Hey kiddos, I know it's been awhile but don't worry, Jade hasn't forgotten the existence of her fanfiction. I need to get some work done! I always feel oddly behind. Okay, here goes, another chapter that I'm sure everyone's been desperately waiting for!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Warnings: Reactions.

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Substance of Things Hoped For

Chapter Nineteen

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The silence that filled the room was both awkward and all powerful. No one said anything at all. The green-eyed boy blinked a few times and then his face broke into a grin and he jumped to his feet.

"Tonks!" He greeted his identical twin. Then the Harry that they knew and had traveled with scrunched up his face and with a faint popping noise turned into a girl. She had short blonde hair and blue eyes, with a heart shaped face. Hermione thought she might faint. What the hell was going on?

"T-T-Tonks?" Percy looked like he was choking on something.

"What are you doing in Japan?" The green-eyed boy asked her, not seeming to be alarmed by anyone else.

"We're here to get you, you goof." The girl, Tonks, presumably, reached over and messed up his hair. "It's time for you to come back to England."

"Really?" His eyes were very wide. "It is?"

"What's going on?" Susan interrupted the conversation.

"Sorry, sorry," Tonks clapped her hands together and ducked down a little in apology. "I'm sure I have to explain everything now! Well, as you might have guessed, I'm not the real Harry Potter, he is."

"Oh mon Dieu!" Fleur gasped.

"Yes, but what's going on?" Susan reiterated her question.

"We should all sit down and have a proper telling." Tonks suggested and sat on an ottoman, making room for Harry? (they'd been fooled once) to sit down next to her. Everyone sat all around the room. Hermione felt that was all she and everyone else could do at that very moment. "See, I'm Nymphadora Tonks and this is Harry Potter and I've been pretending to be Harry Potter as a decoy."

"I knew something fishy was going on." Ernie rubbed his chin and nodded in agreement with his own deduction.

"No, you didn't." Zach hissed.

"Metamorphmagus." Hermione realized that everyone was looking at her and that she must have been the one who said it. "You're a Metamorphmagus, right?"

"Right." Tonks nodded happily. "I've been pretending to be Harry for while now for his protection. Dumbledore came up with the whole plan because of my abilities."

"And you're…Harry Potter." Hermione pointed at the green-eyed boy who nodded, but didn't look like he was particularly proud of this fact. It reminded her of when they met Harry the first time, or Tonks for that matter, and she realized that Tonks would have had to spend time with Harry to know what he was like and then if so…she shook herself, she was thinking about this too hard.

"I want to see some proof." Draco spoke up crossly. "If you're the real Harry Potter, I want to see some proof."

"I don't have any proof." Harry stared at Draco like he was an alien. "I've got an ID somewhere around here…I guess…" He started to look around.

"We're leaving." Draco declared. "Come, Hermione, let's go from this place of deceit at once!"

"She's not your servant!" Ron interjected. "She doesn't have to go anywhere."

"Shut up both of you!" Hermione snapped at them. "I'm sorry, please go on…um, Miss Tonks."

"Oh, just call me 'Tonks'." Tonks beamed at her. "I'm sorry, but 'Miss Tonks' sounds like something Percy might call me. Oh," She seemed to remember something as she hit the bottom of her right fist on the top of her left palm. "Hiya, Percy!"

Percy didn't say anything for a long time and there seemed to be this tension in the room that no one could quite place. He didn't glare at Tonks; he was just giving her this impassive look but somehow seemed to betray that he was trying to decide something.

"You'll all have to excuse me for a moment." Percy stood up and walked out of the room.

"Percy?" Tonks tilted her head to one side but he didn't say anything. "Well, what on Earth is wrong with him?"

"Never mind him," Fleur was leaning forward in anticipation, "Vas-y, s'il vous plait." Tonks gave her a blank look and Fleur, cleared her throat, looking highly dignified. "Please, go on."

"No problem, Fleur." Tonks spoke airily. "Harry Potter's our secret weapon."

"I was right!" Ernie jumped up and grabbed Harry's entire arm and began shaking it vigorously. "This changes everything! It all makes sense now, that we weren't with the real Harry Potter. I should have seen it all along but I was just too excited to have met you! Now that I've met the real you I pledged my never ending loyalty to you, Mr. Potter, sir, and you should know that Macmillan is your man!"

