DISCLAIMER: All I own are the various tumours likely forming from the stress of the life of a university student struggling. No Harry Potter for me, no matter how many shooting stars I wish on.

Chapter 4: Monkey Bars and Shooting Stars

Harry gazed at the other swingset and the woman it contained from where he was sitting on his own swing, as he slowly swayed back and forth. Is this what it feels like to be a normal teenager for once?

"What, do I have something on my face?" The blonde across from him asked, a mischievous grin on her face. "Or is my beauty just overwhelming you? I get that more than you would think, or maybe exactly as often as you think."

The young wizard shook his head as she broke him out of his thoughts and replied, a similar grin on his own, "I was about to ask you the same question, here I was thinking we were having a staring contest."

The girl giggled softly, her shoulders shaking and eyes bright with mirth. Looking at her, it was almost easy to forget about his issues. It was nice to be alone with someone genuine, who wasn't merely looking to be around him for his fame, or because of things others had told them about him. With Voldemort back, and the recent revelation of the prophecy, it felt like the weight of the entire world was resting upon his shoulders, and now that his godfather was gone, it was like someone had kicked his legs out from underneath him.

Harry sighed internally, his smile threatening to drop as the young blonde's giggling ceased and was replaced by a concerned look, clearly regarding his sudden silence.

"So what school do you go to?" Tonks asked, breaking the awkward silence that was threatening to kill the mood. There was clearly quite a bit on the raven-haired teen's mind, and she wasn't about to let him sink back into his shell after she'd made so much progress.

Harry took a moment before answering, debating internally on what story to give her, the one created by his aunt or one of his own devising. Deciding that going with the rumors spread by his aunt would have less of a chance of backfiring, he made up his mind, resigning himself to the way he already knew the girl would react.

"My aunt had me put in St. Brutus's Secure Center for the Incurably Criminal," He replied eventually, keeping an even expression on his face.

Surprisingly, this wasn't met with the instant negative reaction Harry was expecting, and instead there was an appraising look in the petite blonde's eyes.

"Incurably criminal, huh? A bad boy, interesting. You don't look the type," She teased, the sparkle in her eyes coming back in full force, with a slight smirk appearing that Snape would be hard-pressed to match.

The young Boy-Who-Lived had to contain himself from the elation he felt at this reaction. At the very least, she wasn't turning and running away instantly, and any other reaction was better than he was expecting.

Deciding to play along, he matched the smirk with one of his own, "You know what they say, anyone can be a criminal. That drawing you've got of mine, it's actually the blueprints to a bank heist."

Tonks laughed out loud at that. She hadn't realized how witty the teen could be when he was relaxed, and it was still surprising to find how much fun she was having.

They sank back into conversation after that, St. Brutus forgotten, talking on all subjects. With both of them attempting to avoid delving too deeply into their backgrounds, afraid they would fail to hold up if given too much scrutiny, it was quite easy not to mess up and mix up their stories, resulting in wide discussion ranging from topics about the newest technology to funny stories from their childhoods, never staying on any one subject for too long.

Eventually their conversation slowly drifted off and they were left swinging lazily next to each other, enjoying the warm summer air and the sun's slow descent from the sky.

Clapping his hands, Harry stood up abruptly, startling Tonks.

"There's one important thing that we haven't talked about yet," Harry said, pausing ominously, staring expressionlessly at the blonde from where he was standing a few feet away.

Tonks gulped as she heard this and noted the expression on his face, as she began to franticly think back to where in the conversation she gave herself away. Unable to come up with anything, she settled for maintaining an even gaze, prepared to deny the accusation she knew was coming.

"We need to see who's better at making it across the monkey bars," Harry finally finished, a smile breaking out across his face as he began to head the short distance away to the playground's set of monkey bars.

The Auror sighed to herself as she met his smile with her own, glad to know that she'd been overthinking an entirely innocent statement. Standing up, she followed him, stretching out her arms as she went.

"I hope you know I won't go easy on you!" She said as she thought back to Auror training, where they'd had to do a similar exercise as part of their weekly obstacle course. On account of her fitness and being able to make herself lighter at will, it had been incredibly easy for her to do it, and that was with her trainers whipping spells at her intermittently. This would be both literally and figuratively a walk in the park for the metamorphmagus.

As Harry watched her gracefully jump the short distance necessary to reach the bars, a slight movement caught his gaze. As she jumped, her jeans had shifted just enough to reveal a small, stick-like object tucked into the side of her shoes. Harry froze as he caught a better look at something that could be nothing but a wand. Reaching back, he fingered his wand for a moment, before releasing it just as she reached the other end of the monkey bars. He'd give her a chance.

