Auror Disciplinary Committee Case 1229

Auror Disciplinary Committee Case 1229

Junior Auror Nymphadora Tonks took a deep breath as she entered the room. This cannot possibly be worse than facing Bellatrix. This is not worse than loosing Sirius. This will be a walk in the park. Unfortunately, repeatedly telling herself this was not helping her nerves. Today, her future as an Auror, and possibly as a free woman, was to be decided.

The spare office used for disciplinary proceedings was painted a shade of grey that Tonks had always associated with depression and misery, and was thus quite apt for the proceeding that was about to take place. To add to the overall feel of gloom there was a lack of enchanted windows in the office, making the room very different from others in the ministry. Furniture was just as sparse with only one long wooden table placed at the end of the room where the three people waited.

Before Tonks sat the members of the Auror Disciplinary Committee. Rufus Scrimgeour was in the centre. As head of the Auror Office, he automatically headed the panel, but usually delegated the job to a senior Auror when only a minor infraction occurred. The fact that he was here today meant she was in big trouble. Mad-Eye was wrong; they really weren't going to let her off easily considering the circumstances.

Scrimgeour had always been rather intimidating to her. He had made it quite clear during her training that if he had his way, she wouldn't be allowed to become an Auror. He had told her it was because the others wouldn't work with her. Too many Aurors had died at the hands of her relatives. The Auror Office itself has a long memory and always carried an institutional grudge against those who hurt their own, and she was tainted by association. Thankfully, it was the Auror Academy that determined who would receive training, and with her marks and abilities, Scrimgeour had no choice but to hire her. In the end, she had little problem with her colleagues; she had learnt early on in life that people found it very hard to associate pink hair with the Black family heritage.

Scrimgeour stood up and started the proceedings. His words were written down by a purple quill acting alone onto a long roll of parchment. "Miss Tonks, you have been invited here under section forty-one of the Regulation of The Auror Office Act 1832 on charges laid under section forty of using your position as an Auror to undermine the government of wizarding Britain, section sixty-seven, aiding a wanted criminal and section ninety-two, engaging in violent conduct in a ministry building without consultation. When combined, these offences have a maximum penalty of fifty years in Azkaban."

She knew Scrimgeour didn't like her, however he was a reasonable man and would never consider punishing her to the full extent of his powers. The woman sitting next to him would.

Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, sat to Scrimgeour's left. She didn't hate Tonks for her relations; she disliked her for being a Metamorphmagus, which was viewed by some in the wizarding community as either some sort of freakish power or Dark magic. To Umbridge, Tonks was no better than a half-breed. She had protested to the Minister over Tonks's job placement and nearly succeeded in getting her sacked, but Gawain Robards pointed out that if her skills really were Dark magic, then it would be better to have her employed by the Ministry than have an Auror standard trained Metamorphmagus with a grudge in Britain, and that had been that until now.

Tonks hadn't helped things when she had flat out refused to remove a teacher from Hogwarts forcefully. However, she had already been punished for that by being sent home for a day. Exhaustion combined with a temper inherited from her mother's side of the family was more effective at working against her than any potential arch nemesis could ever dream of.

Then again, if she hadn't been sent home, she may not have been around to hear the call to go to the Ministry and save the kids. Funny how fate worked that way, she mused.

"There has been a request from one Albus Dumbledore to represent you as council, however as this is an internal proceeding of the Ministry of Magic and Department of Magical Law Enforcement, the Minister of Magic can waive any right to council under section one hundred fifty-seven of the Ministry of Magic Act 1692, and he has done so." Scrimgeour showed her a piece of paper, with a big seal at the bottom indicating special orders from the Minister of Magic. Office politics. There was a general consensus among higher-level officials that the Wizengamot should be kept out of internal Ministry workings. It wasn't unexpected, and Dumbledore had warned her that he wouldn't be able to protect her when she joined the Order.

