~~PART TWO- THE STORM APPROACHES~~

~Chapter 12- The Order~

Nothing was happening. Life after a year at Hogwarts was just as normal as ever. No weird unsolved mysteries such as disappearances or murders were being reported. Voldemort was trying to conceal his return. He probably thought it was funny, the way people argued about the rumors.

Dora came home from work one hot summer day extremely late. Andromeda went berserk, crying, "Where were you? Why didn't you send an owl? Anything could have happened to you!"

"Relax, I'm fine," Dora said. "I got tied up at work and remember, I'm an Auror, I'm twenty-two, I'm fully grown, I can take care of myself!"

"Right," Andromeda said with an exasperated sigh. "Now, why did you get tied up?"

Dora sighed, sat on the chair opposite of mine, and said, "There's something I want to discuss with all of you." She looked like she was faking stress and seriousness, because I could tell that underneath, something was making her eager and excited.

"Go on," Andromeda said.

"Well, today I met up with Kingsley Shacklebolt at work - you know, he's an Auror too - and he discussed something with me. It's kind of confidential, but ... well, since we believe You-Know-Who is back, I suppose I can tell you. Dumbledore formed an anti-You-Know-Who organization. It's called the Order of the Phoenix, and he wants me to join. As an Auror and a Metamorphmagus, I could be a huge help to it - that's what he said - so I thought about it and ... I want to join."

We were silent for a few moments. Then Andromeda said, "Well ... yes ... that would be okay ... if you want ... "

"It's my decision," Dora said. "And Kingsley said he'd introduce me to the Order and everything. Wait, is something wrong?"

I noticed Andromeda had a strange, almost tearful look on her face. She sighed and said, "Well ... it's just ... this could be so dangerous, fighting the Dark Side ... " And tears began to stream from her eyes. "I just ... love you so much ... and if anything happened to you, well ... I lost my sisters and cousins to the other side ... and you'll be fighting them ... "

I understood her. Bellatrix and Narcissa hadn't talked to Andromeda since she married Ted, but they were her sisters after all. And if Dora got seriously injured or killed in the coming war, well ... I guess I understood Andromeda's feelings. Our family was so divided.

"And if one of them killed you ... or if you killed them ... " Andromeda said as she collapsed onto the couch where Ted held her.

"That won't happen," I said. "Narcissa isn't a Death Eater and Bellatrix is locked away in Azkaban."

Andromeda sniffed again. "I hate being torn apart like this."

"I know," Dora said softly. "And I know that's why you don't take sides. But I have to do what's right. I want to join the Order. Please understand. I feel like ... like it's my duty or something, since I'm lucky enough to be a Metamorphmagus. It's like ... well, I hate comparing myself to this, but it's like how Death Eaters think it's their duty to purify the race, since most of them were born pureblood."

Andromeda nodded. "But please be careful, Nymphadora!"

I sat on my bed. The news of Dora joining this Order gave me those usual mixed feelings about good and bad. I argued with my conscience all evening.

She's doing the right thing.

But she's fighting your parents.

They're in Azkaban.

But what if they escaped?

They won't. I'll never see them, ever.

You don't know that.

Yes, I do.

But really, what if they escaped?

Dora would be fighting them.

Whose side would you take?

I don't know. I'd want to take the Order's side.

But what if they killed your parents?

Well, then it wouldn't matter because I never knew them, anyway!

I fought this internal battle all evening until Dora came into my room. She must have seen the distressed look on my face because she came over, hugged me, and said, "It's all right."

"No, it's not," I replied. "You don't understand. You'll never understand."

She sighed. "You know what, Linds? You really don't give yourself enough credit."

"What are you talking about?"

"You just ... always think the worst. You think too negatively."

"My life has been pretty negative, for the most part, Dora," I stated plainly.

"Yeah, well, you should have more confidence and faith. You're really not like your parents, if that's what you're afraid of. I don't know them, of course, but I know all about those kind of people, and you're not one of them, nor have you ever been. Nor can you ever be."

"Well ... thanks, Dora. But this isn't really about that. This about about ... being torn between two sides. Knowing you could be fighting them, well ... that's not a pleasant thought. I know they're in Azkaban, but that could change, based on what just happened."

