A/N: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 7

It was 8pm Wednesday night and Harry had just spent the last day training and going over what had happened yesterday. He knew that he could expect Tonks to show up tonight to talk about what had happened. He had kept things from her that she would have wanted to know about and knew that she was going to be upset.

Harry picked up the letters his friends had sent him; he had received letters from Ron, Ginny, and Hermione. He hadn't received a reply from Neville and Luna, but then again he wasn't expecting one. His last letters to them had indicated that he would talk to them at Hogwarts and so they probably didn't feel the need to write something back to that.

Ron's letter was understandably short.

Dear Harry,

How are you mate? The muggles treating you okay? Well you only have to put up with them for a little while longer.

Anyway, you need to hurry up and get here; Hermione is already getting on us about doing revision and homework and going over all our schoolbooks again. We don't even have homework after OWLs but does she take time off? No. She's mad I tell you. She is still writing letters to that Krum guy. He's just using her, why won't she see that.

Ron

Harry laughed after reading Ron's letter, Ron was a good friend but even more clueless about girls than he was. Harry knew Ron liked Hermione but he wouldn't say anything about it, because he couldn't even admit it to himself.

Reaching for the next letter in the pile Harry picked up Hermione's letter.

Dear Harry,

It's good to finally hear that you are no longer blaming yourself, about everything that's happened to those close to you. You were carrying far too much guilt on your shoulders, because of things that you had no control over.

Now onto your letters to Ginny, do you really, not know why she thinks that you like her? Oh what am I saying, you're a boy of course you don't know. In both of your letters to her, you have said things that any girl would interpret as flirting or at least being interested in her. In her first letter, you ask if she has a boyfriend and then ask to get to know her better; and in your second letter, you say you want to get to know someone better but you can't say who. She only knows of herself that you are trying to get to know better, so she is assuming that you are talking about her, consequently she obviously is confused. Just what is going on with this?

Anyway, besides Ginny thinking you might like her, nothing interesting has been happening here. There have been several Order meetings but they won't let us attend, and we are still cleaning the house. Ron is also being a prat. He won't study he just wants to play all day and not do any revision. He still won't believe me that I am not dating Viktor, he is just a friend, and besides I haven't written to him in months.

Hurry up get here, I miss you,

Hermione

Okay, Harrythought, that was interesting. Now I know why Ginny thinks I like her but I still don't know how to fix it. Also Hermione is just as blind about her own feelings about Ron as he is towards her. I don't know how she is able to understand what is going in my letters to Ginny but not understand that Ron likes her.

He paused his thoughts he sets them aside to read Ginny's letter.

Dear Harry,

Do you know how little sense your last letter made? You aren't looking for a girlfriend but you want to get to know someone better? You had better have some good answers for all the questions you've raised, or you'll see just how devious I can be.

I don't know if you have realized this yet but our resident genius and my idiotic brother like each other, but won't admit it to either themselves or the other person; all they are doing is constantly bickering with each other until they are red in the face, then storm off to avoid each other for a few hours. We desperately need to do something about this, as they're driving me mad. I am tempted to just call in the twins and have them prank them until they admit that they like the other person.

Hoping to see you soon,

Ginny

Ginny's letter was interesting too, as she wants to know more but is willing to wait plus threatens him to tell her what she wants to know, at the same time. This was something that she never would have done before this summer. She also knows about Ron and Hermione; that let some ideas for possible mischief form, about what he and Ginny could do to his two best friends. He was also confused with how she ended the letter Hoping to see you soon it sounded like she was interested in him too. He would definitely need to think about this.

Putting those thoughts aside, he began practicing his metamorphmagus exercises while waiting for Tonks came to visit that night. He was expecting her to be there around 10 o'clock just as her letter said she would be. Picking up a magazine, one he had picked up from the coffee table in the living room downstairs, he began with trying to imitate the hairstyles he found in it, mainly just to use up the time until Tonks came.

At 10:15, she showed up in his room wearing tight black jeans, a fitting white shirt, and her usual shocking pink hair. "Wotcher Harry."

"Hey Tonks."

"So what have you been doing today?"

"Just the usual stuff for me: running, weights, boxing, and then my magical exercises. I was going over the metamorphmagus exercises I know before you got here."

"So you just thought that we would work on your training?" She asked with a frown.

Seeing her look he sighed then said, "Well I can always hope."

"Sorry but after everything that you said to Bones yesterday I think that there is a lot of stuff that we need to talk about. Sides right now you need to read this," she said tossing him a book. "It's a basic muggle biology book about the body. You need to know where all the parts are before I start teaching you how to change your features."

"Fine Tonks," he said as he caught the book and set it on his desk next to his friends' letters. "So what do you want to know?"

"Well I figured that first I would like to know what you were doing at the Ministry yesterday."

"Sure, that's something that I need to talk to you about anyway."

"What do you mean?" Tonks asked as she sat down in the chair that Harry had made for reading his books.

