Nothing is mine.

Harry dreams of dawn (oh no, not again, I hear you all say xD) and has a nice chat with his new cousin! I confess that having the little poem was not originally part of the plan, but after all the jokes, I just couldn't resist.

Cold as the Cold Decembers

Harry took a long breath of cool air somewhere high above the dusk-veiled fields and woods, bare-foot upon the dew-beaded grass. A cluster of dark yew trees, a crimson-speckled silhouette of boughs and needles, loomed over an archway of pale bone, shrouding it in shadow. Through that arch of ivory, bursting through the grinning skulls that crowned it in little bright beams, the first rays of the sun rose.

And Voldemort's thin grin curved his lips.

'See the peak of Ybarmynyz restored with the bones of the blasphemous.' Voldemort's whisper slipped from Harry's mouth as he twisted on his bare heel. 'Their empty eyes will never see the sun rise or Spring.'

At least a hundred Death Eaters stood on the slope below, their fists against their hearts in salute and their wands clasped tight in white knuckles. The front row of them stared up from behind ivory masks, their heads veiled in shadow; the bright glow of the eerie blue runes on the sharp bone-white cheeks turned their eyes into pools of darkness and, beyond them, all the others waited in eager, tense silence.

'But we will.' Voldemort drew his long, crooked yew wand. 'We will come from the setting sun and free not just Britain, but the world. Étayn Marv as my witness, our time is here at last. At our hands, this endless Autumn comes at last to a close.' He thrust it aloft. 'Morsmordre!'

Bellatrix stepped forward from the line, pulling her mask from her face and sinking to one knee. 'Fy Awtrou,' she breathed. 'Fy Awtrou Aileni yn Marvoleth.'

Her whisper spread like fire through the crowd beneath the pale eerie light of the skull and serpent glowing so ghastly before the moon and stars.

'Bella. Rise.' Voldemort's murmur left Harry's lips. 'We are ready.'

'My lord.' Bellatrix leapt to her feet. 'What now, then? Where is the target?'

'No sudden moves, Bella. No rush of blood. Weed out those within the Ministry who will not yield to the truth and slay them; work with Augustus and Lucius to bend those who will bend to our cause. In a year's time, we will seize control of the Ministry through our puppet.'

'And then… Avalon?' Bellatrix whispered.

'The Graal-Kynak are a formidable force.' Voldemort turned back to stare through the doorway of bone. 'We will spread terror and doubt among them with one hand, and seize power from within the Ministry with the other. And then, Bella, we will stage a show for Maerdrid and his father; we will feign an ongoing minor struggle as we strengthen our grip on Britain and locate Avalon, all the while gathering more and more to our cause.'

'But then…'

'Then, when our strength is greater than Maerdrid realises, we will strike at Avalon when they are unprepared, and cut the head from the dragon.' Voldemort's cold grin spread across Harry's face as the light of the sun crept over the yew trees. 'For now, we must have a little more patience. Lords Pendragon have stood firm against Myrddin and many other uprisings over the centuries; they will not be toppled from power with careless haste.'

Bellatrix bowed. 'Yes, my lord.' She turned away to the others in the front row of the crowd, stabbing her curved wand up at the skull and serpent in the sky. 'Yr gwyan, y Goanv!'

A great cheer rose from the Death Eaters.

'Sneaky plan,' Harry said. 'Oh good, I can still talk.'

'What is done by high magic cannot be undone,' Voldemort murmured. 'Though only I can hear you.'

'I like the plan,' Harry told him. 'Very sneaky. And complicated. Obviously, it will all fall apart like all your plans do when they get to the me stage of things, but still, points for effort.'

'Did the old fool tell you the prophecy that you destroyed?'

'He did, and it was extremely disappointing,' he replied. 'I was expecting something like and Dwyr Sy'n Tystio's real name shalt be Thomas Marvolo Riddle, and thou shalt know him by his weird lack of a real nose and creepy red snake eyes. And it turned out just to be something about when you killed yourself off my face years ago.'

