Although this story has such a small readership, I love it. Of course, considering what a huge series it's in, I have to love it. Teresa would be reviewing but she's having computer troubles which makes me sad as I know she would want to be reading this. Well, here goes!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Warnings: Tonks rules.
Shape Shifter
Part the Third
The capitol was so large and full of buildings that even through the crack in her curtains, Tonks couldn't really see what was going on. Every time she almost glimpsed the palace or one of the huge houses of the autocracy, another building obscured her view. She irritably brushed hair out of her eyes. She wished it was her own hair, so that she could make it all stand up on end if she wanted. But for now, she had to keep up appearances.
I've got to get out of this somehow…that has to be a way…
There was lots of shouting going on and she could hear it. Sometimes she would hear shouts from the Guard for everyone to make way. She could hear vendors shouting at possible customers and not-so-possible customers shouting back insults. It was so lively that she almost forgot where she was going.
The shouting lessened out as they went deeper into the city. She took a steadying deep breath as she wondered where she was being taken for the umpteenth time. To the capitol…where the nobles lived…and even…
She shivered. Her mother had never spoken about it, nor did Tonks know that Andromeda Tonks had actually met the Dark Lord. But children would sometimes tell stories about the person who ruled over the land in the dark of night. Whispered stories that Tonks feared to think might be true.
But he never left his palace, or so they said. Why would he want some little old lady who had supposedly risen from her grave? But then as she thought about it, she grew more worried. Everyone knew of the formidable magic he had. Her wand was still with her and if it was discovered at all…
Should I get rid of it now? Would he know? Would he be able to see through my disguise?
Tonks couldn't bring herself to let go of her wand, it was the last thing she had that was just hers. She glanced out the window when she realized the carriage was slowing down. They were in a courtyard. Not the courtyard. It was one of the nobles' houses.
It was huge and had members of the Guard stationed all around it. She pressed her nose against the cold glass and peered out. Two members of the Guard were standing on either side of the main doors that they were rolling up to. This was it. She set her jaw. She could get out of here.
Somehow.
The door opened and fresh air rushed in. It was the nicest feeling in the world when you realize you've been breathing stale air for awhile and now you were getting nice, clean stuff. Her whole head cleared instantly. They were holding her arms, like she was a prisoner, and they began to march her towards those doors. One member of the Guard saluted but the one on the other side who looking barely eighteen, the required age to join, was too busy getting yelled at to salute to the others.
"Shunpike, you are the worst member that the Guard has ever had!" The young man winced at these words. "You locked yourself in a cell twice already…" They passed through the huge doors and they closed quite ominously behind Tonks, so she could hear no more of the young Shunpike getting told off.
Her eyes widened in wonder at the huge hall in front of them. A sparkling chandelier that would have been as wide as her house was hanging above them and its candles were lighting up the large marble hall. The floor was not made of marble but some black stone that her feet slapped along on.
It was the most beautiful hall she had ever seen and she forgot to be afraid for a moment.
"Is it her?" A wickedly girlish voice asked and Tonks turned her head, expecting to see a girl of ten, not a full grown woman. This woman was very beautiful but there was something about her face that she immediately didn't like. Her eyes were too big and a little too gleeful. Her grin was too wide. An executioner's grin.
"Yes, Lady Lestrange." The officer in charge bowed towards this woman. "Just as you ordered."
"Oh, my lord is going to be so pleased!" She clapped her hands together in excitement that would have better suited a young girl. Then she seemed to notice that the Guard was still standing there. "Away with you!" She looked stern and the Guard quickly backed away from Tonks.
"Dearest, did she arrive?" A man appeared at the Lady Lestrange's side. She sidled up next to him, pressing her body into his and reaching up a hand to wrap around his neck while still facing Tonks. Tonks tried not to grimace.
"Yes, she did. Won't my lord be pleased with me?" Lady Lestrange cooed.
"So pleased." The man agreed, looking rather wrapped up in her and taking little notice of Tonks.
"Let's take her into the sitting room." Lady Lestrange took out a wand. Tonks nearly gasped out loud.
She can do magic!
"You'll do as we say or we'll have to get rough with you." Lady Lestrange looked like this was the kindest offer she had ever heard. Tonks gulped in terror. There was something frightening about Lady Lestrange and this man. She gestured with her wand and Tonks immediately went as directed.
The sitting room was almost as big as the hall she had just been in. She stopped short when she saw there was a man already sitting on the couch, with a small, terrified little boy sitting in his lap.