Taking a seat in the chair at his desk, he turned it so he was facing her then replied, "I was there because I wanted to explore other options of continuing my education, besides returning to Hogwarts. I don't want to let Dumbledore have too much control over what I'm doing, so I wrote a letter to Beauxbatons asking the headmistress for admission."

"You didn't have to go to the Ministry to do that though," Tonks stated.

"No, your right, I didn't. I went to the Ministry to get a list of all the people who are accepting apprentices. Furthermore I found one that would be able to teach what I need to know, so I sent in an application."

"Who did you send it to?"

"Nicholas Flamel."

Mouth open in surprise she said, "He's dead. He died shortly after your first year, Dumbledore destroyed the stone."

"Maybe he did or maybe Flamel created a new one, I don't know, but his name was on the list of possible masters," Harry said as he grabbed the list and handed it to Tonks.

Looking at the list she quickly saw that he was telling the truth. "This is a really big decision Harry. Why didn't you talk to me about this, whatever you do affects me now, I need to know what is going on with you."

Dropping his head in shame from forgetting that he now had someone else that was affected by everything he did he said, "I know. I'm sorry, I'm not used to having to worry about how what I do will affect others."

"I know that Harry. I'm not really mad at you. I just want you to realize that it is no longer just you, it's us now. For better or worse, we will be together for the rest of our lives. And for what it's worth I agree with your decision. You do need another way to get your education away from Dumbledore, he doesn't really see you as a person, he sees you as a weapon that will be used to defeat Voldemort."

"Thank you for understanding; I will try to remember, that I have to think about you too now."

"That's all I can ask. Now speaking about us, there are some things that I think we need to talk to you about."

Curious as to what she was going to say asked, "What about us?"

"Well I know that you were going to tell your friends about us, but you have to know that shortly after you tell them, Dumbledore will know. I'm not saying that you can't trust them," she said cutting him off before he could begin. "I'm just saying that they still trust Dumbledore, and Hermione especially would want to tell him because she thinks that he would be able to keep me safe."

Opening his mouth to reply he quickly closed it thinking about what she said. He realized that what she said was true, Hermione had always trusted the rules too much and she would want to tell Dumbledore. "So what do we do? I don't really want to hide this from my friends."

Sighing she said, "Ok well other than just not telling them at all we have two options. We can tell everyone all at once, maybe at an Order meeting or you can just tell your friends that you are betrothed but not tell them who."

Pausing to give it some serious thought Harry replied, "I think that we should just tell everyone. As much as I don't want Dumbledore to know about this; if I don't tell my friends who I am betrothed to, then we would have to keep it a secret from them. We would also run the risk of having everyone trying to pry into my life, even more so than now, plus my friends wouldn't like it if I didn't tell them."

With a look of extreme reluctance she said, "Ok, if that is what you think is best we'll do that. Do you want me to tell them myself, or do you want me to wait until you get to Grimmauld Place?"

"I'll trust your judgment on that. If you want to wait until I am there so I can answer the questions of why, you can do that or you can tell them on your own, if you think they will be satisfied with the answers you can give them, do that. Just let me know whichever you do."

"Alright, another thing we need to discuss, I think, is when you can meet my parents."

Somewhat shocked by this he asked, "Why?"

"Well, they will be your parents in a year and they don't really know anything about you. We were supposed to grow up together, playing and having our families being close. As that didn't happen, all they know now are what the papers have said about you, plus what little I have told them. They want to meet you in person, so they can form their own opinion as to what you're like."

"Alright Tonks. Set up a time with them so we can go have dinner sometime."

"Really?" she asked amazed that he had acquiesced so easily.

With a bemused smile he answered, "Yeah, I know that your parents are important to you, so sure, I'll meet them."

Impulsively she hugged him before saying, "Thank you. I didn't think that you would agree so easily. I mean no boyfriend ever wants to meet a girl's parents."

"Boyfriend?" he asked with a smile.

"Huh, well yeah. I mean we are going to have to get to know each other better, and what better way than if we are dating?"

"Oh alright, if you insist," He said with a teasing glint in his eyes.

"Yes I do," she said with a laugh as she playfully smacked his arm.

Joining her in laughter for a moment before he asked, "Is there anything else you want to know?"

"Some things yeah, but we can do that slowly. Why don't you tell me about what life was like for you until Hogwarts, and I'll do the same."

"You'll tell me about yourself too?"

Tilting her head to the side and furrowing her brow in confusion she said, "Of course, I mean you have a right to know about my past just as much as I have a right to know about yours, so we're going to trade off."

