Tonks, Just Tonks - Part II

Tonks visibly cringed when she saw Buffy saying 'Nymphadora' silently to herself. Buffy looked at Ginny looking at Tonks. "You know each other?" she asked, trying to keep the surprise out of her voice and only marginally succeeding.

"Yes." They both answered, still looking at each other.

"Ummm... Yes." Ginny repeated, looking uncomfortable as she turned away from Tonks. "She had an office on the same level as mine when I worked in London."

Buffy turned back to Tonks, looking at her with only slightly less hostility and just a little jealousy. There was something about the way they'd been looking at each other that set off warning bells in her head. "So, you work at the same mysterious Ministry where Ginny used to work?"

"Sort of, in a different department." Tonks said, not taking her eyes off of Ginny. Buffy assumed it was shock at her sudden unexpected appearance. "We're cousins. Aren't we Ginevra?" Tonks spit out.

Buffy ignored Tonks' obvious unhappiness at Ginny and stared at Ginny. She'd assumed 'Ginny' was a nickname for 'Virginia' but apparently not and finding this out from someone else bothered her. "Ginevra?" she echoed, struggling to keep her voice calm.

"Very distant cousins." Ginny protested, ignoring Buffy's implied question. To Buffy's intense relief she didn't seem to notice her tone of voice. "Besides, the only person in that building that you aren't related to is probably Hermione."

"There are a couple others." Tonks grumbled, finally turning her eyes elsewhere. "Not that it seemed to matter this morning."

"What did you do this time?" Ginny asked with a now amused grin, while Buffy continued to watch them closely, hoping for some clue that would tell her what was going on.

"Knocked over a plant." Tonks told her defensively, looking down at her hands.

"And...?" Ginny prompted, obviously expecting it to be more complicated than that.

"Percy tripped over it." Tonks mumbled, embarrassed. "My boss refused to sign my vacation request afterward."

Ginny looked at her with a raised eyebrow. From her expression Buffy was sure there was more to the story than that but to her surprise Ginny didn't pursue it. "How long are you going to be in Cleveland?" Ginny asked her.

"I don't actually know." Tonks said, looking nervously at Buffy who frowned back at her.

"So this isn't a social call?" Ginny asked, looking back and forth between the now silent Buffy and Tonks.

"No. Not even close." Buffy told her bluntly, the first to break the silence. "She appeared in the lobby a few minutes ago with Fred and I would like to know how they got there and why!" Buffy told them both in a firm voice. "And until I find that out she's staying here."

"I told you why." Tonks protested. "It was an accident. And I don't how we ended up here. I've never been to Cleveland before."

"Fred? Doesn't she work out of the London office still?" a puzzled Ginny asked, trying to make sense of the situation.

"Normally she does." Buffy stated, with a glare at Tonks. "Right now she's in the infirmary, unconscious. She was fighting some demon in London when your cousin 'interfered' and they both somehow ended up in Cleveland."

Ginny stared at Tonks. "Tonks! You didn't!" she said in a horrified tone.

Tonks rubbed her head and grimaced in pain, her usual bubbly personality subdued by the situation. "I'm not sure. I've never had that happen to me before. Whatever it was it wasn't good. My head still hurts from it. Worse than drinking too much firewhiskey." she mumbled.

"She didn't what?" Buffy demanded. She really didn't want another unanswerable mystery to add to the Ginny pile. No matter how much she enjoyed her presence around the office she didn't like being kept in the dark about so much of Ginny's past if it was going to result in surprises like this.

"I'll explain later!" Ginny told her, subtly gesturing at Tonks.

"Okay..." Buffy answered. Thinking about their brief discussion following what Dawn had begun calling the 'lobby witch incident' she hoped Ginny would be more forthcoming this time. She nodded at Ginny, indicating she could continue.

"If she's staying for several days, what room have they put her in?" Ginny asked. "I can take her there to clean up before dinner."

"You'll have to ask Andrew." Buffy told her. "He'll know which guest rooms are free."

"Come along Tonks," Ginny said, grabbing her cousin's arm and pulling her out of the love seat and away from Buffy. "Let's get you something for your head. We can find out which room is yours on the way."

"Ginny?" Buffy said before she could get out of the door.

"Yes?" Ginny asked over her shoulder.

"When you're done with Tonks, we have some things we need to discuss." she said before picking up several papers from her desk in clear dismissal.

