Nymphadora Tonks and the Liquor of Jacmel

36. Of Kith and Kin

Thursday 29^th October 1994

Tonks had never really liked hospital wards.

She counted herself fortunate that there had been no need for her to spend much time inside them - just the sometimes interesting (but often tedious) visits as a child to the specialist at St Mungo's who was teaching her how to control her gift, and the occasional night in the Hogwarts Hospital Wing under the care of Madam Pomfrey, usually after a particularly painful demonstration of her clumsiness.

On the other hand, she had now come to realise that waiting outside them for news of a friend was actually a great deal worse.

Cassius had seemed to be all right after the first shock had passed, but once the specialists had got to work analysing the 'ink' in the pen (aided by Tonks' insistence that it might be something obscure and nasty) they had quickly whisked him off to the emergency poisoning ward on the third floor; and since then there had been no news at all other than the usual 'no change, in a stable condition' reports from harassed Healers passing by with vials of unpleasant-looking liquids.

Tonks rubbed her eyes, feeling both weary and horribly guilty once more. It didn't really help that all the people she'd spoken to (most of them members of the Auror Office, taking notes on the details of her Wednesday morning adventures) had blithely assured her that she had nothing to blame herself for. It had been her appearance that had fooled everyone, and she couldn't shake off the feeling that she should have remembered that Carrack had cut her hair too.

She glanced into a mirror and grimaced as she saw the state of that hair now. Natural mousy brown, just like Carrack's impersonation, and lank with it. She made a half-hearted attempt at turning it pink but somehow, at the moment, she didn't seem to have the heart to keep it that way for more than a few seconds at a time.

"Miss Tonks?"

She looked up quickly, expecting to see the lime-green robes of a Healer, but instead saw a middle-aged man and woman, dressed in ordinary street robes. She couldn't place them, although there was something vaguely familiar about their faces.

"Yes, that's me," she replied. "Can I help you?"

"Has there been any news of Mr Scrimgeour?" The woman who was speaking looked extremely anxious. "We came as soon as we could, but the Healers couldn't tell us anything."

"Er, no, no news I'm afraid." She blinked tiredly and suddenly realised that she had seen them before, just not in person. They'd been waving out of the photographs pinned to Cassius' cubicle wall. "Oh, you must be his children?"

She nodded. "Yes. Two of them, anyway. I'm Patricia, this is Au -"

"Gus," he interrupted firmly. "Our mother thought the classical names were a wizarding conceit and wanted to avoid them, but Dad sneaked one in for me." He glanced at the ward door as he said it and his lips tightened.

"And you must be Nymphadora Tonks?" asked Patricia.

Tonks nodded in turn. "Yes, that's right," she said, uneasy that they knew who she was. "I didn't know he'd mentioned me?"

"Oh yes, he's quite fond of you," she said kindly, which made Tonks feel even worse. "He says he enjoys working with someone just starting out. Takes him back, you see."

"It's been really good for him, getting back in the saddle again," added her brother. "Well, until ..." He gestured uncomfortably at the door.

"Right." Tonks bit her lip. "They really know what they're doing here. I'm sure they'll fix him up."

"I hope so," he said. His voice shook. "It's only been a couple of years since Mum died. We don't want to lose Dad too."

"I'm sorry ..." said Tonks helplessly.

"That's all right, it's not your fault," said Patricia, with a smile that was probably more tremulous than she'd intended. Tonks winced. I wish I could believe that ... "Anyway, that wasn't so much of a shock, we always expected to lose her early. But Dad's still pretty good for his age ..."

"That's true."

Tonks felt that she should probably offer some words of condolence or comfort, but her mind was a blank as to what they might be. She was quite relieved when, after a few minutes of awkward silence, the door at the end of the corridor opened and O'Gregan and Cornworthy came to join them.

"How is he?" asked the Irishman without preamble. Cornworthy nodded to Cassius' children in a familiar way, as if he'd met them before.

Tonks groaned inwardly. "I don't know, Don. Nobody's saying anything. No news at all."

"I hope that's good news then," he said, rather more sombrely than usual. "You might like to know we've got young Mickey and Jacqueline sewn up. On their way to Azkaban as we speak, trial will be as soon as the Wizard Spots can find a place on their precious court schedule, now."

"We brought him in just as soon as we'd got her," explained Cornworthy. "Once he realised she'd been caught - well, he went completely to pieces. Confessed everything."

"Which wasn't too bright of the little eejit, because we might have had a problem linking him in otherwise," added O'Gregan. "Your hairdresser was sitting tight and not saying a word. Happily, when we told her what Mickey was saying, then she was quite keen to give her side of the story, so she was. I do like it when that happens."

"What did they say?"

"Well, we wanted to tell both of you, but ..." O'Gregan glanced at the door.

"You still can," said Tonks, more fiercely than she'd intended.

The other Aurors looked at her for a moment and then shrugged. "All right, young Nymphadora."

She felt too miserable even to object to this. "How is everyone taking it?" she asked.

"Claymore's ecstatic," said Cornworthy. "Or at least, he said 'very well done' which is the nearest equivalent in Egbert-speak. The Magical Creatures people are relieved it's all over, but would like to know what funny training the Auror Office are giving to house-elves. Ellie Finchley sends her regards - er, we'll tell you both about that later - and Mackenzie Ashford is pleased that he can come out of hiding now, but still miserable that someone he loved turned out murderous, of course."