"Alright. Well there's not really all that much that happened before Hogwarts. After I was brought here, I raised myself as soon as I was able to. I mean I cooked for myself, and the Dursleys, starting shortly after I was five and tall enough to reach the counters. I started to clean up all the messes, clean the house, do all the laundry, mow the lawn, do the gardening, and generally work as their slave until I got my letter. Before then I also slept in the cupboard under the stairs the entire time. As I was only, given this room when I returned from my first year of Hogwarts, before then, it was considered Dudley's second room. I was never, given anything growing up. I grew up wearing Dudley's old clothes. I was never allowed to have friends in school, plus was also punished for doing better than Dudley in school, and was only given glasses when the school nurse wrote home that I needed them. I was never really abused but I was never cared for either, I was a freak to them and unworthy of them," Harry said without pause, never changing his gaze from the floor until he ended, then took a small glance at Tonks.

Tonks for her part was shocked. She knew that Harry never had a good home life but she was shocked that it was so bad. "I don't know what to say. I knew that you didn't like it here, but I didn't think it was that bad. To be honest, I am amazed that you have turned out to be as good as you are. What you went through would have, and has made lesser men go dark. I am proud of you."

Shocked at what she said he just quietly replied, "I'm just me Tonks, I'm no one special, I do what I do because I have to, and because I never want another person to have to go through what I have."

"That is why I am so proud to know you, and to call you a friend. You could have changed into someone worse than the Malfoys, and yet you are still just a normal guy. You don't even think about yourself. You are selfless and that is something that could make me love you, something that also makes it to where, I am not really upset that we are being forced into a marriage with each other," She said with her eyes glistening.

Getting uncomfortable with how the conversation had been going Harry said, "So what was your childhood like?"

"…It was good. I was a mischievous kid always getting into trouble. My parents would always take time to play with me. They took me on vacations, into the muggle world and all over really. Even when I got into trouble and my parents were mad at me, I knew they still loved me. I started changing my appearance when I was 10, my Dad read me a story about elves one night, and the next morning when I woke up, I had long pointy elf-like ears. My parents freaked out," she said with a laugh. "They had no idea how it had happened and ended up taking me to St. Mungo's so they could check me out, and that is where I learned about being a Metamorphmagus. Other than going to a muggle primary school and hanging out with friends, that is all I did."

"It sounds nice Tonks. You make it sound wonderful."

With that, their conversation changed to mundane matters, going on for another hour or so until Harry began to yawn and Tonks decided it was time to leave.

The next two days went by quickly for Harry; he spent his time doing his training without the distractions of visitors or trips. In that time, he had also answered the letters to his friends and sent his letter to the Order. In his letter to his friends, he wrote:

Dear Ginny,

Ok no need to get violent, I promise I will explain everything once I get to where you are. Hopefully the answers will be sufficient for you.

Now as to the Ron and Hermione issue; I am aware of it, it is really hard not to be. Especially since both spent the second half of their letters complaining about the other. Anyway don't involve the twins yet, I think that we could come up with something that would be much more fun for us. I am still working on ideas on how we can get the two together, well other than locking them in a closet for several hours. So start planning as I'll see in you in less than a week.

Your Accomplice,

Harry

Harry liked this letter as it didn't imply that he liked Ginny as anything more than a friend or so he hoped. His letter to Ron was far different from the one to Ginny though.

Dear Ron,

The muggles are fine, they have been much better since the warning from the Order, but I still can't wait to get out of here and see you guys again.

So Ron jealous much? It sounds as if you might like a certain bushy-haired bookworm that we know. Now don't start shaking you head at me, if that wasn't true than you would not care that Hermione is writing to Krum.

See you soon,

Harry

Harry liked that letter, because he could just imagine the fit that Ron would have about what he wrote, and how he would try to deny it. His letter to Hermione was similar to his to Ron.

Dear Hermione,

Well it is nice to know that you have such a high opinion of the emotional capability of men; but is it really any wonder that I am so clueless, as to what is going on in a woman's mind? The only women I have been around for any amount of time is you, Ginny, Mrs. Weasley, Tonks, and my Aunt Petunia. Anyway thank you for the explanation; hopefully I wont send mixed signals anymore. I do need to ask you to continue to try and convince Ginny that while I want to be her friend, I am not trying to become her boyfriend.

Now, onto the other thing you wrote about. I think, someone likes a certain stubborn redheaded friend, and I don't mean Ginny. I don't want to hear no denying it; you don't bug me about studying as much as you do him. You can even ask Ginny, she has noticed it too. Also have you actually told him that you are not writing to Krum, or have you let him continue to believe what he wants?

Your not so clueless friend,

Harry

His letter to Hermione was a little longer than Ron's, but after answering questions he said the same thing to her that he had said to Ron, that they both liked the other and just needed to admit it.

The only other thing of importance that had happened was that he had received a letter from Madame Maxime saying that he would be granted acceptance if he wanted.

