Avoiding the Gorgon

Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns.

When Perseus was grown up, Polydectes sent him to attempt the conquest of Medusa, a terrible monster who had laid waste the country. (Bulfinch's Mythology, Book XV)

Theodore Tonks spent the next seven years of his life learning about magic. If he were destined to be a hero, he would receive top grades in every class, his skill on the Quidditch field would be legendary, and witches and wizards alike would sing his praises whenever anyone asked. The fact of the matter was that it was only by the work of several older students that he managed to pass his O.W.L.s (3 A's, two O's, and an E in Muggle Studies), he was an adequate but indifferent flier on a broom, and few students outside those who lived in his dormitory could pick him out in a picture.

As he prepared to take the N.E.W.T. exams in Charms, Transfiguration, and Muggle Studies, he discovered a job opening at the Ministry in the Transportation Department. It was a great deal of paper-sorting, but occasionally, he would be required to go out into the field and sort out tracks and switches. In cases where the tracks were common to the Muggle and Magical train lines, he might have to coordinate with and even Obliviate Muggle officials. All he needed was an E level N.E.W.T. in Charms and A or higher in Transfiguration and Muggle Studies.

This being the case, Ted spent most of his time during the last month and a half of school studying for those particular tests. As his mother had foreseen, he had slowly withdrawn from the family over the years until he rarely came home on Holidays. During the last Easter break, he claimed it was because he needed to study, and Mother agreed that it was so, but she wasn't fooled. She and Father missed Ted greatly, but life had rewarded them with grandchildren in the past few years. It was as if the magical and non-magical portions of the family had each gone their own ways.

Ted's favorite method of studying was to sit on the bank of the lake and practice the spells in his books. There wasn't much he could hurt out there and a great deal of imaginative props to use for his spells. He was practicing silent Summoning and Banishing Charms when he heard the noise of someone crying. It came from behind a nearby tree. He got up and walked over to see Andromeda Black sitting there with a letter in one hand and a handkerchief in another.

He had never quite gotten over the enchantment of the first witch who caught his eye. Today she was in pale gray robes and her hair was in a tangle all around her. He walked over and sat near her.

"Did you get bad news?"

She shook her head. "It's just my sister."

"Is she hurt?"

"I don't know how to describe it. She's just gotten married."

"Isn't that good? She's in love and she's going to have her own family. My brother and sister are both married and have kids..." He trailed off when he saw this wasn't good news to the witch in front of him.

Andromeda looked up at him for the first time. "You're a Mudblood, aren't you? In our family, we have to marry whomever is approved for us to marry."

"Oh."

"My sister is now married to this great brute of a man. When she wasn't very interested in the engagement, our parents let him take her away for a weekend. When she got back, she didn't have a choice if she wanted keep her place in society. So she went through with the wedding last week, and now she says she can't wait until I get married and we can be miserable together."

"Why didn't you go to the wedding?"

"It was hardly something my sister wanted to celebrate."

"Maybe you will fall in love and marry someone you can be happy with."

She sighed. "What do they call you? Tonks?"

"You can call me Ted, or Teddy if you like." He handed her his dry handkerchief.

She took it and wiped her eyes and then peered up at him. "Why are you smiling?"

"Because you're the prettiest witch I've ever spoken with."

She couldn't stop the laugh that burst forth. It was the oddest comment she'd ever heard, and certainly the strangest compliment she could imagine receiving. His face shone in response, as if she had given him a prize in that laugh. She shook her head.

"There's nothing you can do for me, Tonks. We pure-bloods do things differently. I have to marry the wizard my parents choose. It doesn't matter if I like him or not, just how pure the family lines are on both sides. You should have figured it out by now."

He could see why something like that would be difficult to live with. He wondered if he could distract her from her troubles, at least. "It's dinner time. May I see you to the Great Hall?"

She sighed, a bit exasperated. "Look, Mudblood, I can't be seen with you. You go your way, and I'll go mine. Just get away from me."

He looked at her, confused.

"Go!" She made shooing gestures.

He went back to where his books were piled and picked them up. After all this time, she actually talked to him today, and it was more than, "Please pass the flobberworms." Maybe next time... Who was he fooling? Perhaps someday he would have a pretty witch in a home of his own, but the Black family would never allow their daughter to be that witch, and she would never leave them. The hurdle of getting her to actually notice him was even higher.

