I do not own Harry Potter, nor was I the one to screw up the sixth book. Don't blame me.
Thanks goes out to my reviewers, Deadwilder and cj-cold, I appreciate your input.
Harry reached to her and pulled her into a hug, holding her tightly. "Thank you."
"Harry, when you said that it would hurt you the the most when I... died, what did you mean?" asked Tonks, sitting on her haunches in front of Harry and studying him closely.
"I meant exactly what I said. Nymphadora, if you were to die, I doubt I would have anything left to live for. You have always been there for me, for as long as I have known you. Last summer, you were the one person I could always count one to give me what I needed." Harry looked deeply into her eyes. "you gave me a chance to laugh, a few minutes without Voldemort and Cedric and Pettigrew. The few hours I spent in your company were the best times I had that summer. Thank you. Those few letters we exchanged over the school year were the one thing that kept me sane. Never once did you pump me for information like my so called friends, or push me to tell you something I didn't want to share. Those letters were my only respite at Hogwarts, my few moments of happiness in an otherwise miserable year. Even now, you here because to care about me, Harry. Not Harry Potter, not the bloody boy-who-lived, and defiantly not Dumbledore's weapon on mass destruction. Tell me, were you ordered to check up on me?"
"No"
"Exactly. You were the only person who thought to come see me, and help me, in my time of need.
Harry stood and took Nymphadora by the hand, leading her over to the bed and gestured with his hand "Have a seat." Harry began to pace the room.
"Harry, what's wrong?
"Do you know that one of your letters actually saved Umbridge's life?" Harry laughed "Yes, I was actually going to kill her, that's how low I had sunk." Harry was unconsciously rubbing his hand at this point, trying to ward away the memories of the Blood Quill. "It took me a month to make the poison, 23 tries, before I finally got it perfect. It was a thing of beauty, and I was set to use it the very day I received one of your letters. Dobby would have done it, you know, slipped it into her goblet at the evening meal. He would do anything for me. It would have thickened her blood until her heart could no longer pump it. She would have gone to bed that evening and never woken up, untraceable too." Tonks seemed at a loss for words, her mouth hanging open. Harry continued, still rubbing his hand "But your letter, it arrived that morning. I couldn't stand the thought of you ever finding out what I did. I couldn't bear to lose you because of what some stupid old hag did to me. You saved me from myself, again. Thank you." Harry gave out a barking laugh, turned, and looked at Tonks "Hardly something you would expect from the Gryffindor poster-boy, huh?"
Nymphadora, unable to think of anything else to say, saw that Harry was still rubbing his hand and blurted out, "Harry, what's wrong with your hand?"
"My hand? Oh, that." replied Harry, before hastily stuffing his hand into a pant pocket. "Nothing, just some bad memories, you know."
"Let me see." commanded Tonks. Grabbing the reluctantly proffered hand, she turned it over in her hands, examining it for any sign of injury. She was about to apologize for not believing him when she noticed a thin white line on the back of his hand, barely noticeable in the pale moonlight that still shown through the window. Turning his hand to catch more light, words began to from from the lines. "I will not tell lies" A gasp escaped her lips, and she gave Harry a sad look. "Oh Harry, what have you been doing to yourself?"
Harry pulled his hand out of her grasp abruptly, "What have I been doing to myself? I haven't done a bloody thing! It was that hag Umbridge and her damn quill!"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, that every-time I had detention with her, she made me write lines with that damned quill, and it carved the words into the back of my hand!"
"She used a Blood Quill on you!" screeched Tonks "I'll kill that bitch myself! Who else knows about this?"
"Just Hermione and Ron."
"Harry, why didn't you tell anybody? Blood Quills have been illegal torture devices for almost two centuries! Why didn't you go to Dumbledore?" asked Tonks.
"Dumbledore wouldn't even look at me! He locked me up in this hellhole for nearly the entire summer, forbid my so called friends from telling me what's happening, and then he wouldn't even look at me or talk to me! What the hell was I supposed to do!" Harry was enraged at this point, shouting and waving his arms. "I couldn't go to McGonagall or any other teacher, because that's exactly what Umbridge wanted me to do! McGonagall would have been fired if she tried to stop it, then where would I have been? I am not weak, and I don't need anybody's fucking pity! Not Dumbledore's, not McGonagall's, not anybody's!" With an exhausted sigh Harry sat down on the floor, under the window again.
"Do you feel better now?" queried Tonks in a stern voice.
"Yes" Harry heaved a couple of deep breaths and turned to meat Nymphadora's gaze. "I'm sorry for yelling at you, its not your fault, I know it isn't. Whenever I think about it, I just get so... enraged. I just want to break something. I feel like kicking something, hard. A house elf, I feel like kicking a house elf." Harry started to laugh "I feel like kicking a house elf, really hard, and right in the head. Like a football!" Now Harry was rolling on the floor, clutching his sides and trying to contain his laughter.
"Harry Potter, that is the most horrible thing I have ever heard, and..."
"I know, I know, but that's exactly what I feel like doing! Can you imagine it? An elf tumbling through the air going 'EEEEIIIIIIIIAAAAAA'?" Harry was unable to contain his mirth any longer and began rolling on the floor, clutching his sides and laughing hysterically.
Tonks snorted, trying to hide her amusement at the idea, but the sound only further drove Harry's uncontrollable laughs. "Quite done, Mr. Potter"
"Nu... nu... No!"
"Too bad" said Tonks, and with a complicated wave of her wand, Harry's laughter ceased.