Thursday Morning…

The half-giant headmistress of the school Beauxbatons, had just returned to her office after breakfast, and found a snowy white owl sitting on her desk with a letter tied to its leg. Removing the letter, she found that it was written in English, as she knew only a few people who would correspond to her in English, her curiosity was peaked. Quickly reading the letter, she finished within moments of starting it, and set it down in shock. She had just read a letter from Harry Potter, a boy she had met only briefly two years ago. In his letter, he had talked about a falling out with Albus Dumbledore, his current headmaster. If she remembered correctly, she thought that the boy had been quite close to Dumbledore. Curious as to what could have happened that would make Potter want to leave his school, she tried to think of a reason why he would want to transfer, but could come up with nothing. She also decided that as the boy didn't like Dumbledore at the moment, she couldn't ask him, since Mr. Potter had written her in confidence. Still as it was normal, yes uncommon, but normal for a child to request a change of schools and there was nothing that prevented her from allowing it, she wrote a reply that said:

Dear Mr. Potter,

I have received your letter for transfer, and as there is no law restricting me from allowing you entrance into Beauxbatons, I would be happy to accept you as a student here. If you do choose to enroll here, please send a letter notifying me no later than August 15th.

Sincerely,

Madame Maxime, Headmistress of Beauxbatons.

After finishing her letter, she tied the letter to the snowy owl the other had come with and it promptly left, she watched its graceful glides for a few seconds before returning to her normal school duties.

It was now Friday night and the Order of the Phoenix was currently finishing up a meeting.

"Is there any other news that needs to be discussed tonight?" the leader of the Order asked looking around at the people at the table. Seeing them shake their heads in the negative he said, "No? Ok then I believe that is all… Oh Nymphadora, I did hear about a meeting you had with Mr. Potter a few days ago. Could you please tell us what he was doing?"

Seeing that he had caught her in the middle of a meeting room she had to quickly, come up with a reply that would satisfy everyone else but still not tell Dumbledore what really went on, as she wanted to wait until Harry was here to tell everyone. "He had written a letter to me saying he was sorry for acting like a prat after Sirius died, and offered to meet with me if I wanted to talk. So I went there and we ended up going to a restaurant close by, we talked about Sirius and just common stuff," She said looking around the table as she finished.

Dumbledore seeing that everyone else had accepted this explanation knew that he would not get the real reason so he said, "Thank you Nymphadora, I just wanted to make sure that Mr. Potter is doing well after the events of last year."

"No worries, Albus."

"Well if there is nothing else I think that is all. I really must get back to Hogwarts; I will see most of you in a week at the next Order meeting barring any unforeseen problems." With that, Albus rose from his chair and used the floo to get back to his office at Hogwarts.

After leaving Headquarters, Tonks quickly apparated to Harry's bedroom arriving just behind him before saying, "Wotcher Harry."

Startled Harry quickly jumped from his chair, spun around; shooting off a stunner before he even realized it was Tonks behind him. Seeing that she was now lying unconscious on the ground Harry decided to wake her. Wanting to see if he had enough control to use a new spell Harry cast the Ennevrate spell on Tonks. To his surprise, the spell worked and Tonks woke up. "Sorry about that Tonks, I forgot you were coming over tonight."

"No problem Harry, I should've been more careful."

Seeing that she really wasn't angry he said, "So what's up?"

"Not much; just got done with an Order meeting. Dumbledore tried to find out what we talked about by asking me in front of the Order, but I was able to tell him a half-truth so he couldn't question me more, or at least not in front of the Order."

"I'm not surprised that he would try something like that. Why didn't you just tell him about the betrothal though, we decided that you could if you want?"

"I decided to wait for you because you know more about the why than I do, and I wasn't sure how much about why, you would want them to know."

Nodding his head in understanding he said, "Well I guess that means we'll tell them after I get there. Anyway, speaking about the betrothal, did you set a date with your parents for when we would meet?"

"Yeah, I got to talk to them yesterday. They said they could do lunch on Tuesday around one. It'll be at the same place we went to before. I'll be here at like 12:30 to pick you up."

"Alright, so what are we doing tonight?"

"Well first I thought we'd go over our first two years at Hogwarts together, then we'll do some practice on morphing."

"Ok, so you wanna go first this time?"

"Sure. Ok so well not much happened my first two years. I mean after getting sorted into Ravenclaw, I began doing some more intensive training in morphing. McGonagall taught me for that. Other than making friends, going to class, and doing homework I didn't really do much. I was too young to start dating so I had no boyfriends, and I didn't start pranking anyone until after fourth year when I knew more magic, so it was pretty boring all in all."

"Yes well I would take boring any day," Harry said after listening to her.

"So what about you, what happened your first two years. I know a little about the Sorcerer's stone thing that happened."

Sighing Harry started speaking about his first year at Hogwarts. He told her about Hagrid and Diagon Alley, meeting Ron and Malfoy on the train, the troll and finally becoming friends with Hermione, the whole mystery behind the Sorcerer's stone then having to get past all the tasks, before facing Voldemort and Quirrel.

