Author's note: This particular chapter is and has always been dedicated specifically to Molly. One, because its your favorite chapter and two, because your ridiculous fear never ceases to amuse me...

Over a thousand hits for my story! YEAH!!!!! I luv you all!

Oh, and I noticed the chapters are getting smaller in length. Don't worry, they kinda even out from here on out, and as I looked over my notes this morning I realized that the story is definatly going to be 21 chapters as of this point. And I'm not saying it aloud in case I jinx it, but I think I will be able to get it all posted before the 19th of June! Huzzah! Lets give three cheers and one cheer more!

Chapter Six- The Biggest Fear

"What do you mean I can't spend the night here?" Tonks cried. "This is my apartment!"

The poor wizard plumber sighed as he waded across the neon orange water up to his knees. Little pink seahorses the size of galleons were floating up to the ceiling in shiny bubbles making funny whistling noises as they went. "I'm sorry miss, but there is no way I can take care of this all by tonight-you'll have to sleep somewhere else until I can remove the water and fix the pipes."

Tonks stood on her kitchen table and silently cursed her bad luck. Where could she possibly go? The very thought of spending the night with her parents home made her cringe. Her mother would probably end up cooking her disgusting: "Tuna and cheese Casserole" that she had picked the recipe up from some god-awful magazine, complete with a large platter of broccoli. She'd most likely end up being drilled on her current love life as well which would result in her father ranting about all of her past boyfriends she had brought home at one time or another.

The plumber had seen her look of dismay and he added kindly, "Perhaps a friend's house if you didn't want to rent a room for the night?"

Tonks bit her lip and tried to think of someone who would be able to take her in at such late notice. Kit was still in Barcelona and she wasn't sure if her other friends were even at home at this hour- probably out clubbing.

Then it came to her. She smiled wondering why she hadn't though of it earlier.

"Yeah, I have somewhere to go." She told the plumber. "Look-I'm really sorry about this. I have no clue how the pipes burst and flooded so quickly- one minute I was pouring some water into the kettle for the tea and the next I had a little swimming pool on my floor complete with the seahorses-"

The man grunted, obviously not excited about the enormous amount of work he had facing him.

Tonks jumped off the table and began quickly wading through the orange water to her room. She could have sworn that just a second ago she had seen a small shark fin go past her table and she decided that the faster she packed and got out of the house, the happier the plumber would be.

Sirius looked delighted when Tonks walked in through his front door. His hair was longer than usual; his clothes were wrinkled and disheveled looking as though he had worn them for several days. Tonks noticed he could have done with a good shave too- and perhaps a very long shower. But at least he wasn't drunk, she thought, and so that made things easier.

"Tonks!" he exclaimed as he came around the corner. "Where have you been lately? What's going on?"

"My apartment's flooded, I was wondering if I could spend the night here in one of the spare rooms."

"How did it flood?"
"I dunno, I had just left the room after turning on the water to get some tea and when I came back it was everywhere. I have no clue how it happened- a pipe must have burst or something but now everything is submerged in about three feet of orange water and I have a mini aquarium of sea creatures floating up to my ceiling."

"You should have had me come over- you and me are great at fixing broken pipes." He said with the faintest of smiles.

Tonks laughed. "Sorry- next time perhaps."

Sirius took her enormous suitcase from her and nearly dropped it. Tonks had packed everything that she thought she might need and so she had squeezed enough shoes, clothes, soap, lotions, shampoos and other "essentials" to last her at least a couple of weeks.

Sirius swore as he steadied the suitcase and then looked back at her, "Did you pack enough?"

"I like to be prepared." She said brightly.

With a grunt, Sirius began carrying the suitcase awkwardly up the stairs. Tonks followed him and gave the curtained picture at the bottom a wide berth. She wasn't quite sure if her cousin's good mood would hold out if the portrait of his mother began shrieking and going typically berserk.

"Is anybody else here?" Tonks asked quietly.

Sirius shook his head. "I haven't seen anybody in ages. You're the first person to drop by since Dung stopped by a week ago."

Tonks felt a pang of guilt and pity. Sirius was still under strict orders from Dumbledore not to leave the house. It was easy to forget he wasn't allowed to leave the eerie, dark, cold rooms of Grimmauld Place.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Sirius stopped and asked- "Left room or right one?"

