AN/:This is the next chapter in my story and I hope you like it. Once again I am open to any criticism and am in need of a beta reader.
Tareth if you really want to beta my story I'll need an email address to send my progress to. I would be very thankful for the help if you could lend any.
For the next few weeks, you could see Harry almost constantly in the library. He was currently researching all past werewolf related cases for the last twenty years. Going through old newspaper clippings and old Ministry case files was dry but necessary work. So far his research had proven fruitful, for he had found multiple cases of werewolves or half-breeds owning and warding property without complaint. If they could show that the Ministry was incompetent and were hypocrites, they would indirectly be putting the blame on Fudge. And Fudge would probably do anything to save his public image.
Harry and Remus had sent a few letters back and forth, writing about what they had both been researching. Remus had been trying to find lawyer as well as search for the problems that the anti-werewolf laws had caused. He has had luck in finding the problems the laws had caused but still no luck in finding a lawyer. No one wanted to get in a case involving a werewolf at the moment, with all the new laws being put into place for fear of being arrested for being in correspondence with one.
The only time Harry wasn't in the library was when he was either in their dorm-room practicing spells or doing homework. He was still top of the class in everything but Potions, Herbology, and History without effort, but he was really starting to get bored now. Reading at night and practicing on his own was good and all but not having instruction on the subject he was on really sucked. With no one to tell him if he was doing the wand movement right or saying the incantation correctly made learning on his own hard, but he'd just have to make due.
Speaking of studying on his own, Max had taken to staying up late with Harry to study Potions. Harry was second best in that class, second only to Max who seemed to have some sort of deep love for potions. Harry still didn't know the reason behind his Potions love but didn't really care if he found out either way.
Harry had only been hanging out with Max. He had talked with Shannon, Cedric, and some others in their year, but had never really spent any time with them. Max seemed to have the same drive for Potions as Harry had for magic in general, they sort of understood each other somewhat. Only Max's obsession with potions was less profound than Harry's with magic and Max still found the need and time to talk with others (completely unnecessary in Harry's book). It still didn't mean Harry didn't think Max was annoying as hell though.
'Am I anti-social?' Harry asked himself 'Probably.'
Harry was currently walking back to the common room after a long evening of looking through past werewolf cases, planning on retiring to bed for a nice long sleep. After he answered the riddle and walked in, he saw Max reading a book near the fireplace. He seemed completely lost in his own little world when an idea struck Harry.
"Hey Maximus?" Harry said
He looked up scowling at the use of his full name "Harry what are you doing back from the library so early?"
"Uhh, that was four hours ago. How long have you been reading that you lost track of time?"
He looked outside the window to see that it was indeed dark out. "I started right after you left, I guess I overdid the reading a bit." He said slightly blushing while grinning
"Never mind your reading habits, I have a question to ask." Harry said "I know that the Foursythe's are a pureblood family. But do you know if they have lawyers?"
He put on a thinking face before answering. "I don't usually concern myself with things like politics and whatever else proper purebloods do." He scowled when he said proper pureblood "But I know that the Foursythe's have a lawyer named Tonks or something or other like that."
Harry looked at him surprised "Tonks, are you sure that that is the name?"
He shrugged "Yeah pretty sure, I think that they have a daughter here at school. Why do you need a lawyer anyway? Is it about what you said at breakfast a few weeks ago about your uncle and the Ministry?"
Harry nodded distractedly before heading up the stair to their room, still thinking about the Tonks'. He remembered visiting them when he was little, before Voldemort was defeated. It was a very vague memory, just a name his mother had mentioned is all he remembered but it was enough. But knowing that they knew the Potters might be enough to get them to help them on their case despite the new laws.
The next day, Harry sent Remus a letter about how the Tonks' might be willing to help their case. He also went and asked around school to see if he could find the daughter that Max had mentioned. Strangely enough, most of the upper years knew who she was but wouldn't give him a first name. When he asked about that they mumbled something about not getting hexed and 'She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'. Harry didn't ask more on the subject, he just asked where she could be found and they pointed him to some abandoned classrooms.
As he neared the area where they had pointed out to him, he heard a banging/thumping noise coming from down the hall. Assuming that this is where the girl would be he walked over to the door to find it locked and the usual 'Alohamora' didn't do the job so he tried a different unlocking charm he had read in one of his books. 'Aperedro' he said giving his wand a counter clockwise spin with a jab at the end. The door clicked open and he grinned at his success in getting the spell right on his first try.
