Capítulo 64: Chapter 61: Luck of the Draw
Seeing Tonks strolling around the grounds on a full moon made Harry realise several things at once. Single and seemingly isolated pieces of knowledge clicked together in his mind. He nearly wanted to hit himself for not having made the conclusion earlier.
Tonks was out for revenge. She'd been training to get revenge. That's why she'd focused on tactics that could be used against a werewolf. That was why she'd so desperately clutched at the vial of Felix Felicis at her neck. She was planning on avenging Charlie, and through her victory gain entrance into the auror academy.
Harry didn't think the plan was very good, considering that the auror academy probably wouldn't be impressed by vigilantism and that Felix Felicis was more likely to lead one away from an angry werewolf rather than towards it, but still. He sort of understood where the girl was coming from. Even if he didn't agree.
He sighed as he paused in his walk to watch Tonks amble around aimlessly at the edge of the forbidden forest. She clearly didn't really know where she was going, or what she was doing. The issue was naturally that even if the werewolf had most likely moved on, knowing about the heat that attacking Hogsmeade and killing a Hogwarts student would bring, walking around the forbidden forest was a dumb decision. Werewolf or no werewolf.
'Grief, it can imprison you,' the hat said in his mind, at which Harry just rolled his eyes.
"This isn't grief," he muttered. "Just aimless stupidity. She's lost, and seemingly no one has been there to help her. I guess it's up to me," he said with a sigh and ordered the room to create a way outside the castle, in Tonks' general direction.
The room had a seemingly powerful dominion over the entirety of the castle being able to provide shortcuts to most of its areas. It was something Harry had figured out recently, and that he'd been using to leave the seventh floor quickly after his practice sessions. The only issue was that one couldn't use the trick to get to the room, since one needed to be inside of it to change anything about it.
'You're not going to inform a teacher or anything?' the hat asked curiously, causing the boy on whose head it was sitting to shake his head.
"The last thing she needs is to also get into trouble with the faculty," he said. "The werewolf is long gone most likely, so as long as she doesn't run straight into the forest she's mostly in danger of getting a cold. She needs someone to talk to, not disciplinary action. I guess her friends just don't have the maturity to handle someone who's lost their first love like that."
'And you do?' Chanithachuah asked dubiously.
"Let's just say I have personal experience with losing people," Harry said bitterly and took the hat off his head. "Thanks for the session, as always."
"Wait," Chanithachuah said aloud. "Take me with you, I feel like taking a stroll."
"I'm sorry, but I don't want anyone to find out I'm the person who's been stealing you," Harry replied to that.
For all that the hat didn't have real eyes, Harry suddenly felt like they were being rolled at him. "Disillusion me, you numbskull," it said in a frustrated tone of voice.
"Ah." Harry paused. "That makes sense," he concluded and tapped the artefact with his wand, watching curiously as the invisibility slowly spread over the whole thing, tip to the rim. He put it on, feeling a bit sad at the loss of the fashion statement that he made when he wore it visibly.
'My beauty is metaphysical. People can appreciate it even if they can't see me,' Chanithachuah informed him as he walked over to the slide that the room had provided for him and jumped in.
It was a perfectly smooth ride down for once, the room not embellishing the experience with any of the loops and twirls and cork spins it usually liked to add in there in an attempt to make Harry vomit. Perhaps it was feeling some of his urgency to get to his friend before they did something stupid. It even spat him out onto the grass where he barely found his feet, instead of still inside the castle. He looked back just in time to catch the closing of a hole in the castle walls.
"So it can even put me outside the castle, huh," he mused, before turning around towards the forbidden forest and starting a very intentional walk towards where he'd last seen Tonks.
In hindsight, he realised that he should have somehow tried to pry out the patronus variety that allowed it to transmit messages. If he and Tonks actually encountered something dangerous, it would be nice to have an option of calling backup. However, Harry had a good feeling about the fact that nothing would happen today. The only thing that was really in danger was Tonks' clearly unstable thinking.
Some thoughts tumbled through his mind as he fearlessly approached the border of the forbidden forest, where Tonks was simply standing, looking into the trees. He was able to sneak up on her without even really trying, and he wondered how no one else in the castle had seen the two of them and come out to shout at them that they should first; be in bed. Second; not be outside. Third; definitely not be outside on the night of the full moon.
"Nice day for a stroll, huh?" he asked once he'd gotten close enough to Tonks to be within hearing distance. The girl jumped and spun around, wand extended, causing Harry to put up his hands in faux surrender.
"Peace, peace, I come in peace," he said placatingly.
"Harry?" Tonks asked, as if unsure if she could trust her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"Same as you, taking a walk," the boy replied. He thought he could make out tears in the older girl's eyes. It was low visibility, but she didn't look too well.
"I'm not taking a walk," Tonks laughed bitterly.
