Chapter 14: A Variety of Bonds
The next day began as normal; the young couple woke up and soon were ready to begin the day, as always, starting with training with one of the spirits, in this case Salazar.
When they entered the training room, the founder was already waiting. And the look on his face told them that they were going to learn a lot this morning, but they were not going to enjoy one minute of it.
"Good morning, how nice of you to join me." He began with an evil smile. "Today I am going to teach you both offensive magics to the best of my ability. This will include many things that modern witches and wizards seem to think are impossible." He then directly addressed Tonks, "Many of these spells will be far beyond your ability. Do not take offence, it is merely a fact." He stated plainly. "Now, I want to see you duel each other to the best of your abilities so I can see where you stand already."
For about ten minutes, Harry and Tonks did just that, though Tonks ended up spending most of the time jumping away from Harry's spells and very little casting her own, as she discovered early on that he was more than powerful enough for his spells to rip through her shields without losing much of their force.
Eventually Harry landed a very advanced form of stunning spell that he had found the previous year while researching for the DA. It instantly knocked her out, and threw her backwards with a great deal of force, that would have made her little more than a smear on the wall had he not used a quick wandless spell to stop her movement and lower her to the floor before reviving her.
Needless to say, Tonks was somewhat embarrassed, there she was, fully trained Auror, beaten and covered in sweat from her efforts, while him, who shouldn't even be out of school yet was still standing and hadn't seemed to make much of an effort. But she wasn't angry, just humiliated.
"I see." Said Slytherin, "It seems as though although you each know different sets of spells you both have a similar range, which is fairly impressive, and it is simply power levels and luck that decide who is victorious…very well, we shall begin with…"
And so it was for the next several hours. Between the three of them they increased Harry and Tonks' array of offensive spells as well as their speed and accuracy while casting them. It seemed as though Salazar was knowledgeable beyond practically everyone currently alive on this subject and as such was a vast well of information, he was also an outstanding teacher which helped greatly.
Eventually though, Tonks reached a point where she could not really progress further except through practice over vast amounts of time. At this point, she basically assumed the role of target dummy for Harry to practice the more advanced and more powerful spells that Slytherin came up with…at which point she decided that Harry was definitely going to owe her for this one.
Salazar also taught Harry a useful little trick for use in fights. Casting a shield spell wandlessly, so that your wand hand was always free to attack without you having to worry too much about getting hit…that was something the teen fully intended to practice to perfection as he could see just how useful it would be.
In the early afternoon, Tonks left to go collect her parents, while Harry finished off the exercises he was working on with Salazar.
It was about 10 minutes after Tonks had left that Harry realised he had made a huge mistake and, with the spirit of the founder chasing after him trying to work out what was going on, Harry rushed downstairs and out of the door heading towards the gate.
He had just remembered that the portkey Tonks had taken to bring them back with would bring them to just outside the main gates. This meant that Harry would have to get there before they arrived as, as soon as they crossed the boundary, if not accompanied by a Potter, his animal guardians would treat it as an attack on the house and respond none too kindly.
Harry quickly explained this to Salazar while he was running across the grounds. As he got near his target, Harry paled. It appeared that the Tonks family had already arrived, and were currently being surrounded by 6 chimaeras, the 3 manticore and a griffin that Harry recognised all too well.
Not knowing what else to do, Harry shouted at the top of his lungs, "STOP!!" as he finally made it to them.
He stood between his three guests and the animals. Seeing that Harry was ok with them being there, the griffin immediately abandoned its threatening posture and came to rub against Harry. The other animals took a bit more convincing but soon relaxed as well.
"Hiya Harry, guess we forgot about this before eh?" asked Tonks weakly.
Absently stroking his winged friend, Harry turned around and faced the three. "Umm…yeah, I remembered a bit after you left…I should have made you one that went straight into the house, sorry about that. Are you all ok?" he asked timidly.
Receiving affirmatives from all, he relaxed.
By this point all but one of the animals had lost interest in the humans and seeing as their master was evidently busy they left.
"Well, Mr. Potter, you certainly know how to give a warm welcome. What on earth are all those beasts doing here? And how did you control them? What's going on?" asked Andromeda Tonks, apparently regaining control of her voice.