'Truly?' Voldemort caressed his pale wand with the tip of his finger. 'You are not lying to Lord Voldemort?'

'Lying is an inelegant way of concealing the truth,' Harry replied. 'Also, I'm bad at it, so I don't bother.'

'What did it say? I recall the first lines but the loyal follower of mine was disturbed before he could hear the entirety of it.'

'The one with the power to something I forgot the Dark Lord something I also forgot,' Harry recited. 'Something about defying, born as the seventh month dies. And then there was something about me being marked, but having a power you didn't know about. And then it was just either must die.' He laughed to himself. 'You are extremely lucky I remember any of that.'

Voldemort tucked his wand into his pocket. 'Curious. I thought perhaps there was a chance the last lines referred to my return and how I would defeat Pendragon. It would seem not.'

'It's all already happened,' Harry said, 'so it's not that curious. You already marked me. One of either of us died because of a power he didn't know about. Good job on that by the way. Mission accomplished.'

'And yet Dumbledore risked the lives of his precious Order of the Phoenix to defend it.'

'Maybe he wanted you to reveal yourself trying to steal it,' Harry suggested. 'But who knows with him. In my first year, he decided to fly to London by broomstick instead of Flooing or letting the phoenix take him just so I had to go and stop you instead. I assume he thought it was funny, which, to be fair, it kind of is.'

'He is a devious wizard,' Voldemort murmured. 'If he were not as utterly foolish as he was powerful, I would respect him.'

'He kind of agreed with you about the ICW,' Harry replied. 'Only, he thinks you're going to provoke them into doing something nasty to everyone and can't possibly win.'

Voldemort's cold little smile tugged the corner of Harry's mouth up. 'He underestimates me, as he ever has. But let him, I am content to be underestimated for a little longer; it gives me room to breathe.'

'You know it's not going to work, right? All your plans are terribly convoluted and get routinely foiled.'

'The ICW is not as unassailable as it would have you believe, Harry. Each of them fears the ambition of the others, all their retainers fear their lords, we all fear the retainers; it is a prison of fear and doubt alone. Pendragon is among the very strongest—' Voldemort pointed one long, pale finger through the archway of bone at the rising sun '—and he will be Reborn in Death at the hand of Lord Voldemort. He who is feared most has the truest power; Lord Voldemort will replace the head of the dragon.'

The dawn burst through the yew trees, turning their berries bright as drops of blood, and stabbing at Harry's eyes.

He blinked awake.

Quiet birdsong filtered in through the curtains with the light of the rising sun and the distant sound of traffic on the main road, and, where the window was ajar, the youthful green tip of Aunt Petunia's clematis vine poked through into his room.

'Time to get up.' A small smile crept across his lips. 'And see my crazy cousin.'

Harry dragged on his jeans and the first t-shirt to hand, clapping his glasses onto his face and snatching his wand from under his pillow on his way downstairs.

'Where are you going?' Uncle Vernon asked, sipping his morning coffee in his chair in the kitchen. 'And why do you have… that thing out?'

'Out.' Harry pointed at the door with his wand. 'My cousin's here somewhere.'

'Cousin?' Aunt Petunia craned her neck around the living room door into the kitchen. 'The girl in the very short skirt who was lurking around a couple of days ago?'

'Yeah, the one Dudley walked into a lamppost staring at yesterday.' Harry chuckled to himself at the outraged look settling over Aunt Petunia's face. 'I can't tell if she's bad at trying to dress Muggle or just an incorrigible flirt—' he weighed it up '—I've decided I don't mind either way.'

Aunt Petunia tutted but Uncle Vernon hid a smile behind his coffee cup.

'Anyway, she's like the top end of scary for us.'

'She is?' Aunt Petunia blinked. 'She can't be more than about twenty.'

'Doesn't matter,' Harry replied. 'She's a first-class auror, so she eats everyone else who's not for breakfast. And apparently there are only about twenty of them in the whole country, too. She's here to make sure we're all safe, though, so be nice to her.'

