World's Smallest Violin

Chapter 9: Breakdown

Tonks raised her hand to the door, gave herself one last chance to change her mind, and knocked. There were a few muffled shouts inside, and then Ginny opened the door.

"It's Tonks," Ginny announced in lieu of a greeting. "Come on in," she added at a more reasonable volume.

Mrs. Weasley and Ron appeared almost immediately, looking tense.

"Relax," Tonks said, observing them, "nothing's happened. I just wanted to have a quick word with you, Molly, if that's alright."

"Of course, dear," Mrs. Weasley replied. "Clear out, you two," she ordered Ron and Ginny, leading Tonks into the dining area and a seat at the table. "Would you like something to eat?"

"Thanks, but no," Tonks said, taking a seat. "I really can't stay long."

"Fred and George told me you were there the night Diagon Alley was looted," Mrs. Weasley said when Tonks hesitated. "Thank you for helping them."

"Anytime," Tonks replied. She pulled a sealed envelope from an inner pocket and tapped it against the table, wishing she had put more thought into what she was going to say. "Molly, this is a letter for my parents. I'm about to do something pretty dangerous. I was wondering if you would...I mean...just in case...it's pretty dangerous..."

Mrs. Weasley took the letter in silence.

"Of course," she replied after a moment, her voice thick. "What are you going to do?"

Tonks paused, considering. Despite being in the Order together for over a year, their paths did not cross often and Tonks was unsure if the Weasley matriarch was the type of person who was soothed by information , no matter how dire, or if she was better off not knowing in spite of herself. Eventually she decided on the former.

"There's a werewolf in Greyback's pack who wants out," Tonks explained. "I'm going to act as a decoy while the Order helps her escape."

"This is all happening soon?" Molly inferred.

"Tonight," Tonks confirmed. "I'm just waiting for word from Dumbledore."

"During the full moon," Molly said.

There was really no fooling this woman for long. Tonks was sorry to have doubted her, however momentarily.

"Hence the danger, and the letter."

Mrs. Weasley reached out and touched her arm. "Nymphadora, Dumbledore won't force you to do something you don't want to do."

"I know, he's not," Tonks replied. "I have my own reasons for wanting to do this."

"Remus?"

"No, no, he's been trying to talk me out of it, actually."

"That's not exactly what I meant, dear," Molly said.

"What?" Tonks asked uncomprehendingly, and then something in her head changed with a click that she could have sworn was audible. It was something she could not explain or describe, something related to her deep appreciation for Lupin, all the time she had gotten to spend with him leading up to today, and the way it had felt when he stroked her back while she was learning how to transform into a werewolf. It was something she felt she had always known, and only had to hear it out loud to recognize it. Tonks felt a goofy smile spreading across her face and contained it with an effort.

"I thought so," Molly replied, patting her arm. "I'll take care of this letter for you, but I'm expecting you to look after yourself and make sure I don't have to send it."

"I'll do my best," Tonks said, standing. "Thanks Molly."

Tonks stepped outside and immediately realized something else.

"Bad timing," she said to herself. "Terrible."

=====

"The key to nonverbal spells is concentration and intent," Tonks explained to Malfoy across the table at her parents' house, "otherwise everyone would walk around performing every spell that happened to cross their minds." She had been nothing but a bundle of nerves waiting around her flat for word from Dumbledore and eventually decided that a bit of Malfoy's homework would be an excellent way to release her energy. For his part, Malfoy had seemed surprised that she had returned to tutor him considering how their last meeting ended, but Tonks was not nearly as annoyed with him as she had lead him to believe. Rather, she had decided that there was a distinct advantage to letting a potential enemy think that he knew what buttons to push.

"I've tried all that," Malfoy protested. Tonks eyed him steadily. "Back at school, I mean. My parents use nonverbal spells all the time; they've explained it to me. I've tried it and it never works."

"It's not enough just to think the spell," Tonks said, "you have to go through the same process in your mind that you would if you were going to speak aloud, then just not say it."

"But why?" Malfoy groaned, leaning back from his Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook. "If you don't say it out loud, then why does the spell work?"

Finally, Tonks understood where Malfoy was going wrong and was only surprised that she had not realized it sooner. Nearly everyone she had ever met, herself included, had at one time been misinformed on this point.

