Harry sighed and decided on what to do. He didn't want to wake Tonks because that would lead to a lot of questions that he didn't feel like answering at the moment. "Might as well figure out what's wrong with me," he thought to himself. The list was surprisingly short for how much pain he was feeling at the moment. His arm was still a little sore so he decided against using it for the time being. He was also a bit light headed which put any running out of the question, not like they would let him leave the house anyway. What did that leave in the ways of physical activity, hmm… not much. Since I can't use my body, why don't I check out my magical abilities?

He then proceeded to dive into his trunk in a search for his school books. The best way to improve would be to actually take a page out of Hermione's book and study. When he was finished in his trunk, he had removed most of the books that he had acquired over the years. Quirrel, Gilderoy, and Umbridge didn't really count as teachers, and, sadly, care of magical creatures wasn't going to help him much in the coming war.

Since potions was his worst subject (mostly because of Snape), he rationalized that it would be a good idea for him to take a look at those books in an effort to improve his skills in that area. Grabbing his first year potions book from among the pile, Harry began the quest of relearning his schooling.

A little while later, Harry noticed some very disturbing things, to him at least. The first was that he had understood all of what he read. The second was that he had improved on some of the basic potions that he had read about, and finally, he remembered what he read, every single word in perfect order.

While these facts scared the shit out of him, he had more important problems, such as the awaking beauty that was lying on the bed behind him.

When Tonks woke up, she was confused at first. Questions buzzed through her mind, the most prominent being, "Where am I?" All thoughts left her mind as she saw the slim, green-eyed, black-haired teenager sitting in front of her, shoved aside by one word, Shade.

Tonks instincts told her to run, after all, she had only heard bad things about shades, such as the ability to control shadows, or the more common rumors of them being aggressive in an almost, bestial way. Those were some of the nicer ones, just thinking of the other ones made her shiver.

Her musings were cut short as she heard a sigh from the only other person in the room. She looked up to see a hurt and saddened Harry sitting in front of the bed with those green eyes of his. She suddenly felt very ashamed of her actions. With a lowered head, she slowly returned to Harry's side. Still avoiding Harry's gaze, she said a soft apology and then Harry grabbed her chin to look into her eyes. After a while, he gave a nod as though he saw that she meant it and asked what the problem was.

"Well, I've heard some nasty rumors about shades and since I can't tell the truth from fiction, I tried to get as far away from you as possible," if Harry didn't think she gave an honest apology earlier, the way she said that sentence sure helped.

"Well, I'll let you ask me some questions about what I'm becoming and I'll do my best to answer you," he didn't know everything about his people…yet.

"Let's start with the basics such as what are you, what's a shade, and what can you do?" she had become a student again just learning as much as she could.

"Like I said before, I'm a shade, but there's more to a shade than most people thinks. For example, there are actually three types of shades; the first being the half-shade. These are just beginning their life as a shade. As time goes on, their powers will grow and they will become more noticeable as shades. Their skin will darken and most of them will get yellow eyes, it is said that the closer a shade's eye color to its original eye color, the more powerful it is. Also, they will come into more abilities until they reach full shade. The second stage of a shade is that of full shade. This stage doesn't gain any more abilities, but the abilities that they have will become more powerful and their skin should be completely black by now. This is also the stage where the most physical changes occur. They are usually linked to the personality of that person and are almost always different. For example, some of the more ruthless of shades will grow horns and spikes for hand-to-hand combat. Some of them even gain gills so that they can breathe underwater, but they keep their lungs so that they can still function above water, at least, most of them do. The final stage for a shade is hardly ever reached, it only happens to extremely powerful shades that have been around for a while, for a shade, that's about a century. It is thought to be very painful, as all the enhancements that they have gained throughout the years get sucked into their body, but they can still use them, they just have to focus to bring them out. This doesn't include their skin color or their eyes, though. Even if it is painful, it is also supposed to give a huge power boost and some choice skills, like a sixth sense or mage sight, that's where they can see magic and how it works like no one else," this monologue was exhausting to say the least, but he had to finish up his explanation before she could ask more questions, "As for what I can do, right now, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, or at least I think so."

Tonks had paid very close attention to Harry's little, if you could call it that, speech and she was amazed to hear that a lot of things would be happening to Harry in a very short time. More amazing was the fact that he seemed almost okay with this fact.

When she realized that he was looking at her, she said, so softly that Harry had to almost strain to hear it, "I'm sorry Harry. My reaction was normal and you can expect it in your foreseeable future, at least in the magical world, because there are at least a few horrendous stories about shades that are circulating at the moment."

Harry sighed and replied, "I was afraid of that."

Tonks just stared at him for a moment. This boy, no man that sat in front of her, that had just last night saved her from his uncle seemed to be defeated at the thought that people would treat him with such fear. This man that had stared down Voldemort, had killed a basilisk, was triwizard champion, and had infiltrated the department of mysteries, was defeated at the thought of how people would react to him now.

"Snap out of it, you have done enough things to realize that public opinion of you hasn't been really high anyway, last year should have proved it to you if nothing else, and besides, you have stared down you-know-who and you're still here, what's a little bad press going to do to you?"

Her words seemed to help Harry, at least a little bit, so he leaned forward and gave her a hug. When he pulled back he said, "Thanks Tonks, that's just what I needed right now."

Tonks noticed how close they were and was about to act on her feelings by snogging Harry's lights out when the doorbell rang.

Harry snapped his head in the direction of the ring because nothing good ever came from the doorbell ringing, and decided to investigate.

Standing up, Harry made his way to the door and, upon opening it, heard his uncle yell his name, or what counted for it in this house. He was just about to step onto the stairwell when he remembered his sword. He quickly grabbed it along with the sheath that had appeared overnight, and strapped them on. Satisfied, he made his way downstairs. The sight that greeted him filled him with an almost feral anger. The one person that was standing in front of the open door was the cause of all of his pain over his entire life was standing within ten feet of Harry and he couldn't do anything about it.

Dumbledore was at number 4 Privet Drive.