Chapter Six- Caffeine high
Tonks had been afraid that everyone would be as difficult as Scrimgeour, but Kingsley wasn't so bad. He didn't have the same prejudice and he seemed like he'd let her be the Auror she'd trained to be. Everyone else in the department were remote and distant and some even treated her like a child. She had worked with various other senior Aurors, but they had regarded her with barely masked contempt at both her abilities and her clumsiness. However she knew that her work had been good and she hoped that despite Scrimgeour's attitude, this promotion to actual case work was a sign that he approved, however reluctantly. Suddenly her paperwork didn't seem like such a bind, just another hurdle before she could finally do what she'd set out to do in her fifth year of Hogwarts.
By eight o'clock Tonks had reformed her opinion of paperwork, it was definitely a punishment, but the pile had been reduced significantly for her to be able to see that an end was in sight. She gladly packed up her belongings and made her way to the locker room where she quickly changed out of her Auror robes and into her favourite Muggle clothes. She then stuffed her robes into her bag and hurried to the exit.
A short while later and Tonks and Shacklebolt were to be found poring over Sirius Black's file, trying to apply some logic to the apparent sightings of the convict and to come up with a strategy to capture him. Rubbing her eyes with tiredness, Tonks pulled a list of Black's known cohorts, contacts and family towards her and took a sip of her cappuccino. She scanned down the list and started when she read her own name and then that of her mother's. Spluttering, she exclaimed,
"Well now I know why Scrimgeour is on my back about being related to Black! I'm fifth on the list of possible contacts! It's no wonder he's so paranoid!"
"Well people do turn to families when in trouble. So it's natural you're on the list," apologised Shacklebolt, "but both your mother's and your attitude towards Black suggest that there's no love lost between you, but we have to always be sure. Even with colleagues! Investigate everything, however mundane, innocent or unlikely it seems. Do that, and you'll be an excellent Auror, Tonks. Therefore we investigated you and your mother, and every person possibly connected to Black."
He paused draining the last of his nearly cold coffee before continuing, "Black is a bit of an unpredictable entity. We had no clue he could be allied with He Who Must Not Be Named, and most certainly neither did Potter, who had been his best friend since Hogwarts. More importantly neither did Dumbledore, who does have an uncanny ability to always know everything! Therefore everything and everyone concerning Black is a suspect, including yourself. However you are obviously past serious suspicion now, as Scrimgeour has put you on this case with me."
"Or else he wants you to keep a close eye on me!" said Tonks with a grin
"There is that!" he said returning her smile with one of his own. He stood up and stretched his arms above his head, and stifling a yawn, asked, "Do you want another drink?"
"Yeah, but it's my turn. You got the last lot." she said rising from her seat, "Same again?"
With Shacklebolt's nod, Tonks turned towards the counter and sent her recently vacated chair flying over backwards. She rolled her eyes and picked it up. She hated being tired; it made her clumsiness even worse, and she wanted to make a good impression to her new boss.
Shacklebolt seemed like a nice guy, thorough in his work, confident and assured, without being arrogant. It was obvious she was going to learn a lot from him. He taught without meaning to, and had an easy air which allowed her to ask questions without feeling stupid in doing so. For the first time in two months she was truly glad that she had become an Auror.
Tonks bought the drinks and returned to the table where Shacklebolt had laid out a map, and was marking recent sightings on it, transferring the new information from a sheet of parchment. It seemed to make more sense when in the visual form.
She carefully put the drinks down and pulled a selection of photographs towards her. The tiny figures of various ages waved, and laughed back at her. There were several of Black at various stages of his Hogwarts career, often pictured with James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Black'd been a good looking boy and even in the pictures she could see a hint of mischief about him. The teenage boys jostled with each other, grinning and messing about, and Tonks felt a tinge of pity and regret when she realised that two out of the four were dead because of Black. He'd killed his mates. What could make a man do that? She shook her head and returned to the pile of photographs. There were pictures of Black's cousins and one of his younger brother Regulus, all in Hogwarts uniform, most of them wearing the Slytherin colours and glaring out with haughty arrogance. Her mother, Andromeda, was amongst them, flanked on either side by her sisters, the dark haired Bellatrix and the blonde Narcissa.
Each sister's partners and offspring were also pictured and Tonks was intrigued to see her young cousin Draco, who also wore a look of superiority and arrogance. She was amused to see her child self, laughing and morphing regularly with glee, grinning back out at her from the next photograph.
Her smile faded at she turned to the next two photographs, pictures of the dead bodies of James and Lily Potter, each face bearing the unmistakable look of surprise that was associated with the 'Avada Kedavra' curse. There was also a picture of the baby Harry Potter, complete with newly formed cut on his forehead. The photograph's occupant was bawling his eyes out and clenching his chubby little fists in anger and distress.
The next picture was the most gruesome, and Tonks drew in a shaky breath. It was just that of a finger, all that was left of Peter Pettigrew after he'd been foolish enough to duel with Black.
The final picture was Sirius Black's prison photograph, and was familiar to most of the wizarding community where it laughed manically and silently out of the wanted posters, which were pasted everywhere.
She put the photographs back in the file, feeling slightly sick. So many lives ruined, by not only Sirius Black, but by all of them, all of the Blacks, all because of the power that He Who Must Not Be Named offered them.
