Nymphadora Tonks and the Liquor of Jacmel

12. Good Matches and Bad

Friday August 14^th 1994

Cassius was already at his desk when Tonks arrived the following morning. At least he seemed to have cheered up a bit; she took this as a good sign. He informed her that he'd spent some time going over all the information he had once again, and prepared summaries of it for the benefit of themselves, the Aurors on the related cases, and the daily bulletin. Under the circumstances, Tonks decided that the best course was to let well alone and not mention his parting words of the previous afternoon.

"Great," she said (in a voice that, she realised uncomfortably, sounded a shade too hearty). "Listen, I just dropped in to tell you I've got to floo down to Worthing again to tip off Mrs Easton what's going on. I'll see you later, OK?"

Cassius looked slightly disgruntled, and Tonks felt a twinge of guilt. She didn't want to give him the impression that she intended to take the investigation too much into her own hands, especially as she knew that she needed him badly. She was well aware that she still had a hell of a lot to learn. Oh hell ... "Er, I daren't Floo in to her house directly or Apparate in case she has any of the Muggle neighbours calling round. Fancy coming along for the ride, Cassius? Make a trip of it, look around the town a bit?"

He visibly brightened. "Er, yes, actually. I feel like stretching my legs a bit. I've been sitting here for about three hours now."

Three hours? Blimey, that was an early start. I hope you're not trying to prove anything, Cassius, because you don't need to as far as I'm concerned. "Right then," she said with a smile. "You go first this time - then if I trip over the grate again you can catch me!"

Joking aside, Tonks didn't intend to embarrass herself by actually doing that. She took her own good time with the Floo preparations after Cassius had stepped into the fire in the Ministry foyer and vanished. She ignored the annoyed looks and muttered comments of the people standing in line behind her. After all, at this time of day, there were plenty of other fires available if they could be bothered to move ... She kept her eyes closed and elbows pressed tightly to her sides for the journey (wishing it had occurred to her to just Apparate to the station - she was fairly confident she could remember it well enough to get there), and when she arrived allowed plenty of time to steady herself and regain her balance before looking down carefully at the grate and stepping over it.

"Good morning, Miss Tonks," said a cheerful voice that sounded vaguely familiar. "We really mustn't keep meeting like this. So nice to see you again, though."

Tonks looked up to see Angelica Hallendale smiling at her mischievously. "Weekend shopping again. I'm afraid my son isn't here today though for you to, er, fall for."

"Ah. No." Tonks reddened slightly at the implication, and hastily concealed the blush with a quick use of her Metamorphmagus talents. Cassius' mouth twitched, in a way that suggested he understood exactly what she'd done.

"Mrs Hallendale was just telling me a little about herself," he said smoothly. "Did you know your ex-prefect friend wasn't English?"

"He isn't?" Tonks raised her eyebrows.

"Not really, Miss Tonks," explained his mother, throwing Cassius a look of slight reproof. "I suppose he is American by ancestry, but we've been here so long now that I think we're pretty well ... assimilated. In more than one way."

"Is that what your accent is, then?" asked Tonks with interest. "I couldn't quite place it. Your son didn't have one at all, as far as I could tell."

Mrs Hallendale looked at her with a curious expression that was half-annoyance, half wry smile. "You weren't supposed to notice that I did, either," she said. "I always try to fit in, even where I don't. And no, it's not American - although I guess most of the tutors I had as a kid were, so it might have rubbed off on me. I thought I'd managed to retain some of my Latin complexion, at least, despite the weather here. Can't you tell?" She seemed a little put out.

Aagh. Why do I always seem to put my foot in it with this family? "Oh, that's where the dark hair comes from, is it?" she asked brightly, making a valiant recovery attempt. "South America, maybe?"

"Not quite," she replied, mollified. "Cuba, actually. We had very nice ... ah, family estates there. Before Mr Castro came along, that is, but I'd moved on by then, of course."

"Er, who?" said Tonks, bemused. Angelica Hallendale's jaw dropped slightly.

"Muggle president, took over in the fifties," put in Cassius hastily. He turned back to Angelica. "I suppose in that case. I ought to feel class solidarity with you, then," he joked. "I'm not sure if we've ever had a radical Ministry, but if we do, I don't think they'll need to expropriate us pure-bloods. We seem to be managing to die out quite well all by ourselves."

