Harry glanced again at the address written on his hand, then at the numbers on the building in front of him. The building itself was pretty nondescript – one of the three or four co-ops at the end of Diagon Alley, it was made of a gray stone and had leaded glass windows. Flowerboxes were outside a few of them. Harry turned his attention to the small darkened mirror next to the door.

"Miss Nymphadora Tonks," he said clearly. Dobby, standing next to him, muttered something. Harry glanced down at him. The house elf was looking at the doorknob from all different angles and tapping his large nose thoughtfully. "No, Dobby, that's not the lock we're supposed-"

"Hello?" Tonks' voice floated out of the now lightened mirror. Harry looked into it and saw not his reflection, but that of a young woman he assumed was Tonks. A very young woman he assumed was Tonks. He had never seen that face on her before. "Oh! Hi Harry. Is Dobby there too?"

"Good morning!" Called Dobby.

"Okay, great. Come on up, I'm on the twenty-third floor. The door has my name on it." The door buzzed, and Dobby moved quickly to open it before it locked again.

"You're on which floor?" Startled, Harry looked back up at the visible front of the building. He could only see three or four floors worth of windows. He turned to the mirror to ask Tonks what the hell was going on, but it had already darkened again. He sighed. "Craziness. We had better not have to walk up all those stairs."

------------

Tonks sighed as the mirror next to her door darkened, running a hand through her fire-engine red hair. The walk upstairs would take them a good ten or twenty minutes, so she had time to straighten up a bit. She frowned at the mirror, and her hair got longer, shinier, thicker.

Just as she was starting to clean up the living room, a knock sounded on the door. "What the fu-" Tonks slapped her forehead. "Oh, right. Professional athlete." She stuffed all the junk into a closet and made her way back to the door. Yanking it open – it tended to stick – she grinned at the guy and elf standing on the other side.

"Wotcher, Harry. Hey Dobby. I haven't finished cleaning - I had hoped the stairs would've delayed you a bit longer." She gestured for them to come in.

Looking around the apartment and trying to catch his breath, Harry said "Well, they were a nice workout. Now I don't have to go running today." He stepped into the tiny kitchen, which was right off the front hall. Striking a 'thinker' pose, he looked thoughtfully at something on the wall. Tonks left Dobby to the door, which he was examining happily, and joined Harry in the kitchen.

"You have good taste," said Harry, putting an arm around Tonks' waist and pointing at the Puddlemere poster of him next to her fridge. Tonks laughed and pulled him in for a kiss. Harry gave her a quick, unenthusiastic peck. She frowned.

"What's wrong?" Harry gazed somewhere over her shoulder and made a vague noise. Tonks put her hands on his face, making him look at her. "Harry. What's you...um...adjust yourself a bit?" He looked uncomfortable. "You look twelve. I feel like a pedophile."

"Oh." She closed her eyes and concentrated for a minute. Harry shivered, feeling her shape change against him. Oh, the possibilities...When he felt her stop changing, he looked down at her, and smiled, seeing the blonde from the first game Tonks had come to.

"Better?"

"Much, much better."

"Good. Now do I get a kiss?" Harry smiled. Putting a hand on her cheek, he kissed Tonks gently on the lips. She sighed happily and leaned her head against his chest. "Be careful. That does weird things to my knees."

Harry laughed and looked around the apartment. It was pretty small, and he could see most of it from where they were standing in the miniscule kitchen. There was a very small dining room type of thing between the kitchen and the living room, and a hall going off to the right where he supposed the bedroom and bathroom were. Resisting the urge to go check out her bedroom, Harry walked through to the living room and looked out the open window. It faced an alley. A large black fire escape was attached to it. A few voices drifted in from outside, but Harry couldn't see anyone in the alley. He looked quizzically at Tonks.

"People hang out on their fire escapes when it gets hot. You should see it on Saturday nights – everyone comes out to shares gossip and beer." She paused for a minute, listening to the voices outside. "Hey, that's Jen! C'mon, you should meet her. She's great."

Before he knew what was happening, Tonks had grabbed Harry's hand, dragged him out the window, and was pushing him up the fire escape stairs. He twisted, trying to get her to leave him alone before he tripped over the stairs. "Tonks, do you-" he stopped short when she stopped pushing him. They were a level up from Tonks' apartment. Sprawling on a couch which had probably had to be fitted into the small space with magic were a teenage girl and boy. They looked like they could be related, but glancing at how they were positioned, Harry fervently hoped they were a couple and not siblings. The girl smiled, untangled her hand from the boy's long hair, and waved happily.

"Hey Tonks! Who's this? Your new boyfriend?"

"I'm working on it," answered Tonks with a grin. "Jen, meet Harry. Harry, this is Jen. She rocks my socks. And that's Simon," she added as Simon glared at them, clearly pissed that he'd been interrupted. He mumbled something to Jen, his hand creeping up the back of her shirt. Jen rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the ribs. He shrugged and sat back.

