Deconstruction

Chapter Eight: Crossroads

Despite Tonks' reservations, she and Kingsley arrived at 12 Grimmauld Place five minutes before dinner. She sighed as they entered the house. The feeling of foreboding filled her as she walked through the threshold. Part of her wished she had told Kingsley what she had just found out about Oliver because he could help her soften the blow, but another part of her knew she had done the right thing. She didn't have time to think about it because Bill was waiting for them.

For an instant, Tonks thought of talking to him and requesting his help on the bank records, but decided that it wasn't the right time. "I'm sorry that you had to come tonight," said Bill as a greeting. "It's just that we were talking about it at Fred and George's shop when our mother came in and heard part of what we said. We were defenseless from her questions."

"I understand," said Tonks as he offered to take her cloak, which she shield and handed off to him. "What are we having?"

"Pork chops," replied Bill. "I'm not sure what else because we've been keeping clear of our mother since this afternoon. Dad's not home yet, I think he's taking his time before he gets here. He'll be happy to know that he came later than you two. I doubt that Mum is going to do a lot of yelling in front of company."

"I see," murmured Tonks.

"I'm really sorry it came out like that. I told Arthur that he wasn't handling it right," said Kingsley.

"Yeah, well, I don't think we should go there until dinner's ready. My brothers are in the den. This way," said Bill.

Tonks followed behind the two men as they walked ahead of her. She was looking for good escape routes out of the house. She had a better reason to escape than normal. There seemed no way to get out of the dinner. Even if she had tried harder, it would have arosed Kingsley's suspicions.

"Are you all right?" asked Bill in a concerned voice when they got to the den. The three of them walked in.

"I'm fine," whispered Tonks. "Hello everyone. I wish we were seeing each other under better circumstances."

"Hey Tonks," said Charlie as he got to his feet. "Would you like something to drink?"

"Yes, please."

"What would you like?"

"Fire whiskey."

Charlie blinked at her before he went and got her drink. He handed it to her and she accepted it. To everyone's surprise, she gulped it in one swig. She didn't even react to the taste and the burning sensation down her throat. Charlie gave a nervous laugh before he asked, "Would you like another one?"

"Maybe, later," said Tonks, thinking that she should be sober for the dinner. She was definitely going to have to go and get a drink after the dinner with or without any company. She handed the shot glass back to Charlie.

"That bad, huh?" asked Fred. "Have you gotten any leads on Percy?"

"I think we should wait, Fred, she's going to have to tell Mum and Dad everything at the dinner anyway," said Bill. "There's no point in her repeating herself over and over again."

Tonks didn't have a chance to really say anything because Arthur walked in. He looked inside from the doorway, "Oh, you're both here. Let's go and eat. Molly's got everything ready now."

That wasn't an improvement in Tonks mind. She was the last out of the den after everyone else had filed out. When they got there, they saw that Molly had everything prepared. Charlie pulled out a chair for Tonks, which she automatically took.

Molly looked worn out as she began serving in silence. Tonks didn't offer to help anymore. This was the second time she had sat in silence, waiting for the questions to be asked. It was only after dinner was started when Molly decided it was time to ask some questions, "Tonks, I understand that you're in charge of finding Percy?"

"Yes, Molly," said Tonks.

"Have you found anything?"

"Nothing substantial."

Molly glanced at Arthur for a moment before she asked, "If you found anything, Tonks, please just tell us."

"I don't want to get your hopes up when a lead doesn't pan out, Molly. A lot of investigations lead to false trails, dead ends, and red herrings." Tonks wasn't looking at anyone in the eye directly.

"I thought you knew what was going on, Tonks," said Arthur. "After five weeks, you don't have anything?"

"I didn't say that, Arthur," argued Tonks. "It's just that there were a lot of things going on in Percy's life that none of you realized. If any of you had known him better in the first place, then we wouldn't be having this problem at all."

A stunned silence filled the room as Tonks' words sunk in. It took a moment for her to realize what she had just said. She had basically blamed them for the disappearance of Percy. Her clumsiness had come out in an even worse form than normal. She looked around and realized that she had gone too far.

"What's that supposed to mean?" demanded Fred angrily. One could always count on him to break any awkward silences. "That it's our fault that he's missing?"

Tonks' face was completely still as if she was in complete paralysis. All the Weasley's eyes were locked on her, prompting an answer to the question. She didn't even look at Kingsley who was still silent. "I think it is," she said softly after another second or so.

"Percy chose to leave on his own," growled George.

Bill spat, "I thought you were on our side."

Molly held up her hand to stop them from saying anything further. "But you haven't told us anything. Please what did you find out about him, Tonks." She looked upon Tonks with pleading eyes. "It doesn't matter. Nothing else matters, but finding my son and bring him home."

