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Harry Potter and the Paradigm Shift
Chapter 10
By Kinsfire
Harry looked at the small device he had been working on. He had a slew of the prototypes of his mage PDAs and he was checking out some of the more esoteric functions. There was another across the room, and he aimed the one he was holding at it. Activating the send function, he held a pencil over the screen. The pencil disappeared and immediately reappeared on top of the other machine. He grinned. "What do you think, Tonks?" he asked without turning around.
"Impressive. Portkey function?" she asked, walking further into the room and pretending that she hadn’t just been caught peeking into Harry’s study.
"No. Quantum tunnelling in a particularly interesting way."
"Since when did you become Hermione? And how do you make the electronics work with magic? I thought magic fried the circuits."
"That was the hardest part of the whole thing. The magic parts kept letting the smoke escape from the electronic bits. And I couldn’t shield it without having the shield itself do damage. I finally figured out a way to ground the circuits to drain excess magic off harmlessly. It’s hell on the battery, though. And don’t worry, I didn’t do the theory on this — that’s a think tank in Princeton. I just found a practical application." He finally turned to face her and took a breath. She was in her base form, wearing a simple T-shirt that read ‘Harry’s girl’ and a denim skirt that looked delightfully short to him. "My God, Tonks — you’re beautiful."
She flowed into his arms and they kissed tenderly. "I hope you don’t mind if I hang off your arm all day."
"Hmm, beautiful, sexy, vivacious woman hanging off my arm, making people wonder what I did right in my life? Me, complain?" he chuckled. "Do I look stupid or something? Don't answer that," he finished quickly.
She chuckled. "I’ll answer anyway. You don’t look stupid at all. You’re quite adorable, actually. I’ve seen that look on Hermione’s face when she’s trying to work out a vexing research problem, and on Arthur’s when he was tinkering with Muggle things. He’s going to worship you, you know. This goes way beyond flying Ford Anglias. What else does this, um, thing do? What is it, anyway?"
"It’s one of several prototypes of a mage Personal Digital Assistant. I was just testing out the send function of the little baby. Basically, I've set it up so that even Crabbe or Goyle could use it fresh out of the packaging. Not that I plan to let them get their hands on them just yet. You can talk, sort of like the Floo, send small items, and keep verbal notes that will write them to parchment when you set it in its cradle. Requires that you have parchment in your bin, of course. Here, let me show you." He took his wand, tapped the screen and then said, "Nymphadora Tonks is one of the sexiest women it has ever been my pleasure to know." He tapped the screen again and then set it in a box that had a depression carved in it just large enough for the device, plus room to get fingers around it. There was furious scratching inside the box, and then it spit out a sheet of parchment with writing on it. He handed it to her. In his own handwriting, it read: 'Nymphadora Tonks is one of the sexiest women it has ever been my pleasure to know.' "You even have proof of my views now," he finished with an impudent grin, tapping the paper.
"This is impressive," she breathed.
"Yes, you are," he replied, never taking his eyes from her. "In case I haven't told you recently, Tonks — I love you." He pulled her close and inhaled deeply of her hair. "I adore you, and I thought I had killed a part of myself when I had to leave. I don't know if I will ever be able to tell you what it means to me that you're here. Right now, Dumbledore himself could knock on the door and I'd invite him in for tea before kicking his arse back to England."
The gods were obviously listening at that moment, because a loud knocking was heard at the door, and both Harry and Tonks jumped in surprise. He walked into the hallway, muttering to whatever powers were paying attention, "Please don’t let that have been a prophecy. Please." He looked next to the door, where a small monitor showed who it was. "Oh, joy," he grumbled. "Not Dumbledore, but maybe the next best thing. Carly, dolled up and dressed to kill. In other words, there's nothing under that sun dress." He rolled his eyes and headed for the door.
"Let me," Hermione said, coming downstairs, peeling her own sun dress over her head and kicking her shoes off, leaving her in a powder blue thong.
"Is she going to do what I think she is?" he asked, his eyes bulging slightly (as well as his trousers — he was rather fond of that girl's figure). In answer to his question, Hermione grasped the doorknob and opened the door as Tonks pulled him back into the study.
"Can I help you?" she asked brightly. "Carly, isn't it? Let me get Dan for you." She let Carly into the hallway, turned around enough to give the girl a view of exactly what Harry had been enjoying looking at and called for him.
He walked out beside Tonks, who had rapidly stripped out of her shirt and skirt, proving to him that she had been planning to tease him during the day — she'd been the only thing under either piece of clothing. He nuzzled her ear and said, "At least when I die, I know it'll be with a smile on my face."
