Chapter 20 - The Secret Garden
Dumbledore called the meeting to order as quietly as he was able. Harry and the other teenagers were still staying at Grimmauld, and their leader was wary of drawing the teenagers' interest.
"First, there is the small matter of the schedule," Dumbledore said quietly, holding out his hand toward Snape, "which I have entrusted to our most meticulous schemer - aside from myself, of course. Severus, if you please…"
Snape sullenly unfurled a scroll of parchment, then let it go. Instead of falling to the ground, it unfurled itself a little flatter and hung suspended in the air.
"Wanker," Sirius muttered.
Remus glanced reprovingly at his friend. Snape was a wanker, and he took every opportunity to prove that he was capable of advanced magic; however, the childish game between him and Sirius threatened the survival of the Order
"Tonight, Kingsley and Moody shall guard the prophecy, Hestia and Lupin will stake out the Carrow Manor, and Nymphadora and I shall escort Potter and his little friends back to Hogwarts," Snape said tonelessly.
There was an uncomfortable silence.
"Arsehole can't help himself," Sirius seethed. "He'll take any excuse to make Harry miserable. First the occlumency lessons, now this."
"Severus, I do not think it wise for you to escort the children back to school on the Knight Bus," Dumbledore said sharply.
"Given that I will be travelling to the same place at the same time as Potter and his friends, I thought it sensible that I accompany them," said Snape.
"Be that as it may, Severus, there is considerable tension between young Mr Potter and yourself," said Dumbledore.
"That is why I also assigned Nymphadora to this task. They like her," said Snape.
"Severus, I rather expected you to give yourself the night off. The demands of your two roles are very great; unfortunately, I suspect they will only increase," Dumbledore replied.
"I am not afraid of work. We cannot all be safely ensconced in our family piles," said Snape.
Sirius whispered to Remus: "snivelling, preening fuck."
"Ah but it is not an offer, Severus," Dumbledore reproached Snape. "I am ordering you to take a well-deserved break. Remus and Nymphadora shall accompany the children back to Hogwarts, and Bill Weasley will join Hestia outside the Carrow Manor."
Remus secretly cheered at the thought of seeing Tonks again so soon. They would have to be discreet in front of the children, of course, but judging by her recent behaviour she would almost certainly feign some excuse to take him home and then…
Then…what?
He was aware their sexual process had stalled, and that he was the cause. He was embarrassed that she hadn't come that first night up in his room at Grimmauld Place, when his index finger was buried her pussy and a look of profound sexual frustration had worked its way across her high cheekbones and more-heavily-lidded than usual eyes. He wasn't sure he wanted to take her knickers off again, in case he couldn't give her what she wanted.
*****break*****
Tonks had adopted a tall, thick-waisted, flat-buttocked, iron-grey-haired disguise. She wore a transfigured tweed skirt suit.
Remus recognised her in an instant, and she was pleased to see a look of boyish eagerness settle on his careworn features.
They collected the teenagers and left the Sanctuary of Grimmauld Place.
On discovering that it would be her job to escort the teenagers back to Hogwarts, Tonks felt disappointed that she had not been sent on a more daring mission. But now, standing in the square outside Grimmauld Place guarding four unarmed teenagers and with only Remus and the untrained Weasley twins for backup, she realised she had been stupidly overconfident.
If the Death Eaters were bold enough to allow a brute like Rowle to parade in front of an admiring crowd, his dark mark concealed only by sports tape, why wouldn't they attempt to abduct Harry on his way to Hogwarts?
"Come on, the quicker we get on the bus the better," said Tonks.
Remus made eye contact with her, then hastily flung out his arm, hailing the Knight Bus.
A thin, pimply, jug-eared youth in a purple uniform leapt down onto the pavement and said, "Welcome to the —"
"Yes, yes, we know, thank you," said Tonks swiftly. "On, on, get on —
And she shoved Harry forward toward the steps, past the conductor, who goggled at Harry as he passed. "
'Ere — it's 'Arry — !"
"If you shout his name I will curse you into oblivion," muttered Tonks menacingly, now shunting Ginny and Hermione forward.
"I've always wanted to go on this thing," said Ron happily, joining Harry on board and looking around.
Tonks felt a not-altogether rational spark of dislike for the young Weasley boy.
"Looks like we'll have to split up," said Tonks briskly, looking around for empty chairs.
"Fred, George, and Ginny, if you just take those seats at the back . . . Remus can stay with you. . ."
She, Harry, Ron, and Hermione proceeded up to the very top deck, where there were two chairs at the very front of the bus and two at the back.
Tonks subtly scouted the bus. On recognising a couple of Knockturn regulars, she decided to abandon her usual views about corruption, and made her way promptly to Shunpike.
"How fast can you get us to Hogsmeade?" Tonks asked Shunpike in a low voice.
