Nymphadora Tonks and the Liquor of Jacmel

19. Crimes and Misdemeanours

Sunday 23^rd August 1994

Tonks was up early again the following morning, although this time it was purely a tactical measure. After all, she wasn't entirely sure how Rhiannon Davies was going to react when she got up. She was sitting chatting to Chesney outside their tents when her partner stuck a tousled head through the flap and glared at her.

"Oh, hi Rhiannon," said Tonks in as innocent a voice as she could manage. "Ready to go then? I made some tea, it's in the pot."

Rhiannon gave her a look which was clearly intended to terrify, and might even have succeeded if it hadn't been on a head sticking out from a tent half-asleep. "I don't care if you boiled the water in the Mystic Kettle of Nackledirk," she said tetchily. "You're just lucky I was too tired to jinx you when I got back."

"Long night was it then?"

Rhiannon made a face at her. "Yes. Shut up." Her head popped back inside the tent.

"What was that all about?" asked Chesney, looking at her curiously.

Tonks grinned. Much as she enjoyed teasing her fellow Auror, she had no intention of giving her away to the other two. "Oh, nothing much," she said brightly. "Team leaders are supposed to patrol the campsite before they turn in. Aren't you glad we're just foot soldiers?"

Chesney chuckled. "Ah, hard work. I love it. I could watch it for hours."

Rhiannon was still glaring at Tonks when she finally left the tent. Tonks hoped that she really hadn't interrupted anything important, but shrugged it off as they went about the business of patrolling the campsite. There was, after all, a long Sunday ahead of them, and with any luck they'd all be too tired to worry about it by the evening.

She carefully avoided the Malfoy tent this morning, although she did call in at the World Cup Security HQ tent to check the seating arrangements for the Top Box, in the vague hope that her cousin had been lying through his teeth the day before. She gritted her own teeth once again as she found out that he hadn't, although she was amused to note in passing that young Harry Potter was also listed among the VIPs, as a guest of Ludo Bagman. Probably wants to show him off to the Bulgarians bigwigs. I bet half of them were You-Know-Who sympathisers, and don't think Durmstrang teaches enough Dark Arts.

They otherwise followed much the same patrol route as the day before, stopping only to warn those campers who were leaving tent flaps open to reveal fitted kitchens inside, or enchanting fans to cool them down in an obviously magical manner. Tonks once more contrived to steer Chesney towards the area where Mackenzie Ashford's nephew and nieces were staying, and on this occasion she was in luck. They were there outside the tent, enjoying the morning sunshine, sprawled on striped deckchairs that looked convincingly Muggle.

Tonks slowed as they approached. What she was really hoping for was a chance to get an impression of the cousins before they found out who and what she was, but she wasn't quite sure how to manage that without arousing their suspicion. Perhaps I can pretend to be checking on some supposed breach of security regulations, or perhaps I could ...

"Ches? Hi! What are you doing here then?"

... er, take advantage of the fact that one of them seems to know my partner?

"Charlie? Hiya! Long time, no see. And isn't it obvious what I'm doing here?" Chesney Thompson tapped his security badge with a grin on his face.

"Oh, I see. Does that mean you get to see the match for free, then?"

"Er ... well, yeah, as a matter of fact."

"Lucky bugger. You always did seem to fall on your feet."

'Charlie?' Charlotte Perks, then, obviously. Tonks paused for a moment to cast her mind back over the descriptions in the files. Yes, dark hair, not too tall. about Chesney's age of course. They probably knew each other at Hogwarts? This definitely counted as a stroke of luck.

She snapped out of her reflections as Charlotte Perks waved a hand at her companions. "I think you probably met my cousins once or twice, Ches? Mickey and Abby." She grinned affectionately at the first-mentioned of these. "We were supposed to be a party of four when we booked, but we've got a ticket too many now. Mickey's legendary girlfriend seems to have turned out to be just that."