"You say the sweetest things," she replied and nibbled his ear.
"Carly, what's up?" he asked the visitor, trying to keep the annoyance from his voice.
"Other than you?" Hermione murmured.
"I just … um … I didn't realize that … um … well, I was wondering if you wanted to … uh …" Carly stammered to a stop, unable to keep from looking first to Hermione, then to Tonks, then to Harry, and then repeating the cycle. "But I guess not."
"Sorry, but we have plans for him today," Tonks said, actually fighting to keep an erotic purr out of her voice. "It's his twentieth birthday, after all."
This actually brought Carly out of her stupor. "Really? Happy birthday, Dan!" she said. She looked at Hermione and Tonks and asked, "Would you be bothered if I gave him a birthday kiss on the cheek?" When they shook their heads, she came in and rose onto her toes to kiss his cheek. When she settled back down, he heard her whisper to him, "Do they make you happy, Dan?"
"Carly, they're the reason why I was the way I was in school. They were the ones I left behind when I left England. When they showed up yesterday, my world became complete again." He took her shoulders. "I've been ugly to you over the years, and you shouldn't ever forgive me for that. I couldn’t understand why you wouldn’t take ‘No’ for an answer. I honestly will never love you. Can you live with that? You're a pretty girl — hell, you're beautiful. But you're simply not my type. Can we be nothing more than friends?"
She developed an amused look on her face and said, quite obviously paraphrasing something, "Can we be the kind of friends who have a lot of sex?" She refocused and said, "Just kidding. I don't hold a candle to these ladies."
"You'll find someone, Carly," Tonks said, summoning her clothing and slipping it on in front of the girl while Hermione did the same with her sun dress. "You'll find someone as wonderful for you as Dan is for me, Emma and Bonnie." Ginny started to bounce down the stairs.
"Bonnie, is it?" Carly asked, looking up at the girl coming downstairs. "Sorry for intruding today. I was going to … well, ask Dan — I certainly annoyed him a lot these past four years. I’ll be going." She turned around to head home.
Harry stopped her. "Where’s my birthday hug?" he asked with a laugh, and was rewarded with a big one around the waist from the girl. He could tell she was holding back tears. "I know it doesn’t seem like it now, Carly, but it will get better," he whispered in her ear. "And I will be your friend if that’s enough. I just can’t be everything you want me to be." She hugged him tightly and then ran out the door.
He exhaled loudly, blowing air through puffed cheeks. "Well, that was interesting. Maybe, just maybe I’ve finally gotten her past the ‘Dan Radcliffe will be my boyfriend’ phase. She could probably be a good friend, but I could never get her to that point. You saw how she was dressed yesterday and today."
"You’ve thought that before," said Sirius, emerging from the kitchen where he and Moira had been eavesdropping. "Maybe the shock treatment Hermione and Tonks just gave her will do the trick."
"I hope so, but I’m not going to worry about it. I have a life to live. I have the group of you to reintegrate into my thought processes. I have to figure out how to speed up Dumbledore’s demise — either that or decide to go back anyway. I can’t leave Voldemort running around out there to kill and maim as he chooses. But I need to go back with a plan."
"We’ll talk about it later," Tonks said. "Today is your birthday, and we’re going to enjoy it with you." The rest of the group nodded, grinning. "So, Moira, where should we drag our victim … I mean, the birthday boy?"
#####
A very tired but very happy man was effectively dragged back into the house by his group of friends. Tonks was tipsy, which had apparently made her horny. Ginny dragged Hermione upstairs to the room they’d chosen, while Ron had to be Mobilicorpus’ed up to his room, he was so tired. In fact, he fell asleep while being carried. Sirius and Moira headed on up to Sirius’ suite, leaving Harry and Tonks downstairs.
She wrapped herself around him, kissing him hard in more ways than one. Her left leg rose and tried to wrap around his right leg, but she was having some trouble. He made it easy for her — he slid his hands up her legs, under her skirt and grasped her buttocks, lifting her slightly off the ground. She moaned into his mouth and wrapped both legs around him. As he fondled the firm, muscular derriere that he so happily had in his grasp, she disengaged from the kiss and said, "Fuck me, Harry. No gentleness tonight. I need to be hammered into that wall behind me. Pound me ‘til I’m bruised." He looked her in the eyes, unsure of whether she really wanted this, but the last shreds of the tiny amount of resistance that he had went away when she growled and whimpered at him, "Please, please — possess me."
