Hello lovelies. Sorry this took so long to get up; I don't know where my head has been these past months, with trying to get my thesis done and finishing up all the other crap I need to graduate and dealing with real life. This has been the year from hell personally, but it's all done, so now I have time to get back to this. I hope you enjoy it, and just a forewarning I do not have anything against gays or bisexuals, some of my best friends are gay, the comments in this chapter are just a bit of humor so please take it as that.
Sometimes Remus felt like he spent most of his time sitting at the table in the kitchen of number 12, listening to Sirius grumble to himself, or banter with Dora when she was around. It would depend on if his friend had been drinking that day and what mood he was want to be in. Whatever the case, he was sure that between the time he spent trying to cheer Sirius up and the time he spent in meetings with the Order, most of his days passed in the confines of the bleak abode. At least he could leave when he wanted, which was more than Sirius could do.
"God Moony," came the moan from the head of the table. Remus was perusing the Prophet, reading about the further reforms Umbridge was suggesting; the woman still managed to dig her claws into ministry law, even while reeking havoc on the students of Hogwarts. Tonks sat across from him, her sock clad feet resting on top of his as she flipped through some reports she had managed to copy and smuggle out of the Auror office.
"This is not how I imagined my life would be at 35," Sirius continued despite the lack of reaction from his friend. "I thought, I don't know, I'd find someone nice, settle down, have a few kiddies, maybe convince you to leave Tonks and join a gay commune with me."
Remus only looked up enough from his paper to see that Dora was grinning as she tried not to break out laughing. "Better men than you have tried and failed," he intoned dryly, eyes returning to his paper.
Sirius, who had been just about to take a drink from the mug in front of him, snorted into his coffee and replied, "I know. Wormtail would have loved that."
Remus ignored the jab at their former friend not wanting to bring up the implications of what Sirius was saying. Dora, it seemed, had no such qualms.
"Are we referring to the fact that he had a huge man crush on my husband? I knew there was a reason he didn't like me."
Sirius nodded, "Oh yeah, the number of times I caught him wanking, Thought he was going to try and jump you every time you took your shirt off" he was definitely trying to get a rise our of Remus now, but he refused to take the bait and instead continued to read the paper. He was not a fool, he had been quite aware that Peter had, when they were teenagers, had some kind of infatuation with him. Apparently Dora had been aware of the fact too as had Sirius. He had never been sure if the other boy had been gay or bisexual, as he had certainly expressed an interest in girls a time or two at least to Remus, but he never acted on it so things never became awkward between them. Leave it to Sirius to bring it up though just because he was board.
"And yet, he never propositioned me to join a gay commune," he finally said blandly, "I'm tired of talking about Peter. It doesn't do anything except make you even more pissed than usual and make you want to get pissed in general."
Sirius smirked, "Shut up moonshine."
"You know its true."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll stop taking the piss out of you. Merlin Tonks, what did you do to him, he used to be more fun."
Tonks rolled her eyes and went back to reading her smuggled papers. Remus sighed, folded his newspaper and threw it at Sirius who caught it deftly and gave him the bird. "Do the crossword or something, I've got to go meet Mad-eye. Do you have guard duty tonight?" he asked Dora as he stood.
She shook her head, "Arthur traded with me, said I should try to get some sleep, what with working the double tomorrow."
"I'll see you at home later then," he started towards the door, but her hand grabbing his arm stopped him. He turned back to find her looking at him with a raised brow, lips quirked in a smile.
"Are you forgetting something?" she asked pulling him down to her height so that she could kiss him quickly, causing him to laugh as she let him go. "Now you may leave." She waved her hand dismissively and as he left the kitchen still laughing, he just caught Sirius' smirk. +++
For once, Tonks mused, I would love to sleep through the early hours of the morning without someone sticking their head in the flue and disturbing what little sleep I get.
"Keep your pants on, I'm coming!" she yelled as she grabbed a pair of hole riddled jeans and pulled them on. The voice coming from her living room was getting more belligerent in its tone, leaving no doubt as to whom it could be,
"Don't you take that tone with me girl, just get your arse down here!"
Shaking her head Tonks descended the stairs, wondering where Remus could be so early in the morning that he hadn't told her about. She hadn't even heard him leave, which was unusual.
"Wotcher Mad-eye," she greeted as she cleared the landing.
Moody scowled at her, and growled, "And how were you sure it was me and not some death eater pretending to be me? You don't even have your wand out girl! Constant vigilance!"
