"Now I am going to take my hand away from your mouth and you are going to do some pretty fast explaining, or you'll be in a Ministry cell faster than you can say 'Oh no, not the Dementors of Azkaban'!"
Harry forced himself to be calm as the hand came away from his mouth and gripped his arm in an almost painful, vice-like grasp instead. The wand stayed firmly digging into his throat.
"Professor Moody," he said. "It's really me, Harry Potter."
"Prove it! Tell me why you shouldn't keep your wand in the pocket of your jeans?"
"In case you blow a buttock off!"
"RIGHT! Now, ask me something only I would know."
"Who did you tell me has had a buttock blown off?"
Alastor Moody gave a short sharp laugh. "Don't believe I ever got around to telling you that now, Potter, did I? Now, what the blazes are you doing out here?"
Harry had considered several excuses, in case he was caught, but he had one in particular that he felt sure would satisfy the paranoid old ex-Auror.
"I didn't want anybody to know where I was," he said quickly. "You know, if they knew I was on the train, they might have set up a trap or an ambush for me."
Harry held his breath waiting for Moody to say something. Suddenly the wand was removed from his throat and the hand holding his arm spun him around to face his captor.
Moody was grinning like a maniac; his magical false eye spinning wildly in its socket.
"Good thinking boy. Should have considered that myself. Care to tell me where you have been hiding while the train made its merry way home without you on board?"
"Er, No actually," answered Harry nervously.
"EXCELLENT! Good to see you are taking this seriously. Now, walk next to me until we get near the exit, then drop the cloak. Not a second before, you hear me?"
"Actually, Professor, I think I should let people see me walking away from the train or they might suspect I wasn't actually on it."
"BRILLIANT!" bellowed the slightly mad ex-Auror. "You'll make a fine Auror some day. Where's your trunk?"
Harry took out his trunk and expanded it, then dropped his backpack and robes into it. The invisibility cloak was folded and stuffed back inside his shirt where he could easily get it, while Moody stood guard and blocked people's view of Harry's actions. They then joined the crowd moving slowly along the platform walking side by side to the exit.
Several of his school friends waved to Harry as they made their way out. A few were giving him strange looks and the babble of whispers that followed him everywhere seemed to be a bit louder than usual.
"Something happen you want to tell me about, Potter?" asked Moody, noticing the excessive whispering.
Harry sighed. "Ron, Hermione and I staged a fight before we left Hogwarts. They are probably just gossiping about that."
He didn't feel like going into details about his break up with Ginny.
"More misdirection eh? Good thinking. Confusion to the enemy, that's the ticket! Now what's going to happen when we get to where the Weasley clan is standing?"
Harry looked up and panicked. He knew Mrs Weasley would want to talk to him, but he had not really thought through what he would do or say.
Ron was gesturing wildly while he and Hermione talked with the plump matriarch. Ginny stood nearby looking forlorn and spoke only occasionally, apparently answering questions with single words. She was obviously avoiding looking at anyone, Harry in particular. Mrs Weasley alternated between looking enraged and confused as Ron and Hermione spoke. Charlie Weasley was there too, listening to Ron with a very stern, unreadable expression on his face. His arm was draped over Ginny in a half comforting, half protective manner.
Everything Harry been avoiding thinking about came crashing down on him at the sight if Ginny. With a pang of guilt, he realised the excitement of sneaking off to Diagon Alley and the fun shopping had made it easy to forget he had broken up with her earlier that morning.
He only realised he had stopped walking when Moody nudged him in the back.
"Move it, Potter. Just walk straight past and don't give it a second thought. Everybody will be watching, so make it good, or will all have been for nothing."
Harry sucked in his breath and forced his face into a neutral expression, then strode purposely passed the red headed family he considered his own, without daring to look their way at all.
It was one of the hardest things he had ever had to do.
As he passed by, he could feel Mrs. Weasley wanting to reach out to him, Ron and Hermione stopping her, and Ginny's heart breaking; he felt exactly the same way.
Then he was out into the Muggle world where the family he hated would be waiting to drag him back to the house that had been as much a prison as a home for as long as he could remember.