One murmured spell later and his trousers and boxers were off. He lifted her higher, and she reached down to aim him properly. Once she had the tip of his cock pressing against her, she looked knowingly at him, and he understood immediately. He let go of her completely, and let her lower herself onto him at her own speed, which was nearly at the speed of gravity. When he felt their pelvises slam together, even as he winced slightly, his hands came back up and grasped her tightly, and then walked until her back was against the thick wooden archway that separated rooms. That was when he gave her what she had pleaded for. He pulled back, and then began to power thrust into her, but still not wanting to hurt her. "Harder, Harry," she panted in his ear. "I can take it."
He did as she asked — his thrusts became a bit harder, and their pelvises ground together forcefully with each thrust. He could tell this was definitely going to be a quick one for the both of them, because he could already feel the orgasm starting to build inside him, and she was showing all the signs of an impending orgasm herself.
#####
He awoke on the couch, sitting up, with Tonks sitting on his lap in the same position she’d had in the last memory he could dredge up — in fact, he was still inside her, given their positions, which surprised him to no end. Small spell, in case of scenarios like this one, to keep me inside her? It was daylight. Early morning, given the way the light is coming in the window, he thought. Someone had apparently come down during the night and covered them with a light blanket.
She moaned slightly in her sleep, and he let his hands begin to caress her legs. She moved slightly, and he felt himself stiffening inside her, which made the moaning take on an erotic tone. His hands came up and gently slid under her shirt, finding her breasts and cupping them gently, capturing the nipples between thumb and forefinger. She gasped and opened her eyes.
"Morning, love," he whispered as he continued to tease her erect nipples.
"Oh, I love waking up like this," she whimpered. "Horny as hell, with the man who’s making me feel that way already throbbing inside me."
"I’ve got a witch who’s sexier than should legally be allowed sitting on my lap. Do you expect I’d stay soft, especially after remembering last night, with you always carefully choosing places to flash me? ‘Oops, I dropped something’ and there you’d go, bending over and showing off that magnificent arse of yours, and the fact that you were extremely wet. I think Ginny and Hermione probably enjoyed themselves last night because of you. Now be quiet." He flipped the blanket up over their heads and captured one of her nipples in his teeth.
"Oh Morgana, if you’re going to do that to me, I don’t think I can be quiet," she whimpered, grinding against him unconsciously. He could feel her heart rate climbing as that piece of heaven he was so deliciously ensconced in began to throb harder and faster. I probably wouldn’t feel that if I weren’t so damned large, which makes her so wonderfully tight.
He disengaged from her nipple. "Then don’t be quiet. Be an alarm clock, beloved. I love you, and I love your body." He captured the other nipple and teased it just as mercilessly as he had the first. He let his hands slide down her body, grabbed her behind again and began to thrust in the small way he was able. She helped him, and they developed a rhythm. She surprised him delightfully when she added a slight side to side motion as she slid back and forth on him, turning it into a somewhat circular motion as she ground him into and out of her wonderfully tight pussy. He was enjoying the feel of her actions so much that he was surprised when he felt his orgasm start to boil up out of him and explode inside her.
As he recovered, he disengaged from her nipple and pulled her close. "I’m sorry love. That was only me, wasn’t it?" He reached down to where they met to find her clitoris, but she stopped him.
"Don’t know how …" she panted, "but I kept … kept quiet while co … coming. Don’t you dare apologize for making me come."
He hugged her tightly. "I didn’t know you had. I was doing this for you, not just for me."
She sniffed in his ear. "I love you, Harry. I can never say that enough to you. But you are allowed to enjoy yourself and not worry about me." His only response was a look that fairly screamed ‘Like that’s going to happen.’
When he felt himself softening, he finally said, "Well, I need to get my trousers, and we need to get upstairs to at least shower." He heard a slight chuckle and felt something fall onto the couch next to himself. Tonks grinned at him, and flipped the blanket completely off to show the entire contingent of the household standing there looking at them. Sirius laughed. "Damn, girl! Nice arse, nice chest, and you have to be related to me!"
"She’s mine, Sirius," Harry said possessively, but with a large smile. He grabbed his clothes and Apparated the both of them upstairs onto the bed. She gasped slightly as they landed, since he was still inside her, and she was still experiencing what she was thinking of as micro-orgasms. He could hear laughter and a round of applause rising up the stairs from where they’d been caught. As they disengaged, Harry found himself musing.
I’d think that I should have been more embarrassed to have been caught like that — I haven’t changed that much. But to be looking at everyone, with them knowing that I’d just been making love to a beautiful woman on the couch — and not try to hide because of it? He leaned over and kissed Tonks on the cheek.
"You’re welcome, whatever that was for," she smiled at him.
