A hag from a neighboring table looked up from her spellbook. "Is everyone all right?"
"Yes," Kingsley said. With a flick of his wand, the umbrella pulled itself off of them and set back into place at the table. Tonks's head hurt from where the particularly aggressive stem had clonked her.
Shacklebolt helped her to her feet, and she noticed that several people were staring at them, and Fortescue himself was coming out of the shop, wiping his heads on his cloak, frowning.
"Everything's fine," Kingsley assured him with a raised hand, but Fortescue gave Tonks a long look before nodding and going back inside.
Once everyone went back to their business, Tonks saw Shacklebolt glaring down at her.
"You ruin everything, Tonks," he growled.
"What do you bloody mean?" Tonks spat back. "You're the one who's been stalking me."
Shacklebolt shook his head. "I can't deal with this right now. I'll see you later. In a week or so." And then he was gone, and Tonks tried to catch him, but he had Disapparated before she had even gathered her wits.
Every time Tonks saw Shacklebolt around the office, she couldn't help but wonder if she should say something to him.
He was persistently avoiding her gaze.
One day, while running an errand, she saw Shacklebolt and Dawlish talking by the fountain. She quickly made a decision.
"Kingsley!" she said, walking up to him like an old friend. "How's the Black case going?"
Dawlish raised an eyebrow at her. Kingsley shot her daggers with his eyes.
"It's none of your business, Tonks. Go back to work."
Tonks felt her cheeks flush pink at being so crudely shot down, and she walked away with her gaze down. She heard Dawlish laugh.
Two days later, she passed Shacklebolt on the way to the loo. He met her eyes.
"Want to embarrass me again?" she asked.
He frowned, but all he said was, "If I were you, Tonks, I'd avoid looking interested in the Black case."
A few days later, Tonks was shocked to find Mad-Eye Moody in her cubicle, staring at her desk.
"Invading my privacy?" she asked. He turned around at her.
"What have you got there, missy?" He gestured to the files in her hands. "You're not working on a case, are you?"
"No," Tonks replied, pouting. "All they've got me doing is bloody paperwork."
"Good," Moody said. "Next time you see me and Shacklebolt out, come and say hello."
Tonks was thrown by the straightforward request.
"Excuse me?" she asked. She grinned. "Do you and Kingsley plan on spending a lot of time together?"
Moody didn't laugh. "It's best not to discuss this at the moment," he said brusquely, stomping past her and out of her cubicle. She stared after him.
Two and half days after that, Tonks saw Shacklebolt and Moody eating lunch at the Muggle restaurant she frequented with her father. She was there, getting lunch herself, and she debated about what to do.
Finally, she slowly made her way over to them.
"Er, hello," she said.
"Tonks," Shacklebolt said, smiling. "What a wonderful coincidence! Sit down; Alastor and I were just eating bhinda ni kadhi."
"Who doesn't love bhinda?" Tonks asked mechanically, sitting down. She saw Moody discretely wave his wand under the table, and she realized he cast a Notice-Me-Not Charm. He was being extremely careful; he was even wearing his hat again.
She slammed her fist down on the table. "Okay, what the bloody hell's going on?"
"You watch your mouth, girly," Moody grunted. "You've done nothing but ruin everything –"
"What am I ruining?" she cried. "The least you could do is tell me what I'm bloody ruining!"
"What's going on is that I'm starting to regret this whole thing." Shacklebolt sighed. "You can't do anything according to plan, can you, Tonks?"
"What plan?" Tonks exclaimed.
"Today's the last day you two'll be seen with me," Moody said. "Can't risk rousing suspicion. There's bloody ears all over the place." He looked around at the Muggles warily.
Tonks furrowed her brow. "What's going on?"
"What's going on is war," Moody said. "And you better make it known which side you're on."
"What do you mean?" Tonks felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured over her head. "Is You-Know-Who really back?"
Neither Shacklebolt nor Moody answered her straight away. Shacklebolt kept his eyes on the napkin dispenser.
