Disclaimer: I own nothing; it all belongs to J.K.Rowling. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.


CHAPTER SIX – Uncertainty

Tonks looked up and saw a quite fit looking attractive young man. A twenty-six year old, who had already spent ten years in prison, he didn't look the part at all. "Wow Harry, you look great." She seemed to want to jump up and hug him but restrained herself.

"How about a little picnic by the Hogwarts Lake and we can talk there?"

Tonks looked a little unsure, "Alright." And Harry reached out and took her hand and apparated them right near the lake facing towards the castle.

"Wow kid. You really don't care about apparition wards do you?"

Harry smiled "They make it more fun because others do care about them."

Tonks voiced her uncertainty, "You sure this is the best place to do this? I wouldn't want Dumbledore to know you're here and come harass you any."

"Don't worry about it. He seemed pretty receptive to me yesterday. And even still, Hogwarts won't let him know we're here unless I tell her too. She's pretty good about keeping secrets." Harry said before adding "Chambers of them in fact."

Tonks seemed to be relaxing some but seemed unsure how to begin or what to say. "So um, I don't know where to start. Do you want an oath to assure you I mean you no harm here?"

"You're fine Tonks. Just do me a favor and avoid all the apologies for now. Not sure I'll ever want to hear those."

"Can do. So you're looking ridiculously healthy. How are you doing? Or adjusting for that matter?"

"Immensely better than even I could have hoped or expected. I've been out for just over a day, and I've got a great friend as a roommate, a new home, two new brothers, and I'm actually doing some good. And doing that good provides me with a long and fulfilling future."

"Geez. You seem perfectly sane, but that all sounds a bit hard to believe. Mind expanding on some of that? For instance, brothers. Umm what?"

"Okay, sure. I'm guessing Albus had an Order meeting last night. Did he mention the connection between Fawkes and me?" Tonks nodded and Harry continued. "We've adopted each other as brothers of a sort. And Archimedes, a pretty amazing griffin I met yesterday, also became my brother. We will look out for each other and help out each other when we can."

"You met a griffin! I thought they hated wizards. Oh, ohhhhh."

Harry laughed. "I don't hate wizards Tonks, and neither do most griffins. There just not big fans of the majority of them. I suppose I do have that in common with them. Could be why we hit it off so easily."

"You mentioned you're doing some good for a long and fulfilling future. Do you mind me asking what that is?"

Harry winced a bit. "Don't be afraid to ask Tonks. Just don't be too upset if I choose not to answer. And I'm not sure I'm ready to share this with you yet."

Tonks smiled. "Fair enough. New home though? Nice place?"

Harry smiled back this time. "It's pretty amazing. Imagine your own private Hogwarts with the Forbidden Forest on all sides. I think it's going to be great."

Harry's stomach felt like speaking up now and let out a gurgle. "Crud Tonks, I completely forgot to break out the food I brought." He enlarged the sandwiches, crisps, and drinks and offered Tonks first pick at what she wanted. "If it's not enough, I'm sure we could get a house elf to bring us some more too."

"Naw, this is great. I mean I'm not exactly here for the food. But you seem genuinely happy Harry."

"Probably because I am."

"You think we could do this again? I'm not exactly a very big fan of all the wizards and witches I know right now either."

"They all think I'm evil and dark still? Sheesh, I was hoping staying in prison willingly would allay their fears and they would eventually forget about me."

"Nope. There's a whole lot of flipping idiots in the world. Some of them were saying it shouldn't count as prison when you weren't being forced to stay there. Looked like Dumbledore was getting as annoyed with the majority of them as I was."

"Hmm. Well I'm happy to say that it's not my problem."

"I got to say Harry, my common sense tells me, that stopping caring at all is not a solution to your problem, for lack of a better term. But so far, it suits you."

"It is quite freeing. You should try it some time." Harry smiled at her. "Although I think you're pigeonholing me a bit there. I merely stopped caring for wizards and witches. It'd be like you deciding to stop caring about troll leg umbrella stands. But on a slightly larger scale."

"Oh man Moony and I had fun with that thing! We took turns bashing it into my grand old Great Aunt's portrait before we hit it with a freezing charm and tethered it the ceiling. Grabbed some fireplace pokers and pretended it was a piñata."

Harry laughed. "I bet you two enjoyed that." Harry paused and asked, "Did you here about Remus's death?"

Tonks got a sad smile. "Snape told us his neck had been burned severely, most likely from silver. We never found his body though. Pettigrew wasn't heard from after that either, so I like to think Moony got him."

Harry got a bit of an evil smile. "Oh he did. Moony died with a smile on his face and a bit off rat's head in his mouth. His life may have had a lot of lows but I couldn't have been prouder of his death."

Tonks choked. "You're kidding!"

"Nope. Saw it through old Tom's eyes myself. One of the things we both quite enjoyed."

Tonks eyes widened as she realized what Harry's imprisonment was like. "God. Well, that makes me feel a bit better actually. I've missed him a lot. Don't really have too many friends these days."

"Well maybe you just haven't met the right griffin yet Tonks,"

Tonks laughed. "Can't argue with that logic."

Harry paused and was looking at the lake. "Well Tonks, this has been a lot better than I feared it might be, but I have a couple things I have to do today."

"Yeah it has been nice. Umm, you think we can do this again? Forget the rest of the wizards and witches in the world. It's nice just seeing you. Especially seeing you smile."

Harry tilted his head and looked at Tonks like he was measuring her. "If you promise to keep this to yourself, you can come with me for at least the first errand."

