Metamorphosis: A Story of Maturing
Chapter 7: Of Battles and Sleepy Kisses

Tonks snapped her head around when she heard the shocked yell from behind her. Looking just in time, she saw the Dung fly off the broom and begin to plummet to the ground.

Doing a quick about face, she swooped under him, and caught his wrist in her grip, only to be shocked to feel his body still being pulled from her. Her broom was dragged against her will to the left, led by the copy of Harry she was holding.

Dung/Harry seemed to be passed out. Tonks was holding on with all her might, and when the two of them finally came to a stop above a very large, medieval style house, she pulled the body across her broom. Clutching the unconscious corpse, she nearly dropped it when she felt the skin begin to…melt? The bone structure of the face seemed to be sliding around, and the dark hair of Harry Potter was quickly changing, and not to the mousy color of Dung's hair.

No, it was turning a pale, luminescent blond. A very familiar blond.

Confused, and a little bit afraid, Tonks pulled her wand out and tried to fly back up and away from the dark and frightening house, but found her broom unable to move. Very much afraid, she tried to Apparate away, only to find that there were wards up. She was trapped, 80 meters in the air with no means of escape. Clutching the still unconscious body of the recently revealed Draco Malfoy to her, she realized, belatedly, where she must be.

Malfoy Manor.

…

Shit.

Mrs. Weasley was the first to greet Harry as he arrived at Grimmauld Place. Sweeping him into a warm hug, she fussed over him in a motherly fashion until she was eventually knocked out of the way by Ron, followed closely by Fred, George, Neville, and Ginny.

Harry's stomach gave a funny jolt when he saw her, but covered it quickly when she gave him an enthusiastic hug, much, much different from her mother's.

"It's good to see you, Harry." The others echoed the sentiments, and everyone stood awkwardly for a moment.

The awkward silence was broken by a sudden loud thumping noise and a subsequent shout.

One moment later, they were all shocked beyond belief to see Hermione Granger pulling Mundungus Fletcher into the kitchen by the ear. He looked decidedly uncomfortable.

Tonks was very, very nervous. She had her wand out in front of her and was reviewing all and any information the Auror Academy might have given her to help in this type of situation.

There wasn't any. And she wasn't that surprised, she thought wryly, how often do you find yourself pulled through the air on a broom by an unconscious body into the home of his Father, who will probably kill you in a very unpleasant way?

Hearing a crack behind her, she whipped her head around to face it, and while what she saw was what she expected, the sight of it still terrified her.

"YOU MEAN TO SAY YOU WERE OVERPOWERED BY A TEENAGER WITHOUT A WAND? AND HE'S NOW OUT UNDER THE DISGUISE OF MAYBE THE ONLY OTHER BOY MORE WANTED BY VOLDEMORT AT THIS TIME?"

Dung nodded shamefaced. Molly Weasley was fuming, and all of her children had shrunk away, remembering the full Wrath of the Weasley Mum.

But before all hell could break loose, Remus interrupted,

"Molly, now is not the time for anger. We need to get Draco back into the safe house. We have no idea what types of tracking charms Lucius will employ. He could be in their clutches already."

Molly's glare refocused on him. "You were supposed to check for tracking charms." Her voice was deathly calm. "You mean to say you didn't check?" Remus suddenly found the urgency he had not felt before.

"Now isn't the time, Molly. We're going to go find him now. Not to worry…" And Remus ran out, dragging the terrified looking Dung behind him, along with an assortment of other members of the order, including Arthur Weasley, Mad-Eye Moody, and the oldest Weasley brothers.

Only Mrs. Weasley noticed Hermione, frozen by the edge of the carpet, swaying dangerously, her face starkly white.

Lucius Malfoy had hoped that when Draco arrived, he would be alone, but he knew such things were unlikely to happen. However, small complications such as extra Aurors were nothing to such an experienced Death Eater.

He raised himself up to the level of the figures on the broomstick, and was only marginally surprised to come face to face with his niece.

"Nymphadora." He smirked, "So kind of you to bring my son back to me."

