Hi again! Thanks to everyone who's read this and reviewed! You make me so happy! Here's Tonks in the battle for anyone who's still reading this! Sorry it took me so long to update. I've been trying to figure out how to write this chapter for a long time. I wanted to keep the same feel as the last chapter, but I was having trouble with that. I hope that it turned out ok! Enjoy!
Tonks ran through the halls of Hogwarts castle as fast as her legs would allow.
"I'm sure he's alright!" Ginny called after her, struggling to keep up with the pink-haired Auror. "Slow down!"
Tonks didn't hear anything that her friend said; all that mattered to her was finding her husband. Aberforth said that Remus had been dueling Dolohov out on the grounds. She would head outside in hopes of finding him there. "Tonks!" Ginny called after her friend, but Tonks was already sprinting outside the castle, Ginny's voice little more than a whisper in the back of her mind.
Tonks was desperate to find Remus. He had to be here somewhere. She was now out on the grounds, searching for any sign of her husband. Duels and fighting completely covered the school's grounds, and the bright flashes made it hard to distinguish any of the faces.
Tonks strained her ears. Maybe she would hear his voice through the duels, but so many people were shouting curses and spells, there would be no way she could hear him. She ran forward, her Auror training kicking in. She had to keep moving. If she stood still for even a second, she left herself open for an attack.
Suddenly, Tonks felt her legs buckle from beneath her, and she fell over something heavy. When she rose, she felt her breath catch in her throat. What looked to be a seventh year Ravenclaw girl lay on the ground, still as a statue. Her light brown hair was splayed in every direction and was covered in dirt and blood. Her leg was badly cut and was bent at a painfully awkward angle. Had Tonks not seen the light up and down movements of the girl's chest, she would have thought the student to be dead. Tonks kneeled on the ground beside the girl and tore off a long strip near the hem of her robes. She then proceeded to bandage the girl's head and leg in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
Tonks knew that by helping this girl, she was making herself a prime target for any Death Eater, but she couldn't just leave a girl to die. Once she had finished bandaging the girl's head and leg, her eyes fluttered open.
"What are you doing?" the girl asked quietly, weakly.
"Your leg's broken, and you lost some blood," Tonks responded. "Do you think you can get up if I help you?"
The girl nodded feebly, and put her arm around Tonks shoulders. Tonks pulled the girl up from the ground so that she helped to support the girl's weight. "Are you alright?" Tonks asked once they were standing. The girl gave another weak nod.
Tonks led the girl back through the grounds. There were people healing the fighters in the Great Hall. She could take the girl there, and they would be able to help her better.
They walked unsteadily back into the castle, Tonks trying to push them to go as fast as they could. Constant vigilance! You let your guard down for a second, and it'll be your last. Mad-Eye's teachings whirled through Tonks' mind like a raging tornado. Her eyes threatened to let tears leak down her face at the thought of her now dead instructor, but she wouldn't allow herself to cry now. There would be plenty of time for that later.
Her head darted in all directions as she led the girl inside. She spotted a large red-headed Death Eater taking aim for Tonks and her injured companion.
"Watch out!" Tonks warned as she dragged the girl to the side to avoid being hit by the Killing Curse that was headed straight for them. They narrowly avoided the jet of green light. Tonks raised her wand rather awkwardly from beneath the girl's weight and cast a Blasting Jinx in the direction of their attacker. The Death Eater was thrust off his feet when the jinx hit his chest, and he fell backwards into the ongoing battle.
Finally, Tonks had managed to get the girl inside. She lowered the girl onto one of the stretchers. Blood had begun to seep through the makeshift bandages, and she looked as though she was about to faint, but at least she was alive.
Madame Pomfrey made her way over to Tonks and the Ravenclaw girl upon seeing them enter. "What happened?" she asked. Her face was full of worry, and her voice was tired. As Tonks looked around the room, she could see why Madame Pomfrey would be so exhausted; dozens of fighters were lying on stretchers either dead or wounded.
"I found her on the grounds," Tonks replied breathlessly, wiping sweat from her brow. "Her leg's cut and broken, and she's got a pretty nasty cut in her head."
Madame Pomfrey nodded and immediately went to healing the girl. "Have you seen Remus?" Tonks inquired. Her voice took on a distracted tone as she scanned the room for him.
The cuts on the girl's leg and head disappeared, and with a flick of her wand, Madame Pomfrey was able to fix the broken leg. She then stood up and looked at Tonks' worried face. "I heard he was by the northern end of the castle," she responded quietly. "A wall had fallen, but Tonks, you have to—"
Tonks didn't hear the rest of what Madame Pomfrey said, for without another word, she took off for the northern wall at a sprint.
He had to be okay; he just had to be alright. Tonks finally reached the fallen wall, and her mouth fell open in shock. The entire wall had collapsed into a pile of rubble, and there was no partition between the duels that were occurring outside and those that took place within the walls of Hogwarts. It was horrible, she thought, that so much destruction had happened at a place she once saw as a home away from home, a place that would always be close to her heart.
She took a step forward to see if she could spot Remus in any of the duels, but she stepped on something, and it rolled beneath her feet. She fell backwards and landed on the hard stone floor. She looked around for the source of her fall, and found a wand lying about a foot away from her. It was broken in half, revealing a glimpse of a thin strand of unicorn hair holding the two ends together. She turned the broken wand over in her hands, and noticed something odd. The unicorn hair, normally silvery a glimmering, was dull and black…dead.
