Note: Unbeta'd since I have no beta yet. This is the fifth chapter in four days, Still looking to get more reviews though, come on baby, let's hear some suggestions or thoughts!

Chapter 06
• Stagger •

Outside, the halls were loud with the sounds of students going places, it was evening time, but still not late enough to be dinner. Harry had seen the time just before leaving. He turned to look to Christine, who was looking around, scared, apparently not seeing the castle for what it was.

"Christine," he said crisply, offering his hand to her.

The moment they touched a spark of something traveled from Harry to her and he could feel her relax. She turned slowly, staring at the walls. "It's so beautiful," she whispered, as if finally seeing the castle for what it was. "Like magic."

"It is magic Christine," Harry said, allowing her to look, but not wanting to stay long. If they stayed too long Hermione would come bowling out of the Hospital herself, spitting mad. "The castle is a place for teaching magic, you'll see some of it soon enough."

"Show me," Christine said, fascinated.

Harry shook his head, trying to think about what was happening. "Not here, we need to keep going. I've done something wrong, and I'm not sure what it is. We need to go somewhere where I can think without being bothered."

"Alright," Christine said, refusing to let go of his hand.

Harry wasn't sure how it was happening, but she didn't seem to be able to see the castle as it was unless he was touching her. After sighing, Harry thought about it. He couldn't go back to the common room, Hermione'd find him immediately, that meant he couldn't go to the room of requirements either, it would be the second place she looked.

An idea struck, and Harry nodded, assuring himself it was the best plan.

Taking the lead, he found it odd to have someone follow behind him so close, so subserviently. Even Dobby the house-elf wasn't so blatantly submissive. She didn't ask where he was going, didn't question him in the slightest, just followed his hand. Harry wondered how far she'd follow, if he decided to walk off the banister if she'd continue with him. It was difficult to think that someone would trust him that much. Even Hermione and Ron, his former best friends, questioned him.

As they stepped down the stairs they moved suddenly, changing the platform they were attached to above. Christine trembled, he could feel it in her hands, and stepped onto the stair Harry stood on, crouching in close. "What's happening?" she finally asked, when Harry offered no explanation.

"The stairs tend to move in this place," Harry explained, and it was surprisingly good enough. There was no question as to how or why, because he had given her an answer.

The stairs stopped and they continued on their way. Still, their path wasn't unhindered, Harry had decided it wasn't likely that they'd make it halfway across the castle without running into someone. Malfoy wasn't exactly the person that he wanted to meet though.

"Potter," Malfoy hissed the moment he rounded the corner and found himself staring at Harry. The two muscle-bound fools behind him grunted as if it were intimidating.

"Malfoy," Harry said curtly, pulling Christine behind him in a swift movement. "What do you want?"

"I heard..." Malfoy said, his eyes wandering to Christine, who was almost completely behind Harry. He twisted his head, blinked and opened his mouth. "...that..." then, words failed. He wasn't staring at her like Ron had stared at her, he was confused about something.

"What is she doing here?" he finally asked, trying to cover up the confusion. "She's a muggle."

"How do you know that?" Harry snapped before talking. She was wearing a robe, and there was nothing obviously muggle about her.

"She... but..." he said. "Potter, where did she come from?" he demanded. "How did she make it into the castle. Weren't you in the Hospital Wing again, Blaise is claiming you didn't even last a minute..."

"You didn't even answer my first question Malfoy, why would I tell you where she came from?"

Crabbe grunted, trying to make Harry scared, Harry wasn't sure if he was trying to growl or he just didn't know what menacing meant. Christine didn't move, just stayed behind Harry silently waiting for his command. Goyle tried to move forward, but Malfoy raised his hand and the thug stopped.

"I'll find out, it doesn't matter. I do have something else, a warning to stay away from the Slytherin girl you hurt before, if I should find out you harmed her again you'll have to deal with more than just Blaise Zabini."

