A/N: This chapter is a bit more ... adult? It's been a bit of a challenge to write as I think i'm walking a fine line between Mature and Mature-Adult. Perhaps my opinion of where this story will fit will change in the future.
Chapter 22: Auror Tonks
"Inter-Species relations?" Sirius repeats after I use the term as an excuse for not explaining things to him. "What does that even mean?"
"Well, think of how tense things are between Humans and Goblins, for example." I say as we walk through London towards the Leaky Cauldron. Sirius is wearing his ever-present leather biker jacket.
"But you're not talking about Goblins, are you?"
"Nope."
"And you won't tell me?"
"Nope." I smirk as he pouts. "Did you get my letter last night?"
"You mean the one where you explain how you goaded Snivy into hexing you?" He laughs. "The bit about Peter was a low blow, How'd you find out about his little gang activities anyway?"
"It's like a big red glow under his sleeve. Then I asked Albus and he said I would find out myself eventually, so he told me the clean version himself."
"Just like that?" He asks as we enter the Cauldron.
"Imagine lots of sighing and tired looks."
"Ah." He nods in understanding as we pass some singing drunkards.
"How've you been keeping?"
"Busy with work." He adopts a wide grin.
"Urgh. I won't have any cousins running around, will I?" He throws his head back and laughs, drawing a few glances as we walk past the ice cream parlour.
"No, no. Not for a while."
"I'm not sure if that means 9 months or years." I shake my head. "Anything from Tonks yet?" The last 3 days of Auror training is one long 'field mission'. Nobody really knows what they have to do, but it's rumoured to be fire-fights and tracking. They are probably under a magical non-disclosure agreement for the whole thing. Tonks' test ended 2 days ago, so factoring in the 24 hour healing/recuperation and swearing in, she should be done.
"Nothing yet, which I reckon is good." He says. "If she failed, they'd have sent her back early." A strange way of looking at it.
"How's Remus doing by the way?" I lean against my front door.
"He knew it was coming. Said it couldn't last before the term even started, they'd have found out about him eventually." He says sadly. "He only hopes that he made some impact on the school's education."
"Well, he wasn't a fake or Voldemort – So he gets two thumbs up from me." Sirius laughs and hugs me.
"Come over tomorrow, we'll have a party for Tonks, I'll convince Ted and Andi to come back into Grimmauld Place."
"Alright then." I laugh. "And no strippers!" I call after him as he walks away.
"No promises!" He waves at me as he backs up. I shake my head and walk up the stairs.
"You in Tonks?" I call, despite knowing that she hasn't been here in 4 days. She might've come in through the window. I toss my shrunken trunk out of my pocket and drop into my armchair, leaning my head back. I had originally planned to meet Dobby here and then go to a pixie colony, but Dobby had explained that they wouldn't let me, a human, anywhere near it. So I entrusted what is probably the largest amount of pixie gold to be seen in centuries to Dobby so he can follow Baxter, to wherever it is that pixies live, and deliver the 50 converted galleons as a peace treaty. I've decided to keep my cut coin as a memento of my first success. I just hope that the pixies can see that not every human is Zaldimar. Even though I only touched the Elder Wand, I feel guilty about what he did.
I quickly leap off of my chair, whirling around to look at it. Tonks has masturbated whilst sitting on my chair.
Who knocks on my door at 8 in the morning? I stamp down the stairs, hastily buttoning my shirt up. By all means, come at 9 o'clock or 10! Even better. But not 8. I angrily yank the door open.
"Ye-" Flash. Flash.
"Mr Potter!" "Mr Potter!" Journalists? "Blah blah blah Animagus blah!" Shit. I slam the door closed. Shit. I look down at myself. No trousers. Shit. I walk back up the stairs. It wasn't exactly a secret, and I did get away with it for two years, but I didn't expect them to come hammering on my door … or maybe I did.
"Harry? Why did I have to kick some guy in the balls to get inside?" I spin round and pull Tonks into a hug.
"You're back!" She looks exhausted, but still has a proud smile on her face. "The buzzards just found out about my alter-ego." I shake my head. "But enough of that, Did you pass? Graduate or whatever?"
