"Hey Scarhead, did you really faint when the Dementors came?" Malfoy called out, sparking an eruption of laughter from the rest of the Slytherin table.
Harry's right fist clenched in anger as he looked down at his plate. The Dementor attack on the train had come out of nowhere and left him feeling more hopeless than he could ever recall. The one spell he'd gotten off had done nothing, and as he started to hear a woman screaming in the distance, he swore that he was going to die. As it turned out, his very soul had been at risk as one of the cloaked nightmares had been about to suck it out when help arrived.
"Something's wrong," Hermione declared, tensing as the train came to a halt. "It's far too early for us to have arrived yet."
"Um, when the hell did it become winter out?" Ron asked, his eyes widening as he saw frost slowly form on the window of their train car.
"The weather report didn't mention anything like this," Harry said.
"Something's out there!" Ron exclaimed, peering outside in dread.
"Something's in here," Hermione squeaked, her eyes wide with fright as she pointed at the door to their car.
Harry looked and grabbed his wand instinctively as a floating cloaked figure appeared outside. It extended one of his skeletal hands towards the door, and the knob slowly turned without being touched. It opened quickly, and the nightmarish figure floated in, reaching for him immediately.
"Incendio!" Harry hissed, shooting a ball of fire right into the center of the creature's chest.
It struck true but did nothing, and Harry felt nothing but icy death as it drew closer and seemed to feed on him in a way. He heard a woman scream and didn't recognize the voice but couldn't give that even a moment's thought as the horrible draining sensation consumed him. Just as consciousness left him, he heard a more familiar voice shout, "Expecto Patronum!"
"Harry! Harry!" Tonks exclaimed as his eyes fluttered open.
"Dora?" he asked weakly, furrowing his brow in confusion as he took in the sight of her. "Why's your hair so white?"
He scowled at the memory as one of the twins called out, "Don't think we forgot how scared you looked when you barreled into our compartment begging for help, Malfoy."
"That's...I…" Malfoy spluttered as an even louder round of laughter broke out.
"That's quite enough," McGonagall called out, silencing the entire hall with a glare.
From the Hufflepuff table, Tonks watched the entire display with barely concealed rage. The moment she realized that something was wrong, she'd rushed off after Harry, having agreed with him prior to them boarding the train that they'd hang out with their own friends during the ride. She'd found him being attacked by a dementor, his soul nearly sucked out, and didn't hesitate to cast the only spell that affected them at all. The sleeping man next to him joined in with his own patronus a moment later, and she'd been too distracted by trying to revive Harry afterward to acknowledge what he said when he introduced himself as their new defense professor.
"Tonks," Hestia whispered in her ear. "Is there some reason you can't keep your eyes off Potter tonight? I hardly think it's just because you saved his famous arse on the train."
Tonks looked at her oldest friend and grimaced when she realized that, in her anger, her hair had turned orange. One of the biggest disadvantages of being a metamorphmagus was the fact that she was a living, breathing mood ring when she was feeling particularly emotional.
"Later," she replied, looking down at her barely touched roast beef and potatoes.
She took out some of her frustration on her meal as she dug in, wondering what exactly she was going to say to her fellow sixth year. She and Harry had continued seeing each other all summer, enjoying each other's company whenever she could get away. They'd gone to the movies, had a few dinner dates, and hung out in her hidden safe house several more times. It had been really nice, and getting to know Harry better over the course of their dates had proven to her that they really were well suited to each other for the most part. She had yet to tell anyone, though, largely because she had no idea how to explain that she was dating a third year.
"Hey, Mum, just checking, when you asked me to get to know Harry better, you did mean Biblically, right?" she thought to herself and snorted.
Her mother wouldn't even be the worst one since age gaps weren't seen as much of a problem in their world. Her father was muggleborn and had very different sensibilities, and Hestia, as a half-blood like her, could easily feel as she knew he would. Despite the awkward conversations that she was sure were in her future, though, she couldn't bring herself to even think of giving him up. Harry was sweet, kind, funny in a snarky way that was quite similar to her own sense of humor, and driven. The hours they'd spent talking about magic had lit a fire in him that even he didn't seem to know was there, and before the summer was done, he'd written to his head of house asking to switch his electives to more challenging ones.
The fact that he was good-looking, something that had only become truer as he started working out with her, and could eat pussy like a bloody god didn't hurt either. They hadn't progressed past oral yet, more so out of her lingering squeamishness about the age gap than anything else, but the events on the train had rattled her in a way that made her question waiting any longer.
"He could have fucking died," she thought to herself, feeling anger well up inside her again. "I swear I could kick the minister in the stones for this. Dementors in bloody Hogwarts? Is he insane or just stupid?"
Her foul mood had lasted through the feast, and as she stood up after it, she was more than prepared to just head to her common room and come clean to Hestia about what she'd spent her summer doing when someone bumped into her and placed a discreet little piece of parchment in her hand.
"Tonks?" Hestia asked, giving her a puzzled look.
"Go on ahead, Hes," Tonks replied. Leaning in, she added quietly, "I need the loo."
"See you in a bit," Hestia nodded before leaving.
Tonks turned the first corner she found and opened the note in her hand.
Meet me in Myrtle's Bathroom
H
"Not the one I'd normally go to, but…" she murmured to herself, grinning in anticipation as she recalled just what awaited her there.
Between the first years looking around in wonder and talking the prefects' ears off and everyone else catching up with friends they'd seen less of over the holidays, no one really noticed as Tonks quietly made her way to the first staircase she found and went up to the second floor. The girl's bathroom wasn't far from that staircase, and soon enough, she was there. Like most people, she didn't bother going near the bathroom Moaning Myrtle haunted, and so she forgot that it is often wet and slipped the moment she entered it.
"Woah, hey," Harry chuckled as he caught her. "I didn't think you'd come so qui…"
Tonks silenced him with a kiss, and he returned it eagerly, wrapping his arms around her. A month of her pseudo-auror training hadn't exactly turned him into beefcake, but he was definitely stronger than he'd been when they first met, and she moaned into his mouth as she felt his strong arms holding her.
"I was so worried," she whispered.
"I was bloody useless," Harry grumbled and shook her head. "Weeks of training and I got off one..."
"First off, there were severe limits to how much training we could do without either of us being able to use magic, and second, most people freeze up worse than that around those things," Tonks interrupted him. "Dementors are some of the worst creatures in existence, and there's only one spell that works on them."
"I heard you say the incantation," Harry commented. "Something patroni…"
"Expecto patronum," Tonks replied. "The patronus charm is a really bloody advanced spell and something I only know because I read aurors are required to have at least some proficiency with it. Begged Flitwick for a week before he agreed to teach me."