"Cheers," said Tonks morosely. I know the feeling. Of course. Fortunately, it was only a minute or two later when the door of the ward finally opened and a weary-looking Healer came over to them.

"How ... is Mr Scrimgeour all right?" asked Gus, evidently steeling himself for the reply.

The Healer smiled. "He'll be fine," she said. "We've cleaned out all the stuff from his system now. Do you want to see him? Family only for the moment, please, and no longer than five minutes. He needs to get a few hours rest."

Tonks slumped back in her chair, limp with relief, as a beaming Gus and Patricia entered the ward. She closed her eyes for a moment and was asleep before she'd even realised quite how tired she was.

*****

She was jolted awake by a finger prodding her ribs and a teasing "Wake up, sleepyhead!" from the owner of the said digit.

Her eyes felt glued together, but a little experimentation showed them to be merely sleep-encrusted. She rubbed them open and looked up at a grinning Rhiannon. "Couldn't you have let me sleep a bit?" she asked grumpily. "I was up half the night, you know!"

"We do know," she replied, still grinning. "That's why we did let you sleep. It's half past four in the afternoon and you've been out about six hours. Feeling perkier now?"

Tonks sat up and winced at how stiff she felt; the hospital chair wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep, even though someone thoughtful seemed to have Transfigured it underneath her to make it softer. And squashing herself down to the size of a house-elf the day before hadn't exactly helped. She glanced at her watch suspiciously, but Rhiannon wasn't joking about the amount of time she'd been out. She stood up and stretched. "Yes, actually. What have I missed?"

"Nothing much. Cassius was sleeping it off too, but he just woke up so we thought we'd better come and fetch you. I didn't think you'd want to miss the fun. Ready?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Rhi." She followed her colleague into the private room.

Cassius was sitting up in bed, dressed in a hospital nightshirt; he looked rather wan, but was smiling nonetheless. O'Gregan was sprawled in a chair with his feet up on the bed (Rhiannon knocked them off and sat down on the edge where they'd been), and Cornworthy was leaning against the wall near a portrait of an eighteenth-century Healer, a wry expression on his face as he watched his colleagues.

Tonks sat down on the other side of the bed and smiled back at Cassius. "You OK, mate?"

"Well, I feel like a cauldron after all the unpleasant things they've poured into me - but yes, I'm fine now. Thank you for the quick action, by the way - the Healers said I could have been much worse if they hadn't known what sort of poison to look for right from the start."

"What was it?"

Cassius shuddered. "Another of those charming recipes that Lucretia Borgia never knew. In fact, I even read out the description when you showed us the book. Remember the 'Blood Blend'?"

Tonks was still shaking off sleep and had to think for a minute before the details came back to her. "The wasting potion?" she gasped. "The contact poison? Bloody hell, are they sure they have the antidote?"

He nodded. "Don't worry, I was lucky. Do you remember the book said you could make it much more powerful with a dash of your own blood, except then it only affects close relatives? Well, Donnacha tells me that Mickey Ashford added some of his blood to the mixture - in the expectation that his uncle would be on the receiving end, of course."

"But as far as I can gather, he didn't get the proportions quite right," interrupted O'Gregan, putting his feet back on the bed. "Our girl Jacqueline was most irate about that."

"The Healers said that because of that, the stuff in the pen was too specific to be lethal, although it still had more than enough kick to make me ill. They've managed to neutralise it though, so I should be all right for the Halloween Ball on Saturday." He grinned. "I've really been looking forward to that."

"So have I," said Tonks. "Perfect timing, eh?"

"Absolutely." Cassius turned to the members of his team. "Well then. You chaps seem to know more than I do at the moment. Perhaps you'd care to tell me what you've learned while I've been stuck here, out of action?" He glanced at Tonks, perched on the edge of the bed, and added, "And I'm not the only one in that situation, I gather. For s start, could you tell me why and how Jacqueline Carrack chose to impersonate Tonks of all people?"

"Oh, that's a good one," said O'Gregan, chuckling. "It seems that when Nymphadora here went into that shop o'hers all dressed up as Mabel -"

"Mavis," corrected Tonks, irritated. "Mavis Grimble, I call her."

"- or whoever she was supposed to be, for reasons best known to herself she told them she worked in the Magical Creatures Department and knew old Ashford slightly."

"Well, I had to tell them something," said Tonks defensively. "You called me in at short notice, it was the only way I could think of on the spur of the moment to turn the conversation to the poisoning!"

"Oh, that was fair enough," said Cornworthy from over by the wall. "But once they knew about the signing taking place, it gave Carrack the idea that she could Polyjuice into this 'Mavis,' who sounded like she would be a familiar face around the Department, and get into the room that way. They expected there to be increased security, of course, but obviously they didn't expect it to be a set-up or they wouldn't have attempted it."

"It was still quite a risky plan, though, compared to their previous attempts," said Cassius, frowning.

