"Allright, everyone, here's the plan for this week," Calvin Wong said. "Nott, Dane, Smith and Fox, you'll all be patrolling the outside of Hogwarts. Tonks, Magnus and Turpin, you'll all be guarding the corridors. We have to be extra careful. If you see anything suspicious, find another Auror or alert a teacher. But try not to make the students nervous."
Tonks found herself in a meeting with the other Aurors that had been assigned to Hogwarts duty this week. Again, she was the only woman present. Granted, not many women chose to be an Auror as a career, but there were some. She remembered the last statistic being only five percent of Aurors were women. She never seemed to be assigned with any of them. The idea of forming a club for women Aurors crossed her mind again.
"After every shift, please make your report here, for the teachers, and then go to the ministry and make a report there. Off you go."
Joy. She gets to write two reports after every shift. "Tonks, got a second?" Calvin asked.
Tonks hated hearing those words now. "Sure, what's up?'
"Dumbledore seems to think that some of the Slytherins might be helping out their Death Eater parents. If we get any specific leads, would you be willing to pose as a Slytherin to try to get some information?"
They were asking her to be a spy. Again. "Is this Dumbledore's idea or yours?" she asked nervously. She was going to be upset if it was Dumbledore's.
"My idea. It's about time we really put your talents to good use, eh?"
"I don't know, Calvin. I can only change my body; I'm not able to change my voice. I wouldn't feel comfortable trying to pose as someone," Tonks said. Many times the ministry asked her to pose as someone. She always had the same answer. No. She wouldn't pose as a specific person. The risk was too great. She couldn't change her voice (though that would be a neat trick) and if she didn't know anything about the person, she could get caught very easily.
"That's always your answer, isn't it, Tonks?" She nodded. "Well, I thought I'd ask. Have fun patrolling."
It was in the middle of the day, most of the students were in their classrooms. Tonks lazily walked the hallways, occasionally nodding at a teacher or yelling at a student for being out of class. Honestly, it was almost as bad as being a prefect! Suddenly she heard a voice behind her.
"Hello, Tonks," she heard Severus' voice floating in the air.
She turned around suddenly. "Oh, hello. I haven't see you in a while," she replied. Which was true. With Severus teaching, and Tonks working her double-life, she had seen him only as Celeste the last few weeks. He had even started owling her contraceptive potions instead of hand delivering them to her.
"I have some new for you. What time is your shift over?"
"Six o'clock."
"Why don't you join us in the Great Hall for dinner and then we can discuss things after that?"
"Works for me. But if you don't mind, I owe Harry an apology. I'll morph into a Gryffindor and eat dinner with him. I'll meet you afterwards."
He paused shortly. "Fine, I'll see you after dinner then."
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Tonks walked into the Great Hall as a student for the first time in many years. Having found Minerva in the hallway, she had been lent a school uniform. Once again she thought about how sexist the uniforms were. She might bring that up with Professor Dumbledore. Surely there was no reason why the girls couldn't wear trousers?
Quickly she looked around and found Harry sitting with a group of Gryffindors. She sat down confidently next to Harry. "Wotcher, Harry. I'm famished! Hope the grub is as good as your Mum's, Ron."
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny just gawked at her. Heroine asked first, "Tonks, is that you?"
Tonks helped herself to some ham, "In the flesh. I'm trying to decide if I'm a second or third year, what do you think?" The uniform Minerva had found her was quite small. Tonks put braids in her hair, and she blended right in.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked.
"I wanted to apologize to you Harry. I'm really sorry that I didn't have a chance to take you to Diagon Alley again."
To her relief, Harry didn't start a tale of how miserable he was over the summer. "I did what you told me to do Tonks, I sucked it up."
She looked at him, "Sucked it up? I wasn't that mean to you, was I?"
Harry laughed, "You didn't say that exactly, but you were thinking it, I could tell."
Giggling, Tonks replied, "I'll be careful not to be so obvious in the future. I'll be escorting everyone to Hogsmeade this weekend. Maybe we could all have a chat then?"
"Will you buy me a fire whiskey?" Ron had decided to jump in the conversation.
"Will you be of age yet?"
"No."
"Then no fire whiskey. Honestly, you'd think I was a bad influence on you all," Tonks said, crossing her arms over her chest.
The group sat companioningly for the rest of dinner. Afterwards, they invited her up to the Gryffindor common room. Tonks refused. She only had ever seen the Ravenclaw common room, and she was not about to go into Gryffindor's of all houses.
Quickly, she got up and walked into the nearest toilet to change. Walking out, she was surprised to see Severus waiting there for her. "You figured me out that easily, eh Sev?"
"Did you just call me Sev?" he asked, puzzled.
"Yes, I believe I did. It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it Sev?"
"Whatever you say, Nymphadora," Severus said without missing a beat.
Batting him on the arm she laughed. "Alright, you win. I won't call you Sev."
"Good choice, Tonks"
She suddenly realized where they were walking. She stopped, "I can't go in here!"
"Why not?"
"This is the teacher's bed chambers! I just can't. It'll be so weird!"
"I thought the exact same thing the first time I walked down here. And I had to start living here," he said softly. He stood at a door, said a password (which she couldn't hear) and the door opened. Tonks walked into the room, tripping on the small mat by the door. She had never been into a professor's living corridor before. She was very surprised when she walked in.
The room was large and was set up almost as a studio apartment. There was a screen that separated the room into two sections. One section had his bed, she noticed that it was large and had a velvet looking black comforter on it. The other section had a small love seat next to a large bookcase crammed with books. There was an over sized desk and a chess table in the corner. It was very homey feeling, not something she associated with Severus at all.
