Harry thought about what she had said, thought about being together with her, and then thought about getting hurt yet again. All his thoughts turned towards that end, what it felt like to be abandoned by everyone last year, his friends not bothering with him over last summer, of them still not writing to him this summer, and of them not telling him about their relationship. Since Harry found out about their relationship, he had been going over some of his memories and noticed they had left for several so called 'Prefect meetings' where he had seen other Prefects still around, or leaving earlier and getting back later than other Prefects. He also remembered them sitting together talking, and then stopping when he came by, the further along the year went the more often those events occurred. It made sense he realized, he had just been too blind to see past all their deceptions last year. His thoughts then turned to Dumbledore, who had also lied to him, and how he wouldn't even look at Harry last year, then of Sirius... How Sirius died because he was close to Harry. That memory then turned into the Prophecy. Tonks would be in more danger if she was his girlfriend. Did he want to leave himself open to be hurt once again? No, but even more than that, Harry didn't want Tonks to be hurt because of him.
Tonks had been watching Harry through this, she could tell he was thinking and she saw when he came to his decision. She knew what he was going to say. She realized that she had really screwed things up this time, 'Why would any decent guy want to be with me anyway? I'm just a klutz that can change her body. That may be enough for most guys, but Harry isn't most guys.' Tonks stood up straighter, squared her shoulders and prepared herself for the inevitable rejection.
Harry looked up and opened his mouth to tell her no, he got as far as 'Tonks, I' before he stopped. When he looked at her, he saw that she already knew he was going to say no; the pain of rejection already showed in her eyes. He realized then that he was about to do what everyone else had done to him, he was about to hurt her. Tonks had the courage to take the risk of getting hurt by him, and here he was being a coward and not taking the same risk she had. That hit him hard. He thought a moment more and remembered everything that she had done for him; that she had broken the rules to help him, had argued with Dumbledore about him, which was something no one else had done for him, she had offered to use her free time to train him when she didn't have to. Tonks had opened herself up to him, and he was about to hurt her for it. He was disgusted with himself; he was going to act just like everyone else.
Tonks watched as he stopped and paused for a few moments, she saw a look of resolve wash over his face as he took a step closer. She took a deep breath to steady herself, concentrating very hard to keep from shaking, 'get a grip on yourself Tonks, you should be better at this by now' she thought and promised herself that eventually this will have to start hurting less.
Harry took a ragged breath and began, "Tonks, I..."
Tonks had tried to remain strong, but at those words she looked away from Harry.
Harry paused a moment to take another ragged breath, then quickly took a step forward, closing the few inches that kept them apart, and took her in a strong embrace, lightly resting his head on her shoulder.
Tonks was stunned for a moment, both by Harry's sudden and forceful embrace, and by her thoughts, which were whirling and racing rapidly, trying to decipher exactly what had just happened. A few moments later when her head cleared, she realized that her arms were draped around him; she let out a small sigh and smiled. They continued their embrace, to them nothing else in the world mattered. Harry never finished his sentence but he didn't need to, Tonks had her answer.
Harry finished making breakfast, but was still rather uncomfortable with their new development, and didn't know exactly how to act. It seemed like Tonks was happy, and acted almost completely normal, though Harry noticed that she was a little more silent than usual. Instead of sitting across from him like before, she sat right next to him, and sometimes touched his arms or legs with her hand. Harry had a hard time, not being used to this type of affection, and because she was still naked. He wasn't sure what to do, so he asked Tonks to tell him more about her childhood and being brought up in a wizarding home. Tonks seemed thrilled that he actually wanted her to talk more, and spent the rest of the breakfast telling him stories about the trouble she caused as a kid.
They practiced Occlumency after breakfast and it had some dramatically varied results. As long as Harry was trying to remember Tonks; the kissing, the hug, or the feeling of her against him when he fell asleep, he was able to keep his mind steady on the one image. Even with Tonks trying her hardest to force him to think of other memories, Harry was able to almost instantly force his mind back to the memory of her. Unfortunately, if he tried to concentrate on anything else but Tonks, memories of her would interrupt any image he was trying to concentrate on. His thoughts and feelings flattered Tonks, but unfortunately it was a problem with trying to teach him Occlumency. Because of this, Tonks decided that instead of trying to force Harry into concentrating on an image that had nothing to do with her, she would have him try to clear every thought completely.