The Dursleys, of course, failed to show up.
After waiting two hours, Mad-eye, Harry, and Tonks finally concluded that they had not just been delayed by traffic.
"It's okay,' said Harry. "I'll just get the Knight Bus."
"Can't," growled Moody. "Bloody thing doesn't run any more. They couldn't get anybody to be the conductor for longer than a day or two. Seems only that halfwit Shunpike could stand to be on it for any length of time without getting sick or having a nervous breakdown."
"We'll just have to Apparate then," said Tonks.
The young, pink haired, tee shirt and jeans wearing witch had joined them as soon as they had exited platform nine and three quarters. Although there had been several official Auror guards around to make sure nothing happened, Moody and Tonks had volunteered to escort Harry as an extra precaution.
"Do we have to?" asked Harry. He hated the whole 'getting squashed through a rubber tube' feeling of Apparating even more than the spinning dizziness of the Floo or Portkey. "Can't we just fly, or maybe take a Muggle taxi?"
"We'd have to wait too long for it to be dark enough to fly, and there is no way you are going to get me to sit in one of those metal death traps for hours. Come on lad, you're old enough to Apparate without damage now; won't hurt you a bit."
"Have you ever Apparated yourself before?" asked Tonks.
Harry could clearly remember the night Dumbledore had died, just a few days ago.
"Yeah, once in class, and once when I brought Dumbledore back to the castle," he said without thinking.
"Brought Dumbledore back to the castle?" asked Tonks.
Harry kicked himself for that slip of the tongue.
"Er, can't say more. Sorry. The important bit is I managed to Apparate him and me back to Hogsmeade."
"A side-along, eh? Can't see you having any problems then," said Moody.
"I don't have a license," said Harry weakly.
"Don't care much about that lad. Just concentrate on landing in the back yard of your Aunt's place. Shouldn't be anybody around to see and the wards will let us land there."
"Why can't you just side-along Apparate me?" asked Harry.
"Because it is an extra burden that could leave either me or Tonks winded or disorientated. If we were attacked we wouldn't be at full strength, would we? Now quit whining like a newborn dragon and get to it, and for Merlin's sake, take your wand out of your back pocket before you find yourself missing something that lets you sit comfortably without a cushion!"
Tonks stifled a laugh as Harry dutifully took his wand out without mutilating a precious buttock.
"Can you at least shrink my trunk? I am not sure if I can drag it with me," he asked.
Grumbling, the old ex-Auror made them walk down an alley way where they couldn't be seen before shrinking the trunk.
"Shouldn't keep things shrunk for too long lad," he warned, after casting the spell. "They get used to it and want to stay that way. Now off you go then. We'll follow right behind."
Harry put the miniature box into a pocket of the jacket he had put on, then closed his eyes and concentrated on his destination.
"Destination – Determination - Deliberation" he thought to himself, remembering his instructor, Wilkie Twycross's words.
Harry felt his way into the nothingness and then, moving with as much determination as he could, he stepped into terrible feeling of compression, and towards his detestable Aunt's hated back garden.
The echoes of three loud cracks faded as Harry, Moody and Tonks suddenly appeared at the rear of number 4, Privet Drive.
"All here then?" asked Tonks. "Haven't left any bits behind, Harry?"
Harry completed an exaggerated pat down and smiled at Tonks. "I think so, Tonks, what do you reckon?"
"Not quite sure kiddo, we might need to have a closer inspection later to be sure you haven't lost something important!"
Tonks ducked as Harry blushed and swung a playful punch at her.
"Quit joking around and scan the area you two," snarled Moody, his artificial eye spinning madly in its socket. "There could be Death Eaters staking out the house just waiting for you to arrive."
Tonks raised her eyebrows at Harry, but obediently drew her wand and stalked towards the back door of the house.
"Looks like your cousin, Aunt and Uncle are just sitting down to dinner boy," Moody told him, the magical eye seeing through the walls of the house. "Got any way to verify it's really them and not Death Eaters pretending?"
"How much food has my cousin got on his plate?"
