Chapter 32 - Talk with Tonks

***** REGULAR SCHEDULED RELEASE ***** A/N: Sorry this is late... and unedited.... I'm hungover and bedridden and just want to go back to sleep (>.<). I pulled my ass out of bed to post this, but I'm dying so ya..... Hope you all enjoy! *****

"Thank you, Prof. Flitwick!" Khan said.

"It's not a problem!" Exclaimed Flitwick happily. "Please make sure to lock up when you are finished and meet us in the entrance hall! We are all assembling out in front of the castle to welcome our 2 visiting schools."

"I'll be there." Khan replied, remembering the large sign he had seen in the entrance hall the previous day. After all, he had purposefully scheduled his meeting for this time, after reading it.

The sign read:

'TRIWARD TOURNAMENT: The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday 30th of October. Lessons will end Half and hour early, for students to have enough time to return their bags and books to their dormitories and return to assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.'

"Alright then, I'm off!" Flitwick called out happily as he left his charms office.

"Thanks again, sir!" Khan replied in farewell.

It was the 30th of October and Khan had just finished helping Flitwick with his last charms class for the day. After letting the 3rd year Gryffindors/Ravenclaws go 30 minutes early, Khan had requested to use the fireplace in his Charm's office, for some private business.

Flitwick of course, having grown very close to Khan over the past 2 months, had no problems letting Khan use his office.

Locking the door after Flitwick had departed to ensure some privacy, he checked over the time with a quick spell.

He had scheduled a meeting via Floo with Tonks and was eager to chat with her.

Corresponding with her via owl over the past few weeks, he had come to learn that Moody had been acting strangely the last day before coming to Hogwarts, and wanted to question her to learn a few more details.

Taking a pinch of Floo, he cast some into the fireplace, before sticking his head in and calling aloud. "Tonks House!"

*****

"Phew..... what a long day." Tonks said to herself walking in her house, as she shrugged off her auror's cloak, throwing on the nearby banister.

She had just finished another day of paperwork, herself being stuck to a desk, since her mentor was currently taking a 1 year sabbatical to teach Defense at Hogwarts.

When Moody had originally told her that he would be leaving for a year, Tonks had been happy that she would get a little break from Moody and his paranoia.

Even on off-duty days, she was called numerous times as back-up by other aurors, as Moody continually caused a ruckus for his neighbors, with all his various alarms and traps.

She had been called to his place so often in fact, that by now, she was familiar with disarming/getting around all of Moody's various House-traps. And not from him telling her about them either...

So needless to say, Tonks was quite relieved to have a little break from her mentor and his paranoia.

At first.

Until she found out that she was on desk-duty until her mentor could return, and she could resume her training.

It. Was. Hell.

'I don't know if I can do this another 8 months.' Tonks thought to herself miserably, as she settled down on her couch in the living room, unconsciously metamorphing back into her natural birth-looks, as she typically does when coming home to her parent's house.

Although it had become Tonks' regular public appearance, her pink hair punk persona was only a mask she wore as a defense mechanism, which started as a Trauma from Hogwarts. Upon returning home every year however, she would revert back to her natural birth looks, being around family.

Soon, Tonks had turned back, looking much like Bellatrix LeStrange nee. Black, albeit younger and with blonde hair.

Relaxing on the couch, she was soon lost in her miserable thoughts of the haunting endless paperwork that awaited her the following day.

"Tonks? Are you there?"

Her thoughts were interrupted as a voice sounded out from her fireplace.

"Tonks?" Khan called out, his face appearing in the fire, finally getting a looking around the Tonks House living room. He viewed an unfamiliar Blonde witch sitting on a couch, looking quite mopey. Slightly resembling Tonks, Khan assumed she was a relative..... perhaps a sister?

"My apologies Miss." Khan corrected himself. "I have a scheduled meeting with a relative of yours..... a Miss Tonks. If you would be so kind, as to notify her that I, Jordan Khan, have called?"

Tonks stared at the fire, instantly recognizing the young man from the summer, which she had been recently communicating with. She had completely forgotten about their scheduled meeting, after long monotonous day on desk-duty, and had only now remembered upon seeing his face in the fire.

It was a good thing she was too tired to go up to her bed to take a nap, like she usually did after work... else she might have missed this.

"H- H- Hello Lord Khan!" Tonks jumped to her feet, after her brain finally rebooted. "It's me, Tonks..."

"Please forgive me, Ms Tonks. I misremembered your appearance." Khan apologized sincerely. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me."

"Oh... no.. not at all!" Tonks bowed clumsily to the fireplace. "It was my fault.... I normally have a different appearance..... I'm a metamorph you see, and this is how I look when I am not using my transformation magic."

"Oh yes thats right! What an incredible bit of magic!" Khan remembered her rapidly changing hair, before complimenting her. " Although I must say, I rather prefer this look personally.... it suits you!"

Tonks hair blushed red at the sudden praise she received.

While she was used to compliments about her looks, especially due to her ability, it was the first time since early in her Hogwarts career that she had shown anyone outside her family what she naturally looked like.... Naturally she was unused to the praise.

