Chapter 367 - 367

Taking a bag of money from Kreacher, who appeared, I left the house, walking to the dark alley from which I usually apparate. That's exactly what I did this time, but I had to apparate as much as four blocks to the address I needed — I simply haven't been there yet. Moving at a moderately fast pace through the streets of a residential area of London at night, I took a Two-way mirror out of my pocket. Only now I realized that I had not cast a muggle-repellent charm, and taking out my wand, unnoticed by a possible observer, corrected this issue as soon as I entered the shadow of the house.

Tapping my wand on the mirror, I put it back in the holster on my forearm and waited for an answer. For a dozen seconds, I had to just go and look at the mirror, but my reflection was replaced by Tonks's sleepy face, wrapped in a blanket. She was clearly lying in bed, and with a sleepy look full of discontent, she was trying to focus on me. She succeeded pretty quickly.

"Hey, um... Wanted something, huh? It's the middle of the night. You know? M-yes?"

Tonks's eyes began to close, so I resorted to emergency measures, copying Moody's voice.

"Wake up, Auror Tonks!" I barked into the mirror.

Tonks immediately jumped up on the bed and apparently stood on it with her feet. She was dressed in some sort of dimensionless pink shirt, and around I could make out a quite ordinary but old-fashioned room for one person. Nymphadora looked at me with her eyes wide open, holding a mirror at arm's length in front of her. Her gaze cleared quickly, and the girl was about to give out an angry speech, as evidenced by her flushed hair, but I beat her to it.

"Help and consultation are required. Right now."

"R-r-r..." Nymphadora literally crushed the incipient curses, quickly coming back to normal and sitting down on the bed. "Tell me."

I outlined the situation in a nutshell.

"How to make an application to the DMLE quickly?"

"Oh, it's a lot of bureaucracy. You'll sit there all day. And there's no reception tomorrow."

"Um... Weekend? It's a law enforcement agency."

"That's the norm, isn't it?"

"No."

"I don't know," Tonks shrugged. "Duty officers and patrols work, but the application has to go through a bunch of departments, and they don't work."

"I see. Then I need your help. Can you arrange and register everything bypassing the bureaucracy?"

"And how do you imagine it?" Tonks was quite seriously indignant, although I can see from the look that she is also worried about the current situation. "I will come to the ministry and immediately to the head of the DMLE for a signature?"

"Even so," I nodded.

"I'm a junior auror, Max. I don't have such privileges."

"Arrogance" is the second happiness. Take Moody with you and storm the office you need. He may be crazy, but he can get in all the doors. I owe you a favor.

Tonks clearly imagined this process and was noticeably depressed.

"I need a parchment with your signature because there will be a statement on your behalf?"

"Yes, as the victim's mentor."

"Mentor? So you're already an apprentice? In what?" Nymphadora asked much more lively, changing her hair color a couple of times.

"Master of Transfiguration, Miss Tonks," I held up my hand with the ring.

"Oh... Wow!" Tonks jumped up from the bed. "But... How? Wow!"

"It's a secret between you and me, Nymphadora."

Upon hearing her name, Tonks was about to be outraged, and even her hair turned scarlet, but seeing my serious face, she only smirked.

"Excellent, Master Knight."

"One more thing. We don't know if the other two girls, or rather their relatives, will decide to make things public."

"Then two parchments with a signature, the chapeau "Statement," addressed to the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Amelia Bones, outlining the events and the essence of the statement on both options. Attached documents?"

"I'll let you know later."

"Good. Write, fill out, send. When you decide on the list of documents and applications - send certified copies, we will write them down. I'll fill out the rest on the way."

"Great. I'll be in touch."

Closing the mirror, I looked around — I almost reached the right apartment building. It seems that not only the Blacks settled in the city at one time. The right house was somewhat similar to the one on Grimmauld Place, but at the same time, the neighborhood was clearly richer, and the facades tidier. Fresh window frames, clean brick walls, a well-groomed and pleasant backyard with a playground and everything like that, a view of which opened from around the corner of the house.

As I thought, the door I needed, unlike the others in this house, was the entrance to the apartment and not to the stairs with apartments. Using a massive metal ring, I knocked on the door. There was no answer. Waiting... Nobody. I knocked again. The door creaked open, and a middle-aged house-elf poked his head out. Although he wore a toga made of a white sheet, he looked almost like an emperor.

"Late guests are highly undesirable in the house of the esteemed Mr. Guber," the house-elf spoke reproachfully, nodding a couple of times at the end, adding importance to his words.

"A matter of urgent importance. Extra galleons for inconveniences. Tell him, esteemed house-elf, that Mr. Guber is being called by a representative of the Black House."

The "esteemed house-elf" was imbued with the fact that he was "esteemed," hesitated a little, but opened the door wider, inviting me in.