June26th, 1995 (Monday)

There were many skills Tonks had acquired during Auror training that she was very proud of, and definitely one of those was the ability to wake up early and quickly. After many sudden calls from Mad-Eye during those years, she had learned to reduce the time gap between lying in her bed sound asleep and standing in front of her Master's door - fully dressed, wand raised and ready for action - to 12 minutes.

However these days she was finding the feat much more difficult to accomplish. She would get out of bed slowly, get a cup of coffee and take her time to savour it, stand in front of the mirror and try dozens of hair styles before settling on one. In short, she would dawdle.

At the beginning, she had tried not to think about it much. So, sometimes she was a bit late to work but, did it really mattered? Then it hit her. It did not. Or at least, it seemed so, for her work in this, her first year as a fully qualified Auror had been the dullest, must boring experience of her life, beating easily the long History of Magic lessons back at Hogwarts.

As a matter of fact, the only real action Tonks had seen had been during the Quidditch World Cup, when she had to fight those Death Eaters or, if she was to be honest, mostly ducking their attacks. After that, it had been something completely different.

Paperwork. Piles and piles of files she had to rearrange, feet of parchment she had to read or write, infinite rows of storage boxes inside the Auror's Archive she had to sort out.

She was suffered from an enormous lack of motivation and the fact that she had to work on Saturdays did nothing to improve the situation. Hence, her losing time in front of the mirror at home, her constant daydreaming at work – with fantasies that often featured her confronting treacherous Death Eaters, violent werewolves or angry giants – and her smuggling Quidditch magazines into her cubicle.

Looking at the mirror and narrowing her eyes she concentrated on her reflection and her hair started to grow and change colour. After a moment, it was shoulder long and blue. Grinning at her image in satisfaction, she went into the fireplace, took some powder from a small carton box on the mantelpiece and threw it into the flames. They turned emerald green.

"Ministry of Magic", she sighed in resignation, stepping into the fire.

Tonks appeared seconds later in the Ministry Atrium and went swiftly to her office. She suddenly realised she must be very late this time, for the hall was rather empty. Tapping with her right combat boot impatiently while the lifts carried her to level two, she thought for maybe the hundredth time in that month that she had to do something in order to get to work in time. Passing the much too crowded corridors of the Auror Headquarters, Tonks finally entered her cubicle and, closing the door behind her, she gave a dark stare at the usual foot high stack of files on her desk. Except, it was not just that.

On the only free space in the surface of the table, laid a purple sheet of parchment. She took it noticing first the very official Ministry Crest on top of it.

Internal Communicate

It has recently come to our knowledge that a group of wizards had been attempting to undermine the Magical Community's internal security by us provided. This group, undoubtedly trying to destabilize the current peaceful order, is spreading rumours about the returning of a certain Dark Wizard and might as well be trying to recruit followers in order to take part in yet unknown subversive attacks.

It is de duty of the Ministry of Magic and each and every one of its workers to commit themselves in the identification of the wizards or witches involved in such a dangerous group and to inform the Ministry, as well as to repress those rumours, so to avoid a wave of fear that would do nothing but threaten our safety.

The Ministry of Magic is ready to take any measure to eliminate the threat and take measures against the ones taking part in it, even if those were found to belong to this very office.

Cornelius Fudge,

Minister for Magic

Tonks' mind felt as if there were a hundred small balls bouncing lose inside it. The words "a certain Dark Wizard" and "repress those rumours" kept popping into her train of thought.

You don't need to be a genius to figure out what this is about.

Someone out there is saying that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back. And Fudge doesn't like it. Tonks thought, reading the parchment again a couple of times.

There were always nutters trying to spread rumours and scare the people and, after Black had escaped prison almost two years before, those rumours had grown and there was a certain fear in the population. Especially because he had not being caught, despite the guarantees the Minister was giving on a regular basis that they were "very close indeed" to catching him.

Tonks sat heavily on her chair.

There seems to be something different this time, she thought pulling her hair absentmindedly with her eyes unfocused. There was an urgency in the Communicate, something that somehow felt fishy. And she was going to keep an eye on things from now on, because even if it was only a rumour, the persons behind it were trying to scare innocent people and that was dangerous enough.

Coming back to reality and sighing deeply again, she took the file on the top of the pile and opened it.

Rabastan Lestrange. She read, Brilliant.