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 THREE

Tonks was relaxing on her couch at home with the news on, but only half-heartedly keeping an eye open for Harry to show up on screen and wink at her.

Her fireplace flared green and she answered the firecall. "Hey Hermione. What's up?"

"I think I know where Harry is going to be tomorrow." Hermione said with a smirk.

"Oh yeah? You sure it's not just a red herring he left to trick you into something embarrassing?"

"Don't say things like that! You're just going to jinx us before we even start." Hermione yelled indignantly.

Tonks rolled her eyes. "Okay. So where is Harry going to be and how did you find out?"

"Well, I was just flipping through the paper and saw an ad for an event tomorrow morning that will be too good for Harry to pass up."

Tonks eyebrow curled upwards waiting for Hermione to continue. It appeared she was wanting to be asked. "And that is?"

Hermione sure loves explaining and always perks up when she's asked a question. "St. Mungo's is hosting a charity auction tomorrow morning. All proceeds go towards the building of a new children's wing. The last item up for auction is an all expenses paid Dinner Party to be hosted at Malfoy Manor, with Draco Malfoy assisting as an honorary co-host. Malfoy's even the one sponsoring the auction tomorrow. Throwing around the money to make sure he still looks good in the public eye."

"Yeah, he's a git, but even you can see this is a good thing he's doing. And you're right. This has Harry Potter mayhem written all over it. I wonder if he could get a muggle dinner party out of it. Draco would have to completely fumigate the place after that. Silly git thinks 'muggle cooties' are contagious." Tonks finished with a shake of her head.

"The auction starts at 10:00 AM, and I doubt it will be much more than an hour so we can still meet Remus for lunch."

"That's right. We agreed on The Leaky Cauldron, didn't we?" Tonks asked.

"Yup. Tom's food is a bit suspect on occasion, but you cannot beat always having the back room to ourselves. I'm about to firecall Ginny. I'd invite Ron but I know he's still got Saturday morning practices. We'll be by around 9:30 to make sure and wake you in time for the auction."

"Thanks Hermione."

The three girls were getting a bit restless. It was already 11:30, there were only two items left up for auction, and there had been no sign of Harry Potter. Tonks was pretty sure the old lady in the front row was up to something, but Ginny and Hermione thought she was just being paranoid. The last item up for bid was the Dinner Party at Malfoy Manor. But first, they had to auction off a somewhat perverted piece of history. Helga Hufflepuff, one of the founders of Hogwart's as well as one of the most prominent healers in the last couple millennia, had what could only be called grandma panties on display and up for auction. According to the brochure, they were hoping to fetch at least 50-60 galleons for a pair of old knickers.

There was a surprising amount of action for this one. The auctioneer took a bid of 64 galleons from the greasy man in the back row, before he was interrupted by a tug on his sleeve. Somehow, the auctioneer had been completely oblivious to a small child's approach. The young boy who couldn't have been more than 9, was wearing the most adorable pinstripe suit and carrying a miniature briefcase, and was tugging on the auctioneer's sleeve.

"Scuse me, sir? Do all the money really go to a new kids' wing?" the bold little boy asked.

The auctioneer smiled at the child. "Yes son. Every knut from the auction goes straight into the fund."

The child, identified as "Simon" by a Healer asking him what he was doing here, puffed himself up like an important businessman and responded primly "Healer Jones, I received a reprieve from my daily conundrum, and have the entire afternoon to entertain myself."

"Simon, do you know what those words you just said mean?"

"Heck no. It's just what my Uncle Poncy told me to 'member."

Draco, who was sitting idly in the front row, simply here for appearance's sake, snapped to attention at the mention of the boy's Uncle.

Healer Jones asked, "Well what are you doing here Simon?"

"Uncle Poncy asked me to place some bets!"

"I think you mean bids. And where is your Uncle Poncy?"

This was the question that had Hermione, Ginny, Tonks, and Draco's eyes wide and quickly scanning the room.

"He had to go take care of some other bidness and asked me to bet for him."

"Well there are only two items left to auction, Simon. Are you here to bid on the, ahem, artifact from Helga Hufflepuff?"

"Yup! Is it time for me to make that one?" the annoyingly cute little child asked.

"I suppose it is, yes. The current bid is…" Healer Jones looked up at the auctioneer.

"64 galleons at the moment," the Auctioneer responded.

Simon smiled widely. "Okie-dokily. I'd like to bet 10 million galleons please."

The entire crowd went silent at that. Half the people looked at the child like he was crazy. No one said a word or made a sound.

