"Rory, it's fine," Hermione insisted as they walked to breakfast the next morning. "Yes, class is going to be awkward today. Yes, our dorm is going to continue to be awkward. But, it's fine."

It wasn't fine. Rory hated this. She was worried about Potions class because she didn't know how she would manage to keep her mouth shut with them all sitting together.

"I don't like this one single bit," Rory said. "I know you want me to leave it alone, but I just can't believe—"

"I can. Because Ron's an idiot," Hermione said. "Maybe this is a sign that it's for the best."

"I could use—"

"If you say anything about Divination or talking boards or tarot cards or Pythagorean Numerology I'm going to have to strangle you," Hermione said.

Rory let it slide as they walked into the Great Hall. Things were buzzing and Rory was not surprised, but a little disappointed when people spotted her and started whispering.

"What have I done now?" Rory asked as Harry came rushing up to her.

"Good morning," he said. "Before you sit down, I want to gauge your mood."

"Grumpy, but I keep telling her not to be," Hermione said.

"I'm fine, just like you," Rory said pointedly. Hermione rolled her eyes. "What's happened?"

"It's Witch Weekly," he said.

Rory and Hermione both groaned.

"What have I done now? Last weekend all I did was have lunch with my dad," Rory said. "Sirius sent me a clipping of the photo they took of him complaining that they didn't capture his good side."

"Is this on par with the piece they wrote about the two of you holding hands?" Hermione asked.

"It's a bit more," Harry said motioning for them to follow. They walked down to the table where Matilda was holding a copy of the magazine in her hands.

"It's all speculative, honestly," Matilda said. "Would love to know who the photographer is." She held out the magazine to Rory. Her face wasn't on the cover, thankfully, but just a few pages in was a page with two pictures of Harry and Rory. Both pictures were taken in the Common Room during the party. The first picture was of Harry and Rory in the corner, standing impossibly close. It looked like Harry whispering flirtatiously in her ear as Rory giggled, but she remembered at that point he was probably running his lips all over her neck. She was lucky the photo hadn't been taken from another angle.

This second picture was taken towards the end of the evening. Rory was talking with Parvati and Matilda.

But the scandal here was that she was wearing Harry's Quidditch jersey. Everyone had teased her that night, but truthfully, it wasn't that much of a big deal. No one got bent out of shape when Pansy trotted around in Draco's jersey after he won a match. George had been almost militant about strutting around in Angelina's too-small jersey after her wins. This was hardly a big deal.

The only reason it was a big deal was because it was Rory and Harry.

There was no real article to go along with it, just a nauseating write-up:

Harry Potter Gets Lucky

Harry Potter led his team to victory during his first match as Captain of Gryffindor's house team. At the same time his girlfriend, Aurora Lupin, made her debut as the school's new sports announcer and was the first to congratulate the captain, blowing him a celebratory kiss from the stands.

Gryffindor's students were said to be celebrating well into the night, but sources close to the couple say that Potter and Lupin left the festivities early. After being spotted getting close in the Common Room, Potter and Lupin reportedly snuck away from the party. Though the captain didn't return, his winning jersey did by way of his girlfriend who made a curious wardrobe change.

"Looks like Potter got lucky twice tonight," one classmate was cited as saying.

Rory rolled the magazine into a tube and smacked it threateningly in her hand. She knew exactly who was responsible for this.

"Seamus!" she exclaimed when she saw him down the table with Neville and Dean. She held up the magazine as she marched toward him and he got to his feet, seeming far more amused than he needed to be.

"I know what you're thinking," he said pointing to the paper in her hand, "but I didn't talk to anyone."

"They quoted exactly what you said to me in the Common Room," she said. She was about to smack Seamus with the magazine, but Harry was beside her and put an arm around her.

"Do you know how to talk to anyone without being vulgar?" Harry questioned.

"Everyone saw the two of you necking cozy in the Common Room before you ran off. Didn't take much imagination to figure out where you ran off to," Seamus said. "I may've said that to Rory, but I didn't repeat it after she told me off. Someone probably overheard me say it."

Practically everyone in Gryffindor had been in the Common Room. Loads of people had been taking pictures. There was no way to know who heard what or had taken the photos.

