The Toy Collector
The next few days were tense, but nothing happened. Three teams of Aurors were out searching for Alice and Rhys, but so far nothing had been found. Meanwhile, Tonks's team stayed to see the children recover, and look for other clues. They'd been able to extract all of the children from the toys, and reunite them with their families. Luckily, none of the kids had any memory of the events.
The team was eating lunch silently and staring at the board when they heard shouts in the hall.
"Ma'am! Stop! You can't be back here!"
The noises of footsteps and yelling got closer until, a few moments later, Angelina burst through the door. "Harry," she said, panting. She held a slip of parchment.
"Where are Fred and Little Fred?" he asked automatically.
"At the shop. The note was on the register when he went to open this morning."
"What time?" Seekins asked.
"Er…it was around eight, I guess."
Seekins made a note on the board. "All of the kids were taken between three and five hours of their parents receiving the note."
"Pierce, go back with Angelina. Stay with Fred," Tonks told her. "Don't let him out of your sight."
Angelina nodded and followed Pierce out of the room.
The rest of the room was buzzing, discussing the new note and arguing over what to do next.
"All of the kids targeted have high profile parents."
"And it's always been the high profile parent who finds the note. Neville—famous Herbologist. Ron—famous sculptor. Fred—whose shop is famous."
Tonks noticed Seekins was the only one not talking. "Guys," she said, putting a finger to her lips. She recognized that look—it was the same one Harry got when he remembered something he'd forgotten at the store. "See? What's in your head, mate?" she asked after a few minutes.
"They're clues…" he muttered. "Clues to who she'll take next." He waved his wand and lined up the letters with the pictures. "First was Alice. Her letter called her a rose, but the "R" in "rose" was capitalized. Next taken was Rhys. Her letter said something about her symbolizing femininity, which was capitalized. Next targeted is Fred…." He trailed off, going a bit pale. "Harry, Tonks? Your boys' names are Teddy and James, right?"
"What does the letter say?" Tonks asked.
"To the Joker," Seekins read. "Your boy is a wonderful image of you—fun and Jolly. This puppet is a wonderful Trickster and shall be a symbol of fun and innocence in my collection. T for Teddy and J for James."
"I'll go," Tonks said. "Thanks, Seekins."
Tonks knew that the boys were worried. They were abnormally quiet and stuck close to her, even though she hadn't exactly told them to. All she'd said, when she got home, was that they weren't to go outside or let anyone in. She looked over at them. Both had silver hair. That was a bad sign. Teddy's hair was always changing, but James had a lot of control over what his features did in response to his emotion. The fact that his hair had been silver all afternoon meant that he was too nervous to do anything about it.
"Boys," she said, waving them over to the couch. "Listen, I know you're upset…." She paused, not knowing how to continue.
"Is it true that that psycho is after Freddie?" Teddy asked.
Tonks sighed. "Yes. But—"
"What does she want?" James asked. "Why is she taking all of these kids?"
"I don't know," Tonks answered. "But I want you guys to be calm, okay? Nothing bad is going to happen to you."
"Then why did you come home during the middle of the day to stay with us?" Teddy asked. "Is she going to try to take us too?"
"We don't know her plan," Tonks said firmly. "I came home because work was driving me bonkers and I wanted to make sure you two weren't panicking like the last time Harry and I worked a long case," she added, smirking. She'd come home one night to find both of the boys in their room, with a rather impressive fortress built around the bed. Complete with booby traps from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes of course.
Teddy didn't look convinced, but he nodded and went back to building his model airplane.
James stood next to her for another moment, obviously debating whether or not to keep asking questions. He morphed his hair black again after a moment and sat back down with his book.
Tonks was about to start dinner when Seekins' owl, Phosphorous, soared up to the window. She let him in and took the letter, dreading what it might say. As the owl soared back into the bright afternoon sky, she unrolled the parchment and read:
She got Freddie. Meet Harry and me at 3Ws as soon as you can manage.
"How?" Tonks asked as soon as she Apparated in front of the shop. She glanced around at the team of Aurors who were being attended to by Medi-Wizards.
"These," Seekins said. "Ingenious really, because of the back to school rush. Nothing suspicious about ordering a ton of them." He held up a crushed Daydream Charm box.
"So, she immobilizes half the crew with a daydream charm," Tonks said. "Then what?"
"Angelina and Little Fred were in the flat above the shop. She says she remembers hearing someone coming up the stairs. She took out her wand, and then she doesn't remember anything."
"Fred was in the back room, but he said he had the curtain open and could see everything. He never saw anyone come in," Harry said.
"I'm going back to the office," Seekins said. "I'll let you know if I find anything else. Kingsley's inside the shop with Angelina and Fred."
Kingsley, reluctantly, left them on the case. He did insist that they take the next two days off, however, and arrange a secret keeper for the boys.
Andromeda insisted they stay that night. The boys were already asleep by the time they got back, and there was no point in waking them.
Tonks showered quickly, wanting nothing more than to crawl in bed and sleep. Unfortunately for her, Harry was still up flipping through files. "Let's worry about the case tomorrow," she said gently.
"It's not the case," he told her. "I'm looking at Guardian profiles—for when Teddy and James go back to Hogwarts."
Tonks stopped in the middle of brushing her hair. "Harry…you can't be serious."
"We're not going to put their lives on hold for one psychopath."
"One psychopath that's managed to take three kids in a very short span of time, one of whom was AT Hogwarts, and two who were right under the noses of an army of Aurors," Tonks argued. "If we don't catch her soon, we can't send them back."
"Tonks…it's James' first year. We can't take that away from him."
She sighed. In reality, she'd known this conversation would happen soon. Harry had a vastly different relationship with the school than most people. The school was what had saved him—the place that had been his true home. She kissed him on the cheek. "We'll worry about all of it tomorrow. Let's get some sleep."
"Okay. I'm going to go check on the boys first."
Tonks nodded and slid under the covers. She really hadn't noticed how tired she was until her head hit the pillow. She yawned. Maybe they could let the boys go to school. The Guardians were beyond amazing. It might be different, when school was actually in session….
"TONKS!" Harry bellowed.
Tonks shot up, snapping from her thoughts. She ran down the hall, sliding into the doorframe of the boys' room. "What's wrong?" she asked as she rubbed her arm. Then she saw. The window was open, and both beds were empty.
"Tonks? Harry? What's wrong?" Andromeda asked, coming down the hall.
"The boys are gone," Tonks gasped.
