16. Together Alone

Monday 7th September 1994

"You can't make sense of it? That's a shame, neither can I," said Kingsley, when she mentioned her views of the Black case notes to him over an 'accidental' meeting at lunch. "There are probably one or two little pieces of information that would make the whole thing make perfect sense, if we only had them. But then, that's Auror work for you," he said with a grin. "Hasn't Cassius told you that yet?"

"At least a dozen times, mate," she said cheerfully, making a face.

Kingsley nodded in recognition, but forbore to comment. "How's your potion-pushing case going? I heard that you arrested a suspect, but there hasn't been anything else from Cassius in the daily bulletins. What has she said?"

"Nothing much," said Tonks with a shrug. "Denies any wrongdoing, claims she must have been set up, but refuses to discuss the details of the case, or her relations with her uncle or any of the other suspects –" here Tonks' voice took on a sarcastic edge as she imitated a tight-lipped Charlotte Perks "– 'both on principle and on the recommendation of my legal advisor'. Very much a stand-on-her-rights sort of girl, our Charlotte. She claims – hang on, how did she put it? – we have 'no evidence worthy of the name and therefore no reason to treat me like this'. I don't know if she believes that or not, but at any rate, the old 'if you can explain this away we'll let you go' trick didn't work on her."

"Which you wouldn't have done anyway, of course, regardless of what she said."

"Well, no …"

"Ah. Sounds like she has more than half a brain, then That's always annoying in a suspect, isn't it? Do you actually have any evidence, by the way?" he added casually.

"Well, Don and Arnie found all that stuff in her house," said Tonks, suddenly defensive. "And she's got a pretty obvious motive with all the money Ashford's got. And the only time I talked to her, she really didn't seem to like Aurors much – might have been scared, I suppose?"

"It's possible. Then again, a lot of people don't like us very much." He took a bite of his sandwich and chewed for a moment, looking thoughtful. "I heard Cassius was asking for a Veritaserum warrant while the going was good, is that right? A delay might help, though – allows plenty of time for any countermeasures to fade."

Tonks snorted. "They'll certainly have the chance, because they're taking their sweet time over that warrant. Think we'll get it?"

"At the moment?" He paused to consider. "Yes, actually, I'm pretty sure you will. If that's all the evidence you've got you wouldn't have stood much chance under normal circumstances, of course, but since Old Boney lifted the lid off the cauldron … yeah, they'll probably sign off on it. Give them a bit of time – they have to pretend to be carefully mulling it over before saying yes, after all, and they're snowed under at the moment." He chuckled. "Everyone in the Department has been putting in requests – for the things we always wanted to do, but never had the chance to before. Don't know how long it will last, but it's nice while it does, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Well, I suppose so." She grinned at him. "I haven't been here long enough yet to tell the difference, you know."

He looked at her in surprise. "No, you haven't, have you? How long have you been with us now?"

"Erm, hang on ... it's only a couple of months, isn't it?" She blinked, in equal surprise – it had seemed much longer. "A lot's happened in a short time. Nothing like being thrown in at the deep end, eh?"

"I could have done without it, personally." When she raised her eyebrows at that, he added softly, "The war was still on when I started the job, remember."

"Ah, right. Sorry." Tonks winced, but reflected that a mere couple of weeks ago, she wouldn't have been able to have this kind of conversation with Kingsley in the first place – or indeed, any kind of conversation that could be described as polite, so even a gaffe-prone one had to be an improvement. "Nothing much else happening on our case now, anyway," she said to change the subject. "We're just going over the info we have, and scratching around trying to get a bit more, and waiting for that warrant. Everything's gone a bit quiet really."

Kingsley nodded sagely as he got up. "True. That's how Auror work goes too, Tonks, I'm afraid – extended periods of boredom and frustration, mixed with random bits of heart-stopping action. You just happened to see a lot of action early on. Here come the boredom and frustration ... another thing Cassius probably told you."

Tonks smiled wryly to herself as he left. He might have, yeah. At least two dozen times.

-----

Thursday 10th September 1994

"You're really following Portia Blackstock everywhere under that thing?" asked Tonks a few days later, spotting her colleagues troop into the office wearing a very disgruntled look. She tried desperately to stifle her giggles. "Even into shops, and those charity offices? What happens if someone bumps into you?"

"No-one thinks much of it in a crowd, so there," said O'Gregan with dignity, tossing the Invisibility Cloak over the partition of his cubicle. "And they put her out on a sort of reception desk in that charity office to look decorative, so I have been able to stand out front, quiet as a very discreet kind of mouse, and listen in. I was hoping that they would say something useful and interesting about Miss Perks, so I was, but no luck."

"You're obsessed, aren't you?"

"No! Well ... maybe a little. I do not like pretty little rich girls who think they can get away with murder ... or attempted murder in this case, although that is not for the want of trying, is it now?"

"He may be a trifle biased against pretty little rich girls," said Cornworthy to Tonks sotto voce, although with a twitch at the corner of his mouth.

"I heard that, Arnie," said O'Gregan in an aggrieved tone.

"So this Blackstock girl hasn't said anything at all about Perks then?" asked Tonks thoughtfully. "That's odd in itself, isn't it? The arrest did get a brief report in the Prophet – you'd think someone must have seen it, and there can't be so many people working at that place that one of them being nicked on an Azkaban charge isn't worth talking about, even if she was only an occasional volunteer ..."

