"Nymphadora Ingress Tonks!" Minerva rarely had trouble pronouncing names, but really, what was Andromeda thinking, giving the child a name like that!
"It's just TONKS! Those who call me Nymphadora will PAY! Although Ingress is fine if you're a friend." Ah, yes, Minerva nodded to herself. The Black temper. Although really, Ingress was so much easier to pronounce than Nymphadora.
The hat on her head was dank and smelly. It decided that she was brave, almost reckless - duh! - smart, you like learning - duh! Remus taught her, of course she was smart, and she was going to be an auror, she had to be smart - ambitious enough for Slytherin, it is very hard to be an auror, and your determination is your main quality...no wait, go back to your family... hmm... very loyal. You'd die for any of them, for your mother and father, for your sister and Richard, and your brother Harry and Remus.
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
Damn right. Hogwarts was going to be brilliant... Then she realized that she had just cycled her hair from dark green to minty blue and then to pink. While everyone was watching.
Well, fine! Let them stare. She was totally cool with everyone just looking at her even during the sorting, with the whispering and pointing. With the hisses and side glances.
A few days later, Tonks cracked. Why were people looking at her light that? It made her hair go really long and dark and bushy. Didn't they have their own lives?
Instead of going to her Herbology class, Tonks pressed her hand to the middle of the door to the training room for first years. Words appeared on the door:
NYMPHADORA INGRESS TONKS
HUFFLEPUFF - 1st year
YES NO
Tonks quickly pressed YES and the door opened. For a moment, there was silence, and then a human - shaped figure, entirely out of silver, stepped forward. He showed her the protego spell, she repeated it.
Then they dueled quickly, with him pressing her back, assessing her level. She was only permitted to use protego during this duel - this one was to build her power levels, her ability to dodge. When she was taught more spells, then they'd start really dueling, maybe in two months. But until then, she was to grow proficient at the spells the silver-figure taught her.
She had an unfair advantage - she was taught by Remus, and she was taught before any of these kids. She had years of training on them - she was gonna dominate the scoreboard! If her score was good enough at first year, the silver figure would duel her at second year level, and her name would appear on the second-year scoreboard. Maybe she could get up to third year while still in first year 'cuz of the training! All the people wanted to stare at her? She'd give them a reason to stare - she'd prove she's better than anyone!
Then a thought stopped her in her tracks. If she was so much better than everyone else, who were complaining about how hard it was, then Harry was gonna be brilliant. He was gonna be, in, like sixth year's scoreboard in his first year! That was SO unfair.
She was gonna have to be so good, that no matter what Harry's scores were, he couldn't beat her.
The meetings between Severus, Dumbledore, Mad-Eye and Remus had slowly tapered off. They had gone to the Black Family House - number 12, Grimmauld place, and destroyed the locket with fiendfyre while Kreacher watched. Then, after Severus and Dumbledore left, Mad-Eye had changed the wards to feed of dark magic. Hopefully, that would weaken curses and dark creatures (Boggarts, Doxies) after a while. But after the locket, everything seemed to slow.
They had gotten two horcruxes - two out of five. But there was no where else to search. Unless they wanted to turn over each and every Death Eater home and bank account, which was illegal and dangerous on so many levels that it bordered on stupidity, all they could do was wait for something to change.
Two years later, (he was seven now, an adult, a big boy!) Harry read the letter from his sister Ingress, frowning.
So. All the teachers were biased without knowing it, were they? Some discounted Hufflepuffs just because, Snape favored Slytherins, McGonagall asked Gryffindors the questions, and Sprout asked Hufflepuffs the questions.
Hhm... Ingress hadn't written it this way before. When she wrote letters about teachers, it was just "this guy's mean, this one's nice." So maybe she was starting to notice things? At any rate, if Tonks thought it was a problem, then it was a problem. He trusted Ingress, his sister.
That would need to change. Of course, he should be studying. But really, who cared about animagus training? He was a child, he was allowed to take a break. Harry pulled out a few pieces of parchment, a quill and two bottles of ink - black ink and lemon juice, also used as invisible ink.
On the front of the parchment, in shaky, bad penmanship, Harry wrote:
Dear Profffesor Snape,
I am Harry Potter. Uncle Mony said that my fatther was meen to yu. I wann't to say sorrry so I'm saiing sorry. Sorry.
-Harry
P.S. You don't gotta answer if yu dunt want to.
Then, on the back of the parchment, Harry carefully began to write his first contract... in lemon juice, with a quill, in a Manor you have to go by sewers to reach. Harry carefully unlocked his fae powers, and wrote out his fae name. Then he kept writing, pausing to look up words in a nearby dictionary every so often.
