Disclaimer: Still don't own HP.

Chapter 1

Harry walked rather moodily down Privet Drive, silently cursing his relatives. They were just so damned insensitive. He'd been having a particularly vivid dream the night before about his encounter with the Dark Lord in the Graveyard, and his cousin had the nerve to insult him and call him a wimp.

Harry had almost punched him in the face for that, but had simply stormed out.

He was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard a throat being cleared behind him. Without thinking he spun to find a woman standing behind him. She was several inches taller than Harry, with long red hair.

"Hey Harry," the woman said, although she couldn't have been more than two or three years older than Harry himself.

"Hello." Harry said slightly on edge.

The girl gave him a dazzling smile before extending her hand and speaking: "I'm Tonks, Nymphadora Tonks. Although if you ever use my first name I'll hex you so badly that you'll wish you'd never been born."

"Hi Tonks," Harry said shaking her outstretched hand.

"Don't worry, Albus sent me and he told me to tell you lemon drop. Not sure what that means, but he said that you'd understand."

Harry almost instantly relaxed. Albus had spoken to him at the end of the school year and said that he may have someone coming to help Harry out during the summer. He had indicated that the passphrase they would use was Lemon Drop, rather ironic as that was Albus's favorite muggle sweet.

"I'm here with a proposition for you," Tonks said before leaning in close and whispering.

Harry found himself being captivated by her eyes, which were a rather interesting shade of violet.

"Do you know what the Order of the Phoenix is?" she whispered.

Harry whispered back: "Sort of, I've heard Albus mention the name."

"Well," she began.

"It's an organization that's dedicated almost exclusively to fighting the dark lord, and I'm here to rather covertly offer you an invitation to join the ranks. Albus asked me to apologize that he couldn't do it himself, but he thinks that he's under surveillance."

Harry was elated. Even though it was only less than a week since he'd left Hogwarts, he'd been itching to do some good instead of just sitting on his ass and being verbally abused by his relatives.

"Yes, I would like that." Harry said cutting off anything else that she was going to say.

"Alrighty then, I also have an offer of my own. I'm in the Auror department," she said while flashing a badge,

"And I'd like to give you some training this month that may not… be sanctioned by my department or even Albus for that matter, although Albus does know what I am offering you."

Harry was really starting to like this girl. She had a rather abrupt way of getting straight to the point. Harry preferred this to the good deal of faffing around that many other people in the wizarding world affected with him.

"Certainly, I'd love that. I can of course pay you." He was cut off.

"As much as the offer of compensation is appreciated, I'm just happy to help." She said with a grin.

And that was the start of Harry's July training schedule.

Every day, he would meet with Tonks or Nym as he started calling her near the end of the first two weeks. They worked on physical combat, as according to Nym most wizards were shit without a wand.

They also worked on magic. Harry was rather reluctant to try this, before she convinced him that the trace was actually a fabrication by the ministry that only worked in areas that were registered to detect the spells of underage Muggle-born or muggle raised students.

Harry was shocked to learn that Nym's mother was once part of the black family, and as a result had learned a good deal of some of the darker spells associated with that family.

To say that Nym's training was intense would be an understatement. Every night he fell positively exhausted into bed. His relatives were ecstatic that he was never around, and only occasionally complained.

On the second to last day of July, Harry and Nym decided to celebrate. As Harry's training had been going so well, they decided to go to her small flat in London and break out the Firewhisky.

After several drinks, Harry decided that it was time to man up and do something about his growing feelings for the rather gruff, but fun loving Metamorphmagus who was only four years older than him.

"Nymy,"" Harry said wincing as she reached out and smacked him.

"What did I tell you about that name?" she asked.

"I know, I know.. Ah, screw it… Nymy, would you like to go out with me?" he said in a rush.

Her enchanting violet eyes took on a glint.

"Are you asking me to be your girlfriend, Mr. Potter?"

