The first thing that Tonks felt was overwhelming pain, spanning from her head to the end of her toes. It felt like every inch of her skin was on fire. She tried to scream but found she couldn't even make a sound. Someone had muted her.
Through the haze of her suffering, she was able to feel that she was lying on the cold, hard ground. How had she gotten there? Had she taken a nap? But if so, why did it feel like she was being eaten alive by a million starving fire-ants?
Suddenly, her memories came rushing back to her. Tonks frantically tried to rise despite the pain, but she couldn't move either. For the next few moments, she desperately tried to roll over, move, do something, anything, to relieve herself of the torture her body was being subjected to, but nothing worked.
What spell could have possibly caused such agony? Rudy Wexley had cast the Cruciatus curse on Tonks numerous times during the Auror training program, which he had justified under the excuse of 'forcing her to find a way to cope with the symptoms'. Yet Wexley's Cruciatus was not nearly as excruciating as this.
"She's awake," said a raspy voice from above.
Tonks heard footsteps from behind, and a few moments later, a warm, steady breath pressed itself against her ear.
"We are going to release you from the spells," a second, softer voice whispered. "If you try to scream, fight, or run away, you will regret it. Do you understand?"
She felt both the pain and the pressure around her neck recede, and her head lolled towards the ground. She craned her neck around, trying to identify her captors, but she only managed to see directly to the side of her. But what she saw only heightened her misery.
Doom and Gloom were sitting criss-cross on either side of her, but judging by the strained looks on their faces, they weren't doing much better than her. At least they weren't dead, which was a consolation. Norgard would have had a field day with her if they were.
There are more important things to worry about right now than Dryden fucking Norgard!
The pain abruptly began to return, albeit to a milder degree. "He asked you a question," hissed the raspy voice. "Do you understand, yes or no?" Tonks did her best impression of a nod.
"Excellent," said the softer voice, which had moved back a few paces. Tonks felt the block on her vocal cords lift, and she immediately gasped out in panic. She fought the urge to yell for help since there was no one else nearby. And judging by the heat on her back, the sun was still in the middle of the sky, meaning that her shift was nowhere near over. No help would come.
"Turn over," the voice commanded. Tonks felt the rest of the paralysis spell fade away, and her body thudded face-first against the dirt. She spat out a mouthful of grass before obliging her captor's orders.
"Sit up," said the raspy voice. Tonks slowly raised her upper body, which was still shaking from the aftermath of whatever torturous spell they had cast on her. The moment she was sitting upright, she felt the paralysis spell take effect again everywhere but her head. She tried to fight it off, but it was far stronger than any body-bind she had ever felt before.
Tonks was able to see the small clearing in the middle of Stonehenge now, which faced away from the now-quiet arches. She quickly focused on the two strange figures in front of her.
They were both tall, though the figure on the left stood slightly higher. Their faces were obscured by some sort of gray cloth, but when she squinted hard enough, she was able to make out the shape of their eyes. They were both wearing strange, pointed caps with sides that jutted outwards and upwards, like wings on a bird.
Their clothes were made mostly out of a combination of brown, black, and white leather that looked both fancy and flexible. Tonks had forgotten most of what she had learned in her Muggle Studies class, but she had taken a keen interest in historical Muggle fashion trends. And the two figures in front of her were dressed as if they had stepped straight out of Victorian England. To say they looked peculiar would be an understatement. Yet even stranger were the objects they were brandishing.
The person on the right was clutching what appeared to be a cane, though the longer Tonks looked, the more she realized that it was less a walking stick and more a weapon. The cane was metallic and its end was razor sharp, like the blade of a sword. The knob at the top of the stick was embroidered with a strange emblem that she couldn't quite make out from her current position.
The other figure grasped a serrated cleaver. Its handle, strangely enough, was situated right behind the blade; the two appeared to be connected by some sort of hinge. The figure's hand was gripping the cleaver in the small space between the blade and the handle. Tonks briefly wondered how such a design could be effective, but the entirety of her thoughts soon diverted towards a couple of burning questions.
Who the hell were these people, and what did they want?
Tonks cursed herself once more. She should have just followed the protocol and apparated away when she had the chance, but she had let Norgard's gibes influence her into making a stupid decision. And now she was paying the price.
The figure with the cane cleared his throat. "If you follow our directions, you will be free to go about your day in no time at all." Tonks recognized the speaker as the one with the soft voice, and now that he wasn't whispering, she was able to hear just how young he sounded.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
Cleaver glared at her. "Who we are is none of your concern."
Cane threw a pointed glance at Cleaver, before turning back to her. "Right, I'll just cut to the chase. We need information about everything that happened on the night Harry Potter disappeared."