She stared at him deadpan, waiting for him to get to what he had flued to say. His scowl deepened.
"Arthur's been attacked. We're to take the Weasley's and Potter to Mungo's. Your off work today, its all been taken care of. Come by mine first, so I can brief you." And before she could reply he disappeared from the fireplace.
Tonks stared for a moment and then went back up the stairs to get her boots on and grab her coat. Arthur attacked? She knew that he had guard duty, one that was supposed to be hers in fact, but he had traded with her, insisting that she needed the sleep, after so many sleepless nights of late. Still thinking, she headed back down the stairs, grabbed some powder, threw it in, called out Moody's flue direction and a moment later was face down on the heart of his kitchen.
"Sorry, haven't had time to clean that," he muttered from his kitchen table as she sat up and spluttered, black ash in her hair and on her clothes.
"What's this about Arthur?" she asked, brushing her self off and sitting at the table where he had already placed a cup of tea for her. "Ta."
He nodded, his eye whirling no doubt in paranoia. "He was on guard duty, got attacked by that Snake of Voldemort's. Potter saw the whole thing, some kind of vision or something. Arthur's in hospital now, recovering. Dumbledore wants us to take the family to Mungo's."
"Merlin's balls," she muttered, "I was supposed to have that shift, but Arthur traded me."
Moody eyed her sharply, both eyes unnervingly fixed on her. "Don't go blaming yourself because it wasn't you. Could have easily have happened on any night; Arthur is going to survive. What's important is that Voldemort is making a move for the prophecy."
Tonks took a sip of her tea, contemplating all that he had said. "Did you say that Harry saw it happen? Like in a vision or something?" If she sounded skeptical, it was only because as far as she knew Harry did not have the gift of prophecy and the only time she had heard of him seeing things was…
"Kid says he was the snake, that's what he told Dumbledore. I don't know; sounds fishy to me; sounds like someone is messing with the boys mind. He seems to like you, try and ask him what happened casual like sometime today."
She nodded true worry flooding her body. That poor boy, she thought, he probably thinks he's going mad. "I'll ask, but he probably won't be too forthcoming. It might be better to get Sirius to talk to him or Remus. Speaking of my husband, you wouldn't happen to know where he's buggered off to would ya? I know he was supposed to come here yesterday."
Moody's eye was whirling again. "He's getting some information for Dumbledore and that's all I'm going to tell you. And I wouldn't ask him about it when he does show his mug again; its better if less people know about it."
She raised a brow, but kept silent. She'd known Moody long enough to trust if he said that she didn't need to know what Remus was doing, but still he was her husband; she was allowed to worry about him. And she hated secrets between them.
"So, when do we head out?"+++
It was a few days later when Tonks was able to make it to Grimmauld place again, the day after Christmas as it transpired, and as she and Remus entered the house she could tell right off that the inhabitants were in a bit of a mood.
"OH SHUT UP YOU BLOODY HAG!"
"FILTH! SHAME OF MY FLESH! BRINGING THAT SHAME INTO THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS!" Sirius retched the curtains of his mother's portrait closed and stomped back to the kitchen. Remus and Tonks shared a look and she shrugged. He sighed, smiling slightly and trudged after his friend. Instead of following, she decided to head to the upper floors of the house. She had some files to go over, before she smuggled them back into the ministry the next day, and she wanted somewhere quiet to do so before she dealt with whatever melodrama was occurring in the house that day. When she entered the library she was surprised to see Harry sitting in the corner, staring into space and apparently thinking about something; she'd thought that he would have been holed up with Hermione and Ron discussing the latest developments that had occurred with Arthur being attacked.
"Wotcher Harry," she greeted, startling him out of his revelry.
"Uh, Tonks, hi." He made to stand, "Did you need the room?" he had obviously noticed the files she was holding.
"No, sit down, it's fine. Was just going to go over some notes but I can do it later," She said brightly and sat down on the old settee. Harry seemed hesitant, but he sat again.
"Thinking bout what happened with Arthur? What you saw?"
He seemed wary to discuss it, but eventually he nodded. Tonks nodded too and began picking at a hole in the knee of her jeans. "You probably don't know this, but I was there the day you were born."
