he ran off down the deserted alley sending jinxes and spells in all directions.
Remus shook his head as he leaned over and helped Dedalus to his feet.
It was sometime before Moody came clunking back, empty-handed.
"So Mad-Eye, what was it that was too dangerous for me and my female wiles to handle?" Tonks snapped.
"Nothing. False alarm." He said shortly. "Come'on Dedalus." He rounded on Tonks and Remus. "And don't you two dare do something like that again!"
He apparated with Dedalus, cursing and swearing under his breath.
"It was probably just another poor alley cat." Tonks said.
There was a long, prolonged silence as Remus and Tonks stared at each other in the darkness. Tonks broke it first,
"Well Professor Lupin, do you expect me to talk?"
He smiled. "No Miss Tonks, I expect you to die."
She laughed. "Good, you caught it. I was afraid you weren't going to get it."
"My memory of James Bond lines remains flawless."
She crossed her arms, "Well I hate to tell you that what I said a moment ago still remains true. I'm not telling."
"Telling what?"
"The counter-spell." She said with a nod to his pink hair.
Remus straightened up. "I had expected as much." He said stiffly. "So what shall I be forced to do?" He began to pace the alleyway, pretending to be in deep thought. "I think punishment is inevitable for you now Nymphadora."
"Punishment?" she repeated, her dark eyes twinkling. "What did you have in mind?"
"The punishment has to fit the crime." He said coolly. "I've always been a firm believer in that."
"So…what? Are you going to make me wear one of your tweed jumpers or something?" she asked.
He stopped short. "And what, may I ask is wrong with tweed?"
"Nothing." She said sarcastically.
He smiled. "How much does tweed bother you?"
She shook her head. "Don't even think about getting any ideas. I already suggested it so I will be very disappointed if that's the best you can come up with for revenge."
"Oh don't worry." He said cheerfully. "It isn't. But now I'm curious. What's wrong with tweed?"
She looked at his moth-bitten sweater and raised an eyebrow. "Tweed is something my grandfather was buried in I think. Professor Dumbledore I bet doesn't even own anything in tweed. Tweed is the equivalent of the muggle dinosaurs…its old fashioned…no, not old fashioned…extinct."
"I like old fashioned." He said. Of course this was a lie. The reason he wore tweed was because he was too damn poor to afford anything else than this old, faded sweater, but he didn't tell her that of course.
"Remus you're not a dinosaur. You're the same age as Sirius, right?"
"I'm thirty-six." He said, forcing himself not to wince. Merlin's beard, he was headed, no- plummeting straight down the path of geezer hood and he wasn't even officially 'over-the-hill' yet.
"Thirty-six?" she repeated. "That's no excuse for ugly tweed."
"There are very few things a man of my age can get away with when dressing himself these days."
"Tweed is no excuse." She said firmly.
"Well I can't wear some of the outfits I've seen you wearing if that's what you have in mind."
"Band t-shirts are acceptable."
"The last one I saw was ripped."
"It was a style."
"Right across the top of the chest."
"You noticed." She remarked.
He felt himself flush the same colour as his hair and was grateful it was dark. "Of course I did, it was the oddest thing I had ever seen."
"I'm twenty-two, I can wear odd styles." She grinned.
There was a noise from the other end of the alley that lead to the open road, Remus turned with a sigh expecting to see Moody again but upon seeing who it was he felt his heart jerk to a sudden stop and the blood in his veins freeze as icy cold fear washed over him.
Three cloaked and hooded figures, were striding down towards them both. Though they weren't wearing their masks, Remus knew right away who they were-
Death Eaters.
This time it was the real deal.
There was Gibbon, Jugson and another tall, cloaked man that Remus didn't recognize but knew beyond doubt that he couldn't just be taking a stroll with the other two without being a Death eater himself.
He grabbed Tonks's arm and pulled her back into the shadows of the old dumpster with him. She didn't protest but leaned close to him, staring wide eyed The Death Eaters hadn't seen them yet and Remus hoped it would stay that way until they could get help from Moody and Dedalus to track them.
The Death Eaters were about to pass by, Remus tightened his grip on Tonks as she let out a small intake of breath as they drew closer.
They were passing by now, so close to them-
Squeak.
Tonks had just backed up against an overturned dustbin and its rusted side had scraped the wall with the tiniest of noises.