"It's a charm?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, it is," Tonks nodded. "I worked on it for months last year, and I only got to the mist stage. When fully mastered, one can create a corporeal patronus that takes the form of some animal."
"Could you teach me?" Harry asked. "If I'm going to be stuck having those bloody things around here for goodness knows how long I want to be ready if more of them come for me."
"I'm not kidding about how advanced it is, Harry," Tonks replied. "I'll show you if you like, but I think you'd be better off focusing on your other studies for the ti…"
"What are you doing with him?" Myrtle hissed, visibly vexed as she floated up through the floor and looked at the pair of them.
"Hello, Myrtle," Tonks replied. Realizing what she was seeing immediately, she thought to herself, "You could have told me the most temperamental ghost in the castle had a thing for you, stud."
"Hi Myrtle," Harry smiled. "I was just going to show Tonks the chamber."
"Why?" Myrtle asked.
"I like big snakes," Tonks replied before she could stop herself, and Harry snorted.
"Well, good luck I guess," Myrtle muttered. "If you die down there, just know that this lavatory is mine."
With that, she huffed and disappeared into a toilet.
"Sorry about her," Harry whispered once he was confident she was gone. "She's usually nicer than that."
"To you, maybe," Tonks chuckled. "So which sink is it?"
"This one," Harry replied, pointing to one of them. He hissed something at it, and as Tonks rubbed her thighs together, having long since come to associate that sound with pleasure, the sink opened up, revealing a sizable opening.
"Be warned, the slide down isn't terribly pleasant," Harry muttered.
"There aren't stairs?" Tonks asked, and he froze.
He hissed something else, and sure enough, stairs appeared, leaving a very amused Tonks and very red-faced Harry to stare at them in silence. She'd have taken the piss out of him normally, but she figured he'd been through enough that day and let it go. Casting cleaning charms as she went, she ventured downstairs, taking the lead as Harry lit her way.
"This goes further down than I expected," Tonks murmured.
"The entrance is on the second floor, and I'm fairly sure the chamber is underground," Harry replied as they reached the bottom. "By the way, if you see a gigantic snake in a seco…"
"Jesus...fuck!" Tonks exclaimed, and Harry couldn't help but laugh.
"Our reactions were less colorful than that, but Ron and I were about as freaked out," he chuckled. "You should have seen Lockhart."
"I still can't believe what that arsehole tried to do to you two," Tonks grumbled, reaching out to gently brush her fingers over the shed snake skin.
"The real thing was even bigger," Harry commented, and she shuddered.
"I know you said about fifty feet long and big enough to swallow you, but...even hearing that didn't quite prepare me for this," Tonks admitted. Looking at him, she said, "How the hell are you alive?"
"Honestly, at this point I'm not entirely sure," Harry grimaced, and she pulled him in for a hug. "Goodness knows how things are going to go this year. Usually things wait until at least Halloween to try to kill me."
"I won't let anything happen to you," Tonks vowed, running the backs of her fingers across his cheek.
"Well, if we're lucky, Black will come for me and...thanks to learning how to fight from you, I'll kick his sorry arse, and we'll be rid of the dementors," Harry said. "Alas, I am rarely lucky."
"That's going to change, Harry," Tonks thought to herself, looking into his eyes. "How labyrinthine is this place?"
"Not particularly," Harry replied. "Slytherin ensured that only parselmouths could reach the chamber at all and housed a bloody basilisk inside it, so it's not like he needed any other security measures."
"Fair point," Tonks shrugged. "Shall we?"
"Ladies first," Harry grinned, and she returned the look.
The two of them ventured further along the first hallway, with Tonks continuing to clean what she could. From Harry's description, the chamber didn't sound particularly inviting, but the idea of having a space inside the school that they could disappear to at will and which no one could bother them in was quite appealing. Whether or not it would be worthwhile would depend entirely on if she could get it cleaned up, though, and it wasn't long before they came across their first major mess.
"This is where Ron's wand backfired on Lockhart," Harry explained as they came across the spot where part of the ceiling had caved in. "Ron managed to clear a path, but…"
"Reparo," Tonks cast, willing the fallen rubble to return to where it had come from.
She had to cast the spell three more times before it was returned to a stable state and looked at her work with a pleased smile as she finished.
"I didn't know that spell could do that much," Harry marveled.
"Oh, that's nothing," Tonks chuckled. "The twins were experimenting with musical charms once and managed to shatter every window in the abandoned classroom they were in. According to them, Dumbledore happened to be walking by and repaired the damage with a single silent spell before informing them that they'd be having music lessons with McGonagall every night for the next week."
Harry snorted at that, and they continued on, finding the entrance to the main chamber not far from the point where he'd been separated from Ron just a few months prior. He hissed for it to open and kept his eyes trained on Tonks, eager to see how she'd react to seeing the basilisk's corpse properly. The weeks that they'd spent together as a couple had proven to him that, against all odds and his own basic understanding of things, she was really into him. He'd come to accept that and revel in it, but he was a mite worried that, with them back in school and with her being around older, more experienced guys again, she might come to her senses. Well aware of the fact that killing the basilisk was the most impressive thing he'd ever done, he hoped she'd be suitably impressed, and from the way her jaw dropped a moment later, he figured that she was.
"Holy shit," Tonks gasped, walking towards the dead snake as though in a trance. "You...actually killed this?"
"I have the scar to prove it," Harry chuckled.
"Harry, I know you hate that you're famous because of something that you don't remember and didn't do, but this here is at least as impressive as killing You...Voldemort," Tonks breathed, catching herself from saying You-Know-Who at the last second.
"I don't know about that," Harry snorted, shaking his head. "If not for Fawkes' help with his eyes and a lucky stab, I'd be dead. I'd be dead anyway if not for his tears."
"The only thing more dangerous than a basilisk is a nundu," Tonks argued, "and according to the guys I spoke to, no one has ever seen one this big. The only reason they didn't laugh me out of their office was because I dropped your name. You're just going to have to accept that you did something really cool."
Harry laughed at that and joined her right in front of the basilisk's face.
"It really hasn't decomposed at all," he marveled, feeling the cool scales of its thick neck.
"Creatures this full of magic take a while to start rotting," Tonks explained as she had before. "For most it takes about twice as long as normal creatures, but for something this ancient that's lived in a place as magic-rich as Hogwarts for centuries, it would probably be another three months at least before it started to go."
"So the guys will be here tomorrow evening?" Harry asked.
"So they said," Tonks replied. "Apparently they squared everything with Dumbledore, who you'll probably hear from in the morning. The head honcho himself, a guy named Frank Fawley, is coming to inspect the snake."
"I'm surprised that they just took your word for it," Harry remarked. "I expected them to want pictures or something."
"Again, hearing your name helped convince them, but they would have checked with Dumbledore to make sure their time wasn't being wasted too," Tonks replied. "I was thinking that we'd have to bring them down here, but...I wonder."
