Crossover Fic: Nymphadora Tonks and the Best Night No One Remembered
Title: Nymphadora Tonks and the Best Night No One Remembered
Fandoms: Harry Potter/Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Nymphadora Tonks, Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness
Summary: On patrol in Cardiff, Tonks encounters what seems to be a group of Muggles enchanted by a dark wizard wearing a World War II costume.
Notes: for tw_unpaired and yeomanrand, who once asked me for a cute story about Tosh and Tonks.
Muggles were disappearing in Cardiff. Had been for years, actually, with no predictable pattern and no trace of dark magic. The mystery riveted first years at the Auror Academy, but by their final year, the aura of danger had worn off, replaced by the reality of Cardiff's long, cold nights and indecipherable Welsh accents. The trouble was, all those inexplicable disappearances would be perfect cover for a dark witch or wizard to create a base of operations right under the nose of overly complacent Aurors. Or so their instructors said. Tonks suspected it was just good, low-risk practice for student investigations. Either way, every few weeks, someone was sent to investigate. Tonight, that someone was Tonks.
With a great sigh, she apparated to the disused public toilet outside the Ministry's Cardiff office. The fluorescent lights flickered and buzzed, and even though Tonks knew the layers of dirt and grime were an illusion, she wrinkled her nose anyway. She thought of the summer she spent flushing herself into the Ministry for an internship and wished that the government's great collection of magicians could find a cover that did not involve toilets.
She didn't have much time to reflect on this, however. As soon as she stepped outside, she caught a glimpse of a man in a great coat rushing through the alley. He looked rather like a World War II soldier from those movies her father liked, but most of the crowd milling about the square were dressed in modern, trendy Muggle clothing. It was a sure sign of a wizard trying and failing to camouflage himself among the Muggles, and though Tonks was sure he only wanted a drink in a Muggle bar or a date with a Muggle boy, she decided to follow him anyway. It wasn't as if she had anything better to do.
Transforming her hair to an unremarkable shade of brown, she slipped out the alley and around the corner. The man was standing at the edge of the square, near an entrance to another side street. A large, gleaming black SUV was parked beside him, which Tonks somehow found ominous. Even more worrisome was the small group of Muggles clustered around him, nodding at every word. She wondered - perhaps a touch too hopefully - if they were enchanted. Pressing her back flat against the building behind her, she inched toward them, mentally reviewing the protocol for breaking the Imperius curse just in case she needed it.
She had just pointed her wand at the back of an impeccably dressed Muggle man when the whole group took off running in different directions. Tonks had no time to select a target; she just blindly followed a slender Asian woman who ran past her. It was better this way, she reflected. Breaking the curse would be much easier when the woman was separated from the group. If she was cursed, Tonks reminded herself, but by this point, she rather hoped so. It would make such an excellent story.
The woman vanished into an alley, Tonks quick on her heels. Monsters rushed at them from all directions. Tonks screamed; the woman didn't.
“Jelly legs!” she shouted, trying to put her body between the woman and the monsters. But the woman did not need her help; armed with a spray potion and a gun that shot green light, she had already stunned one of the beasts. Meanwhile, the monster Tonks had hit fell on the ground wobbling, but still it lunged toward her. She had never seen anything like it, magical or Muggle. It was the size of a human and appeared to have some intelligence. Though it wore a blue utility suit like the maintenance man who serviced her Muggle relatives' home, its brown leathery face and fangs seemed to come from the magical world.
“Stupefy!” she yelled, barely managing to repress another scream when another of the creatures lunged toward her. The curse hit it square in the chest, and it collapsed to the ground. She looked around her, prepared to stun more of the monsters, but none were left. The woman stood before a small pile of them, face flushed but otherwise unscathed. They turned toward each other, breathing hard.
The woman held her gun at the ready, not pointing it directly at Tonks, but clearly prepared to. Tonks did the same with her wand.
“Mind telling me what's going on here?” she asked, feeling like a real Auror.
“I could ask you the same,” the woman replied, eying Tonks' wand with a mixture of wariness and eager curiosity. Tonks' feeling of authority dissipated instantly; the woman was obviously quite a bit older than she was, and an experienced fighter. If she wanted to understand what had happened here, she would have to treat the woman like an equal, not a suspect.
“Tonks,” she said, extending a hand.
“Tosh.”
They shook hands carefully, lowering their weapons slightly. Tonks looked around; the alleyway was hardly a safe place to talk.
“Shall we get a drink and talk this over then?” she asked.
Tosh nodded warily, and they walked out of the alley side by side. It was hardly an ideal solution - the woman clearly needed to be taken in for questioning - but at least this way, Tonks could watch her, and they would be in a public place. By unspoken agreement, they each stowed their weapons while Tosh led them to a small Muggle pub. Tonks looked carefully for Tosh's accomplices, but she did not see the man in the great coat or anyone who had been with him before. A plan began to form in her mind.
