Of course, she was on duty. And of course, she was stationed in one of the few points of the campsite from which the match could not be seen nor heard. She could distinguish the ringing of Ludo Bagman's magically amplified voice, but she could not make out the words, nor the score or the reasons why the crowd cheered or moaned.
On the whole, she had to admit that her present situation was not that bad, despite the curiosity the tantalising noises coming from the stadium were provoking. Tonks had been tasked with preventing all those Ireland and Bulgaria supporters from making their presence too obvious to the Muggles guarding the campsite. It had been an almost impossible assignment and, as the beginning of the match was drawing nearer, she had already decided to get along with most of the open displays of magic – like red and black coloured smoke, palace-like camping tents and the wearing of cloaks and hats that screamed the names of Quidditch players – and focus on the most noticeable ones, like a brooms race she had had to put a stop to, and an apparent duel between two Bulgarian supporters.
This, of course, was far from the usual tasks a qualified Auror was supposed to perform but, as Proudfoot had put it when informing her she would be on duty during the Quidditch World Cup, "It is the 'you-are-the-greenest-rookie' kind of job." She had refrained the rude gesture her hand had been all but willing to show him, while he made a point of putting on a bright green scarf and gloves before Disapparating, leaving her alone in her post.
A great roar coming from the stadium made her groan. She wish there was a way to at least know the score. She had wanted to keep her hair green, supporting the Irish team, but when she arrived to her designated area, she realised by the red and black drapes and the moving photograph of Victor Krum all over the place, that it was completely occupied with Bulgarian supporters. Going into the camp green haired and expecting those red and black cloaked people to obey her was just as far-fetched as Moody accepting a chocolate chip cookie from a stranger. With a resigned sigh she had morphed her hair into, in her opinion, a very professional, serious, and boring brown plait.
The roaring was growing louder and steadier until finally she heard the distinct noises of the end of the match. With a deep sigh she braced herself for what was coming ahead, for it might be a crowd of way-too-cheerful-and-festive supporters looking forward to a wild party, or a way-to-depressed-and-angry one, wanting to do something to forget their losing the Cup.
Tonks was not sure which would be worse.
Bulgaria had lost and that was evident, even for someone who did not understand the language. There was a group of grown-up men actually crying and wiping off their tears on a flag and a very angry boy was tearing into pieces every poster of Krum he could lay his hands on. She was hoping no drunken Irish would risk to wander these paths.
To be honest, though, the Bulgarians did not seem too depressed. She managed to find a woman who spoke a bit of English so she could learn the score. Krum, after all, had been a hero of sorts and had prevented his team from being completely flattened by the Irish.
She wished she had been there to see it.
Slowly the supporters went to their tents and the volume of the campsite lowered considerably. Tonks started pacing, wishing it was morning already so she could go home, take a bath and wish for her life to be less pathetic so she could get the chance to see the next World Cup.
Then she heard it. Loud banging noises, distant screaming, hurried steps; she narrowed her eyes to try and see further. There was some kind of greenish glow in the distance, right were the screaming seemed to be coming from.
Those are no Quidditch supporters, she thought with a twinge of fear, drawing her wand and running in the general direction of the commotion.
People were getting out of their tents and running away from the banging, scared, most of them in their night dresses and some drawing out their wands and lighting them. It was more difficult every second for Tonks to get nearer without colliding with the running, panicking crowd, but she finally managed to get close enough to see properly what was happening. The image was something she had only seen in photographs in ancient, yellowing editions of the Prophet or in files dated years ago, now collecting dust in the Auror Archives.
A group of people wearing long, hooded black cloaks and masks, was marching along the path at a steady pace, wands drawn. Death Eaters. Something about them was… grand, there was no other word for it, the way they moved, the tall, slender black figures, the perfect coordination. The impression though, did not stay with her more than a fraction of a second, for they were shooting green flames all around, setting tents on fire in great explosions.
Tonks knew there was nothing she could do on her own, there were at least twenty hooded figures. She needed to get help, if not from the few Aurors on duty, from the Law Enforcement Squad or at least from any Ministry worker.