"Like I said, there's nothing really to say," lied Tonks. There were two things: Percy might have been responsible for Penelope Clearwater's death, and Oliver might have been responsible for Percy's disappearance. Tonks had no idea just how much her investigation was affecting her judgment. She slid her chair out and got to her feet. She couldn't bear the looks of betrayal on their faces. "And Bill, I'm not on your side. I'm on his. Because no one else from the looks of things was ever on his side. Part of my job is to speak for people who can't."

Tonks continued, "All I know is Percy isn't what anyone expected him to be like or what he appeared and it's because of that he's gone missing. From some indications that I have uncovered, he left under his own volition. He may have very well walked out on his own life and if he did that, there's nothing I could really do about that." It was with those words that Tonks left the room.

She practically ran down the long hallway with another set of footsteps trailing after her. She was just at the front door and ready to open it when Kingsley's hand darted out and grabbed her wrist. "What the Hell was that?" he demanded, mildly shaking her. "You don't talk to victims' families like that! You should have learned that during your training."

Tonks angrily yanked her wrist from his grip. Kingsley looked livid at that moment. "What haven't you been telling me? Tell me," he ordered.

"It is their bloody fault. Three months, Kingsley. Three months!" she exclaimed angrily as she pounded her hands against his chest. "That's how long the trail was cold before Arthur even thought that there was something wrong!"

Apparently, the Weasleys had followed the Aurors to the threshold during that time. Not that Tonks cared at that point. "What kind of family does that! How could you just abandon him because he was different from you!" She was shaking in anger at that moment. "Just one person? Majority rules?"

Arthur spoke in softly, "I didn't think there was something wrong. I thought that he was all right. I thought he was coming around. I was worried before when he didn't come right away." He paused. "He's stubborn. Just like me."

Tonks directed her anger at Arthur, "You don't know the statistics, do you?" She held up her hand to silence him as she went on, "The best time to look for someone is within twenty-four hours after that each hour the chances of finding someone alive or at all degrades. Three months, Arthur? You know as well as I do that I should be looking for a body, not a person."

Molly gasped in horror as she looked at her husband. Arthur didn't look angry at Tonks, but it was the look of stricken parent. "That's the other truth you're going to have to accept. All of you," said Tonks.

Kingsley drew a deep breath as he shook his head. After a second, he had made a decision, "I'm your ranking officer, Tonks. It's my job to know when things are too much for you. I'm afraid I have to take you off this case. You've been working on it nonstop for five weeks. You have expressed a lot of frustration. It's not for your lack of progress, but you don't give me much of a choice. Tomorrow, I want you to submit all your findings regarding Percy's disappearance. All of it."

Tonks was shocked. Her jaw dropped and it took a second for her brain to process what was happening. "You're taking me off this case? I have never been taken off a case before!" she exclaimed, her anger mounting.

"There's a first time for everything, Tonks. A lot has been going on in the past year and this was just one more thing that shouldn't have been put on your plate," said Kingsley in an effort to soothe her anger. "I'm not questioning your skills, but I am telling you that you need a break."

"You can't take me off this case."

"I just did."

Tonks folded her arms over her chest and surveyed the other witnesses in the room. Her pride had just been shot down. Kingsley continued, "I'm also giving you some time off. You obviously need it."

For Tonks, that was even worse. Time off meant that she couldn't even be in the Aurors' offices while the investigation was going on. She shook her head and started to laugh. The Weasley brothers shared startled looks as she regained control of herself. "You take me off this case, Kingsley, and I guarantee you that you won't have a prayer of finding him," she said finally as she turned the doorknob and wretched it open.

It was now raining outside, but before she went out into the darkness, she without turning to face them she added, "Dead or alive."

Tonks didn't know why, but she took off running into the rain. She didn't know where she was going. She just had to get away from the house. Old fears were starting to bubble up and rise again. Things that she hadn't thought of in a while. She was trying her best to push it back down.

About a half hour later, Tonks had managed to wander out of the rain and into the Leaky Cauldron. It was there that she ordered a double shot of fire whiskey, which old Tom was more than happy to oblige. She pulled out some coins to pay when her fingers touched her notebook. She was supposed to submit it the following morning to Kingsley. She pulled it out along with the money to pay for her shots of whiskey.

She had left it flipped at the page it had been in recently. The part where she made notes of Oliver's bank vaults in Gringotts. She was at crossroads. Essentially, there were two choices before: either she could turn in everything to Kingsley and leave it be, or she could continue with the investigation and submit nothing. She took her two shots of whiskey.

Her instincts told her not to hand over anything to Kingsley. Let him do the work. But all good logic told her that what she was thinking of doing was going to ruin her career. Why was she willing to do that? She must have been out of her mind. She stared at the empty shot glass and was about to ask for another double, but someone had interrupted her.

