Disclaimer: All our bases belong to JK Rowling
A/N: At this point I have a good idea of where I want this book and its sequel to go. I already have some rough material written down, so for the next few weeks I would be able to churn out a chapter a week.
The prologue and this chapter were originally a single chapter but I decided to publish them separately. Chapter 2 will be out before 4th of July.
Chapter 1
A Sultry Saturday
20th June 1996 was a very hot summer Saturday. Privet Drive in little Whinging was experiencing a quiet afternoon with residents choosing to stay in the coolness of their living rooms than be outside. There was absolutely no one on the street, or rather, almost – absolutely no one, there was one exception, an unusually extraordinary young woman sitting on a bench at one end of Privet Drive. She would have looked ordinary at a punk rock concert but in this street her appearance was borderline crazy.
Sitting on a bench near Number 2 was this woman with bubblegum pink hair. She was wearing a grey hoodie that seemed to be too hot for this weather, which was probably why she had a frown on her face as she sat there looking into oblivion with her deep blue eyes. She glanced around quickly before tapping her fingers on the thin long wooden stick she was holding half hidden under her hoodie sleeve. She whispered something and gave a sigh of relief not unlike one you'd give when a cold breeze hits you on a very warm day. But there was no breeze, or was there? You see Nymphadora Tonks, was a witch. A witch who was also an Auror, like the wizard police you know. A witch who had just cast a cooling charm on herself. A witch who was momentarily happy. But just for a moment though before her thoughts turned to how late it was getting. The sun was ready to set and there was still no sign of the car that she was waiting for.
Nymphadora, or Tonks as she liked to call herself had been part of the welcome wagon at King's Cross about two hours ago when Harry Potter had come back from Hogwarts along with the rest of the school. Of course, you know all about Hogwarts. She had watched in silence as Mad-Eye Moody and Arthur Weasley had a little 'chat' with the Dursleys. Now ordinarily that little exchange might be considered muggle baiting, but Tonks had heard stories about the Dursleys and how they were the most horrible muggles alive, Hey, they might even be the most horrible humans alive. Now she was here waiting for the Dursleys to get back home, of course the moment the Dursleys had left King's Cross she'd apparated back to her home and then taken the floo to Arabella Figg's house. So she'd been waiting for about an hour before she saw the black sedan approaching from the other end of Privet Drive. She tried to look inconspicuous, the pink hair were a great help in that.
As the car pulled into the driveway of Number 4, she saw Harry Potter jump out as quick as he could and hurry inside. She felt she knew Harry quite well now, she'd spent most of last summer tailing him on Order assignment. There were times during last summer when she'd felt bored. She felt she'd been given the easiest assignment of all and she wanted to be in the middle of some action. Her outlook had changed since. The magical world was still reeling under the consequences of the battle at the ministry. She was still trying to come to terms with the loss of a friend and a mentor. She knew that the loss would have felt a million times more for young Harry. Having already lost his parents it would have been devastating for him to lose his godfather too. She was not going to let any more harm come to this boy, not on her watch. Tonks almost felt like a guardian angel. Perhaps her mother could adopt Harry and he could come live with the Tonkses, Yes, that ought to be safer. She shook herself out of her daydreams and looked at the house she was supposed to be guarding.
The two elder Dursleys had followed Harry inside leaving his cousin outside. He seemed to mumble to himself for a bit before following his parents into the house. It was hardly a minute later that Tonk's first heard a commotion, it seemed someone was yelling inside the house. She wasn't sure if she should do something yet as there'd been plenty of yelling the previous summer usually followed by Harry sulking out and going for a long walk.
She'd just gotten up from her bench when the yelling stopped for a second, and then it felt like someone pulled away the ground from under her feet. There was a huge explosion inside Number 4 shattering all the windows and taking the air out of her lungs. She fell to the ground with an "Oomph!" This was not good, this was not good at all.
Her wand was trained towards the house in a flash and she quickly cast a Patronus carrying a call for backup. There was no point bothering with the statute of secrecy right now, this looked pretty bad. Which is why she'd addressed her message straight to Dumbledore, oh yes, she wasn't taking any chances. She'd just started sprinting towards the house when a series of 'pops' made her stop in her tracks and duck behind a tree for cover. She carefully peered at what was happening and her heart almost stopped beating. There, in the middle of the street were atleast six fully hooded Death Eaters flanking a hideous creature that was Voldemort himself. In broad daylight, in the middle of the street, in front of Harry Potter's house. She saw Voldemort raise his hand and the front door of the house exploded into splinters.
Tonks was running out of options, to say she was outnumbered was an understatement, to say she was completely outclassed by Voldemort's presence was just plain fact. She could give up her cover and try to distract the attackers, but to what end? With their strength in numbers they'd be able to subdue her quickly and probably kill her in the process. And there was no telling how long the rest of the Order would take to arrive. The worst part was that she'd only mentioned the explosion in her message, which meant the others were going to come into this mess unprepared for a battle this size. Her train of frantic thoughts was broken by a yelling figure that emerged with a metal wand in his hand. Vernon Dursley was red with rage, she could not make the words out but she was stunned by the bang that went off as one of the hooded figures started walking towards Dursley, The next second was a blur, The Death Eater Dursley had pointed the shotgun at fell to the ground, Voldemort sent a flash of green towards the door and Dursley fell on his doorstep with a sickening crunch.