She smiled at him rather sadly. "You know, to an outsider like me, wizarding society always seemed to have a rather curious ... inversion about it? I know when I entered it, it was quite a shock to go from being a privileged little lady to one of the Unmentionables, but the really odd thing was that there were more people like you than people like me. I didn't notice at first - it was all too exciting! - but even some of the odd, seedy little people Hank and me dealt with seemed to think they were better than us, just because their parents and grandparents had been wizards too. It's not quite so bad as it was here when ... that man was around, but it's a difficult world for an outsider to enter. But then, I would have been an outsider anywhere, I think. It seems to be my fate."

"Oh, I hope not," said Tonks, for whom those words stung. "You're quite welcome in our world as far as anyone decent is concerned." It took her a second to realise that the phrase 'our world' could in itself be construed as rather tactless. "I mean, look at Cassius here," she said in a desperate attempt to recover. "He's as pure-blooded as anyone, and he even puts up with me!"

Cassius smiled. "Well, she does test my tolerance to its limits sometimes," he joked. "I hope we haven't put you off, Mrs Hallendale. It makes a nice change to see a Muggle who knows about the magical world and isn't scared of us, but actually ... well, takes part in it as a member of the community. It's a rare thing."

Mrs Hallendale looked at him with an unreadable expression that eventually turned into a slight smile of her own. "I dare say I can't help but be a part of it now. That seems to be my fate too. To be honest with you, Mr Scrimgeour ... I do sometimes miss where I grew up, and even more how I grew up. It was nice to be rich, from a privileged hacendado family, with a father who owned latifundias and shipping companies and factories and all sorts of other wonderful things that I never quite understood as a young girl ... although Montgomery does," she said with a fond smile. "But I suppose I wouldn't go back to that life now even if I could. Far too stifling, and I've seen enough of what life is like on the other side now to feel just a little bit ashamed of taking it all so casually. And although it doesn't seem that way sometimes, probably I would miss the magic. I mean, I did run away from home with a wizard."

"Excellent taste, if I may say so," said Cassius with a mischievous look of his own.

"Why thank you, Mr Scrimgeour, I do believe you're a gentleman," she said demurely. "Either that, or you're not a gentleman and trying to flatter me for your own nefarious purposes, of course." It was Cassius' turn to blush; Tonks grinned at his discomfiture.

Angelica Hallendale turned to her with a surreptitious wink. "So what brings a couple of Aurors to our quiet little town twice in a week, then?" she asked lightly.

"Oh, nothing much, just a vitally important case," replied Tonks in the same vein. "I could tell you what it was, but then I'm afraid I'd have to Obliviate you." Angelica laughed along with her at this, but there seemed to be a slight uneasiness behind the humour. Tonks realised that a statement like that, especially coming from an Auror, must sound like a real threat to a Muggle.

"So where's Montgomery today then?" she asked in an attempt to move the conversation onto more comfortable ground. "Didn't he need to be with you for you to get in here?" She groaned to herself even as she said it, realising that it too sounded heavy-handed. It seemed that she was fated to say the wrong thing every time she spoke to Mrs Hallendale.

"Oh, I think I can manage to take a Portkey without a minder," she replied, with what Tonks was sure was a hint of coolness. "And you only need a ticket and the password to get through the door." She walked over to a table where an empty Coke can was standing, and picked it up, slightly more emphatically than might have been strictly necessary. "Montgomery is at work today - you know, shipments to organise, contracts to negotiate, orders to place. When you're the boss you can't always take time off to accompany your poor mother on her shopping trips."

She turned back to them. "Mind you," she continued with a twinkle in her eyes, "at least you remembered him. You know, I think he was quite taken with you too, Miss Tonks, now you're all grown up and responsible."

With evident enjoyment, she watched Tonks blush unmistakeably this time, as the Portkey activated and carried her away.

*****

"You've gone a bit quiet again, Cassius?"

"Oh, sorry?" He looked round at her quickly as they walked down the back streets of Worthing away from the Floo station. "What was that?"

"I said you'd gone a bit quiet, mate," she repeated. She looked at him and joined the morning's list of mischievous grins. "Our Muggle friend didn't touch a nerve when she said you might be a nefarious non-gentleman, by any chance?"

"No!" he said indignantly. Tonks continued to grin at him expectantly.

"What was it then? You did look a bit miffed. I thought you might fancy her."

"Tonks ..." he said reprovingly. He hesitated, then said with resignation, "Oh all right. It was ... just exactly the sort of thing my wife might have said. Oddly enough, Mrs Hallendale reminds me of her, just a little. It's a ... trifle disconcerting." Tonks glanced sideways at him. He certainly seemed to be a little ruffled.

"Yeah?" She remembered the photos on Cassius' cubicle walls, and frowned. "Hang on, your wife was blonde, wasn't she? She didn't look anything like Mrs Hallendale."