Blaise? Harry wondered. He remembered the Malfoy had just said that he had fought her and lasted less than a minute, which he doubted, he knew he had more skill that that. But, Dumbledore had mentioned her too, said she'd brought him in. The headmaster had mentioned the Slytherin girl too, something about kissing her, how would a kiss cause her harm though?

When Harry looked up Malfoy was raising his wand. Christine tensed.

"Don't do it," Harry warned quietly, "I'm seriously not in the mood to play games with you today. If you're interested in knowing what happened, seeing as I have no memory of the past week, ask the headmaster. He might have woken by now, though I doubt it."

Draco stopped mid-spell. "You harmed the headmaster?" he asked, eyes wide.

Harry smiled passively, knowing that was the conclusion Malfoy would make because he was too much like Hermione sometimes. Then, without saying another word, he continued on past the stunned Malfoy.

Even though she didn't ask, Harry knew Christine wanted to know who Malfoy and his thugs had been. He knew it like he knew she'd wanted him to kiss her. "That is one of the bullies of the school. If he ever harms you come directly to me and I'll take care of it."

Christine didn't respond, but he knew she understood.

"How is it that you know about magic? I felt you tense when he raised his wand, and you jumped Hermione when she performed magic on me."

When Christine opened her mouth to answer Harry heard more footsteps and turned around to speak with Malfoy, or so he thought. A large girl was standing there, someone he didn't recognize. Her colors meant she was in Gryffindor, but he was sure he'd never seen her before. How could you miss someone that was nearly a foot taller than most of the older Gryffindors?

"Harry," the girl said sharply and he sighed, realizing who it was.

"What do you want Tonks?" he asked. For some reason he was sure he was mad at her, but he couldn't remember why he would be, well, except that she'd been following him around like a bug for months.

"I wanted to apologize," she said quietly. "For what I did the other day. I shouldn't have slapped you, or tied you to the chair, or yelled at you, or..."

Harry cut her off, not really wanting to hear what else she'd done to him. "Whatever, I don't remember it anyway. I'm sure you had a good reason to do it, I haven't really been myself lately according to Dumbledore. But then, everyone else seems to have begun acting strange around me."

"You don't remember?" Tonks asked, her shape changing before her eyes, becoming the Tonks he knew.

Christine gasped and Tonks' eyes shifted to her, having ignored her for now. She was the first person that had been able to ignore Christine for that long so far. "I thought you were in the Hospital..." she said, after looking Christine over as best as possible. "Why are you out, and who's your friend?"

"Tonks, this is Christine. She's not my friend, she's my..." he trailed off, wondering if he should tell Tonks what she was. It was going to get out sooner or later, but he was hoping it was later, a lot later. After how Hermione had reacted he was pretty sure it would be a better idea not to tell anyone.

"Slave." Christine chimed, answering for him. "I'm his slave now. The Albus man said that I was his slave because he accepted me."

Tonks chuckled. Harry frowned. "Christine," he said softly, turning towards her. "Don't tell everyone, it's something that I'm going to have to be careful about."

When he looked back Tonks wasn't laughing anymore, she looked horrified.

"Slave?" she asked, eyes wide, mouth agape. Harry was reminded of Ron. "You mean, she's really your slave... liked branded and everything? That is what they used to do, brand slaves."

As she asked Christine started to nod, but stopped immediately. Harry sighed. "It's alright Christine, you can tell her, might as well, she'll find out anyway. She's my bodyguard, so I'm sure you two will be seeing a lot of each other, it's best to just get it out of the way now.

Christine seemed happy to be allowed to talk about it and she dropped to her knees, pulling back the robe from her neck. "See, I've been branded."

"A lightning bolt?" Tonks asked, starring at Harry. "Why? I mean, obviously a Lightning Bolt is your trademark symbol," she said sarcastically, as if he'd done it himself. It was the first time he'd even seen it, although the letter had said that she was marked he hadn't looked. "But, a slave, master, dominant, submissive and all that, I didn't think you were into that scene."

