Be the Light in My Lantern, chapter 17
Jan. 1st, 2015 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starfishstarBE THE LIGHT IN MY LANTERN
Summary: In which Remus and Tonks fight battles, arrest criminals, befriend werewolves, overcome inner demons and, despite it all, find themselves a happy ending. A love story, and a story of the Order years. (At long last, my Remus/Tonks epic, which has been years in the making!)
Notes: Here's the next-to-last chapter of Part 1! I'll post the final chapter of Part 1 post in about two weeks, and at that point I'll let you know how it's looking in terms of when I'll be able to start posting Part 2 (which covers the HBP year).
And it hurts even to have to say it, but: Warning for major character death in this chapter. (But if you've read OotP, obviously that's not exactly a surprise.)
Chapter 17: The Storm
You are my brother and my friend
Everywhere I go, everywhere I go
You are my brother and my friend
–Richie Stearns, Everywhere I Go
Sirius came back downstairs once he’d finally managed to splint Buckbeak's wing. He’d spent a solid couple of hours wrestling with the angry, injured Hippogriff and cursing under his breath over Kreacher, who’d undoubtedly caused the mischief. So when he found a note fluttering in front of the kitchen fireplace, it was impossible to say how long it had been there. Sirius snatched up the parchment. It bore Snape's unmistakeable handwriting and simply read, "Floo me. Now."
Snape's presumption made Sirius want to spit, but it wasn't as if he could disobey. He grabbed a handful of Floo powder, said, "Snape's office, Hogwarts," and stuck his head into the fire.
"Snape," he said, and the man turned from his desk to the fireplace.
"Ah, Sirius," Snape said. "How good to see you looking alive and well. You are in fact alive and well, I presume, and this is not merely your disembodied head talking to me?"
"What do you want, Snape?" Sirius ground out.
"I thought it would be prudent to check on you, since your dear godson seems to be under the impression the Dark Lord has somehow managed to take you to, and I quote, 'the place where it's hidden.' Likely meaning the Department of Mysteries, at least if Potter has been clever enough to figure out the significance of that place, which is debatable."
"What?" Sirius cried.
"I said, your godson seems to be under the impression –"
"I heard what you said. What the hell do you mean? How do you know this? What did Harry say?"
"Umbridge caught him trying to use the Floo in her office, likely to contact you, and called me in. Potter seemed distressed and gave me that message."
"When?"
"Perhaps an hour ago."
"And you waited until now to make contact!"
"No," said Snape scornfully. "I sent a Patronus immediately to check that you were in fact in the house. It's not my fault it took you until now to come back to the Floo."
So Sirius hadn't imagined that flash of silver out of the corner of his eye as he'd been tending to Buckbeak. Why hadn't Snape sent a message then, with the Patronus, and saved them all an hour?
"Where is Harry now?" Sirius demanded.
"He's disappeared into the Forbidden Forest with Umbridge and that Muggleborn friend of his, Granger. Believe me, Black, I am monitoring the situation and will inform you if he doesn't return in a timely fashion. Trust Potter to run off and try to do something stupid and heroic."
Sirius could barely get words out past his mounting rage. "Find him."
"I fully intend to do so, now that I no longer have to wait here for you to return my Floo."
"Why not a Patronus?" Sirius snapped. "Why Floo? You know this connection could be monitored at any time, don't you?"
"Doubtful, seeing as I haven't been foolish enough to get on Dolores Umbridge's bad side. But if you're nervous about it, you'd best be going, hadn't you? Wouldn't want to be putting ourselves in danger."
"Find Harry," Sirius spat at him. "If you don't, I'm coming up there and doing it myself. And afterwards I might be able to restrain myself from hexing you into oblivion for letting him out of your sight."
"Temper, Black," Snape said dangerously. "And now I have a job to do, so if you don't mind, shoo."
Sirius pulled his head out of the fireplace, heart pounding with rage. Harry thought Voldemort had kidnapped him, Sirius? How? Why? What the hell was going on? The panic rising in his throat was choking him. He paced the length of the kitchen twice, trying to calm himself. He was no use to Harry if he was panicking.
He stopped again in front of the fireplace, its flames now gone cold, and pressed the heels of his palms hard against his eyes.
Then he sent for the person he always called on when things got bad: Remus.
– – – – –
"Sirius, slow down," Remus said. He felt as pale as Sirius looked. "I'm barely catching half of what you're saying."
Sirius started pacing again. "It must be some kind of trick," he said. "Is it some sort of vision again? Can Voldemort plant visions in his head of things that aren't even happening?"
"This must be what Dumbledore was afraid of," Remus muttered.
Sirius rounded on him. "What do you mean? What did Dumbledore tell you?"
Remus sighed and raked his hands through his hair, leaning back against the edge of the kitchen table. His attempt at prudence on matters where Sirius, danger and Harry were concerned was about to come back and bite him. "Dumbledore suspected Voldemort might try to exploit his connection with Harry. Manipulate him in some way. He didn't know precisely how."
"Dumbledore said that?"
"In a note he left me at the Hog's Head, yes."
"You knew this might happen?"
"Not precisely this!"
Sirius looked ready to punch a wall. Or a person. Probably Remus. "And you didn't tell me! What the hell, Remus!"
Remus dropped his hands to his sides. "Sirius, I understand you're angry with me, but can we focus on Harry, please?"
Sirius took a deep breath, and with effort relaxed his clenched fists. "Yes, all right. Yes."
"You said Snape told you Harry tried to pass on a message. And that it seemed to indicate he thought Voldemort had taken you to the Department of Mysteries."
"Apparently, yes."
"And it seemed Harry had experienced some sort of vision that made him think this?"
"No idea. That's all Snape said. What good does that even do Voldemort? Aside from scaring Harry?"
"And since then, Harry has disappeared?"
Sirius moaned.
"Sirius. Focus."
"Yes. Into the Forest, with Umbridge. Snape says he'll look for him. You don't think Harry's actually trying to get to the Ministry, do you?"
"Let's rule that out for the moment, since I can't imagine how he would get there from Hogwarts on his own. Besides, the Ministry will be full of people, not to mention there will be someone from the Order guarding outside the Department of Mysteries, if it comes to that."
"Who's on guard right now? Can we check?"
"Good idea," Remus admitted. "Moody knows the schedule. Should I get him over here?"
Having to make concrete decisions seemed to steady Sirius. "Yes. And maybe a couple others. Just in case…just in case someone needs to go after him."
"Kingsley?"
"Yeah. And Tonks."
Remus looked at him in surprise. "Dora?"
"She should be here."
– – – – –
Remus' Patronus simply said, "Please come to Headquarters as soon as you can."
Tonks had only just got home from work, but she stepped straight back outside again and Apparated to the alley near 12 Grimmauld Place.
She'd only seen Remus a couple times since her birthday, barely more than in passing, and he always seemed tense. She knew he was worried: about Sirius, who was edgier than ever, prowling the house looking morbid and watchful; and about Harry, now sitting his O.W.L.s at Hogwarts, where just last night Hagrid had been sacked and McGonagall Stunned – by Aurors – so badly that she was now recuperating in St Mungo's.
If Tonks refrained from thinking the world was falling to pieces, it was only because thinking about it too much made it seem even worse.
She hurried up to the house and Remus met her inside the doorway, his face drawn.
"What's the matter?" she asked, alarmed by the look of him.
He closed the door behind her, then reached out and gripped both Tonks’ arms. "Do you remember I told you that Snape refused to keep teaching Harry, and Dumbledore admitted he was worried what might happen to Harry without Occlumency lessons?"
"Yes, of course. What's happened?"
He dropped his hands again, seeming to realise how hard he’d been gripping her. "Nothing, nothing, just a…strange report from Snape. Harry seems to have had some sort of vision, or false message, we're not sure what. But he seems to believe that Voldemort has kidnapped Sirius, and now Harry and Hermione have disappeared. Snape is trying to find them. They were last seen going into the Forbidden Forest."
Tonks stared at him. "So do we need to go to the Forbidden Forest to look for them?"
"Possibly. Except we think Harry may also try to get to the Ministry, that he might believe Sirius is being held there. Apparently, he told Snape that Voldemort had Sirius in 'the place where it's hidden,' which might be a reference to the Department of Mysteries, or it might not…" Remus shoved his hands through his hair, frustrated. "We're right now trying to figure out what to do. Moody and Kingsley are here too."
That, at least, was a relief. As dearly as Tonks cared about both Remus and Sirius, they were ruled by emotion where Harry was concerned. Mad-Eye and Kingsley, though, would be working out a clear-headed plan even as they spoke.
As if he'd heard her thoughts, Remus seemed forcibly to calm himself. "I'm sorry, I'm just worked up. Or Sirius' anxiety is rubbing off on me. Or both. Come on, they're all downstairs."
"So, do we contact Dumbledore?" Moody was asking as they entered the kitchen. He looked up and gave Tonks a brief nod, then returned his attention to the others. Kingsley was at the table with him, while Sirius was pacing.
"Yes," Sirius answered, to Moody’s question.
"He did ask us to send a Patronus only in an emergency," Remus put in fairly, as he and Tonks approached the table.
"What do you call this?" Sirius asked.
"I'm inclined to agree, if Harry doesn't come back within a reasonable amount of time," Kingsley said.
"What's a reasonable amount?" Sirius demanded, coming to a halt by the table.
"Let's give it half an hour," Kingsley said. "Snape is supposed to look for him and then get in touch by Floo, right?"
Sirius resumed his pacing. "Why can't he just send a Patronus like a normal person?" he growled. "Probably can't even produce one. It's not as if he'd have any happy memories to use for it."
"I thought you said he sent one while –" Remus began, but Sirius shot him a look that seemed to quell him.
"Sirius, sit down," Moody snapped, and to Tonks' amazement, Sirius obeyed.
She and Remus likewise took seats at the table, and they all looked at each other.
"All right," Moody said, "Let's think logically here for a moment before we go in with wands blazing. What do we think Voldemort wants with Harry? Is he after the Prophecy?"
Remus nodded. "It makes the most sense of anything. Who's guarding the Department of Mysteries this evening?"
"Should be Hestia Jones. Took over from Dedalus Diggle at five o'clock," Moody said.
Kingsley suggested, "So, we stop by there first, check that Hestia is still guarding the door. Maybe leave one more person with her as reinforcement, just in case. Then we need to figure out where to start looking for Harry –"
Just then, the fireplace sprang to life. They all jumped up and hurried to crowd around it, as Snape's head appeared. His lips were pressed tightly together, and it occurred to Tonks that the usually sneering Snape might actually be concerned.