"Y.. Yes. There's a war on after all. I've also had a fair bit to drink, so am feeling a lot braver than normal. And Nymy… I'm scared. I see inside his head every night… See what he's doing to people, and I don't know if I'l live through this war." He was interrupted by Nym kissing him.

This was the first time that Harry had kissed a girl, and the experience was posativley exilerating.

"Yes stupid… You stupid… Stupid Potter, of course I will go out with you. Against my better judgement, let's start now shall we?" she said before they drunk the rest of the evening away.

Harry woke up the next morning with his head positively ready to explode. He was warm for once, and he was pleasantly surprised to not have had any nightmares as he usually did.

When he tried to sit up, he was shocked to find that he couldn't move. He looked over to find that he was in bed with Nymphadora Tonks. He let out a panicked gasp, and tried to escape. She had however wrapped her arms around him, and trying to remove her was like attempting to bend steel. Although technically a magical police officer, she had trained her body to near the peak of physical fitness.

She's going to kill me, was Harry's only thought.

She opened her violet eyes and groaned.

"Oh… my head. Tell me Harry, does yours hurt as much as mine does?" she asked.

"Yes, but you're not pissed off at me?" Harry asked as that was the only thing that was going through his mind.

"Of course not. I like you, Harry." She said with a grin, and Harry just somehow knew that he was going to marry this girl one day.

"Thank you for agreeing to be my girlfriend Nymy." He said surprised when he didn't receive a smack.

"You're welcome Harry, love."

"You know what today is, don't you?" she asked suddenly.

Harry had to think for a moment before answering: "I… I think it's the 31st, isn't it?"

"Holy shit… it's my birthday?" he asked rather dumbly.

"Yes stupid, happy birthday Harry." She said before kissing him.

"That's not the only present you're getting from me either," she said before jumping out of bed.

Harry gasped as he saw the minimum amount of clothing that she was wearing.

She sauntered into the room holding two things. The first was a package, while the second was a rather strange looking bottle. The bottle was very eye-catching. It was with it's orange condense and slogan: "Feel fantastic!"

The title of this mysterious potion was "Irn-Bru?"

"Nymy, Nymy… what the hell fowl potion is this?" Harry asked.

She passed the bottle to him before letting out a chuckle: "Best damn hang over cure that's what. A muggle drink, but I always make sure to keep a fridge full of the stuff."

"Just go on and try it. Leave some for me though." She said before sitting next to him.

He twisted the cap off of the bottle, and was immediately overtaken by the indescribable smell of this Irn-Bru. It also looked quite sickly, as it seemed to be a rather strange orange colour.

He took a sip, and was immediately surprised.

"Not bad," he said before promptly draining half the bottle.

Nym then snatched it off him before the other half disappeared in the next minute.

"That's much better, now open your present." She said before throwing the package at him.

He opened it to find an ornate leather thing that on closer inspection turned out to be a wand holster.

"It's perfect… Where did you think of getting me something like this?" Harry asked.

"Common sense. As a mentor of mine always says: be prepared for anything."

"That's very good advice," Harry said before standing.

"I think I should thank my girlfriend with breakfast." He said before slowly walking into Nym's tiny kitchen.

He was dismayed to find that there was absolutely no food in the place.

"Nym… What the hell do you eat?" Harry asked.

"I'm shit at cooking, so I mostly don't eat here." She said.

"Fuck this then,, how about I take my girl to a restaurant?" Harry said.

"You won't hear me complaining." Nym said before they both got changed, Harry into his rather rumpled clothes from the day before.

Nym sent several minutes fiddling around with her form for the day, Harry suggesting alterations.

She eventually let out a giggle.

"You like a girl who can look like anything don't you?" she said rather seductively.

"Um… Um… Yes I suppose."

"Don't worry Harry, at least your not like most. They would have already asked me to assume the form of their favorite model or something stupid… You're just making suggestions."

Harry was somewhat mollified by this statement.

Several minutes later, she was wearing the form of a roughly fifteen-year-old looking red-haired girl with piercing violet eyes, the feature that Harry found to be captivating about her.