"The werewolf isn't dumb enough to stay in the same location for too long. I'm quite sure that you're less likely to meet it here than literally in any other magical settlement in Britain," Harry said.
"It's a werewolf, it's not thinking." Tonks bit out.
Harry shook his head. "They only shift three days a month, or something. They're rational the rest of the time. At least this one obviously is. It's been rampaging all across Britain and they still haven't managed to catch it. There is obviously something here, more than just a beast thinking on pure instinct."
"It's a monster!" Tonks said to him in a raised voice.
"I never said they weren't. I'd argue that giving them some modicum of human intelligence makes them even more monstrous since it means they plan out their acts and know exactly what they're doing" Harry said softly, trying to de-escalate the conversation.
The girl didn't reply, and they just continued walking along the edge of the forest.
"It would be easier if it were just a monster though, wouldn't it. If there was nothing human about it." Harry paused as he picked his next words. "It's easier to kill a wild animal controlled by instincts than it is to kill a human."
"I don't want to kill anyone," Tonks replied brusquely.
Harry raised an eyebrow, not that she could see. "Interesting, I'd want to kill the werewolf personally. But if your moral fibre is so strong then who am I to disagree."
The metamorph stopped in her tracks to spin around and stare at him. "I thought the whole point of you being here was to convince me that revenge isn't the solution," she said bitterly.
"There is no point to this. I'm taking a walk. Having a chat about morality with my friend," Harry replied.
"You're not my friend!" she shouted.
And while that did hurt Harry a bit, he didn't take it too personally. "Just because I'm not your friend doesn't mean you're not mine."
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Tonks screamed as she held up her sleeve to her face to muffle the sound. "Why does everything have to be so complicated? I took the bloody potion, is this me being lucky?" she asked.
Harry furrowed his brows at the information that Tonks had already taken the potion, before feeling a short burst of relief. If Tonks had already taken the potion, then it was even less likely that they were going to meet the werewolf tonight.
"Tonks, tragedy strikes when we least expect it. That's why it's tragic, had we known it was coming, and had time to brace ourselves, it would be less fucked up. Sometimes we just wake up expecting a normal day, and then we're confronted with the fact that the person sleeping next to us got a heart attack at night and died. Car accidents, diseases, war. Everyone's constantly losing somebody."
"Just because it's normal doesn't mean I want to have it happen to me," Tonks said with a sniffle.
"Life is harsh and it can either break us or make us. Bad things will keep happening, and the only thing we can control is how we deal with those bad things."
"So what, I'm just supposed to change my attitude. Forget about Charlie?" she asked casuistically. "How, Harry, how!" She paused. "It's gnawing at my mind, I can't forget about it. It was unfair and stupid, I can't let go of it."
"You're here for a reason, you must have thought that it would help you somehow. What were you doing, exactly?" he asked as he looked to the left, into the dark and foreboding forbidden forest. The trees were crooked and he heard disconcerting animal sounds coming from the tree-crowns.
"I told myself that I wouldn't seek it out. That I'd just be ready if it happened," Tonks said softly as she stopped, to also gaze into the forest. "I don't know why I drank the liquid luck," she said as she grabbed at the necklace holding the now presumably empty vial. "Maybe it was so I'd find the werewolf, maybe so that it wouldn't find me. Maybe because I feel broken and I was hoping to find a way to fix that."
"Turn around Tonks," he said as he did what he was asking, and gazed at the castle, warmly shining down at them from the top of the hill. Its inviting fires and windows permeate a calm presence over the entirety of the clearing. A presence that stopped abruptly at the edge of the forbidden forest. Harry didn't know if he was experiencing it to be more creepy due to the werewolf fears he felt to a certain extent, or if there was really just something completely fucked up about the place.
Tonks turned around to look at the castle with him.
"It looks warm and inviting. It's home. It's safe." For the lack of a definition of safe. Harry personally had almost been killed last year. "It's a place where we can still develop, away from the stresses of the adult world. Up until the day we leave. We should go back and enjoy the time we still have there. Go to the kitchens to have random food shoved down our throats by house elves. Talk about classes in one of the many abandoned classrooms. Look at the stars while lying on or backs on the astronomy tower roof."
He let his words sink in before he delivered his coup de grace. If he'd just walked up to Tonks and told her to go back to the castle with him, she would have easily rebuked him. But after a conversation, after some emotional appeals, she'd probably find it harder to say no.
"Let's go back. Drink some butterbeer or something. You took liquid luck, don't you think that me randomly seeing you and coming to talk to you was a part of the plan?" he asked gently.
He almost had her, he knew. He saw some tears streaming down her face, and he recognized them to be good ones. Tears that one shed as one moved away from tragedy. She wasn't anywhere near the end of the road, but at least she'd finally started, he got the impression.
"Yes," she agreed. "Let's go back." She took one step towards the castle.
And of course.
That was the moment that the werewolf decided to strike.
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