Disclaimer: She still owns it, not me.

Chapter 2

Nymphadora Tonks was deep in thought as she entered Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Her normally bubblegum pink hair was dark brown and laying flat. She had an image of Harry Potter in her mind when the night started, and that image was nothing like what she had seen on Privet Drive.

She had seen him around Hogwarts a few times during her seventh year. He looked small and skinny, but he was a first year and they all seemed small to her at the time. He was the Boy-Who-Lived, prince of the wizarding world, so she didn't think his size was from anything bad, after all what could cause harm to the boy who had defeated He Who Must Not Be Named. Seeing the way he played quidditch just kind of reinforced her image of a boy who could do anything.

The teen that was in that house was not this boy. Beaten to the point of barely being able to move, angry because his plea for help had been ignored by everyone he was close to. She had wanted to help him, if he had let her levitate him into his bed she would have offered more, but with that refusal she could tell he would refuse all other offers. Aurors were trained to read people, and her read on Harry was of someone who would need to be given time to slowly accept others. The fact that everyone had ignored him this summer would look like a betrayal to him, no matter what the reason was for it.

It had surprised her that he had asked her to help him get to the ministry instead of Remus, but as she thought about it she realized that she was the only one of them that he didn't know. He obviously felt that he couldn't trust Remus or Mad Eye with helping him, her being a stranger he had no preconceived notions, if she betrayed him it wouldn't hurt as bad as Remus.

A Death Eater polyjuiced to look like Mad Eye had tried to kill him at the end of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Even though it wasn't the real Moody the image had to be hard to shake. Add to that him grabbing Harry the way he had, hurting him worse than he already was, and she could understand not trusting the old Auror.

She was brought out of her thoughts as they entered the kitchen where people were gathering for a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. Sirius Black rose from his spot when he saw them come in.

"Where's Harry, did everything go alright?"

"He refused to come, Sirius; he was beaten pretty bad but didn't want anything to do with us." You could see the hurt in Remus' eyes as he said this.

"What, why. And what do you mean he was beaten, what happened?" He glared at everyone who had just entered.

Tonks answered for them. "His uncle beat him after the attack last night, he was locked in his room when we got there and could barely move. He's in bad shape but doesn't want any help from anyone he's been writing to. He asked for help and was ignored; now he isn't going to accept any from the people he wrote to. He threatened to report all of us for kidnapping when he went to his hearing if we forced him to come with us."

"You're the adults; you should have brought him anyway. I can't believe you just left that poor boy with those horrible muggles." Molly Weasley was yelling at the group that had been sent to get Harry. "He needs someone who is going to take care of him and obviously none of you can do that. I'll just have to go get him myself since none of you are responsible enough to do it."

"Please calm yourself Molly. We will have to go back and get him; he needs to be brought here for his own safety." Albus Dumbledore sat at the head of the table with his fingers steepled in front of his face. "He will forgive everyone once he is here and realizes that it is for the best that he was not contacted by anyone. I'm sure he's not that bad, his relatives would hardly harm him."

Mad Eye stomped forward on his fake leg thumping loudly. "You know me Albus; I don't exaggerate people's conditions. His eyes are swollen shut, his right arm is broken in at least two places and from the way he grabbed his chest when I pulled him out of bed I'd say he has at least one broken rib. His uncle also killed his owl and snapped his wand."

Sirius was heading towards the door before Moody had finished. Remus grabbed him. "Going over there right now would only make things worse Padfoot. If you hurt his uncle it will only cause more trouble for Harry at his hearing and probably get you caught in the process. We were only able to mask the use of magic for a short time, the ministry monitors will be working again, if they detect anymore magic there they'll send Aurors to arrest him. You know Fudge will use it to put him into Azkaban. We need another place to keep him until he's healed, unless Albus tells him the secret personally, he can't see the paper right now."

"Alas I'm afraid that I have to limit my contact with him at the moment for his own safety. I am distressed by the condition that you described though, if his uncle is hurting him that bad then we will need to move him quickly. The only other place that we have to take him at this time though is Hogwarts and that would get back to the Minister. I'm afraid we may have to honor his wish for the moment. Are you sure that it was his wand that was snapped?"

"Yes, I saw it often enough while I was teaching him during his third year to recognize it. It was defiantly his and Hedwig's neck looked to be broken."

