Nymphadora Tonks and the Liquor of Jacmel

33. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down

Author's notes: In which Tonks and Cassius investigate Arkwright the erstwhile zookeeper and make an unexpected discovery; and Tonks allows her boyfriend to talk her into going dancing despite her clumsiness, with very expected consequences. But it does give her an Idea ...

No, the chapter's not called Let's Face The Music And Dance as billed; I decided that would be better used as the title for the Ministry Halloween Ball chapter!

Many thanks to Yorkshire lass purpleygirl for Tykepicking Arkwright's dialogue. :D

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Friday 2^nd October 1994

Unfortunately, Tonks' estimate of the amount of time it would take to arrange a visit to Arkwright was off by a week. It gave them time to review the case several times over, but to little effect. She felt that by now she must have every tiny piece of information in the case notes memorised.

On that glorious Thursday lunchtime when they'd had not one but two major suspects ready for interrogation, a solution to the whole case had seemed well within their grasp. But when Charlotte Perks had produced her alibi it had wiped the smiles from their faces; and although catching the Gringotts robber had been a real result that had earned them brusque praise from Claymore, it hadn't yet led anywhere further.

The solution seemed to have slipped through their fingers again.

O'Gregan and Cornworthy had maintained their watch on both Portia Blackstock and Charlotte Perks - given the history of the two murder attempts, none of the team could quite bring themselves to believe that the connection between the two women was pure coincidence - but if they had met other than at the charity offices, the Aurors had been unable to observe them doing so.

The Irishman reported gloomily that although Portia seemed a little nervous, Charlotte seemed to be playing it cool. "Everyone falling over themselves where she worked to tell her they'd always known she was innocent, so they were," he said with a snort. "As if. I don't think they fooled her for a minute. Good head on her shoulders, that one, unfortunately." Tonks nodded politely. Chesney Thompson had been pleased to hear his old friend had passed the Veritaserum test; she supposed she really might have paid more attention to his warnings.

Lewis the robber had been eager to tell them everything he could in the hope of a mitigation of sentence (especially after spending his first few nights in the remand section of Azkaban), but in his case 'everything' didn't amount to much. Although the warrant was quickly granted, in the interview under Truth Potion he told the same story as before (even repeating his claim to have done it partly because he was scared by the renewed Death Eater activity). He had apparently been playing a lone hand.

They had at least been able to restore the bulk of the stolen money the its owners, and Ragnok had quietly let it be known that Gringotts were perfectly satisfied with the outcome (a statement confirmed privately for Tonks by her father).

However, the arrest seemed to have warned off anyone who might want to trade Dark Arts reference works with Lore of Yore. Tonks spent an afternoon checking the spells on the books, but as far as she could see there was nothing new in stock, and definitely nothing relating to poisons or unusual potions. The sole exception was Alexander Burke, who had made a few more purchases; but as Cassius pointed out regretfully, that was hardly unexpected news.

"No?" said Tonks, frustrated. "He could be the one selling them on, couldn't he?"

"Not to people like Lewis, he wouldn't," replied Cassius, shaking his head vigorously. "Borgin and Burkes are the high end of the market. Anything he buys from Miss Orevel is probably sold under the counter to a selected customer at a minimum of five times his purchase price. And if you think we might find out from him who's buying - well all I can say is, the best of British luck to you if you want to try. We've never pinned anything on either of them yet, and technically these books are legal."

Tonks scowled. "I wonder if there's been a rash of obscure poison cases recently?" she asked curiously.

"Not in the last year. I checked."

Rhiannon Davies stuck her head round the partition unexpectedly, making both of them jump. "There was that little blip a couple of years ago, Cassius."

"There was?" He sounded surprised. "Oh, of course, I wasn't around to hear about it, was I? What happened?"

She shrugged. "The rumour was that someone in Knockturn Alley had a consignment of rare material - poisons and Dark Arts books - but whoever had the stocks was being canny and we didn't find out much. Which probably means it was Borgin and Burkes, look you. As far as we could tell they were sold on via an intermediary - it could well have been your 'Butler' suspect, whoever he really is. It fits his modus operandi, doesn't it? There were three or four cases of people having really odd stuff confiscated, but after that it settled down. I suppose it might take this long for books that were tucked away to start appearing again?"

"Sounds about the right sort of timescale," mused Cassius. "It would give the buyers time to make all the notes they wanted, then dispose of the actual books so they wouldn't incriminate them ..."

"How long has Lore of Yore been in business?" asked Tonks. "Maybe people have only just realised that they could launder books through there?"

"About ten years," said Cassius. "I asked around and checked in the Muggle registries. Less than that as a wizard's shop, I think. It is a possibility, though."

Rhiannon snorted. "Tell you what, I'll keep an eye on it for you, Cassius. It might be nothing to do with my case, but at least I can do something useful. This is one supposed 'psychic' who is definitely not Seeing anything at the moment."

*****

Thursday 8^th October

It took Will Poppleford nearly a fortnight to arrange his inspection. By the time the day arrived, Tonks was looking forward to a trip to Arkwright's place just to break the monotony.

"Where is your friend William meeting us?" asked Cassius as they made their way down to the foyer to Apparate.

"He said to meet him up there." An awkward idea struck her and she asked, "There aren't any Aurors working round there whose toes we'll be treading on or anything?"

