A/N: I'm probably making the accio spell OOC, which might not make sense but I'm tweaking it to fit the story. It'll make sense when Harry finds things that are meant to be 'lost'. There are some very powerful and dangerous items that Harry just discards and hopes they're lost. Anyway, enjoy…

CHAPTER 3: The Decision – Pieces #1-4

Tonks finally looked around. "Why are we here?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why are we here, in this hallway?"

Harry pointed to the hallway's dead-end. "The Room of Requirement is right there."

"The what?"

"The Room of Requirement. Come on." Harry took Tonks' hand and led them to the now-appearing doors. Normally, one would have to walk back and forth three times before that happened. Harry thought it might Hogwarts doing him a favour.

They entered and surprisingly the Room of Hidden Things was somewhat intact. A lot was ash, but a good chunk of the room had somehow been left untouched by Crabbe's fiendfyre. Any lingering trace of Tom's dark essence was gone.

Tonks' jaw dropped yet again. "Holy fuck."

While Tonks was lost in wonderland, Harry was looking for something, two somethings. He had a suspicion one wasn't destroyed and hoped the other hadn't been.

There, on top of the scorched table. Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem. Bent, the centre jewel was cracked, and it had darkened from the fiendfyre. All in all, it was still in one piece. Harry hesitated for a moment before picking it up. Nothing happened. A relief. On the ground, the Basilisk Fang he used to 'exorcise' the horcrux. He picked it up as well.

"Tonks, come here. I found them."

"What?"

Harry revealed the Founders' infamous relics.

"Is that the lost tiara?"

"Yeah. It's called a diadem, but I don't see the difference. This was one his horcruxes and the Basilisk Fang I used to destroy it."

"Merlin."

"Do you have something I can wrap them in? Wouldn't do my reputation as a Dark Lord any favours by walking around with them showing."

Tonks dug in her pockets and retrieved a small velvet sack. "Here."

"Anything precious in there? The Fang will probably destroy it."

"It's just my lunch… from three weeks ago."

"Yum."

Tonks turned the sack upside down. What fell out was a flat, mushy, brown banana and a shrivelled-up black apple. What a smell. She then performed a few cleaning and vanishing charms, and all was right.

Harry was about to drop the relics but then thought twice and carefully placed them in.

"Is that it? Anything else?

"There's one more thing."

"Why, Harry? Why collect these things?"

"I need them."

"Why?"

Harry had been thinking about since his second visit to Ollivander. He needed to know. He needed a way to quantify all the time, all the effort, the danger, the pain, the death. He needed to know it was worth it. "I need to know it actually amounted to something."

Tonks softened again. Harry's words always had a way of affecting her more than anyone else. It wasn't pity or sadness. It was his conviction and thoughtfulness. "Harry, it was worth it. You know that, right?"

"These are pieces of my life as much as they are of his. I want them back."

Tonks nodded. "What else?"

Harry smiled. "It's a potions book. It's old, kind of falling apart. I have no idea if it survived."

"Can't you just accio it?

Harry closed his eyes in annoyance. He always forgot these things. Damn muggle-raised.

He drew his Holly and flicked it in the air. "Accio potions book." Sure enough, the Half-Blooded Prince's book flew into his hands. "You're a genius, Tonks."

Tonks smirked. "You're not the only one to say. But what's with the old book?"

"It belonged to Severus. Really helped me in sixth year."

"Oh yeah, Hermione said you had improved in potions. What a cheat."

Harry feigned a look of mock hurt. "It's not cheating if it's in a textbook." They both laughed. Harry added the book to the sack. He took out Draco's wand. "Tonks, I don't need this anymore and I'm not giving it back to Draco. Here, have it."

Tonks barely took it, treating it as if it was infected. "Uh, thanks for the sloppy seconds, Harry."

"It's Hawthorn, unicorn hair, ten inches. How does it feel?"

Tonks now held it properly, giving it a twirl. "Alright, I guess. Last resort, though. Thanks, Harry."

"Draco would never come to me for it. He'd rather get a new one."

Tonks sheathed the new wand in her arm holster. "Listen, I know what you're gonna do, I know why you're doing it."

"Is there a question?"

"Just wait, okay? I want to come with you, but I want to lay Remus to rest first and spend a few days with my mum."

It was Harry who now softened. "Okay. I guess I got carried away."

Tonks shook her head lazily. "No, Harry, you just want to keep busy. We'll give Remus a proper send off, then we'll both go to my par—mum's. No choice." She tried to catch herself, but Harry caught the way she hitched. She was about to say 'parents'.

"I'd be honoured to."

"What are the other items on your bucket list?"

"There's two here: Hufflepuff's Cup is in the Chamber of Secrets… and the Resurrection Stone is in the Forbidden Forest." Harry hoped Tonks wouldn't be tempted by that. She didn't appear to be.

"Cup now, Stone after Remus?"

It was a strange thing to plan. Harry nodded. He then noticed Tonks' eyes. They were green, like his. A perfect green. Her hair was also snow-white. It wasn't the oddest she had ever looked, far from it, but it was definitely peculiar.

"Should we go?"

"Yep."

"Well, lead the way."

[later]

Harry and Tonks stood in front of the correct sink in the Second Floor Girls' Lavatory. Harry traced the small snake-engraved sink tap, Tonks watched closely. "What's wrong, Harry?"

"I'm only a parseltongue through Tom's horcrux. Now that it's gone…"

"You don't think you can open it?"

"I don't know."

"You don't have to try."

