It was ten o'clock when Tonks finally got the kitchen in as decent a shape as it was going to get. It probably would have taken a much shorter time if she'd been better at householdy spells, but she'd never bothered to learn them decently, and she supposed she was just beginning to pay for that. Mum would teach her if she asked, but she didn't feel like looking at the archly raised eyebrows that would accompany the teaching.

She wasn't sure why she was cleaning the kitchen at the Shrieking Shack, either, and if someone asked for an explanation of her sudden interest in domesticity, she didn't know how she would answer it.

So she'd repaired broken floorboards and flattened out some warping, done a very bad Sanding Charm three times before giving it up and letting the scratches remain, re-hung the doors of the cupboards, and Banished the accumulated waste of the small creatures who used the empty house as a handy den. The creatures themselves were hiding in the walls; she would have to get them another time. It didn't exactly end up looking as warm and inviting as Molly's kitchen, but it was possible to sit down here now, maybe have a cup of tea and a sandwich if a person was so inclined. She glanced into the shattered dining room and saw a chandelier lying broken on the floor, the boards under it smashed. An ancient sideboard with half of one of its legs missing listed against the wall, and the wallpaper--which had a rather horrible dancing-fairy motif--had been brutally ripped at some long ago point. Curls of it lay on the floor, draped in years of dust.

She didn't have the energy to begin work on the dining room.

She headed back to the village, picking her way along the uneven road and twisting her ankle once on a loose rock. She sat down for awhile on a rock beside old Mrs. McCrea's place to rub out the kinks. Mrs. McCrea's dog--a large, friendly black dog that never failed to make Tonks feel teary--came out and licked at her face until she laughed and scratched its ruff (it had a dirty white bib) and hugged it. Mrs. McCrea said she didn't mind people playing with him, as she herself was too old to play "the way a big puppy likes to" and she was quite devoted to the dog. Tonks kissed its snout and sent it back inside. "Go watch the lady of the house, Bibs," she said. Bibs let his tongue loll out, then padded up to the door.

Tonks tested her ankle, found it solid, and went on.

As she reached the road that led to the Hogwarts gate, something fluttered down from the sky. She jumped and batted at it and it fell to the ground.

"Lumos," she said, pointing her wand at it.

She rolled her eyes.

It was an oak leaf. There were no oak trees particularly handy, but there was a breeze, and a single leaf could easily have been caught in it and carried for some distance. She picked it up. It was an odd, pale green, more like a spring leaf than one that had flown from its tree in early September. It also seemed to be in perfect health--elastic and untorn.

She frowned at it, and was still frowning at it when the stars and moon disappeared and a chill fell over her.

"Oh, bloody...!" She shoved the leaf into her pocket without thinking and held out her lit wand. The Dementor was on the hillside near the road, headed down toward the wall of the Forbidden Forest. She pointed her wand at it and sent her Patronus leaping in its direction. The wolf went in with its head low and its lips drawn back from its deadly teeth, and she could almost swear it was growling, though it was usually silent.

It tackled the Dementor when it was halfway down the hill, clamping its white jaws around the neck and pushing the creature backward. The light came back into the sky. Tonks went partway up the road, looking carefully for any others and prepared to Apparate out if she saw a sign of them, but this one appeared to have been alone.

Moony loped back to her with no particular hurry, looking up at her with an expression that could only be read as, "Again?" before he dissipated.

"Why here?" she muttered, scanning the top of the wall. "What are you looking for?" She wasn't really looking for anything in particular, and rather expected to just mutter uselessly at the stones, but after a moment, she took a few steps forward.

For several feet, the line of trees was unbroken darkness, but just around a bend in the road, she saw a soft, rising light.

