Typical Disclaimers Apply
A/N: I forgot to mention in chapter one, but this block of chapters (up until four or so) is dedicated to Azrulai!
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"Another mission accomplished!" Esme said cheerfully as Tonks struggled to push her large skirt into the room. Remus and Sirius stumbled in behind them, both looking thoroughly disturbed.
"Mission, eh?" Both girls flinched at the sound of Mad-Eye's wooden leg. "I see you're doing more than getting captured by Snape." His face came into full view, the bright blue eye whizzing about and the small, black one narrowing threateningly.
"Who told you?" Esme gasped, tripping over the hem of her gown.
"I was at your house when you stumbled in screaming obscenities."
"Oh…"
"Alastor was your guest that day," Molly came in, wiping her hands on a towel. "He wanted to speak to all four of you, but I suppose you all got…distracted." She looked from Tonks to Remus and flinched.
"I wanted to ask if you wanted to assist in rescuing Potter." He jerked his head toward Esme and Tonks. "If the women come along, I won't have to ask the kids for help."
"'The women'?" Esme hissed.
"Let it go." Tonks cleared her throat. "We accept." She eyed the boys. Sirius looked ready to run away. "We all accept."
"Excellent. Your mission begins tomorrow. If you kill anyone on the way, you will be pleasantly rewarded."
"Like with money?" gasped Tonks.
"More like honor."
"You can't spend honor on beer," she protested.
"You're pregnant. You can't spend anything on beer."
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"Hmm, the last time I was here, I was wearing nothing but leather, and very little of that, I might add," Esme said thoughtfully as Mad-Eye rapped her on the head with his wand, lifting her Disillusionment charm.
"Hi, Esme," Harry's voice came from behind her. Harry always seemed less-than-pleased to see her, but she never knew why. Perhaps it was because she was his father's daughter. But it was more likely because she had a tendency to cause electrical shortages and fires. Well, that was what she thought as she placed a metal bowl into the microwave.
"'Lo Harry! We bring you tidings of great joy!" Harry flinched as the cookware caught fire.
"Mmkay," he said distractedly. "Ron and Hermione aren't here?"
"No, Sirius and I are filling in for them."
"Oh." He sounded, looked, and almost smelled disappointed.
"Try not to look so ecstatic. Got your stuff?"
"Yep! I'm glad to finally leave."
"Smart little boy, you are." She reached up and grabbed a chunk of hair from his scalp.
"Hey!" He rubbed the spot on his head.
"Sorry, we need this for the Polyjuice Potion."
"The what?"
"Go talk to Mad-Eye about it. I have to go drink Essence of You." Harry went over to Mad-Eye while Remus distributed the gurgling potion to Fred, George, Esme, Sirius, Fleur and Mundungus.
They clinked glasses and downed their potions. Esme groaned as her skin began to bubble and Mad-Eye took the last glass, watching her with amusement. Her vision blurred slowly, and she suddenly had the ability to look people in the eye without craning her head up, even if those people were blurry and identical to her.
"Wicked! I'm tall! However, I seem to have lost the ability to see…" she snatched one of the pairs of glasses her father was handing out. "That's better! Now I am like a god."
"Because all gods are scrawny with bad hair," Mad-Eye laughed. "But it's not time for jokes. Sirius, you and Kingsley are flying back together."
"On my bike?" gasped Sirius. He hadn't flown on his bike in ages.
"No, on thestral." Sirius pouted. "One of the twins is with Arthur, the other's with Remus. Doesn't really matter either way, you're the same person either way."
"Gee, thanks Mad-Eye," George muttered.
"Yeah, really shows you love us," Fred said sarcastically.
"Shut up you lazy buggers. Esmeralda and Nymphadora are also flying together. I thought long and hard over this, and I don't want to regret my decision. That means you stick to the path and do not intentionally piss of the Death Eaters. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal," the girls said in unison, exchanging knowing smirks. To them this was reliving the glory days of school, and Mad-Eye was merely another teacher giving them too much power while at the same time attempting to stand in their way.