"Come on, Ernie, you can get to know your new boyfriend later." Zach dragged Ernie away from Harry and made him sit back down.

"As I was saying, I've been Harry's decoy." Tonks repeated, trying to get the conversation back to the main point. "We didn't want Voldemort to guess where he really was and now all of us are going back to Britain."

"Wait," Ron seemed to be trying to connect two dots. "You've been Harry…this whole time? Like, even when we were staying at Fleur's house?" Tonks nodded. "But…but I've changed in front of you!"

"Sorry, Ron, I was sworn to secrecy, I couldn't tell you I was a girl." Tonks grinned apologetically. "But, nice. You're a lucky girl, Hermione." She winked quite unabashedly at Hermione, whose face went a brilliant shade of red and she seemed to be looking everywhere but at Ron.

"There's no romance on this trip!" Draco reminded everyone.

"Draco, I swear to god, if you don't shut up…" Hermione covered her face with her hands.

"Um…so…" Harry Potter scratched the back of his head. "I don't know what Tonks might have said about me…or as me…"

"Oh, they know all about you." Tonks assured him. "I told them how you're magic is so strong that you can't use it for anything but the most powerful spells."

"You did?" Harry turned towards her, looking surprised. "Right, just like Dumbledore said. Anyways," He coughed and turned towards them. "It's nice to meet you guys…"

"Right, we have a lot of introductions." Tonks heaved a sigh and began pointing to them all in turn. "So, that's Hermione Granger, and next to her is Ron Weasley, and on the other side of him was Percy, his brother, and then that's Fleur Delacour, and then that girl with the braid is Susan Bones, and then that's Ernie Macmillan and his sidekick Zacharias Smith—"

"I'm not his sidekick!" Zach protested immediately.

"And then the blonde on Hermione's left is Draco Malfoy." Tonks went on as though no one had spoken. "I don't remember if Dumbledore completely brushed you up on your Death Eaters, but his dad's like the right hand man of You-Know-Who."

"Is he...quite good then?" Harry shifted uneasily as he asked.

"I'm right here you know." Draco threw out his chest importantly. "And I'm more important than any of you so you should be addressing your questions directly to me."

"Why are you important?" Harry cocked his head to one side curiously and didn't seem to be asking him in a particularly antagonistic tone.

"I'm a Malfoy." Draco spoke as though this settled the matter. "You may not know very much as you've been holed up in this little backwards town on the side of the world, but you should know that my family is very important and rich. Much more important than any of the other Wizarding families present." Fleur made a very irritated sort of noise. "You'll be wanting to make friends with me."

"No thank you." Harry sounded so oddly polite that Hermione and Ron both started laughing. Draco's eyes went to the size of saucers and he began sputtering to himself.

"You already know my name," Ron reached out a hand to shake with Harry's. "Thought we were mates. Turns out that you were really Tonks there. S'okay. I won't hold it against you."

"Nice to meet you." Harry shook his hand. Hermione went to shake his hand next.

"Sorry about Draco, he's an idiot." Hermione apologized. "Just ignore him."

"I'm very pleased to meet you." Susan waved from where she was seated in between Zach and Ernie. "Not just because you're famous though. But also because this means we can all go back to England and now things can change."

"That's right! Now you'll defeat You-Know-Who and England will be safe again!" Ernie bounced energetically. "Man, do we have one whizbanger of a surprise in store for him!"

"Defeat You-Know-Who?" Harry repeated quietly and Hermione saw that there was a troubled look in his eyes but then he noticed her looking and quickly went blank.

"We've got to find Dumbledore." Tonks changed the subject smoothly. "I'm just not entirely sure where to start looking. He didn't leave us a trail of clues to get us back."

"I have a clue." Harry spoke up. Everyone turned towards him. "Dumbledore told me that if this happened, I should tell you to look on page three hundred and ninety-four."

"Page three hundred and ninety-four?" Hermione spoke up. "In what?"

"I don't know." Harry shrugged. "I always figured he meant that book he gave me; The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, that's one of the few books I have that has enough pages and he specially gave it to me. But that page is blank."

"It's blank?" Tonks frowned and reached towards his small book shelf to grab the large book with a black cover and gold lettering.

"Yep. It falls right between the end of King John and the beginning of Richard II." Harry explained to them. He saw that most of them were giving him a look. "I didn't have a lot to read."