She was about an inch Taller than Harry and was rather well-proportioned at least in Harry's opinion.

She also retained her usual fitness, and her muscles were clearly visible through her t-shirt.

After walking through muggle London for several minutes, they settled on a generic-looking diner.

The rest of that day was spent just relaxing. Nym even confessed to him that the training had knocked her out as well, as she had been trying to cram a good deal of information into a month.

That evening, they ended back at #4 Privet Drive.

"Harry, I have to go now I'm afraid, but you may see me sooner than you expect." Nym said mysteriously before kissing him briefly.

She then giggled before Disapparating from the street.

Women, was Harry's only thought as he slowly walked up the street passing the finely manicured lawns.

When he walked into #4, he was surprised to find that his relatives weren't around. After whipping up some dinner for himself, he headed up to his room to be on the safe side.

Several hours later, Harry was lying on his bed reading a book on dueling tactics when he heard a knock on his door. This surprised him, as he hadn't heard his relatives returning.

He grabbed his wand and hid it behind his back before opening the door a crack.

"Hello?" he asked cautiously.

"Hey you," a very familiar voice said before Nym pushed the door the rest of the way open. She was wearing her form that she used to get people to drop their guard, the cheerful young woman with pink hair and soft features.

"Hi yourself." Harry said before glimpsing the array of people behind her.

"Hello Potter," the gruff voice of Alastor Moody said.

"Mr. Moody, it is truly an honor to meet you finaly," Harry said before extending a hand to the individual that Nym talked constantly about. He was her partner in the Auror office, a fact that she still couldn't quite get over.

"I would wear that wand holster if I were you," he said gesturing to the wand holster sitting rather ineffectively on Harry's desk.

"Auror Tonks, you're slipping up." He said before shooting a rather sardonic grin at Nym.

"Hey, it's not my fault if he doesn't follow the advice that I give him." Nym said before punching Harry in the shoulder.

"And Professor Lupin?" Harry asked disbelieving.

"Yes Harry, and please call me Remus." The man said smiling warmly.

"We're here to take you to order headquarters." Moody said gruffly.

"Tonks, help pack his stuff and then we'll go over the plan in the kitchen." He continued.

"Yes sir." She said before throwing Moody a mock salute.

Harry and Nym then turned and entered Harry's room.

"You want everything?" she asked.

"S… Sure," Harry said.

He then watched as Nym's wand flicked in a complicated series of movements before all of Harry's things sorted themselves and flew into his trunk.

"There we go, Tonks's trunk packing at your service." She said playfully.

"Okay… Okay… well thank you Nym, I guess this means that I'm the one carrying it down the stairs." Harry said before lifting it.

"Nonsense, your girlfriend is a witch, afterall."

She said before casting a mild levitation spell at the rather heavy piece of luggage.

"Thanks…" Harry said before the two exited the room, Nym walking close beside him.

When the two entered the kitchen, Harry was mildly amused to see the witches and wizards who weren't familiar with muggle devices looking at everything.

Moody ushered Harry over to the table, and gave him a rundown of the plan of flying to their destination.

"Right, here's the plan," he began gruffly.

The next few minutes were spent going through the plan, and it was decided that Nym would fly Harry out. She apparently had been holding out on him, as according to Moody she had been the best chaser in her year, and would be the most agile if they did run into any trouble.

When they were all in agreement, Harry surprised them by opening his trunk and rummaging through until he produced the shrunken form of his firebolt. He pointed at it, before asking rather lamely,

"Tonks, would you mind unshrinking this for me?" as he proffered it to her.

Roling her eyes, she tapped it and it sprang to full size. Harry couldn't help but notice the glint in her eye.

"Your not going to let me fly this, are you?" she asked with a delighted grin spreading over her face.

"As a matter of fact, I am," Harry said shooting her a grin.

She admitted to him later that night that it was all she could do not to snog the life out of him, but she just shot him a dazzling smile instead.

"Okay, if your both done," Moody said with a long suffering sigh.

