Disclaimer: I own it all, it's all mine and the money will appear in front of me at any moment………..any moment now…………….Aww come on. That should have worked. I'll be over here sulking.
Chapter 3
They finally had Harry laid out on Tonks' bed with Rebecca Williams working on healing him. As Tonks and Madam Bones left the room they could hear her mutter curse words under her breath. Harry had passed out in the car and they had to use his invisibility cloak that Tonks had packed so that they could levitate him to her flat. After fixing some tea they sat in the living room.
"Ok Tonks, now that we've got him here you need to answer some questions. You mentioned a dementor attack happened last night. What do you know about it?"
"All I've been told about it is that two dementors attacked Harry and his cousin a couple of blocks from their home. His cousin was almost kissed but Harry drove them off with his patronus. He has a hearing on the 15th for underage magic and statute of secrecy violations."
"He can do the patronus charm?"
"Yeah, Remus Lupin taught him during his third year, when that idiot Fudge put all those creatures around Hogwarts. From what Remus says he would pass out any time they got near him. His patronus is supposed to be a stag."
"Damn that's impressive. Are you sure that it really was dementors that night?"
"Arabella Figg saw them; she's the one we got our information from."
"All right, we can use this; I'll have to look into how they got there, and I'll have to do it quietly. Can you tell me how many Aurors are in this Order? I need to know who can be trusted not to go to Dumbledore. We also need to know how many of them know where you live."
"I just got this place after I graduated from training, not even my mum knows where it is yet. The only other Aurors that I know about are Kingsley Shacklebolt and Hestia Jones. I don't want to get them in trouble."
"As long as they continue to do their jobs they can do what they want when they're off duty." Amelia's face took on a grim expression. "You mentioned the name Sirius earlier; would this be your cousin Sirius Black?"
"Shite" Tonks started stammering and squirming in her seat.
"Shacklebolt's in charge of the Black investigation, if he hasn't brought him in there's probably a good reason, so spill it."
Tonks proceeded to tell her about Pettigrew's betrayal and the fact that he was still alive and had been in the graveyard with Harry and You Know Who that night and that it was Pettigrew who had killed Cedric Diggory.
Letting out a breath Amelia put her head in her hands. "I really need to talk to Harry about all of this. Ok, what we need to do is get you off duty for a week without arousing suspicion with either Dumbledore or Fudge." Amelia sat thinking for a few minutes until a smile rose to her eyes. "Auror Tonks, it is not a good idea to curse at your boss, you will take one weeks paid leave to give you time to think about your actions. This will not go in your permanent record unless it happens again. I suggest that you use your time off wisely and return to work with a proper attitude."
Tonks smile almost split her face and for the first time since she had met Harry her hair was back to her preferred bubble gum pink. "Yes Ma'am, and I apologize for my language and attitude, I promise that it will not happen again."
"Too right it won't, next time we'll have to come up with new excuse."
Their laughter was interrupted when Rebecca walked in carrying a file folder. Tonks jumped up.
"How is he, is he going to be alright?"
"Relax; he's going to be fine. I was able to fix all of the physical damage except the malnutrition, he'll need some healthy meals for a while to fix that, mostly fruits and vegetables, take it easy on the fried foods." She looked at Amelia and held up the file folder. "I'm going to need to report this unless you want to take care of it?"
"I'll be talking to Harry about how he wants to handle it. I've sent them on vacation for a month, I can't have them talking to certain people for a while, hopefully things will have settled down for him by then and we can go ahead and hang them. But if Harry says to let it go we will, including you, he's been through enough without forcing him to face them in a court with the press reporting everything."
"Ams, he had a major concussion, his arm was broken in two places, a hairline crack in his collar bone, and three broken ribs, one of which was dangerously close to puncturing his lung. Add that to the fact that he's got enough old fractures and scars to last him through two wars and we have an open and shut case. I'm supposed to report all abuse cases to the authorities; they keep the names of minors out of the press and don't require them to appear in court. His uncle needs to go to prison for this."
"No, like I said it has to be up to him."