Tonks scowled and clutched the body closer to her. "I will not let you have him." She had no idea where such resolve came from. There was no way she felt any loyalty to the boy, but there was no way she was going to hand him over to his father.

Lucius' blond hair glowed silver in the half moon. His eyes seemed to glint red and his voice was calm and absolutely terrifying. Tonks felt the beginnings of a plan in start to formulate in her head. She focused on changing her appearance to match Draco's. She felt the familiar sensation of growing slightly shorter, and her hair pulled back into her head.

As she felt her cheekbones shift not unpleasantly to a place higher on her face, she knew the transformation was finished. Merely a second had passed.

"Ennervate. Protego." Lucius' cutting hex bounced harmlessly off Tonks' shield, which she endeavored to keep up, despite the fact that she now had a shrieking, squirming boy on her lap. Tonks shot off 3 smoke and shield charms in quick succession, and turned to her passenger.

"Shut up, Malfoy, listen. I don't know how you got here, but if you want to live, follow my orders. Got it?" Draco only nodded in reply. "Where's you wand?"

Draco pulled out Mundungus Fletcher's wand, and Tonks nodded. "Disillusion yourself." At Draco's blank look, Tonks did it for him, and then, just before the rest of the smoke was blown away by Malfoy's semi-weak Wind Charm, levitated Draco over to the top of a tree. Turning her now Draco-Styled self to face Lucius, she was shocked to see even deeper lines of hatred and loathing etched into his face.

"And now, my son, we meet again. But where is your dear cousin Nymphadora?" Malfoy threw out a cutting curse which Tonks was unable to dodge, due to being trapped on the broom. She let out a yell as she felt the skin on her forearms and chest rip apart. "I suppose she fell when she woke you up, you little scum. Typical, you push away the people who could most help you." Tonks didn't bother to correct him.

Malfoy started to circle the broomstick on his levitating disk. Tonks threw up shields all around her, but couldn't block all of the curses thrown at her. She got a few good ones in, but after about fifteen minutes of this foul excuse for a duel, she was bleeding heavily and Malfoy only looked as if he had been socked in the mouth. Tonks found the trickle of blood from his mouth even more frightening.

"You betrayed me." Reducto...Protego. "You humiliated me." Sectumsempra…Protego. "You Fool." Tonks shot stunners at him…body binds…anything. Lucius was still standing, hovering tauntingly close…then far. He swooped down to her level, and looked her in the eye.

"You will pay." His eyes were level as his wand. "Crucio." Tonks' world exploded.

Knives were digging into her skin, her eyes were ripped from their sockets, her bones were breaking, and her skin was peeling of her flesh…

And then suddenly it stopped.

Draco was perched in the tree where Tonks had dropped him. His minor cuts and scrapes he had aquired were bleeding mildly, but he was distracted and horrified beyond words what he was seeing. What was Tonks doing? Didn't she know what kind of a wizard his father was? She should have dropped him and saved herself. Dissaparated or something. She was an idiot.

But she was still there. His eyes widened in alarm as he watched his father throw increasingly dark spells at a defenseless copy of him. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but every now and then, he caught the determined look on the face of Tonks, and to be honest, it frightened him a little. Was she willing to die for him?

Suddenly he was filled with a new emotion he couldn't place. He was angry beyond words, but not like he had been before. This anger burned inside of him in a very physical, palpable way and his fingers itched. Tonks would not die.

His father swooped on that damnable silver levitating disk, coming very close. If Draco was lucky, maybe…

No. It would be suicide. "Crucio." He heard his father say.

Draco screwed up all the strength in him and leaped off the end of the tree branch he was on before he even had time to think. He slammed into his father with a harsh thud, knocking the man off his feet and off his disk, plummeting to the ground.

Unfortunately, Draco missed the disk too. Snatching madly with his fingers in mid air, he caught the very edge of the disk with his fingertips.

Tonks, still breathing heavily and in Draco's form, couldn't see him. He was still disillusioned. She was looking around in confusion to try and see who had knocked Lucius off his broom. Seeing the heavy tilt of the disk, she called, "Draco?"