"We'll get there when we get there, Madam," Shunpike said a little primly, and then announced (in a show of hypocrisy so brazen that it was all Tonks could do not to laugh): "Ee might be famous, but that doesn't mean ee should be trea'ed any differen'ly to the others."
"Oh spare me the grandstanding," Tonks barked. "How much to get us there within the hour?"
Shunpike's eyes narrowed: "Twenty galleons."
There's a certain similarity between Shunpike and Ron, and it goes beyond the red hair, Tonks thought nastily.
But aloud, having grown too nervous about a potential ambush to haggle, she said: "done!"
She took her seat next to Hermione - who threw her a shrewd glance that she didn't like at all - and heard Shunpike's unnecessarily loud voice floating the length of the bus as he told the boys: "Listen, it's 'Ogwarts stop after this. That bossy woman up front 'oo got on with you, she's given us a little tip to move you up the queue. We're just gonna let Madam Marsh off first, though —" There was more retching from downstairs, followed by a horrible spattering sound. "She's not feeling 'er best.
Shunpike was as good as his word. At five to eleven - and with an unnecessarily loud BANG! - Tonks saw the familiar snow-blanketed main street of Hogsmeade.
She leapt up before the bus had stopped, banging her elbow on the window, and began grabbing the luggage.
As they alighted from the bus, Tonks began reciting the incantation for a partial shield charm in her head. She did not want to panic the teenagers for fear of what they might do, but she felt fairly sure they were being followed.
Again, Tonks thought that Hermione looked at her for a fraction of a second too long.
"You'll be safe once you're in the grounds," said Tonks, keen to halt Hermione's train of thought before the girl realised that she half-expected an ambush.
"Look after yourselves," said Lupin, shaking hands all round and reaching Harry last. "And listen . . ."
Taking a hint, Tonks distracted Ginny and Hermione with enthusiastic goodbyes.
Tonks heard Remus say in a low voice, "Harry, I know you don't like Snape, but he is a superb Occlumens and we all — Sirius included — want you to learn to protect yourself, so work hard, all right?"
"Yeah, all right," said Harry heavily.
Tonks and Remus watched as Harry and his friends disappeared up the main street, walking gingerly on the ice.
"Choos coming or not?" The conductor asked.
CRACK!
The bus conductor yelped as a lean figure clad in billowing black robes appeared.
Tonks started slightly, but quickly recognised the newcomer as Snape.
"No," said Snape smoothly, addressing the conductor. "They will not require your services."
Tonks and Remus exchanged wary glances.
The conductor gulped and stepped backwards into the bus, which disappeared in a cloud of purple noxious smoke.
"Albus asked me to provide you with this portkey to the Carrow Manor," said Snape, handing Tonks a rather nice muggle ashtray. "Mr Weasley and Miss Jones urgently require reinforcements."
****break****
The portkey deposited them on a path leading from an austere Tudor Manor house to a high stone wall, which Tonks assumed was the start of an old style walled garden. Tonks hadn't known where the Carrow Manor was, but decided from the lack of bitter cold and snow that she was in England. She touched her wand to the ashtray, then pocketed it.
Ordinarily, Tonks would have gone for the house first; however, Remus immediately began to creep toward the walled garden. Tonks followed.
When they reached the wall, Remus and Tonks crouched down near its base.
There was no gate in sight.
Remus cast a translucence charm on a stone in the wall. It shimmered like pond water. Through a blurry brownish-grey granite tint, Tonks could see what was happening in the garden.
It was bad.
Both Bill and Hestia were restrained. Four hooded figures stood in front of them. Tonks recognised the squat figures of Alecto and Amycus.
Bill and Hestia are only alive because the Death Eaters want information from them.
"I hope they are bad interviewers," said Remus, echoing her thoughts.
Tonks could see a lot more than she could hear through the cloudy stone. After a frustrating second or two of failing to discern any individual voices, (let alone words) Tonks gave up. She would have to go in.
"I can't hear a word. We'll have to go in. You'll have to boost me up over the top," she told Remus.
Remus looked at her as though she was insane.
"Alecto is asking about you specifically, and you want us to vault over the wall and charge into a two-to-one ambush?"
"You can hear what they're saying?" Tonks asked. She was so surprised that she forgot to whisper.
"Quiet" Remus hissed; then, in a gentler tone: "sorry - yes."
Must be a werewolf thing, she thought to herself. And I bet he can see them a lot better than I can, too.
"What do we do?" Tonks asked.
"Wait, for now. This is useful intelligence," said Remus grimly, cocking his head to the side as he listened through the stone.
I suppose it could be a whole lot worse. At least Aunty Bellatrix isn't here to up the interrogation ante, she reminded herself grimly
"They know you were - " Remus started to say, but broke off and pointed at the stone to indicate he was listening.