Moody gave a grunt of suppressed laughter. "Enough to feed two Trolls, and your Uncle hasn't got much less."
"Yep, it's them," said Harry. "But just to be sure…"
Harry quietly opened the back door, using the spare key that was unimaginatively hidden under the mat, and the three walked into the dining room where the Durlseys were eating.
"Hello Aunty, Uncle, Dudley," said Harry, grinning broadly.
The words where barely out of his mouth before Vernon Dursley was standing up, blue veins bulging in his purple temples, screaming obscenities, Dudley was trying to hide under a table that he was actually larger than, and Petunia looked like she was trying to drag Dudley out of his impractical hiding place while protectively cover him with her own insufficient body at the same time.
Harry laughed at the chaos and turned to Moody.
"Yep, it's definitely them."
Sometime later, after Moody had fired off a canon blast with his wand to regain order, the Dursleys admitted they had indeed received an owl with a letter informing them of the early end of term, but had decided not to trouble themselves with driving all the way to London on such short notice.
"After all," Vernon told them, with a smug smile on his face. "We knew he would be able to find his own freaky way here, and he did, didn't he?"
Tonks was beside herself with anger, but Harry didn't care.
"Why is Dudley home? Did he finally get expelled?" he asked curiously.
Immediately another round of chaos ensured in which Harry discovered he had guessed correctly and the morbidly obese boy was no longer attending the exclusive school. Harry didn't believe Petunia's claims that Smeltings was simply unable to handle a boy of Dudley's exuberant nature, or Vernon's assertions that boarding school had obviously dropped its standards since his day and was now run by idiot, spineless professors.
Finally Moody had enough and once again cut them short. "Enough," he yelled, raising his wand into the air. "Potter, let's get you to your room and you can catch up with your family later."
Harry led the way upstairs with Tonks following closely behind swearing under her breath, and Moody playing tail-end-Charlie as if they were a squad on patrol in hostile territory expecting a surprise attack at any moment.
The three entered Harry's tiny room, but not before Tonks looked pointedly at the locks on the outside of his door and swore even more viciously under her breath.
Moody performed a sweep with his wand, carefully investigating every cupboard and draw, and even poking it into Harry's secret hidey-hole under the loose floorboard, before admitting there were no Dark Wizards hiding anywhere.
Harry took out his miniaturised trunk and performed the expanding charm.
"Aren't you afraid the Ministry is going to detect your underage magic use, Harry?" asked Tonks watching him.
"Professor Dumbledore told me the Ministry can only detect that magic was done inside a house, not who performed it, so with you two here I know I can get away with it."
Seeing Tonks' disbelieving expression, Harry turned to Moody who was peering out of Harry's window into the night sky, possibly watching for approaching flyers.
"Isn't that right, Professor Moody?"
"Told you too many secrets, Dumbledore did," Moody grumbled. "Should never have let that one slip."
"Is that true then?" asked Tonks.
"Close enough lass," confirmed Moody. "They set up wards on every house listed as having an underage wizard in it to detect magic and if there are any adult wizards nearby, but they can't tell who cast the spell. Only works in a small area too, usually just the house and a bit of the yard."
"That can't be right, Professor," said Harry. "The Ministry detected my Patronus all the way over in the alleyway between Magnolia Crescent and Wisteria Walk."
Moody looked very interested at this information.
"There ain't no way the normal wards could detect magic all the way over there, boy. There's something fishy going on with that for sure."
Harry wasn't surprised. Since the Dementors had been sent to kill him by a Ministry official, who was still in office, it wouldn't shock him to find out that even the location he had been ambushed in was set up.
"It doesn't matter. I am seventeen in another couple of months, and Ron and Hermione will be coming to visit soon, so it's not like I will be very restricted."
Tonks was still coming to grips with the knowledge that generations of children had been misled, but Moody was now looking intently at Harry, and appeared to be thinking very hard.
"What?" Harry asked Moody, feeling nervous at the older man's intent gaze.
"It's far too dangerous for you to put up with that nonsense any more. You should be ready to respond instantly to situations without thinking about if you are going to get in trouble for every little spell."