'Oh.' Uncle Vernon set his coffee cup down. 'I mean, it's about ruddy time after last summer, but say thank you from us.'

'I'll pass it on,' Harry promised, drifting toward the door and working his feet into his trainers.

'Undo the laces,' Aunt Petunia chided. 'You'll break the backs of the shoes.'

'I can just fix them with magic,' he retorted. 'Actually, apparently I'm off the watchlist for that now.' Harry flicked his wand at the door and watched it open with a grin. 'If a letter arrives for me from the Ministry of Magic, let me know I'm in huge trouble please.'

Aunt Petunia swept forward and closed the door with a click behind him.

Harry tucked his wand into the back pocket of his jeans and tucked his t-shirt over the top of it, wandering across the concrete drive.

Tonks bounced off the top of Privet Drive's sign, half-dancing to whatever she was listening to on her pink headphones as she crossed the street; she slipped, her short, dark boots squeaking on the drain cover and stacked it over the edge of the curb onto the pavement.

'Ow,' she declared, jumping to her feet and brushing dust off her black mini-skirt. 'Nobody saw that.'

'I did,' Harry said. 'How did you even manage that? It's almost perfectly flat.'

'I am in a life long battle to the death with uneven surfaces and their even more insidious ally, even surfaces, baby cuz.' Tonks inspected the light grazes bleeding on her knees and shrugged, reaching behind her and sticking one hand up the back of her loose, bright teal, t-shirt. 'I've had worse.'

Harry admired her legs. 'It doesn't look so bad.'

Tonks snorted. 'Yeah, I bet you think that.' She reached out and flicked him on the nose with her other hand as she drew her wand. 'I'm not your eye candy, little cousin.'

'Dudley walked into a lamppost yesterday because of that skirt,' he told her. 'He's got a huge bruise on his cheek.'

'Good.' Tonks glanced down at the loose front of her t-shirt and at her grazes, and sighed. 'Go on then, get a good look while you can. Just stay still there, so nobody can see me using my wand.'

'It takes all the fun out of it if you say that.' Harry watched the dark hem of the shirt slide down as she bent over to heal her grazes all the same, and a few little butterflies stirred in his stomach at the black lace cupping the shallow vee of Tonks's cleavage.

She straightened back up and rolled her eyes. 'Thanks for looking away, little cousin…'

Harry flashed her a grin. 'You're welcome, Nympha—'

'Finish that name, cousin, and I will end you.'

'—dora.' He chuckled as she shook her head at him. 'You can't kill me, you'll get fired.'

'I could definitely get away with it,' Tonks said. 'Now…' She stuck a hand into the pocket of her mini-skirt, rummaging around as her arm went deeper and deeper.

Harry leant his head to one side. 'Did you enchant the pockets? Because that skirt isn't longer than about six inches and you've got your arm in it to the elbow.'

She grinned. 'I added the pockets and then enchanted them. I've got all sorts in here.'

'Can I?' He waved a hand.

'Stick your hand in my skirt?' Tonks winked. 'Not until you're sixteen.'

Harry flushed. 'Why are you like this?'

'I'm on babysitting duty,' she replied, 'the least I can do is break a few teenage hearts and turn you into a hot crushing mess for your hottie of an older cousin.'

'You know my birthday is less than two weeks away,' he told her. 'So…'

Tonks sniggered. 'Something for you to look forward to then.' She pulled out a thin, dark leather sheath. 'Got it!'

'What is it?'

'For you.' She slapped it into his hand so hard it stung. 'That's for looking down my top.'

'You told me to do it.'

'You were supposed to be chivalrous.'

'Nobody told me that.'

A snort of laughter escaped Tonks. 'Put your wand in it, then turn around and I'll put it on your back for you. It's my turn to look up your t-shirt.'

'What happened to being sixteen?' Harry demanded.

'Only counts for things below the waist,' she retorted.