With her wand still in hand, Tonks took a deep breath to focus herself and cast, "Diminuendo."
Diminuendo differed from reducio in a number of ways. It was less hazardous than the more common charm, which Flitwick advised all of his students to use either as a counter to the engorgement charm or in moments of absolute need. The trade off to that was that it was a lot harder to use, requiring more intense focus and being more tiring in general. Tonks had played around with it last year for her Charms O.W.L. not wanting to rely on her patronus, as she'd failed to master the corporeal version of it.
Bit by bit, the giant snake shrunk down until it was no larger than a common cobra, and she shoved it in her mokeskin pouch, saying, "There. That should make it easier."
"Just be very careful getting it out of the bag," Harry warned her. "It's still full of venom, and trust me when I say that shit hurts. On top of that, I have no idea when Fawkes last had a burning day or how much he could actually do to help us while he's just a chick."
"I can will which part of it comes forth to grab from the bag, so I'll just pull it out by its tail," Tonks assured him. "Given how nightmarish your entire adventure down here was, you didn't look around much, did you?"
"It wasn't exactly a priority," Harry chuckled before looking thoughtful. "I guess there could be more down here than a giant statue of Slytherin and a basilisk, though given that, at minimum, Voldemort's already been down here, who knows what's left?"
Looking at the statue, Tonks snorted and said, "That guy didn't have ego issues at all."
"You think that's bad? The passphrase to open his mouth and let the basilisk out is 'speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the four.'"
Tonks laughed aloud at that, and Harry smiled.
"I wonder when it was flooded," she murmured. "Truth be told, given that it was abandoned for so long, it's a wonder it's in this good a shape."
"Not the most romantic venue I could have picked, huh?" Harry quipped, and she grinned.
"I guess you'll just have to make it up to me," Tonks purred, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"When I spoke to Ron about Hogsmeade, the twins overheard and mentioned a place called Madam Puddifoot's..." Harry went to say only to be cut off by loud laughter from his girlfriend. "Yeah, given the source, I figured it wasn't exactly your kind of place."
"Those arseholes," Tonks chuckled fondly. "It's a teashop and way too pink and frilly for my tastes. We'll check it out at some point, but I'd like to head to the Three Broomsticks. It'll be a chance to introduce you to my friends."
"Have you told them about us yet?" Harry asked.
"I will once we're done here," Tonks replied. "You tell your mates?"
"Not yet," Harry replied. "We spent the train ride mostly catching up before...the attack."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Tonks asked.
"I want to learn how to fight them," Harry replied, scowling. "I don't think I felt that hopeless when I fought this monstrosity."
"Hopelessness is the feeling that dementors induce naturally," Tonks explained. "The whole reason I know the spell to fight them off at all is because aurors are required to have some capability with it. They guard Azkaban, and any Auror can end up needing to go there from time to time."
"I can't imagine being around them constantly," Harry shuddered. "If Black really spent twelve years being tortured by them day in and day out, could he seriously still be a threat?"
"He escaped them, something that no one else has ever done," Tonks shrugged. "I think that more than anything is why the ministry is so freaked out about him. It's not just that a notorious mass murderer is on the loose; it's that he managed to crawl out of what is essentially hell on earth to return."
"Then I'll need to be ready for him too," Harry muttered.
"I said I'd teach you to fight, and I meant it, but remember your promise, Harry," Tonks said seriously. "I don't want you rushing off into danger without me."
Harry laughed lightly at that and brushed his fingers through her spiky purple hair, saying, "I won't. If Black comes for me, we'll kick his ass together."
"Damn right," Tonks grinned. "Now, let's look around."
"Sure, just one thing," Harry murmured.
Hissing the passphrase at the statue, he watched its mouth open again, and despite being very certain that there weren't any more surprises awaiting him, felt his pulse spike anyway. When Tonks suggested looting the basilisk's corpse over the summer, he'd been initially fearful that they might come across basilisk eggs or something. After he'd written to Hermione, though, expressing some concern about there being more of them without explaining why, she'd written back to assure him that there was only one way to hatch basilisks and that they couldn't reproduce naturally.
"Lumos," Tonks cast, lighting her wand as she poked her head inside the statue's mouth. "Oh fuck me."
"What's wrong?" Harry asked.
"It's just bigger than I expected," Tonks replied. "If Slytherin built this part to be the snake's den, he must have expected it to grow enormous."
"Legend says that he left it intending for it to be used by his descendants," Harry shrugged, "and they clearly don't die of old age."
"Well, it seems to be empty," Tonks said, giving the room another once-over, "and I wouldn't expect Slytherin to have hidden anything of value in his pet's room. Why don't you see if there are any spots on the walls that look like they could be interesting while I try to fix the flooding damage?"
"Will do," Harry nodded, exiting the room hidden by the statue and returning to the main chamber.
Tonks looked around the room, trying to find the source of the water. The flooding was minor, truth be told, and it wasn't like the chamber was at risk of being drowned out entirely, but the water had to be coming from somewhere, and just vanishing it would be pointless until she dealt with that. Grabbing her broom out of her pouch, she flew up to the ceiling to get a closer look.
"Merlin, he had an unhealthy thing for snakes," Harry muttered to himself as he examined the walls.
The chamber itself wasn't terribly impressive, he realized, being a sizable rectangular room. The way that it was hidden and how difficult it was to reach at all were the most remarkable things about it. Without having to fear for Ginny or his own life, he was able to truly take it in in a way that he couldn't before and noted that Slytherin's dedication to his snake motif was genuinely extreme. The snake heads sticking out of the walls on either side were huge and shaped like the head of the basilisk. Their long forked tongues stuck out a ways, and he brushed dust off of one of them.
"Open," he hissed, curious to see if anything would happen. When nothing did, he, still speaking parseltongue, muttered, "I guess it would have been too much to hope that all of them might respond when I speak."
"Greatest," the carving hissed back.
"What?" Harry asked, jerking back in surprise.
The statue remained silent, and, switching to Parseltongue, he asked, "Can you understand me?"
Its silence remained unchanged, and he furrowed his brow in confusion as he heard Tonks exclaim, "Oh, cool!"
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"The wards of this place have been holding back the water for centuries," Tonks replied. "The roof itself is fucked, and I'm going to need to repair it for both our sakes. If not for the magic, it would have been submerged entirely long before Voldemort got down here."
"It might not go back that far, actually," Harry called out. "Maybe the cracks are a result of Lockhart's stupidity."
"Maybe," Tonks shrugged. "The initial damage might have disrupted the wards enough for a second to let some water through, and then they started holding back the rest. Either way, once I fix this up and dry the floors, the place should be a lot more hospitable. You find anything?"
