"Want to hear some bad news?" Kingsley asked stepping into my cubicle the next morning.

"I'm so over bad news. Tell me some good news. How did your meeting with Dumbledore and Umbridge go?" I asked.

Kingsley sighed. "So you do want to hear bad news."

I slammed my head down onto my desk. "What is it then?"

"Basically, when I went to speak to the 'High Inquisitor' about her punishments she saw it fit to enact a new educational decree to address the issue," he said.

I tapped my fingers impatiently, waiting for him to tell me how Umbridge had ruined things this time.

"It states that teachers may use any form of punishment they deem appropriate regardless of pain or tediousness," he said. I groaned. "It gets worse."

"Of course, because it only can get worse," I said reclining back in my chair.

"I've been assigned to Hannah's case," he said.

I laughed. "You're not serious?"

"Afraid so," he replied.

"Well, at least you'll be close enough to the situation to figure why all this nonsense is going on," I said.

"Even more than that I get to be a part of the nonsense," he said with a chuckle. "But it does get worse."

He tossed a copy of The Daily Prophet onto my desk. The headline was Hannah Potter Prime Suspect in Diggory Murder.

"Well. . . Shit," I said.

"Right," he said.

"She must be losing it. Imagine going to a school where everyone is convinced you're a murderer," I said.

"Hannah will manage fine," Kingsley said. "Whether or not I will is still undetermined."

888

Weeks passed without a word from Hannah or any of the children and we all assumed that they were doing fine. Also, none of the times that Snape or McGonagall had been by they had nothing bad to say about them.

Lucius Malfoy had not been back to irritate since our first meeting and Kingsley felt that things were at a dead end.

"I think this whole thing has really gotten them to turn around—especially Hannah," Sirius declared at dinner. "I mean, slap a murder investigation into the mix and suddenly everyone knows how to behave."

"I could only assume as much," I replied.

"Yeah, Hannah's not exactly the sort who goes out actively looking to be thrown into prison after all," Bill said.

"Is anyone?" Sirius asked.

"So says the man who spent 13 years in Azkaban and then broke out and attempted to commit the murder he was thrown into jail for and escaped on a hippogriff who was condemned to die? Right—no one actively goes out looking for reasons to be thrown into jail," I said.

Sirius scoffed as Molly walked into the kitchen.

"Look at the state of this place. I leave for a few days and you all act like you don't know how to clean anything," Molly said.

"We're sorry Molly," I said.

"You'd better be. I've got a letter for you," she said tossing one across the table to me.

I gasped. "Me? No one writes to me."

"It's from Hannah," she said.

"What would she write to you and not to me for?" Sirius asked.

"Maybe it's something to do with girls. She wouldn't want to talk to you about that," Bill said.

"And I wouldn't want her to either," Sirius replied as I the letter.

Dear Tonks,

How are you? I'm fine. I think. I don't know. I'm horribly confused at the moment. I am so incredibly confused. So it's like this you see, my one year anniversary with Draco was on Christmas Eve, but obviously we couldn't spend it together so we celebrated it yesterday on the anniversary of our one month anniversary because we are dorks. I now understand why people tell us we are sickeningly adorable. Anyway, we were having a lovely night just hanging out and whatnot like we always do and well. . . Draco said he loved me. And he told me I didn't have to say it back if I didn't mean, but he still said it like it was normal or something. It just came out like, "I love you". Who says that? And then, you know what I said to him? I said "thank you". What is wrong with me? Why did I say thank you? I don't know what to do. Please help me.

Seriously, help me,

Hannah

I laughed.

"What is she okay?" Sirius asked.

"She's fine. Just. . . Boy trouble," I said.

"Boy trouble? That Malfoy boy do anything to her? I swear, I'll go grab Remus right now and we'll go up to Hogwarts and kill him. Remus is a werewolf right now. It'll be bad. Shit will go down," Sirius said.

"It's nothing like that you dolt," I said. "Malfoy is fine. Hannah is fine."

"Then what boy trouble are you talking about?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know if I should say," I replied. "I think she might be angry if I did."

"But I thought we agreed not to keep secrets the two of us. She said she'd tell me everything," he said.

"She will when it's important. It's just. . . I think she's trying to sort out whether or not this is important or not," I said.

"And why would she talk to you about it?" Sirius asked.

"Because she needs a woman's perspective obviously," Molly chimed in.

"Well that's what she's got Hermione for," Bill said.

"You both are so thick," Molly said. "She doesn't need her friend to tell her what's going on. Hermione is 16. She doesn't know what she's doing either."

"Oh, and Tonks does?" Sirius asked.

"I second that," Bill said.

"Well. . . I suspect she's talking to Tonks because. . . Well she hasn't got a mum," Molly said. "Hannah's probably happy that she has someone to talk to like that. She hasn't had it before."

"Well she's had you," I pointed out.

"I've got six boys and Ginny. I'm no help either," she said. "But Tonks, she's exactly the kind of help that Hannah needs."

"Thanks Molly," I said.

"Right. . . So what she said then?" Molly asked.

"But you just agreed that I shouldn't say anything!" I pointed out. Had everyone taken their crazy pills tonight.

"Well the girl cannot be trusted is all," Molly said.

"Oh, rubbish. She lied about the boy once," I started.

"For an entire year," Sirius said.

"Because she was scared," I reminded them. "I promise there's nothing in this letter that she would be she scared to tell you. She's just. . . Confused about a sudden change that's taken place."