"The spell doesn't matter. The words themselves, they don't mean anything."

"What?" Malfoy said, looking certain that she did not know what she was talking about.

"Did you think there's a pile of elves somewhere, elves who only speak ancient Latin, just waiting around, listening for your spells so they can pull the strings for you?"

"No," Malfoy muttered, with the air of someone who, however he actually thought magic worked, had just realized that his hypothesis was completely foolish. "Then what do we need to say the spells for?"

Tonks waited.

"Oh," Malfoy breathed at last. "Then you could just point your wand as this book and tell it to levitate and it would do it?"

"Maybe," Tonks said, drawing her wand. "Levitate!"

After a moment, the book lifted off the table a few inches, hung there, then settled gently back down.

Malfoy stared at the book, agog, then caught Tonks' eye.

"You said the spell in your head, didn't you," he sighed, disappointed.

"Yep," Tonks confirmed, smiling at him. "There are words in English and every language that will perform the Wingardium Leviosa spell, but most researchers are more concerned with inventing new spells than trying to find them. In the end, though, any words are unnecessary, they're just a way of using magic to do what you want without understanding exactly what you're doing. Someone with a more complete knowledge of magic than mine could perform any spell he or she wanted without using any incantations at all."

It occurred to Tonks suddenly that Dumbledore probably had this skill, but her feelings of confidence rapidly evaporated when she realized that Voldemort most likely did as well.

"You're smarter than you look," Malfoy said.

"You're not so bad yourself," Tonks replied genuinely, but suspicious that he was only pandering. "Keep all that in mind when you're back at Hogwarts and see where it gets you."

At that moment Dumbledore's Patronus flashed in front of them then just as quickly disappeared.

"What was that?" Malfoy yelped.

It was something that Tonks dearly wished Malfoy had not seen. "I have to go," she said shortly and strode out before Malfoy could ask any further questions and without pausing to say anything to her parents. Tonks stepped outside, locked the door behind her, and Disapparated immediately to the Hog's Head, where Dumbledore was waiting.

"Ah, Nymphadora, you made excellent time," Dumbledore said, standing up to meet her as she entered the pub.

"Yeah, well, I hit some traffic in London, but..." Tonks froze, realizing that she had just told the beginning of a joke to her former Headmaster. She must be even more nervous than she thought.

Dumbledore, however, only chuckled good-naturedly, but that only made Tonks more uncomfortable because she had no punch line.

"Made up some time in Leeds, though," she concluded feebly.

"That's the spirit," Dumbledore applauded, wiping a mirthful tear from his eye. "However, we must now move on to more serious matters. The werewolf pack has positioned itself near St. Davids." Dumbledore turned to a map he had laid out on the table and pointed out an area near the outskirts of the city. "In approximately half an hour, Rachel Munroe will invent an excuse to leave the pack for a short while and walk into the woods here." Dumbledore shifted his finger slightly on the map. "When she does so, Remus will send us a signal, and you will Apparate into the woods. Rachel will meet two Order members at a pre-arranged location and they will bring her to a safe place where she can be questioned and then transform. Do you have any questions?"

"No, sir," Tonks replied, taking a last look at the map and noting that Dumbledore had not told her any specific details about where Rachel would go or who she was meeting. In spite of his calm demeanor, Dumbledore was worried that Tonks would be discovered. This did not surprise or deter Tonks, she was worried too.

"Very good," Dumbledore said, probably aware of the thoughts that had just passed through her mind. He picked up a bundle of clothes and passed them over. "In that case, these are duplicates of the clothes Rachel is wearing tonight. You will find a staircase around the corner from the bar. The first room on the right is available for your use."

Tonks returned a few minutes later wearing Rachel's face along with her clothes.

"Well done," Dumbledore approved, looking her over. "I doubt even your mothers could tell you apart. Now, with your permission, I would like to perform a charm of my own invention which will cause your wand to stick to your forearm. The reason for this is twofold. First, there is nothing to be done for the fact that your wand and Rachel's are not identical, and I think you'll agree that it would be best to keep your wand in a place where it will be readily available for your use, but also where no one will immediately think to look for it. Secondly, for the duration of the charm, only you will be able to remove your wand from your arm. It will not simply fall off, including during your werewolf transformation, which I am told is very convincing."