"Not much I can do about it though, is there?" asked Harry.
"You might not be able to, but I can," answered the ex-Auror mysteriously.
"What? How?"
Both Tonks and Harry were giving Moody their full attention now.
"I can change the detection wards to never register any magic use, or to report an adult in occupation at all times. Either way will let you use magic however much you want, but I expect you to be careful! The wards will automatically disappear when you turn seventeen anyway."
"That would be great Professor," said Harry. He had been willing to wait for Ron or Hermione to stay with him to use magic, but this would make things a lot easier. "Can you make it look like there are always at least two adults here with one child? That way anybody spying on me will think I am being guarded all the time."
"Good thinking, Potter, and I told you to stop calling me professor. Moody or Mad-eye will do. Make me feel older than I am you do."
Harry laughingly agreed and turned to talk to Tonks.
"What do you reckon Tonks, should I make it look like an ongoing party in here, or just go for the lonely, well behaved school boy who does no wrong?"
Moody cast a few silencing charms around and then walked to the other side of the room where he started casting spells. Thin wisps of light rose like a mist, expanding slowly before disappearing into the ceiling.
"Bit late for innocence, I think. Definitely go the whole hog," laughed Tonks. "You want this place to look like party central to keep those nasty Death Eaters away - You know how they don't like to mingle with us half bloods!"
They laughed for a few minutes and made some more jokes about Death Eaters in party hats, before quietening down and sitting on the small, rickety bed to watch Moody work at modifying the detection wards.
"So how are you really doing, Harry?" asked Tonks quietly.
Harry paused for a moment and considered his answer carefully. His first reaction was to answer "fine", but he doubted that would get him through this time.
"Not so good, Tonks," he answered truthfully. "It still seems unreal at times, even worse than it was with Sirius last year. I broke up with Ginny too."
"So I heard."
Harry twisted his head quickly to look at Tonks.
"What did you hear? Where did you hear it?"
"Every student and half the parents on the platform were talking about how you broke up with Ginny because you were bored with her, and then got into a fight with Ron in the middle of the common room for treating her like dirt. Don't be surprised if it makes the Daily Prophet tomorrow."
Harry groaned in disgust. Even with attacks occurring almost daily, Harry had no doubt the Daily Prophet would be more interested in his private life than reporting real news.
"Can I assume you broke up to keep her from being a target or something?"
The pain Harry felt in his chest just talking about it was almost as bad as when he had done it earlier that day, though it seemed like it a lifetime ago.
He lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. The light from the spells Moody was casting danced across the roof making interesting patterns on the normally bland ceiling.
"Yeah, something like that," he answered. "You know they are going to be coming after me, right?"
"Yeah, I figured as much. Not sure why, but I think Moody has a fair idea. Do you know why?"
"It doesn't really matter why," said Harry, avoiding the question. "We all know Voldemort is going to keep coming for me until I am dead. You know he has even given orders to his followers that I am not to be killed by anybody else? He wants to do me in himself."
He heard Tonks sharply draw in a breath, but thankfully she held her tongue and let him continue.
"So anybody who is close to me is going to become a target, and Ginny would just be too big a temptation to miss, if she was my girlfriend."
"What about the rest of us Harry? What about Remus, or me? Going to run away to keep us all safe too?"
Harry closed his eyes and thought about what Tonks had just said. Was that what he was really trying to do?
"What are saying, Tonks?" he asked, without opening his eyes. Bright flashes from the magic penetrate his closed lids leaving lingering puzzles of shadows.
"You need your friends, Harry. You shouldn't try and isolate yourself from everybody. That's not living; that's just existing."
Neither can live while the other survives
The words of the prophecy rose into his thoughts unbidden, but he didn't answer Tonks.
Suddenly, the sound and lights of Moody's spell casting ceased, and Harry sat up.
"It's done," Moody said. "As far as anybody at the Ministry is concerned, there will be one magical child and two magical adults present in the house at any one time. The sexes of the adults will change each day. Might look a bit suspicious to anybody paying proper attention, but there isn't much they can do about it without coming inside the house themselves."