"Hey, Ted, wait up!"

He turned and groaned. A short witch was walking toward him as quickly as her rather short legs would carry her. She had somehow managed to become portly although she had to climb up and down the same stairs as the rest of them. Ted was not particularly tall, but this witch came only to his nose.

"What is it, Dolores?"

"I was just wondering... I hear you're going to work at the Ministry. What section?"

For one of the few times in his life, Ted wished he had some skill at lying. "I'll be in Transportation, pending my N.E.W.T.s, of course."

She simpered. "I'm going into administrative management. Maybe we'll work in the same office! Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

"Um, yeah, sure, Dolores." Ted wondered if there were any way to get rid of her before they got to the castle.

"I can't wait to be done with school and working at the Ministry." On her face, a dreamy look was pretty creepy. She looked like the man on the moon, and didn't carry it off. "I bet we'll see each other all the time, Ted, just like we do now."

"Oh, well, maybe." It was hardly the stuff of brilliant conversation, but Ted refused to encourage her. Apparently she saw those four syllables as encouragement, because she took his arm and the dreamy look became... meaningful... if that was the right word. Ted resigned himself to walking with her, but drew the line at sitting next to her at the table. He'd never developed a knack for extricating himself from such situations. It was pretty rare that a witch attached herself to him with the tenacity of bubblegum on the bottom of one's shoe on a hot summer day. He wasn't the sort of boy to attract witches.

Ted racked his brain for a way to slip away without giving offense. Dolores, for reasons no one in the student body understood, was a prefect. When she took offense, she was also known for taking a pound of flesh by the most painful means possible. Dealing with her took the utmost diplomacy.

He looked over at the dark-haired witch who was also making her way toward the building. The wind was blowing through the curls around her head. He wished he could find an excuse that would let him talk to her again. She noticed his glance and gave him a withering glare. He appreciated her attention and smiled.

Andromeda wanted to stamp her foot. There was no way to shut this boy down! He even acted as though her anger was a gift to him. How did one cope with such attention? She decided she would have to avoid his notice and not notice him, if at all possible.

Dolores watched the exchange with narrowed eyes. Ted Tonks belonged to her! If Black wanted the Mudblood, she should have sorted to Hufflepuff, too. One way or another she would manage to get his attention and his heart, too. An idea occurred to her. If not his heart, then his gratitude, and if not his gratitude, a little extortion might work.

A few days later, Dolores ran, if one could call it that, down to the spot by the lake where Ted Tonks was again practicing for his N.E.W.T.s. Black was nowhere in the vicinity. Perhaps she wasn't a problem, after all. Dolores had watched very carefully over the past day and a half. Tonks occasionally looked over at the Slytherin table during meals, but no one at Slytherin ever looked back.

When Dolores got close enough to see that Tonks was practicing silent Summoning skills, she spoke to get his attention. "Hey, Ted!"

He immediately stopped what he was doing and stood respectfully. "Good morning, Dolores. Is there anything I can do for you?

She simpered in delight. "Oh, Ted, I'm sure I can think of some things. I just wanted to give you a gift." She handed him a large, sealed envelope.

"What is this?"

"It's the Transfiguration N.E.W.T., complete with answers. Now you can study better."

Ted was aghast. "I can't take this! It's cheating!"

"You won't get caught, Ted, and I thought, since we were special friends..."

"Dolores, I can't be your special friend. I'm just not interested that way. I'm not interested in anyone right now." At least not anyone who would be interested back.

The young witch scoffed. "Ha! You have that envelope now, Tonks. You had better think about that means. I'm a prefect, you know, and I'm charged with helping to maintain the school's standards. I think that in a day or two you will see things differently."

He looked pained but didn't respond. She saw that she had made her point. An excessively pink fingernail reached up to caress the line of his clenched jaw. "We can be very good friends... Teddy. Just wait. You'll see."

She looked and saw the glower in his eye and decided not to press her point too hard. She smiled one last time and flounced back up to the castle. Ted Tonks, who usually had a kind word for those who came past him, glared at her until she went over the rise of the hill and he no longer saw her.

Ted now had a problem. He had no intention of breaking the seal of that envelope, but just the fact that it was in a pile with his books and class notes was damning. He didn't want to be in bondage to Dolores, but he didn't want to get in trouble. In just a few short months, he planned to be living his adult life, doing something that would matter more than endless changing of rocks to hedgehogs or Summoning bricks from one side of the classroom to the other. Something like this could ruin that forever.