"The statutory three member panel under section nine is present. I, Rufus Scrimgeour, am representing the Auror Office and will be leading the proceedings; to my left is Dolores Umbridge, representing the Minister of Magic, who cannot be present today; and too my right is Amelia Bones, representing the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

"Miss Tonks, whatever happened to your hair?" Amelia Bones spoke up for the first time. Tonks smiled, something she had noticed herself doing less and less in recent days. Amelia Bones had often called her into her office to ask her to use her talents in assisting other Departments in collecting evidence. She had commented on more than one occasion that she thought Tonks's hair brightened up the Ministry. Tonks had never understood how such a nice and fair person could rise to such a prominent position in the Ministry; the bureaucracy seemed to have the effect of a Dementor when it came to compassion and humour. Well, she had wondered until she had heard the stories of what Amelia Bones had managed to achieve while herself a member of the Auror Office.

"I uh, didn't think pink was quite appropriate for these proceedings." She had attempted to change it to a rich brown, but somehow it wanted to be mousy today. It was an odd occurrence; usually it did what she wanted all the time, but she put it down to still recovering from the battle. Bellatrix had intended to put her Auror niece out of commission permanently. Luckily for Tonks, she hadn't counted on Alastor Moody being familiar with her handiwork. This hadn't stopped Tonks from having to spend a week in St Mungo's, though.

"Quite right," Scrimgeour commented. Umbridge didn't look too happy, however; she was wearing a pink cardigan. "Now getting back to the matter at hand, the members wish to ask some questions. How did you become involved in Dumbledore's extracurricular activities?"

'Extracurricular activities' had become the Ministry term for the Order. It was coined by those who knew that some form of organisation against the Dark Arts was being headed by Dumbledore, but didn't know what it was or who was in it. "Remus Lupin invited me to a meeting on the third of June last year. I went with him."

"Remus Lupin? The werewolf?" Umbridge questioned. She said it sharply and a look resembling that of a frog about to catch a fly suddenly appeared in her eyes.

"Yes."

Scrimgeour, clearly expecting to do the questioning in the proceeding continued, "And why..."

"Hem- Hem," Scrimgeour was interrupted by Umbridge. Looking rather perturbed, he glanced at Amelia Bones.

"How long have you known Remus Lupin?" Umbridge started.

"Six years in September." They had both worked the Sunday shift at the Ministry's Dark Arts library for two years during her Auror training. Trainee Aurors weren't much better off financially than werewolves and they had bonded over money woes and a mutual dislike of Dark wizards.

"And for how long have you known he was a half-breed?" she continued. There was no stopping the woman now that she was on one of her favourite topics.

"Since a week after I first met him."

"And do you consider yourself an acquaintance of the man?" Amelia Bones was starting to look annoyed at the toad-like woman now.

"I consider him a friend." And much more, she wished she could add. However, tact told her not to provoke a woman with the ability to incarcerate her. Umbridge had caused her to loose her temper once; she was not going to do it again. Sirius would be so disappointed. Umbridge narrowed her eyes and turned to Scrimgeour.

"Well, I can't see how you let your Auror socialize with such people, Scrimgeour."

Scrimgeour looked rather put out by the pink woman and had just opened his mouth to speak when Amelia interrupted, "I fail to see how this is furthering the proceedings. This is neither the time nor place for this discussion."

"Right. Back to the matter at hand," agreed Scrimgeour. Tonks wished she could sit, but the panel members occupied the only three chairs in the small office that was located on Level Two of the Ministry building. "Why did you go with Mr Lupin?"

"He offered me answers to the questions I had."

"What questions?" Amelia Bones asked, interested.

"Whether He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had risen again, and whether Sirius Black was innocent."

"Ah ha!" exclaimed Umbridge gleefully. Tonks's heart sank; it was starting to look more and more likely that she was going to wind up in Azkaban. "So you joined to work with your cousin in opposition of the Ministry against which he had a grudge because of an honest mistake." Umbridge had started again.