"No. Here goes. Open."

The sink moved, sank, so did the rest of them, revealing the pipe in the centre.

"Shit balls! It was here the entire time…"

Harry led the way with Tonks trailing behind closely. They hit another road bump – the Chamber door. "Open." The door's snakes retracted, so did the locks, and then finally the door, swinging open to reveal the dark, dank, and green interior.

"Well, this place is ominous."

"Makes you want to kill a muggleborn, huh?"

Tonks smirked, but didn't laugh. Bad choice, Harry.

They continued down the length of the Chamber, stopping in front of the Basilisk's skeleton. "That's the Basilisk? You killed it?"

"I had help. Fawkes clawed out her eyes and gave me Gryffindor's sword. If it wasn't for Fawkes, I'd be dead, Ginny too, and Tom would have been alive a lot sooner. Also, Fawkes healed my venom poisoning. Again, I'd be dead."

"What?"

Harry rolled up his right sleeve and revealed the scar from the Basilisk's fang. Tonks grabbed the arm for a closer look. "Merlin, Harry. How many times have you almost died?"

"Seeing as I have died, I don't think it matters anymore. Besides, the scar's not that bad. Not as bad as…" Harry trailed off and didn't finish that sentence. Tonks caught it, though.

"Not as bad as what?"

"Forget it." Harry looked down and found what they had come for: Hufflepuff's cup. It now had a large hole in the side. He picked it up and added it to the velvet sack. Tonks gently grabbed his arm.

"Harry, look at me." He turned towards her. "What happened, Harry? I know you have more scars, ones you keep hidden… Was it the Dursleys? Please talk to me."

Harry blushed. He felt embarrassed and ashamed. Since they met, Harry found it easy to share with Tonks, but never had he disclosed what happened at 'home'. Only Ron knew, and even then, he didn't know the full picture. Harry pulled his arm from her gentle grasp and faced away. "What do you want to know?"

"I don't want, I would like you to open up with me. Please."

"Here?"

Tonks looked around. "Fuck no."

"I know somewhere we can talk. We have to leave the school, though."

"Lead the way."

[later]

Harry apparated them to the middle of a quiet town road. His apparition was just as silent as their surroundings. Tonks was too impressed. Harry didn't give her too much time to think because he pulled her along the road until they stood in the middle of a cemetery. Tonks was confused.

"This is Godric's Hollow. This where Remus could be buried. Near my parents. I think they'd like that."

"He'd like that, too. But you want to talk here?"

"We're alone here." Harry moved further in, stopping at a gravestone that was too wide to be for a single person. Tonks watched him place a small kiss on the top of the gravestone. She moved towards him. The writing became clearer and she realised who the stone indicated.

"Oh, Harry, this is your parents' cemetery."

Harry turned and looked at her. His perfect-green eyes were blurry. "Also, the cemetery of Ignotus Peverell, my ancestor. He created the Invisibility Cloak."

Tonks' brow raised in surprise. "Whoa."

Harry sat down and leaned his back against his parents' gravestone. Tonks looked a little nervous and out-of-place. Harry patted the ground next to him. "Come on, take a seat."

"That would disrespectful."

"Only if I wasn't here." Harry patted the ground again.

Tonks relented and took the place next to Harry. It felt odd to do so but she also liked the fact that they would be completely undisturbed. "Okay. Ask away but I won't promise I'll answer."

"If you're sure, Harry. I don't want to push you."

"It's fine. Like you said, I need to open up to you."

Tonks paused for a moment. "Tell me what happened with the Dursleys."

Harry shifted somewhat and looked off into the distance, trying to remove Tonks from his periphery. "What happened? From the moment I could walk I was in the kitchen. At first, I couldn't hold a pot without dropping it. Vernon gave me three strikes with 'the corrector' every time I did. I learnt quick after that."

"What's 'the corrector'?"

Harry continued to look away. "His belt. He always did it on the back. Said it was a canvas. I always thought it was because no one would see it. After I learnt not to drop the pots he would make up excuses, you know, 'you took too long', 'that's not enough, more!', that kind of thing."

Tonks' eyes were about to flood. She kept it under control. She didn't want Harry to feel even more uncomfortable. "What about the other two?"

"Dudley did nothing but call me names, until the summer after the Tri-Wizard tournament. Him and his little gang would try to corner me. Petunia would join Vernon in 'correcting' me. I think she got off on it. Probably the only time he got any."

Harry finally looked at Tonks. He saw her verging tears and smiled. "Crazy, right?"

Tonks laughed in disbelief. "How can you be so cool about it? Merlin, Harry, I'm surprised you haven't-"

"-Killed them? I've thought about it for years."

"Why haven't you, then?" Tonks was shocked she said that, more than Harry, who didn't react. "Oh, I shouldn't have said that."

"It's okay. They're not dead because I'm afraid that if I did kill them I wouldn't stop. Everyone thinks I'm already a Dark Lord."

"I don't think that, Harry."

Harry took her hand. They sat there for what felt like hours, in reality, only a couple of minutes. They rose, and Harry said goodbye to his parents' graves. Tonks said goodbye too before Harry silently apparated them back to outside the Hogwarts ward line.

"I'm beat but I don't feel like sleeping."

"At least try, Harry. We'll start early tomorrow."

"I think you mean today, Tonks."

"Whatever."

They eventually entered the Gryffindor common room, finding it deserted. They stayed on the couch in front of the fire and drifted into a restless sleep. Throughout the night, both were interrupted by nightmares.

end of chapter 3