'Deal.' Harry offered her a mischievous grin as he slid his wand into the sheath.

'Oh, wait, shit.' She sighed. 'Guess I walked myself into that one.' Tonks held out her hand. 'Go on, give me that, and then give me a twirl.'

He passed his wand to her and spun around on his heel.

Tonks swept his t-shirt up and hummed, poking him in the back with one finger. 'No fat on you, little cousin. Maybe I will come back for you in a couple of weeks.'

'I used to be really skinny,' Harry said. 'Because Dudley ate all the food he could get his hands on and I hate spam, but Quidditch training helped. That and the food at Hogwarts.'

Her hands slid around and patted him on the stomach. 'Definitely some abs there.'

'Will you stop fondling me?' he asked. 'We're in the middle of the street.'

'I don't live here; I don't care.'

Harry mulled that over. 'I hate you.'

'No you don't, I'm going to be your favourite cousin forever.' Tonks laughed. 'Hold your shirt up for me, I need both hands for this.'

He held it up around his ribs. 'This better be putting that on and not copping a feel of something.' A flash of biting cold tore across his skin in the small of his back. 'Was that it?'

'Yes.' Her hands vanished. 'You can put your shirt down now and turn around.'

Harry dropped it, unfolding the hem, and twisted back around on his heel. 'Done?' He stuck a hand behind his back and found the smooth handle of his wand. 'Neat.'

'It's not really meant to be worn under Muggle clothes,' Tonks said, 'so be careful, but it's better than nothing.' Her sharp grey eyes measured him up. 'Now, come with me.'

'Ah yes, having been watched getting touched by the strange older girl by the whole street, now I follow her to some secluded place.' Harry laughed as she grabbed him by the wrist and led him down toward the underpass. 'You know at least three separate people are phoning child services as we speak.'

'It's fine, I'm a hottie,' she replied. 'And you'll lie for me, won't you, Harry?'

'I don't lie,' he said. 'I'm bad at it, and mostly I just don't want to.'

'I'll give you a kiss if you do.'

'What do I need to say?' Harry returned her broad grin. 'I'm pretty sure I don't even need to lie, I could just tell them that you're my cousin.'

'Oh, nothing would happen anyway,' Tonks replied. 'Anyone phones in anything to do with you, it comes to the Ministry of Magic, and guess which super hot, older cousin of yours is a first-class auror.'

Harry shook his head and feigned despair. 'The system is rigged.'

'Don't worry, you'll enjoy it,' she purred. 'It's going to be hard work, and you'll get a bit sweaty, but I'm going to teach you all sorts of things you need to know in life.'

He squinted at her, heat creeping to his cheeks. 'I know that's not what you mean, so what do you mean?'

Tonks cackled. 'I got permission from Bonesy to teach you a few things.' She dipped a hand back into her pocket as they ducked beneath the underpass. 'Sort of.'

'Sort of?'

'I didn't really ask permission to teach you things, I just checked what's illegal for me to teach and not.'

'And?'

She held out a small, circular mirror. 'First, have this. Dumbledore said you have the other half already?'

'I don't have a mini-skirt with magic pockets,' Harry said. 'Can you keep it for me until later?'

'I can.' Tonks tucked it back away. 'Sirius left you everything in trust with Dumbledore until you're seventeen, Harry.'

'Oh so that's why you've turned up and been all flirty.' Harry laughed. 'It all makes sense now.'

She sniggered. 'Yeah, you got me, baby cuz, I came here to seduce you while you're still easy to get so I can marry you and get all your money.'

'Smart plan,' Harry said. 'I think it's working.'

'If I wanted, I could have you out of those clothes in thirty seconds,' Tonks reckoned. 'But we've got more important stuff to do than fool around like that. Plus, if it got found out I was doing that before you were seventeen, I might actually get fired.'

'But the murder was fine.'

'Priorities, right?' She clapped her hands together. 'But forget that for a moment if you can manage it—'

'I'm trying; it's hard.'

