It was the week following Valentine's Day and Harry, well he had been on Cloud Nine every day since. He didn't think Tonks was proclaiming herself his girlfriend just from that kiss but it was still something so amazing for him. He knew that girls only kissed guys they liked so she did like him. But today he had to focus as it was his next Quidditch match, he'd gotten to see a couple more matches since his debut, Ravenclaw had a bout against Hufflepuff and then just last month Slytherin had gone against Ravenclaw.
And he was both excited and worried. Because his opposing seeker, Cedric Diggory, seemed really talented. Oliver had warned him that unlike Teri Higgs, Cedric was a wizard. Honestly Harry still hadn't managed to get to the bottom of why that would make a difference, and the best he could come up with is that Cedric had longer arms than Teri which he thought could make a difference if they ended up neck and neck like his first game since Teri would have gotten the snitch then if she had better reach when they both went into a nosedive.
Oliver always gave him the most obtuse advice, but he'd listen nonetheless.
Coming out onto the pitch he noticed that Madam Hooch wasn't refereeing this match, instead it was Professor Snape and she looked quite upset to be tasked with this. "Maybe Madam Hooch has an upset stomach?" Harry questioned but didn't go beyond that because Professor Snape had always enforced the rules so he expected a tough game but one that kept everyone in line.
In the stands Tonks was getting some comments for wearing a Gryffindor Jersey, the one spot of red and gold in the sea of yellow and black. She didn't even have to explain to Professor McGonagall why she was requesting one, just if she wanted it long sleeve or short. "You know I like the team but… you know," Tonks shrugged because she'd like it if her house won the match but she was supporting Harry. This just got more teasing sent her way about her warlock and now her face was beginning to match the shade of her top.
Harry took a deep breath because as soon as the match started Cedric would be on him, he'd seen from the match between the yellow and blue house teams that he liked to put pressure on the other seeker right from the start, so he needed to be ready for that.
The whistle blew, the quaffle was tossed and Harry decided that if Cedric wanted to bear down on him he'd at least give him a hell of a chase.
Racing through the air Harry was ducking and weaving through the chasers, trying to see if he'd shake Cedric off by flying directly into the path of bludgers only to roll out of the way, seemed that Leela Jordan was enjoying it because he'd heard her mention his and Cedric's names a few times.
"If you make one more comment bordering on lewd about Misters Diggory and Potter and you will find yourself in detention for a month," Professor McGonagall warned the spokeswitch for the match. She had enough of listening to the young lady going on about how Cedric was almost mounting Harry and how the two of them were nearly skin to skin. This was sports commentary, not a playwitch magazine.
Of course the girls in the crowd had been enjoying it especially as the two wizard seekers were tearing across the field.
It had only been a few minutes since the start of the match, but Harry noticed it. Sitting beneath the professor's booth the snitch buzzed just out of view of the occupants, but if he raced for it now, Cedric might see it and if he knew a better trick to gain speed, then he was sure to reach it first.
Harry looked down and considered his options, but since he wanted to win this, so he shot straight down racing along the side, his sudden shift had Cedric following, thinking he'd seen the snitch. And he did but the entire time he was keeping the winged orb just on the edge of his vision, it was still under the booth, but for how long would it stay there.
He wasn't sure if his broom could handle a sudden ninety-degree shift, but if it could take going horizontal to vertical with no problems then it was worth a shot.
As Harry reached out to the snitch that wasn't even there to further sell to Cedric that he was going for it, the other boy started to overtake him and that was what Harry wanted. Brooms did not have brakes, but it was essentially what Harry did, pulling hard and trying to keep as much of his momentum as he could to make sure he didn't have too long before he reached his top speed. Cedric had continued forward and in the half second it took to realize he'd been tricked he would have to circle half the field just to get back on track.
But it was for naught as the moment he started to pass his team's goal posts he heard Leela Jordan screaming in excitement that Harry Potter had caught the snitch, setting a new record for the school yet again. The match was over in less than five minutes.
Harry could hear the blood pounding in his ears as the team came over and congratulated him. He honestly couldn't make out a word anyone was saying the adrenaline was pumping through his body too hard.
The dinner after the match tasted like victory, and even though they lost, Cedric congratulated him for an amazing game, and he'd just train harder for their rematch next year.
The next morning however as Harry was getting ready to leave the common room after packing up the bag Tonks had gotten for him, the other members of the Quidditch team came by him. Oliver was waving to him with a smile but the girls on the team, well they were walking funny. The match must have been really hard on them if they were that sore, but they still had smiles, almost goofy looking as they tried to keep up with Oliver. As a collective they also thanked Harry for winning the match.
Harry was sitting at breakfast next to Tonks when Hedwig came flying in to drop a letter off in front of him. "Oh thank you," Harry reached over and stroked her feathers before handing her a piece of bacon which she took as payment for delivering the mail.
