"Cool! Look!"
Charlie Weasley stood with his wand raised, his face flushed as he focused on his puppet.
Under the guidance of his magic, the puppet's stiff fingers suddenly spread apart. The runes at its fingertips flashed—
"Whoosh!"
Several lifelike fire snakes burst from its fingers, spiralling through the air. Their power wasn't great, but the control was remarkably precise.
The young witches and wizards were thrilled, gasping in amazement.
"Very creative. The runic power is stable as well," William said with an approving nod. "Five points to Gryffindor."
As the students drifted out of the classroom in small groups, excitedly discussing what cool features they would add to their own puppets... William tossed his books to his puppet and prepared to leave as well.
Only after most of the class had gone did Tonks, who had deliberately lingered behind, approach with a flushed face.
"Professor… I'm sorry." She lowered her head, staring at her shoes. "I shouldn't have gone to training without requesting leave. That was my fault."
William looked at the drooping brown head before him and had already made up his mind.
At Hogwarts, skipping class without notice, especially a core subject like Defence Against the Dark Arts—was considered a fairly serious breach of discipline. But considering Professor Sprout's earlier plea and Tonks's excellent O.W.L. results in her file, he decided to let her off.
"Don't let it happen again, Miss Tonks," William said gently. "If you want to be an Auror, discipline comes first. Now off you go—don't let Filch catch you after curfew."
"Thank you, Professor!" Tonks exclaimed in relief, dragging her alchemical puppet out of the classroom as if fleeing the scene.
---
Back in the warm and cosy Hufflepuff common room, Tonks dropped the puppet on the floor and collapsed into a soft armchair.
Instead of feeling relieved after being forgiven, she felt even more miserable.
Looking back on the day—it had been a disaster. Mistaking the new professor for a senior student, forgetting her timetable and getting lost, being scolded by Professor Sprout, and being thoroughly chewed out by Mad-Eye Moody during training…
"Stealth! You call that stealth? That was like a rhinoceros charging into a shop!" Moody's furious voice echoed in her mind the moment she closed her eyes.
Curious Hufflepuffs occasionally wandered by, eyeing the humanoid puppet standing beside her like a bodyguard and asking questions with great interest. Lost in thought, Tonks answered them absent-mindedly with vague "uh-huhs."
Late into the night, the common room gradually emptied, leaving only the occasional crackle of the fireplace.
Tonks sighed and was about to head to bed when her gaze fell on the silent puppet beside her. Suddenly, a lightbulb seemed to switch on in her head.
"Wait…"
She sat bolt upright.
If the alchemical puppet could move on its own, attack on command, even breathe fire like Charlie's… then why did wizards have to risk themselves sneaking around?
"What if the puppet carried out the infiltration instead…?" Tonks's eyes shone brighter and brighter. "No breathing, no heartbeat, no knocking over flowerpots when it gets nervous."
"If it succeeds, great! If it fails, we just lose a puppet. I wouldn't even risk being exposed!"
"This is the perfect stealth plan!"
Sleep vanished instantly. Tonks had always been a woman of action.
After confirming no one else was around, she drew her wand and pointed it at the puppet's chest.
"Professor Shafiq said runic circuits are the key…"
Without a file, she carefully channelled magic through her wand tip and began carving a runic circuit into the puppet's surface.
She chose a rune representing explosion.
Fifteen minutes later, Tonks straightened up and wiped the sweat from her forehead, satisfied with the crooked but recognisable circuit on the puppet's chest. For a first attempt, it wasn't bad at all.
To test it, she cleared the furniture from one side of the room and Transfigured a wooden chair into a crude mannequin to serve as today's "dark wizard."
"Target acquired."
Taking a deep breath, she hid behind the opposite wall, peeking out.
"Listen, big guy. Sneak over quietly… then—boom!"
She issued the command in a whisper.
Under her control, the puppet walked stiffly but silently toward the target.
Tonks's heart pounded. She remembered William's warning: Runic effects are crude—don't inject too much magic.
"Relax, Professor. I value my life," she muttered to herself. "Just a tiny bit of magic. At most, it'll be like a large firecracker."
She was confident that even if the dummy shattered or the floor got scorched, a quick Reparo would fix everything.
Tomorrow, she would proudly present this brilliant invention to Moody and show that old madman what modern Auror tactics looked like.
You're outdated, old man. The wizarding world needs bold young innovators.
The puppet finally reached the target.
Tonks gripped her wand, eyes shining with anticipation, and activated the rune.
"Blow it up!"
The crude explosive rune on the puppet's chest flared bright red. A blinding flash erupted—followed by a wave of terrifying magical energy.
This would be the last time Tonks underestimated ancient magic.
---
That night, Hogwarts was as peaceful as ever. The wind brushed the castle's spires, and moonlight shimmered across the Black Lake.
Students lay in their warm four-poster beds, drifting into dreams—catching the Golden Snitch, earning all Outstanding O.W.L.s, or standing beneath mistletoe…
Just as these dreams deepened, Lee Jordan suddenly jolted upright in his bed in the Gryffindor boys' dormitory.
"Did the room just shake??"
George Weasley rolled over and pulled the blankets over his head. "Probably a minor earthquake… or Peeves knocked over the Vanishing Cabinet."
"Don't fuss, Lee," Fred muttered sleepily. "This castle's a thousand years old. It won't collapse. Go back to sleep."
In Ravenclaw Tower, the reaction was similar. The students sensed the tremor but, hearing nothing further, calmly judged the threat level as low and returned to sleep.
But human experiences are never shared equally—even within the same castle.
For the students sleeping underground in Hufflepuff and Slytherin, things felt very different…
=================
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