"Gotta be honest, you're starting to bring me down," Matilda said at lunch the next day. Rory was pushing her lunch around on her plate absentmindedly.
Rory's chat with Harry the night before had been awful. They hadn't argued, but it was upsetting all the same. And this morning she'd walked into the entrance hall and had to walk past Harry and Cho. She didn't have a bite to eat. She didn't have much of an appetite now either.
"Sorry. I wasn't really expecting my ex-boyfriend to immediately start dating the girl he told me he didn't have feelings for," Rory said.
"I still don't think he likes her," Neville said.
"I saw them openly kissing in the library," Rory said. "He said she was his girlfriend. She's been all over him today when they've crossed paths."
"I think she's just a rebound. I think he's only with her so he doesn't have to deal with the fact that you broke up," Neville said. "I think she's just a distraction."
"She's distracting alright," Rory said. She was back to feeling like she was going to die from heartbreak. Meanwhile, Harry was off snogging Cho. "Hope he's having a great fucking time being distracted."
Rory wished she could be distracted.
"He talked to me last night in the common room," she said.
"What about?" Matilda asked.
"About the DA. And he wanted to fix things and for us to be friends," Rory said. It still sounded so ridiculous. She could hardly stand to look at him, let alone be his friend.
"Did you tell him he's an idiot?" Matilda asked.
"I told him I don't want to talk to him or look at him or learn to tolerate his new girlfriend outside of the DA," Rory said.
"Do you know if he talked to her about talking to you?" Neville asked.
Rory shrugged. "Why would it matter?"
"I'd be pretty irritated if someone was going out of their way to make sure their ex was comfortable with their new relationship with me," Matilda said. "And you and Harry have all the history in the world."
"Guess that's his problem. Not my fault if he still doesn't know how to ignore other girls," Rory said.
"I think he thinks that he can get over you by dating her," Neville said.
Rory glanced down the table and saw Harry. Cho had come over and was talking to him. They looked so comfortable. So normal. Was he really trying to get over Rory, or had he done it already?
She looked back to her food. How was Harry able to smile and laugh and kiss someone else? Rory felt like all the joy had been sucked out of the world. Maybe she'd been making him miserable the whole time.
"He told me that he thinks if we'd talked that night he'd have broken up with me anyway," she said.
Matilda scoffed. "Boys always say that they were going to dump you first. He's trying to save face."
Rory shook her head. "He said he was never able to convince me that the way he feels about Cho now wasn't the way he always felt. He's kind of right."
Matilda and Neville both scoffed.
"Don't let him make you feel like this was all your fault. He shouldn't have kissed her, no matter how he was feeling. And it's not like you hadn't always been perfectly clear about your feelings," Matilda said. "He can't blame you for the fact that he was ignoring everything you said."
That made sense, but Rory couldn't bring herself to believe it.
"How can we cheer you up?" Neville asked.
Rory shrugged. "Make Harry feel some kind of regret about our relationship being over."
"Do you want us to ruthlessly bully Cho Chang?" Matilda asked.
"No," Neville said. "The best revenge is a life well lived."
"You want her to be happy to make him feel regret?" Matilda asked.
"I just mean, no offense, look how miserable his happiness is making her," Neville said. Rory rolled her eyes.
Matilda nodded. "You have a point. If he's truly over it since he would have dumped you anyway, just pretend you don't care. And he shouldn't either."
Neville nodded in agreement. "But he will."
Rory looked over to Harry and Cho again, then back to her friends. She sighed.
"Fake it til you make it, as they say," Rory said.
Rory seemed to go out of her way to make sure that she didn't have to interact with Harry whenever possible the next week. If he was being honest, he was avoiding her as well. Mostly he spent his time doing terribly in his lessons with Snape, trying to study and do his massive amount of homework, and sitting in the library with Cho.
Being with Cho was nice. However, there were two problems. A lot of the time, Cho wanted to talk about Cedric, and that was low on Harry's list of topics he was comfortable talking about. He didn't want to spend his time with his girlfriend talking about her ex-boyfriend, no matter how tragically he'd died.
