"Which creature did Tonks disguise herself as in order to pull a prank on Ismelda Murk in our sixth year?"
Sarah pointed her wand in the mousy-haired woman's face, but she merely smiled and said, "A werewolf. But I didn't do it alone, Tulip Karasu helped me. One of the best pranks we ever pulled."
Sarah lowered her wand. The two women were hunkered beneath a giant tree deep within the forbidden forest. Such was the darkness, that Sarah barely recognized her old friend without her bubblegum hair.
"You've got to teach me that patronus trick sometime," said Sarah.
They had moved safehouses after Barnaby and Elena left, but a great, spectral dog of some kind had still drifted in through the open door and spoken in Tonks's voice, summoning her to this meeting point for instructions from Dumbledore.
"Dumbledore's invention, of course," said Tonks. "Did you come alone?"She glanced around Sarah as if she would find Talbott or Diego hiding behind her. "That's not very smart."
Sarah had snuck off in the middle of the night. The others had wanted her to ignore the patronus, worried it was a trap. They'd thought they'd convinced her to wait and investigate the area with them in the morning, but Sarah couldn't wait.
"I don't see any backup with you, either," she said.
Tonks shrugged. "There's always a few Order members hanging around Hogwarts these days."
"To protect Harry Potter?"
"Or 'The Chosen One,' as they're calling him now. You got to admit, it's catchier than 'The Boy Who Lived.'"
Sarah's heart ached at Tonk's flat voice. The life seemed to have left it, bled out like the pink color from her hair.
"Dumbledore seems to think Harry will be essential for taking You-Know-Who down for good," Tonks continued. "So he's being guarded by the Order nearly twenty-four/seven."
"Poor kid," Sarah mumbled. She knew what it was like to feel like the world depended on you, even if you were just a student with a few magic powers. She'd like to meet Harry Potter one day.
"With us all busy babysitting Harry, Dumbledore wants you and the others to help minimize collateral damage," said Tonks.
"Like we did before," said Sarah. "Chasing off dementors."
Tonks nodded. "But it's gotten way worse. Death Eaters are brazenly walking the streets, strolling into muggle homes, murdering everyone inside, and leaving the Dark Mark in the sky. The ministry is basically powerless to stop it, as all they care about is giving old Fudge the sack."
Tonks stared at her. Sarah could see the stars' light reflecting from her eyes.
"Think you can handle that?"
Sarah hesitated only a moment. War had come. Soon, it would be time to kill or be killed. To take a life in order to save many others. Patricia Rakepick's face flashed before her eyes, and she remembered Jacob and Merula pressuring Sarah to lock the murderer in the sunken vault to starve to death. She hadn't been able to do it.
"'Course," said Sarah.
"Brilliant," said Tonks. "There's a cemetery in London called Kensal Green. I think its the largest one they've got. We've received information that a group of Death Eaters is being sent to turn the bodies buried there into inferi."
Sarah felt as if her body had sunk to the ground, but she was upright and staring at Tonks.
"You serious?"
"Deadly."
Sarah rolled her eyes. So the old Tonks wasn't completely gone after all.
"You need to get there before the Death Eaters do and make sure they don't succeed. Try not to arouse muggle suspicion of course, but do whatever you need."
Sarah longed for a drink of water. He mouth was incredibly dry. "And Dumbledore really believes I can do this?"
"Requested you by name."
She nodded. "Alright then. I'll get the others and head straight there."
"Good luck."
"I'll see you soon."
Sarah started to walk away, then turned around. "Your patronus. It hasn't always been that big dog thing, has it?"
Whatever trace of old Tonks Sarah had discovered vanished like a candle being blown out.
"I'd rather not talk about it," she said. "See you later."
The two women turned their backs on each other, walking in opposite directions through the trees.
*********************
"Are they gone?" Elena whispered, hunkered close to Barnaby in bed.
Barnaby strained his ears, but the voices they'd heard had disappeared. He'd yearned to investigate, but Elena had held him back, which was probably for the best.
"I think so."
"Who do you think it was?" she asked.
"Probably just students sneaking out," he said, though he couldn't remember at the moment if the students would be back from their summer holidays yet.
Elena jumped and clutched his arm tightly as Jacob moaned from his bed. After a moment, he sat up.
"Well," he said, his voice incredibly hoarse, "that went about as well as it could have."