"Two hot cups of coffee," ordered Remus just as he took the stool next to her. Tom nodded and went to go get them. "My treat, Tonks."

"Let me guess. Kingsley called you to say that I've lost my mind," muttered Tonks as she rolled her eyes. "And if you don't mind, Tom, could you make mine an Irish Crème?" Tom didn't say anything, but got the bottle of the Irish whiskey and poured some into a mug.

"You'll have to pay the difference," pointed out Remus. "And no, it wasn't Kingsley who called. I was in the house at the time. I just thought it wouldn't be good to go down for dinner. I figured you'd be here."

"So, you ducked out before the sparks flew?" asked Tonks as she closed her notebook to keep him from looking at it. "Do you think I went too far?"

"Just a little," answered Remus. "I know that you're looking at things from a completely different perspective, Tonks."

"And how am I looking at things?" asked Tonks. Tom set the coffee mugs in front of them. "Thanks, Tom." Tom nodded went to wait on some other people.

"I think you're starting to take things personally," answered Remus before taking a sip of his coffee. "Why are you taking things so personally? I'm not expecting an answer, but you should ask yourself that question."

"I already did, Remus," said Tonks. "I have no idea why. I guess it's the fact that they didn't ask earlier to find him. He had a lot of things going on his life that he kept to himself. He was someone who suppressed everything because there was no one who would understand him."

"So, you relate to him," stated Remus.

Tonks warmed her hands against the mug before taking a sip from it. She shrugged. "I guess on some level I do." She glanced at Remus for a moment. "You know ever since I was little, I knew about the Blacks and what the represented. They were a dark magic family and my mother was one of them. It didn't make it easy for me to make friends, even though my father's Muggle born. Every once in a while, I think to myself how did Sirius and my mother turn out so differently from the others."

"Sirius was a born rebel, and so was your mother," pointed out Remus. "Sirius fought so hard to prove he wasn't bad. But, you know there are families of good magic that have members who turn out bad."

Tonks shook her head, "You don't know what I found out in my investigation. I don't know if he was good or evil."

Remus took a sip then said, "I think the problem might be that you've already given up and that's why you're so frustrated, Tonks."

"I haven't given up. I've given five weeks of my life to this case," argued Tonks. "And I'm not giving up. I'm being force to."

"Then why are you referring to Percy in the past tense?" asked Remus. Tonks blinked at him as he went on, "It's because you've already given him up for dead, haven't you?"

"I," paused Tonks as she shook her head. Maybe the alcohol was starting to get to her. Then she realized that Remus was right. "Oh my God. I didn't even notice what I was saying. What should I do, Remus?"

"Do what you think you should do? Do what you think is best for Percy. Not for you or anyone else, not even his family," answered Remus. "That's what you should do. Do you want me to see you home?"

Tonks shook her head and waved her hand, "No, I'll manage. You'd better get going. I'm sorry to hang all this on you."

Remus gave her a gentle smile. "It's all right, Tonks. But whatever you do be careful, won't you?"

"I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself," Tonks assured him. "Good night, Remus."

"Good night, Tonks." Remus walked away, leaving Tonks to muse for a while. It was going to take a while before she figured out what she was going to do next.

The sound of the rain outside kept him awake. He always liked the sound of rain. Of course, in England, it rained all the time. He sat up in his cell. Sometimes he wished that he had something to read. The only thing that he had on a somewhat regular basis was art supplies. He didn't want to write anything down for anyone to read, so he preferred the art supplies. People could interpret a piece of art in any number of ways.

"I never thought I'd find you here," whispered a voice from outside his door. His eyes widened. He immediately recognized the sound that voice. He sat up and slowly got to his feet. He walked up to the cell and the little window to the cell was open. "You didn't think I'd find you here."

"Ali," he whispered, trying to see the speaker in the darkness. "How did you get in here?"

"Why don't you get out?" retorted the voice. "I know you can do it, but you choose to stay here. I guess it's better than Azkaban. That's where they'll send you, once they find out what you've done."

He swallowed pressed his fingers against the coolness of the door. "What are you doing here? Tell me."

"You know why I'm here. You're the one responsible."

"I didn't do it."

"That's not what you remember."

"It's a lie!" he roared. His hands formed into fists and he pounded the door. "I didn't do it! It wasn't me!"

The sound of his fists pounding the door roused the other patients and pair of orderlies came. The immediately opened his cell door and he began to fight them with his fists. He was heaving for air as they attempted to restrain him. The other cell doors started to rattle and the lights began to flicker. The orderlies noticed it and they looked at each other. One could easily dismiss the flickering lights as a result of the storm, but the other doors pounding. They only knew it was him because of the sound of his voice from his shouting.