The second problem was Rory. As much as Rory had disliked Cho, the reverse was also true. Any mention of Rory would immediately put Cho in a bad mood. Harry didn't mention Rory if he didn't need to, but if he talked about the DA, Rory came up. And his whole ordeal with Voldemort had involved Rory quite a bit, so when Cho would ask him about it, Rory came up there as well.
He didn't know what it was about him that made the only two girls he'd ever dated wildly jealous, but alas.
As he sat with Cho that afternoon, he realized that he hadn't gotten a note from Ron about the DA meeting from Rory. He hoped she wasn't going back on her promise to help him.
"What are you thinking?" Cho asked.
He looked up from his notebook and at her across the table. She asked him that a lot. She always wanted to know what he was thinking. Most of the time, Harry wasn't really thinking about anything, or thinking about things Cho couldn't know about, or even things she wouldn't want to know about. So often he just shrugged and said "Nothing really."
"The DA meeting tomorrow," he said.
"What are we going to be working on?" Cho asked eagerly.
Here is where he was going to run into trouble. Because Rory made the lesson plans and he just carried them out. The last three meetings had actually been stressful because usually, he helped her with the lesson plans so they'd be in sync.
"Rory usually comes up with the plan. Ron will probably give it to me later today," he said.
Cho frowned and nodded. "I didn't think she would want to come back."
"She was planning on coming back, but I talked to her," Harry said.
"You talked to her? To get her to come back?" Cho asked. "Why would you want her to come back?"
"She's actually really good at all this stuff too. Professor Lupin is her dad, after all," Harry said. "How ever we might feel about each other now, I only agreed to do the DA in the first place because I'd have her help."
She shrugged. "I suppose."
"You saw yourself that Zach might actually burn the school down if she's not supervising him," Harry said. "I certainly can't keep an eye on him. I have to make sure you don't burn the place down."
Cho gasped and her face went red. "That only happened because you distracted me."
"Sorry to bother the two of you."
Harry and Cho looked up and Rory was standing there. Cho's expression soured. Rory certainly had impeccable timing.
Rory held out a sheet of parchment to Harry. "For the DA tomorrow."
"You usually give these to Ron," Harry said.
Rory shrugged. "I had to put some extra effort into this one so it took longer. And it's getting kind of tiresome using a middleman anyway."
Harry didn't disagree with that, but Cho was definitely not going to be a fan.
"Everyone was saying they wanted to work on something more challenging, so I thought I should finally give in on patronuses," she said.
Harry was surprised by this. "Really? You've been really trying to avoid that all year."
"I know, but if anyone in our year can make a Patronus of any kind, they'll at least get an E on their OWLs, so who am I to stand in the way of academic success." Rory nodded. "You'll be on your own for demonstrating beyond the basics. It's obviously not a skill I've mastered yet."
"I'm sure you'll get it. You're good at pretty much everything else. Don't know why this would be different," Harry said.
Rory flashed him a smile. "Thanks."
"Hey, Rory."
Harry looked behind her and saw Stephen standing there.
"Susan's just got here," he said.
"Okay, I'm coming," she said.
"Oh, hey, Cho. Harry," Stephen said.
"I didn't know you two were friendly outside of the DA," Cho said.
"We've both been in choir since second year," Rory said, giving Cho a confused look. "We're bros."
"We're actually just helping Susan and Padma with divination," Stephen said. "I'm pretty proficient at Divination. Firenze said that my skills aren't as crass as most humans."
"Pretty sure that's his version of a compliment," Rory said.
It certainly sounded like something Firenze would think was complimentary.
"Anyway, off to do some tutoring, and then Rory's agreed to help me refine my technique so that our new professor finds it acceptable," Stephen said. "Rory's kind of a savant."
"In Divination?" Cho asked.
