"Now, Auror Trainee Tonks," Amelia Bones, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (also known as the
'DMLE' for short) said as she sat opposite Tonks with a notepad and a quill that hovered above the notepad and wrote down every word that was being said. "I have your statement but I will be asking you to repeat some parts of your story and I will be asking a few other questions, do you understand?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Tonks confirmed with a polite and professional voice as she sat with her hair in a neutral brown colour.
"Have you met your kidnappers before the abduction?" She asked, the quill continuing to write down everything that was being said.
"No, Miss Bones." Tonks shook her head.
"So you have no idea who they are?"
"Actually, I can guess who they are," Tonks admitted. "I know that the aurors have been looking for some human traffickers in knock turn alley. I think they were excited about the idea of having a metamorphmagus and selling her." Tonks finished, sounding more irritated than anything else.
"Hmm." Amelia hummed but didn't say anything more as she could see where Tonks was getting at, many people wanted to have a shapeshifter like Tonks. The idea of a woman that could transform into any person that they desire would make Tonks a far more valuable product to sell than any other regular woman. "Let's continue," She told her. "tell me about your saviour. Describe him to me."
"Okay," Tonks nodded and resisted the urge to point out that she had already done that at least twice to different people. "in height he was just a bit taller than my usual height since his chin was eye-level with me. He was covered from head to toe in what looked like black goo. He had a logo on his front and back in the shape of a spider and he had two big white eyes on his head and that was it unless he opened his mouth, in which case the goo on his face shifted away to reveal a set of properly sharp teeth."
"Thank you," Amelia nodded appreciatively as she looked down at what was written before she looked back up to Tonks. "is this person human?"
"I'm not entirely sure," Tonks answered honestly. "he performed physical feats that were far beyond any regular human and I saw him eat that woman's hand, apparently she had met him before.
He said that he remembered her."
"Yes, we have reports of her being arrested quite recently but getting off on a technicality," Madam Bones frowned. "during that time she reported a large black beast bit off her hand."
"Well, this guy wasn't that large." Tonks pointed out.
"True, but she also said that the beast could transform and had previously been disguised as a teenage boy," Madam Bones continued. "it's possible that this being is a shapeshifter."
"Maybe," Tonks hummed thoughtfully. "one more thing, Madam," She said suddenly as she remembered something. "I'm not sure if I had told you yet but the person insisted on being referred to as
'we'."
"I beg your pardon?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at Tonks.
"When I asked him about his identity, he answered that his name was 'Venom', but he didn't say 'I'm Venom'. He said 'we are Venom'. 'We are Venom' " She repeated. "every time, it's always
'we' instead of 'I'."
"And what do you think this means?" She asked curiously.
"Well, I'm not completely sure, but I do have some guesses."
"I have enough time to listen to them," She said in a dry voice before gesturing for her to continue.
"Well, my first guess is that he's actually working with someone who could be hiding behind the scenes somewhere, maybe under a few spells or something, but I don't think that's right," Tonks began. "because if he didn't want us to know about a potential second then he would say 'I' instead of 'we'. So we can rule that out unless we think that that is some weird master plan where he expected us to work it out."
"Let's put that in the 'maybe' column," Madam Bones' voice made it clear that she didn't think the last part of Tonks's sentence was right. "please, continue.
"Another theory is that maybe this guy has some problem in his mouth or brain and maybe is education and thinks that 'we' is the correct word to use," Tonks continued. "at the moment my other theories are split personalities and maybe he actually believes that there are two of him."
"Hmm, one final question, what is your opinion of this man, if it even is human?" She asked.
"Well, on the one hand, he is pretty brutal and very dangerous," Tonks answered honestly. "but on the other hand, he did come and help me out of a dangerous situation, so I am grateful for his
help.
"Hmm, very well, you've already provided us with a copy of your memory of the event, correct?"
"Yes, Madam Bones," Tonks confirmed with a small nod. "I gave it to Deputy Head Scrimgeour, he should have already finished examining it now."
"Good." Madam Bones hummed as she stared at the written down notes she had. "thank you, that will be all, Auror Trainee Tonks."
"Yes, Ma'am." Tonks saluted as she stood up before she turned and walked out of the room.
Harry yawned as he walked into his bedroom and dropped face-first down onto his bed, he was rather tired from having a day of school after saving Tonks yesterday, which included sneaking in and out of school to go and rescue Tonks. The only real good thing about today was that he and Hermione seemed to be talking again, though both had decided to not bring up Hermione's timetable again through an unspoken agreement.