She hurried to McGonagall's gate and opened it, slipping under the canopy of trees and into darkness only lit by her wand. She couldn't see the source of the light, but then the Forest was bigger inside. Leaving a magical flicker on several trees as she passed them so she could find her way back, she worked her way deeper in. Night creatures crawled in the branches above her, and a great white flower--seeming out of place in Scotland in autumn, even here--opened abruptly, sending out a heart-stoppingly lovely fragrance. She stood beside it for nearly a full minute, almost intoxicated by the scent, but then backed away from it quickly, realizing that drowning in an unknown flower was not a particularly good idea just now. She moved on. The stream appeared when she'd been walking for ten minutes--and it did just appear--burbling in the night. She followed it.

It bent around a low hill and into a grove of pine trees, and Tonks paused when she saw a distant centaur at the top of a rise, but he took no notice of her and she went on. The stream tumbled over a waterfall and she picked her way down the steep hill beside it, marking boulders with her symbol until she came to rest at a small pool backed up behind a dam. Through the trees on the other side, deep behind them, she could see the light. It didn't seem to be a fire, or the flickering of wandlight, but almost... sunlight.

A warm, kind smelling breeze came across the water.

She started to walk along the edge of the pool, but the light remained constantly distant from her, the water beside her growing narrower and narrower, finally finding its current and becoming a stream again as she ran beside it. Abruptly, it veered off to her left.

She sighed and sat down on a fallen tree, her weariness descending again.

"Tonks? That you? What're ye doin' this deep in the Forest?"

She jumped to her feet, wand at the ready. "Hagrid? What are you doing here?"

"We're on school grounds. I b'long 'ere." He pointed his pink umbrella in her general direction, but menaced her more effectively simply by stepping close to her. "Yeh're not meant to be wandering about. Yeh gave a kitten to Charlie Weasley in yer third year. What'd 'e name it?"

Tonks cast her mind back--she thought it had been Bill she'd given it to, but on further reflection, she guessed Hagrid was right, as she now remembered the silly thing going up with Charlie on his broomstick. It hadn't been one of Granny's brighter descendents. She could see it in her mind's eye, but what in bloody hell had he named it? And why would Hagrid remember?

"Keys!" she said. "Keys, because he left him with you when we went on holiday, since he hadn't asked his mum, and you were Keeper of the Keys."

"A'right," Hagrid said, now smiling in a friendly way. "Well, yeh can't be too careful. Yeh shouldn' be about in the Forest alone this late."

"You are."

"I know this Forest."

An idea occurred to Tonks. "Do you know there's something with sunlight? In the middle of the night? Do you know what it is?"

"'aven't the foggiest what it is," Hagrid said, "but I've had a peek once or twice. It's where that wanderin' stream stops."

"There's a pool there. Like a beaver pool."

"Why are yeh lookin'?"

"There was a Dementor. He was looking for something. I thought that might be it."

"Well, ruddy good luck to 'im findin' it, if it is! I never found it on lookin', just stumbled across it, you might say."

"Did you ever get inside of it?"

Hagrid shook his head. "Reckon I wouldn't know if I happened to stumble in during the day, though."

"I imagine a place that has sunlight all its own is quite magical enough to notice during the day." She looked around. "How far are we from the castle?"

"About fifteen minute's walk, but I reckon yeh'd best go back the way yeh came."

"Why?"

"Never you mind, is why." Hagrid looked very glum. "Reckon even I won' be able to go through there soon. Poor bloke."

"Poor...?"

But Hagrid just shook his head. "Yeh can find yer way, can't yeh? I'll take yeh through if yeh can't, but..."

"I can find my way. Hagrid, is something wrong with one of your animals?"

"'E wouldn't take kindly to be called one of my animals," Hagrid said with a slight smile. "'E's a good sort of soul, and 'e belongs to himself."

"Is there anything I can do?"

Hagrid burst into tears and said no over and over, and Tonks stood up on the log to pat his shoulder until it passed.

"There now," she said. "It's all right."

"Yeh're a good girl, right enough," Hagrid said, sniffing and flicking away a tear that soaked the right side of Tonks's hair. "And me goin' on so. I'll walk yeh to the wall. Yeh use McGonagall's way?"

"You know about it?"