"Thank you, sir, please go ahead," Tonks agreed readily, rolling up her sleeve.

Dumbledore performed the spell in a moment, simply by touching his wand to Tonks' and then to her forearm, and when Tonks held her wand to the spot it remained stuck there as though with a strong magnet. When she gave it a tug it came away easily, then reattached itself just as firmly when she brought it close again. Tonks thought of a half dozen additional uses for this charm in the time it took her to perform these experiments.

"Sir, do you think you could teach me this spell sometime?" Tonks asked, adjusting her sleeve so the wand was hidden.

"Certainly," Dumbledore said, looking pleased, "although I must point out that performing a spell on one's own wand is a difficulty for which I have not yet designed a solution."

Tonks shrugged, not all over her ideas involved sticking wands to things. Instead she said, "There are a lot of Muggles in St. Davids."

"Not to worry, we have the situation well in hand," Dumbledore assured her. "The magical population has been notified, those who chose to stay have agreed to help defend their Muggle neighbors, I myself have placed many wards around the city, and several Order members will be on hand. No one will get hurt." However, Dumbledore's expression rapidly changed and he added, "Nymphadora, I feel I must give you one last chance to walk away from this endeavor."

"Thank you, but I'm in," Tonks replied firmly.

"If I recall correctly, you and Miss Munroe were rather close while you were at Hogwarts."

"Close enough, sir."

"Very well," Dumbledore said. "I believe we can expect the signal any moment now."

They waited nearly a minute. Tonks spent most of it pacing back and forth on her too long legs while Dumbledore sat staring over his steepled fingers, eyes unfocused, looking at something that was not in the room with them. Finally, there sounded a soft whistling. Tonks nearly jumped out of Rachel's skin, but Dumbledore calmly removed his wand from his pocket and quieted it with a swish.

"That is our signal," he explained.

"Alright, good luck sir."

"And you."

Tonks strode outside and nearly Disapparated before her sense of self preservation got the best of her. "What are you doing?" it asked. She took a deep breath and turned.

She appeared in the woods. There was no sign of Rachel, not that Tonks had really expected to see her. Feeling as though she had left her stomach back at the Hog's Head, Tonks embarked on the longest sixty count of her life, but gave up and began making her way out of the woods when she got to twenty. It took longer than expected to find the gathering of werewolves and Tonks was beginning to suspect that she had gotten turned around in the woods when she came upon them at last.

Acting of their own accord, Tonks' eyes sought and found Lupin immediately, seated on the ground at the back of the assembly. The dopey smile she had first experienced at the Weasley house threatened to reemerge at the sight of him, but she forced it back and instead gave Lupin a covert wave, signaling that she was Tonks and not Rachel. He acknowledged her with a subtle nod and Tonks turned away to find a place to sit near the front. As Lupin had said, there was no mistaking Greyback. Even in his human form he reminded her of a wild animal, everything from his appearance to his movements to his words assured her that he would gladly rip someone apart at the slightest provocation.

Greyback was standing on a rock at the head of the gathering, gesticulating wildly as he drove home some point that Tonks chose to ignore for the time being. Against her better judgment, she chose to sit on a fallen log near Greyback's rock, as was Rachel's tendency. The sun was setting properly now and Tonks wished that she had checked an astronomy chart for the exact time of the moonrise, but she could tell from the energy of the pack that it would not be long now.

"Rachel," Greyback said suddenly, gesturing for her to come forward. Tonks reluctantly obeyed. "What do you think?" he said into her ear. The force of his foul breath was something no one had warned her about.

It was very difficult to think of a suitable response while also trying not to gag, but she managed it eventually. "They look hungry, Fenrir," Tonks said, trying to sound blood thirsty. "I'll bet a few people will get bitten tonight."

"A few!" Greyback laughed nastily, addressing the group at large. "I think we can make more than a few new werewolves tonight. And why shouldn't we? They shut us out, turn us away, leave us to starve, and we are the superior race!"

"Superior race!" someone from the crowd echoed. Based on Lupin's description, Tonks guessed that it must be Bower.

Tonks risked a quick glace at Lupin, curious about his reaction to all this and impressed that he could listen to such vitriol on a regular basis and still stay so sane. She had only spent a few minutes around Greyback and already felt a strong compulsion to take a very thorough shower. Lupin was not looking in her direction; perhaps he survived by allowing his mind to escape elsewhere.

