Chapter 36: Blinkin' and Cursin' and Nods

Dark! Harry had felt a squeezing darkness before, and though this felt a little different, like someone was inside him, pulling on his bellybutton, it still filled him with dread. Then suddenly, it was a little brighter, but still dim. A moment ago, Harry had been sitting with his friends on a chair in Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shoppe, but now, wherever this was, the chair wasn't, and he fell to a hard, cold ground on his bum. He hit the back of his head against Tonks' knee, but not enough to really hurt.

At the same time he hit his head, he heard Tonks shout, "Stupify! Protego!" just as the tea lady shouted right next to them,

"Protego!" and "Confringo!" At that, chips from the stone floor next to Harry exploded.

Tonks grabbed Harry by the arm and yanked him up, shoving him behind her and pushing him as she moved back away from Madam Puddifoot. The Auror cast another Protego, as she did this, wondering if Madam Puddifoot was under Imperio, or if she was a polyjuiced Bellatrix LeStrange. Tonks wanted to Apparate away with Harry, but worried that if there were anti-Apparition wards up, it would leave them open to attack, as she attempted the escape. If they could get behind something, she could risk trying it. In the meantime, she and Puddifoot – or LeStrange, as Tonks had decided was the case – were exchanging a steady stream of offensive and defensive spells. Tonks tried direct binding and stunning spells and even a Deprimo to disrupt the floor below Bellatrix, to try to unbalance her. But the other witch was too quick, and levitated herself just in time. All the while, Tonks was easing Harry backwards, keeping him behind her, when suddenly, Harry tripped over something and Tonks went sprawling down with him. That was the moment her opponent needed to cast against Tonks, unimpeded.

Harry was falling and Tonks was landing with him, when the tea lady shouted "Expulso!" Suddenly Tonks flew over Harry's prone form, her boot kicking him painfully in the shoulder, as she went sailing past. Now the Tea Lady was laughing and jumping up and down. Harry scrambled towards where Tonks had landed against a stone wall, and reached for her coat sleeve, but the tea lady pointed her wand at him and screamed, "Relashio!" and somehow, Harry's hand was pushed away from Tonks. Tonks wasn't moving. Her eyes were closed. Was she dead? Was this how dead happened? "Tonks? Tonks! Wake up, Tonks, please!"

Bellatrix LeStrange let out a shriek of laughter at this. "She's not going to help you, boy," she said in Madam Puddifoot's voice. she aimed her wand at Tonks yelling, "Stupify! Stupify! Stupify!" Then she turned her wand on Harry. "No one can help you, now, ickle Harry."

Hearing that name again sent an icy chill down Harry's spine. The Darvey-Lady had called him that. He looked around, but no one else was there. And when he looked, he saw what he had tripped over. A large wooden scrubbing brush. And he saw where he was. It was the Punishment Room.

The tea lady laughed again. It was a cruel sound, followed by a cruel, mocking voice. "Don't remember me, ickle Harry? Maybe this will refresh your memory." And she sent a Stinging Hex at his lips.

Harry rubbed his mouth, looking at her in disbelief. Then she sent little stones out of her wand at him. They smarted, as they landed on his raised arm and forehead. "No," he whispered. It couldn't be her. Not the Darvey-Lady. But then she proceeded to cast a series of spells at Harry. The same spells the Darvey-Lady had used on him before, and he knew it was her, even though she looked different. Well, he reasoned, if she could turn into a jarvey, she could probably turn into anything.

"Look at you, Harry Potter, crawling on the floor like a filthy insect. Perhaps you need another bath?" she laughed. "Or perhaps I should drown your ickle Auror friend, first? Then I can have my house elves clean you using her spiky hair as a scrub brush."

That threat found Harry his voice. "Don't you hurt her!" he cried, wiping his tears with the back of his hand.

"Oh, ho! It speaks, does it? You dare to tell me what to do?!" she pointed her wand at him again. "Everte Statum!" she cried, and Harry went backwards, falling on Tonks' still form.

He pushed himself off her and put his hand on her cheek. "Tonks, please wake up," he begged.

"I wonder if she's dead, she landed on her head," sang Bellatrix, aiming her wand at Harry again. "Everte Statum!" and this time, the spell sent Harry flying away from Tonks and into the open cage he had been imprisoned in before. As he landed harshly against the back bars, he heard the door swing shut.

~o~

"One at a time, one at a time," Dawlish had to shout over the pandemonium left in the wake of Harry's disappearance. The other patrons of the shoppe, mostly teenage couples were adding their clamor of voices to the confusion. "Sonorus! EVERYONE. BE. QUITE – NOW! Quietus. You," he pointed his wand at Hermione, and she instinctively reached for her own wand. Dawlish lowered his, saying, "Sorry, Ms Granger. Please, you describe exactly what happened, and everyone else: Quiet."

