How Tonks Met Dung

How Tonks Met Dung

By Isla142

Chapter two: The Advance Guard (Tonks' Version)

It was soon arranged. Dumbledore had decided to send a party of nine to fetch Harry, led by Remus Lupin and Alastor Moody, both original order members.

The other seven were chosen from among the many volunteers: Tonks for her Muggle knowledge, Kingsley because he was an Auror, Sturgis Podmore a blonde and friendly worker in the Department of Magical Games and Sports, Emmeline Vance who was in the original order, Hestia Jones from the Auror division, Deadalus Diggle because he had met Harry before, and Elphias Doge an older man also from the original Order. It was Tonks' job to write a letter in order to remove the Dursleys from Privet Drive while they picked up Harry. She had studied the family for a few weeks and knew all of their breaking points. They would be apparating with brooms.

*~*~*

The day arrived, and Dung kissed Tonks goodbye rather roughly, reminding her of the meeting later. She hugged him tightly, before she looked at the others. Summoning her broom, Remus counted down from three, and then with a crack they vanished, to reappear a moment later in the kitchen at number four Privet Drive.

Tonks stretched out her arms, and knocked over a pile of plates standing there. She winced, and in hushed voices the others berated her.

"Idiot, you'll wake up the whole street!"

"Shhh!" said Moody.

Tonks sighed, and looked around her. It was very dark, not a thing could be seen from any side. Then Moody went over to the stairs and pointed his wand at Harry's door.

"Alohomora!" he whispered gruffly. The lock clicked and the door swung open. Every sound seemed louder in the darkness. Harry came out of his room, wand raised, and everyone watched him. He looked right at them.

"Lower your wand, boy, before you take someone's eye out," growled Moody in a low voice.

"Professor Moody?" asked the skinny boy, uncertainly and keeping his wand raised.

"I don't know so much about 'Professor'," said Moody, in his usual growling tone, "never got round to much teaching, did I? Get down here, we want to see you properly."

Tonks watched, as Harry lowered his wand slightly. However he stayed exactly where he was. Remus spoke up from where he stood.

"It's all right, Harry. We've come to take you away." When Harry spoke next he sounded amazed and overjoyed.

"P-Professor Lupin? Is that you?" Tonks suddenly spoke up from where she stood.

"Why are we all standing in the dark? Lumos." Her wand lit up and filled the room. Now they could all see each other properly, after blinking for a moment. Everyone simply looked at Harry, who was disconcerted. Remus was closest to the stairs, smiling heartily at Harry.

"Oooh! He looks just like I thought he would!" exclaimed Tonks, who had only ever seen him from a distance before. "Wotcher, Harry!"

"Yeah, I see what you mean, Remus," said Kingsley. "He looks exactly like James."

"Except the eyes," said Elphias wheezily, "Lily's eyes."

Moody suddenly growled out, "Are you sure it's him, Lupin?" Tonks rolled her eyes. "It'd be a nice lookout if we bring back some Death Eater impersonating him. We ought to ask him something only the real Potter would know. Unless anyone brought any Veritaserum?"

Tonks glanced at Kingsley; the ex-chief Auror really was paranoid sometimes. She shook her head with a silent sigh as Remus spoke again.

"Harry, what form does your Patronus take?"

"A stag," said Harry. He sounded rather nervous.

"And no wonder," Tonks would say later, telling the story to her son Alex. "There were nine of us and one of him. We could have been anyone!"

"That's him, Mad-Eye," said Remus, nodding.

Tonks starred at Harry as he came down the stairs slowly. He stowed his wand in the back pocket of his jeans, and Tonks immediately knew that Moody was going to say something.

Sure enough, he roared, "Don't put your wand there, boy! What if it ignited? Better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know!"

Tonks was surprised. Moody had never said this before, and so she asked, "Who d'you who's lost a buttock?"

"Never you mind," said Moody, looking at her with his magical eye; she could feel it. "You just keep your wand out of your back pocket!" He muttered something about 'Elementary wand-safety', and stumped back into the kitchen.

Tonks rolled her eyes to the ceiling, regretting it a moment later when he growled:

"And I saw that!"

'I wonder what Dung would think of all this?' she wondered silently, looking about them.

Meanwhile, Remus was approaching Harry. They had a short conversation, during which the black-haired young boy looked completely stunned. Tonks and the others just stood around calmly.

"I'm - you're really lucky the Dursleys are out..." he mumbled. Tonks laughed.