"Oh, definitely, Cassius. But they were getting desperate - well, Mickey Ashford was getting impatient, anyway, and Jacqueline Carrack could see her dreams of riches falling apart in her hands if she didn't do something quick. And even then, I suppose the only way it could have gone completely wrong would be if she ran into 'herself.' And 'Mavis' was supposed to be off work that day or something?"

Tonks thought for a moment. "Oh right. I did model her on Beatrice Easton a bit. I probably said I didn't work Wednesdays."

"That would explain it," said O'Gregan jovially. "So they drop a few of your hairs into some Polyjuice base for her to take, just to make sure it will work - and are positively flabbergasted when she doesn't turn into Mabel, she turns into a much younger woman instead. Which leaves her pondering the immortal words of Socrates when he said, 'I drank what?'"

Tonks laughed. "Nice line, Don. Can't quite remember exactly where you nicked it from, but it's always a good one ..."

"Well thank you," he said with a scowl.

"That's quite interesting," put in Cassius hastily. "I thought I've run across most things there were to know about the practical use of Polyjuice, but I didn't know that using it with hair from a Metamorphmagus gave you the natural rather than the Metamorphosed form."

"Neither did I," admitted Tonks. "When we experimented with it in training, I was always me."

"Anyway," said O'Gregan, continuing impatiently, "They don't know that either, so they aren't quite sure what to make of it. Mickey is there with her, of course, so while Carrack's double-checking her samples to see if she's made a mistake, he suddenly slaps his forehead and says 'Wait a minute - I know that face! She's that Auror who argued with Charlotte at the World Cup!"

"And that didn't make them suspicious?" asked Cassius, with polite incredulity.

"Luckily for us, Cassius, it didn't, no," explained Cornworthy. "Remember, they'd gone to a lot of trouble to set up Charlotte and Portia to take the fall for this. Both to give us suspects, and because if she was convicted of the murder she'd lose her share of the money under the Wizarding Inheritance Act? They knew we'd arrested Charlotte, they knew we'd made the connection between the two of them. So when Carrack jumped to the conclusion that Tonks must have been investigating Portia when she came in her shop -"

"Which I actually was, come to think of it."

"- exactly, Tonks, well then they reasoned, an Auror is even better cover than a Departmental employee, isn't she? She can go anywhere, do what she likes, and no-one will question her. They had to take the risk that you might be there in person - but like we said, they weren't expecting a trap, and they never imagined an Auror would be there just as a security guard."

Cassius nodded. "Very well. How did it happen that we missed her, though? There were a number of people around that day who knew Tonks' real face."

The other Aurors glanced at each other uncomfortably. "Well, old son, as far as we can puzzle it out it went like this," said O'Gregan. "She timed it so she arrived at the Ministry Visitors' Entrance during the main rush, and she was already Polyjuiced into some random customer of hers so no-one could remember her being there with her real appearance. So she pops into the phone booth, gives a false name and business, and uses that Nonmappability Spell, so she does. Then she goes up in the lift, stops on the floor below - "

"- which is Transportation, where there are always loads of members of the public going in and out organising Apparition tests and Floo connections and booking Portkeys, no-one gave her a second thought -" interposed Rhiannon.

"- indeed, my love - so she pops into the Ladies and hides away waiting for the first lot of stuff to wear off."

"Why bother?" asked Tonks. "Why not just change into - well, me - straight away?"

"If I remember correctly, I don't think you can," put in Cassius. "It's one of those situations where incompatible magic is dangerous - the first dose is still in your system, so when you take a second dose for a different person it's fighting against the magic of the first transformation. The stress can easily kill you."

"And anyway, it gives her time to watch and see if anyone seems to be following," added O'Gregan. "She put a Transparency Charm on the cubicle door, the variant one that made it transparent only to her -"

Cassius gave Tonks a wry look. "Well, I did tell you that was useful ..."

"-- ready to flush away all the incriminating potions if she sees anything to alarm her. But no-one's taking any notice. So when she turns back into herself she takes the dose with your hair in it, Conjures herself a little fake Auror badge, expecting that no-one will do more than glance at it - she was right at that, she was - and steps out."

"That was when she ran into your friend Mary, Cassius," explained Cornworthy. "But she got rid of her pretty quickly and went up to the right floor in the lift. Luckily for her, though, that delayed her just long enough for you and Tonks to miss her."

Both of them looked puzzled. "The way we figure it, that was when Amos Diggory had sent our little elf here downstairs to get his papers signed," said Rhiannon, grinning (Tonks made a face at her), "and you and Will were out of sight in the anteroom getting the Ashford disguise right."

"So the lucky little lady is able to go straight into the room," said O'Gregan. "She runs into Beatrice Easton, of course, but we never let Beatrice know the details of what we were doing, so she doesn't see anything at all odd about 'Nymphadora Tonks' being there. So when Jacqueline says she wants to make sure everything is safe and switches the quill pens, she just lets her get on with it."

Tonks groaned. "She wasn't on some kind of lucky potion as well, was she?"

Rhiannon smiled at her in sympathy and shook her head. "Although apparently she did have a go at making it," she added, surprising Tonks, who had merely been joking. "No, honestly, there is such a potion, remember? But it's a absolute bugger to get right, and she made a mess of it the first couple of tries. And by then, even if she'd been third time lucky -" everybody groaned "- there wasn't nearly enough time for it to finish brewing. We don't normally see it, and a good job too. Cassius might remember a case where it was used, but I can't."