They all headed into the back garden, and when a trail of green sparks shot into the sky, Moody called for them all to mount up, which they all did.

After waiting exactly ten seconds, the riders all kicked off from the ground in almost perfect unison.

Harry couldn't help but think that this sensation was strange, never in his life had he ridden behind anyone on a broom, but sitting behind his girlfriend he felt oddly at piece.

After almost an hour of diving in and out of the rather damp and chilling cloud cover, they eventually arrived in a rather grotty looking square, with several dilapidated houses slumping tiredly around it.

Harry couldn't help to whisper in his girlfriends ear:

"What the hell is this?"

"You'll see," she said.

Moodie then gave Harry a piece of paper.

Harry opened his mouth to question the contence, but was interrupted by the paper bursting into flame in his hand.

Dropping it, Harry reflected on the rather interesting piece of wisdom that had been written there: The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is located at #12 Grimmauld Place.

Looking up, Harry saw a house slowly seem to push the two buildings around it out of the way , making room for it.

"Get in quickly!" Moodie said and Tonks pushed Harry roughly through the door that creaked rather loudly open.

"What the hell was that for?" Harry asked shooting her a half smile.

"Keeping up appearances," she said shooting him a malicious grin.

As soon as Harry had five seconds to look around, he couldn't help but notice the rundown air of the place, almost as if it hadn't been lived in for many, many years.

Tonks, who was in her form that she crassly called the bimbo was quite clumsy tripped, falling flat on her face.

Harry reached down, giving her a hand up.

He was surprised when he heard a chuckle from the other side of the entrance hall, and looked up to see the portrait of an elderly woman who beckoned him over.

"Come here," she said rather authoritatively.

Walking over, he addressed the woman with the respect he felt she deserved.

"Hello mam, is there something I can do for you?"

She let out another chuckle, and her eyes sparkled with merth who he had only seen in one other person, his godfather Sirius Black.

"I like you, the last one who came in here called me a… what was it? Oh yes, a pureblood bitch."

"But that's… that's…" Harry was lost for words.

"Disrespectful? my name is Walburga Black, you are wlcome here, Harry Potter." The portrait of the woman said throwing him a smile.

He was interrupted as he heard a voice that he hadn't heard in what felt like an age from behind him.

"Hello Harry, I see that you've met my mother."

He spun, and embraced Sirius.

"It's good to see you again!" Harry exclaimed as he released the man.

"You as well Harry, my dear cousin been keeping you out of trouble I hear?" he asked.

"You could say that," Harry said and made eye contact with Nym before winking.

"Come in… and welcome to my house." Sirius said before dragging Harry down a twisty flight of stairs into a smoke filled kitchen.

As soon as he entered, he noticed Molly Weasley glaring at Albus for some strange reason.

"I still don't think that this is a good idea," the woman said shrilly.

"He is a child Albus," the man had finally had enough as he cut her off, and Harry could tell that the elderly wizard's temper was starting to fray.

"Molly, that will be quite enough," the man's voice reverberated through the kitchen.

Molly suddenly found an interest in something under the table, and Albus smiled warmly at Harry.

"Harry my boy, how have you been!" the man exclaimed reaching across the table and shaking Harry's hand.

"I've been well Albus," Harry said returning the man's handshake.

"Have a seat," he said before pulling up a chair on his right.

The kitchen was still quite empty, so Tonks quickly claimed the seat on Harry's right. They rather covertly tried to hold hands under the table, but Harry had a sneaking feeling that Albus noticed.

"Congratulations you two," he said low enough that only the three could hear.

"Thank you professor," Nym said smiling shyly.

"The rest of the order should be here shortly, but while we wait I will allow you to catch up with Sirius," Albus said and that was Harry's cue to turn and begin speaking to his godfather across the table.

More and more people slowly filtered into the room, until all the seats at the table were taken.

As Albus raised his hand for silence, it was if a spell had cast, as you could hear a pin drop.

"Thank you all," Albus began.