Tonks failed to see how refusing to give a man a fair trial was an honest mistake. It had to be gross negligence at least. Again she kept her mouth shut, though it was quite clear that Umbridge's line of questioning was meant to incriminate her further, at least in Umbridge's mind.

"No, I joined because the Ministry was failing to protect wizarding Britain against a substantial threat."

"A threat for which there was no evidence."

"There was evidence for it." She knew Umbridge was trying to wind her up, to push the right buttons so she would get herself in more trouble. Tonks silently took a deep breath. "The Ministry chose to ignore it."

"Because the evidence was collected from half-breeds, senile old men and the ravings of children."

"Much of it came from those sources, yes, but I do not believe that makes it lies. There was also evidence that came from Ministry standard reputable sources."

Scrimgeour had now lost any control he had over the proceeding. If Tonks hadn't been so terrified for her future, she would have found it rather amusing that such a man as Rufus Scrimgeour was being upstaged by small, pink cardigan-wearing, toad. Amelia Bones, who seemed to represent the only voice of reason in the room, managed to cut in again, "When did you collect your evidence and from whom?"

"I collected evidence as part of my investigation into the disappearance of Bertha Jorkins. Testimony from people who knew her suggested that she had her memory modified in the past, and after a great deal of assistance from the Albanian Magical government, her body was located and the cause of death determined to be the Killing Curse. There were also signs of magical torture." Tonks had suggested to the Albanian Ministry that if a body was not found, tourism to Albania may suffer. As a result, they sent out a ten-person taskforce to assist her. Considering she had only been given the assignment as a fool's errand, an investigation to temporarily shut Dumbledore up, she was quite pleased with her results.

Remus had been there too, claiming he had been there on a holiday although he had really been sent on Dumbledore's request to prevent something nasty happening, such as having one Dark Lord attach himself to the back of her head. Remus, of course, didn't tell her this until after she joined the Order.

Amelia Bones looked surprised. "I didn't hear of this."

"The Albanian evidence was suppressed by the Department of Magical Cooperation at the request of the Albanian government. They were worried that a murder would harm tourism." Her method of getting assistance in the first place had, of course, backfired.

"I fail to see how this leads to your conclusion that He-Who-Must-Be-Named had risen again," stated Scrimgeour.

"There were rumours that You-Know-Who had been lurking in Albania."

"Rumours are not evidence, Miss Tonks," interrupted Scrimgeour.

She sighed, annoyed, inwardly cringed when she realised that it may seem rude, and continued, "No, however, the patrons at a bar where she was last seen described her as being led away by a small man who matched the description of Peter Pettigrew, given by Remus Lupin and backed up by Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter himself as part of the Sirius Black investigation."

"Really...another thing that I had absolutely no idea about despite my status as Head of the Department." Amelia Bones peered at Tonks over her monocle.

Tonks had failed, she knew that, and as a result, Cedric Diggory was dead, and Voldemort was once again on the loose. "The testimony on Peter Pettigrew had been discounted on the orders of the Minister or Magic." She stared at Umbridge as she stated this; she knew the old cow was behind that order in some way or another. "With the evidence from Albania embargoed, I had no case. I told this to a senior Auror supervising my investigation, who told me that the evidence was not strong enough. I was taken off the case and placed on background security for the Minister of Magic at the third task of the Triwizard Tournament."

Tonks knew she would never forgive Dawlish for telling her to remain quiet for the good of her job. She had seen the aftermath of the incident, disguised as a Ravenclaw third year, seen Amos Diggory cry over his son's body, helped transport the soulless shell of Barty Crouch Jr to a secure ward at St Mungo's, discovered that the man that had helped her through her training had been trapped in his own trunk for months and she hadn't even noticed.

Declarations from the Minister were handed out within an hour of Fudge's return, stating that any Ministry employee who so much as spoke He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named would be fired on the spot and face disciplinary action to the full extent of the Ministry's power.