'Michael Ashford and partner, Abigail Ashford.' Right, I remember that. Mickey Ashford flushed and looked slightly alarmed, avoiding the eyes of the two security staff. "I told you we split up, Charlotte," he said emphatically. "I got the money back on the ticket, didn't I?"

"Sold it to a tout, you mean?" She suddenly realised who she was talking in front of, and clapped her hand over her mouth. "Oh, er, sorry, I mean ..."

Tonks pricked up her ears at the sound of a sudden opportunity presenting itself. Come down hard or be friendly? Friendly, I think. Get them talking to me as well. "Don't worry about that, Miss, er, Charlie," she said affably, putting on her best cheerful smile. "They like to have surplus tickets put back into the general pool, but we keep a close watch on the resellers anyway to make sure they don't get out of hand." She crossed her fingers as she said it - she really had no idea what the policy was. "Anyway, if you're a friend of Ches I suppose we can stretch a point, can't we? Where did you meet then?"

"School, of course. Same year, same house, most of the same classes, I even went on a date to Hogsmeade with him once, remember Ches?" Chesney winced, and she said gleefully, "Although he won't want me to tell you about it. Let's just say he's ... not really my type, it was an utter disaster and we settled for being friends after that. Right, love?"

"Too right." Chesney definitely looked disconcerted. Tonks made a mental note to ask him about it if she ever fancied a bit of harmless entertainment.

She smiled at the cousins as he kicked at a bit of grass. "That's the trouble with the wizarding world," she said. "Practically everyone in the country went to the same school, so anyone near your age probably knows all the embarrassing childhood stories about you." As they laughed at this, Tonks was actually thinking hard about it; although her time at Hogwarts must surely have crossed that of Charlotte Perks, she couldn't remember her at all. Although that didn't necessarily mean much, as, on reflection, she couldn't remember Chesney either. She shrugged. I suppose when you're a first- or second-year you don't pay much attention to NEWT students - and vice-versa.

"How's your uncle?" asked Chesney with the air of a man who was hastily trying to change the subject. Tonks could have kissed him. Mackenzie Ashford was the precise subject that she wanted the conversation to be changed to. "Didn't you all live with him? Sold animals, didn't he?"

The cousins exchanged looks. "Well, he's doing fine, apart from the fact that someone tried to kill him," piped up Abby Ashford. "Didn't you know ... er, Chess? It was in the paper, I'm sure."

"Some nutter had a go at him as he crossed Clapham Common," said Mickey in a dark voice. "Apparently he was very lucky to escape. An Auror was there and stopped the attack. He's OK now though."

"You're kidding?"

"Wish we were, Ches," said Charlotte Perks lightly. "I always knew the poor old dear would get himself in trouble without us to look after him."

"You used to live with him then?" Tonks picked up on this point with curiosity. She could vaguely remember O'Gregan mentioning this in his case notes file, but as far as she could remember, he hadn't gone into much detail.

"When we were at school, yes. We all moved out to make our Own Way In The World eventually." She pronounced this in a mocking voice that suggested capitalisation. "Even Mickey. Although he always did take his time before actually working, didn't you love?" Her cousin scowled at her. It appeared as if he'd been on the receiving end of this sort of comment quite a lot.

"Don't blame you mate," said Chesney. "Work's OK, but you don't want to do it for a living." The two men grinned at each other, recognising kindred spirits.

"Did your parents live there as well?" prodded Tonks. She actually could remember reading that their parents were all dead and that the three of them were Mackenzie Ashford's heirs, but she wanted to keep the conversation in the general area of their family relations. Especially if Ashford was reluctant to have them drop round at the moment. Unfortunately, the question caused the dark looks to return, and the apparent temperature to drop by about ten degrees. Uh-oh. Even more of a touchy subject than I thought?

"They were killed in the war," said Mickey shortly. He didn't seem inclined to elaborate. Tonks raised her eyebrows; the level of detail Donnacha had put in his case background notes clearly left a lot to be desired. On reflection, she rather hoped that she had interrupted something important for the lazy git last night.