"Your turn, good luck beating that!" She crowed, breathing rapidly after the quick pace she had set going across it.

"That's all I've got to beat?" He teased, jumping up himself to grab the bars.

As he made his way across, he tried his best not to focus too much on what he'd just discovered, and was forced rather abruptly to pay attention to what he was doing when he found his way blocked at the end of the monkey bars by that same blonde-haired girl who'd been on his mind.

"Ah-ah-ah, not so fast, I'm not letting you beat me!" Tonks smirked as she stopped him from making it across.

Harry paused for a moment, before deciding what he was going to do. He released one hand from the bars, making it seem like he was giving up, before grabbing her with that hand and wrapping his legs around hers then dropping without warning onto the ground. They landed in a tangled heap, both laughing happily as they slowly disentangled themselves from one another and lying back on the sand.

After a couple of minutes of laughter and relaxing, Tonks finally chose to break the silence.

"So, Mr. Bank Robber, how about you use some of your ill-begotten funds and buy me some ice cream?" She said, giving him an appraising look. She wasn't completely sure he'd go for it, they were getting uncomfortably close to the idea of them being on a date, but she couldn't help herself. Tonks was amazed at how easy it was for her to let her guard down around the guy, who prior to today she had only spoken a few sentences to at most.

While she'd had a couple boyfriends during her time at Hogwarts, it was difficult for her to get close to anyone who didn't want her for the more 'creative' possibilities that could be had with her metamorphmagus abilities. Her first two boyfriends had seen her as little more than the ultimate in sexual wish fulfilment, with one even going so far as to say, "Now I don't need to date a redhead or a blonde to see who's better, I can have both at the same time!". The pompous idiot even had the gall to be offended when she had hexed him and chased him out of the broom closet they'd found themselves making out in.

With Harry, though, it was different. For once she was able to be herself, albeit with a little modified of a history, and know that she was being appreciated for who she was, not what she could do or turn into. It was refreshing, and the longer she spent in his presence the more disarmed and relaxed she became.

While Tonks was contemplating the enigma that was the raven-haired wizard next to her, he was doing some serious thinking of his own.

Ever since he had caught a glimpse of her wand, Harry had been attempting to figure out what angle she was trying to play, and for the life of him he couldn't come up with any logical arguments as to why either Dumbledore or Voldemort would send a witch to befriend him. If it were Voldemort, and he had the ability to get someone within such close proximity, it was a safe assumption that he'd already be dead, or at least in a fight for his life. Dumbledore made a bit more sense, as after his outburst in his office at the end of the year he may have wanted to keep a closer eye on Harry, but there were still parts that didn't add up. For one, he knew that the Order of the Phoenix was keeping an eye on Privet Drive, and while he hadn't outright found one of the members watching him, Harry was positive they were there. Any strange witch approaching him should have been met with questions, at the least, though that assumed quite a bit about the general competence of the Order, or lack thereof.

The one thing Harry could be sure of though, was that he was enjoying himself immensely, far more than he had during any other point of this summer. It was nice to have a distraction from the guilt he'd been feeling, and having some of the weight taken off his shoulders by the mere presence of a friendly face; it also definitely didn't hurt for that friendly face to be so pretty.

"Well? Earth to Harry, come in Harry?" Tonks interrupted his thoughts, wondering if she'd broken the kid.

"Sorry about that, sort of drifted off," Harry replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and blushing slightly, before continuing, "Let's go, I guess I can spend some of the bank's money; not exactly like I can just go back there and ask to put it in an account,"

Tonks laughed at his reply, breaking the somewhat tense moment following both of their respective thought-intensive moments.

"Lead on criminal!"

It wasn't quite Fortescue's, lacking the extra kick given by the owner's secret recipe, which likely contained magic of some sort. However, it was still quite good and both of them enjoyed their respective choices immensely as they sat around a small table in the almost-empty ice cream parlor. Harry had opted for a small bowl of plain vanilla, while Tonks went for a more extravagant banana split with the whole nine yards on top, everything from whip cream to chocolate sauce to a single cherry resting in the center.

The brightly-lit parlor had a calm, happy atmosphere to it, making both of them lighten up from the deep thoughts they'd been slowly working towards in the park, and served to fight off some of the tiredness that was setting in on both after the long day they'd had.

