The next week was a tense affair for everyone in Harry's group. Because although Pansy had told Tonks of the change to Harry's plan, it didn't change the fact that Harry had been planning to sacrifice himself. Harry had taken to sleeping out in one of the chairs in the living room area whileTonks slept alone in the bedroom. They had made a few more jumps and were getting into German territory finally. Unfortunately, Harry had been having some disturbing nightmares as of late, including one where he was positive the Death Eaters were pushing as far east as Ukraine.

If Voldemort's forces were trying to get into Russia, it would complicate things. With Germany, it wouldn't be quite as difficult to track him down. As it stood, Harry was banking on the Dark Lord remaining firmly in place in theThuringian Forest. If he left the forest's protection and headed due east, Harry would need to figure out a way to track him. Worrying about this, Harry had spent most of his down time between jumps being incapable of sleeping well. Eventually, Ginny was the one to call him out on his increasing fatigue. A large fight had broken out, with Harry seeing just how much of MollyWeasley there was in her daughter.

Harry had told them exactly why he seemed so worn out, however, telling them the things he had been having nightmares about. Around that time,Tonks finally seemed to forget about the past. She had comforted Harry, who was clearly stressed beyond healthy limits, and said that he could return to the bedroom; that she would once again help him try to sleep well at night. He had welcomed the reprieve and the two had retired early.

It was late in September, almost nearing October, when Harry and his group entered the northwest part of Thuringia itself. Until they reached the Forest, they would be landing in any kind of cover they could take. As they had passed into Germany, the weather had dipped and they had all been forced to switch to their heavier clothing. Harry was also having to try and figure out just where in theThuringian Forest that Voldemort was. It wasn't a small patch of trees by anyone's standards, and Harry only had a vague idea of where the hell it was to begin with.

Still, he knew the way to the church hidden within the Forest itself, but even that wasn't too much to go on. At best, he knew it was somewhere in the southwestern part ofGotha . He wasn't forward to crossing more mountains. The more current switches he had to make, the less distance they could cover with each jump and the more exhausted Harry would be afterward.

It didn't help that there seemed to be tiny little settlements, both wizarding and Muggle, set in baffling points within the Forest itself. Harry had spent a good deal of time trying to find secluded spots between towns, resorts, and the odd castle or two that served as tourist spots. So far, he had done fairly well of himself as far as navigation went, though a few times one of his friends would comment that it seemed that they were too far off in one direction or the other for the destination they were heading to. Harry would scout around the area, consult the map he had stowed away, and change the next jump accordingly.

A few times, Harry had been forced to set them down dangerously close to a city, and the smell of food often drifted into their camp. When October had finally rolled in, the group had settled into a longer-than-usual campsite a good dozen miles outside of what appeared to be a cozy littlewizarding village. Harry said since they were nearing their destination, he wanted to rest up more than usual, just to be in top form should anything unexpected happen. The temptation to go into thewizarding town to get some nice, hot food was strong. But Hermione had killed the idea after saying that unless they knew fluent German, they wouldn't be getting much of anything, save a few odd looks.Tonks had argued that most places in the world seemed to at least know enough English to deal with the annoying tourists that sometimes invaded.

Figuring she'd try her luck, Tonks changed her features around and asked Harry to bring her closer to the village. He had done as she wanted and, after about ten minutes, she returned looking quite upset with herself. When asked how things had gone,Tonks simply muttered that Hermione had been right, said that all of the people in town looked and smelled like they regularly wallowed in mud with their livestock, and asked to return to camp.

It was a pleasant, if freezing cold, place to have built a camp. Staying warm within the little barrier Draco had set up was simple enough, however, and didn't require much upkeep. One night, feeling as though he and his friends were getting complacent due to the fact that they hadn't been followed again, decided to wrap himself in his invisibility cloak. Sneaking out into the chilled night air, he scanned the trees surrounding the camp. He had been able to detect no one following them, nor was he seeing or sensing anything now. But he still thought something felt off, and he had learned a long time ago to always trust his feelings.

The snow that had covered the spot they had set down had all been magically moved to give them a slightly less soggy place to sit by the fire, so Harry wasn't worried too much about moving around it. It was when he hit the edge of the encampment that he got nervous. Deciding to try and check the area better, Harry knelt and put the palm of his right hand to the ground. closing his eyes, he tried to pick up on anything in the surrounding area. Any living creatures, moving leaves, or anything else that might be lurking. He could very faintly sense things due to being able to travel on the magical currents. It wasn't enough to give him a pinpoint location on anything he did manage to detect, but it would at least point out anything that might not ought to be there.