"They're still missing," he said, "as are both Weasley children, Longbottom, and a girl called Lovegood. I believe they have found some way to leave the Forbidden Forest, and are headed to the Ministry."
Tonks heard Remus breathe in sharply next to her.
"We'll go there now," said Moody.
"We'll all go," Tonks agreed.
"Does Dumbledore know?" Kingsley asked.
"I've alerted him and he should be on his way now," Snape said. "He'll come to Headquarters first, so Black should make himself useful for once and stay there to fill him in, whilst the rest of you go to the Ministry. I will continue to search here."
Sirius started up angrily, but Remus put a hand on his arm, a gesture that seemed to say, Now's not the time.
"Thank you, Snape," Moody was saying. "This is invaluable information."
Snape just nodded and broke the Floo connection.
Sirius muttered something that sounded like, "Kreacher," and disappeared up the stairs to the main floors of the house.
Tonks looked at Moody. "Ministry employees' entrance? By Floo?"
Moody nodded. "Shacklebolt and I will go now and get the lay of the land. You two follow us in five minutes. Tonks, if you keep hold of Lupin, you should be able to get him in through the employees' Floo."
Tonks nodded. Moody took a pinch of Floo powder, threw it into the fireplace and said, "Ministry of Magic." He stepped through and disappeared. Kingsley followed.
Tonks looked at Remus and Remus looked at Tonks.
"This may come to a battle," Remus said.
"I know," Tonks said. In a sense, she’d always known. This was what they were here for, after all. She looked up into Remus’ face, because she very much needed him to understand this about her, and said, "And I plan on being there for it."
He gazed back at her and said, "I know."
Then he reached out to her and Tonks stepped into his arms, tilting her face up until her lips met his, allowing herself that comfort for a small moment.
"I'm coming with you. Does that mean I get a kiss, too?" Sirius' voice came from behind them, from the foot of the stairs.
Remus spun around, his hand still at Tonks' waist. "Sirius – you can't! You need to stay and explain to Dumbledore when he gets here."
"I've ordered Kreacher to tell him everything. There's no reason to stay."
"But if anyone at the Ministry sees you –"
Sirius glowered. "Then I will Obliviate them. Harry's in trouble, and he's in trouble because he's trying to protect me. You really think I'm just going to sit here?"
"But –"
"And I'm not going to stand here and argue about it with you. So get a fucking move on, Moony."
Tonks saw Remus fighting with himself, wanting to protect Harry and to protect Sirius and knowing it wasn’t possible to do both. "Let him go," she murmured, and finally Remus gave a tight nod.
"Come on," he said.
Tonks threw more Floo powder into the fire, said "Ministry of Magic," and grabbed both Remus and Sirius by the arm. "Elbows in," she said. "I don't think I've ever tried to Side-Along two at once before."
Together, they squeezed into the fireplace, and immediately they were whizzing past other hearths, Tonks holding on hard to the two men to keep them with her. She stumbled as the Floo deposited them in the Ministry Atrium, and Remus steadied her.
Moody and Kingsley were waiting for them in front of the fireplace, wands out. Aside from them, the Atrium was disquietingly empty.
"Identify yourselves!" Moody demanded.
"Nymphadora Tonks, Metamorphmagus. My first day of Auror training, you told me I wouldn't last the week. And I vouch for these two, they've been in physical contact with me the whole way here."
Moody raised an eyebrow at Sirius' presence, but didn't comment on it. Instead, he replied to Tonks, "And you reminded me of that comment almost every day for the next three years. I vouch for Shacklebolt as well, he's been with me the entire time." Moody lowered his wand, but didn't put it away. "Even the watchwizard is gone."
"Imperiused? Abducted?" Tonks asked. There was no sign of dead bodies, at least.
Kingsley answered, "Could be either. Or everyone who's meant to be on duty could be just down the hall, Charmed into forgetting they're meant to be here. But it doesn't matter right now – we need to get down to the Department of Mysteries. Harry and his friends might be down there, or Voldemort and his Death Eaters, or both."
"Tonks and I take point, Lupin and Black in the middle and Shacklebolt guards the rear," Moody said, and no one argued. They set off towards the lifts in the formation he'd ordered, and rode one level down in eerie silence.
"Department of Mysteries," said the lift announcer's voice, and the grilles slid open. They started down the corridor nearly at a run.
The door to the Department of Mysteries was open.
"Oh no," Tonks breathed.
Kingsley felt around in the empty space beside the door; Tonks had only just realised what he was doing when his hand made contact and came away with an Invisibility Cloak bunched in his fist.
On the floor was the inert form of Hestia Jones.
Kingsley felt for her pulse. "Alive," he said shortly, then pointed his wand and said, "Rennervate."
Nothing happened.
"Rennervate," Kingsley repeated, then shook his head. "She doesn't seem to be in imminent danger, but I can't wake her. We'll have to come back for her."
Moody nodded, and Kingsley covered Hestia carefully in the Cloak again, then stood up and faced the rest of them. "Ready?"
They looked at each other and nodded. Sirius was nearly vibrating with energy, like a hunting dog finally about to be set after its prey. Remus looked grave but determined. Moody was vigilant as ever. Kingsley radiated calm and capability. Tonks wondered what she looked like.
"Who's been in there before?" Moody asked.
"Just once," Kingsley said.
The rest of them shook their heads.
"I've been a couple times," Moody said. "Long while ago. First there's an entrance room designed to disorientate you, but most of the rooms inside connect with one another sooner or later." He motioned them forward and one by one they stepped through the door, into a circular black stone room with blue-flame candles mounted on its curved walls between a number of identical doors that ran all the way around it.
"We assume Potter's gone to the Hall of Prophecy?" Moody asked, but didn't wait for an answer. "We'll split into two groups. Both try to reach the Hall; if one group finds it, try to get a message to the other. I'll take Lupin; Black, you go with Shacklebolt and Tonks. Clear?"
They nodded.
"Door, close," Moody commanded. The door they had come through swung shut, and the room itself began to spin. Caught unprepared, and never an expert in the balance department anyway, Tonks lurched awkwardly into Sirius' side, then felt Remus' hand, steadying her again. She reached out and gave his arm a squeeze under the cover of the near-darkness, glad he was there.
The room stopped spinning. "Any door," Moody said. "We'll take this one." He reached out and pushed against a door, which swung open. Tonks could just see something glittering inside as Moody stepped over the threshold without a backward glance.
Remus glanced back once, right at Tonks, then followed him.
The door swung shut behind them and once again the circular room spun, then stopped.
"Okay," said Sirius. "Let's go get those bastards." He sounded energised, and Tonks thought again how the only times he'd seemed fully alive in the last months were during the Order’s duelling practices, deep in the basement at Grimmauld Place. Gone was the ragged ball of nerves who’d been pacing the kitchen not half an hour ago. This Sirius was in control and ready to fight.
Tonks looked to Kingsley, sensing him to be the unofficial leader of their little band. "Does it matter which door?"
He shrugged. "Here," he said, and pushed against the door that was closest.
All Tonks could see inside was blackness. Kingsley extended his wand arm, took a cautious step over the threshold – and disappeared.
"Kingsley!" Tonks shouted. Sirius gripped her shoulder.
"Here," Kingsley called back, his voice seeming to come from above them. Tonks moved as close to the door as she dared and tried to peer upwards into the darkness. "I'm floating," Kingsley explained, though she still couldn't see him. "Tonks, can you reach out your arm?"
She did so, keeping her feet planted outside the doorway and stretching into the room as far as she dared. After a moment, she felt Kingsley grasp her hand.
"Can you pull?" he asked next.
Sirius moved closer and grabbed Kingsley's hand as well, and together they pulled him back in.
Back on firm footing inside the circular entry room, Kingsley shook his head. "We could probably get through, if we all held onto each other and found something solid to push off from, but I think we'll make quicker progress through another room. Let's try again."
He allowed the door to close, and the room to spin again.
Tonks held her breath as Kingsley stepped carefully through another door, but nothing unexpected happened, so she and Sirius followed him in.
They found themselves in a long, large, but otherwise unremarkable room. The lighting was low and pleasant, the ceiling high enough to make the room feel spacious, but not so high as to take away its human scale. Small desks stood at regular intervals, a variety of objects on them. It seemed to be quite the random assortment – Tonks even caught sight of a few Muggle things, like a toaster.
The only notable feature about the room was a pleasant sort of warm tingling Tonks could feel in her arms and legs, increasing the longer she stood there.
Then she looked at Kingsley and saw that he was glowing.
"Kingsley–!" she cried.
Sirius stepped out from behind Tonks, and now she saw that he was glowing too.
But "glowing" wasn't the right word. This was nothing so intense as a fire or a Muggle light bulb, it was more a sort of…aura, a gently shimmering light that seemed to emanate from within the two men. Sirius' wand arm was raised, and the light was strongest there, so bright and clearly defined it almost looked like something you could reach out and touch.
Tonks thought she’d never seen anything so beautiful.
Sirius was staring at her in wonder, and Tonks looked down and saw her body was giving off the same shimmer. She raised her wand and the light seemed to follow her, arcing through the air as her arm moved.
"It's magic," Kingsley said, his voice softer than Tonks had ever heard it. "I heard once that they had a room like this. Where you can see magic."
Tonks looked around and realised the objects on the tables were shimmering too. Magical items like wands and cauldrons gave off the brightest light. The toaster barely glowed at all.
"We can go through this one, can't we?" Sirius whispered, seeming not to want to break the peace of the room, but his focus still firmly on their task. "There should be another door somewhere that leads on?"
Kingsley nodded. "We'll just keep on through the different chambers until we find ourselves where we want to be."
They set off down the length of the room, Tonks marvelling at the wondrously shimmering objects she passed, and even more at the two wondrously shimmering men ahead of her. She'd never known magic was so beautiful.
They were halfway to the far end of the room, where they could now see another door, when Moody's raven Patronus swooped down near them and muttered, "No sign of them in the Hall, but I hear a struggle in the Death Chamber. Follow this Patronus there."
The Patronus flew straight towards the door ahead of them, and all three of them broke into a sprint, pounding through the door and down the corridor they found behind it. Several more doors were set along the corridor. Moody's Patronus swooped directly at one of them, then disintegrated.
Kingsley slammed into the door and flung it open, Sirius and Tonks on his heels, just as Remus and Moody burst into the same room from a door opposite.
It was a large, rectangular, dimly lit space, a sort of amphitheatre with steep stone steps leading down to a low stone dais with an archway at its centre. Everywhere Tonks looked, there were Death Eaters, nearly a dozen of them – and Harry was there, on the dais, with another boy his age, who was gasping at the feet of a woman Tonks had never met but recognised the moment she laid eyes on her.
