Author's Notes: Blargh! Edits for the edit god! Words for the word throne!
Tonks exploded through the door, boots pounding the tile beneath her in time with her rapidly thumping heart, as they rushed to reach Harry before the Death Eaters did. Judging by the screaming, they had failed. The door opened into a large open room. It was circular, with raise balconies lining the edge around a bowl like depression with a great arch of rough stone in the centre, which was covered by a black shroud. Below on the lower level near the edge of the bowl, people had gathered. If she were feeling generous enough to refer to Death Eaters as people.
They didn't wait for them to catching their bearings, only pausing to ensure they weren't hitting the students in the process. Stupefy! A large bolt of red light shrieked out of her wand tip and lanced down toward a sneering blonde bastard who could only be a Malfoy. He was quick though, she had to give him that, as he dove out of the way. The stunner smashed into the ground where he'd been a moment before.
She didn't pause though, following that up with a series of powerful hexes and binders. Damn Dumbledore and his code of honour anyhow. Soon there were spells being returned to them, some of a more subtle nature impacting the balcony around them with a clatter, others, like that last roiling purple one, blowing a solid meter of granite and marble apart where it hit. She cursed, she hated fighting like this. Fooling around with stunners, binders and minor hexes while the enemy fired crap like that at them.
She moved towards the stairs as the others dropped into the chamber below, it was all well and good for them to try mad stuff like that but with her coordination she was as likely to break something as not. Better to be patient, mind her surroundings. Constant vigilance as Mad Eye would say. She halted as a figure stepped to the bottom of the stairway.
The woman looked like her mother, if her mother had spent the last couple decades sucking down poison instead of water. Wild black hair around even wilder eyes. Bellatrix, her aunt. Possibly the woman had been beautiful once, but not anymore. Now, she was gaunt and wasted, with mad, wide, staring eyes. No hesitance on Tonks' own part, she couldn't afford it, not even for blood, especially not if Bellatrix were as ruthlessly insane as her mother had suggested.
The woman deftly sidestepped the stunner Tonks had aimed her way, a broad smile splitting her face. "Ah Ickle Nymphiedora! I always wished we had gotten the chance to play back in the day," she cackled, unleashing a string of hexes which tore up the stairway and followed with a spell which hurled the debris at her niece. "But I guess my damn blood traitor of a sister thought I'd be a bad influence on you!"
Tonks blocked the whirling debris with a shield and cast a string of hexes and jinxes at her aunt who was ever so slowly working her way up the stairs. Bellatrix merely flicked her wrist, almost negligently really and the attack was batted aside. She heard bellowing and explosions of sound as the battle continued around them, but she couldn't afford to let it distract her. Not now. She understood just what it was she faced.
Her aunt had basically acted as Voldemort's number two for the last half of the previous war, and she was - despite her mad ramblings - a deft tactician and a legendary duelist. She'd read her file back to front, she knew what atrocities her aunt was capable of. She'd need every bit of her skill to beat her.
She shuffled back, as Bellatrix hit her shield with a nasty curse which was doubtless intended to disembowel her. The resultant movement allowed Bellatrix to gain another series of steps quickly. They traded fire like this, thunderclaps accompanying the battering of spells against shields, and the ground shaking beneath their feet whenever spells went wide and obliterated a portion of the balcony.
She had had enough, she couldn't continue like this, and lashed out with something serious, a cutting curse followed by a blasting hex which showered her aunt with debris. "Better, little Nymphiedora! I thought you hadn't a spine, now I see you do! Dumbledore will be so disappointed when he finds I've strangled you with it."
They traded blows, moving quickly, sometimes hurling hexes, sometimes debris and transfigured objects at each other, but then her luck ran out, the fighting had destabilized the balcony and it shifted, Tonks had to quick step to maintain her feet and her heel caught on a piece of wreckage. She tumbled to the ground and rolled, but it was still more than enough for her Aunt to gain the upper hand. She stood and tried to bring up her wand to shield but…
"Crucio!" Bellatrix crowed in triumph, and Tonks' world dissolved into pain, worse than anything she'd ever felt previously. Aurors were taught what the spell felt like as a matter of course, but that was a training situation under strict supervision, this was something else entirely. She did her best, trying to stay upright, but she felt as if she were encased in flame, her nerves were alight with electricity and her bones groaned. She tried, she really did, but she hit her knees as her body succumbed to the pain. Then the spell itself stopped, though the pain didn't and she saw her aunt stalk forward. "Not bad little one, you held up better than most, but I'm an old hand at this, and now you won't be getting old at all," she said in a low voice, her tone for once devoid of its mocking edge, and its infantile tones. Now it was cold and ever so deadly serious.