The Death Eaters had reached the entrance of the campsite, where the stone cottage of the administrator of the place stood. One of the tall figures in front of the group sent the loudest explosion yet and the wooden roof ignited almost instantly. Four people came running out of the house in their night dresses, two adults and two small children.
Tonks broke into a run in their direction, she had to shield them. Somebody at her side did the same but almost at the very instant, the four very scared figures were hovering in mid-air. The front row Death Eaters were levitating them with their wands. The group started marching again, into the more crowded area of the campsite, taking the four levitating figures with them.
"Tonks!"
She was running towards the Death Eaters and stopped in her tracks to turn around. Kingsley Shacklebolt and two Hit-Wizards were running towards her.
"We just Apparated," he panted. He was wearing jeans and a green Muggle t-shirt, it was pretty obvious he had not being on duty that night. "Who are they?"
"The Muggles," Tonks answered hastily, running again in pursuit of the hooded figures, Kingsley and the Hit-Wizards followed. "They set their cottage on fire and now they are just… levitating them. What do we do?"
There was a larger number of terrorized people running in their direction again and Tonks wished she could just stun them all in order to approach the Death Eaters, who were setting tents on fire again and, by the looks of it, making random explosions that were sending trees flying in every direction.
"Shacklebolt!" someone screamed from behind. Tonks looked around while trying to avoid a collision with a running witch carrying a small child. A Ministry worker she vaguely remembered had his office on the same floor where Auror Headquarters were located was approaching them, his wand raised, and at his side…
"Charlie? Bill?"
She knew they would be coming to see the match but it came as a real surprise to actually find them among the running crowd and, apparently, ready for action.
"Tonks! What's happening?"
"Death Eaters! They're attacking the Muggle family from the entrance!"
"Come on!" said Kingsley, and the Ministry worker followed suit. Tonks suspected he was Charlie's dad, now she was thinking about it, she had seen him before, on the Platform 9 ¾. To confirm her suspicions, he was being followed by Charlie's younger brother Percy.
There was no time to dwell on the Weasley genealogy, though; they were getting nearer the group of Death Eaters.
Then, the loudest bang so far made the earth shake and Tonks turned around in time to see a great tree and a shower of pebbles flying in their direction.
"Protego!" she screamed crouching and heard some of the pebbles bouncing against her shield charm.
Tonks turned around. Percy had both hands on his face and was howling indistinctively. His father was running towards him, he had been hit by a branch and there was a slash covered with blood on the side of his nose. The others seemed to be all right.
"You two," Shacklebolt bellowed to the two Hit-Wizards, as though nothing had happened. His booming voice that rang over the banging and the screaming of the running crowd. "Go to the other side of the group, we're stunning them from every direction. If you find someone on the way, tell them to wait for my green sparks to do it, got it?"
Both wizards nodded and broke into a run.
"Tonks, Weasley," the four read heads turned in Kingsley's direction, he paid no attention but continued giving instructions. "You make sure the Muggles won't get into harm, each one of you take one of them and keep them out of the way, can you do that?" he asked the read-headed boys. They nodded, Percy still clutching his nose.
"At my-"
"Wait!" Tonks yelled.
A very old wizard was running directly into the black cloaked group yelling something they could not distinguish, but that sounded a lot like curses, except nothing was coming out of his wand.
"What's he doing?" she screamed.
With a flash of red light, the figure fell into the ground as if in slow motion. Then, many things happened at once. People started running towards the Death Eaters and aiming curses without giving them so much as a scratch. The ones at the front of the group sent simultaneously explosions with their wands in every direction, making the attacking crowd retreat. Three other trees flew in different directions.
This time Tonks was not quick enough and got hit by a flying stone in the calf. The crunchy sound and the sharp pain left no doubt there was at least one bone broken but she stood up nonetheless to look around. Bill had a very deep cut in his arm and was quickly ripping the sleeve of his shirt.
"Now!" Shacklebolt screamed, sending a flash of green sparks into the night and Tonks turned around just in time to see the Muggle woman fall, free from the hovering charm. She caught her and made her levitate as far and gently as she could, into the shadows of a tree. Bill, Charlie and Percy were doing the same with the man and the kids and made their forms follow the direction of the woman's.
