A formal warning: This story will contain abuse, non-con/rape, death, dark themes, it will not contain graphic descriptions of such.
*****And I don't own HP, or the excerpts you see below*****
"It's alright, it's us!" Tonks said as they crossed the boundaries, both carrying their shoes. Sirius didn't lower his wand, but Harry rushed to Hermione and hugged her. "I'm Nymphadora Tonks- now Lupin- usually known as simply Tonks. I'm a Metamorphmagus, that's usually the only proof I need." Tonks said, shifting her hair blue and then letting it drop back to her natural brown.
Sirius lowered his wand with a nod.
"Now, how do I know you're not a Death Eater?" Tonks asked.
"I'm inside the boundaries with Harry Potter."
She sighed. "Fine. If you're a Death Eater, at least be merciful and kill us quickly."
"That doesn't sound like something my family would do." Sirius said, as Remus and Ron walked across the boundaries, and Sirius raised his wand again.
"I am Remus John Lupin, werewolf, sometimes known as Moony, one of the four creators of the Marauder's Map, married to Nymphadora, usually known as Tonks, and I taught you how to produce a patronus, Harry, which takes the form of a stag." Remus said.
There was another crack on the other side of the boundaries, and all three adults raised their wands as they spotted Kingsley striding towards them.
"Kingsley! Are you okay?" Tonks asked.
"My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt, I am one of the two men who raised you after your parents disappeared. My patronus takes the form of a lynx, I sent one tonight to the wedding after the Minister was killed." Kingsley said, striding right by her and towards the house.
"Kingsley?" She asked, following him into the house. "Are you alright?"
"Alastor's alive." Kingsley said. "I heard two Death Eaters mention him today."
"You're sure?"
"Very." Kingsley said as the others entered, and he opened a kitchen drawer, pulling out a roll of parchment. "Remus, Sirius, this house is on Ministry records. We'll use these spells to reinforce the wards, the last one on the list will erase the home from any record it's on- my file, Dora's, Alastor's. Even people who know where this house is will remember a new, fake address. Only the owners- Alastor and myself- and anyone inside the boundaries will remember. Dora, take the kids upstairs. A few spells to the old bed and couch up there, it'll be usable."
"We won't stay long-" Harry began.
"Nonsense. What place is safer than the home of multiple Aurors?" Sirius asked, following Kingsley and Remus outside.
"Alright, well, come on. I don't know about you, but I want to get changed. I'm not a huge fan of dresses." Tonks said, turning and leading them upstairs. She headed for the end of the hall, to where the attic stairs were, right between Sirius' bedroom door and the room Alastor and Kingsley shared.
"There was discussion to renovate this into a bedroom for me when I got older." Tonks explained. "Instead, they moved into the guest room, and gave me the room with the connecting bathroom- and we just haven't touched the attic since. The couch pulls out, you boys can probably share that and Hermione can use the bed. Both are comfortable, but we'll need spells to clean them up a bit. Are any of you good with cleaning spells? I'm not the greatest, I'm afraid."
August wore on slowly. After the wedding, Arthur had sent a patronus to them, telling them that they were all perfectly fine- even though Charlie had been unable to Apparate away with Ginny. Order meetings stopped completely, until they knew they had somewhere safe to hold them, and there was no point gathering all of them in one place just to say nothing had happened and risk having Death Eaters find them.
They were able to make room in the attic for the trio after a quick few cleaning spells. It later took Sirius nearly three hours(with Hermione's help) to convince them it was safe to remain there. Sirius later told Tonks and Remus he planned to find out what their plan was.
Kingsley continued working at the Ministry, staying away from the house for a large majority of the day. Tonks and Sirius busied themselves by brewing any potions they could.
The week of the full moon was tense, and none of them could understand it. Remus seemed on edge, easily angered, something was bothering him and Sirius couldn't figure out what or why. Perhaps it was because it was the first full moon since Tonks had been assaulted, and the wolf side of Remus was still feeling extremely angered by the fact it had happened.
Tonks was tense and upset because Remus was, and Remus clearly felt terrible for it. In the nights leading up to the full moon, he slept on the couch, just to give her some space.
The night of the full moon, Remus had said he wanted to leave the house completely but Sirius had already begun to reinforce wards on the basement, so he stayed.
Sirius transformed into his dog form right before Remus transformed, staying with him for a while afterwards, and then he went upstairs, turning back as soon as he was out of the basement.
Tonks was already asleep when he went upstairs and he could hear the trio taking quietly as he passed the attic stairs, so he went to bed himself since he'd have to be up early. Remus had said he didn't need Sirius with him, but Sirius suspected it was mostly because Remus wanted someone near Tonks for the night, despite the fact he didn't want to admit it.
He fell asleep surprisingly quickly, only to wake up a few hours later when someone sat on the edge of his bed. His eyes adjusted to the dark to see Tonks sitting there.
"I'm sorry." She said. "I just wondered, if you remembered when I was younger, and you and James came to visit us for a few days. And you ended sleeping on the floor in my room because-"
"I passed out after reading you a story, yes. Why?"
"Well, do you remember how I had a nightmare, and-"
"I turned into Padfoot. I said he'd protect you. Slept next to you, on your bed, all night as a dog. And then the next day, James showed you that he could turn into an animal as well. I remember. Is there a reason you're thinking about that?"
She nodded.
