Transformations

Remus sat in the hospital wing with Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood and Tonks, all grouped around a bed at the end of the ward. In it lay Bill Weasley, badly mauled by Fenrir Greyback. No one knew if he would recover.

Remus cursed silently and fluently, all those words he had learned from Sirius and James all those years ago, all those words he had never used that seemed to apply so aptly now. He felt guilty, as if he himself had somehow done this to Bill. His friend had been attacked by a werewolf - the same one that had attacked Remus himself, though in human form this time. Remus felt a terrible kind of connection to all werewolves. It was not one he normally treasured, despite its usefulness to the Order. Right now he hated it more than ever.

Tonks sat silently, as had been so unusual for her in times past and as was so normal for her now. She felt sick every time she looked at Bill. As an Auror, she had been trained in basic Healing, but this was different. This was werewolf damage. This was one of her friends. This was another reason for Remus to remove himself from her.

*****

One fading afternoon, two long shadows waited on a dirty London street. One belonged to a tall black man; the other, to a woman with a pale, heart-shaped face, dark eyes, and short spiky hair in a bright shade of green. The woman seemed to be concentrating on something; her eyes were closed and her lips were moving silently. A moment later, a large house appeared directly in front of them. The man tapped on the door, it swung open, and they entered.

The inside of the house was dark and foreboding, and only succeeded in making the woman more nervous than she already was. In trying to stand out of the way and appear professional, she backed into a waste bin and both she and it fell over.

The hallway exploded as portraits lining both sides of the hallway and awoke and began screaming curses at the intruders. The tall black man rolled his eyes at his companion and set off down the hallway, Stunning the paintings.

Two other men hurtled into the hallway, pulling out their wands. One joined the one Stunning the portraits; the other yanked a set of curtains shut over the loudest one. When the house was silent again, the one who had shut the curtains reached down to pull the woman off the floor.

Sirius Black grinned at his cousin. "Well, Nymmie, you've changed since I saw you last. Maybe not so much, though." He indicated the waste bin she had tripped over.

Nymphadora Tonks laughed as she hugged him. "It's so good to see you again!" She looked at the waste bin and did a double-take. "What is that?"

"What, you've never seen a troll's-leg umbrella stand before?" He laughed at the revolted look on her face. "Here, let me introduce you. This is Remus, my oldest friend. Remus, my cousin Nymmie."

Tonks made a face. "Please, not Nymmie. I haven't been called that since I was nine. Not Nymphadora, either," she added hastily as Sirius opened his mouth again.

Sirius grinned. "What do you go by now, girl?"

"Just Tonks."

"Suits you. Tonks, my friend Remus. Remus, my cousin Tonks."

Tonks looked at the man. He was older than she, with grey streaks in his brown hair and a look in his eyes that said he had suffered. But there was also intelligence and great kindness there; and, she thought, a sense of humor. Remus... This was the one Kingsley had said was a werewolf.

Remus saw those dark eyes sizing him up. She was younger than she looked on first glance. Twenty-three, did Sirius say? Doesn't look dangerous, but she will be, she's an Auror. Doesn't look fazed to see me, either. That was the best part. He reached out and shook her hand. "Good to meet you, Tonks."

Sirius led them down the hallway, talking nonstop. "I'd show you around the place if I liked it at all." Tonks murmured something about "interesting."

"It is interesting, I'll give you that, but I'd rather have less interesting and more portraits that say something besides 'disgusting' and 'blood-traitor.'"

They seated themselves at the long kitchen table. Sirius hadn't stopped talking. "I see you finally learned to control your Metamorphosing."

Tonks made a face at him. "Don't remind me." As the two of them laughed and talked about old times and old friends, Remus conversed quietly with Kingsley about Ministry doings and the latest from Dumbledore. Tonks' neon green hair kept catching his eye. It wasn't that he disapproved of it, it was just...different. Once, when Remus looked over, he caught Tonks in the act of looking away and knew that she had been staring at him. Most people stared at him when they learned he was a werewolf, but Remus was used to it. He hoped that she wasn't one of those people who would avoid him like the plague a week away from the full moon.

He looked at her again - she wasn't looking this time - and abruptly decided that a woman brave enough to have green hair while chatting with her convicted-murderer of a cousin and participating in an organization devoted to opposing a Dark wizard who wasn't supposed to exist would not be afraid of a mere werewolf.

Tonks listened as her cousin described his time avoiding capture by the Ministry. She was slightly ashamed that her cousin's friend across the table had caught her staring. She hadn't meant to be rude, but she had never met a werewolf before - but that wasn't it. Tonks decided that had she known why she found him interesting, she wouldn't have been staring.