Sure enough, there were three things in the nearby area that were decidedly bigger than any creature that lived in this location. They were all perched in trees overlooking the campsite and were as immobile as they could make themselves. Harry wasn't sure if they had invisibility cloaks as well or if they were using another manner of disguising themselves. He also wasn't sure whose faction they belonged to. Obviously, they could have been Death Eaters, who had stumbled along the camp during the day. But they just as easily could have been more sheep sent byDumbledore.

Harry tried not to rule out spies sent by the village, since according to Tonks they seemed to be fairly stupid backwoods people. But Harry knew it would be foolish to underestimate anyone. Turning, Harry slowly made his way back to the tents and, once inside them, quickly roused the others, telling them what he had found. And, one group at a time, told them his plan. They would wait inside until morning and try to get some more rest. He would sit out by the fire until dawn, at which point he would sneak back inside. The groups would leave their tents after Harry came back out and he and Draco would go off to begin one of their semi-regular sparring matches. If they just so happened to 'accidentally' knock the onlookers out of their hiding spot in the process, then so be it.

It was a long night for Harry, who parked himself near the fire and simply stared up at the spot in the trees he knew the unknown spies were located. But Harry could be very good at staying very still if he wanted to be. And, as the safety of himself and, more importantly, his friends were potentially at stake, he very, very much wanted to be.

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

"So, Draco, feel like a little warm up before breakfast?" Harry asked as he and Malfoy slipped out of their tent in the morning.

"Depends on how much power you plan to channel through your right arm, Potter." Malfoy said, wincing slightly as he looked around. The cold might have been staved off, but the absurd brightness of the snow in the morning wasn't fun to look at through groggy eyes.

"If you two are going to fight, do try not to send any debris flying back into camp this time." Said Luna, walking over to the fire to get it flaring up a bit more. "We don't want another incident like what happened back in Osterholz."

Harry frowned. "It wasn't my fault! Draco's the one who decided to try to roast me!"

"Anything goes, you said." Malfoy said, grinning aside at Harry.

"Yes, well, I think we'd all like to not have to scramble to prevent another forest fire." Said Ginny, who looked surlier than usual for that time of day.

"Alright, alright. Draco and I will be careful. Right?" Harry said, nudging Malfoy.

"Sure. Careful. Let's get this over with. I need some coffee or something..." Malfoy mumbled, rubbing at his eyes.

Hermione zapped the ground at their feet as they walked off, ordering them to make sure they were, else she'd unleash Ginny's fury on them. This, of course, got Ginny snapping at Hermione,who seemed almost amused by her roommate's cranky behavior.

Harry and Malfoy had spent the last half hour discussing a small routine they would fall into when they would knock the spies out of their trees. When Harry cast a certain spell,Malfoy would move in a certain way. They would fight back and forth with rehearsed moves until they both turned and fired a volley toward the trees. This would be the cue the girls needed to aim and provide backup... though if Ginny's mood were any indication, it was entirely possible the redhead would be more than capable of dropping all three of the spies on her own.

"I really hope they don't all fall into the same pattern." Harry murmured as he Malfoy got into position and fell into combat stances.

"Don't even kid about something like that. One at a time I can handle them going through that crap. If they all got bitchy at the same time, we'd have to find a way to hole ourselves up in the tent until it passed."

"Which would lead to us eventually either getting alcohol poisoning or killing each other due to cabin fever." Harry said, nodding and grinning. "Whatever the case may be, it might be a good thing it's Ginny's turn. She gets angry."

"Indeed. Well then, shall we?" Malfoy asked.

"Let's."

As the two launched at one another, Ginny sat hunched over back near the campfire. Hermione was sat next to her, rubbing her back slowly and frowning.

"I don't care who the hell they pull out of those trees." Seethed the redhead. "If Harry doesn't kill 'em, I will!"

"I think it's safe to say we'll be able to handle this, Gin. If you want to go back to bed, feel free." Hermione said.

"No, no, I'm awake now. Hurting too much to drift back off!" Ginny growled. "They'd better hurry the hell up, though. Bad enough I'm cramping like a son of a bitch. I want to get some food in my stomach..."

"Want me to get some tea doing?" Asked Tonks.

"Please."

Tonks nodded and hopped into the girls' tent, coming back out a minute later with everything she needed. "Next time, us women are doing the planning. All for?"

"Aye!" Came the unified voices of the other four girls.