Bellatrix stepped back then lashed out with a foot, catching Tonks full in the chest. She reeled back…into open space. She'd wandered too close to the edge of the balcony and now it was going to cost her. She fell and fell, and hit the floor below with a crash that she would have described as bone shattering, had it not been for the fact her nervous system was already half fried. Her vision winked out as her brain was suddenly inundated with reports of catastrophic damage.
She drifted, for a time, in a peaceful, blissfully painless silence, before she heard a voice from far away. "Dumbledore! Dumbledore is here…" She knew that should please her, though she couldn't quite remember why. Her vision tunnelled again as she shifted slightly, then words that she knew would haunt her for years to come. "Sirius! Sirius!" The anguish in that tone managed to penetrate even her fugue enough to communicate one final message. He was gone, Sirius was dead…
Tonks bolted upright, eyes flying wide, a rattling gasp torn from her lungs by the last frantic shreds of her dream. The last shreds of her memory...She flinched, her hands coming up as her eyes screwed tight shut against the images still cascading through her mind. She drew another ragged breath, and then another. Again, it had happened to her again! It wasn't bad enough she had to have lived it the first time, now she had to relive it every night?
She cautiously opened her eyes as her hand dropped to grasp the quilt. She gritted her teeth. She closed her eyes again, this time from exhaustion more than anything, and let herself slump back, her breath whooshing from her lungs as she flopped onto the mattress before once again opening her eyes.
Tonks allowed her head to loll bonelessly on her shoulders to look at the little alarm clock sitting beside her on the night table. It read as almost noon, she'd forgotten to set the alarm. She'd slept solid, if what she was doing could be called such, since around five a.m. Yet another poor night's sleep. She'd had many of those since that night at the Ministry.
The young woman groaned, shielding her eyes against the small lances of light dappling her pillow from the gaps in the blinds. She wished she could sleep, really sleep, if only to experience a few hours of true oblivion, freedom from her life. It had been a miserable couple weeks. Had it really only been that long? Sometimes it seemed it had been an eternity since the Department of Mysteries. Groaning, she rolled off the side of the bed and onto her feet. If not for the sunlight coming through the blinds, she'd swear no time had passed since she'd crashed at around five a.m. She fervently wished she could collapse back into bed, just forget the last twenty four hours, another miserable addition to an already miserable couple of weeks.
First, getting the call to rally at DMLE HQ, and then being deployed to her boss' house because the panic flare had been cracked. The shock and confusion this had caused had been understandably extreme. The Director's home naturally seemed unassailable to the rank and file. She remembered the fear when she first saw the damage to the top floor of the apartment building, and the panicked muggles dashing about. That fear turned to relief when they made it upstairs and found the fight over and Amelia alive and relatively well.
She'd been sent back to the Ministry to root out the right bloody bastard who had sold out and shut down the Director's floo when she needed it most. She'd organized a squad as ordered, and locked down the floo office, she had even begun sifting through their records and interrogating the confused staff when she heard Bones had returned to the Ministry.
She had left the investigation in the able hands of a second and had reported their progress to the director. At which point her evening had taken another turn. The Director had firmly and definitively filed Tonks' day under the crap column. It had been hard enough facing the fact that she'd gravely disappointed a woman she had looked up to for years. Amelia had been one of the few to believe in Tonks from the very beginning when she had been recruited for the Academy. She'd let her down, if not necessarily in joining the Order in the first place, then in continuing to serve them once the Ministry had joined the fray. It had been hard…telling her friends she couldn't help them anymore. It had hurt seeing their shocked and disappointed faces. She couldn't decide how she felt about the whole sordid affair.
