The headmaster was a calm man. At least most of the time. In fact this was the first time that the deputy headmistress had ever seen him pace like this. His face was scrunched up in concentration while his arms were flailing about as if they had a mind of their own. It had been two days since the funeral and Voldemort had gone mad with the celebrations. It took almost everyone at the ministry to keep it from the muggles. It had started off with just a single town being burned to the ground. Then the area around it and finally the entire county was gone. The muggles were all blaming terrorists and in a sense they were right.
"We have to do this differently this time." McGonagall jumped at the the headmasters voice. "Yes we have to start the training right away. No more time to be subtle about it." the headmaster headed back to his desk and pulled out a piece of parchment. He started to write on it for several minutes before he decided that it was good.
"I am sorry headmaster but are you talking about Neville?" she didn't have to ask she already knew the answer. And it had nothing to do with Neville Longbottem. The headmaster had lost his mind. He had been acting strangely ever since the funeral. At first she was afraid that somehow Voldemort had cursed him but after she checked him herself she knew what the real problem was.
"Of course I am talking about him. He is our last hope you must realize this. The prophecy states that it must be him." His eyes had lost their sparkle. Now there were just dull and almost lifeless as if a part of himself had died with Harry. "I will train him myself. No one else can do it. Minerva cancel all his classes and schedule him to have private lessons with me instead."
"But sir what about the school. If you are teaching Neville the whole year who will take over your duties?" even as she asked this the headmaster was walking across the room towards the fireplace.
"I guess that I will have to vacate my position. I have to train him."He took a handful of floo powder and made a call to the Board of Governors. She couldn't hear what he was saying. In fact she barely even noticed the head sticking out of the fireplace. All she heard was those words echoing throughout the office. She never thought that she would see the day when the headmaster would openly step down like this. The only other time was when the Chamber of secrets was opened and they had talked about it planned it out. Now he was just leaving. Without so much as a second thought.
"Are you sure about this Albus. If you leave you cannot come back. Not only that but it is also halfway into the school year."It was the person in the fireplace who said this. She recognized him but for the moment she could not remember his name."Alright then I suppose that you have your reasons. I guess that leaves you in charge Minerva. I will go and start the forms. It should be final by the end of the day. You should be keyed in sometime this night. Albus I expect that you will tell her what needs to be done. It is much easier than learning from that book." and with that he was gone and there was nothing that she could do. She would be in charge of the school. She had hoped that this day would never come.
"Albus does this mean that you will be leaving." she new that if he would leave it would leave the school open to attack from Voldemort. Hopefully he knew this as well and still had enough sense to stay.
"Of course, we will need a place completely separate from the rest of the students though. Hopefully we can get the Room of requirement to lock out all intruders." he continued to mutter incoherently to himself for the next half hour before he handed her a book and left. She looked down at the book and saw the handwriting of the founders on the cover.
...
Lightening flared in the distance as a crow landed on the headstone of Harry Potter. It cawed as if calling for some one. At first she thought that it was odd. Now it was almost comforting. It had been there every day that she had. And she had been there often in the past six months since his funeral. Nymphadora Tonks had lost the two of the most important people in her life this summer. First it had been Sirius her uncle. She had just gotten close to him in the few months before the battle at the Ministry. Then it had been Harry. She wished that she had gotten to know him better. She could still remember the first time that she had seen him. It was in her last year at Hogwarts and he had just started. She watched as he went up to the sorting hat, and as he got sorted into her house and knew that she liked him. She didn't know why exactly it was just something about him that made her think that he was different then all the other guys she had met. And now she stood over his grave wishing that she could have gotten to know him better. She looked up at the crow. It had been there every day since the funeral. At first it annoyed her. Now it was somewhat comforting as if there was something out there that was looking over Harry.
The watch on her wrist beeped once telling her that it was nine at night. Once again she had spent the past three hours wondering why Albus hadn't listened to her. She had told him that they should have a guard with Harry at all times. But Albus refused stating that there was no one available. And when she said that she would do it he looked at her smiled and the said 'Miss Tonks I would hate to have you lose your job just to help the order out'. Of course she wasn't really doing it for the order that was just what she said. She had actually been doing it for herself. To try and get closer to Harry. But once again Albus had to do things his way. She looked at her watch just to make sure that she was right on the time.
"Well Tonks looks like you should be going." and with that she turned and started to walk away. It was then that the crow cawed once again. She turned and looked back at it. But it was no longer on the tombstone. It was now on the grass. The moving grass. As the earth began to move more and more it was clear that something was coming up, but the only thing that was down there was...Harry.
"HARRY" she screamed as she ran towards the grave. She had forgotten about her wand and instead started to move the earth with her hands. She kept digging looking for any signs of a person. She had just put her hands back in for the hundredth time raking the dirt out of the way when something grabbed her. She instantly recoiled as she saw a hand latched onto her wrist but the hand was too strong. It held on using her to pull the rest of itself out of the dirt. Then she saw what she had been hoping for. The untidy hair of Harry Potter. She grabbed with her other hand and help to pulled him out. When his head was out he let go of her and started to pull itself out of the dirt. He was halfway out when he stopped and looked at her.
"Where the hell am I" he asked. Unfortunately he would not get an answer as a few seconds later Tonks passed out.
...
Tonks awoke many hours later wondering where she was. She looked around the room wondering how she had gotten there. It was then that the door opened and Harry walked in that she remembered what had happened. She remembered standing over Harry's grave. She remembered turning to walk away and hearing the crow caw. She remembered the digging and the feeling of pure joy when she saw his dirt covered face. Then she remembered fainting and turned away from him trying to hide her blush.