"Yeah, that'd be great. I took the whole day off as soon as I got your letter."

"Well then let's go visit one of my properties. And I may take you up on an oath of confidentiality for this. I need some things to stay as quiet as possible to protect a little project for as long as possible."

"Be happy to. You just gonna tug me along in apparition again or … oh nevermind." She finished saying after Harry had apparated them both. "So where are we?"

"This, Tonks, is the Shrieking Shack. Moony or Padfoot ever tell you about this place?"

"Nope. Not to my knowledge. Heard it was haunted though."

Harry explained its history while he looked around outside for a good place.

"Wow. You got some very interesting memories of places. Mixes of fantastic and horrible it seems. And what are you looking for?"

"Yeah those two types seem to go hand in hand for me. And I'm trying to decide the best place around here to setup a portal. I'm thinking that tree over there is the most logical landmark."

"Where's the portal go to?"

"My new home. And let's leave it at that for now."

Harry cast the portal spell, Wizard Notice-Me-Not charms, repelling wards and a secrecy charm. He had to grab Tonks and bring her back as it seemed the repelling wards kicked in right away. "Do me a favor Tonks. Wait here for just a minute or two. I'm going to test the portal and be right back."

Harry popped through the portal and ended up by the tree near his new home. Archimedes noticed Harry and came up "Back already?"

"Just testing the first portal. Hey,I've actually had a good time with Tonks. Would I be a horrible hypocrite if I gave her a tour here? She's been quite nice to have around and she treats me like she always used to. It's not what I expected but seems to be cathartic for me."

"Harry, this is your baby you're making here. You're the one with a bit of intolerance towards magical beings wanting to escape from the war by excluding witches and wizards. It is true they are a special case and I will agree with whatever you want, but don't let your stubbornness overrule your common sense. There's little enough of that as it is."

"Geez thanks Archie. You flatter me too much." Archimedes growled at the nickname. "Just be sure you can trust her. That seems to be the sticking point for most things as they pertain to you."

"Thanks for reminding me! She offered to do an oath of confidentiality. Anyways, I've left her waiting and the repelling wards might have driven her halfway to Hogsmeade by now. I may or may not bring her. Not sure yet. See ya later." And with that Harry hopped back through the portal.

Harry came out and saw Tonks staring intently at the Shrieking Shack. She heard Harry return and said, "Can't really look at that portal you made without wanting to leave."

"Give me that Oath and I'll fix that for you." Tonks took her wand and obliged. And Harry keyed her to be ignored by the portals protections.

"So what took you so long? You were gone for a couple minutes there."

"Oh, talked briefly with Archimedes. Just needed to give him an opportunity to insult my common sense and call me stubborn."

"Hey! That's just like a regular brother."

"Since I've got you locked into confidentiality for now, you want to come with me for another one of these errands? If you behave you can join a couple of my other new friends in a tour of the new pad."

Tonks smiled brightly. "I would love to. Where we headed now?"

Harry grabbed her hand and apparated them back to where they met. "Back to Gringotts." The pair walked in and towards Griphook.

"Oh yeah. At the meeting they mentioned a rumor you were speaking Gobbledegook."

Harry smiled at her and said something she did not recognize in Gobbledegook. "Alright smart guy, what the heck did you just say?"

Griphook walked up to him and said "I believe it was something along the lines of 'But of course Nymphadora.'"

Tonks seemed to take offense at this and gave Harry an angry scowl.

"Tonks, I would like you to meet my friend Griphook. Griphook, this is Tonks. And if it is not a problem, I was hoping she could join us today."

Griphook looked at Tonks and pursed his lips. "You sure you trust her?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes Dad. Got an Oath from her and everything."

Griphook just started grumbling some curses in a mixture of Gobbledegook and English and led them back to Ragnok's office.

Harry told Tonks to follow them, and they arrived in Ragnok's office again. "Harry, I see you have brought another friend. Will she be joining us?"

"If it's not too much trouble I was hoping she could."

Ragnok held out his hand, and Griphook reluctantly dug out some money and gave it to him. Harry looked a bit indignant. "You bet on me already? Why do all my friends know me better than I know myself?" Griphook grumbled at that. "Oh except for you Griphook. We're equally clueless about me." Harry flashed Griphook a thumbs up. Tonks just took this whole byplay with a look of shock and amusement.

"Oh, I'm sorry guys, Tonks, this is Ragnok. Ragnok, Tonks." They exchanged bows and pleasantries.

"Are there any subjects we should avoid discussing Harry?" Ragnok asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry shook his head. "Naw, we should be fine. With the Oath she gave me, anything we'd rather she didn't know she won't be able to talk about anyway. And I don't think there's anything we need to keep from her. Though she knows nothing yet. Just that we're going to set up a portal and I'm giving you guys a tour of my new home."

Tonks seemed to be getting confused as to why all the secrecy for this but figured she'd get her answers as they went.

"Alright, we've set up a room for the portal, this way we can apply additional security to the room without needing your assistance to modify the portal. Follow me. I am quite eager to 'get the tour'."

The four went into a private room a bit closer to the lobby, and Harry cast his spells again. Harry tested it by hopping through, yelled to let Archimedes know who was coming, and went right back through it.

"Looks good guys. Just follow me." Harry said.

Harry went first, Tonks followed, and Griphook and Ragnok came through last. The three visitors felt the magic in the air simply singing to them, as well as the massive griffin staring right at them. All of them gasped as the griffin shifted form into a part-human and said "Welcome to Sanctuary."