"For being you, Tonks. That was just for being you. Shall we shower and get dressed?" She nodded and stripped off her clothes and padded into the bath room, Harry in hot pursuit. The shower took longer than perhaps it should, but neither one of them complained about it, considering the glow they both had as they dried off. "I still prefer towels," he had told her, wrapping her in a big fluffy one, "for this very reason." He hugged her tightly, and she nestled in against him. I want to do this for the rest of my life, he mused. To just be here, with her, with them, and to just … just be.
"We’ll see what we can do for you then, Harry," Tonks said quietly, startling him slightly. "After the life you’ve had so far, you deserve to have a chance to ‘just be’." She kissed his sweetly and walked to the closet to get clothes for the day. He shook his head. Didn't realize I'd vocalized that thought.
#####
When they got downstairs, Ginny pulled Tonks close and kissed her. "Looks like one of you woke up the right way," she giggled.
"We both did," Harry replied. "I woke up still inside this beauty, and she woke up …"
"I passed out from Harry being inside me, screwing my brains out, and I wake up with him still hard inside me." She grinned. "Damn, that’s some stamina!"
"Inspiration, my darling," he answered her before kissing the ladies good morning. "So, any plans on breakfast yet?"
"Well, you’ve already eaten," Sirius quipped.
"I have not. I’m not that limber. What do you people say to an omelot and a massive amount of bacon? Easy enough to make."
"Omelot?" Ron asked, amused.
"There’s seven of us here at the moment, and you can eat enough for three people rather easily. That’s one very large omelette. Therefore, an omelot." This brought chuckles from the group, which followed him in. Moira joined him in getting the ingredients out of the refrigerator, and as they carried everything to the countertop, he frowned slightly.
"What's wrong?" she asked as she began to crack eggs into a large bowl. Harry started the bacon on the griddle.
"Is there something wrong with me?" he asked. "I discover that the rest of the household knew exactly what we were doing — they were just a couple feet from us, in fact — and I'm not even close to ashamed. I'm not the type to shag anyone in public, but yet finding out you all were there did nothing but excite me slightly."
"Okay, let me answer you by asking a few questions. What do you think of the people who saw you? Include me. Be as blunt as you need to be — you're an adult and I won't be offended by words like 'fuck'."
"Well, the girls are easy — let me rephrase that," he chuckled. "Telling you the answer as far as the girls are concerned is easy. I love them. I will give my life before I will knowingly allow them to come to harm. They literally mean more to me than my own life does. That's all three of the girls. Ron? He's my best friend, and if I happened to play for that team, he would be at the very top of the list of people I'd make love to. Same with Sirius. I love them just as deeply as I do the girls, just differently. As far as you're concerned, I've gotten to known you, and you make Sirius happy. You've seen me at the worst I've been over here, and that's pretty bad. I'd trust you at my back with a knife and a wand."
"Interesting. Did you notice that sex came into the description only peripherally? And only while you were talking about the boys? So, you’re happy with these ladies for being themselves, and sex is an added bonus in the relationships, right?"
"Basically," he answered, not noticing that their conversation had reached normal volumes and that the group at the table were trying to look as f they weren’t listening.
"I won’t even comment on the fact that you’ve finally started reacting to me as a woman as well as a friend, and if you apologize for that compliment you accidentally paid me on line yesterday, I swear I’ll slap you," she laughed.
He grinned impudently. "I’m sorry I can’t tell you that I’m sorry. Especially since you are … well, pure physically speaking, Sirius is one hell of a lucky man to get the chance to look at you. And then there’s that mind that scared the boys at school and drew Sirius to you like a magnet." He turned to Sirius. "You’ve got a thing for brilliant people, don’t you?"
He grinned. "Pity Hermione’s taken." He leered at Hermione, who blushed at him.
Harry shocked them all by saying, "That’s her decision, and between you, her and Moira. Well, and these two ladies as well. I don’t have a say, nor should I." He casually scooped the crispy bacon onto a plate and Vanished the excess grease.
The room was silent while he stirred the two dozen eggs together with some extra sharp Vermont cheddar cheese and a few other spices that he liked to play with. "Scrambled or omelot?" he asked, noticing only then that everyone was staring at him. "What?"
"Why shouldn’t you have a say, Harry?" Moira in Hermione’s stead, since the girl was remarkably flabbergasted, and apparently trying to decide if she was going to cry or not.