To Harry, that portion of the practice did not go very well. With how much had happened lately; Sirius, the Prophecy, Dumbledore, Ron and Hermione's relationship, and now Tonks, Harry's mind was a jumbled mess. Even though he tried his hardest, and could banish most the thoughts when they came, he couldn't get his mind to clear completely. That's why Harry was completely surprised when Tonks told him she was really impressed with how well he had done that time. She said that even though he didn't completely clear his mind he was able to banish the memories, and that was excellent progress. When he said that the thoughts shouldn't even have been there in the first place, Tonks just smiled and kissed him softly. She told him that being able to clear his mind after so much had happened was not very realistic, that she didn't expect him to be able to do it right away.
Tonks suggested Harry go on his morning run, again casting as many spells as quickly and quietly as he could during it. She was going back to Grimmauld Place to get a change of clothes, and would probably be back before his run was finished. Harry had a hard time with the run, he found he still couldn't keep a fast pace while casting spells, and had to settle for a jog. He was pleased with the speed increase of his casting and at lowering his voice, but was not as happy with the power of his spells; they were still too weak when he lowered his voice, they even felt weaker than when he had tried earlier.
At about three-quarters through his run Harry got a shock when, from the corner of his eye, he saw several spells heading his way. His reactions took over as he dove out of the way and sent several spells of his own back before he noticed it was Tonks. She told him that he'd have to run another lap like before, but this time he'd have to also dodge her attacks. It took a while, and Harry was hit with several small jinxes, but he found that he could keep a shielding spell around him while he ran. Tonks was incredibly pleased with how quickly he had figured that out, she said that she didn't figured it out on her own, but that after several runs, one of the other Aurors told her that she could keep a spell up and still run. After he finished the run she told him it was a good habit to keep up the shield, but not to use it for these runs. She also explained that during the runs she would be hidden in different places and he'd have to try and find where she was before she attacked, saying that he needed to pay attention to his surroundings and assess a threat automatically.
Next, they both read for a few hours, Harry took a seat in an armchair near the fireplace and Tonks took a seat on the sofa next to it. Harry read his Defensive book while Tonks had selected another one from his library. Harry's book still had a lot of useful information in it and he learned several new spells and a couple tactics he wanted to try on Tonks when they dueled later. Tonks was also trying to learn a few new tricks for their next duel, and had selected to read A Shaman's Compendium to Living the Hunt by Shimballa Coldhands. The book was completely different than most texts Tonks had ever read, the magic it mentioned was different than anything she had ever heard of before. From what she could tell, the hunt the title referred to was used as an initiation ritual to become a true shaman. It didn't give specifics, but it seemed that each person had to survive a fight versus an extremely dangerous creature.
While Tonks was reading her book, Harry was having a silent argument with himself, he knew he wanted to kiss Tonks again, but he just didn't know how to go about doing it; so far, Tonks had been the one to initiate any form of affection between them. Harry had been studying his book for the last hour and was suppose to continue for a couple more hours, but he was not in the mood to read and learn. He didn't want to study; he wanted to get lost in the wonderful feeling of kissing Tonks again. Could he just kiss her? Finally, his need grew too much and he got up to walk behind her, she was studying her book intently and hadn't noticed him yet; he rested his arms on either side of her and whispered "Tonks" into her ear. When she looked up he captured her lips with his and began kissing her in earnest. The position was rather uncomfortable, so Tonks stood up and pulled Harry over to the side next to her and began to snog him again. They continued this way for several minutes before Tonks loosened her grip on him and laid her head on his shoulder, her body pressing full against him. His arms went around her waist to steady her, and to hold her more firmly against him. He could feel her chest rise and fall with her languid breathing as she rested against him.
After a few more minutes, Tonks lifted her head and Harry could see the evil glint in her eyes. She smiled innocently as she pushed him against the sofa, took his head into her hands and began to thoroughly snog him, while crushing her body against his. After a few minutes of fierce snogging, and minor exploration of each other's bodies, Tonks stopped and smirked, "It's time to duel and use up some of that extra energy."
Harry stared at her for a moment, completely dumbfounded at how she could go from that to dueling. Then he remembered the evil look in her eyes and realized that she had planned it!