When he opened the door he saw a girl with purple hair and was wearing muggle clothing. She was casting stunning spells at different targets positioned around the room. She was hitting the targets each time but appeared winded from too much casting. When she finally finished he made his presence known.
"Wouldn't it be more realistic if the targets were moving and not standing still?" Harry asked rhetorically and watched amused when the girl spun around to point her wand at him but tripped over her own feet.
"OW!" She squeaked "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" She questioned as she got back to her feet
"Harry Potter, and I was looking for you actually."
She raised an eyebrow at him and asked "Looking for me? And what would a little firsty need from me?"
"Information." Harry said "One of your parents are lawyers correct?"
She nodded her head yes, not really knowing where this is going.
"Well my uncle and I are in need of a lawyer and have had no luck so far."
"Wait there are hundreds of wizarding lawyers in England. Why choose my parents and why come to me directly instead of writing a letter to them? And why is a first year looking into all of this stuff? The name's Tonks by the way." She got all of her questions out in a mouth full
"This is a more delicate matter than a normal wizard case and because of that, not many would be willing to take the case. I came to you directly because I thought I could explain the situation better in person then through a letter and so that I could ask you if your parents would help and would be willing to do the case in the first place."
"Okay I get the fact that you wanted to know if I think my parents would do your case. You wanted a second opinion before you wasted your time to set up a meeting first only to learn that they wouldn't do it anyway." Harry nodded "But you dodged around two of my questions, why choose us and why is a first year looking into all of this?"
Harry was slightly impressed, she was more perceptive than he had thought. "I wanted to talk to you because my friend said that your parents are their family's lawyer and because I think we've met before. The reason I'm looking into this, well there is none. But you could say that I've always been a bit more mature than kids my age and the fact that the case affects me just as much as it does my uncle."
"We've met before? When?" She questioned
Harry was getting tired of all the questions but decided that it was in his best interest to answer them. "I think I was three at the time but I don't remember much, all I remember is my mother saying that we would be going to the Tonks' house."
"You can remember stuff that far back? Wait, you said that your name was Potter before right?" Harry nodded, she put on a thinking face before smiling brightly "Oh yeah! I remember that, You were so little at the time and you were so cute!" She gushed
Harry frowned at the use of the words 'little' and 'cute' but let it slide.
She continued talking. "Okay back on to the subject now, why is this case a delicate matter?"
"My uncle's a werewolf." Harry said and waited for a reaction, surprisingly none came.
"That's it? Your uncle's a werewolf, so what? Why does that make it a delicate matter?"
Harry was really starting to get irritated with all the questions. "You don't pay much attention to politics do you? Regardless, the reason it's a delicate matter is because in the last four months the ministry has passed twelve laws that restrict werewolf rights. Basically no one wants to get involved in any werewolf business right now."
She looked at him with an apologetic expression before answering "I see now, and I'm pretty sure my parents would be happy to help out your uncle. We're not those pureblood bigots." She growled "Hey, what's your uncle's name anyway?"
"Remus Lupin."
She blinked in surprise "I didn't know the Lupin's were related to the Potters."
"They're not, he's my legal guardian though and it's just easier to refer to him as an uncle to avoid questions."
She nodded her head in understanding "I'll send my parents a letter and tell them about it tonight."
Harry said thanks before they descended into a somewhat awkward silence. He idly noticed the robes and backpack in the corner, proudly displaying the Hufflepuff insignia. 'She must have changed when she got here' He thought. Before going over to inspect the pack.
"You said that your name was Tonks? Just Tonks, what's your first name." He said with his back turned
Her face turned red before she answered "I don't like my first name, and people who call me by my first name get hexed."
"Ahh I get it now." Harry said before chuckling
Tanks looked confused "What do you get?"
"When I was looking for you I asked for your first name." Harry said "They wouldn't give me one and just mumbled something about 'She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' now I understand why."
She flushed even deeper and mumbled 'At least people get the message'. Harry laughed at that.
"Hey what was that you said when you walked in?" She asked when her face turned back to normal
"Oh, I was just commenting on how using moving targets would be better for practice. Are you looking to be an auror?"