"We have to get them out of the way!" Tonks yelled. She casted a hasty spell on her calf and broke into a half run, half limp to the shadowy spot.
"What do we do?" Bill asked following her and clutching the fabric of his sleeve to his arm without loosing hold of his wand.
"Obliviate them!"
"What?" yelled Charlie at her back.
"Can any of you perform a Memory Charm?"
"I can manage," Percy said with a small hint of doubt in his voice.
"You sure?"
"Er…"
"You're not doing it then," she said harshly.
They reached the point where the four Muggles were standing. The woman and the kids were crying and the man was trying to hug them all at once, shaking visibly.
"Are you hurt?" Tonks asked them briskly.
"We… what is… what?" stuttered the man.
"Do you have any wounds?"
"N-n-no…" he said, looking at his kids and wife.
"Right." Tonks turned around to face the Weasleys and she pointed Percy. "You stay with them until somebody comes along. Try and calm them." He looked at her in terror. "Charles, Billy Boy," she said, using the old nicknames unconsciously, "come with me, we're going back!"
"I want to go ba-" Percy started, he looked scared but Tonks had not time for that.
"Do as you're told!" she prompted coldly at him, and without further ado she was running back to the fray followed by the older boys.
There was an eerie silence. Even though the screaming continued, it was coming from a distance now and there were neither banging noises nor greenish lights.
A handful of wizards were circling an empty area, looking around, wands raised.
"Dad, what happened?" Bill called one of them.
"They Disapparated," he said, trotting in their direction and pointing at the sky in front of him. "The moment they saw that."
Tonks turned around and gasped. There was another figure she had hoped not to see again, except this one she knew not only from pictures but from the real life. She remembered one time, when she had been no more than seven and had gone with her mother to visit some friends. The same green shape had been floating in the sky, right over the house they were going to. Without a word, her mother had clasped her hand firmly and had Apparated both back home.
The Dark Mark.
Mr. Weasley was still talking and Tonks forced her brain to focus on the present.
"Shacklebolt, Dawlish and Robarts Disapparated to follow them with a bunch of Hit-Wizards but I don't think they'll find them. What about the Muggles?"
"They're all right," Charlie said, "Perce's with them."
"We need to get an Obliviator to get them sorted out," Tonks said to Charlie's dad.
"Right you are, er… Auror?" he said, eying the shiny badge on her jacket.
"It's Tonks, Sir," she said, offering him her hand.
"Arthur Weasley," he said shaking it briefly. "You went to Hogwarts with…"
"Charlie, yes," she said, and with no particular interest to reminisce just then; she turned around to look for someone to do the Memory Charm properly. "There's Selwyn, excuse me."
Reaching the chubby figure of the Obliviator she indicated him the exact point where the Muggles were and then she went back to the Weasleys. Arthur was gone and Charlie was looking at Bill's wound.
"You all right, Billy Boy?" she asked.
"Yeah, fine. Nasty cut, that's all."
"Fancy being hit by a branch, and not by a curse," Charlie muttered. Then he looked at Tonks. "That was impressive…"
"What's impressive about getting hit by a branch?" she asked confused, looking around. Some people were starting coming back, looking into the places were their tents had been, surely trying to rescue some of their belongings.
"Not that, you prat, your… your full Auror-mode."
"My what?"
Bill and Charlie chuckled.
"You bossing us around and not pausing to see if we were planning to obey you and… well, Tonksie," Bill gave her a grimace, "I've never thought you'd be able to remain such a long period of time without tripping on your own feet."
"Shut it!" She said, "and I was not bossing you around!"
"You were too." Charlie said, cleaning Bill's wound again in the end of it he could not reach by himself.
"Were not!"
"Were too!" both Weasleys said.
"And what's so bad about it anyways," Bill said. "After all," he winked at her, "you are the Auror."
"Hey!" Percy was running towards them.
"There you are, what took you so long?" Bill said. "Come on, Charlie, we have to find the others."
"See ya, Tonks," Charlie said, running after his two brothers.
She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came to her mind so she closed it.
Full Auror-mode? Those Weasleys are losing it.