There was no need for discussion – this was what they had trained for. The five of them spread out, moving down the stone steps and firing curses as they went. Tonks sent a Stunner at Lucius Malfoy to start with, which missed by a hair but was enough to make him stumble.
At least Harry and his friend seemed to be managing to stay low for the moment, as the melee of Order members and Death Eaters coalesced into something roughly resembling a collection of individual duels. Tonks directed all her attention at the woman she'd recognised as her aunt, feeling anger pump through her veins.
You tried to kill my mother, she thought. You tried to kill me.
"Stupefy!" she shouted, advancing on this woman who looked too damn much like her mum. "Impedimenta! Stupefy!" Tonks knew she needed to slow down and aim with more intention, but just for a moment, she allowed herself to fire out of anger rather than good training.
"Protego," Bellatrix drawled, parrying with ease. "And Protego again. Can't you do better than that, dear niece?"
"Laedunto!" Tonks cried, and was gratified to see Bellatrix flinch with pain.
"Funiculus," Bellatrix snapped, and Tonks had to duck as twisting strands of rope flew at her.
"Confundo," Tonks tried, but of course Bellatrix was too strong for that.
"Oh, look at the little baby, trying to duel like the gwown-ups," Bellatrix cooed, in an ugly approximation of a child’s voice, from where she stood a few steps below Tonks.
Tonks aimed squarely and said, "Locomotor Mortis."
Bellatrix stumbled slightly, and performed the counter-curse on herself. "Childish jinxes," she hissed.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Tonks responded.
Bellatrix leaned out of the way, then aimed a Reductor curse at Tonks, who jumped to the side. A chunk blasted off the stone step beside her.
"Careful, cousin," Sirius murmured as he ducked by.
"Always am," Tonks replied without taking her eyes off Bellatrix, but she reached out her non-wand hand and gave Sirius' arm a squeeze, as he passed by and leapt to the step above her. She was glad he was here.
"How sweet, a family reunion," Bellatrix sneered. "Tell me, will my blood-traitor sister be coming too?" Then without warning, she slashed downward with her wand and shouted, "Sectumsempra!"
Tonks dodged, but felt something burn across her right shoulder. "You're going have to do better than that!" she said.
Bellatrix smiled nastily, stalking closer. "Oh, when I'm aiming to kill, you'll know it…dear. Reducto!"
Tonks dodged again, but as she did, she saw Moody on the floor, his head bleeding. Concentrate, she told herself fiercely, and aimed another Stunner at Bellatrix.
"He's fine, Dora!" she heard Remus call. From her peripheral vision, she saw him bending over Moody's form.
Thank you, Remus, she thought, but didn't want to distract either of them further by saying it aloud.
She was finally falling into a rhythm with Bellatrix, anticipating her hexes sooner, parrying instinctively. That was the mark of a good duellist, of course, being able to judge and anticipate one's partner, rather than shooting off spells at random. But also – and it was awful even to think it – fighting Bellatrix felt oddly familiar. She moved the way Tonks' mum and Sirius did, with that certain Black family bearing they never seemed to lose.
Tonks heard Sirius shout at one point, then a scuffle behind her, but no one seemed to be hurt so she kept her focus on Bellatrix. She cast a nonverbal Impediment Jinx, but Bellatrix moved even faster, whirling around behind Tonks and calling "Crucio!" with an almost lazy flick of her wand.
Tonks spun and increased her pace too, Conjuring a net around Bellatrix, but Bellatrix shook it off with a laugh.
"How is your dear mum?" Bellatrix purred as she danced away. "It's been so long since we had a nice chat. Twenty-three years or so, hasn’t it been?"
Tonks fought down her rage, because rage would not help her fight a smart battle. "How's Voldemort?" she retorted, knowing the use of his name would get to Bellatrix. "Isn't it a pity he didn't even bother to turn up here for his own party?"
"Where the Dark Lord is is no concern of yours," Bellatrix snapped, tossing in an Impediment Jinx of her own, as if in afterthought.
"You must like him an awful lot, if you're willing to do all his dirty work for him," Tonks pressed, probing for lines of verbal attack that would rile Bellatrix.
"My loyalty to the Dark Lord goes beyond anything you could understand, little girl. Anyone following that old fool at Hogwarts can't imagine what it is to stand at the right hand of true power."
"Oh, 'cause you think Voldemort's got power, do you?"
"If you speak of him, you'll do so with respect!"
"What, Voldemort? You don't like me saying the name Voldemort?"
"How dare you speak his name with your dirty half-blood lips!" Bellatrix shrieked, and Tonks cast the most powerful Stunner she could and thought she'd finally got the upper hand.
But Bellatrix ducked, moving faster than Tonks would have thought possible, and Tonks' red jet of light sizzled against the floor where she had stood.
Bellatrix spun and straightened up in a single motion, screaming, "Confringo!" as she came. There was an enormous crashing and crumbling of stone, and the last thing Tonks saw was a chunk of rock flying at her.
– – – – –
Remus saw Tonks fall, a painfully drawn out motion as she flopped from step to step down the side of the stone amphitheatre, and everything in him seized up. For one horrible second he froze completely, unable to move, unable to think anything but, Dora!
But freezing up in battle was unacceptable, pausing for even a second’s worth of fear and grief was not an option. He had to keep fighting, and he had to get to Harry. It hadn’t been a jet of green light that had hit Tonks, and he told himself fiercely that knowing that fact would have to be enough for now.
Get to Harry, Remus repeated to himself, like he had to hold onto those words to keep from drowning in panic. Get to Harry.
He'd seen Harry get Dolohov in a body-bind – where had he learned to perform the spell so well? – then he’d seen Sirius push Harry out of the way of a couple spells whizzing past. Kingsley very nearly had the upper hand against Rookwood, and Remus himself was trying to hold off Rodolphus Lestrange.
As Tonks fell, Bellatrix crowed triumphantly and dashed back into the fray. Sirius gave a roar and chased after her.
Out of the corner of his eye, Remus saw Malfoy going for Harry – Sirius had driven Bellatrix back almost to the dais in the centre of the room – Kingsley was still duelling – Harry pulled off a solid Impediment Jinx on Malfoy – Remus finally managed to Stun Lestrange and dashed forward just in time to throw a Shield charm in front of Harry and Neville, as Malfoy took aim again.
"Harry," Remus cried, "round up the others and GO!"
He watched just long enough to see Harry start trying to drag Neville away, Neville's legs still jerking out of control from a Tarantallegra he'd been hit with, then Remus turned to take up the fight with Malfoy, who sneered as if he couldn't even be bothered to put his full effort into duelling Remus.
Remus remembered Malfoy as a smirking prefect when they'd been at school, and wondered wearily why some things never seemed to change. Malfoy's sneer lessened, at least, when Remus' well-placed Impedimenta knocked him off his feet for the second time in as many minutes.
Remus advanced, casting Stunning Spells as fast as he could, narrowing his focus to this one duel, but Malfoy was just as fast in blocking them.
And then Dumbledore was there.
Remus knew it first from the look of horror on Malfoy's face, before the man ducked and ran for it. Remus turned and saw Dumbledore descending the steps, his face furious, his progress unstoppable, his spells dragging the fleeing Death Eaters towards him one by one.
With Malfoy no longer a danger, Remus scanned the room, looking for Harry, still on the steps with Neville; for Tonks, who he very much hoped seemed to be breathing, where she lay in a pile of rubble; for Sirius, so intent on his battle with Bellatrix that he hadn't even seen Dumbledore arrive.
Sirius had just dodged a spell from his cousin, and he laughed, exhilarated. "Come on, you can do better than that!" he called.
Then a second jet of red light caught him in the chest, and his eyes went wide in shock.
He fell, and he fell, and it seemed to last forever, as his body arced away from Bellatrix's spell and into the veil that hung raggedly from the arch on the dais, and even before Sirius had completed his descent, Remus knew what that was, though he didn't want to know – Moody had called this the Death Chamber – and Sirius' face showed a bit of fear but mainly just surprise, as he completed his graceful fall.
The veil fluttered.
Bellatrix shrieked in triumph.
Harry screamed, "SIRIUS! SIRIUS!" and hurled himself down the steps towards the dais, but Remus' body reacted in time, his arms reached out to grab Harry around the chest, to pin him there and hold him back, Remus' muscles doing what was necessary even as his heart was breaking.
How can it break again?
Words came out of Remus' mouth. "There's nothing you can do, Harry –"
Harry was nearly incoherent with panic. "Get him, save him, he's only just gone through!"
"It's too late, Harry."
"We can still reach him!"
Harry shoved and kicked and Remus registered physical pain without really feeling it. His voice even sounded calm. "There's nothing you can do, Harry, nothing, he's gone."
How can there be this much left to break?
"He hasn't gone! SIRIUS! SIRIUS!" Harry screamed.
"He can't come back, Harry," Remus said, and now he finally felt the pain, the physical pain of forcing those words out. "He can't come back, because he's d–"
"HE IS NOT DEAD! SIRIUS!"
A jet of hot light whizzed past Remus' ear. As absurd as it seemed, the battle was not yet over. The last few Death Eaters were still putting up a fight, and Kingsley was now duelling Bellatrix, while Dumbledore drove the others together in the centre of the room.
Spells were still flying, so Remus focussed everything on dragging Harry away from danger, pulling him towards where Neville still waited, because logic said he could better keep the two boys safe if he kept them together.
Harry had stopped struggling now, which was somehow even worse. But Remus kept a grip on his arm, because that was what he had to do, because he had to protect Harry.
Neville, miserable and helpless with his uncontrollable legs, looked up at Harry and asked through his broken nose, "Was dad man – was Sirius Black a – a friend of yours?"
Harry nodded and another piece shattered off Remus' heart.
"Here," Remus said to Neville – thinking of Alice and Frank, always – and aimed his wand at Neville's legs, saying, "Finite."
Neville's legs were finally still.
"Let's –" Remus had to stop and try again, just to get the simple sentence out. He turned so he was facing the boys, not the archway with the veil. "Let's find the others. Where are they all, Neville?" Ron and Ginny Weasley both, and Hermione, and Lovegood, Snape had said, Luna Lovegood. Six children in this monstrous place, and twice as many Death Eaters.
Neville pointed in answer, but then there was a bang and a yell, and Remus turned to see Kingsley hit the ground – crying out in pain, which meant alive – and Bellatrix grabbed her chance and ran away up the steps of the amphitheatre, deflecting a spell from Dumbledore as she went.
Harry wrenched his arm free of Remus' grasp. "Harry, no!" Remus cried, but Harry was already tearing away up the steps.
"SHE KILLED SIRIUS!" Harry screamed as he raced after Bellatrix. "SHE KILLED HIM! I'LL KILL HER!"
