'Bel?'

Mehitabel Fortinbras glanced up from the report she was writing and then stood and attempted to push Tonks into her chair. 'Tonks, should you be out of Saint Mungo's?'

Tonks refused to be pushed. 'What happened?' she asked.

'What do you remember?'

'Girls night out?' suggested Tonks unhappily.

'Right,' said Fortinbras. 'Don't look so worried. You fell off a roof.'

'What was I doing on the roof?'

Fortinbras considered. 'We've a penseive of young Goyle's memory. Perhaps you should see that.'

Tonks followed Fortinbras into the evidence room and, together, they opened the door to the walk-in safe where memories were stored. 'Not here,' reported Fortinbras. The heavy iron door clanged shut. 'Come on.'

Tonks followed her to the stationary cupboard. Inside, the normally dark space was lit with the rippling silver emanations from the Aurors' penseive. 'One moment.' Fortinbras reached into the penseive and disappeared in a flash of light. Bracing herself against the table it was on, Tonks learnt forward and then had to pull back sharply to avoid a collision with Gates as he almost fell out of the rippling surface. She watched as, one at a time, a dozen or so of her colleagues emerged from the penseive and, rather sheepishly, scuttled out of the cupboard, several of them congratulating her as they went. Fortinbras reappeared, put her hand on Tonks' shoulder and then they were falling into darkness that became a rainy night in Knockturn Alley.

Inside Goyle's memory, Tonks watched a large Death Eater, whom she recognised as Goyle himself, leading an enormous, shaggy horse across the cobbled area that connected the back of the 'Leaky Cauldron' to the alley. As light from the windows of the toilet block fell across them, the wall and the windows faded into wooden stable doors which swung silently open to admit them. Within, Tonks could see herself washing her face in the stream of cold water from one of the sinks. As she groped for a towel, Bellatrix Lestrange handed one to her. Memory Tonks said 'Ta,' and dried her face. The horse was investigating Goyle's robes as though searching for something. 'Stop that now,' he pleaded as it took a casual bite at his sleeve. The horse considered. Then it stuck a long tongue in behind the mask and tried to bite that, dislodging it so that it fell and skittered away under one of the cubicle doors.

'Hello Goyle,' said Tonks, drawing her wand.

'Er, hello Ms. Tonks.'

Bellatrix smiled unpleasantly. 'Expelliamus!' 'Hello Nymphadora,' she said. 'Stupefy! Levicorpus!'

Bellatrix took Tonks out through the ghostly stable doors into the small courtyard. Looking deeply unhappy, Goyle stroked the horse gently and fed it a carrot. Sighing, he leant forward to rest his face against its hairy neck, patting it as it tried to raid his pockets. Finally, rather stiffly, he tied its reins to the taps of the sink nearest to the door into the bar and walked out into the rainy night, the wall reforming behind him.

'Let's fast forward a bit, shall we?' said Fortinbras. Raindrops blurred silver-grey for several seconds before refocusing with Tonks sitting, leaning against a wall, her arms at an uncomfortable angle behind her back.

Tonks watched as, in the memory, Bellatrix tried to recruit her and then she herself tried to recruit Goyle until he hissed 'Silencio', and she was forced to shut up.

'Fast forward,' said Fortinbras and the scene blurred, 'about twenty minutes.' The dull silver around them slowed and resolved itself into a light drizzle.

Snape was standing, wand in hand, surrounded by Death Eaters. 'Hand over your wand and we'll let her go,' said Bellatrix.

'Why should I care?' enquired Snape.

'Because she's your "get out of jail free card".' She threw back her head. 'Ha! Feeding love potion to an Auror, Snape. Maybe there's hope for you yet.'

'If you're seriously suggesting that I'd trust you then your hold on reality is even more tenuous than I'd thought'

'You can trust Goyle,' said Bellatrix, sounding irritated. 'He couldn't even kill a horse.'

'Goyle.' Snape sounded resigned. 'What are you doing here?'

'She threatened my mum.'

'And she'll do the same again tomorrow, and the day after, until she finds something you won't do.'

'Shut up!' screamed Goyle. He crashed forward, left hand seizing Tonks' throat from behind forcing her body to arc back against him.

'Look,' said Fortinbas. Tonks' earlier self was merely holding the ropes that had bound her in her left hand. In her right hand was her wand. Goyle relaxed his hold on her neck and she twisted free. She would have time for one spell before the others became aware that Goyle had betrayed them.

Basic training had clearly cut in: when outnumbered cause confusion. Tonks recognised her earlier self's wandwork as 'Accio!', before the wand was snatched from her fingers. Goyle had retreated into a doorway, Snape's eyes were holes into another dimension and then Tonks saw something silver coming fast up the alley. Memory Tonks began moving towards Snape and no one but herself and Goyle saw the silver lengthen, twisting and flashing against the raindrops.

A potion, decided Tonks, from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, and then a sheet of living silver struck and the alley was empty apart from Snape and a flock of chickens.

'Alchemist's oil,' explained Fortinbras. 'Tasteless, odourless and magically inert. He's covered in it: uses it as a barrier against potions accidents in class. Fortunate really or . . .'

'Actually, I knew about that,' said Tonks as a chicken gave a squawk of outrage and launched itself at the one where Tonks had been standing. Snape raised his wand and then his eyes widened as the victim began to metamorphose.

'This is the best bit,' said Fortinbras. 'What is that anyway?'

'Velociraptor,' replied Tonks. 'I used to be keen on dinosaurs when I was a kid. Is that Bellatrix?' The attack chicken wasn't giving up.

Fortinbras put a friendly arm around Tonks' shoulders. 'That was Bellatrix.' The velociraptor eyed the screeching thing, all mad eyes, beak and feathers, as it flapped frantically, desperately trying to get high enough to do some damage, and then lunged. There was a very permanent sounding crunch as tooth studded jaws snapped shut. The velociraptor straightened, tossed the bloody bundle high into the air, caught it with crunch about two notes down from the first and then swallowed. 'Well done,' said Fortinbras.

'I . . . ate Bellatrix Lestrange.'

'Oh, yes.' Tonks cringed. 'And a couple of others.'

And that's about it for my love life, decided Tonks, unless I take up with a muggle or slip someone a love potion . . .

She opened her eyes to discover that Snape was smiling.