AN: Sorry guys for the late update. My bloody computer got messed up so I had to fix it which took me forever to figure out the problem. Anyway I had to retype this chapter once I had the laptop fixed.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

THE MEETING SPOT

"Where is the meeting spot?"

As soon as he got his answer, Sirius got up from his crouched down position and whispered a spell as he aimed his wand at the man.

The man's head lolled to the side as he immediately fell into a deep sleep.

"Bewitched sleep? Nice" Harry whispered.

Sirius gave Tonks a look which she responded with a little nod as she made her way out of the office.

Harry gave Sirius a quizzical look but his godfather didn't reply but merely unbounded the ropes around the sleeping man.

Few minutes later, Tonks walked back in to the office.

"It is all done" she said as she took in the sleeping man still on the floor.

"What's done?" Harry asked with a frown. He hated not being in the know.

"I sent a letter to the head of his department posing as the man. And told them that he will not be coming to work for a couple of months due to him going to visit some relatives outside the country"

"Oh, that's rather clever" Harry mused. "And with him in deep sleep, whoever is controlling him with the Imperius curse would be unable to do so"

"Exactly, pup!" Sirius replied with a smile.

With that, Sirius and Tonks both took the sleeping man out of the office. Before they left, Sirius instructed the boy not to leave the office.

About half an hour later, they both walked back in.

"Well?" Harry asked as he jumped to his feet.

"We put him to bed and put protective spells all around his house" Sirius replied with a smile. "So, he is safe"

Sirius exchanged a look with his cousin, before turning to face his son.

"Harry, I need you to go home now, Tonks and I need to go and investigate"

"I can help, Padfoot" Harry replied earnestly.

"I know you can Harry but…" Sirius began.

"But it is too dangerous for you to come along, Harry" Tonks cut in. She didn't understand why her cousin wasn't putting his foot down and insisting the boy went home. They could potentially be facing death eaters. The boy would be more of a hindrance than anything, if he came along. Also, they would be putting him in harm's way.

"Tonks is right, pup. We don't know what we are going to face when we get there and I don't want to put you in danger. I won't forgive myself if anything happened to you"

"You're right, it could be dangerous. But you're pretty much handing yourself over in a platter by youR going. You need more than one back up, Padfoot. You know I've got great skill" Harry replied.

"Harry, listen to him. You might be skilled but we are trained Aurors. You are not prepared for a real battle, it is not going to be same as being trained in school. This is real life" Tonks interjected.

Harry turned to the purple haired woman, as he folded his arms across his chest. He levelled her with a cool stare "With all due respect, Tonks, but you don't know me or my skill sets so I'd appreciate you not talking to me in that condescending tone"

"Harry…" Sirius warned.

"You're just a kid, Harry. Letting you come along is dangerous. I understand you wanting to make sure your godfather is safe but you coming along is only going to make things worse" Tonks said, before turning to her cousin. "Tell him, he can't go Sirius"

"You can't stop me, Padfoot, you know that" Harry said defiantly. "You know that I am very well skilled and can hold my own. You say you won't forgive yourself if anything happened to me, well how do you think I feel? Knowing that you are going into a potentially dangerous situation and I could help but didn't. You and Moony are the only family that I've got"

"You mean well, Harry but you are just a child and…"Tonks began.

"Respectfully Tonks, please stop calling me a child. And for your information, I am emancipated which means legally I can make decisions by myself"

"Oh" was all the surprised witch could say as she sat down in shock.

"Harry, you know I can't stop you from coming along and I understand why you want to. I need you to be careful and do as I say when we get there, ok?" Sirius said as he gripped the boy by his shoulders. He understood why the boy wanted to come along, but he'd be damned if any harm came to him.

"So, I can come along?" Harry asked as he eyed his godfather suspiciously.

With a resigned sigh, Sirius answered "Yes, you can"

Back at Hogwarts…

Neville was making his way to the Great Hall for lunch, when he heard Seamus Finnigan call out his name from behind. He stopped walking and waited for his friend to catch up to him.

"Oh, there you are, Nev. Professor Dumbledore told me to tell you that he wants to see you in his office" Seamus said as he handed over a piece of folded note to Neville.

"Ok, thanks Seamus" he answered with a smile as he turned around and began to head towards the headmaster's office.

After giving the password that had been written in the note sent by the headmaster, Neville let himself into the office as the door opened. Behind a large desk, sat the headmaster who smiled warmly at him as he entered.

"Mr Longbottom, come in, come in…have a seat" the headmaster gestured to a chair across from him.

"You wanted to see me professor" Neville inquired.

"Yes, yes…it has come to my notice that you no longer associate with Mr Weasley and Miss Granger" the headmaster leaned towards him as he steepled his fingers.

"Um, yes. I mean, we are cordial with each other but…"Neville trailed off mid-sentence as he was confused. He didn't understand why the headmaster was taking such an interest in his relationship with his friends.