Tonks looked over at the two doors parallel to each other from across the hall. "What's the difference?" she asked.

"None really." Sirius said with a shrug. "The one on the right is a bit larger."

"I'll take it." Tonks smiled. "Unless anybody else is going to use it."

"No, no one else has been by and I'm not expecting any member to spend the night here until next week perhaps."

"Thanks, so much Sirius." Tonks said as he opened the door to the room to the right and went inside.

Sirius dropped her suitcase at the foot of the large four poster bed. The room was dark and dusty but it was all Tonks needed. "Do you want dinner or anything?" he asked her.

"No thanks, I already ate but I might have a snack."

"I'll be down in the kitchen for now then. You should probably unpack."

"Bollocks. Who cares about that? I'm coming too."

Sirius grinned and led the way out of the room. Tonks felt glad she had dropped by. Sirius in her opinion was in sore need of some company and she was quite sure that she could cheer him up.

It was very late when Tonks finally crawled into bed. Her and Sirius had spent hours talking and raiding the kitchen. They talked about everything from the Order, to their own mischievous adventures at school. The most fun had been abusing Snape over enormous frying pans (they had run out of clean plates and bowls) of icecream. She knew it was time for bed when she fell asleep in Sirius's bowl of macaroni and cheese. Sirius woke her up to tell her to get upstairs and he'd clean up a bit before going to bed himself.

Now, a half hour later Tonks wished she had properly unpacked- it was hard to find everything- she was so tired it took her several minutes to pull on her fuzzy pink jim-jams the right way. She spent another good chunk of time trying to find her toothbrush which she unbelievably in spite of everything else had forgotten to pack, and angrily ended up throwing her toiletries into the large closet at the foot of her bed to avoid tripping over them on the floor. She quickly climbed into bed, barely awake and after snuggling deep into the blankets felt herself falling into a deep sleep.

Tweet.

Her eyes snapped open. The room was very dark and still. What had she just heard? It had to be her mind playing tricks on her or something. Feeling greatly annoyed she rolled over and shut her eyes trying hard to get back to sleep.

Then she heard it- the flutter of feathers in the corner of the room. Tonks felt her blood turn to ice. It couldn't be-

Slowly she turned her head and peered over her blanket with terrified eyes staring at the half open closet at the foot of her bed.

The entire room was cast in dark, foreboding shadows. The loudest thing in the room was Tonks's heart pounding furiously against her chest. Was it possible?

'Tweet'

Tonks's eyes widened and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She ducked her head underneath the blanket and lay there, cowering in fear.

What was she going to do? She couldn't yell for help, Sirius would never let her live that down…the possibility of ignoring the little bird and trying to sleep with it being in the same room as her was out of the question. Maybe she could leave and go sleep on the couch in the living room….

Then she remembered the empty guestroom across the hall, no one was staying there and it beat spending the night on the cold, blankletless couch. She could sleep there and tell Sirius at breakfast she thought there was a bird in there in her room and would be so kind as to get it out for her?

Now however, she was faced with the daunting challenge of running out of the room without the bird following and attacking her. She shuddered. Just a few feet away from her was the beaked, feathery-winged terror.

Tonks took a deep breath and then with the speed of a terrified unicorn threw the blankets to the floor, ran to the door, flung it open and slammed it shut behind her.

With the irrational thought that the bird had gotten through the door after her she sprinted across the hallway with her arms over her head. She reached the other guest room and in a panic crashed through the half-shut door.

Tonks jumped, and flung herself flat out onto the small bed expecting to land on the soft messed up blankets and mattress.

To her terror, she felt herself land on something hard. She felt the lump under the blankets move and to her increased horror- realized she had landed on a person.

She sat there frozen with fear and then let out a high, blood-curdling scream.

A tousled haired head appeared from out under the covers and stared up at Tonks with a look of complete confusion and terror. The man suddenly sat bolt upright and seemed to have recognized the pink haired witch sitting on top of him.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"

Sirius was in hysterics.