"I'm here."

"I still can't move."

"Neither can I." And Tonks began to laugh.

Remus was flying along at speeds close to the speed of sound, with several Aurors right beside him. His hair was whipping across his forehead almost painfully, but he didn't care. Objective: Save Tonks and Malfoy.

He had been terrified when they had arrived at Privet Drive only to find a highly distraught Arabella Fig, who could describe in vague detail what seemed to be a dark summoning spell, and the subsequent flight of Tonks and what she thought was Harry of to the south.

Remus was off so quickly that he almost forgot to say thank you, which was very quickly indeed for Remus Lupin.

But now the group of them had been flying for half an hour in the same direction, and was only beginning to see the all too familiar lights and glows of a duel. Somehow, they flew faster.

Remus saw the glows stop suddenly, and the unmistakable sounds of someone under the Cruciatus Curse reached his ears. The broom was being pushed to its limit, and then the sounds stopped.

Remus could see figures clearly now. One on a broom, and… and that was it.

Only one? It was Malfoy on the broom, and he looked really beat up. Remus flew over to him and grabbed his shoulders. Spinning him around, he saw that he was laughing.

"Where's Tonks?" Draco was still laughing. Remus shook him. "Where's TONKS?" Then the pale skin and blond hair of Draco turned into the darker tones of Tonks, and Remus was so relieved he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a desperate hug. Kissing her crown, he nearly started to cry.

"It's ok, Remus. We just need to get back to HQ" He but his hand on the side of her face where there was a smear of blood, and looked at her tenderly.

The moment was broken by the irritated yell off in the direction of the curious metal disk hanging in the air. "You lot. PLEASE come get me off this thing." Remus pulled Tonks off her broom and onto his, then motioned to one of the other Aurors to come up from the ground where they had stopped to inspect the motionless body beneath them. With everyone accounted for, they left the dead body of Lucius Malfoy on the ground and flew off, back towards Grimmauld Place.

Several hours later found Draco running through the familiar hallways of Grimmauld Place. Having arrived, tired and shell shocked to a point of madness, he had come face to face with Dumbledore. Racing along with energy he drew from unknown reserves, he barreled along. Glancing back, he thought he saw the face of Madam Pomfrey chasing after him.

No, he was fine. He did not need medical attention. Dodging a sleeping spell, barely, he took a quick left and then a right, and jumped in past the first door. Slamming it behind him he leaned his forehead on it, listening for footsteps.

After listening for a few moments and not hearing anything, he turned around and let out a sigh of relief, only to have it catch sharply in his throat as he saw wxactly what room he had run to in his haste.

Dumbledore was quite surprised at Draco's sudden flight. He had never, in all his life, seen anyone run from their hospital beds so anxiously.

But it was nothing, really. He knew most of the story from what Mundungus Fletcher and Tonks had told him, so there was really nothing urgent about talking to Draco. He would wait until Draco was ready to explain his…choices.

In the meanwhile, Mundungus Fletcher was on probation from any important missions whatsoever. Dumbledore was amazed to find one man so incompetent that he was overpowered by a teenager without a wand on the verge of one of the Order's most important missions.

Hermione had been reading when she had been so shockingly interrupted. Lying on her stomach, she had left her hair down around her shoulders, and was quite unaware that her muggle T-shirt was riding up in the back, and was equally unaware that the front was also providing a nice view to any who was interested due to her relaxed position.

But she had become painfully aware of every single bit of this and more when Draco Malfoy had burst into her room, slammed the door, and then, just about collapsed.

And from the looks of things, he was quite aware of every bit of it as well.

Poppy swore she had seen her patient take a left, but there were too many hallways this way. Growling, she decided to resort to checking doors. She went to the first door on the right: opening it, she was marginally disappointed to find that there was nothing more than towels. Getting more irritated by the second, she stomped down to the next door, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's room.

Knock: Check: Empty. Poppy narrowed her eyes. This was getting her nowhere.