The auctioneer cleared his throat. "Well then. I have 10 million galleons. Any other bids?" He was making an obvious show of pretending to look for new bids. "Going once…Going twice…"

"Sold! To Simon for Ten Million Galleons!"

Simon jumped up in the air and pumped his fist and let out a "Whoop!" He ran up to the stage and pulled out an official Gringotts bank draft for a completely legitimate 10 million galleons. The auctioneer was flabbergasted this had really just happened. Simon ignored the administrative people huddled around the official notarized bank draft, and Simon ran over to the knickers. He picked up the entire display they were on, and opened his little briefcase. It was obviously magical and he pushed the display and knickers into the briefcase. When Simon closed it, there was a visible swirl of magic and a loud pop and the briefcase disappeared. Simon yelled out an excited "Cool!"

He then went to go stand back at the side of a row, and apparently was trying to act like everyone else around him as he was waiting to bid on the next item.

The auctioneer called for silence at all the crazy mutterings going on, and announced the final item up for bid. "The last item in today's auction is a complete Dinner Party, with the winner having full control over the guest list up to 100 invitees, to be hosted in conjunction with our generous sponsor today, Mr. Draco Malfoy, at the luxurious and impressive Malfoy Manor. Let's start the bidding at…actually, Simon were you planning to make a bid?"

"Yes sir!" Simon answered with a smile.

"Go ahead Simon." The auctioneer encouraged.

"Okie-dokily. I'd like to bet 2 knuts!"

And once again, the crowd was shocked into silence. Well, except for Tonks' snickering and Ginny's outright laughing. Everyone else was still staring at the adorable little Simon. Draco's face was completely pink. Which considering how pale the poor boy is, is as close to an angry raging red as he can get. He was swearing and cursing and muttering about "killing Potter" and "gutting Golden Boy" and "destroying Scarhead."

While everyone else was focusing on the scene sponsor Draco Malfoy was making, the auctioneer saw an opportunity. He quietly said, "We have a bid of two knuts. Going once…."

No one was paying any attention. He covered his mouth with his hand a bit and whispered "Going twice…"

Hermione noticed what was going on and was tempted to bid three knuts and then just stand up Draco. But she decided Simon deserved this one.

"SOLD! For two knuts to Simon!" The auctioneer yelled out as loud as he could.

Simon threw both his arms in the air in triumph. "Awesome!"

Luckily Draco was already completely incensed and insulted and swearing to get his bloody satisfaction on the Scarhead that he barely noticed no one overbid little Simon.

Simon walked up to the auctioneer again, pulled two knuts out of his pocket, and handed them to the auctioneer. He walked over towards where Draco was having a little fit. He put a hand on Draco's wrist and temporarily calmed the Malfoy scion.

"We'll be in touch." Simon said with a completely serious and professional face.

He then turned around and walked away from him. He spotted the pink hair he was looking for, and walked up to the funny looking woman.

"Aunt Tonky? Uncle Poncy said if I smiled enough, you and Aunt Hermy and Aunt Ginny would buy me lunch." Simon said and then made the biggest widest brightest smile he could. He had lost two of his front teeth and had dimples that truly made him irresistible when he smiled that big. "Cuz I just spent my last two knuts and I'm hungry."

Tonks could only laugh at the adorable little Simon. "Sure we will Simon. We're headed to the Leaky Cauldron to meet another friend of ours."

Ginny couldn't take it and had to reach down and hug the adorable little child. The three girls and Simon left the auction holding hands and were headed to a fireplace to floo to the Leaky Cauldron.

Remus was running late. 'Why do books have to be so dern fascinating?' All he wanted to do was kill a little time looking around Flourish and Blotts before lunch. And of course there had to be a new book on wandless magic. A subject that has seriously frustrated the old Marauder for a couple years now. By the time he looked at his watch again he was already five minutes late for lunch.

He wasn't even paying attention and ran right into a young man when he turned the corner. They both fell to the ground. Remus was in a big hurry, double-checked that the young man wasn't visibly hurt, and asked "Are you okay?"

The young man was dusting himself off and responded. "Just fine Mr. Moony, just fine. I can tell you're in a hurry too, so take care." And the young man started heading off briskly in the direction he was originally headed.

Remus nodded, said "thank you," and started hurrying off towards the Leaky Cauldron. He had taken about two steps and froze in place. He sniffed the air once. He cocked his head to side. He sniffed the air a second time, a much deeper breath. He turned towards the young man heading away from him. "Pronglet! Wait!"

The young man turned to smile at Remus and just disappeared into thin air.

