A/N: Finally, time on the computer without any remaining homework. Thus, I decided to write the next chapter of The Stalker. Don't you love me?
No one noticed the backstory. I weep.
Disclaimer: Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, e'er the other side he see.
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The Stalker
Chapter Seven
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Tonks Apparated into the safe place that the Order had agreed upon, and hurried to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.
She ran up to the door as soon as it appeared and knocked quietly. The door opened immediately. Fred Weasley's face appeared, shortly followed by his twin George's.
"Tonks!" said Fred. "Glad you're back."
"Anything exciting happen today?" George asked, as he always did.
"Actually," said Tonks, "something did." The Twins' faces lit up. "But I won't tell you until you let me in, boys," she said pointedly.
"Oh," said George. He and Fred quickly backed away from the door and let the plain looking (for once) Tonks in.
"Let's go to the kitchen, boys," she said. "I get the feeling everyone else will want—and possibly need—to hear this, too." They agreed, and she led the way.
"Hello, Tonks," Remus said without enthusiasm.
"Oh, Tonks!" Molly said as she heard Remus's greeting. "How was it? He stayed safe, right?"
Tonks grinned. "No, Molly, I let him die." Molly looked mortified. "Kidding, kidding!" Tonks hastily assured her. "Actually, though, something did happen." Everyone in the kitchen perked up. "He appears to have a new hanger-on."
Everyone looked confused, except for Molly, who immediately said, "oh, it's about time he got himself a girlfriend, the poor boy has got to be lonely enough, what with—erm," she cast a look a Remus, "recent events. I mean, he's—"
"Molly!" Tonks interrupted her. "She's not a girlfriend. At least," she grinned, "that's not exactly what I would call her." Everyone looked bemused.
Kingsley asked, "Then what would you call it, Tonks?"
"A stalker," Tonks said simply.
An uproar broke out in the kitchen. "No fair!" shouted the twins in unison. "Do you think she could be an agent of You-know-Who?" asked Molly. "Is she dangerous?" asked a now very alert Remus. "Why is she there?" squeaked a visibly nervous Emmeline Vance.
"Quiet!" boomed Kingsley in that voice of his. The noise subsided.
"Now," said Kingsley, "perhaps Tonks should tell us from the beginning exactly what she means."
"Well," said Tonks, "as you know, I was on duty tonight. I was sitting in the wardrobe—Harry was on the bed, and his chair is full of clothes again, he's a right old slob nowadays—when I see a girl quietly climb the tree in front of his window. Well, it's not in front of the window, but you know the tree I mean, and she climbs up it. Actually, she wasn't so quiet—she was being quite blatant and obvious, but no one noticed. And this girl looks weird, and I mean weird, because her eyes have this weird quality to them, and I don't think she has any eyelashes, and her red hair stood out against the green and brown of the tree.
"So anyway, she sits there for at least two hours, and he hardly moves, but he's not asleep, and I know that, but I don't see how this girl could know, then Harry's uncle comes in. He tells Harry they're leaving, and almost tells him not to steal food, then realizes his mistake and tells him to make his own dinner.
"As Dursley is leaving, he looks right at the girl, then walks out of the room like he hadn't seen anything."
"Probably didn't," muttered Remus.
"You're most likely right," Tonks agreed. "So, after the Dursleys leave, Harry goes to make himself a sandwich, and when we get back, the girl is still there. After a while, Harry gets up to go to the park—"
"You let him go to the park?" Molly asked. "He's not to leave the house."
"Molly," Tonks said cajolingly, "if he stays in the house all the time, he'll go mad. I was there, and it wasn't dark, so I figured I'd let him go. Besides, he knows how to be careful. And with all the cloaking spells we have on him, I doubt that map of his could find him."
"Tonks!" Remus said, exasperated.
"What map?" asked Molly suspiciously.
"Nothing!" said Tonks. "I didn't mean anything by that! It was, er, a, erm, metaphor! Yeah, yeah, a metaphor for, uh...life." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, he goes to the park. The girl is following us—him—the whole time, but he doesn't see her, because she keeps ducking behind trash bins and hiding in the most obvious of places.
"We get to the park, and Harry sits on the edge of the slide, and the crazy girl climbs this dead tree in plain sight and just sits there. She starts picking at her shoes, and I figure this has gone far enough, so I sneak over to Harry and whisper to him to look at the tree.
"Well, he does, and he gets really surprised. So he asks her what she's doing, and she says 'Stalking you,' so he asks her her name, and she tells him 'Monica', and he starts talking to her, like a friend or something." Fred and George snorted. "And he goes and sits back down. And she asks him to hurry up and go home so she can eat her meatloaf." Emmeline made a noise of disbelief. "I'm honest!" Tonks told her. "She's a freak, I'm tellin' you. So he goes home, and she climbs back up in the tree. Ten minutes later, she asks him what time it was, and he tells her, and she swears and scrambles down the tree and starts running towards Figg's house."
"Must be where she lives," said Kingsley sensibly.
Tonks nodded. "Naturally. But then my shift ends, and I hear Mundungus show up, so I popped back here."
The kitchen was quiet.
"Do you think she's dangerous?" Fred asked curiously.
"Now, that's the strange thing," Tonks said. "There's no way she could be, even though she gave an eerily accurate description of Harry's last year. Honest, the girl's creepy. One, she lives in Little Whinging, and she's about Harry's age, so she's got to be a Muggle. You could check with the Ministry, but she's not a witch, I'm sure. Too bad," she added, "Albus would like her."
"Wait," asked Emmeline. "What do you mean, she gave an eerily accurate description of last year?"
Tonks related to the kitchen what Monica had told Harry in her sarcasm. "She's not so good with sarcasm," she mused.
"Man," complained George, "all the cool stuff happens to Harry."
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A/N: No one notices my attempts at subtlety! Perhaps I should get more blatant and obvious.
Again, I like reviews. Someone has asked for me to stop the poems and songs, but really, I need to know what you think! I'll have to write another haiku if you don't please tell me what you think. Besides, I'm on a haiku bent. Writing them from Sirius and Florence's POVs gets kind of hampering on my creativity.
