Hello everyone, once again! This is the Lonely Lorekeeper, here once again with a new chapter of To Date a Metamorph. Now, I know, this is surprisingly fast—trust me, do not get used to this, I am absolutely horrid at keeping an update schedule, and usually just update whenever I've finished a new chapter and, after reading through it, feel that it is a good chapter. That being said, Chapter 2 is done, and I have it here and ready for all of y'all to enjoy.
On top of that, though, I also have some exciting news. Earlier today, I got a message from losthpfanficwriter, after finally being able to get a message through to them. They've given me the go ahead to use Nymphadora's Beau as an inspiration for To Date a Metamorph, and even to build off of some of their chapters while I'm still here in the beginning phases, provided I give proper reference to the original. Which I have done, now, both on this chapter, the first chapter, and will continue to do in pretty much every one of these headers. So, we are good!
Anyways, that is enough from me, I've said enough! So, without further ado, please enjoy Chapter 2 of To Date a Metamorph.
Chapter 2: Constant Vigilance
The next day, Nymphadora Tonks arrived early outside of the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. She needed to find out when she would be next on the Harry Watch—and who else was also on the list, so that she could try and convince them into letting her take their shifts. Even more than that, though, she wanted to get a better idea of who her target was, which meant getting there early to talk with some of those who knew Harry best. As an Auror, she'd learned well to always be prepared when going into a new situation.
To put it in her favorite mentor's way: CONSTANT VIGILANCE!
As such, on that bright and warm summer morning, Tonks strode up to the front step of Number 12 Grimmauld Place, both her and the stately manor home hidden from view thanks to the Fidelus Charm that surrounded the building. She didn't bother to knock or ring the doorbell—you only had to make that mistake once to realize to never ever do that again—and instead simply swung the door open and strode inside.
"Wotcher all, how're your mornings go—!" Tonks began, announcing to the residents of the manor home as she strode in, only to be cut off as she found herself stumbling and tripping over the rather ugly troll leg umbrella stand. She'd even gone out of her way to walk to the left side of the entranceway, trying to step around the ugly thing.
It did her no good, of course, as it was now somehow standing right in her way, and against her better wishes she found herself stumbling and coming to a crashing fall in the middle of the hallway. The effect was immediate, as the nearby portrait of her dear(ly departed) Aunt Walburga snapped into action, the dark curtains covering her flying open, her wailing and gnashing voice filling the whole house with her vile and hateful screams.
"Filth! Blood traitors! Half-Blood scum! To have the House of Black be so defiled by your very presence is an outrage! Out, out of my house, now! Kreacher! Kreacher, throw these scum out of my house this instant!"
"Oh bollocks," Tonks groused quietly.
As the metamorphmagus pushed herself back up onto her feet, the pounding of heavy footfalls drew closer, only slightly muffled by the shrieking banshee of a portrait. From around the corner of the hallway, Tonks could just barely hear her cousin Sirius Black shout out, "What the bloody hell—who's the devil that decided to go and wake her up?"
"That'd be me, Sirius," Tonks replied awkwardly, giving her older cousin a slightly embarrassed wave.
Upon seeing his younger cousin, Sirius' mask of fury was quickly swept away and replaced with a kind—albeit slightly annoyed—smile. "Oh, Nymmie! Good to see you again—aside from, of course, waking the old hag up again. Go on in, I'll shut my mother up for you."
"Shut me up? Why, I'd like to see you try, you worthless brat of an heir! You traitorous bastard!"
With that, Sirius turned and began trading verbal blows once more with his mother, shouting out a storm of obscenities that quickly filled the entrance hall as he tried to quiet her down. Tonks paused a moment to shoot a glare at her cousin for using that name, even in shortened form, and turned to give the troll leg a swift kick before walking inside. She wasn't certain the piece of furniture was sentient, but in such a place as Grimmauld Place, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Not that it helped any, if her track record was anything to go by.
Beyond the entrance hall, Tonks found herself in the large and formerly-lavish sitting room of Grimmauld Place. The past decade and a half of abandonment and decay had paid its toll here, as well as in most of the other rooms. Still, after more than a little hard work from the Weasleys—who had also taken up temporary residence here—the ground floor was mostly livable once more. She was sure they'd possibly missed one or two skeletons in the closets, but at the moment it was nice enough for the Order members to feel comfortable resting there.
