Chapter 3: Well, You See.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I had no idea who was at the door until I started writing. Lol. It was going to be one of three people and it wound up being none of them. Lol.

I hope all of you caught up in these wintery storms are keeping warm and safe. I'm travelling right now and thankfully am to the south of them.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.

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Harry got up and answered the door to find a good-looking young woman with pink hair and dressed in a gothic outfit. She was about twenty, maybe twenty-two. She looked like you could drop her in a muggle punk rock concert and lose her there. She had a bright smile on her face, that brightened further at his greeting.

"Well, hello, good looking," he said with a whistle. He could appreciate a nice-looking woman. And she was nice. She curved in all the right places alright.

"Hello, jailbait," she said back with a laugh. He might be the Boy-Who-Lived, but he was only fourteen, going on fifteen, and that was under the age of consent. She was so not going there.

"Only for another year," Harry said, looking her up and down appreciatively.

"Look me up then," she said with a wink. Not that she was serious, she had her eyes on someone much older. However, if she did go for the younger man, Harry Potter would be a good catch. He was handsome enough and if rumor was correct, rich. Not that that interested her overly much, it didn't hurt.

"Harry, let Tonks in," Sirius said, laughter in his voice. After what Harry had just done for him and his manhood, he could appreciate a bit of flirting. He wondered when he was going to be able to do a bit of his own.

"Your name is Tonks?" Harry asked with a frown on his brow. That sounded like a last name. He had to wonder what her first name was.

"Yeah, you have a problem with that?" she asked, menacingly.

"No, I was thinking that a beautiful woman would have a beautiful name, that's all," Harry said, widening the door and letting her in the room. Obviously, her name was a touchy subject, he'd leave it alone for now.

"Quit flirting with my baby cousin, Harry," Sirius stated, grinning like a fool. "Besides, she's hot on Remus, for all he can't see it," he added, winking at the now blushing Tonks. "Just call her Tonks, her first name is a mouthful," he stated.

"Why?" Harry asked flabbergasted.

"Why what?" Tonks asked, not sure if he was asking about her name or Remus.

"Why would you be sweet on Lupin?" the teenage boy asked, still not sure what this young woman could see in the older man.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Tonks asked defensively. She was starting not to like the Boy-Who-Lived. She leaned against the wall, her legs crossed at the ankle and her arms folded in a defensive manner. She glanced at the Granger girl, who nodded at her and smiled.

"Let me tell you a few home truths about Remus Lupin," Harry said, settling on the bed next to Sirius. "I was about to tell Sirius anyway. Since you're sweet on him, you might as well hear it too. That night when my parents died, he was on a mission, so no fault there, but where has he been these last fourteen years? Why did he not contact me or Sirius? Why did he not try to find out why Sirius was in prison? Why did he not come to see if Petunia was treating me right? He knew how she was. He'd met her before. Hell, my mum told everyone she couldn't raise a goldfish let alone a baby," Harry ranted, then took a deep breath. He had some deep-seated feelings about this ever since he heard about Lupin being James's friend.

"Harry's right, Lily did say that," Sirius said with a frown on his face. He never really thought about those questions himself. He was going to have to ask his friend these things.

"Maybe he was busy?" Tonks said, though there was doubt in her tone. She knew how hard it was for werewolves to find work. Even in the muggle world, because they always had to take time off work each month.

"That's just it. He wasn't. I was with my parents this last week, and he wasn't busy. He was stewing. He was wallowing in his feelings. He wasn't trying to make it in the muggle world, he was barely scraping by. He was living on Dumbledore scraps. Every now and then the headmaster would throw him a bone, and Remus would go running like a good dog and be happy for it. He's Dumbledore's lapdog," Harry finished, looking at Sirius and Tonks to see how they took that news.

Sirius at first was mad then his face fell, because he felt that he was being a hypocrite. He was pretty much doing the same thing. He was sitting here doing the headmaster's bidding now, like a good little boy.

"No, you're not," Harry said, as if he read the man's mind.

"Not what?" Sirius asked morosely.

"Doing the same thing. You have no choice at the moment. You are in circumstances that can't be changed easily. They will be, by me, but they can't be, by you. However, that's not the point. The point is that you are not Dumbledore's lapdog. You didn't go running to the headmaster. You ran and tried your own thing and got caught," the younger boy said, pointing a finger at the older man. "If you had been a lapdog, you never would have escaped Azkaban at all. You would have waited for Dumbledore to free you, and that would not have happened."

Tonks on the other hand was upset that this teenager was disparaging Remus. Didn't he know how hard it was for werewolves? She was going to tell him so. "Don't you know how hard it is for werewolves to find and keep work?" she demanded, glaring at him.

"Bullshit," both Harry and Hermione stated, then they looked at each other and giggled. Harry waved at Hermione to explain.

