"Tonks, as much as I like you sitting in my lap, I must insist that you move,"

Not expecting a sneak attack, she looked at the young man underneath her with a shocked expression. After recovering from the moment of shock, she slid off of his lap for the second time that night, allowing Harry to sit up. This was accomplished with slow effort and a small hiss of pain on Harry's part.

"So Tonks, what are you doing at my house?" the question was straightforward and to the point and Tonks found that she couldn't answer in the same way.

"Well, I had to make sure that that fat muggle didn't do anything stupid like what he did downstairs," while part truth, their was still her secret that she wouldn't tell him… not yet at least.

"I'd say that was a good decision on your part as just a few minutes ago I was lying downstairs with a broken shoulder-blade, a few minor cuts, and maybe a minor concussion,"

The way he just seemed to joke about it made Tonks suspect that this may not have been the first encounter that Harry had with his uncle. Deciding to continue her inventory of the night, before she arrived that is, she asked, "Where did you get that magnificent sword that's in your hand?"

Harry picked it up to get a better look at it and noticed something unusual. The blood from Vernon's fingers was gone without a trace like it had never been there at all. "To tell you the truth Tonks, I have absolutely no idea. I was just having a shouting match with my uncle when it appeared in my hand. Needless to say my entire family was shocked to say nothing of me."

Tonks' jaw dropped. She hadn't even heard of the ability to call items out of nowhere, and she was pretty sure that he hadn't created it; it was too wonderful of a blade for something like that to happen. "You're saying that it just appeared in your hand without any reason as to why? How can that be possible?" she was asking herself more than Harry at the moment.

Harry scrunched up his face in concentration and then said, "Well I was thinking about all the things that Dumbledore didn't tell me and I realized that if I'm ever going to make it out of this war alive, then not only do I need to train, I also need the truth from everybody around me, that way there won't be any surprises like with Sir-"at this point Harry's voice cut out. He just couldn't talk about his godfather so soon after his death. When he looked up at Tonks he realized that she was crying. For a second he was confused, but then it all became clear to him. Sirius had said something about him being close to Tonks when they were kids. Not understanding what he was doing, Harry stood up and pulled Tonks into a soft and consoling hug. She momentarily resisted, but then gave in entirely, crying for a long while on Harry's shoulder. After about a half hour of this, she chuckled into his shoulder. Bewildered, he pulled her back to get a good look at her.

She just looked at him and said, "I'm supposed to be the strong adult and help you through this traumatic time in your life, and what do you do, you give me a shoulder to cry on."

Harry didn't exactly know what to say to this and did his best impression of a goldfish thus making Tonks burst out into laughter.

"Harry, you didn't do anything wrong. You don't have to explain yourself. In fact, I think It's kind of endearing that you would let little old me cry on your shoulder when you're the one that just got the shit kicked out him by his uncle," her old playfulness had returned in full force it seems.

"Yeah well, I'm used to that by now. I mean, if you look at it the right way, you could say that these beatings were just practice until I entered the wizarding world," Harry added with some dark humor. "There have been more times than I can count where I've woken up in the hospital wing instead of my bed in the dormitory, I've gotten so used to being there that I swear, Poppy has gotten me a special goblet with my name on it."

This sent Tonks into gales of laughter and she couldn't stop for a good long while. "You have no idea how good it feels to laugh like that, it's been so long since I've actually had a good enough reason," she stated after her mirth had finally subsided. "Returning to the present for a time, where am I going to sleep?"

Harry was momentarily dumbstruck barely able to form the conscious thought to say, "What?"

Tonks adopted a look of mock hurt on her face when Harry said this, "Why Harry, I never thought that you could be so inconsiderate of another person's feelings. You almost made me cry," accompanied by her finger trailing down her cheek with that bloody pouting look that makes everyone feel like they did something wrong, "That you could forget about my needs like that makes me wonder if it was a good idea to sleep in your room."

Realizing that she was teasing him he decided to return fire, "Well Tonks you could always sleep in my bed with me," what he saw on her face was completely unexpected. She looked almost giddy at the thought until she noticed that he was staring at her.