"I swear one of these snakes spoke to me," Harry replied. "I heard it hiss 'greatest' but I can't get it to repeat that much less do anything else."
"What were you doing when it hissed?" Tonks asked.
"Speaking parseltongue," Harry replied. "I've done that since, though, and gotten nothing."
"Try repeating your exact words if you can remember them," Tonks suggested.
"I guess it would have been too much to hope that all of them might respond when I speak." Harry repeated.
"Greatest," the carving said.
"Speak," Harry hissed again, figuring that that might have been the trigger word.
"Greatest," the carving replied.
"Quite the conversationalist," Harry muttered sarcastically before moving to the next one. "Speak."
"Four," the statue replied, and Harry's eyes widened as he looked around and noticed that there were exactly eight snake carvings.
"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the four," Harry said aloud with a grin as he realized that there were as many words in that as there were snake heads in the chamber. "Oh, so that's how he figured it out."
Slytherin's passphrase wasn't exactly intuitive, and if he hadn't been so busy trying not to be killed by a fifty-foot murder snake, he'd have wondered how exactly Tom had learned of it. He went to each of the carvings and hissed at them, getting a single word in response. They weren't in order. and the dark founder had clearly intended this to be a bit of a puzzle to test his heir, though it wasn't exactly difficult. By chance, the last one he spoke with was the first, and upon hearing the word, speak, he turned around and looked up at Tonks, who was still flying around, trying to repair the ceiling.
"How's it going?" he called out, leaning back.
"Pretty good," Tonks replied. "You know, if we get this place less damp, it might be a fun place to hang…"
She was cut off as Harry let out a wordless exclamation, and she rushed down to check on him, finding him stumbling to keep on his feet, as though something had given way behind him.
"I think I bro…" Harry went to say, only to look down in shock as he noticed that the tongue of one of the snake carvings was pushed down. "It's a lever. Oh, holy shit!"
"What is it?" Tonks asked.
"I think I found something Voldemort didn't, or maybe he did, but he certainly didn't show it to me," Harry replied, taking a moment to recall which carving spoke which word.
He ran across the chamber, and Tonks dried the stone floor with a wave of her wand to make sure he didn't slip. Pushing the tongues down in the order of the passphrase, he sucked in a gasp when he pushed down the final one and heard the sound of stone grinding against stone coming from behind Slytherin's statue. Tonks' eyes widened in excitement, and, still mounted, she flew over to it, beating Harry to his discovery and using another light charm to look inside. Sure enough, there was an opening in the once solid wall, and she felt her heart race as the same feeling of excitement she'd felt when she first discovered the safe house filled her.
"He did hide a room here," Harry grinned as he looked inside.
Tonks shoved her broom in her mokeskin pouch, and the pair of them crossed the basilisk's old den together, each one wondering what kind of treasures they might have just accessed. Their first assessment was that it was incredibly dusty, and a coughing Tonks canceled her light charm for a moment to cast a host of cleaning charms on it. As Harry's own wand lit up, he looked inside and his eyes widened at what he found.
"A bedroom?" he asked aloud, stepping inside.
Hidden there, behind the statue of Slytherin and the basilisk's den, was a small, barely furnished room with a sizable bed, a desk, and a chest. The bed looked to be in remarkable shape for something that had presumably been there for more than nine centuries, and he wondered what kind of enchantments had been placed on it to give it such longevity. The cursory reading he'd given his runes textbook was enough to know that some manner of runic carving must have been the cause, and thinking about that reminded him that he still hadn't informed Ron or Hermione about his changed electives. He'd meant to, and he knew that Hermione was going to be thrilled but he also knew that Ron wouldn't be and was procrastinating.
"Bloody hell," Tonks breathed, looking around. "Slytherin actually hid a bedroom in here?"
"Wait, does that mean that he had to pull all eight levers each time he wanted to access it? Harry asked, "Because that seems...absurd."
"He might have had another way in, but if I had figured out what you were doing sooner, I would have pointed out that you could have pulled them with magic," Tonks replied and Harry snorted, shaking his head.
"Fair point," he chuckled, reaching for the chest.
"Wait!" Tonks exclaimed. "We don't know if he cursed that thing and, let's be honest, nothing about this place suggests that he was a particularly stable bloke."
"Just a touch off his rocker, yeah," Harry chuckled, looking around. "Man, dust aside, this place is really well maintained."
"I can't fathom the spellwork that went into it," Tonks muttered as she cast the few diagnostic charms she'd learned on the chest to see if she could pick up any trace of curses on it. "This thing seems clean, but I'm still going to open it from a distance. Back up a bit."
Harry nodded and returned to the entrance of the room, watching as Tonks backed up towards him. Grinning slightly, he wrapped his arms around her as she reached him, pressing himself up against her and nuzzling her neck.
"You were partially wrong before, Harry," Tonks purred. "The chamber might not have been the most romantic place you've ever brought me, but if this had been a date, I would not be disappointed."
"Is that so?" Harry asked, pressing his lips against her pulse point and making her breath hitch.
"Oh, yeah," Tonks replied, reaching behind herself to palm his rapidly hardening cock. "An adventure into a long-lost lair during which we find an even more hidden room and a chest full of Merlin knows what? I'd take that over tea in a nauseatingly pink and frilly parlor any day."
"Well, I'll just have to discover another long-lost chamber," Harry replied, and she laughed.
"An afternoon at a nice pub works too, baby," Tonks chuckled. "Alohomora. Wingardium Levosa."
The two first-year charms were enough to open the chest, the lid to which rose without issue. Relatively convinced that there was no danger, the two of them approached it slowly, and Harry smiled at what they found. It wasn't large enough for them to walk into it, but it had been enlarged and contained what looked like several books. This was proof enough for him that Voldemort hadn't found it back in the forties, and he wondered what exactly it could contain. Tonks picked up the first one and opened it, only to furrow her brow in confusion at the sight.
"What the hell is this chicken scratch?" she asked as she looked at the strange characters on the first page.
"His handwriting's not that bad," Harry chuckled, earning a confused look from his girlfriend.
"You can read this?" Tonks asked.
"Yeah," Harry replied. "You should see my uncle's handwriting."
"Harry, this isn't written in English," Tonks said flatly, and he looked at her in shock.
"It says 'a treatise on combat magic by Salazar Slytherin,'" Harry explained, and her eyes went wide as saucers. "Wait, you really can't read this?"
"It doesn't even look like it's written in Roman characters," Tonks replied.
"I wouldn't have expected Parseltongue have a written language," Harry said, taking the book from her.
"Look through it and tell me if it seems to make sense to you," Tonks instructed, and he did.
"It's a little over my head if that's what you mean," Harry replied as he picked a random page and started reading through the description of how a particular blood-boiling curse worked.