Cassius frowned at her. "I didn't mean that she looked like my wife," he said with a trace of irritation. "She just seems to have the same sort of personality. And ..." He looked away, staring at the houses on the opposite side of the street as if he wasn't really seeing them properly. "I miss her, Tonks. I really miss her. I didn't know just how much I would miss her until it happened. Talking with that woman was ... bittersweet, I suppose. It reminded me of the good times, and then that reminded me that I don't have them any more."

The houses in the street they were walking along had low walls separating the gardens from the pavement; he sat down heavily on one of them, and made a helpless gesture at her. "I don't suppose you'd understand, Tonks. Young people can't, really." He turned his head away, but Tonks was sure she could see a tear forming in his eye.

She looked at him awkwardly, feeling an unusually strong surge of sympathy. She hesitated for a moment, unsure of how he'd react - then sat down, put her arms around him, and hugged him. "Cassius," she said quietly. "I don't suppose I can understand exactly what you're feeling, no. But I can see it hurts you, mate. I can tell that you ... well, you put on a brave face for the rest of us and are always terribly polite, but you don't seem to think that, er ..." Oh hell. How did you manage to get yourself into a situation like this again, Little Miss Tactless? "You seem to think we don't ... don't think you should be here or something. Listen, mate, you're just fine by me. I don't know how I'd have managed without your help."

He brushed something from his eye and turned to her with a very good attempt at his usual smile. "I'm glad to hear it. I'm sorry if I'm being a little maudlin."

"Hey, we're all entitled. You've listened to me on one of my rants before now, haven't you?"

"It's expected of age," he said wryly. He gently disentangled himself from Tonks, patted her hand in a gesture of thanks, and looked at his now slightly dishevelled robes. "We'd better not appear at Mrs Easton's door looking like this."

He brushed the robes back into shape, then looked up at her again, apparently struggling to find the right words for what he wanted to say. "Thank you, Tonks. Again. You're ... you're being a pretty decent sort, young lady, you know that? When Claymore said he was assigning you to me, he spent quite a bit of time talking up your 'special talents'. I had visions of some brash kid who thought they knew it all. I must say I'm quite relieved with what I got." Finally, a smile was back on his face, even if it was a little hesitant.

Tonks breathed a silent sigh of relief. "That's OK," she said cheerfully. "Actually, when I started I was worried sick I might get assigned to some hard-nosed bugger who'd yell at me all day. Instead, I got someone who's like" - she nearly said "the old wizard grandfather I never had", but realised, just in time to change tack, that this might sound like another insulting comment about his age - "the uncle I never had. Pretty cool, really."

"Hmm." Despite the fact that he still looked a little shaken, the twinkle was definitely back in his eye now. "Well, that's worrying. I'm supposed to keep you in line, not let you run around thinking I'm a soft touch." He looked at her sternly and wagged a finger at her. "Another word out of place and you're on report, young lady."

"Yes sir! How high shall I levitate myself, sir?" She saluted him, almost succeeding in keeping the grin off her face while she did so.

"Oh, shut up," he said, laughing.

They walked on into the street where the Eastons lived, still grinning companionably, and knocked at the door. It came as something of a shock to them both when it was thrown open, not by Beatrice Easton, but by a very angry-looking Bobby Easton.

*****

Beatrice Easton was sitting in the lounge when they followed him in, nervously twisting a handkerchief around her fingers. She looked at them with mute pleading as Bobby Easton turned, planted his feet in front of the fireplace, and glared at them.

"What have you been saying to my wife, Aurors?" he said without preamble.

Tonks and Cassius exchanged awkward glances. This was something they hadn't been prepared for. In fact, they'd had no idea he knew anything about who they were

Better strike back quick before he gets into his stride here. "What has she been saying to you?" replied Tonks sharply. "You were asked not to tell anyone anything, Beatrice."

Beatrice Easton looked quite terrified, but her husband wasn't. "I don't care what you asked her," he said pugnaciously. "I've checked my rights! You had no authority to tell her what she could or couldn't do. Making us look bad with the neighbours! All she's done is buy a few items that might possibly have fallen off the back of a broom - although I'm not conceding that they did - and you come round here and scare her half to death! It's not exactly an Auror-level thing, is it! What's the matter, run out of Dark Wizards to catch? Find it all too hard tracking down the real villains? Want to have a go at someone a little less dangerous?"

Buy a few items that ... what was that again exactly? It was clear from this that Bobby Easton really didn't know what his wife had been up to. Tonks caught Cassius' eye again, and received the tiniest shake of the head from him: leave this to me.

