Chapter Ten

Bones and Pets

One week, one more week until he went to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry would be lying if he said he wasn't a little nervous. Excited, yes- nervous, even more so- still, Tonks would be there and he was secretly hoping to be sorted into Hufflepuff, the same House she belonged too.

But even with her there and all the help she had provided him, he was a little concerned about how other kids would act around him. A small part of his brain was considering asking Tonks to change his appearance permanently so he wouldn't be swarmed by people thanks to the "Boy Who Lived" thing. But even though he wanted to be a Hufflepuff he still wanted to be brave so he suppressed the urge to hide because of his shyness.

Besides, it wouldn't have worked anyway.

Of course there was another reason why he wasn't looking forward to school as much as he had when at the Dursleys. Well, two reasons actually, the first of which was that despite being a magical school it still, from what Tonks had told him, involved a lot of essays and the like, much like a normal school. Meaning it would not be as amazing as he had imagined, though he chastised himself for thinking it would all be a big game.

The other reason was even simpler. He wouldn't be able to spend as much time around his favourite cousin as before. She was a seventh year and studying for her NEWTs and had friends of her own. Upon hearing this concern, she had promised him that she would make it a point to seek him out every day, barring the nights before a test. That had helped, but still, he wasn't looking forward to not being able to spend as much time with her as he had before school started.

This left him wondering if he would be able to get along with children his own age. Tonks seemed to treat him much like… not an adult but not a child either. An equal, he supposed. Did that mean he was too different from other children? He certainly couldn't see himself laughing at any of the things Dudley and his friends had done. Even without the bullying they were usually rather gross and uninteresting. Hopefully children at a magical school would have a different sense of humour.

Of course he wouldn't have been thinking about this too much if not for everything that had happened earlier that morning. That event had also led his cousin to, possibly for the first time, seem both nervous and excited.

A day had passed since Alastor Moody's visit. It had taken almost two hours before the grizzled Auror was even remotely satisfied that Tonks and Harry would be safe, and even then it was only because he had been called to work that he ever left. Not that Harry was unappreciative, he simply found the man hard to deal with. His critical attitude and half muttered comments didn't help.

Before Mr Moody left, Tonks had taken him aside proclaiming that she had a gift for him. The gift turned out to be an old copy of a newspaper called the Quibbler; Tonks said that some of their stories and Mr Moody's theories matched up, much to his chagrin.

It was at about nine thirty and after a late breakfast that Harry realised that Hedwig, who they had been letting out to fly in the neighbourhood for exercise and occasionally using to send letters to Tonk's friends for practice, was running low on food.

Seeing as there was still a week until any food would be provided by Hogwarts, he and Tonks set out to the pet store with Hedwig in tow. Tonks said that Owls liked to pick their own food anyway.

When they arrived at Eylops Owl Emporium, there were almost no other people in the store except for a girl with long red hair tied back in a plait and a tall grey haired women off somewhere near the back looking over some owl cages.

Tonks spoke, "Well I suppose you just let her loose and she'll sample till she finds something she likes, ya?"

Harry did just that, he followed Hedwig over to the food section while Tonks followed at a more sedate pace to avoid tripping.

After nipping her head into several different pots, Hedwig seemed to settle on a flavour. She actually picked up one bag in her mouth and two more in her claws before returning and depositing them into Tonks' hands and landing on Harry's shoulder.

Smirking, Tonks turned to the counter. "Well guess I'll be off then. You two look around a bit, seems a bit of a lines developed."

She was right. Since they'd arrived, at least three more people had gotten in line. Realising that it might take a while for Tonks to get to the front of the queue, Harry wandered over to the Owls' section of the store.

Apparently he'd caught the interest of the tall red headed girl who had been looking at the owls.

She looked him over curiously for a moment, her eyes lingering on Hedwig in particular, before smiling confidently, drawing herself up and saying, "Hello I'm Susan Bones, guessing you'll be attending Hogwarts this year as well?" She reached out her hand for him to shake. He responded and shook her hand politely marvelling a little at how strong her grip was.

He nodded putting his hand back at his side. "Yeah my cousin and I were picking up some food for Hedwig," he replied, motioning to the owl that was currently preening on his shoulder.

Nodding excitedly, Susan replied, "My Aunt took the day off to get me an owl." Susan seemed rather impressed by Hedwig. "She's lovely, did you get her recently?" she asked.

He nodded, happy to be talking to someone about something simple. "Yes, on my birthday. Hagrid bought her for me when we came here for school supplies."

Susan seemed a little confused by that response. Quirking her head to the side she said, "I thought Professor McGonagall was meant to show Muggleborn students around? Who's Hagrid? I think I know that name."

Harry responded a little more quickly than necessary, honestly hoping he could figure out a way to avoid mentioning who he was. "Well, Hagrid's the Keeper of the Keys of Hogwarts and was a friend of my parents so he asked to show me around instead of the Professor." Sounded truthful enough, heck maybe it was even true.