As the four humans and one griffin (which left them at the door) made their way towards the main door to the house, Harry and Tonks explained what the deal with the animals was. Her parents were shocked at first, but decided it was best to just accept it. No one got hurt so no need to drag it out.
They went up to the first floor sitting area and began to relax with drinks which Harry quickly dug out.
Speaking to his daughter, Ted Tonks said, "Well Nymphadora, it would seem that at least one of our fears has been alleviated, at least we know that where you are staying is well protected." This statement broke the ice, and everyone was suddenly much more confident now that some of the tension that had been building was alleviated.
"Yes dad. Everything is fine. I'm well looked after and this place is well protected so I'm safe and you can stop worrying." Replied Tonks with a roll of her eyes.
"You'll have to forgive your father, dear. He still seems to be under the impression that you are a small child that needs constant care and supervision. I have tried to convince him that you are a responsible adult, but he seems blind to this fact." Said Andromeda, with a glare at her husband.
Sensing that this was an old argument that he probably shouldn't get involved in if he knew what was good for him, Harry stayed quiet, trying to blend into the background for a while.
After a few minutes of general conversation, Mr. Tonks spoke directly to Harry. "Mr. Potter, is there somewhere I could talk to you privately for a moment?" Though it was phrased as a question, it clearly wasn't one.
Thinking for a moment, Harry replied, "Yeah, ok. This way." He said leading the older man out of the room, towards the office, rather nervously (Tonks muttering "Good luck" to him as they passed didn't exactly reassure him much either).
Deciding that safety was paramount and he was unsure as to the other man's intentions, Harry immediately sat behind his desk, meaning that the large piece of furniture would be between them at all times.
Once Mr. Tonks was settled Harry broke the silence. "What was it you wanted to talk about, sir?"
Before replying, he locked gazes with the young man, "I want to know exactly what the nature of your relationship with my daughter is and what your intentions are." He stated plainly with a hint of aggression in his voice, Ted Tonks had always been very protective of his daughter.
Instinctually, Harry had known that this was going to come, but he was going to get away with saying as little as possible while still satisfying the other man.
"I'm unsure what you mean by the 'exact nature' of the relationship between us, and as for my intentions? That still remains to be seen really." He replied, somewhat unhelpfully, but fully glad that his girlfriend had prepared him to an extent for this.
"What I mean," came the rather frustrated response, "is exactly what I said. What is the nature of it? Are you merely close friends? Is there a physical element? If so, what is the extent there of? Do you plan on staying with her? Or are you going to hurt her? What are your intentions?"
Stunned slightly by the level of detail being asked of him, Harry paused for a moment before replying, "I have no intention of hurting her, now or ever. As to the rest of it, that is between your daughter and myself." Then looking past him towards the door, "If you're going to stand out there listening then you might as well just come in so you don't have to strain yourselves."
A moment later the two rather sheepish looking women walked through the door.
"How did you know we were there?" asked the younger of the pair, glaring at her boyfriend.
"I saw you." he replied, and when it appeared she was about to argue the fact that he couldn't have seen through a solid wooden door, he sent her a look that immediately silenced her.
While this exchange was taking place, the other couple were having a slightly more heated one.
"Good lord, give it a rest! She's happy; can't you just be happy for them?" Said an exasperated Mrs. Tonks to which there was just a mumbled reply that no one in the room could make out. "I fear I must apologise for my husband once again. He will come around eventually, Mr. Potter."
Smiling wanly, Harry replied, "There's nothing to apologise for really. And please, just call me Harry."
"Of course, and you can call me Andy, I don't like formality either." She smiled back at him.
At this point, Tonks spoke up. "Tell you what. Dad, why don't you and me go back into the other room and chat for a bit. Mum and Harry needed to talk about something anyway, and we'd only be sitting here getting bored."
This worked and the two of them left, and suddenly the tension evaporated from the room, and the remaining pair sat down.
