6 Department of Mysteries
Near the end of her Closed Case Thursday, Tonks spent an hour talking with Williamson, giving him the breakdown of her morning with Weasley. Savage sat idly at his desk, eating another pastry someone had brought into the breakroom that morning, adding to his late-middle aged paunch. The bloke wasn't going to age gracefully if he kept that up. Williamson was constantly jabbing him on that point.
The cheap quill nib broke under pressure as she signed the last of the files. But next Thursday, it'd be pastry-gut's turn, and she'd be the one on active call. She stopped to replace the nib and saw someone in the hall – broad shouldered, trim waist – yeah, she had a type, who didn't? His face was unrecognizable. He was worse-looking than the disguised bloke she'd spent the morning with, and that said something. Tonks got back to work.
"Who's that git?" Savage asked. Tonks shut her last file. The bloke had come into their area, tentatively tapping his fingers together. He looked lost, but also looked like 'not her problem'.
"Don't know him," she said, about to finish the last file, but then she made eye contact with lost-bloke and instantly felt like she should know him.
"Wait."
Tonks threw the quill on her desk, hearing the crack of another cheap nib as it hit the desk. She met broadsholder's eyes and then walked right past him down the hallway. Just as she suspected, he followed her, a few paces back, all the way into the breakroom. Tonks scanned the room and then brushed by him to close the door. They were alone.
She went right up to him, staring intently. She didn't know this face, but…
He absentmindedly rubbed at his wrist.
"Show me, " she said.
He lifted up his wrist, showing her the mark.
She grimaced. "You look terrible."
"I came straight from work," he explained. "I received a very demanding owl from your man, Williamson, requesting my presence as soon as was convenient. The alternate identity that allows me to keep working at Gringotts isn't cheap. I'm risking a lot to come here."
"No kidding," Tonks said. "Don't worry, I'm not going to destroy you." She gave him a pointed look. "Follow me."
They took the lift down to the main level of the Ministry, crossed the Atrium and went down a long corridor with a security witch guarding the door at the end.
"He's with me," Tonks said to her, and the witch let them both pass.
Once past security, Tonks led him to a service lift. The lift operator looked surprised to see her, and doubly surprised when she ordered him to "get out".
They entered the lift, Tonks closed the gate and pushed a grey button. She grasped the rail as the lift lurched and began moving slowly downwards.
"So, Bill Weasley. You look different," she said.
"The Glamour Charms don't last more than ten hours. It's been a long day, and the full effect is slipping. But it'll hold for another hour, at least."
The lift opened to a dark corridor with black-tiled walls and a plain black door at the far end of a hall dimly lit with blueish-white torches. Tonks went straight for the door.
"Pre-Authorization From Head Auror Robards," she announced. "That's my boss's boss," she explained to Bill, whose face had begun to take on a sagging, misshapen appearance.
They ended up in a circular room, lit by candles with blue flames.
A strange voice echoed around them. "Love Chamber, by authorization of…"
Tonks grimaced at the announcement, not wanting to see Bill's expression. "Sorry," she said. "It was the only classification that fit."
The door opened to a plain, grey-toned room. It had three chairs around a small, low table which had a mini-table fountain on it.
Bill and Tonks went inside and the door automatically closed behind them.
"Unspeakable Bode," the old man said, appearing before them in long white robes. "This is my assistant, Unspeakable Throbber. Please sit."
Tonks and Bill chose the two chairs opposite each other. She didn't trust Unspeakables, as a rule, but Bode had been one of the wizards who had helped save her life, so she had to give him some credit.
Bode instantly addressed Bill.
"May I see the marks?"
Bill and Tonks turned up their wrists and put them on the table.
Side by side, they were identical – mirror images of each other with Bill sitting across from her.
"Uncanny," Bode whispered. He waved his wand, muttering while the other Unspeakable made notes on a small pad.
They must have stayed there for at least half an hour, until finally Bode spoke again. "Highly interesting. Never seen a matching pair in person before." He got out a camera and started snapping pictures.
Tonks was growing impatient.
"I am familiar with the circumstances under which Ms. Tonks acquired her mark, and the subsequent emergency hex-freezing we did on her behalf. I am interested in how you happened upon yours, Mister…."
"I was hit by a curse," Bill said, impressing Tonks by both avoiding his own identification and getting the Unspeakable undivided attention. The old Unspeakable sat down in the empty chair while the younger assistant began furiously scribbling in his notebook.
"Do continue," Bode said.
"We were in the outer limits of Mysuru, containing an ancient burial site. That's what we do. I'm a Curse-Breaker."
Bode's eyebrows rose, and a silent "ah" formed on his lips.
"Ogden and Kettleburn were holding up shields and Nash had just taken the lid off a stone box covered in Runes. It was shooting a hot-white light into the air. We were all going to burn up, so I reached over the box and put the lid back on."
"And that's when the mark appeared?"
"Well, I can't be sure," Bill said. "My arm was burnt up pretty badly after that. I spent a week in St. Mungo's regrowing the skin."
Bode looked at Tonks. "You were in traumatic shock for how long?"
"Three hours, until you fixed it," Tonks said.
"Hmm," Bode murmured. "That doesn't seem to correlate."
Bill turned to Tonks. "When did your marks appear?"
"Last year."
"What was the date?"
"Twenty-fourth of May," Bode said.
"That's a week later," Bill said. "When I tried to poison myself."
The room fell silent.