"Yes. One of my many talents," Rory said. "Like Harry said, I'm good at most things. But I'm better than good at divination specifically."
"Really?" Cho asked. "It's a bit hard to prove that."
Rory shrugged. "I mean sure. But I know so who cares." She turned to walk away and paused. Then she turned back to Cho. "A swan."
Cho raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"You'll get it when it matters," Rory said. "See you two later. Enjoy your study date."
Rory had just predicted something about Cho, though he had no idea what. She walked away with Stephen like they hadn't just had the most normal interaction in weeks. Even so, it was still weird.
"What was that about?" Cho asked. "I thought she wasn't speaking to you."
Harry didn't have an answer. Rory wasn't speaking to him. And she'd been pretty explicit about how much she didn't want to interact with Cho. This was all very odd.
"Maybe she got over it," Harry said. What other explanation would there be? Maybe she just didn't care anymore that he was dating Cho. That was good, right? He'd moved on. She'd moved on. That was good. Now things could be normal.
He looked over at Cho who was still grumpy, and now pressing her quill hard against her parchment with unnecessary force.
"How can you be upset about that?" Harry asked.
"I just don't think she should be talking to you outside of the DA. That's all," Cho said. "She was very serious about you talking to me after all."
Yes, Rory was always on Harry's case about him talking to Cho, and it had driven him up the wall.
"Well this is the first time I've talked to her in days, and it was about the DA, so I hardly think it matters," he said.
Cho shrugged. "Sure, I guess. Can you just... Not talk to her unless you have to?"
Rory never explicitly told him not to talk to Cho. She definitely didn't want him talking to Cho, but she never told him that he couldn't. Truthfully, Rory probably just needed reassurance that he wasn't interested in Cho. For Harry to more often be explicit with Cho about how he didn't like her.
Now that Harry thought about it, in Rory's defense, she had told him that once before. He'd kind of brushed it off because he didn't want to be mean to Cho. It kind of made sense that Rory might take that as him thinking Cho's feelings were more important than hers. Because that was never true. He'd do anything for Rory.
Or he would have. Because now he was dating Cho. And Cho's feelings were actually more important than Rory's now. So maybe he should stop talking to Rory outside of the DA meetings.
"Of course," he told Cho. "Whatever you like."
Rory was glad that she was not demonstrating Patronus charms at the DA meeting. Not only was she only adequate with them, today in particular she was having trouble producing anything at all.
The charm required your head to at least be a little bit in the right space and Rory's wasn't at all. The problem was Harry. It was impossible to conjure up a happy thought when she was spending most of her time repeatedly telling herself "Don't think about Harry." And it didn't help that seeing him in the DA meetings really showed Harry at his absolute best.
It was impossible to conjure a happy thought if he had to look over and see him chatting up his girlfriend. Rory was doing her best to pretend she didn't care. But she did.
"You kind of suck at this," Matilda said.
Rory rolled her eyes at Matilda. "Can't be good at everything, can I?"
"That applies to everyone except for you and Hermione," Matilda said. "Kind of feels like you're not even trying."
"You haven't managed to produce anything either," Rory pointed out.
"Yeah, but it feels like I'm about to," Matilda said. "You look like you're giving a lot of effort for no payoff."
That's what it felt like to Rory, too. Truth be told, she was getting frustrated, which was not helping her situation at all.
Everyone seemed to be taking their lack of progress in stride, except for Rory who had previously at least been able to conjure the spell in its most basic form.
She felt a tap on her shoulder and glanced up to see Harry. He gave her a weak smile.
"Sorry, I wasn't going to bother you," he started, "except-."
"I'm the only person here who should know how to do this and I'm currently stinking up the joint with my sucktitude?" she asked.
"I wouldn't use those exact words," Harry said. "But you do seem to be struggling. And I am supposed to help."
Rory nodded, acknowledging this. "I suppose that is why we're here."
"What are you thinking of?" Harry asked.
She could stop thinking about him kissing his new girlfriend. About walking into this room and watching her heart get smashed.
