The Summer of the Phoenix

Chapter 33

They had hardly sat down together at the dinner table when they heard the front door open again.

"That's got to be Dad!" Ginny exclaimed excitedly.

They listened to the footsteps crossing the hall over their heads. There was a sudden dull thud, and a muffled curse.

"No, that's Tonks," said Sirius.

"Who's Tonks?" Ron inquired curiously.

"An Auror."

The faces of the young Weasleys instantly assumed an expression of deep awe.

"Wait and see," Sirius said, and with great amusement watched their jaws drop when the kitchen door opened and the Auror looked in. As if to make his point, Tonks looked as little as the average witch's or wizard's idea of an awe-inspiring law enforcement officer as possible today. She was in her faded jeans and Quidditch t-shirt again, and her hair, sticking up wildly in all directions, was a screaming pink.

"Hi there!" she called cheerfully from the door. "Sorry to disrupt your dinner - I just thought I'd look in quickly to say that - "

"Come in and take a seat, Tonks," Mrs Weasley invited her kindly.

Tonks closed the door and came over to join them at the table. Five pairs of very wide eyes followed every of her moves. Bill drew up a chair for her.

"What's your news?"

"Would you like to eat with us?"

"You're an Auror?"

Sirius, Mrs Weasley and Ron had all spoken at the same time.

"Let her breathe," Bill said, but Tonks laughed.

"News comes first. Molly, Arthur says to tell you he won't be back before ten tonight. We've changed to eight-hour shifts for guard duty now. So I'm going to relieve him at ten and -"

"Tonks!" Mrs Weasley interrupted her, glancing uneasily at her children.

"Oh," Tonks said, and blushed. "Sorry about that."

"What guard duty?" George asked quickly. "You Aurors are guarding something?"

"Yes," Tonks said gravely, "we guard secrets."

The young Weasleys looked very disappointed.

"But our dad's not an Auror," Ginny pointed out.

Mrs Weasley frowned at her. "Would you please be so kind and get a plate and goblet for Tonks, Ginny," she said rather loudly, and Ginny scowled and got up to do as she was bid.

"Is Tonks your real name?" Hermione asked Tonks curiously.

Sirius and Bill grinned at each other across the table. "No, it's -" Bill began.

"Shut up, you two."

"- it's really Nymphadora," Sirius finished, ignoring her protest. "And as you can see she really loves her name."

"Why not?" asked Ginny, setting a plate and goblet on the table in front of Tonks. "Nymphadora's a beautiful name."

"Not for me," said Tonks.

"Yes it is," Ginny insisted. "I'll call you Nymphadora."

"If you do," Tonks threatened, "I'll call you Virginia. Would you like that any better?"

But Ginny, looking positively terrified at the idea, shook her head vigorously and made no more objections.

A moment later, the issue of names was forgotten, and Fred, George and Ron had completely hogged Tonks's attention, firing questions about her job at her at a speed that made it almost impossible for her to answer them all, let alone eat.

"Good heavens," Bill said to his mother over the excited babble of his brothers' voices. "I think it was a wise decision not to go into that job, wasn't it, Mum?"

"Oh right," Hermione said to him, "Bill, why didn't you go into Auror training? With your NEWTs, they were probably begging you to!"

"Gringotts paid more," Bill grinned.

* * *

These little dinner parties soon became a tradition at No. 12, Grimmauld Place. Several times over the next week, one or more members of the Order looked in on their way to the Ministry, or on their way back, and were invited to stay for a bite. With their guard duty down to three shifts per day instead of four, things had calmed down a little. By the end of that week, after nothing at all had happened to confirm Dumbledore's fears of an imminent attack, Moody even announced that one person on guard at a time would suffice for the moment, and that was an even greater relief. Remus Lupin spent more time at Grimmauld Place again, often looking in on Hermione in the study where she sat with her books, and always found time to discuss with her the obscure magical phenomena that she came across in some of them. Tonks turned up fairly regularly, too, occasionally joining Sirius and the young Weasleys in their task of clearing out the house, which was still far from finished. Once Hermione had deduced from her daily changes of appearance that she must be a Metamorphmagus, Tonks was more welcome as a dinner guest than ever, and frequently provided the evening's entertainment by growing funny noses and creating wild hairstyles for them to laugh at.

Mrs Weasley never seemed entirely happy to see her charges mixing so much with the Order, but she didn't protest. Sirius couldn't help thinking that she tolerated it mainly for his sake, knowing how much their company meant to him. In exchange, he made a point of seeing to it that they weren't too often tempted to break the promise they had made to Albus Dumbledore.

"No you can't," he told Ron and Hermione when they asked him, for about the hundredth time in a week, whether they couldn't at least tell Harry they were no longer at home, but busy helping the people who were working hard to stop You Know Who.

They sat facing each other across the end of the kitchen table, Ron and Hermione on one side, Sirius on the other, Sirius and Hermione each with a piece of parchment in front of them. It was the eve of the 31^st of July, Harry's fifteenth birthday, and they were in the process of writing their birthday greetings to him, taking great care that nothing in their letters would tell Harry that they had been written with their authors literally looking over each other's shoulder. Sirius repeatedly shook his head at the absurdity of the situation.

