Author notes:
Sorry for the late update, I´ve been busy with real life stuff and didn´t feel much like writing in the few free moments I had.
Oh and many thanks to dreamer who pointed out a terrible stupid and embarrassing mistake. Apparently I have been spelling "Dumbeldore" ever since the first chapter. -beats head on the table- So, so stupid! I was all like: of course I know how to spell Dumbledore, I´ve read enough fanfics, I don´t need to look it up... -feels incredibly stupid-
Anyway, I should have fixed it by now, if I´ve missed one though, please let me know. And my appologies to anyone who was bothered by it.(I would have been)
14. Good news, bad news
"Weeeee!" Harry awoke with a start at the loud shrieking, staring in bewilderment as something big and brightly coloured bounced across the room.
Grabbing for his glasses he put them on just on time to see the impending danger.
"Tonks, watch out for-"
"Crash!"
Harry winced as Tonks tripped over his chess-set, still lying in the middle of the room, and fell flat on her face.
Ron sat up with a start at the sudden loud noise, waving his arm wildly while shouting "death-eaters!"
He blinked when he saw Tonks lying on the floor, the white queen poking her face while squeaking "get off my husband!"
With a bit difficulty Tonks managed to get up, her hair was showing all colours of the rainbow and as she regained her bounciness it started flashing from one colour to another, making Harry a bit dizzy.
"Tonks?" Ron asked, yawning widely, "wacha doing?"
At that question Tonks started jumping around like a demented, sugar high, rainbow coloured frog, all the while squealing loudly.
"You're not gonna believe this! I'm getting married! Can you believe that? I'm getting married! Tee hee! I'm getting married!"
"Erhm, congratulations," Harry offered.
"Yeah," Ron echoed, while hastily scooping up the check pieces to save them from getting trampled, "congratulations."
"Thank you!" Tonks gushed, bounding over to Harry and giving him a big, sloppy kiss on the cheek and then did the same by Ron.
"I'm gonna tell the others the news! I'm getting married! Bye!"
She turned around, tripped over the chess-set again but this time managed to retain her balance, and ran out.
Ron was looking a bit dumbstruck at being kissed by a girl, so early in the morning no less. Then he took one look at the clock, groaned something like "too early" and went back to sleep.
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The kitchen was filled with people, many of whom Harry didn't know. Everybody was laughing and talking loudly. On the middle of the table lay a big pink coloured blob, which Harry assumed was supposed to be a cake.
He made his way over to Rose who seemed to fill the entire room just by herself and looked like she couldn't possibly grow any bigger without exploding.
"Hia, Harry!" She happily waved at him, "cake?"
"Erhm…" Harry stared sceptically at the weird coloured goo lying on the plate she offered him.
"It doesn't taste as bad as it looks really," Rose said, taking a bite herself, "when Aaron told me he was gonna propose to Tonks I decided on baking a cake to celebrate, but, well, I'm not too skilled at cooking yet."
"Who's Aaron?" Harry asked curiously, he had been wondering who was Tonks fiancé before.
"You haven't met him yet? Oi, Aaron! Get your ass over here!"
The man walking over to them nearly took as much space in as Rose, not because he was fat or anything, but he was very tall and broad.
There was an air around him that commanded attention, somehow making him seem even bigger than he actually was.
"This is Aaron, my baby-brother," Rose introduced him, and everybody had to smile at that, Aaron was anything but baby-like. "And this is my friend Harry, Aaron."
Aaron smiled lopsided, "nice to meet you, Harry, Dora has told me a lot about you."
"Dora?" Rose repeated incredulously, "she let's you call her Dora now?"
"Well, Tonks won't be her name for much longer will it? It will change to Nymphadora Carter pretty soon. So I thought I better prepare her for that," he let out a small grin, "I don't think she likes it much though."
Rose grabbed her brother's arm and hugged it close to her enormous belly, staring up adoringly at him.
"So tell me, how did you propose? Was it romantic? Did you get on your knees? Come on, I wanna hear all the juicy details."
Aaron laughed lightly, using his free hand to playfully ruffle Rose's hair, "no way, sis, it's none of you business."
"Aw," Rose pouted, "why not? You heard Julian's proposal."
"I hardly call that a proposal, he just suddenly announced to the whole world you were going to get married, without even asking you."
Rose was saved from replying to that as the volume in the kitchen suddenly rose tenfold as Tonks bounced in. She was immediately cornered by people wanting to congratulate and hug her. Behind her Hermione and Ginny came in, walking over to Harry.
"Isn't it great?" Ginny said excitedly, "I don't think I've ever seen Tonks this happy, she is practically glowing!"
It took a while before things calmed down but eventually people started leaving and Mrs Weasley and the twins got enough room to prepare breakfast.
Unfortunately Harry had managed to seat himself between Mr Weasley and some bloke called Gerrit, who were loudly discussing the many uses of a coat-hanger and made it impossible for Harry to follow the conversation of his friends sitting across him.
Just as he ducked to avoid getting his head bashed out by Gerrit's elbow, who was enthusiastically demonstrating how a coat-hanger could be used to scratch your back, he overheard Charlie, who was sitting on Mr Weasley's other side, saying something.
"-ing tortured, I'm sick and tired of it, Bill, don't know how much longer I'll last."
Interest piqued, Harry leaned forward to hear more, but Mr Weasley's loud laughter drowned out Bill's response.
"I know!" Charlie snapped, "but I haven't gotten anywhere, all I've found out is that Greengrass knows more, but he doesn't trust me."
"Well, what about Lynn? Did s-"
"You're Harry Potter, aren't you?"