After appearing in the doorway looking aghast, deathly pale and with wand drawn out as if he were expecting to come across a murder he had fallen into crippling laughter and had not been able to stop.

All three of them were in the kitchen where Remus had suggested they all go in order to get a cup of tea and some chocolate.

"It's not that funny." Tonks snapped as Sirius fell into another fit of laughter.

Sirius was laughing as though he hadn't experienced something so hilarious in thirteen years, which- Tonks reminded herself, was most likely the case.

Remus was unwrapping a large slab of chocolate he had brought with him, still shaking uncontrollably. He had been quite unnerved it seemed by the whole ordeal. As Sirius tried to explain through gasps of laughter, Remus had arrived much earlier than he had expected and come to stay at Grimmauld Place shortly after Tonks had gone upstairs to bed. Sirius had given him the spare guest room and was planning on telling them both the next day that the other was staying as well. Tonks tried to imagine how she would have felt if she was sleeping and someone had jumped on top of her and begun screaming hysterically. She thought Remus was handling the situation rather well.

"Here," said Remus as he handed her a piece of chocolate. Tonks blushed and accepted it gratefully. She was very embarrassed to say the least and was hoping neither of them would ask her why she had run into Remus's room to begin with.

"Thanks." She said to Remus. "WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY?" she yelled at Sirius whose loud bark-like laughter was hardly subsiding.

Remus with a shaky sigh went over and took the jar of tea leaves from Sirius and went about bruising himself to make some tea.

"It was an accident." Tonks said to Sirius. "You don't need to beat it into the ground."

"Why- on earth, did you even- run into- his room?" Sirius gasped as he struggled for breath.

Tonks scowled at him.

Remus coughed as he put the tea leaves into the three mugs. His back was turned to Tonks and Sirius but she could tell that he was just as embarrassed and flustered as she was.

He really did look handsome in his simple pajamas and his blue bathrobe-it was very old and worn…incredibly frayed and threadbare, but he did look so nice in it- alright- perfectly snoggable when it came to that-

Tonks realized that she had to come up with a logical excuse to Sirius's question and tried to come to terms that the truth would probably be the easiest even if it was the most embarrassing.

"I-I-" she began, averting her eyes from Remus, "Well, there was a bird in my room and so I ran into the other guest room hoping to spend the rest of the night in there."

"A bird?!?!" Sirius snorted, and then burst out laughing again.

"Yes! A bird!" Tonks exclaimed. "It was in the corner of the room-"

"How did a bird get in here?" Remus asked.

"I don't know." Tonks shivered and took an enormous bite of chocolate. "But it was in my room and I was scared…"

"Of a bird?!?!?" Sirius laughed.

"I don't like them!"

"What about owls?"

"I don't mind them, it's the little ones that scare me!"

Sirius fell to the floor and erupted into a raucous peal of laughter.

Remus's mouth twitched as though he was close to smiling himself, but he handed the mug of tea to Tonks and said in a reassuring voice, "Don't worry, we'll take care of it."

Tonks gave an involuntary shudder as she thought of the small beady-eyed sparrow lurking in the corners of her room.

Remus turned to his dark-haired friend who was wiping away tears of mirth from his eyes, "Do you have any idea how a bird flew into the house?"

"No."

Remus handed over a cup of tea to Sirius, looking deep in thought. "It didn't fly in through the door when Tonks arrived, did it?" he asked with a slight frown.

Tonks shuddered again at the very thought.

Sirius shook his head and took a sip of tea before chocking on it and spraying it all over the kitchen table-laughing uncontrollably again.

"Perhaps a window then?" suggested Remus, ignoring Sirius's outburst.

"Who cares Mooney?" Sirius gasped.

"It's interesting that a bird managed to fly inside the house despite all the security that's been placed in here." Remus said with a dark look.

"Maybe it used the plumbing." Tonks said stupidly, still thinking of her flooded apartment flat.

"Of course! That's exactly what it did, Tonks!" Sirius cried, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "A little bird hacked its way in through the pipes outside, swam through them, came out the toilet, flew into your room and dried itself off on your pillow and then waited in the corner to try and attack you with its beak in the middle of the night! How stupid of us not to have thought of that already!"

"Well you tell me why a bird was in my room and how it got in!" she said angrily.