On the one hand she had made a mistake and she knew it now. She should be glad Bones had called her on it. Being an Auror meant everything to her, it had been her greatest achievement, she'd proved that the goofball nobody thought would come to anything could get accepted into the ranks of some of the most elite wizards in Britain. And she jeopardized it all by joining the Order. On the other she was stung by the way that Harry had effectively given away her secret, it felt like a betrayal. Though she would wait to hear his side of the story before rendering judgement. She didn't know what had been going through his mind at the time.
And she wouldn't get to see him anymore either. Though again she wasn't certain how she felt about that. It had been beyond humiliating to be shot down so… thoroughly when she had gone out on a limb and declared her affection for him. That it had happened where others had overheard had been much much worse. At least he hadn't spoken to her last night. That would have put a perfect crowning moment on her very rough evening.
Just one more bad day, in a long series of bad days. It seemed like nothing but bad days had followed the death of Sirius. She missed him, she'd thought her favourite cousin had been lost all those years ago, then had found out he was innocent. He'd always been so good about brightening her mood and looking out for her. He'd even warned her not to risk her heart with Moony as he called his friend. He'd been right, and now he was gone. Killed by her evil bitch of an aunt Bellatrix Lestrange.
She couldn't dwell on that, it would just make her even more miserable and she had to get to work. At least she'd been smart and dumped all the fire whiskey down the drain the night after Sirius had died. She'd have been in real trouble had she not…
She rolled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom and stared at her bedraggled self in the mirror not really comprehending that that was Tonks, that was her. It was funny when she thought about it, that she never thought of herself as Nymphadora, not even in her own head anymore. She was…Tonks. And that woman in the mirror didn't match her image of Tonks.
She tried vainly to change her hair colour at least, that had always been the easiest but it stayed that stubborn rough and tumble mousy brown she been stuck with for weeks. She shook her head and stripped for her shower. Perhaps she'd feel better after washing off the sweat and grime from the last day? Half an hour, and a breakfast, later and she wasn't much better off, but at least she didn't smell. She sat chewing her cereal and glaring darkly at her small apartment. It really was a dump, she realized taking in the tired atmosphere of the house around her. She'd need to see about doing something about that. Maybe once she found the energy to actually do something besides eat, sleep and work everyday?
Luna was distraught, she'd barely held it together through the questioning she had endured at the hands of the Order. But now, as she sat under her favourite tree along the property line furthest from her house, she finally allowed the tears flow freely. They ran in rivulets down her cheeks as she allowed herself to sob.
Harry had left, and if what the Order suggested was correct, it sounded like he had no intention of returning. Life could be especially cruel she decided. It had finally given her a taste, a glimpse, of what a life with true friendship was like, and then had proceeded to take it away again.
She had other acquaintances now, which she could describe as friendly, which in and of itself was an improvement. But it wouldn't be the same, not without Harry. Harry who had been kind to her, had included her and trusted her with secrets. Harry who, even when he clearly thought she was being odd, never rendered judgement against her or returned cruel nicknames and jokes at her expense. It was in fact in being close to him, that she'd managed to draw closer to the others. Without him, she had no doubt such relationships would fade away again.
Life, or perhaps fate, had been unkind enough to take much from her in her life. The accident which had claimed her mother's life had also stripped away much of her father's sanity. Her childhood friends had, one by one, turned their backs on her. It had been one of them who had first labeled her Loony Lovegood. And some days, which seemed to have been coming with increasing frequency in her long isolation, she had grown to be uncertain of her own sanity.
It had been wonderful, escaping from her problems for a time, to have friends. The world was different with Harry around; maybe it was because he was a leader? When he spoke, others listened, when he required it of them, they got along. But he also seemed to make the impossible possible, things like her having friends. Causing a situation she only dared dream about to come true. The DA had been everything she dreamed Hogwarts could be, but it wouldn't be, not without him. All that would be over now, and so she grieved.
She wiped at her eyes, hurriedly concealing the obvious evidence she had been upset as she heard the crunch of footsteps on the gravel path behind her. She dared to hope, that for once, it would be her father coming to comfort her. But as she turned this hope too was proven to be in vain.
