Hey guys! I'm back, ready for action, and also, ready to complete this story! What's going to happen to Tonks? Well, just read and find out!
Pobbin: Your review made me laugh at the beginning. Heh, I'm glad you're enjoying this. But are you right? Dun, dun, DUN!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Warnings: Some profanity.
Shape Shifter
Part the Fourth
The huge dog's teeth sank into her ankle a little further, causing her to whimper in pain as she tried to get away, her nails raking at the ground as it dragged her along. Her wand came out of her jacket and she grabbed it, not wanting to loose it.
Maybe I can magic it away!
Tonks pointed her wand at the dog as best she could, flipping over to do so, but all it did was shoot some red sparks that only made the dog shake it's huge head in irritation.
Suddenly, it let go of her ankle but she didn't have any time to be relieved because someone instantly covered her mouth with their hand and grabbed her arm, hauling her up so that she was standing up. She couldn't see the person, but she knew everything was lost now. She was a goner. They were going to drag her back up to the Lestranges and she'd be put to death.
I can't give up!
She tried to struggle but the person kept a pretty firm grip on her.
"None o' that, see? We're here to save you." A gruff old voice told her and she shook her head, not understanding. "Come on. You too." She opened her eyes and saw that he must be talking to the huge black dog that was with them. "Sneaking up on her like that, no wonder she tried to use magic. We have to get out of here now if we don't want them to kill us."
The person took their hand away from her mouth and was pushing her so she didn't dare turn around to see who it was. It was too much to believe that she really was being rescued and that everything would turn out alright. No one knew she was here.
Who is this person?
"We aren't going through this maze, it's probably full of traps. You'll probably find yourself being eaten by a dragon if you take a wrong corner, see if you don't." The old voice murmured, almost feverishly. The dog led the way, taking them back through the hole. Tonks could hear the dogs and guards yelling a long way off.
Why aren't they looking over here?
The person behind her seemed find with letting the dog lead, so she assumed it knew the way. Unless of course this was a trap. That idea wasn't comforting in the least so she pushed it out of her mind.
They snuck through some bushes and were hiding in the shadows. The dog sniffed along the ground, probably retracing earlier steps to find the way out. Before too long, Tonks saw that they had hit something that made her feel a hundred times better. A fence.
It was made of black wrought iron and stood about ten feet up. The dog growled at it in frustration and backed away.
"Step back there now lassie." The person behind her told her and she saw a gnarled hand with several scars criss-crossing it, holding a wand—a lot like her own. Her jaw dropped.
They can do magic too?
They said something that she couldn't quite make out and suddenly there was a hole in the fence, as though it had been melted away but the iron had instantly cooled. The dog easily made it through and Tonks had to duck down a little to get through the hole. The person behind her got through and as soon as they were all standing on the other side, it was like a weight had lifted off her shoulders.
"We're out!" She cheered out loud. The dog licked her hand, which made her jump a little because it was still a big black dog. But it looked friendly now. She patted it cautiously on the head.
"But we're probably being followed. We'll have to double back a lot." The old man decided. Tonks turned a little to see that it was indeed an old man, though she couldn't quite make out the face and he had a hat that was pulled down, casting it into further shadow. For a moment, she thought she glimpsed something…blue.
Together, her, the dog, and the old man, began making their way through the capitol. It was a long journey, made even longer by all the doubling back they had to do. Whoever this man was, he sure was positive they were being followed, even though Tonks didn't see a thing.
The air was cold and she was shivering and thinking of how all she wanted was a hot bath and a nice bed to sleep in, but still it seemed like the walk would never end.
"Almost there." The old man told them. "But we should probably double back a few more times…" The dog let out an angry bark in response. Tonks completely agreed and wondered if the dog somehow knew what they were saying. "Alright, alright, but when they're all bloody on top of us, you'll be sorry you ignored me."
They turned down a back alley and as they went along, Tonks wondered where on Earth they could be going. Did this old man and his dog live somewhere together and that's where they were going? But why had they come to rescue her? How did they even know she was there?
They stopped suddenly at a little black door that didn't stick out at all. The man knocked three times and the dog let out a bark. She heard some people moving around just inside and then the door swung open.
