by Her Maresty
Disclaimer: The usual awestruck bows may be directed towards the unbelievable JK Rowling.
A/N: I know this has been done before, probably in an even more glorious way than I dealt with the affair. Yes, this was supposed to be an ironic sort of joke, as is the title of my fic, by the way.
Regarding the exact contents of this fic, best check the summary again or even better, swallow the bitter pill and try to have a read ;)
In defence of my pride I may make a last announcement concerning inevitable mistakes in grammar and vocabulary. I´m not a native English speaker (or whatever you call it), therefore I write this fic in a language which still provides for entertainment in sorts of a lot of mean little traps lying in wait for a humble student like me. Correct English punctuation sadly eludes me entirely but may I add in this place my doubting the existence of such a thing or maybe its being taken note of in English-writing society ;) ducks for cover
So in summary I can only ask you generous folks to bear with me and my insufficient grasp of the English language. I gladly appreciate everyone kindly pointing out flagrant, hilarious, or minimal mistakes to me in their reviews though.grins timidly I really do.
This fic commences around the end of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire.
1: Nothing Earth-Shattering
Always inclined to find a way of postponing the encounter with the terrifyingly highly towering stacks of paperwork on her desk Tonks stopped on her way past Kingsley´s cubicle because she thought she´d caught the sound of her fugitive cousin´s name again. This was no surprise in itself since the Sirius Black case and its rather limited scope of witnesses which tended to be called suspects at least in one case were quite the talk within the Auror Department these days; the topic however interested Tonks a lot all the same.
So the young Auror casually leaned against the wall of her senior´s cubicle pretending to be leafing through the fragments of her occupational nightmare that had already somehow managed to sneak their way into her arms but really listening intently to what was being said behind her back.
"The Black escape?" a voice demanded that Tonks recognized as belonging to Scarplton, an average-ranked colleague.
"What else do you plan to do about it? We´ve questioned everyone we could possibly think of umpteen times and as long as Fudge doesn´t give his blasted consent Scrimgeour won´t let us extend the investigation in terms of interviewing these kids so we could examine their accounts of the night of Black´s escape from Hogwarts."
"What about interrogating Fudge´s pet prime suspect again?" this was Kingsley Shaklebolt answering and in Tonk´s ears he sounded definitely doubtful.
"The werewolf?" there was a pause in which Tonks imagined Scarplton shrugging indecisively.
"Whatever Fudge might shout about, his alibi for the night in question is sort of unassailable and anyway, the Auror who´s actually skilled enough to extract anything useful from this man has still to be send down there."
Scarplton gave a huff upon having exposed himself as having been beaten by a Dark Creature and Kingsley asked again sounding rather half-heartedly,
"A search warrant? Umbridge´d certainly sign one without further nuisance."
The lower ranked Auror snorted derisively.
"What for? You´d only find masses of heavily battered editions of Classic literature and heaps of yellowed cross-words torn out from Muggle papers."
"Classic literature and Muggle papers?" repeated Kingsley, presumeably trying to appear astonished in some amused sort of way; Tonks however thought he did a rather bad job in disguising a sudden interest.
Scarplton meanwhile didn´t seem to notice anything unusual. He just gave another great snort muttering something about highbrow freaks and wasted welfare payments. Shacklebolt didn´t expand on the subject and contended himself with proposing a possible personal visit to the fugitive´s friend´s place before announcing the briefing finished.
Tonks was sorry not to be able to witness Scarplton´s dismissal for the suspicious looks of various passers-by had reached such an intolerable degree in as well frequency as intensity that she decided to go for casual retreat. She didn´t get far anyway.
"Tonks?" demanded Kingsley´s deep voice from behind her "Why don´t you come to continue your part of the conversation inside my cubicle?"
The young Auror pulled a face and turned, only to be passed by a sneering Scarplton. Her senior was smiling amiably at her but this did not need to mean anything and so Tonks conceded defeatedly, fervently crossing her fingers at her sides.
"To me it seems you take an interest in the Sirius Black case that can´t be explained only by your natural curiousity" stated Kingsley without any preamble.