He nodded. "I can recall a few occasions offhand, but it's rare. There are surprisingly few people who have the skill to brew advanced potions - as you might realise if even Miss Carrack couldn't manage it. Usually people try to make it, then either the result is poisonous or it gives them such bad luck that they practically catch themselves."

"True enough," she said. "Anyway, after putting the rigged pen in place, naturally enough the only thing on her mind was getting away as quickly as possible. That was where she did have her first piece of really bad luck. As it happened, the wizard who took over watching the lifts was the same bloke we borrowed from the Patrol to help capture the Gringotts robber. So he knew you, and when Carrack went by he hailed her as 'Tonks.' She'd no idea who he was, of course, so she made some sort of noncommittal reply, he thanked her for getting back pronto to relieve him, and cleared off to Arnold again."

"Of course, he didn't have an Earworm, so I didn't know he'd left his post until he reported back," the Auror in question pointed out. "We couldn't make sense of each other at first, because he didn't know you were disguised either, and I couldn't work out why you weren't."

"And that was when we put two and two together!" said Tonks, the sequence of events finally making sense to her.

"Yes. Of course, at that point, she knew something was wrong - and that was where she made her big mistake. If she'd hightailed it down to the Atrium immediately, she might have been able to get out. But she took a few minutes to think about it and work out what to do, and it sunk her."

"By then, Mary Edgecombe had arranged to shut down the Floo connections temporarily," explained Rhiannon, as Tonks looked confused. "And Carrack was already in the Atrium by the time they made the announcement, so she couldn't just step out of the lift at another floor and try to hide until we had to open them again. She headed back towards them to get out the danger area until the Polyjuice wore off, but by then you'd arrived, and ... well, you know the rest."

Tonks nodded gloomily. "Yes, we got her, but we didn't realise in time that's she'd reached the room as me. I'm sorry, Cassius."

"Don't be," he said, looking surprised. "I heard everything that you heard, and I still didn't recognise the possibility. You're too hard on yourself sometimes, Tonks. You'll need to watch that in the future."

"I suppose so," said Tonks, not wanting to labour the point. As she cast around for a change of subject, it suddenly struck her there was one thing they'd never been able to work out. "Did they tell you how they got the Liquor of Jacmel for the first attempt, then?"

The three Aurors who had carried out the interviews grinned at each other. "We were wondering when you were going to ask that," said Rhiannon.

"Saving the best for last, we were," added O'Gregan. "Remember we found out she had a dodgy ex? Guess who he was?"

Tonks and Cassius exchanged glances. "Not Scarf Boy?" she said in excitement.

O'Gregan's jubilant look faded slightly. "Not quite, but we're getting there, we are. Do you remember a certain villain with the nickname 'Trollbrain' our fellow Farley mentioned when we gave him a little drink of Veritaserum?"

Cassius raised his eyebrows. "The chap he overheard the locals discussing when he visited the pub in the Magical Market? The one behind the enchanted musical instrument thefts?" he asked, seeming perfectly happy with this piece of information. "Do you mean Carrack got the Jacmel from him?"

"Exactly, Cassius," said Cornworthy. "One Theodulus Horrigan. In fact, he seems to have been the one who originally asked this 'Butler' to bring in some of the stuff, and set off our little run of cases. As far as we could gather from what Carrack spat at us when we interrogated her, she only latched on to him originally because he might be a route to easy money. I reckon she realised pretty quickly that he was never going to be more than small fry, though, so she dumped him. But she did hear he had a commission for that piano -"

"Harpsichord," corrected Cassius.

"- er yes, sorry - shortly before they split up. She didn't think much of it at the time - but as it happened, she'd nipped into the pub that day too for a lunchtime drink. She overheard what those Midlands blokes were saying, and it gave her ideas."

"Lucky for all of them that none of our boys were in earshot," said O'Gregan with a snort. "Not the brightest of criminals, this fellow, now, letting his potion buying activities reach the ears of bowsies who chatter in pubs."

Cornworthy chuckled. "Well, they do call him Trollbrain apparently, Don. He had to earn the name somehow? Anyway, Cassius, she'd already met Mickey by this time and I reckon she saw the possibilities in his uncle pretty quickly. So when she realised what the stuff would do, she went back to Horrigan and offered to do a deal. She said she'd heard rumours, and offered to brew anything else he wanted, if he let her have a dose of the stuff, no questions asked."

"And because the poor spalpeen was still carrying a torch for her, he agreed," noted O'Gregan. "He didn't know a thing about Mickey, of course, which was one more reason they kept it all very quiet, But anyway, it's given us a great lead. Ellie Finchley is off trying to find this Horrigan so she can ask him nicely about the pianos - yes, all right Cassius, whatever they are - and as soon as she brings him in, we'll have a go at him too and see what we can find out about your 'Butler' fellow."

"Excellent!" said Cassius happily, leaning back on his pillows. "Well, that's made me feel better than a dose of Dr Spark's Invigoration Infusion. Well done, everybody. Good work. It doesn't sound as if we can do much more until Eleanor gets back to us - so as far as I'm concerned, you can all take the day off tomorrow. You've earned it."