Cassius shook his head. "Not really. The local contact is a chap called Benjamin Trill, and he won't mind, I'm sure. I used to work with him. Dapper little fellow. He was the one I thought they might assign when I asked for someone with Concealment and Disguise skills? He changes shape as well. Not that I'm not happy with what I got, of course," he added hastily.

Tonks looked at him in astonishment. "He's a Metamorphmagus too?"

"No, no, he's an Animagus," said Cassius, laughing. "Turns into a budgerigar. Very useful sometimes."

"Oh yes of course," said Tonks as light dawned. "I remember Kingsley Shacklebolt telling me that the only registered flying Animagus was an Auror!" She felt like biting her tongue when she remembered where Shacklebolt had been when he said so, and why he'd mentioned it..

Cassius gave her a funny look. "He did? The two of you seem to be getting along much better these days, Tonks. What changed?"

"Oh, er, I thought I'd better bury the hatchet, you know?" said Tonks, inwardly cursing herself. She definitely didn't want to field too many questions on the subject. "Took him out for a drink and a chat, he's OK with me now. We were talking about changing shape and he mentioned this Trill bloke in passing. Not by name though." She paused to mentally pat herself on the back at her evasiveness.

"Oh I see. I'm glad to hear that, Tonks. Kingsley really is a sound chap." He snickered unexpectedly as the lift drew to a halt. "As it happened, Ben Trill said he was already undercover in a pub working on a case. It's a useful disguise for spying, but he does get a little carried away sometimes and starts doing very un-budgerigar-like things. At least you don't have that problem."

"Luckily." She breathed a silent sigh of relief that he hadn't asked more questions. In the Atrium they gave themselves room to Apparate, and a few seconds later appeared in a patch of trees on the outskirts of what looked like a small, old-fashioned farm. Tonks waved to Will Poppleford, who was waiting in the middle of a field.

"Hi, Will! Nice to see you again, mate. Are we all set?"

Poppleford looked pleased to see them. "Hi, Tonks! Morning, Mr Scrimgeour. Not quite ready yet, I'm just waiting for Honoria to get here."

"Honoria? Who's she?" Tonks hadn't been aware that they would have company.

Poppleford suddenly seemed a little embarrassed. "From the office. She's the one who usually carries out these inspections. Amos insisted we actually do a proper check-up, even if it is just an excuse for you to have a look around. She's, um ... well, you'll meet her soon enough." He looked up and began to scan the sky, not quite meeting their eyes.

"Are you expecting rain, old chap?" asked Cassius, puzzled.

"No, Honoria, she ... erm, doesn't like Apparition much. She'll be flying here ... got a fair way to come, all the way from Lincolnshire. Oh, there she is!"

Tonks eyes followed the direction of Will Poppleford's pointing finger and blinked. That's one hell of a broom ... "What's she's flying on, Will?"

"Feathermane."

"Feather - " As the dark shape in the sky came closer, it suddenly clicked. "A hippogriff? Blimey, I've never met anyone brave enough to fly long distance on one of those things before. Touchy sods, aren't they?"

Poppleford grinned. "Oh, they're fine if you treat them the right way, Tonks. Very loyal. Honoria raised him from a foal."

"My daughter Patricia always wanted one of those when she was a child," said Cassius reminiscently. "I never dared get her one, not to mention that we would have had nowhere to keep it in the middle of town - well, I know you're supposed to Disillusion them if you do, but I never really saw the point of an invisible pet?"

"She obviously hasn't," pointed out Tonks.

"Yes, well, if a Muggle pilot saw her flying past on Feathermane they'd never believe it anyway, would they?" said Poppleford, grinning. "And I don't suppose it would be any better if they couldn't see what she was riding ..."

"True enough," said Cassius, smiling back as the woman expertly brought the hippogriff in to land. It stumbled slightly as it touched down.

"Morning, Honoria ..." said Poppleford, walking towards her as she dismounted.

"MORNING, WILL!" Both Tonks and Cassius winced; Honoria Biggar had what could reasonably be described as a carrying voice. Even Poppleford grimaced a little.

"Steady on, Honoria," he said. "If Arkwright has got anything nasty back there, we don't want to wake it up, do we?"

"Oh, sorry!" She spoke a little more quietly this time. Tonks supposed it would barely have been audible to someone in the next county. "What's your plan, Will?"

"Well, we've got to go through the formalities with Arkwright, then I thought while we do the inspection Tonks and Mr Scrimgeour can have a quiet look round?" he said hopefully.

"Right! You two - you're Aurors, aren't you? Any idea what you're even looking for?"

"Er, well, ..." began Tonks.

"No? Not surprised, really, you lot just drop in anywhere and hope for the best, don't you? OK, let's get a move on then."

Arkwright had evidently heard them - he could hardly avoid it, thought Tonks wryly - and was waiting by the gate of what looked like a modestly sized farmhouse. There was a look of pure scorn on his face as they traipsed over.

"Four o' thee this time?" he asked in one of the broadest Yorkshire accents Tonks had ever heard. "Frit, are thee?"

Honoria Biggar opened her mouth but Poppleford hastily jumped in first. "No, Mr Arkwright, Miss Tonks here is a trainee, and Mr Scrimgeour is ..."

"Her supervisor," said Cassius with a smile. His eyes were flicking around the grounds with professional observance. "We just tagged along, you know, old chap?"