"Not my body. Pure and simple. It’s her body to decide what to do with, and I have no say in the matter. The other two because they’ve been together for four years, and I think that you are smart enough to understand why you and Sirius are included. Me? I haven’t been in a relationship of any sort with her for four years, save the night they arrived in San Francisco." He looked to Hermione. "I treasure that, and pray that it can happen again. I do love you, Hermione. ‘If you love something, set it free,’" he quoted. "You are free to do whatever you want with your incredibly nubile, sexy, and delectable body. Even if we were in a relationship by ourselves, I wouldn’t force you to stay with me, or to stay monogamous." He saw the unshed tears. "And I’ve almost made you cry." His shoulders slumped and he turned back to the stove with the bowl of eggs. "Scrambled is much easier with this large a batch. Should be ready in a couple minutes," he said and began pouring. Good going, Casanova. Jerk.
#####
Hermione started to stand, but Moira and Sirius shook their heads. "Not while he’s cooking," Sirius mouthed. "Worst possible time." Harry continued to cook for a few minutes, and soon the eggs and bacon were on the table.
"You know something?" he said as if the previous conversation hadn’t happened. "I understand about Hermione’s parents allowing her to come over, but Molly and Arthur Weasley? I’d imagine that there were kidnapping charges levelled. How did you guys … well, you specifically, Tonks … how did you avoid them?"
"I’ll explain later," Tonks said. "Before that, however, we’re finishing the previous conversation. What made you so depressed so suddenly?"
"I’d forgotten your terrier tendencies," he murmured. "In honesty, it was the fact that I can make a woman that I love cry without even trying to, when I’m trying to do what feels like the right thing. I mean if they were tears of happiness or joy, I could see it, but Hermione’s weren’t. I hurt her feelings, and I did it pretty badly — and I don’t even know how."
He looked out at the assembled group. "I’m reminded of the reason I was born, and I have to ask myself — if I’m so good at doing the wrong thing when I’m trying to do the right thing, how do I have any hope in hell of defeating Voldemort?"
He grumbled and pushed away from the table. "And now I’ve probably hurt Hermione even more by even talking about this. I’m going to go work out in the gym." He was gone before even Tonks could stop him.
Hermione sat at the table with her head in her hands. "How do I explain it to him? I was bothered by the fact that he feels that he shouldn’t have a say in it. Sorry, Sirius, but you really aren’t my type, even with all the joking I may do. But to find that he feels that he has no voice in something that may tear his heart out? That he has no right to have a voice?"
"Loving him is loving him for the long haul, girl," Tonks said. "Are you ready for that? You need to know that he’ll probably wake up screaming some nights because of the things that have happened to him in his life. Can you handle that?"
Hermione looked at Tonks. "I’m intending as much of a lifetime as Harry will let me. He hides, but — and I don’t mean this to sound snarky — I know how he can be at times even better than you do."
"You lived with him for five years," Tonks chuckled quietly. "I’d think you might know him better. You know what your lifetime comment sounds like, don’t you?"
Hermione’s eyes twinkled as she replied, "I do."
Ginny sat through this entire exchange looking somewhat stunned, by the change in attitude in Harry, but remembering it all too well from Hogwarts. "Maybe we shouldn’t have come looking for him after all, if this is what we’re doing to him."
Sirius shook his head. "Not your fault. He does this every so often. He’ll work out for a bit, then come up and try to pretend it didn’t happen."
"Well, I need to find him and talk to him — the sooner the better," Hermione said. "At least now I’m better prepared to deal with him."
"That might be a bad idea, Hermione," Sirius said, and as if to punctuate his statement, the house shook slightly. "Ah, a magical workout. You could conceivably not survive the experience, kid. He tosses some ugly ones, including the Unforgivable ones — which aren’t, over here, but then again, you knew that."
"I’m going down anyway," Hermione said. "I caused part of this, but so did he, and I need to get to him before he can get it completely installed into his psyche." She got up and headed for the stairs to the basement.
"You go, girl," Tonks chuckled. Since everyone else seemed to be ready to follow Hermione down to the basement, she cast two quick charms to keep the bacon and eggs warm and fresh until they returned. Sirius shook his head in resignation, and brought up the rear of the troupe.
Downstairs, they headed for the workout room. Tonks cast a spell to make the door become the equivalent of a one-way mirror. Harry was inside, beating on dummies with some considerable force. He fired off a spell, creating a small vial, and then fired off another spell, striking the vial, which promptly exploded rather forcefully. When they opened their eyes, Harry was bleeding slightly, but ignoring it.
Hermione cast a powerful shielding spell and opened the door. Harry spun and immediately fired off a spell. She chuckled and with a flick of her new wand, sent the spell caroming away into a wall.
"How did you do that?" Harry finally asked her after finding his voice. It seemed he’d been shocked out of his funk, and both Sirius and Tonks looked gobsmacked.
"Wingardium Leviosa," she replied, intentionally calling on the memory of the eleven year old know-it-all girl she’d once been. "Stress the GAR." She grinned at him. "If the spell in question is physical, meaning that it can damage physical objects, then you can use Wingardium Leviosa to redirect it."