Draco's mad sprint was catching up to him. He could have sworn that he had just been looking at a very nice looking Granger lying on a bed, giving him a curious and quite astonished look, but then again, everything was starting to go blurry…there was something black and fuzzy threatening to slide over his eyes. He slid down the door and crouched down, massaging his temples. The floor was definitely spinning abnormally.

Granger suddenly leaped to her feet. She walked over to him and, without speaking, pulled him up to his feet. Scowling, she started to lead him over to a chair.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were passed out in your own room? What have you done, run out of your death bed they've set up in there? Honestly, you look like you've caught the wrong end of a sleeping spell…"

Draco wasn't really listening to what she was saying. His mad dash had exhausted his last strains of energy, and there was something oddly alluring about the way her lips were moving, and in his dazed stupor, he found it difficult to concentrate on walking and the fascinating way her eyes moved when she was angry, so, obviously, he stopped walking.

"What now? Seriously, we've got to get you back to the others. I don't know any healing…"

"No." Draco rasped. "Can't…nooowwwwwwww."

"What?" Hermione turned to face him, grabbing his forearms to steady him.

Feeling highly aggravated at this last group of doors, Poppy was banging on each with the vigor of a highly caffeinated ape. Very un-character like.

It was totally the door's fault that the stupid Malfoy boy was evading her. In her frustration, she kicked a small doorstop off the stairs, enjoying the hard thump it made as it connected downstairs with the umbrella stand from hell.

Coming to the first door of the last set hallway, she hit it three times with angry gusto. Hermione and Ginny's room. Hah. As if Draco Malfoy would be in Hermione Granger's room. She had healed too many minor curse wounds for the both of them to even think they could get along together.

"Hermione? You in there?"

"I just can't…ughhnnff" Draco's head was really pounding now. He gripped Hermione's shoulders to steady himself. There were three sharp raps on the door and his head dropped to his chest. "Urrghhh"

"Hermione? You in there?"

"Er…yeah, I am." She was going to turn him in, send him back to that demon who was going to get mad at him and Dumbledore was going to throw him out for being so reckless and his father was going to kill him and OH! his head hurt.

"Any sign of Draco Malfoy? He's run away from his medical treatment, and Dumbledore wants to ask him a few questions about WHY he was out on a SECRET mission disguised as DUNG disguised as HARRY, and if he has ANY idea how his father found him." Draco's head was spinning…the floor was up on the ceiling, what was it doing there? He wondered idly. Granger was going to turn him in.

He looked up at her just to see her open her mouth to respond that Yes, the Pratt was here, and please take him off her comfortably soft hands and back to Dumbledore and Snape who were going to eat his liver in retribution…

Oh dear, he thought, not my liver. And he did the only thing his indolent mind could think to do.

He kissed her.

"Hermione?" Madam Pomfrey rested her hand on the door knob. Hermione wasn't responding, and there were some strange noises coming from inside the room. Shuffling, and a few squeaks. "Hermione, do you need any help?" A moment passed and Hermione's breathless voice responded.

"No, I'm…I'm fine. Not in here. Sorry."

"Hermione, you sound flustered…are you sure you're alright? I'm coming in…"

"NO… no, I'm…I'm…dressing. Yeah…Don't come in, please. I'm fine."

Frustrated again by the lack-of-locating, Poppy rustled off to the next door down. Hmmph. Malfoy was just as likely to be in McGonagall's room as Hermione's. Why did she even try?

Hearing Madam Pomfrey mutter and stomp away to the next door, Hermione turned her attention to the blabbering boy who was holding onto her and swaying as if the room was spinning.

"I'm…srrryyy….thankssssss…" And then the blond haired boy collapsed, finally succumbing to the exhaustion that was plaguing him.

A/N: Ok, ok, I know that was slightly more than three weeks. And I'm sorry. We got home only to find the internet was down, and, well, I barely had time to throw this together and post it this morning. I apologize in advance for any typographical errors or GLARING inaccuracies you might stumble across. I suppose I'll go through later and re-edit this crap chapter.

But I hope you like it nonetheless and still review, even if it is to say that I've spelled "the" wrong or something. 