Omnia Mors Perimit

Joining the Order makes sense for a whole lot of reasons, in Tonks' eyes. First and foremost, it's a matter of conviction. Those bastards must be stopped, and if it costs her career, or life even. There comes in the second aspect already, perhaps it's her muggle ancestry, perhaps it's her young age, but she has this romantic ideal of resistance, of values greater than a single life. It's also a matter of honour for her to be in the Phoenix Order. Thirdly, she is a professional Auror, it is her job to hunt down Dark wizards, and if her bosses are too stupid to realise the deadly peril that they're all in, she's got to act on her own. Number four - beside her muggle ancestry, she's got that other side of family, and she feels like she's compelled to make up for their crimes. She's the first grade niece of Bellatrix Lestrange, for goodness sake! Lucius Malfoy is her uncle! It's as if she's got to prove that evil isn't in her blood, for her mum's sake. Then there's her hunger for adventure as well. She's become an Auror, but under an incapable Minister, who wouldn't recognise a Dark sorcerer if they were casting a curse on him. She's been assigned to persecute Sirius Black after his escape, but being the clever - and innocent! - man that he is, there was never any direct combat at all. All her training, everything she has learned - she wants to put it into action.

Last but not least, there are her new comrades. She's come to grow as fond of her cousin Sirius as her mum is - a relative to be proud of, after all. She's so happy to meet Charlie and Bill again; she's strangely satisfied to prove to her former Head of House that she's grown up to be a responsible, able witch, and showing Kingsley that she's more than his clumsy little apprentice is great, too. And then, there's Remus Lupin!

If she was the gushy type, this would be the moment to sigh and look dreamily. That such a man is still unmarried! He's sensitive and smart. Experienced, but by no means patronising. He's got a fantastic sense of humour, witty and ironic, but never mean. He's perfectly amiable, and face it, sexy as hell. He's not handsome in the way that Bill is, for example. It's something quite different; the scars, the knowing looks, the strands of grey hair on his temples - aww!

It's impossible, of course. He's thirteen years older than her. He is a werewolf - all silly prejudices aside, that is an insurmountable problem. Also, she's an Auror, and Aurors can't afford closer relationships. And most of all - he isn't the tiniest bit attracted to her. Pity. Damn pity.

And she's finally come to meet famous Harry Potter, too. Her mostly male colleagues like to give themselves a cool air, so they would never admit that they're just as keen as everyone else to get a glimpse. Tonks doesn't pretend to be cooler than she really is. If only she could boast to her colleages that she knows Harry Potter! That she's talked to him, that he's a very pleasant boy, and that despite all his awful experiences he is absolutely sane, not at all the weirdo that the papers paint him to be.

There are quite a number of Aurors who think that Potter is a lunatic, still they also do believe that the kid has been on that graveyard and that he's seen Lord Voldemort return. But what can they do? They have no leave to investigate; as a matter of fact, anyone who hints that he believes in the boy's story has to fear disciplinary proceedings, indeed, a remove to office work if they signal particular stubbornness. Kingsley has come to the Phoenix Order because he's once been trained by Mad-Eye Moody, who is an old buddy of Dumbledore. Now Kingsley knew his young apprentice well enough to sense that she'd be interested to join, too. Another reason for her recruitment may be that they've hoped that she could spy on her aunt and uncle, but she had to let them down in that quarter.

She hasn't talked to either of them in more than ten years, and if she knocked on their door now, she'd raise more suspicions than be in any way useful for Dumbledore. It's funny... She's got her uncle Lucius to thank for coming so far - Kingsley's told her. She messed up her first entrance examination for the Auror training; she was bloody nervous, and her natural clumsiness kicked in. According to Kingsley, Lucius heard of her failing and arranged a second test. She still wonders why. He doesn't like her. She'd go as far as to say that he loathes her. It must be her aunt's doing to persuade him, or... Maybe he just wanted to keep up that respectable façade, signalising, 'hey, I'm one of the good guys, I even support my mudblood niece to defy Dark wizards'. Who knows. Who cares, more like.