"Of course. Dumbledore showed me. Great man, Dumbledore..." He went on muttering as he led her through the trees without even looking at her marked path, and she had to nearly run to keep up with him, which took most of her energy. They reached the wall in twenty minutes and stopped.

"Yeh go on abou' fifty more yards," he said. "Jus' stay agains' the wall, an' yeh'll be fine."

She started to go, but turned. "Hagrid?"

"What?"

"Next time you come to the Hog's Head, come and say hello to me, will you?"

"Got the lonelies up here, 'ave yeh?"

"I had them in London, too."

"Well, drop 'em. Yeh've got plenty of friends, and I'd be happy to tip a pint with yeh nex' time I'm up."

Tonks waved and slipped back along the wall, finding the gate again and letting herself out onto the road. She didn't realize until much later that night, at she lay in her bed looking at the roof of the Shrieking Shack, that the whole time she'd been in the Forest, she hadn't thought about her own problems once.

And she felt quite a lot stronger for it.

She finally fell into a deep sleep just after midnight, and when she awakened, she was surprised to find another pale green oak leaf had been blown through her window during the night.

It was Sunday before she got any time to herself. A Dementor in the school's vicinity while there were students present had necessitated alternating night watches. Dumbledore had briefly left, so she'd needed to take time to investigate anyone interested in his comings and goings, which turned out to be any number of people--Dumbledore was a subject of a great deal of local gossip in Hogsmeade, where he was something of a celebrity. No one exhibited any hostile ideas, or disappeared abruptly after a conversation. She saw Mundungus Fletcher on Thursday and watched him selling several items, but none of them had been stolen from Grimmauld Place; apparently, he'd just made a shady deal of some sort for a pile of used wands, which Tonks supposed would be in high demand with Ollivander missing. She tailed his contact for most of the afternoon, and finally found him doing nothing more incriminating than selling to a tiny magical junk shop tucked away in the mountains. She pretended to be a customer to inspect the place, found it full of items which might be useful in everyday life--pre-charmed tea sets, old cutlery, a selection of storage charms, things of that sort (some of which she thought she might come back for herself later)--but nothing that particularly suggested that the place would be frequented by Dark Witches. The fact that the owner recognized her as an Auror and didn't seem nervous reinforced it.

On Friday, London Aurors arrested Stan Shunpike, a hapless boy who'd been two years behind Tonks in school and had left after his O.W.L.s. Robards said that he'd been bragging about knowledge he had of Death Eater movements, which she suspected was about as real as Gilderoy Lockhart's great adventures. Of course, people had believed Lockhart, too. She got into a screaming match with Proudfoot about the arrest, which Dawlish broke up, forbidding the subject of the Shunpike arrest to come up in his contingent again. Saturday was a wreck of running pointless errands and filling out dreary paperwork, but if she didn't take care of it, it would back up. Dawlish held another meeting for everyone to compare notes.

Each day, she'd found one or two of the strange oak leaves. She couldn't make heads or tails of them, which was why she decided on her first day off all week to pay a visit to Maddie Apcarne.

Maddie and Daffy greeted her with a nice lunch, filled her in on a great deal of gossip about old school friends, and let her play with the baby before they asked her what she needed.

Tonks kissed Francis and handed him over to Daffy. "I have a mystery," she said. "I think it may be one of your sort, Maddie. Though of course, I don't know."

"Hmm," Maddie said. "Daffy, could you take Francis out to the garden?"

Daffy rolled his eyes, picked up the baby, and went outside. Through the window, Tonks saw him bend down and start showing plants to Francis.

"Tonks, you know I can't tell you a thing about what I do."

"I know. I'm not asking you to. I won't even ask if yours is the right division for this. I don't have the faintest idea where you've been since you left the Universe division, and I know better than to ask. I do know that I... don't have any special desire to go back to the Department of Mysteries."

"I can understand that. What's your mystery?"

Tonks pulled a handful of leaves from her pocket and set them on the table. They unfurled, completely undamaged by being crumpled in her pocket.

Maddie picked one up. "Oak."

"I'd got that far."

