Chapter Twelve – Dementors
Tonks sat at her desk in the Ministry and willed the minutes to pass by faster. She was still experiencing what the other Aurors had already dubbed a 'hangover' from Azkaban. Not to mention the literal hangover that she was still fighting. And the memory that wouldn't leave her head.
She slept with Snape.
She had actually slept with Snape. And what more, she enjoyed it.
Tonks buried her head in her hands as she felt her cheeks go red. She wondered if Remus would tell Sirius what he had seen. Or worse. She had heard all about the duel that Snape and Sirius almost got into the other night. What if Snape wanted to brag and mentioned that he had slept with her? Why had she been so stupid to bring him to Headquarters? Why? Why? Why?
'There was no where else to go,' she whispered to herself. Headquarters was the only option. Neither one of them had money for the Knight Bus and she had been too drunk to apparate them to her place. Next time would be different.
Tonks sat up suddenly, alarmed by her thoughts. Next time?
'Oi, Tonks,' said Hollandsworth as he stood in front of her desk. He was one of the more senior Aurors. 'Murton just called in sick. You're the most junior Auror here. You'll have to take his shift at Azkaban tonight.'
Tonks shook her head. 'I guarded yesterday.'
'So?'
'So?' asked Tonks in surprise. 'We're not supposed to guard two days in a row.'
'Then we'll make sure you don't guard tomorrow. Hurry up. Boat leaves in fifteen minutes.'
Tonks' insides went numb. She couldn't deal with Azkaban today. Not today.
'Look, Hollandsworth,' said Tonks in a low voice. 'I've had a really bad day. I simply can't take a shift today.'
'Are you saying that you can't handle Azkaban?' challenged Hollandsworth.
Tonks sighed inwardly. She would have to go. She couldn't let him think that she was scared of Azkaban for a moment.
'On my way.'
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Tonks looked down at her watch for about the hundredth time since she had started her extra shift. She still had an hour to go. How in the world did Sirius survive this for twelve years?
It was taking every ounce of her concentration not to curl up in the corner and cry. But she refused to yield.
'Man down!'
Tonks turned and ran towards the voice as quickly as possible. She thought it might belong to Jason Dye, one of the other two Aurors on the island tonight.
'Man down!' cried the voice again. It was definitely Dye.
'On my way!' yelled Tonks, running as hard as she could. With a start, she realized that some of the Dementors were following her footsteps.
Dye was kneeling next to Derek Walker, whose face was covered in blood.
'What's happened?' asked Tonks, as she knelt down.
'One of the prisoners did wandless magic,' barked Dye. 'Give me your kit.'
Tonks fumbled through her robes and handed Dye her small Ministry approved first aid kit. But then-
'Expecto Patronum!' bellowed Tonks as she stood up, her wand pointing towards the Dementors that were gathering. A small silver lizard (who Tonks always liked to think of as an iguana) slithered towards the Dementors.
But her Patronus was weak. Tonks couldn't bring up a single happy thought that didn't make her sad. The Dementors moved closer
She tried again. 'Expecto Patronum!'
Dye stood up and pushed her out of the way. 'You're going to get us killed, Tonks!'
Tonks knelt down next to Walker and picked up were Dye left off. Out of the corner of her eye, a silver tiger lunged towards the Dementors but wasn't successful. After a minute, she knew that she had gotten the bleeding to stop, but Walker was unconscious.
'Tonks, I need help, here!' shouted Dye.
She stood up, her wand at the ready position. 'Together,' she said confidently.
Tonks summoned up the happiest thought she could. She remembered the day she got the calling to be an Auror. When she realized that that's what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.
'EXPECTO PATRONUM!' shouted Tonks and Dye together. Their patronuses rushed towards the Dementors, repelling them a bit.
'I don't believe this,' panted Dye. 'I guarded yesterday. That's why I'm not strong enough.'
Tonks looked at him, horrified. 'I guarded yesterday, too.' Dye met her eye and they both knew there would be trouble.