"Okay." Ginny answered as she pulled Tonks out of Buffy's office.

"Ginny, what are you doing with muggles?" Tonks asked in a low voice as they stopped at the door to the room she had been given by a delighted Andrew.

"They aren't really muggles." Ginny protested, trying to not raise her voice. "And, before you ask, what they do here is confidential. I really can't tell you anything about it."

Tonks blinked and looked at her with an innocent seeming expression. "Why not? I'm good at keeping secrets. Does it have to do with that demon I saw?"

"Have you ever worked with Hermione Granger's department at the Ministry?" Ginny asked, ignoring her question and hoping to distract her.

"No. Doesn't she do something with muggles?" Tonks questioned. "What does that have to do with this?"

"Her department works with special muggle organizations. Including this one." Ginny told her in a low voice.

"And?" Tonks prompted.

"The Ministry has an agreement with them. The Ministry doesn't interfere with the things they do."

"Do they know about the wizarding world?" Tonks asked.

Ginny shook her head. "Not really. Several of them know there are people who can use wands to do magic but that's all they know. Most of them think magic is what wiccans do."

Tonks looked at her curiously as she opened the door. "Then why are you here if they don't know about us?"

"I needed a break from the Ministry. Hermione heard about this job through her contacts with several muggle organizations and told me about it." Ginny said. "It sounded interesting and they hired me."

"Does your family know?" Tonks asked as she took in the room and its sparse furnishings.

"Sort of. They think it's something for Hermione's department and that I can't speak about it. Which is sort of true." Ginny looked at her. "We're really going to have to talk with Hermione tomorrow. And you need to promise me that you won't tell anyone about anything you might see around here."

"Why?" Tonks asked, slowly sitting on the bed.

"Hermione can explain the reasons for that much better than I could." Ginny leaned against the door. "Do you need to let anyone know where you are?"

"Not tonight. I was meeting several people at the Leaky Cauldron but they'll probably think something came up at work." Tonks shrugged, continuing to look around the room with interest. "But if I'm not going to get back to London for work tomorrow I should let someone in the office know."

"We don't have owls or anything like that here. There's an owlery near Cleveland that I use occasionally but it's outside the city and getting there tonight would be a problem. I'll give Hermione a call before dinner and ask her to let your office know where you are."

"When do you think I can leave?" Tonks asked.

"Buffy is going to want you to stay until she gets a reasonable explanation for your appearance here." Ginny answered, not wanting to say anything more until she could talk with Buffy alone.

"But I really don't know what happened." Tonks protested.

"Well... start thinking of a good reason it could have happened. Buffy is very protective of her girls. Showing up with one of them hurt wasn't the best thing you could have done. She's not going to want to let you go until she's convinced we can prevent the same thing from happening again." Ginny told her firmly. "How's your head?"

"Still hurts." Tonks grumbled.

Ginny looked at her closely. Tonks' aura didn't look normal to her but with her inexperience in reading them she wasn't sure what was wrong with it. "Why don't you take a nap." she suggested. "I'll be back to get you for dinner."

"Ginny?" a subdued Tonks asked as she took Ginny's advice and lay down on the bed.

"Yes?" Ginny said, as she started to turn to leave.

"What is your job here?"

"My official title? I'm the Assistant Head Wiccan for the Council office here." Ginny grinned at the mystified look on Tonks' face. "What do I really do? While the head wiccan is taking a sabbatical I'm the main magic practitioner around here."

"Head what? And what's the Council?" Tonks stared at her like she'd grown an extra head. "Where... how... did you learn wiccan magic?"

Not answering any of her questions, Ginny just shook her head and grinned at Tonks before she quietly closed the door, leaving her lying there with a confused look on her face. Before heading to her office to make a quick call to London, Ginny muttered a simple spell to encourage Tonks to sleep.

Buffy was staring out of the window behind her desk when she heard the love seat in the corner creaking. Turning around she saw her sister sitting there looking at her expectantly. "How's Fred? What does she think happened?"

"Confused. Big headache. Not too happy." Dawn rattled off. "Usual slayer reaction to ending up in the infirmary." Dawn shrugged. "She remembers fighting a demon in London and running into a bystander but it's pretty much a blank until she woke up in the infirmary. Doc wants to keep her there overnight."

"Okay. I'll go see her later." She looked at her sister and waited for the questions she was sure would come.

"So, do we know who this person is?" Dawn asked curiously. "And where is she?"