As such, it came as little surprise to Tonks that as she walked into the living room she found Remus Lupin sitting in one of the large armchairs nearby the fireplace, a large and weighty tome in his arms that he read quietly. Feeling she should be polite, the metamorphmagus walked over and waved to try and get Remus' attention.
"Wotcher, Remus, whatcha reading there?"
Remus looked up and smiled gently back at Tonks, lowering his book into his lap. "Oh, it's a new documentary that a friend of mine sent me to read over before she gets it published—she's a journalist, and this is one of her latest writings. It's an interesting read…if you're interested, you can read it after me."
Tonks stared critically back at Remus as she listened to him, though she tried to remain aloof about it. She hadn't noticed it before she'd spoken with her parents, but they were right—he was very respectable, much too quiet and relaxed to be what she was hoping for in a partner. Added to his attitude was the way he was sitting in that arm chair, that book in his hands—hell, even his suit, though a bit old and threadbare in spots—it all reminded her far too much of her father.
Well, thank you Mum for opening my eyes to that, Tonks mentally muttered to herself, quickly tossing Remus into the 'friend-zone only' pile, along with several of her past boyfriends. Aloud, though, she merely smiled and shook her head. "Thanks, but I think I'm good. Enjoy your book, though."
Remus nodded and lifted the book back up from his lap and returned to his reading. As he did, Tonks turned and began walking towards the kitchen where the 'Harry Watch' list was posted. "What brings you here, anyways? Don't you have work before your shift at Privet Drive today?"
"I got some time off," Tonks replied, calling back to him over her shoulder. "Since Fudge is trying to pretend Moldywarts hasn't returned, he's been hemming Auror duties left and right. There's little more to do for us these days other than stand around and talk, and I already do plenty of that here. So, I figured I could do with a break and help out some more."
"Oh, you needn't do that, Nymphadora dearie!"
Tonks grimaced and turned to find Molly Weasley—the matriarch of the Weasley family and the only other person she knew of that was more mothering to her than her own mother—standing nearby in the kitchen, working over the stove making lunch. The plump, red-haired woman quickly began bustling her way over to Tonks, dusting her hands off on her apron.
"You are always so busy with your duties here and with the Aurors, no need to come here and busy yourself some more! You're a young woman, you should be out enjoying your life, meeting some nice men—nicer men than you have in the past, at least—not bothering yourself with more work! Leave that to the adults, Tonks sweetie."
Tonks' hair turned bright red as she struggled to keep from shouting the Weasley mother out—and, of course, once more awakening the wrath of Aunt Walburga's portrait. "For the last time, Mrs. Weasley, don't call me Nymphadora! Just call me Tonks, honestly! And anyways, I'm not your child, am I? I'm not a child at all, I'm twenty-one!"
"No need to use that tone with me, dearie," Molly Weasley replied, turning away with a huff, before quickly turning and marching over to harp on Remus over the glass he was drinking from. Apparently, he wasn't using a coaster, and she didn't want the water from the glass to ruin her table. Tonks just frowned and turned back to the roster, her hair slowly bleeding back into a bright pink as she tried to release her anger.
The nerve of that woman.
Sighing to herself, Tonks decided to leave the conflict behind her as she turned her attention back to the roster. The Harry Watch roster was a simple sheet of pale parchment that had been hung on the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. Charmed by Dumbledore himself, the parchment updated its contents to reflect another parchment the elder wizard kept on hand. As it was, the new schedule was up, covering the next few days of the week.
Week of July 10th to July 16th
Monday, July 10th
Midnight to 8am—Sturgis P.
8am to 4pm—Kingsley S.
4pm to Midnight—Nymphadora T.
Tuesday, July 11th
Midnight to 8am—Mungdungus F.
8am to 4pm—Remus L.
4pm to Midnight—Arthur W.
Wednesday, July 12th
…
Tonks scanned over the list of names and times for a moment before her face split into a knowing smirk. At the moment, it was eleven in the morning, so Kingsley was already over at Privet Drive watching Harry, but right after him she would have her turn to watch over Harry. After her was Mungdungus Fletcher, a rather grubby wizard who was more than a little bit lazy. No doubt he'd be more than willing to give her his shift, giving her an extra eight hours.