Racked with guilt for failing to walk into Scrimgeour's office and unable to show any evidence, she went to the Leaky Cauldron and decided to drown her sorrows. All her life, she had felt an immense sense of duty to use her talents to help others, to protect the innocents, and to atone for the crimes of those who shared her blood, only to find once she was in a position to do so that not only was she powerless, but the people she had admired covered up evidence and convicted innocent people. She had doubted Remus in favour of the Ministry when he said Sirius was innocent. It had nearly ended their friendship before she realised what a bloody fool she had been.

After about two shots of Firewhiskey, still in a state of mournful sobriety, Remus found her. He had been looking for her, and he offered her a real chance to help. How could she say no?

"After the Triwizard Tournament, nothing more could be done. The Ministry had made its position on the matter clear, and in the interest of protecting the world, I chose to work with Dumbledore."

She detected a note of sympathy in the eyes of Amelia Bones, but first and foremost she looked angry. Dolores Umbridge was watching her suspiciously, while Scrimgeour's lion-like face was unreadable as to whether he believed her story. "Declaration 237 of the Minster of Magic made it illegal for Aurors to work with any other organisation. Your activities in the Department of Mysteries from June to now fit these criteria. Did you know of this when you began working with Dumbledore?" he asked.

"Yes."

"And yet you defied the Ministry anyway, an institution you swore to protect." Umbridge's wide mouth was now in the form of a menacing smile.

"When I took my oath as an Auror, I swore to protect every person, Muggle and magical from the Dark Arts."

"You also swore loyalty to the Ministry," Umbridge stated, nearly gleefully.

"Yes, but..."

"The duty to innocents always outweighs the duty to the Ministry when they compete!" Rufus Scrimgeour bellowed. Tonks was taken aback by the show of support from such an unlikely sector. Tonks and Scrimgeour had a very different style of achieving their goals, and she had never respected the man as much as she did just then. She had always been told that he loved the Auror Office and was devoted to it, and now he was defending its very existence. The old lion seemed alive, that, if only for a moment, Tonks understood why so many of her colleagues would follow him unquestionably.

Umbridge, on the other hand, looked rather scandalized, and just a little bit fearful. "I hardly see how a woman determined to allow children to enter the world without so much as knowledge of a counter curse should want the Auror Office to stand by and leave Dark wizards running around the country to pick people off one by one due to an oversight on the part of a Ministry that is by no means infallible," weighed in Amelia Bones. Tonks wanted to hug her then and there. Umbridge looked murderous. Tonks wondered if it was because of the criticism of her teaching style or the fact that an acknowledgement was made that the Ministry was not perfect.

Scrimgeour interrupted, "I believe we should get back to the matter at hand. You have also been charged with aiding a wanted criminal, Sirius Black."

"He was wrongly convicted."

"Yes, but he was wanted by the Ministry. You are an Auror, Miss Tonks. Your responsibility as part of the wizarding justice system is to capture Dark wizards, not act as a member of the Wizengamot," said Scrimgeour.

Tonks nodded. Sirius had refused to call the Auror Office and Wizengamot a justice system and instead called it an 'injustice system.' It really wasn't a very funny joke, but as Remus pointed out, it was an achievement that Sirius was joking about his situation at all, never mind how bad the jokes were.

"You are not entitled to question the judgement of the Ministry," added Umbridge. The woman was, of course, so filled with Ministry loyalty she could never see how it could be wrong.

Dumbledore had prepared her for this question. Tonks had always followed her gut when it came to her sense of fairness, her parents had raised her that way, but when it came time to justify her actions, she had difficulty articulating it. "Justice only works when everybody works for it. Sirius Black was sentenced to be kissed as soon as he was captured. Justice had failed to identify Sirius Black as an innocent man, and if I turned him in, then there would have been no hope of him ever receiving a fair trial. I would have sent an innocent man to a fate worse than death and I could not do that."

Hardly a legal excuse for her actions, so all she could really hope for was a lenient sentence.