"You may perhaps have received the wrong impression, Mr Easton," he said smoothly. "It seems that your wife may inadvertently have been dealing with a supplier that we're taking an interest in. She was kind enough to offer to allow us to use her, erm, access in order to investigate."

"Access?" said Easton suspiciously. He glanced at his wife who nodded, frightened. Tonks couldn't decide which of them she felt more irritated by.

"Yes. You realise that what I am about to say relates to a criminal investigation, and everything told to you is in the strictest confidence?" Ah, good approach, Cassius, added Tonks mentally. We'll find out where he got his leak from later.

"I suppose so. Get on with it." Easton's manners hadn't improved, but Tonks had an uneasy feeling that he did have wizarding law on his side. Unfortunately, it sounded like he'd obtained some legal advice, and therefore actually knew this. She made a mental note to dig out her textbooks when she had a spare moment and give herself a quick refresher course.

"Very well." Cassius paused, clearly trying to arrange his thoughts. "The fellow we're looking at seems to have quite a wide range of sales contacts. He's also known to deal in some rather dubious materials from time to time. We noticed while we had him under observation that your wife had purchased a few items from him, and when we asked her about it, she told us that they were a special offer on import. She was quite shocked when we explained to her that we were interested in him." Tonks managed to hide a smile; she noticed that Cassius hadn't actually lied to him, and wondered vaguely if this was simply because it might be a bad tactical move under the circumstances.

"I'll say she's shocked," snapped Easton. "She was crying her bloody eyes out when I confronted her with it. Where do you get off on scaring my wife like that?" I don't notice you being exactly comforting, mate, thought Tonks unkindly, but she had sense enough not to say so out loud.

"Well, I'm afraid we sometimes find that dealing with Aurors can be frightening, especially for law-abiding individuals," Cassius continued soothingly. Tonks glanced at Beatrice Easton as he said this to see how she was taking it; her expression was partly sullen, partly panic-stricken, but as their eyes met she managed to convey a clear message: please, just get me out of this without mentioning what I was doing, and I won't contradict anything you say to my husband! "And of course the people we deal with can be very alarming, as well. Your wife allowed us to use her identity in order to make contact with the fellow."

"Identity?" said Easton, with eyes bulging. "What do you mean, identity? What have you been doing to my wife?" His face had reddened alarmingly. It wasn't the moment, but the inappropriate thought flashed across Tonks' mind: You won't be getting any mysterious owls in a feminine hand if you look like that, Bobby.

Cassius hastened to calm him down. "No, no, no, you misunderstand me, Mr Easton. My colleague here merely, er, took her place in one or two meetings with our, ah, quarry. She's quite good at Transfiguration, you see." Well, that's one way of putting it. Probably a good idea not to let him know I'm a Metamorphmagus..

"Transfiguration? I thought she could just change her looks any time she wanted to?" Always assuming, that is, that he doesn't already know. Tonks saw Cassius' look of surprise and realised that this was something else they'd have to ask how Easton knew about, once the conversation had calmed down a bit.

"Changing their looks is something any good Auror should be able to do, Mr Easton, although my colleague here is certainly very skilled at it," said Cassius evasively. "And you wouldn't want your wife to be meeting up with this chap herself, not now that she knows he's under investigation, would you? She could be at serious risk if he thought she might be working with us. You never can tell what these people might do when cornered, but they're none too scrupulous."

Easton looked somewhat appeased by this explanation. "Why didn't you tell me about this?" he barked, turning on his wife, who jumped. "What were you buying from him that you couldn't get elsewhere anyway?"

"Oh, er, hellebore leaves and spine of lionfish, for some potions," she said quickly, in fact much more quickly than Tonks would have expected of her. She guessed that Beatrice must have realised that she was bound to be asked this question at some stage, and had spent most of the last few minutes coming up with a convincing answer - or one that would convince her husband, at any rate.

Easton banged his fist on the mantelpiece, causing a well-thumbed copy of Magical Me hidden behind an ornament to fall off into the coal scuttle. "I told you that I can get those sorts of things for you at a good price while I'm away!" he said in exasperation. "Why do you always have to go chasing after cheap offers? Don't I give you enough Galleons for the housekeeping or something?"

"You forget to bring them back sometimes," replied his wife in a low voice, with (Tonks was quite pleased to see) the beginnings of a mutinous expression on her face.

"Oh, so it's my fault now that you can't keep track of what you need, is it? How many times ..."

Cassius coughed hastily, interrupting what might otherwise have developed into a fine marital row. "Anyway, Mrs Easton - and Mr Easton too of course - we just called round to let you know that we'll be continuing to work in this way for a little while yet. It's really very kind of you to allow us to do so."

