Chapter 46: The hunt began

The rest of the day we found nothing but a few clues about a criminal we weren't looking for at the moment, but we booked it anyway. In the afternoon, we came back to finish our work of Wilfrein.

She, already half recovered, accused us of mistreatment and abuse of the law, but there was something that I knew and that worked in our favor. We are provisional Aurors within the ministry program and according to the laws, that I took the time to read, since they are not expected to be assigned these kinds of broadcasts, there are no particular restrictions on the method we use as long as we don't kill anyone. We can fight back any way we want as long as it's self-defense.

After a couple of Aurors had to shut her up, I made sure she confessed. I used many ways... intimidating her, causing her to [fury] say things she shouldn't, and mistaking her for the rest of my abilities... we got enough information and finished the procedure. Being a minor crime and having evidence, plus some confessions, she would be directed to a small court and possibly sentenced to a few months to a couple of years maximum in Azkaban.

At night, I went out again to look for clues and sent Nymphadora to bed early. She would only let her have sleepless nights when we have half located our target, much to her displeasure, but I need her awake for when needed.

Three days into our mission, we caught our second criminal. He periodically visited a small bar that had a few secret exits that he used to sneak out of when the main entrance was blocked, and he couldn't 'apparition'. After searching the whole place on my [map] when he wasn't there, we planned our trap.

One day when we made sure he went to the bar, Tonks at his door looking like Kingsley exclaimed that he is here on behalf of the ministry to arrest Robert Woodwolf, that he had 10 seconds to come out and turn himself in, or he would come in and be removed by force.

As usual, Robert, thinking himself very clever, did not go out and take one of the secret passages, but when he passed a certain threshold he was greeted by a rain of nails soaked in a paralyzing potion. At this point he could not defend himself, he was very damaged, and the potion began to take effect, so after only being able to raise his wand a few centimeters he let go and fell to the ground suffering a lot of pain.

In this case, since there were no witnesses, I had to heal his wounds with my blood magic, but I only did so to heal his exterior and leave him with enough internal wounds. When we brought the prisoner to the Ministry, the Aurors asked us why he kept writhing and screaming in pain, but we told them we didn't know.

Two days later, we located the next victim... I mean, fugitive. There was a meeting going on inside a house on Knockturn Alley and here I didn't have a good plan. I couldn't break in, though they didn't know how much I wanted.

What I did was ask Tonks to take the form of Patricia Ratcliff and knock on the door to cause confusion.

*Knock...knock...knock...* She knocks on the door and after a while it swung open, revealing a man's eye.

"Who?"

"Like who? Let me in, I'm late"

"Patri! But you were already here" The man said very surprised, excited for a moment, but not for long...

"RUN, THEY ARE FROM THE MINISTRY!" A woman's voice from inside was heard that ruined our plan.

The man will quickly break from closing the door, but I, who was against the wall with a camouflage spell, will quickly place a book taken from my inventory between the door and the frame, preventing him from closing it completely. Tonks reacted quickly after to stop him from closing the door and kicked it open. It's amazing how strong she can be.

We both entered quickly, but in the middle of the main entrance hall, we noticed a beam of green light coming towards us. When I realized it, I didn't hesitate in the slightest and gave Tonks a sidekick to the side of her belly, knocking her against the wall and preventing the light from touching us. When we looked ahead, we noticed the magician who closed the door on us going to the kitchen.

We pulled ourselves together and continued to go in, but were greeted by an avalanche of spells again. We threw ourselves to the ground and put ourselves against the furniture of the place, preventing our death. There were 4 people in the kitchen.

"I told you not to meet up today" exclaimed one of them.

"Shut up and kill them"

Tonks and I find ourselves under a barrage of spells that we hardly avoid thanks to protection spells and objects around us. Our enemies spread out to surround us, which worried us as they outnumbered us.

At this point, I told Tonks to back up to the door and retreat if necessary, to only support from a distance. She nodded and backed away, I, on the other hand, used my [Music] skill and started playing Hironobu Kageyama's 'Super Survivor'.

I could feel an incredible force running through my veins, although it was partly just a feeling, but it was enough to embolden me. I launched a large bombard at them, and in the moment of distraction I threw myself against the table and turned it to use it as a shield against a killing curse.

Already in my new position, empowered by my abilities, I started to cast spells again. I was dodging so many spells that even our opponents were surprised and managed to cast area spells and that's where it got complicated, but I took advantage of the moment when one of them cast a stream of flames to throw a flammable potion at him, causing a big explosion inside the house. The force of the blast sent everyone but Tonks, who was far away, thrown backwards.

I recovered quickly thanks to my [Will Essence], although I was quite injured. I took advantage of that moment to throw another potion of boiling oil on a couple of the subjects who were half together, causing them to scream in pain. One was completely covered by the burning liquid, while the other only affected one of his arms, but he still writhed in pain.

Noticing how they lost two companions, Patricia, our target, was about to cross a door to try to escape, but at that moment...

"Colloportus" casts a spell on the door.