"Yes. Sort of. She's someone Ginny knows from London. She prefers to be called Tonks." Buffy answered. "And right now she's with Ginny."

"So we're going to just let her go?" Dawn asked when her sister seemed unwilling to share any more information and started searching for something in her desk.

"No! Why would you think that?" Buffy asked, looking up in surprise.

"Because Ginny is going to ask you to do that and you have a hard time telling her no?" Dawn said with a knowing grin.

"That's not true!" Buffy protested.

"Really?" Dawn prodded.

"Yes. Really!"

Before they could really start to argue, Ginny appeared in the doorway with a worried expression on her face. "Sorry it took so long. I needed to make a call." She looked between Dawn and Buffy. "Did I miss anything?"

"Nope." "No." the sisters answered her.

"You wanted to talk with me about Tonks?" She looked at Buffy saying, "This should probably be private," and she nodded in Dawn's direction.

"Hey! I can keep secrets! I think I should stay." Dawn protested. "I'll be very quiet. You won't even notice I'm here."

Buffy looked at Ginny and shrugged. "It's up to you. She'll need to know what is going on eventually. Especially when we start training the slayers."

"You wouldn't happen to have another one of those silencing charms from Willow would you?" Ginny asked, giving in to Buffy's request with a slight nod.

"Yes, there are a couple left. But do we really need it for this?"

"Hey, isn't that the 'Cone of Silence' thing Willow was working on?" Dawn interrupted excitedly. Both Ginny and Buffy gave her confused looks. "Geez! Am I the only person who watches tv?"

"No, but I think you're the only one here who watches it with Andrew." Buffy told her, rolling her eyes.

"I think it would be a good idea." Ginny answered, ignoring the sibling conflict with practiced ease. "I've been looking at Willow's notes and I think I can start recharging the ones we use with a little practice. It's a lot easier than making new ones."

"Okay." Buffy reached into her top desk drawer and removed a small jeweled object. "Let's take this next door." she told Ginny and Dawn, waving them towards the door. "I think there's been enough excitement for the day. No need to add to it by setting off the alarms in here?"

Once they were all sitting in Buffy's conference room she gave the object a sharp twist."

"Ooh... that's different." Dawn said in a husky voice.

Ginny stared at her in surprise and Buffy raised an eyebrow. "You felt that?" she asked.

"Yup. It makes me feel sort of warm and tingly." Dawn told them. "Like one of Faith's sexy smiles." Dawn blushed at the look Buffy gave her.

Wide eyed, Buffy mumbled "I'm not sure I want to know how you know that?"

"Buffy?" Before the conversation could get too out of hand, Ginny jumped in and attempted to move it back to their intended topic. "We don't really have time for that. Can you save it for later?"

Dawn looked at Ginny in some surprise when Buffy sat back with a grumbled "Okay."

"So what's so important about this Tonks person?" Dawn asked. "Does it have to do with that wand she had?"

"Partly." Ginny confirmed. "Before I start, you need to understand that you can't tell anyone any of this. There are some very serious secrecy laws about who can or can't know any of this. You aren't supposed to know most of the things I'm going to tell you."

"Okay." Dawn reluctantly agreed and Buffy nodded.

Satisfied, Ginny continued - "What do you know about wands?"

"Just that there are people who supposedly use them to do magic." Buffy nodded at Dawn's answer and allowed her to continue without interruption. "There isn't much in any of the books in the Council libraries about them. Most reports are second or third hand accounts. And there wasn't any understandable information on what kind of magic they did with them."

"Okay." Ginny thought for a minute. "I'll give you the short version of the story. To put it simply, there are families who have traditionally used wands to perform magic. They call themselves wizards and witches."

"What's the difference between their magic and Wiccan magic?" Dawn asked her.

"Mostly where it comes from. A wiccan gets their magic from outside themselves. Someone as talented and as powerful as Willow can access almost unlimited magical power." Ginny gave them a moment to process that idea. "A wizard can only access their internal magic. So there are limits to their power. And very few of them can do it without their wand."

Buffy perked up at that. "So we can wear them out in a fight?"

"Yes... if they don't disable or kill you with their wand first." Ginny admitted. "It isn't as easy as you would think to take a wand away from someone trained to fight with it."

"You'll have to show us." Buffy told her. "Where does Tonks fit into this?"

"Wizards have their own organizations to do some of the things muggle governments do."

"Muggle?" Dawn asked, puzzled by the term.