She looked at the chessboard. Tonks loved playing chess. "Fancy a game?" she asked. She hadn't played in a very long time.
"Now?" Severus asked.
"Sure, we'll talk as we play. Please? I haven't played is so long. I need the practice," Tonks pleaded.
"Alright, but I'll warn you. I'm quite good," Severus said with a smirk on his face.
"Oh don't even. I grew up playing muggle chess. Muggle chess is much harder than Wizard's chess," Tonks boasted.
"Is it now?" Severus looked at her as if he was humoring her.
"It is!" she replied hotly. "With muggle chess, you're on your own. The pieces don't help you at all. You have to make every decision. It can be quite difficult."
Severus could tell Tonks was beginning to get upset with him. So he simply sat down and said, "Let's play."
For almost an hour they sat in silence, playing chess. The pieces were unfamiliar with Tonks, and put up a fight when they didn't like her move. However, they soon learned that she was indeed a commanding chess player, and allowed her to control them.
Severus learned as well that Tonks was quite a good chess player, and found himself losing a great deal of ground to her. "I had an interesting conversation with Lucius Malfoy yesterday," he said softly.
Tonks looked up quickly, and almost put her knight down without looking. Luckily, she recovered and took his last pawn. "Was Celeste talked about at all?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yes," his brow furrowed as he pondered his next move.
"Well, what was said?" Tonks asked impatiently.
Moving his Queen to the left four squares he replied, "He wants me to introduce you at the next general meeting."
Tonks needed at moment to take that in. It was finally going to happen. After all these months, she was finally going to become a Death Eater. She composed herself enough to quickly take his Queen with her Bishop. "That's great news," she said earnestly. "It's about damn time!"
"When do you see him next?" Severus asked.
"We're going to meet tomorrow night," she said as he moved his Rook out of harms way. "Oh, check!" Tonks said happily.
Severus swore very softly under his breath. "I'm assuming he'll tell you tomorrow night. You might want to do something more adventurous to celebrate with him."
Tonks stared at the board without speaking. With a steady hand she moved her Queen, "Checkmate," she whispered.
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She arrived at Hogwarts early two mornings later. She wanted to talk to Madam Pomfrey before her shift started. Tonks was bruised and her wrists were raw. As a thank you to Lucius, she had indeed taken Severus' advice and had been more adventurous. Malfoy's idea of adventure was to tie her up with rope. Tonks tried to heal herself, but she was no use as a healer, and had no desire to go to St. Mungos.
When she arrived in the hospital wing she saw that it was empty. "Madam Pomfrey?" she called.
She heard a voice from the back, behind a shelving unit. "Just a moment, dear!"
Madam Pomfrey walked out from behind, "Tonks, dear, you aren't in need of my services, are you?" she looked concerned.
"Yes, I am," Tonks was suddenly embarrassed. "Can you please heal my wrists?" She held out her wrists so that the witch could examine them.
Tonks shuddered just looking at them. There were blisters already forming, and she hadn't cleaned all the blood off of them. After he had finished, he wouldn't untie her for quite a long time. Tonks asked just once, and hadn't lowered herself to ask a second time.
Madam Pomfrey slowly ran her finger over one of her wrists which caused Tonks to wince. "Hmm…I have some salve that will clear that up. You may want to wear some bandages today to protect yourself. Tomorrow, you'll be as right as rain."
"Will it scar?" Tonks asked.
"Only if you don't follow my instructions."
Tonks giggled, relieved that there would be no permanent damage. Suddenly, she heard the door open and Severus' voice asking, "Poppy, do you have any extra manticore blood? "
Severus stepped into the hospital wing and stopped when he saw Tonks sitting on a bed. Tonks noticed a brief look of concern pass over his face. He then looked straight at Madam Pomfrey and asked again.
"Of course I do, Severus. Kindly wait until I'm finished up here with Tonks," she replied hotly.
Madam Pomfrey gently took Tonks' wrists and applied the salve. It felt wonderfully cool on her wrists. Wrapping the bandages, she said, "Dear, when your shift is done, come back up here and I'll change the bandages."
"Thank you, I feel much better already," Tonks replied brightly. She stood up and started towards the door.
"Tonks, if you wait a moment, I'll walk with you," she heard his voice say.
She turned around. "Sure thing."
Madam Pomfrey located the requested ingredient quickly. Severus thanked her and opened the door for Tonks. A small gesture, but for some reason, it touched her.
She glanced to see if there were any students around, there were none. "He hurt you last night, didn't he?" Severus asked, his voice full of concern.
"I'm fine now. My wrists were very messed up because of our 'celebrating' last night. You were right. I'm going to the next meeting."
"That's good. Once you're involved, you may not have as much time for rendezvous with Malfoy."
"That will be a very happy day, believe you me, Severus. However, he's still very…infatuated with Celeste. I have a feeling he'll find the time," Tonks sighed.
They walked in silence for the next few minutes. Without even realizing it, they had stopped in front of the Potions classroom. "Well, I better start patrolling," Tonks said smiling.
"Are you going to Hogsmeade this weekend?" Severus asked suddenly.
"Yes I am. As a chaperon, not to enjoy myself though," Tonks laughed.
"After you bring the students back, would you like to get a drink at The Three Broomsticks," Severus asked, looking surprised with himself.
Tonks looked at him intensely. After a moment's thinking she replied, "That would be great, thank you."
Without another word, but with the first real smile Tonks had ever seen on Severus' face, he opened the dungeon door and disappeared into the classroom.