"And I can't ... change that," she admitted. "But just think about what I said. Give yourself more credit. Think of ways you're different from them, not ways you're alike, and don't worry about what others think."

I'd argued with her over this topic plenty of times before, and I wasn't going to this time. I left her with, "Yeah ... thanks, Dora."

"By the way," she said, changing the subject, "I need to tell you that ... I'm getting my own place."

"You're moving out?" I exclaimed. "Dora, you can't!"

"Listen. I know you don't want me to, but listen! You'll be at school most of the year, and during the summer you can join me at the Order headquarters. We'll still be together."

"Yes, but it won't be the same."

"I know it won't, but it's really time for me to move out."

I sighed. "I know. But hey ... where is this Order headquarters, anyway?"

She took a slip of parchment out of her robe pocket, unfolded it, and said, "It says here that the Order of the Phoenix headquarters can be found at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place in London."

Two days later, Dora was meeting the Order. After a bit of persuading, Andromeda and Ted agreed to let me go with her.

We flew to headquarters. It was slow as we both rode our Comet Two-Sixties. I'd never really had the desire to buy a faster broom until then. We finally arrived on a street where there seemed to be a mistake - house number eleven sat right next to number thirteen. There didn't appear to be a number twelve.

"Dora, is this a trick?"

"No. It can't be. Trust me; Kingsley would never play a prank on me. No, there must be something we're not seeing ... "

The answer came to us as a house forced its way between numbers eleven and thirteen. The Muggles in the houses didn't seem to notice a thing as their homes were pushed apart.

"This is it," Dora said. She stepped up to the door and knocked twice with the serpent door knocker. Upon closer observation, I noticed this snake looked rather dark and malevolent.

The door opened a moment later and a wizard stood there: he was black and bald with a tiny gold hoop in his ear.

"Ah, Tonks," he said. "I knew you'd be arriving soon."

"Hello, Kingsley," Dora said. "This is Lindsey, my sister. I brought her along, if that's okay. I know she can't participate in the meetings."

"That should be fine. Come in," he said.

We walked into the house and I immediately grabbed my nose without thinking. The smells of mold and decay wafted around me. It looked as though no one had lived here for years.

I observed the house. It looked relatively normal at first, but upon closer observation I noticed some rather gruesome looking objects. House elf heads were hanging on a plaque attached to the wall and an umbrella stand of what looked like a troll's leg was to the right. The objects around the house seemed extremely fitting to dark wizards, which made me wonder if this whole thing might be a trap once more.

Without thinking, I wrapped my hand around the wand in my robe pocket.

"The rest of the Order are through here," Kingsley said. "I'll introduce them to you. They've been expecting you."

He led us to a door and opened it to reveal a kitchen. As soon as I proceeded in, I froze. I hardly noticed anyone else in the kitchen because my eyes were drawn to the man sitting at the table, the one with long black hair.

"Dora, it's him!" I exclaimed. "I knew this was a trap! Look, he's right there!" As I said this, my wand was whipped out of my pocket and aimed in his direction.

Kingsley and several others laughed. The man at the table came over, smiling, and held out his hand. "Hi, I'm Sirius Black, and you, I believe, are my cousin?"

His hair was cleaner than it had been in the wanted posters and he was wearing fresh robes that weren't ripped, torn, or matted with mud. He had obviously been living somewhere - this house, I supposed?

I didn't shake his hand. Last time I'd heard anything about him was on wanted posters from Azkaban and possible sightings from the Daily Prophet. He was a murderer, after all. I didn't care that he was my second cousin.

"W - what are you doing here?" I stammered.

"I'm in the Order, of course. Or - hasn't anyone told you? I'm not a murderer like everyone thinks I am. I'm innocent, it was Wormtail - Peter Pettigrew - who betrayed the Potters. Didn't you ... ?"

He looked at Dora.

"Sorry, I forgot to tell her," she told Sirius. "This is Lindsey, by the way, and I'm Tonks. I've heard about you from Kingsley. It's nice to finally meet my cousin! I'm glad everything turned out the way it did."

"Well, my name won't be cleared anytime soon," said Sirius, "but at least I'm not in Azkaban."

My stomach flip-flopped as I thought about the wizard prison. Maybe Sirius had seen my parents there.

"So you had to keep that one little fact to yourself, did you, Dora?" I asked, going back to the 'my second cousin actually is not a murderer' subject.