She sighed. "Having trouble coming up with anything at all seems to be my issue."
"Things have been kind of stressful lately," Harry conceded. "I don't blame you."
"You seem to be doing alright," Rory replied. He'd started off class by wowing everyone with his fully formed stag Patronus.
"It's kind of easy while I'm here. Everything else in my life is so beyond my control right now except this," Harry said. "But anyway, this isn't about me. You need to think of something happy. A happy memory or a happy feeling, even if it isn't real. Something that just brings you joy. Maybe at this moment you don't feel fantastic, but you didn't always feel like you do right now."
Rory knew he wasn't referring to himself specifically, Harry was not that tactful, but that was where her brain went. To Harry, and when things were good and when she was able to have a conversation with him without also struggling to look him in the eye.
"Here, close your eyes," Harry said.
"Must I?" Rory asked.
"This is how your dad taught us before. Are you doubting his methods?" he asked.
Rory sighed, unable to argue with any logic that pointed out how spectacular her dad was. She shut her eyes.
"We'll make something up, so just visualize this," Harry said. Rory nodded, her eyes still closed. "You're in the Bake-Off Tent."
Rory opened her eyes and looked over at him. "Seriously?"
"Trust me," Harry said. She shut her eyes again. "You're in the Bake-Off tent. It's bread week. Noel has come up with a clever way to announce there are 17-minutes left by wearing ridiculous sparkly flared trousers and singing to the tune of 'Dancing Queen.'"
Rory tried to suppress a laugh and failed. Harry went on.
"You've put the finishing touches on your signature loaf—a chai and chocolate swirl brioche," Harry said. This was the loaf of bread Rory dreamed of making if she were ever on Bake-Off. "Time is up. Paul Hollywood is making the rounds. He reaches your bench. He remarks on the spectacular coloring of your bread. He cuts into your loaf and the crumb is perfect. It smells divine. He takes a bite and stares at you with his piercing, icy blue eyes and says nothing. Five seconds pass. You're holding your breath. And then Paul reaches out to shake your hand."
To Rory's surprise, she could picture the whole scene in her head. She could almost feel Paul Hollywood shaking her hand, and smell the bread loaf in front of her.
"Do you want to try the charm again?" Harry asked.
Rory opened her eyes and took a deep breath. She waved her wand. "Expecto Patronum."
And she produced a shield, a damn impressive one. Much better than anything she'd done when she was 13 years old. There was a round of applause from her classmates and Rory gave a dramatic bow.
"Good job," Harry said, giving her an encouraging squeeze of her shoulder. Rory was barely able to give her thanks before he stepped away to continue helping the rest of the DA.
And Rory absolutely hated that it hadn't been the imaginary scenario that made her feel the spark of happiness that helped produce the charm.
She looked over to Harry and he was now talking to Cho, a hand on her shoulder. Rory could imagine what he was telling her. Reassuring her that he was just helping Rory like he helps everyone else, and yes she was smiling but that's because you have to conjure the feeling of happiness to cast the charm. Of course he doesn't have feelings for Rory anymore, don't be ridiculous.
The happiness bubble she'd created popped.
After another week, Rory still could not produce a full patronus, but was pleased to see that others had. Hermione, of course, had been the first. Her patronus was an otter. Everyone was so excited that they made her demonstrate it several times more. It definitely motivated others. By the end of that class, everyone at the very least could produce something and Luna produced a full patronus as well, a hare.
"Maybe I just can't do it," Rory said. "Not everyone can produce a corporeal patronus."
Matilda scoffed as they walked into their dorm. "I think your brain is constipated."
"What does that mean?" Rory asked. She sat down on her bed and pulled out her notebook. Usually after the DA meetings she sat in the Room of Requirement with Harry. Of course, that had changed since they'd broken up. She'd steeled herself to see Harry staying with Cho after their meeting, but Harry had shuffled her out of the door just as quickly as he had before they were dating.