She nodded her head yes "Yeah I am trying to be an auror, but I want to get one of the really good experienced instructors that have been in the corps for a while. And I can't get moving targets because I suck at charms. You know anyone good with animation?"
Harry grinned before adopting a look of concentration as he pulled out his wand. Tonks looked amused when the first year took out his wand, thinking that he was going to do something stupid made up spell he'd heard from some upper years. But imagine her surprise when he gave few expert flicks with his wand while murmuring under his breath and four of the targets started to morph into life sized, wooden dummies. With a few more flicks of the wand and whispered incantations he went around and tapped each dummy on the head which made them jump up and start moving around.
Tonks was in awe at the magic that the first year was using, she doubted that she could even do what he was doing. He started a whole new set of wand movements and incantations and the dummies had black holes on their faces.
Harry turned around to see Tonks in open mouth shock at what he was doing. He took a couple deep breaths trying to regain control of his breathing. Using that much magic at one time was tiring for an eleven year old, it was the most magic that Harry had used at one time and it took a lot out of him. But he'd done it and he was proud of it, the dummies were under the same animation charm he had used of Remus' coat.
The charm basically allowed you to have complete control of whatever you animated. The only problem was that it took a lot of mental direction and could be disrupted easily by an outside spell (Remus' coat for instance) which is why it wasn't used for anything but teaching someone control. In the months since he had gotten his wand, he had practiced mainly transfiguration and animation charms, the most things he had controlled at once was five toy cars he made race around his room. But those were small cars with only one command on them, these were four large dummies that he animated to move like a real person. It would be a test of his skill.
"Uhh Harry how and what did you do?" Tonks asked
"I animated them to move like real people that I control, as to how I did it, magic. Oh and there is one more surprise." Harry grinned mischievously as he flicked his wand at dummy causing it to shoot a pink ball out of the dark hole on it's head at Tonks, which hit her in the forehead
Tonks was surprised when she felt something hit her forehead, she reached up to touch the spot it hit to find wetness. 'Uh oh.' She thought thinking that it was blood, but when she looked at her hand she saw pink paint.
She looked at Harry questionably, he just grinned and flicked his wand to the other three dummies which started moving towards her. Harry adopted a look of concentration before saying, "You'd better start dodging Tonks, I don't know how long I can keep this up."
Tonks didn't have time to respond as the dummies all launched paint balls at her. She was constantly dodging and got hit plenty of times, but finally started to fight back which caused them to halt for five seconds before starting again. She spied Harry out of the corner of her eye to see him with the same look of concentration he had on his face when he started as well as making a constant figure eight movement with his wand. Two minutes later, Harry stopped. Not that Tonks was complaining as she was laying on the floor gasping for breath, Harry was doing the same only he wasn't covered in paint.
Once she regained her breath she said "That was amazing! It was the best workout I've ever done."
"Yeah same here, I've never operated that much at once before." Harry said still trying to catch his breath
"You okay?"
"Yeah I'll be good in a few minutes."
"Could you do that again? Not today of course, but three to two times a week?" She asked nervously
"What's in it for me?" Harry said not huffing as bad anymore
"I could teach you some spells that you won't learn for years." She decide to play to his Ravenclaw side
Harry thought about it for a second before agreeing. "Deal. I probably would have done it anyway, that was the best animation workout I've ever had."
"How long have you been doing stuff like that? We don't even do anything remotely close to that and we're in NEWT's."
"Well I started around two months ago, but I've been reading theory for years and have been stealing my uncles wand when ever I can." Harry said, to tired to make a remark about the teaching at Hogwarts "Well, I'm going to go take a four hour nap if you don't mind."
She nodded in agreement "I think I might as well, until next time Harry. Shall we say Thursday at five."
Harry nodded before walking to the door with one last comment "See you then, Nymphadora."
She stared at him in surprise for a second before launching a hex at where he was a second ago, before he disappeared through the door.
"How did that brat know my name!"
"Hey Harry!"
Harry looked up from the book he was reading on his bed to see Max walking in the door.
"What do you want? I'm kinda busy right now." Harry said irritably.