Whatever Tonks had been expecting, it certainly wasn't that. "Everyone knows what happened on the night of the Bloody Solstice. As you just said, Harry Potter vanished without a trace."
"Yes, but what else?" Cane asked.
"I mean, besides the obvious, there isn't -"
"Stop. Assume we know nothing about that night, and explain everything."
Tonks hesitated and craned her neck to look towards Doom and Gloom for support, but both of them were staring straight ahead. It seemed that she would have to be the one doing the speaking.
"You want to know the whole story?" Cane nodded. "Fine," she said, clearing her throat.
"Six years ago, on the summer solstice of 1988, Harry Potter, his twin brother Samuel Potter, and their adoptive family, the Greengrasses, took a family trip to Stonehenge. After the sun had set, Lord Cyrus Greengrass was taking a walk around the site when he spotted a shimmering arch that looked exactly like the one behind me. He quickly called for his wife, Lady Cecelia, and the two went to investigate the arch. But when they arrived, they were attacked from behind. Meanwhile -"
"What happened to Lord and Lady Greengrass? Did they survive?" Tonks did not miss the note of anger that had crept into Cane's voice.
"Yes, they were only knocked unconscious." Cane visibly sneered, which Tonks made a mental note of. "Anyways, Lady Greengrass had left the Potter and Greengrass children alone in the tent, under strict instructions not to go anywhere. I don't know what exactly caused him to do it, since the information was never publicized, but Harry ended up leaving the tent. He was never seen again." Cane and Cleaver exchanged a fleeting look at that.
"A few minutes later, Lord and Lady Greengrass woke up and called in the Aurors. Then, while the Aurors were investigating the attack and Harry's disappearance, the Big Fish appeared."
Cane quirked an eyebrow. "The Big Fish? Elaborate."
Now Tonks was really confused. Perhaps there was a slim chance that her captors genuinely didn't know the story of the Bloody Solstice, but there was no possible way they had never heard of the Big Fish. Nevertheless, she decided to play along with whatever game they were playing, although it didn't seem like she had much of a choice anyway.
"Officially, it's called the Mare Bestia, but everyone refers to it as the Big Fish. To put it bluntly, it is a giant, unidentified sea creature. Or rather, a giant, unidentified corpse that resembles a sea creature. The Unspeakables eventually determined it was already dead the moment it appeared, though to this day, no one knows what killed it, where it came from, or what it is. Anyways, the Big Fish materialized in mid-air out of nowhere, and its subsequent impact crushed most of the Aurors in the vicinity. Afterwards, the Unspeakables arrived and took it to the Department of Mysteries for study."
A brief expression of fear passed over Cane's face, though it was gone in the blink of an eye. "I see. What else happened that night?"
Tonks swallowed. "There were, of course, Muggles on the scene. Stonehenge is - was - a popular attraction, especially during the summer solstice when the site was open at night so that people could see the sunrise through the arches. None of the Muggles were hurt by the Big Fish's impact, for the Aurors and obliviators had already cleared them out. But, after the chaos had somewhat died down, it was discovered that three Muggles had gone missing before the Aurors had arrived."
"And who were these Muggles?" interjected Cleaver, an intrigued expression on his face.
"Their names were Colin, Elizabeth, and Joe Thompson. Colin and Elizabeth were married, and Joe was their adoptive son. The Aurors discovered Colin and Elizabeth's natural son all alone in the aftermath, a seven-year-old boy named David."
"And what happened to David?" Cleaver asked.
"I'm not sure. The Ministry kept that information confidential."
"You are a Ministry worker are you not?"
"Yes, but I wasn't six years ago."
"Hmm, you certainly are young. But these two aren't," Cleaver said, gesturing towards Doom and Gloom. "Tell us what happened to David Thompson after that night."
The Unspeakables remained unspeaking.
Cleaver abruptly raised his hands, and both Doom and Gloom began crying out in searing agony. For the next few seconds, Tonks' ears rang from the shrillness of their screams, until Cleaver eventually ended the spell. "What happened to David Thompson after that night?" he repeated impatiently.
Doom let out a choking breath. "We don't know either," he said slowly. "David Thompson was handled internally by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. We work for the Department of Mysteries."
"You can do better than that," snarled Cleaver, lifting his hands.
"Enough! We discussed this beforehand, did we not? Remind me who it was that said our personal histories had to wait until after!" Cane yelled towards Cleaver.
Cleaver seemed unwilling to back down. "I don't appreciate your double standard, especially seeing as you already asked about the Greengrasses."
Cane growled. "Say that a bit louder, why don't you?"