Ted puzzled it out all through the morning as he practiced the blocks he needed for his Defense Against the Dark Arts N.E.W.T. He had not intended to take it, but his House Head, Professor Morgan, insisted that most of the Wizarding population would need these skills, especially those with a future at the Ministry. He wished it were as easy to block Dolores's machinations. It never worked. Whenever he looked, there she was, smiling at him as though they shared a delicious joke. After lunch he went to the library to study for the written portion of his exams, hoping he could avoid her just long enough to figure out what to do.

Late in the afternoon, Ted found that he was alone in the library. He could hear that one or two other students were present, but he couldn't see them. He was just aware of the scratch of quill on parchment or the sound of pages flipping. He couldn't see the student who seemed to be stalking him, and he doubted that she was one of those studying. This would give him a chance to think without her breathing down his neck.

If he went along with her just enough to get out of this jam, Dolores would no doubt figure out a way to tie him up again, and again, until he didn't recognize his own principles and until she had tied him up for life. If he did nothing, she would stage some sort of event that would lead to the "discovery" of the illicit material in his possession. Either way, his life would be ruined by that cow. A third option needed to come to mind.

Just as Ted's head was starting to ache, the library doors opened and Professors McGonagall and Morgan came in laughing together. They headed to the Restricted Section. Ted realized the answer lay in calling the cow's bluff. He almost laughed himself.

During lunch the next day, Dolores was eating her lunch and enjoying her plan. Ted was looking pretty worried, and she knew that she would have him. There was no way he would allow his future with the Ministry to be ruined. She smiled in delight.

Lunch was drawing to a close, and the professors were making their way out. As she walked to the door, the Deputy Headmistress stopped by the Hufflepuff table. "I wonder if I might have a word with you, Miss Umbridge."

Dolores nodded her assent and skipped behind Professor McGonagall. It was probably about her prefect duties. There was always some troublesome spot in the castle that needed a little extra attention. She pulled up short when the Transfiguration teacher led her into her classroom and she also saw her House Head leaning against a window.

"Good afternoon, Miss Umbridge. Why don't you have a seat?" said Professor Morgan.

After she was seated, Dolores saw the envelope in McGonagall's hand and went white.

"I was given this by another student and it traced back to you," the teacher said.

"I'm not sure what it is," said Dolores.

"You know very well that it's the Tranfiguration N.E.W.T," answered the teacher.

"That sneaking Tonks! He'll do anything to discredit me!" Her voice rose an octave as both teachers shook their heads.

"Actually, we couldn't get Mr. Tonks to tell us who put the envelope in his hands. There are other ways to discover what happened. We've become accustomed to students not wanting to actually work for their good marks," said McGonagall acerbically.

Dolores's next gambit was to smile brightly. "Oh, yes, of course! I found it and showed it to Ted. He told me he would take care of it."

McGonagall smiled grimly. "Somehow I knew that was the story that would eventually come out. Very well, Dolores. We'll call this a fortunate retrieval of the document in question. However, in the future, if you should come upon any testing materials that should not be at large, I would appreciate your bringing them directly to one of the Professors. Is that understood?"

"Of course, Professor."

"William? Do you have anything to add?"

"Just that I'm grateful that no real damage was done. I'm pleased that Hufflepuff House's reputation for honesty is being maintained." Professor Morgan's tone of voice indicated that he knew exactly how honest the Hufflepuff standing before him really was.

The student in question somehow missed the insinuation and skipped off to her common room. Minerva sighed and sat down at her desk. William conjured a chair nearby for himself.

"I don't understand how Albus could select her as a prefect," he said.

"His choices are a bit odd from time to time."

"Has he been distracted by the other project he's working on?"

"It is taking a toll, but I don't think it's distracting him from things here at Hogwarts. He always felt the school was at the center of that struggle."

"Then what could he have been thinking?"

"Perhaps he feels it's better to put the girl in a position where he can keep a closer eye on her? If she's working with the teachers as part of her prefect duties, she's more in our line of vision."

"Is it working?"

"Who can tell? I do know the same strategy did nothing in a similar case thirty years ago when Armando Dippet was Headmaster. Or...terrifying thought...perhaps it did help."

Thank you, Trickie Woo, for beta reading!