He got up and double-checked the protective enchantments around their camp, ignoring their questions. Once he was certain they were safe, hit lit the oil lamps with his wand and pulled the locket from his neck.
He placed the locket on the ground, backed away, and pointed his wand at it.
Barnaby instinctively took a few steps back as the tiny door to the locket burst out, and a human being emerged out of it, growing and expanding as she rose from it like smoke from a fire.
It was a cloaked figure in a Death Eater's mask, but when it spoke, it did so in Merula Snyde's angry hiss.
"What happened?! Where am I?"
The mask spun to face Barnaby.
"Lee? What the hell are you doing? Where's Spellman?"
She spun around, looking for Sarah, but caught sight of a different Spellman.
She flung her mask aside to better see the man before her, and her hood fell to her shoulders. Her hair was matted and sweaty.
"You?" she whispered.
"Hello, darling."
"You're supposed to be dead."
"Not quite," said Jacob. He was smiling in a way that Barnaby didn't think befit the situation.
"Where am I? What've you done?" said Merula, her voice quivering ever so slightly.
Jacob's face shifted to one Barnaby thought much more appropriate. He looked like a man attempting to convince a wild chimera not to devour him.
"Don't get angry..."
"What have you done to me!"
"We rescued you," said Barnaby. "We saved you from the Death Eaters."
Merula rounded on him, her violet eyes glistening with tears and hatred.
"No!" she shouted. "No no no! I didn't need rescuing! I was happy where I was! What have you done?!"
"Listen, Merula--" Jacob began, stepping forward to hold her arm.
Merula spun around and punched him right in the face with all the strength she could muster in her outrage.
Jacob stumbled backward, clutching a bloodied nose.
Barnaby took an automatic step forward, then halted. Usually, he was the one to bring Merula down from a tantrum, but this was one fight he didn't want to get in the middle of.
"Why did you take me?!" Merula screamed at Jacob. "What gives you the right to interfere in my life! I was happy! I was with my mother!"
"Your mother is the one who asked me to get you out!" said Jacob, nearly shouting as loudly as Merula. "She didn't want you to become a bleeding Death Eater!"
"Too late!" Merula pulled up her sleeve, showing him something on her arm.
Barnaby couldn't see it, but he knew exactly what it looked like. He'd seen it on his parents' arms often enough. A tattoo of a skull, a great serpent protruding from the mouth and winding down the forearm. The snake's mouth was opened wide, its tongue feeling the air for a potential victim.
The Dark Mark. Voldemort's mark.
"They'll kill me," said Merula. "They'll find me and kill me for leaving. And they'll kill my mom, too. They'll know she helped me leave."
"As far as they know, you're a pile of ash on the carpet," said Jacob. "And there's no way to trace anything to your mom. Don't you think I've taken every possible precaution? I've spent weeks perfecting the plan, teaching your mom legilimency, ensuring we could get away clean--"
"You meant to leave us!" Elena shouted suddenly. "That's why you removed the disillusionment charm. You wanted us to take the blame and be captured or killed so you could sneak away."
Barnaby glared at Jacob, who acted as if he hadn't heard Elena. He just stared defiantly at Merula.
"I did everything I could to keep you safe."
Merula shook her head. "I'll never be safe. All you've done is destroy what little time I had with my family. They'll kill her, torture her just because they know it would hurt me. You don't just leave the Death Eaters. They'll kill you first."
Merula turned and stormed out of the tent.
Barnaby followed. Jacob called for him to leave her alone, but he wasn't about to let her leave after all they'd been through to get her here.
Merula had only gone about fifty yards before collapsing on the ground. Her body wracked with sobs.
Barnaby knew she'd just shove him away if he went to comfort her, so he waited a few yards back for her to regain some of her breath. When he could no longer hear the sounds of her crying, he went over to kneel beside her.
Tears ran down her face. A drop clung to her nose as her head bent toward the ground, her eyes squeezed shut.
"Your mother really loves you," he said.
Merula sniffed. "Where's Spellman, Lee?"
"I don't know. I left her to come find you."
She wiped her nose. "She didn't want to come rescue me as well?"
Barnaby hesitated. "I don't really know what she wants anymore."
"You're an idiot, Lee. I've always said so. A damned idiot."
She pushed herself up, wiped at her face, then walked passed him without meeting his eyes, disappearing inside the tent.