Chapter 17. Just Part of the Job
Remus was looking at Dora with a mix of confusion and wonder, not knowing if he should be getting ready for something to happen or worrying that the young woman had snapped. The answer came to him in a haze of blue sparks, which soon took form, that of a young man in a silver mask with a white robe mostly covering some casual muggle clothes.
"Miss Tonks…" He began speaking. "Oh for all the Spirits…What happened?"
"She was tortured by DE, for information." Remus answered, not wanting Tonks to exert herself more than necessary. "We're currently in a cell, somewhere. Who are you?"
"My name is Samuel, as you probably know already, I'm Miss Tonks' er…guardian of sorts." The young man wasn't sure how much the werewolf knew, or how much he was supposed to know, still, he decided not to take any chances.
"You have to get her out of here." Remus declared vehemently. "Quickly, before someone comes and finds you here, or the moon comes out."
Henry understood then the strange mannerisms and attitude the werewolf seemed to have, he'd not remembered that there was a full moon that night; though considering he was practically living in two entirely different time-zones at the same time it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise. It was hard enough to keep up with the difference in hours…
"N-no…" Tonks managed to gasp. "Not going a…anywhere w-without you."
"Of course not Miss Tonks." Henry assured him. "But I'm afraid it might not be a good idea to move you either until we've handled at least the most delicate injuries. I'm gonna need some help here…" he too turned his head up as he called. "Evan!"
Barely seconds later two more figures appeared in a similar blue haze, both also wearing white robes and silver masks, though they seemed to be better arranged than those of the first man.
Harry recognized both Remus and Tonks right away, but managed to keep his composure as both he and his girlfriend turned in Henry's direction, awaiting instructions.
"Shouldn't you be getting Dora to safety before someone discovers you?" Remus suggested.
"Oh, I'm quite sure they already know we're here, doesn't mean they'll be able to do much about it." Henry said with more calm than he actually felt at the moment. "Patricia…"
"I'll get right on it Samuel." Hermione nodded as she began whispering a protection spell under her breath, so the DE wouldn't be able to enter the room.
"This is bad…" Harry admitted as he crouched next to the injured auror. "I can't possibly heal all of this on my own. Maybe if we called Prudence."
"Not possible right now, she's too far away, and has no way of transporting on her own." Samuel explained. "And I know you couldn't possibly heal her completely on your own, I just want you to heal her enough so we're sure she won't die before we get her to base."
Harry nodded soberly before getting to work. Truth is that never before had he had to handle one as injured as Nymphadora Tonks, and he could only wonder what kind of miracle had made it possible for the witch to stay alive through the awful torture.
"Samuel, I need you to give me a hand." Harry called after a while.
Though Henry didn't have the ability to heal a person, he could still support another white-lighter in the healing; like his mother would do back when her healing hadn't yet manifested. Remus bit his lip as he watched the progress, he hated not being able to do anything to help the woman he'd finally admit to himself and out-loud he loved, and yet he knew instinctively she couldn't be in better hands that she was at the moment. Even having no idea who the three strangers were, he sensed they were trustworthy, even his wolf seemed to calm down slightly in their presence, enough for him to keep his mind a bit longer.
"We need to hurry guys…" Hermione called, making a small pause in her spellcasting.
"Is your spell failing?" Henry asked, though it was actually as ridiculous as the possibility of Piper failing to do a potion, or Mel.
"The moon will be rising in less than thirty minutes." Hermione explained.
That was enough to make Harry push even more power into his healing, until he barely had enough energy to stay conscious.
"Evan…" Henry was shocked, wondering why his friend had done that, it was too risky.
"H…Patricia…" Harry called in a very soft voice.
Henry barely managed to hear the end of a new spell as it left Hermione's lips, at the same time she touched Harry's shoulder.
"…Switch our powers through the air" she finished, then turned to Henry. "Lets go."
A bit taken aback by what just happened Henry turned to look at Remus and motioned him to come closer.
Once Hermione and Henry made sure they were all touching, they activated the orbing power, making all five vanish in a haze of blue sparks, half a second before at least a dozen DE burst into the now empty room.
.-.
In the Chang household Cho was pacing from one side of the room to the other, almost about to begin biting her nails when suddenly her mother entered.
"Are you alone?" The woman asked, confused. "But it's not ten yet."
"Henry had to leave quite suddenly." Cho explained. "Said his other charge was calling him, and it seemed to be some kind of an emergency."