"I- I'm not sure. We were being served our drinks by Madam Puddifoot, and she – I thought she had brought an extra serviette for Harry. But she pressed it to his back. Tonks tried to warn us that it was a Portkey, and then the three of them disappeared." By the end, Hermione was tapping her wand nervously against her thigh. She could see Aurors out the slightly fogged window of the tea shoppe, stopping pedestrians to question them, and casting diagnostic spells, just as they had done in the shoppe. She didn't know what good it would do. There was no way to trace the destination of an unknown Portkey that she knew of.

Moments later, Madam Pomfrey and Headmistress McGonogall rushed into the shoppe."Where's Harry? What's happened? Where is he?" Poppy gasped desperately.

"I'm sorry, Madam Pomfrey," began Dawlish, an agonized expression on his face. "It- it was a Portkey."

Tears sprang to Poppy's eyes at this pronouncement and Minerva conjured a large handkerchief and pressed it into her hand. Poppy drew it to her mouth, heaving in a deep breath.

"But Auror Tonks is with him," he continued. "She will protect him with her life."

This did nothing to assuage Poppy's terror. "Who did this? Was it her? Was it Bellatrix LeStrange?"

"We can't be sure. It looked like Madam Puddifoot, who had the Portkey. But she may have been under the Imperius curse."

"Or it may have been Bellatrix LeStrange under Polyjuice," cut in Minerva, her voice cold.

"Yes," said Dawlish, his eyes downcast. "That is the other possibility we are operating under."

"She was blinking too much," said Ginny, who had been quiet till then.

"What's that, Ms Weasley?" Dawlish turned to the young witch. He knew she was one of Arthur Weasley's brood. He figured, if she was anything like her father, she may have something worthwhile to contribute to the investigation.

"Madam Puddifoot always wears these huge false eyelashes. She told me once it made her look more dramatic when she winked. But today, she was blinking them an awful lot, it seemed…" she trailed off then, feeling guilty for not saying something sooner.

Sensing her friend's fears, Hermione put an arm around Ginny's shoulders. "You couldn't possibly have known anything was wrong from that, Ginny. Really, you must believe that."

"Perhaps not," interjected Dawlish. "But that may indicate Polyjuice at play. LeStrange might not have been used to false eyelashes, hence the extra blinking." Dawlish could see the forlorn look on the girl's face. "But your friend, here, is right, Ms Weasley. There's no way you could have known."

"What I want to know is, what you are doing about it?" Headmistress McGonogall had her no-nonsense professor's voice then. She could see that her friend, Poppy, was too overwrought to speak at the moment.

"We are doing everything we can, Professor McGonogall, but-"

"And what precisely, is that entailing, Auror Dawlish?"

"Ma'am, we are questioning all the witnesses, and sending out tracing spells-"

"On a Portkey? Waste of time," she huffed.

"Professor, we are just trying to cover every angle. We've had a guard stationed at LeStrange Manor and we have sent a cadre Aurors to investigate–"

The Headmistress cut him off again, "And what have they found there?"

Dawlish was visibly flustered by the constant interruption. "Please, Professor, I haven't checked my update yet, as I have been too busy being interrupted by you!" by the end he was practically yelling.

Taken aback by the unexpected outburst, the Headmistress held up a hand in gesture of apology and inclined her head for Dawlish to continue. He pulled the little chalkboard out of his pocket again and tapped it. His face was grim, when next he spoke. "Anti-Apparition wards and Impenetrables on the floos, doors and windows."

Poppy couldn't hold back a sob, and Minerva wrapped her arms around the stricken witch. "Tonks is a very capable Auror, Poppy," she soothed. But the Matron only shook her head and sobbed anew.

~o~

He was back in the cage! Harry could feel his own heart beating so hard it hurt, as he gasped in shaky breaths. Tonks was hurt, maybe dead. He had to get to her to see if she was okay. He crawled to the front of the cage and pulled on the wooden bars. But just as before, they wouldn't budge.

"What's the matter, ickle Gryffindork? Can't get out?" Bellatrix taunted through the bars, sending first, a swarm of stinging insects at him, and then a jet of cold water in his face. As Harry spluttered, she cast Glacius at him, and a cold blast of icy wind hit, freezing his wet clothes and hair. Laughing all the more, Bellatrix turned away from the cage then, and waved her wand in a conjuring pattern, singing, "Now let us see, what is next in this scene? Time we got that nasty, pink Auror clean!" and the tub appeared before her, filled to the brim with soapy water.

