In the summer of 1994, Nymphadora Tonks receives extra training from Alastor Moody before he begins his year as DADA professor at Hogwarts. The training culminates in a major change of events in late August. Changes cascade from this major change across the rest of 1994. Six chapters are planned. No ships and not really any Harry.
Chapter 01: Training and Truths / 29 July 1994 /Nymphadora Tonks, Auror (Probationary), questioned her decision to become an Auror at least once a week. The prejudice of the pureblood colleagues was something she believed to be endurable when she began training. Despite her excellent performance with law, tactics, and fieldwork, Aurors like Dawlish and Proudfoot still made remarks about her 'muddy' father and blood-traitor mother when their superiors were not present. After two years of training, and several months of patrolling Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, 'Tonks' was confused by her selection for training with Senior Auror Alastor Moody (retired).
Early in the day, Head Auror Rufus Scrimgeour and Director Amelia Bones surprised Nymphadora Tonks with an introduction to Alastor Moody. Immediately following the exchange of names, the disfigured and rough-looking Auror frowned. He demanded, "What's this skinny girl got that makes you think she's worth my time?"
"Show him," commanded Rufus Scrimgeour.
Sighing internally but making no outward expression, Dora proceeded to transform her face and figure into an exact copy of Rufus Scrimgeour. The poise she struck with head and body mimicked Scrimgeour as well. With a brief nod of his head, the fake Scrimgeour then changed into an exact copy of Cornelius Fudge.
"If I ever get the chance to use this one with Lucius Malfoy, we can put both men into Azkaban," Rufus said as if Tonks were a tool for his use.
Moody couldn't express his feelings with his face but there was a tone of interest in his voice as he asked, "What are you expecting me to teach her?"
"The hard stuff," Amelia replied. "She's good with situational awareness. Did you notice her wand slipped into her hand with the first transformation and she's kept her back to the wall the entire time?"
Moody scoffed and said, "Could be someone hidden back there."
The figure of Cornelius Fudge transformed into Minerva McGonagall and addressed Moody, "Forty points from Slytherin, Mr. Moody! When I came into the room, I cast wandless and silent charms to count heartbeats and breaths. There's a disillusioned Unspeakable in the corner behind Director Bones but you three are the only other persons in the room."
"What?" shouted Bones as she leaped from her chair and joined Moody and Scrimgeour casting spells in the corner of the office opposite of Nymphadora Tonks. A flurry of spells probed, blasted, and revealed that there was no one present under a cloak of invisibility or a disillusionment charm. However, a large bookcase once filled with photo albums and memorabilia had been blasted to bits. Debris and dust filled the air as more Aurors poured into the office.
The bruhaha continued as Director Bones yelled at Auror Moody for destroying her bookcase and photographs. Head Auror Scrimgeour assured the guards that everything was as it should be in the Director's office. The extra Aurors left the office and only then did Scrimgeour notice that Auror Tonks (Probationary) had vanished.
"Where'd she go?" Rufus asked.
Moody frowned, "Did she leave without permission? That's not a candidate I should be working with."
A large bookcase transformed back into Dora Tonks. Bones scowled mightily, and Scrimgeour prepared to assign the young woman with duty in Azkaban as punishment. But Alastor Moody was pensive for a moment and then said, "Tonks reminds me of you, Director. Thirty years ago, when you were fresh out of the academy. Wizards didn't think much of witches trying to be Aurors then and you taught them all a few tricks along the way."
The Auror (retired) glanced at the director and added, "Thirty years from now, she may be sitting in your chair."
Bones remained silent as Scrimgeour asked, "Tonks, what the hell was that?"
"Sir, that was a metamorphic change with the aid of advanced transfiguration. I demonstrated that I could think on my feet. You surprised me with this meeting and one of our lessons at the academy was to never let your opponent settle down. In this meeting, Auror Moody is a potential opponent."
"He's an instructor!" Scrimgeour said angrily.
"Tonks is right, Scrimgeour," Moody said, interrupting the head Auror. "Today I'm a threat to her place here in the DMLE."