"Really, oh, I hope it wasn't too bad." Her mother said compassionately.
"So do I, but I fear it must have been pretty bad." Cho admitted. "He didn't give me much detail, but I could feel that something was wrong, he was way too tense."
"You know who this other charge is?" The older woman remembered the first meeting with the young clear-guide, he had never mentioned having another charge.
"He said it was a charge of his mom's, that was passed to him because he would be closer to her." Cho answered. "I think that must mean she's like me, a wand-wielder and a wiccan."
"If something big had happened we'd know. Though, on the other hand, You-Know-Who's attacks have become so frequent, that it is possible we may not know about all of them."
Right then Mr. Chang entered, he worked for the ministry, in the Department of Magical Communications and Transports. He was actually the Head of Communications.
"You're so late, dear." Mrs. Chang spoke as she approached her husband.
"I was actually stuck in traffic. "Mr. Chang admitted.
"Traffic?" Cho seemed confused.
Though, opposite to most purebloods the Changs had nothing against the muggle technology, and actually liked using some of their advances, like the car, it wasn't that common.
"The Floo in the Ministry was closed last night, after a failed auror mission." Mr. Chang said. "Half the team that was sent is in St. Mungos, others are dead, and two more were declared as MIA. Several other teams have been looking for them all day, as well as searching for clues in the place where things went wrong. The other teams of course had their own duties to fulfill; all in all so many kept coming and going so much no one else could access the Floo."
"You say two aurors are MIA?" Cho asked, suddenly getting an idea.
"Actually, only one is still MIA." Her father admitted. "The other one was found, right before I was out, from what I managed to hear he was said to have been tortured for hours at least before finally being killed. His body was left in an alley to be found. The other auror is said to be practically a junior agent, not even three years in the force yet; no one has been able to find her but most think she must be dead as well."
"She's not." Cho mumbled under her breath.
"What?" Her father had no idea where that had come from.
Cho didn't answer, instead choosing to go back to her 'training room'; she was suddenly very sure of her thoughts, that auror, she was Henry's other charge, if she had been calling for him she must have been still alive, and Henry had said he would do whatever was necessary to protect her. Cho believed that, she believed in him, that auror would be ok. She, meanwhile, would do some more meditation, perhaps that would help her powers advance faster; she had to be ready soon, ready to fight, ready to help; she wouldn't be left behind again.
.-.
Five figures appeared quite suddenly in the foyer of the old Jenkins home. It'd been Billie's idea, since her parents had never really sold their old house, for it to be used as a base when they were in England. It was in a muggle neighborhood, which meant that wand-magic was very easily detected, their gifts on the other hand were safe enough to be used.
Henry helped Harry lay down in one of the sofas in the sitting room, then between him and Remus they laid Tonks down on a carpet and Hermione began working on her.
"You wield the healing power so easily, even when it's not your natural one." Henry said in a low voice. "It was the same with orbing."
"H…Evan and I are used to exchanging our gifts." Hermione explained. "We've done it a few times before. It's especially useful when he needs to be healed."
Henry nodded, he had come to realize, since the little incident with the Raven's Music Box at the beginning of their break, that despite having been in close contact with both Hermione and Harry for many years, there were still quite a few things about them he didn't know.
"Is she going to be alright?" Remus questioned, still worried about Tonks.
"She should." Hermione calmed him down. "Still, Samuel will go get other people who shall be able to help us more, and then we'll take care of you."
"I should just get out of here now." Remus mumbled under his breath.
"I'm afraid we cannot allow that." Henry said seriously. "It wouldn't be safe, for you or any other person in a fifteen mile radius. The moon is about to come out."
"That's precisely why I should be getting out of here now!" Remus exclaimed. "Couldn't one of you take me to some distant place where I'll hurt no one?"
"Probably." Henry admitted. "But then we wouldn't be taking care of you."
"I don't need you to take care of me!" Remus snapped, almost offended.
"I'm afraid it's in the job description Mr. Lupin." Harry spoke from the coach, where he was still recovering. "Samuel, you need to go home, get Prudence here, and tell her to bring her potions. I will need an elixir, the strongest she has; she also knows what would be good for Mr. Lupin. And of course we could use her healing hands as well."
"Very well." Henry nodded. "I'll be right back."
And before Remus could complain again the young man was gone.
.-.
