Authors Note: I just want to thank everybody who has taken the time to review this story. In all my years of writting Fan Fiction I have never received so much response, it really is addictive.
Thanks again.
OldScout.
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Part 5.
"Who Is This Woman?"
by OldScout
"You should have known better then to take a muggle to Diagon Alley." Kingsley Shacklebolt was trying not to raise his voice to Tonks.
"I didn't know she was a muggle." Tonks replied. "That's what I was trying to find out." She looked over her shoulder to make sure nobody was near. She wasn't supposed to talk about this with anybody before the official debriefing. "She knew enough already and would have found her way to Diagon Alley on her own."
"It doesn't matter." Kingsley shot back still not succeeding in keep his voice low. He clenched his teeth and turned away, pretending they weren't having a conversation.
After a couple of minutes Tonks asked. "What do you think they're doing with Buffy?"
"As far as I know, she's still waiting in an interrogation room for Director Bones and a lawyer."
Tonks shook her head. "I still can't believe they're treating her this way. Those guys were all about to Crucio me and she stopped them. I owe her my life."
"Their families and lawyers are already claiming they were under the Imperious curse."
It was all Tonks could do to not to laugh out loud. "They always claim that. Not one Death Eater has ever claimed joining under his own free will. What loyalty of convictions."
"I don't know.." Kingsley stopped as somebody approached.
The large frame of Auror Dawlish was suddenly standing over them. "Auror Tonks, please come with me." He immediately walked away.
--
The Ministry of Magic had ten levels known to the general magical community. The largest area of level two held the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Of the many sections of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, one was the Hallway of Interrogation. The Hallway of Interrogation had exactly 71 rooms, all unoccupied except one. Room Delta PI was the only room currently in use; it contained exactly four objects: two plain white chairs, one plain white table and one very bored Buffy.
To most, a bored Buffy was most un-remarkable. In fact, Buffys were easily bored outside of their native habitat. In most cases the natural range for a Buffy was Southern California with the preferred habitat being shopping malls and beaches. Since London England was not natural Buffy habitat, the officials currently on duty at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement were totally unaware exactly how bored the current occupant of room Delta Pi was. Of course being bureaucrats in law enforcement they would not have expressed great amounts of concern for the boredom of any guest occupying a room in the Hallway of Interrogation.
This particular Buffy was not an average Buffy for she was also a Vampire Slayer; usually referred to simply as a Slayer. Now at one time Slayers were extremely rare, in fact for most of known history through out the whole world there was only one Slayer at a time. Several years ago this particular statistic changed when through a fluke of fate, the number of Slayers doubled when a second Slayer was chosen when the current Slayer died briefly. There were currently even more slayers around, but the actual number of current slayers wasn't really relevant to the situation of the Slayer in question.
Slayers were very unique creatures endowed with all the abilities required to fight vampires, demons, and other forces of evil and darkness. These abilities included enhanced strength, speed, and fast healing along with heightened senses and a sixth sense to help them identify threats and sources of evil. To maintain all the strength, speed and other extras, Slayers also had a high metabolism and large reserves of energy. These large reserves of energy where the main reason why it was not generally a good idea to allow a Slayer to be bored for too long.
--
Buffy sat quietly with eyes closed meditating. If she'd known they'd have her sitting in here cooling her heals for so long, she would have asked for a pillow. They had taken everything from her, her purse, all her packages even Mr. Pointy which was concealed in the bottom of her purse. Those Aurors were not very pleasant, if it hadn't been for Tonks assuring her she was perfectly safe she wouldn't have cooperated. It could have gotten messy; they seemed like a stubborn bunch.
Movement caught her attention as the thing in an upper corner of the room shifted position. Soon after being parked here, Buffy had noticed a small device floating in the corner of the room. After staring at it for several minutes, the device moved to a different wall when Buffy immediately changed her stare to follow it, the thing moved back to its original position where it had remained since. Buffy turned and stared at the object long enough for them to know she saw it then sat straight in her seat again and closed her eyes. Buffy started tapping an index finger on the table. For those watching, if they knew they were watching a Slayer and knew of Slayers, they would know this was not a good sign.
"I still can't believe she can see the observer." A middle aged woman said watching the image in the Observer Glass in front of her. She was Director Amelia Bones, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
"Not only that," Dawlish added. "I believe she had her eyes closed when it moved."
"Move it directly in front of her, I want to see her face again."
Dawlish tapped the Observer Glass with his wand and the view changed as the Observer swung around the room and slid down the wall showing the woman's calm face, long blond hair and closed eyes.
As soon as the object stopped, Buffy opened her eyes, stared at it for a few seconds, smiled, winked and closed her eyes again.
"That's not possible." Director Bones said pushing her chair away from the Observer Glass. "Nobody can see the Observer when it's activated, it's guaranteed."
"Perhaps this is Nobody." A voice said from across the room.
"Minister Fudge." Director Bones said and smiled in greeting as she stood to face the Minister of Magic. "I thought you had gone home for the day."
"We've got three dead Death Eaters, two more in custody for attacking an Auror and a muggle being held in connection to the whole incident." He glared at the woman. "You didn't expect me to come back in?" He turned to the figure sitting quietly in the far corner of the room. "You were involved in this incident Auror Tonks?" It was more a statement then a question.
"Yes, Sir." Tonks replied as she stood to face the Minister.
"And what is your opinion of the woman?"
"If Auror Tonks had a relevant opinion," Director Bones interjected. "We wouldn't be in this mess."
"Director Bones, It was not your opinion I was seeking enlightenment on. I will let you know if and when I ever require it." Minister Fudge turned back to Tonks.
"Auror Tonks, if you would care to enlighten me on your opinion of one Buffy Summers, I would greatly appreciate it."