"Bill and Miss Delacour will also be on thestral because, supposedly, 'Fleur doesn't like broomsticks,'" he mocked.
"And these are better?!" Sirius cried, attempting to touch the neck of the invisible horse.
"That leaves Harry and Hagrid in the motorbike, and I'll be taking that," he gestured toward a brooding Harry in the corner who had to be Mundungus.
"Thief," Sirius muttered.
"Sleaze," Esme coughed.
"Pervert," Tonks hissed.
"Pervert?"
She giggled behind her hand, "I'll tell you about it on the ride to Mum's."
"No!" Mad-Eye shouted. "No talking on the ride! You will go straight and silently to your parents' house! Do not do anything to attract attention to yourselves, and that includes talking!" He turned away muttering, "You'd swear they'd need a babysitter."
"Excuse me?"
"Mount your broomstick, girls!" Giggling, the girls climbed onto Tonks' broom. Esme wrapped her arms tightly around Tonks' waist, winking at what may have been Sirius and Remus. Harry flinched as one of his figures flirted with another, while practically molesting a woman six years his senior at the same time.
"Steady as you go, girls!"
"I can fly a bloody broomstick, Alastor," Tonks laughed, kicking off. They flew through the night, wind rushing past their ears. Both girls cried out with joy, forgetting everything Mad-Eye had said to them.
"Oh it's been years since I've flown like this!"
"Bloody hell, I haven't flown since I was a first year!" Esme tossed her head back, causing her glasses to fly off. "Whoops!" She let go of Tonks' waist, reaching behind her. She cried out as someone grabbed her wrist.
"Got you," cackled a familiar voice. Tonks whipped around just in time to see a half dozen Death Eaters apparate behind them. "Cruci—"
"Not today, Bellatrix!" Esme cried, yanking her wrist out of the woman's grip. They both stumbled on their broomsticks, their balance lost in the scuff. Finally, Bellatrix's grip on her broom slipped and she tumbled off. Esme punched the air in celebration, causing herself to fall of her broom. After a few seconds of free falling, her hand wrapped around the broomstick.
"Pride is a deadly sin, Potter," Esme looked out to see that Bella was in the same position.
"You're supposed to be dead!" Harry's muscles were helping to keep her on the broom, but not for long. She swung a leg out, aiming at Bella's stomach, missing by a foot.
"Can't see too well without these, can you?" She pulled a pair of glasses out of her pocket. She hung by just one hand now. Esme squinted at her figure, pulled her leg back, and hit her directly in the stomach. Bella gasped as the foot hit her, and dropped the hand gripping the broom. Esme could feel the skin on her face and hands bubbling as she watched her enemy plummet to the earth.
Wasting no time, Esme pulled herself back up onto her broom. She realized with a start that as she was hanging, suspended hundreds of feet above the earth, Tonks had been fighting five different Death Eaters, and they were now flying fast and hard towards the earth below them. She looked around, panicked. Almost everyone had disapparated; the only people left were her, Tonks, and one male Death Eater.
"You killed my wife!" he roared, grabbing her from behind.
"Trust me; you're better off without her!" Esme growled, pulling away from his grip.
"But if you want, we can put you with her!" Tonks cried, pushing him off his broom.
"I'll remember your faces! The faces of murderesses!" he shouted as he fell.
"See you in Hell!" Esme laughed as he dropped to the earth. It was at that moment that the girls realized that they were approaching the ground rather quickly. Tonks dropped into straddling the broom, jerking it upward, but the pull of the earth was too strong.
"We're lucky we're in a wizarding neighborhood!" Tonks yelled, attempting to steer through the wind.
"'Lucky' isn't quite the word I'd used to describe it!" Esme shouted as the broom, and the girls, hit the empty street.
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