Chapter 10

• The Scoop •

On the other side of the door the two Weasley Twins stood, gaping. When Harry followed Tonks in and shut the door the twins jumped at him, almost killing him with fright.

"HARRY!" both shouted at the same time. "We'd wondered where you'd run off to, they've got everyone looking for you."

After Harry had the freedom to move again he grinned back at them and turned to Tonks, half laughing. "You call this place safe?" he asked jokingly and getting a frightening look from the twins, one he didn't want to explore.

"Safe enough for now," she said looking to the twins. "You're not going to be telling anyone, are you? Not even your brother or mum."

Shrugging, the two headed towards a table. "Fine with us," Fred replied. "Mum wouldn't allow anyone to come over here anyway, and she certainly isn't coming herself. She's almost locked everyone in that house in fright. Dad apparates straight to and from the ministry and he takes Bill with him when they go to get groceries."

"How'd you know where we lived anyway?" Fred asked.

Tonks looked towards George and smiled. "You brother here tried to pick me up one night at the l'etape . He thought I was drunk and brought me back here."

"You were drunk," George said as Fred looked at him in disbelief.

"No," Tonks said, trying to defend herself. "I was mildly intoxicated."

"So drunk that you couldn't make it through the door without my help," George said. "I brought you here because I didn't know where you lived and you couldn't actually remember at the time."

Tonks smiled sweetly. "So anyway, he makes a move on me while we were sitting on the couch and got deprived of the privilege of being in my company for the night. I went home after that."

George, who didn't look as if he was enjoying the way Tonks was talking about him, snorted. "You passed out on the couch for four hours and then you went home."

"Close enough," Tonks snapped back.

"But," Fred said, still gaping. "How come I didn't know? I mean, I've been here most nights."

"You were with Elizabeth," George said, sarcastically. "You didn't come home until the next day."

Harry just shook his head about the whole thing. He wondered if Tonks got drunk often, it'd be a sight to see if she acted any crazier than she normally did. When it occurred to Harry why Tonks might've been getting drunk he tried to stop thinking about it, and decided that for the time being he probably didn't want to see Tonks drunk.

"There's a problem with staying here," Fred said, looking between Harry and Tonks. "Maybe," he added slyly.

This being the best place she could find, Tonks raised an eyebrow. "And what is it?"

"Well," George smiled. "See we have another room just in there," he said pointing, "but we've only got one extra bed. You're both going to have to sleep on it. There's no magic allowed in downtown London, even behind the confines of doors."

"That's a problem?" Tonks scoffed.

It was for Harry. He'd never slept in a bed with a female (other than Korina, and he couldn't remember that). Basically, he was afraid what that meant when he woke up. His face started to turn bright red as he thought about it. Fred was laughing before Harry even looked up.

"It is for Harry," George chuckled when he saw Harry's face. "He's never been with a girl before."

Tonks snorted. "Well, you two are certainly out of the loop. Harry got some last week." Then, without loosing a beat she turned to Harry. "You're not sleeping on the floor. Don't worry about it, you'll get used to it, and besides, it won't be for long. We're only staying until I get everything sorted out."

"Now," she said, turning back to the door. "I have to leave for an hour or so, gotta get some things taken care of as soon as possible. You two can take care of Harry, can't you?" Tonks asked, staring at the twins.

"Take care of him!" Both exclaimed. George rubbed his hands together, but Fred continued speaking. "We can do better than that. We're going to have a man-to-man talk while you're gone. Brief Harry on some of the things he doesn't know about yet."

The door closed even before Harry heard Tonks's quiet goodbye and he turned to the twins apprehensively.

"This is a delicate point in your life," Fred chortled.

"Yeah," George added. "It's about the age you start thinking about what's between a woman's legs."

Both laughed hard.

Even as deprived as he was, Harry had a general understanding of the 'birds and the bee's' but it was only from what he'd discovered while hearing older boys' conversations.

"Let's start at the beginning Harry," George said, trying to contain his laughter - unlike Fred who was laughing so hard that tears were rolling from his eyes.

"As you grow older, Harry, changes happen. But you started, even before you can remember, as a tadpole." Fred fell to his knees, his face so red that Harry thought he might be choking.

"Now women have these rivers built into them that once, a long time ago you swam through to find an egg and become good friends with it. That's when you were born."