For one horrible, long moment after Harry disappeared through the door out of the amphitheatre, there was nothing but ringing silence.
Then Dumbledore took over. "I will see to Harry's safety," he said, speaking calmly but quickly. "Alastor, Remus, Kingsley, please find the other students, and see to yourselves and the wounded as best you can. Gather everyone in the corridor outside the Department of Mysteries if possible. Leave the Death Eaters here, as they are." He waited just long enough to be sure his instructions had been understood, then he was gone out the door after Harry.
With great effort, Remus took stock:
Tonks, unconscious on the ground, and he dreaded going to her, as if he might not physically survive more bad news.
Kingsley and Moody, both injured, but able to move.
Neville, mostly uninjured beside him.
Somewhere within the labyrinth of the Department of Mysteries, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Luna.
Outside in the corridor, still unconscious but hopefully unharmed, Hestia Jones.
Then there were the nine Death Eaters, powerfully bound together and silenced, but glaring with rage. Possibly more Death Eaters, injured or Stupefied, elsewhere within the Department.
And himself, apparently the only man still standing and unbroken.
So Remus wrenched himself together and took charge.
"Please stay here," he said to Neville, who nodded at him with wide eyes.
Remus went first to Kingsley, still lying prone on the dais.
"Remus," Kingsley said, and managed to drag himself into a sitting position with a grunt of pain. "Damn it, I'm sorry I didn't get her."
"Are you badly injured?"
"It's fine, nothing that’ll kill me. Might even be able to stand up if you give me a minute."
Remus nodded, and moved up the steps to Moody, who had managed to crawl around the ring of seats and recover his magical eye. "All right, Alastor?" he asked.
"Fine," Moody grunted, though he seemed to be too dizzy to stand. "Go on, lad, Tonks is fine, but go see for yourself."
Remus nodded and moved towards Tonks, fear hammering in his chest. He crouched beside her, felt for her pulse. She was breathing and not visibly bleeding, though she was terribly pale. Not caring who saw – what did it matter, now? – Remus bent and pressed a kiss to her forehead, too cool and pale and dotted with perspiration.
"I'm sorry, Dora," he whispered, not knowing yet what he was apologising for, only that it must be something terrible. He didn’t dare reach for her hand. If he did, he might never let go.
And he had to see to the children first.
He stood up and called, "Neville, can you show me where the others are?"
Neville nodded and started climbing the rows of stone benches towards Remus.
"Kingsley," Remus asked next, his voice echoing hollowly around the room. "Do you think you can levitate Alastor and Dora out to the corridor yourself, or should I come back for you?"
On the dais, Kingsley pushed himself cautiously to his feet and tested his weight. "I can do it. Go see to the students, Remus."
Remus motioned to Neville, and together they left the Death Chamber the same way Bellatrix and Harry and Dumbledore had done.
"Are there other Death Eaters here, besides the nine that Dumbledore caught, and Bellatrix?" Remus asked.
Neville nodded once again. "Dere were dwelve id de beginning. I dink dey left one hurd in de hall wid de brophesies, ad dere's one guy who edded ub wid a baby's head id dat roob dere…" He indicated in another direction.
"We'll let Dumbledore know," Remus said. If those two were no threat at the moment, then he could focus on the other tasks at hand. Find the students. Assess the damage. Get them out.
They entered a room where a tank of what appeared to be brains in a foul-smelling potion had spilled across the floor. At the far end of the room, Luna Lovegood was keeping watch over their small band: Hermione unconscious, Ginny white-faced with pain, Ron unfocused and slumped against a wall. Luna looked white-faced herself, but she had an arm flung protectively over Hermione.
Remus hurried to them. "You're all right? What's happened to Hermione?"
"She was hit by a terrible spell, but the Death Eater who did it couldn't speak at the time, or I think it would have been much worse," Luna told him.
"Something's wrong with Ron too," Ginny said, her breathing shallow.
"Dumbledore came through and told us to wait here," Luna added.
"Everything's okay now," Remus said, even though it wasn't. "We're going to get you out of here. Luna, can you walk?"
Luna nodded, and stood up shakily. Without Remus even needing to ask, she extended an arm to Ginny, who pushed herself up and managed to hobble forward by leaning heavily on Luna.
"Neville," Remus said, "please help Ron." He himself carefully lifted Hermione up. She was breathing with small, shallow breaths, and her body felt terribly still.
Slowly, carefully, Remus led them out of the room with the spilled tank and found they were back in the circular black entranceway. He closed the door behind them and let the room spin.
"We need to get out," Remus said, because he had no patience now for playing games with a room of identical doors. As soon as he said it, one of them simply opened and revealed the empty corridor, torches still burning in their brackets along the walls.
Remus led the students out to the corridor and deposited Hermione gently to one side of the door. He found Hestia's form on the other side and slid the Invisibility Cloak off her. She too was still breathing. That was something.
One of the kids behind him let out a gasp, and Luna's voice said mildly, "Oh, so she was there all along. I thought there must have been someone standing guard."
Remus had just started trying to turn his mind to the question of whether or not he could safely leave them there in order to go back in for Tonks, Kingsley and Moody, when there was a flash of silver by his ear and Dumbledore's voice said, "Mediwizards coming to you. I am explaining the situation to Cornelius. Everything is under control and I will send Harry back to Hogwarts directly."
Even as the Patronus faded, Remus heard someone coming from the direction of the lifts. He tensed, wand arm lifting automatically, but then he recognised the lime green of St Mungo's on the approaching team of mediwitches and mediwizards.
"Meriel Codgbrook, St Mungo's," the woman at the front of the group said, extending both hands to show that she was unarmed. "Albus Dumbledore sent for us, and gave us instructions just now in the Atrium. Minister Fudge has arrived, and he and a squad of Aurors will be down shortly to collect the escaped criminals." Her lips pursed together for just a moment at the thought of those particular criminals, then her professional demeanour returned. "How many are injured?"
There were so many questions he could have asked about what she must had just witnessed in the Ministry Atrium, but Remus stuck to the most immediate matter. "These five students need medical attention. Inside, there are two Aurors and one retired Auror injured, who should be out shortly, as well as another injured woman here –" he indicated Hestia, being intentionally vague about who she was and why she was at the Ministry "– and there are apparently two Death Eaters incapacitated elsewhere within the Department of Mysteries."
The Healer pursed her lips again. "You-Know-Who in the Ministry of Magic and his Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries," she muttered, as she motioned her team forwards.
Voldemort himself had been here?
Healer Codgbrook bent over Hermione, while the rest of her team fanned out among the others. Within moments, Codgbrook indicated Hermione and Hestia and announced, "We'll need to take these two with us, but we'll send the girl back to Hogwarts as soon as she's stabilised. The rest of the students can return to Hogwarts now, but directly to the hospital wing. I'll alert Poppy Pomfrey." Even as she spoke, Remus saw her manipulate a set of beads she wore on a band around her arm, which started to glow green.
"Remus," said Kingsley's voice, and Remus turned to see him leaning heavily against the doorframe that led from the Department of Mysteries. "I think Mad-Eye and Tonks had better be moved by the Healers themselves. Do you want to wait here, or should I wait here and you take the kids to Dumbledore?"
"No need to take the children anywhere," Healer Codgbrook said, straightening. "I can send them directly to Madam Pomfrey by Healerkey."
She held up the wrist that bore the beaded band, then nodded at two of the Healers, who had Conjured floating stretchers for Hermione and Hestia. One of them removed a similar armband, tapped it with his wand and murmured a spell. Then both of them gripped the band in one hand and a stretcher in the other, and disappeared.
"Here, children," said Codgbrook, removing her own armband. "All of you need to hold onto this when I say. Give it to Madam Pomfrey when you arrive – she knows you're coming." She gathered together Ron, Neville, Luna and Ginny and placed their hands on the band. "Go," she said, and they disappeared as well.
Codgbrook turned to Kingsley. "Where are your colleagues?"
"In the Death Chamber," he said, and it was a mark of Codgbrook's professionalism that she showed no outward reaction at hearing that name. "I can show you the way –"
"No need, I've been there," the Healer said brusquely. "Just wait here."
Kingsley shifted out of the way as she led the two remaining members of her team into the Department of Mysteries, the door swinging shut behind them. After all the bustle of the Healers' work, the sudden silence of the corridor pounded in Remus’ ears.
Kingsley groaned and eased himself down so he was sitting with his back against the wall. Remus gazed blankly away down the corridor and tried to think about nothing.
"I'm so sorry, Remus," Kingsley said quietly.
Remus nodded, but didn't look at him. He didn't know if he could stand to. Kingsley seemed to understand.
As they waited in silence for the Healers to return, Remus found his mind leaping crazily through different memories, but especially ones of a particular night fifteen years before. That time, at least he hadn't been there to see it happen. Though maybe that was worse.
There, that was a good, abstract puzzle, and Remus' battered mind latched onto it. Was it worse to receive the news late one night, when you hadn't been expecting anything at all, and have to live with the guilt that you hadn't been there? Or was it worse to be there to see it happen, and have to watch it over and over again behind your eyelids?
"So," said Healer Codgbrook, startling Remus. She was standing alone in the doorway to the Department of Mysteries, and Tonks and Moody lay on floating stretchers to either side of her. Remus’ heart plummeted again, at the sight of Tonks lying so still. "My colleagues will be along presently with the other two…individuals, once the Aurors have joined them to assure safe transport. But I'm taking your two colleagues with me now, and you too, sir."
She looked at Kingsley, who nodded and didn't look surprised when she Conjured another stretcher out of the air for him and indicated he should lie down on it.
Codgbrook turned to Remus. "Are you injured?"
"No." It seemed impossible. How had he come out unscathed? And how could he just go back to – his mind stuttered away from the thought.
"Perhaps you'd better come along with us as well, just in case," the Healer said gently, so Remus nodded and followed her.
Over the course of the next hour, Remus watched to be sure Tonks and Moody and Kingsley and Hestia and Hermione were taken off to receive proper care, then allowed the Healers to subject him to an entirely unnecessary medical check of his own, as the sun rose outside the hospital windows.
At the end of it, he found himself in Tonks' room, in a chair beside her bed. Someone must have deposited him there, but he had no memory of it.
Tonks looked so pale, and small, and young. He'd watched the Healers force-feed her a variety of potions, and Remus could see how her body was struggling to knit itself back together. Internal injuries, whose voice had he heard say that?
After a long while, he allowed himself to reach out and take her cold hand.
Remus sat and held Tonks' hand through all that long, bleak day, through the hours she was unconscious, sat and held her hand and tried not to let himself think.