There was dead silence as Tonks tried to collect her thoughts. "She's not part of the Wizarding community." Tonks started.
"Humph, that's for sure." Director Bones sniffed.
"Director, I made it clear I am not interested in your opinion on this matter, and I also want to make it perfectly clear that I am also not interested in your editorial an the subject as well." Minister Fudge turned back to Tonks. "Please continue."
"Though she clearly is not part of the Community," Tonks continued. "She obviously had exposure to magical influences. I was trying to determine if she was perhaps a squib with every right participate in Diagon Alley or had some other connections that allowed her access. From conversations with her, she admitted to having a friend that is a witch as well as a sister who displays some magical abilities. She also has another friend, I believe male, who may be a Wizard."
Minister Fudge nodded. "Go on, what about her, do you trust her?"
"I think so." Tonks admitted. "For most of our time in Diagon Alley she was acting very flighty; her shopping technique was more like that of a young child in a candy store then an adult woman." Tonks smiled. "Near the end though she changed and started acting more mature. She admitted to knowing I was there to test her and to be being a muggle."
"Is this just before the Death Eaters attacked?"
"Yes, that's when it happened."
"Can you have Miss Summers's personal items and purchases brought in?" Minister Fudge said to Auror Dawlish.
"Sir, I beg your pardon." Director Bones said. "But all items have already been categorized and inventoried for the investigation which my department is more then capable of handling. I do not see why you need to be directly involved."
"Madam Director," Fudge replied. "If you saw why I needed to be directly involved in this matter, you would not have made that comment. If YOU wish to remain involved, do not question me again."
Within minutes the room's large conference table was covered with items separated into three categories; personal items taken directly from Miss Summers, the purchases she had made in Diagon Alley which were mostly books except for a small plain silver bracelet, and a stack of muggle items left with Tom at the Leaky Cauldron.
"Auror Tonks, one more thing from you before I have another assignment for you." Fudge pointed to the table. "As a woman of approximately the same age, and an experienced Auror and the only person to have had a genial conversation with Miss Summers," Fudge glared on Director Bones with the last comment. "What are your thoughts and opinions about Miss Summers's possessions and purchases?"
Tonks walked up to the table and looked at all the items. "I feel like I'm invading a friend's privacy." Tonks muttered as she looked at all of the stuff.
"This is your job Auror Tonks, remember you've only known this woman for a few hours and during most of that time she was apparently hiding her true nature from you. Not the stuff of true friendship."
Crossing her arms, Tonks stared at the pile of muggle purchases. The first group was six pairs of shoes. Three were identical styles only different colors; two of which were different shades of blue. The fourth pair of shoes were sneakers, running shoes to be exact and the sixth pair were sturdy work boots with steel toes. Tonks pointed to the dress shoes. "She's obviously not part of the Wizarding community or closely associated. If she was, she would have only bought one pair of that style, the color is easy enough to change with magic." She smiled, "Also, this woman either has an extreme sense of style, more money then sense or shoe fetish because I can't see buying three pair of the same shoe especially with colors that close." She looked at the insides of the shoes, "And yes, all six pair are the same size."
Tonks looked at the stack of clothes and really didn't see anything to comment on so she moved to the books bought in Diagon Alley. "I was with her when she bought these; I can tell you what she told me about them so it is hard for me theorize anything different." She pointed to the two securely bound wiggling copies of the Monster Book of Monsters. "She claimed these two books are for her best friend and her sister, who seem to have a friendly rivalry about sharing their resources. However, I do believe she derived some kind of joy out of watching the books fight." Tonks grinned at the memory of Buffy's child like fascination with watching the books fighting.
Next Tonks pointed to two extremely old Demonology books. "These two books Miss Summers had a long conversation with one of the book store owners about. She was very concerned about their authenticity and wanted to be sure she could return them if they turned out to be imitations of even translations of originals."
"She was concerned about translations?" Minister Fudge asked. "What languages are they in?"
Tonks pointed at one. "Apparently this one is in some sort of ancient Sumerian dialect and the other claims to be a direct transcription of scrolls found in a northern province of Romania."
"You were not concerned that a woman who was acting like such a.." Fudge looked at his notes "'Ditz' was interested in such translations?"
"I was already having my doubts about her act, this just added to them." Tonks pointed to the stack of lesser books. "These she grabbed with little comment, she had mentioned rebuilding a friend's library and I got the impression these were books she was familiar with."
Fudge nodded after her last comment and Tonks picked up the bracelet. "This she said is a gift for her sister. Lady Periwinkle said it would detect vampires by glowing red when they are near, but couldn't prove it since she didn't have access to any vampires." Tonks looked up at the Minister. "You know, it's odd. She spent a lot time dickering over the books and getting guarantees and promises of return but never questioned this piece's pedigree, she just accepted every thing she was told."
Still holding the bracelet, Tonks looked at the next set of items. All the personal items from Buffy's purse were laid out next. She picked up the finely carved wooden stake, holding it in one hand and the bracelet in the other. Carved around the top of the handle was 'Mr Pointy III". Tonks read aloud. "Mister Pointy the third." She looked back at the Minister "Who is this woman?"
Minister Fudged looked back at the Observer Glass. Buffy still had her eyes closed and was sitting straight and still except all the fingers on her right hand were now tapping out a nervous rhythm on the table. "She's your next assignment. Go talk to her."
"People have already tried getting information, she's not talking."
"I don't care what you talk about. Just keep her occupied. Tell her anything. Tell her about your child hood, regale her with stories of your wonder years at Hogwarts, tell her dirty limericks, show her magic tricks. It doesn't matter. Keep her occupied until I hear back from the American Ministry of Magic."
"Yes Sir." And Tonks headed out of the office to the Hallway of Interrogation and the one occupied room.
To be continued.......