"Welcome to this meeting of the Order of the Phoenix, and I have a status update for all of you. My sources tell me that Voldemort is after the proficy, so it is of paramount import that we guard and protect it at all costs. Even though no one accept the two concerned may know it's contents, it is a key that we cannot allow to fall into the dark lord's hands."

The next few minutes were concerned with schedules and guard shifts, which mostly revolved around ministry workers of which there were quite a few present.

The meeting was eventually concluded, and everyone was invited to talk amongst themselves.

Harry received several congratulations, and he was surprised by the jenuin warmpth and support he felt from most of the members, apart from Molly Weasley who seemed to be quite hostile towards Albus.

Arthur somewhat made up for it, as the slightly balding redheaded man welcomed him with genuine warmth that seemed enough for both of them.

Harry also noticed Severus Snape, who surprisingly gave Harry a half smile before walking over.

Letting go of Nym's hand quickly, which he belatedly realized that he was still holding under the table, he stood expecting a verbal insult.

What he got, was not what he expected.

"I'm sorry Potter, for everything. Welcome, comrade."

With that, he turned and almost ran out of the room.

"Forgive Severus," Albus said.

"He has had… a lot on his plate, particularly as he now has to spy on the dark lord for us," Albus said before standing.

"Well, I must be off, I will see you later this week I am sure." He said gesturing around the room.

He rather grandly left the room, his robes swirling behind him.

When Sirius jestured for Harry and Nym to follow him, Harry had a premonition that the conversation to come would be interesting.

"He knows," Harry whispered in Nym's ear as Sirius led the two of them into a secluded room.

"What the hell happened?" the man asked breaking into a wide grin.

"I mean sure, I suspected what was coming, but a month and your going out? Come on!"

"H… how did you figure it out?" Harry asked rather stupidly, as he knew that Sirius had probably seen their hands.

"Everything, the way that you look at each other… it reminds me so much of your parents damn it! Look, all I really wanted to say was... congrats." He said before a glimmer in his eyes hinted at tears.

"Well then," Sirius said pulling himself together.

"Your room is up here, and you'll be happy to know that you have it all to yourself." He continued as he led them up a twisting back staircase and into a average sized room.

Before he left, he winked at Nym.

"By the way, that back staircase is never used by anyone, and no one will be in this part of the house." he said before leaving.

"What the hell?" Harry said in shock.

"That's called an invitation, I believe?" Nym said before throwing Harry a wide grin.

Harry then noticed belatedly that there was a fireplace in the corner, hidden behind a segmented screen.

"Hey, wonder if that flue connection's active?" Nym said before walking over.

Noticing the half full jar of powder on the mantle, she grinned.

"Looks like it is," she said while squinting at a plack above the fireplace.

"#12 Grimmauld place room 5, I can remember that," she said almost to herself.

"Care for some company tonight, Mr. Potter?"

Harry's mouth dropped open.

"W… Well, I wouldn't say no to it," he said more confidently than he felt.

"Excellent, give me about five minutes and I'll be back," Nym said before the crack of apparition filled the room.

Several minutes later, after Harry had rummaged through his trunk and changed, he heard another loud crack.

Spinning around, he noticed with a slight chuckle that the form that Nym called the bimbo was gone. In it's place was the girl that Harry had first met, that fateful day at the beginning of July.

"Hello you," she said before kissing him.

After several minutes of passionate snogging for the two, they fell asleep simply holding each other. They didn't go any further that night, but no words were said as the two slowly drifted to the land of dreams. Unfortunately, Harry's weren't going to be pleasant.

A/N: Why am I starting another story? Well, that's an excellent question, one that I'm also wondering the answer to!

Before anyone asks, this is a Harry/Tonks fic as stated in the summary.

This is slightly AU, and in case anyone's wondering why Tonks is the only person that remembered Harry's birthday, that will be explained next chapter.

Please, read and review.

Suggestions are always welcome, as I am not a good writer by any stretch of the imagination.

Again, please R&R as even though reviews are not required, they are appreciated by me.