"St Mungo Days And Other Days" by Redcandle17
It was Thursday, which meant Harry would stop by St. Mungo's before coming to the bar. Tonks always forgot that. Instead of staying another hour at the office and doing some of the paperwork piled on her desk, she ended up morphing into a close approximation of a hag to avoid unwanted advances while she waited.
Harry sat down at their customary table without speaking. He was even more taciturn on St. Mungo days.
Back when they'd started working together, Tonks asked about Ginny. The answer never changed and she was left babbling to fill the awkward silence. So now she merely nodded in greeting and waited for Harry to speak first.
He was half-way through his first beer when he spoke. "Did you tell Kingsley we didn't want the Zabini case?"
"I asked him to reassign us, but it's this or the squib sacrifice."
"Slytherins either way," Harry muttered, his lips curling in disgust.
"Actually I believe the family with the dead squib are mostly Ravenclaws." Tonks refrained from pointing out that her mother had been a Slytherin.
That's why Kingsley refused to change their assignment. Harry's refusal to work cases involving Slytherins had been indulged at first. After all, most of the Death Eaters had been Slytherins, so it was natural that Harry would hate them. But he'd been an auror for two years now and, well, he'd have to get over it. It wouldn't do for an auror to be prejudiced against a quarter of the population.
Harry sighed. "Well, at least it's a simple case. Shouldn't take more than a day."
They had another beer and half-heartedly argued over whether Puddlemere or Wimbourne had a better chance of victory in the upcoming game. Tonks was just as big a Puddlemere fan as Harry, but she played devil's advocate to keep the conversation going. If Harry was allowed to brood for too long, he'd end up drinking too much and be unable to work in the morning.
"Who'll it be tonight?" Tonks asked, as they left the bar and prepared to apparate. She already knew the answer though. It was always the same on St. Mungo days.
"Ginny," Harry said, once they stood on Grimmauld Place, outside number twelve.
Before they'd reached the front door Tonks's short, pink hair had lengthened and darkened to red. Her facial features subtly changed and her body went from average to willowy. She knew that her voice had changed also. Ever since she was a child she'd enjoyed changing her appearance, but she never got used to hearing someone else's voice come out of her mouth.
Desperate kisses and frantic touches, and "I love you, Ginny," then Harry was crying silently next to her. The first time she'd tried to comfort him, but after he fucked her, Harry couldn't bear the illusion anymore. So now Tonks resumed her preferred appearance, pulled on her clothes, and slipped out the bedroom without a word.
Harry was at his desk reading the Zabini case report when Tonks arrived at work Friday morning.
"Morning, Tonks. Like mother, like son. It's a good thing we caught Zabini before he had children…" He sounded almost upbeat, like he'd slept well and awoken to find the world in good order.
"Morning, Harry," Tonks replied. "Have you read the entire thing? Zabini's got an alibi. He was a dinner party when his wife was killed. Said she'd stayed home because she wasn't feeling well."
"He could have used a Time Turner."
Tonks gave him an exasperated look, and Harry laughed sheepishly.
When they arrived at Azkaban, the level of Harry's belligerence towards Zabini made Tonks worry that they'd need to cancel the interrogation. Until he winked at her, and she realized he'd assumed the role of "bad cop." Usually that was her role, playing the suspicious auror while witnesses and suspects alike told the Chosen One whatever he wanted to hear.
After the guards had taken Zabini back to his cell, they left the cold room used to interrogate prisoners for the relative comfort of a heated office.
"If he'd been anyone other than his mother's son he wouldn't have been arrested, you know that, right?" Tonks said, pouring a cup of something that looked like coffee.
"Yeah," Harry acknowledged unenthusiastically. He snatched the cup of coffee away from her. "Thanks."
Tonks scowled at him and poured herself another cup. "So, someone snuck into Zabini's home, ignored all the things worthy of being stolen, and killed his wife – all so very quietly that the house-elf didn't hear anything."
"Maybe it had nothing to do with Zabini," Harry said, idly wandering around the room.
"Preliminary interviews all say the victim was a saint, but I guess we'll find something eventually. Ready to go?"
Harry stood frozen in front of the window.
Tonks hurried over to him. The window overlooked the yard where inmates were taken for their hour's exercise and fresh air, and currently it was teeming with a mass of grey-clad shapes. They were bundled into warm clothes so it wasn't possible to identify individuals from this distance.
"Do you think it was one of them?" he asked.
No one had seen who'd cast the curse that had kept Ginny Weasley in a coma for the last four years. And none of the captured Death Eaters were crazy enough to confess to it.
"Harry," Tonks said, wrapping her arm around his waist to give him a half-hug.
"Want to have dinner at my place tonight? Dobby's been experimenting with Thai food."
"I'm having dinner with my parents tonight. I haven't seen them all month, and Mom sent me a reminder this morning." She was practically babbling now, but she needed him to know that she did want to be with him. It was just that it had been more two months than one since she'd last seen her mother and she really did owe her a visit. Inviting Harry along was out of the question, of course. If her mother suspected anything, she'd never hear the end of it, and the last thing she wanted was to do discuss the nature of her relationship with Harry with anyone.
"It's okay," Harry said, gently removing Tonk's arm and stepping away from her. "Finished your coffee?"
The awkwardness of that glitch faded by noon and they were back to acting like any pair of aurors who'd been working together for a while.
Harry apparated into Tonk's tiny apartment without warning Saturday afternoon. "It was the house-elf," he said. "It was the house elf."
He looked excited, his face more animated than Tonks had seen it in weeks and his hair even more untidy than usual. She couldn't help but grin at him. "What are you talking about?"
"The Zabini case. The house elf did it."
Tonks's smile was quickly replaced by a worried frown. Had Harry finally gone mad? "Harry," she asked gently, "Are you suggesting Lisa Zabini was murdered by their house-elf?"
"Yes," Harry said, brushing her hand away from his forehead. "I'm not delirious. It makes sense. You know what Kreacher was like. Zabini's house-elf is probably the same. Couldn't stand having a muggleborn in the family."
"But for a house-elf to kill its mistress?"
"Maybe he didn't consider her part of the family. We won't know until we talk to him." Harry tugged her hand. "Come on, let's go now."
Tonks laughed. "Harry, slow down. I have to change my clothes and get my wand."
He released her. "Oh, right." But instead of becoming subdued, he grinned excitedly again. "This is big, Tonks." He kissed her.
It was the first time he'd kissed her while she bore her own face. It was only a quick kiss, but it made Tonks smile for the rest of the day.
Her mood didn't deflate until Sunday dinner at the Burrow. She always felt guilty and dirty at these dinners. Watching Molly coddle Harry like the son – son-in-law – she considered him, Tonks could only imagine the look on Molly's face if she knew what Tonks did with Harry.
Molly liked her but she wasn't that fond of her. Tonks knew Molly was only invited her because she felt sorry for her. She thought Remus's death and the loss of two of her children somehow bound them together. If she found out the grieving girlfriend spent less time grieving and more time comforting Harry, while wearing her daughter's face to add insult to injury, she'd likely be driven out of the Burrow with a rolling pin.
It was a relief to step out of the Weasley house and apparate back to the safety of her own apartment. Tonk drew herself a bath. Harry always took a fly around the city before he came to her on Sunday nights. She settled into the hot water to wait for him. Perhaps tonight she wouldn't ask which illusion he wanted and perhaps he wouldn't ask for one.
End