'Your Patronus is stronger than mine,' admitted Tonks quickly. 'Stay guard and I'll work on Walker.'
Dye nodded and stood in front of Tonks and Walker. She knelt next to Walker. He had gone white. 'He's going into shock!' yelled Tonks.
'Wake him up!'
'Rennervate,' said Tonks, pointing her wand at Walker's chest. A groan escaped from his lips. 'Stay with me, mate.'
'S'happening?' moaned Walker.
'Just a tiny little Dementor attack,' said Tonks, trying to sound happy for Walker's sake.
'TONKS!'
Tonks jumped up and saw the Dementors were cowering over them. If Tonks and Dye didn't do something, they would all be kissed within minutes.
She jumped up and stood with her back to Dye's as they were now surrounded by Dementors. 'Happy thoughts, Dye,' she said softly. 'Happy thoughts.'
As Dye made a countdown, Tonks thought to before Remus had turned her down. How wonderful she felt when she realized that she was in love. All the plans she made in her head for them…
'EXPECTO PATRONUM!'
Tonks watched carefully and realized that the Dementors were backing off. Really backing off. They were going back to their stations.
'Bloody hell,' muttered Dye as he knelt next to Walker, who was awake and clutching his head.
Tonks looked down the row of cells. With absolute horror, she realized that some of the cell doors were opened. She walked as fast as she could, not wanting to attract the Dementors.
She looked inside some of the cells. They were empty.
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The questioning never seemed to end. The boat from the mainland arrived not long after they realized there had been a breakout. Dye and Tonks helped Walker get on the boat. Once back to Britain, Tonks and Dye were ordered to go straight to the Ministry of Magic. Walker would go to St. Mungos.
There they had to tell their story to Madam Bones. How neither Tonks nor Dye should have been guarding Azkaban that night. They had both guarded on different shifts yesterday. Both were emotionally taxed and if affected how they fought the Dementors.
Then the questions really started. Which prisoner performed wandless magic? Why weren't their Patronuses up to snuff? Did either feel they needed additional training on Patronuses? And the main question. How could ten prisoners escape under their very noses?
Tonks really wanted to answer that question, but she held her tongue. The answer was that the Dementors decided to attack the Aurors instead of guard the prisoners. And who possibly could have told them to do that?
After more than two hours of questioning, Madam Bones announced that Tonks, Dye and Walker would all be assigned to desk duty until the investigation was complete.
As mad as that made Tonks, she was almost glad. That meant no more Azkaban. At least for a while.
Finally, they were allowed to leave. Tonks could almost sense that there would be an Order meeting happening right now. Surely they had already heard about the prison break.
Knowing she was far too drained to apparate, Tonks closed her eyes and prepared herself anyways. The moment she appeared in front of Headquarters, a rushing pain shot up her left arm.
Tonks looked down at her hand and saw that she had splinched practically the entire nail off of her pinky finger. It looked like someone had ripped it right off. And it hurt. A lot.
'Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger!' screamed Tonks from outside Headquarters. She bit her tongue as she opened up the door to Headquarters. She didn't want to wake up Sirius' mum. Not tonight of all nights.
It looked like she had been right about a meeting. She heard voices murmuring from the parlor. She would join them in a moment. First, Tonks needed to fix her nail.
Half way down the kitchen stairs, Tonks missed a step and ended up falling the rest of the way right on her bottom, landing on the bottom step. That was just enough to let the tears want to come out.
'I won't cry, I won't cry,' muttered Tonks to herself. Everyone in the Order already thought she was so young. She didn't want to give anyone a reason to think less of her.
'Tonks?' asked a concerned voice from the top of the stairs. Tonks turned around and looked up at Remus, who was rushing down the stairs. He knelt down in front of her…like a man proposing…Tonks pushed that thought right out of her mind.
'Are you all right?' asked Remus.
She showed him her pinky. 'Splinched,' gulped Tonks.