Dubhshláine, the writer of this contract, to Severus Snape:
If Severus Snape reads the letter from Harry Potter to his person, then he is agreeing to the contract written here. If he does not read the letter from Harry Potter, written on the opposite side of the parchment, then he is not bound by the following contract:
Severus Snape agrees not to discriminate against students based on their Hogwarts House, their family, their political connections or their physical appearance. Severus Snape may treat students differently from one another based on the amount of respect he receives from said student, the way this student treats other students or teachers, the student's work ethic and potions skill.
Dubhshláine
That was letter one, completed. Harry gave it to a nearby waiting owl, and quickly ordered the bird to take the letter to "Snape, at Hogwarts, and then come right back. Don't wait for an answer."
Letter two:
Daer Profffessor McGonnagall,
I am Harry Potter. Can you please tell me about my mum and dad? I know dad liked trans-changing-magic, and mum liked charms.
-Love, Harry.
And on the back:
Dubhshláine, the writer of this contract, to Minerva McGonagall:
If Minerva McGonagall reads the letter from Harry Potter to her person, then she is agreeing to the contract written here. If she does not read the letter from Harry Potter, written on the opposite side of the parchment, then she is not bound by the following contract:
Minerva McGonagall agrees not to discriminate against students based on their Hogwarts House, their family, their political connections or their physical appearance. Minerva McGonagall may treat students differently from one another based on the amount of respect she receives from said student, the way this student treats other students or teachers, the student's work ethic and transfiguration skill.
Dubhshláine
And thus went all the letters, with simple variations. Dear Flitwick, tell me about my father - he liked pranks, but what else did he do? By the way, you now cannot discriminate. Dear Sprout, Hootch, all of Tonk's teachers, you now have to treat everyone equally. Even Madam Pomphrey, the healer, was forced to stop discriminating. Harry gave a sharp whistle, summoning an enormous amount of owls. He quickly handed out the rest of the letters, but for these, he asked for an answer.
Dear teachers, you will treat all the kids in your school equally.
Thank you for reading my letters.
Severus Snape was eating dinner when he received a letter. Traditionally, mail came at breakfast, but that didn't mean that there was no post at dinner time - it just meant that mail was rare.
The letter had a child's handwriting and spelling, and it was apologizing for a parent's misdeed. Severus Snape read the letter carefully, not missing a single word. He wasn't sure what to make of this. The child... what was that? Oh, yes, an added P.S. - he wouldn't have to answer.
How droll. He wasn't planning on doing so, anyway - what would he say?
That he felt his magic change as soon as he read the letter? That his fingers felt the bumps on the back of the parchment, and he immediately turned the parchment dark blue, reading the condemning contract that he unwittingly agreed to? Oh, this Potter was smart. Severus had nothing to tell him, except, perhaps "Welcome to Slytherin."
And, maybe, "That was so much like Lily. You apologized and made sure I couldn't make any more mistakes, either. The rules cut and set and clear. That contract is pure Lily. It was only the way you tricked me into it that was James, and I could forgive you that, because with contracts, I would do the same. Welcome to Slytherin, dear child. I will make your life hell for the next seven years because of how you are forcing me to behave with this contract."
Snape slipped the parchment into an inner pocket. He would burn it. It would not get rid of the contract, that was in his magic - he would fulfill the terms whether he wanted to or not. But it would not be good for his reputation to receive a letter and have others notice that a child was writing to him.
Just then, all the other teachers, barring the Headmaster, received a letter. Severus smirked. Obviously, the Potter Demon, Lily's Child, demanded equality. Everyone would be trapped in the contract, or there would be only one equal teacher, and that wouldn't do. They were trapped in the same contract as he was, which meant that suddenly, there was no more 'favorite teacher' - it was 'favorite subject.'
He grinned to himself. The other teachers wouldn't even notice until class time - They didn't regulate his magic like he did, how could they, when his Occlumency was so much better?
But Potter's child will pay for the utterly Slytherin ploy. It would be quiet a lot of fun, trying to make seven years hell without discrimination. Maybe he could ask Peeves...?
Richard raised an eyebrow. Tonk's letters were expressive and long and very full of ramblings, but he understood the point - first all the teachers had favorites, then she told Harry about it. Harry makes no mention of this in his letter to her, but the same evening, all the teachers receive a letter, and suddenly, no more favorites, or at least - favorites based on work ethic and talent. And that's it. And everyone knew that Harry knew about contracts.
