The Dark Lady Potter-Black
A/N: Don't own a thing, especially not HP. I hope you enjoy this one. Italics denote thoughts. Bold is for spells. Shout out to Chaos Shadow Kitsune and ClareR89, for the original idea and for helping me figure out the sequence of events. Here's the final installment, enjoy!
Diagon Alley
Fucks sake, I just wanted a peaceful date night with my husband... Tonks fumed as she saw her aunt making her way towards their table. Narcissa had a very superior looking smirk on her face. The kind of smirk that made Tonks long for a dark alleyway, anywhere that I could make sure no one ever sees your stupid face again...
"Nymphadora," Narcissa said in lieu of a proper greeting.
"Auntie Cissy, you're looking...well preserved for a woman your age," Tonks said. Under the table, she could feel Harry's hand on her knee. She smiled unconsciously at the feel of her husband's hand.
"How charming dear. I was just coming to see how your little family is doing...I don't see your son with you. But I suppose not every mother wants to be around their only child all the time..." Narcissa drawled, then looked over towards Harry, "Very forward of the two of you, a man staying home while his wife works...what a reversal of expectations."
"Thank you, Narcissa. We like our system. Dora gets to help prevent the next generation of wannabe dark wizards, and I make sure that our son is cared for." Harry said with a polite smile.
"Plus you make muffins for me," Tonks interjected.
Harry smiled and kissed his wife's cheek, "Plus I make her muffins."
There was jealousy in her aunt's eyes. Tonks could see it easily enough, it was in Ginny Weasley's eyes whenever they chanced to see her in town. Tonks placed her hand on top of Harry's and smiled back at her aunt, "I am the luckiest witch in the world. I have a husband who I know would die for me. Because I saw him do it."
"I got better..." Harry said softly, "Dora was worth it then, and she's worth it now. She's always been the best thing to ever happen to me."
When her aunt turned and walked off she leaned into Harry, "You know...my dear Uncle Lucy is going to be buying some very expensive jewelry after that last bit." She whispered against his ear, "You, on the other hand, will be getting a little reward for helping make that miserable harpy upset."
Potter-Black House
"That stupid mini-unicorn of yours has it in for me I swear it.." Harry muttered to Tonks after he nearly tripped when Cinnamon rushed past him to greet her.
Tonks bent down to stroke her 'Dark Familiar', "Please Harry, paranoia is unbecoming."
"You claimed the umbrella stand at Grimmauld Place tripped you intentionally." Harry pointed out.
Tonks frowned, "It's not paranoia when you're right."
The two continued to argue over the meaning of the word 'paranoia' until they saw the tiny form of Winky standing between them. "Mistress and Master will go to their rooms and put up silencing charms. Master Teddy is sleeping!" She said in a fierce whisper that brooked no arguing from the pair.
In their bedroom, Tonks lay in the bed while Harry changed out of the suit he'd worn, "We just got yelled at by a House Elf. I told you we're too permissive with Dobby and Winky.." She teased him, before sitting up, "Don't bother putting on your pajamas, I told you that you'd earned a reward.." She told him, letting her hair turn a soft reddish pink.
Later that evening, Tonks watched as Harry slept beside her. One of these days I need to properly bust him for how loud he snores... She thought with a grin. For now, though, she was planning her greatest act as the Dark Lady Potter-Black. The prison break of Bellatrix Lestrange.
It's perfect, no one would see it coming. I bust Bellatrix out, let her perform some mayhem and then everyone will know there's a Dark Lady out and about. The Aurors'll pop her and then when the crimes start back up, they'll know that she was only the beginning... Tonks grinned and leaned back against the headboard of the bed. Harry was planning on taking Teddy to see Hermione and Ron tomorrow. That was when she'd begin her plan.
Azkaban Prison
It should probably have been harder to get this far... Tonks thought as she walked through the halls of the prison disguised as Amelia Bones. True to the lack of basic reasoning skills the Wizarding World seemed to have, no one questioned why the Minister would come unannounced to visit the prison today, with only one guard and demanding to see a particular prisoner.
She was led to a small room with two guards standing on either side of the door. "My hit-witch and I will be fine. Go about your business." She said dismissing the guards, "If the two of you would be interested in not working at the arse end of nowhere anytime soon, I would recommend finding something else to do. I don't need the two of you wasting Ministry funds standing at the door while I speak to an unarmed witch." Tonks said when they appeared to be resistant to leaving.
That threat of keeping them at Azkaban longer seemed to work and they hurriedly left. Tonks guided the hooded witch inside with her. There, sitting at the table, her hands wrapped by enchanted chains, was Bellatrix Lestrange, "Madam Bones, to what do I owe this 'honor'?" Bellatrix asked with a strangely even look in her eyes.