Tonks sat back thoughtfully. An idea had occurred to her how she could make very good use of a day off.

"Thanks, old lad," said O'Gregan as he got up to leave. "See you at the Ball?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world, Donnacha," he replied, smiling. "I haven't attended for a few years now. It will make a very nice change to get out the old dress robes again."

*****

Tonks remained behind after the others left. She turned to Cassius, who had an almost childlike grin on his face. "How are you really, mate?" she asked quietly. "Honestly, now? Are you up to this do on Saturday?"

Cassius rolled his eyes. "Well, I won't say I've never felt better, but I've certainly felt a great deal worse before. Another day's rest, and I'll be back to normal. Tonks, can you please stop beating yourself up now? That's another order, by the way. I never took you for a worrier."

She smiled wryly. "Unlike you, I'm still having to get used to putting friends in danger. Give me a chance." More for a change of subject than anything else, she added, "Actually, I'm looking forward to this Ministry Ball as well. Unlike you, I've never been to one."

He smiled faintly. "It's a pleasant evening out. And it can help to be seen there, if you have ambitions. Incidentally, who would you have gone with if Chesney hadn't asked you?"

"Oh, I could always have batted my eyelashes at you and insisted that you escort me," she said, grinning.

His raised his eyebrows. "And what makes you think I'm not already escorting someone?"

Tonks considered him for a minute. "Not Angelica Hallendale, by any chance?" The expression of slight chagrin on his face made her feel sure she was right. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Why not?"

"Well ..." Tonks didn't know quite why she felt uneasy. I suppose it boils down to not wanting him to make a fool of himself ... "She's what, about half your age?"

He broke into a surprisingly infuriating grin in response. "And you expect a man to consider that a problem, Tonks? If anything, it'll be a feather in my cap. And as it happens," he added with a more serious look, "so was my wife when we met. And we had nearly sixty years of very happy marriage."

Tonks did the calculations quickly. "Yeah, but it's not just twenty-odd years this time," she said, nonplussed. "I mean, that's not so much, I'll grant you, but Angelica - well, she's fifty years younger than you, mate. Are you sure you're not getting carried away?"

He gave her a pointed look. "Yes, Tonks. I'm quite sure. And shouldn't it be the old fellow giving the youngster the Talk, not the other way around?"

"Erm, usually ..." Tonks wasn't quite sure what to say to that. He nodded.

"Good. And of course Angelica's a Muggle, so it doesn't matter so much - we wizards tend to age more slowly on average. I'm as fit as a Muggle of - what, sixty-five at the worst? Not that much older than her in effect."

"Well yes, that's another thing," she said, biting her lip. "She is a Muggle. Are you sure you can cope with a relationship with a Muggle?"

Cassius stared. "Cope ... Well, I should think so, yes. I have before, after all."

"I don't just mean some fling in your long-ago rakish past, Cassius, if you had one," she said earnestly, "I mean something that might lead to, well, you know ..."

"Nearly sixty years of very happy marriage?"

Tonks' jaw dropped. "What?"

He tilted his head to consider her, as if worried for her sanity. "Emily - my wife - was a Muggle, Tonks. You don't mean to say that you never realised?"

Tonks hadn't. She could feel a blush spreading across her face. "Oh bugger," she muttered. "That's what your daughter meant then. And why your wife looked older than I expected in those photos?"

"Probably. Would it be cliché to say I always saw her just the way she was when we met?"

"Yes. But really sweet of you." She closed her eyes in mortification as yet another Knut dropped. "So that's why everybody thought you were odd when you got married?"

"Oh, most definitely." He was staring again, but this time past her. She didn't think he was looking at the flowers on the bedside table, nor at the portrait of the Healer. "Actually, they thought I was odd for having Muggle friends in the first place, but in this job you find yourself meeting all sorts of people that you didn't expect to meet. And until you do, perhaps you don't really think about the differences, let alone what you have in common with them."

Sounds just like what my mother said ... "How did you meet her, Cassius?" she asked softly. "Love at first sight or something?"

"Good heavens, no." His eyes were beginning to get a little misty. "My superiors were aware I had Muggle friends and knew how to fit in without raising suspicion, so they assigned me to check on a businessman who had been importing some very strange, possibly magical items. They suspected he might have been Confunded - or worse, was knowingly acting as a front man. As it happened they were wrong, he was merely speculating in odd curios - but I didn't find that out until I'd mixed in his circle for a while. And in that circle, there happened to be this absolutely delightful young woman called Emily, the daughter of one of his friends, who always had a mischievous look in her eyes and was very interested in me."

"Like Angelica?"

"Well, in some ways, perhaps. Emily sensed immediately that there was something about me that wasn't quite right for what I claimed to be, you see - so she always made a point of talking to me, trying to find out more about who I was. And she was intelligent, and shrewd, and a thoroughly good person to boot. Naturally I enjoyed talking to her, and we got to be quite good friends. Or so I thought to myself. And then" - he finally turned to look her in the eye - "and then, Tonks, when I finished my case and went back to work on other things, I began to feel that something was missing, something I wanted badly. And that was when it dawned on me that I'd fallen in love without recognising it for what it was. It was something I'd never done before, not really - and naturally, I'd assumed that if it ever happened it would be with a witch. But when I realised what I felt for Emily ... well, let's say it was quite a turning-point for me."

