Tonks' previous outburst didn't seem to wake anyone. Everyone was used to the early morning screeching of Mrs. Black and paid no mind.

"Sit down, please. Rest." Harry was careful not to use the "S" word fearing that she might go berserk again. A frozen bag in the face is not an experience he wanted to repeat. He sat on the couch hoping she would join him.

"Well that's very kind of you. You are one of the better dragons, but I really can't stay." Tonks had followed him to the living room but choose to lean on the doorway when asked to sit. "I have to get back home. Back to Grimmauld Place. They'll all be very cross with me by now. It was my turn for laundry yesterday. Missed dish washing day as well. Don't think they'll mind as much about the dishes. I always break 'em. Harry will do it."

Harry looked down at his hands. He had, in fact, covered for her chores while she was gone. Tonks allowed another weary smile to touch her lips. "He'll do it before Molly has a chance to notice and take over. Poor kid." The smile left her face and Harry's head came back up. "He wants to help, always. Doesn't want to be a burden."

"Look why don't you just sit down at least and stop being stubborn." His voice suddenly had an unkind edge to it. Being called 'Poor kid' didn't sit well with him. In fact facing her pity stung as much as the frozen bag. However, Harry, having grown up with the Dursley's, had an amazing capacity for patience.

"Sit. Sit. Sit. Sit. I'm a dog now? I'm the human here, dragon."

"I am not a dragon." His tone was becoming irate.

"Yes you are." She said annoyed but softly at first. "Don't TELL me your not! You're not fooling anyone."

He stood quickly. "Why would I..." Harry stopped himself, took a deep breath, and crossed over to her. She was staring off into nothing.

"Tonks, look at me please."

She said nothing and did nothing except furrow her eyebrows. He took that as conformation that she was listening but he wanted to get a good look at her eyes. Since Tonks wasn't cooperating he had to lean his head into her view.

The room was dark. He waved a hand over the lamp beside her on an entrance table and it came to life. His whole face contorted as though he'd bit into a lemon. After his eyes adjusted he saw that her pupils had contracted as well. Good. He suspected, or rather feared, that they wouldn't.

"Right then." Harry decided to try a new approach. "What sort of a dragon am I?"

"Ah well." Tonks finally brightened up a bit and trained her attention on him. "Charlie's the expert but I know a thing about it mu'self." She had a battered nose and the more she spoke the more Tonks sounded like she had a cold.

"Ya height and build puts you in medius vegrandis class." She said looking him over. "Fairly common size in du nordern wilderness. And goin' on du black tipped beak,..." She had to pause and breifly pinch the bridge of her nose. "...red spots on the back, broad hind paws, attached arm/wings... yeah. I'd say,... garden variety mutt."

Harry wasn't sure if he should take that personally. Satisfied with her assessment Tonks bowed her head and pinched her nose again. "Mutt." He repeated.

"Well you're no show dragon. Sorry to say. Never cared much for pure breeds mu'self. You," She patted his head. "are a working class beastie. I'd say closer to an Irish Black Hook then a Spotted Spine Spaniard. Good and loyal they are. Always wanted one as a girl. Knew a man, had a bleedin' lot o' Spotted Spines though. He ran a business on the docks, see. 'Er good for that sort of work; strong, right size. Bloody hard du dame dough."

"Must be the dragon counter part of a typical wolf-dog." Harry thought.

"Tonks, look I can fix your nose I think. I mean I'm no Madam Pomfrey but there's a first aid wand upstairs." He started to gently tug on her sleeve to steer her around to the stairs.

"No, Harry." She was whispering as loud and harsh as anyone could and still call it a whisper. "Have you gone completely nutter?" She had grabbed and jerked his elbow without any of the care as he had used. "No wands. No magic. They can feel it. They'll have our position faster than you can say 'Awe Sh-'. Then you're dead cause you can't say it fast enough."

"Shh. Alright calm down. I won't do anything." Harry suddenly realized that she had called him by his name. "Who's they?"