As if he didn't have enough problems to take care of. The Rats were still panicking about the 'not-rat-man with one less toe' even years later, Harry was due to loose his horcrux any day now, they needed to check if Harry needed glasses, Door had to manage London Below business which he didn't understand but that's OK because she's Lady Door and nobility and he was Hunter, and they needed to figure out why Remus' eyes flashed yellow at Tonk's name, or why Tonks wrote twice as much to Remus as to everyone else. And they needed to find the rest of the soul shards.
Harry was staring at him.
Had he said the last paragraph out loud? Oh. Dear.
"So. Harry. Did you trap your future teachers into a contract? And may I have a copy of the contract? I'm not angry, don't worry."
"I know you're not angry. I said that they couldn't discriminate, and they had to treat everyone equally. And that's it. They could have favorites based on a student's work ethic and talent and respect for teachers, but that's it. And yeah, I trapped them into a contract. But I just gave them laws they would have to follow in Above anyway. I don't like trapping people into working for me. I just want to make a better world."
Richard sighed, looking at the little boy, scuffing his shoe.
"You know what? The next time you want to dabble in Fae magic, tell me. I'll help, or stop you depending on danger levels. But for now, let's get ice cream. I'm not in the mood for thinking."
That was the last time Harry had ice cream while having an extra soul in his body, because that night, his scar began to prick.
After he cried out, all three adults rushed into his room, and for the next twenty-four hours, tried to sooth him while he wept. His scar bled, sometimes heavily and sometimes just barely, but it never closed, and for a memorable four hours, he had a sudden high fever. Harry Potter tossed and turned, crying, as a soul shard was slowly being pushed out of his body. His head hurt and his vision swam, and his nausea came and went too suddenly for food.
And then it was over.
Twenty Four hours, and then something black and wispy forced itself out of his scar and dissipated. Harry relaxed, the pain gone. He decided that he was tired and was allowed to sleep, because he was not having animagus training after something like that, and so he rolled over and closed his eyes.
While he slept, owls returned, dropping off letters from teachers... and a certain headmaster.
Tonks grinned at herself in the mirror. She was going home for the holidays! Christmas in London Below was... indescribable. She'd made a LOT of friends - Bill was cool, and so was Charlie; they were brothers and had a lot more at home. A Slytherin girl called Davies, she was nice. S'matter of fact, all the Slytherins were nicer than she expected from the stories, and really, the rivalry wasn't that bad. No one was hexing each other in the hallways - instead, it was who had the highest scoreboard rank?
She did. Duh.
But she really, really couldn't wait to go home, to see Remus. And Mum and Dad and Door and Richard (When will they get married already?!) and Harry. She was in her third year, and in her scoreboard, she was in really high fourth - she'd be in fifth year soon!
Tonks grinned as she slid over on the compartment seat next to her friends, so that more people could enter. The Hogwarts express was comfortable, and she was happy about going home.
"Hey Tonks!"
"Charlie! Still chasing dragons?"
"Forever. Hagrid knows all about them. Listen, Tonks, um..."
"Hhm?" Tonks raised at eyebrow. Charlie was older than her, a Gryffindor, but he was smart - not canon fodder. A good friend.
"Willyoupleasegooutwithme?"
"Slower?"
"When we come back to school. From break. There's a Hogsmeade weekend. And. I, um, wanted to um, go, with you. Yeah. Come with me?" Oh... Oh, Charlie... Tonks blinked. He was her dear friend. But she didn't want him like that. First of all, she was thirteen. A bit young. Second of all, she was in no mood to go out with anyone at all in her life ever. The only boy she could talk to without it being weird was Remus. Daddy didn't count cuz he was daddy, Harry was her brother, and Richard was her brother-in-law-to-be. Soon. She hoped. Richard and Door were made for each other.
"No. Not as a date, at any rate. But as friends, sure. I need to stock up on Chocolate, anyway." Tonks watched as Charlie deflated, but he perked up after a few empty sentences and went to ask another girl. Casanova, as Mum would say. Oh. Well. It didn't matter. She had Remus.
**************
Several months ago, in early October, Door put three drops on Remus' tongue. It was all that was needed to make Veritaseum work.
"How do you feel about Ingress?"
"She's pack. Family. And clever. Had she been older, Moony would think of her as a potential mate."
"Do you love her?"
"Yes." Door gaped, and Richard took over.
"Do you love Harry?"
"Yes."
"Door? Andromeda? Ted? Fleur? Apolline?"
"Yes. yes. Yes. Yes. No. I like her, but don't love her." Door relaxed.
"Do you love Richard? How would you describe your love?"
"Yes. The same way I love Door and Ted and Andromeda. I love Harry and Fleur more fiercely because they're children, and need protection."