There were three pops on the other side of the street and Tonks could make out Kingsley, Mundungus and Mad-Eye ducking for cover as the remaining five Death Eaters started firing a myriad of curses towards them. Voldemort himself was not distracted by the chaos as he started walking confidently towards the front door of Harry's house. This was it, Tonk's thought to herself, if she could hit Voldemort with a surprise curse he might be delayed enough for Dumbledore to arrive or Harry to escape. The plan had a fatal flaw though, as in, the plan would probably be fatal for her as once Voldemort realized who was attacking him he'd probably make quick work of her. There was nothing for it, if it meant she had to give her life to give Harry a fighting chance, she was going to. Dumbledore had made it amply clear to the order that Harry was the most important person in this war, even more important than Dumbledore himself. And with that thought she jumped out from behind the tree and started sprinting towards the house firing stunners in quick succession at Voldemort's slithering figure. Her first stunner missed it's mark and that instant was enough for Voldemort to disapparate with a pop and reappear about 10 feet behind her. She turned around and she was petrified. No, she wasn't petrified out of fear, She was literally petrified in place staring into those red eyes and that snakelike face. Through the corer of her eyes she saw Mad-Eye put down one of the Death Eaters leveling the odds a little.
Unfortunately Voldemort saw that too. His face contorted into pure evil rage as he looked at her and hissed, "Foolish child! AVADA KEDAVARA."
Dumbledore was not having a great day. He was not having a great week. As a matter of fact he wasn't having a great month. They wanted to make him Minister of Magic. Exactly! he'd been in exile for the last few months because the current Minister thought he was after the job and now they wanted to force him to take it. He couldn't blame them, ever since the battle at the ministry the magical world had been in complete chaos, and it was a very human thing to turn to someone else to fix their problems.
There were times that Dumbledore doubted his decision of not sharing the prophecy about Harry Potter with the public, times like these made him happy about his choices. He could not bear to imagine the pressure the magical community would put on young Harry to rid them of Voldemort if they were to know that he was the only one who could do so. As such, they did not, and Dumbledore had his own intuition to thank for that.
He'd spent the last few days dealing with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and its head Amelia Bones coming up with a strategy to manage this war. He'd helped the ministry draft plans to secure the most important assets and buildings, both in the magical and in the muggle world. Although the violence had increased considerably since the ministry became aware of Voldemort's return, he had thankfully not gone completely overboard with killing muggles. Fudge had resigned pending an inquiry into his actions in the previous year and the ministry was currently functioning under an interim administrative council comprising of the heads of all departments and Dumbledore had been asked to sit in on meetings on more than one occasion to give his counsel.
Today however he was worried for a different reason, you see, he had yet another secret that he'd kept from everyone, another secret about Tom Riddle. About his immortality to be precise. At first he hadn't believed it himself, he still didn't want to believe it. But he had conclusive evidence now and all he needed to test his theory was take a little trip to Little Hangleton. He wasn't sure if he should do this alone, he knew it was going to be dangerous but he did not want to put anyone else at risk. With his mind made up, he got up from his desk and looked over at Fawkes. The sight of his faithful companion made him smile and think to himself that he wasn't going to be alone anyway.
He looked over to one of the many silver instruments that were littered around his office. This one in particular was of special interest to him, this one he'd stared at for countless hours last summer. He sighed as he thought it was summer again. Just as he was about to head towards the door the instrument he had been observing started to shake and emit a strange sharp tone. There were not many things in the world that could scare Albus Dumbledore, But the look on his face right now clearly betrayed the fear growing inside of him as he stared stupidly at the instrument. He thought after all that it won't happen so soon. Just then a shaggy wolf Patronus entered the room and spoke clearly in Nymphadora's voice, "Explosion at Harry's house, come quick." Dumbledore knew what had to be done. He raised his hand and Fawkes flashed in front of him for a moment before Dumbledore grabbed its tail and the two of them disappeared from the office.
They reappeared right in the middle of the Auror office where Madam Bones seemed to be addressing a large gathering about their latest strategy. In an instant, Fawkes was gone again in a red fiery flash. Amelia Bones blinked as she saw Albus Dumbledore appear in the middle of the chamber and shot him a questioning look. "It's happening... Harry. Are we ready?" was all she got back from Dumbledore. She realized this wasn't the regular Dumbledore they were all used to seeing. The mellow, slightly eccentric, old man. This was the Dumbledore that was the greatest wizard alive. There was power positively radiating from his entire body and it was very clear that every single person in the room was slightly scared of this Dumbledore.
"Alright everyone! Listen up" Amelia Bones spoke in a commanding tone as everyone present in the chamber rose as one. "On my command we will be executing Operation Lightning. I expect everyone in this room who's been read in to be ready to go. Everyone else stay here and wait for further orders. Ready? NOW!"