"They did discuss it a bit," said Cornworthy glumly. "With a sort of ghoulish relish, of course, although young Portia didn't contribute anything enlightening. Don here seems to be hoping that she'll somehow break down in terror – but that doesn't sound like a girl who had the nerve to walk into a place like the Transfigured Toad bold as brass on a rowdy Friday night, does it?"

"Did she give any hint she'd been there?" asked Tonks. "Surely she must have met Perks, at least? She worked at that charity a bit as well."

"Not very often, though," said O'Gregan, for once sounding almost as glum as his partner. "Portia didn't show any obvious signs of interest when the subject came up, eh, Arnie? She did the oh-I-would-never-have-thought-it-as-far-as-I-could-see-she-seemed-like-a-nice-enough-person bit, but that's all." He ran the words together in a squeaky, high-pitched voice that was apparently meant to be an impression of Portia Blackstock (but sounded more like an out-of-breath house-elf to Tonks). "But everyone else seemed to know enough about her, so I don't see why little Portia would not do so. I mean, come on now, blonde or not, no-one can be that dumb."

"Don't let Rhiannon hear you say that," said Tonks, grinning.

"Ah well, exceptions to every rule ..."

"Let me hear what?" said Rhiannon Davies in an innocent voice as she walked up behind her boyfriend. She gave Tonks and Cornworthy a quick wink to indicate that she'd heard perfectly well. The momentary look of horror on O'Gregan's face was beautiful to behold, however.

"Ah ... eh ...that you're not getting anywhere on that there case of yours, my love," he said quickly, with a pleading glance at the other two Aurors, who did their best to remain straight faced.

It had the desired effect of distracting Rhiannon from what he'd said, though, She scowled. "Don't I know it. Same pattern on the latest incident, for your information. A Muggle kidnapped in an out-of-the-way spot – up near Inverness this time – followed by the usual Cruciatus, as far as we can tell from a first test. Then killed, branded, and left for their police to find. This is one sick bastard we're dealing with here, but he knows how to cover his tracks."

"Branded with what?" asked Tonks, nauseated.

Rhiannon shrugged. "I suppose it means something to him. Like a ... oh I don't know, a teardrop inside a circle with lines around it? Find me a meaning for that, at least we'd have somewhere to start. Anyway, I came to tell Cassius that if he needs any help, I can chip in again if he likes. I'm certainly not getting anywhere." She glanced around. "Where is he, by the way?"

Tonks shrugged in turn. "No idea. He wasn't here when I got back from Knockturn Alley, and he didn't leave a note." Rhiannon raised her eyebrows. "I was talking to some of the vendors about Ballantyne – as myself, this time."

"Any luck?"

"No chance. We had a vague hope that somebody there would have liked Ballantyne enough to help us by talking about who he might have known, or at least be a bit worried they might be targets too – but if anything, it's affected them the other way. They made a sphinx seem informative."

"Pretty standard, then. Are you checking up on Charlotte Perks' contacts?"

"Er, when we can," Tonks said evasively. She hadn't given it much thought. "These two were doing just fine on that. I don't suppose the link will be that easy to find, will it?"

"No indeed," said O'Gregan, with a sour look. "None of the people we talked to seem to think they were particular friends. Of course she could have met her privately ... but we wouldn't know, would we? We should have kept a closer eye on Little Miss Portia before we made the arrest. She's been very careful not to slip out of the house unannounced since then."

"How can you be sure?" said Tonks, intrigued.

To her surprise, O'Gregan looked rather shifty. "Trigger and Tracking Spells," he said in a voice pitched a little lower than usual. "Cast very gently so as not to disturb the little lady, but we always know when she leaves the house. We're just waiting now for her to come out. Soon as she does, we'll Apparate straight there."

"Donnie ..." said Rhiannon, with a worried look. "You know we're not really supposed to use those on people's homes without a good reason, even Scrimgeour doesn't think they're worth the potential aggravation –"

He dismissed this with a wave of his hand. "Ah well, at the moment I daresay no-one will care, will they? And I maintain that with her seen with Farley in the Toad, we have more than enough suspicion of her to justify it, so I do." He lowered his voice again. "And not to gossip, but the way things are going, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Scrimgeour didn't change his mind. The rumour I hear from Ben is that he's pressing Boney to allow us a lot more leeway, now."

"I suppose ..." said his girlfriend. "I wish you did have more than suspicion on your case, though. Are we completely sure that evidence wasn't faked?"

"No, we're not, but you still come back to the fact that it's not easy to mimic someone specific, don't you?" said Tonks. "You need pretty good Transfiguration or Potions skills usually, and you need to know who you're impersonating, and Charlotte Perks did know her."

"And Portia's too ... oh I don't know, butter-wouldn't-melt-in-her-mouth for my liking," added O'Gregan. "Even Cassius thought the old charm she put on when he met them at the World Cup all felt a bit ... practiced, I think he said? Like she just dropped into it automatically?"

"Are you sure you men would know the difference?" asked Rhiannon wryly. "She does have an alibi for that night at the Toad, doesn't she?"

"Sort of … hang on," said Tonks, reaching for the reports to refresh her memory. "It says here her parents were going out to yet another formal robes do at, er, the Bletchleys – they're another of those old families Cassius knows – and they were planning to stay overnight. Portia told them she had a bit of a headache and cried off. No-one to confirm it except their house-elf. Who'd probably lie if ordered to, yeah?"