"Dog gone it Harry!" a flustered Remus yelled. "I hate you!"

Remus arrived in the back room of the Leaky Cauldron to find Tonks, Hermione, Ginny, and a cute young boy in a pinstripe suit all sitting together. He cast all his usual silencing and protection charms on the door. When he turned back to his lunch group the small child yelled out an enthusiastic "Uncle Moony!"

"Hello. It seems like you know my name. Anyone care to introduce me?"

Ginny spoke up. "Of course Remus, I'd like you to meet Simon. Uncle Poncy suggested we all have lunch together. Simon here just won an entire Dinner Party at Malfoy Manor at the auction we came from."

Simon was smiling and nodding vigorously.

"I'm sure that pleased Draco."

"I got it for two knuts!" Simon exclaimed jovially.

Remus's eyes widened and he smiled a very amused smile. "I don't know about Draco, but I always heard the rumors that all it took to get into Lucius's bed was to have a pair of-"

"Remus!" A truly frightened Hermione yelled. It had the desired effect of reminding the old Marauder he was in front of a small child.

Simon didn't even seem to notice. "Uncle Poncy said if I did it right, I would be able to get a party for me and everyone else at the hospital in the party for just the two knuts Uncle Poncy gave me. If I got overbid, then I got to keep the two knuts for me anyways." Apparently Simon is quite excitable.

Remus smiled and responded, "Well, I have a feeling I just literally ran into Uncle Poncy, so Hermione, would you mind scanning me for errant spells or tracers or who knows what else."

Hermione got up and cast a few charms. "Nothing I recognize but I can see a ladybug on your shoulder from here."

Remus looked over and down at his left shoulder and his eyes widened. "Umm, I'm pretty sure that's not a normal ladybug."

The ladybug in question took this opportunity to fly up into the air, and land in the exact center of the table they were all seated around. It was apparently assisting them in putting itself on display.

"Is that a construct of some kind?" Hermione asked looking closer at it.

Tonks suggested "Maybe Harry is taking after the muggles and planting bugs on people. It's probably just a listening charm or something."

The ladybug spoke up in a familiar voice. "It's a lot more than that, Aunt Tonky."

"Uncle Poncy!" Simon exclaimed.

"Harry! Is that you?" Ginny asked with wide eyes.

The ladybug was laughing at them. Well actually the ladybug hadn't been moving at all, but you could hear laughing coming from it. "Yes it is me, and no I'm not the ladybug. Just needed to test some communication techniques with these, and thought you might appreciate the sound of my lovely voice. Have fun at the auction Simon?"

"It was awesome! I got the Party for two knuts just like you said!"

"That's great Simon. You should ask Mr. Malfoy if he will let you play with his pet ferrets when you have the party." Hermione's eyes widened at the thought of Draco killing small children and scolded Harry for it.

Remus was still in awe that Harry was for the first time, in actual open communication with them. "Harry, so does this mean we're going to be able to contact you? We've been dern close to catching you, you know. It's just a matter of time."

The smug little ladybug responded. "You really think you guys can keep up with me? I only gave you this ladybug, because I wanted to test the untraceability of it. I doubt you'll be able to break it, but Hermione might get lucky. But I figured I'd give you a shot. As it stands I still have a good decade of childhood to work through. In addition to one other significant project."

Ginny exclaimed "Take me with you!" at the exact same time Tonks yelled out "I wanna have your child-" a brief awkward pause "-hood."

"I'm still around you guys, but I want to get this one big project done before I make any public appearances."

Hermione was intrigued. "So is this communications device a part of the big project?"

"Well, a small part, yes, but it is a lot more than a communications device. You have to watch it closely. Moony, stand directly over it, and carefully watch the colors on the ladybug. I'll show you one of the other things it can do."

Remus thought about this carefully. And was a bit hesitant. The ladybug pleaded, "Come on Moony, it's too subtle to notice unless you're paying close attention. You know I'd never actually hurt you."

A grumbled "fine" and Remus was looking at the shell on the ladybug intently. Harry was mumbling something in Latin, and only the last word did Remus catch and process: 'serpentsortia.' Unfortunately, it was only as his mind processed this that a small conjured snake flew straight out of the ladybug and chomped down quickly on Remus's unsuspecting nose.

