Chapter 2 - Nymphadora Tonks

Despite the unwelcome news about Voldemort's return, Remus thought he might just be the happiest he'd been since his school days.

He still felt light with joy at the realisation that Sirius hadn't betrayed Lily and James, and having his best friend and best friend's son living with him was the most wonderful thing that had happened to him in a long time.

He'd accepted Sirius' generosity at buying them the house in Godric's Hollow and putting them up in number twelve too. He knew his friend had been left a lot of gold by his uncle Alphard and when his parents died the fortune of the Black family had all been passed down to him.

"It's brilliant." Sirius grinned. "I may have been a blood traitor, but apparently I was still enough of a Black to inherit their gold. Maybe I'll use some of it to create a new family tapestry. I'll put myself right in the middle." He grinned enormously again.

Of course Remus knew he was only joking. Humour had always been the way Sirius dealt with his dark family. He did seem genuinely happier for having Harry back with them though.

"Can you believe it? Those Dursleys haven't even written to him!" He said incredulously as they discussed Harry's relatives.

Remus knew Sirius had given Harry the option to return to his aunt and uncle's to say goodbye at the end of the previous term as well as collect any of his old possessions.

To none of their surprise, Harry hadn't taken him up on the offer, but Remus supposed there was still the chance his old guardians may have been curious about what had happened to their nephew.

Remus wondered how much of Sirius' outrage at the lack of family compassion was on his own as much as his godson's behalf. He remembered when his friend had run away from home in their fifth year. He'd never heard from his family then either, though he had of course insisted that he 'didn't care' at the time.

"He's better off without them." Sirius said crossly, pouring he and Remus wine with a little more force than necessary. "And he's er… doing OK, isn't he?" He said, his eyes somewhat anxious as he looked up at his friend.

Remus smiled. This was one of the many things he loved about Sirius. It might be easy at first glance to think he didn't care about the feelings of others, and perhaps there was some truth in this, but Remus knew he carried enormous affection for those he was close to.

"He'll be fine." Remus reassured him. "He's tough, and he had a year with James and Lily, don't forget. I always wonder if that had a positive impact on him. He knew what it was like to have good parents at some point."

"I hope so." Sirius said, frowning. "And we're… doing OK with him, aren't we?"

Remus smiled at the second out of character question from his friend. Questioning his abilities was another thing Sirius Black didn't do a lot of.

"I think so." He replied honestly. "Harry needs someone who cares for him. And I don't think he can do any better than you there." That was surely true. Sirius had tried to sacrifice his life for Harry.

"I just wish I'd been able to be there earlier…" Sirius said for the thousandth time, running an agitated hand through his hair. "Think of all that time we missed. And if we'd been there, maybe he wouldn't have had to have done all he did."

Remus shook his head. "You mustn't think like that. We've got him now. Let's just be grateful for that."

They certainly made the most of having Harry home for the summer. He and Sirius spent any time they weren't using for Order business hanging out with the teenager.

Of course Remus had got to know Harry a bit during his time as DADA teacher. In classes he had tended to keep his head down and not ask too many questions. Remus hadn't seen much of James in him at all apart from his looks. But now he was relaxing a bit more, Remus was starting to see more similarities.

Firstly was his bravery and his thirst for adventure. He'd finally admitted to them both just what role he'd played in facing Voldemort in his first and second year.

"I don't get it… why didn't you just tell a competent teacher if you knew where the chamber was?" Sirius frowned, which made Remus smile as of course his friend would have done nothing of the sort in Harry's shoes.

"And if you thought Sniv-Snape was trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone, why didn't you tell Dumbledore?"

"We couldn't! He wasn't there!"

"McGonagall? Sprout? Flitwick?"

Harry looked at Remus who shrugged. "Don't look at me. He's right."

But though he pretended hard otherwise, Remus knew Sirius was really more proud than angry.

Hunting down Voldemort (or his death eaters) as a twelve year old was exactly the sort of thing Sirius (and James for that matter) would have done.

Another way Harry resembled his father was through his love for quidditch.

They took him and the Weasleys to as many games as they could over the summer, and let them all fly back in their garden at Godric's Hollow. Remus loved watching Harry fly. He was a natural on a broom and carried himself exactly as James had. He was so energetic. So alive.

"Come on, Professor Lupin!" Fred or George called from about twenty feet in the air.

Remus was sipping iced tea with his feet firmly on the ground. Of course the twins would consider they were too old to be supervised while flying, but Remus and Sirius agreed there should be at least one responsible adult (or whatever you called the two of them) around while the kids played quidditch. Today was his turn.

"No, thank you." He said politely. Remus had never really been one for flying. Of course he used a broom where necessary for travel, but he preferred the safety of the ground where it was an option.

Harry touched down beside him. His hair was windswept and he was grinning broadly. Merlin he looked like James…

"Please join us, Remus." He wheedled. "It's three against two at the moment. If you join Ron and I then we should be evenly balanced enough."

Remus thought 'evenly balanced enough' was really a bit of a stretch. Fred, George and Ginny were all very good flyers. He wasn't sure how much he would help Ron and Harry keep up with the three of them.

But he couldn't say no when Harry was looking at him like that. He was so like Lily…

And so Remus mounted his broom and took off into the air. Ron and Harry put him in goal but he missed so many saves that they moved him to beating. Unfortunately he wasn't any better at this. He was reluctant to hit the bludger at Fred, George or Ginny in case it knocked them off their brooms, so he pretended to swipe at it instead.