"I think we should try to get it out now." Remus said calmly as he took a sip of tea.

"The BIRD?!?!?" Tonks cried looking at Remus as though he were mad.

"No! The dragon!" exclaimed Sirius, rolling his eyes.

"But suppose it attacks us!"

"Tonks, it's bound to be more frightened of us then we are of it." Remus said rationally.

"Easy for you to say." She muttered.

Sirius grabbed a piece of chocolate from the platter Remus had put out. "Why are you so scared of birds Tonks? I've never seen you freak out around owls before."

"Owls are different, their bigger and you can see them coming…little birds can hide under things, you can't see them until their right there...right in your face-"

"Oh I see, owls can't fit in the plumbing but little birds can- holding their breath as they breathstroke their way too the loo."

"I don't know why they scare me that much, but they do! I know its stupid but I just don't like them!"

"Were you ever attacked by a bird once?" Remus asked kindly.

"No." admitted Tonks. "But when I was little once I was sitting in the back of a bus with the window open- and a bird fell in by accident and got caught in my hair which was rather long at the time. I couldn't get it out and my Mum was trying to calm me down as it got more and more tangled in my hair."

Remus nodded. "That might be it then."

Tonks took a huge gulp of tea and ended up spilling half of it on her jim-jams.

"Smooth Tonks." Sirius snickered as he watched her try to clean it up with a napkin. "Well you both had me scared the shit out of me, I heard you both screaming and I ran upstairs with my wand, ready to stumble upon a corpse or something and I find you two in bed together. I stood there thinking- 'Finally! About time already! But what went amiss here? When did this all start happening? What were you two doing exactly before I came that caused you both to scream-"

"Stop it, Padfoot." Remus said, his eyes rather fixed on the tabletop.

"Well really!" Sirius grinned. "It was a rather compromising situation I seemed to have stumbled upon."

"I was scared!" Tonks said indignantly. "And then I landed on a person who I didn't expect to be there! I didn't know Remus was going to be in there!"

"I really didn't know what was going on. I was still half asleep. I thought someone was being attacked or something until I realized shortly afterwards it was Tonks." Remus said quietly.

"Yeah, well in a way, it was you being attacked." Sirius said. "By a desperate, smitten witch who-"

"Shut up Sirius!" Tonks said, blushing furiously, noticing that Remus's head had shot up at Sirius's words. "Why don't you grow up already?"

Remus stood up and drew his wand. "I'm going to take care of the bird."

"I'll come with you." Sirius said pulling his wand from his robes.

"I'll help." Tonks said in a determined voice, trying to steady her nerves.

"You don't have to come." said Remus kindly.

"No, I can help." Tonks hardly believed her own words but she didn't want Sirius and Remus to think she was a coward. She had left her own wand in her room unfortunately- she looked around for a weapon and after searching around the kitchen frantically came forward with an enormous frying pan held out in front of her like a bat.

Remus and Sirius carefully avoided each other's eyes.

Tonks clung to Sirius's robes with already damp palms, trembling with fear. Sirius had his wand out as Remus reached forward and slowly opened the door.

The door creaked open revealing many dark, shadowy shapes. Remus cautiously walked into the room- Sirius followed him and Tonks dragged behind.

"Where did you see it Tonks?" asked Remus as he stepped over the blankets on the floor and began searching the furthest corners of the room.

"It was over there, by the closet." Tonks said pointing over to the tall, dark walnut closet across the bed where she had seen the bird perched on top of.

Remus approached it warily and Tonks began wringing Sirius's sleeve that she was clinging desperately to.

"Gerroff of me, Tonks!" he said trying to pull his robes out of her viselike grip.

Tonks took a step backwards, dragging Sirius with her. Remus opened the half-open closet door a bit and ducked as Tonks's shaving cream rolled off the top shelf and fell to the floor with a large 'clunk'.

Remus peered inside the closet- his wand out. More of Tonks's toiletries fell to the floor.

'Tweet'

The noise that Tonks had been dreading the entire time had come up right behind her. With a terrified shriek she threw the frying pan behind her- threw her arms around Sirius's neck and jumped on him. The force of her jump had thrown him forward and he fell to the floor with a loud crash and with Tonks on top of him.