"Whose-wh-who what?"

"You said they can feel it. Who are you talking about? Who is they?" He had grabbed her arm again without thinking about it. Thankfully she hadn't noticed as her attention began to slip again.

"They?" She turned her head to the side and let her eyes inspect the room. "They is. Well."

She turned to the other side and stared. Harry was losing his patience. Just then her head flicked back dead center. Though her eyes were on his chest she seemed to be gazing off into her own memory. "Brazilian Banshee Bat."

"Brazilian Banshee Bat." He sighed slowly, thinking she was speaking gibberish.

"Rare. Very rare. They find you when you sleep." Harry perked up. "Or use magic. Like blood hounds, you know. Love ta hunt. Don't give up." Tonks bounced a finger on his chest with each word as she said. "They-never-give-up."

Puffing out her chest and standing a bit taller she went on. "Bit like Nyphadora Tonks in that respect. And I told them that. Said they'd have to try a bit harder. What was it you called me? Stubborn? Well you're damn right. See you beasties know all 'bout surviving the wild, see. Right. Think you've got an edge out here. Well you ain't got nothin' on a stubborn woman! You inferior beings have no concept of pride. I'm not gonna die! I'm not gonna die until I've fixed everything. See, I screwed up!" She drifted out of his grip and wandered away. "My fault and I'll be the one to fix it."

"I screwed up." Tonks huffed softer as her shoulders fell deflated. It looked as though those three words were a needle that punctured her ego. "My big chance to prove something. I'd been waiting for that." She slapped a hand on her head. "I guess I never figured that 'something' was incompetence and I was proving it to myself. It was merely an affirmation to everyone else."

"Stop it! Don't say that." Harry was a bit shocked at his out burst. He was even more shocked at how deeply her sudden vulnerability upset him. "You are not incompetent. No one thinks you are."

"Right." She chuckled. "Only thing worse than being pitied is getting an invitation to someone else's pity party. Ya fall down. Ya cry." She started pacing around. "Ya get up. Ya walk it off." She was walking it off, and at times even jumping, all over the place.

"What's your fault? I mean what happened."

"I'd rather not talk about it. What's the point in rehashing that? Anyway, we've got to start moving again. Keep going. Just keep going. Don't think. Thinking makes you think about food." She held up and shook a finger as if this were a pearl of wisdom.

"Tonks. Tonks." He was following her through the rooms catching everything she'd tipped over, including herself. They ended up back in the living room. "Tonks!"

"Yes, Harry. No need to shout. What is it?" Tonks, who had been walking across the couch, flopped down on the back rest.

"Well I'd just like to know why you disappeared." She was sliding down to a proper sitting position.

"Ask Shacklebolt. He was there."

Harry just stared at the woman before him for a good long time. His thoughts were like options on a spinning wheel of emotions. Where it would land no one knows. He knew Shacklebolt was holding back but Harry didn't realize that the older man was actually there when it happened, whatever it was.

"He was there?"

"Sure. Course he was. He's my partner. We were on a bust."

Shacklebolt was an experienced auror who knew what he was doing. He didn't have to justify himself to someone still in school. And Harry still had no clue what happened, where, why, or how. Still... He wanted to wring the mans neck. He was right there! How can a person go missing right in front you? Harry was rubbing his eyes, trying to understand this.

What was really bothering him was that he clearly remembered Day 1, the day she disappeared. Shacklebolt had stopped by asking for her. Fred told him that everyone assumed she was still at work. The auror brushed it off by implying that she'd meet up with a friend for drinks. Day 2. He did the same. This time saying that she'd probably spent the night elsewhere.

"We all could have been looking for her by then if he had told us the truth." Harry thought bitterly.

"If you want to you can see for yourself." Tonks interrupted his thoughts. He dropped his hand. By now she was sitting on the couch and nearly nodding off.

"What?"

"I've kept a journal."

Harry looked down to find a small book and quill that she had pulled from her pocket moments before falling asleep.