"Do you realize what you just did?!?" squeaked Harry. "We’ve been taught for years that there’s no way to block an AK with magic — you have to get something physically in the way of it … but you can deflect it with a first year spell? That’s going to revolutionize magical combat!"
"Is it really? I was just looking at it from a theoretical point of view and decided to see if it worked. But that’s quite beside the point." Her demeanour changed, however, and she was suddenly looking at Harry in a manner that made him somewhat nervous, from what she could see, which made her smile internally. "I came down here to get that silly notion out of your head before you could give it permanent residence there. I was not crying because you hurt me, I was crying because those damned Dursleys made you believe that you had to take what came your way. If ever I decided that any other man than you was to be even considered as being a lover, you would have the final say in the matter, Harry."
"But why? It’s your body," he asked, puzzled.
"It’s your soul," she replied. "Right now, it would tear you apart to find me with another man, wouldn’t it?" She stared at him for a long moment before saying, "Answer me, Harry. It would, wouldn’t it?"
"But isn’t that hypocritical of me? ‘Oh, you have to be faithful to me as far as men are concerned, but I’m allowed to have multiple female lovers.’ Who do you think I am, Draco Malfoy?"
She laughed. "As I recall, we didn’t ask your opinion on the matter, did we? We simply informed you that the decision had been made. And then jumped you. Besides, are you planning on adding anyone else?"
"If I did, you girls would have final say. I’ve loved you longer than anyone else I could add."
"Then that answers your question, doesn’t it? You’re not being hypocritical, because you didn’t tell us we had to deal with each other as your lovers, we informed you that we had no problems with it." She pulled him close to her and kissed him gently. "I love you, Harry, and I hate that you’re in pain like this. We’ll get you through this somehow, and then we’ll get to loving you and playing through every happy fantasy any of us have ever had."
"Hey, Hermione!" Ron said with a laugh. "Maybe you could do that Sexy Librarian fantasy that one guy at your school wanted you to do with him!"
At Harry’s raised eyebrow, she blushed and said, "Guy wouldn’t take no for an answer until I — Harry, try to curb your anger, because he’s already been dealt with multiple times — well, after he cornered me once in a quiet classroom and ripped my panties off, I ended up defenestrating the guy." Harry gulped.
"I thought you threw him out a second story window," Ron said, puzzled.
"I did," she answered. "What did you think defenestration means?"
Harry replied with a weak grin, "Something you can only do to guys."
"No, I emasculated him," Ginny said. "Kicked him rather hard in the ‘nards." Harry winced at the concept. "Oh, don’t worry," she purred at him. "I promise that there will be no kicking your ‘nards. Fondling, probably. Same with kissing. No kicking."
"Lucky bitch," Ron murmured with a grin, which she answered cheekily. As he looked at Harry, he said, "Don’t you dare, Harry. I understand, but I’ll kick you there if you apologize for not being attracted to me. You have no say in the matter of who you find sexy. You’ve already said that if you did find guys attractive, I’d be the first one you’d look at. So I’m happy enough."
Harry smiled at Ron before looking back at the others. "‘Sexy Librarian’? Please explain."
Ginny chuckled. "Imagine Hermione in the blouse and skirt she wore when she was in fifth year."
"No insult meant, but they wouldn’t fit anymore. They’d be too tight." A fleeting image of her in the school skirt and shirt, both fitting tightly across the bushy-haired girl’s frame. "Oh," he said. "Oh my."
"Yeah," Ginny giggled. "Add a pair of Dumbledore glasses to that for her to look over with a seductive look in her eyes."
Harry shook his head. "Sorry Ginny, but you ruined the image by introducing Dumbledore into the mixture. I do not want to think of sex and Dumbledore at the same time — ever." He looked around at the room, which had self-repaired, and said, "Well, since I’m done creating nitroglycerin and detonating it, shall we head upstairs so that I can get cleaned up and get rid of the cold food?"
"We cast heating spells over them, so they won’t be cold," Tonks said.
Harry chuckled. "Bet you forgot to cast a protective spell over them, didn’t you?" When she nodded, he said, "Well, the bacon is mostly gone at this point, and I’m betting that quite a bit of the eggs are, too." At their puzzled looks he said, "Hedwig and Fawkes?"
Ginny snorted. "Pig as well. He’s flitting around here too, you know, and he eats as much as an owl twice his size. Takes after his owner. Well, let’s get back upstairs and see what’s left."