"And the two opposed are off being men, so we win." Tonks said, smiling happily as she levitated the pot over the campfire. "The rightful order is restored. Now let's hope they hurry so Ginny can go try to rest."

"TOO SLOW!" Malfoy suddenly yelled, causing the girls to look toward where the two were locked in combat. Harry had just been slammed back into one of the trees that at least one of the hidden people was luring on.Malfoy dragged his wand against the ground as he rushed up and, jerking it up at the last second, howled, " SECTUMSEMPRA!"

Harry dodged to one side, neatly avoiding the attack while aiming a Sectumsempra of his own at the other tree that was hiding someone. The two trees shook violently with the force of the spells. And, as planned, a handful of people fell out, letting out surprised cries as they fell and collided with the earth.

Harry's tree had produced two of them, while Malfoy's only had one in it. The two rounded on their prey, wands aimed. Harry's voice promptly hitched in his throat as Malfoy muttered "You?!"

A strangled roar came from the camp site at that moment. The two teens turned to look, only to see Ginny Weasley storming over, wand drawn, a horrible fire in her eyes. Harry and Malfoy exchanged a quick glance, nodded at one another, and got the hell out of her way as she made her way over to her older twin brothers and screamed, "WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS DOING HERE?!"

Fred and George, looking rather annoyed at being knocked out of their hiding spot, froze when they caught sight of their little sister. They knew what that expression meant. They had picked a very, very bad time to get roped into a rescue mission. Knowing they would never be forgiven for what they were about to do, the twins pointed at their leader, who was just getting to his feet, and stated, "Lupin made us come!"

Ginny whirled on Remus Lupin, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Taking a step back, he quickly said, "At least hear us out before you kill us?"

While Ginny's back was turned to them, Fred and George got Lupin's attention and began randomly pointing to their groins, pointing at Ginny, then doing a poor imitation of a dragon breathing fire on some hapless peasant. Lupin winced almost imperceptibly. He quickly looked to Harry,knowing full well that he might be their only hope for survival. But Harry and Malfoy were having a quiet conversation with one another.

Finally, Harry nodded to Malfoy and walked over, gently touching Ginny's shoulder. "C'mon, girl. Reel the fangs back in. Your mum'd kill you if you killed the twins. The immediate satisfaction would be overridden by the knowledge that she can get worse than you are right now. Right?"

Ginny sputtered for a moment, whirled back around, kicked Harry in the shin as hard as she could manage, and stomped back up to the camp site. She immediately ducked back into the girls' tent,with Hermione in close pursuit.

Yelping as he was kicked, Harry dropped to the ground, clutching his sore leg and watching Ginny make her egress. He turned and glared at the three spies. "I have three questions. I want them answered in order. One, why the hell are you here? Two, how the hell did you track us? Three, give me one good bloody reason why I shouldn't go into that tent, tell Ginny she can do what she wants to you three, and sit down to breakfast while I watch?!"

Lupin sighed, walking over and helping Harry to his feet. "I think you know why we're here."

Limping as he lead the group back toward the fire, Harry muttered, "Albus sent you."

"Indeed. He wanted to send a group he knew you wouldn't attack." Lupin said.

Scowling, Harry growled, "Coward. Still pulling strings."

"Moony here tapped us to help him after Dumbledore cornered him at Number Twelve." George said, keeping his eyes on the tent his sister had vanished into.

"I'm surprised you lot are staying there." Tonks said. "Isn't it unsafe?"

"We don't think so." Lupin said. "You killed Severus, so we're assuming that it's safe, anyway. No one around to relay the information to the Death Eaters now, after all..."

"So he told you, huh?" Harry murmured, still rubbing his lower leg.

"I'm not sure he deserved death, but I won't sit here and admonish you for what you did." Said Lupin. "Personally, I would've rather seen him get thrown intoScrimgeour's new prison. He'd be better off rotting slowly and being driven mad."

"Mean streak, Moony?"

"He got Lily and James killed. You could say I still hold a grudge."

Sighing, Harry shook his head. "So? What now? We don't have enough room to accommodate two more. We barely have enough space for the seven of us as is."

"We have our own tent, though we haven't had much use of it. Wouldn't mind us setting it up next to your two?" Asked Lupin.

"Depends on what you plan to do with us." Harry said. "Albus sent you to bring us back, did he not?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we're gonna." Fred stated. "Gave us an excuse to join in on the adventure. Life's been strangely boring since leaving Hogwarts. Figured we could use a bit of the old excitement!"

"You say that. But how do I know you mean it?" Asked Harry, suddenly looking as tired as he felt. "I'd like to trust you, you have to believe me. I just don't know if I can. You understand, right?"

