Tonks lies on the cold, stone floor of the Great Hall.
At first, thousands of steps, yells, cries, laments and thrilled conversations fill the air of the Hall, pounding painfully in Tonks' head.
Then, gradually, the place goes silent and empties out.
Hogwarts' Protectors- students, teachers and Order's members- leave the Hall one by one, apparently heading outside.
Tonks isn't sure what is going on, but she feels the smell of grand finale in the air. The battle is coming to its end.
Tonks hears the massive, oak door slamming behind the last leaving person. The hall goes perfectly silent, and Tonks remains motionless for another couple of minutes, making sure she is really the only one to stay.
She opens her eyes cautiously and gasps. She finds herself in the middle of a section of the Great Hall densely covered with dead bodies.
Lupin's corpse is placed close to her. One of the Weasley twins is another causality she can recognize, lying amongst dozens of others. Tonks flinches; the battle had been violent and fierce. If the Hogwarts' Protectors side has so many fallen ones, how the losses balance look like for the Death Eaters...?
Tonks slowly sits up and draws her wand, pressing it against her chest.
'Finite Incantatem.' she mutters and takes a deep breath. She instantly feels her blood starting to circulate faster, and her heartbeat's pace increasing. She feels her cold hands and feet warming up and her pale face regain some healthy color...
She stands up- the only living person amongst dozens of corpses- and makes her body transform into an unobtrusive form: a small, slouching elderly lady with crooked fingers and milky-white hair.
She recalls the days during her Auror apprenticeship, when she used to sneak out from school under a guise of an elderly janitor. She recalls the moves and way of walking she used to have, impersonating the old lady.
Limping and stumbling, she slowly gets through the carpet of dead bodies and heads outside.
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A commotion has already started in front of the main entrance.
Two sides of the battle stand in extended lines, facing each other.
Hogwarts' upper-year students, led by the teachers and several Order's members.
The Dark Lord, with Aunt Bella and Uncle Lucius at both of his sides. The rest of the Death Eaters and a small group of unmarked followers. The half-giant gamekeeper, holding something that appears to be a dead body of Harry Potter in his arms.
Fenrir.
Fenrir stands there as a lieutenant, leading a makeshift regiment formed of a Werewolves pack.
Tonks' disguise cannot fool her mate's perfect sense of olfaction. Fenrir looks straight at her, smiling, having felt her fragrance. Tonks' thin lips curl up in a smile.
Eyes of the Wizards and Witches from both sides of the conflict are focused on the no-man's-land inbetween the opposing extended lines.
A chubby boy stands there, alone. Neville Longbottom.
Everything happens within a couple of seconds.
Burning Sorting Hat on Longbottom's head.
Silver sword. Longbottom holds a silver sword, which miraculously appeared inside of the Hat.
Nagini, curled up by the Dark Lord's feet.
Her twinkling, yellow eyes with vertical, wide pupils.
Longbottom, running towards the serpent, taking a wide swing backwards with the sword.
Tonks acts on impulse. She doesn't really recall jumping forward to Longbottom and grabbing the sword by its incredibly sharp blade. All she can see at the moment is a horrible stream of blood, squirting from exposed arteries in her sliced palms...
'Avada Kedavra.'
A flash of green light and a confused expression, frozen on Longbottom's face, as he slowly slumps over to the ground.
'NOOOOOOOO!'
Tonks sighs. Of course, Potter would fake his own death.
She watches the boy "miraculously resurrecting" and jumping off the half-giant's arms, accompanied by gasps and cries of joy from the Hogwarts' Protectors side.
Tonks looks down, at the huge drops of blood falling down from the deep wounds on her palms. The blood drips on the silver sword, released by Longbottom when the Killing Curse had hit his chest.
Disregarding the severe bleeding and burning pain, Tonks picks the sword up by its jeweled handle. She drops the restrictive disguise of the elderly lady, making her body transform back to her usual form.
She lifts her eyes up, just to see a horrified, shocked face of Potter . The boy stands upon Longbottom's body, staring at Tonks in utter disbelief.
