'A woman with long, brown curly hair was running down a stone hallway. She was
clutching a bundle of what looked like white blankets and she kept looking fearfully behind
her. There were the sound of loud explosions in the distance, and shouting voices. One of
the voices becomes louder and the woman picks up her pace. She holds the bundle closer to
her chest as a hand grabs her shoulder and pulls her back. One masked figure tears the
bundle from her grip, and the other points it's wand at her voice and says a short spell
before she crumples to the floor.'
Hermione Potter woke with a start, sweat pouring down her face. Her heart was
racing madly and she held her blanket up to her chin in order to grasp that she really was in
her bed. She put a hand on her round tummy, reassuring herself that the dream hadn't
happened. Above her, a soft snore could be heard. As Hermione started to relax, she
chuckled when she realized that the person snoring was Tonks. Hermione swung her legs
over the side of her bed and stretched. She had always been a morning person, and she was
always waking up before everyone else. She began to dress in the dark, pulling on her large
robes over top of everything. After she was done, she turned to face the bunk where Tonks
was tangled in her sheets and blankets. She poked her side a few times to wake her.
"Whadjawan?" answered a sleepy Tonks. Hermione sighed, rolling her eyes, she
poked her again.
"Come on, Tonks, wake up."
Tonks' eyes slowly opened up and she rubbed them. She sat up and swung her legs
over the side, shivering.
"Why'd ya get me up so e-e-early?" asked Tonks, failing to stifle a yawn. Hermione
put her hands on her hips.
"Don't you want some breakfast before the other people eat most of it?"
At this Tonks' eyes opened up wide and she seemed to be wide awake at the mention
of breakfast, and food. Hermione giggled at Tonks' reaction, which was so similar to Ron's
reaction when food was mentioned.
"Yeah, yeah, food sounds good." Said Tonks as she jumped from her top bunk. She
pulled a robe around her shoulders and slipped her feet into some shoes.
"Come on," she said, "Let's go eat."
Hermione rolled her eyes and laughed as Tonks marched out of the small room, only
interested in eating. She followed Tonks' bright purple hair down the hallway and into the
large common room. There was a table on one side of the room with a variety of breakfast
foods spread out on it. Tonks was immediately standing over the table, loading food onto
her plate. She sat down on one of the couches and began shoveling food into her mouth.
Hermione watched Tonks in disgust for a moment before putting a few things on her own
plate and sitting down next to Tonks. They were only eating alone for a few moments when
the person with the appetite to rival Tonks' showed up; Ron.
"Hey Ron," said Hermione, "You're up early."
He yawned and stretched his arms out above his head, accidentally lifting up his too
small shirt and revealing part of his pale stomach. Blushing, he pulled down his shirt,
hoping that Tonks hadn't noticed.
"Yeah I know. I'm supposed to be going on some type of mission today. I'm not
exactly sure what about, but it's supposed to be important and Dumbledore wanted to make
sure that I went," He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Hermione, "What are
you doing up, anyway? You should be getting your sleep."
"Oh, Ron. You know I can't sleep much these days. Just... too much on my mind."
She sighed and after a pause went back to her breakfast.
Ron's attention abruptly turned to Tonks and he straightened himself out to stand
taller. He hastily ran a hand through his messy red hair and cleared his throat.
"So... Tonks." He began nervously. Tonks stopped chewing on a biscuit and
looked up at him, eyebrows raised, she swallowed.
"Yeah? What?"
Ron sat down next to her.
"Why do you want everyone to call you Tonks?" he asked sincerely. Tonks looked
at him in disbelief.
"You'd want to be called that too if you had a first name like mine."
"I... uh... I like your name. It's very pretty." Said Ron, blushing slightly.
"Oh... well... I guess it's not that bad." She smiled. Ron laughed a bit at her sudden
change of heart.
Hermione looked up at the sound of laughter. She smiled to herself at the interaction between Ron and Tonks. Hermione could tell that Ron had a bit of a crush on her, and from what she could guess, Tonks felt the same way about him. But she knew that neither one of them would say anything, not at first at least. Hermione allowed herself a small smile as she looked at her two friends.
Dumbledore, wearing his usual robes, walked out of a room directly off of the
common room. He looked like he was the most rested person in the world, except for the
slight dullness that was in his usually twinkling eyes. He looked around at the few people
that occupied the room and walked towards Ron and Tonks when he spotted them. As he
walked past Hermione, he stopped, placing a hand on her shoulder in a reassuring way. She
looked up at him and he smiled at her, giving her confidence that in the end, everything just
had to be all right. He continued walking towards Ron and Tonks and stood for a moment,
quiet, beside them as they finished their conversation.
"So... do you think maybe we could... maybe we could... go out sometime?"
Dumbledore heard Ron, who didn't realize Dumbledore was standing there, say to Tonks.
At this, Tonks blushed slightly and appeared to be thinking about Ron's proposition.
"Ron, I think we should wait until this whole thing is over," she said, gesturing to
their hidden refuge, "I wouldn't want anything to happen between us that would make me
regret becoming an Auror."
Ron looked disappointed, but seemed to truly understand. He probably felt the
same way, in the end, and so he nodded. Dumbledore found this a good time to interrupt,
and he cleared his throat. Ron looked up in surprise at Dumbledore, but quickly regained
his composure.
"I'm going to need you to go get the others, Ron. We need to get this started as
soon as possible if we want to successfully pull off this mission." said Dumbledore.
"Yes, sir, but if you don't mind my asking, are you going to tell me what the mission
is yet?" he asked, almost afraid to ask this question again.
