Bi-weekly challenge: Lightning
Tonks stood on the rocky cliff for a long time after the consultants had come and gone.
She'd kept to her New Year's resolution, and now she had an idea how long it would take her to save enough for the project. Well, it wouldn't be completed fully by his birthday, but it could get started by then. Now she'd brought people for advice, and they confirmed that it was doable. She saw them off, then just stood, upright, the wind whipping her robes as she stared out over the ocean. There seemed to be a flash of lightning in the distance, though the winds were running clouds too fast for anything like either clear or overcast sky over her.
It was going to be a long night. She was going to be on duty.
She was worried. Very.
Was it organised?
Item. Durmstrang's Deputy Headmaster riling up Remus so that he would snarl. Snape threatening her to be kept away from school grounds if she'd go after him.
Remus meaning to not even tell her about it.
Item. Durmstrang students provoking Maisie till she hexed them, hard... and their words - or actions - being enough that they got sent home afterwards.
Item. Ministry department responsible for Magical Creatures falling in the hands of, her teeth bared and she snarled at the wind, a swine who was afraid and disgusted of people who were doing good and he was too blind, bigoted, prejudiced to give... to try to understand... to... Too ignorant to understand that if you single out and push anyone, curse or not, they would turn into beasts. And the curse made things harder, and those who would bear it and try to do good despite it, did not deserve additional pushing.
It wasn't right, it really wasn't. Years of hard work, years of efforts that they alone knew what cost them, years pain, years of being pushed around and still keeping their footing, keeping being wonderful human beings, and somebody like that coming around and just voiding that. It wasn't fair to Remus. It wasn't fair to Scorpius. And it sure as HELL wasn't fair to Maisie.
Item. All of this happening just all at the same time, during the week leading to the full moon.
Merlin. What does that mean?
She didn't know. It was... too sudden. Had she missed something during the time she'd spent with her mother?
Had she missed something before that? The ghost of Snape's voice echoed in the wind, 'But you know as well as I do... his moods are getting worse in the past few months.'
And she knew. Nothing specific that he'd said and done. Nothing that she'd have been able to put her finger on, but she was aware, somehow.
But she couldn't piece it together. She... couldn't. Not beyond the deep feeling that something was ... not right. Which was why she was going to be on duty tonight.
Trying to avert in the last moment what may or may not happen, what she hadn't foreseen to avert earlier.
And after tonight...
Her eyes fell down to the beach underneath the cliff. Their beach. The most peaceful place on earth, Caribbeans included. The place where she meant to give him his present. It would be incomplete, true. But it would be something she knew he wanted. And a surprise. She hoped... she hoped that whatever he wasn't telling her, this would help.
It stung, a little. But he was not obligated to tell her everything. It worried her more.
He'd easily hide things from her to protect her. Her and their family. From what? She didn't know. But it also meant... that he had to face up to whatever it was, alone.
Or maybe not alone. Back-to-back with Maisie? With Maisie and Scorpius, perhaps?
But could that be what was aimed at? Isolate them, single them out, push them, and then slaughter them as beasts... She shuddered.
Well fuck that. She was going to give her level best to be there tonight, for any or all of them that she could, come what may. Which was also why she hadn't lunged at that moron at work yesterday. She'd not be any good, to anyone, tonight if she was removed from active duty. And once tonight was in the past, things would be done, she was sure. Oh, she was sure. Another day, another battle. It had been too optimistic, that just being a part of a normal life would be a demonstration for everyone. That it would make a difference.
Another far-away flash of light caught her eye, contrasting sharply with the darkening sky. She'd better get home now. Thinking only got her more worried, felt like. She'd learned what she'd come for, that plans could be set into motion, trying to ease the pressure on Remus at least, possibly Maisie too.
But...
The most peaceful place on earth didn't bring her peace tonight.
A storm was brewing.