'Tonks...?' he whispers.
Tonks clenches her bleeding fists tighter on the sword's handle.
'Wotcher, Harry.' she mutters, and jumps forward, sinking the sword's blade into Potter's chest in one, swift move.
A huge blood stain immedietly appears on Potter's shirt, and spreads out quickly all over his upper body. Tonks pulls the blade off and watches the boy collapsing to the ground, with a silent question frozen in his eyes.
Tonks steps over the corpse and heads to the victorious side.
Her triumphant march is accompanied by loud cheers and applause. Death Eaters are rejoicing, but their voices and exclamations don't really get across to Tonks' dumbfounded mind. She reaches the friendly extended line, and Fenrir jumps forward, catching the girl in his warm embrace. He leads her quickly through the Death Eater's lines all the way back to the homefront.
Tonks is dizzy and light-headed from the blood loss. She feels Fenrir sitting her down on a large piece of debris, supporting her shaking body with his arms. He kneels by her side and starts licking her sliced palms with his harsh tongue. The pain progressively diminishes; Werewolf's saliva has some major soothing and sanitizing properties.
'Fenrir...' Tonks hears Aunt Narcissa's voice and opens her eyes.
Narcissa leans over the girl, looking at her sliced palms in horror.
'I wanted to disinfect those wounds first, before I close them, Lady Malfoy.' Fenrir explains calmly.
'Would you let me handle this?' Narcissa asks.
'Certainly.' the Werewolf answers and steps slightly aside, still supporting Tonks' weakened body from slumping over to the ground.
Narcissa greases some sanitizing potions into Tonks' open wounds, which makes the girl wince in pain, then, she uses Episkey to heal her palms.
'Thank you both, Fenrir, Auntie.' Tonks whispers in a weak voice.
'Here's Blood Replenishment Potion.' Narcissa says, pulling another glass vial from her robes' pocket. 'Drink, Nymphie...'
'WE SURRENDER!'
Tonks, Fenrir and Narcissa turn their heads towards the two fighting sides' lines, where the hoarse exclamation comes from.
Tonks picks herself up and climbs up on the piece of debris, to see what is going on in front of the castle.
Minerva Mcgonagall stands in the middle of the no-man's-land, in a pool, where Potter's and Tonks' blood fused together.
'We surrender.' the old Witch repeats. 'If you will guarantee that no more students are going to get killed or injured, I, as the leader of Hogwarts' defense, hereby acknowledge your side as victorious and proclaim our capitulation.'
To make her words credible, she tosses her wand straight under Voldemort's feet.
The Dark Lord nods.
'Mote be it.' he utters.
The Old Magic contained in these words awakens.
Wands of each and every one of the Hogwarts Protectors- students, teachers and Order's warriors- fall from their owners' hands, and fly straight across the no-man's land, gathering on a neat pile by Voldemort's feet, next to Mcgonagall's wand.
Morale of the losing side seem to be non-existent. Merely a couple of hot-headed students unsuccessfully try to hold her wands tightly, wishing to prevent them from escaping their grips. The rest of them let go of their most personal and precious belongings willingly, without putting up any resistance. With their heads down. Some of them fall of their knees in despair, a few others start sobbing.
Voldemort pulls out a dark, carved stick of the Elder Wand and points it towards the pile of wands upon his feet.
'Fiendfyre.' he utters softly.
A powerful, serpent-shaped fire stream shoots off the pointed end of the wand, setting the pile of wands in flames.
The former Hogwarts' Protectors go silent, focusing their vacant eyes on the burning stake.
'Minerva Macgonagall.' the Dark Lord says aloud. 'You shall go back inside the castle along with all of your subordinates, and wait in the Great Hall for further commands. All of you are now our prisoners of war, pursuant to the Old Magic contained in your words of surrender. Lucius, Amycus and Alecto will accompany you to the castle.'