Tonks shrieked, Simon yelped, and Hermione and Ginny both gasped. All four of them were quickly overshadowed by the extremely high-pitched girlish screaming Remus was wailing out. His arms were flapping up and down like a chicken as he squealed and whimpered and ran around the room. He realized the snake was not letting go and was still screaming and now tugging viciously on the snake attached to his face. He had fallen backward out of the room and was still screaming. After calming down for a brief second, Remus ripped the snake as hard as he could and it detached from his face with a loud POP. Shortly thereafter the snake dissolved into the air, right in Remus's hands. It was at this point he realized he was in the main dining area of the Leaky Cauldron and everyone was staring at him. He saw the silencing charm on their private room was working because all four of his lunch mates were visibly laughing their heads off and not a sound could be heard. As he realized his nose was fine, and there hadn't even been any blood when the snake bit him, Remus finally caught on to what had happened. A brightly blushing Remus Lupin calmly walked back into his private room, and repaired the door he seemed to have crashed through.

As he came in he heard Simon asking, "Uncle Poncy is that why you asked me if I was afraid of snakes earlier?"

A very amused voice could be heard coming from the ladybug saying "Yup. Well that and because of Draco too."

"Good god Pronglet. You're scaring years of my life." A reluctant Remus responded.

The ladybug placated, "Eat some chocolate Moony. You look like you could use something sweet. Don't you agree Tonks?"

"YOU!" Tonks exclaimed. "You were there!"

The ladybug was mocking her. "Of course I was there. I was the slimeball with too much flair on."

Hermione pieced this together first. "You faked being stunned!"

"Well I wasn't about to announce to the world I was Harry Potter."

Simon was thinking briefly. "Uncle Poncy? You're Harry Potter?"

"Not usually Simon, but I have been on occasion. I know I prefer being Uncle Poncy."

Ginny asked "So you were just going to lie there and pretend to be stunned all day?"

The ladybug turned a little towards Ginny and responded. "Of course not. I was playing with using thought magic on a long distance switching spell. I swapped Snape's favorite possession, something he nicknamed "Lucy" but would never tell me more about, with the wand on Ollivander's cushion. I assumed Lucy was some giant gold or platinum cauldron and would crash through the display providing me with an opportunity to disappear unnoticed. Turns out I was a bit wrong on what Lucy was, but it worked just the same. Severus would kill me, if I didn't return it though, so I made sure and label it as his property."

Tonks paled a bit. "Wait, so that really was…his…oh forget it. I don't want to know."

The ladybug turned towards Tonks. "The ickle auror is scared." The ladybug snickered.

"Hey Simon, you know what Aunt Tonky's first name is?" the ladybug asked.

Tonks interrupted loudly "Hey now! Let's keep this clean!"

A muffled "Silencio" and a light shot out of the ladybug and nailed Aunt Tonky. The ladybug said "Sweet! I'm getting the hang of this aiming thing. Sorry about that Aunt Tonky, I owed you one for attempting to stun me, and I thought I'd rile you up a bit there. And if you're wondering Simon, Aunt Tonky's first name is Honky."

Simon was giggling at the angry silent pink-haired woman.

"Anyways, I have to work on a few more things. Hermione, disassemble this ladybug to your heart's content and see if you can determine where I am at. Or rather where this bug's receiver is located at. Simon, it was a blast meeting you, and I hope you have a great party. Inviting all the other children at the hospital should be perfect. And don't let Draco Malfoy intimidate you. Deep down he's a big softy, no matter how much he tries to hide it. Compliment something about him using the word 'Slytherin' and you'll have him eating out of the palm of your hand."

Remus, Hermione, Tonks, and Ginny's eyes all went wide at that.

"Gotta go guys. And I'm still around. Just putting off growing up simply because I can. At least for a little while longer. Toodles." The ladybug finished, and then flew up and landed in Hermione's hair.

Simon was giggling at Hermione's attempt at an angry scowl. Tonks was still trying to get someone to counter her silencing charm.

The rest of lunch passed quickly as Remus, Tonks, Hermione, and Ginny all got to know Simon better. They found out he had been living at St. Mungo's for over a year, and that both his parents had died. He needed constant care, and a new children's wing meant he would probably get a room of his own. Their hearts went out to the sweet young boy, and they were planning to come visit him again. They dropped him off back at St. Mungo's after the long enjoyable meal and brief side trip to Fortescue's for ice cream.

Remus informed the girls that there was going to be a full Order meeting at Grimmauld Place next week on the one-year anniversary of Harry's disappearance. Apparently this was something Nicholas Flamel had requested of Dumbledore. So they hoped they might be getting some answers. There wasn't any danger, but it had been a year, and anyone with information on Harry or who wanted to hear about the Harry hunting was told to be in attendance.

Tonks was last heard moaning, "Cheeky bugger silenced me so I couldn't even order any Snorkack food."