"Well, since my darling daughter has decided that now is the right time, I suppose I should get on with it." began Andy. "I know you've only just inherited the Black name, so you must still be sorting out exactly what it means, but as I mentioned yesterday, I want to talk to you about the possibility of my rejoining the family." She paused. "I spoke to Sirius about this matter once, shortly before he was imprisoned, but as he had also been blasted off the family tree he had very limited power and was never instated as the head of the family so had to tell me that although he would if I could; he was simply unable to legally do it."
Harry thought for a minute. It certainly didn't seem like too big a request…after all, she was born into the Black family and only kicked out because they were mostly bigoted bastards. "You'll have to forgive me Andy; I wasn't raised in the wizarding world so a lot of this is totally new to me. What exactly is involved in letting someone back in or kicking someone out of a family? And what does it even mean really?"
Andy Tonks hadn't realised just how out of touch the young man was. It was common knowledge that he had been raised by muggles, but by this point in life she had assumed that someone of his station would have known all about this stuff…she supposed that her daughter had meant it yesterday when she had said that things like this would have to be explained to him from the most basic of levels, and to assume no knowledge what-so-ever.
"Ok, let me see if I can explain this properly." She began. "In the wizarding world, if someone acts in a way that the head of the family thinks will look bad in society's eyes on the rest of the family, then they can disown them. This means that for all intents and purposes they are no longer a part of the family, even to the extent that they are not permitted to use the family name. It becomes a matter of public record if this happens, and because most of the magical world is based around old traditional values, being disowned affects far more than where you live and what you call yourself…you become an outcast in society as a whole. It's been next to impossible for me to find any sort of employment in the wizarding world as most businesses don't want the stigma attached to hiring someone of my status. The only way to undo that is to either be re-instated into the family, at which point it would be as though it had never happened in the first place as far as other people are concerned, or another pure-blood family could accept me, and I would then gain whatever position in society that family held. Also, unless it was specifically indicated to the contrary, my inclusion in a family would also make Nymphadora and to a lesser extent Ted, a part of it. Does that make sense?"
Harry took a moment to run it back through his head, he thought it was a rather stupid system, but realised that it was just another one of those things in the wizarding world that if you grew up with seemed perfectly logical, otherwise it seemed archaic and laughable.
"I think I get the basic idea of it, yeah, thanks for explaining. Now, not to put too fine a point on it, but was the only reason you got the boot, the fact that you married a muggleborn?"
"Yes. My marriage and the fact that I refused all arranged ones, was considered a great insult to family honour…what little existed by that point in the first place…and as such they wanted nothing to do with me after that." She replied.
"Ok. Sorry for having to ask, but I was just making sure I'd been told the whole reason and you hadn't gone on a rampage murdering everyone in your path or something." Harry explained with a grin. "Well, although I have absolutely no idea how to do it, I see no problems with you being part of the Black family again."
Smiling brightly and sighing with relief after all these years, Andy said, "Thank you, you've no idea how much that means to me. All that needs to happen to make it official is to fill out a couple of forms, one for Gringotts and one that goes to them and then on to the ministry…I can fill most of it in and you'll just have to check it, fill in a couple of sections and sign them."
Harry agreed to this and then asked her, "It seems there is a hell of a lot I've still gotta learn about all the pure-blood rules and formalities and the functions of families and stuff. Do you know if there's a book or something I could read to find out at least enough to get by?"
Looking thoughtful, she replied "Yes, there are quite a few on that sort of subject. Do you have a library here that I could have a quick look through to dig some out for you?"
Grinning, Harry pointed to the door through to the library, and stood to follow her, openly laughing at the shocked look on her face when she saw how big it was. "Well, I wouldn't recommend searching the whole library for them…but feel free to look around if you want. Also, if it's not too much trouble I could do with something on the basics of the Wizengamot and how it works…I'm kinda supposed to be joining it the day after tomorrow and have no idea what they actually do except the trials bit." He finished with a self-deprecating half smile.
Approximately 20 minutes later, Harry and Andy left the library and he put the books she had suggested on his desk for later. It turned out that although she had been kicked out of the upper-class wizarding society many years earlier, she had still managed to keep up with most of what had been happening and who was doing what, so the advice she gave him while they were looking for the books would probably prove invaluable.