And Seamus wasn't lying. Rory could tell. But she'd had enough of Witch Weekly and their nonsense. Even with Rita Skeeter leaving them alone, this magazine had risen from the ashes to bite her in the ass.

"This is so stupid," Rory said when she finally sat down to eat. She tried to ignore the fact that Lavender was now sitting with them. "You'd almost think Skeeter was the one writing this trash, but she'd at least have the decency to come right out and say that she thinks I'm slut."

"It'll blow over," Hermione said reassuringly.

"You can't blame people for thinking this though," Lavender said casually.

Rory looked across the table to the newcomer. "And by that you mean?"

"Well, just that it was sort of obvious what you two had got up to," Lavender said. "Especially if you just walk in wearing his clothes suddenly."

"Even if showing back up at a Quidditch party wearing my boyfriend's, the Quidditch Captain, jersey was the way to tell whether or not we'd snuck away to have it off somewhere, it doesn't mean it needs to be printed in the bloody papers," Rory said.

"Sure," Lavender said. "But you could try being a bit more discreet."

Rory filled a mug with coffee. Instead of tossing it onto Lavender, she took a drink of it.

"I'll take that under advisement, Lavender," Rory said.

"Do you really drink just black coffee?" Lavender asked.

"Yes," Rory said. "Something wrong with that?"

"No. I just don't know how you can stand it," Lavender said. "My mother told me that when she started dating my dad she used to pretend to like black coffee because she thought it would make her seem cooler."

"No one thinks that I'm cool because I drink black coffee. Mostly everyone says they think I'm a psychopath," Rory said. "Especially Harry. And I've long since given up on trying to impress him."

"And yet you still do," he replied, kissing her cheek, probably sensing her irritation with Lavender.

"Rory doesn't mess around about coffee," Ron said. "She'd make coffee when I saw her during breaks and it always made me feel like I was going shake out of my skin. She said 'That's how you know it's working.' Think I slept three hours that night. Probably why your dad never sleeps. Nothing to do with him being a werewolf; you've just got him overcaffeinated."

Rory laughed, and she hated that she laughed because she wanted to be angry with Ron, but this was the very thing she loved about him. Who else would dare make a joke about her dad being a werewolf? No one. Except Ron knew what would be funny versus what would be rude. And this was funny. And possibly accurate.

Lavender didn't seem to appreciate the joke the same way everyone else did.

"Does your dad not sleep well?" Lavender asked.

"No. Lycanthropy has given him incurable insomnia," Rory said.

"That or the coffee," Ron repeated. Rory laughed again.

"Seems a strange thing to joke about," Lavender said, to Ron, not to Rory.

"It's harmless, Lavender," Rory said.

"No, she's right," Ron said quickly after meeting Lavender's gaze. "Sorry, Rory."

Rory was not a fan of this at all and decided that it was better to say nothing than to say something that potentially upset everyone at the table. She drank her coffee down.

"Hermione, I'm going to go and save our seats for Arithmancy. I don't have much of an appetite this morning," Rory said.

"I think I'll join you, actually," Hermione said. She had the courtesy to give a polite wave before she got up from the table. Rory did nothing more but kiss Harry on the cheek and take her bag before leaving the Great Hall.

Tonks enjoyed the time she was getting to spend with Rory and Atlas since she'd started working around Hogwarts. Most of their chats were very innocuous, keeping her up to date on the goings on around the school, how class was going, and silly drama they were involved in.

Rory complained about Witch Weekly a lot, but today, she was on a new level of irritation. She was without her brother today and she suspected it was because he'd already heard this story.

"Why are people so invested in what Harry and I are doing or not doing?" Rory groaned. "I mean, it's one thing for the idiots here to eat up this rubbish, but obviously other people out there find it fascinating as well. Do you remember last season when everyone was pretending we didn't exist? Can we go back to that?"

Tonks felt bad. She couldn't imagine the world paying this much attention to her, especially as a teenager.

"All I did was wear his jersey to a party and people have been trying to high-five Harry all day," Rory said. She groaned. "And Seamus—"

"The boy who was quoted in the magazine," Tonks said, just to make sure she was keeping up.

"I could strangle him, but he's always saying things like that," Rory said. "I have no idea who's up to all of it. Some classmate trying to make me miserable for no reason other than to make me miserable."

"I wish there was something I could do for you, but unfortunately speculating in a magazine is not against the law," Tonks said.