"Lucky, ha! It was me who lured them out of the way. Sent a letter by Muggle post telling them they'd been short-listed for the All-England Best Kept Suburban Lawn Competition," Tonks burst out laughing again, and took a deep breath before continuing. "They're heading off to the prize-giving right now... or they think they are..." Again, the young Auror laughed merrily, wondering what Dung would say if he knew.

Harry talked to Remus again, and Tonks glanced about her, listening in but also noting her surroundings as Auror training had taught her.

"...And this is Nymphadora -"

"Don't call me Nymphadora, Remus," said Tonks exasperatedly, and shuddering. "It's Tonks."

"Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known by her surname only," responded Remus, raising his eyebrows slightly.

"So would you if your fool of a mother had called you Nymphadora," muttered Tonks in reply. She completely understood why Dung didn't like his full title, but unlike her he didn't like his surname either, so Dung it was.

Lupin introduced the others, while Tonks continued to look about the spotlessly clean kitchen. She commented on the unusual cleanliness to the group in general, comparing it to her dad's house. Whenever she visited home, her mum would be getting very annoyed with her father, and Tonks too would join in, trying to persuade him to clean it up. This never worked, but then both female Tonkses didn't mind the mess really.

"Er - yeah," said Harry, in nervous response to her question. He turned back to Remus. "Look - what's going on, I haven't heard anything from anyone, what's Vol -"

Tonks shuddered, and made a hissing noise at Harry to keep him quiet. Moody growled two words at him, 'Shut up!' and explained about keeping quiet. Then, he held a hand up to his magical eye and popped it out. Taking a glass tumbler from the side, he filled it with water and washed his eye. Tonks winced disgustedly.

"Mad-Eye, you do know that's disgusting, don't you?" she asked him in a pleasant tone. Moody ignored her, and put his eye back in. It spun about in his eye-socket sickeningly, and Tonks make a faint puking noise, sticking out her tongue. Moody pretended not to notice.

Remus was explaining to Harry about how they would travel. To Tonks' mind it was pretty easy to work it out, but it seemed that Harry needed a lot of things explained to him.

"Anyway, you'd better go and get packed, Harry, we want to be ready to go when the signal comes."

"I'll come and help you," volunteered Tonks immediately, interested in this Muggle house.

*~*~*

It was completely different to how it appeared from the outside. She commented whimsically on how freakily clean it was, but cheered up when she reached Harry's room. There was mess everywhere, all over Harry's bed. It didn't appear to have been cleaned for days!

The young and inexperience boy began to throw things hastily into a trunk at the bottom of his bed, but Tonks wasn't really interested. She needed a new look, something better. She bet that Dung didn't like it.

"You know, I don't think violet's really my colour," she said thoughtfully, tilting her head at different angles to get a better look. "D'you think it makes me look a bit peaky?"

Tonks wasn't really interested in the young boy's reply. She could already see in her mind's eye that it did. What would Dung think if he saw it? "Yeah, it does." Screwing up her face, she concentrated upon changing her hair from the boring violet to a stunning pink. She turned to look at Harry, who was gaping madly at her.

"How did you do that?"

"I'm a Metamorphmagus," she replied casually, glancing at her reflection again. When he still looked confused, she patiently explained it to him, adding a little about her being an Auror.

"You're an Auror?" he asked curiously and very impressed.

Tonks nodded proudly; she had been really amazed that she had passed her Auror training.

"Kingsley is as well, he's a bit higher up than me, though, I only qualified a year ago..."

"Can you learn how to be a Metamorphmagus?" asked Harry. Tonks groaned inwardly, did this boy need everything explaining to him? However, she understood why he was asking.

"Bet you wouldn't mind hiding that scar sometimes?"

She glanced at where it was marked permanently, fringe barely covering the red lightning bolt. He turned away uncomfortably, muttering something that sounded like a 'no'.

Tonks smiled, and rolled her eyes as Harry began to put things manually into his suitcase. She demonstrated the packing spell imperfectly for him, and shut his trunk. Then, she spotted something that froze her in mid word.

"A Firebolt?"

Harry clutched the broomstick tightly, and no wonder. It was the best broomstick in the world!

"And I'm still riding a Comety Two Sixty," she continued, wondering what Dung would say if he knew. She expected that Sirius already knew, being Sirius.

She levitated his trunk down the stairs, and waited for a moment while Remus sealed the letter to the Dursley family. Mad-Eye Disillusioned him, and they went outside. Soon, they were up in the air, flying towards London.