"STUPEFY!"
Remus pulled Tonks down just in time as a jet of red light smashed into the wall behind them. The Death Eaters had turned and were coming right at them. Tonks leaped to her feet and sent a spell at the one Death Eater that was closest to them. Remus jumped up beside her and sent up a shield charm for them both as two of the Death Eaters sent curses in their direction.
The spells rebounded and Tonks sent over another as she ran forward into the fray. As Remus ran after her and confronted the tall Death Eater, as she sent a hex over at Gibbon while at the same time swinging her elbow back and around hitting Jugson in the chest who doubled over immediately, gasping for breath.
Nymphadora Tonks obviously knew what she was doing. Remus was impressed how quickly she could go from such a fun-loving, laidback girl to a fearless, all-business auror. As she dueled Gibbon, a winded Jugson came up and attacked Remus who ducked the curse and sent a stunning spell back in his direction. The tall Death Eater took advantage of Remus's focus on Jugson to come up from behind and smash into him, sending them both crashing into a heap of rubbish. Remus was so surprised by the full-on body slam, his wand had slipped from his hand when he fell. He desperately searched for it as Jugson approached them.
The tall Death Eater lying next to him, pointed his wand at Remus,
"IMPEDIMENTA!"
Remus who had expected this, ducked as the beam of light sailed above him and hit Jugson straight on. He then lunged forward and knocked the surprised, tall Death Eater's wand out of his hand as they rolled about on the pile of rubbish.
Tonks seemed to have stopped Gibbon with the full body bind as she now turned her attention to a disoriented Jugson. The tall Death Eater, grabbed Remus and before he could stop him- swung him around, face first into the side of a rusted dustbin. Remus fell forward, his vision blurring as his head swam with the pain. He forced himself to sit up and look around to see where the tall Death Eater had gone.
The tall Death Eater was running over to Tonks-
There was a flash of silver.
Dear god…
The man had a knife.
Tonks's back was turned. She wasn't even aware of the immediate danger.
He didn't even pause to think about it. He just reacted.
Remus had no wand.
He had never been much of a fighter but without any hesitation, he jumped to his feet and raced forward up to the side of the tall Death Eater. He pulled back his fist and swung.
His fist contacted right into the side of the Death Eater's face.
Bloody hell! A blinding shot of pain ripped up the whole side of his arm. He almost swore aloud. He must have broken half of his bones in his hand.
Fortunately, he seemed to break a whole bunch of other bones on the Death Eater he had just punched, including his nose which was now pouring out a heavy stream of red blood.
The tall Death Eater swung his knife about in a crazed arch, Remus ducked but as he did so felt the sharp tip graze the side of his face. He jumped back as the Death Eater, screaming from pain came at him swinging the knife wildly.
Remus felt his back bump up against the alley wall and he ducked again when the Death Eater swung at him. Desperately, he grabbed hold of the man's arm to avoid having the knife stabbed at him again.
As they struggled and grappled for control over the knife, their faces inches from eachother-two loud cracks filled the alley right before a flurry of spells exploded from behind the Death Eater in front of him. The Death Eater wrenched himself backwards suddenly and before Remus could register what had just happened, the man disapparated right before a bright red light from an oncoming stunning spell came at him from straight on. As the beam of light hit Remus right in the chest, the last thing he could remember before the crushing darkness overtook him was that he was going to kill Moody when and if he woke up.
Remus woke to pain as his head contacted with a thick, familiar doorframe.
"Oops! Sorry Remus!" Tonks hissed as she and Dedalus dragged him awkwardly through the front door of #12 Grimmauld Place. "I would have woken you up earlier but we didn't have-"
"I knew it!" Moody exclaimed in the loudest whisper he could manage as they entered the dark, sinister front hall. "Didn't I tell you that they were going to be there! And they were!"
"Yes Mad-Eye, we know!" Tonks snapped, as she clung to the wall for balance. Remus slowly straightened up and rubbed his head.
"What happened?" came a familiar voice. Remus turned to see his unshaven and gaunt faced friend rush forward to them from the kitchen. "What the hell was-"
"Death Eaters!" Moody said triumphantly. "Right where I predicted they would be!"
"And-?" Sirius asked looking from an ashen-faced Dedalus, to a breathless Tonks and then to Remus.