"I forgot!" she snapped.

"Shocking," I groaned, rolling my eyes.

"Sisters, I take it?" Sirius asked.

"Andromeda's," replied Dora.

"That's what I've heard."

"Anyway," Kingsley said. "For those that don't know, this is Nymphadora Tonks and her sister, Lindsey." He turned to me and Dora. "Obviously you've met Sirius. And this is Molly Weasley and her husband, Arthur."

Ron's parents. We shook their hands. He introduced us to the others who were there: the real Alastor Moody, Bill Weasley, Emmeline Vance, Elphias Doge, Hestia Jones, Sturgis Podmore, and Dedalus Diggle.

We greeted each one before sitting down at the table. It was quite awkward and I was beginning to regret coming to this meeting. I was the person there who was underage and knew I wasn't allowed in the meeting. I dreaded thinking about what I was going to do. Explore the house? Yeah, that sounded exciting.

"We'll eat first," Mrs. Weasley said. "Then we'll start the meeting. This way our newcomers will have a chance to get to know everyone."

She summoned stew and bread to the table and we helped ourselves to the meal. At first it was awkward and silent, and I felt slightly uncomfortable being surrounded by so many adults - looking up at Dora, she seemed so much older than she actually was (however, her hair, which today was bright blue with a red streak in it, easily took some away from that).

The Order members questioned Dora after a few minutes of silence. Sirius said, "So, Nymphadora, Kingsley says you're a Metamorphmagus. Can you show us?"

"I will," she said. "But please, call me Tonks. It's so much better than ... Nymphadora."

"Andy gave you that name didn't she?" Sirius said.

"Yes," Dora muttered. "Well, I'll show you ... " She grabbed the red streak in her hair and turned it pink. Everyone applauded her transformation.

The rest of dinner was somewhat boring for me - the Order couldn't talk about their confidential information in front of me and they were mainly questioning Dora, but at least the meal was good. Mrs. Weasley said she'd cooked it.

I was almost finished as Kingsley said, "Alastor, who else is coming tonight?"

"Remus is on his way, he couldn't come for dinner," Moody said. "And Severus isn't coming tonight; he has school business to do. Minerva said she'd try to make it, and I'm sure Mundungus is coming."

Out of the four names he mentioned, I recognized three. If they were who I thought they were, Remus was Remus Lupin, my third year D.A.D.A. teacher, Severus was Professor Snape, and Minerva was Professor McGonagall.

"So - there are Hogwarts teachers in the Order?" I asked, hoping it wasn't a stupid question.

"Yes," Moody said. "Well, just Snape and McGonagall. And Dumbledore, of course."

Suddenly the door banged open and a drunk-looking man with matted ginger hair was standing there.

"Ah, Mundungus," Sirius said. "The meeting's just about to start."

The man called Mundungus sat down and took out a pipe. He lit it and began to smoke it hen he noticed me.

"Who're you?" he asked.

"Lindsey Tonks," I told him. "I'm Dora's sister."

"Uh-huh," he said, seeing Dora. "You're the Auror? The Metamorph-thing?"

"Yes," she replied. "I'm Nymphadora Tonks, but please just call me Tonks."

"Lindsey, dear ... " Mrs. Weasley began gently, as if I were a small child. "The meeting's about to start, and since you're too young ... "

"I'll leave," I said.

"Feel free to visit the rest of the house," Sirius said. "But I wouldn't touch anything if I were you. My mother left some pretty odd stuff here and we haven't had a chance to decontaminate."

"Right."

I left the kitchen, happy to leave the smell of Mundungus's tobacco smoke. I traipsed down the hall to the first door I saw and opened it. Inside were a bunch of objects that, like the rest of the house, looked like they belonged to dark wizards. I obeyed Sirius and didn't touch anything as I looked around. Soon I spotted something that caught my eye: a tapestry on the wall. It looked like a family tree.

And there it was: Bellatrix Black. Her name was written in gold, and a line connected it to Rodolphus Lestrange. But I wasn't on there, of course, because I didn't exist. Underneath Bellatrix was a burn mark, and below that was another name: Narcissa Black, connected to another name saying Lucius Malfoy. A line came from their interlinked names and connected to Draco Malfoy.