Well, the show must go on, "But it's so small, we won't be able to do anything at all in it." She got what she was looking for as a blush crossed Harry's face. "Oh, fine. I'll just transfigure it to make it larger alright?"

This got an acceptable nod from Harry and without any ado she began the spell. Though simple enough, it took a lot of magic for something to stay transfigured for extended periods of time. Harry knew this and decided that he didn't ever want to get in a duel with Tonks if he could help it.

When the bed was done expanding, Harry immediately began to strip down to his boxers. The only problem was that he had forgotten about the sword and the wand that he held in his hands. He ended up being a tangled mess and ultimately, in his struggle against the clothing, fell backwards onto the floor with a soft thud. Tonks again burst out into laughter after seeing Harry struggle so hard against something so simple as undressing. When he finally completed undressing, Tonks let out a little gasp at the sight of him. She had thought that he might be like any normal teenager with just the barest amount of fat on his bones, but what she saw and what she thought were two very different things. Harry Potter was packed with lean muscle without an ounce of fat on his lean frame. She didn't know this, but it was due mainly in part to the chores and the starvation that his family always put him through during the summer. She did her best to collect herself before Harry saw her or she wouldn't here the end of it. When Harry disentangled himself from everything that was adorning his frame he looked up to see Tonks already in her night clothes. This included a t-shirt and some short shorts, both pink to match her hair, and for a while Harry was too caught up in looking at her that he didn't notice her sizing him up at the same time. Hedwig noticed though and wasn't sure that she approved, but like most people, she couldn't help but wish that Harry was happy. Usually that involved him giving her treats and petting her (figure that one out) and so, she hooted her disappointment at getting no attention as of yet.

Both people in the room instantly had their wands trained on the Hedwig's cage and then relaxed. Realizing how silly the both of them must have seemed, to be startled by an owl's hoot, Harry let out a belly laugh. Tonks just looked at him with a questioning look for a little while and then figured out what he was laughing at. Instead of rolling on the ground laughing like Harry, she just let a satisfied smile creep onto her features at the sight of him helplessly laughing.

"Well?"

Harry's laughing stopped but there were tears running down his cheeks from mirth and he was still lightly chuckling, "Well what?"

Tonks sighed in mock impatience and just nodded towards Hedwig.

Following her line of sight, Harry ended up running over to let Hedwig out. When he realized that he had forgotten to grab her treats out of his trunk, he just willed them there and they appeared. Too caught up to understand what he had just done, he unlocked Hedwig's cage, gave her a treat and then walked over and opened up the window to let her fly. She gave a hoot of appreciation, flew to Harry's shoulder, gave his ear a playful nip, and then took off into the dark of night to go hunting.

Tonks though, had not missed the fact that a box of owl treats had appeared out of nowhere into Harry's hand accompanied by a surge of magical power from Harry's core. She, of course, could do it, but with a lot of concentration, and I mean a lot of concentration, and she could only summon small things like a teapot or… a box of owl treats. Shaking her head, she decided to put this ever increasing amount of knowledge away as one more thing to ask him about.

"Are you going to join me Tonks or are you just going to stand there staring at me?" Apparently, while she had been lost in thought, Harry had lied down onto the bed and was waiting for her to accompany him before he became comfortable. He had an odd feeling that that wouldn't be too hard with a beautiful woman sleeping in the same bed as him, his manhood just inches away from her nether regions, so no, Harry Potter would have no trouble getting to sleep that night.

Tonks' face heated up and her heart started beating fast again, just like it always did when Harry flirted with her. Then a dark smile crept onto her face and she moved sexily over to the bed, or so she hoped, and laid down, making an extra effort to wiggle her bum into him as she got comfortable. Harry's groan was all the acknowledgement was all that was needed to confirm her victory yet again. Oh Harry, she thought to herself, you are out of your class when it comes to flirting. Then he did something completely unexpected. He wrapped his arm around her waist and drew her close to him as he too became comfortable. Dammit, he wasn't supposed to work up the nerve to do that to me for a while yet, oh well. Not like I'm gonna stop it, it just feels so damn good. They both fell to sleep in those exact positions, though what the morning would bring is unknown.

