TLOLB

Chapter 10 Home is where the heart is?

Written by csunsure
Beta'd by Alix33, S. O. U. L (Previously chronoXIII) and Chaos2007

As the story of the events of that night emerged Tonks almost regretted the arguments she'd had with Harry following what she like to call 'The Bathroom incident'. At the time she'd made it very clear to Harry she had no intention of being an Azkaban widow and if he ever pulled a stunt like that again she'd make sure he regretted it for eternity. Whilst Harry definitely needed reminding his actions affected her too now, she regretted the distance that the fight had created between then over the last couple of months before Albus's death. She couldn't help feeling that had Harry had her support things could have turned out differently. She felt like she'd once more failed Harry; yet again he'd been forced to stand alone against the masses only to have his instincts proved correct yet again. It was that heady combination of feelings that led Dora to find herself in the godforsaken house of Harry's relatives again. Thankfully, the horse and warthogs known by many as the Dursleys were unaware of her presence.

She had never wanted her or Harry to set foot in this place again after rescuing him the summer before. Unfortunately, however, she had underestimated her husband-to-be's noble streak combined with his guilt complex over Dumbledore's death. Harry was adamant that he would stay with the Dursleys as long as it would enhance their safety. Nothing Tonks could say or offer had persuaded him otherwise. The rest of the order were so caught up in dealing with the after effects of Dumbledore's death that they were content to leave Harry in the hellhole.

Tonks had appealed to her mentor Moody, the new leader of The order of the phoenix, to command Harry to a safe house but her appeals had fallen on deaf ears.

Harry, 'The-Chosen-One' may be the focus of this war and by extension The Order's war effort, but for her it was going to be Harry the slightly lanky teen who she was falling for that was the focus of her actions the war be damned.

She wasn't stupid; she was an ex-Auror, for Merlin's sake. She knew there was nothing anyone could do to avoid the war. It was too late for that, but she would do whatever she could to ease Harry's burden in it. Unfortunately, as far as she was concerned Harry had decided that that did not include telling the order about the contract between them for the time being. It annoyed her no end as she felt that knowledge may alter the order's plans to Harry's benefit but she decided to respect Harry's wishes. It was just so hard to stay detached in meetings about Harry though several times the vehemence of her response had raised both Remus's and Molly's eyebrows at points.

She suspected that Harry's decision to hide the nature of their relationship was primarily based on the fear that those he considered family would disown him if they found out about the contact. However the reason he'd given her was that he didn't want her being put in more danger because of him. Unfortunately, neither reason was one she could argue with as much as she wanted to.

The fallout of Dumbledore's death had lead Tonks to resign from the ministry. She could see the direction of the war was going and she knew it was going to come to a head sooner rather than later and she would be in the eye of that storm. So here she was at the entrance to Harry's room for the sixth time this week. It was earlier than her normal guard shift started, a little after 5 am, but she didn't mind. Finally there was an end in sight. The Order had finally agreed at on a move date to get Harry to The Burrow. She had managed to argue for his 'family' to be put under protection knowing that Harry would take it upon himself to protect them if The Order didn't. Unfortunately this meant Harry's move was being delayed for 4 days so Hestia and Diggle could find somewhere suitable to house the idiots that were to be her extended family one day. The thought of being related to the Dursleys, however distantly, made her shudder in revulsion but Harry was worth it.

Being unemployed and a trained Auror meant that with little persuasion Tonks had convinced The Order to appoint her in charge of Harry's protection while with the muggles. This meant that over the last 5 weeks she'd spent all but 3 days with Harry mainly training and talking with the odd kiss here or there. Their relationship hadn't progressed very far physically but over that time their friendship had grown massively and amazingly. Despite the circumstances she and Harry rarely argued. Clearly Sirius had seen compatibility between them that she would never have noticed had the contract not demanded it. Maybe Sirius was wiser than she thought.

She watched Harry sleeping restlessly but resisted the urge to comfort him just yet as in his current state that would probably end with a wand up her nostril. Shortly after Harry had returned to number four they had a very frank discussion about the Horcruxes and the task Dumbledore had left Harry, Ron and Hermione. She was furious with Dumbledore for not sharing that knowledge with her and immediately started developing a training plan for Harry while he was trapped in Surrey. They would run for two hours a day, have a couple of hours down time then she would give him books to study while answering questions. For the first two weeks they would practice hand to hand combat but as Harry's body and skills improved it became apparent he was unwilling to use his full potential against Tonks for fear of hurting her, much to her annoyance. Tonks was bought out of her quite observance of Harry by a whimper from the subject of her attention. Looking at watch and seeing it was just before 7am she decided to intervene in what she was sure to be the start of a nightmare.

She slowly approached Harry's bed. Gently removing his wand from his grip, she leant over and kissed his scar. Harry jerked awake.

'Morning, handsome,' Tonks said gently.

'Morning, Dora. What time is it? And how long have you been here?'

'It's a little after 7am and about 2 hours but they were well spent admiring you,' she replied cheekily. Smiling at the blush that brought to his cheeks, she continued.

'I'll grab us some breakfast while you get dressed and then while we eat I can tell you the news from last night's meeting.'

A Breakfast laden Tonks re-entered the room 15 minutes later to find Harry dressed and reading a book on Wimbourne Wasps that she'd bought him last week in a last-ditch attempt to convert him to her favourite quidditch team but it appeared she was too late as Oliver Wood seemed to have claimed Harry's quidditch allegiance.

An easy smile from Harry greeted her and they settled down into their now established breakfast routine and Tonks proceeded to tell Harry about the plan for his relatives and his transfer date.

-0-0-0-

Three days later saw the loud but uneventful removal of the Dursleys from Privet Drive leaving Harry alone in the house much to his annoyance. Dora was otherwise occupied preparing for his transfer the following evening.

The argument they'd had the day before wasn't pretty but she'd won it in the end much to Harry's chagrin. He was uneasy and he considered doing a runner before The Order came to get him but reconsidered after the image of Dora, Hermione, Fleur and Molly coming after his hide came into his mind. Voldemort was nothing compared to those women's combined wrath, although he wished Dora wouldn't put herself in such direct danger for him. Harry thoughts moved on to the impending Weasley wedding he was about to be thrown into. He really didn't know what to expect from a wizarding wedding. Part of him was glad he had the opportunity to witness one before his own but he was slightly nervous of the idea of Molly Weasley in wedding mode.

He was glad Fleur had found someone to see her for her and not her veela heritage. He reflected that through the contract Sirius had given both him and Tonks a chance at that. The more time he spent with Dora the more he realized she wasn't fazed by him or his fame and that was very unusual, in fact apart from her only the Weasley twins had made him feel that comfortable.

Harry was brought out of his thoughts by a rapid knock at the door signalling The Order's arrival and his final exit from number 4, Privet drive.

AN/ Sorry for the delay, thank you to my Beta's for their quick turn around and advice. Thank you for all the reviews, favourites and Alerts believe it it or not (based on my current update rate) they are great motivators. I have finished the next chapter so hopefully that will be posted by the end of the month. I am a paragraph or two away from finishing chapter 12 as well so fingers cross my next couple of updates should be quicker than the last 6 months. /AN