"We must all play our parts in this plan," Greyback continued. "We must increase the size of our pack until we have enough werewolves to topple the Ministry. The Dark Lord has pledged to help us. With his help we will remake society in our own image. No longer will we sit out in the cold and the rain and the snow. We will make the laws and leave all those who opposed us out to starve."

Across the group, Lupin was moving his shoulders, head, and hands uncomfortably, and he was not the only one. The moon was close. So she would not stand out, Tonks copied the movements of the werewolves.

"Tonight, though, we hunt," Greyback continued, his voice a low growl, "and I will be very disappointed in anyone who has not bitten someone by morning. I'm sure you've noticed, however, that our hunts have not always been very successful recently, so I would like to try something new. In the city of Aberdeen, there is a central market that I'm sure you're all familiar with. Retrieve your wands. Before we transform tonight, we will all Apparate there."

All pretenses forgotten, Tonks stared at Lupin and he stared back. His look of horror was twin to her own. Her heart was beating so hard and so fast that she could hear it and she felt like all of her insides had turned to liquid. She had no ideas, no plan for how to save the people of Aberdeen, not even the beginning of one, and no time at all to think of one.

Tonks Disapparated to Aberdeen without waiting to hear another word. She appeared in the middle of the open air market Greyback had indicated, which was crowded with a few witches and wizards, but mostly with Muggles of all descriptions. Never before had the Statute of Secrecy been further from her mind. Quick as a flash, she sent a Patronus message to Dumbledore, then two more to Shacklebolt and Mad-Eye for good measure.

"Clear out!" Tonks shouted at everyone in earshot. "Get out of here, get inside! It's not safe!"

Only a few people moved and those only to give her a few more feet of space. Most of them were looking at her like they thought she was crazy. Options began occurring to her, one after the other, none of them possible. She could put an anti-apparition jinx on the area, but not on all of Aberdeen, not even all of the market, not by herself. There were far too many people for her to disguise or hide. She did not know any spells that would force them to take refuge indoors. Finally, Tonks came up with her first idea that could work: give the people a convincing reason to leave of their own accord and, hopefully, a few extra seconds to save themselves. The matter decided, Tonks undertook the fastest werewolf transformation she had yet attempted.

The result was immediate. Several nearby people screamed and tried to get away. Tonks encouraged this by snarling menacingly and snapping at heels wherever she found them, but the werewolf pack began to appear long before the market was clear. Lupin and Greyback were the last to arrive, and Lupin had several fresh scratches on his face and arms. From the looks of things, Lupin had refused to come, so Greyback had taken him side-along.

The sight of twenty additional people in the midst of transforming into werewolves was enough to spur the shoppers still on the street to greater speeds, which was fortunate because Tonks now had a decision to make. She could leave, which was really not an option at all, stand and fight, even though she was not impressed with her chances, or run and perhaps get the werewolves to follow her. However, she would then have to figure out how to lead the werewolves out of Aberdeen by a path where they were least likely to encounter any people, preferably without getting bitten herself, and all without a sure knowledge of the layout of the large city.

For the moment, the smell of humans must have been so strong and omnipresent that it confused the newly transformed werewolves, and none of them seemed to have noticed anything unusual about Tonks yet, but that would certainly not last long. If anyone from the Order had arrived yet, keeping their distance, probably concentrating on getting the people of Aberdeen to safety. Tonks wished she could get some indication of their plan, but none seemed forthcoming. Then Greyback, at least she thought it was Greyback, caught a scent that seemed to interest him and turned to face Tonks with menace in his eyes. All at once the time for thinking was over and the time to run had started.

Tonks ran as hard and as fast as her four ungainly legs would carry her. Greyback came chasing after her and, as far as she could tell, the rest of the pack chased after him. For a moment Tonks allowed herself to hope that this arrangement of the pack following its leader would carry them to the edge of the city, but she was quickly reminded that wolf hunting tactics were smarter than all that. Tonks had barely traveled three blocks before she found herself flaked by two astonishingly fast wolves that she only just barely managed to avoid by turning down a side street.

