Hermione Investigates

Chapter 7

Apparently dazzled by the light, Tonks tripped over my slippers and fell on her face. It was such a familiar Tonks-like thing to do that all the tension went out of the situation. I switched off the torch and turned on the bedside lamp instead. "Tonks, what are you DOING here?"

She got up gingerly, "Ow, my boob. I came to return Ginny's wand." She held out an object.

"It IS mine," said Ginny, looking over it closely. "How did you get it?"

"Got it from Dung on the promise that I'd get his back."

"You made a deal with Mundungus?" I asked incredulously. "An Auror and a thief? Tonks, what is going on?"

She bit her lip. "Long story."

"Well, we've got all night." My parents were running some rather loud air-conditioning, it being the middle of summer, and I didn't think they'd hear us talking.

Tonks thought for a minute. "All right," she said finally. "But I can't TELL you. I'll have to show you. Take my hands and I'll Apparate you two."

I thought over the risks. Tonks was basically trustworthy, in spite of her odd behaviour tonight. She wouldn't teleport us into danger. And I reminded myself that she could simply have teleported herself out of my bedroom when things got awkward, and hadn't done it. She knew she owed us some sort of explanation.

Ginny took Tonk's right hand, and I took her left. Both of us were careful to hang on to our wands. Then the universe went crazy for a while.

When we got back to normal, we found ourselves in a small park, surrounded by buildings of several stories. Obviously London, where space was at a premium. The area looked rather rundown: not a slum but a middle-class area that had seen better days. Tonks conducted us to one of the buildings, a row house. "Close your eyes."

"Why?"

"Secret-keeper charm, and I'm not the keeper. I can only get you in if you can't see your way in."

Reluctantly, I closed my eyes. A few seconds later I heard a door creak open, and a familiar voice ask "Dora? What?"

Sirius Black's voice. He was Tonks' cousin. The last time Tonks mentioned him, she was still mystified by his supposed turn to crime and she had no idea where he was. Either she was lying then, or things had changed a lot.

"I mucked up and got caught," Tonks said ruefully. "We might as well let them in on it."

"The others are not going to like this, but okay. Keep your eyes shut, girls, and we'll guide you in."

It was awkward, particularly with my injured foot, but I got up a couple of steps and through a door. I found out later that the house was invisible to outsiders, and would have been very difficult to enter if we could see what we were doing. I heard a door close behind me, and Black's voice said, "You can open your eyes now. You're inside the spell."

I obeyed. I was in a very dark hallway, unadorned except for a pair of curtains on one wall. I asked: "Where are we?"

"Black family mansion," said Sirius. " Grimmauld Place. It's not very pleasant, I admit, but fugitives can't be choosers. Neither can conspirators."

"Conspirators?"

"When you asked me a week ago to find information on You-Know-Who," said Tonks, "first I sought out Moody, but they said he was ill, and they were very evasive about it. I thought that was odd, because he had been teaching at Hogwarts this year, and he usually barrels through anything – losing an eye, losing a leg, whatever. Then I ran into Remus Lupin and complained that something was going on and I seemed to be locked out of it. Lupin trusts me, so after swearing me to secrecy he told me about the Order. The catch was, after taking the oath, I couldn't tell you what I'd learned. All I could say was, things were being done and you didn't need to worry."

"But, being Hermione, she DID worry," Ginny said impishly.

"We call ourselves the Order of the Phoenix," said Sirius. "I can't tell you who else is in it, but basically all of us believe Harry's story that You-know-who is back. We're trying to devise ways of fighting him, and we're staying out of sight until we've come up with a plan."

"How does Mr. Dung fit in?" asked Ginny.

"Well," said Tonks, "members of the Order aren't used to skulking around and staying out of sight—"

"Except me, " said Sirius. "I learnt the hard way."

"—but Mundungus is. He also knows various contacts who might be useful, if they think there's money in it. So we agreed that if he would teach us some of the tricks of the trade, we wouldn't turn him in."

"Leaving him free to steal my wand," Ginny said bitterly.

Sirius winced. "We didn't know he would do that."

No, I thought, but you knew he would probably victimize SOMEBODY, and you just hoped that it was somebody you didn't know and wouldn't create a fuss. It didn't strike me as very ethical, but I supposed that they didn't have much choice in the situation. I was about to speak up about that when I realized something else.

"Bollocks!" I exclaimed. I rarely used coarse language, but my new thought seemed to justify it.

"Er, why bollocks?" asked Tonks diffidently.

"I thought we were on the trail of You-know-who, of VOLDEMORT. That we could do something to help expose him. But all we were chasing after was your Order!"

"At least we can help the Order," suggested Ginny.

"NO," said Sirius firmly. "Both of you are too young. I don't want you involved."

"Remember how we tracked you down in the Shrieking Shack last year?" I challenged.

"Yes, and that's precisely why I don't want to endanger you again. No, I want you to swear to keep this secret, and then to go back to your normal lives."

Normal lives! My life stopped being normal five years ago, when I learnt that I was a witch. The instant that I had met Harry – or maybe the instant I found that mysterious note saying "FIND HARRY POTTER" – my life had been tangled up with the fight again Voldemort and his legacy.

"I swear that I will keep the secret," said Ginny.

"I swear that I will keep the secret," I repeated. But I was not swearing to stay out of trouble – and, I secretly noticed, neither was Ginny. I wondered if Tonks or Sirius noticed. They could be sneaky on their own.

"All right," said Tonks. "Now let's get the two of you home."

Getting us out of the house where we could Apparate was almost as complicated as getting us in, because it was important that we not be seen leaving a nonexistent house. But since it was the middle of the night, there was little chance of witnesses.

Tonks teleported us back into my bedroom. "Normal wizard houses have spells on us to keep people from teleporting in and out," she observed. "I'll talk to the Ministry about getting the protection put on your house, and other Muggle houses where young witches and wizards live, so somebody like Mundungus can't intrude whenever he likes. That ought to put a damper on Mundungus' particular scam, and I don't have to bring the Order into it."

"Thank you, Tonks."

The next morning, I was feeling rather drowsy at breakfast, as a result of all the night's running around on an injured foot. But I perked up immediately when Ginny said "Mrs. Granger – Mr. Granger – I've got a confession to make."

I stared. Was Ginny going to tell my parents about Mundungus, and Tonks, and all that?

"I know that you think Minnie has been sneaking around with a boy," Ginny continued. Minnie? Ginny never called me that. "But it wasn't Minnie. It was me. I have a boy friend in the neighbourhood."

"Oh?" asked Mum cautiously. I still could not tell what Ginny was doing, but it was obvious what was going through Mum's head. She had a duty to the Weasleys, to protect their daughter during her visit. Had Ginny gotten in trouble?

"Oh, we didn't go very far," Ginny said. "Minnie saw to that. She insisted on chaperoning us. That's why she was out of the house when I was talking to my bloke, a couple of nights ago." She winked at me; my parents couldn't see that side of her face.

"Well, Minnie, I wish you'd been straightforward with us," said Dad. "But I suppose I can understand the bind that you were in, not wanting to snitch on your friend to 'grown-ups'. I'm glad you were showing a sense of responsibility."

I finally caught on. Ginny knew that my parents were upset at my supposed love life, and was covering for me.

"Oh yes," said Ginny. "Minnie is a very good girl."

That was laying it on too thick, and I had to restrain from laughing. After all, if I were that good a girl, I wouldn't be scheming right now to circumvent the Order of the Phoenix, and try to personally continue the fight against Voledmort. Just wait until I get back to Hogwarts-

THE END.