Easton looked at him with distaste. "No you bloody won't," he said. "I'm not having your girl here prancing around pretending to be my wife, and putting both of us in danger. What happens if these people find out who we are? They could come round here to murder us in our beds!"

Well, you'd probably be safe then, thought Tonks sarcastically. Easton's bombast was grating on her a little.

"It's all right, Bobby," put in his wife, unexpectedly. "I don't mind. I never told him who I was, and if we can do anything to help, we should, shouldn't we? It sounds as if this is a dangerous man, and we don't want him to go free because of us, do we?" She spotted Tonks looking at her in surprise and gave her a very slight, tremulous smile, as if amazed at her own boldness. Tonks could almost have kissed her.

Easton looked disgruntled, but didn't seem to be able to find a retort without looking soft. "I suppose so," he said grumpily. "Just make sure that this doesn't come back to bite us, OK?"

"Certainly, sir," said Cassius. He made a slight gesture to Tonks to indicate that this would be a good time to make their exit, and they moved towards the front door with the Eastons following. "Oh by the way," he asked casually, "who told you we were Aurors? It can be a bit dangerous sometimes if people know who we are."

"None of your damn business," snapped Easton trenchantly. "If Beatrice here wants us to stick our necks out, that's one thing, but I'm not dragging anyone else we know into this. What do you think I am?"

You don't want to know, mate. Tonks would have been inclined to argue the point, but a very slight pressure on her arm from Cassius dissuaded her, and she muttered a few conventional words of goodbye and followed him out.

*****

"So why didn't you press him for the source of his information then?"

They were back at Auror HQ; Cassius having shushed all her attempts to ask questions while they were still in Worthing, saying that he didn't want to risk being overheard. Tonks admitted privately that he had a point, but it was nonetheless highly frustrating.

"Because it's fairly obvious how he knew, isn't it?" he replied patiently. Tonks shook her head.

"Not to me, mate."

Cassius smiled. "Think about it. He knew we were Aurors, and he knew you were a Metamorphmagus - or at any rate he knew what you could do as one. Then remember his comment about being embarrassed in front of the neighbours. How many of them had those two pieces of information?"

Tonks looked at him in confusion for a moment until it dawned on her. "Oh hell. The Hallendales, you mean?"

"Has to be, doesn't it? There can't be that many wizarding families in a place like Worthing - I'd say half a dozen in the entire area, as an absolute maximum, given the size of that Floo station. The Ministry must have spared every expense when they bought that." He chuckled. "They'd be bound to know each other and gossip when they met. I wouldn't be surprised if he met her there on his way back. He looks like the sort who would always talk to an attractive woman on first principles."

Tonks raised her eyebrows. "So you did fancy her then!" she quipped. This got a scowl from her partner.

"We ought to check, of course," he continued, ignoring her remark. "And we haven't got too much time before you have to meet our bescarved friend again on Monday. Perhaps we could call on the Hallendales tomorrow? I know it's your day off and everything," he added apologetically, "but odd hours come with the job, I'm afraid."

"I'm not sure, mate," said Tonks regretfully. "I've got that World Cup security training thing to go to in the afternoon? I suppose I could tell Rhiannon that I might be late ..."

"Oh? No, never mind, you don't want to miss that. If anything goes wrong at the Final, we'll never hear the last of it from the Prophet. I'll just call round there by myself."

"Oh, so you do want to see her again then." She smirked at him.

He crimsoned. "Stop it, Tonks! I ... I don't mind working weekends, all right? I haven't got anything better to do, and I'd just as soon not be moping around the house. I'll let you know if I find out anything important." A smirk of his own spread slowly across his face. "Like maybe what her son thinks of you? What was it she said, something like 'quite taken with you now you're all grown up'?" He laughed as Tonks crimsoned in turn. "You fancied him then?"

"Not particularly," said Tonks, recovering. "He was OK to look at, but he seemed a bit, oh I don't know, strait-laced? Anyway, I'm not in any particular rush at the moment."

"Love life on hold then?"

"Non-existent for the last few months, mate. First I was too busy with finals, then I started this job. Let's say ... willing to listen to suggestions, but I'm making no promises." She shrugged. "We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?"

"I've got a suggestion ..." came Williamson's amused voice, calling from the other side of the partition. Tonks groaned.

"So have I, Ben. Sod off," she called back. "I'll see you later, Cassius - I'm going to practice being Mrs Easton again. After all, if I don't get it right we'll never hear the last of it from Bobby, will we?"