"Well, come in!" An old woman, who was rather batty looking and wearing ratty old slippers, gestured for them to come in. "What took you so long anyways? Let me guess, Moody wanted to double back?"
The dog barked excitedly and went into the room, which was warm and snug with a roaring fire going. Tonks stepped thankfully into the warmth, and the old man followed. Sitting in an armchair next to the fire was another older man, whose eyes were watery and droopy, and he was holding an empty brandy glass.
"Oh! See ya' came, alright, didn't you?" The man gave a small start at the sight of them. "Took you bloody long enough."
Tonks turned to see that the other man was taking off his hat. His face was a criss-cross of scars and chunk had been taken out of his nose a long time ago. It wasn't a pleasant face by any means and what made it seem more inhuman was the face that he had one normal eye, that was so dark it looked black, but the other one wasn't real. It was an electric bright blue one that spun around and gave you the uncanny feeling that he could see in any direction he wanted to.
"Excuse me, but I don't know who any of you are." Tonks spoke up after a bit.
"Don't tell me you grabbed this child in the night and didn't tell her a word of what was going on!" The old woman turned on the old man and the dog. "How insensitive can you be! She's probably scared out of her wits right now!"
"I told her we were saving her." He nearly sniffed in response to the accusation. "Besides, how do we know she isn't a spy?"
"That's enough of that!" The old woman screeched at him. Then she turned on the dog, who had adopted a pitiful look. "Sirius, for the love of everything, would you turn back into yourself and stop giving me that look?"
Tonks' mouth dropped open as a second later, instead of a dog standing on all fours being there, it was a tall man, with black hair and blue eyes. She shrieked in surprise and all of them turned to shush her.
"Now, now, I know it'll give you quite a start dear…" The old woman put a hand on her shoulder. "But we're all friends here. I'm Arabella Figg but you can call me Mrs. Figg."
"Pleased to meet you…" Tonks spoke rather dazedly. She'd really like to know what was going on. "I'm Nymphadora Tonks."
"Yes, we know." The old woman went over to go about what she had been doing before they got there—making tea.
"I'm Mundungus Fletcher." The man in the armchair volunteered with a drunken wave of his brandy glass.
"And I'm Sirius Black." The man who had been a dog stepped forward. "This paranoid old kook is Mad-Eye Moody."
"Oh, that's right, paranoid ole' kook they call me! Just because I practice—" Moody was cut off as the other three jumped in.
"Constant vigilance!" They all said together and laughed a little. Before Mrs. Figg told them guiltily that they should really keep it down.
"I still don't understand who any of you are." Tonks looked a little bewildered. "How did you know where I was?"
"Well, Nymphadora—"
"Don't call me that." Tonks scrunched up her nose. "Everyone calls me Tonks."
"Yes, your mother did warn me about that." Sirius grinned a little. "Your mother is my cousin, so I guess that makes you and I cousins of some kind…"
"You're my mom's cousin?" Tonks blinked. "I've never met any of my mom's family."
"Of course not." Sirius shook his head. "Your mother told me you didn't know anything about it but your mother used to be named Andromeda Black. Me and her were both disowned from the Black family."
"The Black family?" Tonks looked puzzled.
"Tea's ready." Mrs. Figg told them importantly. Sirius waited until they all get seated—except for Mundungus Fletcher, who had fallen asleep in his armchair. Mrs. Figg poured out the tea and then poured out a dish of cream for a cat that had just appeared. Tonks wondered vaguely if the cat was also a person, but decided it probably wasn't.
"So, what's the Black family?" Tonks prompted Sirius. She couldn't believe this guy was a cousin of some sort to her.
"Well, they're almost all dead or married into other families now. I'm the only person with the surname 'Black' left." Sirius' face went grim. "Your mother, Andromeda, she was my favorite cousin. She was disowned when she married your father, Ted Tonks. I was disowned because of…well, a lot of things." Sirius hesitated a little. "And I wanted out of that family. They were one of the more powerful Death Eater families."
"Death Eaters?" Tonks gulped in fear. "My mother was…a Death Eater?"