"Ok, but I'm going to do my best to convince him." Rebecca waited for her nod then continued. "Now let's talk about what you people have been doing to him in the magical world. He has Basilisk venom and Phoenix tears in his blood, a scar that definitely came from a magical creature of some kind on his shoulder, a scar on his arm that I can only assume came from said basilisk, the bones in one of his arms have been vanished and regrown, and I don't even know where to start with the scar on his forehead. There's some dark magic in there that I've never seen before. It needs to be taken care of as soon as possible because it looks like it links his mind and magic to something, and if I had to guess from how dark the curse is, I'd say that none of us wants that connection least of all him. You may need to bring a curse-breaker in to take care of it."
Tonks and Amelia were both looking at her like she had grown another head. Amelia turned to Tonks.
"Can you tell us about any of this?"
"The scar on his shoulder is probably from the Horntail he had to face in the first task, the profit wrote about it. The only other one I know about is the scar on his head, but no more than anyone else. I may know a curse-breaker we can use. We'll have to have him swear an oath but he's supposed to be one of Gringotts' best."
"I really need to talk to him about all of this. How long until he wakes up?"
"He'll probably sleep until late tomorrow morning. His body was using his magic to try to heal him and keep him alive, it will take time for it to build back up. I'll be back tomorrow night after I finish my shift at the clinic to check on him. No excitement and he shouldn't get out of bed except when absolutely necessary. Give him mostly broth for meals tomorrow and we'll see how things look when I check him."
Tonks smiled. "Oh good, I can cook broth. Not well but I can cook it. I even have two cans of it from the muggle market down the street."
"Ok…with that I think I'll leave you ladies for the night. It was nice to meet you Tonks."
Madam Bones got up with her. "I'll walk you out Becca; I need to be getting back to Susan before she starts to panic. Tonks let me know what the reaction is with that club you belong to and see if you can get a hold of that curse-breaker and sound him out."
"All right, and thanks a lot, both of you."
Tonks checked on Harry while grabbing some sheets and then made up her couch and went to sleep for the night.
It wasn't even an hour later when she was awoken by a scream. Jumping up she ran into the bedroom to find Harry tangled in the blankets and thrashing around. She grabbed his shoulders to try to wake him. The moment she touched him, he shot up and scooted back to the headboard with wide eyes full of fear.
"It's ok Harry, your safe it was only a nightmare. You can calm down now."
"Where's Uncle Vernon?" his voice was full of panic
"He's gone Harry; you're at my place now. You're safe"
Harry started to slowly relax as he looked around. "What happened, how did I get here. Who are you?"
"Oh, now that's just mean, I finally get a guy in my bed and not only doesn't he remember how he got there but he can't even remember my name. I'm seriously reconsidering that kiss I promised you."
"Tonks?"
"That's more like it; having my kisses be so good that you can remember them before you even get one is a good ego boost." Tonks hair turned bright green as she smiled. "Do you remember anything else?"
"Yeah, you and your boss came and got me, why did you bring me here?"
"One reason is that nobody from the Dumbledore's group knows I live here, the other reason is that I don't go on that many dates, I'm not about to let you get away with out at least dinner, especially since you've already been in my bed. It's only proper after all." Tonks laughed as a Harry blushed. "Rebecca healed you while you were out; she said that you should have been asleep for a lot longer though. Want to talk about that nightmare?"
Harry looked at his feet for a few moments before nodding. "It's two nightmares. The first one started during third year when the dementors kept attacking me. It's of the night that my parents died, I can remember him killing my mum, I can hear her pleading with him to kill her and not me." Harry turned his head and quickly wiped his eyes until Tonks stopped him and wrapped him in a hug, tears flowing down her own cheeks.
"It's all right to cry Harry; they deserve to have someone cry for them." With those words Harry let go and cried for what seemed like hours to him. When he started to collect himself again she asked. "Feel a little better now?"
"Yeah, thanks."
"No problem, want to talk about that other nightmare?"
He took a deep breath. "It's of that night in the grave yard. I keep seeing everything again. Cedric blames me for getting him killed. If I hadn't convinced him to take the Cup together he would still be alive. It's my fault he's dead."
"Harry, did you know that the cup was a port-key?"
"No, but"
"There's no but to it Harry, under the circumstances with the information you had, you did what you thought was right. If you had more information you would have acted in another way and things would have been different. But you didn't, and they're not. I'm an Auror Harry; one of the things they try to teach us is that second guessing is good only to learn from. Look at the events again see if there was another way you could have acted with the same information, learn from it. If you start looking at it with the information that you have after the fact then you can't learn anything because you change the whole scenario. That will just have you eating yourself up with guilt. Do you understand?"
