a crunching noise over the gravel as she walked along the Castle' s eastern wall, humming hydrangeas to her left, the forest to her right. She took a little cobbled pathway that skirted behind the thick shrubbery and continued along this for several more minutes, eventually coming to the patch of patrol area that belonged to Donald Bligh. Or was it Astrid Huggins'? Moody was always cranky with her for not remembering who was stationed where.
It was Bligh. She knew this because she nearly walked into her colleague.
There was a problem, apparently. Bligh was speaking heatedly to someone who was standing in the shadows.
"Lumos." Tonks illuminated the situation. "Don, may I be of assistance?" she asked, coming to stand beside her colleague.
She was startled to note that it was Draco Malfoy whom Bligh had been talking to. The light clearly identified him. Her erstwhile cousin was dressed in dark jeans, trainers and a dark, long sleeved, shirt. The boy looked dressed for skulking.
It didn' t surprise her that some students were so unmindful of the dangers. Just the day before, they had caught a Ravenclaw making his casual way to the library after curfew. Hogwarts was home, after all, and it was never easy to tell a teenager that they had to remain in their rooms after dinner.
Her colleague looked put out to see her. "Found this one sneaking about in the dark. Says he's planning to meet up with a girl."
Most likely Bligh was aiming to give Malfoy an over-the-top hiding for being caught wondering the grounds after curfew. Tonks sighed. Quidditch-earned grudges had the capacity to last longer than stink pellet stench on skin.
"That' ll be a deduction of House points as well, Malfoy," said Bligh, with a great deal of unprofessional gloating. He pulled out his logbook, made a note of the encounter, flipped it shut and then turned his attention back to his victim.
Malfoy remained completely calm, bored looking, almost. "Fine," he said, holding out his pale arm. "Slap on the wrist, points taken and I'll be on my way, then?"
It was at that moment that three things occurred to Tonks, though perhaps if they had not, the outcome of the encounter might have been drastically different for all concerned.
The first point of interest was that Malfoy gave no indication that he knew her, despite their introduction as cousins, the week before. The second thing was that she would have expected Draco Malfoy to have argued his supreme, infallible, divine right to have been wherever he wanted to be, at whatever time he bloody well wanted.
She had almost been looking forward to his explanation.
This then led to the third, more alarming suspicion that she and Bligh were not currently speaking to Draco Malfoy at all. There was something about him which felt about as right as an orange juice milk shake.
She decided to call Fake Draco' s bluff. As Bligh blithered on about not being paid to baby sit, Tonks turned her wand to the imposter.
"You will stand down," she ordered, her wand aimed at the stranger's chest.
"Tonkser, what are you doing?" Bligh asked, looking startled.
"I don't think this is Malfoy," she informed, without looking at him.
"Christ Almighty," Bligh muttered. He may have been a bit of a bully and a hot head, but she was counting on him not being slow-witted. He didn't immediately disappoint. His own wand was produced and was now at level with Tonk's, twin Lumos spells in action.
"I suppose you can tell," he inquired, idly.
"We're about to find out." The tip of her wand grazed the imposter's chest. "Who are you?"
The stranger smiled. It was Draco' s familiar knowing half smile, half leer, and yet it was so not. Tonks could not recall the real Draco ever needing to show that much teeth.
As per capture and contain protocol, she moved to walk around the soon-to-be captive, leaving Bligh to disarm the imposter. She was three steps behind him, poised to Stun if she needed to.
"Who else would I be if not I'm Draco Malfoy?" came the reply.
Same drawl, same articulation. It was uncanny, and very, very well done.
"Well?" Bligh called out to his colleague. "I' d hate to be told off twice in the week for assaulting the same student, on or off the pitch," he muttered.
Tonks tilted her head to the side and observed her would-be cousin closely from behind. "Not Malfoy," she said, after a moment. "Take him."
"If you have a wand on you, throw