Harry had started lessons with various Order members, in preparation for his final fight against Voldemort. Most of his lessons this year had been with Tonks, who was assigned to Hogwarts for the protection of the school. This was just a cover story. Dumbledore wanted someone from the Order of the Phoenix training Harry so Tonks volunteered when the Minister of Magic, Prescott Davies, asked the Auror's for someone to be sent. Harry thought this was sort of a joke. No one was better prepared to protect the school than Dumbledore but it worked to his advantage that Tonks was able to tutor him several times a week. The lessons had been interesting and while he had made progress, he was frustrated because he was not proving to be an extremely powerful wizard. There was no way that he could take on Voldemort right now and defeat him.

"No, Harry, do it again!" Tonks yelled at him, as he once again preformed the animating charm incorrectly.

"Back off, Tonks, I just can't do this, it's like I have a block or something."

"Don't be thick, you can't have a block, it's just," but she stopped and a pensive look came over her face. "Damn, you may be right." She sighed. "Take a break." She sat down on the floor of the Room of Requirements.

Harry sat next to her, taking a gulp of water from a glass that appeared. "We missed you at Christmas."

"Yes, well we had to move my parents. My mum's a pureblood but dad's muggle born, ya know? Anyway, they aren't safe anymore now that Voldemort is" she halted and looked at him. "I'm not really supposed to be talking about it."

"It's alright, Hermione already figured out what is going on, I mean about the rapes to create pureblood babies."

Tonks studied the young man next to her. "She never does miss anything, does she?"

"No and what's worse is one of my friends has already been affected by this. She just dropped out of school. Hermione thinks that it was one of the Slytherins that raped her but according to what McGonagall told Hermione, Susan won't talk about it, so they can't press charges." Harry paused to take another drink and trying to change the subject. Thinking about it meant thinking about the danger that Ginny was in and that always made him extremely uncomfortable. "So…" he said, searching for something, anything to say. "So, you think I have a block then? I mean, I'm supposed to have a power that will defeat Voldemort but I'll be damned if I know what it is and frankly, I've been dueling with you and getting private lessons for over six months and I am no closer to beating you than I was when we started."

Tonks seemed to contemplate what he said for a few minutes. "Dumbledore and I talked about this at the last Order meeting. We all know that you have it in you to do great things, I mean, I could not produce a corporeal Patronus until I was eighteen but you managed it at thirteen and that is absolutely amazing. Remus and I talked about it one night. He honestly thought that when he began lessons with you that you would get out some smoke and that would be it. But then you drove off a hundred dementors… and the last two years you have been running Dumbledore's Army and you have taught those kids to do amazing things. Some of them are alive today because you."

"Yes, but some of them aren't." Lee Jordan, Ernie Macmillan, Dennis Creevey, Katie Bell and Natalie MacDonald had all died in the past year, most in the summers when Death Eaters attacked their homes.

"Harry, this is war, people die and are hurt horribly but the Patil sisters and their parents are alive because of you as is Colin and his parents, even though his brother died in the fight, Colin was able to fight them off until help came. You have helped your friends to be better prepared. I think that there is a power inside you somewhere, and well, if you want my opinion, something is holding you back from accessing it. Now, get up and let's get back to working on animating those statues. There is hope for you, since you can get the saltshaker to move, which you weren't able to do before Christmas, but those are a lot smaller. Then we'll start on some more hand-to-hand combat."

Harry turned to look at Tonks. "By hand-to-hand combat, do you mean, like learning to punch and stuff?"

"Yeah, I've got a black belt in muggle karate."

"You're putting me on, right?"

"No, why?" Tonks asked, looking surprised.

"Are you telling me that you trip when you try and tie your own shoe but you managed to get a black belt in karate?" Harry was floored.

Tonks gave him a wide smile and ran a hand through her short and today lime green hair. "Well, it did take me quite a while to get through the training, but at my final test for my belt, I tripped and knocked my instructor into the wall. He hit his head and was knocked out, with a concussion for an hour. He decided that rather than fight me again, he would just graduate me. But, if I do say so myself, I can still kick butt."

Harry looked at her warily. "What happens when you knock me over and I get a concussion?"

"You know, you used to be a quiet kid who respected his elders but now you're getting cheeky. Where did we go wrong in raising you?"

Harry snorted. "You do know that you are only seven years older than I am, right?"

"See what I mean, you've become a right old smart ass." She gave an exaggerated sigh. "Ah well, I'll deflate your head a bit when I beat the crap out of you. Either that or you'll be out cold and unable to say anything." She winked at him. "Now get back to work!"

Harry glared at the gargoyle that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office. The password had evidently been changed from 'candy corn' and since the Headmaster had branched out into muggle candies, it was getting harder and harder to get into the headmaster office by guessing. "Pop rocks… butterfingers, skittles, lolly pop, Baby Ruth, peppermints, candy cane, Everlasting Gobstopper…" and the gargoyle sprang to life. "Figures." Harry muttered, "it had to be something obscure," as he walked onto the steps. At the top he knocked on the door and heard the headmaster answer.

"Come in Harry." Dumbledore smiled at him as he walked in and took the seat in front of the headmaster's desk. "How was your lesson with Ms. Tonks go?"

Harry shifted in his seat, uncomfortably. "Well, I still can't animate large objects, but I did get a salt shaker to move."

"I believe that you started Martial Arts today as well."

"Yes, and that was great. Out of everything that we have been doing, I think that is going to be what I am good at but besides from helping me fight muggles or moving faster away from an opponent, I'm not sure how it is supposed to be helping me."

"It is actually going to help you more than you know, but I was also hoping that you would show the D.A. some of those moves when you have mastered them. I believe that the women will find them especially useful. Now, how far did you get in your karate lesson?"

"Oh, well not that far." Harry blushed, at the Headmaster's raised eyebrow, he continued. "See, I broke my arm and had to call it quits so that Madam Pomfrey could fix it."

"I did not think that she would get that physical this quickly, how did she break your arm?" Dumbledore asked, his eyes twinkling.

Harry turned even redder. "Well, she tripped while trying to show me a round house kick and knocked into me… I fell on my arm and it broke so I went to the hospital wing." Harry remembered something. "Right, I forgot to mention. Madam Pomfrey was going to keep me over night, so when she went into her office, I snuck out to come and see you." He looked up sheepishly at his Headmaster.

"Harry, you should have stayed but I understand completely." Dumbledore had a distinct twinkle in his eyes as he spoke next. "I do believe that your father did the same thing in his seventh year."

Harry smiled at that. "Right, well I'm heading back to the common room. Good bye Professor." And with that, Harry walked back to Gryffindor Tower.