"We shouldn't be having this conversation here."
"Well, where else would we be having it?" Moody took a swig from his hip flask. "We can't very well sneak off to Tonks's house. That would look far more suspicious than casually running into the girl at lunch."
Shacklebolt smirked. "I've tried to casually run into Tonks twenty times now. She's easy to avoid."
Tonks flushed. "I thought you were stalking me."
Shacklebolt laughed, and Tonks wasn't sure she'd ever heard a stranger sound. "I was, in a way. It wouldn't have killed you to say hello to me."
"If anyone asks, or if anyone notices the way you've followed her around, just excuse it by saying you're sweet on her," Moody advised.
"That was one of the notions I entertained," Tonks admitted. "But what about you, Moody? What am I to say if people notice you around me? Are you my sweetheart, too?"
Moody didn't look amused. "Like I said, after today, I'll no longer be talking to either of you. It's important you two appear to know nothing."
"That'll be very easy in my case," Tonks said.
Shacklebolt stared at her intensely. "Look here, Tonks. Things are getting messy, especially with the Ministry. Scrimgeour's speech was just the first in a long line of Dominoes, you understand?"
"I understand the Muggle reference, yes," Tonks said. "But the analogy itself flew over my head."
He frowned. "I mean that the anti-Dumbledore sentiment is just going to get worse. Our lives will be made very difficult if it becomes apparent that we're even thinking that he might be right."
Tonks let the reality of the words wash over her. "So ... you think Dumbledore's right," she said slowly.
Shacklebolt didn't answer the question; he didn't have to.
"The question of the matter is whether Shacklebolt and I were right about you, missy," Moody said, and Tonks could envision his eye swirling about in his head. "Aurors are good for the cause, but not if they can't keep their traps shut. That's a big problem of yours."
Tonks flushed again. And then, "What do you mean? What cause? If Dumbledore says that You-Know-Who's back, I believe him," she said, surprising herself. She didn't even realize it was true until the words came out of her mouth.
She leaned back into her seat. "He's really back, isn't he? What are we going to do? How the hell are we going to stop him? I don't want things to turn out like they did the first time!"
"Let's not get excited," Shacklebolt cautioned with a wave of his hand. "It's important not to make a scene."
"At this rate, the Muggles'll know what's going on before the bloody Ministry does," Moody muttered. He looked at the Muggles again.
"Anything interesting?" Shacklebolt asked.
"There are a couple of waiters going at it in the loo," Moody grunted. "But other than that, there's nothing to report."
Shacklebolt laughed again. "You still think we should Obliviate the whole lot?"
"I don't know what you think's so bleeding funny." Moody scowled. " 'salways better to be safe than sorry."
"I agree," Shacklebolt said. "But our main objective is to lay low. There's no way the mysterious disappearance of thirty Muggles' memories wouldn't garner some major attention."
"Under Fudge's reign, I wouldn't be surprised."
Shacklebolt grinned, and Tonks noted that he had very large, very white, intimidating teeth. "Fair point. Fudge is an imbecile."
Tonks, who had been feeling left out of the exchange, jumped in. "I think Bones should be Minister."
"She'd never do it," Moody countered. "She knows how corrupted the system is. That's the problem. Slytherins are the bloody ambitious ones."
"So what was the cause you two were talking about earlier?" Tonks grabbed Shacklebolt's bowl and took a slurp. It was still her lunch break.
He shook his head. "Not here. I just wanted to gauge your interest."
Tonks set the kadhi down and wiped off her mouth with her sleeve. "I'm very interested!"
"This isn't all fun and games, and don't you go thinking it is," Moody warned. "You're young, but you're not stupid, so don't go making us look foolish. We vouched for you."
"Vouched for me where?" Tonks pressed.
"What part of 'not here' don't you understand?" Kingsley said. "I'll talk to you later."
"What would you two have done if I wasn't interested?"
Kingsley smiled grimly. "Let's just say that I think one Memory Charm is far less conspicuous."