He saw Ron and Harry exchange an awkward look.

"Er, Professor Lupin, do you want to try seeking instead?" Ron called over.

"Ron, you don't need to call me Professor Lupin anymore." Remus said, hovering on his broom in the middle of the pitch. "And I thought you weren't playing with the snitch?"

"Well…"

"You're not very good." Fred said bluntly.

Remus laughed. He certainly wouldn't be taking any offence at that. "Let me go and make lunch." He said. That was something he could do that would be of use to the kids.

As Remus busied himself in the large cool kitchen, he felt the same disbelieving joy steal through him again. This was his home and Harry and Sirius were his family. He smiled as he sliced bread and glanced out of the window again to watch the kids' game. It really did seem impossible to think that anything dark or dangerous could be happening anywhere right now.

This was especially so as there didn't seem to be any evidence Voldemort was back.

Remus remembered how it had been during his first rise to power. First there had been the mass muggle murders, then the unexplained deaths, strange new laws passed by the ministry and cases of people acting under the imperius curse. There had been panic and confusion. No one knew who to trust. It had been utter terror.

But it wasn't like that this time around. None of them knew where Voldemort was or what he was up to. Even the death eaters seemed to have gone to ground.

Remus knew many of them were in Azkaban, but there were still those Harry had named from the graveyard who were at large.

Remus remembered Atticus Avery from his days at Hogwarts. He'd been in the same year as them, and had always been a bit of a twisted individual. In their fifth year he and Mulciber had attacked muggleborn Mary Macdonald so badly he was surprised they hadn't been expelled for it.

The good news was that Kingsley Shacklebolt and Nymphadora Tonks were both aurors, meaning they could pass the Order information from the ministry, including Avery's home address.

Unfortunately Avery tended to stay one step ahead of them. He'd set up defences meaning the Order members would mysteriously forget what they had been doing there whenever they attempted a raid.

"There must be a way to get at him." Sirius said, frowning as he heard the news from Tonks. "What if someone wanted to pay him a social visit?"

"I think the charm must be set depending on the visitor's intentions." Tonks explained. "It's clever magic. And who'd want to pay Avery a social visit?" She added, wrinkling her nose.

Sirius had laughed at that. Remus knew Tonks was his favourite cousin's daughter and Sirius seemed quite fond of her.

He watched as she and Sirius chatted some more. He never knew how his friend did that. Sirius appeared to be quite at his ease talking with anyone. Of course he'd admitted to Remus once that this wasn't in fact true and that he'd never had James' level of social confidence, but no one would have guessed it from observing him.

"She's nice, Tonks." He told Remus later after the others had left and it was just the two of them.

Remus preferred it when it was just them and Harry. He'd never had the same appetite for socialising as his more extroverted friends and often found the days when the house was full quite tiring.

Remus nodded his agreement. Tonks was quite brilliant. She was clever, brave, energetic and funny. He could certainly see why Sirius liked her.

"And she related to you." He added dryly. "So I imagine she's exactly your type." He was referring, of course, to the (in)famous interbreeding in the Black family tree.

Sirius scoffed. "Don't be daft." He said. "Any woman I marry will be as far away from the Black family as it's possible to get. Besides, I didn't mean for me." He gave Remus a significant look.

Remus felt suddenly rather warm. What on earth was Sirius suggesting? That a young woman as whole and alive as Tonks could possibly reciprocate the feelings of a werewolf?

He shook his head quickly. "Now you're the one being daft." He smiled.

But Remus still felt the same swoop of joy and lightness whenever Tonks came round for Order meetings.

She was very popular and spent a lot of time chatting to the others when she did visit.

"Is this an Order of the Phoenix meeting or a social gathering?" Moody snapped more than once as she got side tracked in cheerful conversation.

"I don't see why it can't be both, Mad-Eye." She said sunnily to the auror. "Besides, someone has to bring the social graces to the party. In both senses." And she winked at Sirius.

Remus knew Moody was fond of her though.

"When will you rest?!" He asked her with a laugh as she suggested yet another clever idea for how to figure out what the death eaters were plotting.

She grinned across the table at Remus (or was it at Arthur, beside him?). "When I'm dead I suppose." She said.

"Which won't be on my watch." Moody said firmly. "You and Lupin can tag team the next missions. I know you're good, but you're only just out of training. I can't have anything happen to you."

"Remus hasn't even had auror training at all!" Tonks said indignantly.

Remus smiled. That was true. He and the others had simply learned to fight 'on the job'.

"Yes, and he's a better fighter for it. A ministry education's no good on the ground."

"Is it any better up in the air?" Remus thought he heard Sirius mutter.

"It's not a laughing matter." Moody, who must have heard him too, snapped. "Constant vigilance!" He barked suddenly and Remus saw Sirius and Tonks mimic the words and roll their eyes at the familiar line. "And I saw that." Moody told them.

"So, Mr 'been trained on the job' Lupin," Tonks smiled at him as they met for the first stakeout mission together. "How would someone who hasn't had a ministry education observe a death eater then?"

Though he knew there was no way she'd ever be interested in someone like him, Remus couldn't help himself liking her. She really was quite brilliant.