Remus ran forward towards the sound of the noise- and suddenly there was a loud 'crack' from the dark corner and a large silver orb appeared in front of Remus.

Remus hardly appeared surprised, "Riddikulus." He said calmly with a flick of the wrist.

There was a loud pop and the boggart dissolved into thousands of smoky wisps.

"It was a boggart?!?!" Tonks exclaimed.

"Cuz- would you mind getting up? I mean, I'm enjoying the fact that this is the first time in thirteen years I've had a woman on top of me like this but I'd prefer not to start feeling for you in that type of way-"

"Shut up you." Tonks said getting up and helping Sirius to his feet.

"It probably was in the closet then, and you probably didn't notice it until later because you were too tired."

Tonks nodded feeling like a total prat. She hadn't noticed a frustrated boggart in her room for a good while and when she did, she ran away screaming instead of using her wand to get rid of it. Nymphadora Tonks- Auror extraordinaire, unable to get rid of a simple boggart.

"There you are then-" Sirius said to Remus. "It wasn't a disguised, all-powerful Death Eater after all."

"One can never be too sure." said Remus.

"Your getting as paranoid as Mad-Eye."

Remus retrieved the frying pan from the corner. "I think we've all had enough excitement for one night."

"What is that?" Sirius asked with a frown toeing something small and white that had fallen from Tonks's toiletry bag when it fell.

"It's a tampon, Sirius." Tonks laughed.

Sirius's eyes widened in horror and disgust. "WHAT?!?!" he said loudly, leaping away from it as though it were a poisonous snake.

"A tampon. Women use them when they're having their period." Tonks said as if she were explaining it to a two-year old. She looked at her cousin and grinned; delighted at the effect it was having on him. She leaned down and picked it up. "Here-" she moved towards Sirius to touch him with it and Sirius looking around for a weapon bent down and picked up her mango shaving cream.

"Don't you-!" Tonks cried, but it was too late. Sirius tore off the cap and started spraying it right at Tonks. She screamed but threw herself at Sirius and stuffed the tampon down the front of his robes.

Sirius let out a roar of disgust and rage and tried desperately to get it out. Remus seized the shaving cream from his friend and sprayed Sirius.

"Thanks for- HEY!" Tonks cried as Remus turned and sprayed her as well. "Backstabber!"

"GET-IT-OUT!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!" Sirius bellowed trying desperately to unshake the tampon from his robes.

Tonks ran from the room to the spare toilet at the end of the hall where she knew there was another can of shaving cream. She grabbed it and ran back down the hall where Sirius was now armed with the shaving cream and spraying Remus who was desperately trying to pull away from his friend- laughing all the while.

Tonks lunged forward and began spraying them both mercilessly with the shaving cream as the war began.

Remus woke the next morning with a slight frown. He had been thinking a lot about last night. After the terrible toiletry war, when they were all going off to bed at last, covered in copious amounts of shaving cream, powder, and even some stranger things like cold macaroni and cheese- Tonks had come into his room to apologize again.

"Sorry again that I scared you earlier."

"It's alright."

She had smiled ruefully. "And now you know my biggest fear. Birds."

"There's nothing wrong with having irrational fears. You'll conquer them eventually when you feel you can and want to."

"You know..." she had said rather thoughtfully, "It's rather funny- you telling me about how I should conquer my irrational fear when you yourself have one of your own you should conquer."

"Which is what?" he had asked curiously.

"Like you thinking that you're dangerous." she had said lightly.

Remus had opened his mouth and then shut it- trying to think of a proper response. "Tonks..." he had said slowly, "That's not an irrational fear. I'm a werewolf and I carry with me a danger that's very real."

Tonks had fixed him with a steady eye. "A danger that's as real as a boggart..." she had said, before turning and nearly tripping over the rug on the way out.

He shook his head. He'd see how she was this morning before over-analyzing their simple conversation.

He walked into the kitchen to see Tonks finishing up a piece of toast and Sirius doing the crossword puzzle to yesterday's Daily Prophet that Remus had brought back with him.

"Morning, Remus." Tonks said cheerfully through a mouthful of toast.