"Now, that tadpole's the key you see. There's lots of little ones in you and when you quote do the wild monkey dance unquote, with a woman you're releasing millions of those tadpoles to swim upriver and make babies," George said, while next to him Fred was beside himself with laughter.

"That's a bad thing," Fred finally was able to breathe between fits of laughter.

"Well, in some ways. You don't want a little Harry running around, do you? No, you need to take some special potions so that your tadpoles die off before they make it upstream."

Finally having recovered from his laughing fit, Fred stood upright. "Never mind what George said. It's simple, you put your tool in a woman too much and she's gonna have a baby unless you take potions. There's other things that are involved, but George just tries to dumb it down. You're not dumb, are you Harry? No, I thought not. Now, we've got a potion that you probably need to learn to make. It'll keep your…" he looked over to George and snorted, but was able to contain himself, "… tadpoles from swimming upstream. It's always best that the woman's taking something as well because the potions are not foolproof."

"Yeah, look at mum," George snorted this time.

Once again Fred was howling with laughter, unable to control himself. "Yeah, mum took them since she was young," he said between breaths. "Never helped her much," he continued, his laughter fading.

Harry didn't really think it was funny, but the twins couldn't stop laughing for several minutes. When they did it was Fred who began. "So who is this girl? Someone we know?"

The best Harry could do was shake his head. He was tired, he'd been put through a lot and now that the sleep he'd gotten before had worn off he was feeling the need to get some rest.

"What was her name?" George asked.

"Erm…" Harry began, not quite sure if he wanted to answer.

The twins exchanged glances and then looked at Harry, grinning. "You don't even know!" they said in unison. Their eyes turned to each other again and both shook their heads.

"Next time, get her name," Fred said.

"Well?" George asked, "how was it?"

"This is like Ron's first time," Fred squealed girlishly as they waited for Harry's response. "Our babies are growing up," he continued faking a sniffle and wiping away a non existent tear.

"That… well… I don't exactly… see, I wasn't exactly very aware that night. I went into a club and had a few drinks, then I woke up next to her, don't remember much between then."

The jeering and sniffles disappeared and Harry could see that the twins were completely taken by surprise. Harry scratched his head nervously, feeling the weight of their stares bearing down on him.

"You're not serious?" Fred said, looking at Harry as if it might be a joke. "Your first time… and you don't even remember it? We should get you some sort of memory potion, you can't just not remember your first time, that's like sacrilege or something."

"No, no," Harry said, waving his hands in front of him. "It's alright, I don't think I want to remember it. I have enough memories as it is."

"Oh?" George piped up. "Something else we should hear about? Like maybe why you and Tonks disappeared in the first place? Or where you were? Where you got that scar on your neck? And for that matter, what happened with your scar?"

Surprised, Harry's hand shot to his head, touching the scar that should've been there - nothing was. It didn't seem to have come back yet, but even as Harry hand's began to pull away he felt the burning of it returning. The spell seemed to have worn off.

"Sorry, we had to hide my identity. Tonks said that it was best that way. As for everything else it can wait until tomorrow at least, I need to get to bed." Harry said, exaggerating the yawn that overtook him.

"Yeah alright," Fred said. "Just one more question. What's with you and Tonks? Not getting too friendly with her are you?"

The retreat Harry was executing stopped mid step. "Huh?" he asked, not sure if he was taking the implied meaning correctly.

"Oh come on," George said. "We both saw the way she looked happier when you were told you were sleeping with her. She stared at you a few seconds before she left too, you have to tell us what's going on. It wasn't her was it? I mean, you said you didn't even know her."

Her?

"No!" Harry retorted as soon as he understood what George was asking. "it wasn't her, I met up with some people I'd met earlier in the day, people Tonks didn't know. And then, when I came back late she was cross with me for another two days. Wouldn't even speak to me. Now I'm going to bed."

Twenty minutes later, Harry was having a hard time falling asleep. The words that had been said only a few minutes before he had made his way to the bedroom were troubling him. Why would Tonks be looking at him strangely? Maybe she was leaving and not coming back? Or maybe she was wondering about something. They could be right, but he didn't understand why Tonks would like him.

Sleep overcame him, but not for long.

It was odd waking in a new place, he'd only just come to terms with waking at the island and it was becoming more familiar to him. However, when he woke up in an unknown bed he was more than a little surprised. It took him a few moments to remember where exactly he was.