Dr. McCoy came running down the hall and had a syringe at the ready. "Hold him still," he ordered as calmly as possible. He uncapped the syringe and injected in it into the patient's arm.

"I didn't do it," the patient muttered as the medicine took an almost immediate effect and he keeled over. The orderlies held him steady and gently hoisted him up and placed him on the bed. One of them even covered him with a blanket.

"Doc, we didn't even hear anything. He just started shouting. We were just down the hall," said one of the orderly, obviously shaken by the incident.

The other one said, "It sounded like he was talking to someone. You know. Like he wasn't even asleep."

"Don't concern yourselves with this. I'll make the report," said Dr. McCoy as he walked off. He went back to his office and started to fill out the report, but a familiar feeling came over him when he returned there. Shaking his head, he pulled out a vial from his lab coat. He opened it and ingested the contents. He replaced it back in his lab coat and went back to work.

Tonks returned to her flat to gather up all the papers she had on Percy and bundled it up. She wrote a brief note allowing Kingsley to look through her desk. Working pretty fast, she had purchased another notebook just like the one that she had been writing her notes in. She meticulously copied most of her notes onto the new book leaving out her own theories along with the information she had just discovered that day and added notebook to the package she was sending.

When she was done, she was ready to make her decision. Sitting in front of her kitchen table, she listened to the sound the rain as she pondered her next move. The case was no longer hers, but she couldn't just leave it be. She had to see it through to the end. She was going to have to risk everything to do it. Something in her said not to let it go.

"Life's not fun without a little risk," she said finally. She started at the pouring rain as her decision sunk in. Without the rules of the Ministry, holding her back and with very little to lose, there was a chance that she could go further. She got to her feet and slid the chair. She looked around her. It was a good thing that she didn't have any plants or pets, she had neither the time nor the patience for such things, because she wasn't going to be there for a while.

She went to her room and began to pack up her things in a backpack along with something that she had kept in a box. Normally, wizards didn't dabble in such things, but the Muggles did. It was hers and it was registered with the authorities. No one would have suspected that she had one. She opened it. It was in pieces.

Slowly, Tonks assembled it. She slid the pieces in place and when it was done, she gripped it in her hand. She had learned how to use it, but had never really used it outside of a training course. She carefully loaded the bullets into a cartridge, but didn't load it into gun. She packed everything into her backpack.

The next thing she did was take any money she had along. When she was done packing, she wrote a note for her landlord. On her way out, she grabbed her coat and umbrella. She went out the door. Where she was going wasn't very far, so she chose to walk. Apparating there would have been a bad idea anyway because a Muggle might have seen her.

She continued until she reached where she was going. She had never been there before, but she knew exactly where she was. She rapped her knuckles against the door, and then rang the doorbell. It took less than a minute for someone to answer the door.

When the door opened, Oliver Wood looked stunned. He was about to ask who she was, but he recognized her in a second. "I'm not here for a social call," she started. "Don't force me to do something you'll regret." Her tone sounded absolutely deadly.

Oliver blinked as he stepped aside and let her in. "What is this about?" he asked. "I already told you everything I knew."

"Percy's your best friend, isn't he?" asked Tonks again.

"Yes, he was my best friend," answered Oliver. "What is this about?" He watched as she walked around the living room without taking off her backpack.

"There was something about our interview that bothered me," said Tonks as she walked around. "I looked into your personal life. No one is spared in an investigation where foul play was possibly involved. You should have known that I would look into your personal life, Oliver."

"I have nothing to hide," whispered Oliver as he closed the door behind him.

"I don't believe you," retorted Tonks quietly. In her coat pocket, her hand was covering her wand. She could draw it in a moment's notice. "Like I said there was something wrong with your interview."

"You said he was your best friend," she went on. "You're using the wrong tense. There was something else you said, 'His life was hard.' You said that. You used the past tense throughout the interview. Usually that means that one has already accepted the person's already dead."

Oliver looked away from her. "So, I made a mistake. Everyone does. No one's perfect," he whispered.

"You lied," said Tonks with certainty. "You have two bank vaults of the same security level in Gringotts. Why did Percy sign over his account to you?"

Oliver gulped again and said, "It's not what it looks like."

"Then what does it look like," demanded Tonks, gripping her wand tightly.

Oliver's shoulders slacked as he staggered into a chair and shook his head. "It's a long story. I have a perfectly good explanation, but I doubt that you'd understand."

"Give me a try," said Tonks.

AN: Tonks was pretty harsh in this chapter. I actually put the five weeks up now, so Percy has been unaccounted for in the wizarding world for four months and a week. The sections with Tonks in it are from her perspective, and so she is anger at the Weasleys. However, Percy doesn't blame his family for anything. It also looks like she's decided to go down a different patch.

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Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. This story belongs to me and cannot be posted anywhere else without my permission.