He looked at her surprised and she smiled, "Oh, I know I don't look old enough to even remember something like that, but believe me I am a lot older than I look. I remember your dad was so excited, he kept pacing up and down and finally Remus had to tell him to calm down; he was convinced that your mum was going to die in childbirth or that you would hate him. It was a sight let me tell you! I remember going into the room after you were born and everyone was looking at you and passing you around and Remus handed you to me, even though I was convinced I would drop you, and as soon as I had you in my arms you started wailing. Any time I held you after that you always started crying,"
"I'm sorry?" Harry said, the statement coming out as a question.
She laughed and shook her head. " You were smart even then; knew I was afraid I'd drop ya. Never did though, so there is that. That day you were born was one of the best days of my life. It was the day I found out I got accepted for Auror training too."
They lapsed into silence and she was just contemplating getting up and going to Sirius room to work, when Harry said, "It feels like they are all looking at me accusingly, like its my fault. Hermione says that I'm not going mad and that none of it was my fault, but it felt so real."
"No one is accusing you of anything Harry," she said at length, "And if they are, then they obviously don't know you too well. I don't think you're mad or possessed or anything; I've seen enough of that in my line of work to recognize it."
Harry sighed, the type of sigh that says the person wants to believe what you are saying but can't or won't allow themselves too.
"You know what you need?" she asked brightly, "A nice cup of tea and some of those chocolate biscuits Remus has stashed here. My mother -in -law always said that nothing fixes your problems like a good cup of tea, and Remus claims that chocolate is the cure for all ills so, one of them has to be right." She stood and looked at him expectantly, causing him to smile slightly.
"Well come on, budge up. If you want I can tell you more embarrassing stories about your dad; I know a ton of them" She started for the door and he followed, obviously enticed by the prospect of hearing more about his parents.
"Hold on," he said as they descended the stairs, "Your married?"
Tonks' laughter could be heard through the whole house, just before the portrait of Sirius mum went off again. +++
Remus was sure that the pimply-faced conductor of the Knight Bus visibly paled, if someone who was already as pale as a slug could do so, as his wife threatened him.
"If you shout his name I will curse you into oblivion," he heard her tell the boy menacingly as she shunted Ginny and Hermione forward into the bus. Something had her on edge, but she had yet to share it with him. He doubted it was the occlumency lessons that Sirius had informed them of that morning. Later, as they were saying goodbye to the children, Remus pulled Harry aside, he him self worried about the a fore mentioned lessons.
"Harry, I know you don't like Snape, but he is a suburb Occulmens and we all-Sirius included- want you to learn to protect yourself, so work hard, all right?"
"Yeah, all right," the boy agreed, sounding as if the idea weighed tremendously on him. "See you, then."
Remus didn't blame him for dreading having to spend one on one time with Snape. The man was sure to make it unpleasant, but hopefully he would teach Harry properly and not let old grudges get in the way of the boy's safety.
"Ready to go love?" Dora asked, still seeming on edge, although slightly less so now that the kids were gone. They got back on the bus and she shot the conductor another withering look, as if to say don't you dare even contemplate saying a word about who was on this bus.
"What's got you on alert?" he asked as they sat down a little further away from the other passengers, so they wouldn't be overheard. She looked around them, staring down a witch who was watching them openly.
"I think someone is following me."
Remus raised a brow as the bus lurched to a halt; he grabbed Dora's hand and, even though it wasn't their stop, he lead her off the bus quickly. They were somewhere in Scotland, that he knew, but he didn't know exactly where. Nor did he care. "What makes you think someone is following you?"
She glanced around and seeing only people going about their business and that only one person, on old wizard, had gotten off the bus with them, she visibly relaxed.
"I was on my way home from work the other night and this man followed me. I detoured into Diagon and morphed, so I lost him. But yesterday the same man was behind me. And today…well I wasn't taking any chances. And you never know if you- know- who has figured out how we are transporting Harry."
He put his arm around her and began leading her up the street, making it look like they were just a couple out for a stroll on a Sunday afternoon. " Why didn't you say anything about the man before?"
"I didn't want to worry you. I think Scrimgeour is having me watched; he was particularly on edge after Arthur was attacked and he knows that we're acquaintances at least. Its times like this that I wish I were as good as King at being deceptive."
Remus squeezed her slightly. "Its not a bad thing; and you can lie when you have to."
She smiled up at him, "Ta love. I'm going to have to be more vigilant. You should too, just in case we've been seen together. We should get home, I know I haven't been followed there at least."
A/N: So, why is Tonks being followed? We shall find out next chapter. Don't forget to review. :)