It had started innocently enough: A lingering glance across the table, a smile, then a laugh and suddenly they were sitting next to each other at meetings, their fingers 'accidentally' brushing against each other. That was how it had started. Then one day, after a heated argument, he pulled her into a dark closet and she snogged him senseless; they were shagging ever since.
"Two Order members are having an affair", Hermione proclaimed while entering Harry's and Ron's room in Grimmauld Place 12 together with Ginny.
"What?", Harry and Ron looked at their friend bewilderedly. "Who is having a what now?", Ron asked while Harry looked at Hermione and Ginny sceptically.
"How do you know that?", he asked.
"We overheard Mum and Dad talk about it." Ginny grinned. "Apparently it's like this big mystery within the Order and everyone is trying to find out who it is."
"Hold on", Ron said, "if everyone in the Order is looking, then it can't be true, can it? Because these two people are part of the Order... So why would they look for themselves"
"Maybe because it's so scandalous", Ginny supplied with a huge grin. She plumped on the bed next to Harry, while Hermione pulled a chair out of the corner and sat down. She nodded seriously.
"Ginny is right. Whoever it is, this affair must be so scandalous that they are not willing to have it out in the open." She sighed wistfully. "Or maybe it's forbidden love."
"Don't be daft", Ginny laughed, "there is no such thing in the Order. Maybe they are just ashamed of each other."
"Ohhh", Ron's eyes grew wide," what if it's Mundungus? I mean who wouldn't be embarrassed to be with Dung?!"
Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, Harry asked:
"How do we even know there is an affair? Maybe it's just rumors."
Ginny and Hermione exchanged a glance.
"Apparently Kreacher saw someone... Two people, to be precise, go into a closet together and only come out... well, a while later."
"He told Sirius a few days later", Ginny continued, "ranting about the state of the 'noble house' and illicit affairs in its closets. He said it was too dark to see who it was, but it's Kreacher, so who knows. Maybe he knows more."
"So you're basing all this on the report of that creature, which you haven't even heard yourselves?!" Harry was perplexed. This didn't seem like Hermione at all.
Another glance was exchanged between Hermione and Ginny.
"Well, that's not all...", Hermione started, but her voice trailed off.
"We heard something", Ginny finished with a pointed look. "Or rather, someone. A few nights ago, there was this...moaning. " Both Hermione and she blushed.
"Moaning and giggling", Hermione added. "It was late after the meeting and most people were already gone. And it...well, it seemed to come from a closet."
"At first we thought we had just imagined something. Or maybe it was the wind or some other strange thing in this strange house... But after what we heard... It must have been the two mysterious Order members."
Harry looked at Ron, to see what his friend made of this. He just shrugged and then looked again at Hermione and his sister.
"So now", Harry guessed, "you want to find out who it is." The girls nodded in confirmation.
"Imagine", Ginny grinned at Harry, "when will be the next time we'll have a mystery like that to crack: no life or death situation, no evil wizards or dark magical artifacts... Just two people having an illicit affair." Even Hermione grinned at that. "It's just like solving a riddle in school. It will be so much fun!"
While Ron and Harry seemed to have different definition of fun than Hermione, they had to agree that exposing a scandalous affair within the Order sounded like a worthwhile pasttime.
"Maybe we should enlist the help of the Twins...", Ron mused.
"So two Order members are being naughty?", George asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Doing the deed, as they say", Fred added. "Knocking wands", George added. "Exploring the Forbidden Forest", Fred finished, just as Hermione shouted:
"Stop it, we get the picture!" She was blushing furiously and Ron and Harry too seemed a little bit flustered. Ginny was unfazed.
"Indeed", she said, her eyes alight with a sparkle and a wild grin on her face. "And we will find out who it is!"
"Who what is", they suddenly heard from behind. When they turned around, they saw a curious Tonks looking at them.
"Wotcher guys", she waved. "What'che talking 'bout?"
As if on cue, the teenagers all huddled together and debated in hushed tones, whether to admit Tonks into their confidence. Despite Tonks being an Auror and a full member of the Order, she was basically an honorable teenager in their eyes, so the discussion was over quickly.
Ginny waved Tonks over. "We want to find out who the two people in the Order are that are sleeping together", she said cheerfully.
Tonks' eyes grew wide. "What?", she cried.
"Sleeping together", Fred supplied helpfully. "You know", George added, "knocking wands. Exploring the..."
"Yes yes, I get that", Tonks said exasperated. "How do you even know about that?"
"We overheard our parents", Ginny said with a hint of pride.
Tonks sighed. "Of course you did..." But then she grinned and winked. "So, who do you have in mind and how do you plan to unmask them?
That evening after the Order meeting, while they hastily got dressed again in one of the narrow closets in Grimmauld Place 12, she said to him:
"The children are onto us."
He raised an eyebrow at her and his oily voice dripped with sarcasm as he replied:
"Are they now? How quaint."
"The whole Order is after us, and now six determinded teenagers... Sooner or later they will catch us." She sighed and let out a surprised yelp when he put his long index finger under her chin and turned her head upwards. His thumb was abenstmindedly stroking her skin. He leaned in closer and whispered:
"The good thing about us, Nymphadora", she shuddered when he said her name, but not because she found it unpleasant, "is that no one will ever suspect the two of us together. You and someone else, definitely; maybe even me and someone else; but us, together, having an illicit affair? Not even Potter would dumb enough to believe that." He kissed her then, hard, biting down on her lower lip and she pressed herself against him. She knew that if they stayed any longer, they would be discovered. Someone might wonder where she had gone (no one ever wondered that about Severus), go look for her, notice the wand light coming out of the closet... She knew someone would discover them and she knew that he knew. They both knew and still they stayed in the closet, because they didn't care anymore.