They returned once more to the sitting room where the other pair were still sitting and talking. Tonks made room for Harry to share the sofa she was sprawled out on before curling up next to him, and Andromeda sat in one of the comfortable chairs.
Ted was the first one to break the silence a minute later. "I'm sorry for the way I acted before Harry. It's just that no matter how big she gets, Dora will always be my little girl, and I can't help but be very protective of her. I know we got off to a bad start, but I hope that we can at least get to know each other…even though as a parent it is my duty to let you know that if you hurt her I will have to kill you, I hope you understand that." He finished seriously.
To this, he got the most unexpected of responses. Harry laughed loudly. "Well, it's good to know where I stand at least…but you should know, I really don't plan on hurting her in anyway, and if I did, do you actually think there would be enough of me left by the time she was done with me for you to be able to even see, let alone kill?" He asked, wrapping an arm tightly around the woman next to him, who was currently sticking her tongue out at him.
"Anyway, enough of that…So, mum? Did he deem you worthy enough to get back into the Blacks?" Asked Tonks mockingly, as her mother had been anxious about being rejected again, but Tonks knew Harry would be fine with it.
"Yes, he did, thank you dear. In fact he was rather nice about the whole thing…unlike a certain taunting daughter I know." She mock-glared in response.
"Really? I have no idea who you mean."
They talked for a couple more hours, in which time Tonks got caught up on what her parents had been doing and they and Harry got to know each other a bit, before they had to go as they had other plans for the evening.
After they had a quick meal, Harry and Tonks went into the office area as they wanted to do some preparation for the following day.
Harry had no idea what Director Bones wanted so he couldn't prepare for that, however tomorrow was also the day they had arranged to meet the Order members who were considering defecting…and that one they did need preparation for.
"Ok, so how are we going to tell if they're actually wanting to help or just playing along to get info for Dumbles?" asked Harry.
"Well…" began Tonks thoughtfully, "the ideal thing would be Veritaserum, but that's heavily controlled so unless you've got a bottle laying around somewhere it's probably not gonna be possible. Other than that, your next best bet is Legilimency…but some of them are really good at Occlumency…" she trailed off.
Harry chuckled at this. "What's the shelf life on the truth potion?"
"Umm…about 80 years or so…why?" asked Tonks, perplexed.
He smiled. "Because I do actually happen to have some 'laying around somewhere' as you put it, and wanted to make sure it wouldn't have become a poison or something since it's been here since my parents lived here."
"Oh." Was her response, then "Will there be enough to do everyone?"
By this point they were walking down to the potions room. Once inside Harry went straight to it and looked at the 6, 10 litre, drums of it.
"Yup, I think there might be about enough…unless you were planning on having them telling the truth for the rest of their lives anyway." Harry said cheekily.
Tonks was amazed at how much there was, this was slightly more than the ministry stockpile of the potion by the look of it. But considering Harry's mum was supposedly one of the best brewers around at the time, and they had practically unlimited financial resources, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise that there were things like this around still.
Since the first problem was solved, they then began discussing what questions to ask, while on the way back upstairs.
Eventually they decided to weed out spies planted by anyone; Dumbledore, Voldemort and the ministry, since they knew that there were some for each in the order but not who they were.
After a while, and several piles of scrap parchment, they came up with the following list of questions to ask:
Are you still loyal to the order of the phoenix?
Do you work for Voldemort?
Are you here to gain information about what we are doing for someone else? If so, who?
Were you involved in any of the crimes committed by Albus Dumbledore against Harry Potter?
If the person could answer 'no' to all of those then they would be trusted. If however the answer was yes to any of them then it would be taken on a case by case basis, for example if they were involved in some of Dumbledore's schemes but only in a small way or unknowingly then they could probably be trusted as well.
They talked for a while about who was going to be there, as Harry didn't know everyone in the order, many of them were unknown to him, and others were people he only knew in passing.
Eventually, they felt as though they were prepared as much as possible. Harry decided to have a read of some of the books he had got from the library earlier, and seeing what they were and how boring it would be, Tonks said she was going for a long soak in the bath and for Harry to "Have fun with that."