Of course, he now sent her away with a kiss goodnight and a smile, but Rory had prepared herself for that, even if it did make her sick to her stomach.
"It means you get around Harry in the DA and your brain stops working," Matilda said. "I'm not saying I don't understand why, but I am telling you that it's happening."
"I am trying," Rory said. "But like I said, it's awkward. I don't know how to talk to him or be around him like a regular person."
"You were able to before you were dating," Matilda said.
"Yeah, but it's different now obviously," Rory said, "I mean, how often are you having a chat with Fred?"
"Fair point, but now I'm not brain-constipated around him anymore," Matilda said. "And I guess he's not going around snogging some girl that I hate."
"I don't hate Cho," Rory said. Strongly dislike? Yes. But hate was a pretty strong word. "Helps that you're too busy snogging Seamus to be worried about what Fred is doing."
"That's not a bad idea actually. The next one always helps you get over the last one or so they say," Matilda said. "Harry seems to really have leaned into that one."
"Good for him, but I'm not interested," Rory replied. Dating couldn't be further away from her mind. She was definitely not over Harry, and it still felt like she might not ever be. She knew realistically that it was an unreasonable thought to have, but it didn't change her feelings. Harry might've hurt her deeply, but she still loved him. It was annoying.
"Well, I guess you'll have to do what everyone else does and practice outside of the DA. If anyone can make a Patronus charm, it's you. Your dad was the one who taught Harry in the first place, right?" Matilda said. "It's in your blood."
"I'm adopted," Rory said.
"Spiritually, it's in your blood," Matilda said. Rory rolled her eyes and went back to her notes from the meeting. "So do you just do the lesson plans and Harry does the actual lesson?"
Rory nodded. "Indeed. Teamwork makes the dream work, as they say."
"So you can lesson plan together, but you can't do magic in front of him?" Matilda asked.
"You exhaust me," Rory replied. "I don't even talk to him. I write notes based on everyone's performance in class and make a list of things to work on for specific people. I also suggest specific areas to work on, the Patronuses for example. And then I give him the lesson."
"I thought Ron was giving him the lesson plans?" Hermione asked.
"It was exhausting using an intermediary, especially if he had a question about something, so I just gave it to him directly the last two weeks," Rory said. "He's easy to find. As long as Ravenclaw doesn't have Quidditch practice he's in the library. Felt like I was interrupting them at first, but then I decided that I didn't care. I had other things to do anyway."
"What else have you got going on aside from choir practice?" Matilda teased.
"Stephen and I have been helping Susan and Padma with divination," Rory said.
"Stephen Cornfoot?" Hermione asked.
"That's the only one I know," Rory said. "He's actually really good at Divination. Even Firenze seems to like him, and he doesn't really like anyone."
"I didn't know that," Hermione said.
"My sister will not shut up about how talented Rory and Stephen are. Calls them the dream team," Parvati said.
"Stephen is really good at dream interpretation," Rory conceded.
Tonks had been through dozens of interrogations in her short career. Most of her encounters with members of the Servants of Pythia had been uneventful. Boring even. A boring harmless cult whose motives were mostly unknown to everyone.
What Tonks had gleaned from them so far was that they were awaiting the return of someone who would dispel the darkness and evil. It was all very vague. She was expecting all of her interviews with Servants of Pythia to be equally vague and boring.
That was even the case as Odessa Silverling was brought in.
Dawlish stood in the corner of the interrogation room. Mostly he was there because Tonks was required to have a second person in the room during interrogations, and technically he was the second Auror assigned to the case, though primarily Tonks handled "the cult stuff" on her own.
But again, this was a special circumstance.
Odessa was a 53-year-old, with ashen blonde hair, pulled back into a tight ponytail. She was smiling, unusual for an interview like this one.
"I'm assuming you know why you're here," Tonks said.
"Of course," Odessa said. "Because you don't understand."
"No, I don't understand," Tonks replied. "You'll have to explain why you stabbed someone seven times outside of the Three Broomstick pub."