She wanted a full day with Harry, though, to really get the balls rolling on this relationship she hoped to pursue. Still smirking to herself, Tonks turned back to the living room and walked out, passing Molly Weasley on the way. Apparently she was done berating Remus about his drink and was back to cooking as usual.
"Hey, Remus, do you mind if I take your shift tomorrow?"
Remus was back to reading his book from his friend again, though he lowered it a bit so he could look over at Tonks. "You mean with the Harry Watch?" he asked, a look of surprise and no small part confusion spreading across his face. "No, I don't mind, so long as you don't mind me asking why you're interested?"
"Well, I've got nothing better going on," Tonks simply lied with a shrug. Behind her, she could hear Molly huff and mutter something about kids these days. She ignored her. "Keeping an eye on the boy wonder should help stave off some of the boredom, and anyways I did say I came here to help."
Remus nodded, his face relaxing into a tired smile. "Well then, by all means, go right ahead. I could definitely use the break, myself—it's a full moon starting Wednesday, and I'm going to need all the sleep I can get." As he said that, he seemed to slump a bit more in his armchair, and Tonks noticed that he did seem a bit more haggard than normal.
"Great!" Tonks beamed in return. "Well then, enjoy your book and get your rest!"
With that, Tonks made to turn and disappear into the rest of the manor—she still needed to find some of Harry's friends that were staying at Grimmauld, after all, so that she knew a bit more about her target before she tried pursuing him. Before she could go anywhere, though, she noticed her cousin finally come trudging back from the entrance hall. It seemed that Aunt Walburga had a lot to talk about this time, if the length of her tirade and the slumping of Sirius' shoulders were anything to go by.
As soon as he saw his cousin, however, the mangy Black heir perked up and came trotting over to her and Remus. "Well, now, NymphieeEYOWW!"
Tonks shot her cousin a glare as she twirled her wand back into its holster up her sleeve, the stinging hex she'd thrown his way silencing him for a moment. "Call me Nymphadora again, Sirius, and I'll be sure to aim a little lower and a little harder next time."
Sirius chuckled awkwardly at the threat. "Message received."
Tonks nodded smartly back at him, though her lips turned up into a smirk after a moment. She couldn't stay mad at him—after all, he was her mother's favorite cousin, and her favorite uncle-cousin. It had been a real shock for them when he'd turned up at the Tonks's about a year ago, clinging to the back of the enormous hippogriff that now resided in a bedroom on the second floor. But after a good washing and a few good meals, Sirius Black was looking better than ever, and he'd even regained a bit of that bright fire she'd remembered so fondly burning in his eyes.
Smirking back at her, Sirius clapped his hands and looked between her and Remus. "So, now that my dear aunt is finally shut up once more, what did I miss?"
Remus was the first to speak, though this time he didn't look up from his book. "Tonks volunteered to take my shift tomorrow and I got reprimanded by Molly for not using a drink coaster on the 'valuable antique furniture'." The werewolf rolled his eyes and reached over to take another pass at his drink before setting it back down on the coaster the Weasley matriarch had provided him.
Sirius snorted in reply—it was no secret that he and Molly tended to butt heads, and he was glad to hear he wasn't the only one. Still, he turned to Tonks and raised an eyebrow, a gleam in his eyes. "So, you'll be spending a bit more time around the pup, eh?"
The way he asked that made a shiver run down Tonks' spine. "Uh, yeah, that's right," she nodded.
Sirius nodded back at her, then glanced around the room surreptitiously. Aside from Remus sitting literally about a meter away, there wasn't anyone else in the living room to watch them. Even Molly, after checking on the food she was cooking on the stove, had bustled off deeper into the manor, likely to do more cleaning. When he felt sure that they were alone and unbothered, Sirius then reached into his robes and pulled out a few letters, each still sealed.
"Could you give these to him, then, if you get the chance?"
Tonks blinked owlishly back at him. This was not at all what she had been expecting from her cousin. Perhaps some stern talking to about needing to get a life—and possibly get laid, knowing Sirius—or maybe a joke about her spending too much time with a younger man that would hit the nail a little too close to the head for comfort. This, though, threw her for a loop. "Um…why?"