"Had Ingress been older..."
"Had Nymphadora Ingress Tonks been older than seventeen, I would have married her as soon as possible. As it is, she is a child, so I will protect her until she mates. I am past my prime and she is not yet in hers, thus our lifetimes should not be spent together."
There was a long moment of silence. Then...
"Well, Betweeners tend to live longer than the rest of us, so even if he were forty, he'd still have a lot of time left with Ingress... but I think that we should de-age Remus' body to be seventeen, so then he'll only be four years older than Ingress. We could say it was a prank. And he's the only one I trust with my sister, anyway, so no matter what age he is, I'm only letting Remus near Ingress. I'll get the Marquis to figure it out. So long as it's done before Christmas. In return, the Marquis can spend Christmas with us!"
*************
The Marquis sighed. It was really quiet difficult, what Door had asked him to do. He had removed the soul, the life and memories from the container, the body. Then he rewound the body clock until the child was seventeen. Or sixteen, or eighteen, who knows. Late teens. Then he slowly started to crank the life and soul and memories back in. According to the Betweeners, this was Dark magic. Naive idiots.
They'd probably do a protego and forget to mind the gap.
Who cared what magic it was, so long as it was usable? And this was very usable, the Marquis grinned. To do this ritual, you have to be completely at the power and mercy of another person, which is why it was so rare. That, and it was time-confusing, caused nightmares for both the participants which lasted until the person was back at the age he was when the ritual was done, and both had to be completely willing to do this without knowing who the other person was. Not to mention, the exchange of blood, which makes the person doing the de-aging responsible for the person being de-aged until he is an adult. Thank the gods Remus will be seventeen, so I won't have to watch over him. Thank all the gods with everything...
Yes, alright. It was rather nasty, requiring for a few sacrifices... so? It was what Door asked of him, and in return...
In return? A trip to Hogwarts over winter break. He wanted to see that In-Betweener school, and maybe take a few souvenirs with him.
Not to mention, he wanted to see this brilliant potions master that was the youngest in several centuries.
Shaking his head to clear it, the Marquis focused on the ritual. It was time for another sacrifice.
Dumbledore gaped. It was unusual, to say the least, but he re-read the letter again.
Dear Dumbledore, this is the Lady Door.
A trading partner of mine did me a great favor, and in return he wishes to spend Christmas Break at Hogwarts, asking questions and otherwise annoying the staff.
He won't be any trouble - the Marquis will bring his own sleeping bag, and can sleep in your Forest. I pity those who try to bother him.
-Lady Door.
My trading partner goes by the Marquis de Carabas, but you can call him Marquis.
Well. This had never happened before, but he had met Lady Door when she and Richard came over to check on the wards. The only thing that bothered him was Door's avoidance of saying "friend", or even "acquaintance." Trading Partner meant that this was purely business, that if the Marquis turned out to be a murderer, that was not her concern.
At least there will be very few children - some seventh-year Ravenclaws who wanted to study, but that's it. It seamed that with the lowering of school tensions due to all the extra free rooms, there were more study groups and the children were better prepared... then again, that may be because the DADA practice rooms had children practicing transfigurations and charms to stop an opponent in their tracks - banishing some rocks towards them, or turning the air in front of them and around them into stone.
Ingenious - the children learned to fight, and learned more and more complex charms and transfigurations as a result.
This meant that if the Marquis was a murderer, then the Ravenclaws stood a far better chance than they would have without the training rooms. Not to mention, at this point, there were more teachers in the castle than children. Madam Irma Pince, the librarian, could watch over the children. And all the suits of armor and the wooden nymphs...
Yes, he could afford to let the Marquis inside.
Door, Andromeda and Ted took turns hugging Ingress - call me Tonks! - on the platform, and most people were edging around the strange group. A witch, pureblood judging by her posture and features, two male muggles, some woman who dressed for both worlds, and a child with proper robes... and jeans underneath, and really old boots. And she was clearly very happy she was going back home. Hogwarts was great and all, but really, the Headmaster clearly didn't know about London Below. Just by the way he expected everything to be solved peacefully...
Next thing you know, he'll be letting the Marquis into Hogwarts! No, it's nice to take a break and go home, see this wonderful surprise that Door keeps rambling about, find out where Remus, Harry and Fleur are and do her homework. It's hard to keep an eye on all the students when the headmaster doesn't believe in punishing bullies or teaching about prejudice. I mean really, he clearly is not from London Below, where it's you and your wits and the Time around you.
She's have to bet with Door whether the Headmaster was stupid enough to let someone like the Marquis into Hogwarts.