Hermione, who had been silent up until now, cleared her throat and said, "Any wizard can earn a living in the muggle world, if they have a lick of common sense." She preened at the thought of all the ways she and her fellow muggleborns had come up with such ways to do so. They had made a game of it to pass the time on winter nights in the common room.

"Explain," the pink-haired woman stated, folding her arms. She could think of a few of her own, but they were illegal as far as she knew. She was a half-blood, and her father was a muggleborn, who worked in the muggle world. So, she knew there were ways to do this, but Remus was a werewolf, it was different.

"Magic can be used to repair anything. All one has to do is open a shop to repair things. Do it in the back and don't show your work, presto, you have a job," Hermione stated, making a ta-da movement with her hands.

"Or you could open a cleaning establishment, doing the same thing," Harry said, nodding his head. "As long as you don't change or enhance your product, you are not breaking the law."

"An antique shop," Hermione stated, continuing the list.

"A junk store," Harry said, lifting a hand showing they were up to four ways.

"Okay, I get it," Tonks said, holding up her hands to stop them. "It's still hard to be a werewolf," she said, half-heartedly. "Besides, you would need startup capital," she said smugly.

"Which my father would have loaned him. Plus, if my parents' will had been read, he would have gotten what was bequeathed to him," Harry stated, glaring at the wall for a moment. He was going to have to fix that. He waved Sirius's concern away. "That's neither here nor there. He could have done it," he stated.

"Didn't he teach you the Patronus Charm?" Hermione asked, trying to see the good in the teacher that was nice to her.

"He did, but he had the whole year to tell me about my parents. He did not. He had the whole year to tell me that I was rich and needed to get to the bank. He did not. He had the whole year to tell me about Sirius. Again, he did not," Harry stated, then held up his hands and said, "Sure, some of those things aren't his responsibility, but if he were a true friend of my father's and he knew that I didn't know, he would have found a way." Yeah, he was butthurt over the whole thing. Remus was not a bad man, but he wasn't a good friend either.

"Wait, you didn't know?" Sirius asked, looking at him queerly. "I thought you knew about your money. Dumbledore said you've been to the bank," he said, confusion on his tone. He didn't think the old man had lied to him.

"I was there, when I was eleven. I saw gold in my vault, but I had no clue how much is there, if there was more, or what my records look like," Harry said, running a hand in his hair. He learned all that when he was with his parents, but he still needed to go to Gringotts. His accounts had been too long neglected. They needed to be brought up to speed and he needed to get his parents will read. That way everyone got their bequeaths. It would also get Sirius one step closer to being free. It would absolve him from being the Secret Keeper.

"I don't understand, Remus might have been friends with your dad, but how is any of that his responsibility?" Tonks asked, looking at Sirius and Harry.

"We were the Marauders," Sirius growled, putting an arm around Harry's shoulders. "We were tighter than brothers," he stated in a firm voice. "Or at least I thought we were. Then Peter betrayed us and now Remus neglected Harry, I'm not sure we understood what family meant," he said, sadness laced his tone. It hurt that those that he thought of as family had betrayed him on such a deep level. Did family do that? His did, but he thought the Blacks were a special sort of darkness.

"You did, as much as you could. Peter and Remus both come from a loving family. They have no excuses. You come from an abusive family, you at least have a reason not to know what family means," Harry said, leaning into his godfather.

"I thought that Remus's father hated the fact that he was a werewolf?" Tonks asked, looking at Sirius.

"Who told you that?"

"I just got that impression," she said with a shrug. She never heard Remus out and out say his father hated him, but he always got this look on his face when he talked about him.

"No, he was uncomfortable with it, but he loved Remus," the dogman said, glaring at the wall like it was spreading the rumor.

"Oh," was all she said, also glaring at the wall.

"Anyway, now that you know all that, I will say Remus will not be part of my little family. If he is it will be the distant uncle that you send a Christmas card to every year," Harry said, looking at Sirius and Tonks. "You two can do what you want with the guy. He's your friend, but he's not mine," he said, shrugging his shoulders. Like he said, the man wasn't a bad man, but not someone he wanted in his little family unit.

"You've given me a lot to think about," Tonks said, still looking at the wall.

"Remus has been my friend for years. I'm not going to throw away years of friendship until I talk to him," Sirius said, looking at Harry for understanding.

"I get that," Harry said, giving him a smile.

"Tonks, why did you come up here?" Hermione asked, knowing she hadn't come up to talk about her love life.

Tonks came out of her thoughts and said, "Dumbledore wants you to come back to the kitchen." She looked at Harry and Sirius.

"Too bad. I'm knackered and I'm going to find a room and get some sleep," Harry said, standing and stretching. "There has to be a room in this house that's unclaimed. I can clean it up," he said, looking at Sirius.

