To the Rendezvous
Tonks stood there a minute, happy that she was able to remember the plant’s name. Now she had the password to get into the Hufflepuff common room. She just had to get there.
Tonks extinguished her wand and replaced the night glasses on her nose. She moved back into the hallway making sure that the door closed behind her. She moved cautiously back towards the hidden panel that hid the Professor’s wing from the rest of the school. As she was preparing to move extra cautiously past the Carrows’ door, she heard a “meow” come from the corner up ahead. I knew they were nearby, but why are they hanging around the professor’s chambers? Now I have to hide so that Filch doesn’t accidentally run into me. There was a door to her right, across from the Carrows’ door that she moved quickly to open and hide inside. She was happy to see that it was a dusty broom closet and not the chambers of another professor. She heard a rustle from the other side of the closet but did not see anything over there with her night glasses, so she whispered, “Lumos,” as she pushed the glasses up onto the top of her head as she often saw Muggles do with sunglasses.
Her wand at the ready, she looked ahead and saw Remus. He was crouched over a small bloody form. He looked up at Tonks. Pain and torment were writ upon his face, horror at what he had done. Tonks saw sorrow in the tears that streamed down his face, but Remus appeared angry. He stood up accusingly and said, “I told you I would do this! I told you I would kill Teddy. I need to go! I will never be any good for you. I never loved you anyway. I just stayed with you because you loved me. No one had ever loved me before.” Then Remus turned his back on her again and knelt mourning his young son.
Tonks just stood there in shock at the words that were coming from Remus’s mouth. She felt sorrow and pain. Her shape shifted back to those days before Remus had admitted that he loved her. Her hair faded to mousy brown and fell limply down onto her shoulders. A sob escaped her as she saw her infant son covered in blood and ravaged by a werewolf. Her husband stood there denying his love again and turning his back on her. As she looked over at him, despair consumed her for a minute. Her hands clasped and she felt the ring around her left ring finger.
Then she realized that it couldn’t be real. Remus was not as Hogwarts. He was out helping the Order look for Harry. They knew Harry was not at Hogwarts; therefore, Remus would not be at Hogwarts. He loved her and their son and he would never harm the boy. This had to be a Boggart hiding in the shadows of the closet. Tonks raised her wand and whispered, “Riddikulus.” The man standing before her with the bloody dead infant across his arms disappeared.
Tonks took a deep breath and tried to pull herself together. She sank to the floor a moment and let her tears consume her as relief that the vision she just had was not real started to sink in. It was not long until she was able to pull herself together. She wiped her face with a handkerchief so that she would not have tear stains down her face if she ran into anyone else. Then she slowly stood up. She pushed her night vision glasses back down onto her face and extinguished her wand.
She listened at the door to see if Filch was still outside and heard him mumbling down to Mrs. Norris. She sighed. Tonks was not in the mood to deal with those two. She looked around the broom closet more. As she looked around she realized that behind where she had seen the vision of Remus there was a passageway. This must be one of the many hidden passageways through Hogwarts. I’ve never heard of one through this section of the castle. I’m not sure Fred and George had opportunity to explore this section of the castle though. They may have tried to come here or to figure out where the professors’ chambers were but this is not a section of the castle to which students would have an excuse to come. I wonder where this passageway leads. Guess I’m about to find out. Tonks wandered forward to take a closer look at the passageway.
The passageway was smooth and the walls were bare. Tonks walked forward with her wand in hand. She came to a staircase that led down as if towards the dungeon. After going down the flight of stairs she continued forward and came to a fork in the passage. I never heard of a passage having a fork in it before. Ok, one leads left and one right, I know Hufflepuff tower is to the right, so I’ll go that way. Tonks took the right passage where she soon found a flight of stairs leading up. It was a long set of stairs that had Tonks breathing a bit hard before reaching the top. I guess having Teddy has gotten me a bit out of shape. I need to start exercising again. What would I do if Death Eaters found our home and attacked? I wouldn’t be able to protect Teddy or Mom that well being this out of shape. I will start remedying that tomorrow.
Soon Tonks came to the end of the passageway and prepared herself for whatever lay on the other side of the door.
Tonks approached the end of the passage, her wand at the ready. She pushed on the wall, but it would not budge, so she pushed harder. Suddenly the door screeched open and Tonks found herself falling forward towards a suit of armor that had fallen over in the hallway. Tonks tried to steer herself away from the metal so that she would not make a lot of noise by crashing into it. She found herself instead in a heap at the base of a tapestry. Glad that she had a softer landing then it looked like she was going to originally have, Tonks slowly let her breath out, looking around caution. She was afraid that she'd alerted someone to her presence.
As she sat listening she heard some whimpering coming from the direction of the fallen armor. She cautiously climbed to her feet and slipped closer to the tumble of metal across the hallway. This is the direction I need to go anyway. I'm also almost in the kitchen, so close to the Hufflepuff Common room. Guess I made the right choice in the tunnel getting here.
As she inched closer to the suit of armor she saw that someone was trapped under the body of the armor. She moved a little closer still and saw the person's head move; as if he was searching for where the earlier screeching had come from. He turned his head again and she saw that the person trapped was none other than Draco Malfoy.
What is he doing up this time of night, especially down by the kitchen? I wonder if this is a trap. He surely works closely with the Carrows as he is a Death Eater now. As she stood there trying to decide if she should help the boy or not she heard footsteps echoing down the hall behind her. She slipped back to the tapestry that had caught her when exiting the tunnel and hid behind it. It would take a powerful spell to see me right now but someone could easily run into me.
Just when she got settled behind the tapestry she saw a dark shadow approach Draco. "Has anyone come yet? I know for a fact tonight is the night, they should have been here by now!" the coarse voice whispered. "I'm tired of all the students disappearing into the night and countering all our hard work here at Hogwarts. We need to stop these impudent children from foiling our plans! They need to learn to fear us more," Alecto Carrow whispered to the younger Death Eater.
"I think I just heard someone, but your steps frightened them away! I told you I had this taken care of Alecto! Now leave me to this!" Draco demanded of the older man.
"You have failed before Malfoy. Don't forget your father's punishment. It'll be worse for you." Alecto murmured as he slunk off towards the faculty wing.
Tonks waited a few minutes before emerging from behind the tapestry. Well, that answered a lot for me. Tonks pulled out her wand. As she approached Draco again, she heard that he had started his moaning again. Let me give you something real to moan about Malfoy she thought as she pointed her wand at the armor's helmet that was sitting on a shelf behind Draco. Wingardium Leviosa! she thought as the helmet swung into the air above Draco and she released it. She let gravity do the rest as it landed flat on Draco's head. A well deserved headache for that arrogant prat.
Tonks walked around the armor carefully so that she didn't make any noise and hurried to the door of the Hufflepuff Common Room.
So many memories behind this door! Tears entered Tonks eyes as she stared at the beautiful mountain scene on the portrait that hid the Hufflepuff Common Room. So much has occurred since my school days yet it seems like yesterday I was entering this door for the first time. I'm here on business; the memories can wait until I'm home again. Quietly she whispered, "Gurdyroot."
The portrait swung open to reveal the round opening behind. Tonks climbed into the short tunnel that led to the Hufflepuff Common room. Tonks stood up in the bright yellow room that reflected the multitudes of candles that sat in every corner of the room to shed light and welcome all who entered. In that wonderfully cheerful, bright room it was difficult to feel sad or lonely. The fluffed up chairs that were every shade of yellow imaginable lent comfort to every Hufflepuff. The circular doors that lead to the dormitories looked like badger burrows, reminding all the Puffs of their mascot.