As delightful as it was, sitting and eating ice cream while casually chatting, Tonks knew she had to ask the one question that had been pressing on her mind throughout the day, though thinking of an appropriate way to ask it was a challenge in and of itself. After all, it wasn't like she could outright ask how he's feeling after watching his Godfather die before his eyes.

"So tell me Harry, for someone who I've been talking to all day, you've barely said a word about your family. How are they? You mentioned something about your aunt earlier, do you live with them?" Tonks asked, to a degree generally curious about how Harry viewed his relatives. She knew that they didn't exactly have a great relationship, but they were still family, weren't they?

Harry sighed and looked down at his partially-eaten bowl of ice cream. This sort of question was inevitable, but that didn't mean he hadn't been dreading it all day.

"Yeah, I live with my aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon, and my cousin Dudley. They're alright I guess, we don't get along too well but they leave me alone and I leave them alone," Harry replied, hoping that would satisfy her, but knowing it probably wouldn't.

Sure enough, the blonde-haired girl pressed on, looking at him intently.

"You don't have some other family you can live with? You know, since you don't get along with your aunt and uncle?"

"Not really, no, there was my godfather but recently he…" Harry trailed off, still staring pointedly at his ice cream. He felt the sharp burn of tears pricking the corners of his eyes, but he blinked rapidly to force them to recede.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure he was a great man," Tonks said gently, sliding a hand across the table to rest over Harry's. She lightly squeezed it, though he still refrained from looking up. "Wherever he is, I'm sure he's proud of you."

"Thanks. That means a lot, more than you know," Harry finally replied, after several moments. He squeezed her hand back, appreciating how soft and smooth it was, then looked up and sent her a tentative smile.

A few more minutes of idle chatter passed as the two half-bloods finished off what was left of their ice cream, with Tonks preparing her excuse as to why Harry wouldn't be able to walk her home.

"It's getting a tad late, should we be getting you home?" Tonks teased, gesturing to him with her spoon.

"I was about to ask you the same question, shall I walk you, Madame?" Harry said, tipping an imaginary hat and giving a slight bow, regardless of how ridiculous it looked while sitting in an oversized chair at an ice cream parlor.

"My dad's pretty over-protective, and he'd go mental if he saw a boy walking me home this late. Besides, I don't live very far, and I can take care of myself," Tonks replied, her expression making it clear that she was daring him to argue, and if he did the results wouldn't be pretty.

"Are you sure? It is pretty late, and I'm sure you can take care of yourself, but it can be dangerous out there."

"Oh, so just because I'm a girl, I'm defenseless?"

"No, but…"

"Exactly, so back off, or you'll be the only one in danger here," She growled playfully.

"Fine, but you'd better be careful," Harry relented, with a mock-glare on his face.

Both of them stood and disposed of their empty ice cream containers, before awkwardly standing in front of one another.

Tonks was the first to break the silence, asking "So I'll see you around?"

"Yeah, I'm not going anywhere, though you have the advantage of knowing where I live while I haven't a clue where you do," Harry replied.

"That's just the way I like it; how am I supposed to be the beautiful, mysterious girl if I get rid of all the mystery?"

Harry was unable to contain his laughter and Tonks soon joined him, both of them giggling away, before she suddenly moved into him, wrapping him up in a gentle hug.

"I'll come see you soon," She whispered, her breath hot against his ear. Just before breaking the embrace, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, before pulling away and walking out of the parlor.

Harry followed, but she was quickly walking down the opposite way he needed to head.

"I mean it though, be careful," He finally called once he'd regained his ability to speak after her retreating form, tone now serious. All he received for his effort, however, was a wave as he watched her make her way down the street, hips swaying.

Harry leaned against the wall of the building as he watched her turn the corner and disappear from his view, as the widest smile he'd had since Sirius's death broke across his face. Maybe my summer really won't be so boring after all?

As he began his trek home, while gazing up at the night sky, he caught a glimpse of a shooting star as it flitted across the sky as it disappeared quickly from his view. He already knew exactly what to wish for.

A/N: Thanks for reading everyone. Hope everyone's having a great April, because I'm definitely not, as my semester comes to a close and exams begin their fun cycle of sleep-deprivation. Sorry about the delay on this one, with those previously-mentioned exams coming up I've had very little free time to dedicate to pumping out another chapter. No promises for an exact date for the next chapter, I haven't decided if it will be before or after my exams, though ideally I'd like to get it out within a week. Thanks again for reading, have a great day and if you'd like to drop a review, that would be much appreciated. They definitely help kick my butt into gear.