"I can practically hear the quotation fingers around the word honor, Auntie." Tonks said as she shifted back into her normal form, "As for why I thought you'd appreciate the chance to cause some mayhem in exchange for your freedom."
Bellatrix was surprised to see her niece standing before her, "Andi's little girl is getting into the family business? How...intriguing..." She said with a little smirk, "Precisely how would I be performing mayhem? I seem to be rather stuck here."
Tonks motioned to the hooded figure, "Take your hood down for us if you would..." The hood came down, revealing a perfect copy of Bellatrix standing there with empty eyes, "Nice trick eh? I 'borrowed' one of your books from the Black Library, she's a perfect copy, minus the fact that she has no magic and will stop moving in a few days when the spell runs out."
Bellatrix looked at the figure with interest clear in her eyes, "So, why spring me now? After all, your husband is the reason my Lord was thrown through the Veil."
Tonks smiled, "Merely clearing house Auntie, with the Dark Lord Voldemort gone, there's nothing to stop the Dark Lady Potter-Black from rising..." She looked at the copy and then back to Bellatrix, "So, are you interested?"
Bellatrix was in fact very interested. Tonks knew the spells to cancel the chains on her from her time as an Auror, and once the copy was in the chair and Bellatrix was wearing the hooded robes of a hit-witch, they made their way out through the front doors of Azkaban.
"I'd like to come back later," Bellatrix said once they were in the boat and off the island, "I'd like to come back and kill Rodolphus and Rabastan..."
Tonks wanted to crack a joke, but seeing the anger in her aunt's eye, decided it would be best to let the statement hang in the air. It turned out that Bellatrix would bring it up a few moments later, "As it is, once we're on the mainland and I'm on my own, I've got a special visit planned to a few people." She looked at Tonks, "Keep an eye on the Prophet, you'll hear about some of them...but the others, those visits they'll try to keep out of the papers."
A Few Days Later
Remus Lupin had been surprised, to say the least, when he awoke to find himself tied to his bed. Even more so, when he saw who it was that done it. His greatest secret. "Bellatrix?" He said softly, watching as the woman he'd loved against all reason during the First War with Voldemort stood beside the bed, twirling his wand between her fingers.
"Hello Remy," She said with a smile, "It's been a long time...did you miss me?" Bellatrix knelt down beside him, "I missed you. I used to watch for full moons when I was at Azkaban...it made me think of you..." She reached out and stroked his cheek.
"How'd you get out?" He had to ask, even as he unconsciously leaned into the touch.
She smiled and stroked his cheek, "It turns out that Dark Ladies run in my family...my little niece Dora managed to arrange my freedom. In exchange, I promised to cause some small mayhem for her...so, I killed a few of my former 'colleagues' over the course of the last little while. Now I've taken some time for myself, and I decided to look you up."
"Why?" Remus asked, a slight tremor of fear coursed through him, Dora arranged for Bellatrix to escape Azkaban? Is she setting herself up as a Dark Lady?
"Because even when I was with my fool of a husband, I never forgot you. I never forgot us." She kissed him, "I did as she asked, now I want to let her have her fun. She thinks she can cause chaos, but she's far too light natured to ever be a Dark Lady. She has a Patronus of all things, it's so embarrassing..." Bellatrix said, delighting in the warring emotions in the eyes of the bound wizard.
"She wants to be a Dark Lady?" He asked, finally voicing one of his thoughts.
Bellatrix nodded, "Yes, I saw it when she sent a message to her friend Hestia. A doe of all things, can you imagine?"
A doe? Remus thought but her Patronus was a rabbit the last I saw...of course Harry's is a stag so...At that moment, all thoughts of Tonks and her capacity for dark magic left him as Bellatrix kissed him again and climbed into bed beside him, "We have a lot of time to make up for. I'm sure it will put you somewhat at ease to know that I was looking for the Longbottom boy, I didn't touch the parents..."
Later, Tonks would receive an owl,
Did what you asked.
I'm on my vacation.
Don't owl me, I'll owl you.
Auntie.
Underneath that note, in a familiar rushed script,
Tonks,
We will need to have words later
Remus
Tonks rolled up the parchment and looked at her lesson plans. Third years are learning about boggarts on Monday. I might as well prepare for that now... She rose from her chair and walked to the fireplace.
She arrived at Hogwarts in a flash of green fire. She had unashamedly stolen the idea from Remus, teach the third years about boggarts and the use of the Riddikulus charm. Her boggart was in a warded cabinet in her office. She flicked her wand at the door and watched as it opened.
Out stepped, Harry. Her husband stood there, holding Teddy in his arms. Then she heard her own voice "AVADA KEDAVRA! AVADA KEDAVRA!" Twin flashes of green light struck Harry and Teddy and Tonks watched in horror as they fell.