Tonks who expected to be reprimanded for eavesdropping decided to choose her words carefully.
"I-uhm-he´s my mother´s cousin after all and it´s not as if I´d got anything important to accomplish-" she sucked in her breath at her slip of the tongue and hurried on "-and everyone talks about it these days anyway."
Trying hard not to pull a face at the rather horrifyingly feeble nature of her statement she waited for Kingsley´s reaction. Luckily her superior refrained from either commenting on her tactics of generalization or throwing a meaningful look at the files she was carrying.
"Sit down "he invited "there´s something I´d like to talk to you about."
Feeling slightly confused Tonks lowered herself on one of the chairs, depositing her papers on Kingsley´s desk, which- this time- did earn her a raised eyebrow.
"They´re still mine to work on" she said wistfully.
Kingsley nodded emphatically, only to become totally sober a second later.
"What do you know about the affair?" he asked, his voice very akin to the one he used while interrogating suspects.
Tonks took this as a request to answer thruthfully and to concentrate herself.
"Not that much" she began cautiously "only, well what he did fourteen years ago, killing all these Muggles, being in league with You-Know-Who, and-" she hesitated, this was not a subject she was overly keen to discuss; the ragings of her mother, although at that time she hadn´t really understood what it had all been about, had all the same left a considerable impact on her young mind. Gulping she continued.
"-betraying the Potters. And he- was alleged to have been after Harry Potter when he escaped from Azkaban."
Kingsley nodded.
"To sum it up, everything the public knows, except the bit about the Potters of course, which I assume your mother told you about."
Tonks hummed her agreement and Kingsley continued.
"Have you read the newly attained interrogation records?"
Tonks fleetingly considered if Kingsley expected her to answer this question thruthfully but since she really hadn´t read the files concerned it didn´t matter anyway.
"No I haven´t."
"Well I have, naturally. They struck me somewhat strange to say the least."
Kingsley paused, thoughtfully staring into space before smiling sardonically and carrying on with his explanation.
"The colleagues detailed to investigate questioned Albus Dumbledore among others. Dumbledore gave quite different an account of what happened the night the Potters were murdered and Black vanished. I´m of course aware of what they say about Dumbledore´s so-called decline and his account is marred by the fact that he wasn´t present the night Black escaped from Hogwarts and can only speak based on the testimony of his werewolf teacher and three kids- Harry Potter amongst them. But if you want my personal opinion, I don´t give a damn about what Fudge and his gang like to spread concerning Dumbledore´s alleged senility and his story intrigued me enough to encourage further investigation on my part.- Hmm, you might want to know that I was in the Auror training programme together with Sirius Black and was acquaintanced to his best friends- the late James Potter and Remus Lupin who Scarplton so excessively groans about."
The Auror paused again, this time to secure himself the continued attention of his young listener. Tonks nodded impatiently and Kingsley couldn´t quite hide a smile.
"Consequently I went to visit Lupin- off-time and off-record naturally. He affirmed Dumbledore´s story and was rather determined to convince me of Black´s innocence which was in its way peculiar enough since he, according to the records of former interrogations, usually aimed at dodging questions- quite succsessfully as you´ve certainly heard. In the end the conversation left me with things to ponder about for days."
At this point Kingsley appeared to have come to an abrupt end. Tonks frowned at him bewilderedly.
"Yes?" she prompted "I´m not yet tired, you know."
Kingsley snorted appreciatively.
"I´m afraid the rest of this story is too confidental an affair to discuss inside the walls of this building- despite my sound muffling Charms.
"You-" Tonks started, only to be interrupted after the first word she uttered.
"You were the one to give me reason to after all" Kingsley said, his words accompanied by a impatient gesture of the hand. "But what´s much more important now- you surely want to know why I´m telling you all of this, let alone hear the end of the story."
Tonks graced him with a sarcastical smile.
"So why don´t you want to call on your old haunt again and meet us in the headmaster´s office the day after tommorow?"
Smiling one last inviting smile Kingsley got up. Tonks automatically followed his example, her head swimming. On seeing Kingsley being on the verge of leaving his cubicle she shook her head decisively and caught up with him.