"You're looking at the newest, and best, Auror." She strikes a pose. "Passed with flying colours."
"So you tripped over and your hair did the rest?"
"Oh you cheeky bugger." She laughs, setting her bag down. "Where are your trousers?"
"I've only been up for like … 3 minutes." I groan. "That photo is going to be in the paper tomorrow."
"Which photo?"
"I answered the door like this." I gesture to myself, scowling as she starts to laugh.
"Witches Weekly too, oh they'll love it."
"Bloody raptors." A yawn overtakes me. "I think I'll head back to bed. 8 o'clock." I grumble. "Sirius says we should celebrate later."
"A party?" She looks excited.
"Er, Surprise?"
I awake slowly and notice Tonks snuggled against my side. At some point after if fell asleep, she must have crawled into bed with me after taking a shower, judging by the towel wrapped around her – Or the towel that was wrapped around her which has now mostly fallen off, leaving her uncovered. I must have been an angel in a past life to deserve this.
"I know you're looking." Tonks' mouth curls into a smirk. As I change back from the wolf, I end up eye level with Tonks as the familiar flood of information resumes.
"How could you tell?"
"Your breathing changed when you woke up and then, if you weren't looking when I said that, you would have looked." She's probably right.
"Are you not even the slightest bit conscious about being naked?" She rolls onto her back and folds her arms behind her head, taking a deep breath, which does wonderful things to her chest.
"Nope!" She smiles at me. "Can just get rid of anything bad." She scrunches her face up and morphs into a familiar blonde. "I call this one 'Alex', Hermione helped me come up with it."
"The name? Or the ...uh." I motion to her body. The smirk tells me everything I need to know.
"What time is it?" She asks as she jumps out of bed, stretching her arms above her head. Jesus Christ.
"Uh. 17 minutes and 12 seconds past 7." She picks the towel up and hangs it on her shoulder.
"Should've given Sirius enough time, right?"
"Hmm? Yeah. Enough time." I nod dumbly. She exits my room with her hips swaying slightly more than is strictly necessary. I drop my head back onto the pillows. This is torture, and we've got the whole summer to go … I'm completely OK with that.
"Hurry up and get dressed!" She calls out.
"You're late!" Sirius greets us at his front door with a grin.
"Late? We didn't agree on a time." I say as we cross the threshold.
"Semantics." He waves his hands dismissively.
"D'You even know what that means?" Tonks asks sceptically, accepting a hug from Sirius.
"Nah. Come on, come on." He ushers us into the, surprisingly full living room. I stop just past the doorway. How can I describe the occupants of the room? There's Remus talking to Ted, Andromeda and Hermione, whilst everyone else are … sexy policewomen. A large banner is hung above the fireplace reading 'Congratulations'. Tonks greets and hugs her parents, very proud looking parents, Hermione looks slightly flustered. It doesn't take long before Tonks starts talking to … models.
"Sirius, Who are these women?" I can barely move my eyes as one of the models. For some reason, allows Tonks to feel her chest.
"They work in the mansion, said it'd be fun if they came here."
"You paid them?"
"What? No! They wanted to be here." I look at him in disbelief.
"I was being serious when I said no strippers."
"No, I'm Sirius." He says before looking at me sternly. "And Harry, These are not strippers, they are classy models." We look back at the proceedings. Andromeda looks completely mortified as her daughter lifts her vest up to compare herself in a line-up of models.
"What do think, Harry?" She smirks.
"Sirius, is this a dream?"
"I ask myself the same thing every day when I go to work." He says sagely.
Only Tonks would start a 'measuring' competition at a graduation party with her mother as a guest.
"I asked her if they were fake, she said no, I called bullshit, so she said 'go ahead and feel'" Tonks explains after we sit down.
"An interesting way to start a conversation." I say, sipping my drink.
"They're models, it's how they talk. They're not Hermione." Tonks gestures to her.
"Oh, thank you for using me as an example for what models aren't." Hermione says with an incredibly sarcastic tone.
"Oh, honey, you just need to spice your look up a bit." Tonks grins. "Get the girls out." Hermione goes red in the face.