"Reet. Well, better come in, then, and get it over wi', then thee can all bugger off agen an' leave uz be." He turned and stalked back into the kitchen of the farmhouse. Tonks followed Cassius' lead in looking at everything around them. Unfortunately (although it was something she certainly wasn't going to admit to Honoria Biggar) she really didn't have any clear idea what to look for.

Will Poppleford read out a formal notice from his Department to the accompaniment of loud snorts from Arkwright. "Er, you must know the routine by now. You show us where you had your, er, zoo, and we make sure there's nothing there to worry us now?"

"Ne'er bin nowt thur since thee took 'em away, 'as thur?" said Arkwright pugnaciously. "And by t' way, 'adn't tha better see to that poor 'ippogriff fust?"

They all turned to look out the window at the magical creature in question. "Hang on a moment, Will!" cried Honoria; Tonks could have sworn that the windows rattled. "I'll be with you in a minute. Looks like the poor lad's got something caught in his hoof!" And indeed, the hippogriff did still seem to be limping.

"Oh, I could fix that for you!" offered Tonks brightly, remembering a certain attachment in K's 'knife' gadget that she'd never thought she'd have a chance to use.

"You? Do you know much about hippogriffs?"

Arkwright gave his loudest snort yet. "She works fur that useless bloody department and she don't even know owt about 'ippogriffs? By 'eck, Scrimshank or whatever tha name is, tha'll 'ave tha work cut out trainin' this 'un."

"I know enough," said Tonks, stung (and desperately trying to remember what Professor Kettleburn had told them about the creatures in fifth-year classes). "I've got a special tool we're issued for this sort of thing. We'll have your hippogriff back ... er, hippoing along in no time."

"I'll supervise her while she works," put in Cassius quickly, exchanging significant glances with Tonks. "You carry on, Honoria, William, Mr Arkwright. We'll catch you up ..."

The three magical creature experts trooped off, with Arkwright making a number of sarcastic remarks, Honoria Biggar looking anxiously back over her shoulder at her hippogriff, and Will Poppleford trying very hard to keep the peace. Tonks waited until they were out of earshot and turned to Cassius. "Were you just trying to get us a bit of space to look around?"

"Well, it seemed like a good opportunity," said Cassius judiciously. "I suppose we'd better actually deal with the hippogriff first, though. Are you sure you can remember how to do it?"

"Yeah, no problem," said Tonks. "Just bow, wait, go and fix it up, isn't it?"

"I hope so," said Cassius, grinning. "This one should be well trained, anyway."

"Great. I never had one to look after when I was a kid. I don't suppose I ever will now."

They approached as closely as they dared and bowed low to Feathermane; who looked at them haughtily for a few moments before bowing back. Chuckling, Tonks approached him and stroked the feathers on the back of his neck.

"Who's a good boy, eh?" she said. "Now we're just going to have a look at that hoof of yours. I'm sure it won't hurt, but try to keep still, OK?" In a aside to Cassius she asked in a low voice, "Do hippogriffs actually understand you?"

"I think they get the general idea," said Cassius, taking over the smoothing of feathers while Tonks approached the rear end where the two hooves were, not without a certain trepidation. "Fascinating creatures, really. My daughter used to rave about them. They were a cross between a griffin and a filly originally, it's thought. It was considered so unlikely that for a long time they were regarded as a symbol of impossible love, did you know?"

"Really? No, I didn't," said Tonks, gingerly taking the problem hoof in one hand and extracting K's gadget from the pocket of her robes. Personally, she didn't see what was all that romantic about a giant bird with a horse's arse, but given what she could remember about the general touchiness of the creatures, she definitely wasn't going to say so in Feathermane's hearing. She couldn't recall ever reading the instructions for the attachment (and suspected it was there purely for K's amusement); but when she tried touching it to the stone caught between the hoof and the shoe she was pleased to see it stick immediately.

Very carefully, she teased the stone out. "Got it!" she said triumphantly. "He should be OK now." She stood up and slapped Feathermane on the rump. "Go on, lad, have a run around the field!"

The hippogriff bounded off happily, starting at an ungainly gallop, then actually taking flight and soaring around the field. Tonks and Cassius watched, chuckling. They were turning away to return to the others as Feathermane swept along the high wall at the edge of the field that separated it from the neighbouring farm - then both heads snapped round to look more closely.

"Tonks, did you see what I thought I saw?" asked Cassius hesitantly.

"If you saw half his wing disappear for a moment while it was over that wall, then yeah," replied Tonks. "Worth a look?"

"Definitely. Keep your wand handy."

Feathermane watched with interest as they approached the wall. Cassius put out a hand and tentatively ran his fingers over it, then waved his wand, muttering a few spells. He stood back and looked thoughtful.

"There are very slight magical traces on the stones, but no more than I'd expect for the boundaries of a wizard's residence. I can't detect an invisibility spell, and there's no obvious distractor charm or anything like that."

"Some kind of spatial concealment spell?" offered Tonks. "Like platform nine and three-quarters?"

"Could well be. I wonder ... perhaps it's just a case of finding the right place?"

"Maybe it only kicks in when you're on top of the wall," suggested Tonks. "It's a bit high to levitate over - oh, hang on a minute." She waved her wand and Conjured a ladder, which she propped against the stonework. "Hold this steady for me, will you?"

