Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 7:

Hermione and Tonks stared at Harry's sleeping form in annoyance. It was September first and they were all supposed to be packing, but Harry wouldn't wake up. Apparently he had finally gotten the good night of sleep he needed.

"I never thought this would be so hard!" Tonks complained. She slapped Harry over the head. He grunted, and Hedwig hooted as they hit her owner, but didn't wake up. "HEY POTTER! WAKE UP!" she shouted in his ear. Nothing.

"Do you think he's alright?" Hermione asked worriedly. She was chewing on her nails nervously and Tonks raised and eyebrow.

"Of course he is. Watch this." she drew her wand and pointed it at Harry's face. "Aguamenti."

Water shot out of Tonks's wand and hit Harry in the face. He sat straight up, coughing and spluttering. "TONKS!"

"You wouldn't wake up."

"I'm sure there were other means of doing it." Harry lay back down and covered his eyes with the blankets.

"Why do you do that?" Hermione asked.

"Do what?" Harry questioned, not moving to look at her.

"Cover your eyes. I've seen you like that several times this summer."

"I don't know. Just a habit I guess."

"Harry get up!" Tonks interrupted. They didn't have time for this. "You need to pack."

"I packed last night! Figured I could actually sleep, but I guess not."

Tonks and Hermione exchanged guilty looks. They hadn't known that. Harry ripped off his blanket, knowing that he wouldn't get back to sleep. Damn, why did women have to be so… Harry didn't know the word. Naggy? Is that even a word? Well if it wasn't it is now. Yes, Harry thought. All women are naggy.

"What are you doing now?" Hermione asked as Harry walked out the door without even bothering to put on a shirt. He was so sloppy these days. He would sit around in the same shorts for days and not change. Men are slobs.

"Pacing." Harry answered, his voice already distant. "Don't know what else to do since my sleep was so rudely interrupted! I do believe that it was the both of you who told me I need more sleep. And then, on this cold and dreary morning, you awaken my slumber to pack the things I have packed already!"

Both witches had begun rolling their eyes halfway through Harry's speech. They walked out of his room and followed him downstairs. He went into the kitchen where he could smell pancakes. He loved pancakes. Especially with chocolate chips.

"How were we to know you'd already packed?" Hermione asked. "You've never done it early before!"

Harry sat down and the table next to Remus and piled pancakes onto his plate and grabbed two handfuls of chocolate chips and dumped them on top. He watched them melt in anticipation. Apparently he had gotten his appetite back; there were about eight pancakes on his plate. He hadn't been this excited since he had gone back up to the secret room to see what the hell was in that desk that made it shake. Maybe a boggart? After that thought, he decided to stay away since he couldn't use magic. Stupid age restrictions. "Well maybe, as my dearest friend, you could have had some faith."

"Where's all of this humor suddenly coming from, cub?" Remus asked as he set down his newspaper. Harry grimaced at the front of it, his face everywhere. He was the "Chosen One" to the wizarding world. and none of them even knew how close they were to the truth. Fuck prophecies. They just make life shit. Remus then continued, "You have been moping around here mostly since you got here, granted you have been better these past few weeks."

You can thank Tonks for that one, Harry thought with a smirk. He'd been going up to the hidden room any chance he could get and he had even acquired some new books that were packed safely in his trunk. "Exactly, Moony. I have been moping. Don't you think it's time for me to have a bit of humor?" he stuffed an entire pancake into his mouth. God, he was turning into Ron!

Remus chuckled. "I just think it could have happened before now."

At that moment Ron ran into the room, waving his arms frantically. "Harry!"

"Yes?"

"Have you seen my box of chocolate frog cards?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. When his friend had first entered the kitchen he had expected some terrible news such as Quidditch had been banned or something like that. That's how Ron was acting. "You put it under your bed. You said that way you wouldn't forget to bring it because you always check under your bed first to see if you miss anything. I guess you missed something."

"Thanks!" Ron gasped before running off again.

After he was gone Harry shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder about him."

•••

Harry hated his two best friends being prefects. Ginny was now one too so he went off on his own to find a compartment. Tonks had managed to slip away at the train station before any of them could find out what form she would be taking. They never had thought of a name yet, either.