Cleaver scoffed. "Please, even though you might deludedly believe otherwise, we cannot let them go free. You heard what she said - the story of that night is common knowledge. Any reports of our return will bring this entire world down upon our heads before we even have a chance to finish the task."
"What are you suggesting we do then?"
"Enough with the damned secrecy. Perhaps they would be more forthcoming if they knew who we were. Besides, I can barely breathe in this cloth."
"And how, exactly, would we ensure our identities then remain secret?"
Cleaver looked Tonks straight in the eye. "By killing them."
Tonks renewed her futile efforts to try and break free of the spell. She refused to die like this, paralyzed and at the mercy of a pair of mysterious criminals.
Fortunately, Cane seemed unhappy with that suggestion. "No. I will not kill people just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Besides, how exactly would promising to end their lives make them more forthcoming?"
Cleaver conceded that point with a grunt. "Fine. No killing. But surely there must be some way to swear them to secrecy?"
"What, like an Unbreakable Vow?" interjected Tonks. Doom and Gloom immediately hissed in disapproval, but she ignored them like they had done to her the past two months.
Cane pondered this. "An Unbreakable Vow, you say? That rings a bell. Remind me again how that is performed."
"Stay silent, Auror Tonks," snarled Gloom, but Tonks shook her head. Doom and Gloom had been utterly useless thus far, so why on earth should she listen to them?
"Two wizards clasp each other's arms, while a third wizard casts the spell. One party then makes the other swear upon certain conditions. If any of these conditions are broken, the offending party dies immediately."
Cane considered this, then nodded. "That will do. Can you cast it?"
"I can, as can they. It isn't a very complicated spell. However, I'd need to stand to act as the Vow binder - and I'd need my wand as well."
"Fair enough," Cane said. He strode over to her wand and picked it up.
"Don't try anything rash. You will regret it if you do," he said coldly before he subtly inclined his hands.
Tonks felt the paralysis spell dissipate, and she hesitantly rose from the ground. Her body occasionally twitched from the aftermath of that blasted pain-inducing spell, but she managed to stay upright. Cautiously, she accepted her wand from Cane's outstretched palm.
"Don't move," Cleaver ordered, as Cane stalked his way to Doom. Tonks contemplated trying to fight or flee but decided against it. Whoever these people were, they clearly outmatched her in terms of magical prowess. It would be best not to unnecessarily tempt their anger again, especially since Cane had made clear that he had no intention of killing them. Instead, she turned towards the arch and was disappointed to see that it looked completely normal again. Why had it been shimmering?
Cane repeated to Doom the same warning he had given her, before undoing the spell and offering him his wand. Doom snatched it up and immediately fired a hex at Cane. He then turned his wand to Cleaver and yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!"
In the blink of an eye, they were on him, both seemingly unaffected by the spells he had cast. Cleaver smashed his fist straight into Doom's gut, while Cane slammed the blunt end of his cane right onto his left kneecap, forcing Doom to a kneeling position. Doom's other knee buckled soon after, and he flopped unceremoniously to the grassy turf, wheezing in pain.
"Do not try that again," Cane said before he and Cleaver forced Doom to his feet. They dragged him over to where Tonks was standing and shoved him in front of her.
"Now what?" asked Cleaver impatiently, not sparing Doom a second glance.
Tonks did not want to be the first one to go. "Grab his right arm with your right arm."
Doom recovered enough to send her a look of loathing before Cane forcefully clamped down on his forearm.
Tonks lowered her wand to the point where their hands connected. "Now, ask him if he will uphold whatever conditions you want in the Vow. You have to use his full name when you do so."
"And what is your name?" Cane asked Doom.
Doom remained defiantly silent, but when he saw Cleaver take a menacing step forward, he quickly folded. "Tobias Everhart."
"Will you, Tobias Everhart, do everything in your power to keep all aspects of this encounter an absolute secret from everyone?" Cane repeated.
It took a while, but Doom eventually croaked out a response. "I will." After he said this, a thin tongue of flame appeared, wrapping its way around their wrists like a tiny red snake. Cane acknowledged its presence with a nod, before continuing.
"And will you, Tobias Everhart, agree to never speak of or otherwise hint at this encounter in any way, shape, or form once we leave?"
"I will." Another band of fire encircled their wrists.
Cane glanced at Tonks. "What do I do now?"
She swallowed. "State your full name, and say that you agree," she said, praying her lie would go unnoticed. She needed to find out who these people were.
"How do we even know she's not lying through her teeth? This Unbreakable Vow thing could very well be a trick," Cleaver interjected.
Cane shook his head. "It isn't. I vaguely remember parts of this spell from my time here."
"And are you sure about this?"
"I am." He turned back towards Doom and took a deep breath. "I, Harry Potter, hereby agree to the terms of the vow."