Tonks snorted. 'I bet it is.'

Heat rushed to Harry's face. 'I hate you.'

'No you don't, you love me.' She drew her wand from its sheath across her back and murmured some spell, sending a little ripple through the air. 'There we go.'

'What was that?'

'Muggle-repelling ward; it will keep everyone away from here for us.'

'Why?'

Tonks beamed, brushing her dark bangs back behind her ears. 'Because my job is to make sure you're safe, and the best way to do that, other than looking out for you, is—'

'Breaking the law about underage kids?' Harry suggested.

She reached out and flicked him on the nose. 'Is to make sure you can defend yourself a bit. Now, I wasn't going to bother, but since you spotted me and since you can, by some slightly terrifying miracle, already summon enough magic to make a rough Agwyd, I think it's actually a very good idea.'

'Rough Agwyd?'

'Your magic was just bleeding off you, baby cuz,' Tonks said. 'There was enough of it, but it wasn't doing what Agwyd should do.'

'Oh.'

'We'll fix that.' She held out her right arm, balancing her wand on the tip of her middle finger. 'Duelling without Agwyd is just people throwing whatever spells and other pieces of magic they can think of at each other; it's pure chaos. If you end up in a duel like that, chances are both of you will get injured or killed, and if there's more than a couple of people, everyone is going to die horribly.'

'Comforting stuff,' Harry mused. 'But what if I can do the Agwyd thing properly?'

'Then you get to be cool and powerful like your hot older cousin,' Tonks declared. 'Agwyd, when done properly, is like flooding everything around you with your magic. The sheer power of your will prevents people from apparating for about twenty metres around you, almost every spell will fail to pierce the Agwyd, anything conjured or transfigured or animated will fail, or even turn on their wielder.'

'This sounds incredibly unfair.'

'Life's not fair, little cousin.' She flicked her wand back into her palm and pointed it at him, resting the tip over his heart. 'My first fight, this smuggler of dark artefacts didn't believe I was the real deal, so he animated a bunch of stone snakes from a carved bench when my back was turned. They touched my Agwyd a few moments later as I was stomping his friends into the mud and my will crushed his right out of them; I didn't even notice he'd conjured them. They quite literally tore him apart in about two seconds.'

'Ouch.'

'Yeah, it was messy.' Tonks grinned. 'There are a couple of things to watch out for. Fiendfyre. That stuff is just pure hatred manifested as fire; it's on a par with Agwyd and can burn through it if the caster's hate is stronger than your Agwyd.'

'And the Unforgivables, right?'

'Right.' She poked him in the ribs with her wand. 'The Killing Curse is hard to cast, because you have to want to just rip someone else out of existence; you have to purely despise them that much. Voldemort is famous for solely using it on those he considers beneath himself, but it can pierce Agwydas as well. Same for the Cruciatus Curse, only it's the desire to cause pain. Auntie Bella likes to use that one on those who don't stand and fight her with honour; I heard the Longbottoms tried to escape when she came for them and left a gauntlet of nasty traps for her, which made her very angry, because by all accounts Alice Longbottom was capable of Agwyd and should have fought her with honour.'

'And the Imperius Curse?'

'The Imperius Curse is similar to Agwyd,' Tonks replied, tucking her wand back away. 'Unless the person casting it on you is capable of Agwyd, you won't have to worry about it.'

'Okay, so dodge all of those, but the rest...' Harry paused. 'Wait, so that's why Barty Crouch Junior couldn't cast the Imperius Curse on me?'

'Yeah, I bet that must have really shaken him up.' She laughed. 'Imagine casting a curse like that on a kid and having him throw it off because he's already getting close to being capable of Agwyd.' Tonks blinked. 'How old were you then?'

Harry grinned. 'Fourteen.'

'Okay that's just scary.' She eyed him up. 'You have a Wizengamot seat, don't you? Maybe I should try this seduce you young and marry you thing after all. Can't be made into some kind of concubine-retainer if I'm married to someone with a seat. And you're rich.'