Harry thought about it for a few moments. "I don't remember anything that could have let us know what was going to happen. Do you have a pensieve?"
"No but I can ask Madam Bones if we can use one from work. We use them a lot to review training exercises and missions. Plus I think she's going to want to see some of your memories." Feeling him tense she quickly pulled him tighter into the hug and reassured him. "It's all right, she's on your side, but Fudge and Dumbledore are hamstringing her investigations and Fudge is out to get you for some reason. She needs something to work with and you seem to have been at the center of it all. She will help you regardless, but you should think about this, it could help a lot of people survive."
"Ok, I'll think about it."
"Good. Now about some of your injuries, Rebecca gave us a pretty good run down. There's one that really concerned her though. She recommended that we bring in a curse-breaker because your scar is linked to something."
"Voldemort"
A shiver ran through Tonks. "What?"
"It's linked to him. It shoots a sharp pain through my head whenever he's close. Now that he's back there's always a little pain."
"Bloody hell." The two of them sat there for a minute before she continued. "I have a curse-breaker in mind. I'm going to get him to take a wizards oath before I bring him here though. Is that all right?" Harry nodded. Tonks voice became soft and she started running her fingers through his hair. "We'll get this thing out of you as fast as we can, I promise. You got too many people with their hooks in you Harry, but we'll get them all out, we'll get you free. I promise we'll get you free." The two of them slowly drifted off to sleep.
XXXXXXX
Tonks was jolted awake when a glowing lynx popped into her room. "Emergency Order meeting in an hour." Then it faded away.
"A patronus can talk?"
Tonks moaned and started rubbing her neck. "Yeah it's a messenger spell. Next time we sleep together lets lay down first, my neck is killing me."
"Sorry" Harry said quietly.
Tonks started laughing. "It's ok, but now you really owe me dinner, maybe even some dancing. I think the Order found out you're gone. I have to go so I get the shower first."
When she left the room, Harry's stomach started growling so he went in search of the kitchen. By the time Tonks came out of the bath the table was set with pancakes and eggs.
"What's all this?"
"Well you didn't have much in the cupboards; this is what I could come up with."
"You can cook?" Harry nodded. "Well the healer said that you should only have broth today, but I can't eat all this myself, so if you won't tell I won't." With a smile Harry sat down and started eating.
"Cor Harry, you really can cook. I definitely want that dinner now." It amazed Harry that someone could eat as fast as Ron but still be able to keep all the food in their mouth and still have manners. Before he knew it she was getting up from the table. "I gotta go, I should be back pretty quick, the way Madam Bones has things set up I'll probably be kicked out of the Order or quit so no worries."
"What's the Order?"
"The Order of the Phoenix, it's Dumbledore's group. I'll explain the whole thing when I get back, ok?" Harry nodded then watched as her hair changed to dark brown and flatten out just before she apparated away.
She appeared in the park across from Grimmauld Place and schooled her face into an angry scowl before crossing the street. Once inside she spotted Bill Weasley in the sitting room and made her way to him.
"Bill, can I talk to you for a moment?" when he nodded she continued. "I have a friend who needs a curse-breaker for something. It's not anything illegal but she needs it done quietly, I told her I'd ask you to see if you could help. Do you think you could take a look at it?"
"Sure, when would she need it done?"
"As soon as possible, apparently this curse is affecting someone she cares about so she wants it dealt with fast. Could we meet sometime today to talk about it?"
"Yeah, I have a meeting at Gringotts but I should be done by noon, how about we meet up at the Broomsticks and have lunch while we talk. Are you doing ok, you don't seem to be yourself today?"
"I cursed out Madam Bones last night."
"You what? Are you crazy, not even Death Eaters are willing to take that chance. What happened?"
"Have you heard about what happened when we went to get Harry yesterday?"
"Mum and the kids haven't stopped talking about it, was he really as bad as they say?"
"Probably worse, and then Dumbledore starts with how it's all for the best and he'll be happy once we force him to come here. I wasn't in a real good mood when I left, hell I'm still not in a good mood about it. She suspended me for a week, and if things aren't any different here this morning it's going to be a short meeting for me."
"Harry can't seem to catch any breaks. From the little time I spent with him this last year he struck me as a tough kid, but even the toughest person has a breaking point. I owe him, hell my whole family does, he saved Ginny's life her first year. Apparently he almost died while doing it."