For the next several hours, Harry read about various aspects of wizarding society and law. He was outraged at just how many clearly discriminatory laws there were for muggleborns, half-bloods from non-influential families and especially "part-humans" such as werewolves, vampires and other such species.
When his eyes started to stop focusing and his brain no longer cared about what he was reading, Harry decided he's had enough of that for the night and made up his mind to go outside and get some fresh air.
He made his way downstairs and out of the door, just wandering aimlessly around the grounds.
After about 20 minutes, he came to the edge of the trees marking the forest. At this point he sat down, leaning against one of the larger trees, staring off into space and practicing a mental exercise to clear his mind and order his thoughts.
Before too long, he began to relax once more.
Soon after he had completed this, he was looking up into the sky and saw the graceful form of the griffin flying lazily towards him.
This made him smile. He knew that sooner or later his new found friend would show up to keep him company. In fact he had come to appreciate the time spent with him, as the large animal had a strange calming effect upon Harry.
When it landed it came and rubbed against Harry, before settling down to his side, not very far away.
Over the past couple of days, the teen had thought a lot about the fact that this creature wanted to bond with him. At Tonks' behest, he had read a book explaining exactly what that would mean for him if he accepted. All in all it seemed like a very advantageous arrangement for both of them. The only part that would possibly be problematic was that after the connection was formed, they would have to spend the majority of the time for the next couple of weeks together in order to strengthen it properly…and since Harry seemed to be having to go to a lot of places, that might be a problem…after all this was a griffin not a cat or an owl, he wasn't sure if he would be able to take it with him to all these meetings that he seemed to be ending up with somehow.
Seeming to realise that Harry had made his decision, the griffin walked over and sat in front of Harry, facing him.
The process was very simple, all Harry had to do in order to accept the offer made was to look into the creature's eyes and extend his consciousness into its direction, and it would take over from there.
So Harry did just that. Immediately afterwards, he felt a foreign but strangely comforting presence in his mind.
"Hello my friend. I am glad that you have accepted my offer. I assume you can now hear me?" Came a deep voice in Harry's head. He now realised exactly what was meant by the "mental communication" that he had read about.
Focusing on sending the message back along the link, Harry replied, "Yes, I can hear you. What is your name?" He asked.
"I am called Apollo. Tell me, how much do you know about the joining?"
Harry thought for a moment. "Not much, Apollo. I know that it is permanent, and that it allows us to draw strength from each other. The information I read about it also mentioned that we would have to stay together almost all the time for the next couple of weeks…do you know exactly how far the maximum distance we can be apart is for it to still be working and what the most time we can separate for is? It's not that I want rid of you or anything" he continued, not wanting to give the wrong impression "it's just that I sometimes have to go places that it might not be possible for you to."
"I understand what you mean young Harry. I know that the world of magic must be kept hidden so if you went into the non-magical world I could not accompany you. However, I do know the information you seek. Until the bond is fully formed, we should be within 100 of your metres for it to strengthen. We can be apart short periods of time without too much damage to the connection, but no more than 30 minutes at a time is advisable."
For some time, they discussed the arrangements that would have to be made for the coming days, as well as starting to get to know each other a little.
It was agreed that Harry would convert the room next to the one he and Tonks slept in, into something suitable for Apollo to use. This way they could both be comfortable while still within close enough proximity.
Harry also decided that he would check either later that night or in the morning to see if familiars were allowed in the ministry building, as he had to go there the following day to meet with Bones and the day after for the Wizengamot meeting, both of which he anticipated would take quite some time.
Before they knew it, it was almost completely dark out, at which point they agreed it was time to return to the house.
While doing this, Harry had the treat of riding on his new companion's back while in flight for the one and a half miles back to the door. It was a strange sensation, nothing like he imagined, he had thought it would be somewhat like flying a hippogriff, but it was in fact a far smoother ride. He looked forward to repeating the experience in the future.
Luckily, this was a very large house that was made a long time ago, as such the doorways were far wider than needed for a human and therefore the griffin was able to walk through them without too much difficulty.
They went upstairs to the top floor of the house, Harry pointing out what was where on the way, and into the bedroom closest to the master room.