"No probably about it, Tonks," said Cornworthy sadly. "Would have to, if it was a direct order. They keep secrets, it's part of the enchantment. We can almost never get the court to listen to evidence from house-elves, and that's if we can persuade them to talk in the first place. The binding spells are so powerful, even something like Veritaserum isn't usually enough to break them."

"Wow. I didn't realise that." A thought struck her. "Was that why they let Crouch go off with his elf at the World Cup?"

Rhiannon shrugged. "Probably. I'd imagine she was under general orders not to tell anyone anything without old Barty's permission. He's a strict sod. Straight as a die, though. Very fair. If he'd found out anything useful from her he'd have told us."

Tonks frowned to herself. Strict sod? Yeah, definitely; he was the one who signed the warrant and sent Un … Sirius Black straight to Azkaban without a trial, wasn't he, so we never got the chance to find out anything useful? Right now, she didn't think that counted as especially fair. She paused, considering. There have to be records somewhere ...

"Wasn't that bloke of yours friends with Charlotte Perks?" O'Gregan interrupted this train of thought before it could really build up a head of steam. "Have you asked him about her yet?"

"I shouldn't think so, Don," said Rhiannon, rolling her eyes.

"Why not?"

"Because it doesn't look good if I start an interrogation about his female friends, you prat," said Tonks shortly. "I don't want to give him the wrong idea – and whichever way he takes it, it'll probably be the wrong idea. I don't particularly want him to get the impression that I'm just interested in grilling him about his friends for the sake of the job, either."

"It's only a few questions on a date," said O'Gregan, unrepentant. "No-one's asking you to lie back and think of the Ministry."

"Look, Ches seems like a nice bloke," said Tonks through gritted teeth, "and I don't see any reason to muck things up with him before they get started – before I even have the chance to find out whether I want them to get started. I don't want him to think that ... well, actually I don't know what he'd think, but whatever it is, it's likely to be more of a complication than I need right now, with everything else I've got going on."

"What else have you got going on?" said Rhiannon, with a baffled look.

"Never you mind," said Tonks quickly, inwardly cursing herself for saying it. The last thing she needed was colleagues asking funny questions about any extra-official investigations she might be interested in pursuing.

She was saved from having to answer any by the arrival of Cassius, who seemed both tired and disgruntled, although he cheered up when Rhiannon explained that he had extra help if needed.

"Where were you, anyway?" asked Tonks when the others had left.

"Islington, as a matter of fact. The alarm went off to say that one of those books you bewitched was being taken out of Lore of Yore ..."

"Which one?"

"Modern Advances in Information Gathering," he said. "Modern for 1790, anyway, which was when it was published. It sounded innocuous enough to me, but I suppose if you charmed it I should take it that it wasn't?"

Tonks racked her brains for a moment until she remembered the book he was referring to. "Oh, that one. No, not really. It was information gathering by coercion. Might as well have been subtitled Things To Try If You Don't Want To Get Into Trouble By Actually Casting Cruciatus. Who bought it?"

"Only our friend Alexander Burke, unfortunately," said Cassius with a sigh. "Who's got his own private collection, and has always been known for it. I stopped by their shop and waited outside for a bit, on the off chance that he might turn up to put it into stock, but he didn't. If it is sold on through there, we'll probably never know."

Tonks shrugged. "Great. Oh well, back to business. Who have we got left to interview?"

"All the people who've been seen talking to Ballantyne down in Brighton. Apparently he was quite a familiar sight in the Magical Market there – probably did dubious deals with half of the shopkeepers – and a lot of people seem to have known him."

"So that's pretty much every wizard or witch in a wide area of the south coast then, by the look of it," said Tonks, glancing at their notes again. "Oh, including your friend Mrs Hallendale," she finished with a sly grin.

"Ah, I see." He looked a little embarrassed. "I'll do that one, shall I?"

Tonks looked at him in curiosity. "Tell you what, Cassius, let's go together. You know, I'd really like to give her a better impression of me than I've made so far. Every time I've seen her I've either put my foot in it –" both literally and metaphorically "– or I've been threatening to arrest her. Sound fair?"

"All right," he said, with what Tonks felt sure was a touch of reluctance. "When do you want to do it?"

She shrugged again. "No time like the present, eh?" She leapt up and made her way down to the foyer, Cassius following resignedly behind her.

-----

As Cassius rang the front-door bell at Angelica Hallendale's house, Tonks hung back out of courtesy, half-hidden by the hanging plants on the porch. After a moment or two, the door opened and the owner greeted him with a smile.

"Cassius!" she said, with what appeared to be genuine pleasure. "Hello again ... oh I see, and Miss Tonks, too?" Her smile slipped slightly too far for politeness, but she managed to hitch her back on her face again within a second. "Do come in then, won't you?"

Tonks followed them into the house and looked around with frank curiosity. Everything seemed thoroughly Muggle as far as she could tell, although as they passed the door to the lounge she caught sight of some sort of large glass object displayed on a table, and which looked as if it might have had some magical assistance. Then again, she supposed it wouldn't be surprising to find a few enchanted items discreetly hidden about the house; there almost always were in the homes of Muggle family members of wizards and witches. Her dad had presented her grandparents with a fair few of them over the years, after all.

"Er, I was just about to make a cup of coffee," said their hostess, seeming slightly flustered. "But I suppose you prefer tea, don't you? It's one thing I still haven't quite got used to even after all this time ..."