"We were just kids," added Abby, so quietly Tonks could barely hear her. "We had nowhere else to go. I don't even know what ... what You-Know-Who's lot wanted with my parents." Tonks grimaced and nodded. She did sympathise - but at least this line of conversation was getting her some of the first-hand impressions she'd wanted.

You're supposed to ask pointed questions, her teachers had told her. You're there to get information, not to commiserate, unless you think you can get people to talk more freely that way.

"I know what they wanted with mine," said Charlotte Perks viciously. "They ... dropped in when Mum and Dad were visiting my gran and granddad. Kill the outspoken mudblood and his parents! Send a message!" She let loose a string of expletives that were applied to the Death Eaters so creatively that even the broadminded Tonks was taken aback. Chesney and her cousins didn't so much as bat an eyelid, however, presumably having had years to get used to it.

"I'm really sorry to hear that." This actually might be the time to commiserate, at least a little. "It must have been really horrible losing your parents like that. I can't even imagine what it would have been like." That was a lie of course; Tonks had actually spent a lot of time as a child having nightmares about what it would have been like. But she didn't feel it would be particularly tactful to say so to people for whom the nightmares had actually come to pass.

"It was horrible," said Abby, her voice trembling slightly. "Uncle was ... was really very good about it. It's hard now ... now we don't get to see him much." Tonks made another mental note to look up the background details, and then berate Donnacha for not having put them in the reports. It certainly made Mackenzie Ashford seem a lot more human than the way her colleague had described him.

"You don't see him much?" said Chesney, again relieving Tonks of the necessity of raising the question herself. The boy was certainly saying all the right things today. "Why not?"

"Because he's locked himself away because of this maniac who tried to stab him," said Mickey shortly. "I suppose we can't blame him for being nervous, but ... well, we're family, aren't we?"

"See what you mean, mate," said Chesney. "Do they know why the bloke did it?"

Charlotte scowled. "Not that we know of." She turned to her cousin again. "Mickey, didn't you say you heard on the grapevine they think someone put him up to it?"

"That was the gossip. They ... er, cursed him or something?" He looked at Chesney appraisingly. "I suppose your friend here might know more than we would, he's in security. You work for the Law Enforcement Patrol then, mate?"

"Oh no, I'm just moonlighting," said Chesney cheerfully. "Tonks here is the one you want to talk to about that. She's an Auror." The cousins looked at her in a slightly shocked manner. She sighed; Chesney's perfect average for saying the right thing had just taken a nosedive. She'd been hoping to avoid revealing her job for the moment, and this time she could have kicked him. Especially so as she couldn't quite remember how much information had been made public.

Ah, hang on, that's a thought.

"Well, we're not really allowed to talk about cases that are under investigation, I'm afraid," she said smoothly. "Anyway, it was a couple of my colleagues who were assigned to that case, not me." Er, initially.

"In other words, even if you did know anything you wouldn't tell the chief suspects what it was?" said Charlotte ironically. She smiled slightly maliciously at Tonks, who realised that she must be looking embarrassed at this direct remark by ... well, one of her chief suspects, actually. "Anyway, you know where to find us all this week so I guess Uncle's safe for the moment. Even from a black sheep of the family like me."

"Charlie!" said Chesney Thompson in protest. She shrugged.

"Telling it like it is, Ches. The half-blood poor relative, always suspicious. I'm surprised her lot" - she nodded at Tonks - "haven't arrested me already."

"Charlotte!" This was Abby, sounding equally scandalised.

"You're being a bit paranoid, girl," said Mickey uncomfortably. Tonks looked between the three cousins with interest. "Come on, let's ... let's just enjoy ourselves while we can, eh? No-one's saying we're ... master criminals or something."