She hasn't been exactly surprised when she's heard that Lucius has been on that graveyard in the night of Voldemort's return. Still, it has strangely touched her. If she had a wish - all right, if she had two - three wishes, she'd firstly wish that he hadn't come back in the first place, secondly that Remus Lupin asked her out on a date, and the solid number three would be that her own uncle had not been one of the first to appear on his old master's side. She couldn't say why though. He is a complete jerk. That story she's heard about his involvement with the Chamber of Secrets plot some years ago - that alone is more than she could ever forgive. God, those poor kids could have been killed! But dear uncle Lucius has never cared for trifles, has he.

They have a rather concise idea about the Dark order. There's Professor Snape spying on his old buddies - though the particular system of the Death Eater prevents him from knowing everyone involved. Voldemort has read his Art of War, right, he's made sure that no jackass could blow up his entire circle. There are cells containing seven wizards each. They might know someone outside of their own cell, but that's accidental. And from Snape's old cell, pretty much everyone is either dead or imprisoned. Here old Moody kicks in. He has devoted his life to hunt down Dark wizards, next to Dumbledore there's no one knowing half as much about them.

And here is the real problem now. Numbers. Voldemort has been away, presumed dead, for more than a decade, still he can fall back on four times as many wizards as his opponent Dumbledore can. Those wizards that are called 'Death Eaters' represent the inner circle, those who have given an oath for their life to serve, and both Professor Snape and Mad-Eye estimate that there are roughly thirty-five wizards still alive, only a dozen of them in Azkaban. Additionally, there are twice as many guys tightly linked to Voldemort, and if Dumbledore is right, a vast number of magical beasts and beings that he can use for his purposes.

Hagrid has been sent to the giants, to secure their support, or at least, their non-interference. Remus Lupin has gone back to join the other werewolves to agitate against Voldemort. Both missions are unlikely to be much of a success though. The giants are dumb and void of those sentiments that humans call 'morals'. Voldemort can offer them a life that no one else would be willing to grant them. And the same is true for the werewolves. Even if the Ministry loosened the rigid anti-werewolf laws, their hunger could never be satiated in a civilised environment. The same regulations are to blame that there are only a handful of werewolves like Remus. Why bother if they're despised outcasts anyway? Fenrir Greyback is out there...

Fenrir is the doyen of werewolves, a tragic figure himself. He is one of the rare specimen born to this condition, raised by his werewolf father in the woods. His mother was a witch that had to abandon her child because her parents would have murdered him if they had got hold of him. So there he is; a capable wizard, a brilliant strategist, but most of all, a bitter, disillusioned monster full of hate and hunger for revenge. Every child knows his name, but they mostly believe that it's merely a tale of terror, one of the kind that kids whisper under their blankets when they sleep over at their friends' house. But he is very real. There is a whole special unit designed to hunt him down, but Fenrir is clever. His attacks are unforeseeable, he and his gang keep on changing their whereabouts, and since Voldemort's downfall thirteen years ago, he's specialised on abducting muggle children to feed, never leaving a trace. Once a year, they kidnap a wizard child, as young as possible, to make them a werewolf and raise them in their species' way, until they've forgotten who they were, until they're following their chief unconditionally.

Remus could have been one of these unfortunate boys, if it hadn't been for his father and Dumbledore. Mr Lupin defied Greyback, saved his little son and stood up for him. Dumbledore became Headmaster in Hogwarts at just the right time, giving him a solid education and the same steady principles like his father. Some of this, Remus had told her himself, the rest she has got from the files of the special unit. She felt a bit guilty to snoop around a fellow order member, but her curiosity has overwhelmed her conscientiousness, and everything's she's read has only made her like him yet more.