Uncle Lucius steps forward from the line and grabs Macgonagall by the collar, not very gently, but still gracefully and classy. He leads her back inside of the school, while Amycus and Alecto take care of organizing the students and other teachers into neat rows. Nobody seems to resist. The former Hogwarts' protectors obediently follow their new superiors back to the castle.
While the losing side is slowly disappearing behind the massive, oak front door, Tonks suddenly feels very dizzy. She stumbles and almost falls from the piece of debris; Fenrir grabs her by the shoulders just in time to prevent it.
'Nymphie!' Narcissa says with a reproach. 'Have you drunk the Blood Replenishment Potion I gave you?'
Tonks opens her mouth to confess that she hasn't drunk the potion, but her light-headedness causes her to close her eyes and slowly slump over to the ground.
She fights off plunging into unconsciousness, while Narcissa and Fenrir are struggling to force the potion down her throat. Tonks puts and effort to make the flabby, weakened muscles of her gullup to swallow the life-saving liquid.
As soon as the potion finally spreads over her body, reconstructing her blood cells, her dizziness immedietly goes away, and her eyesight sharpens.
'Don't stand up yet, Nymphie.' Auntie Narcissa asks. 'Let the potion do its job.'
Tonks nods weakly and turns her head towards the extended lines. After the Order's surrender, the Death Eaters allowed themselves to slightly loosen the discipline within the ranks. The atmosphere is typical for a conclusion of an important, victorious battle. Everybody is rejoicing, excited conversation and exclamations fill the air.
Tonks' lips curl up, when she notices Aunt Bellatrix approaching. However- the smile quickly fades away from the girl's face.
Something is off. Bella, a most passionate, emotional and fun-loving person Tonks knows, is not celebrating along with others. Her heart-shaped face looks concerned and serious.
'Auntie, we've won!' Tonks tries to cheer Bella up as soon as she comes close enough. 'We've taken over Hogwarts, together, just like you'd said!'
Bella's full lips twist in a smile, but her eyes still look worried. Auntie Narcissa stands up, noticing her sister's facial expression.
'Bella, what's wrong?'
'The victory is ours, but there's one more thing before we can start celebrating.' Bella explains reluctantly. 'Our Lord's familiar is nowhere to be found. He's upset...'
Tonks freezes. She remembers the female snake's yellow eyes with wide, terrified pupils, when Longbottom took a swing backwards with the sword aiming at her.
The girl turns her head towards the castle, where Voldemort walks slowly through the debris, alone, apparently looking for Nagini.
'Auntie Bella, Longbottom tried to chop Nagini's head off with the sword.' Tonks says. 'The snake was frightened, I saw it. No wonder she went away, looking for a safe place to hide.'
'Maybe I could help.' Fenrir suggests. 'A serpent's body radiates a strong fragrance. I could try to find Nagini by her scent.'
Bella's face lights up. She heads back to the debris, to pass the suggestion on to Voldemort.
'I want to go with you, Fenrir.' Tonks declares.
'That's not necessary, you should take it easy...' the Werewolf says, but Tonks already stands up, getting ready for departure.
Bellatrix comes back with the Dark Lord.
The glittering, crimson-scarlet eyes meet Tonks' eyes for a split second. Voldemort apparently searches for adequate words to express his acknowledgement and gratitude for the girl's impressive battle performance, but the words seems to have failed him. Words aren't even necessary anyway; Tonks can see it all in the Dark Lord's eyes.
'My Lord, this way!' Fenrir says firmly, indicating his hand towards the Forbidden Forest.
The Werewolf keeps his nose lifted up high, sniffing the air with half-closed eyes. He leads Voldemort, Bella, Narcissa and Tonks through the forest, gracefully jumping over the tree roots.
At first, Tonks has thought that Nagini could have hidden in one of the hollows of dens within the forest, but the march seems to be unending. Fenrir apparently leads them all the way through the forest to Hogsmeade, and the three women start to shoot him hesitant glances.
'Fenrir...' Narcissa asks apprehensively. 'Are you absolutely sure...'
'The scent is getting more distinct.' the Werewolf cuts her off. 'The snake is close.'
