When the scream was immediately followed by a thunderous splash, Tonks relaxed onto the soft grass. The portkey had brought them into an old, walled garden with a pool at its centre. Her father faded back into view and looked about curiously. Fruit trees: apples, lemons and oranges and something she didn't quite recognise, orange and shining as though lit from within.

'Draco Malfoy, you are so dead.' A woman walked up what had to be steps at one end. She gestured a sodden, wide brimmed, straw hat. 'If this is ruined . . .' Draco raised his wand. 'And you can put that bloody thing away. I'm sick of you whipping it out every other damned minute.' She made as though to hit him and then didn't.

'Probably the sling,' thought Tonks and then recognition dawned. 'Sandy?'

'Tonks? Turn him into a newt, would you? Please? Don't!' she pushed Draco's wand aside.

'But you're all wet.'

'I'm feeling pleasantly cool. I'll go and find something else to put on.'

Draco took in Tonks' combat boots and ripped jeans ensemble and blenched. 'In the courtyard,' he said, pointing, before hurrying after Sandy in the opposite direction.

Above the trees, Tonks could see a square tower. Some distance from it was a taller, round one that looked older. On the opposite side was the house. Stone built, on three stories including the roof, it had a small wing at either end. Ivy and something more colourful covered much of one side where a set of wide and heavy looking gates were partially overgrown. A corner of the courtyard was shaded by a triangle of heavy material, tied to strong points set into masonry. Below it, a table was set with of cheese, charcuterie , salad, fruit and bread. A large water jug was misted with droplets, another was filled with something dark purple. 'Edward et Nymphadora . . .' Narcissa got to her feet, tottered around the table, put her hands onto Ted's shoulders and kissed the air to one side of his face and then the other and then the back to the first. Tonks recognised bienvenue, 'welcome' and chez nous, 'home' from what followed.

Narcissa repeated the kissing of air with Tonks and drew her towards the table. 'Sit down and eat,' she continued in English. 'What will you have to drink?'

'Try the wine,' said Andromeda. 'It's incredible.' Dark liquid sloshed into a pair of glasses and she put away her wand.

Tonks sat down and took a sniff and a sip. Velvet, chocolate, something floral: it was very good. And, if she wasn't careful, she'd be very drunk. She picked up the water jug and filled another glass. 'Dad?'

'Thank you.' Ted accepted a glass of water before taking another, appreciative, sip of the wine.

The food, while plain, was excellent. After a while Draco arrived with Sandy, now clad in a long summer dress, both of them looking slightly rumpled. Greetings being exchanged, they sat down together and started to eat. Tonks was surprised to see only a faint satisfaction on Narcissa's face. It was when the sun began to edge in under the shade that Tonks realised how long they had sat there. She shifted her chair slightly, back into the cool.

'This wine,' said Ted, 'is astonishing. Wherever did you find it?'

'Lucius made it,' said Narcissa.

An image of Lucius, barefoot, jumping up and down in a tub of grapes, immaculately clad and upper lip stiffer than ever, had Tonks coughing.

'Wine making is actually quite the art,' said Narcissa. 'Lucius and I honeymooned here. We tried some of the local wines expecting them to be rubbish and when they weren't he took it as a challenge. Most of our neighbours, plus some others from further afield, have been here at one time or another, to discuss all sorts of things.'

'Do any of them remember?'

Narcissa gave her sister a look. 'Yes,' she said. 'Most of them do. Lucius is well thought of hereabouts. The local people care about wine and food and that's about it.' She got to her feet, not swaying at all. 'Oh, and architecture.' She snickered. 'Someone attempted to open a fast food restaurant. '

'It didn't go well? suggested Ted.

'They disass . . .sembled it. Stacked it all up into neat piles. Draco, I'm just going to lie down for an hour. Would you mind showing Dora where her room is?'

'This way,' said Draco. Tonks followed him through the cool stone of the house, up a staircase, and along a passageway where he opened a door. A gesture caused wooden shutters to fold back away from open windows, letting light flood into a room in shades of lavender and white, accented with faded gold. 'I hope you'll be comfortable here,' he said before leaving, shutting the door behind him.

Tonks showered, spell freshened her clothes and went back downstairs to discover that her parents had also retired. 'Oh good,' said Sandy, 'Tonks, you could give me a hand, if you wouldn't mind?'