"Coffee will be perfectly all right for me," said Cassius hastily. Tonks nodded in agreement.

"Oh, good ..." Angelica said, gazing around distractedly. "What brings you here, then, Cassius? Not just a friendly visit then, I suppose?"

"Official business, I'm afraid, Mrs Hallendale," said Tonks. "We wanted to ask if you were familiar with Sylvester Ballantyne."

"Sylvester?" Her voice was surprisingly sad, and she turned to give Tonks an appraising glance over her shoulder as she made the coffee. "Yes, I knew him. I guess all of the … community in these parts knew him, or at least knew of him. I heard what happened, of course. Poor guy, but I always did get the idea he moved in dangerous circles."

"Would you know who they were Ang … ah, Mrs Hallendale?" asked Cassius quietly.

She handed him a cup with an arch look. "I told you, Cassius, it's Angelica. There's no need to be so formal. And no, I don't know who they were. Hank –" she swallowed, then carried on as if there had never been a pause "– might have, but then he never was too fussy who he bought things from. Oh dear, I shouldn't tell you that, should I?"

"Too late to arrest him now," said Tonks cheerfully, before immediately kicking herself very hard mentally at the realisation that this wasn't the most tactful thing she could have said. She too carried on regardless. "We just wanted to know if anyone knew who Ballantyne talked to or did business with. No-one seems to want to say. And I'm sure anything you did wouldn't have been an Auror matter, anyway."

Angelica examined her carefully again. "I'm sure some of the things we did might have been Auror matters, you know," she said with a smile. "But not since we moved here. We were quite the pair when we were young, though."

"What did you do?" asked Tonks with interest.

She smiled reminiscently. "When we left Cuba? Travelled all around that part of the world – magical and Muggle – living off our wits, getting into scrapes, and meeting all sorts of odd people. And having tremendous fun, of course. We even got legally wed … eventually." She glanced at Cassius and bit her lip, an action that couldn't quite conceal her amusement. "Oh dear, I think I've shocked your partner, Miss Tonks. I'm sure he'll consider me a loose woman now."

"Not at all," said Cassius, blushing. "Things were very different for you in those days and that ... in that culture, I'm sure."

"You didn't behave like that when you were a young blade?" she said teasingly.

"Well ..." He had a trapped look, as if hoping for a sudden attack from a rogue dragon that might let him avoid answering the question. When nothing of the sort materialised, he said with great care, "Whatever I say to that risks giving myself a reputation I'm not sure I want, wouldn't you agree? So I think I'm not going to say a word."

"Are you sure?" asked Tonks, grinning. "Hang on, give me your coffee, I think I brought a bottle of Veritaserum with me ..."

"I think perhaps I'll just wipe my memory to be on the safe side," he said with dignity. Both women laughed, although Mrs Hallendale seemed slightly uneasy.

"How did you cope with running away?" asked Tonks. Mrs Hallendale had always piqued her curiosity. "The wizarding world must have been really odd for you, mustn't it?"

"Oh yes, it was. Hank was Muggle-born, of course, so he knew how to fit in easily in both worlds, although I didn't, not at first. But then I was far too innocent and naïve at sixteen even to know what I was doing in the world I grew up in – although that changed pretty quick once I left!" She giggled. "I'm sure we broke those International Secrecy laws on numerous occasions, but somehow in those days that sort of thing just didn't seem to matter much, to us or anyone else."

"Very lax place, the Caribbean," said Cassius, nodding.

"It is?" said Tonks with surprise. "It seemed fairly well-organised when I passed through."

"Ah, but the magical governments out there were always rather weak until about ... oh, twenty years or so ago. I think the war breaking out over here scared them, and finally got them to stop bickering and band together for protection. There's a Caribbean Magical Federation now. In a way, you were lucky to know it in the, uh, wild days, Mrs Hallen ... oh all right, Angelica. I remember when I came across Jacmel before – when I was on liaison in America – it was an absolute nightmare trying to get anything from the records of all the little Ministries. They've got things in much better shape now."

"I didn't know all that, Cassius," said Tonks, looking at him with surprise.

"Well, you're here to learn," he said, smiling at her.

"What was that ... thing you mentioned?" asked Angelica in a puzzled tone of voice. "Pacbell? Is that something to do with Sylvester?"

"Liquor of Jacmel," said Cassius with a scowl. "A very nasty little potion from out that way. And we're not doing anything with it, happily. We are however trying to stop someone who is, and Mr Ballantyne seemed to know someone who sold it. Unfortunately, it's very possible that person was the one who took exception to the idea that he might tell us about it."

"Oh." There was a catch in her voice. "I hope not ... Poor Sylvester. I remember there were some very strange and dangerous people out there. He ... he never seemed like he would be involved in something as bad as that."

"What did you think he was involved in?" asked Tonks sharply.

Angelica flushed. "He was ... around. You saw him talking to people from time to time. People said he 'knew how to get things'. He'd help out if you wanted odd jobs done. Frankly, they didn't always have to be strictly legal. I never actually trusted him very much, but he had his niche, I guess. I don't suppose many other people trusted him either. I know the Eastons didn't."

"You know them?"

"Of course I know them!" said Angelica, raising her eyebrows at Tonks. "There have only ever been three magical families in the entire area around Worthing in all the time I've lived here. And one of them moved away years ago. Naturally we know each other."

"How come you both know Ballantyne then?"