They stop in front of an abandoned, ruined building on the borderline between Hogsmeade and the Forbidden Forest.
'Shrieking Shack!' Bella exclaims.
Tonks looks questioningly at the Dark Lord, whose crimson eyes are blazing with fire.
'Quickly!' he hisses and conjures wandlessly a cloud of black smoke, flying like a lightning bolt to the Shack.
What's going on? Tonks thinks in confusion.
Fenrir and the three women follow the Dark Lord and reluctantly step into the Shrieking Shack, accompanied by a horrible creaking of the ancient door.
'S-sweet Salazar...' Auntie Narcissa whispers, paling rapidly.
Tonks turns her eyes towards the gloomy interior of the cottage, to the place Narcissa is looking at.
The girl gasps. Nothing could prepare her for the sight she has right now in front of her eyes.
Nagini lies, curled up against the wall. Amongst her tangled twisted mass, a bleeding, pale man is lying, with his head rested against her thick neck. The giant serpent cuddles the man gently, like her own young.
Lord Voldemort kneels down in front of Nagini and the injured man shielded by her.
Only now, Tonks recognizes Severus Snape. He looks like he is barely clinging to his life; his breath is shallow and erratic. It seems that if not for Nagini, using her tangles to softly press his chest in regular intervals, stimulating his heart contractions, he could have passed away a long time ago.
Voldemort hisses softly to his familiar in Parseltongue. Nagini answers, continuing to support Snape's bodily functions.
The Dark Lord turns his head towards Narcissa.
'Nagini has already introduced anti-venom serum to his veins.' he says quietly. 'Can you do anything more for him?'
Narcissa, pale and horrified, kneels down in front of Snape. She puts her hand on his neck, covered in blood.
'My Lord...' she whispers. 'The snake provided him with an anti-venom serum, does that mean, that... that before, he...?
'Yes.' Voldemort answers. 'I made a mistake, my friends, a terrible mistake. I used to be convinced, that, in order to obtain the control over the Elder Wand, one has to defeat its former master. As you all could see, this is nothing but a lie and a deception . The Elder Wand has failed me in the crucial moment; when I faced Harry Potter, it didn't allow me to kill him. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. The former master of the wand, Severus, had been bitten by Nagini at my command...'
Tonks feels an ice-cold cramp in her stomach. The Dark Lord sighs, looking at the pale, heavily breathing Snape.
'Nagini realized my mistake right after Potter's "resurrection". She understood that Severus' sacrifice had been in vain, because the Elder Wand refused to obey me anyway. She returned to the Shrieking Shack and found him barely alive; her poison in his system had already managed to spoil most of his internal organs. She arrived just in time to bite the serum into his veins and save him...'
'He will live, my Lord.' Narcissa says firmly. 'I will do my best. If Nagini keeps on doing the cardiac massage, that would make things much easier for me.'
Voldemort hisses the instructions to the serpent. Nagini continues pressing gently Severus' chest, while Narcissa mutters some complicated incantations upon his severely weakened body.
Thanks to their combined efforts, Snape's breathing finally stabilizes, and his unhealthily pale cheeks gain some color back.
'We should transport him to the Manor as soon as possible, my Lord.' Narcissa says. 'I don't exclude the possibility of taking him to St Mungo being necessary.'
'I will take him to the Manor's infirmary.' Voldemort says firmly. 'Bellatrix?'
'I'm going with you, my Lord.' Bella answers eagerly.
'And I will join you a little bit later.' Narcissa adds apprehensively. 'Lucius is in charge of the prisoners and...'
'You may tell him to appoint several other Death Eaters of his choice to look after the prisoners. He may leave the others in charge and return to the Manor with you. Tell him, that the prisoners are supposed to stay in the Great Hall for a time being. As soon as a makeshift court martial is arranged within the Wizengamot, they can be moved to the Ministry and stand their trials. We shall see, how many of them can be redeemed, and how many will sentence themselves for a lifetime in Azkaban.'