"Accio glasses," Maddie muttered, and a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles flew over to her. She tapped them with her wand, then put them on and examined the leaf without explaining this to Tonks. "It's alive," she said. "Which is a neat trick for a leaf that's not on a tree."

"Is it..." Tonks frowned. "I don't even know if I can ask if it's the sort of thing I should give to an Unspeakable."

"If you've brought it, you know the answer." Maddie took off the glasses and folded them, ending whatever enchantment she'd put on them with a tap of her wand. "My job makes conversations difficult."

"I've been there."

"Compared to us, Aurors and secret agents from Albus Dumbledore are veritable fonts of free information. But you do at least have an idea. It drives Daff quite mad that I can't tell him a thing about work."

Panicky butterflies twittered around in Tonks's stomach. "You and Daffy... you're all right, though?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes. He knew what he was getting into. It bothers him, but not so much that he's going to suddenly explode and leave me or something. He knows that I'm not going to do anything against my conscience or anything that will put him or Francis in danger, and that's enough for him. Don't worry about us."

Tonks nodded. "Right."

Maddie looked at her kindly, then touched the back of her wrist. She stood up. "Do you want a butterbeer?"

"Sure."

Maddie Summoned two bottles from a high cupboard above the sink, and got two glasses from where they were drying in the sun. She handed one to Tonks, and steered one of the butterbeers in her direction, then sat down again herself and worked the cork out of her bottle. "I'm not bringing them to work," she said.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I shouldn't impose..."

"No. I should. But I won't."

"Maddie..."

"What, you're the only person allowed to use her professional skills outside the employ of the Ministry?"

"I--"

"We'll have an Order of two, you and I. Just to investigate this. The Order of the Badger."

Tonks gathered the leaves thoughtfully. "Maddie, I'm not sure where this is going to lead. I was hoping you'd just tell me what they were. I--"

"It's involved with Dumbledore's group?"

"They came from the Forbidden Forest, I think. Which means school grounds, which may mean Dumbledore's business. I should have asked him before coming to you. I just thought it might be something simple."

"Mmm. It rarely is." Maddie smiled. "Talk to Dumbledore. See if he objects to my helping you. If not, we can start working. If so... well, I'll just tell you that there are Mysteries other than the ones we study at the Department. We come across them, and sometimes one bit or another will fit in a Division. But a lot of Mysteries, shall we say, die in captivity. Be careful."

"Do you think they're dangerous?"

"By themselves? They're leaves, Tonks. Unless there are enough to smother you in your sleep, I think you're safe. But what they're leading to? Mysteries are not, in general, tame."

Tonks put the leaves away, then they went outside to play with Daffy and Francis for awhile. Francis was just getting a handle on crawling in the grass and the three adults spent quite a lot of their time keeping him from putting worms and grubs that he found there in his mouth.

When Tonks went home, she wrote a careful letter to Dumbledore, mentioning that she wanted Maddie's help with a matter that had come up, based on her training as an Unspeakable. Dumbledore sent her a much briefer note in return four hours later, instructing her to meet him at the Shrieking Shack at ten o'clock. It was nine forty-five already, so she headed out immediately.

Dumbledore was already in the kitchen when she got there, opening the cupboard doors and inspecting the repair work she'd done on the furniture. He looked up with a smile. "You've found an interesting hobby, Nymphadora," he said.

"I hope there's no problem with it."

"Your hobbies are your own. And I daresay the house was in need of some attention." He pulled out a chair and sat at the table, and indicated that she should take the other. She sat and he Conjured a tea set, pouring each of them a cup. "I trust your judgment, Nymphadora," he said. "You should learn to do so."

"I just meant that I know it's not why I was given the--"

Dumbledore waved his good hand in an almost dismissive way. "What have you found?"

Tonks told him about the leaves, showing him the ones she had in her pocket, and about the sunlit glade in the Forbidden Forest that Hagrid hadn't been able to explain. "I suppose you probably know what it is," she said.