"Because Brighton is the nearest thing to a local centre," she said wearily. "Wizard's Row isn't much, but it's a place to talk, and buy potion ingredients and things like that. And I'm more accepted there than I would be in Diagon Alley."

"Potion ingredients? What do you want them for?" asked Tonks. She winced a little; she hadn't really meant to fire questions out in such a sharp and accusatory manner. Even Cassius looked slightly embarrassed by it.

"Even Muggles can buy the ingredients for potions, you know, Miss Tonks," replied Angelica, with just a trace of asperity. "My sons don't often brew them, true, but they don't have the leisure to go shopping. And everything's labelled, after all."

Cassius nodded again. "Exactly. I've seen it done many a time. It's only a shopping list, just like the supermarket. Except that they don't sell dragon's liver or Trembleweed extract or fairy eggs in Muggle supermarkets."

Angelica laughed nervously. "Yes, I used to help Hank brew potions occasionally. Chop the ingredients up, hand him the right disgusting thing at the right time so he could concentrate on stirring. Of course I never had the theoretical training he or my sons did, so for me it was always a case of 'follow the recipe carefully'. Just like cooking." She giggled again. "Of course, I never had any training in that, either. We had servants to do it all for us. But fortunately – as it turned out when I left – when I got bored with lessons as a child, I used to sneak down to the kitchens to chat to the maids. So I got to know what you were supposed to do with pots and pans."

"Fair enough," said Tonks, smiling. "Didn't help me much, though. I used to watch Mum cook, but I've never been good at anything complicated, I'm dead clumsy. I only got high marks in Potions because I worked so hard on the theory. It's lucky Auror Potions training is mostly theory, otherwise I'd have been done for. I very seldom buy any ingredients now. Come to think of it, how do you get into Wizards' Row anyway? I thought the whole place was shielded with Muggle-Repelling Charms?"

"The people who work there know me by now," replied Angelica coolly. "I knock when I want to be let in. Er, perhaps those charms don't work very well on people who already know there's supposed to be something there?" She snorted. "Wizards do seem very fond of their Muggle-Repelling Charms, don't they? I'm not surprised they don't know how the normal world works. Not to mention very fond of Memory Curses."

"Memory Charms," corrected Tonks.

"Not the way I think of them!"

"We don't use them all the time," said Tonks defensively.

"Damned often, though. Ugh. I know they can be useful, but I've never liked them. I remember Hank wanted to use one on my father when we ran away to make him forget he'd been there!" Her laugh was bitter. "Even I would have hexed him for that if I'd known how! I hate the idea of my family losing bits of themselves so casually. You'd need a very good reason to actually want one cast on you, wouldn't you?"

"You don't seem too enamoured with the wizarding world any more, Angelica," put in Cassius in a gentle voice.

She smiled at him rather sadly. "I kind of figure I'm not, Cassius. Not any more. I used to love it while Hank was here, but ... the war burnt it out of me, I suppose. Magic started by being this really wonderful thing in my life, and ended up as something horrible. And although I can't help but be involved – well, because of my sons, you know – I'm still ... disillusioned with it. You might say these days I'm just wishing I could leave it all behind me and go back to my roots. Isn't that silly? They're not even there any more. I've always felt as if I was living some sort of strange double life, I guess, and I get so tired of it sometimes."

Cassius eventually broke the rather strained silence that followed this statement. "You do find some uses for us, though?" he said with a small smile, indicating the coffee cups. "These are Glazer's Self-Cleaning Crockery, aren't they? I recognise the pattern. I have some at home."

Angelica smiled briefly. "Well all right, there are some benefits."

"What do you do all day then?" asked Tonks curiously.

"I garden. I watch films. I love films. I even named my sons after actors. I never had much chance to see them as a kid, and when you're involved in wizard society hardly anybody takes an interest in them. And I read. All those old Golden Age Spanish classics my father and my tutors insisted on – Cervantes, Lope, Calderón – but I'm actually enjoying them this time. And I listen to music, of course. You don't get much music worth listening to in the wizarding world either."

"No kidding," said Tonks, remembering the pub band.

"You'd think that with all the things that can be done to enchant instruments – I've seen some amazing old things like pianos that play themselves, really beautifully made – it would be so much better, wouldn't you?" said Angelica, who had been growing increasingly animated during the conversation. "But there just aren't any magical musicians I like as much as Mozart, or Tchaikovsky, or even … oh I don't know, Elvis Presley!"

"It's a much smaller talent pool, of course," said Cassius, stepping in with haste with a glance at Tonks, apparently to head her off from asking who Elvis Presley was. She glared at him. I'll have you know my dad's a big fan! The Weird Sisters are better though. "But you're right, actually. Charms do often substitute for artistic creativity. Maybe it all comes too easy to us? Or perhaps the woman in that bookshop was right –" Angelica looked puzzled for a moment, but didn't interrupt "– we learn so much technical detail by rote, our other senses don't have the chance to develop. My wife felt much the same way, as a matter of fact," he finished bleakly.

It stopped Angelica Hallendale's enthusiastic nodding in mid-nod, and she looked at him with real compassion. "She was obviously a sensible woman," she told him, flashing a sympathetic smile.

"Yes, she was," agreed Cassius. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly. "Well, with the possible exception of agreeing to marry me, of course. That was probably a very foolish thing for her to do, but when she said yes, I certainly wasn't going to talk her out of it."

"I should think not!" Mrs Hallendale looked at him uncomfortably. "You still miss her very badly, I guess, Cassius?"