She led Tosh to a table that provided a good view of the door, and Tosh smiled expansively.
“My treat,” she said, and sauntered off to the bar to order their drinks.
That wasn't part of the plan - allowing a suspect to be alone with her drink was not constant vigilance - but any sign of suspicion would put Tosh on her guard, which was exactly what Tonks was trying to avoid. With a muttered spell, she dimmed the sound of the conversations around her so that she could hear what Tosh said to the bartender. It was nothing out of the ordinary, and she relaxed infinitesimally.
When Tosh arrived with their drinks, Tonks knocked her bag onto the floor in her haste to rescue her beer from the control of a possibly hostile agent. That was actually just clumsiness, not part of the plan, but of course she would claim otherwise in her report. Tosh leaned over to pick it up, which gave Tonks the perfect opportunity to wrap her hand around the wand in her jacket pocket.
“Obliviate,” she whispered. Tosh sat up, her alert gaze now vague and disconnected. Perfect, Tonks thought. Now that she had forgotten all about the magic and the strange circumstances of their meeting, it would be easy to win her trust and question her.
Tonks smiled and lifted her beer. Tosh smiled back tentatively, looking a bit dreamy. Tonks downed a large gulp of her drink and gestured at Tonks to do the same. She was already thinking of the story she would get to tell when she returned to the Auror Academy. There was a thousand galleon reward for anyone who unraveled the mystery of Cardiff; perhaps she would even be able to claim it.
“I'm sorry. I seem to have forgotten your name,” Tosh said. She paused, looking baffled. “This is quite embarrassing, but I can't remember how we met.”
“Call me Tonks." Tonks extended her hand for the second time that night, smiling in what she hoped was a disarming way. Disclosing her real name probably wasn't wise, but she felt wonderfully relaxed, and the world was growing a bit blurry around the edges. She was fairly certain that this was number seventeen on the list of one hundred thirty-one signs an enemy agent has slipped something into your drink, but her eyelids were already drifting shut.
“I'm just going to close my eyes for a minute,” she murmured sleepily. Surely the nice bartender wouldn't mind if she took a bit of a nap.
Tonks awakened several hours later in an empty bar. The bartender was shaking her shoulder, looking half-worried and half-irritated. She remembered dimly that she had had something very important to tell Mad-Eye, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember what it was.
Fandoms: Harry Potter/Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Nymphadora Tonks, Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness
Summary: On patrol in Cardiff, Tonks encounters what seems to be a group of Muggles enchanted by a dark wizard wearing a World War II costume.
Notes: for tw_unpaired and yeomanrand, who once asked me for a cute story about Tosh and Tonks.
Muggles were disappearing in Cardiff. Had been for years, actually, with no predictable pattern and no trace of dark magic. The mystery riveted first years at the Auror Academy, but by their final year, the aura of danger had worn off, replaced by the reality of Cardiff's long, cold nights and indecipherable Welsh accents. The trouble was, all those inexplicable disappearances would be perfect cover for a dark witch or wizard to create a base of operations right under the nose of overly complacent Aurors. Or so their instructors said. Tonks suspected it was just good, low-risk practice for student investigations. Either way, every few weeks, someone was sent to investigate. Tonight, that someone was Tonks.
With a great sigh, she apparated to the disused public toilet outside the Ministry's Cardiff office. The fluorescent lights flickered and buzzed, and even though Tonks knew the layers of dirt and grime were an illusion, she wrinkled her nose anyway. She thought of the summer she spent flushing herself into the Ministry for an internship and wished that the government's great collection of magicians could find a cover that did not involve toilets.
She didn't have much time to reflect on this, however. As soon as she stepped outside, she caught a glimpse of a man in a great coat rushing through the alley. He looked rather like a World War II soldier from those movies her father liked, but most of the crowd milling about the square were dressed in modern, trendy Muggle clothing. It was a sure sign of a wizard trying and failing to camouflage himself among the Muggles, and though Tonks was sure he only wanted a drink in a Muggle bar or a date with a Muggle boy, she decided to follow him anyway. It wasn't as if she had anything better to do.
Transforming her hair to an unremarkable shade of brown, she slipped out the alley and around the corner. The man was standing at the edge of the square, near an entrance to another side street. A large, gleaming black SUV was parked beside him, which Tonks somehow found ominous. Even more worrisome was the small group of Muggles clustered around him, nodding at every word. She wondered - perhaps a touch too hopefully - if they were enchanted. Pressing her back flat against the building behind her, she inched toward them, mentally reviewing the protocol for breaking the Imperius curse just in case she needed it.
