The rest of the Order piled in before long and the meeting got underway. Everyone gave updates on their current assignments and Dumbledore shared the information he'd gathered as well.

"Anything else before we depart for the evening?" Dumbledore asked.

Remus held up a hand. "Aurora is going to be a problem."

"Who would have guessed?" Snape drawled from his seat at the far end of the table.

Sirius leered at him. "Sounds like the kind of thing a 'salty bitch' would say."

Tonks snorted beside him and covered her mouth as she suppressed a laugh. Remus looked at Sirius and Tonks as if they were children, and as soon as the meeting was over he was going to scold them.

"Why is that, Remus?" Dumbledore asked, ignoring the diversions.

"Because of Harry," he replied. "She's adamant that she won't take your word on anything."

"And also, I mean, she's right," Tonks said.

"She's right?" Sirius asked.

"I mean, Harry is a 14-year-old boy who just lived through the worst possible day of his life and we sent him back to a place where he has been mentally abused for the last 13 years. She's right. If she's doing terrible then Harry is probably also doing terrible and it doesn't make sense that he's in Surrey and not here where he's safer," Tonks said. "And of course, I know why that is and it makes sense to not tell Harry or his friends and especially his seer girlfriend what's going on, but you take away that aspect of it, and we all kind of seem like, excuse my language, a bunch of assholes."

Dumbledore nodded.

"And I just should say, and I promise I'm done after this, the mental health of children is wildly overlooked. And in circumstances like these, it's really good that Aurora has been able to be with people who love her since she got home, and that when you do eventually bring Harry here, he's going to be even worse of a monster she was," Tonks said. She sat back in her chair. But then she sat forward again. "Sorry I just-."

"Had another thought you'd like to share with the class?" Snape asked.

"Yes. I didn't become an Auror for people not to pay attention when I speak. So listen and you might learn something, Professor," Tonks said.

Sirius resisted the urge to high-five her right then and there, but he would definitely do it later.

"As I was saying, she just wants to know why," Tonks said. "She made it clear that 'Dumbledore has a good reason' is not a good enough reason for her. And Harry trusts you implicitly, which is great, but it's also good to have someone in your corner who asks tough questions. And I don't think it'd be a terrible thing for you to be honest with her about why Harry needs distance from all of this. She literally asked to talk to you about what your reason was."

Dumbledore nodded. "We can adjourn for the evening, but I would like to speak to Aurora before I go. I think otherwise she'll continue to be troublesome."

Most of the table got up to leave.

"I'm not sure if this will make her less troublesome, but we can try," Remus said rising from the table. He exited the room and headed upstairs.

"I have literally interrogated people who didn't give me as hard of a time as Aurora did. Mostly because, as I said, she's right," Tonks said. "She's quite keen."

"So I've learned," Sirius said.

A few moments later, a perplexed Aurora walked into the dining room. She saw Dumbledore and her surprise deepened.

"Headmaster, I'm surprised to see you here," Aurora said.

"Are you?" Dumbledore asked, motioning to the chair beside him. Aurora sat down.

"Well, everyone else has been dodging my questions so I assumed the HBIC would avoid them too," Aurora said.

"Can you please stop?" Remus groaned.

"HBIC?" Dumbledore asked.

"It stands for 'head bitch in charge,'" Tonks said.

"You're really up on the lingo of the youth," Sirius said.

"She is a youth," Remus said.

"I'm 23," she replied.

"I stand by my assessment," he replied.

"Well," Dumbledore said, unflappable as always, "you've voiced some very real concerns about Harry's wellbeing. And I admit I did not listen to your warnings the way I should have, but I am listening now. So tell me."

Aurora was quiet for a moment. Sirius could see in her eyes that she was taking the right words and putting them into the right place to make her argument.

"How could you just leave him in Surrey to languish in a cupboard under the stairs for 10 years after his parents were snatched away? Even if you didn't know then, you knew when he came to school. Why let him stay there be treated like some kind of indentured servant? And when he asked to please stay with the Weasley's after living through the worst day of his life, you sent him back to people who are only going to give him hell?" she asked.

Dumbledore nodded again. "I understand-"

"Do you?" she asked. "Because I feel like you're all looking at me like I'm some stupid, lovesick teenaged girl. And maybe I am that, but even if didn't get to spend a single day with him this summer, it would bring me some peace to know that he's at least out of that house. And I can't imagine what could possibly be so important that Harry, who everyone is placing their hopes upon, needs to suffer needlessly like this for the greater good."

Remus placed a hand on Aurora's shoulder. There were tears leaking from her eyes that she didn't bother to wipe away. Sirius' heart broke for her. She truly did love Harry. That was obvious. She wanted him to be happy and safe, with or without her. And Harry wasn't even here to defend himself.

"You get to go home and sleep in a bed every night where no one is looking down on you for being a burden in their life. But Harry's endured all this, and then he goes home to the Dursleys and he's got to put up with it because, why?" she asked.

Dumbledore and Aurora stared at each other for a long moment. She wiped her face clean.

"You're not going to tell me are you?" she asked.

"No," Dumbledore said with a shake of his head.