"They attacked Remus and Tonks." Moody said carelessly. "They all managed to disapparate as soon as me and Dedalus got there."
"And Moody stunned Remus." Tonks said in disgust.
"I was aiming for the blasted Death Eater."
"You didn't miss much at all Remus," Tonks said, turning to him. "Mad-Eye made me and Dedalus grab you when we apparated here right after the Death Eaters left."
"Sounds like it was productive." said Sirius. Remus wondered if anyone else could hear the sarcasm lying carefully under the simple words. "Nice hair, Moony."
"I'll explain that later."
"I should find Albus- tell him what happened-" Moody was saying as he headed downstairs for the kitchen. "Tell him in person."
Dedalus looked as if he were about to pass out and Sirius actually appeared to have noticed. "How about we all head down to the kitchen? Make some tea or something." he suggested. Moody clunked away with Sirius and Dedalus following close behind.
Tonks looked over at Remus with a look of exasperation and her eyes suddenly widened.
"Remus!" she exclaimed leaning over, to look at him better. "You're bleeding!"
"I-what?"
Tonks reached out to touch the side of his face with her fingertips and when she pulled away they were red with blood.
"Oh." He reached up to touch the side of his face as well and saw her eyes widen even more as she stared at his hand.
"You stupid wanker. I didn't even notice this in the dark. Why didn't you tell me about it when you woke up?" She said gently taking hold of his hand. "It's broken- isn't it?"
He looked at his hideously swollen fingers, finally aware of the aching that had been throbbing there for some time. "I think so."
She sighed and pulled out her wand, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'git'.
Remus flinched as she tapped her wand to his hand, expecting something disastrous to happen but to his surprise his hand mended quite quickly and neatly.
She was smirking. "You didn't trust me, did you?"
"No, of course I-"
"Don't lie, I know you didn't. That's okay-but you should know that I am a champion when it comes to healing spells, having used most of them enough times on myself."
They were still holding hands. Upon realizing this, Remus dropped his hand quickly.
"So-" he said briskly as he headed down the stairs. "How does early breakfast sound?" His hand was tingling strangely and he was feeling oddly flustered. Probably had to be his riled nerves or something. Yes, that was it.
"Sounds great." Tonks said with a yawn as she followed him. "I'll come and help you."
"That sounds like a bad idea." Sirius said suddenly as he poked his head out from the bottom of the stairs to see what had become of them. "Tonks working in the kitchen."
"I'm hungry, and so is Nymphadora." Remus said as he stode into the underground kitchen.
Tonks playfully swatted his shoulder. "I told you not to call me that!"
Sirius raised an eyebrow at them both as he went over and sat down in his chair, immediately tilting it onto its back legs.
Remus set about getting some porridge together as Tonks worked on finding some bread to use as toast.
"Do you want something Mad-Eye?" Tonks asked as she leaned forward in front of Moody who was scribbling away madly on some parchment.
"No I would not." He snapped.
"I don't see why you're in such a bad mood." Tonks said. "If me and Remus weren't there you never would have known the Death Eaters ever even went that way."
"If you weren't such a bloody immature klutz and you-" he said rounding on Remus. "-whose mind has gravitated back to the mind of an adolescent fifth year hadn't been horsing around we might have had everything work out the way I planned it to!"
"Everything did work out!" Tonks exclaimed. "Oh, and by the way- the music I happen to like and listen to is called 'pop' not 'be-bop'."
Moody made a noise of disgust before collecting his parchments and going over to the fireplace.
Tonks flicked a piece of bread at him as he threw floo powder into the grate and disappeared in the green flames. "Bastard." she said.
Dedalus was clutching his tea mug like it was the last safe refuge in the world. "I'm going to go upstairs and lay down."
"The sofa in the parlour is safe to sit on now." Sirius said.
Dedalus nodded numbly before he headed upstairs mumbling to himself.
"Hasn't changed much has he?" Sirius yawned.
"He always gets slightly unhinged after being forced to work with Mad-Eye. He'll be his old self again by tomorrow morning." Remus observed as he placed the bowl of porridge on the table.
Tonks sleepily reached across to ladle some porridge into her cup while pouring her tea into her bowl.
"Er, Tonks?" Sirius grinned. "Wake up."
She stared for a moment at what she was doing before the realization hit her. "BUGGER!" she said, nearly dropping the teapot.