With no notion of which direction would lead them out the city the fastest, Tonks attempted to keep running approximately east, toward the rising moon, but the situation was quickly becoming unsustainable. She could keep the main hunt focused on herself, but the werewolves were constantly straying off path to try and surround her and it was only a matter of time before one of them became distracted by a busy street, full of people unaware of the danger. What was more, Tonks might have looked like a werewolf, but that was only skin and bones, she still had human muscles, human lungs, human heart, and she had already exhausted all of them and was running on adrenaline alone. Tonks had no idea how much longer she could outpace the werewolves. Of course, matters had not improved when Tonks had rushed onto a busy road early in the chase and been clipped by a car. If she could only use her wand she could Apparate in front of the pack and make herself a much more frustrating and uncatchable target, but she did not have a single second to spare to change back into herself. Without magic, Tonks had only her wits to use against a pack of twenty werewolves, and she was unimpressed by the odds.

Until a better option presented itself, all Tonks could do was keep the attention of the pack on herself, and so she ran on, only paces ahead and loosing ground all the time. Though werewolves repeatedly appeared unexpectedly ahead of her and she had to change course often to avoid them, she kept running east as much as possible, knowing that she would reach the city limits eventually. They passed museums and restaurants and statues and parks lit only by streetlamps, and streets upon streets of Muggles out on a fine summer night with no idea of the danger. At least they knew enough to scramble out of the way at the sight of the pack.

Tonks had long since lost track of the individual members of the pack. She knew that many of them were still following her, she could tell by the panting and howling close behind, but how many was another matter.

Worried though she was about the wolves she may have lost, Tonks could not help but take heart from the fact that her plan, whatever it was, seemed to be working. They had started in a shopping district but passed into a region filled with office buildings and then into a residential area as the pavement passed beneath her feet. Then she was running on grass and then on sand and the briny smell of the sea reached her nose. A werewolf darted in front of her and she jumped over him and carried on with only one thought in her head: there are no people in the sea. At any rate, she thought her muscles had forgotten how to do anything except run.

Tonks reached the water and jumped the first wave but the second hit her like a Bludger, knocking her off her feet and tangling her up in the surf. The next second a werewolf was on top of her, teeth bared, ready to bite.

"Lupin!" Tonks shouted with the last of the air in her lungs. It sounded like a whine. She could not have said how she knew her attacker was also her friend, but somehow she was correct. Some last remaining shred of humanity caused him to hesitate just long enough for Tonks to shove him away and find her feet.

"Lupin, help me!" Tonks howled and, amazingly, he did, he tackled the next werewolf to jump at her.

Knowing that Lupin could defend himself much better without her help at this point, Tonks took the opportunity to make her way deeper into the sea. When she had battled her way past the surf zone, she finally returned to her own appearance. Her clothes were back in the market, but this was no time for modesty. Immediately, she sent red sparks high into the air, hoping that the Order would see it and come to her aid.

Each swell of the water brought her high enough to see back to the beach. There was not enough light to count the werewolves in the surf, but she was horrified to notice the forms of several wolves still harassing the houses near the coast. Before she was even aware that she had reached a decision, Tonks pointed her wand at the wolf she could see the clearest that still remained on dry land and cast Imperius. Immediately, his mind bent to hers and the wolf began attacking its fellows and driving them toward the water. It was a good idea, perhaps one she should have used from the very beginning, but Tonks felt sick. She had just used an unforgivable curse on another human being.

When the last wolf she could find had reached the sea, Tonks released the person she had cursed and noticed something that cheered her up considerably: by the light of the moon she could barely make out several wolves at the water's edge, struggling against some unseen barrier that prevented them from returning to the city. The Order had gotten a ward up and they were outside of it, she had succeeded. Tonks was so relieved that she forgot to tread water for a moment and nearly sank beneath the surface. Only then did she realize how cold the water was, and that she was rapidly loosing feeling in her extremities. Furthermore, there could very well still be werewolves in the water looking for her. By all logic, Tonks knew she should Disapparate to safety, but there could still be people in the area, she could not leave the werewolves until the Order arrived on the scene. Apparating to shore was not an option, because Tonks was certain that she was unequal to another round of avoiding the werewolves on foot, and she could not risk Apparating into town without knowing whether or not one of the wards in the way was an anti-apparition jinx.

