3. Dora has many faces

or where Tonks breaks into the Ministry and becomes Turner

The amazing thing about being a Metamorphmagi was not that one was practically born with the highest skills of Self-Transfiguration, though Tonks would gladly admit that it was a perk of it as well. No, the best part was that it was a very rare gift that couldn't really be detected or kept track of. In the 1920s Dumbledore actually wrote an article for the Transfiguration Today magazine on the ability (titled 'Is Vanishing without a Trace Possible?') which was still her favourite writing on the topic. It analyzed that it was simply impossible to keep track of someone who could be effortlessly anyone else. (At school Dumbledore was always delighted by her impersonations, especially when he met himself.)

Dumbledore was one of the few who really studied the topic in depth simply because those who were born with the privilege didn't want to give up their secrets and there were just too few of them to draw real conclusions from the limited date they provided willingly. She remembered how her mother looked up any mentions of the ability when she realized what a special little girl Tonks was, but there weren't many.

Tonks kind of understood the witches and wizards before her who shared her ability as she didn't like the idea of being a lab rat either, being some magical theory puzzle and whatnot. This meant though that very few had an understanding of the ability. At school it was an inconvenience, being labelled the weird one and all, but as an Auror, it certainly had many perks. In the future, it was a well-known thing she was able to change her appearance with only a thought, but here it wasn't. She could be anyone and no one knew better. Simply people didn't expect to meet a Metamorphmagus even if they knew they existed. When someone was suspected of faking an appearance people just always assumed Polyjuice Potion or Human Transfiguration spells which could be reversed with a simple Revelio.

Infiltrating the Ministry was ridiculously easy when one was not only a Ministry employee (even if only in the future) but a Metamorpmagus as well. She made a mental note that once she was an Auror again she would bring the problem up with Moody. She suspected that no one thought that an employee who knew the building and habits of the workers would want to break in, but still, it was somewhat disappointing that no one even batted an eye at her. After all, it was wartime and so many magical ways of getting information existed. (Then again the fact was that even Moody's magical eyes could never detect her ability. Grindelwald's famous Self-Transfiguration knowledge was nothing on hers – a simple spell could reveal his true face while she simply had many of those.)

However, she expected a bigger challenge than she got at the height of the First Wizarding War, to be honest. She spent a week spying on the building and the employees showing off (without anyone noticing of course) the skills which granted her perfect scores in Concealment and Disguise during her Auror training. It was somewhat ridiculous that once she assumed a rather plain look everyone just accepted her presence. No one found it odd that they never saw her before. She actually wanted to shout 'CONSTANT VIGILANCE!' at them. Once she even spotted Mad-Eye and for the first time since she decided to stay, she was regretting her decision. This version of Mad-Eye didn't know her and may never feel the same irritated fondness for her as the one she learned not only to respect but care for as well. The thought was sad and sobering. The madman was such a big part of her life back home. She also knew that if even the sight of her mentor could reduce her to such a state then she really shouldn't come across her parents in this time period. Her parents who would be obvious to the fact that they were even related.

Getting into the Administrative Registration Department which was a division of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement never posed a problem in her mind. However, she was not sure about the Department of Magical Education (another division of the same department). The big difference between the two was the fact that as an Auror Trainee she was often forced to be the reluctant mediator between the Administrative Registration and the Auror Office while she probably only once set foot in the second.

Then there was Leto Lufkin or as in the Auror Office, she was often referred to as the Hag. She was just as pleasant as her nickname suggested. She was a grumpy, bad-looking, fat and red-nosed witch with colourless hair dotted with balding patches and she hated to work. She was also infamous for the pride she had for her family. A direct ancestor of hers, Artemisia Lufkin was the first female Minister for Magic. Tonks knew the name well as the Hag mentioned her at least once in every couple of sentences and because not only had been the Minister a Hufflepuff, (go Badgers!) but also Quidditch enthusiast. Without her maybe the Quidditch World Cup would have never been held in Britain. Yeah, even though Tonks had known the witch for years, the only good thing she could say about Leto Lufkin was that she had an awesome great-something-grandmother. However, if everything went according to plans then she could also thank Leto Lufkin for existing from now on.

The Hag was the head of the division and was a fixture of the Administrative Registration which sadly often worked closely with the Auror Office as they provided the files for the investigations. Mad-Eye always said that the Hag was in the Ministry before him and was probably going to haunt the place when she died. She was to moan to everybody how hard her work was even if as far as Tonks was concerned the Hag never worked, just instructed everyone else to do it. Tonks spent an entire day stalking the Hag and that was the second time she seriously reconsidered her idea of remaining in the past. She was reminded of an older, obese and certainly ruder version of Moaning Myrtle.