"'Her lot' don't care that much," added Tonks quietly. "Especially when 'her' is one of 'you lot'. I'm half-blood too, as if it mattered a damn. So give it a rest, eh, love? You don't get sent to Azkaban unless you've actually done something. If you haven't, you've nothing to worry about."

"Yeah, well, nothing personal but that's what you law enforcement types always say, isn't it? Doesn't always work out in practice, does it?"

Tonks shivered a little, despite the warmth of the day. "Personal experience?" she said, slightly too aggressively.

"No, I just read the papers. And the occasional history book," Charlotte replied, also with an edge to her voice. The others looked between them nervously.

"Hey, this is the World Cup!" said Chesney, a little too heartily to sound entirely natural. "Let's not spoil it by quarrelling over crime and politics and stuff like that. I'm sure none of you would do anything terrible." He turned to Mickey Ashford who was looking at him uncertainly. "Who do you reckon will win, then?"

"Er, Ireland, definitely," he said, catching Chesney's mood and seizing on the change of topic with obvious relief. "Got to be. Krum's managed to get Bulgaria past a few decent sides, but he's the only player they've got who's up to the quality of the Irish. And Lynch is at least as good, I reckon, so he should be able to keep Krum away from the Snitch until his Chasers have got the game under control. My money's on Ireland by at least 200 points."

"Right, I'm off to put a bet on Bulgaria, then," said Charlotte Perks in what was doubtless intended to be a joking voice. It came off as slightly strained to Tonks' ear. "Because whenever you back a hippogriff at the races, Mick, it usually turns out to have three legs and a broken wing."

"Not this time, Charlotte," he said confidently. "It's as good as a sure thing."

"I think he's right," said Chesney. "Because you won't get good enough odds on a straight Ireland win, the value bets are elsewhere. With the Seekers being so good I'd say the match being over before midnight is a decent punt. Er, if I were a betting man, that is." He looked sideways at Tonks, who grinned at him.

"Well, I had five Galleons on a double of Troy being top goalscorer for Ireland and scoring more goals than the entire Bulgarian team. Sound worthwhile, Mr Non-Betting-Man?"

Chesney grinned back. "He takes the penalties, doesn't he? That's a safety bet."

*****

The conversation remained focused on sporting matters after that, with the participants seeming to tacitly agree not to discuss anything that might be a touchy subject. Tonks, eventually realising that she wasn't likely to hear any more useful information without revealing her particular interest in the cousins, eventually prised Chesney away with a reminder that they had to keep patrolling.

She let her eyes wander around the campsite for anything of relevance, noticing in passing that Rhiannon and Will Poppleford were apparently ticking someone off for staging a miniature Quidditch match outside their tent with action figures. As her gaze tracked around the main field, she suddenly stopped dead. She could actually feel her jaw dropping.

"Hang on ... that can't be ... what's she doing here?" She pointed at a black-haired woman over on the opposite side of the field, chatting away to a young man as they headed for the path that led through the woods to the stadium.

"Who?" said Chesney in confusion. He didn't get an answer, hastily following Tonks as she strode across the grass with a baffled look on her face. The man and woman had disappeared from view by this time. Tonks raced along the path after them and skidded to a halt as she caught up, just managing not to cannon into the woman.

"Mrs Hallendale?" she said incredulously.

Angelica Hallendale turned around, equally as startled as Tonks had been. "Miss ... Tonks?" she said. "Oh! What's the matter?"

"Is there a problem, Ny ... er, Tonks?" said the man hesitantly. She glanced at him for the first time, and recognised Montgomery Hallendale again.

"Not exactly, but ... what are you doing here, Mrs Hallendale? I don't understand."

Mother and son exchanged looks. "Um, I don't either, really," she said. "Why shouldn't I be here? We've got a booking."

"But ... you're a Muggle. Nothing personal, but if the Muggle-Repelling Charms on the stadium aren't working, we've got a serious problem on our hands."