Tonks' mouth was half-open. "Wow, Cassius," she said. "What did you do?"

He smiled. "I felt completely miserable for ... oh, it must have been about a fortnight. Because I couldn't imagine it was likely that she would feel the same way, not for an older man. Finally, I summoned every last bit of courage I had and asked her - by note, just like young Montgomery did with you! - whether she would care to accompany me to the theatre one evening. Purely to see if there was any interest there. And then I found a little more courage and asked her father if he objected to her doing so, the way we were supposed to in those days. He didn't." His face lit up at the memory. "That night, I saw the way her eyes shone, and it suddenly hit me like a Stunner - she's been hoping to see me again, too! Like something out of Fifi LaFolle, wasn't it?"

"I wouldn't know," said Tonks hastily, trying to banish memories of The Heart's Plenty. "How ... what did you ... I mean, how did you tell her you were a wizard, Cassius? What did she say?"

"I didn't dare for about six months, " he admitted. "Finally, when I'd examined my feelings and all that, and felt sure she cared for me, remarkable as that seemed, and I definitely knew I wanted to marry her if she'd have me, I said there was something I had to tell her. And she said yes. Before I'd even popped the question." He chuckled reminiscently. "I very nearly didn't tell her, then. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my entire life. But I just couldn't bear to let her marry me without knowing what she would be letting herself in for. So I gave her the usual little speech we wizards and witches make in those circumstances, and demonstrated a few basic charms, nothing too frightening. And she just looked at me open-mouthed for about five minutes while she took it in. I was scared speechless. And then she said - I still have Pensieve-perfect recollection of that moment, Tonks, her words, her tone, the look on her face, even after all these years - she just said, 'The answer's still yes.' I could have kissed her. Well, actually I did, obviously."

Tonks felt as stunned and speechless after this recital as the happy couple had apparently been. "You've never told me this before," she managed to say.

"You've never asked," he pointed out. "All right, I suppose that's not fair. I've never been sure if I wanted to discuss it with you. It makes me happy to remember, but it makes me sad too, of course - even after two years it's still raw. Despite the fact we always realised that I'd probably lose her early." He did, indeed, look sad now. "But then we always knew that she might lose me early too, given the job I was in. And we got married in 1934 - even then, we could see that wars might well be coming in both magical and Muggle worlds. We just decided: let's work out the differences and the problems as we go along. Take your chance for happiness if you can, let tomorrow take care of itself."

Tonks looked away and pretended to examine the painting of the Healer while she absorbed this statement. He shook his head in an avuncular manner, as if to convey that he knew exactly what she was doing and wasn't fooled for a moment. "And is that the reason why you're seeing Angelica Hallendale?" she asked finally.

He sighed. "Tonks ..."

She brushed this aside. "Look, what is your relationship with her?" she said, abandoning any attempt to be subtle. "If you're sure you know what you're doing, fine. But I don't want you getting hurt because you're vulnerable, Cassius!"

He made an exasperated sound. "I thought it was something like that. Tonks, let's get this clear once and for all, yes? Neither of us are young things who are going to imagine we're in love, or leap into bed together, or run away to get married. I enjoy her company. She seems to enjoy mine. That flatters me, admittedly, but I'm not pretending it's more than comfort for either of us. I find her fun to be with too, she's bright, but she's ... well, the one thing she can never, ever be is Emily. And for that matter, I suppose the one thing I can never be is Hank Hallendale. Sometimes, all you want is companionship, Tonks - not some supposed big romance. At least, you do when you're a hundred and five." He glared at her, as if challenging her to dispute his words.

"Sorry," she said hastily, raising her hands in apology and nearly knocking a bowl of grapes off his bedside table. "I didn't mean to suggest anything ..."

"That's all right," he said with dignity. "I know you meant it well, but please understand that I'm old enough to make my own mind up on these things. And so is Angelica Hallendale, even if she is a mere stripling compared to me. Can we agree on that?"

She nodded, with only minor reluctance.

"Good."

Tonks glanced away at the portrait of the Healer again; he had the too-casual look of a painting who had been sniggering to himself a few moments before. She scowled at him and turned back to Cassius. "At least we should be able to wrap our case up before too long, with a bit of luck," she said brightly. "What do you think they'll give us to do next?"

"I'm not sure they'll give us anything," he said, surprising her. "Remember, Claymore only assigned you to me for this particular case. I imagine your, ah, special skill would come in handy in a number of cases. You'll probably be assigned to someone else."

"Oh," said Tonks. She hadn't considered that, and found herself a little saddened at the thought. "I hope not. I like working with you. Honest."

"The feeling's mutual. But you do seem to be making a favourable impression now. It seems that even Kingsley would be interested in having you on his team now? He was certainly grilling me about your temperament and performance the other day."

"I bet he was," snarled Tonks. The reminder of Kingsley's comments gave her a sudden urge to recklessness. Cassius looked at her in alarm.

"I thought you'd buried the hatchet with him?"

"Not where I'd like to." She briefly explained their last conversation. "So I don't expect us to be working closely together any time soon."