As predicted, the morning brought a pleasant surprise for both of Harry's bed occupants.

Harry awoke feeling better than he had in a long time. As he tried to stretch, he realized why. His right arm was pinned underneath her leaving him unable to stretch while his left was, well, holding onto Tonks' thigh like it was the best thing ever invented. Which for a hormone driven teenager, it was.

Harry tried to frantically find a way to get himself out of trouble when Tonks lashed out with her left arm in a stretch whacking him right in the face. Auror instincts taking over, Tonks threw herself out of bed and aimed her wand at the disoriented Harry Potter. For a while she was dumbfounded, and then the previous night came back to her, the entrance, the slap, Harry's new sword, the fight, and of course the falling to sleep in the arms of Harry Potter himself. Though he didn't realize it, which was one of the most dreamed about fantasies for witches across the U.K. Well, that and waking up in those arms day after day (after day) to a smiling and content Harry Potter.

Though slightly confused, Harry was glad that the embarrassing situation was avoided, for the moment. He tried, in vain, to focus on Tonks and only ended up becoming dizzy. Finally, he just decided to let his eyes figure themselves out before he tried to do anything else. When he could see straight without any focus, Harry saw Tonks standing with her wand pointing right at his chest. Without thinking, Harry just called out for protection in his mind. Surprisingly, his, and he had no doubt that it was his, sword came to his call in a guard position. To say nothing, both parties were shocked into speechlessness. Harry, that the sword could apparently hear him, and Tonks that Harry was holding the sword as if he had known how to for his entire life, that part scared her more than she would like to admit, and apparently, she had yet another thing to quiz Harry on when they had time.

Harry was the first to recover from his shock and again without a thought, returned it to its scabbard. Harry did a double take at this. It wasn't that the sword was glamorous, quite the opposite actually, it was made of some dark material that seemed to just suck in the light, like it was a never ending pit of darkness. Harry decided to have a talk with his new sword later when he was alone. After all, it had done some unusual things in the past night, why wouldn't it be able to talk to him? He could've sworn that it had told him to kill his uncle Vernon last night anyway. Harry's face paled at the memories of last night. He had chopped off his uncle's fingers, true they had been repaired as good as new, but that wasn't the point. The only reason he hadn't killed him was because his thinking was a little fuzzy and he didn't know how to use a sword all that well. Doesn't that make me as bad as a murderer? I had the intent, the malice, the will, and of course, the ability to do it, but it was just an accident that Vernon didn't die the other night. What would've happened if I had killed him? Questions like these arose in multitudes one after another leaving Harry no time to answer them when one stood out among the hundreds. Does she think I am a murderer? This last question forced him to look into the eyes of a very confused Tonks. She had seen him vanish the sword (how does he do that?) when she saw his face lose all color and turn away from her. When he looked back up to her, she could see the turmoil on his face and understood what he was afraid of.

"Harry," this drew Harry's complete attention to her, "I don't think that you're a killer, I just think that you're a survivor."

Obvious relief flooded onto his face when he crossed the tiny space between them to give her an unexpected hug in silent thanks. Tonks just pushed him back and smiled at him.

"Now Harry, you should probably put some clothes on before you embarrass yourself," Tonks jab brought Harry back to reality. He quickly looked down and a blush smothered his face in red as he grabbed some clothes and headed out of the room, muttering something about visiting the loo.

Tonks laughed lightly at Harry's expense for a little bit and then the mirth suddenly died as she looked at the mysterious sword.

Yes it had probably saved Harry's life the other night, but does that make it good? This question, along with others like "what is it?" and "where'd it come from?" were at the top of her to know list. As she was speculating Harry walked back into the room. God, he looks even better wet, she thought to herself as she stared at his body.

"Okay, now it's your turn," Harry stated as though it were the simplest fact in the world.