Indeed he was busy, He had finally finished reading all the past werewolf trials and was now trying to get back onto his schedule that he had before he started looking at trials. He was behind on his personal reading and studies by a fair bit and was currently trying to catch up on it. Early October, he had decided that the school was moving much too slow for him and was going to go at his own pace. He still paid attention in class and did his homework and everything, but he was less attentive than he normally would be.
"I was just going to tell you that you're going to miss the first quidditch match of the season if you stay up here much longer. Now let's go, let's go! I'm not going to wait for you much longer." Max said not noticing Harry's irritable tone in the slightest
Quidditch peaked Harry's interest, "Alright, give me a sec to change into some warmer clothes."
Harry changed and the two of them were heading down to the pitch. The game was between Gryffindor and Slytherin and was sure to be a fierce match.
"So who do you want to win?" Max asked
"I could care less honestly, but personally my bet's on Slytherin."
"Really? Everyone's been saying Gryffindor's a sure in to win. With having Weasley at seeker, apparently he's the best seeker we've had at Hogwarts in decades ." Max commented
"Yes, Weasley is a good seeker." Harry said "But they don't have anyone else on their team that's particularly good, according to Ellwood anyway. But Slytherin's got Moran at chaser, who's probably going to play professional later on along with two more decent chasers. They'll dominate the pitch especially with a rookie keeper like Wood in goal."
Max blinked in surprised "I didn't know you paid attention to school quidditch. Professional sure, but you've said nothing about school. And all I've seen you do is read."
Harry shrugged "It seems that it's what everyone has been talking about recently, and I do plan on trying out next year. I may not look like it but I do pay attention to what other people are saying, despite how annoying I find them." Harry looked pointedly at Max when he said this
Max didn't notice Harry's look "Well whatever, now hurry up I wanna get good seats!" Max sprinted the rest of the way there which looked to be about three hundred yards.
"I swear that kid must have ADHD or something." Harry mused aloud "He's pretty good in potions, maybe he has a personal supply of pepper up potion or something."
Harry calmly walked the rest of the way to the stands where he saw Max, Cedric, and Shannon sitting next to each other in between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw stands. Harry went to go join them.
"Evening Shannon, Cedric." Harry said smoothly
"Harry." Cedric nodded
"Potter." Shannon said
"Potter?" Harry frowned "I thought we were on better terms than that Foursythe? Are you still mad about the wet dream thing?"
She flushed a deep red. "Shut up Potter!"
"Hey you never did tell me what that meant." Max said
Harry smirked in Shannon's direction "Ask Shannon like I told you before."
"Oh right, Hey Shannon. What's a-"
"That's it!" She stood up, face redder than before. "I'm going to go sit with my house."
Max pulled her back down into her seat "But, Shan. You don't even like them." He whined
"That may be true, but they are my housemates and I'll be staying with them for the next seven years so I might as well know them."
"Just stay with us for the game, You can hang out with your house anytime." Max said
Shannon looked resolute but nodded her head and looked towards the player tents where Gryffindor had just flown out of.
"-and here comes Gryffindor! Jakobson, Kenton, Mueler, Elsly, Trueman, Wood, and Weasley!" The announcer that they weren't paying attention to announced. "Now here's the Slytherin Team! Moran, Jacobson, Kelsh, Housman, Flint, Pucey, Wesly, and Higgs!"
The green and scarlet captains Moran and Weasley shook hands before mounting to join their teams in the air. Madame Hooch released the Snitch and bludgers before throwing the quaffle into the air which was,
"Quickly taken by Moran, she passes to Pucey, back to Moran, to Kel- No! Stolen by Trueman! Who passes to Kenton, to Jakobs- No! Stolen by Moran who's now on a breakaway. Moran shoots, she scores! Ten nothing Slytherin!"
The game proceeded to go on until Slytherin was seventy points ahead when,
"Weasley just went into a steep dive above the Slytherin goal posts! I think he's seen the snitch!" The announcer yelled excitedly
Max looked at Harry expectantly "I told you Weasley would win the game for Gryffindor."
Harry gave him a pitying look "I'm never wrong Maximus, look what Moran's doing right now." Harry said as he pointed toward the Slytherin side
Max looked to see what Harry said was true, Moran was directing the other chasers to areas along the side of Weasley while she herself was diving after Weasley.
