A/N: Thank you to DarylDixon'sgirl1985, HufflepuffBanana, and noraborealis for beta reading this chapter.

"This is Number 12 Grimmauld Place?" Tonks asked, staring at the building that materialized across the street, squeezed between numbers eleven and thirteen as if it had always been there. Somehow, it looked even older than the buildings that sandwiched it.

"Quiet," Moody growled. "Do you want all of London to hear you?"

He hurried across the street without looking back, forcing Tonks to scurry after him with only a quick glance up at the house and its dirt-coated windows as they approached. She still couldn't believe she'd been invited to join the Order of the Phoenix. She wasn't going to waste the opportunity by getting locked out if the building disappeared again.

Moody tugged the door open with ease as if there were no further safeguards to keep intruders out.

"Stay quiet until we're downstairs," he said in a low voice. "Not everything in this house is happy we're here."

He stepped inside before Tonks could ask for an explanation. She followed, her head snapping back and forth as she tried to take in every aspect of her surroundings. Everything was in dark colours and elaborately decorated. She couldn't make out much more of that before the door shut behind them, leaving them in the dark. Farther down the hall, one lone lighting fixture hung from the ceiling, but it did little to dissipate the darkness that had permeated every crevice of the building.

A million questions raced through Tonks' head. Whose house were they in? How had it come into the Order's possession? Who could possibly be there who didn't like the Order? Were they keeping prisoners? A shiver of unease travelled down her spine, but she knew better than to ask questions when she'd been told to stay quiet.

Velvet wallpaper lined the walls, some of it peeling in odd places. Tonks was fascinated by it and didn't notice the clawed umbrella stand until it was too late.

She tumbled over, the umbrella stand clanging against the hardwood floor beneath it. The sound made her cringe before she'd even hit the ground. She landed on her hip with a hiss. The spot was sure to bruise.

Screeching filled the air. It took Tonks several seconds to make out the words in the screams.

"Filth! Scum! How dare you defile the house of my family!"

Looking up for the source of the noise, Tonks saw Moody and another man struggling to shut a set of curtains over a portrait of a figure that looked more like a Muggle zombie than a living woman. It took Tonks a moment of staring at the at the painting to realize that it was the figure who was making all the noise.

They'd just managed to shut the curtains over the painting—a few muffled wails still escaping—when Tonks made it back to her feet. The man she didn't know approached her, giving her a sheepish smile as if he'd been responsible for the screeching himself.

"Sorry about that. We can't get rid of her. Merlin knows we've tried, but she charmed herself to the wall while she was alive. She had no intention of leaving this place. My name's Remus Lupin by the way. Alastor told us that you prefer to go by Tonks?"

Remus held out a hand, but for several seconds, all Tonks could do was blink back at him. The man in front of her looked exhausted, and Tonks got the sense that the exhaustion ran deeper than one night of bad sleep.

Scars dotted his face and made him look ragged. Tonks didn't trust herself to guess his age, afraid she'd label him older than he was.

According to commonly accepted standards, he wasn't attractive, yet something about him drew Tonks in. It might have been the kindness in his eyes as he held out his hand to her. She took it, trying to ignore the way her heart skipped a beat when they touched.

"Uh, yeah," she said, shaking her head to get rid of the fog. "My first name is mortifying. Everyone knows straight away that Mum is a pureblood."

Moody had disappeared during the commotion caused by the portrait, apparently not worried about her finding the meeting. That must have meant Remus was one of the members he trusted. She knew that wouldn't be the case with everyone. Moody had always been selective when it came to where to place his trust.

"The meeting will be down in the kitchen," Remus said. "It's this way."

He motioned towards a set of stairs at the other end of the hall that descended into the ground.

They'd taken several steps towards them when the door to the house opened. Turning to find the source of the noise, Tonks saw her former Potions professor standing in the doorway, and her stomach sank. He'd been her least favourite professor at Hogwarts. She'd never have expected him to be a member of the Order. Realizing that she was gaping, she snapped her mouth shut.

Snape frowned at the umbrella stand as he stepped carefully over it. He had taken several steps down the hall when he looked up and noticed Tonks and Remus for the first time. His sour expression deepened.

"Nymphadora Tonks," he said in a low voice, apparently aware of how the portrait responded to any disturbances. "Is Dumbledore desperate enough for help that he'll ask a woman who can't stand still without knocking over an entire shelf of potions ingredients?"

While Tonks wasn't easily embarrassed in most situations, her cheeks warmed at the reminder of her biggest classroom mishap. It had nearly cost her a spot in N.E.W.T.-level Potions and, with that, her position in Auror training.

Not used to being able to talk back to her former professor without facing a detention, she couldn't come up with a decent response.

"We're happy to receive anyone willing to help, Severus," Remus said. "Alastor says that Tonks is the most promising Auror to join the department in at least a decade. No doubt she'll be of tremendous help."

Tonks tried to hold back a smile at what Moody had been saying behind her back. At the same time, fear crept up her throat again at the thought of not living up to expectations. She was sure she wouldn't in Snape's eyes.

Her former professor scowled but didn't comment on Tonks' abilities, which he had loved to denigrate while she was at school. He stalked past them and down the short staircase to the kitchen. Tonks let out a long exhale the moment he was out of sight.

"I didn't expect to see him here," she said quietly. "When I was a student, there were a lot of rumours that he was a Death Eater himself."

She realized the second the words were out of her mouth that they might have been enough to cause anger. For all she knew, Remus and Snape were friends. But Remus laughed.

"You wouldn't be alone in thinking that," he admitted. "Everyone is surprised at first, but Severus is a trusted member of the Order. You'll learn this all shortly, as I'm sure he has an update for us, but he is a Death Eater. He's our spy. A lot of our most valuable information comes from him."

Tonks digested that piece of information. It was even harder to believe than Snape simply being a member of the Order.

"You're questioning his loyalty," Remus said, snapping her out of her thoughts.

She wasn't sure how to respond, but Remus beat her to it.

"Again, you're not alone," he said with a small smile. "Plenty of people here don't trust Severus as much as Dumbledore does, but Dumbledore does trust him. He's reassured everyone of that."

Tonks gave a short nod.

"It's not like it's my place to say anything," she said. "I just got here."

Remus gave a short laugh but quickly quelled it after a glance at the portrait that was now murmuring to itself in a low voice that Tonks couldn't make out.

"The meeting will start soon," Remus said.

He motioned towards the kitchen, and Tonks followed him. As they got closer to the door of no return, she couldn't help but talk to keep her nerves at bay.

"Do you know Snape well?" she asked.

She couldn't imagine a man who seemed as kind as Remus being friends with a man like Snape, but she'd also learned that some friendships were beyond the scope of outsiders' understanding.

Remus sighed before he answered, a mix of emotions passing across his face that Tonks found difficult to work out.

"I wouldn't say I know him well, but we went to school together. I've known him for many years at least."

Tonks paused in her footsteps, watching Remus' back as he continued towards the kitchen. She took in the new information about his age, filing it away in her mind. She felt momentarily guilty that she'd expected him to be older than Snape. Now that she knew differently, she could better understand how worn the years had made him. It raised more questions than it answered.

They reached the kitchen door, and Remus paused with his hand on the doorknob.

"Are you ready?" he asked. "I know it can be overwhelming the first time around."

She gave him the confident smirk she'd perfected since joining the Ministry, able to pull it out whenever she needed to give herself or others reassurance of her own competence.

"I'm fine. It can't be worse than Auror training, right?"

His smile widened, but she got the sense that he was humouring her more than anything else.

"I suppose not," he said.

With that, he pushed the door to the kitchen open.