A/N: I have been waiting for this chapter for so long and so have some of you! This is the Azkaban chapter!...only with a little twist - it is combined remus and tonks POV and I am really exited (and a bit unsure) about it. I am not sure if I did it right. Please please review and tell me what you think...I might even change it later...
I know that if I want to talk to Mad-Eye, I must surprise him. And surprising Mad-Eye is not an easy task. But I also know that if I don't do it know, I never will.
I floo over to his office without warning.
I shudder at the horrible chill that fills me as I pass the dementored gate, two, relaxingly human guards at my side. I desperately want to to cast my protective wolf patronus but I had to leave my wand at the registry office. It really is ironic, also not surprising, that my patronus is a wolf.
He lifts his head and stands up, his wand out.
"Nymphadora," he nods at me, sitting back down.
"Don't. Call me Nymphadora!" This is the way we start any conversation, and although my heart is beating abnormally fast, I must keep a normal front.
I try not to look at the many gaunt, hollow faces, staring at me through their cells. My heart is beating so hard, I feel as if it will bounce out of my chest any moment. I feel as if nothing will do good now, not event proving that Sirius is innocent. I know it is the Dementors effect and I try to fight it but to no avail – they are just too strong. How can Sirius live like this? I guess I am just about to find out. It isn't worth it anymore.
"Well?" he said gruffly. "What brings you here?"
"I have some unanswered questions." I know I have to come straight to the point, and then weave my way through to the real information.
"I will not discuss Black with you again." I hear the slight softness, pity, in his voice, the kind of tone he saves only for me. I hang my head, as if caught in wrongdoing, but really ashamed of the many lies I have been telling him.
A thought pops into my head. I sound like Marvin the paranoid android. The thought is so unbelievably casual of me, it is absurd. I nearly feel like laughing but the feeling slowly fades away as I walk the many corridors of the most guarded wizarding prison ever to exist. Deeper and deeper we go, down endless staircases, along many thin dark corridors, and the farther we go the worst I feel about the whole thing.
"But he's innocent!" I retort.
"He was caught red-handed."
"Things must not be as they..."
"Enough." He has lost his patience with me, which was exactly what I had hoped for. I lower my head. "You are a wise girl, Nymphadora." At that, I pout slightly, even though I feel far from it after such a compliment from Moody. "I do not want you to do anything stupid. There are people dealing with it all. You have no place in this investigation." I pretend I want to interrupt and he ignores me. "Black as good as told them he did it. He practically set his own prison sentence. Proving otherwise will be exceptionally difficult."
The guards stop abruptly.
It is time.
I turn slowly, afraid of confronting him, of seeinghishollow face and gaunt expression, but what I see in his grey eyes is not madness.
It is hope, and gratitude, and sanity.
A smile cracks suddenly upon his face. It is a smile I have seen only rarely. Not the mischievous Marauder grin, or a boasting smile. It is a true, true smile, so real it almost gives me hope again.
But than it fades, as quickly as it had come, and with it his hopeful expression.
"But you always say, difficult is good. Difficult is strengthening." My first intention was to fake innocence on this line, but then I thought the better of it, so that I would sound more believable, and gave a challenging, knowledgeable edge to my voice.
Moody makes a sound between a grunt and a sigh.
"You must stop remembering every little thing I tell you."
"You would kill me if I didn't remember, and this isn't little. You say it to me every task I have."
"It is not in your power."
"I knew you would come" he croaks, but the voice isn't his, and it seems as if it is taking him a lot of efforts to say it.
"Sirius, please, we don't have much time".
This is my cue.
"But Remus said..." I stop myself abruptly, as if I shouldn't have said that. He glares at me dangerously, but I feel happy. I know I have got him.
"It is not in Lupin's power either," he states harshly. "Not with his, well..." he falters. This is just where I wanted him to get. He grunts.
"Just leave it." I shake my head, glaring at him.
"Sirius did nothing, and both you, I and Dumbledore know it."
"I did it" he says, but the smile stays plastered on his face. "I killed them, James and Lily".
I think leaving Remus out will only do good.
Mad-Eye, though, is not the best Auror of the century for nothing, and he catches my meaning instantly.
"What did Remus tell you?"
My eyes widen. I want to scream at him, make him realize he didn't, but I don't have enough will power to do it.
I turn and start walking away, tears prickling in my eyes. I feel like walking into a brick wall. I hear a scream far off in the distance but I don't let it bother me. It is probably one of the many lost souls who are kept here.
"He didn't. Not willingly. I pushed him to it."
"I didn't". I twist around, to see Sirius up on his feet, clutching the bars. "I didn't kill Peter."Fury flares up in me. How dare he? How dare he lie to me like that?
Something collides with the window.
"Remus!"
"Tonks!" Tonks? "Out. Now!" I nod, suddenly afraid, and go straight to the grate.
Nothing. Nothing can penetrate my brain any more. I walk the many corridors out of Azkaban, and nothing. I feel a stone setting in my heart. I desperately need someone to relieve me.