"Thanks Profes… ah, Mr Moody,"
"Just Moody, lad. Now, since we have delivered you home safe and sound, and made sure you will be adequately cared for while you are here, is there anything else before we go?"
"No thank you, Moody. I really appreciate your help, both of you."
"So what are your plans now then, Harry?"
Harry thought about what he was going to tell them.
"Last year, Dumbledore asked the Dursley's to allow me to return this summer to make sure my mothers blood protection lasted through the year. It's the only reason I have come back to this hell hole."
"So I am under the best protection possible if I stay here until my seventeenth birthday."
He actually intended on leaving long before his birthday, but he wasn't willing to let them know that, yet.
"In fact," he said, trying to sound casual. "I was thinking about taking a bit of a holiday and going away somewhere. Maybe even go overseas for a week or two. It can't be any more dangerous than staying in Brittain."
Tonks looked suitably surprised at this revelation. Moody just glared suspiciously.
"You know, I have never even seen the ocean, except for once at night under less than ideal conditions?" he said, trying not to think about his ill fated excursion with Dumbledore.
"I can barely swim, since the only times I have ever been in anything larger than a bathtub, is when the old school took us for compulsory lessons. If I hadn't used Gillyweed for the second Triwizard task, I doubt if I could have even stayed afloat for an hour."
"I figured we might be able to sneak away, if Ron or Hermione wanted to come with me that is, and spend a bit of time just looking around. I might even do it as a Muggle. The chances of Death Eaters finding me are less than if I stick to places where everybody knows I have spent my entire life."
Moody grunter his approval at the last comment, but didn't say anything.
"That's actually not a bad idea, Harry," she said. "But, you are not, er, running away from everything are you? Not that anybody would blame you of course," she added hastily.
Harry nearly laughed. He was actually planning on hunting down and destroying the pieces of Voldemort's soul; hardly running away
"Nah," he said smiling. "I just want to go see a few places outside of Hogwarts, London and Privet bloody Drive!"
"Well that sounds like a great idea, but I think you should speak to Remus first, and maybe figure a way to keep in touch wherever you go. You might even be able to convince the old wolf to take a break with you!"
"Great idea. What about you, Tonks? You want to hang out with a bunch of teenagers on holiday and make sure we don't get into too much trouble?"
Tonks grinned brightly and changed the colour of her hair to the luminescent pink it had been at the train Station.
"Think I'll fit in?" she asked, with a mischievous grin lighting up her face.
Harry liked Tonks, and not just because she was much closer to his age compared to his other Order guards. She seemed to have a streak of fun in her that he found appealing, and she managed to take him more seriously than most of the other adults. It might have been fun to travel around with her and Remus, if he didn't have to hunt down the Horcruxes and wasn't destined to slay or be murdered by Voldemort.
"Am I going to have an Order guard following me every day again this year?" he asked them.
Moody grunted before moving off to look out the window again and Tonks looked a bit uncomfortable before answering.
"Sorry, Harry, but we are spread a bit thin this year. The general feeling is after you become an adult, you are going to have to take care of yourself a bit more."
Harry laughed at her discomfit.
"Don't feel guilty about it, Tonks. We all have important things to take care of."
"Potter," interrupted the grisly old ex-Auror who had been standing silent but alert nearby. "Unless you have anything else you want to talk to us about, your fat cousin is currently pressing his ear against your door so hard that I am worried the frame might give way under the weight."
Harry walked over to the door and then opened it abruptly, sending Dudley sprawling in the room on his face.
"Yes Dudley?" asked Harry, looking down at him. "Did you want something?"
Dudley's eyes shot around wildly until he saw Tonks and Moody, who were both pointing their wands at him, then he started babbling incoherently.
"Dudley, calm down,' said Harry. "They won't hex you, unless they have a reason to. Do they have a reason, Dudley?"
"No!" he squealed.
"So what were you doing trying to listen at my door?"