"'Who is the lead guitarist of The Weird Sisters?'" Sirius asked Remus for a good morning greeting.

"I don't know." Remus said as he sat down beside Tonks.

"It's Kirley McCormack!" Tonks said in an exasperated voice. "Don't you two know anything about popular music?"

"Sorry Tonks, me and Remus don't appreciate the music of today's youth." Sirius said briskly as he scribbled down the answer. "Now the Screaming Skulls on the other hand-"

Tonks rolled her eyes. "We've gone over this before- they are so old school, Sirius."

"They are not old school, they are classic." Sirius said indignantly. "Remus, this question's for you: 'Who was the chief of the Wizard's Council that decided that all two legged creatures should be recognized as beings?"

"Burdock Muldoon." Remus replied.

"Thanks." Said Sirius. "You know Tonks, if you ever find yourself stumped by a strange question, go ask Moony. He's the only one I know who knows more pointless, random information-"

"It might come in handy someday, you never know." Remus smiled.

"How about this one? 'Place of the first recorded lethifold attack?' "

"Papua New Guinea, 1782, recorded by…Flavius Belby I believe."

"You loser." Sirius laughed.

Suddenly Remus felt something warm touch the back of his neck, he started- but it was only Tonks.

"Remus, you still have shaving cream on the back of your neck." She said brightly. Remus felt a shiver run down his spine as she tried wiping off the shaving cream with her fingers.

"Damn! This one's hard!" Sirius said loudly. "Why do they ask such pointless questions on these sometimes?"

"What is it?" Tonks asked.

"Popular song by muggle singer, Warren Zevron?"

"I'm afraid I don't know who that is." Remus confessed. "My father only listened to classical music."

"I'm sure your father wouldn't have listened to him then." Tonks said. "Though I'm surprised you two don't know that. Warren Zevron was around in the 70's. And so I think the answer to that is 'Werewolves of London' Sirius."

"Pardon?" implored Remus.

"Yeah, 'Werewolves of London'. It's a song muggles especially like to play around Halloween. Haven't you two heard of it?" she asked, her dark eyes twinkling.

Sirius and Remus shook their heads.

"Well one day you'll have to hear it."

"I'm amazed you know it then yourself, how about you sing it for us?" Sirius suggested.

"Perhaps when I'm very, very drunk." Tonks promised. She stood up and pushed her chair in with a huge yawn. "I'm going to go take a shower now." She announced.

"That's great Tonks. Thanks for telling us." Sirius said indifferently without looking up from the crossword.

"Well I just felt that you should know-"

Sirius looked up then with a grin. "Er- why?"

"Just because, its polite to- oh! Never mind!" she said angrily.

"No please! Share your reasoning with us!" Sirius yelled as Tonks stomped off. Remus got up to make himself some breakfast. "She's a funny one." Sirius said affectionately, as he turned his attention back to the crossword.

Remus as he began to make himself some toast saw a page of the paper that lay like the others scattered about the counter. Out of sheer boredom he scanned the page and his eyes fell upon the weekly horoscope. He found Pisces and read: 'Someone new has recently jumped into your life and you are finding it difficult to stop yourself from letting them know how you feel. Let them know, they'll be thrilled-they've had their eye on you too.'

Remus frowned slightly and shrugged it off, as he tried to stop his neglected, burning toast from becoming entirely black.

"Finished!" Sirius said loudly, throwing down his quill. Last night's episode and the morning crossword puzzle seemed enough to have him put aside his sullen, gloomy, dark mood that he had been carrying around for a good time. He ran his hands over his pale, unshaven face.

"How'd you sleep last night?" he asked.

"Alright, and you?"

"Horrible. Tonks sprayed my room with some stupid floral perfume. I had to sleep with Buckbeak it was so bad."

Remus smiled as he buttered his toast. Upstairs he heard the water turn on as it ran through the pipes.

"I'm considering putting Buckbeak's droppings in her trainers. What do you think of that?"

"I don't think-"

"My other idea was to put Wartcap powder in her gloves but I'm never fond of using the same trick twice." Said Sirius sounding as though he were a mischievous student again.

"Do I dare ask who you tried that on the first time?"