"This will cause problems; he needed that wand to fight Voldemort"

Tonks suppressed the shiver that went through her at the mention of Voldemort's name. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. "What do you mean he needs it to fight him? Harry's not even 15 yet. I know he's faced him before but he doesn't have the training to take on the Death Eaters let alone You Know Who. From what I've heard he's lucky to have gotten out of that graveyard alive, why would he be expected to fight him again? I'm a fully trained Auror and I know I don't stand a chance. Harry may be powerful but without any real training sending him after You Know Who is insane. It'd be kinder just to kill him now and get it over with. At least we wouldn't Crucio him first."

"Nymphadora,"

"I Keep Asking You To Call Me Tonks."

"Miss Tonks, I can't tell you why but Harry is very important to this fight and he is a symbol for the light. He must be kept safe, but for now we'll have to just keep up the watch. He will forgive everyone once he sees them again." The old mans eyes twinkled as he said this.

Tonks just stared at him for a few moments, clearly not happy with his answer, and then she looked at her watch. "I have a shift in an hour, I need to go." Without another word or a glance at anyone else she left the house hearing both Molly and Sirius start yelling.

She didn't have to work that night but Harry needed help from someone, and the Order obviously wasn't going to offer any assistance right now.

She had joined the Aurors to help people and when she was asked to join the Order she was excited because she'd be able to help in a way that the ministry wouldn't allow. It seemed that all her images of the way things worked in the world were being crushed. The Minister refusing to believe Dumbledore and Harry, the Profit portraying them as nutcases, Harry's battered face, and now the way Dumbledore casually mentions that Harry needed his wand to fight the most powerful Dark Lord in modern history. She was beginning to feel like she was drowning in reality all of a sudden and needed advice badly.

She apparated to the ministry and went directly to the office of her boss Amelia Bones, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She always worked late on weekdays during the summer so that she could spend the weekends with her niece Susan. She had been Tonks' mentor during training, keeping her going when she wanted to quit because of the discrimination in the department against females. Any problem that Tonks had she could always count on Amelia to help her solve it.

She knocked on the open door; her boss was at her desk doing paperwork.

"Tonks, what can I do for you tonight?"

"Can I speak to you about something outside of work for a minute? I really need some advice."

Seeing the despair on Tonks' face Amelia immediately said yes and told her to close the door and take a seat.

"What can I help you with?"

"I met someone today who was beaten really bad and he refused all our offers of help. He needs to get out of his situation but anything I can think of results in kidnapping and more bad press for him. I want to help but don't know how."

"What do you mean more bad press, who is he?"

Tonks thought about it for a moment, she had never withheld anything from her boss before but with the way the ministry was treating him she wondered if it was a good idea to tell her. "I need you to promise that this doesn't leave this room. He's having enough trouble trusting anyone as it is, if this gets out he'll never trust anyone again."

The look in her Aurors eyes spoke to how desperate she was; it made it easy for Amelia to make up her mind. "I promise that nothing you say will leave here, but I need the full story if I'm going to be able to help you."

Tonks took a deep breath and kept her gaze on the floor. "Harry Potter." After a moment of silence she looked up at Madam Bones who was just staring at her. After another moment Amelia stood up and pulled Tonks with her.

"We need to go someplace else to talk about this, come on." Amelia led her to the ministry apparition point and without a word of warning side along apparated Tonks to an alley in muggle London. Walking her to the street and around the corner to a small café took a table and ordered some tea. "Ok, what's going on?"

Tonks took a deep breath. "First I need to tell you that I joined a group to fight You Know Who, I think he really is back Amelia."

"Dumbledore has approached me to join his Order, I know about them."

"Well we've been watching Harry this summer to keep him safe. We've done a really crappy job so far." With another deep breath she told her boss everything that had happened that night. By the time she finished the look on Madam Bones' face scared her. She had seen her mad before but never like this.

"What the hell is that old man thinking, there's a reason all Aurors have to undergo counseling if they're involved with a death. To leave a kid to deal with it on his own is just asinine. If he's as bad as you say we need to get him out now, and get him to a healer. Give me a minute I need to get a hold of someone." With that she got up and walked to a pay phone in the corner of the café. When she came back she put some muggle money on the table and said, "Come on." And walked out the door leaving Tonks to hurry to catch up. Once they were back in the alley Madam Bones spun on her.