"But the language seems to be normal?" Tonks prodded. When he nodded, she added, "Harry, the English Slytherin would have spoken; it wouldn't have been like ours. If you can actually read this, it must mean that it's written in something that self-translates for parselmouths."
"Hermione will be crushed," Harry chuckled to himself. "Books she can't read."
"Translations of them might make a nice Christmas gift," Tonks suggested, and he looked at them thoughtfully.
"Good idea," he smiled, putting the book back. "So, the people you spoke to really had no idea what the basilisk could be worth?"
"There's never been a recorded basilisk this large," Tonks replied. "They're really rare too, having been illegal for centuries, and when they're encountered, they're usually still quite small. Even with the eyes lost and with us wanting to hold onto the hide, it will likely still net you an absolute fortune. Have you thought about what you're going to do with it?"
"Once I've given my beautiful agent her share," Harry replied, earning a grin from her, "I'm thinking of donating new training brooms to the school."
"Really?" Tonks asked.
"Those rickety things are going to kill someone one of these days," Harry replied. "I'll be donating a sum to each of the diary's victims too, though getting Ginny to accept hers might be a problem."
"You're a good man, Harry," Tonks smiled, raking her nails gently across his scalp.
"Most would still call me a boy," Harry replied, masking his nervousness with feigned amusement.
"We should do something about that," Tonks grinned. Before Harry could ask what he meant, she pulled him in for a searing, hot kiss and walked him towards the bed.
He landed on it with a grunt and broke the kiss, looking at her in surprise and asking, "Tonks?"
"I want you," Tonks whispered in his ear, making him shudder. "I've held myself back because this is all new to you, and if you want to keep taking things slow, that's okay, but we're in a room where no one can bother us, and we have a perfectly good-seeming bed here. Say you want me too and I'll ride you until you see stars."
"I want you," Harry replied breathlessly, feeling like his heart was going to propel itself out of his chest. "Fuck, how could I not?"
Tonks grinned wickedly at him for that, and, drawing her wand, undressed them both with a couple quick spells, making him gasp. That gasp turned to a yelp as she wrapped her hand around his girth and her expression turned downright feral.
"It's been torture playing with this beautiful horsecock of yours and not getting to feel it inside me," Tonks moaned, nipping at his earlobe and making him cry out. "You're going to feel so good."
"I haven't…" Harry said needlessly. "I mean, I don't know how I'm going to…"
"Just leave it to me," Tonks murmured tenderly, "and don't worry about holding back. Every bloke's a quick shot their first time. Just feeling this monster stretch me in ways that will test even my powers is going to be amazing, and given how quickly you spring back, it won't matter at all."
Harry smiled at that, feeling reassured, and cupped one of her large breasts, craning his head down to capture her already hard pink nipple with his lips. Tonks sighed in pleasure and held his head to her as he sucked on the sensitive nub. When he switched to the other one, she smirked impishly and willed her breasts to grow. She kept them sizable generally, liking how a full bust balanced out the wide hips and large, round arse that she had, giving her a perfect hourglass shape, but she didn't make them ridiculously big. She'd tested out her upper limit when she was younger, discovering that, if she wanted to, she could make them so big that they weighed over ten pounds each and reached across her entire ribcage. It was ludicrous and impractical as all hell, so she didn't push herself to that extent generally, but that didn't mean she couldn't have fun with it occasionally.
"Drown in my tits," she laughed, and he quickly joined in, though it was quite muffled.
Pushing her up off of him and letting his fingers sink into her soft, warm flesh, he said, "That would be one hell of an epitaph. Here lies Harry Potter, survived the killing curse only to be suffocated by breasts."
Tonks snorted at that and kissed him again, pressing her hairless pussy against his length and grinding on him. She could already feel herself getting wet and worked to coat his heavy length in her fluids, making both of them moan onto each other's mouths. Harry ran his hand down along her back and cupped her arse before breaking the kiss and trailing his lips along her neck. Tonks felt him try to roll them over and resisted, pushing him back and smirking down at him.
"I'll happily let you fuck me in every position you like tonight, but I want to be on top for the first round," she explained. "I want to see the look on your face when you feel me envelop you, and besides, everyone's first time should be on their back."
"Right, because you already…" Harry trailed off, looking aside, and she cupped his cheek, pulling him over until he was looking her right in the eye.
"There's no need to be jealous, Harry," she whispered soothingly. "You're going to touch spots inside me that I don't even know exist, reach depths no one's ever come close to, and that's even if I save anal for another night."
"Wha...what?" Harry spluttered, his eyes going wide as saucers, and Tonks cackled.
"You'll be such a tight fit back there," she cooed.
"Fucking hell," Harry groaned as she shifted down along his body, kissing a trail down along his chest and abdomen until she reached his cock.
"I still can't believe how fucking big you are," Tonks sighed happily, giving his bulbous head a wet kiss. "You're perfect."
"So are...ugh...you," Harry groaned as she licked a wet line up along his shaft.
A pearlescent drop of precum formed on his tip, and she snatched it up greedily with her long tongue, grinning as she saw him shiver. He was so expressive when it came to pleasure, and she found watching his face as she drove him mad to be intoxicating. Between that and getting to see and feel how big he was up close, she swore that going down on him turned her on more than almost anything.
Willing her tongue to extend until she could have used it to lick her own nipples, she strengthened it until the muscle was fully prehensile and wrapped it around his length, making him cry out in pleasure. She took him deep into her mouth, her lips forming a tight seal around his thick shaft, and started to bob up and down on him. This was something that she hadn't dared try the first time, knowing that he was likely to pop the second she took him anyway, but she'd sucked his cock many times in the weeks since and knew that he could handle it.
"Fuck me," Harry groaned, his hands gripping the sheets on either side of him so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "Dora, that feels so bloody good.
Tonks' eyes were red, a color he'd long since realized indicated lust with her, but her pupils were so wide that he could only barely tell as she stared up at him. The sheer affection in her gaze was enough to make his heart flutter, and, not for the first time, he wondered how he'd gotten lucky enough to draw her interest. He felt her warm, wet tongue jerk him off as she did her best to suck his soul out, and his legs shook as he felt his orgasm fast approach.
"Dora!" he cried, cumming hard.
Tonks felt the first thick burst of cum hit the back of her throat and swallowed instinctively. His loads were as impressive as his cock, and she made sure not to let a single drop go to waste. Harry sagged back as it ended, panting for breath, and she let his cock go with an audible pop before crawling up to look down at him.
"Sit on...my face," Harry panted, and she giggled.
"You sure you don't want me to let you catch your breath first?" she asked.
"Fuck breathing," Harry replied, and she snorted.
"Well, if you insist," Tonks purred, hooking a leg over his face and lowering her arse down towards him.