It was Ginny Weasley, one of her more positive acquaintances, and a neighbour. Judging from the redheaded girl's expression she had heard the same news Luna had. She also clearly recognized the same signs herself. "I take it you've heard about Harry?" Ginny said, a touch tightly.
She nodded weakly and sniffed trying to clear her nose. "Yes. Did the Order come around your place too?"
Ginny smirked bitterly. "Yeah, or rather they came and chatted at mum and we children listened in." Her irritation was easy to hear as she thumped down in the grass beside her.
"Your mother does not keep you informed about the Order?" Luna asked, surprised.
Ginny made a distinctly unladylike noise. "No, if we didn't listen in we wouldn't know anything at all."
They sat in silence, considering that for a time. Luna too would prefer to be informed and worry than be blissfully ignorant. "Do you know why Harry has left?"
Ginny grimaced. "No, he doesn't really speak with me a lot. Not about anything important anyways."
Luna was disappointed. She wanted answers. "Does anyone know why he left?"
There was a hesitant pause while Ginny considered her response. "Maybe…" she admitted. "I overheard that Amelia Bones, you know the Director of the DMLE? I heard she'd seen him since he left his relatives."
Madam Bones, as Luna knew her, was a serious but kind woman, who valued law and order above just about everything else. She'd met the woman once or twice briefly when she'd been forced to enter the ministry to post bail whenever her father got himself in trouble on one of his crusades.
Ginny was nodding now. "Yeah, apparently Harry was with her at some point...Oh!" Ginny yelped giving Luna a start. "Did you hear? She was attacked. It was You-Know-Who himself!" she explained with a shiver.
Luna nodded slowly. "I knew there was an attack, but I hadn't heard that he was there, how did she survive?" she asked. Nobody survived Voldemort, at least not regular people. People like Dumbledore and Harry did. But not normal people like her or Madam Bones.
Ginny scratched her neck absently and shrugged. "Don't know...You don't think? Do you think that was when Harry was there do you?" she wondered aloud.
Luna paused considering that. Harry Potter had perhaps the most uncanny sense of timing when it came to trouble, and if he really had been with Madam Bones at sometime in the recent past...What were the chances after all of the woman having survived such an attack alone? "Maybe," she allowed. "Do you know what he was with her to speak about?"
She finally had a potential source on what was happening, she was going to get what information she could. Ginny shook her head. "No, apparently she's being really tight lipped about it all. She even admitted to covering for Harry but would say nothing else…." She trailed off as a thought occurred to her. "However, she did demand all the Auror members of the Order resign from the Order the night before…"
Luna cocked her head thinking about that. "The timing is interesting, that would be about the right time…" She sighed. "I don't think he plans to come back, do you?" Ginny merely looked askance at her and explained. "Would you risk coming back under Dumbledore's control if you had gone through the trouble to disappear? I mean it appears he went through the effort of striking a bargain with Madam Bones, if she's willing to cover for him like that."
Ginny nodded as she followed the other girl's reasoning. "What do you think he's doing?"
Luna shrugged. "I don't know, but I intend to find out." They sat together for a time just watching the wind ripple the wheat in a nearby field. "Have you heard from any others about being questioned by the Order?"
"No, not yet." Ginny said, shaking her head. "None of us Weasleys have heard from him. You haven't heard from him. Hermione's out of the country again, we think…" She stopped as Luna's head jerked around to look at her.
"Hermione's gone, too?" Luna asked, shocked.
Ginny shrugged. "No, she just goes on vacation with her parents this time of year. We've owled her but she hasn't gotten around to responding to our letters is all."
Luna gave her a skeptical look. "Hermione? Not being punctual about answering her mail? We are talking about the same woman aren't we?" she asked, giving her friend a look that clearly communicated how absurd a notion this was.
Ginny blinked as she considered that. "You think Hermione knows and is just not telling the rest of us?"
Luna cocked her head quizzically at the redhead. "Who else would Harry trust to help him in a time of need?" Ginny flushed and visibly flinched, before stamping down hard on her temperament, it was profound enough that Luna made note of it. "What? What is it?"