"I was a gift," Christine prompted, "for Master. A present, because he needed me."

"Needed?" Tonks asked, raising her eyebrow. "You needed a slave Harry... how... kinky."

"You're not offended?"

"Hey," Tonks shrugged, "she seems to into it, not my place to tell her what she can and can't do. I know people that enjoy the feeling of being submissive, or dominant. She's a consenting adult and there's no reason to tell her not to do it. Besides, if she took your mark it means she accepted it."

"You know about marks?" Harry asked, curious as to how much Tonks knew about the subject.

"There are lots of things I know about Harry," she said sensually leaning in closer. "Things even you couldn't imagine, I am after all I am a metamorphmagus, able to do things that only the most unique of situations call for."

"It means she can change her body around like you just saw," Harry explained, when he felt Christine's curiosity rise up.

"I can do all sorts of things," Tonks said, tugging on a strand of hair. It got longer and longer and longer until it was all the way to her feet. She tugged on it again and it slithered its way back up the front of her body until it was as long as it had been before.

When she realized she was getting distracted from what she'd originally meant to say she shook her head. "So everything's alright between us?" she asked. "No hard feelings about leaving you tied to a chair all night?"

"I told you I don't remember," Harry said, a little irritated. "Why would I need to forgive you for something that I don't remember you doing?"

"Well, if you do remember..." Tonks said, quietly. "I want you to know I'm sorry, for everything. You just, when you told me I had her lips I panicked because I know who you were talking about, my mother always said I had gotten my face from my cousin. The only thing I kept when I learned to change my appearance was my lips, I liked those lips because everyone said they were so perfect for me. When you said they were her lips I knew who you were talking about."

"Who I was talking about?" Harry asked. He remembered the flash of lips, thinning, the oh-so-beautiful lips. He stared at her face and could see they had been her lips, because they were fresh and plump again. Had he kissed them? Why were they so appealing? She'd said her cousin. Sirius was her cousin. Harry shook away the thought, he didn't ever think of Sirius' lips as kissable. She had other cousins though, Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange.

Why would he lust after either one of their lips? He didn't understand how he could. Narcissa was sour, he'd seen her twice in his life, once before the his fourth year, during the Quidditch World Cup, and the other time was last year during a ministry ball he'd been asked to attend. He had to admit she was a beautiful woman, Bellatrix had been just as beautiful once, before Azkaban had ruined her, but both of them... it seemed so disgusting.

"Why would I like your cousins lips?" Harry inquired. "Did I say?"

"No, you just reached for them," she said, demonstrating. "Then you said that they were her lips and were beautiful."

"They are pretty," Harry said, not feeling comfortable talking to Tonks about her lips. It brought his focus to them, and when he focused on them it was difficult to talk to her.

"Harry," Christine said from behind, tugging softly on his jacket. "More people are coming."

"Tonks, I need to go, Christine doesn't have any clothing other than the cloak she's got on and I think Hermione's going to be on a war path, she didn't take Christine well when she found out."

Tonks grinned. "No easy way out of that one and still be friends."

"Friends?" Harry asked, glancing back at the empty hall. He could hear the footsteps of someone approaching, fast. "I wonder if friends is what we are anymore. She doesn't seem to get on with me much anymore, never has Ron ask me how I'm doing. It's like she doesn't want to talk to me anymore, and then this happens. I wonder if she's beginning to hate me because of what happened two years ago. That when it happened, when he started acting funny around me I didn't even Notice it until almost the end of sixth year, and I sort of missed it, but I've got you following me everywhere anyway, so it's not as if I'm always alone. Plus, there's Christina now."

Tonks nodded. "We can go anywhere you like Harry, but I'm coming. After what happened to you last time you woke up I almost lost the job, so there's no way you're going to go crawling into a dark corner of the castle without me escorting you," Tonks said bravely.