That's why this interrogation was different. Odessa Silverling had murdered someone, in the name of her cult.
"I did it for her," Odessa said. "Our master said we had to make it known to everyone that the time for our Bright One to rise is now."
Tonks sighed. Here she went again, listening to one of these loonies talk to her in circles. Their Bright One, a divine entity that didn't exist.
"And who is your master, if you're awaiting the return of your Bright One?" Tonks asked.
"Our Apollo," Odessa said.
Tonks looked across the room to Dawlish. There were plenty of people called Apollo around, but none of them was connected with the cult. More than likely it was the reason they were called the Servants of Pythia, the name of the high priestess at the temple of the equally non-existent deity, Apollo.
What was clear was that this Apollo person was an actual person, and now they were directing their followers to kill people.
"Who is your Apollo?" Tonks asked.
"Our master," Odessa said.
"Fucking hell," Dawlish muttered under his breath. Tonks shot him a stern look. She was equally frustrated about the situation but she couldn't start projecting that onto Odessa.
"There's darkness coming, like before. You were probably only a child the last time he rose up, you don't know. Our Bright One will come, though, and put an end to the darkness," Odessa said. "Our Apollo says she holds the answers and he will help her rise to her full power. Soon she will drive out the darkness, and we will feel her light. The oracle will always come from Delphi." Odessa said.
"Miss Silverling, you do understand that you're going to go to trial, and you're likely going to skip the stay in Azkaban and head straight to the dementors for this?" Tonks asked.
"My soul is a small price to pay to ensure the world hears her beautiful song," Odessa said.
The door of the interrogation room opened. Percy Weasley stood there, "Sorry, to cut this short. The Minister would like to see you, Dawlish."
"We're done here anyway," he said.
Tonks couldn't help but agree. This was going to go nowhere.
"Well, Odessa, I suppose that's all," Tonks said, moving to stand.
Odessa grinned at her. "Soon you'll see. You'll see just as our Bright One sees. She knows and so Apollo will too."
Tonks gathered her things and she and Dawlish left the room.
"The hell was she on about?" he asked. "Only thing she's going to be seeing soon is the inside of a cell."
Tonks almost nodded in agreement, but then she had a thought.
She walked back into the interview room, Dawlish on her heels shouting at her as Tonks walked up to Odessa,
"Your Bright One. She's a seer isn't she?" Tonks asked.
Odessa's lips curled into a frightening grin. "You know what she is. You know what she can become, And soon… Soon, even she will not be able to deny her own power. Her coming means death, but the cost matters not. Light to outshine the dark."
"Tonks, this is pointless. She's mad," Dawlish said.
"You're mad!" Odessa shouted. "Her powers will grow just as she does. The coming darkness already fears her light. She is even greater than our Apollo. He will guide her, or she will destroy him. And she can destroy the non-believers too."
Tonks did not like this conversation a single bit.
"Let her try," Dawlish scoffed.
Odessa laughed. "Apollo will guide her or she will destroy him. And then she will rule the darkness. Our Bright One. The oracle will come from Delphi."
When it was clear they were never actually going to get a straight answer out of Odessa anymore, they left the interrogation room.
"You'd better get it together, Tonks. Going on about a seer," Dawlish said. "Everyone knows Divination is rubbish."
"Go to your meeting and get off my case. I can handle it from here," Tonks said.
"Gladly," Dawlish said.
Tonks huffed as he walked with Percy down the corridor. But she had no time to stew over being talked down to right now, She had to get to Grimmauld.
When she arrived, the dining room was empty so she walked through to the lounge where she found Sirius and, to no surprise, Remus. There was a chessboard and a bottle of wine on the table between them, and a glass in each of their hands.
"Well, this is a surprise. I thought you were going to be busy this week," Sirius said.
Tonks said nothing, instead choosing to walk over, snatch the glass of wine from his hand and drink the whole thing down in three large gulps.