– – – – –
(continue to CHAPTER EIGHTEEN, the final chapter of Part One!)
Summary: In which Remus and Tonks fight battles, arrest criminals, befriend werewolves, overcome inner demons and, despite it all, find themselves a happy ending. A love story, and a story of the Order years. (At long last, my Remus/Tonks epic, which has been years in the making!)
Notes: Here's the next-to-last chapter of Part 1! I'll post the final chapter of Part 1 post in about two weeks, and at that point I'll let you know how it's looking in terms of when I'll be able to start posting Part 2 (which covers the HBP year).
And it hurts even to have to say it, but: Warning for major character death in this chapter. (But if you've read OotP, obviously that's not exactly a surprise.)
Chapter 17: The Storm
You are my brother and my friend
Everywhere I go, everywhere I go
You are my brother and my friend
–Richie Stearns, Everywhere I Go
Sirius came back downstairs once he’d finally managed to splint Buckbeak's wing. He’d spent a solid couple of hours wrestling with the angry, injured Hippogriff and cursing under his breath over Kreacher, who’d undoubtedly caused the mischief. So when he found a note fluttering in front of the kitchen fireplace, it was impossible to say how long it had been there. Sirius snatched up the parchment. It bore Snape's unmistakeable handwriting and simply read, "Floo me. Now."
Snape's presumption made Sirius want to spit, but it wasn't as if he could disobey. He grabbed a handful of Floo powder, said, "Snape's office, Hogwarts," and stuck his head into the fire.
"Snape," he said, and the man turned from his desk to the fireplace.
"Ah, Sirius," Snape said. "How good to see you looking alive and well. You are in fact alive and well, I presume, and this is not merely your disembodied head talking to me?"
"What do you want, Snape?" Sirius ground out.
"I thought it would be prudent to check on you, since your dear godson seems to be under the impression the Dark Lord has somehow managed to take you to, and I quote, 'the place where it's hidden.' Likely meaning the Department of Mysteries, at least if Potter has been clever enough to figure out the significance of that place, which is debatable."
"What?" Sirius cried.
"I said, your godson seems to be under the impression –"
"I heard what you said. What the hell do you mean? How do you know this? What did Harry say?"
"Umbridge caught him trying to use the Floo in her office, likely to contact you, and called me in. Potter seemed distressed and gave me that message."
"When?"
"Perhaps an hour ago."
"And you waited until now to make contact!"
"No," said Snape scornfully. "I sent a Patronus immediately to check that you were in fact in the house. It's not my fault it took you until now to come back to the Floo."
So Sirius hadn't imagined that flash of silver out of the corner of his eye as he'd been tending to Buckbeak. Why hadn't Snape sent a message then, with the Patronus, and saved them all an hour?
"Where is Harry now?" Sirius demanded.
"He's disappeared into the Forbidden Forest with Umbridge and that Muggleborn friend of his, Granger. Believe me, Black, I am monitoring the situation and will inform you if he doesn't return in a timely fashion. Trust Potter to run off and try to do something stupid and heroic."
Sirius could barely get words out past his mounting rage. "Find him."
"I fully intend to do so, now that I no longer have to wait here for you to return my Floo."
"Why not a Patronus?" Sirius snapped. "Why Floo? You know this connection could be monitored at any time, don't you?"
"Doubtful, seeing as I haven't been foolish enough to get on Dolores Umbridge's bad side. But if you're nervous about it, you'd best be going, hadn't you? Wouldn't want to be putting ourselves in danger."
"Find Harry," Sirius spat at him. "If you don't, I'm coming up there and doing it myself. And afterwards I might be able to restrain myself from hexing you into oblivion for letting him out of your sight."
"Temper, Black," Snape said dangerously. "And now I have a job to do, so if you don't mind, shoo."
Sirius pulled his head out of the fireplace, heart pounding with rage. Harry thought Voldemort had kidnapped him, Sirius? How? Why? What the hell was going on? The panic rising in his throat was choking him. He paced the length of the kitchen twice, trying to calm himself. He was no use to Harry if he was panicking.
He stopped again in front of the fireplace, its flames now gone cold, and pressed the heels of his palms hard against his eyes.
Then he sent for the person he always called on when things got bad: Remus.
– – – – –
"Sirius, slow down," Remus said. He felt as pale as Sirius looked. "I'm barely catching half of what you're saying."
Sirius started pacing again. "It must be some kind of trick," he said. "Is it some sort of vision again? Can Voldemort plant visions in his head of things that aren't even happening?"
"This must be what Dumbledore was afraid of," Remus muttered.
Sirius rounded on him. "What do you mean? What did Dumbledore tell you?"
Remus sighed and raked his hands through his hair, leaning back against the edge of the kitchen table. His attempt at prudence on matters where Sirius, danger and Harry were concerned was about to come back and bite him. "Dumbledore suspected Voldemort might try to exploit his connection with Harry. Manipulate him in some way. He didn't know precisely how."
"Dumbledore said that?"
"In a note he left me at the Hog's Head, yes."
"You knew this might happen?"
"Not precisely this!"
Sirius looked ready to punch a wall. Or a person. Probably Remus. "And you didn't tell me! What the hell, Remus!"
Remus dropped his hands to his sides. "Sirius, I understand you're angry with me, but can we focus on Harry, please?"
Sirius took a deep breath, and with effort relaxed his clenched fists. "Yes, all right. Yes."
"You said Snape told you Harry tried to pass on a message. And that it seemed to indicate he thought Voldemort had taken you to the Department of Mysteries."
"Apparently, yes."
"And it seemed Harry had experienced some sort of vision that made him think this?"
"No idea. That's all Snape said. What good does that even do Voldemort? Aside from scaring Harry?"
"And since then, Harry has disappeared?"
Sirius moaned.
"Sirius. Focus."
"Yes. Into the Forest, with Umbridge. Snape says he'll look for him. You don't think Harry's actually trying to get to the Ministry, do you?"
"Let's rule that out for the moment, since I can't imagine how he would get there from Hogwarts on his own. Besides, the Ministry will be full of people, not to mention there will be someone from the Order guarding outside the Department of Mysteries, if it comes to that."
"Who's on guard right now? Can we check?"
"Good idea," Remus admitted. "Moody knows the schedule. Should I get him over here?"
Having to make concrete decisions seemed to steady Sirius. "Yes. And maybe a couple others. Just in case…just in case someone needs to go after him."
"Kingsley?"
"Yeah. And Tonks."
Remus looked at him in surprise. "Dora?"
"She should be here."
– – – – –
Remus' Patronus simply said, "Please come to Headquarters as soon as you can."
Tonks had only just got home from work, but she stepped straight back outside again and Apparated to the alley near 12 Grimmauld Place.
She'd only seen Remus a couple times since her birthday, barely more than in passing, and he always seemed tense. She knew he was worried: about Sirius, who was edgier than ever, prowling the house looking morbid and watchful; and about Harry, now sitting his O.W.L.s at Hogwarts, where just last night Hagrid had been sacked and McGonagall Stunned – by Aurors – so badly that she was now recuperating in St Mungo's.
If Tonks refrained from thinking the world was falling to pieces, it was only because thinking about it too much made it seem even worse.
She hurried up to the house and Remus met her inside the doorway, his face drawn.
"What's the matter?" she asked, alarmed by the look of him.
He closed the door behind her, then reached out and gripped both Tonks’ arms. "Do you remember I told you that Snape refused to keep teaching Harry, and Dumbledore admitted he was worried what might happen to Harry without Occlumency lessons?"
"Yes, of course. What's happened?"
He dropped his hands again, seeming to realise how hard he’d been gripping her. "Nothing, nothing, just a…strange report from Snape. Harry seems to have had some sort of vision, or false message, we're not sure what. But he seems to believe that Voldemort has kidnapped Sirius, and now Harry and Hermione have disappeared. Snape is trying to find them. They were last seen going into the Forbidden Forest."
Tonks stared at him. "So do we need to go to the Forbidden Forest to look for them?"
"Possibly. Except we think Harry may also try to get to the Ministry, that he might believe Sirius is being held there. Apparently, he told Snape that Voldemort had Sirius in 'the place where it's hidden,' which might be a reference to the Department of Mysteries, or it might not…" Remus shoved his hands through his hair, frustrated. "We're right now trying to figure out what to do. Moody and Kingsley are here too."
That, at least, was a relief. As dearly as Tonks cared about both Remus and Sirius, they were ruled by emotion where Harry was concerned. Mad-Eye and Kingsley, though, would be working out a clear-headed plan even as they spoke.
As if he'd heard her thoughts, Remus seemed forcibly to calm himself. "I'm sorry, I'm just worked up. Or Sirius' anxiety is rubbing off on me. Or both. Come on, they're all downstairs."
"So, do we contact Dumbledore?" Moody was asking as they entered the kitchen. He looked up and gave Tonks a brief nod, then returned his attention to the others. Kingsley was at the table with him, while Sirius was pacing.
"Yes," Sirius answered, to Moody’s question.
"He did ask us to send a Patronus only in an emergency," Remus put in fairly, as he and Tonks approached the table.
"What do you call this?" Sirius asked.
"I'm inclined to agree, if Harry doesn't come back within a reasonable amount of time," Kingsley said.
"What's a reasonable amount?" Sirius demanded, coming to a halt by the table.
"Let's give it half an hour," Kingsley said. "Snape is supposed to look for him and then get in touch by Floo, right?"
Sirius resumed his pacing. "Why can't he just send a Patronus like a normal person?" he growled. "Probably can't even produce one. It's not as if he'd have any happy memories to use for it."
"I thought you said he sent one while –" Remus began, but Sirius shot him a look that seemed to quell him.
"Sirius, sit down," Moody snapped, and to Tonks' amazement, Sirius obeyed.
She and Remus likewise took seats at the table, and they all looked at each other.
"All right," Moody said, "Let's think logically here for a moment before we go in with wands blazing. What do we think Voldemort wants with Harry? Is he after the Prophecy?"
Remus nodded. "It makes the most sense of anything. Who's guarding the Department of Mysteries this evening?"
"Should be Hestia Jones. Took over from Dedalus Diggle at five o'clock," Moody said.
Kingsley suggested, "So, we stop by there first, check that Hestia is still guarding the door. Maybe leave one more person with her as reinforcement, just in case. Then we need to figure out where to start looking for Harry –"
Just then, the fireplace sprang to life. They all jumped up and hurried to crowd around it, as Snape's head appeared. His lips were pressed tightly together, and it occurred to Tonks that the usually sneering Snape might actually be concerned.
"They're still missing," he said, "as are both Weasley children, Longbottom, and a girl called Lovegood. I believe they have found some way to leave the Forbidden Forest, and are headed to the Ministry."