Bill and his parents were at the other end of the table, Bill and Mr Weasley each reading a part of the Daily Prophet, and Mrs Weasley darning socks. Tonks and Ginny sat on the floor in front of the fireplace. They had rolled an old sock that was torn beyond repair into a ball, and were throwing it back and forth between them while Crookshanks was trying to catch it.

"Oh all right," Hermione sighed. "Poor Harry, I'm really getting tired of telling him that we can't tell him anything."

"Don't think that I'm not," Sirius grunted, looking over his own letter which was just as vague as the ones he had sent before.

"Write that Harry's going to come and join us soon," Ron instructed Hermione, and she nodded and resumed her writing. "He is, isn't he, Mum?" Ron asked his mother, also for the hundredth time in a week. "Dumbledore said it was OK that he was going to come to The Burrow some time in August, why can't he come here?"

Mrs Weasley looked up from her needlework, and shook her head. "Because this is not The Burrow, Ron," she said firmly. "Besides, I don't think Harry should be here," she added with a sceptical glance at Sirius.

"I actually think he shouldn't be anywhere but here," Sirius said rather loudly. "If anyone belongs in the Order of the Phoenix, it's him, after all that he's done."

"Sirius," Mrs Weasley said wearily, "Harry is under age, Harry is fourteen, Harry belongs with his family."

Sirius gave a snort. "They're not his family. They're only relations. Ask Harry who he thinks his real family is."

"You know very well," Mrs Weasley replied, "that this has very little to do with what Harry thinks."

"Yeah, that's exactly the point," Sirius said stubbornly. "None of you care, none of you even know what he thinks, what he must feel like right now."

"Oh, but you do?" Mrs Weasley snapped, shaking off the hand that her husband had put on her arm.

"At least I can put myself into his place. Trust me, I don't find that very hard."

Ron and Hermione exchanged an uncomfortable look. Tonks and Ginny had stopped in their little game, ignoring Crookshanks who was pawing at them to continue.

"Sirius, Harry is not going to come here just because you're being selfish." Mrs Weasley said sharply.

Sirius gave a short, bitter laugh. "Selfish, am I?" He threw down his quill, crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "Since when has it been selfish to care about the happiness of another person?"

"This is not so much about happiness," Arthur Weasley said in a very quiet voice, "as about staying alive."

There was a heavy silence. Then, Sirius picked up his quill again, signed his finished letter with so much vigour he almost tore the parchment, threw the quill back down on the table, and turned away from the others to stare broodingly into the fire.

Tonks and Ginny slowly returned to their game, Bill and his father to the paper, and Mrs Weasley to her socks.

"Mrs Weasley," Hermione said timidly after a moment, "I've been meaning to ask, can I stay on after the sixth of August?"

"What's on the sixth of August?" Bill asked.

"It's the day my parents come back from America," Hermione said unhappily. "I was supposed to go back home then, and stop being a burden to Mr and Mrs Weasley, but now I really don't want to leave."

"Oh, you're not a burden, dear," Mrs Weasley said kindly. "Are you sure though that your parents will be entirely happy about you staying here all summer?"

"I'll write to them and ask," said Hermione quickly. "I'm sure they won't mind."

"Your parents must be really cool about letting you live your own life," Tonks remarked. "What do you tell them you're doing the whole time?"

"Nothing about the Order, of course," Hermione said, and blushed. "But even if I did, I don't think they'd really get it. They don't know much about our world. They're Muggles, you know."

"Oh, that makes it easier, I suppose," Tonks said, sounding rather envious. "I wish my mum was as easy-going. She just complained bitterly the other day that she sees so little of her dear only daughter lately. That's the sort of thing I have to put up with at my home. And I'm almost twice as old as you are, Hermione."

"What do you tell Andromeda then?" Sirius asked Tonks, forgetting that he'd been pretending not to listen.

"That I've got a new boyfriend," Tonks said lightly.

A hearty laugh went around the room.

"That's an excellent excuse," Mr Weasley chuckled.

"And? Have you?" Bill asked expectantly.

Tonks glanced at Sirius. "Yes, I think I have," she said mysteriously.

"And does your new boyfriend know that yet?" Sirius asked casually.

"No, not yet," Tonks replied with a mischievous little smile.

Bill looked back and forth between them, frowning. "It's not Sirius, is it?" he asked incredulously, very much on the verge of the cheekiest grin he could muster.

Tonks looked at Sirius again, playfully refusing to give them an answer, but her eyes, today the bright blue of the summer sky outside, were sparkling with a secret happiness. Sirius was quite sure he didn't need to hear her answer to guess at the source of it, and he suddenly found it hard to decide whether he should laugh or cry.

"No, it's not Sirius," he said resignedly. "Sirius is just eternally doomed to be the best man."

"Who's getting married?" Remus Lupin's voice asked from the door.