"I knocked," he answered, without taking his eyes of the two wands, "but nobody answered. We couldn't hear anything so Dad figured they must have left. He wants to see you downstairs."
Harry knew if his Uncle had waited until Moody and Tonks had left before wanting to talk to Harry, it must be for a less than noble reason.
"You want us to come with you, Harry?" asked Tonks apparently thinking along the same lines as Harry.
Harry considered facing his Uncle on his own, but realised it would probably end pretty badly if he did, since he could now do magic.
"Yeah, Tonks," he said. "That'd be great."
"Not me," said Moody. "I'm already late getting away. Tonks can stay and help you sort out this lot."
"That's fine, Moody. I really appreciate everything you have done for me already. Do you need to go outside to Apparate or have you changed the wards to let you through from here now?"
"You are turning into a right suspicious bugger aren't you, Harry?" laughed Moody, his magical eye spinning as wildly as ever. "Only you, me, Tonks, Remus and your two friends can do it, but yes, I can leave from this room. Remember – CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
Then he Disapparated with a loud crack.
Dudley screamed and leapt to his feet before practically falling down the steps and running off.
Harry and Tonks laughed as Harry offered her his arm, and then they followed at a much more sedate pace.
They found his Aunt and Uncle in the sitting room. Vernon had taken the chair closest to the fire, right where Dumbledore had sat when he came to collect Harry last year. Petunia was standing beside him, wringing her hands nervously. Dudley was nowhere to be seen.
Both looked to be in mild shock as Tonks and Harry walked in, arm in arm, and sat down on the sofa opposite them.
"What can I do for you, Uncle?" asked Harry, prompting his Uncle from his trance like staring. "Dudley said you wanted to talk to me."
Vernon hesitated, and Harry guessed he was having second thoughts about confronting Harry in front of Tonks.
"It's okay, Uncle," he said encouragingly. "You can talk in front of Tonks."
"After all," he added, with a cheeky grin to the pink haired girl. "She is practically family."
Then Harry boldly put his hand on Tonks' leg in a rather suggestive manner.
After a split second of startled hesitation, Tonks, took her queue from Harry and placed one hand on top of his. She started running her other hand through the hair on the back of his head playfully, paying no attention to the shocked looks she was receiving from his relatives as she smiled sweetly at Harry.
Vernon was flabbergasted and Petunia looked like she was going to start shrieking any moment.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't really introduce you properly did I?" asked Harry innocently.
"Uncle Vernon, Aunty Petunia, this is Nymphaaarggh."
Harry's polite introduction of her first name was abruptly cut off as Tonks's hand clutched the hair on the back of his head painfully.
"Tonks," he recovered quickly. "This is Tonks. She is my godfather's favourite cousin's only daughter. Tonks, these are my only surviving relatives, Uncle Vernon and Aunty Petunia. The enormous white Flobberworm you saw rolling down the stairs earlier was my cousin, Dudley."
"Pleasure to meet you both," purred Tonks seductively. Then she screwed up her face and changed the colour of her hair to bright blue.
Vernon and Petunia were gaping at Tonks. The multiple shocks to their system causing their mouths to open and close and making them resemble stranded fish.
"Now, Uncle, what did you want to see me about?" asked Harry again.
Vernon rallied and tried to make excuses about leaving it for another time since Harry had company, but Harry insisted.
"No, Uncle, you got me down here to discuss something important, so let's get right to it shall we?"
"Right," said Vernon, puffing his chest up to try and look more intimidating. "It's about your Godfather actually."
Harry felt Tonks' hand stop moving in his hair and his own muscles tense involuntarily.
"What about him?" he asked, letting some irritation be heard in his voice.
"That fellow who came to get you last time. What was his name? Dumbdoor…"
"Dumbledore."
"Yes, Dumbledore. He said that you had inherited some gold and a house."
"What of it?" Harry tried very hard to keep his voice level, but he could see where this was heading.
"Well, we think that, since you have been living under our roof and we have provided all the necessities for you, that we should be compensated."
The only thing stopping Harry from leaping to his feet and hexing both of them was Tonks's hand on top of his. Although he knew she would be as angry as he was, she gave his hand a gentle squeeze, and surprisingly, it immediately calmed him down.