Harry nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden question, Gerrit had left and in his place sat a girl about Harry's age.
He took a quick look at Bill and Charlie, but they had heard the girl as well and had lowered their voices.
Defeated Harry sagged on the chair, he had been hoping he would finally get some information. Maybe Black would know what they were talking about.
"So, are you?" The girl asked again.
"Yes," Harry snapped irritated, but she wasn't deterred by his bad mood.
"That's great," she gushed, clasping her hands, "I've wanted to meet you for ages! Can I have your autograph?"
Momentarily caught of guard Harry stared at her, she had long very light blond hair and blue eyes, she was rather pretty, but in a strange forced way.
"My autograph?" He repeated bemused.
She flushed, "oh! I'm sorry, Ron told me you don't like people bothering you for stuff like that, I just got so excited at finally meeting you!" She giggled embarrassed.
"You know Ron?" He didn't think he'd ever seen her at Hogwarts.
"Oh! How rude of me, I'm Heather Merryton, my daddy is in the Order, see? He's over there." She pointed at a man who was having an intense but quiet discussion with Moody in a corner, Harry vaguely recalled seeing him before.
"Isn't breakfast ready yet?" Ron finally entered the kitchen, yawning and still wearing his pyjama, "I'm starving."
When he noticed Heather he turned a brilliant shade of red, jumping back and trying to cover his pyjama, or at least the little yellow ducks on it he stammered something unintelligible and hastily fled back upstairs.
Heather giggled in that annoying way again, "Ron can be so silly sometimes, but he is really sweet too, don't you think so?"
She didn't wait for an answer but continued to gush over Ron while staring dreamily at Rose's belly.
Harry looked over at Hermione, wondering how she was taking all this. She wasn't looking very nice at Heather, in fact, had looks been able to kill, Heather would have turned into a little pile of ash by now.
Oddly enough Ginny wasn't looking all that pleasant either, nor were any of the other females present in the kitchen. It seemed only Tonks was unaffected, but seeing as she was too absorbed by Aaron to notice anything else, she didn't count.
Ron returned pretty soon, wearing normal clothes this time. For his claim to be starving he paid very little attention to the food. Instead he stared at Heather while telling her some story which was apparently terribly funny as Heather couldn't stop giggling. From the corner of his eye Harry saw Hermione bristle.
"Ron," Ginny suddenly broke into their conversation, "are you nearly finished eating? We want to go upstairs."
"Oh!" Heather gasped, "can I come too?"
"Sure," Ron happily agreed, apparently not noticing Ginny's and Hermione's murderous gaze.
"No. She can not come." Ginny bit out.
"Why not?"
"We are going to work on the project. You know, the secret project," she gave Ron a meaningful look.
"I can keep a secret," Heather said, looking hopeful at Ron, "really, I can!"
"I'm sure you can," Ginny said, although her face told a different story, "but it might be dangerous, we wouldn't want you to get hurt."
"A secret, dangerous project that might get someone hurt. Now, why don't I like the sound of that?" Moody suddenly said, leaning dangerously over Ginny's shoulder.
Mr Merrryton appeared as well, looking disapprovingly at them, "come along now, Heather, you better leave them alone.
"But daddy!" She fruitlessly protested as he steered her out of the kitchen.
"So." Moody said, staring with both eyes at Harry, "tell me about this project."
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"How many?"
He was too young to have to answer that question, the man noted. He couldn't be much older than 15, tall and gangly, like all teenagers, with a split lip and a swollen, red nose. Not fit to count their dead.
"Well?" He demanded, when the boy stayed silent.
"Two, father."
He closed his eyes, another two more to their rising loses, two more they couldn't afford to miss.
"Who?"
"Rufus and…"
He opened his eyes again, Rufus had been a child, just barely 13 years old, far too young to be out, but they had had no choice. And no matter how terrible to think so, it was better to lose an inexperienced child than one of the older, stronger ones.
"And?"
The boy swallowed, a lone tear falling down his cheek, "Fila, father."
Gryff! No wonder the child was upset, Fila was, had been the best; wise, powerful and with a kind heart. One of her main responsibilities had been to take care of the many orphaned children. She made sure they didn't fall apart, she offered them love and support in a time nobody else could be bothered. She was, gryff! had been a pillar of strength for everyone. And now she was gone.
He stood up and started pacing around in the small, bare room.
"What is your name, son?"
"Gwennius, father."
"After the first father, heh? Your parents must have had high expectations of you."
Gwennius stayed silent, no doubt one, or maybe both of his parents had died in this war. Although you couldn't really call it a war, they were getting slaughtered and had no means of fighting back. Only one last resort… He'd sworn, he would sooner die than use it, but this wasn't about his life anymore…
He sighed, he needed Drust here, the advisor normally always had an answer for everything, but lately he had been absent at meetings, too busy doing Idath knew what. The old man claimed he was working on a solution, but they were running out of time, and it seemed Drust was starting to lose his sharp mind ever since Lynn had disappeared.
"What would you do?" He suddenly asked Gwennius.
Nimue! He had been reduced to asking advice to a child!
Gwennius bit his lip, "I guess I would make a pact with the wizards, father."
"Yes, yes of course you would say so."
The boy wouldn't be the first of the youngsters to suggest it, as it seemed their only option. But the elders were impossible to convince, they still carried their hatred and distrust for all things wizardry, even after all those ages.
"Which side?"
"Father?"
"Which side of the wizards would you pick, son? I don't think it is very wise to make a pact with both of them."
"The winning side, father."
He laughed at that, cheeky brat, "but which is the winning side?"