Nymphadora Tonks, a graduate of Hogwarts. Tonks and Eda had seen each other a few times at school, but they could only be considered acquaintances, not close in any meaningful way.
Therefore, even after realizing the woman was her senior from Hogwarts, Eda did not lower her guard. After all, how many witches and wizards on the British Isles weren't Hogwarts graduates?
Still, Eda did not attack again. She gave the other woman a chance to speak, because Tonks seemed to know something about her situation, and her tone carried no discernible hostility.
"Why are you here?" Eda asked again. "And why were you following me?"
Tonks understood that Eda had misunderstood her intentions, but she did not blame Eda for failing to recognize goodwill. Anyone would be suspicious of someone sneaking around behind them like she had been.
Tonks shifted her appearance back to her true form—heart-shaped face, dark and bright eyes—and said, "Someone was following you in secret last year. This year, someone is doing it again."
"And how do you know that?" Eda asked.
"After graduating from Hogwarts, I entered Auror training and met many people," Tonks said, feeling the bindings on her loosen slightly. "There, I noticed some people whispering suspiciously to each other. Eventually, I found out they were secretly tailing someone."
"So you disguised yourself and followed them to find out what they were up to," Eda said. "And then you discovered that the person they were following was me—a student."
If this had been about anyone else—a new Auror trainee managing to disguise herself and keep surveillance on her colleagues—Eda might not have believed it. But with Tonks, it was entirely plausible.
Normally, Eda shouldn't have had much interaction with an upper-year Hufflepuff senior—especially one so much older—but Tonks had a special ability. Tonks was a natural Metamorphmagus, able to change her appearance at will.
It was this innate talent that made Eda remember her. And it was this same talent that made Tonks well-suited to becoming an Auror, to hiding and disguising herself.
But whether it was the two people who had followed Eda before, or the witch who had looked somewhat familiar, none of them had escaped Eda's notice. She had discovered them all.
Eda cancelled the spell. Freed from the vines' bindings, Tonks regained her mobility.
She patted the dust off herself, stood up, and continued, "Yeah. I was curious, and I wanted to test how much I'd learned, so I imitated them and monitored them in return. But for some reason, they suddenly withdrew their surveillance on you. Even now, I still don't know what their purpose was or whose orders they were following."
"No wonder that witch looked so familiar, but I couldn't remember where I'd seen her," Eda said. "So that was you!"
Tonks's hair suddenly turned bright red, and she said, a little embarrassed, "So you noticed me after all. Looks like my disguise isn't good enough yet."
"I didn't recognize your face," Eda said. "It was your posture and movements that felt familiar to me. Also—I discovered you monitoring someone else first, and from that, I noticed the two wizards who were watching me."
Eda didn't hide anything and spoke plainly. She understood Tonks well enough to know that speaking directly worked best with this senior of hers.
Eda continued, "You said someone else was following me again. What do you mean? Was it the same people from last time?"
During this summer holiday, more and more people crowded into the Leaky Cauldron. Their gawking, their curious probing gazes—all of it made Eda uncomfortable. In such an environment, her attention to the crowd had dropped significantly, so she hadn't noticed that someone was watching her again.
"I'm not really sure what exactly is going on," Tonks said, scratching her head; her hair grew even redder. "All I know is that there were several different groups of people monitoring you. But strangely, they didn't seem to know about one another. It doesn't look like they're working together."
Tonks's hair always changed with her emotions. Feeling embarrassed now, it shifted accordingly into a deeper red.
Tonks had only come to Diagon Alley—and to the Leaky Cauldron—because of an Auror training assignment.
She noticed some suspicious behavior in the pub and assumed those people were her mission targets. Since she had picked the wrong targets, her assignment obviously couldn't be completed.
But she unexpectedly discovered something else: all of those people were targeting Eda.
Being followed and watched for two consecutive years piqued Tonks's curiosity all over again. She wanted to know what secret Esmeralda Twist possessed that made these people so persistent.
So Tonks began to monitor and follow Eda as well, trying to figure out those people's intentions—and to protect her younger schoolmate in the process. Unlike those who disliked Eda or were biased against her, Tonks didn't look down on the girl from the orphanage. In fact, she rather liked her.
Tonks herself was a half-blood witch. Her father, Ted Tonks, was a Muggle, and her mother, Andromeda, was a witch—the daughter of the noble and ancient Black family.
However, because Andromeda married a Muggle, she was disowned by the Blacks. Any Black who had ties to Muggles was struck off the family tapestry by that house that prided itself on being eternally pure. Andromeda wasn't the first, though she might well be the last.
That part was actually quite similar to Eda's father, Louis Rosier. Both came from the Sacred Twenty-Eight; both fell in love with Muggles; both married Muggles despite their families' objections.
Only, their fates were completely different. Andromeda, though disowned, lived a happy life. Louis, though protected by his forceful mother and never struck from the family, died young in an unexpected tragedy.
Leaning together against the wall of the alley, the two with somewhat similar backgrounds, Tonks asked, "Twist, do you have anyone you suspect?"
"I do, but without proof, I can't be sure." Eda thought of her earlier suspicions again, but she didn't want to drag Tonks into this mess, so she didn't voice her thoughts.
"Tell me, I can help you analyze it!" Tonks said excitedly. "I'm going to be an Auror soon—you can count on me for a bit of analysis!"
Though she had already graduated and entered Auror training, Tonks still carried a youthful air; her way of speaking and handling things was a bit impulsive.
Not only did she fail to notice that Eda didn't want her getting dragged into the trouble, she instead enthusiastically volunteered to jump right in. Perhaps this was the noble quality shared by Hufflepuffs.
"When you hadn't graduated yet, you should still remember what I did at school, right?" Eda said. "And I recently appeared in the Daily Prophet—you must have seen it too?"
Eda still didn't say anything directly, but she really couldn't bring herself to reject Tonks's enthusiasm.
Tonks also remembered the things Eda had done—after all, first-years from two different Houses getting into a full brawl wasn't something one saw every day. But Tonks didn't immediately catch what Eda was trying to imply; she could only nod blankly.
"It's getting late. I should head back," Eda said. "Anyway… thank you for the warning, Tonks."
"Do you want to tell Professor Dumbledore?" Tonks suggested. "You can always trust him."
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