For the Teachers' Lounge Iron Fic Challenge. Twenty-four hours to write a tale of at least 1500 words. It must include:
1. Charlie W/Tonks ship.
2. A tourist attraction somewhere in Muggle England
~oOo~
For Extra Credit
February, 1991
When Charlie signed up for a Muggle Studies tour for extra credit, he did it because Tonks asked him to. He didn't feel he needed Muggle Studies – not with his Dad's interest in Muggles meaning they were constantly learning things about them all the time! And Charlie certainly didn't need it to work with dragons. But Tonks had asked – pleaded even. She needed the extra credit to make her CV stand out for her application to be an Auror.
So here he was, traipsing around the Tower of London with a load of Muggle tourists and a Yeoman Warder as their tour guide. They had seen the Crown Jewels and heard of their imperial history from around the world, seen a Royal Beasts slideshow (which interested Charlie far more than it interested Tonks). But the really funny thing was that the Muggles couldn't see that they were surrounded by ghosts! The ancient building just teemed with ghosts and yet these tourists strolled along as their guide (dressed in an extraordinary red and black dress and a truly appalling hat) talked a whole lot of rot about ghosts he couldn't see.
As they had walked around the White Tower, the guide had intoned very seriously about the Grey Lady who had been imprisoned and died of a broken heart.
"Broken neck thanks to the prison guard, more like," the Grey Lady muttered to Tonks, and glided away. Tonks barked a surprised laugh. The tour guide huffed with annoyance at the sound and sent Tonks (and, more particularly, her vivid pink hair) his most sour look. Tonks rolled her eyes at him.
"Don't these Muggles even feel the ghosts around them," she whispered to Charlie.
"Perhaps." He shrugged. "They talk of feeling a chill or someone walking over their graves, Dad says."
The tour guide raised his hand for the group to follow and led them past the Lady in White and Thomas à Becket and even Sir Walter Raleigh. Charlie looked wistfully back. He so enjoyed talking to the ghosts at Hogwarts; he'd love to chat to some of these now!
"And this," announced the guide, pinning them both with his most penetrative glare to stop them talking, "is Henry VIII's armour!" The Muggle tourists seemed to be most impressed but Tonks couldn't disguise her boredom, thinking only that its occupant had been extremely tall and fat. "It was rumoured to be haunted when it was housed in the Gallery."
"We could cast Piertotum Locomotor – that'd give them a fright!" said Tonks with a crooked smile.
"Wait, listen," Charlie whispered urgently, intent on what the guide had just said.
"Night warders spoke of a crushing sensation whenever they were near it," the guide continued.
Charlie's ears pricked up and he turned to Tonks, a mischievous light in his eyes.
"Did you hear that? I think I know what that is! Talk about extra credit if we could catch it."
Now Charlie was talking her language! Extra credit through dire boredom was just too dull – but a mystery and a chase!
"What are you thinking?" she whispered back.
"A crushing sensation! It can only be one thing although I'm surprised it's here. They normally can only be found in the tropics." He pulled Tonks back to the wall and cast a Disillusionment Charm on her and then on himself. Grabbing his tourist map in one hand and Tonks's hand in the other, they slipped away from their group to find their way to the Gallery.
Within minutes they had found the Gallery and Charlie removed the charm from them both and followed the notes to where the armour used to be housed – in amongst many old liveried cloaks.
"I see it!" he whispered hoarsely to Tonks.
"See what?" she said, none the wiser.
"The Lethifold!"
Tonks's eyes widened comically.
"Do you see – it's hiding in amongst those cloaks, but it's very thick."
"Yes, I see it!" Tonks gasped, leaning forward. "What happens now?" Tonks hadn't taken Care of Magical Creatures, but she knew from the Dark Creatures module of Defence that this creature could smother them and feast on them.
"A Patronus! If we each cast at the Lethifold, we can capture it. But we need something to capture it in."
"This!" Tonks pulled on her satchel. "Mum put an undetectable extension charm on it so I could carry my books with me because I kept forgetting which ones I needed. Here!"
Tonks laid it out on the floor and propped it open like a gaping mouth and then they both stood to either side of the Lethifold.
Charlie nodded and they both cast: "Expecto Patronum!"
A dragon and a badger sprang from their wands and converged on the hiding Lethifold. It slid from its place amongst the cloaks, dropping down and floating along the floor as the dragon and badger harried at its edges until it was shepherded towards the satchel. It insinuated itself inside, doubtless thinking (if Lethifolds did think, and Charlie wasn't sure they did) it was a good lair to lie in wait for an unsuspecting meal.
With a flourish of her wand, Tonks closed and sealed the satchel, giggling excitedly as Charlie added his own charms to the bag for safety's sake.
"Bloody brilliant!" laughed Charlie. "I can't wait to show old Kettleburn what we've caught! Never thought I'd see one here. It must've been here for centuries!"
