1. The First Meeting

The gloomy exterior of number 12 Grimmauld Place loomed over me as I followed Moody up the front steps. We stopped outside the door as he showed me how to unlock it.

"This is important, girl. Don't let anyone see how this is done," said Moody.

"I know Moody, give me some credit here. I am an Auror after all. I do know how to be secretive."

"Constant vigilance!" we said together. He eyed me as I smirked at him.

The inside didn't look much better than the outside, gloomy and dark. I followed Moody down a hall towards a door along the back wall, tripping on a ghastly troll leg umbrella stand.

"Bugger!" I swore under my breath.

"I just put that there, you know."

I turned to see who had spoken. He looked much older and much more worn than I remembered him as a young girl. He was lean, dark, and broody but still the same cousin Sirius. He had the same half smile on his lips he always did when he was teasing.

"Wotcher, Sirius. It's been a long time. I've missed you terribly and so has Mum," I walked towards him and hugged him.

"We should get going or we are going to be late for the meeting. We can catch up after," Sirius said with a smile.

I followed Sirius and Moody down the hall to the kitchen. There were already a lot of people here, several of which I recognized from work. Moody introduced me to the people I was not familiar with as we made our way around the table to take a seat.

"It's so good to see you again, dear," Molly Weasley said, "Charlie should be coming to visit us soon. I bet he would love to see you!"

"I am sure he would, I would love to see him too and catch up."

I found a seat between Moody and a man I had never met before. He was thin and shabby looking with sandy hair and light eyes. He looked at me and smiled while extending a hand, "You must be Nymphadora Tonks. I'm Remus Lupin, pleasure to meet you."

"Please, call me Tonks. I can't stand my first name. I swear my mother was on something when she named me that."

He smiled again and looked like he was about to say something when Dumbledore walked into the kitchen. Dumbledore called the meeting to order and so began my first ever meeting with the Order of the Phoenix.

Once the meeting was over, I helped clear the table. In the process I knocked an ink bottle over onto a piece of parchment filled with important notes. Before I could react Remus had his wand out removing the ink from the parchment saving the notes from my destruction.

"Sorry about that. I'm a bit of a klutz really. You would think with all the things magic can do that there would be a cure for clumsiness," I laughed out nervously. I don't know why I felt like I needed to tell this man everything that was in my head. Why did I just turn into a blubbering fool?

"It's fine, Tonks, accidents happen to the best of us," he looked at me with a smile like he was used to cleaning up messes.

"Remus, Tonks, are the two of you going to stay for dinner tonight? I am making stew and it should be ready very shortly."

"I would love to, Molly, but I really can't stay tonight. I have a lot to get done in the morning for the Order. It really was a pleasure to meet you Nymphadora, I will see you around," Remus said as he headed for the door.

"It was nice meeting you too, Remus. And it's Tonks! Use my first name again and I will hex you!" I shouted after him as he vanished down the hall. I swear I saw his shoulders shake like he was chuckling to himself. I guess he found my dislike of my name amusing.

I turned to Molly, "I would love to stay for dinner. It would give me a chance to catch up with you and Sirius."

Sirius, it turned out, did not join us for dinner. I did have a nice time catching up with Molly and talking about Bill and Charlie. It had been a while since I had seen either of them.

After dinner was over I went looking for Sirius. I found him upstairs in what appeared to be the master bedroom with a hippogriff.

I looked at Sirius, "Do I want to know how you got this animal in here?"

"I walked him through the front door, he fit just fine once he lowered his head a bit. His name is Buckbeak, by the way."

"Hello, Buckbeak," I said as I walked into the room bowing to the hippogriff. Buckbeak nuzzled against my shoulder so I took it as permission to pet his beak.

"I see you are familiar with how to approach a hippogriff. Good thing he likes you, I was worried I was going to have to kick you out." Sirius looked at me with a mischievous grin. "What do you think of the house? Typical Black family decor that makes you want to lay down and give up it's so depressing."

"Thankfully Mum didn't let me have much interaction with that side of the family. She did try to see Aunt Narcissa some but then she married that idiot Malfoy and that ruined that."

"I miss your mum, she was always my favorite cousin. It made my day when I found out she was burned off the family tree. I couldn't wait until the day I could do the same. I was happy when she married your dad, he was good for her. I assume they are still married? 12 years in Azkaban and I feel like I don't know anything that has happened."

I chuckled a little, "Yes, they are still happily married. Haven't you been out of prison for two years now? Do you not get the newspaper?"

"Oh, Moony brings me the paper when he remembers. He also likes to fill me in on what's going on in the world but he doesn't go into details like the love life of my favorite cousin."

"Moony?"

Sirius noticed my quizzical look at the name, "That man you were sitting next to during the meeting. It's an old nickname from our school days. He doesn't particularly care for it now but Remus will get over it. Old habits die hard."

"Why do you call him Moony? Did he get caught mooning someone in school and the name stuck?"

"No," laughed Sirius. He looked way too amused by this. "You can ask him how he got that name but it wasn't by showing his arse to random people. He was too good for that sort of thing. We all had nicknames we used with each other."

"So it was like a boys club thing. Did you all have a blood oath to bind the brotherhood?"

"Ha, no. We didn't need to do a blood oath you weirdo. We were just a very close group of friends. Enough about my days at Hogwarts, tell me about you. I understand that you are an Auror now? How did your mum take that?"

"I am an Auror, and she took it like a champ. She didn't really have a choice though because once my mind was made up that was it. I worked my butt off in school to make sure I made the grades. I was one of the youngest people to go through Auror training. Those were some of the hardest days of my life, let me tell you. And the cherry on top was having Moody be my teacher. That man is crazy, super smart and super good at being an Auror, but loony. I wouldn't trade it for anything."

"Moody speaks highly of you. He was the one that recommended you join the Order."

"How sweet of him. Were you worried about how I might react when I saw you today?"

"Nah, I knew you loved me. I figured the worst you would do was hex me a bit then give me a hug. I am glad you didn't hex me, though."

"The night is still young, my friend. I knew you were innocent. I couldn't believe you would do something so horrible as murdering all those people. Mum wouldn't tell me what you got arrested for so I had to find out by reading the paper. Imagine the look on her face when she saw eight year old me sitting at the kitchen table with the Daily Prophet spread out next to my toast. She wasn't happy."

"I bet she wasn't."

We sat in silence for a bit. I watched him feed Buckbeak rats from a sack on the floor. I stood up and stretched.

"You aren't going to be able to keep Buckbeak in here forever, you know. He is going to need to stretch his wings and live a life outside of this cramped room."

"Me too," Sirius said with a melancholy sigh.

I walked over to him and hugged him tight. "I need to get going since I have work in the morning. I will be back to visit often I promise. Do me a favor and try not to sulk too much, it isn't good for you. If you need anything just let me know."

"I will, and thanks for spending time with me."

"Of course, Sirius. See you later!"

I headed home to get some sleep before work the next morning.