'Do your worst,' he retorted.

Tonks rolled her eyes and snickered. 'I think we both know it wouldn't be that hard; trim another inch off this skirt and you'd be head over heels.'

'Just like you trying to walk across a perfectly flat surface, then. But briefly back on the duelling thing, I can dodge or block the others, right?' he asked. 'What about the Fiendfyre, can I block that?'

'If anyone casts those against you when you're using Agwyd, you get out of the way and then you kill them,' she said. 'Well, you do if you're an auror. We're meant to take them to Azkaban, but… it's… it's a disgrace—' her steel grey eyes sharpened '—to fight without honour like that. A duel is meant to be decided by speed, skill, the strength of will, and maybe a little luck if destiny intends, nothing else. If you cast honour aside, it's generally accepted that what you got, you deserved.'

Harry nodded. 'So how do I fix my Agwyd?

'We're going to work on that now,' Tonks promised. 'We'll start with the basics that I learnt. First off, the most important thing. You must not doubt, Harry.'

'Doubt?'

'Doubt is the kiss of defeat,' she recited. 'It is the heart's downfall, the first small step into indubitable oblivion. Doubt nothing. Doubt nothing; know only victory.'

'Is that your personal motto?'

'That's the mantra of first-class aurors; I'm pretty sure it actually comes from the Graal-Kynak, though. My personal motto is curbstomp in a short skirt,' Tonks replied. 'Wait…'

'Yeah, that makes it sound more like you want guys to look up your skirt while you stamp on them,' Harry said. 'Which, you know, I would take a few bruises…'

She snorted and swatted him over the head with her hand. 'Focus.'

'I'm trying, but you keep distracting me.'

'Doubt is a poison,' Tonks said. 'When you fight with Agwyd, there will be speed and skill involved, but also strength; I don't mean how physically strong you are, I mean the strength of your Agwyd. And the strength of your Agwyd is the strength of your will. If you doubt, it will be brittle and you will die.'

'So don't doubt. That's fine, I'm not a very doubtful person.'

'We'll practise a lot more before I let you stay and pick a fight with anyone in case you're targeted,' she said. 'Now… I am not allowed to teach you how to form a blade, that's forbidden — and the last thing I need is Bonesy giving me the sort of reprimand that Pendragon will take notice of — but the Agwyd itself I can help you with, and all the skills to go with it for later.'

Harry smiled. 'What's first? I really want to see the look on Bellatrix's face when she comes to finish our duel and I can do it too this time. Can you imagine?'

'Let's not get ahead of ourselves,' Tonks said. 'If you do what you did a few days ago, she will slice you up like a loaf of bread.'

'Harsh.'

'True.' She slid a hand under her t-shirt and straightened the strap of her bra. 'Right, I want you to think about it like this. I didn't really explain it to you in any detail last time, because I was just showing off, I did not expect you to copy me and it to actually work.' Tonks placed her hands together in front of her. 'You are pushing back against everything around you with your magic, but not pushing it away forever; you just want to push for a short distance around yourself.'

Harry closed his eyes. 'Just pushing things away a little bit…'

Before the eye of his mind, he saw all those stars, a sea of them blazing silver and bright, holding back that endless deep dark beyond, pushing the patient black chill that yearned to swallow them one by one away for every last moment they could manage.

He opened his eyes.

Radiant silver starlight lit the underpass up as bright as day, shining from him like the pale light of the full moon upon a cold midwinter night's eve and casting the cold concrete as white as fresh-fallen snow.

'Baby cousin,' Tonks whispered, her grey eyes wide as galleons. 'You are just a tiny bit terrifying.'

And Harry smiled at the silly, shocked expression on her face, at the very idea that he was scary at all; full of bubbling laughter, brimming with mirth, his smile spread wider and wider, until it felt like his face ought to split from ear to ear.

AN: Lots and lots more to read via the linktree!

linktr . ee / mjbradley