They headed back up, Harry hanging back to put his quarterstaff away. He turned to be faced with Hermione, holding her wand out at him. Before he could do anything, she said, "Accio glass," and he felt the small shards pulling from his face and flying into her hand. "Evanesco," she murmured, following that with a healing spell, after which she put the wand away and hugged him. "I love you, Harry Potter, and you will always have a say in my love life if I’m crazy enough to want to take another lover into my bed. And that includes if I want to add a woman."
"I love you, Hermione, and if you want to add someone, then they’re giving you something I can’t, and that makes it your choice. I still don’t see that I have the right, but I’ll try to get to the point where I can see your side of things." He grinned suddenly. "You know that your clothes may not survive if you try dressing like that librarian you guys were describing."
"That, my beloved mage, is my most fervent hope." She kissed him quickly but passionately, and flounced away up the stairs.
"My god," he murmured. "That is by far one of the most perfect arses I have ever seen." She turned at the top of the stairs and flipped her skirt up saucily.
#####
At the table, they were dealing with the remainder of what Fawkes and Hedwig had left, and Harry chuckled. "Not much left, is there?" he asked. "Not surprised, really. She and Fawkes probably took turns at it."
"What do you mean?" Tonks asked.
"Follow me," he said with a grin, and led them to the back of the house. He dropped the wards on that section of the house, and was amazed to hear high pitched chirping. He spun to face Sirius, his face bright with joy. "They’ve hatched, Sirius! The chicks have hatched!" Turning back to the room in question, he knocked on the wall and asked, "May we come in and see them?" He was answered by a welcoming trill from Fawkes.
They entered the sun room to see a very proud phoenix standing guard as Hedwig fed the cheeping forms in the nest. There were six there, and only two of them bore any resemblance to normal fuzzy owlets. The other four were featherless chicks that reminded Harry of Fawkes after burning day. "Fawkes … and Hedwig? Fawkes is a father?" Ginny squeed. In answer, Fawkes preened by the nest. They stood a distance away, admiring and watching as Hedwig took care of her chicks, before heading back into the kitchen to leave them to their duties.
As they sat, Harry noticed his daily delivery of the Quibbler and Daily Prophet. "Well, let’s see what mayhem has been stirred up recently. I’m assuming you guys have been following the news, too. It’s been an interesting year so far. Lucius Malfoy dies of an apparent heart attack three months ago — surprised me that the bastard even had a heart - and then Fudge craps out a few days ago." He opened the package to see a huge headline — ‘Dumbledore New Minister for Magic!’ He read through it quickly. "Damn, I was hoping to go back someday, but not while he’s the Minister. How in hell did he get tapped for it? He’s always fought it!"
"It was the Order that convinced him to do it," Tonks said. When Harry looked at her questioningly, she continued. "We stayed in contact with Remus. He passes information to us and keeps us updated on what the Order is doing and information that doesn’t hit the papers. When I explained what Albus had tried to do, he was ready to come over with us, but we convinced him that we needed someone we trust to pass along information."
"Why didn’t you tell me this when you were describing things to me earlier on?" he asked incredulously.
She blushed. "Um, I didn’t know how you’d take it." She hung her head slightly in embarrassment.
"You trust him not to have told Dumbledore where we are, right?" Harry asked, receiving a nod from Tonks. "Then there’s no problem. What sort of background do we have about these stories? Are they just Voldemort having bad luck and then good luck, or is it something more sinister?"
"Well, as far as Lucius Malfoy’s death is concerned, Fudge hid the fact that Voldemort had Malfoy killed. There was a Dark Mark floating over the house. Narcissa and Draco had apparently been out of the house for a show, and Lucius had been at home going over the books. The Aurors spotted the Mark, but were still trying to get through the wards on the Manor when Draco and Narcissa came home. They let the Aurors in, and they found Lucius dead at his desk. Fudge covered up the exact circumstances because the Malfoys have been funnelling money to the Ministry for years, and I guess he hoped that would continue now that Draco’s head of the family. Even Snape didn’t know in advance about a planned attack on Malfoy, so we don’t know if Voldemort ordered it, or if it was a hit planned by a rival Death Eater. As for Fudge himself, well, he was murdered by someone. The Prophet may have called it natural causes, but I don’t really know how you can consider a knife between the ribs a natural cause. That left things in turmoil, and one of the candidates for Minister was one of the people we know to be a Death Eater, but can’t prove it. Tristan MacThomas. He’s never even been arrested for it, but Snape knows him. So, when it looked as if he might get the nod for Minister, the Order convinced Dumbledore to throw his hat into the ring, knowing that it would bring people around. So, McGonagall is headmistress of Hogwarts, and Dumbledore is Minister. Remus told us a day or two before it was formalized, and that’s why we came out here. We figured we’d need to explain to you how it happened."
