Chapter Twenty Seven

Unforgivables and Elf Magic

"I don't care what you think Andrea, Tonks will never try to kill her partner on her own will!"

Ron had never seen Moody this distraught. It was normal to hear Moody shouting, but not with this tone of desperation. And it wasn't everyday that you see Moody arguing with his own boss, now known to the juniors as "Chimaera Atalanta."

"She's trained to resist the Imperious curse, Alastor. All our Aurors are. You can't even get pass your first three months of training until you can resist it. She almost used two Unforgivables. Two! How do you explain that?"

"I don't know. But I know Tonks would not do that deliberately. She told me she was under Imperious and I believe her, there's no other explanation."

"Alright, I won't put her under investigation, but I'm suspending her."

"You can't do that!"

"I won't have a liability on your team or any team, Alastor! Until I'm sure she's in full control of her abilities I can't allow her to go on field."

"And what would I do? I'm left with nothing but two juniors. How do I go on with this case?"

"You're off the case."

"WHAT!"

"This is hitting you too close to home. You've just lost three Aurors in the last three days. Until Kelley gets out of that coma and Tonks is sure of herself I'm letting Team 2 take care of this. The juniors can also use some rest. You've had them running on sixteen hour shifts daily since this started. If this keeps up they won't live to become full Aurors. I'll let them do light patrol duty to watch out for Dolohov and Malfoy if they're not on their regular guard duties. But that's it."

"Andrea!"

"I made my decision, Alastor. Go home and take the rest of the week off!"

Moody grumbled but he got up and made a sweeping gesture to Harry, Ron and de Lancre to follow him out.

Ron and Harry were equally put off and were glad to add to the colorful invectives Moody was letting off when they left the Chief's office. Only de Lancre seemed to keep calm about it.

"I don't care what she says boys. We'll keep a low profile, but I want you to keep all your senses on this case. I'm not resting until I get to the bottom of this. Find out what happened to Kelley and on anything happening with this case. I'll check on Tonks. I can't appear at headquarters for the next few days or else the Chimaera will be on my back. But owl me with regular updates and I'll see you on Monday." Moody turned and walked slowly out the door.

"I will go see to Kelley at St. Mungo's, Weasley. I will update you by owl and I will see you the day after tomorrow at guard duty," de Lancre said as he turned to follow Moody out. "I am really sorry. I know you are friends with Tonks. But you are an Auror. Do not let your friendship cloud your judgment. Remember: question everything."

"Our judgment's doing just fine, git," said Ron.

"Come on Ron, we'll ask Hermione what she knows about elves and maybe she could help out on Kelley's case."

They returned to their cubicle to grab some papers and found a sealed letter with Ron's name written in elegant script.

Mr. Ronald Weasley,

The Minister of Magic cordially invites you as the special guest for the second year anniversary ball of the defeat of You-Know-Who…

"What is this?" Ron exclaimed.

"That Weasley," Chief Atalanta answered from behind. "And Potter," she added softly. "Is your first official Ministry function and you are required to attend it."

"Required?"

"Yes. As the so-called "Boy-Who-Survived" you are regarded as a war hero and therefore obliged to attend."

"With all due respect Chief, I don't think a stupid title—"

"That stupid title could help boost the public's confidence about the Auror force that you represent. You are quite aware this trouble with Dolohov is going to hit hard on us and on the Ministry in general when it reaches the press. We need to reassure the public that we can protect them and you're the best reassurance we have. People believe in you."

"So I'm like some image model for the Auror Force and the Ministry?" Harry said hotly.

"Exactly, Potter. You don't have to like it. I never did. But it's only a job. There's nothing much to it. Just appear with a date, dance a little, smile for the reporters and nod your head when they address you."

"You make it sound so easy."

"Would you rather have to deal with the politics of assuring those picky elite families and the members of the diplomatic corps about national security? If you do, you're quite welcome to trade places with me that night."

Ron shook their head. "Alright, I'll appear, but I'm not making any speeches."