Remus pointed his wand into the kitchen and the first aid kit came flying. He took her hand and quickly cleaned up the blood and wrapped a small bandage around her finger.
'All better,' smiled Remus, looking up at her. 'It'll grow back.'
Tonks wished she could have stopped herself. But right now, after fighting all of those Dementors, her defenses were at an all time low. She reached out and stroked his cheek.
Remus stood up at once. 'Tonks, we agreed…'
'I'm sorry,' said Tonks in a hallow voice.
'And besides, aren't you with Severus now?' asked Remus in a pointed voice.
Tonks looked up and shook her head. 'It was just one night, Remus. Nothing more.'
'I see,' said Remus flatly. He took her hand and helped her stand up. 'Let's get upstairs. Everyone wants to hear what you have to say.'
Tonks followed him up the stairs and into the parlor. Dumbledore was sitting in the middle of the room with what looked to be half of the Order. To her surprise, Snape was there as well. She would have thought he would have Death Eater duties, seeing as all the prisoners who escaped were Death Eaters as well.
In a low voice, Tonks told the story again, this time with her own opinions with what had happened. She almost felt that she relived the attack again by telling the story. And then more questions. Tonks was grateful that none of the questions were accusatory like the ones from the Ministry. More training on Patronuses indeed.
Finally, Dumbledore thought he had heard enough and the meeting ended. Sirius walked up to her and said she should stay the night since she looked so tired. Tonks shook her head. She wanted to be in her own bed tonight.
Tonks said goodnight to Remus and Sirius and headed out into the hall. Snape was standing there, almost like he was waiting for her.
She stopped next to him, but didn't say anything. She couldn't even look him in the eye. All Tonks could think about is what they had shared upstairs.
'Are you all right?' asked Snape. Tonks looked up in surprise. There was almost a note of concern in his voice. After his comments this morning, she half expected him to try to get into bed again with her. Tonks closed her eyes, briefly remembering the sensation of him laying on top of her…her legs wrapped around his waist…
'I'm pretty shaken up,' admitted Tonks.
They looked at each other for a moment. Then Tonks walked outside, not wanting to be standing next to Snape in this house any longer. She took a deep breath of the night air, filling her lungs.
She thought about how she wanted to get home. Tonks wasn't about to risk splinching anything else. And the thought of taking the Knight Bus almost made her ill. So she would walk the three kilometers.
Tonks nodded her head to say good bye to Snape, who had followed her out, and took a few steps towards home.
'Where are you going?' asked Snape.
'I'm walking home,' she called over her shoulder.
'How far do you live?' asked Snape. It almost felt like an interrogation.
'It's only three kilometers,' answered Tonks, still walking.
'You're not walking alone,' said Snape calmly. 'Not at three o'clock in the morning.'
Tonks stopped and turned to look at him, hands on her hips. 'How many times do I need to tell you I'm not a student any longer?' she demanded.
A slow smile spread across Snape's face. 'I'm well aware that you are not a child, Nymphadora. You proved that most spectacularly last night.'
Tonks walked purposely back to Snape. She would not let him throw last night back into her face. 'Look,' she said in a sober voice. 'Last night was one night. I was hurting, you were there, end of story. You could have been a million other different men and the result would have been the same.'
'I see,' said Snape slowly. Tonks couldn't read his face in the dark.
'And I know I have no right asking you this,' said Tonks steadily. 'But I would appreciate it if you didn't mention last night to anyone.'
'You don't have to worry about that, Nymphadora,' said Snape, sounding bored. 'I don't particularly like people knowing my personal affairs.'
'Good,' said Tonks. 'Then we're agreed.'
'Yes, but it doesn't solve the question on how you're getting home,' said Snape, switching topics entirely.
'I'll take the bloody Knight Bus, then,' grumbled Tonks. Snape threw out his wand arm and the Knight Bus appeared moments later.
As the conductor let her on the bus, she heard a loud popping noise and Snape was gone.