"I'm sorry, " he said, "I didn't know. I'd just healed enough, they were going to discharge me and I didn't have anywhere to go. I nicked a vial meant for someone else and thought if I could just make it all go away and end it – I only got half of it down before my whole body froze up. They found me an hour later – like I was in a body-bind curse or something."
Bode nodded. "That's approximately what the Interruption Hex is meant to do. It managed to save both of your lives."
"I guess you're the person I should thank for that?"
Bode pointed to his assistant, who had stopped scribbling. "It was Throbber's idea that saved you. He is also responsible for correctly classifying these marks. You say you were in Mysuru, that's southern India?"
Bill nodded.
"Makes sense. There are several belief systems in that area that incorporate the idea of an eternal soul. You must have uncovered a very powerful artifact."
"We couldn't break it," Bill confessed. "It's still in the protected vault in Gringotts."
Bode nodded. "That's a good place for it."
"So, what do we need? Can you get a translation of the box?" Tonks asked.
Bill brought out a scroll. "Got it. But I'm afraid it won't' do any good."
Bode took the scroll, unrolled it and scanned its contents. "He's right. All it did was confirm what Throbbers has already determined."
"Which is?" Tonks as getting impatient.
"It's a very strong, very ancient magic. Excellent Runes translation, by the way/"
"Thanks," Bill said.
"And?" Tonks insisted.
"It's irreversible."
Tonks glared at Bill. "So this is your fault? Sorry," she said. "Of course it isn't your fault. But if I die from this…" she didn't know how to finish that threat, so she let it go.
"There are several methods we can try, but none of them are guaranteed."
"Do it," Tonks said. Bill nodded in agreement.
Bode and Throbber held their wands over the two marks. "We tried this on Ms. Tonks, but it wasn't effective on just the one mark."
Both of them pointed white streams of light at the marks.
It burned. Tonks tried to hold still, and Bill's brow beaded with sweat.
Finally, after she didn't think she could take anymore, Bode called a stop to it. "That's all we can do."
Tonks looked at their wrists. The skin was pink and angry, but the marks were still bright and clear. The procedure had hurt like hell, but she'd go through all kinds of pain to get that thing off of her and be done with it.
"Do it again," she said.
Bode shook his head. "Any more of that particular spell, and you'll both be dead, or missing one arm. We've been looking into this for almost a year. Everything, including the translation that your partner provided, points to the undeniable conclusion that this is a permanent arrangement."
Tonks swore up a storm holding her wrist. "Stupid curse!" She didn't even care that Bill was standing right there or that he looked worried for her and it might not be so bad being linked to him forever. But she had her principles. One of them happened to be making her own choices about things. Which, when she thought about it, made her go into another rant of foul mouthed expletives.
Unspeakable Throbbers cleared his throat.
"What?" Tonks spat out aggressively.
"I just wanted to mention that, according to these Runes, the Soul-Mate Marks aren't meant as a curse. According to the notes on this translation, it was never meant as a punishment. In times of deepest emotional stress, the ancients believed the marks to be a blessing, offering hope and healing to the afflicted. It's actually supposed to be a good thing."
"But he's not my soulmate. I already had… and he's gone!" Tonks was visibly angry. "No offense, Bill," she muttered.
"None taken," he said. "Believe me. I feel the same way."
"What do we do now?" Tonks asked.
Bode rose from his seat, peering at her over his spectacles. "I suggest you learn to live with it, and each other." The Unspeakable turned to Bill sympathetically. "Good luck to you, Sir."
Tonks scowled.
On their way up in the lift, Tonks frowned. "I'm sorry about how I acted in there. I just thought that after all this time, there'd be a way out of this."
"I understand."
"I mean, I'm an Auror, and you're a Curse-Breaker. Just from our jobs alone, we could be putting each other in danger every single day. Oh, umm… Bill? Your face is slipping."
Bill touched his sagging cheek as the lift stopped at the Ministry's Atrium level. "The Glamour Charm is wearing off. I can't go out there like this."
"Here, let me." Tonks did her best effort at a Glamour Charm. When she was done, Bill's nose was a little crooked, and he'd grown buck teeth, but he wouldn't be recognizable, even to his own mother.
"That'll have to do," she said. "I've never been great with Charms."
Bill looked at his reflection in the glass panels and grimaced.
"Sure," he said. "Let's go."
But as Tonks walked him out of the Ministry and led him to the safe apparition point, the hairs on the back of her neck prickled.
"Bill, " she said. " I think we're about to…"
She didn't finish her sentence, interrupted by a flash of red light that hit the wall beside her. "Duck!" she yelled, and went into defense mode.
Three black robed figures had come out of nowhere. She hadn't heard any apparition cracks, so they must have been waiting for them beyond the wards of the Ministry.
Her wrist stung. They were after Bill.
She tapped her wand three times on her ear and said, "Williamson, Code Red. I need backup."
She was grateful that they were so close to the Ministry, because her team apparated at once with two loud cracks. Williamson stunned one, while Savage aimed spells at the other two. Tonks covered Bill, and they ducked behind a rubbish bin.
Tonks heard two resounding cracks echo through the alley. Then silence.
When she and Bill rose from their cover, they found Williamson and Savage standing over the still form of the third attacker.
"Hit his head on the bricks going down," Williamson reported.
"Dead?" Tonks asked.
"Gets worse," Savage said.
"How can he be worse than dead?" she asked.
"This is Goyle, Senior," Savage said.
Tonks blinked. "Wasn't he reported dead last month after the Hunters got to him?"
"Yep," Savage said. "Now he's dead twice."