She sat the glass down on the table and dropped into the seat beside Sirius. Both men were quiet for a moment. Then Remus took a small drink from his glass.
"Is something perhaps bothering you?" he asked.
Tonks looked up at him. It was getting increasingly difficult to meet Remus' eyes lately. But today was not the day to let whatever was between them get, well, between them.
"The Servants of Pythia are a cult that worships your daughter," Tonks said.
Again, she was met with silence. Then Sirius laughed.
"What's actually wrong?" he asked.
"The Servants of Pythia think Aurora is their 'Bright One' and that she's a powerful enough seer that she could potentially kill whoever is running that cult and stand to challenge Voldemort," Tonks said.
"Bullshit, Sirius said.
"I wish I was joking," Tonks said.
"What you're saying sounds insane," Remus said.
"You think I would make this up?" Tonks asked.
"Of course not," Remus said. "But are you sure?"
"Of course, she didn't explicitly say 'Aurora Lupin is our salvation' or something, but she did say—"
"She?" Sirius asked.
"A woman stabbed a man to death outside of the three Broomsticks today and proclaimed that it was all in the name of the Servants of Pythia and to spread the word of the rising of the Bright One," Tonks said. "We've assumed that the Bright One is some made-up deity that this group of crazy people was worshiping, but then she said some things and, I might brush them off but, no offense, Aurora's fucking weird, so there might be some merit to their claims. I mean, after all, we're watching the Hall of Prophecy because Voldemort believes in it so much. We're keeping Aurora under lock and key to keep Voldemort from getting his hands on her."
"Okay, but if she wasn't specific-." Remus started, but Tonks was having none of that.
"She confirmed that their Bright One is a seer. That she's young, growing, learning," Tonks said. "And she said 'Apollo will guide her and she will use her song to dispel the darkness.'"
"You can't be suggesting that because Aurora is a singer this is what makes it ironclad," Remus said.
"No. It's my knowledge of Greek mythology. Do either of you know about Apollo and what gift he's known for bestowing upon humans?" Tonks asked. The men shook their heads. "In the temple of Apollo, his high priestess was called Pythia. Makes sense to have a cult called Servants of Pythia and that their leader would be Apollo. However, Apollo was known to bestow a very specific gift upon humans, especially his high priestess. Want to take a stab at what it was?"
"Gonna go ahead and guess that it's foresight," Sirius said.
Remus shook his head again, "Apollo bestowing the gift of foresight onto people in mythology is a coincidence, but-."
"We're talking about seers and you're still clinging to coincidence?" Tonks asked, almost laughing. "Remus, what's your daughter's middle name?"
"Delphine," he replied.
"Do you know what the title of the high priestess who served in Apollo's temple, the one he would consult before almost all of his battles? When he needed advising, who did he turn to?" Tonks asked. "Pythia. And where you might ask is Apollo's temple located? The city of Delphi."
The men sat silently looking back and forth between Tonks and each other.
"'Apollo will guide her or she will destroy him. Then she will rule the darkness. Our Bright One. The oracle comes from Delphi,'" Tonks said. "I feel like an idiot for not thinking of this before, but the whole time we've been thinking they're just regular nut jobs."
"I understand what you're saying. But even given the circumstances, it's still quite a reach," Remus said.
"Voldemort is looking in the Hall of Prophecy just as a cult that worships a seer who is supposed to take him out, at the same time that your daughter who happens to pop up as being the most talented natural-born seer basically ever starts dating Harry Potter. That's a reach?" Tonks said. "Remus, come on."
"I already told you, I understand your line of thinking," he said.
"Okay. Let's say that I'm wrong. And I want to be wrong," Tonks said, "but if I can put these pieces together to come to this conclusion, don't you think it's possible Voldemort could as well?"
Remus thought about this for a moment. "That would mean Voldemort would be looking at Aurora not as an asset or a pawn anymore."
"He'd think she was just as dangerous as Harry," Tonks said. "Even if it's not true-."