Chesney coughed. "I don't think they reach out this far, Tonks," he said apologetically. "I was taking a look at the security handbook for something to do while you were checking the Top Box guest list? According to the map it's just the stadium itself and a ring of about a mile around it. It's twenty minutes walk away, you know."

"Oh, I see." Tonks felt deflated for a moment, but then the logic of the situation reasserted itself. "But that means that Mrs Hallendale won't be able to get that much further along this path anyway. The charms must kick in before you get to the end, surely? You must have known you wouldn't be able to show your mum the stadium, Montgomery?"

"Er, Monty, please. Using 'Montgomery' makes you sound a bit too much like my mother." He smiled tentatively.

Angelica Hallendale bit her lip. Tonks wasn't sure if it was from nervousness or to stop herself from laughing. "I do hope he'll be able to," she said. "It would be a shame to waste the ticket."

"Ticket?" Tonks felt her jaw drop again. "How the hell were you expecting to watch the match?"

Angelica sighed resignedly, glanced at her son for a moment, and turned to Tonks with slight trepidation. "Montgomery was going to cast the counter-charm for me," she said. "That's all right, isn't it?"

"What? No!" said Tonks with indignation. "It's completely against the regulations!" She rounded on Montgomery Hallendale, and suddenly smiled as the irony of the situation hit her. "Looks like the roles are reversed, then, Monty?" she said. "Look who's breaking the rules now? Makes being out of bounds in the Arithmancy classroom seem like small change, doesn't it?" She grinned evilly as he gazed at her open-mouthed, obviously trying and failing to find a reply.

"Miss Tonks, I didn't mean to cause trouble," said Angelica with a trace of alarm.

"Oh hell. Listen, we thought about how to handle this if anybody should ask, and decided we'd just say, oh, er, I mean that it wasn't anything illegal, and, well ..." began Montgomery, finding his voice at the same moment, but Angelica flashed him a look that clearly said shut up, son. He did. Tonks smiled to herself; his mother obviously had him well trained.

"Miss Tonks, I really didn't want to cause trouble," she repeated with a placating sort of smile, and obviously choosing her words with care. "But I can't be the only Muggle coming to see the match, can I? I'm mean, for example I read in the Prophet that Quigley was Muggle-born, and surely his parents will be here?"

"I wouldn't know ... but that's besides the point, anyway," said Tonks in exasperation. "You're not the mother of a team member, are you, unless Monty here has talents I don't know about/"

"I'm sure he does," said Angelica, who seemed to be fighting to keep a straight face. "But there must be a few other exceptions?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

Chesney coughed again. He seemed to be trying to do it as tactfully as possible, but Tonks glared at him, irritated. "What? Was there more in that handbook that I missed?"

"Um ... er ... yes? I think it said something about going to the Security HQ if you were an Muggle in order to get the charms counteracted for you? You had to show a ticket and be vouched for by a wizard or witch, to prove you knew what was going on and were supposed to be here, and sign a bunch of forms to say you wouldn't tell anybody, on pain of activating a hex and all that, but ..."

"Ah. Right." Tonks cursed to herself silently. Why didn't you fill us in on this, Rhiannon? she thought, far too annoyed at being made to look foolish to care if she was being unfair. "OK, then. Yes. You'll need to go to the tent and ... and do whatever the procedure is." She addressed Montgomery again. "But it's still not something you should have been freelancing on. What do you think we have security for, eh?"

"I'm sorry." His mouth twitched, which suggested he too was seeing the ironic side of the situation. "Are you going to dock points from me?"

Tonks struggled to keep a stern expression on her face. She managed it, just. "No, but maybe I ought to put you in real detention for this," she snapped. "And it'd be a lot worse than doing lines, let me tell you."

"Azkaban?" he said, eyes widening in shock. "You aren't, er, really serious are you?"

"Well, you haven't actually done anything yet, have you?" She suppressed a grin as the earlier conversation sprang to mind. "We don't lock people up in there until they have, but you've still got plenty of time to earn yourself a ticket if you don't watch your step."