"Only every hour of every day. Your husband?"

"The same," she answered quietly. "You couldn't help but miss him when he wasn't around. I've never got over losing him – and never will, I guess. I don't think my boys have, either, although you men never say, do you?"

"What was he like?" asked Tonks. She was pleased, and somewhat relieved, that she managed to ask a question tactfully for once.

"Charming. Energetic. Oh, and very handsome, of course." She exchanged knowing glances with Tonks. "Fiercely loyal to me, and his family, and his friends. Probably cut a swathe through the women before he met me, mind you, but once I'd learned enough about men to realise he'd got that out of his system, I decided never to ask. Often terribly irresponsible, but you couldn't help but forgive him."

"I suppose … yeah, it would have been hard not to," said Tonks soberly. She was uncomfortably aware that Hank Hallendale reminded her of a certain cousin who had been on her mind a lot recently – or at least, he reminded her of what she'd thought that cousin had been. Over the previous couple of weeks, her attitude towards him had veered back and forth between one extreme and the other – but forgiveness was still something she couldn't quite yet manage, even while knowing that the possibility was there.

"He always was a bit of a chancer, my Hank," continued Angelica, unaware of Tonks' own memories. "Getting himself all sorts of odd jobs, doing different things he wasn't really qualified to do, always prepared to bluff his way through life. That's how he ended up at my father's house in the first place … Oh dear, I'm telling you Aurors things I shouldn't, aren't I? You probably think he was a terrible man now."

Cassius quickly shook his head. "No, he doesn't sound like the kind of villains Aurors are interested in. I've met enough really bad people, especially Death Eaters during the war, to know what their crimes were like …" He broke off in sudden embarrassment. Tonks stared at them, puzzled, as Angelica tensed up and Cassius looked away. "I'm sorry, Angelica. My fault. I know you don't like talking about the war."

"Can you blame me?" she said explosively. "Back then, it was a ... a nightmare for people like us. When we came to England, we decided ... or rather, we thought ..." She swallowed and paused to regain her composure, looking thoroughly annoyed with herself. "Let's just say we didn't realise how dangerous it would be when we happily introduced ourselves to people as a wizard married to a Muggle. It wasn't a problem in the ... well, all right, it was a problem out there, but only a social one, and only for some people. Once we realised what was happening we just tried to keep our heads down, pretend we weren't here, not do anything that would cross them or bring us to their attention. We didn't even dare leave."

"Why not?" asked Tonks.

"Because that might have been the thing that brought them after us!" She stopped and swallowed. "They had a reputation for finding you. And we had children by then. And although I don't suppose we were important enough to be a target ... well, Hank still ran into a crossfire, didn't he?" She didn't seem to notice that a tear was trickling down her cheek. "I sometimes wish ... well, I wish that we'd left regardless, taken our chances, just grabbed everything we could and ran for cover, gone back to doing things the way we used to when we were young. But we didn't. We made excuses ... well, I made excuses and Hank went along with them. Money tied down here, kids in school, stupid, stupid reasons like that. I was so scared I couldn't think straight sometimes."

"You had Muggle businesses, did you?" asked Cassius gently.

"Yes. My 'inheritance' – what was left of it. Nothing left in Cuba or even America by then. Hank, poor love, was a wonderful salesman but frankly not really a very good businessman. Montgomery built them back up. He must get it from my father." She moved over to the window and looked out. "I'm sorry, Cassius. It's nice talking to you, but the conversation always seems to keep heading onto topics I really don't want to talk about. I'm sorry."

Cassius took a step towards her, as if intending to make some comforting gesture, but hesitated. Tonks held back. She hadn't really anticipated the conversation taking this kind of turn, and wasn't especially comfortable now it had done so.

"Don't be sorry, Angelica," she said awkwardly. "We maybe shouldn't be doing this." She looked past her out of the window at the garden, which was beautifully ordered, the lawn in particular giving the impression of having been manicured. "You like to garden, you said – you seem to be pretty keen?" she said brightly, trying to find some neutral topic to break up the mood. "It looks terrific, anyway."

Angelica smiled briefly, wiping the tear from her cheek. "Yes, isn't it? I won a prize for it last year, believe it or not."

"Won a what?" said Tonks, surprised.

She smiled more broadly this time. "The letter's in a frame on the mantelpiece in the lounge. Come and take a look. It's not like winning the Daily Prophet Grand Prize Draw, I suppose, but it's nice to be recognised, isn't it?"

They followed her into what appeared to be a perfectly normal Muggle lounge; the only thing that stood out was the elaborate piece of glasswork she'd noticed earlier. There was a small loose rug in front of the table it stood on, in prime position for being tripped over, and as soon as Tonks spotted that she carefully sidled away to the other end of the room. Fortunately, this was where Angelica Hallendale kept the letter in question, so she was able to make it look as if she'd intended to do that all along. She read it with interest. "You have prizes for the 'Best Kept Suburban Lawn'?"

"Oh yes," said Angelica, obviously surprised. "Why? Is it important?"

"Not really, I suppose," said Tonks, thoughtfully, "but every time I see Muggle things I don't know about and should have, I try to read up on them so I don't make a slip in conversation or anything." She turned to Cassius. "Like when I realised I wasn't sure how the postal service worked? You never know if these things might come in handy someday."

"Indeed," said Cassius, who was over by the window inspecting the Suburban Lawn in question more closely. He turned to their hostess with a twinkle in his eye. "You know, that lawn does look very well kept. It wouldn't have had a little ... help, perhaps?"

