The Choices We Make ∆ Harry Potter Sister

Chapter 5.12

"We have another leak!" yelled Tonks as soon as she her head popped from the doorway, surprising every member in the dining room, but it did the trick. Every hush and quiet whispers liven up into frantic discussion, papers flying this way and that, orders being shouted here and there. It was only when Kingsley shout from the top of his lungs did the commotion died.

"It's been the fifth this month alone, a total of twenty seven in the pass four months," reasoned Kingsley, ever the voice of reason since Dumbledore's untimely death, planting some sense into the adrenaline filled wizards, "What if it's a trap?"

"Not once in the previous twenty six was the leak ever a trap," countered Tonks, careful not to glance his husband's way, well aware of the things he was going through. Sitting down next to her husband with a sigh, she wrapped a loving arm around her very rounded belly, and demanded he senior, "Do not let those wankers slip, Kingsley."

She would gladly pick up her wand and be out of the door in the next ten seconds, if not for her heavily pregnant self, due in a month or so. She had to remind herself that there was no point in creating a better world for her son if she failed to keep him safe before he even cried his first cry. Remus took her hand and ran a thumb on the back of her hand, his silent gesture of support. Kingsley eyed the couple warily and nodded once, sending aurors and order members alike to rendezvous and do what they try to do best.  Bill Weasley gave her a hug, reassuring her that he'll get those sons of hags, and left with his wife.

Now alone in the dining room with only her husband and her cousin, she dreaded the silence filling the room. Though, she was not so sure which she dreaded more, the silence or the words hanging on the tip of their tongues, the name they had so carefully avoided for the past four months.

"How is she still alive?" asked Sirius after awhile.

"What do you mean?"

"The last Potter Watch," said Sirius as he got up from his seat to heat the kettle, "'For all bird watchers, it seems that the crow is still flying West.'"

"An odd direction for crows to fly, yes." When she first heard about it on the station, she thought that perhaps the twins was trying to lighten the mood, adding a little joke into their dreadful session. All the aurors on their side thought so. She was never a birdwatcher herself, but she would not ruled out any of the listener to be one. Now, she was not so sure it was actually meant for those birdwatchers.  "What about it?"

"Crow," corrected her husband from beside her, "Not crows. Singular."

She looked at both men in the room, the dark half moon under their eyes, the same gaunt expression, the grey hairs woven under their thick hair, and dared to say the name that had not left her tongue in what seemed to be forever. "You think that Ellie's the crow."

"It would only make sense." Sirius poured three cups of hot tea and laid them on the table, which Tonks wrapped her slightly swollen fingers around, welcoming the warmth it offered. Sirius went back to his seat and explained, "The news for birdwatchers started four months ago. Not long before the first leak, and messages from Morozov stopped coming around that time."

She has to admit, she understood the logic and reason, but it was a long shot. The timing might be a mere coincidence, the connection might as well be wishful thinking. "Sirius, what if the messages stopped because they- because he got the worst of it?"

"Not possible," said Sirius defiantly, his hollow eyes sparkling ever so slightly. In truth, she was as worried about Ellie as her husband and cousin. She may not be anything more than a friend to  the young Potter, but she could not help but adore Ellie, snide and cheek and all. She swallowed her straying thoughts. One of them had keep a clear head.