"Or its descendants," said Tonks. "I can't believe the Ministry never disposed of it before. I mean, they're lethal! And no Muggle can defend themselves against one. They must have known ..." Tonks gazed at her satchel thoughtfully.
"That'll be your Auror instincts, Tonksie! Wanting to investigate." He nudged her cheerfully. "C'mon. Let's get out of here. I don't think I can listen to any more of that tour guide."
"Me neither," said Tonks, and she swung the satchel over her shoulder and they turned to the door – to see another Yeoman Warder staring at them.
"What's all this then? What have you put in that satchel? Come on. Open it," the Warder said.
Tonks and Charlie exchanged the look they so often did at school. The trouble was, any magic would contravene the Statute of Secrecy – and then where would either of them be with their chosen careers?
"Damn it!" swore Tonks, quietly as she swung the satchel off her shoulder. "You win."
The Warder nodded smugly and held out his hand for the satchel, not noticing Charlie flick his wand to the side, pointing at a rack of hefty cloaks and chainmail which crashed down on the Warder.
"Quick!" hissed Charlie, as he jumped over the man struggling with the weight and tangle of the clothes as Tonks ran around him and then tripped heavily. She was caught by Charlie's strong arms in a practised movement, borne of years of running away from the scenes of crime together. Charlie set Tonks straight and they pelted through the corridor, acknowledging several ghosts along the way.
Once they were out of the Gallery, they slowed their pace to a stroll and tried to look nonchalant as they looked at their map to find the quickest way out. Suddenly, they heard stomping behind them and they realised it was the Warder who had got himself free and was following them.
As he turned the corner, he muttered, "Which way? Which way?"
"May I help you, my good man?"
The Warder stood straighter, as a woman in a Historic Royal Palaces jacket appeared at one of the doors off the corridor.
"Two teenagers. Left the main group. Up to no good. Boy. Carrot top. Girl with pink spiked hair. Have you seen 'em?"
"Pink spiked hair? How disgusting!" the middle-aged woman lisped through her buck teeth and the Warder tried not to stare at the warts on the end of her hooked nose.
"Yeah. Disgusting. Right." The Warder looked quickly to his right, as if he'd spotted something in his peripheral vision but then frowned and walked quickly on, still searching for his miscreants.
The woman watched the man hurry off and then she muttered to a smudge of shadow to the side, "Not a patch on Filch, is he?"
The odd shadow solidified into Charlie, who grinned hugely.
"Have to say, Tonksie: that's one hell of a disguise."
Tonks laughed and draped her arm over his shoulder.
"Give us a kiss then," she said with a dramatic pucker of her thin, wizened lips.
"Not bloody likely. You look like Snape's mother."
"Ha!" Tonks screwed up her face and her features settled back to her own and the straggly black hair receded to short pink spikes and then she cast to transfigure the liveried blazer back to a leather jacket once more.
They turned quickly as they heard footsteps approaching once more but this time, as they made to run, a familiar voice stopped them in their tracks.
"Miss Tonks and Mr. Weasley. I see you identified the Lethifold and indeed captured it. A remarkable feat, if I may so."
They slowly turned on their heels to see Professor Dumbledore standing behind them.
"However, I am afraid to say that this Lethifold is resident in the Gallery of the White Tower with the permission of the Wizengamot as it guards an ancient treasure and so, I must return it."
Charlie and Tonks exchanged baffled looks, and Tonks couldn't believe her ears.
"But sir!" she exclaimed. "It could kill any one of these Muggles. They can't defend themselves against it."
Dumbledore smiled, his blue eyes twinkling. "You are right to be concerned, Miss Tonks, and it does you credit. But the Gallery has the strongest Muggle-repelling charms, I assure you."
"But that Warder could get in -'
"That Warder, Octavius Peabody, is a wizard and the Keeper of the Cloak here at the Tower. He summoned me when you escaped with the Lethifold."
"Keeper of the Cloak? You mean of the Lethifold?" queried Tonks.
"Indeed I do," smiled Dumbledore, clearly pleased with her logical deductions.
Tonks's shoulders slumped and Charlie shrugged, and she passed Dumbledore her satchel.
"Thank you both. I will return your satchel through Professor Sprout, if I may. Now, I suggest you catch up with your group so your absence isn't missed. This is for extra credit, after all. You will find them, I believe, in the Bloody Tower."
"They're all bloody towers," muttered Tonks. Charlie laughed and put his arm around her as they walked away from Dumbledore.
"So how come you didn't offer me that kiss again?" asked Charlie as they turned the corner.
"Hmmm, bit sidetracked by the appearance of our Headmaster," she said, her own pretty smile forming just as Charlie crooked his finger under her chin gently. "But I think you do deserve the extra credit," she smiled.
~oOo~