She kept herself facing his cock, which even then had only partially wilted. She was always happy to have Harry eat her out and indulge in his god-like ability to wring orgasm and toe-curling orgasm out of her with his genuinely magical tongue, but the second he was at full mast again, she wanted to crawl down, pick up his cock, and sink down on him until every wrist-thick inch was buried inside her. Just the thought of him splitting her in half, stretching out her pussy in ways that she'd only ever dreamed of, was enough to make her drool, and she wanted him more than she could hope to express.
"The first step in conjuring a patronus is finding a very good memory to focus on," she thought to herself with a grin. "I'll give him plenty to choose from tonight."
"Oh, fuck!" she cried as he pulled her down and gave her dripping slit a long lick.
He devoured her hungrily, his tongue dexterously dancing through her slick folds as he eagerly drank down her juices. Even without parseltongue he'd become quite good at making her scream like this, and she wondered just what he'd be like with his cock when he had a good bit of practice under his belt.
Harry, for his part, was more than happy to have her like this. Her tangy, slightly salty fluids made his mouth water after all these weeks spent burying his face between her thighs, and between having her juicy, dripping pussy planted on his mouth and her thick, round arse on his face, he was in heaven. He dug his fingers into her pliant flesh hard enough to leave bruises and swirled the tip of his tongue around her clit, grinning when she moaned loudly. She bucked on his face, and his nose brushed against her puckered arsehole. It was perfectly clean and smelled like very little, and that fact gave him an idea that he'd have never even considered if his girlfriend hadn't put the thought of anal in his mind. Shrugging to himself, he pushed her forward and aimed his tongue at a new target.
"I said that sticking it in me doesn't...fuck!" Tonks cried as she felt his tongue brush lightly against her arsehole.
Her eyes went wide and her mouth hung open in shock as sensations she'd never known before assaulted her senses.
"Oh, shit, I can't believe you're doing that," she whimpered, her eyes clenching shut as he continued to lick her arse. "Fuck, baby, don't stop. That's so bloody good."
Harry, realizing that she really just tasted like skin back there, was more than happy to continue after hearing the sinful sounds that passed through her lips. He swirled his tongue around her puckered hole, grinning to himself as he felt the tight ring quiver almost imperceptibly. Tonks' moans grew louder, full, throaty sounds of delight spilling forth from her and making his cock throb, already hard as a rock again.
All thought of jumping off his face and riding his shaft disappeared as she delighted in the feeling of getting her arsehole eaten for the first time in her life. Thinking that she was going to worship him for this, she kept her eyes shut and just enjoyed the feeling of his worshipful mouth.
"I had a couple boyfriends who ate my pussy with such obvious reluctance that it would have sucked even if they hadn't, and Harry's going to town on my fucking ass without me even asking?" she thought to herself in wonder.
Trailing his tongue across her perineum and through her folds, he pushed it against her clit and said in parseltongue, "Cum for me, Dora."
"HARRY!" Tonks screamed at the top of her lungs as she came so hard she squirted.
If she'd had any ability to think just then, she'd have worried about the fact that she was sitting on his face, but the mind-melting pleasure was all that she could focus on. Wave after wave of it coursed through her entire body, from the crown of her head to her curling toes, and her shrieks of pleasure echoed through the entire chamber. She writhed atop him, convulsing so hard that her breasts shook on her chest as she crashed from one orgasm into the next, and just as she was about to beg him to stop, Harry relented. Giving her quivering arsehole one last kiss that made her giggle like she was mad as her aunt, he carefully helped her down until she was lying on her side.
"You know, I don't think aurors are allowed to waterboard people," Harry quipped as she opened her eyes, and she blinked at him a couple times in confusion until her vision cleared enough for her to see what he meant.
His face and hair were both dripping wet from how badly she's soaked him and her whole body turned lobster red in embarrassment as she took in the sight, making him laugh.
"Fuck off!" Tonks exclaimed, joining him in laughter as her embarrassment quickly faded. "It's your fault for making me cum that hard. Holy shit, Harry." He just grinned at her proudly, and she sat up shakily, asking,"What in the world made you lick me there?"
"You talked about letting me fuck you in the arse, and I figured eating it would probably feel good for you," Harry shrugged, "plus, you were clearly clean."
She kissed him passionately, and he returned it in kind, but rather than let it turn into a prolonged makeout session as they normally would, she pulled back quickly and, picking up his heavy cock, purred, "I'm going to fuck you until you're so drained your cock can barely twitch, much less harden again."
"I can't imagine being unable to harden with you here," Harry said emphatically.
"I guess we're going to be here a while then," Tonks purred as she crawled into position.
She pressed his cock against her belly and shuddered when she realized just how deeply he was going to penetrate her. With her abilities, she was fairly sure that she'd be able to take him even if he had to move her lungs out of the way, so while he might have a little more cock than most women could take, she knew that she'd manage. Salivating at the thought of finally getting to truly indulge her size kink, she shifted into position and pressed his thick glans against her folds.
"You feel that, baby?" she asked, looking down into his wide, disbelieving eyes. "You feel how hot and wet you made me?"
"Fuck," Harry shuddered, barely able to fathom how good she was going to feel. Her mouth was insane enough, but he got the sense that this was going to be much better and hoped more than anything that he wouldn't pop the second she sank down onto his length.
"That's the basic idea," Tonks giggled, and with her eyes locked onto his, she pushed down.
"Holy shit," Harry gasped, echoing her feelings perfectly.
"Oh, wow," Tonks breathed, grabbing onto his shoulders for support. "You're so damn thick."
Harry barely heard her, consumed as he was by the hot, wet, maddeningly tight walls of her cunt. He'd thought her mouth was heaven on earth, and he wasn't about to stop wanting blowjobs any time soon, but nothing could compare to her pussy. He finally understood why older guys were all so obsessed with sex.
"Like a damn fist," she thought to herself, and her mind flashed back to the time she'd nearly let Chiara 'test her limits' as the silver-haired werewolf had put her offer to fist her. Of course, the very firewhiskey that nearly made the pair of dormmates hook up had then prevented it instead as she threw up.
She sank down, inch by inch, using her powers to relax and enlarge her insides only just enough to let her take him. The way that his face contorted in pleasure was just as enthralling as she'd imagined, but she was almost too distracted by the intensity of the stretch to notice. She still had what inches of his cock left outside her when she felt him go deeper than anyone else ever had, and her eyes crossed when she felt him brush against something inside her that felt amazing. By the time she felt her arse come to rest against his strong thighs, her own were shaking badly. A sheen of sweat covered her entire body, and she was panting and whimpering from the exertion, but she'd never felt so good.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked through gritted teeth, hoping that she was going to need a minute to adjust to him so he could try to get used to the feeling of being buried inside her. "If she hadn't blown me first, I know I would have cum by now."