"All right," said Cassius, chuckling as Tonks climbed up and scrambled on to the top of the wall, which proved to be a good foot thick. "Anything of interest?"

"No, just another ordinary field this side," she said with disappointment. She walked carefully along the wall and probed around her with detection spells, but couldn't find any more than the traces of magic Cassius had already found. She picked up one of the loose stones that were resting on top of the wall and threw it down to the other side, where it landed on the grass with a perfectly ordinary-sounding thud. "Nothing here as far as I can tell ..."

"The hippogriff was definitely passing through something though," insisted Cassius. "It's quite easy to forget and leave something out from one of those spatial spells if you're not careful - maybe it wasn't affected because it's a magical creature itself?"

"Maybe - where was Feathermane when we saw his wing disappear?" she called.

"Roughly where you are now, I think," he called in reply. "Still nothing?"

She turned her head back to look down at him. "Can't see anythi ... aagh!" she cried as she stumbled on one of the loose stones. She barely had time to register the fact that although the stone shot out from underneath her foot, it travelled no further than the edge of the wall, before she lost her balance completely and tumbled off on the far side, landing unceremoniously on her backside.

"Tonks! Are you all right?" came Cassius's urgent, if slightly muffled, voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just winded," she shouted back, picking herself up and dusting her robes down. "It's not such a fall this side ..." She trailed off as she realised what that might mean and spun around. What she saw made her jaw drop.

"CASSIUS!" she yelled. "GET OVER HERE, NOW!"

A few seconds later, an alarmed-looking Cassius appeared as he scrambled up on top of the wall. He looked around, bemused. "Tonks? Where are you?"

"That stone must be a trigger!" she called back. "Kick it, then jump down - it's only a couple of feet!"

A look of considerable trepidation crossed Cassius' face at this advice, but he braced himself and did as she suggested, She caught his arm as he landed to keep him upright, and his jaw dropped just as Tonks' had done. "Well, at least now we know why Arkwright wanted those cages from Mackenzie Ashford," he said eventually.

The sight that met their eyes was a fairly extensive paddock with a number of large cages and tanks dotted about, containing a variety of wild and dangerous-looking creatures. Tonks and Cassius walked slowly around, looking in from a safe distance. "Those are tigers, right?" she asked, gazing at a pair of big striped cats which were giving them a mean look. "Not some weird Indian magical creature or something?"

"I don't think so," said Cassius. "Not that I'm an expert. I'm fairly certain those white things over there must be polar bears, though ..."

"The ones in the cage with ice charms all over the floor?"

"Yes. And those are buffalo, obviously, and that's a small pride of lions, and ... well, I'm not quite sure what those fish with sharp teeth in the big tank are, but I think they're called snakeheads ..."

"That figures. Um, Cassius, I hope you can remember where we came in ..." Tonks glanced around and pointed suddenly. "Oh hang on, look, there's a door over there!" It was standing by itself in the middle of the paddock, apparently unconnected to anything else. They wandered over to look.

"Where do you think it goes?" asked Tonks.

"I hope it leads out into the main farm," said Cassius. He took out his wand and tried a few experimental spells. "It seems to have some kind of spatial charm on it too - I'd say it probably only opens from this side. Ready to try it?"

Tonks nodded, seized the handle nervously and gave it a quick twist. The door swung open to reveal an astonished Will Poppleford and Honoria Biggar and a rather disgruntled Arkwright, all standing in the main office of the farmhouse.

"What are YOU two doing there?" cried Biggar, recovering first, her yell temporarily drowning out the growls and calls from the wild animals behind them.

"Aye, ah'd like to know that an' all," said Arkwright, scowling. "Snoopin' round an' fund tha way in? Well come on then, ah'd better show all o' thee round, now tha's 'ere." He strode past Tonks into the paddock and the others followed, looking around wide-eyed at the miniature zoo it contained.

"We couldn't find anything unusual ..." said Honoria, in what for her was practically a whisper. "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!"

"How did you hide this door, Arkwright?" snapped Will.

"Tha couldn't see nowt from t'other side 'cause it's not thur unless it's already open from this side, tha daft bleeder," he said, smirking. "Ah only shut it when t' Ministry clowns come round. Thur's another entrance out thur over t' wall - tha li'le trainee looks like she fund it fer thee. Tha ought to gi' 'er a job."

Honoria Biggar seemed to have found her voice again. "That's IT, Arkwright!" she cried. "You're under arrest for breaking the terms of your agreement with the Ministry!"

Arkwright seemed completely unimpressed by this. "Oh aye?" he said. "On what grounds?"

"What grounds - it said on the agreement that you were not to keep any dangerous creatures without Ministry permission!" she spluttered.

He grinned at her triumphantly. "Tha thinks so?" he said. "Tha should learn to read reet. Ah agreed not ta keep any magical creatures wi'out telling t'interfering buggers from t' Ministry, but none o' this lot are magical ...."

"But ... but ... what about the risk to local people if they got out!" said Will, looking disconcerted by Arkwright's argument. "Did you even think of that?"

Arkwright snorted, and continued with glee. "Oh, don't tha worry. Those cages are t' proper 'uns this time. It said in t' Prophet that someone tried t'ave that cheating git Ashford done in, so ah reckoned if ah let 'im know ah wanted some better stuff, 'e weren't gonna shortchange uz this time! Not if 'e were scared somebody were after him - and it might be me, tha knows!"