On his way to his compartment, Harry noticed many girls from all years staring at him and giggling. Fan girls. Harry had a feeling that it wasn't going to be a peaceful year. He shouldn't even have gotten his hopes up about that. But just because it wasn't peaceful didn't mean he couldn't have fun…

Harry found an empty compartment and slipped in with a sigh of relief as he got away from the eyes of his admirers. He put his, Ron's, and Hermione's trunks up on the rack along with Hedwig's empty cage. He had told her to go along to Hogwarts ahead. Once he managed to fit all of there belongings onto the rack he sighed with relief. Lazy asses. Making him put away their shit while they patrolled. They could have patrolled while carrying an extra thirty to sixty pounds! Hermione had too many books for her own good. Sure, it might have been a little harder…

The door slid open and a blonde poked her head in. She grinned at Harry and came fully in. She was already wearing her school robes and she had a Gryffindor badge. There was something familiar about her.

"Wotcher, Harry!"

Ah, there it was. And this girl sort of reminded him of the Tonks he knew in a way. Same heart-shaped face, lavender eyes. Just blonde. And sixteen. And really hot, not that the regualar Tonks wasn't hot, because she was. "Hey Tonks. Or, what's your name?"

"Ah, bit of a problem there. I've been trying so hard not to think about this and I haven't really thought about it since Diagon Alley. And I refuse to use any of those names."

Harry smirked at the memory. His favorite had been Titantia Argyle. Tonks didn't like it. She said that it was worse the Nymphadora.

"Well, you'll have to come up with something soon. People are going to be asking who the new sixth year Gryffindor is. What's her life story? Why is she here? She's hot. Can we trust her? Shit like that." Harry said. He wasn't going to deny it, she was already one of the best looking girls he knew. And he knew some good looking girls. Erin, Lavender, Cho…

"Well help me fucking figure something out. And if you say Tabitha Archie or whatever I'll punch you."

"It was Titantia Argyle!"

"Who the fuck cares what it was?"

The door slid open again and Harry saw that it was Neville Longbottom. He didn't even seem to notice Tonks. Titantia.

"Harry, have you seen Trevor?"

"Neville, you have got to keep track of that damn toad. I haven't seen him though."

Neville sighed and began to walk out again when he saw Tonks watching him curiously. He took in the Gryffindor badge and that she was about his age. "Um, h-hello. Who are y-you?"

Tonks glanced at a panicking Harry. She was NOT going with Titantia. She had put up with Nymphadora for twenty two years and wasn't going to deal with that all over again.

"Erin, Erin Howles," Harry said, speaking the first name that came to his mind that wasn't Titantia. Fuck. Why did it have to be that one? Harry promised to hit himself later. Idiot. Fucking dumb ass. He was trying to forget his short happiness of that summer!

Neville turned back to Tonks and Harry smacked his forehead. "Nice to m-meet you Erin. I-I'm Neville Longbottom. We'll be in the same house."

There were several girlish shrieks a few compartments down. And that was the sign that Trevor had been found. Neville ran from the compartment in search of his toad.

Tonks picked up her book and threw it at Harry. "Really? The name of your ex? Idiot!"

"I said the second name that came to my head! Who you have fathered the first?"

"Was it Titantia?"

"Yes."

"Then this name will have to do."

Harry laughed as he stood and picked up Tonks's school trunk. Like his other two friends, she seemed too lazy to put it up herself. Damn, it was like the Dursley's all over again. Except there was no Erin. No, actually there was. Harry mentally cursed himself for not being able to come up with something better. He tossed the trunk onto the rack, accidentally letting it fall on his finger.

"Fuck!"

Tonks burst out laughing. "Idiot. At this rate You-know-who won't even have to come after you!"

Harry sucked on his throbbing finger. "Fuck off!"

"You know, Hermione's getting pretty fed up with your mouth."

"I know. I need to find some way to curse in a different language. Then she won't even understand me."

"Try Italian."

"Yeah, because that's my second fucking language, Tonks."

Tonks rolled her eyes at his sarcasm. His mood swings were annoying and she wished she knew where they came from. "Well lucky for you I know a few Italian profanities."

"Not going to ask where you learned only the bad words. So what is there."

"Well we'll start with your seemingly favorite 'f' word."

Harry raised en eyebrow. "Fart?"

"Really, Harry? Fart? Why do you insist on making things difficult?" Tonks asked in exasperation. It might have been at his second mood swing in thirty seconds, but she didn't know.

"Snape would say I got it from my father, but I like to think that it's my own thing, you know? It's just who I am, a difficult person. Sarcastic, angry, selfish. Yeah that's me."

"Okay, one: you're doing again! Two: yes, you are an angry person and extremely sarcastic. Three: you're not selfish. And four: you are preventing me from getting on with this lesson!"