After talking about his first year, he proceeded to talk about Dobby, the incident in Diagon Alley, Lockhart, and then learning about how he was a Parselmouth during the dueling club. He then told her about all the people being petrified, how they brewed the Polyjuice potion so that they took to get into the Slytherin common room plus the hidden room in the Malfoy's drawing room. He also told her about how Hermione was able to find out what had attacked people before she too was petrified, and then about learning that Ginny had been took into the chamber.

"When Ron and I heard that Ginny had been taken we went to Lockhart, who had said that he knew where the entrance to the chamber was, and told him that we knew where the entrance really was and that we needed his help to save Ginny. It was when we took his wand and forced him to come with us that we finally got him into the chamber. Once there he tried to take Ron's wand and cast a memory charm on us, but the spell backfired and caused him to lose his own memory, as well as making it so only I could proceed into the chamber where Ginny was lying on the floor unmoving. When I saw her, I ran over and in the process dropped my wand, which was the biggest mistake I made.

"The memory of Tom Riddle, which was stored in the diary had been feeding off of Ginny's life force, and had managed to become real again. He picked up my wand and showed me that he was the heir of Slytherin, then called the basilisk out of its room and had it attack me, but Fawkes showed up with the sorting hat. After dropping the hat, Fawkes attacked the basilisk and destroyed its eyes. The basilisk could still smell me and so I ended up running for a while, until I put the Hat on and the Sword of Gryffindor fell out. After that I was chased up one of the statues in the chamber and just before the basilisk was able to kill me, I shoved the sword through its upper jaw and into its brain, but one of its fangs broke off in my arm and poisoned me. Before the poison took complete affect I was able to get back down to Ginny, but she still hadn't woken up, so I took the basilisk fang and stabbed it through the diary, which finally killed the memory of Riddle and allowed Ginny to wake back up. Before I lost consciousness, Fawkes came and cried into the wound, which cured the poison and healed the wound. After that Fawkes took me, Ginny, Ron, Lockhart, the Hat, plus the sword and flew us back up the pipes, where we made our way to the Headmaster's office." When he had finished Tonks was looking at him in awe of the things he had done.

"You really killed a basilisk and fought Voldemort twice in only two years?"

"Yeah – Hey you said Voldemort!"

"Well yeah I mean after learning that he is just a half-blood like us, it made me realize that it really is silly to be scared of his name," She replied, causing Harry to smile. "I want you to know that I am proud of how you acted, I know many Aurors who would have panicked under the same circumstances, you're incredibly brave."

Blushing Harry said, "I'm not brave Tonks, I was scared out of my mind most of the time."

"Harry being brave doesn't mean that you aren't scared, it means that you were able to get past the fear and do what you had to," She said causing Harry to blush again. "Harry I do have one question for you though."

"What is it?"

"You said that the diary held a memory of Tom Riddle, and was able to use Ginny to come back to life?"

"Yeah why?"

"Well I just don't know of any spells or enchantments that would allow him to do that. Well there is that one…"

"What one? Tonks?"

"Huh, oh sorry Harry. I was just thinking that there is one way to do what he did, but it is a very evil way, though it would give Voldemort a sort of immortality like he's been searching for."

"What Tonks?"

"Ok, have you ever heard of an Horcrux?"

"No, not that I know of. Why?"

"Well a Horcrux is an object that has a piece of someone's soul stored in it. It would allow the person to come back to life even if their body had been destroyed."

"So you think that the diary was a Horcrux?" Harry asked with a sense of growing horror, and inadvertently lowering his mental shields slightly.

"Yeah, I want to go to Madam Bones tomorrow and show her the memory of the chamber just to make sure."

"Ok, do you have an idea on how to get me out of here for the day?"

"Yeah, I can just make you a portkey to her office. I'll set it to activate at like 10am tomorrow, ok?"

"Yeah, sure Tonks."

"Good, now let's start on to your training."

"Ok, what do we do?" Harry said seemingly excited, before he collapsed on his bed screaming.

Jumping up Tonks immediately moved to Harry's side as he started to shake. "Harry what's wrong? Harry? Come on wake up, you're ok, come on Harry," Tanks said as Harry began to get worse. When he didn't respond to her, she picked him up and placed him on the bed, then sat beside him as she ran her fingers through his hair to try and calm him down.

Ten minutes later Harry finally stopped shaking and opened his eyes to look at Tonks. "Tonks?" Harry croaked.

"Harry! Are you ok? What happened?" Tonks asked with concern lacing her voice.

Groaning Harry said, "Voldemort…he was angry…crucio'd followers."

"What? Harry I don't understand."

"Scar…is a link to… Voldemort… when he has strong emotions…I can feel the spells he uses…or see through his eyes…was how I was able to save Mr. Weasley last year."

With wide eyes Tonks replied, "Oh my god, you can actually feel the crucios that Voldemort cast?"

"Yeah," Harry said groaning in pain from the aftereffects of the spell.

"Oh Harry, I need you sit up."

"Why?"

"I need to get you out of your clothes; you need to sleep to let the effects of the crucio fade. Now sit up."