Tonks heard Remus breathe in sharply next to her.
"We'll go there now," said Moody.
"We'll all go," Tonks agreed.
"Does Dumbledore know?" Kingsley asked.
"I've alerted him and he should be on his way now," Snape said. "He'll come to Headquarters first, so Black should make himself useful for once and stay there to fill him in, whilst the rest of you go to the Ministry. I will continue to search here."
Sirius started up angrily, but Remus put a hand on his arm, a gesture that seemed to say, Now's not the time.
"Thank you, Snape," Moody was saying. "This is invaluable information."
Snape just nodded and broke the Floo connection.
Sirius muttered something that sounded like, "Kreacher," and disappeared up the stairs to the main floors of the house.
Tonks looked at Moody. "Ministry employees' entrance? By Floo?"
Moody nodded. "Shacklebolt and I will go now and get the lay of the land. You two follow us in five minutes. Tonks, if you keep hold of Lupin, you should be able to get him in through the employees' Floo."
Tonks nodded. Moody took a pinch of Floo powder, threw it into the fireplace and said, "Ministry of Magic." He stepped through and disappeared. Kingsley followed.
Tonks looked at Remus and Remus looked at Tonks.
"This may come to a battle," Remus said.
"I know," Tonks said. In a sense, she’d always known. This was what they were here for, after all. She looked up into Remus’ face, because she very much needed him to understand this about her, and said, "And I plan on being there for it."
He gazed back at her and said, "I know."
Then he reached out to her and Tonks stepped into his arms, tilting her face up until her lips met his, allowing herself that comfort for a small moment.
"I'm coming with you. Does that mean I get a kiss, too?" Sirius' voice came from behind them, from the foot of the stairs.
Remus spun around, his hand still at Tonks' waist. "Sirius – you can't! You need to stay and explain to Dumbledore when he gets here."
"I've ordered Kreacher to tell him everything. There's no reason to stay."
"But if anyone at the Ministry sees you –"
Sirius glowered. "Then I will Obliviate them. Harry's in trouble, and he's in trouble because he's trying to protect me. You really think I'm just going to sit here?"
"But –"
"And I'm not going to stand here and argue about it with you. So get a fucking move on, Moony."
Tonks saw Remus fighting with himself, wanting to protect Harry and to protect Sirius and knowing it wasn’t possible to do both. "Let him go," she murmured, and finally Remus gave a tight nod.
"Come on," he said.
Tonks threw more Floo powder into the fire, said "Ministry of Magic," and grabbed both Remus and Sirius by the arm. "Elbows in," she said. "I don't think I've ever tried to Side-Along two at once before."
Together, they squeezed into the fireplace, and immediately they were whizzing past other hearths, Tonks holding on hard to the two men to keep them with her. She stumbled as the Floo deposited them in the Ministry Atrium, and Remus steadied her.
Moody and Kingsley were waiting for them in front of the fireplace, wands out. Aside from them, the Atrium was disquietingly empty.
"Identify yourselves!" Moody demanded.
"Nymphadora Tonks, Metamorphmagus. My first day of Auror training, you told me I wouldn't last the week. And I vouch for these two, they've been in physical contact with me the whole way here."
Moody raised an eyebrow at Sirius' presence, but didn't comment on it. Instead, he replied to Tonks, "And you reminded me of that comment almost every day for the next three years. I vouch for Shacklebolt as well, he's been with me the entire time." Moody lowered his wand, but didn't put it away. "Even the watchwizard is gone."
"Imperiused? Abducted?" Tonks asked. There was no sign of dead bodies, at least.
Kingsley answered, "Could be either. Or everyone who's meant to be on duty could be just down the hall, Charmed into forgetting they're meant to be here. But it doesn't matter right now – we need to get down to the Department of Mysteries. Harry and his friends might be down there, or Voldemort and his Death Eaters, or both."
"Tonks and I take point, Lupin and Black in the middle and Shacklebolt guards the rear," Moody said, and no one argued. They set off towards the lifts in the formation he'd ordered, and rode one level down in eerie silence.
"Department of Mysteries," said the lift announcer's voice, and the grilles slid open. They started down the corridor nearly at a run.
The door to the Department of Mysteries was open.
"Oh no," Tonks breathed.
Kingsley felt around in the empty space beside the door; Tonks had only just realised what he was doing when his hand made contact and came away with an Invisibility Cloak bunched in his fist.
On the floor was the inert form of Hestia Jones.
Kingsley felt for her pulse. "Alive," he said shortly, then pointed his wand and said, "Rennervate."
Nothing happened.
"Rennervate," Kingsley repeated, then shook his head. "She doesn't seem to be in imminent danger, but I can't wake her. We'll have to come back for her."
Moody nodded, and Kingsley covered Hestia carefully in the Cloak again, then stood up and faced the rest of them. "Ready?"
They looked at each other and nodded. Sirius was nearly vibrating with energy, like a hunting dog finally about to be set after its prey. Remus looked grave but determined. Moody was vigilant as ever. Kingsley radiated calm and capability. Tonks wondered what she looked like.
"Who's been in there before?" Moody asked.
"Just once," Kingsley said.
The rest of them shook their heads.
"I've been a couple times," Moody said. "Long while ago. First there's an entrance room designed to disorientate you, but most of the rooms inside connect with one another sooner or later." He motioned them forward and one by one they stepped through the door, into a circular black stone room with blue-flame candles mounted on its curved walls between a number of identical doors that ran all the way around it.
"We assume Potter's gone to the Hall of Prophecy?" Moody asked, but didn't wait for an answer. "We'll split into two groups. Both try to reach the Hall; if one group finds it, try to get a message to the other. I'll take Lupin; Black, you go with Shacklebolt and Tonks. Clear?"
They nodded.
"Door, close," Moody commanded. The door they had come through swung shut, and the room itself began to spin. Caught unprepared, and never an expert in the balance department anyway, Tonks lurched awkwardly into Sirius' side, then felt Remus' hand, steadying her again. She reached out and gave his arm a squeeze under the cover of the near-darkness, glad he was there.
The room stopped spinning. "Any door," Moody said. "We'll take this one." He reached out and pushed against a door, which swung open. Tonks could just see something glittering inside as Moody stepped over the threshold without a backward glance.
Remus glanced back once, right at Tonks, then followed him.
The door swung shut behind them and once again the circular room spun, then stopped.
"Okay," said Sirius. "Let's go get those bastards." He sounded energised, and Tonks thought again how the only times he'd seemed fully alive in the last months were during the Order’s duelling practices, deep in the basement at Grimmauld Place. Gone was the ragged ball of nerves who’d been pacing the kitchen not half an hour ago. This Sirius was in control and ready to fight.
Tonks looked to Kingsley, sensing him to be the unofficial leader of their little band. "Does it matter which door?"
He shrugged. "Here," he said, and pushed against the door that was closest.
All Tonks could see inside was blackness. Kingsley extended his wand arm, took a cautious step over the threshold – and disappeared.
"Kingsley!" Tonks shouted. Sirius gripped her shoulder.
"Here," Kingsley called back, his voice seeming to come from above them. Tonks moved as close to the door as she dared and tried to peer upwards into the darkness. "I'm floating," Kingsley explained, though she still couldn't see him. "Tonks, can you reach out your arm?"
She did so, keeping her feet planted outside the doorway and stretching into the room as far as she dared. After a moment, she felt Kingsley grasp her hand.
"Can you pull?" he asked next.
Sirius moved closer and grabbed Kingsley's hand as well, and together they pulled him back in.
Back on firm footing inside the circular entry room, Kingsley shook his head. "We could probably get through, if we all held onto each other and found something solid to push off from, but I think we'll make quicker progress through another room. Let's try again."
He allowed the door to close, and the room to spin again.
Tonks held her breath as Kingsley stepped carefully through another door, but nothing unexpected happened, so she and Sirius followed him in.
They found themselves in a long, large, but otherwise unremarkable room. The lighting was low and pleasant, the ceiling high enough to make the room feel spacious, but not so high as to take away its human scale. Small desks stood at regular intervals, a variety of objects on them. It seemed to be quite the random assortment – Tonks even caught sight of a few Muggle things, like a toaster.
The only notable feature about the room was a pleasant sort of warm tingling Tonks could feel in her arms and legs, increasing the longer she stood there.
Then she looked at Kingsley and saw that he was glowing.
"Kingsley–!" she cried.
Sirius stepped out from behind Tonks, and now she saw that he was glowing too.
But "glowing" wasn't the right word. This was nothing so intense as a fire or a Muggle light bulb, it was more a sort of…aura, a gently shimmering light that seemed to emanate from within the two men. Sirius' wand arm was raised, and the light was strongest there, so bright and clearly defined it almost looked like something you could reach out and touch.
Tonks thought she’d never seen anything so beautiful.
Sirius was staring at her in wonder, and Tonks looked down and saw her body was giving off the same shimmer. She raised her wand and the light seemed to follow her, arcing through the air as her arm moved.
"It's magic," Kingsley said, his voice softer than Tonks had ever heard it. "I heard once that they had a room like this. Where you can see magic."
Tonks looked around and realised the objects on the tables were shimmering too. Magical items like wands and cauldrons gave off the brightest light. The toaster barely glowed at all.
"We can go through this one, can't we?" Sirius whispered, seeming not to want to break the peace of the room, but his focus still firmly on their task. "There should be another door somewhere that leads on?"
Kingsley nodded. "We'll just keep on through the different chambers until we find ourselves where we want to be."
They set off down the length of the room, Tonks marvelling at the wondrously shimmering objects she passed, and even more at the two wondrously shimmering men ahead of her. She'd never known magic was so beautiful.
They were halfway to the far end of the room, where they could now see another door, when Moody's raven Patronus swooped down near them and muttered, "No sign of them in the Hall, but I hear a struggle in the Death Chamber. Follow this Patronus there."
The Patronus flew straight towards the door ahead of them, and all three of them broke into a sprint, pounding through the door and down the corridor they found behind it. Several more doors were set along the corridor. Moody's Patronus swooped directly at one of them, then disintegrated.
Kingsley slammed into the door and flung it open, Sirius and Tonks on his heels, just as Remus and Moody burst into the same room from a door opposite.
It was a large, rectangular, dimly lit space, a sort of amphitheatre with steep stone steps leading down to a low stone dais with an archway at its centre. Everywhere Tonks looked, there were Death Eaters, nearly a dozen of them – and Harry was there, on the dais, with another boy his age, who was gasping at the feet of a woman Tonks had never met but recognised the moment she laid eyes on her.
