Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter because my name is not J.K Rowling. I only own my imagination and even that runs away on me sometimes so any characters you recognise I obviously don't own.

CRASH!

Tonks could feel her face heating up; why was she always tripping over that stupid umbrella stand? Every meeting, since she had joined three weeks ago, always started with her falling over that ugly thing. She had asked Sirius why he kept it and not thrown it out with the rest of the Black Family stuff but he had only grinned at her. Stupid git.

"Need a hand, Nymphadora?"

She froze and felt her face and her hair go bright red. She would recognise that voice anywhere.

"No, I'm alright, Remus," she said, waving his hand away and wishing she could do the same with her embarassment.

He just smiled and looked down on her, "If you're sure, Nymphadora."

She scrambled to her feet and rolled her eyes, "How many times do I have to tell you, Remus? Call me Tonks. You should know that by now."

He smiled slightly and made for the kitchen," Ah, yes. I wouldn't like to cross an Auror now, would I?" he called over his shoulder, "especially one trained up by Mad-Eye."

Before she could retort he had walked into the meeting, still smiling and leaving her feeling more than slightly foolish. She glared at the closed door before she heard Mrs Weasley, no, Molly, stomping down the stairs. The twins were probably up to something. She quickly slipped into the kitchen before Molly would see her and ask her why she was glaring at the door.

She had wanted to slip into the grimy kitchen quietly and unnoticed but of course her dear cousin combined with her clumsiness meant that that was never going to happen. As soon as she put one foot into the gloomy kitchen she slipped on something damp and fell into Sirius. Why her?

"Uh, dear Nymmie, would you kindly get off me?" asked Sirius, his voice muffled as he had landed on his face. That had to hurt but she was in a bad mood now, so she really didn't care.

"Shut up Sirius" she grumbled, picking herself up off the floor for the second time that day and, she glanced at her battered watch, it was only 8am!

Remus raised his eyebrows at Sirius and turned back to the table, "Does anyone know when Dumbledore will be here?"

Arthur looked up from a pile of paperwork, "He should be here soon. Apparently Fudge is trying to force this decree thing on him and he might be late."

Tonks tried to stop herself from yawning. To her, Fudge was the most stupid man in Britain, everyone in the Auror Department thought that. Except for Dawlish but he was close behind Fudge in her opinion. She brought her attention back to the table when she heard Arthur talk to Sirius.

"Sirius, are you going to join us?"

"I will when someone offers to help me," he grumbled.

"You don't need help Padfoot, you're not a baby," replied Remus, rolling his eyes.

"You helped my lovely cousin Nymmie and she's not a baby," he whined

Remus looked slightly uncomfortable, she noticed, "Because it's polite, Padfoot," Sirius snorted at that, "it's . . ."

"Alright, alright, you've proved your point" Sirius grumbled.

Tonks rolled her eyes at the idiocy of her cousin. Why did she have to be the one with the strangest family? Honestly, they were all screaming weirdoes (Sirius' mum), psychopath weirdoes (Bellatrix) or idiots (Sirius). Her mum was, fortunately, an exception.

"Must they go be so nosey?"

She came out of her own thoughts and looked around. It was Molly complaining about Fred and George again.

"Well, Molly, they're worried about Harry so they obviously want to know more . . ." said Arthur uneasily.

Ah, it was Hermione and Ron, this could be interesting . . .

"They should trust us! They're only children!"

"They've done a lot more with him than most of us," stated Remus, smiling slightly.

"That's not the point! This is more dangerous!" exclaimed Molly

"I'm sure that this isn't as dangerous as saving an apparently crazy prisoner," said Sirius.

"Or saving Ginny from a Basilisk," added Arthur

"How'd they do that?" asked Tonks, now more interested. Remus and Sirius looked fascinated as well.

"Get one of them to tell you, we don't know everything," replied Arthur.

"Those three are cool," she thought, "how come nothing like this happened when I was in school?"

"It doesn't matter what they've done. They're only children, they don't need to know!" Said Molly

Tonks rolled her eyes; she used to hate the excuse 'you're only a child so you don't need to worry' and she was sure the Trio hated that as well. Considering what she'd heard they've done.

"Oi! Nymmie!"

"Don't call me that, Sirius!" she snapped, glaring at her cousin

"Someone's a little grumpy,"

Remus snorted, Tonks blushed. Damn! Why did he make her feel ridiculous?

"Aww, Tonksie's blushing!" he crowed

"Stop teasing her, Padfoot," said Remus, "I'm sure she dislikes it,"

"That's why I'm doing it, duh!"

"Oh shut up!" she screamed and the whole room went quiet, "Errr, I meant these two," she said, blushing.

"What two?" asked McGonagall, coming out of the fireplace and dusting of her robes.

"Those two," she repeated, pointing to Remus and Sirius.

"They were always the trouble-makers in Hogwarts," commented McGonagall, "Albus is coming soon."

Sirius grinned, "We prefer the term Marauders, Minnie,"

Tonks gasped, she would have never given McGonagall a nickname! That was suicidal!

Remus rolled his eyes, "He's called her that since second year, despite the number of detentions he got for it," he told her

"Ah, he was always that stupid then," she responded

"No, just fond of a good joke, Nymphadora," said Dumbledore, stepping carefully out of the fireplace and sitting at the head of the table. "Cornelius didn't keep me as long as I thought."

"What does he want from you?" asked Sirius, he never did know the word subtlety.

"Oh, he's trying to enforce a decree on me," Dumbledore said distractedly, "Is he doing anything to the Auror department?" he asked, turning to her and Kingsley.

"Not exactly," started Kingsley with his deep voice.

"He's not letting us do anything!" she interrupted, "he came into the department and told us to 'keep our heads down' and 'don't listen to Dumbledore, he's talking nonsense'! It's really annoying!"

"He doesn't believe there's any danger," continued Kingsley

"Constant Vilagence!" bellowed Mad-Eye, who had just come in through the door.

Tonks jumped, "You don't have to shout, Mad-Eye, we get the point," she told him

"Cornelius will realise his mistakes before long," said Dumbledore calmly.

Tonks just nodded her head dubiously, Fudge was an idiot and he would never admit to a mistake this large.

"We have to be careful," said Arthur

Remus nodded his head and said, "Fudge probably suspects that we are doing something,"

Tonks looked carefully at him. He looked more worn out and tired than usual.

"Of course he does Tonks!" she scolded herself, "It was a full moon two days ago, stupid!"

It didn't look like the meeting was going to start any time soon, what with all the small talk people were making. She was getting bored.

"Time to experiment with a new hairstyle," she thought, "now what colour?" her hair flashed different colours, "green? Yuck. Blue? No. Brown? Boring. Pink? Yes, that would work . . ." her hair settled at her favourite bubblegum pink. "Now what style?"