"Rabastan!" Lady Lestrange's voice was playfully reprimanding. Tonks dared not think about what might be going on. "Save him for later like I told you! You'll spoil your dinner."
"Oh, alright." Rabastan rolled his eyes and let go of the little boy who practically ran from the room. "I see you've brought the woman here."
"Just as my lord commanded me to." Lady Lestrange looked almost misty-eyed. Tonks wondered what was going to happen now. The frightening noblewoman turned on her. "Sit, make yourself comfortable. You have such a long story to tell us."
"I-I do?" Tonks found it hard to speak.
"Yes, you do." Lady Lestrange took instant command of the situation and gave her a terrible look that made Tonks sit immediately. "Perhaps you do not understand who I am. I am the Lady Bellatrix Lestrange and you will tell me exactly how you came back to life." All the girlishness drained from her voice and it was filled instead with iron cruelty.
"Oh." Tonks found that was the only thing she could think of saying.
"Should we be doing this before the Dark Lord gets here?" Rabastan asked.
"Do not interfere Rabastan!" Bellatrix turned on him. "We should find out now so we are even further rewarded by the Dark Lord. Besides, then we can kill the woman."
"Bellatrix knows what to do." The other man beamed proudly at her. "Please proceed dearest."
I can't tell them…not only do I not know but they'll kill me if I make something up! What do I do?
Tonks' brow furrowed. She'd have to think fast. Her mother and other mothers in the village would often say that Tonks could be quite difficult, that she could be a bit of, well, a smartass. Maybe if she was difficult, they'd want someone else to deal with her, they'd wait for them to come...
"Tell us how you came back to life." Bellatrix prompted her again in a commanding tone.
"Oh, I don't know." Tonks looked up at the ceiling with a faraway expression, intending to infuriate them. Was it safe? They needed her alive to tell them, didn't they? They wouldn't dare kill them before.
"We can make things quite difficult for you." Bellatrix showed all her teeth when she smiled. Like a wild animal. She twirled her wand in one hand. "You're an old thing, aren't you? One good curse would probably finish you off."
"Yes, but then I would just come back to life, wouldn't I?" Tonks mused.
"She's being difficult on purpose." Rabastan observed.
"Thanks for stating the obvious there." Tonks rolled her eyes at him. "Is that why you like little boys? Because you're all at the same intelligence level?"
She thought for a moment that she had really done it and she was going to be killed on the spot, especially by the way that Rabastan sputtered and pulled his wand out. But the other man, whom she supposed was Bellatrix's husband, stopped him.
"We can't kill the old woman!" He said. "The Dark Lord would have our heads…"
"She said she'd just come back to life." Rabastan muttered angrily.
"What if she didn't though?" Bellatrix inquired and then glared over at Tonks. "Although when the Dark Lord comes, she will be paid out for insulting a Lestrange, dear brother." The horrible smile on her face told Tonks that it was true and filled her with a terrible sense of foreboding. She would have to get out of there before the Dark Lord came. "I will ask you one more time to tell us what happened. Perhaps we will be merciful. Perhaps we will kill you quickly."
"That's a pretty swell deal but I'm going to have to pass, thanks." Tonks retorted. Bellatrix screamed a little in frustration. She stomped her foot several times and Tonks thought this grown woman was actually throwing a bit of a temper tantrum.
Her husband comforted her though, somehow, whispering soothing words into her ears. Bellatrix calmed down a little but still looked like a kid who had been denied a toy.
"It is too bad she is not younger or more attractive." Bellatrix looked at Tonks down her nose. Tonks was suddenly very glad to look like an old woman right then. "Then we would be able to have fun with her."
"Why not throw her in the dungeons until the Dark Lord gets here so you don't have to see her anymore?" Her husband suggested. "Avery sent us the loveliest little farm girl, you'll love her, she's so frightened…"
"Oh, you do know how to cheer me up." Bellatrix kissed him on the cheek and then once more gave Tonks a disdainful glance. "Take this one away and throw her into the dungeons. The Dark Lord will deal with her when he comes."
Some members of the Guard were sent for and Tonks was escorted down several flights of step into a dank, dripping place, full of cells. She thought she heard the small whimper of a child every now and then, but she wasn't sure.
They're sick. They're absolutely sick and demented.
I have to get out of here now.
But how?
