Outtake – The third task

(During chapter 23)

The quidditch pitch, even in its butchered state, brought back a lot of memories. It'd been only a few years since Tonks had graduated from Hogwarts. While she'd never taken part in the game, she still loved quidditch and the hype around it. Also, having read the statistics, she considered any sort of broomsports a lot safer than the Triwizard Tournament.

As usual, and as it was her job now, she watched the people rather than the playing field. After the death eater attack at the World Cup, Bones wasn't taking any chances, so half the auror force was now sitting in the stands, some blending in easily, some in uniform, and some standing out like a sore thumb. She took a sniff and immediately recognized lacewing stew in the air, so there was somebody under Polyjuice too. She couldn't remember anybody choosing this method of blending in, but then, she hadn't really been paying attention during the briefing on disguises.

She stood up and checked where her recognizable colleagues had been stationed: Wohl had repeatedly warned her that such information can make the difference between life and death. Her gaze met with Remus's and she quickly decided she'd consider him an honorary auror if any need would arise. Sirius next to him was much more of a dark horse, a competent fighter beyond doubt, but he didn't match well with the aurors who'd spent last year trying to get his soul sucked out.

Back to the quidditch pitch – she wondered how long it would take to make it useable again. Flitwick and Wohl had cleaned it up immediately after having used it as a history theatre every time, and it had taken half an hour for the two very accomplished wizards. 'Burning it down would have been easier,' her Defence professor had commented once. But that would have rendered it useless as a quidditch pitch for weeks.

Now painstakingly grown bushes formed a maze and the centre circle hosted the tree-sized spinney hiding the Triwizard Cup. She tried to find the four champions, but could only make out some spellfire in the far left. Then she spotted the Durmstrang boy riding a huge spider (was it an acromantula under Imperius?) and getting lost in the maze.

"What's with that frown?" a fellow Hufflepuff who had been doing OWLs when Tonks had graduated, now asked.

"I won't see what'd be happening in the Cup spinney," she replied. "And if you look closer, it's constructed so that nobody without a broom can."

"And brooms are not allowed, not after Potter's stunt with the Goblet," the younger girl added. "That's unfair, we'll miss the most important moment."

Again, it was Wohl's training that kicked in. 'If something is out of sight, consider it hidden. If it is hidden, consider it a trap.'

She stood up and marched to the closest senior member of their forces. "Auror Proudfoot, the design of the maze is screaming 'death eater trap' to me. I call it an instinct, sir. The most essential point is obscured from the view of anyone."

Her mind jumped to the one wizard who was still enjoying full view of the Third Task.

"You're more paranoid than your mentor, Tonks," Proudfoot must have also been thinking about Moody as well. "And he doesn't appear more worried than usual, at least to me. Don't bother yourself with your instincts."

"Those are Grindelwald-honed instincts," she pointed out.

"I'll ask who designed that part of the maze and alert Scrimgeour immediately," was the reluctant reply.

Proudfoot dawdled away and Tonks hoped they'd get a reply before the first champion reached the overgrown bushes. Then her gaze wandered back to Mad-Eye, her beloved instructor. He looked just as battle-hardened as she'd last seen him, but more troubled than usual. Wohl had warned her in a letter around Halloween that the seer had caught a glimpse of the auror in some extremely dark place, helpless without his wand, without his wooden leg and without his magical eye. He had urged her to check on him, warning her that the curse had apparently picked up speed. Tonks was extremely busy at the time, however, with the first assignment that was entirely her own, and didn't have time for more than a floo call. Afterwards it was Mad-Eye that was in a constant hurry, firstly because of the tournament, particularly the Durmstrang headmaster, suspect and target at the same time. (Tonks had heard, however, that Karkaroff was under the much closer watch of another member of the Hogwarts staff, namely, Burbage. Their photo made it to the Witch Weekly's front page more than once.)

Moody was now glaring intensely at the maze, even as Tonks started to openly stare at him. That was odd, Mad-Eye had never before been as focused on something so as to not take a few blinks in other directions, and he would have never failed to notice being watched. At this point Tonks no longer needed her training from anybody to conclude that something was wrong.