"One moment please, Kingsey" she said "Eh, are your spells still active?"
Her senior turned around and nodded, for some reason looking rather relieved.
"What is it, Tonks?"
"Quite a lot" the young Auror answered distractedly "let´s get started with-who´s us? Does your meeting Dumbledore on regular terms mean you believe him- about You-Know-Who
being back as well? And if that´s true- why?"
Kingsley was smiling broadly and also proudly at her.
"Well, unfortunately I´m only able to answer one of your questions safely. I believe in Dumbledore´s and Lupin´s account because it makes sense in itself, settles open questions other stories circulating don´t, and among the two of us- it´s the closest to what I personally feel is right. Furthermore both the headmaster and Sirius´s old friend seemed to really be convinced of the truth of what they were telling me and I can´t see any reason why either of them should´ve been telling lies."
"This Lupin chap´s a Dark Creature after all" Tonks objected doubtfully. A moment later she frowned at herself. Usually she din´t nourish predjudices like this- her mother had seen to that. The work with certain members of the staff really did leave its ugly imprints on her mind.
Kingsley meanwhile gave an derisive snort sounding like Scarplton, though his words did not at all.
"Dumbledore trusts him-" he said matter-of-factly "and besides, you would never in your lifetime guess he´s a werewolf on only meeting him, believe me."
Tonks nodded in relief. She really didn´t want to condemn anyone before meeting them, not or rather especially not on such a basis.
Kingsley gestured her out of his cubicle a moment later and while she passed him he whispered,
"The meeting´s tommorow. Two o´clock."
The next day was a Saturday and the weather- even up in freezy Scotland- was exceptionally bright. Tonks wandered along Hogmeade High Street towards the school gates, feeling her spirits soar. She had a day off far from dusty old parchment, the sun was burning down on her bared arms and she was going to attend some kind of mysterious meeting, at least if Kingsley´s fuss and secretiveness could be believed. Actually, she pondered, she felt almost like being a schoolgirl again, heading for the first meeting of some exciting new club, tingling all over with delicious anticipation.
On arriving at the iron gates she paused to smile up fondly at the two winged boars topping the stone pillars on either side of the entrance to the Hogwarts grounds. She patted the rough stone, not quite reaching up to the quirky animals, then looked around quickly before morphing herself a few years younger and Conjuring a black cloak that vaguely resembled the ones the students wore and even bore the sparkling badge of her old House.
Grinning she slipped into it and marched off over the grassy green lawn, wondering if someone would detect her disguise. There were a couple of students milling around and talking animatedly, others were sitting about in the shade of the beech trees at the edge of the lake, doing nothing, and a fews first-years were crouching at the shore, enthusiastically tickling the Giant Squid that was drifting about in the shallow waters, probably trying to catch a tan. Nobody noticed anything unusual about her appearance and to Tonks it felt as if no time at all had passed since she´d left Hogwarts for good.
In the Entrance Hall however she bumped into a group of older girls from her House and Tonks caught one of them glancing suspiciously at the strange girl of the same age and House. She bit back a laugh having recognized her as a certain very nosy girl who´d been in first-year when she´d left and who´d always told fantastic stories nobody had believed but found hilarious all the same. Tonks accelerated her steps anyway, not wanting to be unmasked yet.
In front of the gargoyle that marked the entrance to the staircase leading up to Dumbledore´s office she stopped, remembering that she was supposed to know something she didn´t in order to proceed. Grimacing the young Auror retreated a few steps, not wanting to stand in the line of fire if the gargoyle started to behave as pleasantly as the ones in front of the staff room tended to do, and tried to decide what to do now.
The resounding ring of the school bell however tore her away from the fruitless dredging of her memory for Honeyduke´s products, as it did not only bring relief for masses of students and resigned groaning for the other half but also footsteps approaching the office of the headmaster. It was two o´clock.
Tonks hastily transfigured her appearance as to look her true age again, Vanished the fake school cloak and slipped into her regular one designed according to the demands of an Auror.
This very second the footsteps cornered into her corridor, but the man approaching wasn´t Kingsley Shacklebolt as she´d anticipated.