"I'm the only person who is a threat to anyone in the DMLE!" Bones reminded the two men. She frowned as she used to wand to repair the damage to her bookcase and photograph albums before saying, "Moody, give her a couple of weeks of your training. Keep everything to yourself and don't report back until then."
&&^^&& SCENE CHANGE 8 August 1994The next ten days were tough for Dora Tonks. There were constant battles with Moody when they stepped into a training room. The only rest she had in these training rooms came when she put the old wizard on the floor, had all his wands and other magical devices in a bag she made that was charmed against being summoned, he was tied up with ropes, and she'd taken his peg leg and magical eye.
Who knew a peg leg could also be a magical focus and used to cast spells by the wizard wearing it once he was on the ground?
That only happened twice before Tonks figured it out and took steps to remove it in every battle.
Alastor Moody was impressed by the witch and debated discussing the realities of Magical Britain with her before going further in her instruction. In the discussions and review of their training sessions, he learned she was well-educated despite the slack standards at Hogwarts. And the young witch had inherited her mother's ingrained skepticism of the wonder that was Albus Dumbledore.
"Tonks, where do you want to be in five years?" Moody asked one afternoon. They'd practiced apparition while under attack for an hour and Tonks proved capable of using apparition to move within the battlefield and attack the training dummies from behind. Her only hesitation came when she had to side apparate a wounded compatriot with her and continue the attack.
Looking up from her dish of Screaming Vanilla ice cream at Florean Fortescue's shop in Diagon Alley, Dora stared at Moody for thirty seconds before she replied, "My ideas about my future keep changing."
"That's normal. What you want at twenty is different at forty, and even more different at sixty years," the retired Auror replied.
"I've wanted to be an Auror since I was thirteen. If my mother wasn't a great potion mistress, I'd never have been accepted into the academy."
"Are you going to complain about Snape again?"
Dora frowned and pressed ahead, "Why is it everyone knows that dark wizard is hurting kids by not teaching them potions, but no one is willing to stand up and say it out loud?"
"Lots of people complain."
"And Dumbledore and Fudge ignore them because the people complaining are not powerful. If Director Bones or the Head Healer at Saint Mungo's made formal complaints to the Wizengamot, something could be done."
"Dumbledore would squash it before anything could be done about Snape. Then the mighty wizard would repay Bones or the healer with problems they don't currently have," Moody replied, shaking his head. "But back to you. What do you want?"
Dora knew Moody had cast a privacy charm. but she added her own before she stated, "I want to be valued for my work. In Hufflepuff, we worked together on everything but recognized the contributions of the individual."
"And in the DMLE?"
Tonks snorted at first but then explained, "You heard Head Auror Scrimgeour that first day. He plans to use me to make him look good. Or to get blackmail on powerful people."
"You'll deal with ambitious leaders you're whole life, girl. I had to obey Dumbledore in the war back in the seventies and it cost me a leg and an eye. He kept turning the pureblood bastards free after we bled to arrest them."
"Why were they freed?"
"People with enough gold make the rules," Moody said. "The purebloods are untouchable for the most part."
"You're a pureblood and I'm not," Dora reminded Alastor who looked away. When the old wizard didn't say anything, she continued, "And I'll never sit in the director's chair at the DMLE, will I?"
"Look girl, things change slowly," he said. "Nobody hunts muggles for sport anymore. Muggle baiting is illegal."
Nymphadora Tonks inclined her head just slightly to acknowledge her mentor's statement. Her eyes refused to meet his and her metamorphic abilities hid the anger she felt for the man to mention that single law as a meaningful step forward for Magical Britain.
The probationary Auror continued, "There's a muggle author named George Orwell who wrote a book called Animal Farm."
Seeing the question in Moody's single normal eye and the few facial muscles he had left, Dora explained, "My dad expanded my horizons to include literature from the real world. Anyway, in that book, there's a group of animals trying to build a separate society from humans. A tenant of their society is that all animals are equal."