Neville made his way to the Great Hall which was still buzzing with students having lunch. He was still reeling from the shock and confusion of the Headmaster's reaction to the rift between him and his friends. The headmaster had gone as far as to tell him that it was important, he made up with them.

"Since when do teachers and headmaster take an interest in things like this?" he thought to himself. Something felt off by the way the headmaster had acted and how invested he seemed to be in his relationship.

He ate his lunch in silence, not paying the slightest attention to what he was eating or his surroundings. He was making his way out of the hall when he bumped into someone.

"Oh, sorry Nev, I didn't see you there" Hermione gasped in surprise.

"That's ok" he replied, frowning a bit as he once again remembered his discussion with Dumbledore.

"Are you going to back to the common room?" Hermione asked as she tentatively fell into step with him.

Ignoring her question, he said "I just came back from Professor Dumbledore's office where I had a very interesting chat with about our friendship"

He watched as the colour drained from her face. His suspicion was right. Dumbledore must have also had a chat with her and Ron too.

"Did he by any chance also talked to you and Ron about making up with me?" he asked as Hermione stood staring at him in shock.

"Ye-yes" she stuttered in response.

With a sigh, he said as he wiped a hand down his face "Come on, let's go up to the common room"

Sirius, Tonks and Harry arrived at the edge of a forest by means of apparition and began to make their way into the forest. Per the plan, Harry followed a little behind under the guise of the disillusionment charm.

"He will be here any moment from now" they heard a man say as they neared the meeting site.

"Good, because you know he doesn't like to be kept waiting" another voice replied.

Harry tensed as he heard the strange men talking. Whoever had put John under the imperious curse was a puppet. The real mastermind of the plan was who they were now discussing.

"This is more serious, than we thought" he thought to himself.

The two men continued to talk, not noticing Sirius and Tonks as they approached until the leaves began to crunch under their feet as they made their way towards them.

Sirius and Tonks who hadn't made an attempt to hide their approach gripped their wands tightly in their hands as they watched the men whip out their wands at the sound of their approach.

"Gibbon, is that you?" Sirius said as he neared the men.

"Sirius Black! Where is John?" one of the men asked as he looked around.

"He is otherwise occupied. You know, you really shouldn't send people to do your dirty work" Sirius replied.

"Ha, but it brought you to me as I wanted either way" the man named Gibbon answered with a smirk. His gaze swung to Tonks who stood beside Sirius. "I see you brought back up, not that it will help you"

"Hmm…ironic, because so did you" Sirius replied as he nodded at the man standing next to Gibbon.

"Enough of this nonsense, kill the girl and let's grab him. You know how He doesn't like to be kept waiting" the man yelled furiously before pointing his wand at Tonks.

She merely ducked the curse sent her way and blasted him off the ground in retaliation. Meanwhile, Gibbon at also attempted to attack Sirius with a spell, who easily sidestepped it and sent back a spell that had Gibbon thrown into the air and then flung against a tree.

Harry watched as both sides duelled hard, with Sirius and Tonks having the upper hand. They were still duking it out, when two men apparated a couple of feet from Harry. The men had their wand out and were about to attack Sirius and Tonks from behind, when Harry noticed. He pulled away from the tree that he had been leaning against and fired a spell at both men that had them up flung into the air and immobilised. Removing the disillusionment charm off him, he stalked past the men, who were still hanging mid-air immobilised like statues.

Gripping both his wands as he walked towards where his godfather and Tonks still battled, he began to twirl them. As soon as he got close enough, he fired the first spell at Gibbon's partner that had him screaming in pain as painful welts began to appear all over his body. Gibbon noticing the skinny man with blond hair that had just attacked his friend, swung his attention to him as he fired off the cruciatus curse at him, only for the man to put up a shield that had the curse bouncing off him. Before he could attack again, the man had sent a spell that had him encased in a tomb made of water. He struggled to escape the tomb as he tried and failed to fire off spells to blast him out of the water tomb. He was drowning inside the tomb. He struggled to breathe.

Meanwhile, Tonks seeing that all the threats had been immobilised now had time to gape in shock as she watched Harry in his metamorphmagus disguise battle. She really had underestimated the boy.

Harry, oblivious to her shock, pulled down the water tomb before Gibbon could pass out. With an intricate swipe of his wand, he had Gibbon flung had into the air and then hard into the ground, resulting in the man passing out. He did the same to the other man still screaming in pain from the welts that continued to appear all over his body and had begun to bleed heavily.

"Bloody hell, Ha…" Tonks began before being cut short by the finger he held up.

Turning to the men who were still immobilised in midair, he looked directly at one of them as he began to use legilimency on him. The man struggled to fight against it with occlumency but he was no match for Harry. As soon as Harry got what he wanted he pointed a finger at them both that cause them to fall to the ground. As soon they hit the ground, they sunk into the earth with only their heads peeking out, effectively trapping them with the earth.

Sirius then walked over to Harry whose face looked a bit thunderous, and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Come on, let's get out of here" he whispered to the boy.