Cassius and Tonks exchanged startled glances, as did the two magical creature regulators (although probably for different reasons). "What about your neighbours getting in?" tried Honoria, to nods from Will. "Won't they be at risk?"

"Nobbut Muggles far as t'eye can see round 'ere," replied Arkwright trenchantly. "Repelling charms all round. Nearest bloody wizards are them stuck-up buggers t' Princes out 'utton way, and they won't drop by 'ere ..."

Tonks felt Cassius tug gently on her sleeve as the other three continued their argument. "Perhaps this would be a good time to leave?" he suggested in an undertone.

She looked at them and grinned. "Yeah, I think so."

They quietly slipped out with a wave to a distracted Will Poppleford (who absently returned it) and made their way out towards the Apparition point, pausing only briefly to pet Feathermane and tell him what a good boy he was for helping them out. (He preened at their words, which made Tonks wonder if hippogriffs really could understand the rudiments of what was said to them.)

"You reckon he meant that about Ashford?" she asked as they reached the patch of trees.

"Arkwright doesn't seem like a man who'd keep his opinions hidden, exactly," said Cassius. "Don't you think so?"

Tonks smiled. "No, I'd say he convinced me he was sincere."

"Yes ..." He glanced back. "That zoo of his will be safe, I hope?"

"Well, I suppose they aren't magical creatures this time, so they won't be melting the bars by breathing fire or anything," she pointed out fairly. "Should we be doing anything else?"

He shook his head. "No. I'm very happy to write this off as being somebody else's department!"

They grinned at each other and Apparated back to London.

*****

Saturday 10^th October

Despite being able to provisionally cross off one of their suspects (O'Gregan having managed to use his influence with a rather embarrassed Mackenzie Ashford to get him to confirm Arkwright's story), Tonks was relieved to break for the weekend.

Then again, there were a couple of potentially sticky situations to negotiate. If she called round to see her parents, they would no doubt want to know if there had been any developments in her cousin's case - and of course, there had been none at all. Kingsley Shacklebolt had nothing new to tell her, and she viewed the idea of contacting Dumbledore about a letter that she probably wasn't even supposed to have seen with some trepidation.

More ominously, Chesney had sent her a note via paper aeroplane memo post to remind her that with a Halloween Ball rapidly approaching (at which a certain amount of dancing was expected), he'd finally arranged to 'do something about that' as he'd mentioned cryptically a few weeks previously. Considering what 'something' might turn out to be left her feeling slightly uneasy

She Apparated into Diagon Alley on the Saturday evening, wearing smart casual dress rather than jeans and a T-shirt for once, just in case. He was already there waiting for her, sitting on one of the seats outside Florian Fortescue's and absorbed in the sports section of the Daily Prophet, which didn't seem likely to offer any clues to what he had in mind.

"Something of interest?" she said lightly, interrupting him with a quick cuff on the shoulder and exchanging a kiss. "Every time I meet you, you seem to have your head in the paper."

"Only an article by the manager of the Tornados," he said, folding the paper, shaking his head and grinning. "They've given him his own column since they got to the top of the league ..."

Tonks snorted. She'd never much liked the Tutshill Tornados, a team with a reputation for arrogance but until recently living on the past glories of the Roderick Plumpton era. "Yeah, right. Has anyone from Tutshill ever written anything worth reading?"

"Harsh ... but fair." He grinned. "Ready to practice for the Ball?"

"Where are we going?" asked Tonks warily.

"Wait and see!" The repetition of that phrase didn't make her feel more comfortable. Neither did their route, as he took her arm and escorted her away in the general direction of the little alleyway in which she'd had her nearly disastrous fight.

If he's signed me up for dancing classes in one of those tatty little rooms, he's going to be dumped right now. And probably hexed as well.

Fortunately for Chesney' state of health, this didn't appear to be what he had in mind. He led her past most of the alleyways and stopped outside the door of a building on the main street. It looked old-fashioned, but relatively elegant.

"Here you go," he said with a cheeky smile that was nevertheless slightly nervous. "The Ballroom of Enchantment, they call it. Bit daft, and all right, the music they play's a bit ancient, but it's what we'll get on Halloween night, and they do the same kind of dancing."

She looked at him with exasperation. "Ches, it doesn't matter. Whatever kind of dancing it is, I've still got two left feet even if we do practice!"

"Yeah, but it's OK," he said, holding up a hand in a placatory manner. "You can hire dancing shoes here ..."

At this, Tonks exploded. "I don't care if you can hire bloody taffeta ballgowns, it's still not going to make any difference to me!"

"No, no," he said hastily. "Let me finish. The dancing shoes they have here are charmed to respond to the music, yeah? When you put them on they just take your feet where they're supposed to go?"

"Oh ... right," said Tonks, taken aback. "They do?"

"Yeah," said Chesney, looking heartened. "So it doesn't matter if you don't know the steps, Tonks, they'll do it for you." He grinned. "So you can forget about your feet and concentrate on your partner. Want to give it a go?"

Tonks glanced at the Ballroom of Enchantment with an oddly excited feeling. It did look as if it might be fun to dance properly for a change. The most she'd ever dared to attempt (outside of the privacy of her own room, where tripping over her own feet couldn't embarrass her) was swaying more or less on the spot in dark, crowded clubs.