"Okay...is an understatement," Tonks replied shakily. "You could seriously...claim membership with the centaur colony...with a cock like this."
"I don't think Bane would accept that reasoning," Harry laughed, and she kissed him.
Sitting up, he cupped her round arse with one hand and snaked the other up along her back until he reached her head. As the two of them made out languidly, each one more than happy to give the other a moment to get used to them so they could as well, they wanted nothing more than to hold the other tightly. Her pebbled nipples scraped across his chest and he let her arse go to cup one of her heavy mounds.
Tonks moaned and pushed him back before sitting up and saying, "You already made me cum multiple times tonight harder than I ever had before we met, so don't push yourself trying to hold back or think that you need to make me cum again to make this good for me. I want to feel you spill inside me and hear you moan my name when you do."
"Fuck," Harry groaned. Her open and obvious desire for him was nearly as intoxicating as the feeling of being inside her.
Tonks lifted herself up on his cock, squeezing to milk him as she did, and dropped back down with a loud moan.
"You're so deep," she groaned, moving slowly as she started riding him. "You feel so good, baby."
"You're like a hot, wet, silk glove," Harry groaned as she fucked him. "So bloody tight."
"You think I'm tight like this?" Tonks asked, cocking an eyebrow at him as she sank down to the hilt and held there. She clenched her insides tight around him, remolding herself until he could barely move, and laughed as he looked at her in obvious shock. Rippling her inner muscles around his length to massage him, she purred, "You have no idea what fucking a metamorphmagus can be like, Harry. Even I've never managed to try out half the things I've thought that I could do in bed because I've never had anyone I really felt like really experimenting with before now."
Harry moaned as she eased up and started riding him again at a slow, steady pace. She knew that he wasn't going to last long this time and had no problem with that, so she quickly sped up, riding him harder and faster. He felt so good spearing into her again and again, and she eagerly awaited finding out what fucking him would be like once he truly knew what he was doing. Harry's breathy groans of pleasure became more frequent, and when she felt his cock seem to almost get bigger inside her, she knew he was going to cum and tightened herself even further, making him gasp.
"Dora!" he exclaimed as a strangled groan escaped his throat and he came.
It was better than anything he'd ever felt in his life, exceeding even her magical blowjobs, and all he could do was let himself be consumed by the pleasure. Spurt after thick spurt of his cum shot deep inside Tonks, painting her inner walls white, and she sighed in pleasure as she rode him to completion. When his orgasm passed, he collapsed on his back, panting hard, and she smiled widely as she draped herself across him and snuggled against him.
"So how was that?" she asked with a shit-eating grin on her face.
"Love…" Harry trailed off, catching himself at the last minute, and she consciously forced herself not to tense up. She cared for him deeply but wasn't there yet and was glad that he hadn't said the words so soon. "That was insane."
"That was just a taste," Tonks whispered, running her nails back through his hair and kissing him softly as she stared down into his eyes. "Once you're hard again, we can try another position."
"Like this?" Harry asked, rolling her onto her back, and she grunted in surprise, both at the sudden change of position and at feeling his length throb inside her, clearly still hard. "I said I'd have trouble softening around you."
"Then take me, stud," Tonks grinned, wrapping her legs around his waist. "Go at your pace to start with and get a feel for it and we'll go from there."
He leaned in and captured one of her pebbled pink nipples with his lips, making her gasp, and pulled most of his cock from her depths before plunging back inside. By chance, he brushed against something inside her that felt incredible, and Tonks let out a loud moan that made him grin. He started out tentatively, getting a feel for being on top as she'd said, but paid close attention to how she reacted and quickly realized that if he thrust into her at a particular angle, she was much louder and took a couple minutes to learn how to consistently hit the exact spot that he'd found.
"Right there!" Tonks cried, her nails raking down his back as she felt herself building towards a peak. "Harder!"
"You sure?" Harry asked as he sped up a little.
"Not faster, harder," Tonks corrected him, and he adjusted quickly.
Having cum twice by then, he wasn't at much risk of spilling again soon and was able to focus entirely on her. As he fucked her harder, her breasts began to roll and jiggle across her chest, and he reached down to cup them. Going back and forth between them, he worshiped the heavy mounds with his lips, tongue, and teeth, and soon Tonks' breathy moans turned to strangled screams.
"Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!" Tonks cried, looking like she could barely believe that he was fucking her this well. Her whole body was on fire as she soared towards her peak, and her soaking wet pussy was squelching loudly each time he split her in two. "Don't stop, don't you fucking...gah!"
"Never," Harry grunted in her ear, hooking an arm around the back of her neck so he could hold her more tightly.
Tonks looked up into his eyes, and the sheer depth of feeling she saw in the emerald orbs made her quake. She reached behind her and clawed at the sheets, feeling as though she'd float away if she didn't grab something.
"Rub my...fuck...clit, baby," she moaned. "Fuck, I'm so close!"
Harry's hand trailed across her flat belly, and Tonks swore it felt like time was moving in slow motion, as though she knew that the moment he reached her swollen, taut nub, she'd explode. She was right on the edge of ecstasy, and he kept hitting that spot deep inside her that was making her see stars. When his thumb brushed across her clit, she screamed, wrapped her arms around him, and felt her entire body tense up.
"More, more, more...HARRY!" Tonks squealed at the top of her lungs as she came again.
Harry grunted her name as he fell over the edge as well, filling her to the brim with his cum. The two of them writhed in each other's arms, completely consumed by pleasure as their orgasms rocked through them in waves. His ended first, and he slumped against her, tired and deliriously happy as he held himself up on his forearms to keep from smothering her. Tonks rolled them over once her mind returned to her, and when she felt his softening cock slip from her tunnel, she shifted down and rested her head on his chest.
"That was amazing," she purred, grinning to herself as she practically felt the pride rolling off of him.
He had found that particularly sensitive spot deep inside her by chance the first time he hit it, but she'd rearranged her insides to help him keep striking it, both because it felt bloody incredible and because she knew that making her cum with his cock despite her saying that he didn't have to would boost his confidence. As he started tracing little circles on her back and running his fingers through her hair, she grew it out to give him more to play with and nearly purred as he took the hint.
"I'm so glad you came into my life," Harry whispered, his voice thick with emotion, and she pushed herself up to smile down at him.
"So am I," Tonks replied before kissing him softly.
He deepened the kiss, and she squeaked in surprise when she felt his cock rapidly harden again under her.
"Could I fuck you from behind?" he asked, eagerness clear in his voice, and Tonks chuckled.
"Don't take my arse just yet," she replied, climbing off of him and getting into position on slightly shaky legs. "We'll save that for another night."