On the day of her very illegal plan, she simply Apparated in the Atrium, which she once again found a bit strange in the middle of a war. There was nothing to stop an evil wizard and his minions just doing the same after all. She was wearing the plain robe that changed with her form and cost most of her remaining gold on hand. While certain divisions like the Magical Maintenance Department had matching robes (navy), she certainly didn't look out of place in her simple, unassuming and form-fitting black robes. She stepped into the lift and got out at: "Level two, Department of Magical Enforcement, including Improper Use of Magic Office, Auror Headquarters, and Wizengamot Administration Services."

It was strange to be on the corridor of the Auror Headquarters without actually belonging there. It was even stranger to see a younger-looking version of Arthur Weasley walking by without recognition shining in his familiar eyes. She found it actually fascinating how much he looked like the mixture of his sons. Her eyes followed the form of the man disappearing at the double doors leading to the dimly lit and shabby corridor housing his division, the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office.

She conjured an interdepartmental memo from the official parchment she nicked a few days ago. (Two witches were too caught up about some 'amazing article' in the Witch Weekly to notice a stranger walking away with their enchanted parchments.) She had written a memo for the Hag saying that she was needed at the Department of Magical Games and Sports. It was the only place where she would go herself and not just send one of her lackeys even if she was specified as the requested person, Tonks knew well. Apparently, the fact that her Minister ancestor was a Quidditch fan was enough to make her one as well. Tonks suspected that maybe at that department her speeches about her ancestor were far more welcomed than anywhere else in the Ministry too. It worked well for Tonks as the Department of Magical Games and Sports was on Level 7, pretty much as far as possible from her current position. After sending the memo she had to wait only two minutes to see the Hag leaving the office.

The Hag luckily didn't care for fashion either (she would look horrible in the most expensive and stylish clothing anyways) and was wearing a standard black robe just like hers, which meant even less work for her. It was never a good idea to mess with the enchantments of a tailored robe. If she had to transfigure it to a different colour and style, it might lose some of the magic it possessed already which she didn't want to risk – she didn't have the money for another one after all. She went inside the office and noted with pleasure that no one said a word even though there were three witches in the room and she had just supposedly stormed out of the office after receiving an official summoning.

She chose to impersonate the Hag for the exact same reason. She was such an unpleasant boss no one ever dared to say or even ask her anything. She was simply not questioned – at least not by those under her. Tonks knew that once the Hag arrived at the other department and realized that no one actually wanted to see her face, she would make a huge fuss out of it thinking it was all a joke, someone playing a trick on her. It would take her quite some time to make her way back to her office, Tonks was sure of that.

Tonks in the form of the Hag made her way to the cabinets as quickly as her current weight let her which stored the official citizen certification of the entire magical community of Great Britain and Ireland. She picked up an empty form from the first cupboard. It was a form that was filled out once a Muggle-born started their magical education or a magical family had a baby. In the latter case, if the child was named as a Squib at the age of eleven, their form was annihilated and their existence was only mentioned in the files of the parents. She usually found that regulation harsh, but now it certainly helped her case.

She had a parchment in her robe's pocket with all the pieces of information she remembered seeing on such forms. She placed both the form and the parchment on the Hag's desk and took a glance at the other three witches (all different ages: one hardly out of Hogwarts, one who could be Tonks' grandmother and one in-between) who were obviously watching her, but pretended not to. It was never good to be caught by the Hag.

She ran through the information she needed to provide. Luckily it was rather basic stuff, there would be hardly anything she needed to make up on the spot, about ninety per cent was neatly written down on her parchment. Still, it was a rather long list and she didn't have much time. With a flick of her wand, she copied that info on the paper. This was the part which made her nervous mostly. The Hag hated working so much that when Tonks was a Trainee she was often made to do the tedious paperwork in the Administrative Registration Office even if she was only sent there for a file needed for one of the qualified Aurors or something similarly easy.

She had a basic grasp on the magic needed for forging such a document. (As such a parchment was an official document there were countless spells on them stopping any intruder messing with the documentation. Luckily she wasn't really one – or at least the Hag didn't think of her as such in the future if it meant she had less work to do herself.)

However, Tonks didn't know nearly enough of the Department of Magical Education to know if they used the same methods and if she failed to give herself some O.W.L. scores she had no chance of attending Hogwarts with or without the help of the Weasleys. She nearly freaked out when she didn't remember the way of giving an identification number to the person, but luckily after a long moment of panic, she vaguely remembered having to tap the form twice for a Half-blood while repeating the blood status. She was certain that she did it well because a row of symbols and numbers appeared in the designated space. She quickly copied her identification number on her own spare of parchment as she might still need it for her exam result forging.