She was left in that cell. The Dark Lord was coming and they would send for her and then he would find out everything. The Dark Lord. Voldemort. The name made her cold.
An idea popped into her head.
She concentrated hard on the image in her head. And she felt herself change. Unfortunately, the person was taller than her. If anyone thought about that for half a moment, they would realize it, but if she was lucky, and the fact that it was a bit dark in here…
"HELP!" She screamed, her voice a boy's. "I'VE LOCKED MYSELF IN A CELL!"
For a little bit there was nothing and she was worried her plan hadn't really worked. There was the slight complication of him being in girl clothes as well. She had insisted that they cleaned her clothes when she was with Sylvia and so she still had her own. But though she was wearing pants, it still was clear they were not meant for a boy.
But then there was grumbling and footsteps and a member of the Guard came, carrying a thing of keys that rattled in such a beautiful way that Tonks grinned to herself.
"Oh, Shunpike, locked yourself in a cell again, eh?" This particular member of the Guard was drunk and it was a bit obvious from his jolly manner and the way it took him a bit to figure out the complicated process of putting a key in a keyhole and turning it.
"Yeah." She tried not to sound too eager.
"Come on out then." The guard opened the door and she walked around him.
"I've gotta go, er, report!" Tonks gave a hasty salute and broke into a run. She couldn't waste a second like that. It was the perfect disguise for now, but she had to get away quickly, before anyone figured out that the little old lady wasn't in her cell.
I've got to get out of this madhouse!
After getting to the first floor, she followed the smell of food, planning to go through the kitchens. But just as she was going into the door to the kitchens, a young man was coming out of it.
Stan Shunpike stared in shock at his identical twin (although not in height) and Tonks realized she had made a terrible mistake by running into him.
"A demon!" Shunpike waved his finger wildly at her. "A demon that looks just like me! I'm going to die, aren't I? You're a death omen, aren't you?"
"Oh bloody hell." Tonks swore as she turned to see a window at the end of the hall and dashed for it, closing her eyes and trying to concentrate as she ran. Shunpike stopped shouting when he saw Tonks' hair go short, spiky, and midnight black, her eyes blue, and turn into, well, a girl.
"IT CHANGED!" Shunpike screamed. Tonks wrenched the window open and saw that the ground was about ten feet below. She heard the sound of feet rushing towards her. Screw that.
She jumped and stumbled over herself, rolling a few feet, but quickly picked herself back up. She wasn't in front of the house, she in back of it. A huge sweeping ground spread out before her, and a stone archway in front of her.
Not even pausing to think about it, she darted through, and went running down the hill, thanking her looking stars she wasn't tumbling head over feet down them. She heard angry shouts and then, a sound that filled her with dread.
The barking of dogs.
They had set dogs out. Dogs could sniff her out and catch her and drag her back. No! She wouldn't be taken like that! If she could just get to the end of the grounds and hop a fence or something. In front of her was a huge hedge maze and even though part of her didn't like the idea of going into a maze where she could easily get lost, it was that or stay there and get ripped to shreds by vicious Guard dogs.
The barking was getting closer and she ran urgently through the maze, blindly taking turns. But then she hit a dead end. She would have to double back. The whole maze looked the same, horrible lush green walls. She could break through them somehow, couldn't she? But they were thick and impenetrable bushes, which were probably reinforced by some kind of magic.
When she hit another dead end, she miserably sank down. She couldn't give up now! Not when she had gotten so far. But where would she go? There was no where for her to go. She would be taken back or killed or both. She couldn't stand that idea.
Why did I have to steal that stupid pie?
It was all fun and games…but now, now she was going to die. She was going to die. She could sit here and wait, maybe the dogs would go away. She fancied the barking didn't seem nearly as loud. Maybe the dogs were confused. And maybe they wouldn't search the maze. Of course they would search the maze, it was the best place to search, wasn't it?
Tonks stood up, not sure what her plan of action was now.
Maybe I can still find my way out…
Suddenly, something huge and black burst through the bushes just then. Tonks screamed but quickly covered her mouth with her hand. This huge black beast was a dog. If you could call it that. It didn't look in the least bit friendly. She tried to back away slowly.
Stupid! What are you planning to do? Give it a treat and ask it nicely to go away?
Tonks turned and went to run for it but cried out in pain when teeth sank into her ankle, pulling one of her feet out from under her so that she hit the ground. The dog had a hold of her now.
And there was nothing she could do.
To Be Continued
