Tonks could identify an object from the sound of its breaking. Quite often she could even tell why it had broken.

That, for example had been the plate glass at the front of the restaurant. She turned off the tap, wiped her hands down the side of her dress and slipped her wand from her sleeve. As she quickly discovered, there were anti-apparition wards in place. She considered her position. The doors to the toilets were on a side wall near the back of the restaurant. A swift exit via the kitchens seemed the most promising option. She very much doubted Bellatrix would be alone.

Snape was crouched behind an upturned table trading curses with a number of dark clothed figures. It was difficult to discern how many as the lighting now consisted of spurts and flashes of colour in the air and reflected from the crystalline floor. It was rather pretty in the way that phosphorescence is pretty when viewed from a sinking ship. Tonks took a deep breath, 'leviosa'd a table at the Death Eaters and threw herself across the floor and through the kitchen door.

Naturally there were steps.

Sprawled head first down them, Tonks considered, not for the first time, a change of career to something sane and sensible like, oh, dragon juggling. As Snape leapt over her to land and turn and seal the door behind him, she attempted to curl up and rolled painfully onto the floor.

'There's more of the bastards out back,' offered a voice lugubriously. Snape glanced out of the high window at the back of the kitchen and then, with a gesture, bricked over it and the door. An oppressive silence was broken only by the bubbling of a large stockpot.

'I'm truly sorry about this,' said Tonks, getting up and looking round.

From the other end of a long metal island of cupboards, sinks and food preparation areas five white clad muggles gazed back at her. There was the sound of tortured wood from the restaurant door and Tonks took cover behind one corner of the island as the door exploded and the new defensive brickwork began to crawl. Snape crouched behind the opposite corner of the island then she was ducking, blocking and sending hexes through the scorched woodwork of the doorway. It wasn't particularly difficult, all they had to do was keep fighting until Magical Law Enforcement arrived, usually a matter of minutes, and then a cutting hex took away half her wand.

Tonks seized a heavy iron skillet and waited.

The first person through the doorway took a flying skillet to the solar plexus and folded into an obstruction for those behind him, resulting in an untidy, laundry pile of black robes at the bottom of the steps. Tonks scooted to the far end of the kitchen just as Snape lobbed something into the stockpot.

There was a glop and a sound like the sharp indrawing of breath and then, with a prolonged hiss, most of the stock left the pot like some ghastly, greyish, liquid intercontinental ballistic missile only to immediately be deflected back down from piping, ductwork and the ceiling onto the heaving, black robed pile.

In the murky rain it was hard to see much but the clothes pile suddenly became more animated. There was a whimper and a scream and a hand emerged clutching something that might have resembled a lobster if lobsters were jewel encrusted and quite that big and aggressive. Tonks thought she could see bone. There was the odd, depressurisation feeling of anti-apparition wards lifting and, with a loud crack, much of the now yelping and cursing pile disappeared.

'Portable swamp,' remarked Snape. 'I confiscated it this morning.' Liquid was still surging queasily from the pot.

Eyes quite mad, Bellatrix rose from the ankle deep soup and aimed her wand at Snape just as a large blue octopus dropped from the ductwork overhead, its webbing covering her eyes. It seemed to have rather more than the usual number of tentacles and was now interesting itself in Bellatrix's wand. It also appeared to be strangling her. 'Incarcerous!' said Snape but it was too late; she'd gone, as had the others. With another crack, Snape followed her and then Tonks was seized by the arms and hauled backwards onto the central island.

'Shark,' intoned the lugubrious chef.

It was a bit flat to be a shark but Tonks decided she wasn't going to call him on it. It looked more like a ray until it opened along one edge, like an envelope, revealing rows upon rows of teeth, to make very short work of a crab, notwithstanding that its shell was nearly half a metre across. 'What the fuck is going on?' asked the chef.

'Magic,' said Tonks. 'They're the followers of a dark wizard. He's dead but, unfortunately, they're still here and they're kind of annoyed about it.'

'You're a witch?'

'Yes.'

The muggles considered this. 'Are we going to remember anything about this?'

'No,' Tonks apologised. 'Sorry. You'll probably be told that there was a gas leak.'

'A lot of 'gas leaks' lately.'

'Yes. And I am sorry, but Accidental Magical Reversal are really good at clearing up. You won't even know that we were here.'

The lugubrious chef reached up for a bottle of Beaujolais from an overhead rack, opened it with a corkscrew that had appeared in his hand, handed the bottle to the man next to him and opened another bottle. Glasses were being passed from a tray near the dish washer and Tonks was given a glass of wine.

Probably unwise given how little she'd eaten but she didn't want to appear rude. 'Thanks.' She sipped the wine.

'No problem.'

Tonks drank her Beaujolais. The ray-shark continued its slow circuits of the island and the water continued to rise.

'Think that thing's edible?' asked the chef.

'Wouldn't recommend it,' said Tonks.

'So what's happened to your back up?'

'Probably still trying to sort things out at the exhibition centre.'

'Oh?'

'Bellatrix, the one with the octopus, was trying to use biological warfare.'

'Like that thing?' There was a rattling as the ray-shark continued worrying a cupboard door.

'Something she nicked from Porton Down.'

'Lovely,' said the chef. 'More wine?'

'Please.' Tonks held out her glass. 'That soup was really excellent,' she ventured.

'Just don't come back.'