They walked out of the dining room. A few steps down the hall, the door swung closed behind them.
"Must be serious," Harry said. "Do you know what they're talking about without the rest of the Order?"
"Sirius said something about Dumbledore's priorities. He didn't want me to worry about it," Rory said. "Obviously, I've not been keen to be in the know on Order business lately."
They walked into her room. Harry set his bag on her desk. She closed the door and then locked it. Harry turned to her.
"You've locked the door," he said.
"Yes, I did," she said. She walked over to him and put her arms over his shoulders. "Is there a problem with that?"
"I think other people might have a problem with it," he said.
"I could keep the door open and unlocked if you like. They're not going to come down here, not for a while. I just thought the added layer of privacy might be nice," she said.
Thankfully, Harry was a bit of a mind reader when it came to what she wanted.
"Last night was not enough for you then?" he teased. "Did you think about when you could get me alone as soon as we left the kitchen?"
"It was pretty immediate," she said as he pulled her back towards the bed. He sat down and began to scoot back, but Rory climbed into his lap, straddling his hips, and she kissed him with the same intensity she had in the kitchen that morning. Harry responded in kind, and she could feel his erection pressing between her legs.
They kissed feverishly. Heat crawled over her skin, and she grabbed at the waistband of his trousers. She was feeling more than a little bit desperate. She'd kept glancing at the dining room door, anxiously waiting for Tonks to show up so they would be dismissed.
Rory started unbuckling his trousers, and Harry groaned as her fingers grazed over him. He moved his lips to her neck, and she wondered if he was feeling the same desperation that she was.
"I want you so bad, Harry," she breathed, reaching into his trousers. His whole body shuddered as she wrapped her fingers around his cock.
Harry's hands came to her bare thighs. After breakfast, she'd changed from her pajamas into the yellow jumper dress she had on now. It was a very calculated wardrobe choice.
Harry slid a hand between her thighs and started to push her knickers aside.
"Fuck, you're so wet already," he said. Harry was definitely unaware of how turned on she'd been all week for what felt like no reason. Every time he touched her or kissed, no matter how chastely, he had been filling her up, so now she was a leaking dam ready to burst.
Rory raised up and then slowly lowered herself down onto him. They both had to fight back a moan.
"You've got to keep your voice down," he whispered into her ear, at the same time as his idle fingers began to circle her clit. She didn't know how on Earth she was meant to keep quiet.
She braced herself on his shoulders, riding him with abandon. Every move she pushed her closer and closer. All she could focus on was how good it felt. How much she missed this. How badly she needed this.
"Harry, I'm gonna come," she panted into his shoulder. She was right on the edge, already so close. She didn't care that it had taken no time at all. She was aching for release.
Harry abandoned her clit and grabbed hold of her hips so he could have more control of his movements instead of passively letting Rory take the lead. He thrusted up into her, matching her rhythm.
Rory was undone. Every movement felt divine, and it took every ounce of her self-control to keep quiet as she came. Harry came a second after she did, swearing into her neck as he did.
They sat in silence afterward, their bodies still connected and pressed together. They panted heavily, and Rory felt as if her head was swimming in a lake of pure ecstasy.
When her limbs no longer felt like they were made of putty, she moved from atop and collapsed backward onto the bed beside him. Harry reclined back against her headboard, still catching his breath as well.
"This was very reckless," Harry said.
"No," she scoffed. "This was planned. Reckless would've been if I'd gone after you in the kitchen this morning."
Harry chuckled. He leaned down and kissed her. She felt a delightful tingle of happiness course through her as he did. Rory was stupidly in love with Harry; sex had turned out to be just another thing she loved about being with him.
She left briefly to use the toilet and returned to her room, dropping her ruined knickers into the laundry hamper, before climbing back on the bed beside Harry, who'd made himself decent. He had their textbooks and a roll of parchment out.
"I think I may actually be able to focus on studying now," she said. "My mind kept wandering these past few days. After snogging in your room last night, it was all I could think about."
"We haven't even been apart a week, you realize that?" Harry asked.
"I'm just too irresistible," she said.
"Don't try to paint me as the instigator here, Fish. You using that mirror for something other than its intended purpose last night is all the evidence I need about where your head has been," Harry said.
Rory giggled sheepishly. She'd gone from being adamant about not using the mirror for anything naughty to lying naked in her bed last night.
"Think you'll survive the rest of break?" Harry asked.
Rory shrugged. "Should keep that mirror close by just in case I can't."
They'd decided that the only thing to do was for Remus to talk to Dumbledore. They knew that Dumbledore would take his protest more seriously than the rest of theirs.
Tonks felt bad. Remus was battling with the new information. He trusted Dumbledore without question, and now, hearing how Rory could be endangered because Dumbledore wouldn't act, it unsettled him.
"Maybe he has a better reason that he's not telling us," Remus mused when they were wrapping up,
"You'll have to figure it out if that's the case," Sirius said. "I'd love to know what his reasoning is. All the ones I can think of are bullshit."