In the water she could hide and watch, so in the water she stayed. Besides, she was getting used to the temperature; in fact she was starting to feel quite warm...

=====

When Tonks awoke, she was in St. Mungo's, she could tell by the gently floating spheres over her head. Someone was arranging bottles of potions on her nightstand.

"Hello, Healer Barlow," Tonks said, sitting up.

"Don't talk to me," Barlow muttered good naturedly. "You've caused enough work for me today. Taking a stroll on the full moon, honestly."

"I thought you said I was your favorite patient," Tonks protested.

"That's only when you don't do something foolish to get here," Barlow replied.

"I'm having trouble thinking of the last thing I did that wasn't foolish," Tonks pointed out. "I'm an Auror, it's part of the job description."

"That business about Aurors having permanent beds here is supposed to be an exaggeration," Barlow pointed out.

"Nobody tells me anything," Tonks joked.

"You weren't bitten, by the way," the Healer said.

"How about that," Tonks said, trying to sound flip buy largely failing. "Can I go then?"

"Not so fast," Barlow replied, pressing a potion into her hands. "I'm keeping you here until tomorrow night to make sure you don't have a death wish."

"You can do that?" Tonks demanded. She drank the potion and pulled a face. "That's horrible."

"Try and leave and you'll end up in the closed ward. You had severe hypothermia, muscle exhaustion, damage to your shoulder and ribs, and what on Earth did you do to your fingers and toes?"

Tonks examined her hands. "They look fine."

"They were rubbed raw when you came in," Barlow said.

"Oh," Tonks shrugged. "I got into a bit of a foot race."

"On your hands?"

"There were lots of feet." Apparently Barlow had been informed that Tonks had gotten involved with werewolves, but not that she had pretended to be one.

"If you won't tell me then at least drink your potions," Barlow sighed. "Then you can see your visitors."

"Yes, ma'am."

Very few other things could have motivated her to drink the potions so readily, but Tonks drained them all then asked for and received a glass of water for a chaser. Only then did Barlow allow Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad-Eye Moody inside.

"That was quite a stunt," Shacklebolt said when they were alone. "What were you trying to do, take them all to Azkaban yourself?"

"I forgot Aberdeen was on the coast," Tonks admitted in a mutter.

"Don't they teach geography in Auror training anymore?" Mad-Eye demanded. "Along with what not to do when you encounter a pack of werewolves?"

"I must have missed those days," Tonks said.

"You'll be teaching them next year," Shacklebolt informed her.

"I guess I have it coming," Tonks admitted. "Was anyone bitten?"

Shacklebolt and Mad-Eye glanced at each other. "Five that we know of," Shacklebolt said at last.

"That you know of?" Tonks yelped.

"It seems one werewolf gave you the slip," Shacklebolt explained, "He did some damage, but we caught him and have him in custody. We also gathered up the wands the werewolves dropped. It would have been much worse if it weren't for you."

That was not the sort of information Tonks wanted to hear. "What about Greyback, did you get him?"

"We've been after Greyback for years," Mad-Eye said. "He knows all the tricks and must have used most of them."

"We'll figure out a way to make sure this doesn't happen again," Shacklebolt added.

"I used the Imperius curse," Tonks said quietly.

"Against a werewolf to save Muggles," Shacklebolt said. "There's no chance the Wizengamot will punish you."

"Doesn't make it right," Tonks said. She sat quietly for a moment, feeling sick. "What about Rachel?" she asked. "Did she escape?"

"I expect she's settling comfortably in Greece by now," Shacklebolt replied.

"I hear it's nice there this time of year," Tonks said, masking a bit of disappointment. She had been hoping to get the chance to talk to her old friend.

"Tonks, you don't have to do everything by yourself," Shacklebolt said suddenly. "You can ask for help."

"I do," Tonks protested.

"And then go off on your own anyway," Mad-Eye said. "You're worse than Potter."

"Oh be fair," Tonks said, "no one's worse than Harry."

"She might have a point there," Shacklebolt agreed, and they all enjoyed a bit of a laugh.

"Tonks, there's something else you need to know," Mad-Eye said after a moment. Tonks straightened up to listen. "Dumbledore's gone missing."

"What!" Tonks demanded. "Where did he go?"