Tonks' breath caught in her throat. It was Remus' wand. It had to be; she would recognize it the elegantly carved hazel wood anywhere. No, she thought. He's not…he can't be…. She couldn't bring herself to utter the last word.
She stood up and looked around, desperate to find her husband. Suddenly, she caught sight of an arm hanging limply out of a pile of debris. She ran over and felt her stomach drop to the floor when she saw Remus lying in the rubble. His long and lanky form was splayed out over a pile of rocks in an almost relaxed-looking way. His eyes were closed, as if he were sleeping. His hair and forehead were covered in dried blood, and his face was pale and lifeless. She kneeled next to him and felt tears burn in her eyes. He was dead. He had promised that he would never leave her again, but now they were separated forever.
She looked into his face and saw that despite his lifelessness, his mouth was bent in what looked like a small smile. At least he was happy when it happened, Tonks thought solemnly.
A single tear flowed down her face, and she grabbed her husband's cold hand, holding it close. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and placed his hand so that it was lying right next to him in the rubble. She reluctantly tore her eyes away from him and rose from the ground. She had to keep fighting. She owed that to him.
"Good-bye," she whispered to him, though she knew he couldn't hear. Tonks gripped her wand tighter in her hand and ran out onto the grounds, brushing tears out of her eyes.
Directly outside the wall, Tonks came across a tall brunette Death Eater. He looked young, maybe in his early twenties, and he was clearly inexperienced in the art of dueling. He had left himself wide open for an attack as he tortured a seventh year Hufflepuff boy. The boy writhed on the ground for several seconds as the Death Eater laughed, enjoying his opponent's pain.
Tonks' nostrils flared. "Reducto!" she yelled. The Death Eater was thrust forward onto the ground, and his head smashed into a brick from the fallen castle wall. Blood poured onto the ground as the Death Eater gradually became motionless.
The boy rose from the ground a bit unsteadily. He turned and saw the Death Eater's lifeless body a few feet away and then turned to face Tonks.
"Thanks for that," he said breathlessly.
"No problem," Tonks returned. Her voice was completely emotionless, and it sounded foreign to her own ears. The boy threw himself back into the battle, and Tonks turned to do the same.
Tonks had defeated three Death Eaters, and things showed no signs of slowing down. Just as the third foe had fallen to the ground, Tonks heard a strangely familiar cackle sound from behind her.
"Well if it isn't dear Tonksie," the voice called teasingly. "Come to play, have you?"
Tonks whirled to see Bellatrix Lestrange prowling toward her. "Petrificus Totalus!" Tonks shrieked. Bellatrix lunged to the side and avoided being hit by the spell. "Stupefy! Immobulus! Locomotor Mortis!" Bellatrix avoided every spell Tonks threw at her.
"You're going to have to do better than that," Bellatrix seethed as she threw a Killing curse in Tonks' direction.
Tonks leapt out of the way and narrowly avoided the jet of emerald light. The two witches fought for several minutes, each avoiding or blocking every spell the other threw at them. The duel went on with a vigor fuelled by each of their hatred for the other, and none of the other fighters dared approach them.
Finally, an eerie stillness came over the battlefield, and a cold voice rang through the air. For a moment, everything stopped. It was as if someone had flipped a switch, forcing everyone to listen. "You have fought, valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery."
Tonks stood and listened to the voice intently along with the other fighters. He was calling them back! Voldemort was calling the Death Eaters back! Some of his fighters had already begun heading back into the forest!
Just as Tonks allowed herself to fill up with the slightest hope that this nightmare was almost over, she heard her aunt's high shriek of "Avada Kedavra!"
It was funny, Tonks thought, how Mad-Eye had always stressed the importance of constant vigilance, and she had always done everything she could to follow his teachings, but now, the one time she let her guard down, it would end her.
Tonks had barely enough time to widen her eyes in surprise before the curse hit her, but in that fraction of a second, her life flashed before her eyes. She saw her fifth birthday when her parents took her to a Muggle theme park. She saw her father dressed as Santa Claus and pretending to put gifts under the tree at Christmas. She saw her first day of training with Mad-Eye and her first Order meeting. She saw her and Remus' wedding and the day Teddy was born.
Tonks nearly smiled. She had thought that Remus left her, but now she saw that he was only going ahead, and now they were going to be together forever.
Tonks closed her eyes. She prayed that Harry would win this, that her death would mean something. She hoped that her mother and Teddy would understand why she did what she did. She wanted Teddy to know that his mother and father wanted to give him a better life, and that's why they died.
The curse hit Tonks in the chest and threw her off her feet. Her pale, lifeless body was sprawled limply on the dark, cold ground, but her face was bright and smiling. She and Remus were together, never again to be separated.
So there's Tonks in the battle. For those of you wondering about the whole dead wand thing, I stole that off of Pottermore. It said that hazel wands with a unicorn hair core die when their owners die, and I always pictured Remus with a unicorn hair wand, so I added that bit in. Also, Voldemort's words are taken right out of the Deathly Hallows book, so that's why their italicized.
I hope you enjoyed this! The next chapter will be the last one, and I'll try to get it up soon. I'm going away for a while, so it may be a few weeks before it gets up, but I WILL add it when I get back! If you guys want a happier story than this (because I know this one's kind of a downer), I'm writing a Remus/Tonks love story called "A Twist of Time", and it's more of a happy story if you want to check it out!
Anyways, thanks for reading, and don't forget to Review!