"No!" Harry gripped the bars of his cage. "You leave her alone! Don't touch her!" he cried. "Tonks! Pleeease, please wake up!" But the Auror didn't even stir when she was levitated by Bellatrix. The crazed witch made Tonks' body spin up in the air as it sailed towards the tub.

"Noooo!" Harry screamed and something within him seemed to unleash. He felt like his insides were somehow on fire and freezing at the same time. A burst of energy welled up inside him. His vision clouded and all he saw was white. Harry had never felt like this before. He was terrified. He felt like he would expel a ball of smoke like a Chinese Fireball. The feeling was too much and Harry felt like he was exploding, and then he knew no more.

~o~

If Harry had retained his consciousness, he would have seen the roof of his cage blown back and the four walls slam to the floor, the ropes that had held them together only burning embers. He would have seen a Puddifoot-shaped Bellatrix thrown backwards as well, and heard the sickening crunch, as her head cracked against the stone wall. But Harry could hear and see and feel nothing. He was only light. Bright, white light. He was unaware of Tonks crawling towards him, or of the sounds of Aurors, careening down the dungeon corridor, coming ever closer.

"Harry! Harry, can you hear me?" Tonks croaked, weakly. She was kneeling over Harry's body, barely able to hold herself up. Harry's skin felt too, too hot. Tonks fumbled in her pocket for her chalkboard communicator. She tapped out the S.O.S. locator code and let it clatter to the floor. She conjured a flannel and cast Aguamenti to moisten it with cold water, and then dabbed at Harry's cheeks, forehead and neck. Moments later, she heard her compatriots coming down the stairs and running along the hallway, checking each room as they got closer to her and Harry. "We're here," she called, but her voice didn't carry.

Regardless, the door flew open and Head Auror Gawain Robards stood, wand poised in the offense position over his forearm. "We've got them, Get the Medi-wizard," he called over his shoulder, as he looked around the room, assessing the threat level.

Seeing that, Tonks did the same, silently cursing herself for not having done so already. Her head ached and she felt muzzy, but that was no excuse for negligence. She and Robards saw the still form of 'Madam Puddifoot' at the same time.

"Stupify! Incarcerus!" Roberts aimed his wand at the witch and thick ropes shot out of its end, wrapping themselves all around her body. Only her head was visible, the right side covered in blood and her eyes slightly opened. "Get another Medi-wizard in here – now!" shouted Robards, sticking to the protocols, though it was plain to see that they were too late.

In a few moments time, Harry, Tonks and the body of Bellatrix LeStrange – her dose of Polyjuice potion having worn off, were floated out on stretchers, up the stairs and out of the manor, to the edge of the anti-Apparation field.

"I don't need to go to St Mungo's," said Tonks testily, pushing against the sticking charm-held sheet. "I'm fine, Robards. I want to go back to headquarters to write up my report."

"Stay put, Nymphadora," commanded Robards. The use of her first name brought Tonks up short, and she stopped struggling. "I'll take your statement down at the hospital. Don't worry. You need to get checked out, and that's final."

If the use of her first name hadn't alerted Tonks to the futility of protesting, Robards' tone made it abundantly clear. She was to stay put and let the Medi-wizards and -witches at St Mungo's do what they would with her. "Stupid protocols," she muttered, and Robards fixed her with a steely glare, so she said nothing more.

~o~

Madam Pomfrey Apparated outside the abandoned red-brick London department store, which was the Muggle front for St Mungo's hospital. "I'm here to see my charge, Harry Potter – Let me in!" she cried, and she nearly flew through the window, hardly waiting for the tackily dressed manikin to admit her. She was shortly followed by Minerva McGonogall, Hermione Granger, Ron and Ginny Weasley and Auror, John Dawlish. They crowded around the Welcome Witch behind Madam Pomfrey, who now held the flabbergasted woman by her robe collar.

"Where on the fourth floor is Harry Potter? I'll not ask you again," the Matron threatened.

The Welcome Witch nodded briskly. "Y-yes Ma'am. If you'll just let go of me, I'll look it up, right away," she gulped. Poppy released the other witch and took a step back, smoothing out her apron nervously.

"You children will wait here," Professor McGonogall told the three Gryffindors. Her tone brooked no argument, and she didn't even look back to see if they would comply, as she followed Poppy Pomfrey and the Auror onto the lift. Ron, Hermione, and finally Ginny, wisely took seats on the rickety wood chairs in the reception area, and waited to hear about their dear friend.

~o~~o~~o~

Comments welcomed and appreciated

-tsuj