"Can you apparate us to that park you mentioned?"

"Yeah."

"Good, let's go."

A couple of seconds later they were walking toward Privet Drive. "Do you know who's watching him tonight?"

"We left Emmeline Vance here when we left; she usually spends her time at Arabella Figg's house drinking tea." She snorted "Like I said we've done a really bad job of watching him. I think there's only three or four of us who actually stay near his place when were on duty."

"Dumbledore must be losing his touch. Just play along with this and we'll get him out."

After knocking on the door of number 4, they heard a loud voice inside.

Vernon opened the door. "What the bloody hell do you want?"

"Mr. Dursley, my name is Amelia Bones; I'm the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. We have reason to believe Harry Potter may be a flight risk and a danger to the public, we're here to take him into custody. If you could please take us to him we should be out of your hair fairly quickly."

A smile had come to Vernon Dursley's face as she said this. "Finally, justice for the freak, I've been saying he's a menace for years, he's this way." With that he led them up the stairs to the bedroom and started unlocking locks. Amelia was having trouble keeping the anger off her features.

"Thank you, we'll need a few minutes with him before we leave." With that she marched into the room with Tonks hot on her heals, and Vernon went back down stairs with his smile firmly in place.

"Wotcher Harry." Tonks said quietly as she went to the bed.

"So you're here to arrest me this time?"

"Nah, we just told your uncle that to make him happy, but if you're a good boy I'll let you see my fuzzy cuffs."

The chuckle that came from Harry was quickly followed by a groan.

"Ok, no more jokes till we get you healed. Madam Bones is with me, she's my boss, and is going to help us get you out of here." Seeing Harry start to protest she continued. "Dumbledore doesn't know anything about this just the three of us, ok?"

Harry nodded slowly.

"Harry I'm Madam Bones, I have a friend who's a healer that works in a muggle clinic, she's bringing her car so that we can leave with out magic. Is that alright?" with Harry's nod she continued. "Can you walk?"

"If we go slow I can make it."

"Tonks can you get all of his things together? Do you have anything that's not in the room?"

"No, but there's some things under the floorboard next to the bed." Harry replied as he sat up.

Once Tonks had everything in Harry's trunk she helped him stand putting his good arm around her neck to help support him and they slowly made their way down the stairs with Amelia following with his trunk.

"Wait at the door for our ride to show up, I'm going to have a word with these people." With that she pulled her wand and headed to the sitting room.

"Oh they're in trouble; let this be a good warning Harry, never piss that woman off. Even Mad Eye obeys that rule."

In the sitting room Vernon was in his chair with a wand pressed against his forehead, Petunia and Dudley had retreated to a corner. "If it wasn't for the fact that we need to leave here quietly tonight I would rip you apart. Tomorrow morning YOU ARE going to go on a vacation for a month, if I find you back here before a month is over I will drop you in the deepest hole I can find and forget you exist. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

Vernon Dursley may be slow, but even he could see that this lady meant every word. He just nodded.

"Good. We are just waiting for our ride to show up and then we'll be gone. If you follow instructions you'll never have to see me again. If you make so much as a peep before we leave I'll make sure that you sit to piss for the rest of your life." Without waiting for a response she went back to the door. When she got there she found Harry sitting on the bottom step holding his ribs tightly and his face red, Tonks had her hands covering her mouth with tears flowing down her cheeks. "What's wrong with you two?"

Tonks couldn't keep it in any longer and bent over laughing, Harry leaned back against the wall saying "Ow, ow, ow," between laughs. Amelia just smiled and shook her head, taking up a position next to the door to watch for her friend's car.

Ten minutes later Tonks was gently loading Harry into the back seat while Madam Bones loaded his trunk in the boot. Once they were all inside introductions were made.

"Tonks, Harry, this is Rebecca. Rebecca, this is Tonks and Harry. Were headed to Tonks place, it's just a few blocks from the ministry."

After hellos were said they pulled away from Privet Drive.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Remus Lupin was looking even more tired than normal as he climbed the stairs of Grimmauld Place. It was decided that he would be the one to tell the children about Harry since he was the only one who had been there that knew them. Sirius wasn't taking the situation well at all; he had grabbed a bottle of Firewhiskey as soon as Dumbledore had called an end to the meeting. The whole meeting was spent trying to figure out were they could take Harry with it finally being decided that Kingsley Shacklebolt would take Madam Pomfrey to his house and would 'explain' things to the Dursley's while she healed him enough to get him here. Remus couldn't see Harry being happy about this but the Headmaster kept insisting that he would forgive everyone because he would be happy to see them. He didn't see this as very likely, a person's trust could only be stepped on so many times before even the most forgiving person would refuse to forgive, and Harry had to be getting close to that point.