The blankets were wrapped around him tightly, but he could feel the prickling cold of the room and recalled that the island was a great deal warmer than London. He felt more boxed in than he had in a long time, almost as if he were back in his little cupboard under the stairs. It hadn't bothered him then, but at the time he'd never known anything different. Now, he could hardly stand the feeling and he tried to roll out of bed to walk around.

The blanket did not let him go and he fought against harder it. Then, surprisingly, it moved. An unnerving chill flowed up his spine as a sense of déjà vu set in. He recalled waking up next to Korina and how she'd been close to him, not as close as this person was, but he knew it was someone.

"Tonks?" he whispered in a hoarse voice, recalling that she would be sleeping in the same bed as him.

As if responding to her name, Tonks adjusted herself in bed, tightening her grip as she did so. Harry was at a loss, he didn't want Tonks to wake up while he was awake, he'd feel extremely uncomfortable, even more than he was right now.

Then Tonks moved again, rolling a good portion of her body onto Harry. Not sure how to respond Harry felt weak inside, like when all the blood rushed away from his head while diving abruptly on a broom.

Another handful of minutes passed and Harry began to gently push on Tonks, trying to get her to move so that he'd have enough space on the bed. The glowing numbers on the clock said that only a few hours had past since he'd first gone to bed, and Harry didn't really want to get up, so after prodding her several times and getting no response Harry relinquished and tried to sleep.

•

"No, seriously Harry," Fred said, his mouth full of food. "You're welcome anytime. We haven't eaten this good since we were home last."

A few days had passed since Harry and Tonks had first come to 'The Hole' as the twins called it. Harry'd gotten used to the setting and even more used to being stuck inside. The rain outside was absolutely bizarre, pouring and hailing one minute and then nothing only seconds later.

The muggle newspapers kept blaming the fluctuations in weather to a storm called El Niño but at the same time said it was acting unusual. As for the Daily Prophet Harry had still not seen more than a couple of issues of it. The twins kept telling him that they only got it at the store when they remembered. Harry, however, could have sworn he'd seen an owl bring it once or twice.

During the day Tonks would slip away, keeping up appearances in her job. Harry found out that the whole time they were on the island no one, not even Dumbledore, had known where they were. Tonks suspected that someone was leaking information from inside and had somehow overcome the barriers that would've protected the order against such a person.

Being the halfwit he was, when Tonks had disappeared with Harry, Fudge had assumed that Tonks was working with Voldemort and put out an edict for her capture. Harry being watched had officially been Fudge's idea and so he was not about to let himself get caught up with getting in trouble for Harry's disappearance. Tonks had been labeled as a rouge by the papers, and though it never mentioned anything about her metamorph abilities, anyone seeing her was to try and capture her or report directly to the ministry.

The first night they'd come Tonks had gone directly to Dumbledore, explaining everything she'd done and her suspicions. Apparently there had been a mutual thought between them and he told her to keep track of him, without allowing anyone to know where he was. Dumbledore covered for her disappearance and a note was put in the paper recalling the order that had been given for Tonks's capture.

Not having read the paper Harry was going by the things Tonks told him at night. He was still officially missing, but Dumbledore had told Fudge that Harry was safe for the time being and would not need to be rescued. Fudge had been furious that Dumbledore was circumventing the ministry, but let things go.

Harry also finally began receiving letters from Ron and Hermione, several the first time. Dumbledore had been storing them from when Harry disappeared. Tonks had performed some sort of concealment charm to keep anyone from being able to locate him via magical post methods.

Hermione had wrote several letters at first, each very similar, most with a great deal of horror at what had happened at Harry's house (it seemed she hadn't been told until after he'd disappeared from the Orders Headquarters). After that they were short notes asking why he wasn't responding. Harry had just read through them quickly, trying to retain the major points and then replied, telling her he could get the messages now. Dumbledore would still receive them and then send them through Tonks.

Hedwig returned to him as well, apparently she'd been spending most of her time with Hermione because she could not find Harry. When Hermione wrote again it was about everything, the letters that had been so reserved last year seemed to brim with information.

Umbridge was her favorite topic. Fudge had done the best he could to cover up everything that had happened but a few reporters had gotten the inside scoop and turned it into a nightmare for him. The first story was however the best it seemed. Hermione had clipped it for him from the Quibbler and sent him a copy.