"You know, I don't think you're fit to be a teacher. Too impatient."

Tonks slapped a hand to her forehead. She took a deep breath. "Okay lesson number one: fuck. Repeat after me. Cazzo."

"Cazzo. That's it? Maybe I should be writing this down." he grabbed a pen from his pocket, something Erin had said was good to have at all times, and his cigarette pack to write on. "Ok, how do I say, fucking idiots?"

•••

When Ron and Hermione entered the compartment two hours later, they saw Harry and a girl who had to be Tonks both asleep. Harry was sitting straight up in his own seat with his hood from his sweater pulled down over his eyes. Tonks was in the other seat but had her legs out over the gap so they were on Harry's lap. It might have been cute if Harry hadn't been frowning deeply in his sleep and he was less tense. How did somebody even sleep like that? Tonks had her fists clenched and her head kept going from side to side.

Hermione looked worriedly at Ron. "Nightmares, do you think? Should we wake them up?"

Ron looked at his best friend since first year. He shook his head. "Harry already doesn't ever sleep. His room is right above mine, I know. Even if he's having a nightmare, at least he's asleep."

Hermione nodded. She'd been thinking the same thing. She stepped over Tonks's legs and sat on the other side of the sleeping witch. Tonks immediately jerked awake.

"Wha- oh it's you two. We almost to Hogwarts?"

"Few hours yet," Hermione responded. "What should we call you?"

Tonks lifted her legs off of Harry's lap and set her feet on the floor. She stretched before answering, "Erin Howles."

"Isn't that-"

Tonks cut off Ron's words with a nod. She looked at Harry as she said, "That idiot thought of it. Neville came in here before and we needed to come up with something quick. I haven't given it any thought at all so it was either that or Titantia Argyle, which he thankfully realized was not a good idea."

"We can call you Tonks when it's just us or Ginny, right?" Ron asked.

"Course."

Harry suddenly snarled in his sleep and they all jumped. Tonks stood From her seat. Time to wake him up before the nightmare got any worse. She pulled off his hood and shook his shoulder. He immediately snapped open his eyes and jumped away.

"Woah, just us Harry! Just us!" Tonks gasped, trying to calm him down. He was scary when he got like that, didn't know where he was or who any on them were. Almost an animalistic look in his eyes. Scary, no other word for it. And Tonks was an auror! She was supposed to be brave and shit. But no. One look at Harry's crazed expression scared the shit out of her for some reason.

"Oh, sorry. Bad dream." He settled back in his seat and sighed deeply before his face became suddenly expressionless. Weird.

"I can tell," Tonks remarked, ignoring the change. "You freaked out right there."

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked him worriedly. He had an odd look in his eyes as he stated at absolutely nothing. He didn't answer her either. It was like he just zoned out. "Harry!"

He turned his head to look at her. That strange, distant expression gone. He looked normal again. Or as normal as he could anyway. He still looked like he'd been through hell and back.

"What was that all about?" Ron asked.

"What?" Harry knew what they were talking about. But he couldn't let them know what had just happened. He didn't even want to admit it himself. "What was what all about?"

"You just like… zoned out or something," Ron said. He looked utterly confused.

"I did? Well I'm alright now. It's probably nothing." he ignored the suspicious look that Tonks was giving him.

Harry knew that what had just happened wasn't nothing. He didn't know where the dark place he had just gone was, but it wasn't nothing. It must have been somewhere in his mind, that he'd been standing in front of an image of himself. This image of him though, hadn't really head him. He had dark red eyes for one, and his voice… it had been harsh and cold, not like Harry's at all.

"You are me, and I am you. You can not escape it, Harry Potter. You will kill and then you won't stop me. This is war."

Somehow, Harry knew that it hadn't been Voldemort getting in his head. He just didn't know what happened. He shivered involuntarily. Cazzo.

A/N: yeah, I don't know what the fuck just happened either. Thanks for those of you who have put this story in their favorites and shit like that. And for those of you who are wondering if Harry and Tonks are gonna get together or just stay friends, yeah I don't know. I don't know much do I? I don't know Italian either, I'm just using the translator on my iPod so I don't know if it will all be correct. This won't be the only Italian swearing you see. Its so much more interesting than English profanity. Plus with Harry's potty mouth he won't get in as much trouble if he can get used to using Italian Anyway, thanks for reading!

7/24/11… I'm pretty sure.