"OK," she said, with a growing grin. "Not promising it'll work, but I'll give it a try, anyway. Do I need a taffeta ballgown?"

"Not really - lucky you've gone smart casual tonight, that's all most people do, I think. Might get a few raised eyebrows at the pink hair, but that's just tough ..."

"Oh, that's easy to fix," she said cheerfully, preparing to Metamorphose. Before actually doing so, however, she turned away, took out her wand, and waved it vaguely in the direction of her head, concentrating on the change she wanted in the normal way (for her). Her hair lengthened and turned blonde, and she quickly let it twist into a rather formal style that seemed to suit the Ballroom.

"Nice bit of Transfiguration!" said Chesney with approval, before seeming to realise that a little more might be required and adding hastily, "And it looks really good, too!"

"Thanks, Ches," she said, trying to hide her amusement. "Shall we go, then?"

The inside of the Ballroom of Enchantment turned out to look much like Tonks had expected it might, judging from the outside. The owners had evidently gone to a fair amount of trouble to create an atmosphere of old-world elegance, although in her opinion they could have gone a little easier on the velvet hangings and gilt wall ornamentation. A haughty-looking witch sitting behind a small reception desk produced a pair of the 'dancing shoes' for Tonks.

"How long would madam wish to hire these for?" she asked in a voice that sounded slightly too refined to be entirely natural.

Tonks exchanged looks with Chesney. "Let's just say a couple of hours and see how it goes," she suggested firmly, glancing at a chart on the wall which specified this as the minimum hire time.

"Very well." The reception witch sniffed slightly, but tapped the shoes with her wand and handed them to Tonks who exchanged them for her own. As she put them on they shrank to fit her feet.

"Cool!" she said, earning a wince from the Ballroom employee. "Right, Ches, let's give this a try then!" She took his arm as they entered an elegant-looking ballroom in which a few dozen people were already dancing. The majority looked older than Tonks and Chesney, but there were a few younger-looking couples there, most of them appearing slightly bemused.

"There you are, you see," pointed out Chesney. "They've got those shoes on too, look."

"You haven't," said Tonks, realising this fact for the first time.

"My grandmother insisted that all of us kids learned to dance," he said, chuckling. "Apparently her school had classes back in the day ..."

"Lucky they don't now! Not much point, I suppose."

"True. My sister loved it, me and my brother hated it - but it comes in useful occasionally." He winked and then gave a little formal bow, which would have been more effective if he'd been able to keep the grin off his face. "So, would you care to dance, miss?"

"Why thank you, kind sir," replied Tonks in the same manner, taking his hand and stepping onto the dance floor, with a polite smile that concealed considerable nervousness regarding the effectiveness of the shoes.

She needn't have worried, however; she was astonished but delighted by the way her feet simply seemed to go wherever they were supposed to as soon as the music started. Tonks felt wonderfully free as they danced - the enchanted shoes ensured that she couldn't trip over her own feet, and the fact that Chesney was holding her close meant that she couldn't really make a wrong move otherwise. As they stepped off the floor for a breather she glanced at the clock and was amazed to find that nearly an hour had gone by.

"How did you find out about this place?" she asked, flushed but exhilarated.

"Saw it one evening when I was wandering around with my brother and we decided to take a look inside," he said, looking equally pleased. "He was embarrassed as hell, but I was surprised to find it was quite fun when I tried it."

"So you suggested this just for the physical contact then?" joked Tonks.

To her surprise, Chesney coloured slightly, which she found quite endearing. "Well, no, mainly I thought it would help for the Ministry ball, although that did cross my mind I suppose ..."

Tonks grinned and raised her eyebrows. This was too good a teasing opportunity to pass up. "So who did you dance with when you came in with your brother?"

"It was just a pick-up-a-partner night ..."

"Oh yeah? Who did you pick up then? Anyone I should know about?"

Chesney gave the impression of a man who would have dearly liked to withdraw his last few statements. "Er - well, actually, to be honest, this pair of middle-aged witches came up and grabbed us before we could ask anyone else, so there." He was looking more and more embarrassed by the second. "I don't think my brother's forgiven me yet. He keeps saying that one day he'll send me some shoes that'll really get me dancing - probably have the Curse of St Vitus on them or something ..."

"I'll look forward to seeing that." Tonks caught his uncertain expression and took pity on him. "Oh well, I'll just have to make up for your previous encounter then, you poor thing," she said archly. "Physical contact works for me too. Shall we dance, sir?"

"Great idea!" Chesney stood up hastily and swept her back onto the floor to put an end to the conversation.

The floor was filling up quite quickly now as more wizards and witches came into the ballroom, but the dancing couples seemed to be kept apart by some mixture of skill and charmwork, and Tonks and Chesney were once again able to lose themselves in the dancing. It wasn't until Tonks stumbled briefly during a quickstep that it occurred to her to look at the clock, and then to realise that the two hours were almost up.

Panicking slightly, she frantically tried to convey this information to Chesney with a series of nods towards her feet and the seating. He looked bemused for a moment, then his eyes widened and he nodded in turn, sweeping her round in a move that appeared elegant but actually brought them much closer to the edge of the dancefloor. Tonks breathed a silent sigh of relief and tried to follow his lead.