"I will certainly not … getmygirlsout." She stammers.
"Why not? I'm sure Harry would love it." They both turn to me. Oh shit. It's like they're pointing guns at me. Guns? Lady guns? No, no. Where was I?
"Err … Do what you're comfortable with?" I say carefully and quickly start drinking the butterbeer. Tonks rolls her eyes and Hermione smirks.
"I think Mum's starting on the sherry." Tonks groans, looking over her shoulder. "Maybe we should have a bit of a snoop around."
"Sirius, we're just heading upstairs." I call over to him, he raises his drink in acknowledgement. "How'd you end up here anyway?" I ask Hermione as we leave the room.
"Mist- Sirius sent me an owl this morning, Mum drove me to the station and I took the tube." She explains as we climb the stairs.
"Still no floo?" Tonks asks. She shakes her head.
"One has to pass all kinds of tests to have a functioning fireplace in a muggle area. We are lucky because they wouldn't have to extend the network to Oxford, as it's already been there for a decades." She explains as we stop at a random door. I try the door handle, but it's locked. "Should we be rifling through the house?" She asks anxiously.
"Of course." I tap the keyhole with my wand and the lock clicks. "Draco's Mum used this room." I push the door open. "Oh look, it's unlocked." They roll their eyes and walk past me, not appreciating the joke. A large vanity desk sits opposite the large four poster bed. Green bedsheets and curtains.
"Very Slytherin." Tonks says, adjusting her hair in the mirror. Green curls. "So, what can you see?"
"Very much the same as you, I'd imagine." I say innocently. Tonks snorts.
"I mean what has happened here? Give us the dirt." She looks at me expectantly. Hermione seems to have just caught on.
"What do you want me to say?"
"That she's prancing around in the nude!" She is right of course. Narcissa used this room for over a decade. Thousands of iterations of her in various states of undress are performing a number of tasks around the room.
"Good genes." I say, my voice comes out a little strangled.
"Hah!" Tonks cheers. Hermione slaps the back of my head.
"Harry! Stop looking!"
"I can't really help it, she's kinda everywhere at once. Note that I haven't touched the bed." I don't think I could ever look Draco in the eye again.
"Next room!" Tonks grabs my hand and pulls me along. Tonks looks far more excited than she should be.
"What if it's your mother's?" Hermione protests. Tonks wrinkles her nose.
"Then we'll skip it." Tonks look at me expectantly. I sigh and lay my hand on he door.
"Bellatrix's." I say.
"Well come on, open it." She says impatiently.
"What if it's a trap?" She just rolls her eyes.
"Is it?" Damn it.
"No it's not." Should never have told them I could do this. Tonks shoos me towards the door. "Fine." I trace my wand around the door to remove the wards and dispel the chains on the other side. Damn Sirius and his old house. Tonks pushes the door open and the lights turn on. Much the same as Narcissa's, but with large mirrors along one wall.
"What can you see in here? Some weird shit? This is Bellatrix after all." Tonks, once again, uses the mirrors to inspect herself.
"Well, to put it simply, I'm struggling to stand somewhere that she hasn't lain on whilst … doing her thing."
"What?" Tonks looks confused for a second before her eyes widen larger than humanly possible. "You mean … all over the floor?" I nod and try to block out the noise.
"Her wand has seen some things, and I'm not talking about the killing."
"Harry!" Hermione looks like she's either about to burst or faint.
A/N: When Dobby returns, he will be bearing a gift from the Pixies, as a thanks from their people. I've been thinking hard about what it could be. My first idea was that it would be a looking glass that allowed others to see what Harry can see with his powers, but i don't really like the idea. Then i figured that Pixies would be in tune with nature, and animals - So perhaps something to allow Harry to directly talk to Hedwig more than how he can now. It's kind of clichéd, so i'm not sure what people think of it, Then there's the idea of giving Hedwig a human form, which i think would be frowned upon as i've done this before.
Let me know what you think, i might do a poll on my profile if i can figure out how it works. I think the next chapter will be delayed somewhat whilst i decide what exactly is going to happen. Enjoy!