"I have to agree," Tonks said. "Especially since we're putting so much stock in Rory and her predictions. I get that having the origins of the Servants of Pythia would be great, but why brush off us doing anything just because we don't know what they're up to. We only know what Voldemort gets up to because we actively look into it."
"I'll find time to talk to him when he's back," Remus said. "I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around his reaction."
Sirius opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped himself.
Remus sighed. "Go on. What is it?"
"I just think that if Dumbledore doesn't trust Aurora, he's not going to go out of his way on this," Sirius said.
"Maybe he thinks she's just being uncooperative because she doesn't like him," Remus said.
"Even if that was the case, she's 16 years old. They're built to be uncooperative. But she's made it very clear that she's willing to cooperate if we simply let her revisit the cult in her own time," Sirius said. "I think that because Levi and the cultist that Tonks has interrogated up to this point said that she's intended to usurp Voldemort, that he's afraid she will."
"We know she would never do that," Remus said.
"Of course," Sirius said. "But if looking into them doesn't do anything other than prove that she's a powerful seer, why would he bother? If it's not going to be useful to him, why would he care?"
"I think that's going a bit far," Remus said.
"I don't think it is," Sirius said. "Aurora had a point when she said that Dumbledore could've gone to bat for you when you were teaching, but he didn't. He didn't speak up about his reservations about me until after this summer. But having Severus play a double agent is a perfectly good reason to keep him around. If he doesn't have a use for her-"
"Dumbledore isn't keeping people around based on how useful they are, and he certainly wouldn't think that way about a child," Remus said.
Tonks could sense the intensity in the room, but Theo, who probably had a sixth sense for when Remus and Sirius were going to get into it, stepped in first.
"Let's just wait for Remus to talk to Dumbledore before we jump to any conclusions or start shouting at each other," Theo said. She almost sounded bored. How many arguments between these two had she defused in her life?
From down the hall, there was the sound of piano music.
"Done with their essay, I see," Sirius said. "If they were working on their essays at all."
"Aurora doesn't strike me as using homework as a ruse," Theo said.
"Snogging then homework; she takes after you," Sirius said.
"She gets most of her better qualities from Theo," Remus said.
"Yes, well, she still sasses you endlessly, so I'll take that," Sirius said. "Someone needs to annoy you when I'm not around. Being irritating is my love language."
"I'm aware, unfortunately," Remus replied.
Then there was a loud BANG! from down the hall. The music stopped suddenly. A few moments later, they heard feet heading down the hall. The door swung open.
Rory was holding Harry's hand, which looked pretty red and bruised.
"What happened?" Tonks asked.
"I asked him to lift the top of the piano so I looked more elegant while I played," Rory started, "but it slipped from his hand and he tried to catch it but-"
"It slammed on my hand and I think all the bones in it are broken," Harry said.
"My god, I can't believe you're not screaming right now," Sirius said.
"Doesn't hurt as badly as that time I got hit with the bludger actually," Harry said. "Or that time Voldemort tortured me."
"What a life you've lived," Tonks said.
"Come here, I can mend your hand easily," Theo offered, ushering Harry over to a chair.
"You suddenly have some healer skills?" Sirius asked.
Theo had the luck of her skin being dark enough that you couldn't tell when she was blushing, but it was evident that she was.
"Actually, there's something I haven't told you all," Theo said. "I've been taking weekly courses since October to learn to be a healer."
Tonks gasped. "Theo, that's wonderful!" Despite their difficult introduction, they'd gotten quite close in the last few months. Showing up at her door with a bottle wine and bitching about how dumb Remus and Sirius were had done wonders for their relationship.
"Is that where you always go on Tea Time Tuesday?" Sirius asked.
"Guilty," Theo replied, pulling out her wand. She looked at Harry. "This might hurt a bit, but it should only take a few minutes."
"One time, Gilderoy Lockhart tried to mend my broken arm and instead made all of my bones disappear, so I had to regrow all the bones in this arm when I was 12," Harry said.
"Okay, you are definitely making that up," Tonks said.
"He is not," Rory said. "Colin Creevey was going 'round showing everyone the picture of Harry's floppy arm."
"Don't say that. I don't want the image of Harry's boneless, floppy arm in my head," Sirius cringed.
"I can only predict the future, I can't change the past," Rory said.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "How long have you had that one under your belt?"
"A while," Rory replied. "I need to get started on dinner. Are you all staying?"
Tonks watched Harry's eyes look up hopefully to Sirius.
"Certainly," Sirius said.
"I'd love to," Theo said quickly, very focused on Harry's hand.
"Are you staying, Tonks?" Sirius asked.
She looked at Sirius and then looked over to Remus. They needed to chat again. But Sirius was here, and he was practically foaming at the mouth to tease the two of them.
"Of course," Tonks said.
"Great. It's just roast chicken and potatoes, and I could probably make gravy as well now that I'm thinking about it," Rory said, mostly to herself. "Anyway, my sous chef's hand is mangled. Can I have a volunteer to be my sous chef, or am I going to have to pick one of you? Theo is exempt, obviously. Thank you for fixing my broken boyfriend."
"Glad to," she replied. "And I very much need to focus."