Henry was panting when he orbed into the rather empty Halliwell kitchen.
"Is anyone home?!" He called as loud as he could as he dropped into a chair.
Seconds later Draco apparated into the kitchen, with Mel holding onto his arm.
"Mom's in the restaurant and she took Jade with her, Dad's giving a class, and the others are wherever they usually are at this time of day." Mel answered his unasked question at the same time she handed him a reenergizing elixir from one of the cupboards.
"Problems…in London…" Henry began explaining. "The charge mom left me to look after, Miss Tonks, was captured, badly tortured and left in a cell with the werewolf Mr. Lupin. She called to me; when I arrived I knew things were bad, so I in turn called Harry, he arrived with Hermy. He healed my charge just enough for us to move both her and Mr. Lupin to base; now Hermy's doing her best to heal her, but we all thought we could use your help Mel."
"Wait a second." Draco stopped them. "Hermione doesn't have healing powers."
"No she doesn't, but Harry does." Henry said as an explanation.
"They exchanged their powers." Melinda nodded in understanding.
"Yes," Henry agreed. "They've done it quite a few times, Hermy had no trouble activating the healing touch of the white-lighters, unlike Aunt Piper back when she had to heal Uncle Leo."
They all knew the stories of their mothers, and the rest of their family's exploits, most of those had been used as examples or motivators at some point or another.
"We'll also need some of your potions Mel." Henry remembered just then. "Harry says he'll need your strongest elixir, and suggested you brought your werewolf potion as well. Which reminds me we better hurry, the moon ought to be up in less than ten minutes."
"They want to use my Were-Sedate?!" Mel almost fell down in shock. "Bu…b-but that potion is untested! I'm not sure if it'll actually do what it's supposed to! We can't use it in Mr. Lupin when we're not sure of the results. What about the Wolfsbane?"
"It takes too long to brew; time that, as I believe I already pointed out, we don't have." Henry explained. "The same applies to acquiring it someplace. It's likely that Mr. Lupin had his own stash home, but seeing as both he and Miss Tonks have been missing for at least a full day, it's likely that teams of aurors and the Order are currently searching for them, and they'll have a guard at their homes; which means we have no other option but to use the Were-sedate. Come on Mel, we all know you're a prodigy at potions, if there's anyone who can do something like that work, that's you. We all trust you, now lets go. The clock's ticking."
After taking a deep breath Mel nodded, rushed to the cabinet that contained all their potions and took a few vials, before putting them into her jacket pockets. Finally she reached to the lowest shelf and brought out a lone flask with a dark-gray potion, a new and special mix she'd been working on since the beginning of the break, and been planning for even longer. It was the Were-sedate, her first original creation, she just prayed to the spirits it would work.
.-.
Draco insisted on accompanying his girlfriend back to London and Henry had agreed, on the condition that he stayed on the second floor, his platinum-blonde hair was far too noticeable, and then there was his smell, he'd be easily recognized, and that would compromise the rest of them as well. So Draco'd agreed to act as a sort of lookout and wait.
As soon as Henry and Melinda appeared into the room the girl took out a vial of potion out and handed it to Harry silently, then she went to stand next to Remus, offering him the flask of potion, all the while silently praying that it would work.
"This is not wolfsbane." Remus declared after taking a sniff of the potion.
"No, it isn't." Melinda admitted. "This potion is called were-sedate, it's of my own making."
Remus looked alternately at the bluish potion and the girl before shrugging and drinking the potion; he decided that in the rare case it was a poison, death was preferable to hurting anyone, especially Dora, yet he doubted they'd kill him; somehow, he couldn't help but trust them.
Remus felt the effects almost immediately, in fact, at the same time the moon came out from behind some clouds and its light began shining through the window. The man braced himself for the usual pain, but it never came, he could feel how his body changed into the form of a creature half-wolf half-man; he could feel the rather wild instincts of the beast side of him, at the same time he became aware of the fact that he could think clearly. There was no pain, no confusion, no wild urges trying to overtake him; he felt like a werewolf, could hear its wishes like a voice in the back of his head, but never lost control of himself. It was…amazing.
"Seems like it worked." Henry declared with satisfaction.
Mel was beside herself with joy, her potion had been a success. She had been studying the conditions of a werewolf and everything she could find regarding the wolfsbane after learning of Mr. Lupin's condition during her fourth year. It had taken her two years of study to be comfortable enough with her knowledge to begin experimenting with new mixes, some of them had been rather 'explosive', others didn't seem to have any particular effects; this last one, which she had finished just days before had passed all her tests, but she had lacked a way to actually test it on a werewolf. Now she had. And it had worked!