"Of course not," she replied with a huff. "Why would anyone tell me anything? I'll just go off and tell Harry, of course."

"You would," Dumbledore said.

"And you know what? What would be so terrible about that? Heaven forbid Harry know a single thing about why you're making decisions about his life," she replied. "He gets to be miserable, but you won't even give him a reason why. He's not safe there."

Dumbledore gave her a questioning look. "He's not safe there?"

Aurora shook her head. "No. Something bad is going to happen if he stays there."

"Harry's perfectly safe in Surrey," Dumbledore assured her. "No harm is going to come to him while he's with his family. You have my word."

"I guess we'll see which of us right, then," Aurora said getting to her feet.

"Aurora," Remus started to scold her, but she walked through the dining room door and upstairs, ignoring him completely. "I'm sorry. She's not usually-."

"When you love someone so intensely, especially when you're young you can't help yourself," Dumbledore said. "At least Harry has her looking after him. I think in all our fervor to make sure he's safe from Voldemort, he needs someone looking after him as though he's any other person. I think Aurora is doing that. And it's a good reminder."


Rory was silent as she walked home with her dad that evening.

"I'm very disappointed with your behavior tonight," Remus said when they walked into their flat. She didn't answer. She didn't feel like being yelled at right now. "Do you feel bad at all for the way you spoke to Dumbledore?"

"No," Rory said simply as she stepped out of her shoes.

"You do understand why we're not telling you?" Remus asked.

"Just because I understand doesn't mean I don't think it's not stupid," Rory grumbled.

"And you realize it's for your safety as well?" he asked.

"If you say so," she replied.

"Look at me when I'm speaking to you," he said firmly. She looked over to him. He was visibly annoyed and upset, but she was also annoyed and upset. She didn't want to cry in front of Dumbledore. She didn't want to yell at him. She'd wanted to say her piece about Harry. Have everyone realize they'd left him in an awful situation, and then fix it. Never did she imagine that people would push back against her for wanting Harry to be well.

"I'm not going to apologize. I'm not sorry. I think it's completely unreasonable to leave him with those people," Rory said.

"They're his family," Remus said.

"That's the dumbest argument I've ever heard," she replied. He was clearly taken aback by her words, but she was already going to be in trouble. Might as well double down. "Blood is not what makes a family. I'm your daughter after all. Do you matter less now that Sirius is around? Am I better off staying with Sirius because we're biologically related?"

Remus sighed. "You know that's not what I was implying."

"Then why does it matter so much that they're his 'family?' They're not his family, not really," Rory said. "And you know that, and Dumbledore knows it and Sirius knows it and it's just… It's cruel."

"Aurora, I know you love Harry, and you want to look out for him, but-."

"You know what?" she said, cutting him off, "none of you are taking me seriously because I'm his girlfriend, so I guess I should just stop trying to talk about it." She walked to her room and slammed the door. She reclined back against it, and tears fell from her eyes.

Rory wasn't used to arguing with her dad. She loved her dad. She was closer to him than any other person on the planet. But this last year she'd felt herself drifting away. Inevitable, she realized. The older she got, the more of her own person she became, she knew she wouldn't always get on with her dad.

But she was upset that they were arguing because of a boy. She didn't want to be the girl that argued with her dad because of a boy, but here she was. At the very least they weren't arguing about anything to do with her relationship with Harry. Just about him in general.

And right now, she missed him more than ever. She was upset with her dad and just wanted to talk to him about it. But he wasn't here. And if he were here there wouldn't be anything to argue with her dad about in the first place.


Remus was not used to getting the cold shoulder from his daughter. The next morning she barely said more than "good morning." At the very least she didn't get up from the table when he sat down.

She drank her coffee and read the paper.

"We can go back to Grimmauld after you get dressed," he said.

"Okay," she said, not looking up from the paper.

He tried to think of something to say to her, to try to diffuse the tension between them.

"You slept through the night," he said.

"I didn't," she replied. She took a sip of her coffee. "Been up for hours." She still didn't look at him, and her voice was very matter-of-fact, but at least it was something.

"It'll get better. I promise," he said.

Aurora continued reading, not bothering to acknowledge him. His daughter was usually very chatty. Breakfast was usually full of conversation, discussing the paper, but now she was silent.

Their walk back to Grimmauld was also silent. As soon as they were inside, she said nothing more than a brief hello to Sirius, Tonks, Molly, and Arthur before she went off to find Ron and Hermione.

"I'm guessing she's still upset about last night then," Sirius said.

Remus nodded. "Teenagers are a different beast."

"Indeed they are," Molly said. "She'll come back around soon. Not to worry."

"And when Harry does come to visit eventually, she'll forget all about it this," Arthur chimed in.

Remus would defer to their expertise. They currently had raised three adults already and had four teenagers to deal with every day.

"I certainly hope you're right," Remus said.

"You and Aurora never get into arguments?" Tonks asked.

"Almost never," Remus said. "I could probably count all of our arguments on one hand."

"And then they start dating and turn into monsters," Tonks said. "Or so I'm told. That's what my dad said happened. I'm super close with my dad too."