Sirius let out a bark of laughter as Remus leaned over and helped rectify the situation with his wand.
"How sweet of you, you 'adolescent fifth year.'" Sirius smirked.
Remus rolled his eyes. "I had no idea what he was talking about."
"Well, does it have something to do with your new hairstyle?"
"I did that." Tonks admitted proudly as she added some milk to her porridge. "I think it suits him wonderfully. Really brings out his 'feminine qualities and passiveness'."
"And why haven't you changed it back yet?"
"Because I won't tell him the counter-spell." she laughed.
Remus smiled. "Maybe I would like to keep the pink hair."
"And have Moody call you a poofer under his breath for the rest of the years to come? I know your lying; you're just pretending that you don't care so that I'll give you the counter-spell."
Remus sighed as he stood up to go and rescue Tonks's burning toast for them all. She let out a huge yawn as she stood up and picked up a pile of papers that were stacked, on one of the counters.
"Oh by the way, Remus, I need you-"
"So does England." He said immediately.
She stared at him blankly for a moment and then a grin broke out on her pale face. "Ooooh very good."
He smiled. "I try."
"Well thanks for having a conversation that includes everybody." Sirius grumbled.
"We're talking about James Bond." Remus said coolly. "Do you know who he is?"
Sirius frowned as he thought about this for a moment. "Did we go to school with him?" he asked finally.
Tonks let out a laugh at that. "Alright, we'll talk about something else. No more Bond lines. I was going to say that I need you Remus to help me go over some of this stuff here. Dumbledore wanted us to look these over before we give them back to Kingsley and Arthur."
"Alright…" he said bringing over the toast.
Him, Tonks and Sirius spent a few hours going over various maps, reports and papers until Remus set down one map he had been examining for awhile and looked up at his two friends.
Sirius was snoring, cradling his empty bottle of firewhiskey as he lay sprawled out on his chair.
He looked over across the table and smiled. Nymphadora Tonks was fast asleep, her mouth slightly open as her head rested on the tabletop next to her bowl of half-eaten porridge. She looked very cute, sleeping peacefully like that-
Cute? Where on earth had that come from?
He stared at her for a moment longer before drawing his wand from his robes. Revenge was truly a beautiful thing.
Tonks woke up with a start and looked about blearily to see why she had woken up so suddenly.
Her eyes fell on the spilled porridge that her head had obviously rolled onto while she slept.
"Ughhh.." she said, running her hands through her hair which felt to have collected bits of cold, wet porridge.
Across from her, Remus was gone, along with half the papers- but Sirius was still there and all but sprawled out on the table now with his empty bottle of firewhiskey.
"Wake up you drunk." She said poking him hard with her spon.
He groaned and rolled over, his back to her. She used the spoon to beat him until he was forced to roll over again and face her.
Sirius slowly opened his eyes and let out a barklike laugh as he caught sight of her.
"What?" she frowned.
But he just pointed to the top of her head and started laughing loudly.
"WHAT?" she demanded.
But now she had a pretty shrew idea just what was so funny. She jumped to her feet and raced out of the kitchen and up the stairs where she knew there was an old dusty, cracked mirror hanging in the hall.
She gasped at her reflection. "Oh…he did not!" she hissed.
But he had. She reached out and tugged one of the many short grey locks from the top of her head.
Grey. Grey like…the grey streaks in Remus Lupin's hair. Retaliation. Ha. It was a rather weak form of revenge. She was a Metamorphous so it didn't really matter what he did to her hair, because she could always change it back. She was still the winner because eventually he'd have to come pleading back to her for the counter-spell to turn his hair normal again.
She smirked as she shut her eyes and willed her hair to go back to pink. When she opened her eyes however, she received a shock.
Her hair was still grey. Her mouth dropped as she took a step closer to the mirror and tried again.
Oh, that bastard…what the hell kindof a spell did he use that could work on someone like ME?
She tried again, and again, growing more and more frustrated with each hopeless attempt. In the end she was still stuck staring at her grey haired appearance with no idea how to change it back. She even tried using her own counter-spell for changing hair colour and it didn't work.
It seemed appearances were indeed very deceiving and Remus Lupin in his stupid tweed jumper was better at disguises than her. Beneath that mild-mannered, old-fashioned and overly polite exterior was apparently still the mischievous Marauder Moony.