"She is right," Amelia Bones added. "Sirius Black would never have received a trial, let alone a fair one. At least she has saved the Ministry more embarrassment."

"But he is her cousin. That is a more likely motivation than any sense of justice. Blood is thicker than water, especially to people with similar backgrounds to that of Miss Tonks," weighed in Umbridge.

"Was your relation to Mr Black a factor Miss Tonks?" Scrimgeour enquired, Is the reason you failed to capture Bellatrix Lestrange because she is your aunt, or because of your inability as an Auror?

She decided then and there to answer truthfully. "I would like to think I would have done the same for anyone. But I do not know; I've never been in such a situation before."

"I think we will have to take into account the fact that Sirius Black was innocent when we decide on that matter," Amelia Bones ended the line of questioning.

"Yes," Scrimgeour agreed. "You have also been charged with engaging in violent conduct in the Ministry building."

"That was in order to save children," interrupted Amelia. "Are we honestly going to sit here and discipline this girl for saving the lives of six children?" The annoyance at having to be present for the last charge sounded in her voice. "Was she supposed to wait for Ministry authorisation while Death Eaters attacked Harry Potter?" Amelia was getting rather worked up now, and glaring at Dolores Umbridge again. "And why is she the only person who's not a Death Eater being charged with this? There were others there too."

"Hem- Hem." Umbridge got to her feet. "Miss Tonks is an Auror and a Ministry employee and should be held to the highest standard."

Amelia Bones also rose. "She saved lives that night and was grievously injured...what curse did Bellatrix Lestrange hit you with?"

" Insomnium," Tonks quickly replied, trying not to draw attention to herself.

"Insomnium, broken ribs and spinal damage. I would stake my monocle that you don't even know what that curse does, Dolores. Please explain, Miss Tonks."

Umbridge looked like she was going to explode; her large cheeks had turned a shade of scarlet that clashed awfully with the copious amount of pink she was wearing. Rufus Scrimgeour had gone rather quiet by this point; Tonks thought it was a wise move. "It renders one unconscious and causes them to be trapped in their worst nightmare. If the counter curse is not worked within an hour, they don't ever wake up, eventually wasting away," Tonks replied quietly. She didn't mention the dreams that followed, every single night since she had been cursed. Dreamless Sleep Potion could only be used once a week without complications.

"She brought that upon herself," replied Umbridge.

Rufus Scrimgeour obviously decided he'd had enough of the fighting. He stood up bellowing, "I believe we have heard enough from Miss Tonks. Miss Tonks, I am sorry for the unprofessional manner in which this proceeding occurred today. Would you kindly step outside while we deliberate?"

Tonks stepped out the door, to find a waiting crowd of Department employees milling around, obviously having heard the shouting from inside the room. Then she saw Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mad-Eye Moody and Arthur Weasley in one corner and started to walk over to them.

"Wotc-agh!" she was suddenly trapped in a rather large bear hug by Molly Weasley, who seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"You look awful, dear. You must come around for dinner tonight. Bill's visiting. He's looking after Ginny and Ron now, and he's got news, but he won't tell us 'till the twins arrive. There will be plenty of food." Molly Weasley had taken it upon herself to become a second mother to Tonks, so it wasn't surprising to find her waiting for news.

"I'm fine Molly, I just want to go home and get some sleep." To her flat, her bed, and the lonely werewolf currently sleeping on her couch.

"How did it go?" asked Kingsley. He had not been at a Grimmauld Place when the call to get to the Ministry had gone through, but had stopped by his cubicle to pick up some papers from his desk when she, Remus, Mad-Eye and Sirius had arrived, allowing him to deny knowledge of the Order. Lucky.

"I'm not sure. Umbridge and Madam Bones got into a fight."

"That's been brewing since the Ministry announced it had been wrong about You-Know-Who," said Arthur. He had a great ability to gage the general mood of the large bureaucracy. It was quite a useful skill. Tonks had been on injury leave until today, so she really didn't have much of an idea about what had been happening in her absence. "Many feel that Fudge and his advisors misled them."