After nearly a full minute basking in her accomplishment Melinda came back to her senses and knelt down beside Hermione to work her other magic on healing Tonks.
Tonks herself was looking quite marveled, she couldn't believe what she was seeing, Remus looked so well in that moment, peaceful actually. She couldn't help but dream about the possibilities, the opportunities this new potion would give her, them…
Finally it looked like Hermione had run out of energy, her hands stopped glowing with the healing light and, with some effort she managed to practically crawl to the sofa where Harry was now sitting up. Thanks to the extra-strong reenergizing elixir Melinda had given him his magic was ready for him to get to work again; he helped his girlfriend get comfortable on the sofa and then held her hands as he spoke:
"What's mine is yours/ What's yours is mine / Let our powers cross the line / I offer up this gift to share / Switch our powers through the air."
With a short glow the young couple's powers went back to their respective owners and after a quick kiss to his girlfriend's cheek Harry went to help Mel work on Tonks.
Things pretty much went on the same way throughout the night. Henry loosely kept guard over Remus, and after the mild-reenergizing potion he had taken finished doing its job he went to support one of the current 'healers'. Harry and Hermione consumed each three vials of the strong reenergizing-potions, the maximum allowed, and kept switching powers to allow them to take turns healing the young auror. Mel lasted perhaps the longest, from all of them, as she had called upon the collected energies she possessed as the Golden Avatar; energies she never used but proved to be quite useful in that moment.
In the end they managed to treat all of the minor injuries Tonks had, as well as most of the major ones, her life was certainly no longer in danger but it was still a good idea for her to rest and not exert herself for at least a week. The children could heal her body, but not her magical energies, which would need time to recover, even with one dose of a basic reenergizer.
What slight injuries weren't healed, the cloaked saviors explained, was because her body had gone through such great trauma already…if they didn't leave some of the healing to her own body they would only be hurting her in the end, as her own healing would be affected, be less efficacious, something dangerous under the prospect of future battles.
Even all the healing they had done, they had taken their time, not wanting to traumatize the auror's systems by healing too much too fast, and at the same time not wanting to end knocked out themselves in case something else went wrong.
Remus just stayed in a corner of the room throughout the night, his eyes fixed straight on his beloved, as if guarding her. He was very calm in that moment, having what one would call a mix of insight and an internal discussion with his more-wild side. He was learning so much about himself, of what it really meant to be a werewolf, he was simply flabbergasted.
After quite a number of long hours finally the full moon left the sky, allowing Remus to change back into his human form. The girls had left the room, helping Tonks into the shower in the second floor and providing her with a change of clothes (borrowed from Bianca, who's size was fairly close to the young auror's). Draco was still in the bedroom, acting as lookout, and half-dozing off; he had insisted on giving his girlfriend as much energy as he could so she wouldn't be too weak, arguing that he hadn't been able to do anything else. In the kitchen, Harry was putting together a simple breakfast for all of them. Henry was the only one to stay in the sitting room, helping Remus into a new set of clothes, these ones from one of their dads', and making sure the were-sedate hadn't had any side effects.
"Well, everything seems to be just fine with you Mr. Lupin." Henry declared satisfied as he finished his magical diagnosis. "How do you feel?"
"Amazing." Remus admitted with awe, he turned to the newly returned girls. "I have no idea what was in that potion you gave me, but thank you miss, thank you so very much."
"I'm very glad I could be of help." Melinda said with a bright smile. "I created this potion as a way to balance the two sides a were-being has. It's meant to be used not only by werewolves, but also for other similar creatures. Anyway, if you wish, I could have some more ready for you, for the next month; I could brew you a bottle for every month. As soon as I find out a way to put it in stasis without it loosing properties I could probably brew you a whole year's worth of it. Unlike the wolfsbane you don't have to drink it several days for it to work, as long as you drink it at least a minute before the moon comes out it should be just fine."
"Why?" Remus asked suddenly. "Why are you doing this for me?"
"We ought to use our talents in benefit of those in need; one of my talents is potion-brewing, and I knew I could help you, why shouldn't I?" Now it was Mel who didn't understand.