"Mad-Eye." Sirius said with a bark of laughter.

Remus couldn't suppress a faint smile. "And he didn't suspect you at all?"

"Of course he did, but I lied and told him I had seen the Weasley twins doing it."

"You still place the blame on others." Remus laughed. "I'd have thought all those numerous detentions at Hogwarts would have had some effect on you."

"On me?!?! Sirius Black?!?!" Sirius said defiantly. "I take pride in my detention records! I lived my life on the wild, rebellious side. You don't even have a worthy record you were such a 'good boy'."

"The difference between you and me was that I was better at not being caught." Remus said pleasantly.

"Touché." Sirius grinned.

They sat there and soon enough began reminiscing again about their old school days and all their past deeds. Indeed, it had been so long since either of talked to each other about a good deal about them, a lot of forgotten humorous memories began coming back to them.

After some time, just as they were laughing over James's particularly wicked scheme of letting loose some several hundred jarveys in the great hall- Remus looked up at the time and received a jolt of surprise.

"It's quite late." He said.

Sirius cocked his head and seemed to be listening for something. "And Tonks apparently seems to still be taking a shower." He frowned.

"Impossible, she would have been out ages ago." Remus said.

"Doesn't seem so."

Remus listened to the running water and forced himself not to panic or think that she was somehow hurt or unconscious. "Do you think she's may have hurt herself?" he asked nervously.

Sirius stood up quickly, looking tense. "Perhaps we should knock and see if she's alright?"

Remus nodded and got up as well.

The both went up the stairs quickly and quietly and it wasn't until they were halfway down the hallway landing when they heard a noise that made them both stop dead in their tracks.

Over the sound of the running water traveling noisily through the pipes there was suddenly a loud high-pitched shriek.

Sirius and Remus stared at each other in horror before sprinting down the hall and reaching the bathroom door which had copious amounts of steam coming out form under the cracks.

Sirius threw open the bathroom door and was immediately engulfed in a dense, white cloud. "Tonks!" he shouted. "Are you alright?"

There was another louder, much more terrified scream and a loud 'bang' and Sirius stumbled backwards clutching his face.

"GO AWAY!" Tonks screamed. "I'M TAKING A SHOWER!!!!!"

Sirius began cussing angrily and Remus shut the door quickly before his friend decided to go barging back into the perilous room to start yelling at Tonks.

"What did she hit you with?" Remus asked seriously as tried to see the damage that had been done on Sirius so he could come up with the counter curse.

Sirius had his hands over his face still. "I THINK SHE BROKE MY NOSE!!!!!"

Remus suddenly caught sight of a wet bar of soap beside the door. He picked up the lime green bar with difficulty and handed it over to Sirius trying hard not to start laughing. "Was this it?"

Sirius looked absolutely murderous. "TONKS!" he roared, banging hard on the bathroom door- the green bar of soap a mushy ball in his tight fist. "GET OUT OF THE SHOWER!!!!!"

"Sirius-" Remus said in an attempt to calm his friend.

"I still have to rinse myself off!" Tonks shouted.

"THERE WILL BE NO BLOODY HOT WATER LEFT IN THIS DAMN HOUSE FOR WEEKS IF YOU DO! GET OUT!!!!"

"Half a minute!"

Remus put out an arm to physically restrain Sirius who looked ready to storm down the door and drag Tonks out of the bathroom himself.

After what seemed like eternity, Remus heard the water turn off and Tonks get out of the shower.

The door opened and both men nearly chocked on the over powering floral and fruity fumes that came out.

Nymphadora Tonks was standing there in the doorway, dripping wet and wrapped in an enormous towel. "What? Who died?" she asked.

Remus found himself staring, unable to take his eyes off her.

"Why did you throw the soap at me?" Sirius asked angrily.

"Why did you attack me when I was taking a shower?" Tonks retorted.

"We heard you screaming!" Sirius shouted.

Tonks stared at him, nonplussed. "I wasn't screaming." She said in a dignified voice. She began to adjust her towel that was sliding down ever so slightly and Remus quickly forced himself to avert his eyes as she did so to break the spell.

"No?" Sirius asked.

"I was singing." She said. Remus watched her face caught between embarrassment and a forced display of dignity.