It slammed shut, hitting Ratcliff's face, who unfortunately staggered back as his mate hurled a killing curse at me. She ended up receiving the spell for me, dying immediately.

"Expelliarmus" To the last criminal's surprise, Tonks, who had circled the scene during the entire commotion, appeared from the side to disarm him.

The last delinquent stood still and raised his hands in surrender when he saw that he was defeated, without companions or wand.

"What do you think?" Tonks asked, somewhat agitated and tense.

"Fine for a girl" I said jokingly making her look at me ugly, but I ignored her and pointed at the last criminal "Now you, on your knees and your hands against your head"

He complied with what he said while Tonks checked on the others. When she approached the two burned men, she pulled out their wands and 'Stufefy' them both to keep them quiet and for safety, but when he approached Patricia's corpse, she felt a little bad.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yes... it's not as bad as last time, but I still can't get used to it" she said after adjusting the body "What do we do with him?"

"This" I said and then conjured a Bombarda to the ceiling causing it to split and several pieces of debris crushed the kneeling man who did not understand what had just happened to him.

Seeing him, Tonks didn't know whether to be sad or laugh, she began to understand that her friend is a wild beast in jobs like these. At times, she thinks that if she wants to succeed as an Auror she has to learn a little from him about showing no mercy to the bad guys.

Twenty minutes later, other Aurors arrived because of the disturbance we caused. When we met they were surprised and even more so when we explained that we were on a mission. They helped us take the three survivors and Patricia's body.

When we arrived at the ministry at 1am we once again surprised the staff by bringing four people, well, three... we handed over Patricia's body to those responsible for things like this. We had each other's wands to prove they've at least used a killing curse or black magic, so they'd also be prosecuted, which increases our arrest count.

The funniest thing about all this is that the last man, the one who was crushed by the rubble in the 'collapse' was one of the other unidentified targets. Tonks and I couldn't have been more surprised and congratulated each other on our luck. Right now they are 4/10 in almost a week, but the bad thing is that now we have our most difficult objectives left.

The only thing that bothered us is that with so many criminals and a dead body, we had to stay up very late finishing our report and statements. We stayed until 3:30 in the morning, and in order not to waste time, Tonks slept in our office.

I went out tracking again at night without much success, making me come back early. Upon arrival, I found Tonks asleep in her chair completely spread out on it, before waking her up I made sure to have her breakfast ready.

In the morning we had to participate in the trial of the criminal we caught last night, the one in the rubble. It was boring, and exhaustion made Tonks almost fall asleep in her chair. We had to testify and other things, nothing important, but with the crimes that he had on his hands it was enough for him to spend the rest of his days in prison.

We got back around noon, and when we had some time to sit in our office to get a little done on the written work we'd accumulated, we heard a knock coming our way. Those knocks stopped in front of our door, and it suddenly opened to reveal Alastor Moody, who entered without greeting and walked towards us. The knocking we heard was due to his wooden leg.

"What do you think they are doing?!" he exclaimed.

"...Hello?"

"Don't give me that. Why the hell are they doing the work of the aurors being just some simple practitioners?" He got very close to my face and yelled at me, spitting a little in my face.

"It's not like we were happy doing this" I said before taking a document from the table and putting it in front of his eyes. He took it from my hands and read it, with each passing word his one eye would widen.

"Where did you get that from? It must be a fake, our department would never issue something like this, least of all to someone like you"

"We would also like it to be like that, but that damned Garrick doesn't stop causing us problems" Tonks complained, who at this moment showed neither fear nor nerves. After getting used to work a bit, she became braver and didn't feel so much pressure from others, adding to the fact that she was tired from lack of sleep.

Alastor picked up the document again, checking the enchanted seals to see if it was a true Ministry document, and was surprised to see that it was.

"Those bastards... Even so, I have more questions for you, you are not cleared of suspicion yet. In a week you have got us 6 seriously injured people... Are you trying to destroy the reputation of our department? Of the entire ministry?! Or do they just want to get rid of some people legally?" He questioned us.

"You're exaggerating, we just did our job, it wasn't that serious"

"Do Not?" He took out some documents that he had with him "Angelina Wilfrein: Fractured nose and skull, intermediate contusion. Robert Woodwolf: Punctured muscles all over his body and infections caused by pieces of metal found inside him. Patricia Ratcliff: Dead! Ruben Gregoria: Burns Recordes in 80% of his body. Extimio Thracian: abrasions on the right arm. Cesar Daguiles: Severe contusion, serious traumas, broken ribs, dislocated right arm and bleeding of internal organs." He names everyone we brought into the ministry "besides the Leaky Cauldron robbery."

"I can pay she back if you want"

"I don't care about a criminal's money" he shouted, "What I care about is that a couple of brats are strutting around my department, who have not stopped being involved in cases too complex for their position"

"You could ask your superiors, they seem to want us to do all of this. If you can get them to drop the mission without getting us in any trouble or having any repercussions, then I'll be happy to meet your expectations."