"Sorry. Muggle is the wizarding name for people who can't do magic with wands." She grimaced in annoyance. "They're very secretive and keep to themselves. Most of them don't realize there is other kinds of magic in the world."

"Like wicca?" Buffy asked. "Oh... Are these wizards one of the groups Hermione works with?"

"Yes." Ginny admitted. "Her department works with them just like it does the Wiccan Rede and the Council of Watchers, and others."

"And Tonks?" Buffy reminded her.

"Wizards aren't perfect. There are good ones and bad ones. Tonks works for the wizarding police in Britain." Ginny told them. "Think of her like a detective."

"Great!" Buffy groaned. "I've got a magic using cop wandering around." She looked at Ginny with concern. "Cops tend to have problems with the things we do around here."

"Well, she's not exactly wandering around." Ginny gave her a small grin. "I put her to sleep. She's not going to wake up until we want her to."

"Cool!" Dawn said. "Can you teach me how you did that? For when some annoying slayers refuse to take it easy when they're hurt?" She looked pointedly at her sister.

"So... if you are friends with Tonks, what's the problem with her being here?" Buffy asked. "Other than figuring out how she and Fred got here?"

"Well, you aren't supposed to know wizards and wands even exist. They have special people who go around and help people forget things like that." Ginny said guiltily

"Ewww..." Dawn shivered. "Trying to change peoples' memories can cause lots of messy badness. I vote we don't annoy these people." She looked at Ginny with more interest than before. "So how do you know all of this?"

"Well... I grew up in one of those wizard families." Ginny admitted. "And I worked there."

"Oh. Right. That wand you had the other day." Dawn muttered, looking at her sister for confirmation.

"So... Tonks?" Buffy reminded Ginny.

"I have several ideas of how she could have ended up in Cleveland." Ginny told them. "It's going to take some research and we'll have to involve her. But she's not going to be too happy that you know as much about wizards as you'll need to if we're going to find out what happened."

"So we ask her not to tell." Buffy said firmly. "And we don't tell anyone else more than they need to know."

"I think we need more than her promise that she won't tell anyone." Ginny objected.

"What do you suggest." Buffy asked her, sitting back in her chair.

"The Council has that charter that protects it from interference by people like wizards and the government." Ginny answered. "All we have to do is get Tonks under the same agreement."

"How do we do that?" Buffy asked. "That document Giles and I signed last Fall to renew our charter is kind of complicated. I don't think we can just stick her name on it."

"Well, I've already asked Hermione to check some things for me." Ginny told Buffy nervously. "She's familiar with wizards and has access to a library and wizarding magic experts that we don't. We can ask her how to do that then."

"She's just going to help us?" Dawn asked disbelievingly. "Why?"

"Well... it's part of her job to smooth over any problems between the Council and groups like the wizards. But I also had to bribe her." She explained. "She's been trying to get a look at the Council library for months. I promised her some time in it if she looked some things up for me before tomorrow."

"Okay. I think we can do that." Buffy told her. "Giles has probably just been too busy to remember her request."

"Besides," Dawn said with a wide grin, "I run the library here in my spare time. I don't need Giles' permission to let her use it if she doesn't mind a trip to Cleveland. And we have the same books as the London office. Plus a few others I've picked up myself."

"Now that is settled, what do you think happened?" Buffy asked Ginny.

"Wizards have a way of traveling that is like that wiccan teleporting spell Willow can do." Ginny told them. "Tonks is trained to react quickly if she is in danger. She must have done that when she and Fred were attacked." Ginny frowned. "But there are limitations. London to Cleveland is outside the normal distance limit, which could explain her headache. Though I would have expected worse than that. What I can't figure out is why Cleveland or where she got the power to go that distance."

"Could it have something to do with Fred being a slayer?" Dawn asked.

"Possibly. I'm hoping Hermione has some answers for us tomorrow but we might never know."

"This wizard teleporting trick." Buffy looked at Ginny. "Is there any way to block it?"

"It might be possible. I know of several places where you can't do it. We'll have to ask Hermione tomorrow. She might know."

Buffy looked at her watch and stood up. "Ginny? Why don't you go get Tonks. It's getting close to dinner time." She looked at Dawn and Ginny. "Why don't we continue this after we talk with Hermione tomorrow?"

• Ginny's role as exposition girl in the Buffy/Dawn/Ginny conversation has been toned down. We no longer have an essay on magic.

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