He sat up, pushing the blankets off. "Did you have a nightmare, Dora?"
"I know it's stupid, but Remus is gone and-"
"You didn't take a Dreamless Sleep Potion."
She shook her head. "I sometimes feel really tired the next day after I take one, so I just... don't take it often."
"Come here." Sirius said, patting the bed next to him. She moved closer on the bed, and he dragged the blanket around her before standing, turning into the big black dog. He jumped onto the bed, curling up with his back against her side. She rolled over, wrapping an arm tightly around him, her hand resting on his front paw.
"Thank you, Sirius." She whispered, her cheek on his shoulder.
"You're awake early." Sirius commented as Harry, Ron and Hermione entered the kitchen shortly before dawn.
"We need help, and you two might be our best options." Harry said as they sat at the table. Sirius stood, summoning three more mugs and pouring tea.
"What do you need us for?" Tonks asked curiously.
"We need to break into the Ministry." Harry explained.
"You- haven't you done this before?" Tonks asked. "Because I happen to remember..."
"That was when it wasn't run by Death Eaters." Sirius said. "Why would you need to break into the Ministry?"
"There's something we need to get." Hermione said. "We just don't know what the safest way to do that is."
"The safest way would be to avoid the Ministry, actually. I've been avoiding them for nearly a month and a half now." Tonks explained. "And how do you know whatever you need is in the Ministry? "
"When we left yesterday, we were able to find and speak to Mundungus." Hermione said. "He said he had seen what we need to find, after he tried to clear out your house, Sirius."
"My house?" Sirius asked. "What was it?"
"Do you remember that locket we found? The one that wouldn't open?" Harry asked.
"I thought we threw it in the rubbish, but yes."
Harry reached into his pocket, pulling out the locket. "It's identical to this, but this is fake." Harry explained, and then he looked at Hermione and Ron, who both nodded. "It's a Horcrux. We believe the real one is in the Ministry now."
"A Horcrux- do you think that's how You-Know-Who has survived this long?" Tonks asked.
"It's what Dumbledore believed, yes." Harry said. "If we destroy them, we can destroy him."
"Is this what you've been planning?" Sirius asked. "This big plan you wouldn't tell us?"
"Yes. It has to be who defeats Voldemort in the end, but I think we need more help when it comes to the Horcruxes themselves." Harry said. "Tonks, you know the Ministry entrances, right?"
"I know of an employee entrance, but Kingsley mentioned they've upped security on some of the entrances." Tonks said. "I'd offer trying to sneak you in, but I abandoned my job, I'll be arrested before even entering the Ministry."
"They'll arrest you for not showing up?" Hermione asked.
"The new Ministry? Yes, they've given King a warning about it." Tonks said. "And to use the employee entrance, you'd need my badge- and attention would be on you immediately. I'll ask Kingsley about the entrances, though, find out what the new security is. Sirius, can you help me with Remus?"
Sirius nodded, following Tonks out of the kitchen and down the basement stairs.
"Love, you're either awake and dressed already or I'm sending Sirius in first." Tonks said as she reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Out of the two of you, I'd much rather you, Dora." Remus said hoarsely. "But yes, I am awake and almost dressed."
"Injured?" She asked, switching on a light. Remus winced at the brightness of the light, but shook his head as he pulled a sweater on. "Let me guess, you're not hungry, you're just sore and tired and going straight to bed?"
"You definitely know me well, Dora."
"We have potion ingredients, you know." Sirius said, following her towards the door.
"It never hurts to get more, who knows when we'll have to stop visiting Diagon Alley." Tonks said, pulling a cloak over her shoulders. She paused by the hallway mirror, making sure she didn't have flaws in her disguise. "It doesn't hurt to be prepared."
"Want me to go with you?"
"No, we'd need Polyjuice. It's fine. I'll be two hours at most." Tonks said. "I'm sure there's something around here you can do. Bother Harry, bother Remus, I don't know."
"If you're not back in two hours, I'm coming after you."
She rolled her eyes, heading outside. She left the boundaries, Apparating outside the Leaky Cauldron. She kept her hood up, even though she had disguised herself, she wanted to avoid people seeing her as much as possible.
Visiting Gringotts took nearly half an hour itself, and then she spent another hour trying to convince both apothecaries in Diagon Alley to sell her all of their ingredients for Wolfsbane- some ingredients being mysteriously doubled in price. She then visited the apothecary in Knockturn Alley and bought their supplies too- which were mysteriously tripled in price after she spent thirty minutes trying to convince them she wasn't a worker for the Ministry.
She had to return to Gringotts because of the raised prices, and this time, when she visited her vault, she took enough to exchange to Muggle currency as well. She had had a nagging feeling for a few days, and stopped to visit a shop owned by Witch Weekly's editor, lined with nauseatingly pink shelves and equally terribly coloured potions.
The one she was searching for, however, was clear. She was sure it turned some horrendously feminine colour eventually, but for now...
As she paid for it, she hoped she'd be wrong. She had been late with her period before, it was only two days so far, and it had been a very stressful few weeks. However, that nagging feeling never left, no matter how many excuses she thought of.
She and Remus had used protection.
She had been late before.
It was only the second day.
She used a monthly potion to avoid this exact situation.
She froze as she was halfway back to the Leaky Cauldron. She took a potion every month, on the first, and even though it didn't stop her period, it would keep her from getting pregnant.
Except she hadn't taken it since June.