"I - um... How is Moody doing?" Tonks tried to change the topic awkwardly to Moody (the entire reason for this call) .... She was eager to get off this embarrassing call, not knowing how to react.

"Right..... to the matter at hand." Khan went into business mode, thinking of his ever increasing suspicions of Moody. "Can you tell me how he treated you as his protégé?"

"Well..... to be honest, if you asked me a few months ago, my answer would've been different." Tonks started out, remembering all of Moody's paranoid tendencies. "But after being stuck on desk-duty..... he's honestly a great mentor."

"He's really been out there you know?" She continued. "Like fought against so many different dark wizards and creatures... He really knows what it's like, and he does his best to make sure that I am 'prepared for it'. Wants to really ensure that I can survive anything....."

She does air quotations, remembering her mentor's favorite phrase. "'Constant Vigilance,' as he would so eloquently put it."

"So he teaches you... Have you been inside his office, or his place of residence?" Khan followed up, thinking about the current differences.

"Yes..... multiple times..... except that last day...." Tonks replied.

"Right..... ok...." Khan said aloud, thinking to himself, before following up. "Can you tell me about how he was acting different the last day before Hogwarts?"

Khan, having a few suspicions earlier in the month, had sent off a still growing Sol, to Phoenix flash a letter to Tonks for him, inquiring about possible events or changes that might have happened to Moody leading him to react this way.

Their correspondence had lasted over the following few weeks, which cumulated in this meeting, as Tonks had indeed noticed something odd.

"Well.... to be honest.... the last day I saw him, he was already on his sabbatical, and I was answering an auror request for back-up, as there was a disturbance." Tonks began. "It was the day the Hogwarts Express was departing London, and upon getting into the office, I was called to Moody's residence, to assist the aurors on duty."

"As I am sure you know already, Moody is quite paranoid." She continued, as Khan nodded his agreement in the fireplace. "Well, he has all these alarms and traps set up where he lives, just in case one of his many enemies comes to attack him.... Not that anybody has..... Most of the time it is often just a stray cat setting off his Dust-bin alarms."

"Anyways... being his protégé (she used air quotes again), most of the aurors left it to me to clean up after his alarm-induced-fits. Moody is typically very combative to anyone his magic doesn't inherently instantly recognize..... which is basically everybody you see." She explained. "As you can imagine, I was left to clean up after him quite a lot, with his paranoid nature."

"That day however, he was completely psychotic..... he couldn't be talked down, even by me.... It was like he didn't recognize or trust me.....Wouldn't let me into his place..... Kept calling me girl, instead of lass.... It took an emergency call to Arthur Weasley to get him to calm down." She finished upset at the memory. "As usual..... it was just a stray cat knocking over his trash-bins."

That last day, to be honest, was probably the main reason she was so relieved to get a little break from his paranoia after all..... initially at least.

"And before this.... you were always able to get him to calm down? He never had a problem with you entering his place of residence?"

"Not at all....."

'Suspicious!' Khan thought to himself. 'He's been acting the same way with me.... like he didn't recognize or trust me... albeit we have only met briefly over the summer..... but it doesn't bode well if he was acting that way with Tonks too....'

'Examining the alternative, I suppose it is possible for his paranoia to be increasing alongside his age.... ' Khan always felt it was smart to examine possible outcomes and prepare for them accordingly.

If he could investigate all possible outcomes after all, without Moody finding out, then hopefully he would eventually figure out what happened by process of elimination.

Quite similar to wizarding chess, while it was impossible to prepare for ALL possible outcomes, as there were simple too many variables, preparation facilitated reaction time, and intuition.

'Thats it! I need to set a trap for him!' Remembering wizarding chess, he recalled a particular game where he sacrificed his queen, baffling his opponent, who took the bait, leading to an eventual trap and checkmate. 'Lets see if he's a fraud first....'

Khan decided to investigate the most obvious answer first: someone had attacked and was impersonating Moody.

"Last question Tonks.... then I have to get going to this Welcoming Feast for the Triwizard Tournament." Khan asked, concious of the time. "Is there anything recent, that you might know about Moody, that nobody else does?"

"Recent..... OH!" Tonks thought about it carefully for a moment before remembering the copy of the epitaph Moody had taken, from under Hogwarts. "It's not really a secret or anything..... But Moody has this personal flask that he always drinks from..... Refuses to drink from anything else...."

"Anyways.... There's a secret compartment on the side of that flask.... It has a bottomless charm on it, and he stores personal items in it..... His most recent item was a copy.... of your epitaph." She finished awkwardly. Was it still an epitaph, if he was still alive?

"Excellent!" Khan thanked her for the information. "I'll let you know what I find out.... gotta run!"

Khan was excited. Although teaching and classes were fun, he was getting a little antsy for some adventure.

Since the very first day of Hogwarts his first time around, from getting attacked by a dragon on the way, to getting attacked by a troll in Hogsmeade, he had been constantly busy with all sorts of various activities.

This was his first 2 month break without any real adventure.

It was bad to think, but he secretly hoped that Moody was a fraud.... Khan needed some action back in his life.