Before Tonks could ask about it they were interrupted by Molly announcing that the meeting was about to start so they made their way to the kitchen. She looked around at everyone who was there and noticed that both Sirius and Remus were missing. Once everyone was seated Dumbledore stood, the normal twinkle in his eye was noticeably missing.
"We have a problem. Miss Jones would you start, tell us what you saw this morning."
A black haired witch in her mid 30's stood. "The Dursley's packed up their car this morning like they were heading on a long trip, they seemed to be in a hurry. Harry didn't leave with them and I didn't see them pack any of his things." She sat back down.
"Thank you, Kingsley."
The tall ebony Auror stood. "When Madam Pomfrey and I went in Harry and all of his things were gone."
The people around the table erupted, everyone getting louder to be heard until a loud bang silenced them. Dumbledore stood, his voice remained calm. "Everyone please take your seats. Kingsley, did you find anything that would tell you what might have happened?"
"No, there was no sign of him ever having been there, all of his things were gone. The only magic residue was from what we did when we were there yesterday. If I didn't know that he lived there I would have said that we had the wrong house."
"Emmeline, did you see anything out of the ordinary last night?"
"No, as far as I could see everything was quiet."
"Were you even watching or were you having tea?" Molly Weasley's face was red as she started shouting. "I swear none of you know how to take care of a child, how all of you can be so irresponsible, you're supposed to be keeping poor Harry safe and you can't even do that."
"Molly, please we must remain calm,"
Tonks stood up "Calm my arse, she's right. If we can't even protect one person what the hell is going to happen when we have to face Death Eaters? I joined the Order hoping to make a difference. Well the only thing I've seen us accomplish is alienating, and then losing Harry. What are we going to do about this?"
"Nymphadora,"
"I TOLD YOU TO CALL ME TONKS. HOW HARD IS IT TO REMEMBER, BLOODY HELL IT'S EVEN EASIER TO PRONOUNCE."
"My apologies Miss Tonks, we must, however, remain calm if were going to help young Harry. Severus have you heard anything?"
"No, if it was the Dark Lord's work everyone's keeping it quiet. It's far more likely that he simply ran away because it would get even more attention."
Alastor Moody spoke before anyone else could. "There's no way he could have walked out of that house carrying all of his belongings. That boy may be tough but I doubt that he could walk to the loo without help. His eyes were swollen shut; he didn't even know who was there until we each spoke. There's no way he could have left on his own."
"Then we must find the Dursley's. They would appear to be the only ones with information as to Harry's whereabouts. Was there anything in the house that might tell us where they are going?"
"Nothing, and from what Hestia told me I don't think this trip was planned."
Dumbledore sat with his hands steepled in front of his face thinking for several minutes before he spoke. "Kingsley I need you and Miss Jones to go back to Privet Drive and see if you can find anything that you might have missed. Arthur, you and Nymphadora"
"THAT'S IT. YOU CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER ONE BLOODY REQUEST FOR TEN MINUTES, HOW CAN YOU BE EXPECTED TO LEAD US AGAINST YOU KNOW WHO? YOU CAN CALL EVERYONE ELSE BY THE NAME THEY CHOOSE BUT YOU SEEM TO TAKE SOME PERVERSE PLEASURE IN IGNORING ME. YOU CAN SHOVE YOUR BLOODY ORDER." Tonks slammed the door on her way out and walked straight into several flesh colored strings. Four Weasley's and one Granger came running down the stairs.
"How can you be leaving with Harry missing? He needs to be found, he could be in danger."
"Hermione, I'm going to look for him. I promise I won't stop looking until I find him; I'm just not going to follow that old coot to do it. The way his memory is someone could tell him Harry's location and he'd forget within a couple seconds." She took a breath. "I'm sure he'll be alright, he's tough and always finds a way to pull through, doesn't he?" Hermione nodded. "I'll find him, ok? But I need to get out of here before I hex the old man. You guys keep your hopes up." With that she walked out the door and apparated away.
A/N: I always wondered why Tonks never really went off on everyone who called her Nymphadora. It really is easy to remember and to pronounce. She made it through training in a male dominated job and world; she has to have some chutzpah to get through that and I can't see her being someone to just mildly protest repeated offenses.
Thank you to everyone who is reading and reviewing. I'll try to answer all reviews soon.
