After Albus saw the Express off he turned to Harry and Tonks, after making sure they were ready he apperated them to his Godric's Hollow. They would need to wait for Bathsheda and Moody before he took down his wards to replace them with the mithril wards, so today they would just be unpacking and resting.
Once they had unpacked, Tonks decided to take Harry clothes shopping while Albus finished some reports. Normally, whenever he wasn't in uniform, Harry wore simple cargo pants and t-shirts with a casual robe overtop, Bathsheda had then enchanted both pockets with undetectable extension charms.
Nothing in the store caught his attention, aside from a blue-grey trench coat hidden at the back. The moment Harry saw it he knew he wanted it, despite the fact even the smallest size was still too big for him he tried it on.
"Looks good on you kiddo" Tonks said honestly, like Harry she knew that the coat could be enchanted to fit better. She could perform that particular charm with barely a thought, a necessity for any shapeshifter.
The next day when Bathsheda eventually arrived, the two then set about setting up the ward. Having already made the ward spheres the night before, they only needed to carve the final runes into the mithril.
Once done, they signalled Dumbledore who then made sure Moody and Tonks were ready to defend them if necessary, he then carefully lowered every ward on his house for the first time in decades. Harry then started manipulating the mithril base to project the wards so that it completely covered the property.
With the wards in place Moody and Dumbledore set about trying to break them down, a normal ward would've fallen under being attacked so soon after its generation. A ward normally gained power over time, so a ward scheme that was centuries old like Hogwarts was significantly stronger now compared to when they had been put up.
The Mithril ward would remain static, currently the wards felt as strong as Hogwarts, but in 100 years time there could be a noticeable difference. But despite this Dumbledore still believed the mithril ward was better.
"Take for example the world cup wards, they've been passively drawing power for nearly eight years and there's still some concern about their integrity. Your wards could be set up the day of the event and nearly impenetrable, there's also the matter of secrecy.
"Due to the nature of the world cup the wards couldn't be kept quiet, so anyone planning to attack the stadium has had eight years to plan a way around them. By having the wards up only when they are needed you prevent somebody planning an attack in advance." Dumbledore had said.
Unfortunately the adults had unanimously agreed it was too dangerous for Harry to stick around, so he and Tonks were going to stay in her flat until they knew what the mithril ward was capable of.
"Okay, just change your skin one more time." Tonks sighed but did as Harry asked, changing her skin from light purple to dark green. They were sitting on top of her bed and he had decided to make sense of her powers again, every time she changed her body Harry would run his hands across his watch.
Eventually he nodded confidently and started changing in front of her, unlike her own metamorphing hsi was slow. First he made his hair longer and silkier, then his eyes changed from intense green to soft blue, bit by bit he changed his body until he looked completely different.
If Tonks didn't know it was him she would've assumed he was close to her own age, not the thirteen year old he was meant to be. Despite herself, she started poking him just to check it wasn't an illusion.
"How did you do that?" Harry had shown some skill over self modification, such as changing the colour of his hand when they had first met. But there was a huge difference between recolouring a hand and completely changing your body.
"A fair bit of cheating and… dare I say, talent?" Harry replied cheekily "I have to focus on each transformation carefully, but it should now hold until I tell it otherwise. This is basically self-transfiguration, but eventually I want to get it to full, on-the-spot metamorphosing."
"The only problem is your magic still feels the same… and your voice is the same." While she couldn't see magic like Moody or Harry, all witches and wizards could sense magic on an instinctual level. Likewise all witches and wizards gave off a passive magical aura, for the average magical they only gave off enough magic to tell they had magic. But for those powerful enough like Dumbledore, the magic given off was strong enough to be distinct.
What Tonks was detecting was Harry's magical signature. The average witch or wizard wouldn't have been able to identify him, they would've just known there was a powerful wizard in the room. But as she had spent so much time around Harry and his magic, her own magic recognised him on an instinctual level.
"Damn, okay how about… now?" Harry closed his eyes and gained an expression of deep concentration. At first Tonks didn't know what he was doing but then she felt his magic start to disappear. It felt like he was simply walking away except for the fact he was right in front of her, soon she could barely sense his magic at all.
It was extremely unnerving to look at somebody she knew was Harry, but without his looks and magic there was nothing she could recognise of her friend.
"How… how did you do that?"
"Well I've been trying to control my aura since I was eleven, hidden it isn't that difficult anymore. I want to be able to actually change the feel of my magic but so far I haven't been able to do it."
Tonks was going to question him further but was interrupted by a dark shape flying through her window, before she even knew what it was she had drawn her wand and looked for where the thing had gone. She soon discovered it was a black crow that had perched itself on Harry's arm.
"Why hello, I was wondering when you would be coming back." Harry said softly, running his hand down the birds back. At his touch the crow shivered and revealed that the light reflected off it, leading Tonks to assume it was a rare magical bird.
The crow then tucked its beak under its wing and started rummaging around, only to come out with a letter which was definitely too big to hide. Seeing that Harry was going to take the letter without even checking for curses Tonks tried to warn him.
"It's fine Tonks, Corvus wouldn't have accepted the letter if it was dangerous. Anyway I doubt Dumbledore would have sent a cursed letter… He says they're gonna test the wards overnight and that we should be able to return tomorrow."
Harry then ran his finger over the birds back in a pattern, the back then popped off to reveal the bird was hollow. Feeling faintly sick, Tonks found herself leaning over and studying the insides, but she couldn't make heads nor tails of it. But Harry obviously could as he then pulled out a thin, pale silver square and held it out to her.
"As you're here, would you mind focusing your magic in your finger and touching this plate? It will allow Corvus to find you no matter where you are and likewise allow you to send letters to me… or anyone else in the database I guess."
Wearily she did as he asked and let the plate absorb the offered magic, when the plate turned the colour of soft violet she felt it looked familiar. Harry then slid the plate back into place where it joined seven other plates, but only four of those plates were coloured.
Then after fixing the birds back, Harry held his arm towards the closed window and allowed the crow to take off. Tonks winced as the bird reached the glass, expecting it to have shattered, instead the bird seemed to blur before it reappeared on the other side of the glass.
"Right… well if we aren't expected back till tomorrow, how about a bit of fun?" She asked hesitantly, she didn't know what Harry did for fun and hoped he would like the same stuff as herself.
"Sure, what did you want to do?"
"Keep your disguise on for a start." She said, then held out her arm and wiggled her fingers playfully, inviting him to grab hold. Once he had a firm grip she apperated them near her favourite muggle night club, under his disguise he looked old enough to get in… with mild use of a confundus.
Really struggling with ideas currently, I've started skipping ahead and writing Goblet of Fire, so once I get year 3 over with it should be easy sailing. But I'm also going to start tidying up the entire story, because I had to go through the story finding all references to the colour of signatures. Suffice to say I am quite embarrassed at the lack of quality, there's the continuity issues. For instance Harry gifts a mithril bird to Nicolas that can send mail to 20 people, only to then make Corvus (Latin for crow) in the Caribbean and can only send to 8 people.
So in short I don't know when I will next upload a new chapter for this story, but the story will be continuously improved (hopefully).
Colours:
Harry: Vibrant Green
Bathsheda: Light Purple
Luna: Sky Blue
Dumbledore: Dark Indigo
Tonks: Soft Violet
Voldemort: Dark red
Hermione: Vivid Cyan