"It's from Ms. Hagrid," Harry said with some confusion why she wrote him a letter rather than just coming to speak to him.
Tonks leaned over and read the note and internally groaned because the groundskeeper hadn't gotten rid of that dragon egg and furthermore it was getting ready to hatch. This was getting out of hand, she knew that Hagrid had gotten in trouble during her time as a student, not even being able to finish her education before the ministry took away her wand. So risking this very illegal pet was going to get her sent to Azkaban. She would need to convince the half-giant that it would be a bad idea to keep it any longer.
"Oh wow," Harry said with excitement as he watched the egg start to crack.
'Well, after Harry gets to see this,' Tonks decided because this would be Harry's first chance to see a dragon up close and it wasn't likely to eat him either.
The dragon had burnt Hagrid's clothes and nearly started a massive fire that Tonks was able to quickly put out with the proper charm work. "Okay you hatched it Hagrid, this has got to go though," pointing to the partially destroyed hut while Harry had backed off to behind her robes since she had been fighting the fires.
Ruby opened her mouth to proclaim that she was more than capable of raising Norbert all on her own when she heard a yipe as the newly hatched dragon was chasing Fang around the table. "Alright," she finally gave in because she'd be missing a dog by the end of the week with how fast Norbert grew. "But what do I do? Can't rightly go telling the professors about this."
"I can help with that," Tonks sighed because she'd have to get a letter to Charlie Weasley fast, she was a girl who had graduated and gone off to pursue her passion of working on a dragon preserve. It was commendable, but there had been rumors that the reason Charlie never tried to become attached to a wizard was because she was more fascinated with the animal kind, course that could have just been nasty rumors witches tended to spread. Tonks tilted her head because there was that time she overheard someone mentioning a toy shaped like a dragon's part found laying out in the Gryffindor dorm a couple years back.
Thankfully it didn't take long for a response and apparently they could be there in just a few days after coordinating it off the books, so all Tonks had to do was get the dragon ready for transport.
Now she was really kicking herself mentally because she'd planned the whole thing out but didn't realize Harry was there while she did it, so stepping out onto the grounds she was startled when Harry came out of a darkened hiding place. Of course now Harry would be a part in this and she doubted that him being a wizard would be enough to get them out of whatever punishment they'd get in for this smuggling operation.
But still it was too late to turn back now, the handlers were waiting on brooms at the astronomy tower to take the crate. At least Harry had some food that he snagged from dinner earlier to feed the dragon so it stayed quiet, because in the halls devoid of students if this beast got loud, they might as well just wave a banner that said arrest us for the aurors.
"Thanks Charlie," Tonks sighed after the dragon's crate was secured. "You have no idea how much this is going to save Hagrid's arse."
Charlie offered her hand for a shake before noticing the first year behind her. "So this is the infamous Harry Potter."
"Hello," Harry waved to the older sister of the other Weasley girls he had already met. Ronalda mentioned she had a little brother who would be starting next year and one older, older sister, so this was nice to be able to meet one more of the quite big family.
"Didn't know you liked them that young?" Charlie chuckled as she nodded her head towards the choker Tonks wore.
Reaching up to touch the charm because she had gotten so used to wearing it that she actually missed the feeling of it on her skin whenever she took it off. "He's my warlock, and at least I have one Miss I Lost A Toy That Big in the Common Room," Tonks snarked back and Charlie's eyes widened because she didn't know word of that had gotten out of Gryffindor.
"Tonks swinging that beater bat without a care for collateral, well I know when I'm beat," Charlie smirked because if you grew up with Frieda and Georgina you had to have a sense of humor. She whistled so that the riders would take off in unison and Tonks was relieved once they were far enough away she couldn't see them in the sky.
Harry however looked dead tired and Tonks started to lead him back down the stairs when the worst possible outcome happened, well it wasn't nearly as bad as if her mum had caught her like this but still, Arlene Filch, the caretaker was standing at the foot of the stairs. She was an ornery squib that hated children and looked for any excuse to deal out punishments, of course they still all went through the professors but now, oh she knew she had them by the short hairs.
Arlene had gripped Tonks' wand arm as she led them through the school, whether that was to stop her from hitting the squib with a spell to get out of this, pure chance or because even she wasn't so crazy to put her hands on a young wizard in the dead of night, still she had no way out of this and Harry wasn't going to leave her behind rather than running to save himself.
Now they stood in Minerva's office as Filch ranted and raved about catching them coming down from the astronomy tower together. MInerva however dismissed the squib and looked at Tonks before seeing that Harry was exhausted and her mouth opened in shock. "Nympha-DORA," Minerva said firmly.