Tonks blinked and then asked, "For what?" she was well and truly confused at this moment.

Harry smirked and answered, "Well, since you got to see my front, doesn't that mean that I get to see yours? At least, I think that's how this game works."

Tonks just stared for a second and then comprehension dawned on her as some things clicked in her mind. The blush that followed put Harry's earlier one to shame and he smiled in victory.

Deciding that they had better get ready, Harry told her to go clean up, and still in a playful mood she replied, "But I thought you liked me better sweaty?"

Harry blinked once and then returned fire, "I like the fresh sweat, you know, the first time. After the second and third time, you start to smell awful."

Tonks was too shocked to speak. Then a thought crossed her mind, God he learns fast. Deciding to finish the battle, if not winning it, she created a pillow and threw it at him as she rushed down to the loo.

When she returned, she found Harry sitting on his bed with an empty and a full plate of food at his side with the sword resting in his hand comfortably. He seemed to be in intense concentration and just staring at it.

Tonks thanked him for the breakfast with a little poke at how considerate he was and she got… absolutely no response. Shrugging her shoulders she started to wolf down the food Harry had prepared for her.

When Harry finally came from his trancelike state, he looked over to see Tonks sitting there calmly and jumped about two inches off of the bed, causing him to fall onto the floor. Tonks started laughing realizing quickly that you can't eat and laugh at the same time without some consequences, hers being a coughing fit to clear her airways.

When she had stopped coughing, and when Harry had stood back up, she asked, "What were you doing that you didn't notice little ole me walk into the room?" this entire sentence was accompanied by a small pout on her part.

Harry all of a sudden, and for no reason whatsoever, and started to blush. Then he said, "Well, you're going to think I'm crazy if I tell you."

When she realized how important that this was, all evidence of the playful Tonks' disappeared and only Tonks the auror remained. "No I won't Harry, you can trust me."

While her words were simple, the emotion behind them gave Harry pause. When he looked at Tonks, he knew that she was telling the truth. Then all of the tension left his body as he relaxed and decided to tell her everything, but on one condition.

"Tonks, what I am about to tell you, nobody has known for centuries and so I must ask for your witches oath that you will never tell anyone about it."

When she opened her mouth to speak, he cut her off saying, "Especially Dumbledore, if he knew what I now have in my possession, he would immediately whisk it away for my own safety." He ended with a sneer and while Tonks was mystified as to how she knew what he was going to ask, she closed her mouth when she saw the look on his face. Another thing for her to ask him about over her stay… maybe.

Tonks finally nodded and recited the words, "I, Nymphadora Tonks, do swear on my magic that if I ever repeat the words that are about to spoken to me, that magic may become, not only unusable, but also a poison that will kill me slowly and painfully."

Harry nearly whistled at that. The only thing that stopped him was the seriousness of the situation. She wasn't going to tell anyone about their talk now that was for sure.

Harry recited his acceptance of the oath and began the history lesson.

"You probably don't know what this sword is because it hasn't been seen in over a millennium, and even then it was thought just a myth, a childhood fairytale to frighten little children you may have heard the modern version of that story, it's called the boogeyman." She was a little worried about the little children thing but decided to not interrupt Harry's story. Sensing no interruption forthcoming, Harry continued, "While that story blew this blades powers way out of proportion, there is at least a little truth to it. This blades purpose was to even out the world so that no one faction became too powerful and end the entire world," seeing her confused, he explained, "imagine that it's light outside, when you walk you notice all the shadows around you, thus the light creates the dark. Now the opposite is also true. Without any light, there can be no life because no one can see and nothing can grow thus creating a need for the light. The only problem is that sometimes one side comes perilously close to becoming all consuming without realizing what they are doing and this blade comes to help…sometimes."
"Sometimes? Why only sometimes?"

"Well, another purpose for the sword and just as important as the balancing act, is that of the finding out the truth. The only way that it will ever answer a person's call is for that person to be lied to about their life or more often than not, in my case it was both," that same sneer crossed his face, "but I'm getting off the subject. It only comes to a person when they need or want the truth badly enough to kill for it. It actually gives them the power to do just that."

