Call me Tonks
Remus Lupin was sitting on a very old and shabby sofa in the sitting room of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Resting his head on his hands and trying to stay awake, he surveyed the room.
It was long and narrow, with several sitting chairs and a low table standing on the faded marble floor. The ceiling looked as though it had once been decorated with elaborate plasterwork, but had since fallen into disrepair. For some reason the oppressive darkness and the air of long-gone grandeur gave him the unpleasant feeling that the walls were closing in on him.
Opposite him, Sirius Black was standing in the middle of the room in front of the fireplace, absent-mindedly prodding the burning logs with his foot, several times narrowly avoiding his shoe being set on fire.
“You’d think Dumbledore would’ve decided by now to send the Order over to save Harry from those damn Muggles,” Sirius exclaimed suddenly. “I mean, besides his aunt and uncle treating him like dirt, he was attacked by Dementors in the middle of a Muggle neighbourhood!”
Remus eyed Sirius wearily. “Well, yes,” he replied, “but bringing him to Grimmauld Place won’t be entirely risk-free, either.”
Sirius made a derisive sound, as if to say ‘risks! ha!’, and turned to pacing the shadowy room.
“I know exactly how he feels, stuck in that rotten place all day, not able to go out in the sun, or breathe fresh air...”
Sirius’s voice trailed away dispassionately, and Remus felt slightly uncomfortable.
Sirius had indeed spent the better part of a month within the walls of Grimmauld Place, the house he had despised since childhood. Remus suspected even the Dursley’s abode could hardly be as depressing as the Order’s current head-quarters, which would have been gloomy even without Kreacher, the foul-mouthed house elf, and the painting of Sirius’s mother screaming blue murder every time somebody dropped something.
Speaking of which... thought Remus, as he heard a loud clunk coming from the front door, followed by Kingsley Shacklebolt’s hushed voice.
“Damn, I forgot to tell you about-” but it was too late.
A harrowing shriek pierced the stale air as Mrs. Black awoke from her slumber.
“Mudbloods! Scum! Half-breeds! Dirt! Dirt in this noble house! How dare you! The house of my ancestors!”
Remus sprang to his feet and Sirius growled, “Stupid hag...”
They both sprinted towards the hall to help Kingsley, who was trying desperately to close the curtains in front of Mrs. Black’s portrait.
She was still screaming outrageous insults at the top of her lungs. “Filthy blood traitors! Disgusting, filthy, treacherous...”
And spotting Remus. “Werewolves! Werewolves in my house! Monsters, freaks, mutants!”
When Sirius caught her eye, she screeched with renewed vigour, “You! You! Bastard, traitor of my breast, leave, you, all of you, begone from this house!-”
With combined effort, Remus, Sirius and Kingsley managed to close the curtains and silence the screams.
Remus heard a voice gasp, “I’m sorry!” from somewhere below them.
He turned around to see a young witch with violently pink hair and a pale, heart-shaped face scrambling up from the floor. She had apparently tripped over the umbrella stand by the door.
“I’m awfully clumsy,” she explained, looking embarrassed.
“Don’t worry,” Remus assured her, “it happens to the best of us.”
“Yeah,” added Sirius, scowling slightly, “anything’ll set that old crone off...”
Sirius turned to Kingsley. “So, is this the Order’s latest addition?” he asked him off-handedly, nodding towards the young woman.
“Yes,” replied Kingsley, “this is Nymphadora Tonks, one of the Ministry’s youngest Aurors. And one of the clumsiest, if you don’t mind me saying so, Tonks.”
“No, that’s okay,” Nymphadora said in an apologetic voice.
Sirius glanced at his mother’s portrait and at the umbrella stand, which was in fact a troll’s foot, and smirked, “Well, I hope you’ll find your stay in the Black family house agreeable...or at least relatively painless,” and made his way towards the kitchen.
Remus held out his hand to Nymphadora, and said, “Remus Lupin. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Nymphadora.”
“Please,” she objected, a disgusted expression on her face, “call me Tonks. And it’s nice to meet you too.” She grinned at him, and as the three of them followed Sirius, Remus studied her appearance more closely.
Tonks looked like she was in her early twenties. She was wearing bright red robes that clashed brilliantly with her hair, baggy jeans, heavy black boots and a green t-shirt that said ‘I’m an undercover witch’.
Remus thought she looked very interesting, although some people might just see her as a walking fashion disaster. Then he noticed something.
“Wasn’t your hair pink a moment ago?” he asked, surprised.
She grinned at him again, and answered, “Yeah it was, but I decided to give violet a try.”
Remus stared at her, non-plussed. “How did you...ah, you’re a Metamorphmagus?” he asked, as realization dawned on him.
“Yep, it’s dead handy for an Auror!” Tonks confirmed, smiling mischievously at Kingsley, and added, “The tiniest bit of effort, and I’m completely unrecognisable!”
They walked into the kitchen and Remus and Tonks sat around the wobbly wooden table with Sirius, who was fruitlessly attempting to balance a fork on his finger.
After Kingsley took four bottles of honey wine from the fridge, he sat down and grumbled amiably, “Yeah, it’s easy being a Metamorphmagus! The rest of us actually had to study to pass Concealment and Disguise in Auror training...”
Tonks laughed cheerily and Remus noticed how she curled the corners of her mouth upwards first.
He felt a strange sensation in the pit of his stomach, as though he had missed a step on the stairs and fallen down a foot.
He caught Sirius’s eye as he took a sip of his drink, and was a little unsettled to see the expression on his face. Sirius was looking at him interestedly, one eyebrow arched, an amused smile playing across his lips.
Remus quickly diverted his eyes from Tonks, and announced, halfway through Kingsley’s description of the Auror examination, “I’m off to bed, I expect Dumbledore will enlighten us about his plan of action tomorrow.”
Kingsley wished him goodnight, and Tonks yawned, “Yeah, I’ll try and get some sleep before long too, I’m knackered.”
Sirius followed Remus into the hallway, where he demanded, genuinely grinning for the first time in several days, “Are you going to make a move on that Tonks? I saw you checking her out!”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” replied Remus, “she’s much too young. She can hardly be older than twenty-three!”
“So?” said Sirius, defiantly, “You’re not forty yet!”