She looked at him sympathetically and responded, "Ah, my parents died in the war. That's why my aunt raised me. I guess you were in a similar situation?"

Thanks to his own experiences with his aunt, Harry replied a little more easily than he might have otherwise. "Mm, I ended up living with my… non-magical, aunt and uncle, but… we figured that it would be good for me to spend sometime in the magical world. I really didn't know much about it until recently. It's been great, though!'

She nodded happily and spoke again. "I was thinking of getting a long-eared owl myself. See here?" she said, pointing to a large brown and grey owl she had been inspecting earlier." "Tall, strong, with fierce big eyes. If I put a monocle on her she'd look just like my aunt, but don't tell her I said that," she said stifling a small laugh.

They began avidly discussing some of the different owls and other pets and were moving onto family. Susan was evidently proud of her aunt and seemed to look up to her greatly. Harry avoided discussing the Dursleys. In his mind they didn't even qualify as family. Staying with Tonks had taught him what proper family was and the Dursleys did not fit the bill. Of course, he kept this to himself and just discussed his cousin, who Susan admitted sounded cool.

Amelia Bones had survived the destruction of her entire family except her niece. She had survived a war against one of the greatest and most terrible wizards in recent memory, though war was something of a strong term. Voldemort and his followers were terrorists, not an army. She had survived being partnered with Alastor Moody throughout most of her working career and had even helped him develop his "eye". There was a reason she often seemed to know more than she was saying and much of it had to do with her magical monocle, not that anyone else needed to know. Not only that, but she had managed to survive and succeed in the Ministry of Magic while being fair, honest and law-abiding with little need to compromise, something she would always take pride in.

Despite this and because of all her various successes, accomplishments and hardships, Amelia was widely considered one of the most skilled and powerful people in Britain. She was a little paranoid, not like old Alastor, but when someone walked into the store under some - 'obvious' to her and her Monocle - Glamours and Transfigurations, her first impulse was to move and stun them. It was an impulse she quickly clamped down on, she had guessed that maybe the boy was a pickpocket, but no Disillusionment or Notice Me Not charms were on him or his older companion while they were shopping for owl treats.

So she opted to ignore it. Most likely the teenage witch had been practicing some minor human transfiguration on her brother. Amelia had ignored them both until the teenage witch moved to the line and the boy began talking to Susan.

It was at this point that she bothered to look past the Transfiguration and Glamours and saw Harry Potter, lightning bolt scar and all, chatting happily about owls to her niece. If that didn't beat all she didn't know what did!

She listened in closely and subtly and heard the topic of families come up. Apparently Potter had been staying with non-magical relatives and didn't know much about the magical world. More recently, he had recently been staying with his cousin, Tonks, of whom he had many nice things to say. Madam Bones recognised the name, but for a moment she couldn't recall where from. Then she remembered: Alastor had mentioned her recently. Interesting...

Seeing the young witch, whom she assumed to be Miss Tonks, walking over to them, Amelia chose to intervene and see what happened.

Harry looked up to see a tall woman approaching him. She was square-faced and powerfully-built, with close-cropped grey hair. Guessing by what Susan had told him, Harry presumed that this was Susan's Aunt Amelia.

Aunt Amelia almost immediately stuck her hand out for Harry and he politely took it, hoping to come up with a fake name seeing as Susan had yet to ask his. Before he could think up a decent lie, not that he'd ever been good at those, or before Tonks could arrive and pull him out of the fire, Amelia Bones said something that shocked him rigid: "Mr Potter, a pleasure to make your acquaintance, I am Amelia Bones." She spoke in a hushed manner, with a deep baritone voice.

Harry was stunned. Susan was stunned. Tonks had just finished paying and turned to walk over to Harry. When she heard what Amelia Bones said she was close to spluttering in shock.

Susan was the first to speak and rather loudly at that: "You're Harry–" She was cut off by her aunt clicking her fingers once. Looking slightly miffed at being interrupted, she repeated herself quietly: "You're Harry Potter? Really? Why didn't you say so?" Her tone rose slightly in excitement near the end. Harry was embarrassed and wished Tonks would say something to draw attention from him.

Luckily Madam Bones intervened. "I would suppose it was to avoid someone loudly announcing his presence and drawing the entire street inside. You did read about that sighting in Honeydukes? An awkward business, that. I suppose that's the reason for the Glamours and physical changes?"

"Yes, but how did…" Tonks' voice drifted away for a moment. She looked at the taller women seriously for a second. "That monocle, ma'am? It wouldn't happen to act like Alastor Moody's eye, would it?"

Susan gasped, looking highly amused. Madam Bones smirked and said, "Common sense and a keen eye can often be mistaken for magic. I didn't get to where I am today by relying on toys and trinkets." Amusement still tinged her voice as she reached and took Tonks hand in a firm shake.

"Of course, I wouldn't mean to imply... I mean it's a pleasure to meet you! I'm Nymphadora Tonks. I've been looking after my cousin Harry here for the duration of the summer. And yes, we did want to avoid something of a scandal."