'Sandy,' said Draco, 'I can . . . '

'You can sit here, and polish your wand, and run interference on your mother when she awakens.' Draco sighed and summoned a book from within the house. Tonks followed the other woman through the garden. 'We're staying in the square tower,' said Sandy. 'It has electricity. If you need to plug anything in, or you just fancy a cup of tea and don't want to bother the elves, the door's always open. Help yourself.'

'Thank you,' said Tonks 'What d'you want me to do?'

'A bit of unpacking. And stuff.'

The round tower, now that Tonks looked at it properly, was old and entirely picturesque. In England, it might have been mistaken for a folly. Ducking under the lintel, she forced her eyes to adjust to the cool and sudden darkness of the interior.

'I can switch on the lights,' said Sandy, turning, already climbing steep, stone steps that curved upwards along the wall.

'No need.'

The next level was punctuated by long, narrow vertical gaps in the stone. 'Arrow slits,' remarked Sandy 'A computer in here, perhaps. Maybe internet. We're still finding out what we can and can't do.'

The third floor had deeply set casements and was freshly painted. Light slanted in, through diamond paned glass, onto comfortable seating, the odd small table and a stack of large cardboard boxes. 'I think this tower is a sort of null point for the wards,' said Sandy, latching the windows open, one after another. 'You get a good signal up here. Draco was showing me around when suddenly my phone rang. There's a satellite dish up on the parapet that I need to finish rigging up, maybe once it's cooler. We've got DVDs for tonight.' She picked up a knife and started cutting the tape around one of the boxes.

'I'm not all that familiar with technology,' admitted Tonks.

'How are you at heavy lifting.' She was turning the box upside down.

'That, I can do.'

Sandy looked up with a grin. 'If I hang onto the tv, can you pull the cardboard off?'

Tonks got a grip and began to ease the cardboard up and away from the polystyrene cushioning something black, flat and expensive looking. 'I'm a bit surprised to see you here.'

'Me too. And I won't be invited to the manor.' The box came free. Together they lifted the tv onto a small cupboard that had plainly been set in place for just that purpose. 'No loss there. I have no intention of marrying Draco. Narcissa knows that I know that, in fifty years' time, I shall look more like his mother than she does.'

Tonks had to ask. 'You are sure that you don't have magic?'

'Some,' said Sandy, stuffing plastic into the empty box. 'Not enough. I could probably, given the right time and place, manage a minor ritual. Same as most people, according to Hermione. Any child Draco and I might have would, most likely, be magical.' Tonks tilted her head questioningly. 'In our situation, they usually are. It's not simple dominant versus recessive genes. Why should magic stop playing havoc with the rules just because it's genetics rather than some other science?'

'Ok, then. What about squibs?'

'Have magic but most of it's invested in keeping them alive. They don't have the, for lack of a better term, the "critical mass" to spare to do anything more with it.'

'Well, in that case, why aren't more people magical?'

'Even Hermione doesn't know the answer to that one.' She'd taken the knife to another box.

'You see much of Hermione?'

'I've really only just met her. My god, that girl can talk. She's promised to come over next week and bring a friend of hers: Lucy Reive, do you know her?'

Some hours later, Tonks was beginning to wonder if her cousin, in being savaged by the mausoleum, had gotten off easy.

'A touch back the other way,' yelled Sandy from below.

Very carefully, Tonks leant against the satellite dish. 'And tighten it at that.' Gratefully, 'clockwork to close', Tonks tightened the nuts with things she'd learnt told to call 'shifters'. 'That's it?' she called.

'That's it. You can come down now.'

Tonks made her way down the stairs. 'Everyone else has gone swimming,' she said. From the top of the tower, she'd been able to watch them.

'I know. I appreciate your help. Look.'

The large tv was showing an extraordinarily clear picture of mountain peaks from the point of view of someone flying through them. Tonks glanced at Sandy. 'You look knackered.'

'And you've been doing all the hard work.'

'Beast of Burden.' She pushed the other woman towards the stairs. Didn't you promise me a nice cold glass of champagne before the great unveiling?'

'You didn't even break a sweat,' complained Sandy.

'Metamorphmagus.'

'Does it cause a lot of resentment?'

'Some. How are you really getting on with Narcissa?'

She had to wait for an answer until after Sandy returned from her shower, upstairs in the square tower. 'You found it then?' she said, descending the stairs, wrapped in a dressing gown and busily towelling her hair.

'Course I found it,' said Tonks, quietly resenting that if she'd attempted that she'd probably have broken her neck. 'And opened it. And saved you a glass.'