When the heel of her shoe became caught up in the trailing gown worn by one of the other dancers during this manoeuvre, it didn't immediately register. The tug on her foot pulling her off-balance certainly did, however. It was followed by a moment or two of sheer horrified realisation as she slipped again, just as she had done on the wall at Arkwright's; then she found herself not merely falling over and dragging Chesney down with her, but causing a small pile-up as several other couples were knocked over in turn like dominoes.

Tonks took some deep breaths as she lay on the floor, closed her eyes, and wished fervently that she could once again vanish into an invisible enchanted space. Unfortunately, this time her luck was out. Crimson with humiliation and cursing herself fluently under her breath for not checking the time, she looked up in order to apologise to the nearest couple and found herself staring into the half-amused, half-astounded faces of Cassius and Angelica Hallendale.

She shut her eyes again and tried not to whimper. Great. Just great. Brilliant. Just bloody wonderful. Absolutely sodding perfect.

Cassius shook himself and helped both women to their feet with the air of a man remembering his manners; Chesney stammered apologies to the other rather disgruntled dancers who had been knocked over; and the four of them quickly made their way to the edge of the floor and sat down at one of the surrounding tables. Everyone looked at everyone else without quite knowing what to say.

Chesney eventually broke the silence. "So, you're, erm, Tonks' boss then, yeah?" he asked in a rather strained voice.

"Oh, ah, yes," he replied. "We've met briefly, haven't we? Erm, this charming young woman is Angelica Hallendale ..."

"We've met too," interrupted Angelica, with an amused, but thoughtful, expression. "At the Quidditch World Cup, wasn't it? Miss Tonks here was telling me off and you were being just as flattering as Cassius." Both men coloured slightly and Tonks cringed at the recollection. "So do you often come dancing? I haven't seen you here before."

"First time," said Chesney. Tonks still didn't trust herself to speak. "Er, we didn't see you when we came in?"

"We only just arrived," she explained. "It was quite a shock to see you. I didn't know you danced, Miss Tonks."

"I don't usually," she mumbled. "Too clumsy."

"Oh yes, of course." Her mouth twitched, presumably remembering the first time they'd met, and Tonks reddened again. Angelica Hallendale noticed and gave her a sympathetic smile. "You know, I've always imagined it must be quite hard for you to be sure how to move when you keep changing your body shape?"

Tonks winced. Chesney blinked. "That's a bit extreme, isn't it?" he said, puzzled. "I mean, I know Tonks Transfigured her hair for tonight, but that's not really much of a change ..."

"You Transfigured it?" Angelica raised her eyebrows; even Cassius looked surprised. "I thought you were a Morpho ... Malleo ... erm, whatever it's called when you can change your look at will like you can?" She glanced between Tonks' grimace, Cassius' gentle but frantic dissuading shake of the head, and Chesney's baffled face upon which both comprehension and astonishment were slowly arriving, and lost her smile. "Oh ... have I put my foot in it now?"

Cassius stepped in hastily. "I don't think my young colleague likes to publicise what she can do, Angelica," he said. "Security reasons and all that. I'm sure you understand. Anyway, perhaps we should leave these young people to themselves now?"

"Ah ... yes," said Angelica, rising. "Well, it's been ... er, interesting meeting you again, Miss Tonks, and your guy ... ah, your 'nice bloke'. Yes. Um, good luck." She allowed Cassius to lead her back onto the dancefloor. Tonks, getting past the numbness of the accumulated embarrassments of the last quarter of an hour, finally thought to wonder briefly just how often she'd been keeping company with Cassius, but let it go, as by mutual consent she and Chesney left the dance hall, exchanged the dancing shoes for her own, and exited into Diagon Alley.

Neither of them seemed to know quite what to say. They walked for a couple of hundred yards in silence before flopping down onto one of the seats spaced at intervals along the street.

Once again, Chesney was the one who broke the silence. "Well, Cinderella got to go to the ball, but I suppose we should have known her fur slippers would turn back into clogs," he said jokingly. Tonks managed a wan smile, which seemed to hearten him slightly. "So, er, this body shape thing," he said delicately. "I wasn't sure if that Muggle woman knew what she was talking about, but it sounded like she was saying you're ... well, a Metamorphic or whatever they're called?"

"Metamorphmagus."

He stared at her incredulously. "So it's true? You are one? Really? Um ... wow."

Tonks smiled wanly again. "Oh, it's true all right. Watch." She concentrated briefly and ran through about half-a-dozen faces from her repertoire, ending with a return to her normal appearance but with her usual (if hardly natural) pink hair. "There you go. Nice little parlour trick, isn't it?"

"I'll say." He looked thoroughly impressed, but also utterly disconcerted. "I mean, I heard somewhere there were people like that - er, like you - but I've never met one before. Is this, erm" - he coloured slightly - "is this, you know, how you're looking now, actually you?"

She snorted. "You mean, what do I really look like? Am I some horrible looking person you wouldn't be interested in? No, this is me, Ches. Every Metamorphmagus has a natural look, apparently, and this is mine. Well, apart from the hair, obviously, but I don't care - I like it like this. I might change if I thought I looked absolutely terrible, but I probably wouldn't."

"Right." Chesney seemed to be struggling for words. "Do you ... oh I don't know, I mean ... how hard is it to do that? Do you ... well, do you have to remember what you really look like or something?"