"I'll help you," Tonks volunteered. She also needed to talk to Rory, and this seemed like a good opportunity.
Rory hesitated and then asked, "Can I trust you around sharp objects?"
Tonks rolled her eyes. "Bloody hell, I'm an Auror. I can handle chopping vegetables."
She walked towards Rory, and Sirius held his foot, tripping Tonks ever so slightly.
"Not inspiring much confidence right now," Rory said.
"My least favorite of your parents just tripped me," Tonks said, kicking Sirius in the shin. He hissed as her boot made contact.
Tonks and Rory walked down to the kitchen. Rory pulled out a cast-iron skillet and then set the oven to the proper temperature.
"Can you get the rosemary, thyme, sage, garlic, and parsley out of the icebox?" Rory said as she grabbed cutting boards. She was all business. Tonks had never seen her cooking before.
She followed her instructions and grabbed the ingredients. Then she handed Tonks a small knife.
"Can you chop herbs?" Rory asked. Then she shook her head. "Of course you can. You taught my dad to make risotto. I assume you know how to cook other things."
Tonks chuckled and grabbed a bunch of rosemary.
"I do know how to cook as it turns out," Tonks said. "My parents cooked together all the time. I was an only child, so I didn't have anyone else to entertain me, so I helped them a lot."
Rory chuckled. "I'm the chef between dad and me. My grampy isn't great either, now that I'm thinking about it."
"Genetic, then," Tonks said.
"Dad's come a long way," Rory said. "That's how I realized he liked you."
"That's what gave it away?" Tonks laughed.
"Well, it's always been the two of us. And I came home for Easter break, and there were two sets of everything sitting out. Your wine in the refrigerator. And you taught him to make risotto and helped him with the shopping. He saw me realize it and tried to shut it down immediately," Rory said. "And then this summer."
Rory paused her chopping and looked at Tonks.
"What?" Tonks asked.
"At the start, I was sure you were together. I was positive. You were so obnoxiously happy together," Rory said. "I was just waiting for him to tell me."
Tonks nodded. "Didn't quite go that way."
"He always wants to do what's best for me, so that's how I knew him. But when Sirius started coming around again, it was like I got to see him, like, truly see him, for the first time. And he was like that with you, too."
Tonks felt like she could be herself when she was with Remus, too. She always let her guard down. And that didn't scare her at all. She knew he was safe.
"I just want you to know, Rory, this whole thing with your dad and me, I don't want it to interfere with our relationship," Tonks said.
Rory shrugged and went back to chopping. "It will, though."
"You think so?" Tonks asked.
"I think you might start to feel guilty if I tell you something serious and you don't tell my dad about it," Rory said.
That was a fair assumption to make.
"But that's fine," Rory said. "I don't mind that things are going to be different, as long as everyone is happy. By everyone, I mean you and Dad."
"I think your opinion is kind of important," Tonks said.
"I know, but I think you're great," Rory said. "And my dad does too. So that's that."
Tonks chucked and as she did, she managed to knick herself with the knife. She quickly removed her hand before she could contaminate the rosemary on the cutting board in front of her.
"Oops!" she said with a laugh. "I should be more careful." She looked over to Rory, who had no humor in her eyes.
"I'm going to have to revoke your kitchen privileges," Rory said.
"That quickly?" Tonks asked, taking out her wand to quickly mend her finger.
Rory nodded. "You can send Sirius down instead."
Tonks was not going to argue with Rory about the rules of her kitchen and so left graciously. She walked upstairs and pointed to Sirius. "Tagging you in."
"Finished your chat?" Sirius teased.
Tonks rolled her eyes. "I nicked myself and she kicked me out."
"Well, you did tell her you could be trusted in the kitchen and immediately disproved it," Sirius said.
"Basically," Tonks said. "It's chopping herbs. I think you'll be fine."
"Yes, yes," Sirius said. He walked past her down to the kitchen.
"Tonks," Remus said. She looked over to him. "Can I talk to you out in the hall?"
"Oh, sure," she said. She moved to the door that led out to the front hall, and he opened it for her. They stepped out into the hall. He closed the door, and they were enveloped in silence.
He turned to face her. He smiled.
"I thought Sirius would be worse, actually," Remus said.
"Me too," Tonks said. "I'm kind of glad Harry broke his hand, I'm sure he was going to start in on us again."
"I'm sure he's eagerly awaiting another reason to bring it up," Remus said.
He stepped over and placed a hand on her shoulder. He kissed her, and it was such a simple thing. But it felt like everything. Remus had done it just because he was able to, because he wanted to.
"I talked to Aurora this morning," he said. "She is completely supportive and thoroughly unsurprised."
"I think that will be most people's reactions," Tonks said. She kissed him again, because she could.
"We should do something," Remus said. "The two of us."
"Are you asking me on a date?" she teased.
"I am," he said.
"Well," she said, "I am incredibly busy these days, but as it happens, I have been forced to take vacation until the beginning of January, so I have the next week completely available."
Remus thought for a moment. "I am still groveling to my daughter for being gone for so long, so I'd like to spend as much of the holiday with her as I can, but I think I can find time to squeeze you in somewhere."