Ginny shook herself and looked chagrined. "Sorry, just-the thought of the two of them alone...it still gets me sometimes," she admitted sheepishly.
Luna eyed her friend blandly, Ginny had held a torch for Harry for quite some time, anyone who knew her at all would find it obvious. Still the restraint on her part was impressive given the situation. It still raised questions. "Ginny? Why are you so fixated on Harry? Romantically, I mean?" Ginny blushed at her friend's frank description.
"W-well...I suppose it's because of a number of reasons really," she admitted, looking away. "I mean, I grew up on those stories about him...He saved my life in first year." She looked to her friend who was studiously blank, a mild smile on her lips. "He's really nice? A-and handsome too!" She protested, she gestured to Luna. "And are you honestly telling me you don't fancy him too? Not even just a little bit?"
It was Luna's turn to blush and look away. "Occasionally," she admitted, weakly clearing her throat discreetly. "It's hard not to be attracted to someone who's so nice to you," she defended. She wouldn't dare so much as to tell her friend how often these occasional bouts of fancy occurred for her. Her pride, what there was of it, wouldn't survive it. And she wouldn't want to hear about how often Ginny fantasized about such things. She shuddered a little internally. "But Ginny-You and I...We don't stand a chance, you know that right?"
Ginny flinched. "What do you mean?" she asked, her tone plaintive.
Luna struggled to find a kind way of explaining this, "Ginny, what do you really know about Harry, the real him? What do you have in common with him?" she offered gently.
"Well, I suppose we both like Quidditch?" Ginny offered a touch lamely.
"And?" Luna prayed for her friend that that wasn't all she had. Sadly the silence was telling. "You really don't know him well enough to know anything more there might be do you?" She shook her head ignoring Ginny's mildly humiliated expression. "But that wasn't what I was trying to explain." She looked sadly to the redhead. "Ginny, who of all the people at Hogwarts is it that people assume is dating Harry?"
The answer was obvious and clearly Ginny thought it was too, judging by the speed with which the response came. "Hermione…"
"And why do they always assume that?" Luna asked, leadingly. Ginny grumbled and muttered, but apparently still ran through the same list that was running through Luna's head.
"I see your point," the redhead admitted petulantly.
Luna nodded sympathetically. "So you see, you and me, we never stood a chance, because he's always been taken. Ever since his first year." She chuckled ruefully. "Though I would be surprised, knowing those two, if the two of them had ever figured it out," she noted fondly.
Ginny grasped one of the few straws of hope she had left. "But-Hermione's been giving me advice!" she protested. "She's helping me so I can get to know him better…"
Luna nodded. "That is because Hermione is kind. And unless I am incorrect she believes Harry doesn't see her that way either," she explained patiently. They sat, Ginny a touch grimmer than before under the tree. Eventually Luna sighed. "I am going to miss him." At Ginny's quizzical expression she elaborated. "He was always kind to me, even when I confused him. He never once called me loony…" She sighed wistfully.
Ginny winced, she had been guilty of calling her that before. But pressed on. "How do you plan to find out what he's up to?" she asked with interest. Luna had odd ways, but she always seemed to manage. Perhaps she could do what others could not.
Luna shrugged, "I don't know, not yet. But I'll figure it out," voice soft but determined. Continuing in the silence of her own head. Because I refuse to allow life to take more from me. It's time I stop letting it pass me by.
Harry had never actually been to an airport before, he had no real idea what to expect. He'd not even really had a chance to see such places depicted in movies. Harry had honestly been expecting to get through customs and just walk onto the plane. Instead he got to enjoy the splendour that was an airport passengers lounge. Filled with—as ever—sleepy and unwashed travellers and surly airport employees. The employees, of course, could be forgiven, after all they had to deal with obstinate travellers all day every day.
He was currently sitting patiently, waiting for Hermione to return from one of the small shops nearby in the Heathrow international terminal. It had been...hard, watching Hermione say goodbye to her parents. Neither she, nor they, had any idea when the next time they would see each other might be.