There was no need for discussion – this was what they had trained for. The five of them spread out, moving down the stone steps and firing curses as they went. Tonks sent a Stunner at Lucius Malfoy to start with, which missed by a hair but was enough to make him stumble.
At least Harry and his friend seemed to be managing to stay low for the moment, as the melee of Order members and Death Eaters coalesced into something roughly resembling a collection of individual duels. Tonks directed all her attention at the woman she'd recognised as her aunt, feeling anger pump through her veins.
You tried to kill my mother, she thought. You tried to kill me.
"Stupefy!" she shouted, advancing on this woman who looked too damn much like her mum. "Impedimenta! Stupefy!" Tonks knew she needed to slow down and aim with more intention, but just for a moment, she allowed herself to fire out of anger rather than good training.
"Protego," Bellatrix drawled, parrying with ease. "And Protego again. Can't you do better than that, dear niece?"
"Laedunto!" Tonks cried, and was gratified to see Bellatrix flinch with pain.
"Funiculus," Bellatrix snapped, and Tonks had to duck as twisting strands of rope flew at her.
"Confundo," Tonks tried, but of course Bellatrix was too strong for that.
"Oh, look at the little baby, trying to duel like the gwown-ups," Bellatrix cooed, in an ugly approximation of a child’s voice, from where she stood a few steps below Tonks.
Tonks aimed squarely and said, "Locomotor Mortis."
Bellatrix stumbled slightly, and performed the counter-curse on herself. "Childish jinxes," she hissed.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Tonks responded.
Bellatrix leaned out of the way, then aimed a Reductor curse at Tonks, who jumped to the side. A chunk blasted off the stone step beside her.
"Careful, cousin," Sirius murmured as he ducked by.
"Always am," Tonks replied without taking her eyes off Bellatrix, but she reached out her non-wand hand and gave Sirius' arm a squeeze, as he passed by and leapt to the step above her. She was glad he was here.
"How sweet, a family reunion," Bellatrix sneered. "Tell me, will my blood-traitor sister be coming too?" Then without warning, she slashed downward with her wand and shouted, "Sectumsempra!"
Tonks dodged, but felt something burn across her right shoulder. "You're going have to do better than that!" she said.
Bellatrix smiled nastily, stalking closer. "Oh, when I'm aiming to kill, you'll know it…dear. Reducto!"
Tonks dodged again, but as she did, she saw Moody on the floor, his head bleeding. Concentrate, she told herself fiercely, and aimed another Stunner at Bellatrix.
"He's fine, Dora!" she heard Remus call. From her peripheral vision, she saw him bending over Moody's form.
Thank you, Remus, she thought, but didn't want to distract either of them further by saying it aloud.
She was finally falling into a rhythm with Bellatrix, anticipating her hexes sooner, parrying instinctively. That was the mark of a good duellist, of course, being able to judge and anticipate one's partner, rather than shooting off spells at random. But also – and it was awful even to think it – fighting Bellatrix felt oddly familiar. She moved the way Tonks' mum and Sirius did, with that certain Black family bearing they never seemed to lose.
Tonks heard Sirius shout at one point, then a scuffle behind her, but no one seemed to be hurt so she kept her focus on Bellatrix. She cast a nonverbal Impediment Jinx, but Bellatrix moved even faster, whirling around behind Tonks and calling "Crucio!" with an almost lazy flick of her wand.
Tonks spun and increased her pace too, Conjuring a net around Bellatrix, but Bellatrix shook it off with a laugh.
"How is your dear mum?" Bellatrix purred as she danced away. "It's been so long since we had a nice chat. Twenty-three years or so, hasn’t it been?"
Tonks fought down her rage, because rage would not help her fight a smart battle. "How's Voldemort?" she retorted, knowing the use of his name would get to Bellatrix. "Isn't it a pity he didn't even bother to turn up here for his own party?"
"Where the Dark Lord is is no concern of yours," Bellatrix snapped, tossing in an Impediment Jinx of her own, as if in afterthought.
"You must like him an awful lot, if you're willing to do all his dirty work for him," Tonks pressed, probing for lines of verbal attack that would rile Bellatrix.
"My loyalty to the Dark Lord goes beyond anything you could understand, little girl. Anyone following that old fool at Hogwarts can't imagine what it is to stand at the right hand of true power."
"Oh, 'cause you think Voldemort's got power, do you?"
"If you speak of him, you'll do so with respect!"
"What, Voldemort? You don't like me saying the name Voldemort?"
"How dare you speak his name with your dirty half-blood lips!" Bellatrix shrieked, and Tonks cast the most powerful Stunner she could and thought she'd finally got the upper hand.
But Bellatrix ducked, moving faster than Tonks would have thought possible, and Tonks' red jet of light sizzled against the floor where she had stood.
Bellatrix spun and straightened up in a single motion, screaming, "Confringo!" as she came. There was an enormous crashing and crumbling of stone, and the last thing Tonks saw was a chunk of rock flying at her.
– – – – –
Remus saw Tonks fall, a painfully drawn out motion as she flopped from step to step down the side of the stone amphitheatre, and everything in him seized up. For one horrible second he froze completely, unable to move, unable to think anything but, Dora!
But freezing up in battle was unacceptable, pausing for even a second’s worth of fear and grief was not an option. He had to keep fighting, and he had to get to Harry. It hadn’t been a jet of green light that had hit Tonks, and he told himself fiercely that knowing that fact would have to be enough for now.
Get to Harry, Remus repeated to himself, like he had to hold onto those words to keep from drowning in panic. Get to Harry.
He'd seen Harry get Dolohov in a body-bind – where had he learned to perform the spell so well? – then he’d seen Sirius push Harry out of the way of a couple spells whizzing past. Kingsley very nearly had the upper hand against Rookwood, and Remus himself was trying to hold off Rodolphus Lestrange.
As Tonks fell, Bellatrix crowed triumphantly and dashed back into the fray. Sirius gave a roar and chased after her.
Out of the corner of his eye, Remus saw Malfoy going for Harry – Sirius had driven Bellatrix back almost to the dais in the centre of the room – Kingsley was still duelling – Harry pulled off a solid Impediment Jinx on Malfoy – Remus finally managed to Stun Lestrange and dashed forward just in time to throw a Shield charm in front of Harry and Neville, as Malfoy took aim again.
"Harry," Remus cried, "round up the others and GO!"
He watched just long enough to see Harry start trying to drag Neville away, Neville's legs still jerking out of control from a Tarantallegra he'd been hit with, then Remus turned to take up the fight with Malfoy, who sneered as if he couldn't even be bothered to put his full effort into duelling Remus.
Remus remembered Malfoy as a smirking prefect when they'd been at school, and wondered wearily why some things never seemed to change. Malfoy's sneer lessened, at least, when Remus' well-placed Impedimenta knocked him off his feet for the second time in as many minutes.
Remus advanced, casting Stunning Spells as fast as he could, narrowing his focus to this one duel, but Malfoy was just as fast in blocking them.
And then Dumbledore was there.
Remus knew it first from the look of horror on Malfoy's face, before the man ducked and ran for it. Remus turned and saw Dumbledore descending the steps, his face furious, his progress unstoppable, his spells dragging the fleeing Death Eaters towards him one by one.
With Malfoy no longer a danger, Remus scanned the room, looking for Harry, still on the steps with Neville; for Tonks, who he very much hoped seemed to be breathing, where she lay in a pile of rubble; for Sirius, so intent on his battle with Bellatrix that he hadn't even seen Dumbledore arrive.
Sirius had just dodged a spell from his cousin, and he laughed, exhilarated. "Come on, you can do better than that!" he called.
Then a second jet of red light caught him in the chest, and his eyes went wide in shock.
He fell, and he fell, and it seemed to last forever, as his body arced away from Bellatrix's spell and into the veil that hung raggedly from the arch on the dais, and even before Sirius had completed his descent, Remus knew what that was, though he didn't want to know – Moody had called this the Death Chamber – and Sirius' face showed a bit of fear but mainly just surprise, as he completed his graceful fall.
The veil fluttered.
Bellatrix shrieked in triumph.
Harry screamed, "SIRIUS! SIRIUS!" and hurled himself down the steps towards the dais, but Remus' body reacted in time, his arms reached out to grab Harry around the chest, to pin him there and hold him back, Remus' muscles doing what was necessary even as his heart was breaking.
How can it break again?
Words came out of Remus' mouth. "There's nothing you can do, Harry –"
Harry was nearly incoherent with panic. "Get him, save him, he's only just gone through!"
"It's too late, Harry."
"We can still reach him!"
Harry shoved and kicked and Remus registered physical pain without really feeling it. His voice even sounded calm. "There's nothing you can do, Harry, nothing, he's gone."
How can there be this much left to break?
"He hasn't gone! SIRIUS! SIRIUS!" Harry screamed.
"He can't come back, Harry," Remus said, and now he finally felt the pain, the physical pain of forcing those words out. "He can't come back, because he's d–"
"HE IS NOT DEAD! SIRIUS!"
A jet of hot light whizzed past Remus' ear. As absurd as it seemed, the battle was not yet over. The last few Death Eaters were still putting up a fight, and Kingsley was now duelling Bellatrix, while Dumbledore drove the others together in the centre of the room.
Spells were still flying, so Remus focussed everything on dragging Harry away from danger, pulling him towards where Neville still waited, because logic said he could better keep the two boys safe if he kept them together.
Harry had stopped struggling now, which was somehow even worse. But Remus kept a grip on his arm, because that was what he had to do, because he had to protect Harry.
Neville, miserable and helpless with his uncontrollable legs, looked up at Harry and asked through his broken nose, "Was dad man – was Sirius Black a – a friend of yours?"
Harry nodded and another piece shattered off Remus' heart.
"Here," Remus said to Neville – thinking of Alice and Frank, always – and aimed his wand at Neville's legs, saying, "Finite."
Neville's legs were finally still.
"Let's –" Remus had to stop and try again, just to get the simple sentence out. He turned so he was facing the boys, not the archway with the veil. "Let's find the others. Where are they all, Neville?" Ron and Ginny Weasley both, and Hermione, and Lovegood, Snape had said, Luna Lovegood. Six children in this monstrous place, and twice as many Death Eaters.
Neville pointed in answer, but then there was a bang and a yell, and Remus turned to see Kingsley hit the ground – crying out in pain, which meant alive – and Bellatrix grabbed her chance and ran away up the steps of the amphitheatre, deflecting a spell from Dumbledore as she went.
Harry wrenched his arm free of Remus' grasp. "Harry, no!" Remus cried, but Harry was already tearing away up the steps.
"SHE KILLED SIRIUS!" Harry screamed as he raced after Bellatrix. "SHE KILLED HIM! I'LL KILL HER!"