"Why risk leaving her around any more than he would leave Harry around," Sirius said. "Are you going to talk to this woman again?"
"Tomorrow probably," Tonks said. "Obviously I'll press her for more information, but at the moment she's not saying much else. None of them have."
"You'll have to be careful not to raise any red flags when you're questioning her," Remus said.
"Don't worry. I'm good at my job," she said with a wink.
"Yes, you keep reminding me," he said. "One day you'll realize that I caution you not because I doubt your abilities, but because you-."
"Put your child in danger if I screw up. I know, I know," Tonks said dismissively. "You do realize that I care about what happens to Aurora, right?" She'd made the comment flippantly, almost jokingly, because obviously, she made an effort to look out for Aurora. But Remus' face remained as serious and concerned as ever. The man had permanent worry lines on his face.
"I appreciate that," he said. "But I was going to say that you could put yourself in danger if you screw up."
Tonks felt her chest tighten and for a moment she stopped breathing. She didn't know why this was happening. She didn't know when it'd started happening. In January, she'd had a thought after they left the children at Hogwarts. She wanted to sit with him, be with him, just the two of them. Sirius had teased her before about Remus, but she'd brushed him off. But things started to feel different,
So, they had lunch. And lunch turned into dinner. And since that day every time she knew she was going to see Remus, she was met with this persistent sense of trepidation, but also eagerness. And for a while, she would think she was out of her mind. That she couldn't possibly be feeling this way about someone who was practically a colleague. Who was 13 years her senior. Whose daughter was her cousin and also a meager eight years younger than her, She was insane, There was no way she'd feel that way about Remus. And there was certainly no way he'd feel that way about her.
But then he'd say something like this. And Tonks would overthink it. And a silence would fall between them and the air would hang heavy with expectation and tension. Who would break it first? Who would say something first? Who would be the one to say what they were both thinking?
Tonks didn't remember how to speak. And she wanted to look away from him, but she couldn't. She stared into his green eyes and mentally willed him to say something, anything. Validate her feelings somehow.
"I know it's your job to look after people, but look after yourself as well," Remus said.
Tonks finally let out a breath. She nodded.
"I'll do my best," she said. She was relieved and disappointed and confused all at once. She wasn't sure what she would actually do if Remus said something she wanted to hear. Or didn't want to hear.
Sirius slurped loudly on his wine. Tonks and Remus looked at him. Sirius looked at them and smiled.
"Sorry, just reminding you that I'm here. It was getting a bit uncomfortable watching you two stare at each other," Sirius said. Before Tonks could tell him off, he pressed on. "Anyway, aside from your covert questioning of this cult member, can you use your sleuthing abilities to find another way to confirm this?"
"I've thought of that already," Tonks said. "Aurora can confirm it."
She doesn't know anything about the cult," Remus said.
"No, but if you ask her, she'll be able to see it," Tonks said. "That's her talent, after all."
Sirius groaned. "I don't like this. I understand why you stole my wine now."
"I know we didn't want to risk moving Harry and Rory from school unless we had to, but the only way we're going to be able to ask her anything is if she's here," Tonks said. "They'll have to come for Easter Break."
Remus cringed slightly. "I don't know. I get the feeling that having Harry and Aurora together under the same roof for three weeks would be wildly uncomfortable for everyone."
"I know that they've broken up, but they have to be able to get along still. They have classes together and the same friends," Tonks said.
"Last week she sent me a letter and the only thing it said was 'Harry Potter can go fuck himself,' so, no, I don't think they're able to get along," Remus said.
"I wonder what changed," Tonks said. "I know she was not taking it well, but she seemed like she at least wanted things to be okay. Eventually."
"Well 'eventually' is definitely not today," Sirius said.
"It's going to have to be. She's the best chance we've got of seeing who this Apollo person is. Not to mention she might like to be clued into the fact that there's a cult dedicated to her," Tonks said.
Sirius chuckled. "I'm sure that won't inflate her ego at all."