"We do, Harry." Lupin said. "We have all day to talk, now that you've found us out. I was going to be content on merely observing unless you needed assistance. Ask us questions until you're satisfied, if you'd like."

Harry groaned. "Damn it. I've been watching you three all bloody night. You may have all day, but I feel about as good as Ginny looks right now. She isn't the only one who just wants to curl up under some blankets."

"I told you I heard something." George hissed, nudging Fred in the side. "You owe me a galleon."

"Shit." Fred swore, making a face.

"You want to sleep, but you don't want to leave potential enemies alone with your friends." Lupin said. "I'm obviously not big on the idea, but you could always petrify us while you sleep. We won't be able to do much in that condition."

Harry made a noise somewhere between a groan and a whine. "A little good luck now and then would be nice. No, no. I'll stay up and ask questions. Just expect me to pass out when I'm good and finished..."

Chuckling quietly, Lupin nodded. "Then let's not waste anymore time. Though if that's tea, I wouldn't mind a cup. You'd be surprised how thirsty not moving can make you."

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

It was almost noon by the time Harry had retreated back to his tent, barely able to hold his eyes open. Lupin and the twins checked out. Not only were they the real deal, none of them were really keen on working forDumbledore . They had allowed Harry entry into their thoughts to prove that. It had been more than enough for him to finally declare them safe to travel with. He had outlined the plans for the following day to them. They would be making the final jump at dawn.

The church Harry had read about was close enough that, with a bit of a push, he could get them there in one go. This, however, didn't include the new arrivals. Harry told them the location and showed them what the spot looked like in one of the books they had brought with him. Lupin had said that they would be able to catch up fairly quickly, though it might be late afternoon before they turned up.

Whatever happened the rest of the day, Harry didn't care. He slept clear until the next day's morning. Waking up, he groaned under his breath. His mouth felt dryer than a desert. Slipping as quietly as he could from bed, he made a beeline for the fridge to get something cold to drink from it. Cracking the soda open as he stepped outside, he idly took note of the third tent sitting across from the two Harry had brought with him.

He sat down next to the long-dead campfire and drank his pop in silence. It would probably be the last bit of peace he could enjoy for a good while. For the next hour, he nursed the can of soda as though the last drop would signify his own life. But he knew the peace would eventually come to an end. Lupin and the twins were the first to wake, thoughMalfoy was close behind. Ginny was the last to wake up, which wasn't unexpected. She still wasn't very happy at having to get up so early to make the final jump, but she reported feeling better than the previous day.

Once everyone was ready, Harry bid Lupin and the twins a good day and made the jump with his group. It was a bit of a stretch, but Harry managed to get them to their destination without too much trouble. When they landed, above all else, Harry took note of the dull ache coming from his scar. No doubt about it, despite the Death Eaters fiddling about further east, Voldemort was still somewhere in the general area.

"Bit of a creepy spot, isn't it?" Hermione asked, glancing around.

Through the trees to the south, the church was visible. On the side closest to Harry and his group was a graveyard. The church looked as though it could have been blown over in a strong wind. It was crumbling in many places andplantlife grew all over it. Several of the graves in the graveyard seemed disturbed. One headstone had been crushed by a bit of debris coming down from the church itself.

"Maybe." Harry muttered, dropping to the ground and keeling over onto his back. "But this is where we make our stand from. Scar's hurting. We're gonna need to be mindful of our surroundings. If I'm close enough for my scar to be hurting, we're close enough to be attacked. There's no way of knowing if Riddle's got some kind of wards surrounding his base of operations or not. For all I know, he might know exactly where we are right now. We're sleeping in shifts. Might want to wait for the others to get here before divvying them up, though."

"So what do we do from here?" Asked Malfoy, drawing his wands and clearing the new campsite.

"First thing we do is wait for my stupid ass to recover from this jump. After that, I want to scout out that church to make sure it's safe. Just because I can't detect anything inside doesn't necessarily mean anything. If it's fine, we move inside it and make that our new headquarters while we're here. At the very least, we'll be able to move outside the tents and not have to worry about the elements as much. Plus it makes for a better defensible spot." Harry murmured, closing his eyes. "...Ugh, okay, can't be doing that or else I'll bloody well drift off on the ground."

Pushing himself to his feet, Harry stumbled his way into the tent. Ginny was doing similar, whimpering about nausea. Malfoy sighed, giving the area a good once-over.