Jen extended a hand. Harry shook it cautiously, trying not to think of where that hand had last been.

"Lemme get you something to drink." Jen got up, not waiting for an answer, and hopped through the window. Tonks followed Jen, Harry followed Tonks, and Simon followed Harry, grumbling. Jen opened the fridge and dug around as the others settled into chairs around the kitchen table. "So what brings you here, Harry? Other than Tonks? And would your last name happen to be Potter?" She came out of the refrigerator holding four butterbeers, knocked it closed with her butt, and set the drinks in front of them.

"Yeah, that's me." He carefully ignored Simon studying his forehead, watching instead as the teen removed the cap of his bottle with his teeth. Jen elbowed him again.

"You're such a showoff," she muttered, and nodded at Harry. "You were saying?"

Harry shrugged. "Just Tonks is enough to get me over here." Tonks grinned at him from across the table. "Well, Tonks and her damn stalker ex." Jen frowned, had a swallow of butterbeer, and glanced at Tonks.

Tonks just rolled her eyes at Harry. "Jealous much? He offered to lend me his bodyguard," she told Jen. "But I got him to just fix my locks so Jon can't come in."

Jen was frowning. "Maybe a bodyguard would be a good idea. You know he was snooping around in your mail this morning?" Tonks' jaw dropped. "He said something about needing a change of address form, but..."

"He already got one. I know. I gave it to him." She looked furious. Then she sighed. "That's no reason to have Vince around though."

"Vince?" Harry at first thought that someone new had come into the room, but then realized that it was the first time he had heard Simon's voice. He looked at the boy and was surprised to see that he looked genuinely concerned.

"My bodyguard." Simon nodded his understanding.

"You should do it, Tonks." He looked at her seriously. "That bastard really worries me."

"And if he worries Simon, whose friends, as we all know, are the scum of the earth...except me, of course..." Simon made a face at his girlfriend. "Who knows what Jon'll do. Promise me you'll at least consider taking Harry up on his offer? I don't want anything to happen to my best bud."

"This is ridiculous." Tonks stood up. "I'm not a little kid. Jesus Christ, Jen, I'm nearly five years older than you. I can take care of myself." She stormed across the room, went out the window, and stomped down the stairs. Harry gazed after her, worried. He stood up.

"I'd better get going."

"Alright." Jen started to clear away the bottles as Harry walked towards the door. "But Harry?"

He paused, his hand on the doorknob. Jen looked even more worried than Harry. He glanced over at Simon, who also seemed to be on edge.

"Take care of her, ok? You seem like a good guy, and I know for a fact that Tonks is one of the nicest people in the world. I meant what I said about her being my best friend-"

"And I think she's pretty great, too." Simon's voice was slightly muffled as he looked for something in the fridge.

"And if she gets hurt, I swear, heads will roll."

"I agree. I hadn't known this guy was so horrible, or I would've insisted that Vince go over."

Simon came out of the fridge, holding a bagel. "He's pretty bad. Personally, I think he was abusive."

Suddenly both Harry and Jen were furious.

"WHAT?!"

"SIMON! You don't go just saying stuff like that!" She kicked him. Simon winced.

"Alright, alright." Simon retreated to the living room with his bagel. "But I promise I'll beat him up for you if I see him hanging around," he started to go down the hall to the bedroom, and then stuck his head back out and grinned at Jen. "You coming?" He laughed as Jen launched one of the bottles at him, pulling back just in time.

Jen covered her face with her hand. "God. He is so fucking horny. But Harry, look. Simon doesn't mean the stuff about abuse. I would've killed Jon if I'd thought he was hitting Tonks." She turned to the sink and frowned at all the dishes in it. The thought occurred to Harry that it was bit odd for two teenagers to be living together on their own. "I'll see you around, Potter."

Harry opened the door and stepped out, disturbed. He'd have to ask Vince to find out about this Jonathon person. What had Tonks said his last name was? Lemmings?

Because he didn't doubt Jen when she said that Jon hadn't hit Tonks.

But there were other kinds of abuse.

------

I don't know what to do. I'm really starting to get worried for Tonks. Apparently this ex of hers is an abusive asshole. Tonks got pissed at first when we were talking about sending over Vince, but I left her alone for a while, came back with some flowers, and apologized, and she got over it. We were talking and she said that Jon used to complain about how she was so immature and dumb. Made her feel like dirt. And now he's following her around and going through her mail.

I asked Vince to go and check out Jon's background. Maybe I'll find something that'll convince Tonks to do something to protect herself.

One good thing about all this is that I met Simon and Jen. They seem like great kids, and even better friends. I know they'll tell me if anything weird happens. Although I can't figure out why they're living together anyway - Tonks said she was five years older than Jen, which means they're 17, maybe 18 for Simon. Weird. I'll have to ask Tonks.