"Compensated? You want me to give you some of the money I got when Sirius was murdered?"
"We think it is only fair."
Harry took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second before opening them and looking directly at his relatives.
"How much, do you think?" he asked.
"Well that depends on how much you got really…" started Vernon.
"No," said Harry cutting him off. "How much is ten years rental on a cupboard under the stairs Uncle? How much are the poorest, second-hand, cast off clothes of Dudley's and occasional inadequate meals worth? And how much are you going to pay me for all the work I done for you? How many mornings did I have to make you breakfast? How many hours have I spent keeping your garden weeded?"
Vernon opened his mouth to protest as Petunia clasped her hands over her mouth, but Harry wasn't done yet.
"How many bruises and sprains did Dudley and his gang give me over the years, Uncle Vernon? Do you think that constitutes entertainment for him? Shouldn't I get something for living most of my life as a punching bag toy?"
"Exactly how much money did you think I would be willing to give you for these necessities?"
Petunia's eyes widened in shock and Vernon's face had been getting redder and redder as Harry spoke. He looked like he was ready to explode, or turn into a tomato, but Harry decided not to give him a chance.
"I'll tell you what, Uncle. I'll give you more money than you could ever have possibly spent on me."
Harry dug his free hand into the pocket of his jeans and tossed a single Galleon to Vernon.
"There you go," he said, as Vernon clumsily caught the large gold coin before it fell to the floor. "That's what I inherited; Gold Galleons. Only problem is that you can't spend it in your world. It is a wizarding coin and you can't even get it changed into pounds, or melted down into pure gold. The only thing you can do is to go into the wizarding world and spend it."
Harry stood up and Tonks rose with him, still holding his hand firmly, but no longer smiling vacantly.
"Now, Uncle, I am going to my room. I will be staying here for a few weeks and I expect you, and your family, to keep out of my way. I will occasionally be having visitors, and you will treat them with respect and courtesy or I will come back after I turn seventeen and curse you ten times for every time you insult or yell at them."
Vernon was straining to explode, but Harry knew he would not, not while Harry was dominating him with his manner.
"You will never again mention money to me, or how grateful I should be to you for providing me with anything, or I will make it so that your whole house and everybody in it, is remembered in this and any other neighbourhood you move to. And, trust me on this one, the memory won't be for anything nice."
The threat was not an idle one, and Vernon seemed to realise it. He gripped the arms of his chair tightly, but did not say a word. Petunia whimpered slightly at Harry's ranting but also kept quiet; possibly intimidated by Harry for the first time in her life.
"I will provide for myself and my visitors, so you don't have to worry about spending any more of your precious money, but don't think for one second that I appreciate the way you raised me."
"Quite frankly, I wish I had been put into an orphanage, just like Aunt Marge said you should have done. At least then I would have had a fair chance at a normal childhood."
"Now I suggest you keep that galleon in your pocket, and every time you feel the need to rant or rave about my freakishness, the abnormalities of my world, or how much I have cost you, take it out and think about how I could choose to repay your kindness."
"Good night."
Harry turned and left the room dragging Tonks by her hand behind him.
"'Night, nice to meet you!" she called back towards his Uncle and Aunty in a falsely sweet voice.
Once they were back in his room and the silenced door was closed again, Harry began to pace up and down angrily, fuming at the nerve of his relatives.
Tonks sat down on his bed and watched silently.
It was not as if he expected anything better from them, but he still felt betrayed somehow. He knew he was particularly angry at the thought of them trying to profit from Sirius's death.
Harry threw a kick at door of the wardrobe that wouldn't close properly. It bounced open, defying him. Before he knew it, he was kicking and punching the door to pieces and screaming at it in rage.
A hand grabbed him roughly and spun him around, away from the offending wardrobe.
Then, suddenly, he was crying on Tonks' shoulder as they stood in the middle of the room. He was leaning heavily on her and weeping like he had never wept before, not even after Sirius had died. She gently stroked the back of his head and soothed him with calm, soft words.