Tonks willed herself not to grind her teeth.
" - following them to apothecaries," he finished. "Alecto worked it out, and-"
"Remus, you can tell me all that later! Let's get Bill and Hestia," said Tonks.
Remus shook his head firmly.
"It's like last time," he said. "The war really is starting now. This is important information, Tonks - if I don't make it out of here, someone will need to tell Dumbledore."
"All four of us are making it!" Tonks hissed.
*****break*****
Remus had said similar things during the first war - often to people who died soon after. Her naïveté made him feel old.
Remus returned his attention to the Death Eaters in the garden.
"A prisoner of ours used to work on Diagon Alley. She told us that while she was there, she met an auror who is also a metamorphmagus," said Alecto.
"That's the one I nearly got," Amycus giggled, miming large breasts as he did so.
"We think that auror was following Amycus to a deal," said Alecto. "The only question is - was she working for the aurors, or for you lot?"
Both Bill and Hestia remained silent. Looking more closely, Remus saw the young, handsome man was slumped, drifting in and out of consciousness.
"You'll have to talk for your friend, pretty girl," said Amycus.
Hestia said nothing.
"We'll find out anyway," said Alecto. "Don't try to be a hero. In real life, heroes die."
"Your friends would forgive you for telling us," said Amycus nastily. "No one expects a pretty girl to actually do anything in a war."
"I won't tell you!" Hestia said stridently.
"Crucio!" Amycus replied, his voice beginning with an unconvincing roar and ending in a squeak.
A searing jet of brilliant pink light had burst forth from Amycus's wand, to hit Hestia directly in her left breast.
Tonks winced as the spell hit Hestia, and from her muted reaction Remus surmised that she did not know that she had just witnessed a cruciatus curse. It was a weak example of the spell anyhow; its light was bright pink rather than the usual reddish pink.
The tallest of the Death Eaters stepped forward, brandishing a short, intricate dagger.
"That was just a warm-up," said the tall Death Eater. "WHERE IS THE ORDER BASED, YOU FUCKING TART?"
"Tonks, we have to make a decision now," Remus whispered. "Go in, or send a patronus for backup?"
"The Order can recover from four deaths," said Tonks grimly. "But probably not from ten or twelve, not yet anyway. We mustn't lure more Order members here."
Remus detected a well-concealed note of fear in her voice and wondered, absurdly, if his inability to protect her in this crucial moment might destroy her attraction to him.
Fantastic. You and your comrades are about to be slaughtered, and you're worried about bedding Nymphadora.
"We need a plan," said Tonks. "I've duelled Amycus before and he's good. How can we take four?"
"This wall is obviously vulnerable to magic," said Remus, gesturing at the translucent stone through which he had been watching and listening. "The garden was never intended as a fortress."
"I'll blast the wall, you send some bits of stone flying into the big guy and Amycus, I'll release Hestia and Bill - and then the four of us will take it as it comes, what do you reckon?" Tonks asked.
He thought it was an insanely, no, delusionally optimistic plan, a harebrained scheme devised by a junior auror accustomed to having backup.
You're an unemployed ex-school teacher, he reminded himself sharply. Your last brush with the 'Dark Arts' was teaching children - and Sirius! - to banish Bogarts.
He said: "on three. One, two, three."
***break***
"REDUCTO!" Tonks shouted the spell, giving her blasting curse maximum strength.
The high stone wall burst, oblongs of weathered granite hurtling through the air like missiles.
Remus was like lightning on the draw - probably a werewolf thing - directing a large flying stone to connect with the tall Death Eater's chest, wiping him out.
Then he attempted the same strategy with Amycus.
In her peripheral vision, Tonks saw Amycus's stunner hit and splinter the stone that Remus had directed his way. Tonks felt white hot agony, and heard a shriek being torn from her lips, but whether the cause was shrapnel or a curse, she did not know.
Tonks sent a silent 'relashio' in Bill's direction. The yellow light was so weak she couldn't see whether or not it found its target. The subtlety was deliberate.
Amycus was closing in again, but she was ready with a shield charm that she extended to cover Remus.
"Get'im!" Tonks shouted at Remus, who obliged by feinting left while staying inside her shield, then whipping out of it to stun Amycus.
Alecto and the final hooded Death Eater were bouncing furious curses off Tonks's shield. A ricochet caught the still-bound Hestia, who howled as gruesome scorch marks appeared across her face.
On the ground behind the duelling Death Eaters, Bill Weasley appeared to be coming-to. Like a man trying to wake himself from a nightmare, he struggled to sit upright.
The heat of Alecto's curse warped Tonks's weakening shield. She could not hold a charm forever, and her shield was approaching the end of its life.
"Help," Tonks squeaked at Remus. "Losing power!"