"We don't know," Shacklebolt replied. "Any wizard on Earth would have a hell of a time kidnapping him, so he must have left for his own reasons, but no one seems to know where he went or when he'll be back. You were probably the last person to see him."

"I thought he was going to meet with Rachel," Tonks said.

"So did we," Shacklebolt said. "But Bill and Charlie say he never showed up. They had to question her and take her to Greece on their own."

"I've taken over as head of the Order until Dumbledore returns," Mad-Eye said.

"I'll follow you until the end, sir," Tonks replied, raising a mock salute, "just as long as you don't make Molly stop cooking for the meetings."

"Noted," Mad-Eye said.

"What are we telling the Muggles?" Tonks asked.

"Mass breakout from the zoo," Mad-Eye replied.

"So the truth, then."

"Speaking of which, Lupin's here," Shacklebolt said, then added, "not as a patient," when a look of concern crossed Tonks' face.

"I'd like to see him," Tonks replied.

"We'll tell him," Shacklebolt said and they both left.

Lupin appeared a few minutes later and hovered in the doorway looking much worse for the wear.

"Are you coming in or what?" Tonks asked him.

"Tonks...I..." he stammered without moving an inch.

In that moment, Tonks became aware of a decision that it seemed she had already made. Lupin lived in constant fear of infecting someone with lycanthropy. Tonks vowed to never, for as long as she lived, tell him how close he had come to biting her.

"Thanks for your help last night," she said instead.

"My help?" Lupin asked, surprised.

"You don't remember? Another werewolf had its eye on me, you were nearby, I asked for your help and you tackled him for me." It was close enough to the truth that Tonks did not feel guilty about the lie.

"I never should have asked you to do this. I put you in so much danger." Leave it to Lupin to focus on that part of what she had said.

"I knew what I was getting into, and I would do it again tomorrow."

"Please don't say that."

Tonks persisted. "Besides, if I hadn't been there, things might have worked out much worse for Aberdeen."

"There's some talk of awarding you the Order of Merlin."

Tonks snorted in surprise.

"No kidding? Whose idea was that?" she asked. "Well, don't worry. I'm sure I'll do something to make them reconsider before too long." But she was chuffed in spite of herself.

"Well, I should..." Lupin began, gesturing vaguely out the doorway he had still not quite left.

"Lupin, I want to say something," Tonks interrupted, and then carried on without waiting for a response. "I really enjoyed getting to work with you these past few weeks, and I think we did good together. I was also thinking that we might also be good together outside the Order, so what if...that is..."

Tonks realized she was babbling and forced herself to stop, but the nerves found a new outlet in her hands, which began twisting the hem of her bed sheet. Conservation of energy. They most certainly did not cover this in Auror training. Give her an angry pack of werewolves any day.

"Lupin, would you like to go out sometime?"

An expression Tonks had never seen before crossed Lupin's face, somehow light and heavy at the same time, but he turned away before she could study it further.

"Out as in..." Lupin asked a poster on the wall that warned against the dangers of tripping hexes.

"I dunno, eat some food, see a play, share a friendly conversation, I'm open to suggestions."

"Tonks, I'm a werewolf."

"Is that what all that was about last night? I did wonder."

"I'm thirteen years older than you."

"But that's 91 in dog years, so by comparison...Hey, are wolf years the same as dog years?"

"Tonks, this is serious. I've barely got two Galleons to rub together."

"Then I'll pay for dinner. Are you going to answer my question or keep making up excuses?"

Lupin opened his mouth and Shacklebolt burst suddenly into the room, followed closely by Mad-Eye.

"We just got word that Fudge received a ransom letter from Voldemort," Shacklebolt explained at once. "He's been given one week to surrender control of the Ministry, or else the Death Eaters are going to start attacking Muggles."

"What!" Tonks demanded, leaping out of bed. "What are we doing about this? Does anyone know where he's going to attack? Where are my clothes? Will one of you find that crazy healer and tell her that I'll prove I don't have a death wish next time I'm here?"

And without waiting for any responses, Tonks strode out of the room in her flimsy patient robes.

=====

The first, most important rule of interrogations is to never, ever, in a million years, let them see that you are scared. To do so is to give up the power and allow them room to bargain. Tonks had read this a hundred times in the Auror guidelines, she had witnessed several interrogations from an observation room, but never conducted one herself before.

