Harry Who

Chapter Two: On the Road Again

"What happened," Tonks asked.

Harry sighed. He remembered when Dumbledore first explained it to him. "I regenerated."

"Regenerated?"

"I got a new body. Or rather an older version of the original. It's not supposed to happen that way, though."

"I'm sorry, I still don't understand."

"Regeneration is old magic. Almost dead. Before Dumbledore told me, I think only he and Nicholas Flamel knew about it. When you regenerate, every cell in your body explodes and then implodes, causing you to have a whole new body and, in most cases, a new personality."

"So wizards are immortal?"

"Close but no cigar. First of all, we can only regenerate at near death. Death is death, even to a wizard. Take me for instance. I'm almost died before I could regenerate. If Fawkes hadn't shown up, you'd have a funeral to plan." Harry gave a small laugh.

"And," Tonks asked.

"Hmm?"

"You said 'first of all.' That means there's more, right?"

"Oh. Right. We can only regenerate twelve times."

An uneasy silence fell over the couple. Timidly, Tonks asked, "What now?"

"Well, we'd talked about going on vacation."

"Yeah, but we hadn't picked a place."

"Why only one place? Don't you get it? The war's over! It's done! The entire world is going to be celebrating! Why should we miss it? Why don't we just go?"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

Tonks couldn't bring herself to answer. The truth was she was afraid. Afraid of this new Harry. How she could she trust him when he had changed so much.

But, then, she looked into his eyes. They hadn't changed a bit. No matter how different he looked, The same Harry that she had fallen love with was looking back. But how to be sure?

"Harry, where did we first kiss?"

Harry answered, without a moments hesitation, "Under the tree by the lake at Hogwarts."

"Harry?"

"Hello,"answered Harry, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Why not!"

"Hmm?

In a flash, Tonks left the living room. She was almost tripped down the stairs, as she dashed towards her room.

"Oi," Harry called after her, before going upstairs himself, " don't kill yourself!"

"But Tonks hadn't heard him. Now in her room, Tonks was busy magicking things into her trunk.

Looking into her room, and seeing that his girlfriend was finished packing, Harry said "reducio" at her trunk, and went to his room. But he didn't start packing. Quite the reverse. He began throwing things out of his trunk. Violently, I might add. Tonks, coming into the room carrying a cell phone-sized trunk, just missed getting hit in the head with a book.

"What're you doing?"

Harry didn't answer. He had apparently found what he had been looking for. Tonks didn't see what was so important about it . To her, it just looked like a toy motorcycle. But Harry obviously thought it was important because, he said, " Ha ha! Here we go," before gently placing it on his bed and began packing his things.

Once he was finished, and his trunk the size of a cell phone, he stuffed it quickly in his pocket and carefully grabbed the motorbike. He started to leave the room, but stopped. He turned around and, stopping only to put the motor bike safely on his bed side table, got on his hands and knees to get something from under his bed.

It was a painting. A painting of a wizened, old man. The man was standing, although at the moment, he appeared to be sleeping. He was wearing black wizard's robes, a black, pointed wizard's hat, and his white hair and beard were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was, of course, Albus Dumbledore.

Recognizing the man immediately, Tonks asked, "Harry, where did you get that?"

"Stole it from Hogwarts," he answered, as it was something he did all the time. "I told you Dumbledore taught me to regenerate. Wake up, professor."

Dumbledore opened his eyes so quickly, one wonders if he was actually asleep. "Ah. Harry," he said," enjoying your new body."

"Yeah," he answered offhandedly. "It's over, sir. And we won! And we, Tonks and I, we're out of here. I just wanted to say goodbye."

"Goodbye, Harry. Nymph-"

"Professor!" Tonks yelled.

"Very well," he said, chuckling. "Goodbye, Tonks. And Harry?"

"Yessir?"

"I'm sorry. Sorry everything." For the first time in their memories, the wise, old man broke down.

"Professor," Harry said seriously, "you have nothing to be sorry for." He grabbed the motorbike and went to the door. "The order will find you. You'll be returned. See you around."

Nothing exciting happened as the couple went down the stairs and left the house. So I hope nobody minds if I skip over that part. Now outside, Harry put the motorcycle on the ground, pulled out his wand and yelled "engorio!" And Harry's "toy" motorbike grew into a clearly real motorbike.

"It was Sirius'" said Harry, answering Tonks' confused look, as he got on. "I thought it would be fun to take it for a spin."

Nervously, Tonks got on. As much as she had loved Sirius, she knew better than to trust it anything he had made. She gasped a little when Harry pressed a button labeled "Invisibility Booster," which made the bike fly and its riders invisible. She had to force herself not to look down. She definitely didn't want to see her rear firmly planted on nothing at all. She wasn't sure she could handle the idea of riding nothing, driven by no one.

In an attempt to take her mind off her fear, she racked her brain, trying to remember the battle. Nothing.

"Harry, what's the Time Vortex?"

"You really don't remember anything? Well, it's pure magical energy. It's what allows wizards to manipulate time. Small pieces of it are contained in time turners."

"And you absorbed it?"

"Well, I didn't have much of a choice," Harry retorted in such a way, it was clear that the subject was closed.

Tonks waited a few minutes before asking, "Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"How many died?"

"Both sides included, there were only two survivors."

Tonks was in shock. She couldn't believe it. Trembling, she managed to ask, "How can you be so sure?"

"At the battle, we separated to different parts of the castle. Each group was given half of a pair of two-way mirror. I had all the other halves. They all called me before the end. They're dead, Tonks. I couldn't save them, but I was forced to listen," he answered, crying at the end.

It is a curious thing. When one is forced to face bad memories, one automatically. Recalls other bad memories.

FLASHBACK

Harry, still in his original body, was standing on a crowded platform at King's Cross, with a red-headed girl.

"I still love you, you know," she said.

"I love you, too, Ginny."

That was the last time he saw her: waving goodbye to him from the scarlet train. Several hours later, Ron, Ginny's brother and Harry's best friend, would find Harry sitting alone in his room at number twelve, Grimmauld Place.

Ron said, through tears, "Death Eaters attacked the Hogwarts Express. It ran into the lake. There were no survivors."

END FLASHBACK

Tonks herself was fighting back bad memories. And losing.

FLASHBACK

Not too long after Ginny Weasley's untimely death, Harry found Tonks crying in the attic of number twelve, Grimmauld Place. Instead of her usual spiked, pink hair, she had plain, mousy hair.

"He did it again, didn't he?" It was not a question. Without waiting for a response, Harry left.

Later, after having had a good cry, Tonks was walking to her room, when she heard raised voices in a room she was passing.

"You don't understand the dangers. And neither does she," said a voice she recognized as Remus Lupin's, her boyfriend.

Don't be an ass," argued Harry. "We all know the dangers. The question is, do you know what you're doing to that girl? Have you seen her? She's more depressed now than she was before you were dating. Now, I'm going to say this once. You're going to make up your mind about where you're going with this relationship, and be honest with her, or you will leave this house."

After supper that night, Lupin pulled Tonks a side and said, "I'm sorry, Tonks. But it isn't work out. It's too dangerous."

In her crying again, she heard Lupin leave. She would later learn that he had left the house for you. She cursed Harry.

END FLASHBACK

"Tonks," said Harry, pulling her out of her daze, "we're here." He began to descend.

"Here" was a run down building that looked as if a light, summer breeze would knock it down.

"Where are we?"

"We're at the Café at the End of the Country."

TO BE CONTINUED...