Tonks blinked for a second and then it came crashing down on her what conclusion the deputy headmistress had come to, now copping to smuggling a dragon out of the school would result in a less severe punishment than what she envisioned for her if she didn't clear up Professor McGonagall's belief about what they had been doing up in the tower that would leave Harry looking so tired. "That's not what we were doing. I was committing a totally different crime, I swear."
"You have five seconds," Minerva warned as she drew her wand threateningly.
"Wait," Harry muttered, drawing attention to himself.
Tonks could feel her fate hanging in the balance based on whatever Harry said, if it was innocent she could spin that to only get a buttload of detentions, but if it had any other meaning at all she probably wouldn't be conscious again until she was being dragged into a ministry cell. "We were only helping out Ms. Hagrid, please don't be mad," Harry pleaded.
Minerva blinked and then looked to Nymphadora. "Explain."
Tonks told everything, she didn't like that Hagrid was liable to end up in trouble but she wasn't going to let herself get dragged out of the castle in chains like that. "And we were just coming back down and I promise I was going to take Harry straight back to his dorm," Tonks finished up the story, albeit a tad long-windedly, because she wanted to impress upon Professor McGonagall they were only committing one type of felony, not another.
"I will speak with the headmaster about this," Minerva said. "For now, you will go back to your dorm."
Tonks opened her mouth to remind the professor that she still had to walk Harry back to his dorm before she could get to bed, when Minerva looked down her nose at the student. "I'll be sure your warlock is in bed and this will be the last time something like this happens," warning off the girl from arguing against her.
Gulping she nodded quickly and reached out towards Harry but Minerva clearing her throat told her anything more was not wanted.
Getting back into bed, Tonks was worried just what punishment the faculty were going to hand down to her, this could end her aspirations of being an auror before she even had a chance to apply for the trainee position. She was risking her future for Hagrid, at least she thought as the head of Harry Potter's coven she could always fall back on rearing his children.
For weeks Tonks was stressed, exams were coming and she hadn't heard a single word from either McGonagall or Dumbledore, Hagrid looked cowed when she sat down at the faculty table but that she was still here boded well, right?
Finally Tonks received a note from Professor Sprout to report to the grounds tonight for her detention.
Standing outside she was confused why Harry was also being brought out, he had been sent to stand with Hagrid, but she would have to wait for what Professor McGonagall told them would be happening as it seemed like Minerva wanted a word with her first. "After many talks with Albus and Mister Potter coming to my office nearly every day pleading the case for a lighter punishment for yourself. You will serve a single detention."
It was a miracle, she was getting a detention for a crime that would have gotten her slammed in Azkaban for five years. "Not that I'm not beyond grateful with the mercy being shown here, how did Harry convince you to not get the aurors involved?"
Minerva sighed and explained that she was going to as the headmaster had left it up to her discretion. But it was Harry that had tried everything with her, trying to play to her sense of friendship with Hagrid that they were only doing it to protect her, to making outlandish promises about winning every quidditch match he played to simply getting on his hands and knees to beg that she didn't call the aurors. That Lily's son was reducing himself so low for another, it didn't feel right to make him do anything more, he had already demonstrated more humility than anyone she had ever met before, and it came from a child. "You have a true rarity Nymphadora, not many friends would go this far for another, that your warlock cares for you this much, risking everything he has. Do not betray that loyalty he is showing you, you'll never find another who is willing to give it otherwise."
Tonks looked over in near disbelief that Harry had supplicated himself for her sake. "I promise Professor McGonagall, after this, no one will ever doubt that I will support him with everything that I am."
That put a smile on McGonagall's face. She had doubts throughout the year that Tonks was doing this to take advantage of Harry, for whatever reason it mattered not, but this was a more pure coven than she'd witnessed from other students who did so for more base desires. "I have already explained to Harry what the punishment is, you will go with Hagrid into the Forbidden Forest to check on the unicorns, something is hunting them, once you have done a circuit with her, you two will come straight back here, am I clear," Minerva asked to make sure Tonks understood the assignment.
"Got it, a quick stroll and I make sure nothing more dangerous than an ant comes within five feet of Harry," Tonks saluted because while it was unlikely they would come across anything this was more of a punishment for Harry as hers had been lessened to babysitting duty.
Once in the forest Tonks made sure to stick close to Harry's side, with Hagrid's loud lumbering footsteps, it was likely to scare off anything that might have been snooping around but still it never hurt to be alert.
So far fifteen minutes in and they've found nothing, absolutely what Tonks wanted, Harry sticking close to her with his wand lit with a lumos and to be honest, this had been a dream of hers once when she was younger. Walking through a dimly lit forest with a wizard on her arm, that had a different type of ending than what she expected tonight.
