'Lucy.' said Tonks, 'Your sofa is trying to eat me'
Across the coffee table aforestation of candles and empty bottles, the werewolf stirred in her armchair. 'Whut?'
'You shouldn't try to drink a metamorphmagus under the table' thought Tonks. 'Your sofa,' she reiterated patiently, 'is trying to eat me.'
A clattering as Lucy failed to avoid the coffee table was followed by Tonks' left hand being seized firmly. 'Just don't turn into a dragon,' said Lucy. 'The floors have all been treated for woodworm. They're not very strong.'
'Dragons don't weigh that much,' protested Tonks. 'Hollow bones. Most of the body's given over to gas production so . . .'
'Just don't.' Lucy's heaving on her free arm accompanied the sofa making a noise like a cat coughing and ejecting her. As Tonks was hauled abruptly onto the floor Lucy went backwards over the table, her heavy skirt upending it. Sudden darkness resulted from the majority of the candles that had been providing the room's illumination hitting the carpet. Along with a burning smell.
'Evanesco'.
'And that,' thought Tonks, 'answers the questions as to whether Remus' new paramour is a witch or not. That and the sofa's independence.' Such events were typical of the onset of magic in children and, apparently, adults too. She sat up and peered over the overturned table. Lucy's spell had cut through the carpet, the underlay and the top of the floorboards. There was the smell of freshly cut timber.
'Sort it out in the morning,' said Lucy.
'Or let Remus sort it out,' thought Tonks. It was what she'd have done. 'Time I went.'
'Actually I wanted to talk to you'. Tonks glanced at the voracious sofa, got up and sat down on the chair. 'Which I rather imagine you'd already worked out.'
'From the way you were looking at me all evening? 'queried Tonks.
'And, given the circumstances under which Remus became your ex, my having the temerity to ask you here at all.'
When, at some time after midnight, all of Lucy's friends had gone home, with significant others or in the backs of taxis, Tonks had remained and the conversation had very quickly veered into dangerous waters.
'You're never there,' Lucy had said,' when the Ministry comes in and takes away all the werewolves and then lets Remus, and only Remus, go. Because of you. It's not making him popular. '
'He's never said anything,'
'Of course not. And, with the moon, it all gets a bit . . . fraught. Remus has a wand but he won't use it. Not against a bunch of kids, even when he's outnumbered. They listen to me, but by the time I arrived he was a mess. I couldn't take him to Saint Mango's so I took him home. Lucy had tugged her hair back from her face. In the gentle light of the candles, she had resembled Titian's 'Venus'. Or perhaps Venus' older smarter sister and Tonks had swallowed because, no matter how rough Lucy felt in the morning, she would at least wake up with her own face; not something that had followed her out of her nightmares.
'Remus is different as a wolf: so much more self-assured.'
Tonks had to ask. 'Is that how you . . .'
'I didn't have Wolfsbane. I'd bought it, but given it to someone.' The werewolf had glanced up, eyes full of apology. 'I'm sorry. I didn't intend it to happen but, even with the Wolfsbane . . . . Remus smells amazing: absolutely right. It just sort of washes right over you, like being together in the presence of god or something.' Lucy had sighed. 'I love him. Enough to let him go if I thought he'd be happier with you. The thing is, Tonks, you're an Auror. And, the way things are, that's enough to get him killed.'
Tonks had argued. The argument had expanded and they had both drunk a great deal. Lucy's view of the underside of the bright, shining edifice that was the Ministry of Magic had been educational. The sofa had been exceedingly comfy and Tonks, the better to concentrate, had closed her eyes. ...
'So,' said Tonks, 'what did you want to talk about?'
'I'll make some tea shall I?'
'What did you want to talk about?'
'Snape.'
'Severus Snape?
'Him. Yes.'
'. . . ?'
'Are you serious about him?
'Are you thinking of starting a collection?' 'Of my exes' went unsaid.
Lucy winced. 'You seem keen to protect him.'
'And?'
'Remus went to Hogwarts. Theoretically at least, he's a citizen. He's educated, so he can buy a wand here legally.' She drew her own wand. 'I have dual nationality so I'm allowed to bring one in. Actually, my name's not Lucy; It's Lucretia.'
'Really?'
'I've got some more wine.'
'Right.'
Lucy settled onto the sofa and got on with it. 'Greyback kept himself busy. There are at least seventeen children who should be at Hogwarts and aren't; a lot more who won't be going. Remus was the only one I know of. They never tried again and I'd very much like to know why.
'I don't know.'
'No-one does. But whatever happened, it's Snape who's getting the blame.'
'That's ridiculous.'
