Taboo-Breaking

by Matthew W. Quinn and Kyli Ann Rasco

April 10th, 1998 AD

11:30 AM

Nymphadora Tonks lay on the sofa of her mother's house, her feet propped up on a pile of cushions, her wand in her ear like a pencil, and some Screeching Weasel playing on her father's Muggle boom box. She had a clipboard in her lap and was composing a letter to her husband.

Dearest Remus, she wrote. Not a whole lot has been going on lately.

At least, not a whole lot she could put into writing. Patronuses were best used for delivering sensitive information; letters could be found and read, but Patronuses vanished when they delivered their messages. Due to Lupin's situation, it would be unwise in the extreme to include anything about the Order's current activities or her hidden father.

So she wrote him about innocuous things and to arrange meetings. The memory of what went on at many of their meetings brought a smile to her face. She wondered if the other werewolves figured out the purpose of many of his disappearances from the colony and ribbed her husband about them.

Then something flashed out of the corner of her eye. In an instant, she was up on her feet, wand in her hand and pointing at a blue-white lynx sitting in the middle of the living room.

"Tonks, it's Kingsley," he said. "Come to the meeting-place. I've got a plan."

Tonks nodded. She set her letter and clipboard on the table, then immediately Disapparated.

April 10th, 1998 AD

11:35AM

Tonks materialized in the foyer of the Fidelius-protected house in Kent the Order had been using lately.

"Welcome," Kingsley Shacklebolt said. He was singling her out for attention, something that was simultaneously flattering and suspicious.

"Oi," Tonks said. "What're we up to?"

"Kingsley liked your idea about the Taboo," George Weasley said. He paused for a moment.

He's expecting Fred to finish the sentence, Tonks thought, sadness filling her heart. But Fred's not here.

"So," George said, somewhat slowly. "He's going to deliberately trigger the Taboo, with all of us here."

"Thank you, George," Shacklebolt said. "I intended to explain it to her myself."

Tonks was taken aback. She was glad that the Order was using her idea, but to use it so suddenly?

Kingsley must have sensed her shock.

"Dora, we've re-established contact with Harry, Ron, and Hermione."

Her heart leaped.

"How are they?" she demanded.

"They're fine. Hermione was a bit shaken at first. Bellatrix used the Cruciatus on her at Malfoy Manor."

Anger erupted within her at the treatment of the girl she considered a surrogate little sister. Her pink hair took on a distinctly reddish cast. She ground her teeth. Her wicked aunt was going to pay for that.

"But everyone's healthy now. Everyone except Potter's elf."

"Dobby? What happened to him?"

"Bellatrix killed him when he rescued the kids."

Tonks had been so angry at Bellatrix that she hadn't fully processed what Shacklebolt was telling her.

"What were the kids doing at Malfoy Manor of all places?"

Shacklebolt sighed.

"It seems Harry inadvertently triggered the Taboo and they were detained by Greyback and some others. Harry was able to signal Dobby, who rescued them at the cost of his life."

He paused.

"That reminded me of what you suggested earlier. Time to put the Taboo to good use."

April 10th, 1998 AD

Noon

Shacklebolt popped into existence in a clearing in a forest in the West Country. Seconds later, the Order materialized around him. They quickly disappeared into the brush, hiding beneath Invisibility Cloaks or vanishing behind Disillusionment Charms. Tonks took up a position behind a large bush, close to the senior Auror.

Shacklebolt stood alone in the center of the clearing, his wand pointed straight down at the ground.

"Voldemort," he said, as if it was the easiest thing in the world. "Voldemort, Voldemort, Voldemort."

It didn't take long for this to get results. A series of thunderclaps split the air as a dozen robed and masked figures materialized around him. Tonks' heart sank — she expected more Snatchers, not full Death Eaters. Perhaps the enemy had tweaked the Taboo to identify whoever said the forbidden name.

"Kingsley Shacklebolt," one of the masked men said. "We meet again."

Another Death Eater laughed.

"The Snatchers nearly got you once thanks to the Taboo. You Order people must be dumber than we thought."

Kingsley smiled. Then he said one word.

"Dumbledore."

All around the assembled Death Eaters, the ambush sprung. Red light flashed and multiple Death Eaters fell unconscious. Although Shacklebolt and Tonks could use the Killing Curse, the former was standing in the midst of multiple enemies, who were in turn ringed by members of the Order. Such a situation was ripe for friendly fire.

Of course, once the battle broke apart into the usual duels, then Tonks fully intended to take a few scalps.