"You can use Reggie's old room," Sirius said, standing and going to the door. "It's right across the hall. That way you're close to me," he said, glad he could help him out and keep him close.

"Okay, but if Kreacher tries anything because you put me there, I'm blaming you," Harry said, glaring at him.

"How do you know about that?" his godfather asked, as he, Hermione, Tonks and Harry walked across the hall to Regulus's room.

"I watched you lot when I was with my parents," Harry explained to him what he had told Hermione.

"You're going to have to tell me more about that," Sirius said, glancing at Tonks. He wasn't sure how much they should tell her. She was also Dumbledore's woman, though not quite a lapdog she was certainly a spy.

"I will," Harry said, catching the glance.

Sirius opened the door to a room that was done up in all green. So many shades of green. From the palest of light to the darkest of jade. There was a grand queen-sized bed, with two nightstands, a dresser, and a wardrobe. An antique desk with a chair. Everywhere there was green. The furniture was stained in green, and the rugs were green, the curtains were green, the whole room was green. There was some silver shot through the green, but it was mostly green.

Harry took one look at it and said, "Nope." He turned around and walked away. He didn't get too far.

Sirius laughed and grabbed his shirt. "You can change the color," he said, still chuckling. Regulus did that to please his mother. He hated the color as much as Sirius. He had confided that once to Sirius on one of the few times they talked.

"I'm not sure I can look at it long enough to do that," Harry said, grinning. He closed his eyes and edged to the door and wiggled his fingers in the room. The colors changed to normal room colors. Shades of browns, greens, blues and white washed over the room and replaced the green colors. Muted, and neutral. He opened his eyes and sighed in relief. "That's better," he said with gleaming eyes and a smile on his face.

Kreacher popped in and started wailing. "Yous had ruined Master Regulus's room!" He lowered himself to the floor and started banging his head on it.

"Kreacher, stop that this instant," Sirius said, annoyed with the noise. He could care less if the elf hurt himself, but that banging was irritating.

"Yous is a bad master," the elf said, pointing a long spindly finger at Sirius.

"Kreacher was it?" Harry said, kneeling next to the house elf. "I was the one who did this to the room. I also know what happened to your master, and I know what is in this house. I know your last mission and I know you have not and cannot complete it," he said, putting a hand on Kreacher's shoulder. He had been going to talk to the elf anyway, might as well be now. Merlin told him all about the horcruxes, and what to do about them.

"Yous knows?" Kreacher asked with wide eyes. He then burst out in tears. "Kreacher has tried and tried. I cannot do it," he said, banging his head on the floor again.

Harry looked to Sirius to make him stop.

"Kreacher, stop," Sirius said, looking at Harry for an explanation.

"Regulus found an artifact of Voldemort's that he wanted to destroy. He died before he could, he tasked Kreacher to do it. Kreacher is unable to," Harry said, not sure if he should tell Tonks or not. He didn't want to be like Dumbledore, but he didn't want to just tell everyone either. Then he shrugged and figured what the fuck, he wasn't going to deal with them. He might as well let the old man do it.

"Kreacher, go get this item," Sirius ordered. He wanted to see what his baby brother died over.

"Yes, master," the reluctant elf said, and popped away. He was back a few seconds later with a necklace. It was silver with a pendant that was rectangular and had a large diamond S on it. It also radiated evil.

Everyone backed away from it, bar Harry.

"Nasty piece of work," Harry said, waving his hand over it and creating a bubble that surrounded it. "I know where the rest are, but I'm not going after them," he said, looking at Tonks. "You can tell Dumbledore that," he told her, handing her the necklace. It was a spur of the moment decision. He had other things to do, and hunting horcruxes was not one of them. Dumbledore can get Bill to do it. It was his job after all. "I'll tell them where they are, all they have to do is ask," he said, smiling at her to take the bite out of his words.

"I'm not your messenger girl," Tonks said, taking the necklace, and frowning at him.

"Do what you will," Harry said, pulling out a bag from nowhere. He put it on the bed and started pulling out clothes. Hermione and Sirius looked all around his back, trying to find where he had hidden the bag. "It's a dimensional space," he told them.

"That's not possible," Hermione said, folding her arms.

"Merlin taught me," Harry said with a smirk as he continued to sort his clothes. "Now, everyone out. I'm knackered and I want to sleep." He made shooing motions and shooed everyone out of the room.

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Tonks went down the stairs very thoughtfully. She swung the necklace carelessly from her hand, banging it on the railing. Harry had given her a lot to think about and she was now confused about the man that she thought she knew.

She got to the kitchen, opened the door and went inside. Everyone from the Order of the Pheonix was there. They were all sitting at the table waiting on her to bring Harry.

