A Moment In Time |A Remadora Fanfiction|

The All-England Best Kept Suburban Lawn Competition

It was like any other day to begin with. Remus and Tonks were sitting by the fireplace, playing a heated game of wizard's chess. Even Sirius had stopped drinking firewhiskey so he could join in, once in a while.

"Moony, you cheating bastard!" Sirius pouted for the umpteenth time.

"Sorry Padfoot, I won fair and square." Remus said, laughing at the disdainful expression on his best friend's face.

Then Mad-Eye interrupted the game. "Everyone, emergency meeting! NOW!" He barked.

After all the Order members sat down around the dining table, Dumbledore began his speech.

"I have very unfortunate news. Harry has been attacked." Sirius got up so fast he was a blur. "What? When? Where? How? I'm going to get him right now." Sirius said in a panicked voice, still standing up. "Now calm down, Sirius. Harry and his cousin have been attacked by two dementors. He used a patronus, to ward them off. The Ministry of Magic wanted to have him expelled but, I talked them into giving him a hearing on August Twelfth which, if you do the math, is in ten days precisely." Dumbledore said in a calm tone of voice, "The Ministry doesn't believe that Voldemort (Many Order members shuddered at the name) is back so they believe he is making up an excuse."

"Well? What do we do? I am going there right now to go get Harry." Sirius said, grabbing his cloak, preparing to leave. "Sirius, common sense. The muggles will report you if they see a 'mass murderer' walking on the streets." Remus said as he grabbed his best friends arm, trying to get some sense into Sirius' head. "And, think about it this way. You won't be much help to Harry in Azkaban, will you?"

Sirius' shoulders sagged at the mention of going back to Azkaban. "Well then fine! If I can't go, then someone should go get him out of that horrid place."

"We should form some kind of advance guard to get him here, but we will have to get his aunt and uncle out of the house. Any ideas?" Mad-Eye said, impatiently. "Why don't we just confund his family?" Emmeline Vance suggested. "Or we could just floo over to his house, get him, and go." Hestia Jones added. "The Ministry will be keeping tabs on the magic we use and the floo network so unfortunately, those ideas won't work." Mad-Eye grumbled. "We'll just have to use broomsticks."

"Then how do we get those nasty relatives out of the house?" Sirius asked eagerly. "I have an idea." Tonks said suddenly. "I know those muggles pride themselves on their tidiness so we could send them a letter saying they have won the All-England...Best Kept....... Suburban.....Lawn Competition?" "That idea isn't half-bad." Mad-Eye said, a creepy smile growing on his face. "Now what are you waiting for? Start writing that letter!"

Tonks decided to write the letter and get Harry away from his relatives as soon as possible. Remus offered to help her. After a few hours, they hadn't gotten very far, just a couple sentences (they were too busy talking and chatting.)

"Are you two done yet?" Sirius said in an annoying singsong voice, busting into the room. "Geez Sirius, ever heard of knocking?" Tonks said, irritated; Remus was telling her about the countless times the Marauders had pulled pranks. "No, what is that?" Sirius said, smirking. Tonks rolled her eyes like a teenager.

Tonks turned to Remus. "You two are best friends, right?" Tonks questioned "And have known each other for what... thirteen years? Besides those years you thought he was a murderer, of course."

"Yes, I think so. Why?" A slightly confused Remus replied.

"How were you able to stand being with him?"

"Well, after a while of hanging out with him and a couple of times I have tried to strangle him, I was finally able to be in the same room as him for an hour without losing my sanity." Remus answered.

"Are you two done flirting yet?" A mildly amused Sirius asked who was leaning on the door. The pair chose to ignore that comment.

"Well we have to finish the letter-" "That you have been doing for three hours." Sirius finished. "It's just a couple sentences."

"Fine! If it is so easy, then write it yourself." Tonks said, giving Sirius the letter. To her surprise, just around five minutes, her first cousin once removed had finished the letter. "But...how...what..." Tonks stuttered, much to Sirius' amusement. "Remember back in the good old days, Moony, we wrote fake letters to the teachers. I even dared him to write a fake one to Dumbledore. 'Course, he found out. And gave us a month of detention. And I am pretty sure my left arm has never been the same ever since. But I swear, us Marauders hold the record of the most detentions ever. Maybe the Weasley twins would give us a run for our money."

Sirius and Remus' eyes went slightly glazed as they reminisce about their school days. Then they looked sorrowful.

"Anyway," Tonks said, breaking the silence, "We need to mail the letter." "Let me come! Let me come!" Sirius said, bouncing around like a dog, which he was.

"Sirius, it might not be the best idea for you t-" Remus' voice trailed off as he saw the sad look on his friend's face. "Please, pretty please. Moony, you can't let your best friend stay here for more that three months, right? The only difference between here and Azkaban is that it has decent food and somewhat cheerful company." Sirius was practically begging now, now giving Remus and Tonks super sad puppy-eyes.

"Fine, but you have to come as Snuffles and you have to wear this!" Tonks transfigured a quill into a hot pink spiked dog collar with "Snuffles'' written with rhinestones on a large gold heart, dangling from the collar. "Okay." Sirius grumbled as he turned into a big black dog. Remus helped her wrestle the dog collar onto Sirius, who was desperately trying to escape. After they had finally gotten the collar on Snuffles, the pair stifled a laugh. Snuffles gave them a disdainful expression and walked out of the room.

"Anyway, do you know how to use the muggle post office?" Remus questioned. Snuffles shot them dirty looks as they walked. "My dad taught me when I was a kid, see, he was muggleborn. But um... and I might have forgotten some details."

Soon, they saw the post office. "Er... Tonks, you do realize we would look out of place right? I mean we are wearing robes, not muggle clothes." Remus said. "If anyone asks, we are actors. Besides, it's too late to turn back now." Tonks marched up the steps and went into the door. As soon as Tonks had left, Sirius suddenly yanked on the leash so hard Remus nearly fell down. Apparently, he had spotted a bunch of pigeons. He chased the poor birds around until they flew away. Remus sighed.

Then he spotted something that attracted him even more, human and dog form. Ice cream. An unsuspecting victim, or in this case, a little three year old girl who was tottling across the street with her mother when Sirius charged. He grabbed the ice cream cone and made a run for it. The mother screamed while the girl shrieked.

"Sorry!" Remus called while he shoved the mother a five dollar bill before Sirius ran away.

"Hey, I'm-" Tonks started and then stopped at the sight of a panting Remus and Sirius licking the sidewalk, constantly, with ice cream smeared all over his snout.

"Bloody hell, what happened to you two?"

"Long story. I'll tell you about it on the way back." Remus said after shooting Sirius a glare.

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"And then he grabbed the ice cream and ran!" Remus finished in Number Twelve, Grimmauld's Place.

"Sirius, are you mad?" Tonks scolded after Sirius changed back into human form.

"Barking mad, if you ask me." Sirius replied with a huge smile on his face, "That was the most fun I have ever had in a while!"

Remus and Tonks both had a feeling that they wouldn't forget this day for a long time (and it wasn't because of the Sirius accident).