Angelica looked at him, slightly taken aback, but her own eyes quickly matched the twinkle. "Well ... ah ... all right, perhaps Montgomery may have done the teensiest little charm or two on it. He's very good to me. Did I show you my vase?"

"Oh yes ..." said Cassius, looking puzzled at the apparent change of subject.

"Which vase?" asked Tonks. Angelica Hallendale's jaw dropped in disbelief, and as she realised she added hastily, "Oh, the glass thing? I wondered about that. Is it wizarding?"

"Not exactly ... it's Hamburghalle glasswork," said Angelica with pride. "Now this really is artistic wizardry. I'm told they use some special trade secret charms to work the glass that they never reveal to anyone, but the effect comes mostly from the skill with which they use them." Cassius was nodding in a way which suggested that this information was well known, which rather annoyed Tonks. What, I'm supposed to be an art connoisseur now? Mrs Hallendale smiled at it with fondness. "Very expensive – must have set Montgomery back a fair few Galleons – but it does impress visitors."

"Oh, definitely," said Tonks. She had taken a few steps towards the table to look, but at this information took a precautionary couple of steps back. Unfortunately, this caused her to bump into a sideboard, which jarred a number of photo-frames enough to make them fall over.

"Oh, sorry!" She quickly righted the pictures, then picked them up to look over as a face caught her eye. "This is Monty, isn't it? He looks familiar, and the other one, too, is that Clark, or your husband when he was younger, I'm not sure which of you they take after the most ..." She realised she was babbling with embarrassment, and hastily stopped.

"Those are the men in my life, yes," said Angelica, rolling her eyes. She moved past Tonks and quickly removed the framed photographs from her hands, putting them back on the sideboard and adjusting their positions carefully. She turned and smiled mischievously. "You know, I did get the impression at that campsite that Montgomery might have had the idea he'd like to be the man in your life too? Not that he tells his poor mother about things like that, of course."

"Ah, right." Tonks' embarrassment deepened; it wouldn't be a good idea to mention Montgomery's note in front of his mother. Or for that matter, this entire conversation in front of Rhiannon Davies. "Well, er, I do have a sort of boyfriend at the moment, I'm sorry to say – er, I don't mean I'm sorry about that, I mean I'm sorry that if Monty's thinking like that, it wouldn't be fair for me to, er would it?" Brilliant. Clear as a vat of Polyjuice Potion. Get a grip, girl.

"Only sort of?" said Angelica, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

"Well, early days yet? He's a nice enough bloke."

Angelica turned to Cassius with an expression of mock despair. "'A nice enough bloke,' she says. Not 'a dashing young hero come to carry me away on his white charger', which is what the girls wished for in my day. Hardly a ringing declaration of true love, is it?"

"That's what the young women wanted in my day too," said Cassius with a grin. "Or at least, that's what they told me. They might just have wanted to see me make a fool of myself, of course."

"I'm not exactly looking for a young hero," said Tonks with a rather fixed smile. She knew she was having fun gently poked at her, but it was hard not to bite. "Especially one who wants to carry me away on a white charger. I don't know that I'm looking for anything in particular. I imagine I'll just know it if and when I see it."

"Ooh, think of the possibilities!" cried Angelica teasingly, wringing her hands in a dramatic manner. Cassius was clearly fighting a desperate – and barely winning – battle not to laugh. "Perhaps if it's not a young hero it'll be a ... curse breaker perhaps, or a dragon tamer, or a werewolf ..."

"Or perhaps it won't, since I don't know any of the above and can't see why you should insist on pairing me off with them?" said Tonks tetchily. She shook herself; after all, she'd taken the mickey out of others often enough, so couldn't really complain at getting the same treatment. "Are we finished here, Cassius?"

He suppressed a final smile and nodded. "I think so. We'd better be going, Angelica. You're sure you can't think of anything about Sylvester Ballantyne that would help us?"

"I'm afraid not, Cassius. I didn't really know him except as someone in the background. Sorry I couldn't make your trip worthwhile."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. These last few minutes have certainly been rather entertaining." They exchanged grins; even Tonks managed to smile rather sheepishly. "You'll let us know if you hear anything useful?"

"Of course."

"Right then. Um, yes. Bye."

-----

Tonks tactfully waited until they were back at the office before asking the obvious question.

"Cassius?"

"Mm?" He was scribbling a report on a piece of parchment; Tonks wasn't quite sure why he rarely used an auto-dictation quill, but perhaps they were a little too modern.

"How many times exactly have you been to visit chez Hallendale?"

"What?" He looked up, startled. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I know you went round to warn her not to discuss our movements after Bobby Easton said his piece, but I got the impression today that it wasn't the only time you'd called there …"

He blushed a little. "Oh. Well, no, it wasn't. I've dropped by another couple of times, just in passing, you know."

"Worthing? In passing?"

He shrugged. "When you're Apparating, it doesn't make any difference, does it? One place is as close as another. Anyway, does it matter?"

"I just wondered why? She's not that important to any of our cases, is she?"

"No, but I just ..." He looked at her in exasperation. "Oh you know why I went, Tonks. I find it interesting to talk to her. Her personality. Experiences I can relate to. It's pure loneliness on both our parts, I suppose."

"Oh." Tonks felt a little guilty. "We're rather neglecting you again, aren't we?" she said quietly.

