The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

Wotcher Doggy

Sirius had just finished putting the needle down on Sheer Heart Attack by Queen, home early from de-gnoming, just about to light himself a cigarette, and lay down on the couch to enjoy a solid three hours of being home alone and listening to his music at full volume without any complaints from Remus or Peter, when there came a knock on the door of the flat in East London and he cursed rather vehemently, and turned the volume down with a flick of his wand.

Getting up, he walked to the door and peered through the window. Not seeing anyone, he opened it up, and there, standing on the stoop, was a tawny-brown-haired-grey-eyed Nymphadora Tonks.

Sirius stared at her.

She stared up at Sirius a moment, then a grin broke out on her face.

"Wotcher, Sirius," she said, her voice a pipsqueak of a sound that seemed the sort of noise a cartoon chipmunk might make. Her face was coated with freckles, her hair stood up in two short little pigtails. "You might not remember me, or recognize me with this ugly natural shade of hair," she said very matter-of-a-factly, "But my name is --"

"Tonks, I'm you're bleeding cousin, I know who you are," Sirius said. "And besides that, this is - what the second time you've shown up here looking for Remus?" He leaned against the door jam. "You take the Knight Bus again?"

"Well I didn't walk all the way here!"

The little pixie of a thing that stood on the doorstep stared up at him with big wide eyes - she looked like something out of a painting Sirius had once been creeped out by. They continued staring at one another. Finally, after such a long pause, she said, "Isn't it rude to make me stand here instead of inviting me in?"

"What makes you think you're invited in?"

"Remus would invite me in."

"Well, Remus isn't here."

She stared up at him. "Please? I've run away from home and Remus is the only person who will listen to me... Besides, it's cold out here, I can hardly feel my toes for all the cold."

Sirius had a sudden flash of himself, a bit older than Tonks was now, standing on the front stoop of the Potters' house in Godric's Hollow, ankle-deep in snow, soaked through and still trembling from the Cruciatus Curse, and the bewildered expression on Charlus Potter's face when he'd stepped back and let him in for the first time. Poor Charlus had had no idea he was meeting his son when he opened the door. 

Sighing heavily with the weight of the responsibility to extend the same graces he'd been extended, he held the door open with one arm and stepped back to let her pass under the little bridge of his elbow just as Mr. P had done. "Come on, you ickle muppet."

"Thank you," she said and Tonks stepped inside, carrying her red train case, and walked to the coffee table and put the little box down next to Sirius's box of records.

Sirius closed and locked the door, then walked back across the room. She was looking at his record player, how the record was spinning. "Don't touch that," he said quickly, hurrying over, even though she was only looking at it. Her hands were still holding the edge of her train case.

"What's that?" she asked.

"What? The record player?" Sirius looked at it, then at her, "It plays music... as it's doing right now, notice." He reached for the knob and turned it up louder.

"We listen to the radio mostly at home. D'you know Celestina Warbucks? Mum's nutters for her." Tonks had to raise her voice a little to go over the sound of the music.

"I don't like wizard music," Sirius pulled a face. "It's boring hearing about wands and cauldrons being talked about all dirty-like and rather distracting, really."