"They're going to corpse block him!" Cedric said excitedly
He was right the three chasers now surrounded Weasley causing him to stop his chase for the snitch. The red and gold side booed while the green and silver cheered.
Harry gave Max a 'I told you so' look before turning his attention back to the game. Gryffindor had scored twice when the Slytherin chasers stopped Weasley causing the score to be eighty to thirty. But it seemed that Moran was going to rectify the fifty point lead when she scored twice in the same minute.
"I don't get why everyone puts so much stock into their seekers." Harry commented offhandedly
"Well they're fun to watch, score the most points, end the game, and usually win the game." MAx said
"Yes, but they can only score one hundred fifty points." Harry said "That's a lot of points but it kind of gives the chasers a goal to reach, if they can score fifteen more points before the snitch is caught then the seekers don't matter. Fifteen points isn't that much when you think about it and the snitch is random, which makes the seekers game random, seeking takes luck. The chasers will always be as good as they play, chasing takes skill."
Max looked at Harry "Thought about that much have you?"
"A bit yeah, I want to try out next year so I want to know what position I should play."
"And you're thinking chaser," Shannon said "you seem more like a seeker if you ask me. You always want to do things by yourself, it seems to fit you more."
"Seeker's a stupid position and is too boring, all you do is fly around looking for a tiny gold ball. Like a really stupid version of I-Spy." Harry said
"Hey I wanna play seeker!" Cedric protested "It isn't a stupid position."
"Yeah it is, now shut up, stop whining, and watch the game." Cedric was about to respond but Max beat him to it
"What's I-Spy?"
Harry sighed and shook his head "Never mind muggle reference."
"You know, for the heir of a pureblood family you seem to spend a lot of time in the muggle world. what gives?" Shannon asked curiously
"No prejudice in the muggle world."
They all looked at him confused "What do you mean prejudice? Prejudice against what?" Cedric asked
Harry wondered how they would all react if he told them 'Well, they'll find out eventually when the inn opens up. Might as well tell them now' He thought
"Werewolves." Harry said
Max looked at Harry thoughtfully, Cedric's eye's widened a little but remained silent, Shannon gave a slight gasp before asking. "Wait, are you saying that you're a-" Harry cut her off
"No I'm not, but my uncle is. And werewolf prejudice has been pretty high these past couple of years, especially now with all the new laws coming out." They all nodded their heads in understanding before turning back to the game.
The score was now one-hundred seventy to forty with Moran putting up a relentless assault on Wood, who looked to be slowing down with all the shots on goal.
"Unless Weasley catches the snitch soon, it is going to be a Slytherin victory." Cedric said
"Yeah might as well just leave right now." Max was kidding when he said this but Harry got up and left without another word.
They all stared at him as he briskly walked down from the stands "Harry, I was kidding about leaving !" Max shouted after him
Harry just pulled the shrunken book out of his pocket and started reading and walking, never tripping over anyone's feet or slowing his fast pace at all.
"How does he do that?" Cedric mused aloud when Harry dodged a foam finger that was thrown at him as he passed the Slytherin stands.
"I don't know, it's like he has a sixth sense or something."
"Maybe he does, but I doubt we'll ever find out."
They all shrugged and went back to watching the rest of the game. Slytherin now had a one-hundred and seventy point lead and was still going strong. When the score hit two-hundred, they decided to follow Harry's example and head in.
"Hello Nymphadora." Harry said as he walked in the room where he first met the energetic sixth year. He lazily dodged the hex that was sent his way before taking a seat on one of the abandoned desks.
"Shut up you little brat! How did you learn my name anyway?" She asked angrily
Harry just gave her a sly smile "The tag on the inside of your robes told me."
She cussed "Damit Mum!" She proceeded to swear and cuss words that no one (other than Harry) under the age of second year would understand.
Harry watched on amused while adding new insults to his arsenal, before asking what had been on his mind lately "Speaking of your parents, have you gotten a response yet?"
"Yeah I just got it yesterday, they'd said that they would do it and have sent a letter back to your uncle." She said perking up and going back to her happy self
"Good, now I can finally stop looking for a lawyer." Harry said noticing some stress drop off his shoulders
"Yep! Now did you get the spells I taught you last time?"
"All of them but the contegno shield, can you show me that again?" Harry asked, taking out his wand
Tonks took her wand out as well and gave a counter-clockwise oval motion, while saying 'contego', and lo 'n' behold a green-yellowish shield appeared in front of her.