"Ted is so wonderful," Molly said.

"When Dumbledore talked to my parents, Dad said that I must report back to him on how you're doing," Tonks said.

"You've met each other's families then?" Remus asked.

"I dated Charlie Weasley for a year and a half," Tonks said. "Half of sixth year and all of seventh year and into the summer. He was talking about marrying me."

"What happened?" Sirius asked.

"He moved to Romania. Molly had to tell me he went. I was devastated," Tonks said. "But now I'm an Auror so it's all good. The best revenge is a life well lived as they say."

"Who says that?" Remus asked.

"Someone, I'm sure," Tonks said. "I'll have to Google it."

"She keeps saying that! What is a Google?" Sirius asked.

"It's a search engine on the internet," Remus said.

"That literally cleared up nothing," Sirius replied.

"I'm sure once Rory decides she wants to talk to us again, she'll give you a run down," Remus said. Hermione came into the dining room.

"Good morning, Hermione," Remus said.

"Good morning," she replied. She held out a letter to him. "She asked me to give you this to post."

"Another letter for Harry, I assume," Remus said.

Hermione nodded. "Ron and I both told her she's overreacting a bit about all this, even though we do agree with her. But she said that the Order was 'under reacting' and she's impossible to argue with, especially if you're scared of her like Ron is."

"Ron is scared of her?" Sirius asked.

"Of course he is," Hermione said. "But only when she's angry. Usually, they get on pretty well. They both love the same Quidditch team or something. I don't really pay attention. She told me that she feels like it's very important she has a good relationship with Ron since she's dating Harry."

"Well, what about you?" Remus asked.

"Yes, you're Harry's good friend as well," Sirius said.

"I've shared a room with Rory for four years. She knows if I didn't think she was good enough for Harry I'd have told him immediately," Hermione said.

"Aurora said you were the one who got the two of them together," Tonks said.

"Aw, did she really?" Hermione asked. Tonks nodded. "It was stupid. She told Harry she liked him, but Harry can be… Oblivious. So he thought she meant 'I like that we're friends.' Of course, she was so embarrassed after that she didn't speak to him and I had to tell Harry, who'd basically been infatuated with her after the World Cup that, he was an idiot. So I cooked up a plot to make her help him learn the summoning charm alone together. Harry did the rest on his own. It was impressive. For Harry I mean. Even now he has trouble getting the right words out when he talks to her so when Rory said he asked her out Ron and I were both shocked because Harry doesn't even visit me in the girls' dorm because he's too awkward to function around girls."

"I can't imagine Harry being awkward," Sirius said.

Hermione chortled and quickly covered her mouth to keep the sound inside. She cleared her throat and dropped her hands.

"Harry is the most awkward person that I know. Especially when he's with Rory. At least, when he's around other people with Rory. She says he's only a little awkward, but that she is too," Hermione said.

"I can't imagine Aurora being awkward," Remus said.

"She's not usually. Unless she's with Harry," Hermione said. And then she walked out of the room.

Remus could not imagine her daughter being shy or nervous around anyone. She'd fully scolded her headmaster yesterday and received detention twice for heavily insulting Snape. But Harry made her nervous and awkward? It didn't seem real, except that she was so fiercely loyal to him.

"I'll be honest, Harry sounds like a gem and I can't wait to meet him," Tonks said. "I weirdly want to observe them and see how they interact."

Remus nodded in agreement and then had a random thought. "What are you doing here?"

Tonks chuckled. "Well, interestingly enough, occasionally they give me these things called 'days off' and I don't have to go into work."

"Must you be cheeky?" he asked.

"I must," she replied. "Anyway, I thought I might be able to mend the fence with your daughter. As you said, she's going to be a problem. But not a huge problem. Because like I said, I think she's right."

"You think Dumbledore is handling this all wrong?" Remus asked.

"I mean, they're teenagers, but they're not stupid," Tonks said. "And I agree with everything I said to her, and keeping her distanced from all this will help keep her and Harry safe, but I do think giving her all the information about how this will keep her safe won't hurt her."

"But she's 15 and she'd tell Harry everything. No telling what might slip up," Molly said.

"I agree, but also, she is a seer. She knew I was holding back information from her last night. And if she's as gifted as you all say she is, then lying to her is only going to make her distrust us more. And if she doesn't think she can trust us, who is she going to talk to?" Tonks asked.

Remus nodded. "Harry."

"Yep," Tonks said.

She was right. Right now, Harry was probably the person Aurora trusted most in her life. He had to find a way to mend things with his daughter. Remus didn't know if Aurora and Harry would last forever; they were 14 so there was no way to tell. But whether they did or they didn't, Remus still wanted Aurora to tell him important things.

And he realized there were a lot of important things he needed to talk to her about as well. She was smart, she knew everything it felt like, but she was still a girl who was dating a boy. And even if the boy was Harry, being a teenager automatically meant that all common sense left your body in the moment unless it had been drilled into you.

"I suppose I just have to prepare myself to get yelled at by angry teenager again," Remus said.

"I yelled at my dad lots and I still told him immediately when Charlie dumped me," Tonks said. "Good luck."