Though half the Death Eaters fell to the ambush, that still left six of them ready and willing to fight. A wave of Killing Curses stabbed at the surrounding woods. One passed perilously close to Tonks' left ear, singeing the flesh. Luckily, no Order members died.

Other Death Eaters revived some of their unconscious allies. The number of active Death Eaters rose from six to eight, the whirling chaos of the battle keeping more from being revived.

Amid the black-clad swarm, Shacklebolt hurled jets of green light, striking down two of the Death Eaters immediately. One Death Eater dodged a blow and hurled a Killing Curse of his own. Shacklebolt stepped aside, enabling the Death Eater to revive two more unconscious terrorists.

Tonks launched herself forward, dodging a Killing Curse and binding the perpetrator to a nearby tree. Another Death Eater lunged at her, making the wand movements for a Killing Curse that would strike her between the eyes.

Tonks was quicker on the draw.

Avada Kedavra!

Her jet of green light hit the Death Eater in the chest and finished him.

She whirled on a third Death Eater, who immediately backed away. He paused for a moment, then rapidly looked around him.

Tonks smiled. Kingsley must've already laid the anti-Disapparition jinx.

The Death Eater then leaped at Tonks, desperation giving him speed. The two collided and went tumbling, both of them ending up on their backs. Tonks hopped back onto her feet and raised her wand.

Then another, taller Death Eater stepped between the two of them. The new arrival pulled back her hood, revealing long black hair. Tonks' heart sank as she realized who she was facing.

"Why if it isn't ickle Tonskie?" Bellatrix Lestrange laughed. "Your pet was awfully rude to me. I think I'll punish you for going easy on the obedience training."

Green light flashed as her wicked aunt sought once more to prune her family tree. Tonks twisted her body between two Killing Curses and fired one of her own straight at the older woman.

Bellatrix dodged the blow and cast a whirling wind of fire around herself, forcing Tonks and others back. Amidst the flames, Bellatrix laughed.

"Like it hot?"

Animal-heads erupted from the flames and bounded towards the Order personnel engaged in combat with the Death Eaters. Tonks immediately knew what to do.

Thank Merlin for Remus's lessons.

She raised her free hand and the animals froze. Some Order members' robes were singed, but nobody burned alive like John Yaxley. The burning beasts strained at Tonks' resistance, but she strained right back and kept them under control.

Bellatrix merely laughed.

"Dabbling in Dark Magic? Not so goody-two-shoes, are you?"

The notion of any of her actions making her wicked aunt proud enraged Tonks. With a scream, she gave the Fiendfyre a shove, driving the fiery animals back towards Bellatrix. Though small fires erupted on her black robes and sweat trickled out from beneath her mask, the evil witch managed to keep the Fiendfyre from consuming her.

Then the fires began winking out. Tonks pushed forward, hoping to bury Bellatrix in the remaining fiery animals. The animals vanished before they could do more than scorch Bellatrix's robes some more. Tonks barely avoided a pair of Killing Curses the evil woman cast seconds after the last fires vanished.

"Time to die, you little slut," Bellatrix grated, voice ragged.

She unleashed a stream of Killing Curses, forcing Tonks back. Two curses cut through her jeans, burning the flesh beneath. Tonks was lucky there was no direct contact between her skin and the magic or she'd be as dead as the men she and Shacklebolt had killed earlier.

Tonks hurled a pair of Killing Curses at her evil aunt, who weaved between them. One of them hurtled straight at George, who grappled hand to hand with another Death Eater.

"George!" Tonks screamed.

Her voice grabbed his attention and he saw the curse coming. He ducked and rolled. The Death Eater, thinking his foe fleeing, rushed after him. The curse missed him and slammed into a tree, but the daggers of wood torn free by the explosion put him on the ground.

Bellatrix laughed.

"Heard one of them is dead already," she said. "So eager to kill both of them?"

Bellatrix flicked her wand and one of the Order members lunged at Tonks, obviously under Imperius. He cast a Killing Curse at her, as did Bellatrix herself. Both of them came at her at angles that would be impossible to dodge.

Tonks did the dirt, barely avoiding one of the curses. She did not avoid her aunt's descending foot, which slammed into her sternum. The blow knocked the wind out of her and pinned her to the ground.

Bellatrix laughed.

"Lights out!" she said with a toss of her hair.

Then a green light flashed and Bellatrix leaped off her niece. Shacklebolt followed up with another Killing Curse, while George and another Order member used less lethal spells. The there of them forced Bellatrix away from the fallen Auror.