She quickly filled out the rest of the form and then checked that everything was alright.

First name: Dorothea

Second name: -

Family name: Turner

Birth name: -

Blood status: Half-blood

Date of birth: 6th April 1960

Place of birth: Black Dog, Devon, West Country, England, Great Britain

FAMILY

Mother's name: Emily Turner – Mother's birth name: Emily Turner – Blood status: Muggle – Marital status: not married – Status: Deceased

Father's name: Andrew Prewett – Blood status: Pure-blood (SQUIB) – Marital status: not married – Status: Alive – Current address: Unknown

Sibling: none

Marital status: not married

Offspring: none

Schooling: home-schooled

And so on. The form was long and she would have felt better if she could already leave because she certainly didn't want to meet the Hag in her current form. Luckily only a few minutes later she felt that the form was acceptable. If anyone ever found it weird they probably would just think that the Hag forced some untrained rookie to do it without ever being shown the process properly. She opened the drawer back at the filing cabinets with a 'T' on it and directed her wand at the stock which organized itself alphabetically. For a comical moment the file was hovering in the air somewhat helplessly like it was trying to figure out where it could fit, but luckily it dashed between other two files with the surname 'Turner'. She was pleased to notice that indeed she hardly was the first Turner in the wizarding world.

She left the office without a word and dashed into a toilet to change her appearance. This time she took on the form of the youngest witch in the previous office who was probably just out of Hogwarts. She had dark blonde hair long hair in a simple ponytail, wide blue eyes and too long nose. The girl was about a foot taller than the Hag so it was comical to see the change – from short and fat to tall and willowy, especially as the robe changed with her.

The second division she needed to visit was on the same corridor, right next to the previous probably because the two were often connected. When she first thought about how to make up exam results for herself she thought of appearing in the form of Albus Dumbledore and saying that there was some problem with an exam result document Hogwarts requested from the Ministry. After all, before 1995 no one ever dared to question the professor. However, exactly because of that she feared that somehow the story would make its way back to him and he would learn about the curious case of Dorothea Turner's newly existing records and his visit to retrieve them. The only reason she was ready to infiltrate the Ministry in the first place was to stay out of the sight of Dumbledore, so it didn't seem like a good plan. Too risky.

Then she remembered that the head of the division had an own office unlike at Administrative Registration. (She had to thank the Hag once again in her head for sending her on another errand to a different department even though she had officially nothing to do even with the administrative office. Mad-Eye loved to send her to the Hag though when she misbehaved. It was the perfect punishment.)

The only problem was that the office's door opened from inside the main office where the lesser employees of the division worked. That was why she needed the look of the young witch. For a moment she wondered what would happen if the youngest of the administration checked in with the Educational Department, but as she walked down the corridor she was pleased to hear the booming voice of the Hag. Knowing the head of the division, the young office clerk would be stuck in the room for a long time.

The main door of the department was just as boring as the division itself must have been. Tonks shuddered at the thought of ever working at a place like the Department of Magical Education. She was pretty sure that even someone like Remus who possessed much more patience than she did would find the job boring. She knocked on the door and entered the office. There were three wizards and four witches in the office. No one really seemed to pay much attention to her which was not surprising. The young witch she impersonated most probably was a frequent visitor to the office. Knowing the Hag, as the youngest she worked the most.

"Mr Pilliwickle is in his office," a slight brunette witch with big glasses offered when she passed her. Tonks quickly thanked the witch and dashed for the office door. She knocked again and heard a deep male voice answer: "Come in."

Julius Pilliwickle was an old wizard with wild tufts of white hair, a large moustache and hunched back as if he was leaning forward his entire life. With the stacks of large books and even larger heaps of parchments in front of her, it wouldn't have surprised Tonks if that was the case. The man probably spent half of his life reading or writing boring documents.

"Ah, Miss Boot, what can I do for you?" he asked. She wordlessly stunned the man who luckily was sitting in his chair, so it seemed like he only dozed off. Then she put up some basic privacy enchantments, first making sure that the office stayed closed. She thought a lot about how to do this part of the plan. She first planned to use Confundo on the man and 'suggest' him to make the documentation she needed. However, she couldn't be sure of the success of such a plan, simply because she most probably would have to infiltrate the office again to check.