"A sudden change. What could—she hasn't put out has she?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, for the love of—no, she hasn't," I said.

"Then just tell us what's happened," Sirius said.

But then the kitchen door opened again, but this time a smug looking Snape walked into the kitchen.

"Snivelly, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be looking for ways to make your hair even greasier?" Sirius asked.

"As amusing as you find yourself this evening, I have come to deliver you some most interesting news about the trouble your Goddaughter has gotten into at school," Snape said.

"Trouble?" Sirius asked looking over at me.

"She was telling me about yesterday in this letter so whatever she's done she must've done after she wrote this letter this morning," I said.

"Lunch actually, missed all of her afternoon classes getting scolded," Snape said.

"Was she going on about Remus again?" Molly asked.

Snape laughed.

"Oh, why does that not sound promising?" Bill asked.

"But it's just the worst but of trouble she's gotten into in all her time at Hogwarts," Snape said.

Sirius sighed. "Why don't you just get it over with and tell us what she's done."

Snape smirked. "An interesting bit of information was being spread around Hogwarts, and then was confirmed by Hannah, and of course Draco Malfoy-."

Sirius groaned again. "I just knew that boy would be trouble. I just knew it."

"You haven't even let me get to the best part," he replied.

"Go on then," Sirius said dismissively.

"Apparently, tenacious Hannah has take it upon herself to engage in a fair few inappropriate acts with Mister Malfoy," Snape said.

Sirius went slightly pale, but wasn't in full blown angry mode. Perhaps, he thought they were just snogging aggressively in the hallway.

"So. . . If you were 15 and you got in trouble for engaging in a fair few inappropriate acts with your lady friend, you'd go back and tell your mates what?" Bill asked.

"Third base," Snape said.

Bill, Sirius, and I let out horrified gasps.

"Third base? What's that?" Molly asked.

Bill got to his feet, walked over to his mother and whispered in her ear. Then she let out a horrified gasp.

"No! Not Hannah! She would never do anything like that," Molly said.

"Apparently she has," Snape said.

"Tonks!" Sirius shouted.

"What? I didn't do anything," I said.

"Recently," Bill said with a wink.

"Shut up!" I said.

"Tonks. . . What did her letter say?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing about that, I assure you," I said.

"You don't think he forced her to-."

"No, never," Bill said. "Pretty sure Hannah's way too strong to cave to pressure like that. Whatever she did with Draco, she did because she wanted to."

I think that thought bothered Sirius even more than Hannah being pressured into it.

"Hannah is not allowed to have any contact with Malfoy for the rest of the week," Snape said.

"Excellent," Sirius said. "She probably emasculate the boy while you're at it."

"Yes. We do find it troubling that Hannah and Malfoy are exceptionally difficult to keep an eye recently," Snape said.

"If only there was someone we could trust to keep an eye on her," Molly said.

"Well it's not like there's anyone in the Order you could put a disguise on and sneak into Hogwarts," I said.

I skimmed back over Hannah's letter for a moment and them looked back up at everyone at the table. They were all staring at me.

"Have I. . . Missed something?" I asked.

"I'm going to leave while you all actually consider this ludicrous plan," Snape said. Snape walked out of the room, and I remained sitting there, confused.

". . . What's going on?" I asked.

"You know. . . You are actually capable of putting on a disguise and sneaking into Hogwarts," Sirius said.

I scoffed. "So what? You want me to put on a new face and walk around Hogwarts spying on them."

"It's brilliant isn't it!" Sirius said.

"It's devious. Spying on," I said. "Like you don't-."

"Trust her?" Sirius asked.

I sighed. I guess that ship had sailed.

"But doesn't it seem rather drastic? Besides Dumbledore would never approve of it," I said. "Not to spy on the kids."

Then the kitchen door opened, again, and Dumbledore walked in.

"Alas! The voice of reason!" I said. "Please tell them that it is completely illogical to send me into Hogwarts to spy on children."

Dumbledore sighed. "But, Tonks-."

"No, no, no, no, no!" I said. How could this possibly be happening? How could they think this was a good idea? Sure, I wasn't thrilled about what Hannah had been getting into, especially considering all the trouble she was in already, but this seemed like a bit much.

"Tonks, I know it may seem a bit unorthodox for you to go to Hogwarts posing as a student in order to keep an eye on them but, I insist that you don't know the extent of the horribleness that is going on there," he said. "The last thing we need is Hannah spiraling out of control at a time like this. If they know they're being watched, they'll behave better."

"But they're already being watched, by you and Snape and McGonagall," I said.

"I've been keeping an eye on Hannah for 14 years. Does it look like she's listening to me?" he asked. I sighed. "But, then there's you and Sirius and Remus and Molly and anytime she puts a toe out of line and you all have something to say about it she makes the most fabulous return to reality."

I groaned, slightly whining as well. "Please stop telling me I'm a good influence."

"But you are!" Molly said.

"Or at least you appear to be," Bill said. "Because you've done some stuff way worse than getting to third base."

"Bill, shut up," I said.

"It would only be until the Easter Holidays," Dumbledore said. "Besides, somehow the auror office got the strangest idea that you've come down with a case of spattergroit."

"I don't really have a choice do I?" I asked.

"Oh, you always have a choice Tonks. That's what's so wonderful about having freewill," he said. "Now, whether or not you're going to cave to peer pressure is a completely different dilemma in itself."

I sighed. "Guess I'm going back to Hogwarts."