"Don't talk to me like that boy, I've seen more than you think and no matter what tragic story you have behind or how much support from Dumbledore, I know very well, something is not right with you" His prosthetic eye gave multiple glances for my body

Mad-Eye stared at me for a while, then walked out the door, taking the mission order with him. Tonks and I just continue to work, we lost hope that this can be easily fixed, so we would focus on our work to at least have a chance.

After noon, I sent her to the apartment to sleep, since she looked very tired, I told her that I would cover her and call her if something happened. She put away and left while I continued with the paperwork for a while longer and then went out to continue chasing my prey. I may not have been successful overnight, but I felt like I was closer.

...

Tonks was on her way to her apartment to get some rest. She loved her job, but sometimes it got too tiring, even more so when it was things like participating in trials and completing quest logs.

When's she going up the stairs and was approaching the door, she was surprised, there was a person standing there that she was not expecting.

"Mom?!" She ask surprised.

"Oh... you came, I thought I had to go to their offices. I was waiting here, but I was about to go there if they didn't show up soon. I don't really know your hours, it's good that you came" Andromeda said, happy to see her daughter, she had been standing for 10 minutes

"What are you doing here?"

"I haven't seen you for a long time and you haven't sent letters, so I decided to stop by to see how they were doing"

"Oh…sorry, work got tough" as she opened the door and ushered her mother into it.

There she went to the kitchen and began to heat pre-made things that Tenebrius had left her, to offer to her mother.

"And... where is Tenebrius? I thought they had the same schedule" Andromeda asked as she looked with disappointment at her daughter, who still couldn't cook something for herself without spoiling it.

"He told me to come and rest for a while, that he take care of everything for the time being" she explained, serving her mother a cup of tea with some cookies.

"I'm telling you he's the good one, he cares about you like this, why don't you want to see him?"

"Mama, don't start, we already have many problems with work, don't add anymore" Nymphadora stopped her with an expression of annoyance and fatigue.

"What happened?" Andromeda asked, seeing that her daughter was really stressed.

Tonks took the time to explain her situation in great detail, except for Tenebrius ability to 'revive'. Andromeda was very surprised at what she was hearing and when Tonks finished, she reprimanded her.

"How do you allow something like that?" She asks her daughter furiously.

"You didn't listen to me, mom! We didn't choose this mission, it's all that son of a bitch Rotenrot's fault"

"I'm not talking about that. In life there will always be people like them and the only thing we can do is put up with them or overcome them. I ask you why they accepted the mission"

"If we didn't, we would lose everything we worked for"

"And that doesn't matter, I'd rather you be never an Auror than put yourself in harm's way! They're apprentices at best! How do you let Tenebrius risk going alone every night? He could die and when that happens you will never be the same"

"But it was his idea..."

"All men can make mistakes at some point, and our job as their women is to support them or stop them. No matter what his idea was, you had to be smarter and refuse, not for yourself, but to protect him"

"Mom, you don't understand..."

"I don't care if I understand or not, what matters is that they are in danger for something that is not worth it"

"He's sure, mom!" Tonks yelled, as her mother kept interrupting her. "He won't die, I can assure you. I can't tell you why, but please trust me." She showed confidence in her eyes, which Andromeda couldn't ignore.

"Fuhhhh" sigh "it's fine I'll trust you, but I find out that they have the slightest scratch... I take them both home to plant herbs or sell fruit, something less dangerous"

"Okay, but it won't be necessary, he always does impressive things that leave us dazzled, I think this time it will be the same"

"You have to keep him under control, he may always try to compensate for some things, and he may put himself in danger"

"Compensate for what?"

"Well," her mother hesitated to say at first, but then she leaned close to her ear and whispered things to her, despite being alone in the house.

"HAHAHAHAHA" Tonks, hearing it, couldn't stop laughing, completely ignoring her tiredness and her mother's very bad expression, she even drowned in the process.

"Nymphadora Tonks, listen to me! If I find out that you ever despised him in the least, or you broke up with him for that reason, I'll make sure that no metamorphmagus ability will be able to make your butt cheeks look normal again later of the beating I'll give you. You, unlike other women, can widen or narrow certain parts, so you don't have the slightest problem, so I think you're a couple created by destiny... you understand!" her mother proclaims very seriously and without allowing the slightest questioning. Rarely was she so serious.

"Hahaha... don't worry, there won't be any problems with that" she laughed and only said it to calm her mother. She hopes to use this information a lot with Tenebrius.

"Okay, go to rest, tonight you have work. I'll stay to organize the house a bit, so we won't leave this work only to Tenebrius" she said, throwing her a judging look, but her daughter didn't express the slightest embarrassment of her lack of domestic skills.

"Aren't you trying to go through our things while you clean?" Tonks asked, suspicious, she no longer knew what to expect from her mother.

"I already know your things dear, and it's not a very nice thing" She question her daughter's careless habits "But if I find a 'dirty' picture of you in Tenebrius's room it means that everything is on the right track"

"Mom!... I'm going to sleep" she went to rest, she was already too tired to bear her mother.