However, their chances to defy Voldemort are slim, but they exist. They've got Dumbledore after all! And Harry Potter, which might look feeble, but works as an intrinsic motivation somehow. If a baby of eighteen months was once able to defeat the greatest Dark wizard of all times, they can do it again! Being the cunning bastard that he is, Voldemort hasn't come out in the open so far. Smart move. For the time being, he can reorganise his order without the Ministry's intervention. The Phoenix Order on the other hand is closely surveyed; three Aurors are assigned to trail Dumbledore (Scrimgeour is not satisfied with their performance so far), and everyone who is found out to be a member has to face some sort of punishment. Tonks herself and Kingsley didn't hesitate - he has lost a brother to the Death Eaters, but she knows a couple of colleagues who are just too scared to risk their career. Four years of thorough training, renunciation of a family - she doesn't blame them for being anxious, and it's good to know that there are some friendly minds in the Auror department at least.

"The boy is fine. He doesn't look too healthy, but he's fine," Emmeline Vance says now. She is one of Harry Potter's secret guards, because Dumbledore fears that the kid might be attacked in his aunt and uncle's house.

Molly Weasley puts on a fierce look. "These people do not feed him properly!"

"I think it's the stress."

"Plus he's grown quite a bit."

"I still say we bring him here at once," Molly insists stubbornly. She is backed up by Sirius.

"Sure! I don't get why he's got to stay with those morons!"

"Because Dumbledore says so," Professor McGonagall says briskly. "Now where is Mundungus, we've got to schedule the next week."

"Just assign him when you need him, Minerva. It's not as if he has got a job to claim his time!"

"Perhaps we could ask Snape to take a shift or two - it's holidays after all, so -"

"Rubbish, Broderick, rubbish. He must not be seen anywhere near the boy - or the Department of Mysteries, before you start with that. It might compromise his cover," Kingsley says calmly.

Momentarily, the shifts for protecting Harry Potter are mostly assigned to Charlie, Bill and Bill's girlfriend. Everyone has agreed that they're the most unobtrusive; all of them know Harry and if someone, or the boy himself, spots them, they can still claim that they merely want to pop in for a visit. Problem - Charlie needs to get back to Romania, and Bill and Fleur alone cannot cover twenty-four seven, they've got jobs of their own.

"What about Fred and George?" Charlie asks, but doesn't get any further because his mother explodes at once.

"Are you crazy?!"

"They're of age, they're keen on joining -"

"They are children! They're in school still! They're -"

Arthur pats his wife's arm. "Easy, dear. Fred and George are no option, Charlie. Of age or not, they'd hardly manage to stand up to a full-grown Dark wizard."

"I could take over every open shift!"

"You must not be seen anywhere, Sirius. Pettigrew knows your Animagus form, every Death Eater could recognise you and call for the Ministry to get you out of the way."

Tonks raises her hand. "I can change my appearance at will, no one would recognise me."

"But we need you elsewhere, Miss Tonks. I agree with Molly - Mundungus has time at his hands, and he's professional in keeping a good cover. What about you, Emmeline?" Professor McGonagall examines the parchment before her. "Tuesday and Sunday, shift two and three, like usually?"

"I can do the Saturday, too."

"Excellent. I'll assign Mundungus for Monday to Friday morning, still it'd be good to have a stand-in, just in case."

"Wednesday eez my free day, I can do Wednesday," Fleur says readily. Gawd, that girl's got perfect teeth. And complexion. And legs. And -

"That's generous, dear."

Professor McGonagall scribbles, not noticing Molly's scowl. Bill does though and grimaces at his mother, making Tonks and a couple of others grin. Molly is not content with her oldest son's choice of a girlfriend, as everyone knows. Admittedly, Fleur Delacour is a case of her own. On the plus side - she is incredibly pretty, she is bright and talented, and she's on their side. On the negative - she is - well - very French, isn't she? Lofty - affected - airy - and pretty extravagant. She'll drink no normal tea. She'll eat hardly anything normal. She'll dress up for work as if she was going to some fancy party. She'll talk with that unnerving accent. And she'll act completely weird when she's around Bill. They all have a snigger now and then on her cost, but she's okay. Only Molly cannot cope with her. Oh well, it'll pass.