Harry didn't really understand what was happening to him. He didn't know his reaction was quite a normal consequence of stress, but he couldn't have stopped it even if he tried. The emotional roller coaster he had been on since watching Dumbledore's murder had finally crashed, and luckily, he did not have to endure the resulting mess alone.
After what seemed like an eternity of suffering, Harry's tears dried up and Tonks managed to calm him down enough for his sobbing to stop. His eyes felt like they were burning and he was sure he must have shed enough tears to drench her clothes.
"Sorry,' he sniffed, pulling back and starting to feel embarrassed. Even in his distraught state, he couldn't help notice that she had been crying as well.
"Don't be silly, Harry; nothing to apologise to me for."
"After all," she added in a lighter tone, "you are almost family!"
Harry let out a weak laugh, and suddenly he felt much better.
"Now, do you want to go to the bathroom and wash your face while I repair the wardrobe and make a bed for myself?" she asked.
Harry wasn't sure at what point Tonks had decided she was going to be spending the night there with him, but strangely he felt better knowing he would not be alone.
"Nah," he answered, with a grin. "I got a better idea."
A short while later they entered the small tent he had bought in Diagon Alley that day. It was vastly easier to magically erect it in his room, moving his old furniture out of the way and using sticking charms to set the ropes out against walls and the floor, compared to the non-magical effort he and Hermione had undertaken at the World Cup with the Weasleys.
There was barely standing room for two left in the original bedroom once it was up though.
Harry wondered what the Dursleys would think if one of them opened the door and looked in to see a tent set up in the middle of the room. A quick spell or two on the door and no Muggle was going to be able to open it in a hurry.
Hedwig hadn't arrived yet, so Harry set out her cage and dishes on the old writing desk under the window. He had set her free before leaving Hogwarts and told her not to rush home, so she was probably still out hunting.
"Nice," said Tonks, looking around the rooms inside the tent. "Very respectable, and convenient."
Harry was retrieving his grocery bags from his backpack and unshrinking things before packing them away. The tins were getting piled haphazardly into the first kitchen cupboard he had opened. The more perishable items were going to have to be eaten soon, but the rest could stay in the kitchen indefinitely. The butterbeer could be cooled with a quick charm just before drinking, but he needed a fridge.
"You hungry?" he asked, realising that he hadn't eaten anything since lunch.
"Sure, what you got?"
Harry glanced at the two tins he was holding.
"Roast chicken, or barbecued side of marinated Llama?"
"Hmm, Llama eh? Think I might go the chicken tonight please luv, got to watch my figure."
"Coward," he teased, putting the other tin into the cupboard.
Although he wasn't exactly sure what to expect from the tinned food, he was fairly confident he could cook up a couple of plates of meat and some tinned vegetables pretty easily, if he could find a tin of vegetables amongst the sometimes exotic wizarding meals he had hurriedly bought.
It was a complete shock when a whole, cooked, and steaming hot roast chicken fell out of the small tin and into the pot.
Tonks burst out laughing at the surprised expression on his face.
"Lucky you didn't try the Llama,' she said, through tears of mirth. "I don't think your pot is large enough!"
Later, after they had cleaned up and Tonks had set up both camp beds in the main room, she transfigured strips of one of Dudley's old tee-shirts into brightly coloured mattresses and bedding. The camp bed was actually more comfortable than the lumpy mattress and worn spring bed provided by the Dursleys.
Harry doused the light and lay down to sleep. It had been a very long and tiring day, and Harry was more than ready to collapse into a heavy sleep, but he found himself lying on his back staring upwards.
"Tonks?" he said into the darkness.
"Hmm?" came the sleepy reply.
"Thank you,"
"Don't mention it."
Harry spent a restless night dreaming of searching Diagon Alley for the Philosopher's Stone because it was a Horcrux, while Death Eaters, Ron, and Ginny, all cast hexes and curses at him every time he stepped out of a shop. Hagrid was carrying Dumbledore's body in a procession through streets that were lined with people in black masks and white robes, all pointing their wands accusingly at Harry.