A/N: This fic was written for the metamorficmoon All Hallows Moon challenge on Live Journal usuing the prompts Mystery/Suspense (the latter of which I took rather literally!), The Dream Oracle, a Day of Masks and a picture of a crumbling tower. The second piece in the challenge is a sequel to this and will be posted in a few days. :)
A Fine Folly by Jess Pallas
It was true. Tonks had to admit that there was no denying it, no debate, no deliberation – she'd had more than enough time to reflect upon the matter and the truth was thoroughly inescapable.
This was entirely Remus Lupin's fault.
It wasn't even as though she'd been asking for his opinion – in fact, she had to admit for very personal reasons that she'd probably have much preferred that he'd stayed out of the matter altogether. But oh no, he had to come wandering in to the Grimmauld Place kitchen just as she was asking those present their opinion on whether or not there was anything in the suggestion that dreams could predict the future. And of course, despite knowing nothing whatsoever about Divination and openly professing to disliking the subject, being Remus Lupin he'd still managed to recommend a couple of books that might be able to help. And then, having sown the seeds of her destruction, he'd gone and buggered off again.
She'd taken the time to garner the opinions of those in the kitchen anyway, just to be sure. Sirius had snorted loudly and proclaimed dreams to be nothing more than random firings of the brain. Molly had pondered for a moment and decided that she didn't know about the future, but dreams could certainly tell a person a lot about what was on their mind and things that they might want or need that they couldn't admit out loud. Kingsley had grinned and said if she had enough time on her hands to be dreaming, he obviously wasn't working her hard enough. Dung had tried to sell her a "barely used crystal ball" that strongly resembled a broken Remembrall. She had not so politely declined.
And so armed with one answer her brain said she should like but her heart decried, one answer her heart said she should pay attention to but her brain refused to consider, one answer that gave her an opportunity to kick her superior in the shins and one answer that allowed her to make a reasonably obscene gesture in mixed company, she had reluctantly decided that maybe Remus and his reading material was the way to go.
Git.
And that was how she had come to be in Flourish and Blotts bookshop, sequestered carefully by the window out of the shopkeeper's line of sight as she flicked through the fairly useless pages of The Dream Oracle by Inigo Imago and looked up to see a rather shifty Lucius Malfoy ducking into Knockturn Alley with a purposeful look on his face.
And hence, half an hour later, how she'd come to be dangling from the remains of a shattered stair in a crumbling stone tower, with a tangled mass of Devil's Snare mere inches from her ankles and several masked Death Eaters gathered in the clearing outside debating whether to enter.
See? Remus Lupin's fault. Entirely.
Admittedly, she could have called for back up a little sooner and waited a few moments longer for it to arrive. In her hag disguise, she had successfully followed Malfoy as he passed through the alley with his nose in the air, watched as he met a shady looking associate outside of the Pickled Toad inn and overheard the words "meeting by Hawkestone Folly in a quarter of an hour" pass out of his lips. The moment they had Apparated away, she had rushed to find a secluded spot and sent her Patronus away to find whatever Order members were closest to hand but when five minutes had passed without any response, she had decided that she could afford to wait no longer.
By sheer chance – no, it wasn't chance, it was Remus bloody Lupin's fault again, because he'd been the one who had told her its name when they'd shared a patrol together investigating reputed Death Eater activity in Shropshire earlier that month – she had known exactly where Hawkestone Folly was. And so she had decided to take a chance and holding her breath and her wand quite firmly and praying she wasn't about to make the biggest mistake of her life, she Disillusioned herself and Apparated directly into the Folly's tower.
Luck had, at that point, been with her. The top chamber of the Folly was crumbling, its wooden floor uneven, rotten and full of creaks and crevices, but it was thankfully deserted. The December frost leant a light tang to the air and made the floor alarmingly slippery but Tonks had forced herself to concentrate. A quick peak outside through the arched window into the woods that had all but engulfed this near forgotten ruin told her that she had beaten the Death Eaters to their rendezvous. And so, mustering all the stealth that an unforgivably clumsy Auror in a half rotten, creaky old tower caked in frost could reasonably expect, she had turned and begun to make her way agonisingly down the wooden spiral stairs.
What happened next was fairly inevitable.
She stumbled. And the stairs, of course, gave way.
What was rather more unexpected, she had mused as she scrabbled desperately to haul herself back up on the shattered remains of the staircase to which she now clung by her fingertips, was the enormous growth of Devil's Snare that had shifted and snatched sluggishly at the broken remains of the stairs that had rained down upon it from its dark and damp home covering the entire ground floor of the Folly.
Her options at that point had, admittedly, been somewhat limited. She had managed to retain her grasp on her wand but performing any spell involving swishing or flicking to lift her from her perilous position was currently out of the question. She had at least managed to conjure a temporary adhesive spell to prevent a plunge to inevitable strangulation but really, from her current location, the only feasible way was down. And that meant the Snare had to go.
