AN: Almost finished! Just a few chapters to go. Everything in bold is taken from the chapter, "The Longest Night" of the Half Blood Prince
Tonks felt uneasy and she didn't know why. Or, maybe she did. She had spent the entire briefing of Dumbledore's studiously ignoring Remus after all. Which was more than a bit awkward but doable. It was important to look at people when they were speaking, after all. That's what mum always said anyway. If it had the added benefit of not having to look at anyone else (not even out of the corner of her eye) then who was she to judge? Manners were important. Merlin, that sounded pompous.
Anyway, the two of them had been split up to separate parts of the castle so she wouldn't have to interact with him at all tonight.
"How do you want to do this, Professor?" Tonks asked, deferring to the diminutive Charms Master.
"You don't need to call me Professor, anymore, Miss Tonks," Flitwick said with a smile.
"And you don't need to call me Miss Tonks," she retorted, scrunching up her nose.
Granted, referring to Flitwick by anything other than Professor wouldn't be as weird as calling McGonagall by her first name. Which she still wasn't brave enough to do, by the way, she'd sooner call Mad-Eye, Alastair than McGonagall, Minerva. Hey, she was a Hufflepuff, not a Gryffindor. She had some self-preservation. She scrunched up her nose. Calling him Filius would still be weird. One, who called their child 'Filius'?
"Surnames?" Flitwick suggested.
Tonks nodded. That sounded like a good idea.
"Aw, how sweet," Mad-Eye said sarcastically, barging between the two of them.
Honestly, he was so impatient sometimes. Or all the time.
"Are you supposed to be here, Mad-Eye?" she felt like she had to ask.
She was pretty sure that Dumbledore told her and Flitwick to be in this area, not him.
"I go where I please."
"Of course, you do," she sighed.
Honestly, she was convinced her old mentor only listened to Dumbledore because the was fond of the man and nothing more. If she was Dumbledore, she would find giving Mad-Eye orders really odd and more than a little terrifying. Thankfully, she did not have to do that.
She did, however, still have to follow his orders. Well, not exactly, she wasn't his trainee anymore. But, well, some habits were just hard to break, okay? As cheeky and annoying as she could be, outright defiance of his rules and orders was never something Tonks could bring herself to do. So, when he directed her down a corridor and Flitwick down another, neither of them said anything against it. It was common sense after all.
It began like any other patrols did. Her just walking back and forth along a few corridors and keeping a sharp ear out for any untoward noises. Being on one of the lower levels of the Castle meant that she didn't come across any hopeful and amorous teenagers, thankfully. That would have just been awkward. Did she root for them or report them to Flitwick? Thankfully, that didn't have to happen. It went on for about an hour, nothing really changing except the wind that began whistling around the Castle. That noise was always creepy to her at night. You didn't hear that in the Hufflepuff Basement.
Things after that were definitely a blur. There was no question about it. First, she was pacing up and down the corridor, passing Flitwick at regular intervals and Mad-Eye at irregular intervals, keeping an ear out. Then, she definitely did not need to keep an ear out as everything quite firmly came to her.
Teachers and Death Eaters and... students? What the hell? Why the fuck were there students out?
"Granger! Weasley!" Mad-Eye snapped behind her.
Tonks whirled around after retaliating with a slashing hex at a Death Eater. No clue who he was but did it really matter? What mattered was there were currently Ron, Ginny and Hermon right in front of her.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" she demanded.
They couldn't be here! Molly would kill them! And where was Harry?
"Prefects," Ron said gruffly, pointing to his chest. Where his Prefect badge most definitely was not present.
"Harry told us to," Ginny said more believably.
"He's with the Headmaster," Hermione added.
"Less talking more spells!" Mad-Eye snapped as he blasted another Death Easter down the corridor.
That brought the four of them back to the present situation with a jolt and suddenly they were all fighting again. Tonks knew she should probably get the three teenagers out of this but she was somewhat busy fighting one Death Eater after another and they were holding their own...
Then Snape ran past her, dragging Malfoy behind him. What had the kids got mixed up in? McGonagall got out of there way, covering their backs with a well-placed "Stupefy!"
Since that was evident ally being taken care of, Tonks paid no further attention to him as her attention was quite firmly taken up with Bellatrix. Why was it always Bellatrix?
"No baby cousin to save you this time!" her dear old aunt mocked.
Tonks didn't bother to answer her, instead getting right into firing spells. Spells which Bellatrix deflected easily. Of course. The woman may be mad but she was still highly skilled. Which meant she had to be on her game.
She didn't know when it happened but suddenly Remus was fighting next to her and McGonagall was behind her, each of whom were fighting a separate Death Eater. Tonks couldn't say who they were fighting as she was a little preoccupied with fighting an enormous blond wizard who was sending curses flying in all directions, so the ricocheted off the walls around them, cracking stone, shattering the nearest window-. It was Rowle, she recognised him from his Wanted posters. Not that that was much use when she was trying to both fight him and avoid flying debris.
Which she almost didn't avoid when she heard Ginny's cry of "Harry, where did y-?"
Tonks though she saw Harry sprint past but she couldn't be sure as Rowley gouged out another bit of wall. Swearing, she ducked, it narrowly avoiding her head.
"Take that!" shouted Professor McGonagall.
There was an odd sort of satisfaction in watching Alecto sprinting away down the corridor with her arms over her head, her brother right behind her.
That seemed to trigger a mass exodus of the Death Eaters as they all ran for the doors. Bellatrix slipped away easily, though Tonks managed to send one last cutting hex at her. It actually hit its target. No time to celebrate through as she tried to corner another Death Eater. Not all of them could escape!
As quickly as it started, it was all over. Or rather, the fight quite abruptly left the castle. Suddenly they were there fighting Death Eaters and then they weren't. They just... vanished.
"Outside!" Mad-Eye bellowed into the echoing silence of the corridor.
Merlin, stone walls and floors really picked up any little noise. Tonks blinked and shook her head to clear it - her ears ringing. It was jarring.
"Move!" he roared.
That made her snap to attention and go running for the Entrance Door. It was wide open like someone had stormed through it.
There was more shouting and fighting and so, so many spells being cast. Some of them hers. It was hard to know if any of them hit their mark with the amount of dust that seemed to be swirling around everything.
She coughed and was thankful that she was more than adept at silent casting. Who knows what she would have been casting if she coughed in the middle of a spell?
Snape was shouting something, at the Death Eaters or them, she didn't know. She was rather preoccupied with her duelling. Then she wasn't duelling anyone anymore. They were all gone. Beyond the wards.
Tonks didn't know how long she stood there, staring at empty air with everyone else, but she did. And she didn't move until McGonagall called to them.
"Are they gone?"
"Looks like it."
Tonks jumped as she heard Remus' voice. She had forgotten, stupidly, that he had ran out with her.
Suddenly, McGonagall was all business; lips pressed tightly together and a stern expression on her face.
"Everyone to the Hospital Wing," she ordered.
"We're not injured," Remus said, looking around at the four of them who had ran outside - her, him, Mad-Eye and Professor Sprout.
"Others are."
Her eyes were immediately drawn to Remus' and they both looked at each other. Tonks knew she looked just as fearful as he did. Fang began to howl.