Terror at Hogwarts.

Is Fudge in cahoots with Voldemort?

During the last year at Hogwarts, as many of you already know, a High Inquisitor was appointed to oversee the education of students at Hogwarts. She failed tremendously. During her tyrannical stay she gained complete control over the school and proved what an 'iron fist' really is.

There is however another topic that should be discussed seeing the terrible misfortune which has befallen Hogwarts. Her methods can relate to that of when the Death Eaters ruled but fifteen years ago. At first there was the topic of Ms. Umbridge's treatment of 'half-breeds' as she calls them.

Though few have come forward about this topic I have a source (who would like to remain anonymous) that can site many occasions of her misuse of power to get rid of or tear down any witches or wizards who were not pure bloods. Students, staff and even visitors were all treated with the amount of respect that one might give to a wizard imprisoned in Azkaban prison.

Though it was harsh, her tyranny was not brought upon those who were not purebloods alone. She took it upon herself to bring back punishments from the middle ages, things that most wizards hate to look back upon. I have it from several different accounts the cruel and brutal treatment that many students went through. One such recount was of having to write several thousand lines with a Bleeding Quill (see section 3b) to 'make an impression'. He provided proof by undergoing an examination by a trained physician - there was still evidence of scarring in his hand.

Harry Potter had many such sessions with the woman and never once complained. Can we wonder what she did to him? Several students have pointed out his very apparent dislike for the woman and the way he continually fought to bring the truth of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Known out. He was banned from Quidditch, and sent to detention over and over again because of his convictions. Who reading this could say that they would truly fight for such a truth when so few believed them?

Now, given such examples of behavior that can only be related to that of a Death Eater, we ask ourselves is there a connection? Could it be that Umbridge was working in secret to help bring about Voldemorts resurrection? She organized a squad of students who worked directly through her to maintain discipline throughout the school. All of these students were of pure blood and - according to some - fiercely loyal to her. Lead by Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy, the now infamous Death Eater. Could this group be some sort of splinter of the Death Eaters to recruit while still in school?

At the time of this writing Umbridge could not be contacted for questioning. In fact, no one has seen any sign of her since the night she disappeared from Hogwarts.

We all know that Fudge made it well known last year that Umbridge was working directly with him on everything and he backed up everything that she wanted to do, including the dismissal of at least one teacher for incompetence. A few of her students wrote to the newspaper about the unfair treatment the teacher suffered through.

Piecing the puzzle together requires a great deal of skill but it seems right now that Fudge is responsible for the acts that happened at Hogwarts, the acts that are very similar to the methods that have previously been used by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Known. There is other evidence as well, including the numerous press 'meetings' last year in which Fudge denied that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Known had returned even after having all the evidence he did.

Can we trust Fudge to make decisions for us if he seems to be protecting the Dark Lord? This topic is being put under serious investigation, see future issues to find out any information we have of the inquiry. But for now watch out, terror is abundant in these dark days.

Harry might've cried with happiness had the twins not been around. Such an article was something he'd waited for since he'd first had to write lines for the woman. Hermione also told him about the articles that followed, how all of the decree's that had been put into effect were now removed and that Hogwarts was now under Dumbledore's control again. There was also a law in the works too keep similar things from happening again.

More notes came, not just from Hermione, but from Ron also. He thought it was brilliant that Harry'd burned down the muggle house he'd lived in and that he'd finally run away.

He also mentioned a girl he was seeing, they'd been caught down at the village together in one of the storms that neither dared to leave in and had talked a good bit. She wasn't a witch, but that certainly didn't stop Ron. Harry smiled when he read about her, Ron could barely get past the part about her being extremely good looking. She was in her 6th year of schooling as well, going to the Chirmink Academy for Girls and wanted to be a teacher. That was about all of the normal information he got from the letters.

"So, Harry? Your birthday's coming soon, isn't it?" George said, knocking Harry out of his reverie.

Harry glanced up to see a glint in both boys' eyes and he shuddered to think what they had planned for him. Dumbledore had already told him it would be best if he didn't let his friends come over just in case they were tracked.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "I don't think it matters though. It isn't a big deal anyway."

"Alright," Fred said grinning and winking to George. "Oh, and hey we wanted to talk to you about a new prank George and I have been working out, want to hear it?"

Harry shook his head no, but too late. George was already deep into discussing how they were going to change the time in London.

•