Sirius sighed, running a hand through his shaggy jet black locks. "Dumbledore's been trying to keep Harry out of the loop here with the Order, which means that a lot of the mail that gets sent Harry's way, he tries to keep it censored. I haven't been able to write Harry, at least not as well as I'd prefer. So, if you could sneak these to him while you're there, I'd really appreciate it."
Her gaze softened—of course Sirius would be worried for Harry like that, he was his godfather after all, and he wanted to know his godson was doing alright. Tonks nodded, taking the letters back from Sirius and quickly slipping them away inside her robes. "You got it, Sirius. I'll see what I can do."
Tonks then paused and glanced up towards the stairs for a moment. "By the way, before I head off, I was thinking of talking to some of the kids, see if they know anything I should be aware of while keeping an eye on Harry. They upstairs?"
Sirius nodded, moving to join Remus in one of the large armchairs, dropping with a low sigh. "Yeah, they're up there. The twins are messing around with some of their supplies in their room, I think, I wouldn't suggest checking in on them. And the two younger Weasleys are in one of the other bedrooms up there too, I think. Oh, and Hermione is over in the library."
"The library?" the screech of Molly Weasley called out, as she had just so happened to be passing through to check on her dishes once more. Instead, the red-headed woman quickly bustled over to Sirius, her face a mask of fury. "Sirius, I can't believe you'd actually let her go off on her own in there! She's a child, and that library is no place for a child like her! I swear…"
Before Molly could get too far along in her tirade, Tonks took the moment to slip away and make her way upstairs.
True to Sirius' words, Tonks found the two youngest Weasley children holed up in one of the bedrooms on the second floor. There were only a few that were fully cleaned up and ready for those staying at Grimmauld place to stay in, the others still in the same level of decay and darkness that they had been in for the past fifteen years. In Ron and Ginny's case, though, they were in what Ron had come to claim as 'his' room, a fairly small but nice room at the end of the hall with a window overlooking the street below.
At the moment she found them, the two Weasley children were sitting around lazily, a board for wizard's chess set up between them, though neither was really paying too much attention to it. Instead, Ron was enjoying what looked to be a fairly hefty roast beef sandwich, while his sister Ginny was flipping idly through a copy of Witch Weekly.
"Wotcher, Ron, Ginny," the metamorph called out as she entered the room. "You two doing alright?"
"At the moment," Ron replied between bites of his sandwich. He reached over and moved one of his knights on the board, taking one of Ginny's bishops.
"We're trying to avoid our mum, mostly," Ginny replied, looking back up from her magazine to stare at the chess board. She shot her brother an only-slightly-annoyed scowl, before looking back up at Tonks. "She's been running us ragged, trying to get this whole place cleaned up. It's a nightmare. Anyways, what's up?"
Tonks plopped down on the other bed in the room opposite them and swung her legs around so that she was sitting cross-legged. "Well, I'm going to be going on Harry Watch in a few hours, and I was wondering if the two of you could sort of tell me what the boy's like so I can keep a better eye on him."
"Didn't Dumbledore say you lot weren't supposed to talk to Harry while keeping an eye on him?" Ron asked, taking another bite of his sandwich as Ginny moved one of her rooks across the board to take a pawn.
Tonks just waved his question away. "Yeah, but I'm not planning to actually talk to him," she casually lied, "I just want to get a better idea of what he's like. You know, so I can keep a better eye on him, see if anything unusual is going on."
Her explanation seemed to make sense to the two Weasley children, and they noticeably turned their attention to her, Ginny putting down her magazine and Ron looking away from the chess board. "Well, I don't really see why you want that, but alright," Ron replied with a shrug, setting his sandwich down for a moment. "I mean, he doesn't really talk a whole lot about his life outside of school. Doesn't really sound like he does much."
The metamorph frowned a bit at that answer. This was Harry Potter's best mate? "What do you mean, he doesn't do much? What has he told you?"
Ron shrugged lamely, while Ginny just sighed softly. "Well, we've never really pressed him on it. His relatives aren't all that nice to him, so he doesn't talk a lot about it, and it seems kind of rude to try and ask about it."