They say your whole life flashes in front of your eyes in a moment when you die, Tonks eyes were open but she was no longer seeing the flash of green that was going to take her soul away. She was thinking if it was worth it? She'd been an Auror for all but two years, She'd seen more battles in that time than a third of the Auror force that was ailing away under the inept leadership of Fudge. Here she was, barely twenty-four facing her death straight on, at the hands of Voldemort himself no less. Will they sing songs of her bravery? Will they name monuments in her name? Probably not. But if Harry survived today, they will remember it was Nymphadora Tonks who gave her life to make that happen. Nymphadora, she always hated that name. Her thoughts turned to her mother, to her father, and surprisingly, to Lupin. Perhaps if there'd been more time.
And then her trail of thoughts was ended.
But not by the sweet release of death, instead by a bright red flash that seemed to devour the green hurtling towards her and burst into flames. She was stunned to see an ugly bird-ling drop with a thump to the ground.
"DUMBLEDORE!", hissed the snake. As if on cue, Dumbledore apparated behind him but the air continued to pop around them as Madam Bones, Gawain, Williamson, Bill Weasley, Proudfoot, Penelope and Savage appeared around them with their wands trained towards Voldemort.
Voldemort chose that moment to disapparate away, realizing he was outnumbered, the other Death Eaters probably chose to run away too as she head a series of pops from the other side of the street. Her heart was beating a million miles an hour as she tried to catch her breath. In her head she'd just died and this was like a second life to her. Dumbledore did not waste a moment as he grabbed her arm and started physically dragging her towards Number 4, "Tell me everything" he said. The others started to follow them, their wands trained at the surrounding houses which now had the residents gaping openly through their windows. In the distance they could hear sirens approaching. The muggles were responding to the weird events in their street.
"Clearwater," Madam Bones called out with authority, "Find Arthur Weasley, tell him to get here as soon as possible and to bring as many obliviators as he can manage."
Penelope nodded and disapparated. Tonks looked at the other side of the street where she saw only Kinglsey and Mad-Eye standing over a stunned Death Eater. Another one was dead in front of the Dursley house and there was Vernon Dursley's body at the front step. There was still no sign of Harry or his other relatives. Tonks quickly started filling in Dumbledore about the incidents of this evening, the explosion, the arrival of Voldemort brigade and the battle that ensued.
They entered the house and walked up the stairs towards where Tonks knew Harry's room was. As they entered they were shocked to see two teenagers lying in pools of blood and a hysterical Petunia Dursley who was sobbing holding her unconscious son. The moment she saw Dumbledore she jumped to her feet and shrieked, "YOU! YOU SAID THIS WON'T HAPPEN!" She started moving towards him and Dumbledore wordlessly stunned her.
"Unfortunately we don't have time for this. Madam Bones if you'd tend to the other child." with that Dumbledore kneeled over Harry's limp body and started muttering healing spells as he moved his wand over Harry's mangled face. "This one needs to go to St. Mungo's right away, he has internal spell damage." Madam bones said getting up. "I've stabilized him enough to survive a portkey." She grabbed a table lamp and threw it across to Gawain who caught it nimbly. He moved over to put Dudley's hand on the lamp when Dumbledore raised his hand and started levitating Harry's body towards Gawain. "Him too, make sure you do not leave his side and no one has access to him until you hear from me." Gawain blinked and looked at Madam Bones who simply nodded and pointed her wand at the lamp before saying, "Portus."
It was hardly a moment before Mad-Eye limped inside and declared, "Mundungus is dead, Bellatrix Lestrange, I did not see her face but there's no mistaking that horrible laughter." Tonks felt a tinge of guilt thinking of her relationship with that crazy violent murderer. "Rufus is outside along with a bunch of other Aurors, he's helping Arthur with containment. Kingsley is taking Nott to the ministry, I was able to stun him. Looks like Dursley used a gun to shoot Lucius Malfoy to death." Mad-Eye looked grim, he was the most experienced Auror in the room and if he was grim, things were definitely scary.
Dumbledore's face was pensive. You could almost see the cogs rolling inside his head as he tried to figure out what to do next. Tonks was still in a little shock, all she wanted to do was go home and cry in her mother's arms. Something on her face might have given that away as Mad-Eye limped towards her and kept a hand on her shoulder. This wasn't something Moody was famous for - being human. "You did good Tonks, it couldn't be easy standing up to him by yourself, and you should be proud."
Dumbledore cleared his throat and everyone looked at him expectantly, "This is what's going to happen, Madam Bones, the ministry can take care of the fallout from this battle, I daresay you might have to liaise with your special muggle contacts to make this go away. Mad-Eye, if I can request you to please take care of Vernon's body, When Petunia comes around she'd need to be sent to St Mungo's to be with her son. I'll be with them as soon as it is possible. I must start making arrangements to move Harry to a secure location. Unfortunately, the wards of archaic magic that protected this place due to Lily Potter's sacrifice have come down and this place is no longer safe."
With that he disapparated and one after the other everyone left the room leaving Tonks behind, standing all alone, in the smallest bedroom of Number 4 Privet Drive. Still alive.