"Don't be silly, Tonks. You've all got your own lives to lead. You shouldn't be worrying about an old codger like me ..."

"Don't be daft," she said, cutting him off before he could hit his stride. She hesitated, because what she wanted to say next was going to be awkward however she tried to phrase it. "We're all rather fond of you, you know? Even Don, when he isn't in a world of his own. You're still one of the gang – I suppose maybe we haven't been sure whether you wanted to be, now you're in charge of the case and everything. You seemed to be enjoying that, and we were all quite happy to go along because it was working well ... oh sod it, I'm not making any sense, am I?"

"You're making sense enough." He had a rueful look, but he was smiling. "Work's work, Tonks. It's good to be running an investigation again, I won't deny that. But it's nice to do something away from work occasionally. That's why I called round there. A lonely old man's weakness, I suppose."

Tonks cuffed him lightly. "Hey, you're entitled. Don't mind me. I'm just the poor novice who keeps putting her foot in it. Literally." She gazed at him thoughtfully. "You know, we should make some time for another evening out at the pub? We don't have to bring along the others if you don't want to. You can tell me some more of those scurrilous stories about the people in the department, and I can try to remember them this time in case I ever need good blackmail material!"

Cassius actually laughed out loud at this. "You're sure your young man won't get jealous?"

"He's just ..." Tonks began before she realised that Cassius was teasing her again. "Oh shut up. I'll take the chance, OK?"

-----

Friday 18th September 1994

Over the next week, Tonks attempted to keep an unobtrusive eye on Cassius and bring him into conversations wherever possible, although she suspected from the occasional small smile on his face whenever she did this that he had a pretty good idea of what she was up to.

She even got together a number of Aurors for an after-work social at the Leaky Cauldron one Thursday evening, and insisted that he join them, which he did with only a token show of protest. Although Donnacha and Rhiannon pleaded a prior engagement at an expensive restaurant, Cornworthy was more than happy to come along ("gets me out from under my wife's feet for a while," he explained), as was Williamson (never one to turn down an evening at the pub if he could help it). After a few rounds, they even persuaded Cassius to tell them some tales of Ministries past – including a number of anecdotes about Fudge's Senior Undersecretary that literally made Tonks' hair stand on end (she returned it to normal as soon as she realised that she'd been unconsciously doing this as commentary).

By the following afternoon, she was feeling rather pleased with herself for organising the evening out as she skimmed through a report from K's office on the testing of a pre-production version of Archibald Blackstock's latest invention (a wand holder with an Invisibility Spell for use in Muggle areas, a sample of which had been obtained through back channels). When her mirror phone rang she reached for it absently. To her surprise, it was O'Gregan on the other end; who as far as she knew was still doggedly trailing Blackstock's daughter.

"How was the dinner?" she asked jokingly.

"Fine, fine," he said hurriedly. "Look, Tonks, will you do me a favour? I'm in the Magical Market in Birmingham and I need a bit of help quickly, so I do. Can you come up here kitted out as Mabel?"

"Who's ... oh, you mean 'Mavis'?"

"Yeah, whoever. Your anonymous look. Can you do that?"

She glanced around. There was nothing requiring her immediate attention as far as she could see. "Oh, all right then. Expect me there in about ten minutes, OK?"

Tonks concentrated hard for a moment, changing her face and figure into her Mrs Anonymous appearance, then worked on her robes for a couple of minutes, Transfiguring them into a less modern style and adding a charm or two for good measure to make them seem dowdier. She then quickly made her way down to the Ministry foyer – a little too quickly as it happened, as she managed to nearly knock someone over when she came out of the lift.

She glanced up to see who it was and groaned inwardly as she recognised Barty Crouch again. It took her a moment to remember that at least he wouldn't be able to recognise her this time. In fact, he barely paid her any attention at all, and pushed past into the lift with an odd expression on his face that she couldn't quite place; it seemed to be a sort of strained blankness, if that was possible.

Shrugging her shoulders at this – none of my business, I suppose – she went out into the main Atrium, Apparated into the middle of the Market, and looked around. O'Gregan was nowhere to be seen.

Oh yeah, Invisibility Cloak. Great. She glanced into a few shop windows with some irritation, just in case he might be inside (and visible), then jumped slightly at she felt a tap on the shoulder from someone who apparently wasn't there.

"Don!" she hissed. "Do you have to wear that thing?"

"Sorry," he muttered quietly. "Come over here." He pulled very gently on the sleeve of her robes, leading her over to a small gap between two shops out of sight of the crowds, then slipped off the Cloak he'd been wearing.

"Right, Don," she said with resignation. "Let me guess. This is to do with Portia Blackstock again, is it? What am I supposed to do, follow her into the Ladies or something?"

"No, no," he said, looking slightly embarrassed. "But young Portia went into that beauty shop thing again. I need someone to go in and listen in on the conversation. I thought you girls told things to your hairdressers and all?"

Tonks sighed. "Haven't you given up on this yet?"

"No!"

"Oh all right. Why didn't you just call for Rhiannon? I thought she usually humoured you on this, and as far as I know she hasn't got anything on right now."

O'Gregan blanched. "I could not send my sweet girl into that place all alone. It would be far too dangerous."

"What?" spluttered Tonks. "Why? You don't seem to mind me going in there!"

"Sorry, but ..."

"What's in there anyway? A rampaging manticore or something?"

"Worse ..."

"Worse?"

"Far worse. It's my wife."