A look of shock passed across her face, that was to be expected, but the quizzical look that followed was not. Harry arched an eyebrow and continued.

"The blade teaches its user how to wield it in hand-to-hand combat and gives them the ability to learn the darker side of magic if they don't already have the aptitude for it, which I do."

Tonks was at a loss for words at the expression on Harry's face but then the question that had been burning in the back of her mind ever since he had started this lecture sprang forth and blew away her other concerns. It was a simple, "How?"

It seemed that Harry had known that this particular question was going to pop up sooner or later as a sour look crushed the mysterious one. Of course, that didn't make it any easier for him to answer it. He carefully choose his words and began, "The sword leaves a mark in every time that it chooses to enter and its wielder at the time does the same to it. After a while, it became what we would call a sentient being. It also gleaned all the information it could from its owners mind."

The way he said it so offhandedly made Tonks relax, but then the words suddenly hit her and she got a crick in her neck from how fast she turned it. "You mean to tell me that that sword can actually think?"

The way her eyes were popping out of her skull and her mouth was hanging open; Harry knew that she was taking this the wrong way. He let out a sigh and explained, "In a sense yes, but it's completely subservient to its wielder and if another picks it up, it knows and will reject that person no matter what."

Though she was still unconvinced, she decided to trust Harry on this one. A silent shrug and a rubbing of her neck let Harry know that it was okay if he was okay with it and that he should continue.

Relief washed through him and he did, continue, that is, "While the sword is powerful, it can't stop the killing curse or any of the other unforgivables, but it teaches you all that you may need to know to win your battles, even though the spells are a bit outdated, that doesn't mean they won't work, in fact, they should probably work better than normal ones because nobody will know how to block them."

"What kind of spells?"

This was a tricky area to convince anyone of, especially an auror in the employ of a very powerful headmaster of a certain wizarding school. "Some of the light ones like simple healing spells, a bunch of shields, and even a few travel spells like the portus spell," Tonks was shocked, the portkey spell couldn't be found anywhere and wasn't taught in any schools like Hogwarts, well, any with a good reputation for not teaching the dark arts, "a couple of the neutral spells like the full body bind and stupefy and multiple nastier versions of those two along with some mixes of the two."

Tonks was wary of this question, but asked it anyway, "And what about the dark spells?"

Harry sucked in a breath and focused his mind. This, after all was the hardest part of all. "Well, I prefer to call them more like gray spells."

"Okay, what are they?"

Harry held up his hands and asked, "Wait for me to finish with spells that it has taught me already before you say anything, okay?" with her nod, he continued, "Well there are the standard bone spells, like the bone breaker and exploder, there are some fleshy ones, like the shredder and inflamer, that's a nasty one, there are blood spells, like the boiler and the diluter, of course the fire curses, like fireball and some mixes between bludgeoning and burning spells, and of course, the unforgivables."

Tonks had become more and more anxious as the list of spells grew, some of those weren't even heard of, and when Harry mentioned the unforgivables, she nearly lost it then and there, but respecting the fact that Harry had gone through in five years what most wizards and witches didn't go through in a lifetime, she just swallowed and asked, "Anything else?" This was more a desperate plea than a question, she was just hoping that it couldn't get any worse than it already was, could it?

Harry was amazed at the restraint that Tonks was displaying and regretted having to play his two last cards. "Only two," as if saying this could help with her fears even though she nearly passed out at the flood of information from Harry, she hung on to the end.

"And they are?"

Harry scratched his chin and mumbled something that Tonks couldn't make out.

"What was that Harry?"

He took a deep breath and said in a clear voice, "It taught me how to summon devils and angels for one," he had to stop there for Tonks had finally giving in and fainted.

After Harry had successfully returned Tonks to the conscious world, he played the last card and the one that just might send her running from his house in fear, "I'm also part shade now."

Tonks was at a loss for words again that day and decided to take her only way out. Of course, she couldn't abandon Harry, so she fainted… again.