***

An hour later, Tonks watched as about two dozen people filed in. She recognized a few: McGonagall, Snape (what is he doing here?), and Dumbledore, of course. She had hoped Sirius would tell her who everyone was and what role they played in the Order. Unfortunately, Snape made a snide comment two minutes into the evening that put Sirius in a very unpleasant mood for the rest of the night. When Dumbledore asked him to introduce their newest member, Sirius said only, "This is my cousin, Nymphadora Tonks," and sat down again. Tonks glanced around, lost, before Remus took pity on her, explaining quietly who each speaker was and his or her part in the Order.

Tonks listened to Remus' commentary with interest. Despite his earlier conclusion, Remus found himself almost surprised that she didn't seem nervous about sitting with a werewolf. For her part, Tonks was slightly startled to find that she had nearly forgotten Remus' lycanthropy. She had been slightly apprehensive about meeting him, despite her Auror studies, but he seemed perfectly normal.

After the meeting, Tonks found herself munching Molly Weasley's excellent apple crumble while various Order members introduced themselves. She liked Emmeline Vance, whose dignified stateliness did not prevent her from having an unexpectedly quick sense of humour. McGonagall, on the other hand, still had the ability to make her feel as though she'd done something wrong. Tonks heaved a (very quiet) sigh of relief when McGonagall moved on - being told to call her former teacher by her first name was almost as unnerving as simply meeting her outside of school - and was promptly caught by Mad-Eye Moody.

"So you're the newest one, are you?" It was a friendly growl, but a growl nonetheless. Tonks stood somewhat in awe of the ex-Auror, as did most of her department, but managed to say, "Yes sir. I'm Tonks." Merlin, that was stupid. She was finding it very difficult not to stare at the electric-blue eye swiveling in its socket.

"I'm Alastor Moody. You know that, most people do these days; makes it hard to slink around after Dark wizards when they all know who you are. Better to stay anonymous."

Slightly bemused at the change in topic and still trying not to stare at Moody's eye, Tonks blurted out, "Of course, Mad-Eye - sir."

She stopped, appalled. I did not just - oh, I did not say that.

One brown eye and one electric-blue looked down at her for a second - Tonks quailed - but Moody's face was inscrutable. A sudden gruff laugh escaped him; Tonks thought she was going to melt in relief. "That's the way, girl. Not many who call me that to my face. That's the right spirit."

He stumped off, chuckling. Tonks slumped against the wall, face burning, and hoped no one else had heard.

"That's an interesting way to introduce yourself." Remus stood next to her, his face a little too straight.

Tonks shook her head. "I do not know what I was thinking."

"I suspect you weren't."

Caught off-guard, Tonks glared at him. Remus' face was definitely twitching now. Tonks grimaced. "Oh, fine. Laugh."

"I'd hate to insult you." His eyes were laughing, though. "Alastor has that effect on most people. He knew about you already, but he did want to meet you."

"He already knew about me?"

"Of course. You're an Auror, and an impressive one at that, from what I've heard."

Tonks rolled her eyes. "I was lucky to qualify, I only did because of this." She turned a streak of her hair bubble-gum pink.

"It's a nice colour," Remus said, "but I think you needed more than that to pass." There was an almost-embarrassed pause.

Remus extended his hand. "I didn't really meet you earlier. I'm Remus Lupin, as you already know, I've known Sirius since Hogwarts, and I assume you know about me." The tone of his voice changed significantly on the last phrase. It was as if he had suddenly pulled his lycanthropy out from behind his back and thrown it up into a spotlight.

Tonks was caught off-guard. "Er - well, yes, Kingsley told me. But you're normal ninety percent of the time, and, er, you seem nice enough to make up for the other ten percent."

There was another uncomfortable pause. "I'm sorry," said Remus at last. "I shouldn't have made you do that. Most people just tend to -"

"I know," Tonks said hastily. "I can guess, anyway."

A third pause followed in which both parties wished they could take back and change the last five minutes. Finally Remus asked, "So how did you learn to really use your Metamorphosing?"

Tonks leaped on the change in topic and was soon gesturing enthusiastically at her flickering hair as she demonstrated. Remus was heard to ask more questions in an hour than he usually did in a month. By the time the crumble, and most of the guests, were gone, the two had mapped out two new guises for her to try. Dumbledore, glancing over from a corner, made a note to himself to commend Remus for so readily welcoming the newest member.

*****

A/N: Several chapters are written already, but this was the hardest one. So, of course, I put it off until I absolutely couldn't put it off anymore and promptly came down with a lovely case of writer's block. More like writing-without-clichés-block. My good friend Alison, a.k.a. Scribbly, came to my rescue. About half of this chapter is hers. She is also my editor -- a very superb one -- and The Brick Wall Off Which Ideas Are Bounced (she came up with that title herself). The ideas were mine, the excellence is thanks to her!