"Fine, whatever," Harry growled, a little angry that she was so insistent. Footsteps clicked just around the corner when Harry opened up the nearest door and walked inside, hoping to avoid the person who was coming down the hallway. Christine entered, followed by Tonks, and they all stood in the broom closet waiting for the person, or people, to go away.

"You know," Tonks said, adjusting herself. The closet wasn't all that big, and she was pressed between Christine and the door. Christine didn't seemed to mind that she'd been shoved between Harry and Tonks, in fact, she was almost wrapped around Harry as it was. "I always wondered if you had a kinkier side, I mean, with all that pent up frustration over everything that happened, you had to be taking it out somewhere, just never could catch you in the act."

"I didn't..." Harry defended himself and then Christine's hands somehow managed to slip down his pants.

He squeaked, there wasn't anything else to do really, he couldn't shove her away, there wasn't nearly enough room. He couldn't exactly yell at her, because the person outside would hear, he could tell her to stop, but the moment it happened she got a good grip on him and began massaging, and he shuddered with pleasure as she nibbled on his ear.

"Wow," Tonks said, looking over at him as his eyes fluttered. "She's really enjoying that. I never could see how it'd be fun to have someone make you do things, but this gets me all hot and bothered just watching."

Harry tried to talk, but all that came out was gasps of air. He didn't care at the moment, didn't care that Tonks was watching, didn't care that there was someone just outside the door, maybe more than one person, didn't care that Hermione had been screaming at him.

"Mark me," Christine whispered in his other ear as she switched sides. She suckled it, nibbling on the lobe and pulling it gently into her mouth. Sensing how urgent it was Harry just nodded and leaned forward, kissing her neck. Her hands were moving faster, massaging, and he gasped as she bit him just hard enough on his ear to bring blood. It was erotic, and more pleasurable than he had imagined. He jerked forward, biting into her only the moment after, not hard, but enough to leave imprints of teeth. Her neck pulsed underneath, the meat raising in his mouth, beating, pulsing as if asking him to bite harder, to bring blood.

When he pulled away, his eyes were unfocused as he recovered from the event. Tonks was mumbling about them being inconsiderate about her feelings. Christine pulled away from Harry, turned to Tonks, pressed her body against the Auror, and kissing her on the lips, effectively shutting up the mumbling. She turned to Harry and looked at him, asking without words again. "It's alright," he mumbled, wondering exactly how much time had passed.

"Maybe we should go now," Harry offered, seeing Tonks start to look uncomfortable.

They all tumbled out of the broom closet after Tonks listened to see if the coast was clear. Harry had to get his headings again before he led them to another staircase taking them down another floor. Tonks had changed her form again into the bratty Gryffindor girl that had been following him around like a devoted fan-girl, as they walked.

"Where we going?" she asked, skipping along ahead. Harry had to grab her twice so that she didn't fall. The Auror was an absolute menace, and not just to herself.

They continued past a group of students, and Luna, who had gained some admirers after the incident two years ago, was in the center of them. Most of them were Ravenclaw and Hufflepuffs, all were dressed slightly odd or had a semi-content look on their face. However each of them had a single bottle-cap earring hanging from there left ear, sort of a code to tell them there were others out there.

Luna nodded a hello, but didn't say anything, seeming to know Harry didn't want to talk.

They continued on past her, Christine glancing back at the odd girl wondering if she should go grab her and bring her along because Harry did want to talk to her, he wanted to talk to someone that wouldn't care, someone that was his friend, not Tonks who was assigned to follow him. She glanced to the girl, Tonks, wondering if she'd done the proper thing to the woman in the room. Harry had wanted to do it, even if it was an emotion buried deep down.

Christine shook her head, trying to keep focused, the other man, the one that had given her Harry's mark had helped her see what she really was, he told her that it would help her master discover who he was, and she was charged with that task unless he said different. Because, he didn't know everything that was best for him, the man had told her that he would need someone to help him find it. He'd told her she was that person.

• Edited 2004.12.17 •