"Well, what's he like at school, then?" Tonks asked—there had to be something good she could get from these two, from all the time they spent around Harry.
Unfortunately, the response only disappointed her more.
"Well, he's on the Quidditch team for Gryffindor," Ron replied, beaming at the thought of his friend, or probably at the chance to gush about his favorite sport. "He's the seeker, and probably the best in all of Britain. He's a wicked flier, some of the things I've seen him done are absolutely insane, I'm surprised he hasn't hurt himself more during the games!"
"He has hurt himself, though, Ron," Ginny lightly reminded, though she also looked just as dazzled. Turning back to Tonks, though, she simply shrugged. "Other than that, he mostly just hangs out with Ron and plays chess."
"Just…hangs out?" Tonks asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah, what else is he gonna do outside of Quidditch?" Ron asked with a shrug. "I mean, sometimes we go to the library, but that's just because of Hermione, and it's just so boring. We're not even taking any classes that need that much studying anyways."
"What about girls?" Tonks asked, hoping to get something useful from them. "What sort of girls is he interested in?"
At this, Ginny Weasley turned a bit pink in the face, and puffed up a bit. "Actually, Harry's not that interested in most girls," she replied tersely. "If anything, though, he's interested in girls that can play Quidditch—he was really taken by Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw Seeker, last year, and I'd bet he'd fancy another Quidditch girl, too, if she was more attractive to him."
"No need to try and be subtle about it, Ginny," Ron replied with a roll of the eyes, "we all know you're talking about yourself."
Ginny blushed brightly before glaring back at her brother and cuffing him on the side of the head lightly. "Prat!"
Tonks sighed—she could tell she wasn't going to get much else out of them. It was rather disappointing, actually. From what she'd heard, Ron was Harry's first friend his age, and pretty much everyone at Grimmauld knew how much Ginny Weasley was crushing on the dark and broody Boy-Who-Lived. She'd hoped that, with them that close to him, she would've gotten more information.
Deciding she'd had enough, Tonks hopped up from the bed and made her way to the door. "Well, thanks for the help. This has been really helpful, really."
The two nodded and turned back to their game, and with a frustrated sigh, Tonks turned and walked out before they could say anything else. Out in the hall, she quickly made her way down towards the Black family library. Perhaps Ron and Ginny hadn't been able to offer up much in the form of useful advice, but maybe Harry's other best friend, Hermione, would be able to tell her what she needed to know.
She found the bushy-haired bookworm a little way into the library, nestled into a seat at one of the large tables, several large tomes surrounding her while she read out of another. Tonks glanced over the titles that she could see out of curiosity—though a few of them were family histories, the larger portion of Hermione's piles were dedicated to defensive magics.
Stepping closer, Tonks pulled one of the chairs out from the table and slid in across from Hermione. "Wotcher, Hermione, what are you up to?"
Hermione looked up from the tome she was reading for a moment before looking back down at it. "Oh, just doing some light reading. I've been interested in the books here at Grimmauld Place, I was wondering if they had anything interesting or unique in the forms of combating the Dark Arts. After all, the Blacks were a fairly dark family, at least that's what Sirius and their own family histories suggest, so I figured they must have better resources for handling them."
Hermione said all of that fairly quickly as she read through the passages before her, quickly flipping the page once she was done. Tonks stared in surprise, before cracking a smile. "Well, I'm glad one of you has a good head on straight going into this war, then," she commented with a chuckle.
Nodding, Hermione continued staring into her book. "Well, someone has to, and with Harry being at the center of it all…well, I just want to be sure that I can help keep him safe, too."
"I know what you mean," Tonks nodded, seeing her chance to try and casually broach the subject, "Actually, speaking of keeping Harry safe, I'm gonna be taking my shift of the Harry Watch here in a few hours, and I was wondering if there was anything you could tell me about him."
Hermione pause mid-page-flip, and slowly looked back up at Tonks with a puzzled expression. "How do you mean?"
"Well, I just want to try and get to know him better, that's all," Tonks replied with a shrug, trying to act nonchalant about it. "I figure that if I can know him better, I might be able to keep a closer eye on him and tell if something's wrong. You understand, right Hermione?"