Even when he and Hermione eventually returned, whenever that might be, it was proving increasingly dangerous to associate with him. It would have devastated her and by extension him, should any harm befall them. So he'd done the only thing he could think to do under the circumstances. He'd asked them to ensure they stayed out of the country as much as they could. He had even provided a portion of his funds to ensure they did it. Hermione had been taken aback but grateful, while her parents had been hesitant to accept at first but had understood in the end. They had promised to see about leaving the country for a time in the near future, citing they had responsibilities they could not just drop at a moment's notice.
Upon leaving each other's company, the two teenagers had proceeded with the rest of the swarming masses to the counters and checked Hermione's trunk and the animals in their carriers. That they hadn't experienced any trouble as a result of trying to transport a foul tempered cat, a snowy owl and a trunk which was bigger on the inside than the outside was a curiosity that they had discussed for a time as they wandered the airport. Hermione had theorized that there might be muggle oriented incantations built into their trunks and imbued in familiars to allow them to go largely unnoticed. Though neither of them could prove it just then.
Customs and security, as was always the case for every traveler since the invention of borders, was an irritating, but necessary, evil. Their passports had been checked and triple checked before they were finally allowed through. They had received a raised eyebrow at the "sticks" they carried on their persons but nothing more, once they had been examined. Harry thought he saw one of the agents wink.
It had then occurred to Hermione as they wandered the concourse that they didn't have much to do on the flight itself. True, first class should come with plenty of amenities, but considering they had a long journey ahead of them they weren't really eager to take the chance of getting bored. So she had wandered off in search of supplies leaving Harry to ponder other things.
Such as the fact that he had no real idea what kind of shape the properties around the world were actually in as such. He had a disconcerting image in his head of a version of the shrieking shack with feral critters living in it. On the plus side they'd be able to use magic to effect repairs.
When Hermione returned she was apparently ladened down with half the store's inventory. She had bags of magazines, books (of course) and snacks. Along with a portable DVD player with headphones, movies and a spare battery pack and power adapter. Oh, and two of those strange neck pillow things… She had looked rueful when he held those up, confused.
"Sorry I kind of got carried away," she apologized looking sheepish.
Harry had handled it with equanimity and shrugged. "Well you know what we'll be needing better than I do. Just how long is this flight anyway?" he asked curious.
She shook her head. "It'll take us the better part of a full day, though I can't say I remember what the actual flight time would be, we'll be stopping over in Toronto I think to refuel," she noted absently.
He flipped absently through the movie selection and paused considering the titles. Oy….it was going to be a long flight.
Tonks stumbled into work, still half asleep about an hour later, feeling and apparently looking a bit like the living dead, judging by the looks her coworkers were giving her. "What's the matter Tonksy? Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?" Dawlish had joked. Tonks responded to that with the death glare it deserved.
"Shut it, John," Hestia Jones snapped, making her way over to her and handing her another cup of coffee.
"Mmm… coffee...," Tonks groaned blissfully taking a gulp. It burned all the way down but she didn't care.
"You still on the Floo department case?" Hestia asked once Tonks had deposited her extra gear at her desk. "Haven't heard any progress from down there yet, but then again I'm not going assigned to that…"
Tonks shrugged. "Last I knew, yeah. Not surprised they haven't, I have no idea how those guys can claim they're getting anything done in that mess." She remembered the haphazard piles of parchment, many of them half toppled or covered in the wax from burned down candles. "Sorry, I'll catch you later Hestia, I've gotta check in and see if they've actually managed to dig anything up," she apologized as she straightened and made her way to the door.
The Floo office—as with many such jobs which had been intentionally filled with bottom feeders and rejects from the other offices—had been hidden in one of the deeper sections of the seventh floor, which made it essentially the ministry's sub basement. She stepped into the elevator and rode it all the way down and then made her way, winding through the side corridors until she eventually found her target, just in time to watch one of the Aurors drag a petulant looking employee out of his chair growling.
She sighed as the office worker started caterwauling. Her day was looking less than promising. "Alright, that's enough. Dawes what the hell was that about," she demanded as she stepped up and pulled her man off the employee allowing him to regain his feet.