Out stepped her, only not. It was the face she'd taken when she'd killed Charles Montford in her fifth year, The Dark Lady Tonks... She thought as she raised a shaking wand, How the fuck do I make this funny? She tried to think of something, but nothing came out.
I've got to do something! She thought and tried again, "Riddikulus!" She shouted. The spell hit the boggart, and the Dark Lady Tonks was helpless as Harry and Teddy rose from the floor and began to chase her into the cabinet. The sight of her illusory husband and child moving again filled Tonks with enough joy that she was able to cast a locking spell once the boggart was back inside.
Tonks sank into her chair panting. My greatest fear...is me. It was. Or rather, it was the her she thought she wanted to be. The Dark Lady Tonks probably wouldn't have had a use for a husband...or a baby... For the first time since the tournament, Tonks found herself imagining a world without Harry.
That was a world she had no interest in.
She left via floo back to their home. Harry and Teddy were sitting on the couch, with Harry reading to their son. He's getting so big..Tonks thought as she looked at Teddy with a smile. Cinnamon was laying on the floor beside the couch, he noticed his mistress and rose, going to greet her. That caused Harry to look up and smile, "Look, Teddy, Mommy is home.." Harry said, turning so that Teddy could see her.
Teddy's hair turned bright pink to match his mothers and he held out his hands, "Mama!" Tonks felt tears well up, it was her son's first word. She scooped him out of Harry's arms and kissed his forehead. Suddenly the dam broke and Tonks began to sob.
Harry stood up and took his wife into his arms, "Dora? What's wrong babe?" Harry asked though it seemed her only answer was to sob harder.
"I'm done. N-no more Dark Lady anything..." She managed after a moment, "I..you're right. I would be an awful Dark Lady..." Tonks drew in a deep breath, "I was preparing for class tomorrow...boggarts with the third years. So I opened the cabinet, figured it would be something like a clown or my dad's naked arse..but it was you..and Teddy...I-I killed you...both of you.." She managed, her words interspersed with sobs and sniffles.
"Losing you and Teddy...that was my worst fear..." She finally said, "And it was me...it was me wearing the Dark Lady Tonks face..."
Harry let his wife continue to cry as he held her, "It's okay Dora, really. I know you would never hurt me or Teddy..."
"Do you ever worry about it though?" She asked miserably, "I wanted to be a Dark Lady for Merlin's sake."
Harry kissed her temple softly, "You saved me from the Dursleys," He said to her, "You can cast a Patronus. Dark Ladies can't cast those. Yours started as a jackrabbit, now it's a doe. You literally have the companion Patronus to mine. Plus, you have a unicorn. I can promise you, I have never thought at any time you would hurt me."
Epilogue- Hogwarts 2009
Teddy Potter-Black finished his first day at Hogwarts and stopped by his mother's office. Knocking on the door, he waited for her open the door, "Wotcher Teddy," She said letting him and then hugging her son, "How's your first day?"
"Fine Mum, Professor Longbottom said that he thinks I'm going to be great at Herbology," Teddy replied proudly.
Tonks grinned, "That's fantastic, how are your other classes? I'm wasn't too rough on you today was I?" Tonks felt her smile rapidly drop away as Teddy replied.
"No Mum, I think Dad was off it when he warned me about the 'Dark Lady Potter-Black'." Teddy looked at his mother, and remembering that when her hair turned black and curly like Great Aunt Bella's it was time to be careful, "Did I say something wrong?"
Tonks caught herself and smiled at her son, "No, but your father did. I'm going to have words with him tonight," Tonks looked at her son, "Alright squirt, go back to your Common Room, I'll see you tomorrow..." She hugged him and then led him back out of the door.
When Harry saw his wife, he should have noticed the look on her face, he did not. "Hey Dora, we got a letter from Remus and Bellatrix. Apparently, they're in the States now..."
Tonks ignored and walked closer to her husband, "So. Teddy told me that you warned him about the 'Dark Lady Potter-Black'..." She was still angry, but she couldn't help but enjoy the slightly frantic expression in her husband's eyes.
"Uh..well..I..Argh!" Harry jumped forward, his hands going to his backside. Cinnamon came from around him to greet Tonks.
She smiled and stroked his mane, "Let that be a warning Mr. Potter-Black." Tonks said, "Call me a Dark Lady in front of our son again, and I will show you just how 'Dark' I can be..."
Harry flinched when she came up to him. Tonks giggled and drew her arms around him, "Okay, maybe we can just save the 'Dark Lady' talk for in bed..."
Harry would later send an owl to his son, apologizing for teasing Tonks like that. He would still impress upon Teddy that it was very important that he never make Tonks mad.
Your mother is the best witch I know. But she is a mean hand when it comes to stinging hexes...
Teddy chuckled and rolled up the letter. His mother and father might be at least somewhat insane, but he wouldn't have them any other way.