Hermione frowned, pursing her lips slightly as she thought. "I believe I do…though, you should be careful about it. Remember, Dumbledore has forbidden us from talking to Harry. He told us that Harry still needs time to grieve. If he finds out about this, you could be in trouble."
Another sour frown spread across Tonks' face as she heard Hermione's words. Leave Harry alone to grieve? When had that ever worked out? "Hermione, can I ask…do you actually believe that?"
The bushy-haired bookworm sighed, taking a moment to glance around the library a moment. It reminded Tonks rather strikingly of Sirius from back in the living room, though with all of the bookshelves surrounding them, it was more than a little difficult to tell they were truly alone. Finally, after a moment of silence, Hermione turned back to Tonks and quietly shook her head.
"Not really…but I can't exactly argue against Dumbledore, can I? For a while, at the start of the summer, I tried writing Harry often, but Dumbledore told me I had to tone it down, that Harry wouldn't like being badgered with letters." She then sighed and gave the metamorph a small shrug. "Besides, even if it's not to help with his grieving, Dumbledore is the leader of the light, so...he must have a good reason still, right?"
"You would think so," Tonks replied, liking the sound of this less and less. Sighing, she shook her head and returned to her previous train of thought. "Anyways, supposing that I would be allowed to talk to Harry, what's he like? I tried getting an answer out of the younger Weasleys, but they didn't have much to say."
To Tonks' surprise, Hermione only nodded smartly back. "Not surprised, honestly," Hermione replied, "Ginny really only tends to see Harry as 'the Boy-Who-Lived', this larger-than-life hero. And Ron…well…" Hermione sighed. "Ron's always been a bit more simple. Don't get me wrong, he's a good friend in a pinch, but he can be more than a bit self-interested."
"So what's he like to you?" Nymphadora asked, filing this information away for later.
Hermione paused a moment to think, before a small smile slipped onto her face. "Well…Ginny's not wrong in thinking he's a hero. From the past four years at Hogwarts, Harry has done some amazing things in order to save the day. But the thing about that is that he's also so humble about it. He never brags about what he's done, what he's accomplished. He doesn't act like he's special, just that he was doing what needed to be done, what anyone else would've done."
Tonks smiled, already more pleased with the information coming from Hermione than Ron or Ginny. Hermione, however, wasn't done, as she soon continued.
"I think, most important about Harry that anyone trying to get to know him is that he doesn't like being thought of as 'the Boy-Who-Lived'. He hates how famous he is over something he doesn't even remember, something that resulted in the deaths of his mum and dad. He just wants to be known as Harry, as himself. That's probably why he loves Quidditch so much. Up there, he's not Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, but just Harry Potter, the Gryffindor Seeker."
"I see," Tonks replied, slowly nodding, "So, anyone who would want to know Harry should actually want to know him?"
"And treat him right, too," Hermione nodded. "Harry might not talk a lot about it, but he was hurt a lot from living with his aunt and uncle. He still bears scars from when he was younger, some physical and some not, and those scars make it hard for him to open up to others. It's also why you should never turn your back on him—he may forgive, but he'll never forget. That's something Ron's yet to figure out. He may be friends with Harry again, but they're not back to how they used to be."
Tonks nodded slowly, taking in all that Hermione had said. It was clear that, for as much the bookworm buried herself in her books, she was one of the more observant and perceptive members of their friend circle. She'd given her a lot to think about and prepare for over the next few hours.
Smiling, Tonks stood from the library table and nodded back at Hermione. "Thanks, Hermione, that really helps. Well, I won't bother you anymore—enjoy your books!" With that, Tonks turned and began to walk back out of the library, a new, small spring in her step. Before she got far, however, she heard Hermione call out to her.
"Say hello to him for me, would you?"
Tonks paused, and glanced back at Hermione. The bookworm was already back in her books, acting as though she hadn't said anything, but Tonks nodded, a small smile slipping onto her face. "If I get the chance to," she replied. And at that moment they both knew she had no intentions of not finding the chance to, if the smile that flitted briefly onto Hermione's face was anything to go by.
Smiling to herself, Tonks turned once more and bounded out of the library once more, before heading out of Grimmauld Place entirely. She needed to head back to her apartment and start getting ready for her three shifts over at Privet Drive, and needed all the time she could get to get ready.
She had a hero to woo, after all.