"Oh, what good are you then?" Rory huffed, dropping down beside her on the bench. Tonks laughed. "Professor McGonagall said that on Thursday night she's holding a mandatory health assembly for sixth and seventh years. Completely unrelated to the paper of course, but I can't wait to get 'the talk' from our head of house."

Tonks laughed. "Sorry. That sounds awful, but you have to admit, it's a bit funny."

"Be funny if people weren't blaming me for it. No one's blaming Harry for it. Just me," Rory said. She groaned. "It's not as if it's anyone's business what we are or aren't doing anyway. And even Lavender told me I should be more—" She gasped. "I haven't told you what happened after the match."

Rory had told her a few times about Ron and Hermione's date, but now, evidently, Ron was dating a girl, Lavender. Rory disapproved of her a lot. She went on a tangent about Lavender saying something disparaging about Remus and Sirius at the start of fifth year, the uncouth way she'd "stolen" Ron away when she knew Hermione and Ron were interested in each other, and breakfast.

"And the audacity to tell me to be more discreet when I hear that she climbed up on a table in the middle of the common room to snog Ron at the party," Rory said.

"You didn't actually see it happen?" Tonks asked.

Rory shook her head. "Matilda told us about it right after. I was—" Rory stopped short and cleared her throat. "That's when Harry was giving me his jersey. So we weren't in the common room."

Tonks didn't want to read between the lines, but the way Rory's entire face was turning pink was saving her the trouble. Tonks wasn't surprised in the slightest. Rory had asked Tonks about birth control and had told her that she saw herself taking that step with Harry. This was not Earth-shattering information to have stumbled upon.

Would Tonks be furious about someone spilling it to the media if she were in Rory's shoes? Absolutely. Was she happy to move on from this subject? Definitely yes.

"It will blow over. The paper, your classmates. All of it," Tonks said.

"But it's all so annoying," Rory said. "Don't people have better things to discuss than my love life?"

"Probably," Tonks said with a shrug, "but I'm sure the last time you snogged is more digestible than hearing about all the awful things that are going on right now."

"I get that," Rory said, but she pouted. "You know, he read it as a joke when they put a picture of the two of us in Hogsmeade, but I know Sirius reads this stupid magazine."

Tonks shook her head. "Don't worry about it. He doesn't take anything he reads in there seriously. And if there is any accuracy to what they're saying, you're right. It's not anyone's business."

"But," Rory started slowly, "what if what Witch Weekly was saying, in this specific instance at least, was accurate? Would Sirius be—"

"Upset? Or judgmental?" Tonks scoffed. "Please remember this is the parent you refer to as 'the school slut.' I think if he has any concerns, he'll keep them to himself. You and Harry are smart and responsible and well within your rights to carry on as you do. And as long as you're being responsible, don't let anyone make you feel bad about it."

Rory nodded but she sighed again. "Can I tell you something?"

Tonks nodded. "Of course."

"Kreacher and Dobby popped in on Harry and me snogging once and Kreacher said I was 'whoring around' just like my father," Rory said. "It was so embarrassing, but I also can't get past how much I was not expecting to be called a whore by a house-elf."

Tonks met Rory's eyes and then the two of them burst into laughter.

"He really said that?" Tonks asked.

"Kreacher is nothing if not audacious in the way he speaks to me," Rory replied. "I think I will wear him down eventually."

"You're far more patient than Sirius is, to be sure," Tonks said.

Rory folded up the magazine and stuffed it into her bag, clearly ready to get back to her friends. Tonks needed to get a bit of work done today as well. "Can I ask you something? I already know the answer, but I have to ask anyway."

"Go on," Tonks said.

"Have you heard from my dad in the last month?" Rory asked.

Tonks' heart sank. "Rory—"

"I know you feel like you're the last person he'd reach out to to let everyone know he's alright but, he knows you'd worry. So he'd say something," Rory said.

Tonks shook her head. "I haven't seen him since the last full moon."

Rory frowned. "I miss him. And I'm so mad at him for making me worry like this. I practically begged him not to go and he went anyway. And then he promised to stay in touch and hasn't. Never mind that we might start to think he's hurt somewhere if he doesn't stop in with Sirius like he promised."