"So Remus has been feeding you information as he can?"
"Yeah. He kept warning us of upcoming visits by Aurors, although these Department Question Mark people made a good point to them the first time they showed up, trying to grab Ginny and Ron. Ron was already sixteen, which made him an emancipated minor, and he claimed Ginny, basically. The Question Mark folks informed the Aurors that they would certainly be permitted to start things through legal channels, but that an attempted kidnapping would be frowned upon at the very best. Words like ‘international incident’ got bandied about. A legal attempt was started, and they went after every single thing they could to keep Ginny here, including being utterly precise about paperwork. They allowed the process to finish on August tenth of ninety-seven, and informed the Aurors that they could pick her up on the eleventh." Harry snorted. "I see you recognize the importance of the date."
Ron picked it up, chuckling madly. "So they showed up on Ginny’s sixteenth birthday to take her home to Mum, and were informed, by this tiny terror, in front of her court appointed guardian and several Department Question Mark agents no less, that as a sixteen year old girl with access to adequate funds to support herself, she was declaring herself an emancipated minor, and that she was staying in the United States, thank you very much."
"What made it worse," Hermione said, giggling, "was that she turned on the little girl charm and apologized for making them take all that time to come over for nothing, and that she was really sorry for the trouble."
Harry was laughing, tears streaming from his eyes. "I’ll bet Dumbledore hated that when he got word! You know he’s the one who convinced them to send a team." He laughed a bit more before finally getting under control. "So, is there anything else I need to know, really? What kind of crap has Voldemort been pulling?"
"Not a lot, apparently. At least, not until the last six to eight months. He’s been lying pretty low. The occasional attack here or there, but no major incursions. But the murders of Malfoy and Fudge are worrying people — it means that he’s feeling pretty sure of what he’s doing, and that he’s got one hell of a plan."
"And Snape has no ideas what that might be?"
"None whatsoever. He knows that about a year ago, Voldemort got a new advisor, one that no one, and I mean no one other than the advisor and Voldemort know the identity of." Tonks frowned. "We’re pretty sure that it’s a member of the Order, since the meeting with Fudge was something known only to Fudge and Order members. So we have a traitor in the Order somewhere."
"Why am I not surprised?" Harry muttered. "Dumbledore has such a wonderful track record."
"There’s only a tiny portion of the Order in England that I’m sure is safe," Tonks said. "Moody, Remus, the twins, Molly and Arthur, Arabella … beyond that, I’m just not sure. Pretty sure Amelia Bones is clean, too. Oh, your aunt, as well."
"Aunt? I have an aunt in the Order?" Harry asked, surprised.
"Yeah, one Petunia Evans - formerly Dursley," Tonks said. "You apparently struck home with that little revelation to her that summer. She turned over a new leaf, moved out of Privet Drive and divorced Vernon, and now works for the Order, hoping someday to see you again to apologize. She’s our primary contact for information and supplies from the Muggle world, since she and Remus are the only ones that can move comfortably in it. They checked her out. She really would rather die than do anything that might hurt you."
"I assume this was after she recovered from whatever attack brought her to her senses?" Harry asked.
"As I said, Harry, it’s been quiet," Tonks replied, puzzled. "There were no attempts made on the Dursleys."
Harry looked up from the papers. "No attempts? Nobody tried to kidnap Dudley or blow up Privet Drive?"
"No. Have I missed something?"
Moira suddenly stiffened in her chair, and her eyes focused on Harry. She opened her mouth and out came an unearthly voice.
"THE DARK LORD RISES AT THE DARK LORD’S DEATH AND FALLS BY HIS RIGHT HAND … BETRAYER SHALL BECOME SAVIOUR BY BETRAYING THE SAVIOUR … DECEIT IS THE DARK LORD’S COIN, AND IN SILVER SHALL HE BE PAID … THE DARK LORD RISES AT THE DARK LORD’S DEATH AND FALLS BY HIS RIGHT HAND …"
The spell passed as suddenly as it came upon her, and she slumped into her chair. "Damn," she murmured. "I haven’t channeled a prophecy in years. Does that one make any sense to you?"
Harry shot out of his chair. "Okay. Sirius, you contact the papers and the utilities and get them shut off. I’ll talk to Fawkes and Hedwig about travelling. I need to finish a few things around here and do a fast pack, and then we’re returning to England to finish this once and for all."
"What the hell are you talking about, Harry?" Sirius asked, more than a little puzzled by the change in demeanour in his godson.
"I know the identity of the traitor in the midst of the Order," he replied simply.