"How did I get so lucky?" Harry asked himself as he lined himself up with her slightly gaping quim and thrust forward, burying his entire cock inside her.
"I'm going to be in for a long night," Tonks thought to herself, unsure in that moment which of the two of them was luckier.
"I must look like I let a whole Quidditch team fuck me," Tonks thought to herself as she limped up to her dorm room a couple hours later.
What Harry lacked in staying power, he more than made up for in the sheer number of times he could get hard for her, and Tonks found herself more satisfied than she'd ever been in her life by the time he finally grew too tired to go on. The pair of them had hobbled out of the chamber, neither one wanting to raise questions by not being where they should have been the next morning, and while Harry had offered her his cloak, she insisted that he use it as she was good enough at disillusionment charms to get back undetected.
Of course, while that was true in the hallways, it turned out to be slightly harder to get into her actual dorm room without being noticed.
"Ah, fuck!" Tonks grunted as she tripped over her own feet and fell into the room, waking both of her dormmates.
"Tonks?" Hestia asked. "Did you only just get here?"
"Someone got laid," Chiara chuckled, her nose as good as ever, "and...why do you smell like...Potter?"
"Shit," Tonks sighed, canceling her disillusionment charm as Hestia looked down at her in shock.
"What?" the brunette asked, watching her stand up and close the door behind her.
"Yes, I'm seeing Harry, and yes, we just...can we talk about this in the morning?" Tonks begged. "He ran me ragged, and I doubt I'm going to stay conscious for more than a second once I lie down."
Hestia just blinked at her as Chiara cocked a silver eyebrow in surprise.
"You're just about the last girl I would have expected to date a younger guy," the brunette commented. "I'm bloody tired too, but I want details in the morning, got it?"
"None of us have anything after potions tomorrow, right?" Tonks asked.
"Yeah," Chiara replied.
"I'm free," Hestia nodded.
"Perfect," Tonks sighed, changing her clothes with a wave of her wand and crawling into bed.
Sleep took just about as quickly as she expected.
"That's most generous of you," Dumbledore smiled. "Perhaps wait until you get the final sum to start making promises, though."
"Even with me hoarding the skin, the basilisk will apparently be worth a fortune," Harry replied as the pair of them walked into the Great Hall, no more able to wipe the smile off his face than he had been since he woke up. "Double potions couldn't ruin my mood right now."
Dumbledore had run into him in the hallway and requested a word about the harvester who would be coming by to examine the basilisk that morning, something he was more than happy to talk about.
"Will there be any difficulty you can think of in leading Mr. Fawley into the chamber?" Dumbledore asked.
"Actually…" Harry went to reply only for the pair of them to immediately be interrupted by Hagrid.
"Scuse me, Professor Dumbledore, sir, there's a fellow here says he has business with you and Harry," the half-giant explained.
"At this hour?" Dumbledore asked, his bushy brows raising slightly. "He must be even more excited than his letter let on. Lead him in. Harry, try to get something to eat first."
Hagrid and Harry both nodded, and Dumbledore made his way towards the high table. Harry looked around, noticing Hermione and Ron staring at him in confusion, and Malfoy making mocking gestures of passing out. None of them drew his attention, though, as it was claimed entirely by Tonks, whose warm smile as she caught his eye, made his heart skip a beat. He made his way to the Hufflepuff table without hesitation.
"Harry?" Susan Bones asked, furrowing her brow in confusion as she saw him approach them.
"Hello," Harry replied, looking at her for just a moment before turning back to Tonks. "Mr. Fawley's already here."
"I figured," Tonks replied. "Harry, these are my dormmates, Chiara Lobosca and Hestia Jones. Her little sister and fellow badger is in your year."
"Hello," Harry smiled, wondering why both of them looked at him funny.
It took just a moment for him to see the resemblance between Hestia and Megan, who looked at him curiously from next to Susan and Hannah. He was about to say something else to Tonks when the doors to the great hall opened again and Hagrid returned with a short, fair-haired, older man in tow.
"Guess we're up," Tonks muttered, getting out of her seat. When her dormmates looked at her curiously, she just added, "You'll see in a sec."
She and Harry went to greet the man closer to the entrance, and Tonks fought to keep a smirk off her face as she saw Draco Malfoy stand up and look at them with obvious curiosity.
"Hello, Mr. Potter," the man smiled as he spotted him, recognizing him at once. "I'm Frank Fawley, owner of Quintling's, the premiere processing firm for rare magical creatures in Britain. I understand you have quite the basilisk specimen for me to look at today, or so Miss Tonks here has claimed."
"I'm afraid you've had your time terribly wasted, Mr. Fawley," Malfoy drawled, speaking with a familiar enough tone to suggest that he'd met the man before. "Potter here is quite prone to fits of fancy, as my father could have warned you."
Harry didn't say a word, more than happy to let his rival mouth off since he was about to proven wrong.
"Ah, Frank," Dumbledore smiled as he approached them. "Welcome back."
"It's always a treat to return here, Albus," Fawley replied in kind, "and with such an exciting reason this time."
"We're just getting to breakfast now, but if you wish, you could join us up at the high table while Mister Potter and Miss Tonks finish their meals," Dumbledore offered. "They can lead you down into the chamber afterward."
"Actually, headmaster, that won't be necessary," Tonks piped up with a mischievous grin on her face as she reached for her mokeskin pouch. "Harry and I retrieved it last night."
"Retrieved?" Dumbledore asked, furrowing his brow in confusion.
Without a word, Tonks pulled the shrunken basilisk carcass out of her pouch and carefully placed it on the floor before looking up at Fawley, who was frowning.
"That's about ten feet long, Miss Tonks," he muttered. "It's an impressive size for a basilisk, but not what we discussed."
"Oh, just a moment," Tonks replied, drawing her wand.
"Miss Tonks, I…" Dumbledore went to object but proved too late as she canceled her shrinking charm.
The basilisk grew to its full size, filling the space between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables and causing a cacophony of terrified screams as it did, most notably from Malfoy, who looked just about ready to piss himself. Harry, Hagrid, Fawley, Dumbledore, and Tonks all leapt out of the way, the three adults realizing what she was doing in time. Fawley stared at the corpse in silent awe, as did most people in the room, and Harry and Tonks couldn't help but take advantage of the silence.
"Say, Hagrid, will we be studying banshees this year?" she asked impishly.
Staring at the basilisk corpse in awe, Hagrid replied, "Blimey...er, wha? No, no banshees."
"Oh, must have been Malfoy," Harry commented, looking at the still pale-looking blonde.
A chorus of laughter erupted at that, and Malfoy glared at him balefully as Dumbledore gave him a disapproving look. Tonks snorted, and Harry smiled at her, once more wondering how he'd managed to gain the interest of such a wonderful woman.