"No, Andromeda never was." Sirius shook his head. "She doesn't believe in any of that garbage they try to spoon feed you from birth about noble blood and what not. Her sisters, your aunts, all made respectable marriages with other Death Eater families. In fact, I believe you met one of your aunts tonight." Tonks' face screwed up in confusion before realization sank in.
"Bellatrix Lestrange!" She gasped. She was related to that demented woman? Tonks grimaced at the thought.
"That's right." Sirius seemed to understand her expression. "But all of us here, we aren't involved in any of that Death Eater stuff. We're all working for a man named Albus Dumbledore."
"Who's he?" Tonks inquired.
"He's the most powerful wizard that ever lived." Mrs. Figg broke into the conversation eagerly. "You wait until you meet him."
"I'm going to meet him?" Tonks' brow furrowed in confusion.
"Yes, he runs a sort of school for children who want to learn magic." Sirius explained. "Do you want to learn how to shoot more than sparks from that wand?"
"Oh, yes, I would." Tonks nodded eagerly. "I can really learn?"
"All that an' more." Moody said over a hip flask that he was drinking out of, instead of the cup in front of him. Mrs. Figg was shooting him annoyed looks.
"Your mother has been trying to reach me, but I move around a lot, all of us do." Sirius told her. "If we were caught, we would be killed right away—we're all wanted men…er, and women." He nodded at Mrs. Figg. "I finally received one of her letters, in which she told me that she needed my help, that her daughter was a witch in her own right—no surprise there considering how powerful your mother was. But also that her daughter had a very peculiar talent…perhaps you'd like to demonstrate?" Tonks suddenly smiled quite mischievously and closed her eyes, picturing the person really hard. In a moment, she had turned into a perfect (albeit, shorter) copy of Sirius.
"I never thought I'd see the day!" Mrs. Figg looked amazed. "A Metamorphmagus!"
"A what?" Tonks turned back into the features she had been wearing before.
"You can change your appearance at will—that's what it's called." Sirius clarified.
"Bloody useful as well." Moody muttered, though he looked impressed as well.
"So, you got my mother's letter, but how did you know where I was?" Tonks wasn't quite connecting the two dots.
"Your mother had heard about an old woman who suddenly came back to life and you hadn't come home and she guessed that it might be you…we went to go get you but when we got there, you were already gone." Sirius went on with his story.
"We wanted to catch up to you before you got to the Lestrange estate, but we didn't quite make it." Moody growled, obviously not happy with that part of the story.
"We were planning to rescue you from the dungeons, hoping that we could get you out before Voldemort showed up." Sirius took a drink from his cup. "And thankfully, we got you out, though you were halfway to escaping yourself."
"So, now what?" Tonks looked at the different faces.
"Things are getting really dangerous now." Mrs. Figg spoke warningly. "We can't take you to see your mother right now, we have to take you straight to where Dumbledore is."
"Alright." Tonks replied, a little sadly. She had wanted to see her mother before she went.
"How about you, Moody? Are you coming with us?" Sirius asked the paranoid old man. "Out of retirement for good?"
"Not for good, for now." Moody put down his hip flask. "I wouldn't have had to come out of retirement at all if it 'adn't been for Mundungus landing himself in prison."
"Then we're all going North with you." Sirius told her comfortingly. "There's other children up there as well, so you won't be by yourself. And it's completely safe as well."
"When are we going to leave?" Tonks knew that this would be an adventure, a big adventure, that was all her own. Studying magic in a safe place in the North and helping these people who seemed to hate the Death Eaters. It almost didn't seem real.
"In the morning." Sirius replied, looking pleased with her reaction. "As soon as you're ready."
"I'm ready now!" Tonks announced and there was some good natured chuckling between Sirius and Mrs. Figg.
To the North!
I just know everything is waiting for me there…
The End
Tonks' story is over! Only one more character story left before I can get into the big stories. The next story is called Fool—it's not meant in a mean way, I have a perfectly legitimate reason for naming it that. But who could it be about? Well, I'll let you guys figure that out.
Also, a small note: Some of you may have noticed, but only person, Teresa, put it in a review, but that thing with Mundungus being in prison—well you may have noticed it in Heretic.
See ya' next story!