Tonks placed a hand on Rory's back. "I'm sure Remus has a good reason for not stopping in."

"There's no reason he's going to give that will be good enough for me," Rory said tersely. "I keep feeling like since Sirius has been exonerated and Atlas has come around he's just been trying to slowly slide out of my life."

Tonks felt her heart break a little for the girl sitting beside her.

"Remus would never," Tonks said.

"He always says I'm more important to him than anything. Than anyone else. And all I want is for him to keep being my dad and he acts like that what's best for me is for him to disappear," Rory said. "It's my worst nightmare."

"Your worst nightmare?" Tonks asked.

"For him to leave and not come back," Rory said.

Tonks put a hand on Rory's shoulder. "He's going to come back. For you, he always will. Count on that. You are the most important person in his life. Don't ever have a second thought about that."

Rory nodded. "I miss him. Obviously, I never got to see him while I was in school anyway, but I talked to him about everything. Like, not so much about Harry or anything, but everything else. I talked to him all the time. And now I just… I write him letters, but I don't send them. I don't get to hear anything from him."

"He'll be back soon," Tonks said. "I'm happy to give him a piece of your mind when he does."

"You're not on real speaking terms with my dad and you still asked him about birth control for me," Rory said. "I'm not going to ask any more favors from you."

Tonks got back to her office later than evening; she wanted to get some files pulled before a meeting she had the next morning. She was surprised when Dawlish walked into her office.

"We've got trouble," he said. "Trouble that can't wait until morning. I almost came to Hogwarts to get you."

"That bad?" Tonks asked locking her files away.

"Robards wants to see you right away," he said.

Tonks followed Dawlish down to Robard's office. She knocked on the door.

"Come in," he said. She pushed the door open and had to suppress her irritation when she saw Scrimgeour there as well.

"Sirs," Tonks said. "Dawlish said you wanted to see me."

"Yes, come in," Robards said. Dawlish closed the door behind them. "You sent one of your juniors out on assignment last night, yes?"

Tonks nodded. "I had McClellan follow up a lead for me. Sent him to Stirling."

"Your lead panned out. McClellan found a whole host of them lurking around there," Robards said. "They're in custody now."

Tonks was already planning how much coffee she was going to need to brew for these interrogations.

"I'll head down to holding then," Tonks said.

"Robards has your juniors started on them. That's not what the pressing issue is," Scrimgeour said. He held up a piece of parchment and then laid it down on the desk. "Read that."

Tonks picked up the parchment. It was a letter, it was brief, but every word she read made a knot form tighter and tighter in her stomach.

"This can't be authentic," Tonks said. "There's no way."

"Your job to look into that," Robards said.

"We want this to be above board. Make sure she has her father present," Scrimgeour said. "Interview her here."

Tonks nodded. She wasn't going to have a choice. She didn't know if she could talk to Rory alone under these circumstances anyway.

"I'll have Dawlish in with me," Tonks said turning to him. "You can lead if you like since she's family."

Dawlish nodded in agreement.

"Aurora's father is out of the country until December," Tonks said. "He's left Sirius Black to be responsible for her in his stead."

"We're going to have to interrogate her with Sirius Black in the room?" Dawlish asked. "He's sure to be cooperative."

"Unless you want to wait until Christmas to ask Aurora Lupin about this, we haven't got much of a choice," Tonks said.

"Proceed with caution," Scrimgeour said. "I know she's a special case, especially with Albus Dumbledore in her corner. Talk to Black and Dumbledore about pulling her out of school for a few hours. I want her in here by the end of the week."

It wasn't long before Tonks was knocking on Sirius' front door. He was bleary-eyed when he opened the door.

"I was just heading to bed. What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I need to talk to you," Tonks said pushing her way inside.

"Everything alright?" he asked closing the door.

"No," Tonks said. "I just left the Auror office. They rounded up a whole mess of cultists in Stirling. I'd think this was excellent, except they found a letter in their possession. From Aurora."

Sirius was confused. "They intercepted Aurora's mail?"

Tonks shook her head. "She wrote to them. To the Servants of Pythia."

He remained confused. "She's reaching out to them? Why would she do that?"

"To ask for help," Tonks said. "The letter wasn't telling about much more than that, but I'm positive that she wrote it."

Sirius was in shock for a moment. "She's wanted nothing to do with them and now suddenly she'd contacting them? I don't understand."