"You will be informed of your exact duty at our briefing, but only once all the other
people are awake and fed." replied Dumbledore, chuckling at his use of Ron's curiosity to
his advantage. Ron sighed, giving up, and trudged off to go wake the other people who were
going to be participating in this journey. After Ron had turned the corner, Dumbledore
turned to Tonks and his expression became a bit more serious.
"As much as I hate to ask this from you, Nymphadora, I'm afraid that you will have
to stay here," Dumbledore continued on before she could protest.
"I need you to do this because, yes, you are a very good Auror,
but I need someone to stay here, with the people, just incase something happens. You can
protect them, and if anyone comes here that might be useful to us, you can contact me easier
from here."
Seeing that there was no possible way she could change his mind, she gave up and
sighed.
"Fine, if that's what you want me to do Albus. But how many times have I asked
you to please call me Tonks?" she asked, exasperated. Dumbledore did not answer, just
walked away, chuckling. Tonks got up a few minutes later and followed down the hallway
Ron had used early before. She found him in a room trying to wake two stubborn Aurors
who did not seem to think he had enough authority to wake them up. They kept yelling at
him to go away, which was just making Ron angry. He straightened himself up and puffed
out his chest.
"I am on direct orders from Albus Dumbledore. If you do not listen to me, you do
not listen to him. He told me to wake you up and that's what I'm doing!" he sounded like a
little kid. The two Aurors did not do anything except snore for a few minutes and finally
Ron got desperate.
"Please get up!" he whined, "Come on!"
The Aurors finally got up when Tonks hit one of them, who, in the process of
jumping up in surprise, hit his head on the bottom of the top bunk. He nudged his friend,
who was still sleeping on the top bunk, as he rubbed his head. The first Auror saw Tonks
standing there and abruptly stopped rubbing his head.
"Hey Tonks..." he said slowly, giving her a smile. Tonks raised one eyebrow to look
at him and rolled her eyes. Ron looked on, jealous, but did not say anything. Tonks ignored
all of them and pulled on the Auror's foot to get him out of bed.
"Come on! Dumbledore wants you up, so get up." she said, and she walked out of
the room. Ron and the Aurors were left in the room alone, and they looked at each other
with contempt. Ron followed Tonks out of the room and began to finish waking the others
before heading to the room designated as the 'Conference Room' to begin the briefing.
All the Aurors began filing into the room. Ron sat next to where
Dumbledore
would sit and watched them. He recognized some faces, but the majority
he did not
know. Tonks came in and smiled at him – causing Ron to turn the color of
a beet –
before sitting down in her designated seat. The other Aurors were
talking amongst
themselves, waiting for Albus to arrive when suddenly, he did. As quiet
as a mouse, he
entered through the door and took his seat at the head of the table. The
Aurors all took
their seats and looked towards Dumbledore, waiting to hear about the
mission they were
to take part in.
Dumbledore waited until all the talking had stopped before clearing
his throat to
speak. All the attention turned towards Dumbledore as he began the
meeting.
"I believe we all know about the disappearance of our Mr. Potter," he
paused, "and
if you don't, well... you should."
A few people chuckled and Ron turned his head sharply to glare at
them, before
turning back to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore stopped talking about Harry and the mission and turned to
Tonks.
"Nymphadora, could you please see to it that Mrs. Potter has company?"
he said.
Tonks looked slightly annoyed, but got up and left the room anyway.
"Well, we seem to have found the place where he is being held captive,
as I have
already told some of you. I have just contacted one of my agents on the
inside and he
has reassured me that Mr. Potter is alive and well. My spy, I guess you
could call him, is
doing his best to make sure that Harry is being properly taken care of,
at least, the best
he can. But why I called this meeting, is because we need to get him out
of there. My
inside person has informed me that there is a ritual in which Harry is
supposed to be
sacrificed that is approaching and of course, we must stop the ceremony.
Do I have any
volunteers for this dangerous mission? You won't be judged if you don't
volunteer."
And as Dumbledore thought would happen, every single person in the
conference room raised his or her hand.
--------------------
Harry Potter was lying on his stomach watching the door to his 'prison
cell'. He was
waiting for Ewan to return. He had woken up Harry very early that
morning, telling him
that he was supposed to meet his contact for some information from
Dumbledore.
Even though it was early, he was not able to go back to sleep. He was
too anxious to
find out what Dumbledore had to say. He was also worried about Ewan, now
that he
knew what side of the war he was on.
Harry rolled over on his back and stared up at the ceiling, folding
his hands over his
chest. Then he heard footsteps, which scared him so badly that he fell
of the bed. The
door opened and there was Ewan, looking somewhat pleased and a little
nervous, too.
"Harry, get up!" he walked over to where Harry lay on the ground, and
pulled him
up, "I've got some news."
Harry could tell by the excitement in his voice that this was not bad
news, so he did
not get worried. He waiting impatiently to hear what Ewan had to say,
but Ewan was
still trying to catch his breath from running down the hallway.
"Come on, Ewan, tell me!" Harry finally exploded after about 5
minutes.
"Fine, just relax. I'll tell you." Ewan replied, somewhat annoyed,
"Alright. I've just
heard from my contact that Dumbledore is taking a group of Aurors that
volunteered to
try and get you out of here."
Hearing this news, Harry was immediately happy, but then he rethought
what Ewan
had said and a frown appeared on his face.
"But what about you? Won't they try to get you out of here too?" he
asked,
confused. Ewan looked to the ground and sighed.
"No, Harry. They won't be trying to get me out. I've got to stay
here, to keep up
the appearance that I'm a Death Eater."
"But if they're not trying to get you out, how are you going to?"
Harry asked.
"I don't know, Harry, I don't know." Ewan replied sadly.