The first thing Harry did was vanish the room that separated the bedroom and bathroom, providing a much larger area.
"Ok, so what do you want me to do to make this more comfortable for you?" Harry silently asked.
For the next 10 minutes, Harry they made several major changes. The furniture and bathroom appliances were vanished; the floor was divided into two rough halves. One made to mimic grassland and the other uneven rocky terrain. The windows and part of the wall with them on was also removed. A complex form of permanent shield charm was erected in their place, allowing physical objects (such as Apollo) in and out but blocking the elements from entering the house, and at the same time being strong enough to keep the walls around the openings from falling to pieces.
"Thank you Harry, this will be a most suitable home for me. I sense that tomorrow will be a long and busy day, so if it is not too inconvenient, I will rest. Goodnight my friend."
At this, the young man took his leave, going into the room next door and heading to the bathroom, where he found Tonks must have asleep in the bath earlier.
Once undressed, he walked over and gently woke her.
"Hey, are you ok? Mind if I join you in there?" he asked softly, smiling down at his girlfriend.
"Hi Harry. I'm ok. Course you can join me, you don't need to ask. What time is it?" she replied sleepily.
Sliding in behind her and wrapping his arms round her, he said, "I'm not sure exactly what time it is but somewhere around 10ish I think." He began softly kissing the back and sides of her neck.
"Mmm, that's nice." She moaned as he slid his hands slowly up her body and cupped her breast in his hands, squeezing gently.
After a minute, Tonks took one of his hands in her own and moved it down between her legs. Taking the hint, Harry began to first slowly rub around the outside and tease her clit and then as she began to grind against him, slipped first one then two and finally three fingers inside her.
By that point Tonks was moaning loudly and grinding her hips against the movement of his hand, forcing his fingers deeper in. This had the added bonus for Harry of making her ass grind against his achingly hard cock.
Soon, while moaning out his name, Tonks climaxed hard, clamping her legs tight around Harry's trapped hand as he continued to move his fingers to the best of his ability and squeezed on her tit, pinching the nipple, trying to bring her as much pleasure as he could.
Once she had recovered, Tonks turned around, straddling Harry's legs, and kissed him firmly on the lips and slipping her tongue into his waiting mouth, to which he eagerly responded.
After a few minutes of that, Tonks pulled back and looked into his eyes. In that moment she made her decision.
Maintaining eye contact all the way, she reached down between her legs and grasped Harry's shaft in her hand, stroking along his length a few times before taking it by the base and positioning the tip it against her entrance.
Harry gasped in surprise, until she smiled at him, reassuring him that it was what she wanted.
Slowly she slid down, gradually taking more and more of his length inside her. They were both moaning in pleasure already.
When she had taken him all the way inside her, she paused for a moment, adjusting to his presence, during this time they kissed slowly and softly but at the same time full of passion and love for each other.
Once she had become accustomed to his size inside her, Tonks began slowly sliding up and down, riding his entire length, almost letting him slip from her warm grasp before forcing him back in completely again and repeating.
Harry slid his hands down her back and grasped one of her buttocks in each, guiding her motion and making her increase the pace.
Before long they were each moaning, grunting and practically screaming each other's names in ecstasy.
Harry turned around and pushed Tonks up so she was laying on the floor, next to the sunken bath, underneath him and began to piston in and out of her hard and fast. She wrapped her legs around him, encouraging him, and pulled him down into a brief, but hot, kiss.
After five minutes of this, Harry could feel the pressure building up inside him. He gave one final thrust as deep into Tonks as he could get and shot stream after stream of cum into her waiting body.
The stimulation from the sex and the thrill of the act itself combined with the sudden feeling of wet warmth spilling into her, pushed Tonks over the edge and she began her own orgasm, the muscles in the walls of her already tight pussy milking Harry for all she could.
Temporarily spent, when Harry came down from his orgasm, he leans down and softly kissed his lover, before lifting her into his arms and carrying her to the bed – casting drying charms on the both of them as he went.
He had barely laid Tonks down and crawled into bed, entangling himself with her, when they both succumbed to the exhaustion of their activities and entered a content, peaceful sleep.