The Summer of the Phoenix

Chapter 13

After what seemed like ages, Sirius, slowly and hesitantly and not taking his eyes off the other's face, took Kingsley Shacklebolt's hand.

And the room exploded.

It was an outcry of relief, all tension gone, discharged in one single moment, all shock and doubt and anxiety dissolving into thin air. Everybody was suddenly on their feet, laughing and clapping enthusiastically, pressing towards Sirius to follow the Auror's example.

Kingsley Shacklebolt had broken the ice.

Sirius was soon surrounded by many smiling faces, some almost crying with emotion. Lupin was the first to pull Sirius into a bone-breaking hug, and many others followed. People shook his hand, patted him on the back, embraced him like a long lost son. A huge warm wave of sympathy washed over Sirius and nearly swept him off his feet.

"I never - never -" Emmeline Vance sobbed, while Elphias Doge shook Sirius's hand very gravely, searching for the right words and not finding any.

"Thank you," stammered Sturgis Podmore, looking close to tears, and without making it clear who he was thanking, or what for. "Thank you. Thank you."

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Hestia Jones cried over and over again.

Bill Weasley gave Sirius a hearty clap on the shoulder. "You did it!" he beamed. Mrs Weasley embraced him silently, dabbing at her eyes with her handkerchief.

Sirius found it hard to think clearly. He found it hard to think at all. Here he was, a despised traitor at one moment and a long lost friend at the next, from one minute to another a ruthless killer and an innocent victim, a villain and a hero. His head was swimming. He felt downright drunk.

"How - " he finally managed to ask Kingsley Shacklebolt over Mrs Weasley's flaming red head.

"How do I know it's the truth?" Shacklebolt asked back, and chuckled quietly. "Because it's the only version of the story that really makes sense. The other one never fitted your profile anyway."

"Profile," snorted Alastor Moody's voice behind him. "All this modern nonsense. You've got to feel it in your gut, Shacklebolt, when someone's got a black heart. And this one's -" Moody nodded in Sirius's direction, "- this one's is made of gold."

"Mr Black!" Dedalus Diggle squealed excitedly, pushing his way through the crowd and wringing Sirius's hand as if he'd never get a second chance. "Allow me - should the Wizengamot ever initiate formal rehabilitation proceedings, Diggle, Diggle and Hopkirk would be honoured -"

"Congratulations," a silky voice drowned Diggle's excited formalities. Sirius turned sharply and came face to face with Severus Snape, who was the only one in the room who wasn't even remotely smiling. "I see you have not lost your ability to win everyone's heart in an instant," Snape went on, his voice still soft and yet with an edge as cutting as a razor blade. "In fact, it seems winning them back took you no longer than losing them in the first place. And as for the noble and most ancient house of Black - " he looked around the kitchen with a curl of his lip that was closer to a sneer than to a smile, "it is a stately home indeed. You must be exceedingly proud of it."

Sirius's hands curled into fists, but he never got the chance to reply.

"Sirius! Hey, Sirius!" The young witch with the spiky hair had fought her way through to him and took him by the arm, separating the opponents and drawing Sirius back into the atmosphere of celebration. "Don't you remember me?" she asked excitedly, and laughed as his mind raced, trying to recall where he had met her before. "Oh, I was little. Like this, look!" She screwed up her face in concentration for a moment, and then suddenly, her short hair had grown into two long blond pigtails, and her nose had become shorter and a little snub. She looked like a little schoolgirl.

"Nymphadora!" Sirius exclaimed, recognising not the schoolgirl, but her ability to appear like one at will.

"Yes, it's me," she laughed. "But it's Tonks now. People call me Tonks."

"How did you get here?"

"Through the door like everyone else," she grinned, "with Kingsley." She pointed over her shoulder at Shacklebolt, who was in an animated conversation with Moody and Dumbledore now. "He's my boss."

"You're - you're an Auror?" Sirius stuttered, completely bewildered.

"Yeah, I am." She gave him another mischievous grin. "But don't worry, I'm here privately."

"You've also been - hunting for me?"

"No, no, not me. We juniors never get to do the really exciting things... oh." She blushed. "Sorry, I mean - "

Sirius shook his head. His own cousin, an Auror? And working alongside the one who had been on his scent for two years, and who had just, the very moment he had been supposed to finish his job, publicly proclaimed it to be redundant?

"What's wrong?" Lupin's voice interrupted his jumbled thoughts.

"Oh, Remus," he said, glad to have something simple to say. "Nymphadora, this is Remus Lupin. We're friends from school. Remus, this is Nymphadora Tonks, another Auror from the Ministry."

"Hi," said Tonks brightly, smiling at Lupin. "It's Tonks."

But Lupin didn't react. He just stood there like a statue, staring dazedly at her as if she was a vision in a dream.

"Nymphadora is Andromeda Black's daughter," Sirius explained, wondering what had suddenly got into his friend.

"Pleasure," Lupin finally mumbled, and formally extended his hand.

"Oh, not always," Tonks said with a grin, taking Lupin's hand. "My mum can be quite a pain at times."

Lupin coloured slightly, but he seemed to have lost his voice.

"I know you didn't mean that," she said with a warm smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, too." They let go of each other's hands, and Lupin looked down at his as if he didn't know what to do with it.

"I remember Andromeda as a wonderful person," Sirius said just to say something.

"And I remember you as a wonderful uncle," Tonks teased him, "forever telling me to stop pestering you about transfiguring my dolls into Nifflers or pixies or something else more interesting."

"I'm not your uncle," said Sirius lamely. "I'm your first cousin once removed or something."

"I don't care," Tonks said cheerfully. "You acted the uncle part really well. Oh, come on." She gave him a little nudge in the ribs. "That was long ago. I do my own transfigurations now. I've always liked you, you know. And you're really cute as a dog. I mean - " She broke off and looked apologetically at Sirius and then at Lupin, who was, for no good reason that Sirius could think of, still looking intently at his hands.

"Oh", Sirius said without thinking, "wait till you see Remus as a wolf then."

Lupin looked up very sharply at his friend. Their eyes met, and there was a sadness in Lupin's that was as sobering to Sirius as a bucket of cold water over his head.

"Ouch." Sirius bit his lip hard as he realised what he'd just said. He felt his blood rise hotly into his face.

"A wolf?" Tonks asked Lupin innocently. "How cool! Are you an Animagus, too, then?"

"Well," said Lupin slowly, and Sirius could hear how much it was costing his friend to keep a light tone in his voice, "you could call it an involuntary Animagus, I suppose."

Tonks frowned, but then she understood, and her eyes widened. "Oh," was all she said.

There was a very awkward silence. It was Sirius's turn now to stare down at his own hands as if there was nothing more interesting in the world, his face burning. None of them was sorry when Dumbledore's voice suddenly rose over the babble of the others', giving them a welcome excuse to turn away from each other to listen.

"Dear friends," Dumbledore called, "if I may have your attention once more."

The witches and wizards fell silent and made to return to their places.

"Thanks a lot, Sirius," Lupin said sarcastically, and strode past him back to his own chair. The bitterness in his friend's voice pierced Sirius to the heart.