"Good you're awake." he said as he walked in and took a seat on the chair next to the bed. He smiled at her and once again she had to turn to hide the blush. Unfortunately her hair she could not hide as it started to cycle through every color of the rainbow. "You're Tonks right?" All that she could do was nod her head. "Are you alright?" once again she nodded. "Can you talk?" this question came with a smirk on his face. And once again she blushed and nodded. "Well then now that we got that out of the way can you answer me a few questions." His voice was no longer as soft as it had been only seconds before. "What exactly happened to me cause the last thing that I remember was me getting stabbed by my uncle and dying." The coldness in his voice sent shivers down her spine but she decided to answer regardless.
"Well I am not exactly sure what happened to you Harry." she slowly sat up resting against the headboard. "Apparently from what I heard at least, your uncle went crazy and after you got home it hit you in the head with a frying pan."
"Yup I remember that. What I would like to know is why though."
"Well from what I know, which isn't that much he apparently blamed you for your aunt leaving him."
"I think remember him saying something about that but at that time my head felt like it was hit with a frying pan." he got up and headed to the window where a crow was sitting on the outside. He opened the window allowing the crow to fly in and land on his shoulder. "He killed me didn't he." the question came out so bluntly that she couldn't answer it. All she could do was nod but he didn't need her to answer.
"Harry how exactly are you here." she asked after a minute. "I mean I was at your funeral. You've been dead for six months. And where are we for that matter." she had finally taken the time to look around the room. There was a large window on one wall allowing the sun to light the room naturally. There was a chair in the corner and a door on the wall opposite the window that she could only assume led to the rest of the residence.
"For starters I have no idea how I am here. The last thing that I remember was choking on my own blood. If I had to guess it would be a combination of my new friend here and the prophecy. And has it really been six months. And lastly this is... well I don't know what this is." and with that he plopped back down on the chair. "All that I know is that I have been given a second chance to complete that stupid prophecy. And apparently this guy is here to help." He made a vague gesture to the crow that was now perched on the window sill. An awkward silence filled the room as both sat wondering what was gonna happen next.
"So what was it like being dead I mean." she could no longer stand the silence and had said the first thing that had come to her mind. Harry opened his mouth to answer her when the watch on her wrist started singing. "Crap the order is calling a meeting." She paused as a realization came over her. "What am I gonna tell them about you?" she asked in a slightly panicked voice.
"Why would you need to say anything. If what you say is right then I have been dead for six months. Doubt that they would just be getting to me now. Anyways I made sure to fix my grave. Everybody will think that I am still down there. Which is probably a good thing. Anyways I need to go to Diagon alley. Need to find my wand and stuff." and with that he stood and headed for the door. As he reached for the handle he stopped and looked back at her. "Are you sure that you can keep this a secret?" he grinned and ducked out the door without allowing her to respond.
...
"Thank you all for coming." Minerva was trying to look like she belonged at the head of the table. The entire order had been called for this meeting. "I guess that you are all wondering why you have been called here. I believe that it would be best to be blunt. Albus Dumbledore is no longer going to be the headmaster." the response was immediate half of the order looked at her as if she had a squid dancing on her head and the other half started screaming, though with all of the screaming at once she could not tell what anyone was screaming about. The only one that did not respond was a young pink haired witch who was staring at the wall as if in a trance.
"What do you mean he is no longer going to be the headmaster?" Molly Weasley had finally managed to get silence everyone else with a stare that could have challenged a basilisk. Minerva just looked at her as if she was asking the same question.
"He has decided after much thought that he will no longer be able to fulfill his duties." She decided that it would be easier to tell them this rather than the fact that he had lost his mind and left in order to train Neville. The headmaster had not seen anyone except for her and Severus for the past five months.
"So who is going to protect the castle." Again the question came from Molly. And again she looked at her as if she was asking the same question.
"I am the new headmaster. And the teachers here should be able to keep the castle safe from anything that should try to harm it or the students." even as she said it she knew that it was not true. Everyone in the room knew that it was not true though no one would say so. "With that being said is there anything else that someone would like to say?" she tried to stop the next question that she knew Molly wanted to ask. Though she did notice the pink haired witch twitch a little as she asked the question. She pushed the thought away as Kingsley Shacklebolt stood. "Yes Kingsley any news on Voldemort's movements?"
"Yes thank you Minerva. It appears that Voldemort is starting to plan something big. His normal raids have slowed considerably and are now only one or two a week. Also we have gotten word from some of the other countries. America says that they will send us a 50 men. Canada is sending 100. France and Ireland are going to be tightening their security on the borders as well as all apperation and portkeys." The ministry had finally asked some of the other countries for help with the death eaters and thankfully their request had been answered. The extra protection would help since Voldemort had also been increasing his forces. The news appeared to help everyone as they all suddenly looked a few years younger after hearing it.
"Well then if that is all then I believe that this meeting is over." Once again she had stopped Molly from asking the dreaded question with the dismissal. Everyone got up from their seats and headed towards the doors that lead into the great hall. They had long since abandoned Grimmauld Place. Not knowing whether or not Bellatrix had gained possession of it. As soon as the door opened everyone broke out into a hushed whisper. The teachers had all gone back to their rooms at the castle and everyone else made their way to the temporary apperation point. Everyone except for Nymphadora Tonks who remained seated staring at the wall. She walked over to the young witch and put her hand on her shoulder.
"Tonks is there something that you want to talk about." She asked giving her shoulder a light squeeze. She turned and looked at her with a shocked expression her face.
"He's back"