Another idea was to just play the character of Miss Boot sent by Miss Lufkin, but she had a feeling that the man would find her request odd and he would look into it which she didn't want. So, in the end, she decided that she should be the one to forge the document without him in the picture. If she wasn't able to do it, she could always make him do it and then she could always erase or modify the memory of her little stunt after all. She preferred avoiding any serious memory charms though as she was no Obliviator and she feared she could cause some damage to the man.

She needed a few minutes to even find what she was looking for and that made her nervous. She couldn't help but glance in the direction of the office door every minute or two.

To her greatest surprise and relief, the parchment was enchanted exactly the same way and the form was thousand times easier to fill out than the previous one. All in all, she actually felt a bit betrayed – if she could forge herself some O.W.L.s in a few minutes then why did she have to study so much at school? Then again she supposed she would have never got the knowledge of forging such a document if she wasn't accepted to the Ministry thanks to her good grades. Still, she found it ironic.

In the end, she gave herself good enough grades so she wouldn't have any problem with getting into the preferred N.E.W.T. courses, but not good enough test results that anyone would give them a second glance. She actually received these grades back in her fifth year and after that, she was told that she had to work harder if she wanted to be accepted to the Auror training. In truth she was fairly certain that if she were to take any of the exams now from those courses she kept up in N.E.W.T. level, she most certainly would do better on them – she was a qualified Auror after all.

ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS

Pass Grades

OUTSTANDING (O)
EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS (E)
ACCEPTABLE (A)

Fail Grades

POOR (P)
DREADFUL (D)
TROLL (T)

Dorothea Turner has achieved:

Study of Ancient Runes E
Arithmancy E
Astronomy A
Care of Magical Creatures E
Charms E
Defence Against the Dark Arts O
Herbology E
History of Magic A
Potions O
Transfiguration O

Once she finalised the document and checked a few others to see if hers was just like those, she filed the document under the identification number she created previously. She feared that the code would reveal the date of the filing to anyone who looked into it, but calmed herself down by the thought that no one had any reason to pay much attention to her. After all, she was just a Muggle-raised daughter of a Squib and a Muggle. Simple as that. She was very much against the whole blood purity mania, but now she was glad that according to most she was a no one with such a blood status.

She was pretty sure that when McGonagall or Dumbledore would ask for her scores when she started Hogwarts, no one would even give it another look.

When she was sure that the documentation was in order she quickly ended the privacy enchantments and used a wordless Reviving Spell on the still unconscious head of the division.

"Mr Pilliwickle, are you alright sir?" she acted like she was concerned, though to be honest, she was a bit anyway. She didn't like cursing an innocent bystander. The man opened his eyes in confusion and seemed totally lost.

"Miss B-Boot?" he asked and she nodded politely. "W-what happened?" he asked softly. Tonks felt bad for having hurt the innocent man, but she convinced herself that in the long run, it was worth it. It was just a quick and simple stunner after all – if she was able to save even just one man during this war that would have died without her in the past then it meant nothing in comparison. Still, she would send him a gift basket or something when she had some money as a way of saying sorry. The man, after all, had done nothing wrong.

"You seemed to have blacked out for a moment sir. Are you feeling alright?" She really wanted to know if he was okay. The man seemed hesitant for a moment but then nodded.

"Yes, yes, of course. What can I do for you Miss Boot?" he asked and she thought of what to do. She could just erase his memory of the whole incident, but memory charms were always tricky not to be trifled with. He didn't seem to have noticed that anything was wrong, but then again who knew what would happen later. On the spot, she decided on a decision on a weak Confundus Charm. She didn't want to mess with his head, so it wasn't much, just a thought that he had a bad day and even worse headache. He should just go home and forget about everything that happened that day. He shuddered when the spell hit him which meant that her casting was successful.

"Oh, we already arranged what I came for, don't you remember Mr Pilliwickle? I just stayed because I was concerned for your health. You seem deathly pale. Maybe you should drink a Pepperup Potion and go home, sleep a bit," Tonks offered. "I must be on my way now; Miss Lufkin is in a foul mood as she had an incident with the DMGS," she explained.

"Of course, of course. Thank you for your concern, Miss Boot. Until next time," the old man offered and she smiled at him charmingly. She quickly but with caution exited the private office and then crossed the big one.

A young handsome wizard mouthed at her: "What happened with the Hag?" With a smile, she shook her head and motioned towards the door indicating that she had to go. He nodded with obvious disappointment. The moment she was out in the corridor she got going with the bathroom in mind as the destination. When she reached the first stall she was shaking with nerves. It was not like this was even close to the most dangerous situations she had ever been in, but if she got caught now, she might have messed up her entire life.