Sandy took the glass and sat down at the kitchen table. 'Ok,' she said. 'You know what the funny thing is about Narcissa? This is all beneath her, but she's out at the local markets buying cheese and bread and . . .

'Last week, she came back with a cast iron, winged piglet. Paid for it with a bracelet she'd been wearing. Probably got away with the eccentric Englishwoman bit buying it, but then she apparated the damned thing back here. Even if it's mostly hollow, it's almost waist high. How does a woman like Narcissa move something that heavy and awkward, that fast, without a vehicle in sight?'

'That's what the spells are for. So people don't notice the obvious.'

'And the cameras?'

'What cameras?' demanded Tonks. 'If this meant dealing with French officialdom . . .'

'Just the ones in the shop fortunately. This is rural France.

'You're sure of that?'

''I took the car in and went back to the shop with her. We sold them a small tapestry. And, while we were doing that, I checked very carefully. Cameras wouldn't have caught anything. Draco and I, we worry about her. She reminds me of Marie Antoinette pretending to be a shepherdess. Malfoy Manor is the day job. She has no idea.

'She is so much happier here than in the big house in Wiltshire but she's not safe.

'Know what's funny? I like her, even though she does think and even say the most terrible things. She'd be entirely horrified if she thought that she'd inadvertently offended.'

'How about advertently?'

A snort of laughter from Sandy. 'She's still not convinced that I can read. Hah. Tonight, I shall unleash Attenborough!'

'What's "Attenborough"?' asked Tonks conjecturing that this was some alternate form of Armageddon.

'David Attenborough. Wildlife programs? You are kidding, Tonks? Right?' Horror and disbelief chased over her face.

'Is something wrong?' Draco had appeared at the tower door.

'No,' said Sandy. 'The work is done. There is wine to be had. Your timing is as immaculate as ever. Grab a glass. Tonks has never heard of David Attenborough.'

'Uncultured swine,' said Draco, opening the fridge and retrieving another bottle. 'On the other hand,' he continued, having noted the wand that Tonks was idly twirling, 'if you've not seen it before, you're in for a treat. Bollinger?'

'Got some,' said Tonks, topping up her glass from the bottle she still had.

'Excellent,' said Draco opening the cage before easing the cork out gently enough to catch it. 'Sandy?'

'Yes, please.'

'Howditgo?' said Draco in a most peculiar fashion, leaning in and speaking behind his hand, like a cut rate pantomime villain.

'All set. I couldn't have managed without Tonks.'

'I could have helped.'

'Draco, your aunt knows what she's talking about. How's the hand now?' Her fingers stretched out towards the black sling that Draco was still wearing.

'It's fine. She's promised to remove the dressings before dinner. Sandy, I'm sorry. I'll put the wand away.'

'No, you won't.' Turning towards him, she stood up. 'Nor should you. Sorry?'

Tonks made her way back through the garden alone. By the pool, she stopped to watch bats fluttering around fire bowls set on pillars, the water glittering gold. It had been a long, hot day. 'Why not?'

Floating on her back, she watched the moon rise over the trees and the first stars come out. Briefly, she thought about Remus. She had, she hoped, left him in a happier position than when they had met. She was trying not to think about Severus. Recently, while in her company, he had jumped into the sea bound in chains. He'd voluntarily descended into a pit with 'Cauldron Killer' Longbottom and a bunch of armed Goblins. Anyone might think that he was avoiding her. She let her mind drift until something else surfaced. 'Last of the House of Black and the first'. Madame Black had called her that. As well as a 'dragon born of bad faith.' The words were now attempting to capitalise themselves in her mind. It did sound horribly like a prophecy.

She had more sense than to go looking for it in the Hall of Prophecies. Denizens of the Ministry were already sufficiently leery of her. Sooner or later someone was going to say something about her having been conceived while her father was under the influence of a love potion, as had been the case with the late and unlamented Tom Riddle. She didn't need some psychic visionary crocking things up more than they already were. If, by some stroke of good fortune, the Ministry weren't aware of it, why warn them? So. Who else could she talk to? Who wasn't oathbound to be unhelpful? What did Malfoys, who's heir Draco was also a 'dragon born of bad Faith', know? What leverage had she as Head of the House of Black? Actually, if her cousin had identified her as a better candidate for a prophecy, that might explain why he was being so helpful.