"Oh dear." Cassius' mouth twitched, but he made no further comment. "Well anyway, that's for the future. As of now, you have tomorrow off. Go and relax and get yourself ready to dance wi .. um, I mean go to the party with your young man."

Tonks smiled. "Even I don't take that long to get ready, Cassius. But I'll take great care with the way I look, yes."

*****

Friday 30^th October 1994

Tonks examined her reflection critically, making a series of small adjustments to her appearance. Her mirror was attempting - as patiently as was possible for a mirror - to draw her attention to the fact that she was looking thoroughly nondescript, and to hint that surely she wasn't intending to go to the Ministry Ball looking like that?

She ignored it. Of course she wasn't intending to use that look tomorrow night. She was merely trying to decide whether to use it that afternoon.. And more particularly, worrying about what she was proposing to use it for.

"Any more attempts to conduct your own personal private investigations, and you'll be spending your next year on duty guarding the Minister's teacups."

Claymore had to be pleased with her now after the arrest. So it would be a very bad time to get herself into trouble. She really had no business conducting private investigations on her own account. Shacklebolt - well, who knew what that bugger was thinking now? Even he'd told her so, the first time she'd spoken to him.

"Just remember, Tonks, don't, ah, try any freelance work on the Sirius Black case."

He'd changed his mind about that, at any rate! She had no idea what else he'd been expecting her to do with the information he'd given her, nor why he seemed to be blowing hot and cold - at one moment asking Cassius about the possibilities of working with her, the next jumping to the conclusion that she was some kind of secret Death Eater. He seemed to be playing a game of his own devising, and he hadn't let her into the secret of the rules.

"Even Aurors have been known to keep things secret from the Ministry, if they consider they have good enough reasons."

She scowled at the memory. Well thank you for the advice, Mr Shacklebolt. The worst of it was that she knew he was right. She also knew that she had good reasons. It was merely a case of weighing the risks of what she had in mind.

She mentally ran through her plan one last time. With the precautions she was taking, she couldn't see how anything could actually be proved against her. But both the recently concluded Carrack case and bitter personal experience showed that things didn't always go according to plan.

As she wavered, her mother's question from another recent Talk popped into her head.

"How did you think about him, Nymphadora? I never knew how much of an impression he made on you, because you never really saw him that often."

Tonks gasped at the long-buried, more than half-forgotten memory that this recollection suddenly triggered. She recognised it, even at that moment, as one of those rare occasions where the connection between two pieces of old knowledge suddenly clicks into place.

*****

Summer 1981

The rings on the doorbell that day were in a certain coded pattern that to the young Tonks meant simply 'someone we trust is here'. Her mother had tensed slightly when the ringing started, but relaxed when she heard the sequence. Nevertheless, she still picked up her wand before she went to answer and tapped it on the mirror in the hallway.

To Tonks' pleasure, a picture of 'Uncle Sirius' standing alone in the porch appeared in it. He was whistling to himself and wearing his usual grin. Andromeda Tonks pointed her wand at the door, muttered a few incantations to lift the locking spells, and bundled her cousin into the house, quickly resetting the charms on the door. Then she finally turned to smile at him.

"Uncle Sirius!" The young Tonks ran to him in delight and he lifted her up and swung her around. "Morning, Dora!" he said mischievously. "How's my favourite little lady then? Looking forward to learning how to be a proper witch, are you?"

"Yes! I'll get to do real spells and everything, and make loads of new friends, and ..."

"Don't suffocate him, Nymphadora," said her mother in an amused voice. "And I don't know how you get away with calling her that name," she said to her cousin in exasperation. "She'd probably have a fit if anyone else did."

"Natural charm, Annie," said Uncle Sirius with a grin. "You don't mind me calling you Annie, do you?" he added with mock solicitousness.

"Yes, but that's never stopped you yet, has it?" She shook her head. "Honestly, Sirius, Ted's the only other person who dares to do that, and he's my husband."

He grinned evilly. "Well, if we'd followed the family traditions I might have been your husband. Ever think of that, eh?"

"Only in moments of extreme depression. Nothing personal, my darling, but I can say in all honesty that thank heavens you aren't. Anyway, you're a little bit young for me, even as far as the Blacks are concerned, aren't you? I seem to remember insisting the house-elves leave you alone so I could change your nappies once." Her mother tried to hide a smile as Uncle Sirius looked mortified and Tonks laughed in delight.

"You women know how to leave a man heartbroken, don't you?" he said plaintively. "And I thought you were my nice cousin."

"Oh well, you'll know better next time, won't you?" She snorted, an unusual thing for her mother. "And your girls come and go, and I've yet to hear of anyone leaving you heartbroken, Sirius Black. So don't bother trying to play sweet and innocent with me. We both know you're not the marrying kind."

"Of course not! Take all the fun out of life, wouldn't it." The grin on his face faded so rapidly that Tonks, looking up at him, was quite startled. "After all, we don't get much of it these days, do we?"

"No. No, we don't," said her mother heavily, gesturing towards the lounge door to indicate that he should go in and sit down.