Hermione opened the door after he knocked.

"Professor, where's Harry, you should have been back over and hour ago. Is he alright?"

"Please, call me Remus, I haven't been your teacher for while now. Have a seat I have to tell you a few things."

She took a seat on the unoccupied bed in the room, the other having Ron sitting on it. From the look on Ron's face they had been having another fight, most of house had grown tired of their fights and silenced the door to the room so they wouldn't have to listen to them.

"Harry refused to come with us, and even if he hadn't I don't know how we would have gotten him here."

Hermione's voice started taking on a shrill tone. "What do you mean he refused, why would he do that, he's written us a lot of letters so he obviously wants to talk to us, why wouldn't you have been able to get him here, is he alright?"

"Hermione, slow down, Harry probably just wants to play this up and make a grand entrance." She started to yell at Ron but was cut off by Remus.

"How many letters did you guys get from Harry this summer?"

"I got seven and I think Ron got six. Why"

"How many did you answer, and what did you say in them?" Hermione started to look sheepish while Ron's face started to get red.

"You mean he's mad because we didn't write to him. We've been stuck in this house while he gets to enjoy his holidays and he's bloody mad because we didn't bow down to him and write?"

"RONALD WEASLEY, YOU KNOW HE WOULD NEVER EXPECT ANYONE TO BOW"

"ENOUGH" Remus' shout had both of them snapping their heads around to look at him, his voice lowered to a growl "Harry had to watch a friend murdered at the end of last term, had his arm gashed open so his blood could be used to give Voldemort a new body, and then had a teacher try to kill him, AGAIN. Then he's force to go back to the Dursley's without any contact from any of his friends. Last night he saved his cousin from dementors and his thanks for that was his uncle snapping his wand, killing his owl and beating him half to death. What part of that sounds like he's having a good holiday, Ron? His last letter was two weeks ago and he asked all of us for help, Sirius and I included, and all of us ignored him. How would either of you react if your friends and family basically told you that not only were they not going to help you but that they didn't want to even talk to you? Would you be happy?" Remus heard a gasp from the doorway and saw Ginny and the twins standing there. "You guys should come in, close the door."

They made their way to the beds Ginny wrapping a crying Hermione in a hug looked at Remus. "They didn't really hurt him that bad, did they?"

"Yes they did, I haven't seen anyone that bad since the last war. Tomorrow Kingsley and Madam Pomfrey are going to go and get him."

"But why would they do that to him?" Ginny asked.

"Because they hate anything to do with magic, his Aunt Petunia hated Lily when we were growing up because she had magic. She even refused to go to Lily and James' wedding and didn't send Lily an invitation to her own wedding."

"We told everyone that they had bars on Harry's window when we went to get him, no one believed us." One of the twins said.

"The Headmaster told us that we shouldn't write to him, he said it that we needed to give him time to come to terms with what happened."

"I know Hermione, Sirius and I are just as much to blame for this as anyone else, more so because we should have known better. We all made a mistake and now we have to see what the consequences are. We're going to need to follow a few rules when he gets here. First Fred and George, no pranks on him, understand?"

"Harry has a lifetime pass on pranks from us."

"WHAT, why does he get that? I'm your brother and you still prank me."

"Because Harry did something for us"

"that we can't tell anyone about"

"but helped us a lot"

"we owe him huge"

"so he's off the test subject list forever."

Remus headed off Ron's building tirade. "Ron if you can't control your jealousy and quit starting fights with everyone I'm going to lock you in a room and give you the same amount of food Harry gets during summer." He glared at Ron who for once kept his mouth shut. "Good, now nobody is to pester Harry when he gets here, he's mad and with good reason. If he says to leave him alone, that's what you will do, if he wants to talk he will. Hermione, I know you want to help him, but we have to give him time. That doesn't mean ignore him, but don't try to force him to talk about everything ok?"

Hermione just nodded.

"All right, dinner should be ready in a few minutes, wash up and head to the kitchen."