Disclaimer: As usual, all I own is this fanfic. J.K. Rowling owns the rest, no copyright intended!
Chapter 16: Professor Tonks' Secret
Lunch was finally over and Fleur wandered over to the courtyard to see if Harry was there. It turned out to be empty, but that didn't stop the quarter-veela from finding a bench to sit on. She had been sitting there for approximately five minutes when she was greeted by none other than Draco Malfoy. Fleur raised an eyebrow at him suspiciously, since he had the sneer she'd seen on his face plenty of times ever since she and the other foreign guests arrived.
"Hey, Fleur!" Draco greeted her, with a lustful look on his face. "I was just… um, wondering if you'd like to… you know…"
"No, I don't know!" said Fleur in an irritable voice, as she folded her arms across her chest. "And I have no intentions of accepting whatever proposal you have in mind, now off you go!"
"Oh come on," Draco begged. "I think we'd be a good couple! After all, Potter corrupted Astoria into dumping me for that fat oaf known as Longbottom…"
"I beg your pardon!" snapped Fleur. "If you tried to get to know the real Harry, you'll see that he isn't what idiots like that Skeeter bitch make him out to be. That article with Harry's interview should've been a wake-up call, but I guess you're just too arrogant and overcome with hatred to ever realize it, let alone accept it, too. Tori also enjoys Neville's company and I doubt she'll ever want you."
Some commotion was heard, resulting in Draco and Fleur turning their attention towards it. It turned out to be Ron, Hermione and Ginny walking by the courtyard. The Weasley girl was talking about the day when Harry will finally realize that he'll want to be with her (still ignoring the fact that she was living in false hope), with Ron and Hermione shaking their heads in disgust. Ginny just kept on talking, not even bothering to notice the exasperated looks on Ron's and Hermione's faces.
"Looks like the blood-traitors and the know-it-all mudblood are…" Draco began sneering, until…
SMACK!
The Malfoy scion found himself having received a smack to the face. It made him squeeze his eyes shut tight as he spun around and fell to the ground because of how much force had been put into it. Draco was temporarily stunned and when he came to, he slowly opened an eye to see Fleur giving him a nasty glare, with her arms trembling with rage.
"Shame on you for using such offensive terms and thinking yourself superior to many others!" Fleur growled.
"Your slap and growling sure is romantic, Fleur!" Draco responded with awe in his voice, giving the Beauxbatons champion another lustful look while trying to keep the stinging pain concealed. "Maybe you'd allow me to…"
"Go ahead!" Fleur challenged, with anger in her voice. "Go ahead and try your next stunt if you want to see what happens, I dare you!"
Assuming he had permission, Draco got back onto his feet and pulled Fleur up onto her feet, and into a forced hug. Then he groped her butt by giving both cheeks a firm squeeze while grinning lustfully. This angered the Beauxbatons champion further, so she started pummeling Draco relentlessly. He was stunned for the second time and when he came to, he saw Fleur's arms trembling heavily with pure anger.
"Did you really think I was actually giving you permission?!" Fleur growled through gritted teeth. "You try that again and I'll make sure you get a second trip to the hospital wing! Other students were discussing that you used that derogatory word for muggle-borns in front of Harry and the spell he used on you in retaliation knocked you out-cold. Now get outta my sight this instant before you tempt me into clobbering you again."
All Draco could do was nod his head in a terrified manner before getting up and running off as fast as possible. Once he was out of sight, Fleur started massaging her butt cheeks to get rid of the 'Malfoy touch' that still lingered (since Draco's grasp was much too firm for the Beauxbatons champion). After she finished, Fleur left the courtyard to find Harry. Along the way, she spotted Ginny (who was now by herself) throwing yet another tantrum over Harry 'ignoring' her, but out in the open where people were likely to witness her. Spotting a suit of armour close by Ginny, Fleur found a hiding spot, carefully aimed her wand at the suit of armour and whispered a couple spells. The suit of armour started moving and it tapped the Weasley girl on the shoulder.
"Very funny, Hermione!" said Ginny sarcastically. "As if you and Ron needed to do that…"
But the suit of armour picked Ginny up by the back of her shirt before she could say any more, much to her shock. Then it put Ginny into it's arms as if it were cradling a baby before it began walking while rocking her in it's arms while the song Rock-A-Bye Baby was heard coming from inside the helm. Ginny tried desperately to free herself, only for the suit of armour's grasp to tighten enough to prevent it from happening. Even whining for help proved futile because the passing students would just snicker, as they had enough of the Weasley girl's childish behaviour.
"I think Ginevra enduring that for half an hour will show her what happens when you look for attention for the wrong motivation," Fleur whispered to herself in amusement. "Since she won't settle down! I just don't get why she won't accept that Harry has no intentions to ever see her in a romantic light. Let this be a lesson to you, Ginevra."
The suit armour continued walking around in the corridors, still rocking Ginny in it's arms. Once it was out of her sight, Fleur emerged from her hiding place and walked away. She found herself unable to suppress her giggles and had a hard time trying to talk because of it. Concurrently, Harry, Neville and Tori were talking with Fred, George, Lee and Demelza in a corridor on the fifth floor discussing Weasleys Wizard Wheezes.
"Hello y'all!" greeted an unexpected voice. The seven students stopped and faced the person, who turned out to be Dora.
"Hi Tonks!" the seven students greeted back. "How are you?"
"Doing good." stated Dora. Then she turned her attention to Harry and Neville and informed them, "Mum would like to speak with you two."