"I'm not one to get these feelings often, mind you, but does it feel a touch eerie here?" Asked the Slytherin, his brow creasing.

"Well we are near a cemetery with open graves while chasing after a man capable of raising the dead, Draco." Pansy said, walking over and patting her friend on the shoulder.

Scowling at her, Malfoy shook his head and explained himself better. "I mean aside from that. I feel like we're being watched. But Potter said he couldn't detect anyone. I dunno what that means."

"It might mean you're just getting to be like he is: overly paranoid." Hermione stated.

"Don't you have a book to be snogging right about now?" Malfoy groused.

"I beg your pardon?!"

"You heard me."

"Alright, children, time out." Pansy said, stepping between Malfoy and Hermione. "Draco, let's go get some wood. Granger, probably do good to go hold the Weasley girl's hair back while she pukes."

"What about me and Luna?" Asked Tonks.

"Mm... I dunno. Not much to get going until we collect some wood." Pansy said, tapping a finger against her chin. "Maybe round up stuff to cook for when me and Draco get back?"

"Will do. Luna, if it's all the same to you, I'd rather we get the ingredients from Harry's tent. I'd rather not have Gin ruining my appetite." Tonks said, glancing warily toward the tent Ginny and Hermione were now in.

"I think that plan sounds rather good." Nodded Luna, sagely. "I hope Ginny's stomach settles down before lunch. She really does need to eat more."

"Yeah. For me, I've never had sickness problems. In fact, I seem to get hungrier than usual when it's that time of the month. I dunno, maybe I'm just weird like that."Tonks said, motioning for Luna to follow her into the tent.

"Oh, I don't know. Often, I end up wanting rather terrible combinations of ice cream flavors. One time, daddy had to hunt down a blend of strawberry and haggis flavored ice cream." Luna said,her head tilting slightly.

Malfoy made a face as he and Pansy were left standing in the clearing. Glancing at her, he asked, "Do you sometimes feel like we're the only sane ones here?"

"What's this 'we' business? You're a loony." Pansy declared, grinning as she walked by Malfoy and toward the trees.

"I'm a loony?!" Repeated Malfoy, rushing to catch up. "How the hell am I a loony?"

"You and Granger were together, weren't you?" Pansy asked, smirking.

Malfoy opened his mouth, paused, then frowned. "...Damn. I can't argue that. Can't we just blame that on temporary insanity, though? After all, you were with Potter for a time."

"Hm. Well, tell ya what - I'm fine letting the subject drop if you are." Pansy stated, throwing an arm around Malfoy's shoulders and grinning.

"Oh, very well. You're intolerable, you know that?"

"I take it as a compliment."

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Author's Notes: As I'm sure a lot of you know, I write stuff in advance and build up a buffer of chapters. For instance, as I type this, only six chapters of this book are up onFFN . So forgive the lateness of this question, but... what the hell is up with people thinking everyone in my story is still a virgin? I think I've given more than enough hints that Harry andTonks are having sex. Just because I don't sit around writing lemon content doesn't mean it isn't occurring behind closed doors. The focus of the story has never been the romance, though I do enjoy the occasional fluff chapter. One of those will be approaching rather shortly, by the way. Just for those who dislike them, I figured I'd throw a warning out.

As for why there's not loads of snogging and sex in this story... I don't like reading garbage like that. That's why the most you'll get from me isWAFF-y fluff. The reason I started this series is because the ONLY Honks fics were effin' porn! I'm terribly sorry if you don't like slow building romance stories happening, but I cannot stand pairing fics where the characters divulge their eternal love for one another in the first chapter and things are all sunshine and lollipops thereafter. Romance is no fun without conflict! Go watch some soap operas. Hooking people up usually takes FOREVER and then there's always conflict occurring to keep it from becoming stale. That's exactly what's going on here.

Sorry for the rant, but it bugs me when I get reviews like that. The whole "They're teens so naturally they should be screwing like rabbits why aren't they here?!" thing pisses me off to no end. They aren't because that isn't the focus, nor should it be. That's a tool used to draw in horny teens who want to read about their favorite characters and their sex lives. Sorry, I have better stuff to be typing up. Like PLOT elements. You know, for the STORY I am trying to write. Imagine.

There are plenty of other stories on FFN if the lack of sex and making out isn't doing it for you. I suggest going to find those instead. I really don't want that type of person reading myfics to begin with. They weren't designed with your type in mind. In fact, they were designed opposite. If you're that horny that you absolutely must search theinternet for fictional characters getting it on, there are plenty of resources out there. So GO 'out there' and leave my fic alone.