Dawes shook her off but didn't have another go at the man. "This… loyal ministry employee has had the audacity to spend the entire night bitching and moaning about being kept here when we've just found out he has been criminally neglecting his duties." He gestured at the mess around them. "You see this mess? We won't find any paperwork explaining outages or maintenance, because guess what. There are none. He and his staff haven't been doing it for over a year now." He growled. "And that means there's no way to tell who shut off the Director's Floo last night."
"Figures," grumbled the employee. "Some higher up is upset they're Floo isn't working right so the Aurors get sent down here to rough us up." They hadn't been told why they were under investigation yet, just that they were. "What does Umbridge want this time? Another favour for one of her friends. Free Floo travel internationally?" he demanded.
Tonks blinked at him. "Umbridge?" She asked confused. What did the demon toad herself have to do with anything?
"Yeah, that's who sent you isn't it? She's constantly on us to cut costs. Shut down this hub to save costs for this department. Allow this call for free. Of course we don't have any paperwork, she won't allow it. It would mean people finding out she was doing people favours. Guess we screwed something up though, if she's got you down here."
Dawes and her looked at each other in dawning comprehension. "And...last night, did she call for another favour?"
"Huh? Sure she did, wanted hub 238 shut down for maintenance, said they'd been receiving complaints," he muttered, getting to his feet. "You know this is auror brutality, I could have you charged."
"No, you really couldn't," Tonks growled. "Especially if what I suspect is true. Tell me, does hub 238 happen to cover a section of London? Say, South Kensington?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Sure, why?" Without a word the two Aurors came to a silent agreement, and grabbed him under the shoulders hauling him with them as they returned at speed to the DMLE. They only continued the conversation once he was in an Auror interrogation room.
"Because you doing favours for the Undersecretary just made you an accomplice to a terrorist attack, idiot!" Dawes snapped. "She's been having you do this for how long?"
The employee stared at them for a few moments, mouth hanging open. "You're kidding?"
"No, we're not. Director Bones' apartments were attacked last night and her Floo was shut off," Tonks growled. "Now are you seriously telling me you have no records of these… requests, from the under secretary?"
The employee peered at their deadly serious expressions and decided discretion was the better part of valour. "Uh-well I mean, sure. Just in case you know? I figured she was just-saving her friends a bit of money here or there…" he offered lamely.
"Any idea who these friends might be?" Dawes asked sharply.
"Uh-not as such? You might be able to figure it out if you can figure out why certain areas were down or free at certain times," he theorized.
"Thank you, you've been very helpful," Dawes noted sarcastically before turning to Tonks. "So what do you figure?"
"I reckon we need to take a closer look at Umbridge. She's a heinous pain in the arse, but she isn't exactly the Death Eater type. At least not the marked kind. She'd never risk her neck that way. Possibly she was just doing favours for someone else, and they used the opportunities to help their real boss…" she speculated, then glowered at the employee who was peering at them in vague interest. "Either way we need to talk with Bones again. Fudge won't let his favourite boot licker get hauled in for questioning by a couple pavement pounders like us."
Dawes was clearly thinking about the mountain of political crap they were going to need to dig through and climb over in the near future. "You know, sometimes I hate working here."
Madam Director Bones, was sitting in her office sorting through some paperwork. Technically it was her break, not that there were many people who could force her to maintain a specific schedule for such things. The reason she was still ploughing through this mountain of parchment was that she had a lot of work that needed doing if she ever hoped for her home to be livable once again. Not to mention the issue of making the place safe again too.
The sole benefit, if it could even be called that, of being the last adult survivor of a once prominent family was that she had the funds necessary to do something about all this.
Susan, the only other member of her family to remain, was passed out on the couch in the waiting room. She'd finally become tired enough to sleep despite everything a couple hours ago.
Amelia peered suspiciously at the fine print on the contract offered by the goblins for upgrading the house wards. Goblins were tricky when it came to finance. They had absolutely no compunction against taking ever knut they could reasonably expect to ask from you on a deal.
The drudgery of trawling through bank statements and contracts was finally interrupted by a hesitant knock at the door. She sighed setting down her quill. "Come."
It was Tonks who poked her head in the door. "Uh-Ma'am, do you have a minute?" she asked, sounding uncertain.