She knew then, that whatever happened, whatever her career and life brought, she would never let anything like that happen again. She would fight her hardest to stop dark wizards from having that power again, from causing so much destruction and pain. If she died trying, well at least she'd have tried to right some of the wrong her family had done. Two boys had grown up without their parents, because of two cousins and their love of the dark arts. She would not let anymore children grow up without parents if she could help it. She was startled out of her reverie by Shacklebolt's deep voice,
"You're quiet Tonks. You ok?"
"Yeah I'm fine. Just, you know. It's hard to believe that the same blood flows through my veins. It's just…. I dunno, it's just such a, such a…. It's just…." she trailed off, sighing. Shacklebolt shot her a look and then passed her a sheet of parchment,
"It's Black's interests. We can account for the motorbike. He ditched that just before he went after Pettigrew. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts, had it for a while, and we impounded it when Black escaped. The broom is slow by today's standards and we think he'll try to gain another more up to date model." He glanced up, taking in Tonks' still pale face,
"Tonks, you may share the same blood but you're not him. You didn't murder anyone. You're an Auror, and one of the few to get through the programme. You are not the same. You are much, much more than Black could ever have been, or even have dreamed of being." He picked up his drink and took a sip, continuing as if he hadn't just complimented her, "So we're back to looking at contacts. We've ruled out you and your mother. I'm confident that everyone on the list is a negative but let's run over them again."
Tonks was glad to focus again on the task at hand. She pulled the list of Black's known cohorts, contacts and family back in front of her. She frowned as she scanned the now familiar parchment,
"There's not a lot to go on really is there? Is there no-one that Black might turn to? What about this Remus Lupin? They were pretty close friends weren't they?"
"Yeah they were, but Lupin was also friends with the Potters. He was very distraught at their death and he's always been very closely allied to Dumbledore. Can't see him sheltering someone who killed three of his best friends. Besides he's been vouched for by Dumbledore. We kept a pretty close eye on him when Black first escaped but he was employed at Hogwarts so we didn't really have any real concerns. Some of the staff did though, and the Minister insisted that we investigated him, but as I say with Dumbledore vouching for him there was nothing to investigate. There isn't really anyone else Black can turn to. His brother's dead as are both of his parents. Bellatrix Lestrange is in Azkaban as are any other supporters of You Know Who who might take him in, your mother's a no-go, as are you and Lupin.
There's no option other than possibly Narcissa Malfoy, but the minister has vetoed any move to investigate the Malfoys. Not sure it's likely to be honest. The Malfoys like the Dark Arts and they certainly aren't Muggle lovers, but they like high living too much. I can't see them jeopardising that, plus a stint in Azkaban for Black. It just wouldn't make any sense. Besides Black never seemed close to any of his cousins except your mother. You can see why I'm stumped really. He's just so difficult to predict. I need fresh eyes on this. So what do you think?"
"Well this file's thick enough!" said Tonks with a grin, "But I agree we don't have anything to go on. We're pretty sure he's abroad but is there anything that will tempt him back to the UK? Although we've got all this info on him we don't really know him do we? Problem is anyone who could tell us about him obviously didn't know him either, because no-one saw him allying himself with He Who Must Not Be Named did they? I dunno Kingsley, 'cept that I'm beat. Maybe we should have a think and then get back to it. I'm off tomorrow but I'm in again on Friday and then I have my first weekend off in three weeks. What are your hours?"
She raised her arms above her head stretching and not even attempting to stifle her yawn. Kingsley matched her yawn and replied,
"I'mon t'maraw anover weekend buoffmonday somaybeee meettuesday?"
Tonks grinned, "sorry mate but I don't understand yawn speak!"
Kingsley chuckled and clarified, "I'm working tomorrow and the weekend and I have Monday off. Shall we meet Tuesday, say half eight my office?"
"Half-eight? Sure. Hey, Black liked Quidditch didn't he?"
Kingsley frowned, "yeah I think so, why?"
"Have we got the international ticket inspectors for the world cup looking out for him? He may be polyjuiced."
"I don't think he'd be stupid enough to risk his life for a Quidditch game Tonks."
"No me neither, but doesn't that give us an excuse to go see the game?" she added with a wink.
"I wish. Nah I don't think we can get away with that! I'll make sure that the inspectors keep an eye out though, however unlikely it may be. Right I'm off" he said pulling on his coat as he spoke, "night, or morning or whatever. I'll owl you if I have any more information Tonks."
"Bye then Kingsley!" she said with a smile, "hey Kingsley?"
He turned back towards her, hand on the door, "yeah?"
"Thanks." He raised his eyebrows in a silent question and she elaborated, "You know, for accepting me as Tonks, not Black's cousin or the freak Metamorphmagus. Cheers mate!"
"No problem Tonks. We're not all like Scrimgeour or Fudge. I think you'll be a great Auror. I've seen your work in house and you're good. You know when to push and when to back off. We'll get Black and then no-one can criticise you anymore."
"Thanks Kingsley. See you Tuesday." Kingsley nodded and left the shop.
Tonks gathered the papers together, shoved them unceremoniously back into the file and stuffed them in with her stained robes. She paused looking at her robes. She sat down again and pulled the robe out spreading it across her knee and she bent forward examining the stain closely.
"Damn it" she muttered, knowing full well that her hopeless laundry spells would be no match for this particular stain. She sighed, shoved the robe back into her bag and left the shop. She rounded the corner into an alley, and checking she wasn't being watched apparated to her parent's house.
The stain called for drastic measures.
Her mother!