"'kay," Harry said as he sat up and let Tonks remove his shirt. Once his shirt was removed, she took off his shoes and socks before transfiguring his pants into pajama bottoms, as she couldn't easily remove them. Laying him back down she sat next to him as he closed his eyes and let her run her fingers through his hair, again until he was asleep. She stayed with him for a few moments more; before getting up, writing him a note, and creating a portkey to take him to Madam Bones office tomorrow, then leaving them on his desk where he was sure to find them, she disapparated to her post outside to finish her shift.

The next morning Harry woke up to the sound of someone pounding on his door. Rising quickly he went to the door and opened to see an upset Dudley. "Dudley?"

"Why weren't you downstairs?"

"Huh? What time is it?"

"It's 9:15 in the morning, you didn't show for training."

Eyes widening in realization Harry quickly came more awake. "Sorry Dudley, I had a rough night, I meant to tell you that today's practice was cancelled. I gotta be somewhere at 10, so you can just forget about today."

With a huff Dudley said, "Fine, but you better be there tomorrow."

"I will, if not I'll tell you later today."

Nodding his head Dudley turned and left. Harry now fully awakened went to his closet to grab some clothes. On the way he glanced at his desk, where he saw the note from Tonks.

Harry,

I left after you went to sleep last night. We'll work on your training next time. This note is the portkey set to go off at 10 a.m. it will take you straight to Amelia Bones' office.

Tonks

Having finished the letter, Harry grabbed his clothes and showered quickly, before getting dressed and going back to his room, where he waited for 10 o'clock to arrive so he could get to the interview with Madam Bones. Just before 10, Harry grabbed the portkey and vanished a moment later.

At about the same time that Harry was leaving the bathroom Tonks was entering her boss's office. "Director," Tonks said.

"Auror Tonks, what brings you here this time?"

"Well, last night I was over at Harry's, we have been talking trying to get to know each other better by talking about our pasts, stuff like that." Seeing her boss, starting to look as if she was questioning why Tonks was telling her this, Tonks quickly continued, "Anyway, he was telling me about his second year and the events of the Chamber of Secrets, he told me of two things that happened, that made me think he should really bring this to your attention."

"What were those things?"

"First he told me of a time he and his friends took Polyjuice potion to sneak into the Slytherin common room, and had a conversation with Draco Malfoy. During that conversation, he found out that there is a hidden room in Malfoy Manor full of dark artifacts, it is somewhere in the Drawing room."

"Really, this is informative; but if I were to do anything, I would really need some form of proof before I can order a raid."

"I know, and that is one of the reasons I gave Harry a portkey, that should bring him here at 10am."

"Good thinking, now what was the other thing you learned from Mr. Potter that you needed to tell me about?"

"The other thing is when Harry went into the Chamber to rescue the girl who had been taken, he told me about a diary that held the memory of Tom Riddle's sixteen year old self." Seeing the look of surprise on her boss's face she said, "Yeah, anyway when I got to thinking about it I knew of no spells that could do something like that, so the only thing I knew of that could do that is a Horcrux." This got her boss to stiffen in her chair.

"Tonks, I don't need to tell you that this is disastrous if true."

"I know that, I wanted to make sure so when Harry gets here in…" looking down at her watch she said, "actually he should be here any minute now. Anyway when he gets here, I told him I would need him to show you the memories of the events that I just informed you about, so that you can decide for yourself if what I think it's true."

Nodding her head, Amelia Bones just sat there in silence as she thought about what she had just been told. Two minutes later, Harry Potter landed in her office. After he stood back up from falling on the floor from his landing, he greeted the two women in the room.

"Mr. Potter, I have just been speaking to Ms. Tonks, and she told me some of what you two talked about last night. I'm sure you can understand the importance of what you told her, and that I need to see the memories for myself." Madam bones said, immediately getting down to business.

"Yes, wait memories?" he asked in confusion.

"Yes, she told me of the incident in the Chamber of Secrets and of a conversation with Draco Malfoy about a hidden room filled with dark artifacts."

Comprehension visible in his eyes Harry said, "Sorry, I forgot about the conversation with Malfoy. After Tonks told me about what the diary could be and its implications it slipped my mind."

"Completely understandable under the circumstances," Madam Bones said in understanding.

"Before I show you the memory of the Chamber I need to know what you know about that incident," Harry said.

"Why?"

"One of my friends was involved in the crimes committed during that time, and I do not want to see them punished. They were under the control of Riddle and had no control over what they did."

"Okay, I can understand that. To answer question, I know very little. I know that the Chamber of Secrets was opened, and that students were being petrified; that Fudge arrested Hagrid and sent him to Azkaban for the crime, even though there was no proof. Then it was found out that a Ginevra Weasley was taken into the Chamber, and shortly after that, you and her brother Ronald rescued her. After that we were told by Headmaster Dumbledore that the matter had been resolved, and the monster was killed."

Eyes wide with shock Harry said, "I'm surprised he didn't tell you the truth."