This was it, the moment of truth, would Tonks be staying with them, or would she be turning in her badge? "Ah, Miss Tonks. May I ask how your meeting went last night?"
Tonks winced at the directness of the question and the pointed way Amelia had used a reference which did not make note of her job title.
"As well as could be expected, they were...annoyed I resigned, but I did it anyways, ma'am. So did Hestia…" she ventured.
Amelia nodded, "Yes, she was already in here," she agreed. She noted the lack of reference to Shacklebolt from either of them.
Tonks wasn't done though. "Er, right. So I came in as soon as my rotation started this morning, and I went down to check on the progress of the investigation down in the floo office…" she ventured, hoping that they could just get back into working as usual.
"Yes, and?" Amelia asked, privately hopeful they had a lead considering.
"Aannndd I walked in on Auror Dawes coming this close to punching out one of the employees." She noted the director's wince and sigh and hurried on. "Yes ma'am, however we avoided further escalation and uh… there might be mitigating circumstances considering what we found out."
"And that would be?" The Director trailed off expectantly.
"The Employee admitted, somewhat unintentionally, that he has been doing favours at someone's request. Favours which included things like shutting down Floo hubs to save costs over night and taking down others for repairs," Tonks explained, a bit of excitement seeping into her tone.
"And would I be correct in assuming one of these outages included my apartment last night?" she pressed in turn.
Tonks nodded readily. "Yes ma'am. But we haven't had a chance to cross check outages with other attacks yet."
Amelia pointed at her, "Do that, but may I ask who he's been doing favours for?"
Tonks grimaced. "Undersecretary Umbridge." She nodded when the director swore and palmed her face. "My thoughts exactly ma'am. It was his impression that she wanted this done as a favour for a friend of hers…"
"But, you can't bring her in for questioning without more backing," Amelia guessed.
"Correct, ma'am," Tonks said nodding stoically. "We knew Fudge would cry foul if we even entered his office unexpectedly right now."
Amelia nodded, for the first time in a good day and a half smiling. "I'll see to it myself Tonks. Good work."
Tonks felt a bit better at her boss' praise. A small victory in what had been a string of defeats recently.
Dinner at the Lovegood house was a sad, quiet affair. Xenophilius Lovegood could tell something was wrong with his daughter. But he had long since passed beyond his comfort zone when discussing personal matters with his daughter. He'd always assumed Pandora would be around to handle female matters. So they sat in silence, Xeno contemplating his latest theory on the Rotfang Conspiracy while Luna ate her dinner in silence.
Her father had tried to ask what was wrong, but it had rapidly devolved into his typical nonsense the moment the conversation had turned serious. His leading theory on Harry's disappearance was the Dibblethorpe Confederacy—whatever that was… That had effectively put a halt to Luna's efforts to explain her concerns and feelings on the matter.
It was a sad reality that the explosion which had claimed her mother's life, had claimed her father's sanity. And considering some of the creatures Luna saw which no one else could, she couldn't help but wonder if it had claimed hers as well. Her mother had been a gentle, but brilliant woman, constantly pushing the bounds of magic hoping to better their world. Sadly when one pushed against something as ephemeral and complex as magic it had the nasty habit of pushing back, sometimes fatally. Luna never did learn what it was her mother had been researching at the time that had resulted in her death. She had been unusually close mouthed about it, and had kept no notes except a small pad with a single equation on it. One that Luna had failed to decipher thus far. Her mother had been brilliant, but in the end she had reached too far, and it, whatever it was she had grasped, had grasped her back.
She'd been the one to find her, she'd been instructed to hide in the cellar should there be an accident, and she had, but eventually her fear for her mother had overridden her fear for getting in trouble and she had ventured out. The world had taken her mother from her, and in turn taken her father. Now it sought to take the first good thing which had happened to her in years. It was intolerable, unacceptable, and she would not allow it. Not without a fight.
Author's Notes: As ever, thank you to my awesome Betas/psuedo-coauthor-thingamajiggers Temporal Knight and Bearmauls. Without them...well, there probably wouldn't be a story.
Afraid there's no rec this chapter. Will try to find more for the next one...