LbN: Second to last chapter! Happy reading!

Pansy pulled on her jacket as she walked down the stairs to the mansion's meeting room. It was a black jacket, with silver bands around the cuffs—the jacket all of the resistance volunteers had. She rolled the sleeves down, covering the new tattoo she'd gotten the day after the attack. It wasn't like the Death Eaters' tattoos, it didn't summon her anywhere, but it was the group's mark. It was a Celtic star at the end of a wand. It almost covered her scar completely. Lukas had explained that the tattoos were specific to people who had bled for the cause. It was grim, and a bit creepy, but somehow Pansy was proud of being in the handful of people that had it.

"I still can't believe we're leaving," she said quietly as she stood next to Tonks.

"I know," Tonks said. "We have to get back though. So much has been happening that Kingsley and the rest of the Order think something's about to go down."

They had said goodbye to the rest of the group the night before. The kids were there now, and they hugged each of them.

"Be safe," Klaus said.

"Write to us," Sabrine told them.

"We will," Tonks said. "As soon as we can. Thank you both," she said to Anke.

"Stay safe. We'll look for your owl."

Tonks nodded and took Pansy's hand. "Ready?"

Pansy nodded. She followed Tonks to the Apparation point in front of the fireplace, and a second later felt the tugging sensation in her stomach. When she opened her eyes, they were standing in the middle of a dirt road. She could see a large house standing in the field about thirty yards away.

"Follow me, and take out your wand." Tonks said. "It's Kingsley's house." When they got to the front door, Tonks waved her wand over it and led them inside. There was a small meeting taking place when they made it to the living room.

"Evening ladies," Kingsley said. "Tonks, you know everyone?"

"Wotcher," she said, nodding at the group.

"We can make further introductions later," Kingsley continued. "Right now—"

"Is that the case?" one of the members asked, pointing at Pansy.

Pansy knew what he was talking about, but she still felt a little anger at being talked about. She was standing right there for crying out loud….

"This is Pansy," Tonks nodded. "It's okay, we can talk in front of her."

"How can we be sure?" the man asked.

"I'm telling you, aren't I?" Tonks asked in a harsh tone.

"Forgive me for not taking the babysitter's advice on this one…"

"She's okay, now let's get to work."

"I still don't believe you. Kingsley, I wasn't aware you allowed your Aurors to sleep with their charges…."

"You're out of line," Kingsley growled.

"Way out of line," Tonks snapped.

"And we're not sleeping together, you moron," Pansy said, reddening. "I know you don't trust me, but you shouldn't be a dick to Tonks."

"That's cute, she's defending you. Look, I don't care if you think she's changed. I'm not saying another word while she's here. She's a junior Death Eater, who still uses Dark Magic, if my sources are correct."

Pansy, having had just about enough, rolled up the sleeve of her jacket and stuck out her arm. "You see a Dark Mark?" she asked quietly.

"No," the man muttered.

"What do you see?"

"A Resistance Wand."

"I was trying to keep a wizard from kidnapping Lukas's boy, and I snapped. Yeah, I used Dark Magic, but I didn't mean to. It was the first thing that came to mind. I don't know how to get you all to believe I've changed, so I'm not going to try. Leave her out of it," she said, pointing to Tonks. She took a seat, fuming, and barely listened as Kingsley went over the information they'd retrieved. She perked up when they started talking about Death Eaters. Smirking, she listened, thinking that they were seriously overestimating most of them, with the exception of Bellatrix. They were definitely underestimating her. They failed to grasp how psychotic she was… "If you're dueling Alecto, you'll want to keep the area small. Back her into a corner or something. She needs a lot of room to be effective."

The group stared at her.

"What? I've seen most of them fight. I know their styles."

For the rest of the meeting, Kingsley would ask her about certain Death Eaters. The man who had questioned them when they'd first gotten in sneered at her the entire time, but she didn't care. She gave them what information she had, it was their decision if they used it or not.

"You sure these are all the weaknesses of the Death Eaters that you know of?" Kingsley asked.

"Yes."

"What about Bellatrix?"

"Stay away from her."

"Weren't you living with her?" Suspicious Man asked. "You don't know her weaknesses?"

"She doesn't have any. Just leave her alone. Or attack in a really big group." She got up and stretched as Kingsley called the meeting to a close. Not wanting to talk to anyone or be interrogated again, she lurked in the doorway as Tonks talked to Kingsley. She followed the metamorphmagus up to one of the spare rooms. "That was fun," she muttered.

"He's paranoid," Tonks said with a smile. "Everyone is, with things so crazy."

"So what are we doing now?" Pansy asked as they got ready for bed. "What's the plan?"

"We're going to hang out here, keep listening to Potter Watch. We're just waiting for the inevitable bomb to go off."

As Pansy snuggled into Tonks's side, she wondered when it would happen.

It happened the next day. Pansy was, unbelievably, running through the halls of Hogwarts less than 24 hours later. She dodged Death Eaters, students and spells as she tried to keep up with Tonks. The older witch was dueling, and looking for people at the same time. They ran outside, into one of the courtyards. It was strangely quiet out here, and cold.

"Tonks?"

"Shhh!"

The cold was overpowering, and Pansy knew, without looking, that a Dementor was behind them. "Expecto Patronum!" she shouted, at the same time as Tonks. Her eagle and Tonks's wolf chased it down, but Pansy didn't have time to celebrate. Before she had a chance to even look back at Tonks, someone grabbed her hair and tugged.

"Somehow, the fact that you've become close to my mudblood niece is worse than the fact that you went astray," Bellatrix said softly, close to Pansy's ear. "How much is your toy worth, little niece?" she asked Tonks.

"Let her go, Bellatrix," Tonks said quietly.

"As you wish," Bellatrix smiled, pushing Pansy toward Tonks.

Pansy shivered as Tonks caught her. "Don't fight her," she whispered.

"Crucio!" Bellatrix yelled.

Pansy pushed Tonks out of the way and dove behind a bench. She scraped her knee on the ground, but ignored it. After catching a small breath, she looked over the bench to see Tonks dueling Bellatrix. She tried silently disarming Bellatrix, but the older witch wiped the spell away as if it were a fly. She levitated Pansy and tossed her next to Tonks. Winded, but not hurt, Pansy got up and began dueling as well. They were no match for Bellatrix.

"Sectumsempra!" Bellatrix cackled.

"Depulso!" Pansy yelled, sending a stone bench flying into Bellatrix. She gasped as she looked down at Tonks. Abandoning her vow to not use Dark Magic, Pansy created a hurricane. Safe in the eye of the storm, she leaned down and healed Tonks's wounds as best as possible.

"Ahh!" Tonks yelped as Pansy helped her stand.

"We have to move!" Pansy called above the wind. She could see Bellatrix sending spells at the barrier between them. The wind wouldn't last, and they had to get out of there before it died down. She helped Tonks hobbled as quickly as possible through the stone arch, but Bellatrix was too quick. Pansy looked up as a neon blue spell ripped through the wind layers and cracked the ceiling. Bits of ceiling began to fall. Pansy pushed Tonks into the doorway as a chunk came down on her leg. Another piece hit her head, and everything went dark.

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