"It's like Evan told you before, Mr. Lupin, it's all part of 'protecting the innocent', it's in our job description." Henry deadpanned, they were really used to it.
"It's ok, Prudence, Samuel, they're just not used to it." Harry explained softly. "Their society is not like our own. They don't have people living under the same principles we do."
"And what principles are those?" Tonks dared ask.
All teens stood up straighter as they began reciting one by one:
"Protect the innocent, but never punish the guilty." Hermione began softly.
"Never use your powers for personal gain." Harry continued.
"Believe in the magic, and all shall be possible." Mel added.
"Look after those weaker than you, and support those who are stronger." Henry went on.
And then, the four as one, began reciting something that they knew by heart:
"If someone or something needs to be protected, we protect it; if something needs to be found, we find it; if someone hurts humans, we eliminate it; if something tries to destroy the world, we destroy it; if someone tries to conquer the world, we annihilate them; if we're lucky we'll reach old age, and if not we'll die saving the world without anyone knowing, and that'll be the closest we'll come to being heroes."
.-.
The sun was just rising on the horizon, Sirius and James were in the entrance of the Potter home, getting ready to begin their job. Just inside stood Lily, and behind her Harvey, they watched as the two aurors got ready to leave for another day searching for their two friends.
Behind an oak tree, away from prying eyes, three figures materialized in a haze of blue sparks. Henry had insisted on taking the two wand-wielders himself, arguing that his companions needed rest, a good sleep and a full meal before being ready to use their powers to more than half their normal capacity.
"Thank you Samuel, for everything." Tonks told the young man.
"It's our pleasure to help you Miss Tonks, Mr. Lupin." Henry told them. "Which reminds me, Mr. Lupin, Prudence shall be sending you a bottle of her potion, in a month, as much as three days before the full-moon. Meanwhile she says she'll be working on that stasis process."
"Thank her again for me." Remus said with an honest smile. "She…all of you have helped me more than you could possibly realize. I still don't fully understand how you can just chalk it all up to being 'part of your job description', but at this point I really don't care. Thank you."
Henry just smiled and nodded, before orbing away.
Dora and Remus, for their part, stepped around the tree and began walking down the sidewalk, in the direction of the Potter home; Remus had to help his now-girlfriend walk, as she was still very tired, extremely-sore and slightly-injured; like their saviors had said she would recover with some rest, a couple of weeks at the most, she had survived through the worst part.
Lily was the first to see their approaching friends, as her husband and other friend had their backs turned to the street, she gasped in a mix of worry and relief, which made the others turned in the same direction as her.
The reunion was very emotive, and though many questions were asked, very few received answers. Tonks had given a truthful recount of her captivity and 'interrogation', but hadn't given much detail on their saviors; Remus, respecting her decision, had acquiesced. In the end the most any of the others got was that the two had been saved by 'some friends', and they would all find out more about them in due time.
.-.
While this happened, in the other side of the world the sun was just beginning to set. Chris and Bianca had decided to begin their patrol early that day, as they had a date that night. Taking advantage of their respective powers they were checking out part of what some deemed the 'Underworld'; it wasn't properly hell; in fact, it looked more like dozens of cave systems connected to one another, spanning all the underground of SF. Witches and Warlocks in the service of the light rarely ventured in there, for it was usually a refuge for low and mid-leveled demons, those who weren't accepted into the very pits of hell.
The young couple was about to declare their patrol finished when suddenly something called their attention: they both were sensing a demon, a high-level one, one that you usually would never find in that place.
"Who's there?" Chris dare speak out loud.
Both young adults moved slowly, carefully, ready to either fight back or get out of there at a moment's notice, depending on the situation. In fact, they nearly snapped out of there the moment they saw just who the High-demon in question was.
"Barbas…" Bianca spoke with a mix of awe and fear.
"What are you doing here?" Chris questioned at the same time.
They received no immediate answer, but as they approached the demon, they realized he was sitting in a corner of the small cavern, crouched, and trembling. The demon of fear, afraid? What in all nine hells was going on?
"It'll be bad, it'll be very, very bad…" He kept mumbling under her breath. "Everyone's worst fears, transformed into a harsh reality…Bad, very bad."
Chris and Bianca could only look at each other in confusion. Whose worst fears? Whose harsh reality? Theirs or the demons'? In either case, it couldn't be good. They'd to return to the Manor ASAP, everyone needed to be warned. The stakes had just been upped, again.