Sirius stared. "You were singing?" he repeated slowly.

"Yes."

"You called that SINGING?!?!?"

"Shut up. And oh- thank you for using all my shaving cream up last night." Tonks said irritably. "I was forced to try and dry shave and now I have razor burn- not to mention I'm still really hairy."

"If you're going to be with Remus someday, you'd better get used to the idea." Sirius said.

But before Remus could respond to this or let proper embarrassment set in Tonks spoke up- "There is a big difference between my hairy legs and Remus's lycanthropy." Tonks laughed. She looked down at her pale legs rather critically. "Then again maybe there isn't."

Remus smiled. It was rare times like these where his condition was touched upon with appropriate humour and sensitivity. There were so few of them- and, as he thought about it suddenly- most of them had come from his Marauder friends so many years ago- and in more recent years, from Tonks.

"Oh bollocks- I nicked myself." Tonks said suddenly looking down where a small red line of blood was oozing. "I always have trouble with the knees."

"Tonks, couldn't you just fix yourself up through morphing?" Sirius asked.

A rare blush began spreading across her face, making her look utterly adorable in Remus's opinion. "Yes." She said. "Probably."

"Then why do you shave?" Sirius asked with a bark like laugh.

She wriggled about in her towel- looking strangely awkward and uncomfortable.

"Well….I dunno…I mean- I- I…er-"

And suddenly Remus realized that he too knew the answer to Tonks's funny habit,

"I imagine-" he said mildly-both of them turned to stare at him, "That its for the same reason I don't howl up at the moon every night."

Tonks's face broke out into a grateful smile. Their eyes met- and Remus knew then that an understanding had finally passed between them despite all of their differences.

"What?" Sirius asked loudly. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Just because I'm a werewolf doesn't mean I act like a wolf and run off to go live in the forest- just because Tonks is a metamorphous doesn't mean she'll go join the muggle circus as some sort of attraction. We're both a witch and a wizard and therefore there's no excuse that we can't do things that other witches and wizards consider normal."

Tonks was beaming at him now as he talked.

"If we want to do the things that any normal human does or wants to do-" he said quietly, his eyes fixed on Tonks. "There should be nothing holding us back…including our own insecurities."

Sirius looked from one to the other. "Do those 'normal things' include shagging?"

"SIRIUS!"

"What? Do they?"

"That's enough." Remus said. "Tonks, we'll leave you alone, we're going back downstairs."

"Thanks for the attempted rescue party and having my best interests at heart!" Tonks called after them as they walked down the landing.

Sirius glanced over his shoulder to make sure that Tonks was back in her room before turning to him with a grin. "I know you were staring at her in her towel-or imaging her without it."

"I was not." Remus said stiffly.

"Liar." His friend said calmly as they started to head down the stairs again. "You wanted to shag her right there on the spot and if I wasn't there- you two would have been on top of each other so fast…all that bullshit about being normal except for 'our own insecurities' or whatever. Please, give me a break. You were all but howling for sex-"

"Sirius-"

"You WOLF! Eyeing her RAVENOUSLY."

"That's quite enough."

"How 'delicious' did she look to the 'big, bad wolf'?"

""That's not even funny."

"-the primal callings of the wild cannot be ignored! The wolf is in your blood! It wants to devour her-"

"I'm ignoring you."

"-it wants to shag her senseless!" Sirius hissed as they reached the bottom.

"What are you two on about?" growled a familiar voice.

They turned to see a grizzled and suspicious looking Mad-Eye Moody standing there by the front door.

"Nothing." Remus said immediately. "Sirius is just being a complete prat today. That's all."

To his relief Sirius said nothing, obviously giving up his joke.

"I should be off." said Remus, going over to the heavily locked door and pulling on his cloak that was hanging off to the side. "Lots to do today. Tell Tonks I said 'goodbye'."

Sirius smirked but oddly, said nothing humorous. "See you later."

Remus eyed Sirius and Mad-Eye Moody warily for a moment, before finally leaving Headquarters. He closed the heavy door behind him with a small snap and walking out into the cool, brisk fall morning pushing away the feeling that his friend might have something planned up his sleeves that could not bode well for anyone.