"Who?"

"Albus Dumbledore. Okay here is what happened, first Hagrid never opened the Chamber the first time and didn't open it the second time. To open the Chamber you have to be able to speak Parselmouth, to control the monster you have to be a Parselmouth also, because the monster was a basilisk. Next, the part about Ginny being taken into the Chambers and Ron and I rescuing her is correct, however the person responsible was Ginny Weasley herself, well at least physically for the crimes."

"Wait what do you mean only physically?"

"Exactly that, the diary that I am assuming Tonks told you about, was able to take control of Ginny's body and force her to open the Chamber, and order the basilisk to attack the muggleborn students. She had no control over her body."

"But if she was able to open the Chamber and control the basilisk, she would have had to be in control to do that," Madam Bones said.

"No. I mean, I wasn't born with the ability to speak Parselmouth but I can still do it. It is my belief that the diary was able to give Ginny the ability, when she needed it to open the Chamber and control the basilisk."

"Wait that is not possible. If you aren't born with the ability than it is impossible to gain the ability," Madam Bones said as if she were stating a question.

"That is where you are wrong. When Voldemort killed my parents and attempted to kill me when I was a baby, he ended up transferring the ability to speak Parselmouth to me."

"Amazing," She said in fascination. A few seconds later, she came back to herself and said, "Ok Mr. Potter, I will give you my word that your friend will come to no harm for their action in the events you mentioned, if it can be proven that they were under some form of mind control."

Knowing that it would be easy enough to prove that he said, "Good, now if you would get your pensieve I can extract the memories, and then give you the proof you need."

Nodding her head, Madam Bones rose from her chair as she walked over to a cabinet and retrieved her pensieve, before setting it on her desk and motioning for Tonks to extract the memories from Harry's mind. Seeing the command Tonks moved over to Harry, raised the tip of her wand to his temple, and told him to concentrate on the memory of the Chamber. Screwing his face into a look of concentration Harry nodded to show his readiness, before Tonks slowly pulled the tip of her wand away with a thin silvery string attached, which she dropped into the basin of the pensieve. Bringing the tip of her wand back to his temple, Tonks told Harry to concentrate on the memory of his conversation with Draco, before depositing it into the pensieve too. Gathering closer to the pensieve, they all put a finger into it before finding themselves in Harry's memories.

Twenty minutes later, they emerged with Harry looking a little upset, and the two witches looking somewhat apprehensive about the scenes they had viewed. Madam Bones was the first to speak, "You have certainly given me a lot to think about, but I can tell you now that what we feared about the diary is true, it is an Horcrux."

"So what do we do now?" Tonks asked.

After thinking about the situation for a few moments Madam Bones replied, "First I will arrange for a raid on Malfoy Manor to search for the hidden room, and then we will have to arrange for a team to investigate into the Horcruxes."

"Okay, two questions." Harry said, "First what is likely to happen to the Malfoys if the room is found? And second Horcruxes?"

"To the Malfoy question, if the room is found and it does contain dark artifacts they will be arrested and tried. If it is proven that they knew of the artifacts, then they will likely be stripped of title, land, and funds. If it is found that they used any of the dark artifacts, then they will be sentenced to prison. For your second question, yes Horcruxes. I don't know how many but I know that there is at least one more in existence. If there was only the diary, then Voldemort would never have been able to come back, as his soul would have been destroyed when you destroyed the diary."

"Okay," Harry said as he thought about what he had just heard. "So how are you going to investigate the matter of the Horcruxes?" Harry asked as a plan was forming in his head.

"That will be much more difficult, but to start, I will have the investigation that Ms. Tonks is doing into Tom Riddle increased, meaning that I am going to be assigning more people to work under her for the investigation, hopefully allowing us to uncover information about any other Horcruxes he might have made," Madam Bones said.

"I might have a way that can help with finding information about the Horcruxes," Harry said with a slightly nervous tone.

"Really?" Bones asked in surprise. "What is that?"

"Did Tonks tell you about anything that happened after we finished talking last night?"

"No," Madam Bones said slowly. "Why?"

"What I am about to tell you I do not want anyone, to find out about. I need you to swear, that you will not divulge any of this information."

"Granted, you have my word that none of what you speak here will be said to anyone outside this room."

"Thank you. Now what I was going to tell you is that last year it was discovered that I have a link to Voldemort, a mental link. When he is especially emotional or when I am asleep, I can feel any spells he casts and he can show me visions, which is what caused me to be in the Department of Mysteries. How this might be able to help is I think that I might be able to use the link, to go into Voldemort's mind. The only problem with this is that I do not know how to enter a person's mind, I would need a Legilimens to train me."

"I don't think this is a good idea, it would be very dangerous for you to do. However, I do agree that it would be a fast way to learn about the information," Madam Bones said.