"Take cover now," he hissed.
Tonks flung herself into a flowerbed. She had fallen face-first into a scratchy, winter-bare lavender bush. Tonks briefly reflected on the absurdity of experiencing all at once the sting of sharp, woody branches against her face, the notoriously calming scent of lavender, and the heat of curses flying above her body.
Tonks took a few deep breaths and her magic tingled as it flooded back. She carefully morphed her hair, head, face, neck and shoulders into a clumsy grey-green and brown camouflage, matching the ground on which she lay.
Then she moved, slowly pushing up through her arms and holding her weight on her stronger arm, while her weaker one scrabbled underneath her belly for her wand. She found it, then craned her neck to look up and assess the situation.
Bill was upright, wand in hand, clearly concussed, and functioning as a subpar duelling second for Remus. Hestia was still bound. Alecto and the unidentified Death Eater were holding their ground, and the fight seemed even.
Tonks was about to launch herself upright when she saw a blue bolt of healing light leave Alecto's wand and revive Amycus, who leapt to his feet and, weaving as if drunk, enthusiastically rejoined the fight.
Fuck.
Amycus's first act was to revive the tall Death Eater, who Remus and Tonks had taken out first.
Fuck fuck fuck fucking fuck fuck.
Fortunately, both Amycus and the tall Death Eater were plainly concussed. The tall one appeared badly injured. Alecto and the fourth Death Eater were tiring.
Tonks grasped her wand between her teeth and then began to move forward, crawling forearm over forearm. As she crossed to another flowerbed, she caught the distinct, bitter aroma of wormwood.
She was still camouflaged and within point-blank range of the tall Death Eater. She settled back against a bank of high, dead-looking, stick-like flowers and cast a wordless stupefy. The tall Death Eater must have had a seventh sense for curses, because he leapt sideways at the last minute and turned to face Tonks, snarling.
Remus sent a rope-binding curse his way, and Tonks suspected he was unwilling to send anything stronger in case he hit her.
Tonks surged forwards, camouflage gone, shrieking "PROTEGO!" for all she was worth.
She seized Remus's hand in her left, and Bill's in her right.
"Cut Hestia down," she ordered both men, desperately holding her shield against the combined force of four Death Eaters. Bill released Hestia, and Remus summoned her wand. Despite her injuries, Hestia immediately cast a second shield to cover all four of them.
Tonks was reminded of the day they all had trained for Harry's extraction from Little Whingeing, when noticed Hestia's remarkably potent shield charm. She felt that she had aged about five years in the intervening months.
"Portkey," said Tonks, fumbling in her pocket with the pinky of the hand still grasping Remus's.
Panting, she brought the ashtray to her wand tip and released her shield. As her shield came down a fire curse hit her thigh, making her scream, but she gripped Bill and Remus even harder. Then the four of them were spinning into the ground, and Amycus's stunner hit Remus square in the chest, but it didn't matter, because they were going, going, going…going wherever Snape had planned for them to go.
*****break*****
Tonks was warm and comfortable inside a picnic blanket. Or, she reflected, maybe she was in a giant picnic basket. She could hear the whistle of the Hogwarts Express, and smell…wet dog?
Tonks jolted awake, her stomach weightless as the world tilted. She was lying in a tartan print hammock below a ribbed timber ceiling.
Hagrid's hut! I'm safe!
Tonks sat up properly in her hammock.
Hagrid's enormous mastiff Fang, stood in front of the hot, low coles in the fireplace. He barked.
Tonks heard a creaking noise and saw a flash of orange-red hair as Bill sat up in the hammock next to her.
"WHA-" Bill began, but Tonks ssshhed him.
"We're in Hagrid's hut, we're safe," said Tonks.
"How did we get here?" Bill asked.
"Dunno, just woke up," said Tonks. "The last thing I remember is the portkey."
"You and Remus probably saved our lives," said Bill heavily.
"I accept monetary rewards, medals and good bottles," replied Tonks drily.
From outside the hut, Tonks heard Hagrid's voice boom, "shut up, Fang!"
"I'm glad things aren't awkward between us," said Bill.
"Things will only become awkward if you keep assuming-" began Tonks, but the door banged open and Hagrid bustled through the doorway, revealing snowy white daylight outside.
"Tonks! Bill! Yer awake!" Hagrid boomed.
"How long have we been here?" Tonks asked.
"Two nights…well, one-and-a-half nights," said Hagrid. "It's eleven o'clock on Tuesday mornin'."
"And what about Remus and Hestia?" Tonks inquired warily.
"Ah, well, Professor Lupin recover'd faster than the rest of yeh, bein' a werewolf, see," said Hagrid. "Hestia's injuries are the worst. She's in the infirmary, being look'd after by Madam Pomfrey. Yeh couldn't all go there, see, students would notice."
