the_debt_of_time

eyes. Sirius chuckled softly as he caught the glance, shaking his head in amusement at the
idea of the two of them married.
Tonks smiled down at him. "You all right then, Sirius?"
He gave her a lopsided grin. "I will be. You know me. Can't keep this old dog down.
And speaking of old dogs.. ." He winked at his young cousin. "Looks like you finally
got this one collared."
Remus growled in reply, and Tonks ran her fingers affectionately through his hair.
"Yeah, I did," she said with a hint of triumph in her voice. "You should see the matching
leash."
Sirius let out a loud, barking guffaw while Remus groaned.
"Right, boys," Tonks said with a laugh. "You look after each other. I've got to get
back to the Ministry before they realise I'm not there. I need to make sure no one caught
our great escape."
Remus stood to walk her to the fireplace. "Be careful."
"Always am, love." She grinned, kissing him quickly before vanishing into the Floo.
Sirius sat up straight, grimacing as he finished his tea and set his empty cup on a
nearby table, surreptitiously scanning the room for Remus's stash of firewhisky. He knew
that his friend's father had had an old shelf in the corner of the room that housed the few
decent bottles ever on hand; ones that Sirius, Remus, and James had constantly been
replacing the few times they had been allowed over prior to their sixth year at Hogwarts.
Unfortunately, while the shelf was still present, the beautiful bottles of liquid amber had
been replaced with wedding photos.
Temporarily giving up on his treasure hunt, Sirius ran his hands over his beard
thoughtfully. "All right, fill me in. What's happened with Harry?"
"We're at war, officially," Remus said on the end of an exhausted sigh.
Sirius scraped his hair back from his face. "We're always at war."
"True, but this time the Ministry isn't arguing the point. Rather, they're going above
and beyond the call of duty to remind the people how safe we all are and how everything's
under control." At this statement, both men made rude hand gestures.
"Which essentially means that it's worse than we imagined?"