'I'm glad that you didn't whine when I ate that woman's hand.'
Venom spoke up.
'I don't whine,' Harry objected. 'I complain, and that's only when you eat things that I don't want to eat, like humans. Besides, the way I see it, all of it goes into your stomach, not mine, so as long as you don't kill someone I'll stay quiet.'
'Good to know,' Venom said in an amused voice. The alien was very tempted to point out that they had more than likely killed quite a few people unless those people had been able to get medical help quickly. Venom knew that Harry didn't understand how delicate humans were, when he was younger Harry had been able to sneak in some peaks at cartoons and TV shows where people would get beat up, they had coloured his perception of reality. In those shows people could get hit and be fine, in reality, every hit could risk permanent damage happening to a person's body. Venom, having spent some time in a human's body, knew exactly how they worked, Venom could tell Harry exactly how everything from his liver to his throat worked. Venom had not been 'that' gentle with those men so they had likely died from internal injuries unless help arrived in time, that woman had likely died from blood loss but if she hadn't then she'd be useless for the rest of her life unless magic was somehow able to give her both hands back. 'Tonks should be coming back soon,' Venom reminded him before experiencing Harry's emotions at the mention of Tonks. 'you like her?'
'Yeah, of course, I like her, Tonks is fun and nice.' Harry answered without thinking. 'She's a good friend.'
'No, you like her as more than a friend,' Venom said confidently.
'What?' Harry asked intelligently as he lift his head off the pillow.
'You like Tonks, you should tell her that.'
'I don't like her like that and we are not having this conversation.'
Harry decided before slamming his face right back down on the pillow.
'Poor thing, he's in denial.' Venom told himself, though Harry of course had to hear it, as evidenced by the way he groaned into his pillow.
"Hey, Tonks!" Harry smiled when he spotted Tonks the next day as he made his way to the great hall for breakfast along with Ron and Hermione.
"Wotcher Harry!" She smiled back as he stopped in front of her and pulled her into a hug, surprising not just her but also his two friends as evidenced by the shocked looks on their faces. "Oh, what's up with this?" She asked when Harry let her go.
" was worried about you," Harry admitted. "I overheard some aurors talking about vou. I then asked them and the said that you had been kidnapped."
"What?!" Hermione blurted out, "Why didn't you tell us this?!" She demanded.
'Oh right, we didn't tell them.' Venom remembered.
"Because I was too busy freaking out about it and because you weren't talking to me then," Harry replied to Hermione before turning back to Tonks. "anyway, I'm glad you're alright."
"Thanks, boy wonder," Tonks grinned before giving Harry a brief one-armed hug, enjoying the feeling of pressing her chin into his head, she rather liked that she was taller than him, at least she was for now. "but I'm fine, really.
"If you're sure, you want to come and eat with us?" Harry offered.
"I'd love to, but unfortunately I am at work," Tonks reminded him.
"maybe later if I get a break when you're eating.'
"Great!" Harry smiled.
"Oh, does Harry have a crush?" Ron asked teasingly.
'Shut up!' Venom yelled. 'You're ruining the moment!'
"Don't tease him," Tonks told off Ron while Harry's face turned a bit red. "Harry and I are just good friends."
'Ooof!' Venom exclaimed. 'Friend-zoned!'
"Uh, yeah, friends," Harry lamely agreed, not entirely sure why he suddenly felt a lot worse than before. "anyway, we should get going, see you later, Tonks." Harry gave her a small smile before he walked off with Ron and Hermione following behind him.
Tonks looked at the group with a sad smile on her face, she guessed that Harry had a crush on her, but unfortunately for him, she didn't really think that anything could happen between the two of them. Sure Harry was a nice boy and pretty good looking for his age, but at the moment he was still too young for her and she would catch hell if her superiors learnt that she was dating the boy who lived, not to mention what the rest of the public would think.
A voice that sounded remarkably like Molly Weasley started speaking in her head, saying 'No, Harry deserved better than her and should settle down with a nice witch around his age.'.
"I still can't believe that vou didn't even tell us that Tonks was in danger," Hermione complained as they walked into the great hall and took their seats.
"Yeah, well maybe if you had been talking to me then I would have." Harry snarked back just as plates full of food appeared. "But apparently you expect me to somehow communicate everything to you even when you're avoiding me
'I wasn't avoiding you!" Hermione protested, her face turning a small shade of red. "Besides, even if I was...'
"Which you were." Harry nodded as if he was simply reciting a basic fact.