Dumbledore looked at a leaf for a very long time. "No," he said. "I have suspicions, but no knowledge on the subject." He smiled. It was a horrible, ancient smile that disturbed Tonks. "I nearly told you that you should speak to Nicolas," he said. "Odd how a handful of years may slip one's mind from time to time."

"Professor..."

"It's an old Mystery, if it's the Mystery I believe it to be, wrapped up in all of the others. You think the Dementors are seeking it?"

Tonks nodded. "It's full of all the things they feed on. It seems... joyful, somehow. Hopeful. The sort of thing they'd want to swallow whole."

"Hagrid told me he never saw a glimpse of the place during the year they were at the school," Dumbledore said. "It may have moved to avoid them. No place is safer, usually, but you're quite right about a Dementor's hunger. May I?" He held up a leaf and Tonks nodded. He pocketed it. "I spoke to your friend Maddie after I got your letter. I hadn't seen her since she left school. What a lovely young woman she's become. Motherhood suits her."

"Yes. And Francis is a wonderful baby. Or, well, I think he is. I suppose I don't have many to compare him to."

"Oh, he was perfectly charming." Dumbledore turned his teacup around several times. "Your judgment of people is impeccable, Nymphadora. I've never seen you snub a worthy friend, or give your heart to an unworthy one."

"I liked Pettigrew, and didn't believe in Sirius."

"Peter Pettigrew showed you kindness, and for a child as small as you were, that is sufficient. And many who knew Sirius far better than you did failed him. But as you've grown, I've watched you. I saw you in school, and I've seen you since. You showed brilliant judgment of Kingsley Shacklebolt. You were able to accept--immediately, Nymphadora--that what you'd always known about Sirius wasn't true, and were able to love him again." He took a breath. "You have your father's skill at seeing people."

"Dad--"

"Missed Mr. Lockhart." Dumbledore finished. "We can always list exceptions, but they are exceptions because there is a rule for them to be exceptions to. I assure you, even I--occasionally--have been mistaken." He smiled. "But I'm not mistaken about you. I trust your judgment, and had I not trusted it before I visited your friend this evening, I would have learned to. You may determine what she can be told from your store of knowledge. The same is true for others you feel you need. You are quite aware that this isn't a social club, and I consider you singularly unlikely to use this permission frivolously."

Tonks blinked, understanding for the first time that he wasn't simply reassuring her, or giving her permission to work with Maddie. He was--inasmuch as it was possible--promoting her. She couldn't very well give away the location of Headquarters, which was still under the Fidelius Charm, but she could bring in anyone who seemed reasonable to her. "Thank you, sir," she said. "I don't suppose you would share your suspicions about the leaf?"

"No. I'll tell you that you might have done well to listen more closely in Professor Binns' class, but I find myself telling that to a great many former students. But if my assumptions--guesses--are wrong, they could interfere with what you and Mrs. Apcarne are attempting to learn." He sighed and looked at the remaining leaves on the table. "In truth, I don't think it's in danger. But it occurs to me to wonder why the Dementors have taken such a very sudden interest in it."

"Well, they were just freed from Azkaban..."

"This place, whatever it is, has existed in the Forbidden Forest since before the Dementors were employed at Azkaban." He smiled. "I admit to some curiosity as to why you happen to be called to it, but that, my dear, is your concern."

"I'll tell you if I can," Tonks said, feeling dazed.

"Then we have finished here." He raised his cup of tea and drained it, then Vanished the tea set. "Always a pleasure, Nymphadora," he said. "And you've done quite a good job with this kitchen. It's a nice home."

With that, he turned and went down the short corridor to the trapdoor leading into the tunnel, and disappeared from view.

Maddie wasn't willing to go into the Forbidden Forest at night--"I would prefer that Francis not think of his mother as that long-ago woman who was eaten by one of Hagrid's pets, thanks"--and she worked during the day all week, so it would have to wait until Saturday. Tonks traded Savage for the night watch that night so she'd be free during the day, but there was nothing to do about her mystery until then. She continued work on the Dementor attacks--there was another along the Shochie Burn on Monday, which ultimately led Tonks into the city of Perth, where it turned out there was a small colony of Dementors feeding on the Muggle populace. She and Dawlish went there on Wednesday and rousted them. Dawlish considered the job finished--or as finished as it ever was with Dementors--but Tonks called her father to go and help, if he could, in the Muggle psychiatric hospital where the victims had been sent.

