The Summer of the Phoenix

Chapter 17

"So how," Sirius asked Tonks when everyone's laughter had died down again, "did you progress from Snape's NEWT class to Auror training? I suppose that was a quite logical transition?"

Tonks either didn't notice the ambiguity in the question, or chose to ignore it. "Not logical at all," she said. "I really had no idea what I wanted to do when I left school, so I took a year off and travelled for a while and tried to make up my mind. I didn't want a boring office job, I wanted to do something practical. I've always been quite fascinated by technical stuff, it runs in my family, on my father's side - my dad had all these technical books and things that he inherited from my grandfather, I loved that."

"What did your grandfather do?" Mrs Weasley inquired politely.

"He was an engineer. Used to work for Thames Water."

"Oh, he was a Muggle," said Bill Weasley dismissively. "Who'd want a Muggle job?"

"Well, you can't get one even if you want to," Tonks replied a little irritably. "They told me at the Ministry that -"

"- no witch or wizard is allowed to accept regular paid work in a Muggle job, for a Muggle employer, or in Muggle surroundings," Lupin supplied the official wording. The others looked at him in surprise. "Section 5 Clause 3 of the International Confederation of Wizards' Statute of Secrecy," he shrugged. "No exceptions under any circumstances. I know that one by heart."

Bill Weasley seemed suddenly rather embarrassed. "I never knew that," he said very quietly. "What a bother for - " he was searching for an unoffending term "- for you people," he finished lamely.

"It was a bother," Tonks confirmed. "So I had to scrap my plans of applying to a Muggle college, and worked in all kinds of weird wizarding jobs instead. Never stayed long in any of them. The longest I was in one place was a job supporting the management of the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team."

"Wow," said Bill, "that sounds like a fun job."

"It was kind of fun. But then, professional Quidditch is quite a dirty business, not only on the pitch. And after a while, I found the Isle of Anglesey was a bit of a backwater, really. I was aching to go back to London after the second season, so I took the first job I could get there, filling in for a witch on maternity leave. It was a bit of a joke, really - keeping tables and statistics for the Floo Network Regulation Panel in the Department of Magical Transportation. I know all about that now, transporting connections, communicating connections, permanent connections, temporary connections, extraordinary connections. Supremely boring, I assure you. And my boss, Madam Edgecombe, was a right old hag."

Sirius could vividly imagine his cousin getting into trouble with the notoriously over-correct senior Ministry officials.

"But one day," Tonks continued, "Kingsley Shacklebolt saw me in the Ministry canteen, amusing the other girls from the office with changing hairstyles, so he just came over and asked me straight away if I didn't want to employ those skills where they'd be really useful, and train to be an Auror."

"Just like that," said Bill.

"Just like that," Tonks confirmed, and giggled at the memory. "At first I thought what he really wanted was to ask me out. Then I thought he was kidding. But he was right, you know. I soon discovered that this was exactly the kind of job I'd always wanted. Mind you, Kingsley Shacklebolt has a talent for doing exactly the right thing at the right time."

"Like on Friday," Lupin muttered.

"Yes, like on Friday."

"Dad thought Dumbledore had tipped Shacklebolt off to do exactly what he did," Bill remarked.

"No, he hadn't," said Tonks seriously. "I swear all that Kingsley and I knew was that giving us the address of Sirius Black's old family home as the place of a secret meeting would require some explanation on Dumbledore's part. Kingsley had no idea what was coming, no more than I had."

An uneasy silence followed her words.

"I don't believe it," said Lupin finally, his voice hardly more than a whisper. "What a gamble."

Sirius put his knife and fork down and swallowed hard. A gamble? Sheer madness, that's what it had been. He felt his stomach lurch at the thought of what could have happened if Shacklebolt hadn't been convinced by Dumbledore's words. He suddenly found it hard to breathe.

"Are you all right, Sirius?" Bill asked concernedly.

"I - I think I am," Sirius lied, needing a second attempt to make his voice heard. What did Dumbledore think he was doing, staging a confrontation like that without warning either of them what might be coming, and with no safety measures in case his calculations went wrong?

But it had worked, and Sirius had said himself that that was all he cared about. To be honest, it had worked much better than he would ever have dared to hope. As a matter of fact, if he'd known who Shacklebolt was, he'd probably have refused to give it a chance, he'd have refused to attend the meeting at all, he'd have hidden in Kreacher's boiler cupboard instead. And he hated having to admit that to himself.

Sirius's eyes had unconsciously travelled to the cupboard door. He forced himself to turn back to his friends, who were now all looking at him with various degrees of concern on their faces. "I'm all right, really," he said, and picked up his knife and fork again, but he couldn't bring himself to eat any more.

"Look, if it makes you feel better," Tonks offered, "I can tell you a secret. Kingsley has been looking for the truth about your case for quite a while now. The longer he was on it, he said, the more was he convinced that there was something decidedly dodgy about it, about the way it was handled by the Ministry back then, with all those questions that were never answered, or never even asked. I think he was quite satisfied in the end to find out that he was right."

"Well, good for him," said Sirius, and noticed with relief that he was back in control of his voice. "Tell him that if I can do him another favour of the sort, I'd be happy to oblige, as long as it doesn't involve giving me the fright of my life more than about once a week."

"I'm sure that can be arranged," said Tonks, and they all laughed again. Tonks's curly mane danced around her shoulders in the firelight.

"Oh dear," said Mrs Weasley, and cleared away the plates. "Are you staying for the pudding, Bill? There's a fruit salad."

Bill Weasley looked up at the high windows and the waning light outside to check the time. "I'd best be off," he said. "Don't want to keep Arabella Figg waiting."

"Best Apparate directly into her backyard, safe from view, and knock on her kitchen door," Tonks advised him. "And her cake really is delicious," she added with a mischievous wink.

"All right then," said Bill and got up from his chair - and as he did, the doorbell went off once more in the hall over their heads. They all looked at each other in surprise.

"Were you expecting anyone else?" Bill asked Sirius, who shook his head. The expression on their faces slowly changed from surprise to unease.

"Come on, Bill," said Lupin practically, and got up with him.

"I'll come, too," said Tonks.

"No, don't bother," Lupin said wryly. "It's your weekend off, didn't you say?"

Tonks rolled her eyes, but remained seated. Bill and Lupin left the room, and the others could hear one of them hurrying up two flights of stairs to check from an upper window who was outside, while the other silenced Mrs Black's shrieks. Then the front door opened, there were muffled voices in the hall, and a minute later they came back downstairs, Lupin and Bill escorting a panting and very worried looking Mr Weasley.

"Arthur!" Mrs Weasley exclaimed, rushing towards her husband. "What's wrong? Anything with the children?"

"The children are fine," Mr Weasley assured her, looking unhappily at each of their small party in turn. "I'm sorry to disrupt your dinner, everyone, but I thought I'd better come here straight away. I've just talked to Albus Dumbledore through the fire. Things are beginning to move."