"Don't even joke about such things, Miss Tonks," said Angelica with a shudder. "That hellhole has to be a parent's worst nightmare. I guess a mother would do anything to keep her son out of that place."

Tonks maintained her poker face. "I dare say. But then only one known person has ever escaped from the Rock, and his mother's dead and she wouldn't have wanted him back anyway." At that thought, she lost her desire to grin, and could feel three pairs of curious eyes staring at her. She took pity on them. "Oh all right, I'm just trying to put the wind up you a bit. I should probably report this or slap a fine on you or something, but I don't want the paperwork either, OK? Just make sure you do it properly now." She pointed back to the campsite. "Come along. Off you go."

She followed the Hallendales as they walked rather sheepishly back along the path. Her curiosity, as so often, got the better of her. "How did you even get interested in Quidditch anyway, Mrs Hallendale? Montgomery - oh all right, sorry, Monty - didn't play at school, as far as I remember?"

Angelica Hallendale looked back and smiled at her. "No, but Hank became quite a fan, once he got over his disappointment that there weren't any pro Quodpot teams over here. He used to take me along, and I got hooked too." The smile wavered for a moment. "It's one of the few things in the wizarding world I can really be bothered to keep up with nowadays. Montgomery got tickets for us."

"I see. Is your other son here as well?"

"Clark?" The smile definitely wobbled a bit at this. "He'll be arriving eventually. He's got some sort of business to do, he always has, or so he says. Doesn't want to spend all the time with his dear old mother, I guess."

"Well, surely not so old," put in Chesney cheerfully. "You don't look old enough to have a son Monty's age ... well, certainly not for a Muggle anyway." That definitely put the smile back on Angelica's face.

"Thank you," she said, grinning broadly. "I think I rather like your partners, Miss Tonks. You seem to pick them well."

"Oh, that's just luck and natural talent," said Tonks brightly. They'd reached the end of the path by now, and she pointed them in the direction of the Security HQ tent at the other end of the campsite. "Seriously now, for a minute; can I trust you to go and do this the proper way?"

Angelica raised a hand. "By the Honour of the Hallendales. That do?"

"I suppose it'll have to. And if you don't, I'll set Cassius onto you, all right?"

"It's a deal. Ready, Montgomery?"

"Yes, just a moment. Er, Tonks ... " He hesitated. "Oh, never mind. Nice to see you again, even if one of us does seem to cause the other trouble every time we meet." He smiled, made a little bow (Tonks fought back a giggle) and followed his mother across the field. Tonks watched them as they went; they seemed to be having quite a heated discussion.

She glanced at her watch and looked up at Chesney. "And we're already ten minutes past the end of the shift now! You see where being conscientious gets you?"

"Yes. Late for lunch. Really bad move."

***

Tonks was slightly worried about Rhiannon Davies, who was still grumpy over lunch, but an afternoon's sunbathing cheered her friend up considerably, and by the time they'd finished the evening shift she was prepared to admit it had actually been a pretty good joke. Tonks grinned and nodded, and made another mental note to watch out for the inevitable counter.

"What's the plan for tomorrow, Leader?" she called as they settled down for the night. "We've got a lie-in in the morning, haven't we?"

"Change of plans," muttered Rhiannon sleepily. "We're down to do the early shift again. Make sure you're up bright and early. I've set the alarm."

"Right you are." Tonks chuckled to herself under cover of the darkness, recognising this as the feeble attempt at revenge it was. She'd made a point of checking the shifts when she was in the security tent, and knew they hadn't changed. And she'd heard her companion charming the alarm clock so that only Tonks could hear it, when she'd thought she wasn't listening. She waited a few minutes for Rhiannon to fall asleep, then pointed her wand at the clock and whispered a silencing charm

Nice try, Rhi, she thought, grinning as she morphed her hair short again and curled up to sleep. But not this time.