On Thursday, she owled Hermione's birthday present up to the school, wishing in a vague way that she could be there. Her own coming of age--the last among her friends in Hufflepuff--had been celebrated with a great party in the common room, though she supposed Hermione wasn't the sort to have such a thing. Tonks just hoped that Ron Weasley would remember it. She got a note back the same night, thanking her for the gift (a book called Practical Spells Every Witch and Wizard Should Know (But No One Teaches Anymore), which Dad considered the best book published for Muggle-borns trying to navigate their adult lives in the magical world), and assuring her that her birthday had been "quiet, but pleasant enough for all that."

On Saturday morning, Maddie arrived just after dawn, her blonde hair pulled back into a severe braid. She was wearing everyday robes, and Tonks handed her a pair of jeans and a heavy jumper as soon as she came through the door.

"We're going through the forest, Maddie. Do you remember how many school robes you tore in there in detentions?"

Maddie grinned sheepishly and ducked behind a screen Tonks Conjured to change. "Thanks," she said. "I've got used to thinking of work as something done in robes for the city."

"Do you mostly work indoors?"

"Lovely weather we're having."

Tonks rolled her eyes. At first, they'd all pressed Maddie with questions about what she was doing during her apprenticeship, but as she'd become better at dodging them, finally opting to simply answer any work-related question with a total non-sequitur, they'd started to just ignore Maddie's job. Tonks herself tried to think of Maddie as an assistant in a particularly dull office, who just wanted to come home and talk about more exciting things. Training out the curiosity had taken awhile, but she'd succeeded by the time they'd both finished their job training. As long as nothing particularly brought it to mind. "Is Daffy with Francis today?"

"Oh, yes. Francis likes going to work with Daddy. He goes quite a lot, actually. He likes watching the copy quills while Daffy goes through manuscripts."

"I'm surprised he doesn't grab at them."

"He's not strong enough yet to crawl up to the table. In a couple of years, there may be some interesting illustrations in the new editions of the Standard Book of Spells, unless Daffy gets it through his head that he actually needs to put up some wards around the work table." Maddie came around the screen, wearing Tonks's clothes, which she'd obviously let out a bit. She patted her hips. "I think this is the first pair of jeans I've tried since he was born. It's a bit discouraging."

"I'll trade you my hips for the baby any day of the week." Tonks Summoned a small basket. "If we run into Dawlish, I'm telling him we're just going out for a hike and a picnic up in the meadow."

"There's a meadow?"

"Quite a few of them."

"And you know where they are," Maddie marveled. "Nymphadora Tonks, ultimate London girl, turns highland lass."

Tonks stuck out her tongue, and led Maddie out of the pub. None of her colleagues happened to be in, so there was no need to leave a story anyway.

They talked casually all the way up to McGonagall's gate, letting years of friendship follow their usual script without much thought--gossip about Sanjiv's latest girlfriend (apparently, he'd got a telephone number from one of the Muggle girls at the Edinburgh club and had used it liberally, but was now getting bored), a laugh or two at Daffy's absentmindedness, letters Maddie had got from friends they didn't see regularly anymore. It was pleasant and soothing, if not especially productive, and Tonks suddenly wished they were back at school, before all of this adult nonsense had begun, whispering about boys and worrying about marks. All of this was nothing but an adventure to kill a few hours when work was slow, and if the wrong person caught wind of it, the worst that would happen was a detention with Professor Sprout.

"...and do you remember Connie Peale? Lizzie saw him at-- Tonks?"

Tonks had stopped by the wall, under the four pine cones lined up in magical perpetuity. "We're here," she said.

"Are you all right?"

"Do you ever wish we were back at first year?"