Tons smiled tiredly; this was a question she'd been asked far too many times before. "No. It settles back to this after a while, unless I concentrate hard to stop it. I suppose it's like ... oh, maybe wearing a tight pair of shoes or something? I can only change myself for so long before it starts to feel uncomfortable, but the more I break a look in, the more comfortable it gets. I can change for days at a time if I need to, though, so it's just fine for undercover stuff, but eventually it's as if you just want to kick the shoes off and let yourself relax."

"Aren't you supposed to talk about it then?" he asked uncertainly.

"What?" It took Tonks a moment to realise what he was talking about. "Oh, you mean what Cassius said? No, that was just him trying to save my face and give me an excuse for not having told you. There's no reason why people shouldn't know - it's never been a big secret or anything."

"Why didn't you tell me then?" he asked tentatively. He sounded slightly hurt.

"Because ..." Tonks shrugged. "Oh, what the hell. Just an old insecurity, Ches, if you must know. I got fed up with boyfriends who were so bloody fascinated with what I could do it was all they could think about. I don't like to tell them - er, you - now until I have some idea how they'll react."

She looked away, not quite wanting to catch his eye. "When I was a teenager it was fun for a while, I'll admit. Make my boobs look like a couple of Bludgers straining to escape from the box, get the boys' attention, get my boyfriends going, that sort of thing. But I got bored with it pretty bloody quickly. You know, I can look like almost anyone, but I can't be almost anyone, and I don't want to sodding try. I can do a pretty good impersonation job, but when I'm being me, I'm me, not someone else. This is me, take it or leave it."

"Right," he said again. He began talking rather quickly and nervously. "Um, well you know I asked you out anyway before I knew about this, obviously, and I mean, it was because I liked the way you look anyway - er, not just your look, I mean, I like you too, I mean we get along don't we, and well OK I won't say I'm not curious but obviously, well I mean you're just fine the way you are, and that's fine by me and I don't really want you to change or anything and I mean I'm not like those creepy sods who go around trying to scoop up hair cuttings for making Polyjuice because they want to be with Zara Gabon without the risk of marrying her, I mean ugh and ... I mean obviously I don't care because I like you the way you are and I know that sounds corny and I mean ..." The babbling ground to a halt as Tonks stared at him. "Um, Tonks? Why are you looking at me like that? I mean it needn't mess things up, need it, and ... umph!"

Tonks broke off her fierce kiss after a few seconds and looked at him with shining eyes. "Ches? You're brilliant!"

"I am?" he said, looking confused but pleased. He reached for her but she jumped up and moved away, fumbling for her mirror phone.

"Yes!" she said, muttering "Cassius Scrimgeour" into the mirror. Chesney tried to bring her into an embrace but she waved him away impatiently as the call was answered.

"Cassius?" she said. "I think I've got it!"

"Got what?" came a cautious voice from the other end. She realised belatedly that she'd probably dragged him off the dance floor to talk to her.

"Got why Portia Blackstock was seen in the Transfigured Toad at the same time she was in Paris!" she said. "The absolutely bloody obvious solution that we thought about, and then forgot because we were so distracted by other things! We went chasing red herrings because we didn't see how it could be worked that way! And" - she became even more excited as odd facts in the case notes she'd memorised clicked into place for her - "I think I've got a pretty good idea who it might be who did it and why, not just how, I can see where it could all fit!"

"You're serious?" Cassius sounded incredulous. "Who?"

Belatedly, she realised a little caution was in order. "Cassius, look. Give me time to check and see if it makes sense. I want to go into work to look a few things up, just to be sure I'm not talking total cobblers here. Can you get the team together on Monday morning and if it works out I'll tell you?"

"All right," he said, looking confused and slightly annoyed but maintaining his usual politeness. "I'll look forward to hearing your idea. Um, can I go back to Angelica now?"

"Yeah, of course," she said. "See you on Monday!"

Tonks turned back to a completely bewildered Chesney and smiled. "Sorry, Ches - but you were brilliant. You've just made me realise the obvious. I'm not walking out on you or anything, but I've got to go into work, OK?"

"Er ... yeah," said Chesney. "I mean ... yeah, of course if you've got something important. We are ... we're OK, are we? Still want to go out?"

She beamed at him. "You bet." She kissed him again, at greater length this time. "You bloody bet. You're a good bloke, Chesney Thompson, and I'll make it up to you for walking out like this. But I've got to go. You're OK?"

"Yeah," he said, grinning. "I think I can manage to make it home without an Auror escort."

"Right," she said smiling. She kissed him once more, then turned on the spot and Apparated to the now-deserted foyer of the Ministry, and practically ran towards the lifts. She had a theory - possibly a wild theory, but one that just felt right - and needed to check it out.

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A transitional chapter to get a red herring out of the way and get Tonks to the Revelation Point -probably far too many examples of Spot-the-Reference, no doubt, but it was fun to do! Ah well. A couple of those references may be found here and here.

For the introduction of Feathermane, blame Arithmancy at Chamber of Secrets and Lazy_neutrino at FictionAlley for asking (way back) about something that was meant to be a throwaway joke and giving me ideas. :)

Next: chapter 34, Fitting the Pieces into Place. In which Tonks explains her theories about the Ashford case and the Aurors confirm them. But in which the official support takes a turn for the worse ...