"Hi, Remus! Wotcha, cousin."

"Tonks, it's so nice to see you!"

"Hi." Apparently, Sirius was experiencing the foreboding feeling too.

This was her place to come, then. "What is it, cousin?"

"Fudge's bodyguard is giving me shivers. I should have grown used to them, don't you think?"

Oh, she almost forgot that the minister had brought along a dementor as bodyguard. She wasn't fond of the idea either, but the nonbeing was alone, easy to subdue for even a single witch like her. But she remembered talking with Remus last year near the forest, and back then he'd been forced to reveal his patronus to her, and leaving her to guess the rest. Yes, it was a wolf, a creature Lupin hadn't been exactly fond of. But Tonks was, had been, and would always be.

She shook herself. A dementor was not supposed to distract her with good memories, either.

"Mad-Eye's not acting like himself," she eventually busted. "And I smell Polyjuice."

"Nonsense, nobody would be able to Polyjuice as Moody," Sirius shook his head. "I mean, it's not impossible to summon a hairline, but getting an exact same eye? That'd be tricky."

"And where would he put the real Mad-Eye?" Remus also wondered.

Wasn't that a question...

"Tonks, you look positively creepy when you pale," Sirius kindly pointed out. She willed some colour back on herself.

"Would you please help me sniff around?" she asked. It was a long shot, considering Sirius's past, but he was a dog animagus, so maybe...

"Not while Harry is still down there," her cousin replied.

Most dissatisfied, she moved back to her assigned spot to watch. She cast a human-revealing spell, but it only showed half of the champions, two people who were around the edges. One had to be Krum on his spider, the poor boy really didn't seem to be at home on the ground. He reminded the auror of herself. The Beuxbaton witch was moving along the edge of the maze a little further. The other two were perhaps obscured by the hedge, the entire point of building a maze was to make navigation impossible and dangers troublesome to spot.

Then, all of a sudden, there was a blue flash of light from behind the central spinney's green walls and she could clearly tell, even without re-casting the revealer spell, that there were three others right in the middle. Yellow sparks were thrown in the air, and she could tell the three humans (newcomers?) started to move back to the maze's entrance point.

Perhaps it would be a joint victory, she mused. Two students still lost in the maze, two on their way out, she counted. So who could the last one be? Yellow sparks... Did they stand for Hufflepuff, as in, Diggory got the Cup? Why didn't Harry join him with the lightning, like when he had driven the Horntail away from her eggs?

"Tonks, you were right, it was built by Mad-Eye and he placed the Cup as well," Proudfoot suddenly appeared next to her.

"Where was I right?" she blinked back, confused.

"Moody is the only one who can see into the spinney with his eye," her colleague stated. "Now that makes my instincts itch as well."

Tonks looked around to see Savage and Dawlish blocking the stand upon which the one-eyed wizard was standing. And he was pale as porcelain, gawking in the direction of the approaching newcomers in utmost disbelief. There was a blue flash, similar to what she'd seen before, and now she recognized it as the shade called 'portkey-blue'. The wizard's wand was pointing at his own walking stick, but before he could have grabbed the violently shaking object, Kingsley's stunner hit him square in the chest from near the Minister's side. Dawlish cast a sphere on the stick before any bystanders would have touched it and Savage was already running up the wooden stairs. Tonks watched them with slight jealousy for their precise, fluid movement, but (as many had agreed) her talents lay elsewhere.

She hurried, as fast as she could without falling over, to the castle, her nose turning instinctively into that of a hunting-dog's. Nobody asked what she was doing with a hound face as she found the room from which lacewing stew smell was seeping. 'Alohomora' didn't work, but 'Sesame, open' blasted the locked door out of her way. Once inside, she went for the most obvious object that had view-obscuring spells and locks on it. She cast the strongest opening spells she had ever managed.

And found Mad-Eye, in a horrible shape, humiliated and weak, but still alive.

She helped him out of his own travel trunk, then threw a fistful of powder into the floo, and called first Headquarters, then St Mungo's.