She had just pointed her wand at the back of an impeccably dressed Muggle man when the whole group took off running in different directions. Tonks had no time to select a target; she just blindly followed a slender Asian woman who ran past her. It was better this way, she reflected. Breaking the curse would be much easier when the woman was separated from the group. If she was cursed, Tonks reminded herself, but by this point, she rather hoped so. It would make such an excellent story.
The woman vanished into an alley, Tonks quick on her heels. Monsters rushed at them from all directions. Tonks screamed; the woman didn't.
“Jelly legs!” she shouted, trying to put her body between the woman and the monsters. But the woman did not need her help; armed with a spray potion and a gun that shot green light, she had already stunned one of the beasts. Meanwhile, the monster Tonks had hit fell on the ground wobbling, but still it lunged toward her. She had never seen anything like it, magical or Muggle. It was the size of a human and appeared to have some intelligence. Though it wore a blue utility suit like the maintenance man who serviced her Muggle relatives' home, its brown leathery face and fangs seemed to come from the magical world.
“Stupefy!” she yelled, barely managing to repress another scream when another of the creatures lunged toward her. The curse hit it square in the chest, and it collapsed to the ground. She looked around her, prepared to stun more of the monsters, but none were left. The woman stood before a small pile of them, face flushed but otherwise unscathed. They turned toward each other, breathing hard.
The woman held her gun at the ready, not pointing it directly at Tonks, but clearly prepared to. Tonks did the same with her wand.
“Mind telling me what's going on here?” she asked, feeling like a real Auror.
“I could ask you the same,” the woman replied, eying Tonks' wand with a mixture of wariness and eager curiosity. Tonks' feeling of authority dissipated instantly; the woman was obviously quite a bit older than she was, and an experienced fighter. If she wanted to understand what had happened here, she would have to treat the woman like an equal, not a suspect.
“Tonks,” she said, extending a hand.
“Tosh.”
They shook hands carefully, lowering their weapons slightly. Tonks looked around; the alleyway was hardly a safe place to talk.
“Shall we get a drink and talk this over then?” she asked.
Tosh nodded warily, and they walked out of the alley side by side. It was hardly an ideal solution - the woman clearly needed to be taken in for questioning - but at least this way, Tonks could watch her, and they would be in a public place. By unspoken agreement, they each stowed their weapons while Tosh led them to a small Muggle pub. Tonks looked carefully for Tosh's accomplices, but she did not see the man in the great coat or anyone who had been with him before. A plan began to form in her mind.
She led Tosh to a table that provided a good view of the door, and Tosh smiled expansively.
“My treat,” she said, and sauntered off to the bar to order their drinks.
That wasn't part of the plan - allowing a suspect to be alone with her drink was not constant vigilance - but any sign of suspicion would put Tosh on her guard, which was exactly what Tonks was trying to avoid. With a muttered spell, she dimmed the sound of the conversations around her so that she could hear what Tosh said to the bartender. It was nothing out of the ordinary, and she relaxed infinitesimally.
When Tosh arrived with their drinks, Tonks knocked her bag onto the floor in her haste to rescue her beer from the control of a possibly hostile agent. That was actually just clumsiness, not part of the plan, but of course she would claim otherwise in her report. Tosh leaned over to pick it up, which gave Tonks the perfect opportunity to wrap her hand around the wand in her jacket pocket.
“Obliviate,” she whispered. Tosh sat up, her alert gaze now vague and disconnected. Perfect, Tonks thought. Now that she had forgotten all about the magic and the strange circumstances of their meeting, it would be easy to win her trust and question her.
Tonks smiled and lifted her beer. Tosh smiled back tentatively, looking a bit dreamy. Tonks downed a large gulp of her drink and gestured at Tonks to do the same. She was already thinking of the story she would get to tell when she returned to the Auror Academy. There was a thousand galleon reward for anyone who unraveled the mystery of Cardiff; perhaps she would even be able to claim it.
“I'm sorry. I seem to have forgotten your name,” Tosh said. She paused, looking baffled. “This is quite embarrassing, but I can't remember how we met.”
“Call me Tonks." Tonks extended her hand for the second time that night, smiling in what she hoped was a disarming way. Disclosing her real name probably wasn't wise, but she felt wonderfully relaxed, and the world was growing a bit blurry around the edges. She was fairly certain that this was number seventeen on the list of one hundred thirty-one signs an enemy agent has slipped something into your drink, but her eyelids were already drifting shut.
“I'm just going to close my eyes for a minute,” she murmured sleepily. Surely the nice bartender wouldn't mind if she took a bit of a nap.
Tonks awakened several hours later in an empty bar. The bartender was shaking her shoulder, looking half-worried and half-irritated. She remembered dimly that she had had something very important to tell Mad-Eye, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember what it was.