That could only be a good thing. The presence of a growth of illegal Devil's Snare at the meeting place chosen by a couple of Death Eaters could hardly be a coincidence and it would do the world at large, not to mention her fingertips, a vast favour if she were to destroy it. Of course, she would have to be careful not to ignite herself along with it, but given her situation, it was a risk she was willing to take.
And so, she had just grasped her wand as best she could and was summoning up the energy for a burst of flame when she heard four startling pops just outside and caught a glimpse of white masks and black robes through a crack in the wall.
Ah. Bugger.
That killed the idea of a bonfire. That plan was now about as subtle and sensible as sending out calling cards inviting the Death Eaters to come and beat her with sticks. A big sign saying enemy within, please come and slaughter would have been more discreet.
And thus it was that Nymphadora Tonks found herself when she decided that this whole damn business was Remus Lupin's fault.
"…only need a clipping." She didn't recognise this particular Death Eater's voice but made a mental note of it in her back catalogue of voices to remember if she heard them on the street – at least should she survive the next few minutes. "Just go ahead and do it."
"It isn't my job." There was no mistaking Malfoy, anyway. "All I was supposed to do was arrange purchase of it and find somewhere to store it out of sight. I don't even know why I'm here."
"Because you bought one that was too damned big and now it's all our problem." That voice was far more familiar – a functionary at the Ministry called Yaxley that the Order had had their suspicious eye on for quite some time. "You can never just do things by halves, can you Malfoy?"
"Why doesn't Nott do it?" the first voice complained once more. "He's the one who took N.E.W.T Herbology."
"Fifty years ago," rumbled a fourth voice that Tonks hadn't known, although the name was familiar. "Goyle's the strongest. Let him do it."
"Not touching that bloody thing," the final Death Eater muttered almost rebelliously. "S' dangerous."
Tonks could almost sense the rolling of Malfoy's eyes. "Oh, somebody just do it. You, Goyle. Get on with it."
"Why me?"
"Because if you don't, I'll skin you alive and feed your innards to the Dark Lord's snake. Now Goyle!"
Well. This was it. Disillusionment was a good enough disguise on a dark night in a shadowy corner but it was no invisibility cloak. If one part of her dangling, shimmering outline happened to catch Goyle's eye, that was it. She was doomed. Toast. Fodder. And to die at the hands of Archibald Goyle – that was just plain embarrassing.
If she had time, she could at least try and take the Devil's Snare with her, to thwart whatever nefarious plan required a… clipping. But she'd never know the truth about what she had died for, what they were up to.
And she'd never know the truth about her dream.
If there was a truth. Could there be a truth?
Remus Lupin. His fault.
And he'd never know.
The door creaked open. She saw Goyle's masked face appear, saw him slash desperately at a reaching limb and toss the flailing cutting to his companions, saw him glance up, saw his eyes narrow behind his mask as he stared at the spot where she was hanging, saw his eyes widen…
What a way to die…
"Hey!" She heard Goyle below. "I think there's somebody…"
"Stupefy!"
She heard Goyle shriek like a girl as a streak of red narrowly missed him, saw him stumble out of sight as the sound of spell fire burst into life. An echoing crack filled the Folly – for a moment, Tonks wondered if the rest of the stairwell was about to give way but then hands were grasping her, thwarted for a moment in their efforts to lift her by her sticky spell until she found the wherewithal to break it. And then she was on her feet on the rickety remains of the stairs and caught a brief, flashed glimpse of brown and silver hair before hands caught her sharply once more and hauled her into a Side-Along Apparition.
She swayed as she and her rescuer stumbled from the squeezing sensation onto a woody path she vaguely recognised from her previous patrol in the area. Shabby robes covered the arms that caught her balance as brown eyes stared down at her from above a very familiar smile.
She simply couldn't help herself.
"That was all your fault!"
The smile melted from Remus' face like frost in sunshine to be replaced by vaguely hurt bewilderment, but Tonks forced down the little surge of guilt she felt in favour of turning away and stalking down the path before any kind of misplaced gratitude could get the better of her. She got about three feet before two further cracks echoed through the woodland and deposited Kingsley and Mad-Eye Moody right in front of her.
"Lass!" Moody ran his electric blue eye over her with a vaguely disconcerting intensity. "Are you in one piece? I could see you dangling there right through the wall as soon as we arrived so I sent Lupin along to haul you up just as soon as Kingsley and I could distract Malfoy and his minions."
Tonks allowed herself several deep and calming breaths as she forced away the adrenalin that had been pumping through her body and made some effort to return herself to the land of the rational.
"I'm okay," she admitted. "Though a few of my fingernails feel kind of loose. I was hanging for a while. Bloody rotten stairs…"
She could sense that Remus had moved up to stand behind her and she prayed it was only in her imagination that she could still feel waves of confused hurt billowing in her direction.
Kingsley was frowning slightly. "Why on earth did you go in alone, Tonks? Remus told me your Patronus had said it was urgent, but you couldn't waited a few minutes for back up?"