After all she would have been tossed into the arms of Unspeakables most probably and she had a feeling that if they weren't able to send her back to her real time in very little time then she would have been sent to Azkaban to be 'taken care of' under the pretence that there she probably couldn't mess up the timeline, but really, because they were afraid of her and what she could do. After this little mission attending Hogwarts with the Marauders sounded like great fun and a good laugh.

She morphed into the mousy little witch form she had used a few times while preparing for the day. She left the bathroom and she quickly made her way towards the lifts. There was a wizard waiting for the lifts there already – Arthur Weasley. It was great to see him up so close, he seemed a bit tired, but otherwise in good mood.

"Hello," he greeted her with a smile. Not surprisingly Arthur was the first one to pay her any attention in the Ministry.

"Hi. Going home already?" she tried to steer the conversation away from who she was. Of course, she could always lie, but Arthur was the type of person who actually paid attention to others, so he might find it odd if he never saw her around again. She didn't think that he would look more deeply into the question, but Mad-Eye always told her to leave so little loose ends behind as possible.

"No, no – sadly not. I'm just helping out at the Department of Magical Transportation with an odd case of a Muggle being tricked into using a Portkey. Such a mess," he said. "Oh, I'm Arthur Weasley from Misuse of Muggle Artefacts. And you?" he introduced himself, but she was spared from answering as the lift had just arrived and there were already a few people in the lift probably from Level 1, the offices of the Minister for Magic and its administration.

"Ah, Arthur," a little wizard no taller than Professor Flitwick cried out the moment he noticed the redheaded wizard and Tonks was spared from an interrogation where she would have to lie a lot to a dear friend. The short wizard started into an enthusiastic tale grabbing Arthur's attention. She knew thought that she was only temporarily saved from lying as she would have to do that the next day already as a few days prior she received a letter from Molly asking her to meet. Still, after all the sneaking around she had done the previous week it was great to lay low for a bit and not to have to lie and pretend.

Molly wrote to her:

Dear Dora,

I hope you meant it and calling you Dora is alright. I admit not to have heard about your existence yet, but I'm glad you wrote to me and I'm very sorry for your loss. Nowadays there are so many bad news in our world that finding a lost family member seems to be exactly what we need. I'm glad you contacted me.

I was told though to be cautious exactly because the world we live in is dangerous, so if it is possible, I would like to meet you in a public place first. You seem like a delightful young lady, but I have three young children at home and I don't like inviting strangers into my house even if they are family. I hope you don't find it insulting, but my boys will always come first for me and I will do everything to keep them safe.

Would meeting at the Leaky Cauldron seem okay to you? If you are already living there, I thought it fitting and the easiest solution. How about ten o'clock on Saturday? My husband, Arthur, won't work then and we could all meet.

I hope to hear from you soon and can't wait to meet you.

Your cousin,

Molly

Tonks wasn't surprised that she wasn't invited to the Burrow – these were dark times, dangerous days. She was just glad that Molly was nice and obviously supported her idea of reaching out to her. It would take some time she figured, but she would win their support and trust. All the lying was not going to be easy, but she supposed it was for all of them. Maybe if she was to be in the Order she could even save Molly's brothers. She was also relieved that the owl seemed to have found her – or maybe it was because the letter was addressed to the pub, she wasn't sure.

She happily answered to Molly that Saturday was going to be perfect and she was going to wait for them downstairs and they could have a drink together while getting introduced. It was going to be nice to have some real human contact even if she had to lie and pretend to be Dora Turner (whoever she was). For the last week, she only exchanged a few pleasantries with Tom the landlord of the pub and maybe a 'hello' at the Ministry, though very few even seemed to notice her existence.

"Bye," she said goodbye to Arthur who waved, but otherwise he was still engaged by the little wizard who she thought was called Rupert by Arthur. The moment she was on the Atrium's level she felt completely free. She actually did it! Mad-Eye would be completely upset that she could just forge and make-up her entire existence without being even suspected, but for once it wouldn't be her he was angry with but everyone else instead. No, he would be proud of her for passing the greatest test – real life.

She couldn't help but smile as two wizards passed her who she vaguely recognized from DMLE (though not the Auror Office) and she heard their excited chatter about 'the barmy old hag' who was pranked and pissed off. She was actually pretty smug and proud of herself as everyone just assumed that the Hag got what she deserved instead of the DMLE being infiltrated. She really deserved those scores at Concealment and Disguise, but she was pretty sure that clumsiness or not she should have got at least a bit better ones on Stealth and Tracking.