"Where is the boy?" Snape asked, sneering at her. "Too good to come to us?" He didn't like that Harry had disappeared like he had. He couldn't keep his vow if the boy wasn't there. That and the old man was a nightmare to deal with when the Boy-Who-Lived wasn't around.

"I don't answer to you, Snape," she snapped, not caring that she was sounding unprofessional. She usually tried to sound that way at these meetings, but right now she didn't care. Harry's conversation made her reckless.

"No, but you do answer to me," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"No, I really don't. You are not my boss. You are the leader of this group. I might defer to you, but I don't answer to you," she said with a nod of her head. She took a seat next to Remus, though she didn't look at him with the adoring eyes she normally did. This time she searched his face for answers she didn't find.

"Nevertheless, can you please tell me where Harry is?" the old man asked, putting his hands together in a prayer like manner.

"He said he was tired and didn't want to come down," she said with a shrug. She put the necklace on the table and added, "He said you'd know what this was and that he's not going to hunt them. He did say he knew where the rest are, and if you want to find them then ask him," she finished.

Just then the bubble around the jewelry popped and the evil was felt. Everyone reared back and drew their wands. "What is that?" came the question from many people. Snape, Moody, Kingsley, Bill and Remus knew what it was. They all fired off shields around the horcrux and put protective bubbles around it again.

"You knew about this?" Moody asked Dumbledore.

"Not this one, no," the old man answered honestly.

"You knew about others then?" the one-legged man asked, catching the turn of phrase.

"Yes," the headmaster sighed, closing his eyes.

"How many?"

"I do not know," was the next honest answer.

"Bill," Moody said, turning to the curse breaker.

"I'd have to get my kit," Bill Weasley stated, rubbing his chin. "I don't bring it to these meetings. I'll take this with me and test it tonight. I can have the answer for you in the morning," he said, still studying the necklace.

"What is it?" Fleur asked, peering at the jewelry. To her it was a gaudy necklace. The diamonds were nice, but it was huge and tacky. A man's necklace, old and dated. One that was worn many years ago. It was her job to date these types of artifacts. If she had the time, she could tell you whose necklace this was.

"It's a horcrux. A piece of someone's soul is attached to the pendant," Bill told her, making everyone gasp.

"I did not want that to be known," Dumbledore stated, holding the bridge of his nose with his long fingers.

"Why?" Kingsley asked, shooting the man a look. "Do you not trust us? We work with you. You should trust us with these types of things," he stated, anger in his voice.

"It is dangerous information. If it got out into the public…" the headmaster said in a leading fashion. That was all he said, like they should just take it at that.

"You really think that little of us?" Dingle asked, hurt in his tone. He was a true Dumbledore fan, to think that his leader thought so little of him was painful.

"No, of course not," was the reply, but it was a bit too quick.

"At any rate, we need to get this tested. If it belongs to who we think it does, we need to make sure it's the only one," Bill said, picking up the necklace and pocketing it. He didn't think it was, given the context of the conversation, but he still wanted to run some tests.

"It is not," Dumbledore said, seeing no point in keeping that a secret anymore. That and Nymphadora had just told them there were more.

"You know that for a fact?" the redhead asked, looking at the man. He had heard Tonks state there were more, and he was going to ask Harry about the rest when he was done testing this one. If his information and the boy's meshed, then they could find them all in no time.

"I know the diary that almost killed your sister was one," was the answer. There was some smugness in that tone, like the old man had something to do with the saving of Ginny.

"Why was I not told of this?" Bill asked, looking at his parents and the headmaster. They all had the grace to look ashamed.

"We thought it better to keep it to ourselves," Molly said, fluttering her hand to her throat.

"You mean we could have been searching for these for two years?" Moody asked, standing and thumping his fist on the table, making the cups and cutlery rattle. He glared at Dumbledore with his good eye. He was getting tired of his friend doing shite like this. They were never going to get anything done if he kept it up.

"I thought it best…" was as far as the old man got.

"You didn't think at all," Moody said, thumping his fist on the table again. "You never think of anyone else but who is on that bloody chessboard in your head. Dammit, Albus, we could have killed him before he came back!" he yelled. That was the straw that broke the hippogriff's back. The Dark Lord was back, and it could have been avoided.

"You don't know that," Albus said, calmly.

"I do," Bill said, being the curse breaker of the group. "It is my job to stop things like this." He was just as angry as Moody.

"I did what I thought best," Dumbledore said again, looking over his half-moon spectacles, giving them his disappointed grandfather look.

"We'll do what we think is best," Bill said, getting up and leaving the table with his soon to be fiancé Fleur. Kingsley, Moody, Tonks, and shockingly Arthur left with them. When the door closed behind them, the shouting started.