"Neither do I," Tonks said. "But I need to bring her in for an interview."

"Bring her in? To the ministry?" Sirius asked.

Tonks nodded. "Yes. I didn't personally find the letter. One of my junior Aurors did. Robards and Scrimgeour want her interviewed there. I'm too close to her. They're not going to go on my word alone for this. I have to go see Dumbledore tomorrow as well so he knows I'm pulling her out of school. Professionally, Sirius, I'm just here as a courtesy."

"Can you talk to her?" Sirius asked.

"I can't get anywhere near her until after this interview," Tonks said. "Do you think Harry knows about this?"

Sirius shrugged. "She tells him everything, but I don't see him thinking this is a good idea."

"I'll have a word with him," Tonks said. She groaned. "I talked to her today. This wasn't been on my radar at all. She's always telling me about Harry or Remus or how much she hates that stupid magazine."

She plopped down into a chair and Sirius sat across from her.

"I'm worried," Tonks said. "There's something going on in her head that she's not telling us about."

Sirius shook his head. "When I had lunch with her at Hogsmeade she just seemed so much more like herself than she had over the summer."

"She's good at masking. How many times this summer did she say she was annoyed with us worrying about her?" Tonks asked.

They were silent for a moment and then their eyes met, having the same thought at the same time.

"Remus," Sirius said. "He would know what to do."

"I think him not being here is part of the problem," Tonks said. Sirius nodded in agreement.

"He's not here though. Time to step up," Sirius said. "Don't go easy on me."

"I don't think it'll be a real interrogation," Tonks said. "But they'll want to know why she's refused to cooperate all summer and now she's—"

"Do your job," Sirius said. "I'll handle the rest. And I'll handle Remus when the time comes."

She sank back in her chair. "The only bright side to him rejecting me is that I wouldn't be allowed anywhere near this if we were together."

"You'd tell them if you were?" Sirius asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Tonks asked. "I'm leading the Servants of Pythia investigation. She's my close relative and so are you. If her dad and I were involved that'd be problematic."

"Not to be on Remus' side here, but I think people would care less about that and focus more on the fact that your boyfriend is a werewolf," Sirius said.

"Good thing I'm not involved with a werewolf then," Tonks said. "Not like I'd give a shit if I was anyway. I'm a lead Auror, I'm a woman, and I'm not even 25 yet. People already give me a hard time. I couldn't even have a meeting with my boss without the Minister of Magic being present. Never have. Dealing with people being shitty is second nature to me."

"Be worse if you were with Remus," Sirius said.

"Sure. And I don't care," Tonks said. "I'd rather have him and deal with the bullshit than have the bullshit without him. Even if it's worse."

Sirius smiled at her softly. "I think his problem is that he'd rather you not have the trouble."

"Well," Tonks said, "if he doesn't want to get over that for me, fine. But Aurora is convinced he's trying to run out on her. He can think he's not good enough for me, but her feeling like her dad thinks she's better off without him is unacceptable."

Sirius frowned. "She said that?"

"Yes," she said. "Whatever trouble he's having with me, I can handle it. I hate it. But in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter whether or not I get over it. But she is clearly upset and trying very hard to not come off as angry. And maybe if she weren't as angry she… Who knows."

"I'll talk to her before the interview," Sirius said. "You can't talk to her, but can you pass on a message to Harry for me?"

"Sure," Tonks said. "What is it? I don't usually see him, but Dumbledore—."

"No," Sirius said. "Pass it on to Harry yourself. Or Ron or Hermione. Bypass Dumbledore."

"Why?" Tonks asked.

Sirius sighed and sat back in his chair. "I don't trust that he has Aurora's best interest in mind. I think she had a point last summer when she said that Dumbledore only cared about Harry so much as he was useful in stopping Voldemort."

"That's fair, but what's it got to do with Aurora?" she asked.

"Voldemort knows that he can use her to get to Harry. Dumbledore probably knows that too," Sirius said. "I think she's the only person who could ever talk Harry out of listening to Dumbledore."

"Sirius, they're teenagers," Tonks said.

"Teenagers who are being stalked by a dark wizard," he added. "Not exactly typical. One of them is even talking to a cult behind our backs, by the way."

"Point taken," Tonks replied.