"He did," stated Mad-Eye.

"Yes, well, Amelia especially feels like much could have been done. This fight has been brewing for over a week now. I'm shocked it was this loud, though I had a suspicion that you may be stuck in the middle it," finished Arthur.

"It's a bloody fine mess the Ministry has got itself into now," added Mad-Eye.

Molly hugged her again. "I'm quite alright Molly, really," she lied. She was so tired, and to be honest, couldn't care anymore. She wanted Remus. He had acted as a protector of sorts ever since she had woken up in St Mungo's, but Dumbledore had said it would be a bad idea for him to come to the Ministry at the moment. Tonks didn't know why and suspected she wasn't being told something.

The door swung open and the crowd of Ministry employees tried to look like they weren't eavesdropping. She saw a crop of red hair no doubt belonging to Percy Weasley amongst the group farthest from her. "Please come in, Miss Tonks," shouted Scrimgeour over the din.

Arthur, Kingsley, Mad-Eye and Molly all gave her encouraging smiles and Tonks headed back in.

The door shut behind her and Scrimgeour stood up. The other two occupants gave Tonks the feeling that they had managed to achieve an uneasy peace.

"Today," he began, "Miss Tonks and I have witnessed the crisis that the Ministry is now facing. The Ministry failed its people. Somehow, we are going to have to mend these rifts, but that is for another time." Scrimgeour reminded her of an elderly statesman making a speech to a crowd rather than the old Dark wizard hunter talking to a wayward employee.

"Facing the committee today is the question of what does a Ministry employee do when the Ministry has proven itself incapable of doing its own job. Do they sit silent and not change anything in the name of a united front, or do they go with a greater good even though it may lead to the breakdown of the institution that is the only thing protecting the wizarding world from anarchy?"

"In the case of Miss Tonks, it is clear that the Ministry made a great error, in the denial of the second coming of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and the prosecution of Sirius Black for crimes he did not commit. If people such as Nymphadora Tonks had not acted, then six children may be dead today and the world a poorer place for it. On the charge of committing violent acts in the Ministry of Magic while being an employee of the Ministry, the disciplinary charges will be dropped."

She sighed with some relief. Umbridge did not look happy, but neither did Madam Bones. Scrimgeour remained unreadable. "However, Miss Tonks, you are a Ministry employee and as a result, have to abide by Ministry rules. You harboured a wanted criminal and disobeyed Ministry orders and this cannot go unpunished. You will have two weeks unpaid suspension starting now, and permanent record of this infraction in your employment history with the Ministry."

Considering she could have been sent to Azkaban for fifty years, she could not complain at the sentence. Her heart lifted--she was even getting to keep her job.

"This hearing is now over and closed with no available appeals. You may now leave, Miss Tonks." Tonks walked out to meet her support crew. She told them the news.

The general consensus was that it was not a bad result, but Molly was adamant that they should not have punished her at all. Scrimgeour and Umbridge filed out of the room, Umbridge looking livid. She was walking behind Scrimgeour, obviously trying to get his attention. Amelia Bones stopped and pulled Tonks away from the crowd.

"You have been rather lucky today, Miss Tonks. If we weren't so desperate for trained Aurors I'm sure Rufus would have made an example out of you," she told Tonks quietly. "However, if I had known what you knew, I would have joined your cause in a heartbeat. I'm going to try and get an investigation into Ministry evidence gathering practices. In the meantime, keep active, and don't be afraid to tell me directly if something similar happens again. You did a great job. With people like you, and your associates, there may be is hope for us yet." She smiled at her and walked away.

Tonks turned and headed for her flat, one weight lifted off her heart. She still missed Sirius, her nightmares were still relentless, and the war she would be at the frontlines of was now inevitable. But she still had her job, she still had friends, and she still had Remus. For now, that would do.