'Snape outed Remus when he was a teacher.'
'Remus didn't drink his Wolfsbane. It wasn't his fault but he was out of control on school grounds. The Dark Arts position was cursed. If he hadn't left when he did something worse would have happened. And anyway, it was my impression that he'd outed himself.
'Yes, but it looks as though something happened while they school together as kids and, as a result, the experiment wasn't repeated. If I can find out what, maybe I can call the off the dogs. Until then, Snape's in danger.
Tonks smirked. 'Anyone daft enough to tackle Snape's in danger.
'That too, of course. Anyway, it does give you a reason to go and have a little chat with him.'
'True,' said Tonks. She got down and hauled her boots out from under the sideboard and started to put them on. 'Lucy,' she said, 'what do you know about an organisation called "Werewolf Information"?'
'That the choice of name was unfortunate given what happened with the Women's Institute last month?'
'Ah. So you heard about that?
'Who didn't? 'Lucy's grin faded. 'But that was a bloody awful thing to happen to a nice bunch of well intentioned, middle aged women. Those idiots from the Ministry simply Obliviated the lot of them. So now they're probably having nightmares and anxiety attacks and not even the faintest idea why.'
When Lucy began to talk again, her voice was oddly soft. 'They were the same when I was bitten. I was at work the first time I changed. My colleagues weren't stupid. They realised there was some sort of cover-up. We investigated in secret. I have no idea how the Ministry found out.
'Their response was all round Obliviation along with the suggestion that I'd been doing something that I needed to cover up. Which, given that I was an analytical chemist, obviously meant drugs. And it didn't matter that I'd be unemployable because, being a werewolf, I couldn't be expected to hold down a decent job. They all acted as if I was just too stupid to understand.'
Lucy broke off and blinked.
'And they'd Obliviated my fiancée. Catch 22. I wasn't allowed to marry him without telling him that I was a were and because he was a Muggle, and we weren't related, I wasn't allowed to tell him anything at all; certainly not where I was disappearing to every month. Martin tried to stick by me. Wouldn't countenance the drugs rumours. We might even have had a chance if Grayback hadn't decided to recruit me. You do realise that he could only have found out through the Ministry? I was never near Saint Mungo's.' Lucy's face twisted. It was several moments before she could speak again.
'Muggles, when they get bitten, die at the next full moon. I couldn't take the risk.'
Feeling as if she'd been mugged, Tonks struggled for something to say. 'I am so sorry,' she whispered.
'The Ministry,' said Lucy 'is corrupt. I don't know if it's salvageable. Before I met you and Harry, I'd have said not.'
Tonks finished with her boots and straightened. 'Harry,' she said, 'is probably the least corruptible person I have ever met. He's like some sort of "Holy Fool". Since I'm supposed keep him out of trouble, he scares me. The Ministry . ... It's just a tiny minority in the Ministry who are bad. Unfortunately, most of them are stupid.'
'Unfortunately,' said Lucy, 'that's sufficient.'
'We're trying,' said Tonks. 'With "You-know who" out of the way, it should be getting easier. People aren't so afraid now. Muggleborns and half-bloods are becoming more influential and we do tend to be . . . less set in our ways. She smiled carefully. 'Thank you for inviting me tonight, Lucy. Your friends are a lot of fun and I'm glad we've had this talk. I'll have a word with Snape, but have you considered asking Remus?'
The two women looked at each other before answering that particular idea together: 'He'd sulk.'
This has been the document of doom.
The first time my computer crashed the company with which it was insured first denied that they had any obligation (despite the large sign overhead and the brochure that said that they did) and then sat on the machine for over two months before explaining that they didn't have a power cord so they couldn't do anything .(PC World, a big company who'd sold the machine and had lots of them). I lost all data when I gave up and rebooted.
This chapter had been a bugger to write being mostly (hopefully funny) exposition dump. I wrote it again. My computer crashed. The computer company came and took away my machine and lost it.
I was sent a new replacement laptop. Still unhappy with the chapter, I reworked it. Finally deciding to post and get on with the story, I discovered that my children, in fighting over the machine, had pulled off the on switch.
Given the cost of repair, I bought myself a netbook. By this time I was getting more than a bit nervous of this chapter. Eventually I started writing it anyway. The screen cracked.
I replaced the screen.
'Back up,' you say. Cue two external drives that didn't bounce at all.
I now have a spare (old, slow) laptop that belonged to my mother and a flash drive.
I'm not afraid.
(Wanders off to check the fire alarms and flood defences).
I'm sorry about the unconcionable delay. I don't know what more I can say except: 'Thank you for reading'.
unlikely2