"Oh, constantly." Tonks looked at her, surprised, and she laughed. "Honestly, Tonks, you don't think you're all that unique, do you? Everyone wishes to go back now and then. Our parents want it, too, I'd bet. I used to look at the Time Turners sometimes and think, 'You know... how hard would it be?'"

"And then you remembered how bad it sometimes was or whatnot? That there wouldn't be Francis, or everything gets better?"

"No. That was before he came along, anyway, and I wasn't unhappy. I just realized that if I went back, it would still be too short. No matter how many times you go back. So you might as well just keep going forward. It's just homesickness. And that's my philosophy for the day. This is the place?"

Tonks nodded. "Detection spells."

They sent out detection spells (Maddie's had improved exponentially since the last time Tonks had seen it, during their seventh year N.E.W.T.-level Charms class), and no one seemed to be on the road. Tonks opened the gate and they slipped into the Forest.

"Do you suppose McGonagall wishes she could be the little girl in plaits that she used to be?" Tonks asked.

"McGonagall?"

"This is her gate. She ran away to this place when she was a student. Though she did exact a promise to not share that with current students."

"McGonagall," Maddie said, bemused. "You know, I'd wager that she does sometimes, though I can't imagine it. Dumbledore, too, I'm sure. Of course, they didn't leave, did they? What are we looking for?"

Tonks told her about the stream as they went further into the Forest, but by the time the reached the sunny glade with the gate in the center of it, they still hadn't found it. Maddie only smiled faintly at the colorful fairies; her attention was caught entirely by the gate.

"May we stop and look at this?"

"I suppose. McGonagall wasn't certain, but she thinks it's likely a portal for magical creatures. It didn't take her anywhere."

Maddie bent and looked at it, frowning. "There were quite a few of these built, perhaps a hundred years ago, maybe more. It was when the Muggles really started industrializing things, at any rate. There are some here, some in the Black Forest in Germany, a few entry gates scattered in Unplottable forests around the world." She looked up. "I imagine that's classified, though I can't imagine what for at this late date."

"I understand."

"The headmaster at the time--Phineas something or other--"

"Nigellus," Tonks said, grinning.

"Yes, well, he objected, quite rightly, to allowing anything on the grounds that humans could travel through. The gates are for magical creatures. I believe several were herded through them at the time, and they were left there as an escape."

"How would a beast know?"

"They're attractive to them somehow or other; I'm not clear on it. As you might guess, it's not my Division."

Tonks looked around the clearing. "Would they attract Dementors?"

"They shouldn't," Maddie said uncertainly. "And outside of the department, I don't think anyone knows where the gates are to lead them to directly. Have you... checked our department? No. Wait. I don't want to know that. If you haven't, you should. I don't think anyone would... But there's a lot they could use, if... well... Is that water I hear?"

Tonks listened. As Maddie had spoken, another sound had come into the clearing--the soft sound of water rushing over small stones. "That's it," she said. "It's on the far side of the clearing."

They ran across the clearing, not wanting the stream to disappear again, ignoring the brightly colored fairies buzzing after them. Soon they were back under the cover of the trees, and the wandering stream ran before them, a ribbon in the earth. They followed it, Tonks carefully leaving marks on the trees as they went.

The sound of the water deepened somehow, became rich and echoing, and Tonks wasn't surprised when the banks began to spread and the trickle of water emptied into the wide pool she'd seen the other night. At the far side of it, she saw a brilliant, sun-dappled light. Something moved, but it was too far away to see what.

"It's beautiful..." Maddie said, sitting down heavily on the moist ground. "Oh, Tonks, it's beautiful."

"What is it?"

"I don't know. We should--"

But Tonks wasn't listening. As Maddie spoke, she'd looked up into the trees. "Look out!" she yelled, dragging Maddie to her feet.

The shape fell from the trees, a line of web trailing behind it, pincers clicking. Another dropped from a tree further away.

"Run!"

The pool was already narrowing into a stream, the glade vanishing.

Tonks and Maddie ran.