Now Alastor Moody snorted and waved his hand for the young woman to wrap up her story. Huffing without caring that Moody might be irritated by her disrespectful noise, Tonks returned to her explanation, "In the end, the characters are told that all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
Moody stared for a moment and scoffed, "Of course. In all societies, there are people who are better than others. And that's why Magical Britain is the premier magical society in the world. We squabble about dark and light but always keep rule by the purebloods in place."
&&^^&& SCENE CHANGEAfter the uncomfortable conversation at Fortescue's in Diagon Alley, Moody considered failing the girl and drumming her out of the corps. Her resentments would only grow and fester over the course of her career.
'But how is that different from my own resentment against the bastards with enough gold to avoid Azkaban? Malfoy was caught red-handed and bought his freedom with enough gold to turn the minister's head completely around. And then Malfoy paid for his cronies to sit at his table too rather than feed the dementors.'
After some more thought, Alastor asked, "Tonks, do you want to be so valuable to the DMLE that the director will force Scrimgeour to push you to the top of every promotion list?"
The young witch nodded without thinking – her investment in this career meant her other options in Magical Britain were vanishing.
"Good answer. I'm going to make you so good at your job that every pureblood will tell their sons and daughters to be like you," Moody stated.
After talking to Bones and avoiding Scrimgeour at the end of the two-week training period, Moody took Tonks into another round of lessons with reviews and discussions.
&&^^&& SCENE CHANGE / 23 August 1994The wizards sat silently waiting for their quarry to appear. The giant snake had been left at Riddle House in Little Hangleton but the Dark Lord in his homunculus baby form insisted on coming as well.
Barty Crouch, Jr. kept the privacy, notice-me-not, and muggle repelling charms powered while the Dark Lord fussed at Peter Pettigrew. The muggle neighborhood was quiet for a Tuesday morning. When Alastor Moody appeared just outside his house's wards with a silent apparition, the wizards moved instantly.
Barty's spells of Stupify and Incarcerous were simultaneous with Incarcerous and Stupefy from Peter. The Dark Lord attempted a Legilimens attack but couldn't find the Auror's mentality. The unconscious man was on the ground, his wand summoned and hidden in Barty's pocket while two sets of magical ropes covered their captive from the magical eye to the sole of a single boot next to the brass tip of his peg leg.
"Move!" the dark lord commanded as Barty ran forward with the port key and carried Moody away. Then the homunculus yelled, "Wormtail! Get us out of here!"
The rat Animagus concentrated and spun to launch his apparition spell, but the homunculus continued to complain and in Peter's distracted mental state, left behind an ear and the hair on that side of his head.
Only two minutes after the kidnapping of Alastor Moody, there were a half-dozen pops as Alastor Moody and five on-duty Aurors appeared on the spot. They immediately began casting spells to repel the muggles and look for residue from the use of magic.
"They got her the moment she landed," Auror Proudfoot said. "I count three magical signatures in addition to Tonks – only one has any power."
"There's an ear and hair over here," Auror Selwyn announced. He quickly cast two spells. First, he cast Homo capillus revelar, and then he cast Quis aurem revela.
When Moody stalked over the Auror reported, "Both the hair and the ear are from a wizard named Peter Pettigrew."
"Impossible," Proudfoot declared. "Pettigrew was killed by Sirius Black back in 1981."
"Bag and tag the hair and ear, Selwyn," Moody ordered and then gave Proudfoot the stink eye. The Auror stood very still while Moody stalked closer and asked, "What is your opinion of what happened?"
"The girl was not paying attention and the wizards after you caught her unawares."
Rolling his eye, Moody replied, "Auror Tonks was in training with me, Proudfoot. I made her drink Polyjuice, get fitted with my spare magical eye which is just a piece of paste, and my third best peg leg. Even under in Polyjuice pants with a peg leg and only one eye, she'd battled me for twenty minutes and knocked me to the ground. Then she escaped from the trap set by you and Selwyn. Of course, they caught her unawares."
"What do we do, Sir?"
"Selwyn, report to Head Auror Scrimgeour with the bagged evidence. Proudfoot and I are going to trace and follow the apparition spell."
END OF CHAPTER