Smiling warmly as if laughing at some silent joke, Madam Bones looked over at Susan, considering. "Is that the owl you want?" she asked, looking over at the grey long-eared Owl. It puffed itself up proudly, happy to be the centre of attention. Susan nodded mutely. It seemed that she was still stunned by everything that had happened.

"Very well then, you two stay here and talk. I'll go and buy him for you. Miss Tonks, a word if you please?" The long eared owl flew from its perch and onto Madam Bone's shoulder.

"Sure, I mean, of course Madam," Tonks nodded. She followed Mrs Bones to the checkout. They talked quietly to one another, so Harry didn't hear what they were talking about.

Seeing as they were busy and Harry himself was feeling a little out of sorts, he turned back to Susan whose brain seemed to have caught up to where they were. Naturally, they continued the conversation they'd been having before.

Tonks was nervous. Here she was in a store with the Head of the DMLE, Madam Amelia Bones, one of the greatest and most powerful people in Britain, both politically and magically. Tonks would only admit this to herself, but Madam Bones was something of a role model for her.

"I was thinking that Harry must not get out much if he always has to sneak out under spells to protect his identity. And I imagine you must be quite busy keeping a child entertained for such a long time," Madam Bones said as they took a place in line.

"Well, a little bit, but honesty Harry's good company, very mature for his age." Tonks said. She had an inkling of where this was going.

"Susan is also quite mature for her age. Sadly, thanks to my busy schedule she has had little chance to socialise with other children her own age outside of official functions. The two of them seem to be getting along quite well."

Madam Bones paid for the owl and began to walk slowly back to where Harry and Susan were standing a little way away. Susan was making big, sweeping gestures with her arms, describing something to Harry.

"Yeah, Harry could do with meeting someone his own age. I've been a little worried how things were going to go once school starts. I'll look out for him no matter what, but it would be nice if he could meet someone his own age,' said Tonks as casually as she could manage. Impressed or not, she wasn't going to show it.

"How do you think young Harry would like it if he came to lunch tomorrow? With you accompanying him, of course?" said Madam Bones.

"Well… I'd have to ask Harry, but they seem to be getting along fine."

"Excellent."

That was how Harry found himself sitting in the room of one of Tonks' other friends, a "Pureblood" named Jason. Harry thought he was very serious and rather dull. Though surprisingly he was able to keep up with a completely hectic Tonks as she rushed around his large house, both excited and nervous, having received an owl earlier that evening confirming the date, time and location and the fact it was an informal lunch.

"What does informal mean to a Department Head?" Tonks had asked. So now they were asking for dining tips and etiquette from a bored young man who wearing a long-suffering expression on his face and sighing whenever Tonks asked him a question. Questions such as: "Do you think these dress robes would be OK? They're not too formal, are they? Oh no! Are they too informal?!' 'Help me out here you gloomy-'

Still, it sounded like fun visiting a friend and having lunch and all.

'I'd better bring Exploding Snap, in case she wants to play,' Harry thought.

End Chapter Ten

Author Notes

I am so sorry this chapter has taken so long, my writing has been hitting stumbling block after block and real life responsibilities have been getting in the way; the update rate should increase for a little while after this, as a good few of the following chapter are written.

I really hope everyone who read this chapter has enjoyed it; I would like to thank Chandagnac for being my editor, he really saved me on this one! And if anyone has questions, comments critiques or anything else to say please feel free to leave a comment, I'm always happy to talk.

I also feel it important to note I have gone back and done a few small edits to previous chapters, including fixing the title on chapter three; but far more importantly, a missing scene has once again been found and slipped into chapter 6/interlude. I would love to hear some people's thoughts on it.

I chose Susan for a few reasons but mostly because I this she has a lot of potential as a character and I have seen her written very well in another fic (only as a secondary character but still) and I liked the idea of being able to play around with more characters some of whom got very little attention in canon. I will not be making Ron or Hermione into negative versions of themselves they simply didn't meet Harry, I would intend for them both to end up as acquaintances of his.

Madame Bones is a character I really like and I honestly wish more had been done with her in the series but I feel there's a good deal to work with and I honestly just find her very cool. I made Amelia Moody's former partner, but where he stayed at the lower levels of the office due to his attitude/beliefs Amelia kept rising, the two of them stay in contact and get along quite well.

Oh and Jason is an OC, he's a background character at best, I just wanted to flesh out the years and Tonks's friends a little bit, (I personally think that friendships outside of Houses happen primarily in later years, so Tonks's friends are sort of an example of that, but again they don't play a huge role except to be friends and fill out the world/years a bit.

I've decided to view this story of Harry's first year as an arc style of story. The first arc is Harry's summer with Tonks and end with them arriving at school and the sorting. The second arc would be the year itself.

I'd like to thank everyone who has read, fave, followed or commented on this fic, it has been wonderfully encouraging and really helped make this an educational and fun experience.