Tonks hung back, slightly upset by the sudden change in atmosphere. She knew it had to be something to do with the way the war with You-Know-Who was going, and she hoped fervently that Uncle Sirius wasn't in any danger. As the adults passed into the lounge, she heard him mention quietly that a couple of friends would be meeting him later on. Her mother's alarmed reaction to the news of unexpected visitors was calmed by a soothing murmur.

The adults were deep in serious and very dull-sounding conversation when Tonks came back into the room, so she simply ignored them and went off into a corner to play by herself. She didn't dare get out her new Gobstones set; her mother always said it made too much mess on the carpet and needed far too many cleaning charms to get rid of the smell. So she found the small mirror from her vanity case, and started experimenting with various ways of changing the shape of her nose. She was getting very good at mimicking now.

Absorbed in this pursuit, it wasn't until the talking abruptly stopped that the ringing of the doorbell registered in her mind. She instinctively headed towards the window to see who it was, but her mother quickly moved to grab her before she could get there, and then nodded to her cousin. He moved with caution out into the hallway and tapped the mirror with his wand, then relaxed as he saw who was reflected in it.

"That's my friends," he said. "Look, I'd better go, they've got the baby with them, of course. We shouldn't hang around in the open for too long. Not nowadays, Annie. It's too dangerous."

Her mother looked disappointed, but nodded in resignation. "That makes sense. When will we see you again?"

Uncle Sirius looked at her with an expression that the young Tonks couldn't quite interpret. "I can't say, Annie," he said. "Things are a bit up in the air at the moment. Just ... don't expect to see me round here for a while, OK?"

As the grownups embraced, Tonks glanced in the mirror to see what Uncle Sirius' friends were like. Even at that age, it was immediately clear to her that all of them were very much on edge. One was a dark-haired man, his brown eyes constantly darting from side to side, as if searching the street for signs of a Snitch. Next to him a pretty red-haired woman was cradling a sleeping baby in her arms. A small man with mousy hair was standing behind them both. All had worried looks.

"Dora! A goodbye kiss for your old cousin then." He picked her up and hugged her tightly, then looked at her with surprising intensity in his grey eyes. "Look, young lady ... if I don't see you again for a while, make sure to be a good girl for your mum and dad, eh? Enjoy yourself when you get to school, work hard, and don't do anything I wouldn't have done. That shouldn't restrict you too much." Tonks giggled happily as he gave her his usual laugh, the one that always sounded more like a bark, although she could see her mother rolling her eyes at what he'd said.

As he put her down, her mother nodded to the figures in the mirror. She had the beginnings of a tear in her eye. "You really care about them, Sirius, don't you." It wasn't a question.

"Yes I do, Annie," he said quietly. "We'd ... well, we'd all give our lives for each other, or the boy, without the slightest hesitation. And the way things are going, we might have to if we're not careful." He made a shushing gesture at her mother's look of alarm. "Don't worry about us, Annie. We can look after ourselves, you know that. I'll come to see you again as soon as I can. I promise."

Her mother removed the spells on the door to let him out, and Tonks saw his friends greet him with relief. She watched in the mirror as they mounted a couple of broomsticks. The mousy-haired man sat on the back of her cousin's broom; the other two carefully fitted the baby into some kind of harness, then gently climbed aboard themselves. She gasped as the black-haired man threw a silvery cloak over them all and they vanished from sight.

She stared into the mirror for a good ten minutes more, but saw no further sign of them. Eventually it dawned on her that they must have flown off while invisible, and she turned away in disappointment. She really hoped that Uncle Sirius would visit again soon.

*****

Friday 30^th October 1994

Of course, he never had.

Now she thought of it, that last visit had to have been sometime in the summer of 1981. And finally, after all these years, it suddenly fell into place for her exactly who those other visitors must have been. As soon as she realised, recalling what she knew had happened to them was almost automatic. All three adults dead from her cousin's treachery; the baby somehow surviving, no-one knew how.

And she still couldn't make that memory and that knowledge seem as if they fit together.

She could feel moisture in her eyes as she gazed unseeingly at her reflection in the mirror; then a tear or two trickling down her cheeks; then great, racking sobs as she slumped against her bedroom wall with her head in her hands and cried. She cried with the kind of intensity and incomprehension that comes only from the sudden, unexpected release of long-buried emotions.

It took a very long time - or at any rate what felt like a very long time - for the tears to subside. Then, with movements that were suddenly decisive, without needing or wanting to think about what she was doing any more, Tonks picked herself up, morphed away the puffiness and redness around her eyes, and Apparated out of the room.

The dingy surroundings at the Apparition point in Leeds didn't really register. Neither did the roads she walked along to get to the address she was looking for, a small terraced house down an obscure back street. She hesitated as she stood outside, then removed her actual (and potentially identifiable) Auror badge and Transfigured a button into a copy of one, making sure it looked slightly different from her own. Then she knocked firmly on the front door.

It was answered after a minute or so by a man with a surprisingly young-looking face, his features almost as nondescript as her own current Metamorphosis. He was dressed in an old shirt and jeans.. He looked at her with bemusement until his eyes fell on her badge, and then a flash of something like annoyance crossed his face for a moment, gone almost as soon as she thought she'd noticed it.

"Ah, I see," he said with a polite but cautious smile, running his fingers through his greying hair. "You'd better come in then."

She followed him into the house and closed the door behind her.