So Remus had got the Patronus. Still his fault then, a rebellious, irrational part of her brain insisted.
"I did wait," she retorted. "But nobody showed up and I wanted to get there before they did…"
"I'm sorry." Remus was apologising. Bugger. "I came as soon as I'd called Kingsley and Mad-Eye but I was watching from the trees. I had no idea you were inside until Mad-Eye arrived. I would have sent a reply by Patronus to tell you but I was worried it might give you away if you were hiding."
Which was, unfortunately, perfectly logical. Why did he have to be logical?
"No problem," she muttered, examining the splinters under her nails with a sudden intensity. "You weren't to know."
"Bloody Death Eaters." Moody punctuated his sentence with a few words of somewhat choicer language. "Cowards too, Apparating straight out before I could get my hands on them. At least I managed to burn that bloody Snare to a crisp. They got a cutting, but that'll be no use for a couple of years at least."
"Come on." Kingsley was glaring at the trees. "We might as well head back to Grimmauld Place and compare notes in the warm. See you there in five, everyone?"
Tonks nodded mechanically. With another pair of cracks, Kingsley and Mad-Eye vanished into thin air once more.
She started forward, half starting to turn with the alley behind Grimmauld Place in mind, but Remus caught her arm. She glared at him immediately.
"What are you doing?" she demanded. "It's freezing and the others are waiting…"
She knew before his lips parted what he was going to say. "I'm sorry but I just need to know. You said this was my fault and I was wondering…"
Rational Tonks was banished on a brief sabbatical. "The bookshop. And the Folly too."
"Pardon me?" The bewildered crease of his forehead was oddly endearing but Tonks was determined not to be distracted by frivolous things.
"You told me where Hawkestone Folly was. I wouldn't have been able to follow Malfoy if you hadn't. And I wouldn't have been at the bookshop to see him in the first place if you hadn't suggested those books about dreams."
Bewilderment was giving way to incredulity. "And so, because you went to the bookshop on my recommendation…"
"It's your fault I ended up in this mess. Precisely." Her voice was a steel trap snapping shut.
One of Remus' eyebrows slowly rose towards his hairline. "Forgive me. But that seems a little unfair…"
"No one else sent me to the bookshop."
"I didn't send you. I merely suggested a couple of volumes that…"
"Like The Dream Oracle? That steaming great pile of pants? If I interpret my dream with that load of codswallop, I'll probably find out I'm destined to start a race of metamorphmagi by breeding with a randy trout on the third Friday of the month!"
Remus looked rather contrite. "It was the only thing I could think of. It's on the Hogwarts syllabus, though since that's set by Sybill Trelawney, I suppose I should have known better. I did tell you that I wasn't really an authority on the subject…"
Rational Tonks promptly left the building. "Then why didn't you keep your steaming great trap shut?"
Remus' expression was a mixture of incredulity and apology. "Because I wanted to be able to help you?" he ventured.
Oh, he had to say that, didn't he? He had to pipe in all reasonable in that quiet, helpful tone and offer up an explanation that made her heart pipe up and insist she should have listened to Molly Weasley all along. If it wasn't for Remus bloody Lupin and that bloody confusing dream changing what had until that moment been a pleasant and amiable friendship…
"Well, you didn't." She felt like an utter sod just saying it but it was all that her brain seemed able to muster as her heart continued its vicious campaign of assault.
"I'm sorry for that." Reasonable again! Stop sounding reasonable! "I really was just trying to help you. But I still don't see how it makes this my fault…"
Rational Tonks was banished into a distant ether as Irrational Tonks surged with utter conviction to the fore. The words that followed left her tongue without making any consultation with her brain first.
"Of course it's your fault! You were the one I bloody dreamed about kissing in the first place!"
The silence that followed was long and extremely substantial.
Oh no. Oh please. I did not just say that out loud…
Rational Tonks returned with a vengeance. She found herself facing a personal hell.
Remus was staring at her. His expression was beyond interpretation.
Oh shit.
It was the truth of course. She had dreamed about kissing one of her closest friends. And it had been… it had been…
Her brain told her to stop right there. Random firings of its makeup, just as Sirius had said.
Her heart was prodding with Molly's voice that dreams often reveal what a person really wanted and maybe it was time to try those lips out for real…
And so Tonks did the only reasonable thing a girl in her situation could do.
She Disapparated.
But the final glimpse of a bewildered and unreadable Remus Lupin standing staring at her on a forest path lodged itself firmly in her mind's eye. And although he did not speak of her odd revelation during the debriefing that followed, nor even as he bid her goodnight at the door, she could see the questions lingering in his eyes.
Had she meant it? Had she wanted to know if it was really going to happen?
Did she want it to?
She didn't answer. How could she when she didn't know?
But even her brain was forced to concede that the matter deserved a little thought.
And that was entirely Remus Lupin's fault.