Chapter one

Tonks

I was nineteen before I saw an actual werewolf. I was in my second year training to be an auror and I'd done well enough to get an internship. It was the first time I'd ever been in head quarters for more than a few hours. I'd been excited about it for weeks, this chance to intern, be around real aurors, helping them catch serial killers, rapists, evil people in general, I wasn't fussed who, just so long as it was exciting.

So of course nothing remotely interesting happened for two weeks. Tonks law: nothing interesting ever happens when I'm expecting (or hoping for) it.

I was pushing the coffee cart between the cubicles, trying to pretend I was a very important auror in manner of Madeye Moody (though, of course, a far more attractive girl version) stealthily stalking hardened evildoers. I found it helpful when doing demeaning tasks, which basically constituted all the tasks I'd done since my "internship" began.

I was pushing the cart along the back cubicles, near the Improper use of Muggle Artifacts Office when she came bursting in, shrieking blue murder and looking like ten kinds of hell.

At first I didn't know she was a werewolf, I thought she was a distraught crack whore, actually. She was dead white, except for her cheeks, which were streaked with black. There were these horrible dark circles around her eyes and her hair was everywhere. She was wearing this itsy little skirt and a tank top and only one shoe.

"Where is she!" she screamed. "Where is she? WHERE IS SHE!"

A second later this bloke came tearing after her, he looked just as bad, like he'd been bleached and left under the bed for a year. He had this ratty Mohawk and he wasn't wearing a shirt, just black jeans and honking great combat boots. He looked like he'd kill you soon as look at you.

The two of them came rampaging down the isle at me, the girl screaming and crying and the bloke snarling and casting about, taking great breaths through his nose. When the girl finally reached me she grabbed my shoulders and shook me. She smelled horrible, like sweat and sick. This close I could see that the black streaks were mascara and eyeliner (she was wearing quite a lot) and that her lipstick had smudged across her chin.

"Where is she, where is she? They took her!" she started shaking me like mad. "Where'd they bloody take her!"

"I don't—"

"STUPIFY!"

—and she just crumpled to the ground next to the bloke. Kingsley Shacklebolt and about ten odd other aurors had were standing up with their wands pointed at the two of them. I knelt down and stared. I couldn't help it. I'd never seen anyone so crazed before. Lying still I could see how young they were. The boy, he looked about my age, but the girl couldn't have been older than fourteen.

One of them, a wiry bloke with very curly black hair named Cummings (unfortunate) came striding forward and knelt down beside me.

"Who…..?" I managed.

He scrutinized them for a moment, then said "Werewolves."

"Werewolves! But how do you know?"

He pointed to the clumsily done tattoos on their right wrists. They looked like lopsided stick figures of horses. "The tattoos mark them as part of a pack."

"What were they doing here?"

"Looking for Dolores Umbridge I'd expect. She's just passed some bills that'll have made her very unpopular with the werewolf community. Can't say I blame her for putting them through though. Bloody savages. Wouldn't want them working around my friends."

"What'll happen to them now?" I asked, staring down at them.

"Well nothing, really. They haven't committed any crimes, see. Coming into the ministry's not exactly illegal, though I'm blowed if I know how they managed it. We'll just take them out and leave them by the visitor's entrance. They'll wake up and go home, I expect. And I suppose we should tighten security for a few months. Don't want anymore getting in."

"Tonks will you take them out? Thanks."

I could feel myself bristling. I mean, it was better than passing out coffee, but levitating smelly, unconscious people out of the office was not my idea of fun.

Getting them downstairs was surprisingly easy. The elevator was empty all the way down to the atrium and there were only a few people there, scurrying about, too busy to pay much attention.

I'd almost reached the visitors exit when someone spoke to me.

"Why Nymphadora, it is lovely to see you!" I span round, staring. It had been a while since I'd heard that voice.

Albus Dumbledore stood behind me, smiling gently. Standing next him was a rather ill looking man. He couldn't have been more than thirty three, but his hair was already streaked with gray and he looked like he needed a long nap.

"Wotcher, Dumbledore," I said, and immediately wondered if I should have said 'hello' instead. Seamed more appropriate.

His eyes twinkled. "I hear you managed to get the internship? My congratulations. I see it's keeping you busy." He nodded toward the unconscious werewolves hovering in front of me.

"Er…..yes. They um…..they're werewolves. Cummings said they were after Dolores Umbridge," I said, privately wishing they'd managed to get to her.

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. His companion twitched. "What a coincidence! We were just on our way to see Ms Umbridge now. Strange how fate moves, yes? It was lovely to see you, Nymphadora, but we must be going."

"Bye!" I called after them.

Getting the werewolves into the phone booth that would take us out of the ministry proved more difficult than I would have expected, as unconscious people are very floppy and not at all helpful in small spaces.

The moment we reached the surface there was a loud shriek and a woman launched herself at me. She clutched the girl to her chest and glared at me. Closer up I could see she was the same age as the other girl, thirteen or fourteen.

"What the fuck have you done to them?" she demanded. "Where's Ella?"

"They're only stunned," I said. "I can wake them up if you promise not to attack me."

"Stunned? What……fine then, I won't attack you. Just wake them up!"

"Evenerate!"

The girl and the boy sat up, the girl looked around, peered, inexplicably, at her hands, and then burst into tears. The man put his head in his hand and groaned. Their friend wrapped her arms around the sobbing girl.

"Oh Nelly. Nelly we'll get her back. I swear we will." She murmured.

But she was looking at the man. He met her eyes, and the look he gave her was so bleak and sad that I was sure that he wasn't at all confident that they'd be getting anyone back.

I was about to go when he called out to me.

"Oi! You! Pink hair!"

"What?" I asked.

"You work for Dolores Umbridge?"

I shook my head.

"But your mates do."

"I…..my boss does."

"Well have them tell her….." he stood painfully. "Have them ask her how it's keeping people safe, taking little babies away from their mothers. Just……just ask her that. 'Cause I'd really like to know. C'mon Meg, get her up and we'll go."

The girl named Meg helped Nelly up, keeping her arm tight round her shoulders. I watched them walk down the alley together, so thin and beaten and sad looking, and wondered how they could be dangerous.

A/N: Please, please review! Tell me if I should keep this going or scrap it. Be honest, I want to know.