A crinkle of fate: Prologue
Also available on AO3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/16896918/chapters/39690747#workskin
PROLOGUE
“Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard.” ― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
May 2nd, 1998
The screams and the fear filled the corridors of a place that she had once called home. Hogwarts was falling apart, innocents were dying, friends...family. Everyone was fighting to protect the people they loved at the cost of their own lives. Tonks ran through the castle dodging spells and curses. She waved her wand skillfully sending dead eaters crashing against the walls. She had managed to stay on her feet so far. She was a trained auror, but after her pregnancy and her recent childbirth, her body was still a little weak. Her muscles were starting to fail her and she knew her movements were becoming progressively slower and painful considering the injuries she kept gaining. Anyone would have stopped to take a breath, catch up a little rest, but not her. She chose to ignore the growing pain and the blood that was starting to stain her robes. She had to find him. He needed her. She had promised Remus that happened what happened, she’d never leave him alone; that she’d stay by his side...always; and that was a promise she would never break. She kept running as fast as she could. Aberforth had said Remus was on the tower dueling Dolohov. She knew her husband was skilled, but her heart had been giving her a bad feeling ever since she had stepped into Hogwarts and she wasn’t going to rest until she found him. When she finally reached the tower, her heart almost stopped at the horrifying image in front of her. Remus was laying on the ground, too weak or maybe too tired to keep himself up. Dolohov was a few steps away from him, his wand raised and a disgusting smile painted on his lips. Her instincts triggered and her reaction was automatic, she raised her wand and sent a stunning jinx at the Death Eater before he could even think of casting any spell at her husband. Tonks could be known as the clumsiest Auror, but when it came to fighting, nobody would ever question her skills. The jinx hit the man with clean accuracy; the force in it, sent him flying a few meters away from her fallen husband, and Tonks felt satisfied when she saw his body fall limply on the stone floor. Whether he was dead or just knocked out, she didn’t care. Remus had raised his head to see the person who had just saved his life. His face was scratched, dirty and bruised, but he was alive and that was enough.She made her way to him with quick steps. He saw her almost instantly, his face turning from confusion to relief,then to anger and finally to horror.
The hit got her right in her back, quick and clean. Tonks didn’t see the green light nor did she hear her aunt’s demented laugh; all she saw was the horror in her Remus’s face; his features growing blurrer and blurrer, until they simply disappeared in darkness. So this was death… She had expected something worse, maybe even painful; but all she could feel was a cold numbness the slowly enveloped her body in a deadly veil. It was as if she was floating in nothingness. Images of a thousand things crossed her mind, his first day at Hogwarts, the day she began auror training, Mad-Eye’s scolds, Kingsley’s friendly gestures, dinners at Number 12 Grimmauld Place, her parents….Remus’s smile as he held their son… Their son...their little Teddy. The grief began to fill her and, even though she didn’t regret joining the fight, she realized she wasn’t ready to die… She just didn’t want to die…