"Which I was not, thank you very much," Hermione continued, glaring at him as he started eating. "then that's still not a good excuse to not tell us that someone had been kidnapped." She finished in a severe tone, looking at him expectantly, clearly waiting for an apology from him.
"What would you have done?" Harry asked in an exasperated manner as he put his fork and knife down to stare at her. "I didn't know that you were an auror who could leave the castle any time she wanted so you could go and do a job that all the other actual aurors couldn't do."
"Harry, that's not the point," Hermione said in an exasperated manner of her own. "you still could have told us, you should have told us."
"Why?" Harry asked, running a hand through his hair, feeling quite irritated with Hermione at the moment.
"What do you mean 'Why?! We're friends!" She barked at him.
"You're supposed to tell us important things.'
"Ha, pot, kettle, black." Harry snorted while Ron sat to the side of the two of them, looking uncomfortable but ultimately doing his best to try and ignore the tension by eating a hearty breakfast.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" She raised an eyebrow, tilting her head up in what Harry thought was her attempt to copy Professor McGonagall, unfortunately for Hermione, she was not Professor McGonagall.
'You're right,' Venom agreed. 'she has nothing on the original.'
'Yep,' Harry agreed before he continued speaking to Hermione. "I said this is a clear case of the pot calling the kettle black, even though the pot herself is black. Which is weird on so many levels and would be even weirder if we didn't live in a world where we could probably charm pots and kettles to speak."
"Are you calling me a hypocrite?!" Hermione demanded. Harry stared at her for a moment and his expression softened at seeing the hurt look on her face.
"No, I...I'm sorry, Hermione, I didn't mean to offend." He apologised.
'No, no, no!' Venom spoke up. 'Don't apologize, stand your ground!
You did nothing wrong!'
'But I don't want to hurt her and...'
'If she's hurt because you're honest then that's her problem!'
Venom hissed. 'You did nothing wrong and she's trying to bite your head off! I'm the only one that does the biting here! Besides, we did nothing wrong! We were trying to save Tonks! If we were late then she could have died! You wanted Tonks to die so you could talk to the girl that was ignoring you?!'
'What?! No! But I...'
'But nothing, if you back down now then that means you were wrong to save Tonks, we weren't wrong! We were right! We saved Tonks!'
"Harry," Ron brought him back to reality by shaking his shoulder.
"are you awake?" He asked, staring at him along with Hermione.
"You sort of blanked out."
'I'm fine, my brain just hasn't fully woken up yet," Harry fibbed as he waved their concerns off. "anyway," He said to Hermione. "like I was saying, I don't mean to offend but you clearly have secrets of your own that you're keeping from us."
"Like how you attend more than one class at the same time." Ron nodded.
"See," Harry gestured to Ron. "even Ron noticed and we all know that he doesn't care about anything not related to food and quidditch."
"Oi!" Ron objected.
"My point is, between the two of us, you're the one keeping secrets, I'm the one who heard important information that a person - who is more my friend than yours - was kidnapped and I needed time to process it." Harry finished with a small shrug of his shoulders.
"…..suppose you might have a point." Hermione quietly conceded before she started eating, making no attempt to restart any further conversation. Harry stopped himself from sighing when he saw her obviously trying to stay quiet so to reduce the risk of the conversation going back to her own secrets.
'She insists on keeping secrets from you yet yells at you when you keep information from her,' Venom said in a thoughtful voice. 'are you sure you shouldn't get a better friend?'
'She's alright,' Harry insisted. 'I know she's got problems and she's not perfect, Merlin knows that I'm not perfect either, but she's always been there for me.'
'For all of two school years,' Venom pointed out.
'I've known her longer than l've known you.' Harry pointed out.
'Yep,' Venom agreed, not either bothering to deny that, it was a simple fact that Harry had known Hermione for longer. 'but here's the difference between me and her, I will never ever abandon you no matter what. No matter what happens, you won't ever be separated from me and even if we were, I'd try and find you, no matter what it took. She has other priorities, but you're the singular focus of my life and no matter what happens, I will be here for you.'
Harry stayed silent as he ate his breakfast, he didn't respond because he didn't really know how to respond to that, he didn't know what to say to that heartfelt confession that had come out of nowhere and surprised him. Harry couldn't help but feel like Venom meant every word, it certainly sounded like it, it definitely felt like it. But Harry didn't know what to say, so he stayed quiet, even though a part of him couldn't help but feel a little lighter after hearing Venom's words.