It was six days, fourteen hours, and twenty seven minutes since Fudge had received the ransom note. Every department in the Ministry had been working around the clock to try and stop Voldemort from executing his plan. They had investigated every back channel, turned over every stone in England, called in every marker, and the Order of the Phoenix had done still more. Tonks herself had tried twice to wheedle information out of low ranking Death Eaters, and the second time she only narrowly escaped with her skin. Even Snape was in the dark. For all their effort, they still had no idea what was going to happen tomorrow, or how to prevent it.

Tonks was terrified.

"What are they planning, Malfoy?"

"How should I know?" he replied heatedly, matching her tone.

The second rule was that suspects should not be interrogated by a person familiar to them. No way around that, really.

"Your father and Aunt are in Voldemort's inner circle, you must know something," Tonks shouted. "Think!"

She decided that her only real hope was that Draco was not a hardened criminal and would not know the tricks.

"I'm telling you, they never discussed anything around me," he maintained.

"We're not at Hogwarts, Malfoy. This isn't some prank with your cronies!"

"Nymphadora, what are you yelling about?"

"Stay out of this, Mum!" Tonks shouted, allowing no time to apologize for her tone, or even to regret it. "Unless we find a way to stop him or surrender control of the Ministry, Voldemort is going to attack Muggles."

"Sounds serious."

"This is not a joke. Is that really what you want? Voldemort in charge?"

"His goal is the only thing that matters," Malfoy said.

"If he gets his chance, Voldemort will destroy everything," Tonks replied. "How can you not see that? How can you sit there, snug and tidy on the couch, and not rage against it with everything you have?"

"You have no idea what it's like."

"We could have been friends, you and me," Tonks said. "We should have been. Voldemort and people like him destroyed that before we ever got a say. Doesn't that make you upset?"

Malfoy replied with a disinterest shrug

"Malfoy, people are going to die."

"Muggles," he scoffed.

"That doesn't make a difference!" Tonks exploded. "Large attacks take planning, strategy. It's impossible to keep them completely quiet. What do you know!"

"If you're so worried about the precious Muggles, then surrender the Ministry" Draco said evenly. "But you won't do that, will you?"

Tonks hated him, and all the worse for being right. She deeply regretted teaching him how to think and felt angry enough to make him regret it too. She felt one poorly chosen word away from physical violence. This was no longer about information.

"You still haven't figured it out, have you?" Tonks said. "Why you're here. You have no idea how badly your father messed up during that battle in the Ministry."

"That's more your fault than his," Malfoy replied.

"Found that out, did you?" Tonks said with a smirk. "Well, your despotic, sociopathic Dark Lord is not interested in fault, he wants someone to blame, someone to punish, and your father failed in his task, ruining Voldemort's carefully constructed plan."

"My father is in Azkaban," Malfoy said. "He's being punished."

"Of course," Tonks agreed. "But Voldemort is not the one punishing him. Still, the Ministry controls Azkaban, and Voldemort is far too intelligent to attack your father there. So for the moment he is safe, but you are not."

"What?"

"If you put your mind to the task, I'm sure you will conclude that you make an ideal pawn," Tonks said. "Nothing could be simpler than punishing your father through you."

Tonks watched the realization dawn in Malfoy's eye.

"So you see why your mother sent you to stay with her estranged, blood-traitor sister," Tonks concluded. "You are in more danger than you could possibly realize, and this was the final, desperate way for your mother to protect you."

"She shouldn't have bothered," Malfoy replied. "I can take care of myself."

"You wouldn't last two minutes in a duel against me," Tonks corrected, "care to wager how long it would take Voldemort to kill you?"

"Azkaban isn't the fortress it used to be."

"I'll admit that it's not."

"My father doesn't have to stay there."

"So you contend that your father could break out whenever he likes in order to protect his only son?"

"In a second."

"Then where is he?"

That shut him up.

"It's alright," Tonks said. "Maybe the buses are late."

Malfoy continued to grapple with this in silence.

"Would you like me to arrest you?"

"Nymphadora, you are being deliberately cruel and I will not tolerate it in this house," her mother shouted.

"I was finished anyway," Tonks replied. "I'm going to fight, enjoy your book."