"I know that it could be very dangerous, and unpleasant to do, but it is something that I can do that would help, and would make it so that no one else risks their life to find out the information. Besides we don't even know if it is possible, at least give me the training so that we can find out. Worst case is that we find out that I can't do it, and I now have the training to be a Legilimens. Best case is that we do find out that I can, and if that is the case I will tell you and will allow you to supervise me when I do try to get the information from his mind, so that you could stop anything from happening to me before I am permanently injured."

Thinking about it Madam Bones finally said, "Okay, we'll do both. I will have Tonks train you in Legilimency to at least give you the basics; and I will still have people researching into Riddle's background, so that if your plan doesn't work we will not have wasted any time."

Looking somewhat happy and scared at the same time Harry nodded his head. "Good, and just between you and me, I hope your plan works and we don't have to use mine. I don't look forward to being in Voldemort's mind."

"I wouldn't want to be there either. Now if there is nothing else, I think it is time for you to go. I have to organize the raid and the investigation," Madam Bones said in dismissal.

"Actually there are two things I was hoping you could help me with," Harry said.

"And what are those?"

"First, I was hoping you could get me a portkey that would bring me to the Ministry. There is a possibility that I won't be returning to Hogwarts this year, and I might need a way to get away from Dumbledore. The second is that now that I am emancipated, I was wondering if you could arrange it for me to learn how to apparate."

"For the first of your requests, yes I could give you a portkey, but why would Dumbledore stop you from leaving Hogwarts? Second, since you are emancipated you do not need me to do anything; but seeing that you are trying to keep this information quiet, I will have Tonks train you to apparate as well." Madame Bones said knowing that she was assigning Tonks more work, but she rationalized it as being able to play matchmaker. She knew of the marriage and that the two would not be able to spend a lot of time getting to know each other so she gave Tonks reason to be around harry more often.

"Dumbledore might try and stop me from leaving, because he believes that Hogwarts is the safest place for me now, and that he has the right to make decisions for me."

"I see, very well," Madam Bones said as she took a quill from her desk and cast the portkey spell on it. "Here is the portkey, the activation word is 'freedom,' if you are forced to use it; it will bring you to the atrium of the ministry."

"Thank you," Harry said as he accepted the portkey and put it in one of his pockets. He then stood and headed for the door before stopping. "Tonks, how am I getting back?"

Thinking for a second she said, "Give me the piece of parchments that I made the portkey out of to bring you here." After he had done so she recast the portkey spell on it and said, that it would take him back to his bedroom. Thanking her, he grabbed the portkey and immediately disappeared. Tonks then headed towards the door.

"Madam Bones, I will get back to my research now, if you don't need me here anymore."

"No, you can go. No wait," she said before Tonks opened the door. "I know I assigned you a lot of training to do with Mr. Potter, so I will be assigning you to work with him for five hours three times a week as part of your official duty. Also I will call you back here, when I have a team ready to go on the Malfoy raid and for the research you are currently doing."

Nodding her head in thanks, as she had been worried about how she was going to be able to do her job, train Harry, and do her assignments for the Order; she then left the office to allow her boss to get to work.

Harry spent the rest of Saturday and the next two days, getting back into his routine and studying as much as possible. During that time, he had been able to create a functional Protego shield spell, making it so that three main spells he wanted to accomplish, he was capable of casting wandlessly. After he had accomplished that, he began to try new spells so that his wandless ability was growing, he did become worried that something wrong was happening as he was progressing faster than the book said he should be. At the rate he was going, he figured that he should be able to do most spells without a wand by the end of the year if not sooner.

Now that he had also accomplished his goal for wandless magic, Harry began to read new spells from the books he bought earlier in the summer. In this area, he noticed that he was able to pick up the spells faster than ever before. When he asked Tonks about it during their next meeting she told him that it was likely because he was able to focus better on the effects of the spell because of all the mental exercises that Occlumency, wandless magic, and Metamorphmagus training required.

Harry also had another training session with Tonks, where he learned that morphing was in theory much easier than he had thought. It mainly required, an intense amounts of concentration and a better than average understanding of the human body. He needed to know all the parts of the body plus where they are located, as morphing required him to be able to change those internal features, as well as the external ones. Tonks was there mainly as a couch, and to make sure that all his body parts got back to there original places once a morph was complete. Now even as simple as the theory was, it was still very difficult to affect the changes, as he would use too much or too little magic, therefore cause the changes to happen incorrectly or not at all. During that session, they decided that they would continue their information exchange after he had moved to Grimmauld Place, so that Harry could start learning how to make more major changes when morphing.

During that time, Harry had also received his new wand from Ollivander, when he first held it; he felt a connection that surpassed even the one his original wand gave him. He now felt as if he had more power than he did before, when he tried out new spells with it. When he tried the Wingardium Leviosa charm he found that his new wand had far more control and that the power it gave him was incredible. With his original wand the charm would make small and medium sized objects hover with ease but with his new wand he was able to make things as large as his bed float effortlessly with far less drain on his magic.