Having said those words, Voldemort takes Bella's shoulder gently with his right hand, and embraces Nagini with his left. All four of them dissaparate, Severus still supported by the serpent's tangled body.
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Three days after the victorious Battle of Hogwarts, Tonks stands on a heavily carved small balcony, attached to her living quarters in the Malfoy Manor.
The full moon shoots a silver, toned-down light on the girl's face.
Everything seems fine.
Severus rests downstairs, in the infirmary, recovering in an impressive pace.
All of the prisoners of war captured at Hogwarts have already been put in front of a martial court arranged in the Ministry.
The Order of the Phoenix unconditional surrender sealed the Dark Lord's final victory. The Wizarding society in Britain faces revolutionary changes under the new reign.
Tonks herself is considered a War Hero. Her performance during the final battle has been described in the Daily Prophet, in an article headlined as "The Slayer of the Boy-Who-Lived".
Everything seems fine...
The only thing that bothers Tonks, is the silver sphere, glowing in the night sky.
She hears somebody silently entering the balcony, but she doesn't take her eyes off the perfectly round moon.
'Tonight is the night?' Auntie Bellatrix asks softly.
'Lycan's first.' Tonks explains quietly. 'Fenrir took him outside, to the clearing. He claims, that helping a new-born cub to embrace its nature from its earliest days, makes the transformation much easier and less painful with each cycle. Right now, Fenrir is shielding Lycan and doing everything he can to soothe his pain. Nevertheless, it doesn't change the fact, that our baby is suffering. Right at this moment. And I...I'm standing here, unable to do anything to help him.'
'Nymphie, Fenrir knows how to handle it. He has the experience. Lycan is going to be just fine...' Bella whispers.
'I can't stand the helplessness.' Tonks confesses. 'I can't stand the full moon nights. I could barely endure separation with Fenrir during those nights, and now, when I will have to accept being away also from my child...'
'Nymphie, you always could...' Bella starts hesitantly.
'...accept Lycanthropy?' Tonks finishes reluctantly. 'That would make Fenrir happy like never before...'
'...But...? Are you afraid of the process? Of the changes it would bring within your body? Of the pain of the transformation?' Bella asks.
'None of that.' Tonks shakes her head. 'I'm afraid of completely different things. I mean... Would you, Auntie Bella, accept me as a Werewolf? Would you love me just the same? Would I still be your favorite niece?'
Bella's eyes widen; apparently she's taken aback by these questions.
'...What are you even saying, Nymphie?' she asks with a reproach. 'Of course I would! My attitude towards you wouldn't change even one bit; hell, you would be even more awesome in my eyes, with all those super-powers you would obtain!'
Tonks smiles, relieved.
'What about Auntie Narcissa and Uncle Lucius?' she asks after a while. 'They were the first people to genuinely take care of me, to open my eyes to my true ancestry, and to teach me so many things... They are very traditional people, what if my decision of accepting Lycanthropy will disappoint them? That would break my heart, Auntie Bella...'
'Nymphie, Cissy and Lucius are not kind of people to reject magical half-breeds, which- unlike the Muggles - don't pose any danger to the Wizarding society or the magical genes pool. Besides, who wouldn't want to have a niece with a perfect sense of olfaction, perfect eyesight, perfect hearing and super-human reflexes? Be calm, Nymphie, I know my sister and brother-in-law. They will be accepting of your decision.' Bella states in a reassuring voice.
Tonks feels a heavy weight being lifted off her shoulders.
She turns her head towards Bella. The silver moonlight is reflects amazingly in Aunt's dark eyes.
'I will ask Fenrir tomorrow.' Tonks whispers.
Bella glances at the girl.
'Tomorrow morning, when Fenrir returns with Lycan, I will tell him that I want to accept the Lycanthropy.' Tonks explains quietly. 'I will ask him to bite me.'
Bella nods slowly and takes her niece by the hand.
'Let's enjoy this night.' she says quietly. 'I guess it's the last time, when we have a chance to admire the full moon together.'
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