Hearing a branch snap Tonks' wand was ready to release the fury when Hagrid's lantern just ended up shining on an approaching centaur. "Oh Firenze," Hagrid smiled at seeing the friendly centaur.
"Ruby," Firenze nodded to the half-giant. "What brings you here this night, do you wish to continue what we started?"
Tonks saw Ruby's eyes flicker from the centaur's muscular chest to his undercarriage and realized what was being implied. So she very forcefully cleared her throat. "Child, child, there's a child," speaking through her hacks.
She really, really did not want this conversation to continue as it did because she didn't want to learn the logistics of how a centaur and half-giantess became that close of friends and she definitely did not want Harry to start asking questions. Firenze thankfully got the clue to change topics.
"Sorry er, we're just taking a look for whatever's been harassing the unicorns," Hagrid answered before looking over Firenze. "Maybe we could search together."
"You know what, that's fine," Tonks intruded as she started to nudge Harry away. "We'll finish our search on the way back to the castle. Come on Harry, please."
"Okay Tonks," Harry acknowledged as they started to walk away from the pair, they had the same look that he'd see on some of the house team when they sat with Oliver before they left the common room together.
Tonks had her eyes on the direction of the castle, the faster she got Harry out of the forest the better, she could tell Minerva that she held up her end and if she wanted any more details to talk to Hagrid because she was done covering for the groundskeeper. However Harry stopping in his tracks caused her to do the same.
Harry moved over to some low hanging branches and moved them out of the way to see something that caught his attention, in the future he'd blame it on the same reason why he was such a good seeker. Coming to a clearing Harry could see on the forest floor a large white animal, this must be a unicorn Harry realized since well, it looked like all the ones he had seen on the trapper keepers of girls in primary school or airbrushed onto vans.
"Oh fuck," Tonks muttered as she came up behind Harry with a wand flicking side to side. She was now beyond nervous, they found a unicorn and it… yup it was dead, because it wasn't breathing. She could only pray that whatever did this was long gone by now.
Harry backing up into her drew the wand into the direction of a cloaked figure slowly rising from the neck of the creature. Tonks hand started to shake as she saw a mouth of gnarled teeth dripping with silver blood, it was a fresh kill. "Harry get behind me," Tonks ordered as she twirled her wand to shoot out a reductor curse, but to her shock it was deflected into a nearby tree, blowing a chunk out of it to topple the tree over.
She could hear heavy noises coming nearby and was glad that whatever Ruby and Firenze had gotten up to wasn't so loud as to not hear a tree falling in a forest. These reinforcements had caused the figure to stop before taking off deeper into the forest. She kept her wand trained on that direction until she saw a light from behind her start to cast shadows. "What's happening?" Ruby shouted as she stomped forward.
"Just…" Tonks huffed. "Found whatever was attacking the unicorns."
She looked down to see that Harry was keeping his wand pointed in the direction of whatever that had been, but his other hand was resting on his forehead. "Harry?" Tonks said with concern because she'd never seen this behavior from him.
"I'm fine, just," Harry exhaled because this was like every time he had class with Professor Quirrell and he wasn't so foolish as to not make that connection himself. "What, why would someone kill a unicorn?"
"Well you'd have to be right crazy to do so," Hagrid said as she carefully came over to check the body.
"Ruby is correct Harry Potter," Firenze stated in agreement with the short answer. "One must be truly desperate to drink the blood of a unicorn. It would save you even if you were on the brink of death, but to take the life of such an innocent creature, you'd live a short, cursed life."
Harry looked at the body and started to think about everything he learned this year, which he felt was quite a lot. And everything added up to this being Voldemort trying to come back to life. He'd have to get Hermione a present for looking up the name Nicholas Flamel for him because he wouldn't have been able to slot that last piece of the puzzle into what he knew without it.
Hagrid had been tasked to get the philosopher's stone and hide it in the school and Voldemort was trying to steal it and he was running out of time.
While Harry was trying to devise a way to get into the third-floor corridor which is where he just knew it was hidden, Tonks had come over to the half-giant and centaur. "Absolutely nothing happened tonight, because if Professor McGonagall learns that Harry nearly got attacked because you two," almost hissing quietly at the pair. "Wanted to go off and play hide the god damn horsecock, she will kill us all. And if she doesn't I will, because I already just barely escaped her thinking I dragged Harry off to steal his purity like a monstrous beast all because we got caught smuggling your bloody dragon out of the school. Do I make myself clear?"
Ruby shared a look with Firenze and both quickly nodded because the obviously deranged witch might actually follow through on that threat and neither wanted to ask for details on half of what she said. They would just drop the pair off back at the castle before Firenze nudged Hagrid that he was still up for a romp and Ruby wasn't going to say no to a foot and a half of stress relief after the amount of extra work she had to do so that Minerva kept what she had done from reaching ministry ears.