"I'm sure there are too many people trying to hog the limelight that night that you won't have a chance for that. And don't worry, half the Auror Force will be there as well. Now off you go."

Harry was suddenly reminded of being a little child being dismissed by Professor McGonagall after a lecture. Nevertheless he was grateful for a break at least.

Say Ron, it's our day off tomorrow. What do you say we go home to the Burrow tomorrow night? We haven't really spent much time with your family since we took off from Bill's wedding."

"Tomorrow? Oh can't. We have a Quidditch match to go to."

"Quidditch?"

"Yeah, mate. Tornados versus Puddlemere, great seats."

"You got us seats for a Quidditch match?"

"I didn't. Maddy did. She invited us."

"When did that happen?"

"Yesterday, she asked us."

"Ron…?" Harry raised their eyebrow for emphasis.

"What? What's wrong with a friend asking a friend out to a Quidditch game? I like Quidditch, you like Quidditch, so I said yes."

Harry didn't reply, but he could sense Ron was definitely up to something.

"So he lapsed to comatose just like that?" Hermione asked as she scribbled down the details of what Ron and Harry just told her on the ornately carved writing table. Ron thought she looked perfectly at home in her cozy Indian sitting room with the plush colored pillows and silken sheets. Her western style robes however, did clash with the setting.

"Yes," replied Ron. He shifted in his seat to avoid a cramp. He wished he got a cushion before he started talking to her. These Ministry flooing fireplaces were never comfortable. "St. Mungo's couldn't figure out what happened to him."

"Didn't you hear any other spell that Tonks used on him?"

"No," replied Ron. "Just Cruciatus and she tried Avada Kedavra. But then Harry and I were across the hall. Frenchie was there but he said he didn't hear anything either. But I suppose Tonks could have used something between the killing curse and Cruciatus, there was time enough."

"We came to check on Tonks earlier," added Harry. "She's pretty shaken. At least Professor Lupin was there with her. She said she felt she was under the Imperious curse but somehow she couldn't throw it off. She didn't remember using any other spells aside from the two Unforgivables and an earlier spell she cast to make a chair fly towards Kelley."

Hermione bit her lip and tapped the end of her quill, a habit Ron knew she acquired even during their Hogwarts days when she was thinking. "You're sure Tonks was feeling alright? She wasn't feeling ill or weak that she couldn't throw off an Imperious?"

Harry shook their head. "Don't know. But she looked pretty okay before, although she was a bit upset with Fian's death and Mackenzie being a suspect. Tonks is good as an Auror. Throwing off the Imperious should be a piece of cake for her. There was no one else around, at least by the time Auror backup arrived. You think it was an elf who did that?"

"Could be," said Hermione. "I'm not sure how powerful elves are. According to the literature I've read, elves have powerful magic, but no one has managed to write about the full extent of what they could do. Everything written about them is confined to either domestic duties or building construction and maintenance. I managed to look into the only two published articles by Diana Mackenzie. So far, her work is the only one helpful in this case. Her initial findings show that elves can magically protect their masters. They can put up wide-ranging shield charms or even cast spells similar to Expelliarmus and Stupefy to ward off enemies."

"But can they kill?" asked Ron. "Can they put a person in a coma and are they powerful enough to use Unforgivables?"

Hermione shook her head. "Probably the only person who knows that is Mackenzie herself. But she didn't get to publish her work." She heaved a sigh. "If she intended to publish them at all."

A/N: I had to revise this chapter a bit, because of a missing line I forgot to put when I changed time settings and POAs.

Again, thank you so much for all those who reviewed. I got so many in my last chapter I'm simply jumping with joy. To froggiesrcool, I'm sorry I named a prat character after your little brother. I assure you, I have purpose for using that name. But it will come in later. And thanks too for the tip on removing anonymous reviewers, didn't know that.

Another thing, a "Chimaera" according to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a rare and extremely dangerous Greek monster with a lion's head, a goat's body and a dragon's tail. It's quite vicious, so the younger Aurors, and even Moody, have taken to calling their Chief that behind her back.