Mostly, she wondered if Madame Black had picked her pocket.

'Dora?'

Tonks splashed upright. 'Mum?'

'Supper, dear.'

Tonks got out of the pool to discover that her street clothes had been transfigured into things more suitable for a formal dinner. 'Mother?'

'We are guests here.' Her wand flashed and Tonks found herself wearing them.

She followed the other witch into the house. A beautiful dining room held a long table along with single chair at one end and three more ranged on each side. As Ted got up and pulled out a seat for Andromeda, Draco did the same for her. The seat at the head of the table, Lucius place, of course remained empty. The table could easily have sat twenty or so: this was a statement. Draco or Narcissa or both? 'Play dumb. Find out what they want. And start closing off other avenues regarding the hand.' 'I can't find the broach,' she said, 'the House of Black crest thing. It fell off, so I put in in my pocket and it's gone. I don't suppose there's some trick with the dress?'

'I don't think so,' said Andromeda. 'We did check everything out fairly thoroughly before we gave it to you, dear. Also, I think Madame Black would have told us, if that were the case.'

'The broach was originally a portkey to Black Hall,' mused Narcissa. 'Could something in the mausoleum have set if off? If that is what happened, it would be worth trying to summon it back from the lake side, or perhaps a broom overhead would be better.'

Dinner was as excellent as lunch had been. Conversation was desultory until the dessert course when Tonks broached a new topic. 'Narcissa, I notice that your name, like mine, doesn't follow the star naming convention.'

'It was the name of a family friend, with whom mother promptly had a falling out,' Narcissa explained.

'Ah. I suppose that's why you reverted to star names with Draco's.'

'That was Lucius choice. The birth was not easy. By the time I had recovered . . .'

'Should have done it the muggle way,' interrupted Andromeda. 'Gone in after him with a knife. Less stress for the baby. Other than the nasty surprise that there's a world out there, of course. It would have been easy enough to fix you up afterwards.'

'Damn, and thank you, mother,' thought Tonks, her subtle attempt to discover if the name was a coincidence, or something else, thoroughly derailed.

'What, just cut women open?' demanded Narcissa. 'That's rather ruthless. I'm sure they don't. Sandy?'

'Some women prefer it,' replied Sandy. They consider it less damaging and safer for the baby.'

'How do they survive?'

'Anaesthesia. Antibiotics. Stitches to keep wounds closed until it all heals. I'd have thought with magic . . .'

'It's not always that simple,' began Andromeda. Magical interactions . . .'

'But, knives?' shuddered Narcissa.

'Scalpels,' said Sandy. 'Ok. Very small, very sharp knives made, specifically for that purpose. It takes about eleven years training to become a surgeon. That's before they specialise. A caesarean section is major surgery. It's dangerous, but so is giving birth naturally. Standing upright means that the human pelvis is compromised. That's why many creatures are further on when they are born, can walk within minutes, when humans can't even focus. Because they have to be born when they are less fully developed so's the head can fit through.' Sandy became aware of the staring. 'I think elephant gestation is something like eighteen months.'

'We were informed that you were employed in the selling of clothes,' said Narcissa.

'Well yes. Although fashion, haute couture, is more like theatre, really.'

'I suppose that would explain the elephants.'

'Why don't we have dessert in the viewing room,' suggested Draco.

A small pageant made its way along the fairy lit, covered walk, the scent of flowers almost overwhelming. Leading it were Draco and Narcissa, arm in arm. They were followed by Ted and Andromeda. Tonks and Sandy brought up the rear, the latter shaking, trying hard not to laugh.

Draco having demonstrated the switch, dim electric lights lit the way up inside the tower. With Narcissa ensconced in the best seat and provided with wine and tarte au citron, the others having taken their places, the Malfoy heir was demonstrating his technical proficiency. Narcissa's hawk like attention to her son's demonstration of the controls wasn't all that surprising. She must have been seriously worried about him, alone in the mundane world, with only his 'auntie Patsy' for help, and perhaps proud of how well he had adapted and even thrived. 'Most muggles don't know or care how they work,' he was saying. 'Just that they do.'

'Yet Sandy was able to set all this up,' Andromeda pointed out.

'I just followed instructions,' protested Sandy. 'It's not rocket science.'

'Rocket science?' queried Narcissa.

'If everyone is ready?' Draco pressed a button and sat down. Orchestral music swelled and the muggle magic began.

Narcissa had one question at the end of it.

'Is there more?'