"Spoil sport"
"Well, I glad your in a better mood now. Pack up your stuff Harry, we're leaving." said Nymphadora, standing up from the bed.
"Where are we going?" asked Harry, looking up at her.
"My place, for a couple of days at least. I need to put some things in order, then we will be leaving. Im not sure if we will stay in the country yet."
"What about the Order? And Dumbledore?"
"Fuck the Order Harry, and Dumbledore. If he knew the prophecy, then he has had years to prepare you for Voldemort, but he hasn't done a damn thing. If the Order wont give you what you need to survive this war, I will. Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix had lost both my respect and membership. I took an oath Harry, I told you that I would do everything in my power to help you defeat him, and that's what I'm doing. Now get packed." The finality of what she said and the matter-of-fact tone she used stopped any arguments Harry might have had. Jumping to his feet, Harry placed Hedwig's cage on top of his trunk and stood next to it.
"Done." He stated with a small smirk. "Its not really all that hard since I never unpacked."
"Good," Tonks smiled at him, pulling a plain silver ring off one of her fingers. Harry hadn't noticed it before, and figured that it must have been charmed to turn the same color as her skin. Which meant that it was probably a portkey. Holding it out, she said "Grab ahold Harry".
Harry grabbed onto the cage and his trunk before taking hold of the ring. Giving one last glance around the room, he turned to Nymphadora and nodded his head.
"Home sweet home" Was all that Harry heard before before he felt the standard, sickening pull at his navel that usually accompanied travel by portkey. They landed rather forcefully in Tonks living room, and Harry would have managed to stay upright for once, had Tonks clumsy nature not taken the opportunity to make it presence known. Immediately upon landing, Tonks stumbled full force into Harry, sending them both toppling over his trunk and onto the floor in a tangle of limbs. A very red-faced Tonks jumped to her feet and helped Harry up, apologizing the whole time.
"Merlin, Harry. I'm so sorry! I'm such a bloody klutz sometimes that I.…
"Tonks, relax. I'm fine." Replied Harry with a good natured smile. "If I spent as much time fiddling around with the length of my limbs as you do, I'd be a bloody klutz too. Besides, its not to often that I get to feel up a beautiful young woman such as yourself." He laughed.
"Liked that did you?" asked Tonks with an impish grin.
"Very much, let me know next time you plan on taking a portkey, I'll make sure to join you." Harry was happy to see that Nymphadora's face blushed a pleasant shade of pink.
"Yeah, well... uh, I'll make sure to do that."
"Good comeback Nymphadora." laughed Harry.
"Shut up, and don't call me Nymphadora! I HATE that name!" yelled Tonks, stomping her foot on the ground and giving Harry the strong impression of a small child that hasn't gotten her way.
"Nymphadora, why don't you want me to call you Nymphado.… ooph!" said Harry as he was tackled to the ground by Tonks. After a brief and very one-sided wrestling match, Tonks had Harry pinned face down on the carpet, his arms pinned behind his back. Tonks leaned over and growled into his ear.
"Don't call me Nymphadora!"
"I'll have you know that I think Nymphadora is a beautiful name. How about a compromise?"
"What do you mean?"
"How about Nymph? OWWW...Ok, maybe not. Dora it is."
"Fine!" snapped Tonks, getting up off Harry's back and releasing his arms.
"Why Nymphadora, I never knew you could knit!" exclaimed Harry as his arm snaked under the couch he was laying by to grab something. He pulled out a small, triangular, piece of fabric with a string attached to each corner. "Oh, you must not be very good yet." said a smiling Harry Potter as he held up a very small piece of g-string underwear. "Don't worry, a little more practice and you'll get it, I'm sure."
"I don't knit.… Argh! Harry Potter!" A very embarrassed Auror snatched the underwear out of his hands and stomped off to what Harry guessed was her bedroom. It sounded like she stubbed her toe on the way, judging by the sounds coming from her room. A long and very colorful string of expletives floated down the hallways, along with the slight shaking of the floor and thumping noises that usually accompany someone who is hopping on one foot.
"My goodness Nymphadora, did they teach you to speak like that at Auror academy as well?" called Harry.
"Fuck you Potter!"
Harry grinned in a very evil manner. Oh yes, this was going to be a good summer.
So, should Harry and Tonks leave the country? Where too? We saw a darker side of Harry this chapter, that's not the last of it, and he also explained some of his feelings for Tonks. She will probably do the same next chapter. The letters between Harry and Nymphadora are AU, actually the whole story is AU since that sixth book, but I refuse to recognize the fact that that book was ever written. I needed a better basis for a relationship than the books gave me, so they wrote letters to each other. Assume that they are comfortable around each other and are good friends. I love the idea of kicking a house elf in the head, just like I love the idea of hitting a Chihuahua in the head with a golf club, preferably a driver. 'Sit, sit, stay. Good boy, staaayyyy, MECH! (that's the sound of a driver hit a chihuahua in the head). Anyways, let me know that you think, constructive criticism is appreciated, and feel free to share any ideas that you may have. I never realized just how few people give reviews until I wrote this story. Its probably because the story is still so short and relatively unknown, but I still had 1200 hits before I got my third review. Needless at say, I will be making a greater effort to give reviews to the stories I read in the future. I do not write for reviews, I write because I enjoy it, but it is nice to see what people think. I will never hold onto a chapter and threaten not for post it unless I get x amount of reviews. With that said, I think that the readers of this story will have a fairly large amount of control over what happens in it, and all you have to do is let me know your ideas and thoughts. So, will they leave the country? I have no idea yet.