But where was Andromeda? She should have been between Bellatrix and Narcissa. Then I saw the burn mark again. Obviously Andromeda had been blasted off when she married Ted, a Muggle-born. He wasn't on there, either - therefore, neither was Dora.

I lost track of time as I studied the tree. I was observing the names of several generations back when I heard a voice say, "I wouldn't get too attached to that if I were you." I jumped and turned around. Sirius.

"I was just ... "

"I know," Sirius said. "But you won't find your name on there because Andy got blasted off."

"I figured that was her," I said, pointing to the burn mark. "Is it because she married a Muggle-born?"

"Yes. I'm not on there, either, see?" he said, pointing to another burn mark above the name Regulus Black. "I ran away from home."

"Why?"

"Why? Because I hated my parents. You can see what kind of people they were, based on this house, can't you? And my brother wasn't any better. He joined the Death Eaters."

"He did?"

"Yes. But he was killed."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I hated him too. I hated all my family: my insane parents, my cousins ... except for Andromeda, of course. She was my favorite."

I nodded and sat down on the ground, placing my head in my hands.

"Are you okay?" Sirius asked.

"Yes," I sighed. "This night has just been so weird. First I find out you're innocent, and then the tree just ... puts things into perspective."

"Yes." He looked into my eyes and shook his head. "You look so much like my cousin Bellatrix. She was sent to Azkaban with her husband Rodolphus and his brother, Rabastan."

"What - what did ... ?" I tried to speak, but my voice was dry.

"What did they do?" Sirius asked, half-laughing. "Ah, they were such idiots. They thought they'd go off and - "

The door swung open and Dora came in, her hair changed to a waist-length neon green. Suddenly furious that I was so close to finding out what my parents had done, I glared at her for interrupting.

"What did I do?" she asked me.

My gazed softened and I looked away. "Nothing."

"I know this probably has you shaken up again. Well, it's almost time to leave. I came to get you."

"Okay." I stood up to leave, but someone else appeared behind Dora: Remus Lupin. His robes were shabby as usual and his faced was scarred slightly more than it had been the last time I'd seen him, which made since; as Professor Snape had ‘accidentally' revealed to the whole school at the end of my third year was that Lupin was a werewolf.

"Nymphadora," he said. "Alastor wants to see you before you leave."

"Okay. And it's Tonks, remember? Get it right!"

"All right then, Tonks. Oh, hello, Lindsey!"

"Hi," I said, thinking about how weird this was. My ex-D.A.D.A. teacher and my wrongfully-accused cousin were standing right in this room. This night had been so strange.

"I haven't seen you since I resigned. How is everything?"

"Fine," I told him weakly.

"Well, hold on a minute, Linds. I'll see what Mad-Eye wants, then we'll leave," Dora told me.

I nodded and she walked out with Lupin as Sirius said, "Tonks, you might want to change your hair. It's blinding me."

"Shut up," she snarled as she followed Lupin. "Remus thinks it looks okay."

She closed the door and Sirius turned to me, saying, "Oh, yeah. There's definitely more to those two than meets the eye."

"Dora and Lupin?" I asked.

"Yes. It's only a matter of time before they realize it themselves."

I shook my head in disbelief when another thought came to me. "Sirius ... how did you ... "

"How did I escape Azkaban?" he asked, laughing again. It sounded bark-like.

"Yes," I replied. It was weird - I felt like he could read my thoughts.

"Well, what nobody knows is that I'm an unregistered Animagus. I transform into a dog. In my transformed state, I escaped the dementors - they can't see; they can only sense emotion. So I swam the sea as a dog and returned to the mainland. While I was in the area, I pretended to be a stray, but now my disguise is useless. By now, Wormtail will have told Voldemort about it, so I'm locked up in this house. It's basically prison, only worse because of the house elf here."

I got the feeling he was only half-joking. "Oh. I'm sorry," I told him, seeing the miserable look on his face.

He shrugged as Dora came in again.

"We're leaving, Linds. Come on, you've had a long night."

The words 'long night' didn't even begin to describe it. After all, I'd just found out my cousin was the opposite of a mass-murderer and hadn't just taken a liking to him, but immediately felt a friendly, family-like bond with him. So, as I walked out of the room, I said, "Goodbye, Sirius. I'll ... see you later."