For one horrible, long moment after Harry disappeared through the door out of the amphitheatre, there was nothing but ringing silence.
Then Dumbledore took over. "I will see to Harry's safety," he said, speaking calmly but quickly. "Alastor, Remus, Kingsley, please find the other students, and see to yourselves and the wounded as best you can. Gather everyone in the corridor outside the Department of Mysteries if possible. Leave the Death Eaters here, as they are." He waited just long enough to be sure his instructions had been understood, then he was gone out the door after Harry.
With great effort, Remus took stock:
Tonks, unconscious on the ground, and he dreaded going to her, as if he might not physically survive more bad news.
Kingsley and Moody, both injured, but able to move.
Neville, mostly uninjured beside him.
Somewhere within the labyrinth of the Department of Mysteries, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Luna.
Outside in the corridor, still unconscious but hopefully unharmed, Hestia Jones.
Then there were the nine Death Eaters, powerfully bound together and silenced, but glaring with rage. Possibly more Death Eaters, injured or Stupefied, elsewhere within the Department.
And himself, apparently the only man still standing and unbroken.
So Remus wrenched himself together and took charge.
"Please stay here," he said to Neville, who nodded at him with wide eyes.
Remus went first to Kingsley, still lying prone on the dais.
"Remus," Kingsley said, and managed to drag himself into a sitting position with a grunt of pain. "Damn it, I'm sorry I didn't get her."
"Are you badly injured?"
"It's fine, nothing that’ll kill me. Might even be able to stand up if you give me a minute."
Remus nodded, and moved up the steps to Moody, who had managed to crawl around the ring of seats and recover his magical eye. "All right, Alastor?" he asked.
"Fine," Moody grunted, though he seemed to be too dizzy to stand. "Go on, lad, Tonks is fine, but go see for yourself."
Remus nodded and moved towards Tonks, fear hammering in his chest. He crouched beside her, felt for her pulse. She was breathing and not visibly bleeding, though she was terribly pale. Not caring who saw – what did it matter, now? – Remus bent and pressed a kiss to her forehead, too cool and pale and dotted with perspiration.
"I'm sorry, Dora," he whispered, not knowing yet what he was apologising for, only that it must be something terrible. He didn’t dare reach for her hand. If he did, he might never let go.
And he had to see to the children first.
He stood up and called, "Neville, can you show me where the others are?"
Neville nodded and started climbing the rows of stone benches towards Remus.
"Kingsley," Remus asked next, his voice echoing hollowly around the room. "Do you think you can levitate Alastor and Dora out to the corridor yourself, or should I come back for you?"
On the dais, Kingsley pushed himself cautiously to his feet and tested his weight. "I can do it. Go see to the students, Remus."
Remus motioned to Neville, and together they left the Death Chamber the same way Bellatrix and Harry and Dumbledore had done.
"Are there other Death Eaters here, besides the nine that Dumbledore caught, and Bellatrix?" Remus asked.
Neville nodded once again. "Dere were dwelve id de beginning. I dink dey left one hurd in de hall wid de brophesies, ad dere's one guy who edded ub wid a baby's head id dat roob dere…" He indicated in another direction.
"We'll let Dumbledore know," Remus said. If those two were no threat at the moment, then he could focus on the other tasks at hand. Find the students. Assess the damage. Get them out.
They entered a room where a tank of what appeared to be brains in a foul-smelling potion had spilled across the floor. At the far end of the room, Luna Lovegood was keeping watch over their small band: Hermione unconscious, Ginny white-faced with pain, Ron unfocused and slumped against a wall. Luna looked white-faced herself, but she had an arm flung protectively over Hermione.
Remus hurried to them. "You're all right? What's happened to Hermione?"
"She was hit by a terrible spell, but the Death Eater who did it couldn't speak at the time, or I think it would have been much worse," Luna told him.
"Something's wrong with Ron too," Ginny said, her breathing shallow.
"Dumbledore came through and told us to wait here," Luna added.
"Everything's okay now," Remus said, even though it wasn't. "We're going to get you out of here. Luna, can you walk?"
Luna nodded, and stood up shakily. Without Remus even needing to ask, she extended an arm to Ginny, who pushed herself up and managed to hobble forward by leaning heavily on Luna.
"Neville," Remus said, "please help Ron." He himself carefully lifted Hermione up. She was breathing with small, shallow breaths, and her body felt terribly still.
Slowly, carefully, Remus led them out of the room with the spilled tank and found they were back in the circular black entranceway. He closed the door behind them and let the room spin.
"We need to get out," Remus said, because he had no patience now for playing games with a room of identical doors. As soon as he said it, one of them simply opened and revealed the empty corridor, torches still burning in their brackets along the walls.
Remus led the students out to the corridor and deposited Hermione gently to one side of the door. He found Hestia's form on the other side and slid the Invisibility Cloak off her. She too was still breathing. That was something.
One of the kids behind him let out a gasp, and Luna's voice said mildly, "Oh, so she was there all along. I thought there must have been someone standing guard."
Remus had just started trying to turn his mind to the question of whether or not he could safely leave them there in order to go back in for Tonks, Kingsley and Moody, when there was a flash of silver by his ear and Dumbledore's voice said, "Mediwizards coming to you. I am explaining the situation to Cornelius. Everything is under control and I will send Harry back to Hogwarts directly."
Even as the Patronus faded, Remus heard someone coming from the direction of the lifts. He tensed, wand arm lifting automatically, but then he recognised the lime green of St Mungo's on the approaching team of mediwitches and mediwizards.
"Meriel Codgbrook, St Mungo's," the woman at the front of the group said, extending both hands to show that she was unarmed. "Albus Dumbledore sent for us, and gave us instructions just now in the Atrium. Minister Fudge has arrived, and he and a squad of Aurors will be down shortly to collect the escaped criminals." Her lips pursed together for just a moment at the thought of those particular criminals, then her professional demeanour returned. "How many are injured?"
There were so many questions he could have asked about what she must had just witnessed in the Ministry Atrium, but Remus stuck to the most immediate matter. "These five students need medical attention. Inside, there are two Aurors and one retired Auror injured, who should be out shortly, as well as another injured woman here –" he indicated Hestia, being intentionally vague about who she was and why she was at the Ministry "– and there are apparently two Death Eaters incapacitated elsewhere within the Department of Mysteries."
The Healer pursed her lips again. "You-Know-Who in the Ministry of Magic and his Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries," she muttered, as she motioned her team forwards.
Voldemort himself had been here?
Healer Codgbrook bent over Hermione, while the rest of her team fanned out among the others. Within moments, Codgbrook indicated Hermione and Hestia and announced, "We'll need to take these two with us, but we'll send the girl back to Hogwarts as soon as she's stabilised. The rest of the students can return to Hogwarts now, but directly to the hospital wing. I'll alert Poppy Pomfrey." Even as she spoke, Remus saw her manipulate a set of beads she wore on a band around her arm, which started to glow green.
"Remus," said Kingsley's voice, and Remus turned to see him leaning heavily against the doorframe that led from the Department of Mysteries. "I think Mad-Eye and Tonks had better be moved by the Healers themselves. Do you want to wait here, or should I wait here and you take the kids to Dumbledore?"
"No need to take the children anywhere," Healer Codgbrook said, straightening. "I can send them directly to Madam Pomfrey by Healerkey."
She held up the wrist that bore the beaded band, then nodded at two of the Healers, who had Conjured floating stretchers for Hermione and Hestia. One of them removed a similar armband, tapped it with his wand and murmured a spell. Then both of them gripped the band in one hand and a stretcher in the other, and disappeared.
"Here, children," said Codgbrook, removing her own armband. "All of you need to hold onto this when I say. Give it to Madam Pomfrey when you arrive – she knows you're coming." She gathered together Ron, Neville, Luna and Ginny and placed their hands on the band. "Go," she said, and they disappeared as well.
Codgbrook turned to Kingsley. "Where are your colleagues?"
"In the Death Chamber," he said, and it was a mark of Codgbrook's professionalism that she showed no outward reaction at hearing that name. "I can show you the way –"
"No need, I've been there," the Healer said brusquely. "Just wait here."
Kingsley shifted out of the way as she led the two remaining members of her team into the Department of Mysteries, the door swinging shut behind them. After all the bustle of the Healers' work, the sudden silence of the corridor pounded in Remus’ ears.
Kingsley groaned and eased himself down so he was sitting with his back against the wall. Remus gazed blankly away down the corridor and tried to think about nothing.
"I'm so sorry, Remus," Kingsley said quietly.
Remus nodded, but didn't look at him. He didn't know if he could stand to. Kingsley seemed to understand.
As they waited in silence for the Healers to return, Remus found his mind leaping crazily through different memories, but especially ones of a particular night fifteen years before. That time, at least he hadn't been there to see it happen. Though maybe that was worse.
There, that was a good, abstract puzzle, and Remus' battered mind latched onto it. Was it worse to receive the news late one night, when you hadn't been expecting anything at all, and have to live with the guilt that you hadn't been there? Or was it worse to be there to see it happen, and have to watch it over and over again behind your eyelids?
"So," said Healer Codgbrook, startling Remus. She was standing alone in the doorway to the Department of Mysteries, and Tonks and Moody lay on floating stretchers to either side of her. Remus’ heart plummeted again, at the sight of Tonks lying so still. "My colleagues will be along presently with the other two…individuals, once the Aurors have joined them to assure safe transport. But I'm taking your two colleagues with me now, and you too, sir."
She looked at Kingsley, who nodded and didn't look surprised when she Conjured another stretcher out of the air for him and indicated he should lie down on it.
Codgbrook turned to Remus. "Are you injured?"
"No." It seemed impossible. How had he come out unscathed? And how could he just go back to – his mind stuttered away from the thought.
"Perhaps you'd better come along with us as well, just in case," the Healer said gently, so Remus nodded and followed her.
Over the course of the next hour, Remus watched to be sure Tonks and Moody and Kingsley and Hestia and Hermione were taken off to receive proper care, then allowed the Healers to subject him to an entirely unnecessary medical check of his own, as the sun rose outside the hospital windows.
At the end of it, he found himself in Tonks' room, in a chair beside her bed. Someone must have deposited him there, but he had no memory of it.
Tonks looked so pale, and small, and young. He'd watched the Healers force-feed her a variety of potions, and Remus could see how her body was struggling to knit itself back together. Internal injuries, whose voice had he heard say that?
After a long while, he allowed himself to reach out and take her cold hand.
Remus sat and held Tonks' hand through all that long, bleak day, through the hours she was unconscious, sat and held her hand and tried not to let himself think.
– – – – –
(continue to CHAPTER EIGHTEEN, the final chapter of Part One!)