"Are we in trouble?" asked Harry.
"Not at all, Harry," assured Dora. "It is also involves me having to be there. That's why mum sent me to find you and Neville."
Harry and Neville nodded their heads, then they bade the other five goodbye before following Dora over to the potions classroom. As they passed random students in the corridors, alot of them widened their eyes in confusion, wondering what Harry and Neville might've done. It took Harry, Neville and Dora approximately ten minutes to reach the door to the potions classroom. The door was slightly open and Dora pushed it further, with Professor Tonks sitting behind her desk. She had been keeping watch of when the door would open, so Harry and Neville immediately knew she intentionally left the door open by a crack.
"They're here, mum." Dora informed her mother.
She closed the door and cast some locking charms and privacy wards on it while Harry sat down on chairs in front of Professor Tonks' desk. Harry caught a brief glimpse of the door leading into the teacher's quarters being open by a crack, but shrugged his shoulders as if wasn't a big deal. Dora sat down on a chair next to her mother's chair once she finished casting the necessary charms on the door.
"How are you two enjoying my classes so far?" Professor Tonks asked Harry and Neville.
"Totally better than Snape's!" Harry and Neville spoke in unison.
"I'm glad you're enjoying them!" said Professor Tonks with glee.
"I even came here to give you two some good news," Dora informed Harry and Neville. "Snape's trial will be shortly after the first of the year. It turned out that Dumbledore vouched for him, so Snape was never tried. But the ole coot left Sirius to rot in Azkaban, even though he knew darn well that Sirius wouldn't betray Lily and James."
"Does Sirius have a trial set up yet?" asked Harry eagerly.
"They're still working on it, Harry," assured Dora. "And once he gets cleared, we can catch up on all the missed moments of bonding."
"Really?" asked Harry.
"Yes, Harry," assured Professor Tonks. "Sirius and I have always favoured each other. We'd even referred to each other as our favourite cousins. Even if your parents lived, we still intended to be one big happy family. That was why alot of families in our world went haywire trying to find you. Dora even wanted to be something like an honourary big sister to you, the same way she's been with Neville."
Harry felt his jaw drop open in shock when he found out what all he hadn't been told before. The door leading to Professor Tonks' office opened up a little more and a familiar black dog began walking out and down the stairs, stopping in front of Harry. Then the dog transformed into his godfather, Sirius Black.
"Sirius!" Harry greeted as he got up and gave his godfather a hug.
"How're you doing, pup?" asked Sirius as he hugged Harry back.
"Doing better, now that Snape is gone for good," said Harry. "His getting fired and arrested was long overdue."
"You couldn't have said that any better, pup!" said Sirius in agreement.
"How'd you get in here without Dumbledore knowing?" asked Harry.
"Well, Andi was outside taking a walk a little while ago," Sirius explained. "I happened to spot her while I was in my animagus form. She immediately knew it was me and she called for one of the school elves to escort me into her office."
"Will you have to be taken to a holding cell at the ministry?" asked Harry.
"Yes," stated Sirius. "But I wanted to personally let you know that I was safe. If I'm lucky, my trial might happen before Christmas Day."
"What will you do after you get cleared?" asked Harry.
"I don't know," said Sirius. "But I still have some time to figure that out."
"Maybe you can apply to be a school governor or something, Mr. Black!" Neville suggested. "The way this school has been running is ridiculous, there needs to be some changes for once."
"That could be something!" Sirius replied in an amazed voice. "The way the ole coot has been running the school is ridiculous. The whole second chances thing certainly is costly. But you can just call me Sirius, Neville. No need for the whole Mr. Black nonsense."
"I'm sorry!" Neville apologized to Sirius.
"Apology accepted, Neville!" assured Sirius in a soft voice.
"If Professor Tonks hadn't told you yet, Sirius," Harry started telling his godfather. "She has that time-out room she sent Malfoy and Parkinson for the behaviour that Snape would turn a blind eye to."
"There's more to that, Harry," Professor Tonks began explaining. "Some may also call it an alternative assignment room. If a student continues their improper behaviour to the point where I order them into that room, a desk will appear for them to sit at and write an essay on why their particular behaviour is unacceptable. Any time an additional student is sent into the time-out room, more desks will appear to accommodate the number of students in the room. They also have to stay in the time-out room for the rest of the period. All Slytherins have to go there if they misbehave or refuse to do a particular assignment in my class, since I'm head of Slytherin House. If a Gryffindor, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw student misbehaves in my classroom, I'll talk it over with their respective head of house to send them into the time-out room, but I'll instruct those students to first follow me into my office, so they can inform their head of house of their bad behaviour."
"It seems like Malfoy and his goons will be in for a rough time from here on out." Harry deduced.
"So far it's only been Mr. Malfoy and Miss Parkinson who've been sent into the time-out room," said Professor Tonks. "The room also has the essay instructions on a display connected to the desk, as a way of constantly reminding the misbehaving students why they were there in the first place."
Harry nodded his head in acknowledgement, with Neville doing the same. Soon, Harry and Neville left the potions classroom while Sirius, Dora and her mother walked into the office to call for Amelia. She soon arrived with a dark-skin auror through the floo network, who placed Sirius in magic suppression handcuffs and read him his rights. Once Amelia and the dark skin auror returned to the ministry to place Sirius in a holding cell, Dora followed them so she could return to work. Andi returned to grading assignments once she was back in the classroom, to pass the time and wait for dinner time to arrive.
To be continued!