The contego shield was mainly for blocking spells that are designed to cause harm, but unlike the protego shield, it doesn't block physical objects. Protego relies on how much power the user put into his shield, while contegno still requires power from the caster, it requires a fraction of the power to do just as much.
Harry did the wand motions and muttered the incantation a few times before finally getting it.
"Well Harrikens, do you think you're ready to try out that shield?" Tonks said as she levitated the furniture to the side of the room.
Harry scowled at the use of 'Harrikens' but let it slide, he pulled out his wand, casted contegno, and made a two fingered 'Come get me' gesture at Tonks.
Tonks started by casting charm related curses at Harry so as to negate the contegno shield. It's a priority shield which means that it works really well for some types of spells and curses, but then it sucks when it comes to other types.
Harry quickly realized this as his shield began to crack and switched to protego. Tonks kept up her relentless assault on Harry's shield and backed up Harry into a corner. Harry knew that he was losing fast but saw an opening, she was starting to advance closer to him making it impossible for him to dodge and rely on his shield the whole time. But this tactic also made it so that it's hard for her to dodge as well, Harry dropped his shield for a split second and cast a trip jinx at her.
Tonks thought she had won when his shield dropped but was surprised to see it come right back up again, she also didn't notice the trip jinx that had hit her in the leg when Harry's shield dropped. So when she took a step forward, she fell flat on her face.
Harry realized that his opponent was indisposed and cast a quick spell at her to turn her blue. He let her get back up and both moved to the center of the room again to try again.
"That hurt when I fell," Tonks said as she canceled her blue skin "I think I might have bruised my nose."
"Go to the hospital wing afterward then, let's try this again for now."
They both faced each other like the last time, accept this time Harry was the one who started casting. He knew that it wasn't good to be on the defensive like he was the last time and decided to go for a defensive tactic this time.
But Tonks, unlike Harry, went for dodging the spell instead of shielding. Harry kept up his assault and dodged the curses that Tonks sent his way. But then it all went downhill for Harry when she started silent casting. Harry went back to relying on his shield again but was quickly becoming tired as she alternated between casting curses and charms.
His shield was starting to crack fast and decided to abandon it, he put a strong pulse of energy into his protego before diving behind the empty teacher's desk. But as soon as he was behind his cover, it was summoned away and he was bound by ropes the next moment.
"Good try Harrikens."
"Shut up and get me out of these ropes Nymphadora!" He struggled to sit up and face her
"I should just leave you there for saying my name brat, but I'll let you off this once seeing as you just got your butt handed to you." She canceled the ropes
"Well you're a sixth year and I'm a firstie, I beat you the first time so how does that feel?" Harry taunted
"You're too good to be a little firstie, you must have had dueling lessons or something." She said trying to save some of her pride
"Nope, unless you consider prank wars lessons. Now I'm going to go sleep for the next nineteen hours if you don't mind." He moved towards the door to leave
"It's only like" She checked her watch "six o'clock. Why are you going to bed so early?"
"I've been awake for the past thirty-eight hours and really need some sleep." Harry said yawning
"Wait you went through classes and dueling with me with no sleep, why in the world would you do that and how are you still awake?"
"I go caught up in a book last night and didn't realize the time until it was too late." Harry said tiredly "And in-order to stay up I chugged four pepper-up potions, the sleepiness kinda just hit me now."
Tonks noticed that his eyes were now visibly drooping "Well go to bed, you look dead on your feet at the moment."
Harry just nodded his head and dragged his feet back up to the Ravenclaw common room. Truthfully, he wasn't up all night reading a book. He was practicing the first steps of turning into an animagus, as of last night he had transformed his hand. Harry was very proud of his progress so far, the marauders had gotten to this stage in their fifth year and had not managed the complete transformation until their summer that same year.
It was probably one of the most painful things he had ever gone through, imagine your knuckles rearranging themselves and then having your skin stretched and reformed and you'll get pretty close to what it feels like. 'Hopefully this is as bad as it gets.' Harry thought as he laid down on his bed and rubbed his aching hand 'Or else I doubt I'll be able to hold a wand for the rest of the year.' With that thought, Harry drifted into a dreamless sleep.
