Tonks came too on the
moth eaten settee in the library of 12 Grimauld Place, Lupin sat on
the floor beside her.
"Oh gods, how long
have I been out? And how did I get here?" she groaned.
"Not long, about 20
minutes, and side-along apparition. Now, here, eat this." He
handed her a large chunk of chocolate. "Personally, I think it's
a pretty good cure for everything, but it's particularly effective
against Dementor attacks."
"Dementors? Hang on,
aren't they nominally on our side? Why did they go after us?"
said Tonks, biting into the chocolate.
"A lot of things are
nominally on our side, and I don't believe they were ever on
anyone's side but their own." There was a weariness to Lupin's
tone "But yes, this is a … worrying new development. They were
until recently more-or-less under the Ministry's control, confined
to Azkaban. But I suppose with Voldemort active there's less
incentive for them to play by the Ministry's rules anymore…" he
trailed off, side-tracked in thought.
"I suppose you must
think I'm a complete wimp now."
"Pardon?" said
Lupin, snapping back to the conversation.
"I mean, fainting
like that" continued Tonks "it's pretty poor for a trained
Auror, screaming like a girlie and passing out."
"You've never come
up against a Dementor before, have you?"
She shook her head,
they'd always been taught that Dementors were not their problem.
"They're nasty
buggers," he said "their whole being is designed to induce
negative emotions – despair, fear, anger – so they can feed.
It's easy to get panicked, for any common sense let alone training
to go straight out your head. So, given you've no prior experience
with them, and you weren't expecting it, and you weren't
feeling your best tonight in the first place, I think you did
exceptionally well."
"You reckon?"
"I do."
The clock on the
library mantelpiece struck four.
"God, it's late, I
should be getting home." yawned Tonks, clambering off the settee.
She wobbled somewhat as she stood, and Lupin jumped up to support
her.
"I'm not sure you
going anywhere is a good idea" he said "you've had a bad shock
and it is very late. Or very early, depending on how you look at it.
Anyway, this place has a silly number of spare rooms, we can make
you up a bed here. I just think it would be safer."
"Yeah, but if I'm
not home in the morning the others will worry. And what about work?"
"I need to get word
to Kingsley about that poor sod in the alleyway, so I'll tell him
where you are. As for work, we've got a system for people who've
had a bad night on watch. Basically, Moody goes and intimidates
whoever you report too until they believe you've got a good
reason."
Tonks laughed. Right
now though, all she wanted to do was sleep, and the thought of trying
to Floo anywhere, let alone try and apparate was too much.
"All right. Works
for me."