Tonks dragged herself to her feet, murder in her dark eyes and her hair bright red. Bellatrix gestured, sending George flying, and then did the same to another Order member. Shacklebolt faced her alone.

"Oi!" Tonks called. "It's me you want, bitch!"

Other Order members surged at Bellatrix. She dodged their blows, forcing them back with Killing Curses and laughing all the while.

"Last time I checked, you were the one being mounted by a dog," Bellatrix called out. "Next time!" Then she grabbed a tree branch and disappeared from sight with a final laugh.

Portkeys, Tonks growled mentally. That's a way around an anti-Disapparition jinx.

With Bellatrix gone, an uneasy quiet settled over the clearing. Tonks had been so focused on the duel with her aunt that she didn't see the other Death Eaters retreat.

Shacklebolt gestured with his wand and the fallen Death Eaters floated up from the ground. He gestured again and they drifted to an open spot on the ground and lay in a nice little line of black-clad figures.

"Good job," Shacklebolt said to the surviving Order members. "We've just deprived the Dark Lord of ten servants today."

"Ten?" one of the Order members asked.

Shacklebolt's face hardened and he gestured to the five captives.

"We've no Azkaban to put them," he said. "And we can't let them run free."

Tonks' heart sank. She knew what was coming next. He nodded to her.

"If you'd come here."

Slowly, reluctantly, Tonks took a step forward towards the fallen enemies.

"What?" another Order member asked. "How do we know they're not under Imperius?"

Shacklebolt shook his head. "We don't. But we can't take the chance."

"At least unmask them!" the man said. "Check to see if there's anyone we know would never go over!"

Shacklebolt shook his head.

"Martin, that would make it all the more difficult."

"Blast it, man, one of them could be your wife!"

Shacklebolt stiffened. Tonks knew the senior Auror's wife was out of the country, in hiding somewhere, but it was still possible the Death Eaters could pull something like that.

"No," Shacklebolt repeated. "Let's get this done before the bitch comes back with reinforcements."

He pointed his wand at one of the fallen Death Eaters. Green light flashed and the terrorist was no more.

He turned to face her.

"Tonks," he ordered.

Tonks swallowed.

"Yes sir."

She raised her wand and pointed it at one of the fallen Death Eaters. She drew a breath. She'd used the Killing Curse before, in the battles after Dumbledore's death. She'd used Fiendfyre — not Unforgivable but infamous nonetheless — to kill Yaxley and decapitate the Voldemort-controlled Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Still, those were men who faced her with wands drawn — or in the case of Yaxley, could have, if he knew who she was. These were incapacitated, harmless men.

One of them twitched, struggling against the ropes that bound him.

"Tonks," Shacklebolt repeated.

She swallowed. At least this one could conceivably get loose and cause trouble.

Avada Kedavra.

Green light flashed again. There were three more living Death Eaters to kill.

She pivoted on her heel.

Avada Kedavra.

There was a fourth flash of green light. Shacklebolt's curse had struck at an angle and knocked the Death Eater into the single survivor, knocking his mask sideway. Rather than the skull-like visage that struck terror into so many — and hid the eyes that turned dim and glassy when the jet of green light ripped the life away — Tonks saw a man's face.

The face was thin, with olive skin that looked like the Spanish people she'd seen on a girls' trip long ago. A single lock of dark hair fell across his forehead.

Slowly, she raised her wand for the killing blow. Her hand trembled slightly as she looked down her wand into the Death Eater's face.

Avada Keda…

She could not finish the incantation. She grit her teeth. She was an Auror, damn it! The wizarding public's shield, and sword, against the Dark. She felt the eyes of the others on her back. They probably thought her weak, too sympathetic to the enemy now that her husband was among them…

Avada Kedavr…

Looking the unconscious man in the face, she still could not do it.

"Dora," Shacklebolt said softly.

Tonks' gaze snapped sideways.

"If you can't do this, let me."

Thank Merlin.

Tonks stepped back. Shacklebolt raised his wand. A jet of green light flashed and the man was dead. It was like flipping a switch.

Shacklebolt lowered his wand.

"It's done," he said. "Let's strip the bodies and get out of here."

The other Order members made their way forward and began removing the Death Eaters' masks and clothes. Voldemort would not be able to recover uniforms and magical artifacts from this lot, and finding the naked corpses would likely be a shock for whatever minions Bellatrix brought with her.

Now that the fight was over and the adrenaline surge dying down, Tonks began feeling the pains exertion and her brief defeat by her aunt brought. She scowled.

Next time it's my turn, auntie.