"It's blank." Tonks announced, having found the page in the book and holding it out towards Hermione. Draco snatched it away first.

"It's clearly invisible." Draco rolled his eyes and pulled out his wand. "You were stupid not to think of using magic."

"He can't use magic, he'd probably blow the whole book up!" Hermione reminded him.

"Too bad for him." Draco flicked the page with his wand lazily. Everyone leaned in to look at the page which annoyed him greatly. They were all trying to see the smooth blank page. Slowly, very slowly, ink seemed to bubble up out of the page and began to write in spidery letters across it.

Vogoodle

"Vogoodle?" Zach spoke scathingly. "That's really helpful. Remind me to punch Dumbledore in the face when we meet him again."

"Maybe it's an ingredient…?" Hermione looked thoughtful as she scanned her mind for anything that sounded like it but the closest thing she could think of was asphodel, which wasn't any help at all. "Or someone's name?"

"Maybe we've got to rearrange the letters." Ron remembered their last clue.

"Perhaps we should give zem room to breathe." Fleur suggested out loud and everyone backed away from Hermione and Draco.

"That's settled then!" Tonks stood up. "You two are officially our clue-solving committee. Hermione's head, Draco, you're second-in-command." She walked out of the room. "I'll go see where Percy's got to."

"Second-in-command?" Draco shrieked indignantly.

"Do you play soccer?" Harry asked Ron interestedly.

"Yeah, you got a ball?" Ron scrambled to his feet.

"I want to play too!" Ernie volunteered immediately. "Come on Zach!"

"I don't want to play soccer." Zach grumbled but got to his feet and the boys all left the room, presumably to go play soccer.

"I will 'elp you." Fleur scooted over to Hermione and Draco. "You two are not ze only clever ones." She grinned at them.

"I'll go watch the boys play." Susan hefted herself up, looking strangely out of breath as she did so. Then she made her way out of the room. Hermione wasn't sure if the others had noticed and kept it to herself. She thought of the sleeping and the way Susan had fainted. Susan really could be sick. Maybe Zacharias wasn't just being overprotective. She resolved to ask Susan about it as soon as they were alone together.

"Of course everyone else ran off to go play soccer." Draco sniffed.

"Do you want to go play with ze boys?" Fleur had a devious grin on her face. "Zat Harry Potter intrigues you, no?"

"No!" Draco snapped and his face flushed. "I can't believe the way he spoke to me! Rejecting my offer of friendship! Some people just don't know how to behave in civilized society, do they, Hermione?"

"No, they really don't." Hermione answered, looking at him quite pointedly.

"Let's just solve this bloody clue so we can go back to England." Draco hunched his shoulders defensively as he looked down at the nonsensical word they'd been given.

Hermione wasn't sure what to make of the exchange that had just occurred and so shrugged her shoulders and began searching her memory for anything that might relate to the clue.

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He hadn't quite understood what made him get up and leave like that. He was slightly embarrassed at the way he'd acted. He should have just pretended it didn't matter, that it didn't mean a thing out of the ordinary, other than seeing an old classmate again.

But that would have been a lie.

In his chest, he felt a burning, aching sensation, stronger than he'd felt in years. Percy clutched a hand to his chest and wondered why on Earth he allowed Nymphadora Tonks to have such an effect on him.

I never chose it.

If I had a choice, I would make it all just go away.

Percy had left the house but sat on the edge of the front porch. Below him was a small goldfish pond. The water was dark, the fish were just flashes of color every now and then. It reminded him of the way he felt. Wandering, blindly, in the darkness. He'd never really understood how to reach out to another human being and asked them to catch you. He wasn't good at making friends, at getting close to people. He wasn't even close to his family. He'd felt a loneliness, a shell around himself, even when they were alive. It was something he was never able to cast away completely.

Frowning, scowling Percy Weasley. That's how everyone thought of him. Too straight-laced to have fun with. Too uptight to make friends with. People had accused him of thinking he was better than other people.

I'm not better. I never thought I was.

I just can't imagine how to just let people in. To open the door and just greet them and tell them about my day.

I've always been jealous of my other brothers. I thought if I did well in school, like Bill, that I would have as many friends. But that isn't what happened. I was an ordinary person who had good grades. A person that would otherwise be overlooked by others.

Especially someone like Tonks…

He thought that she was someone in the past, a ghost. A person he used to think of, from time to time. A longing that could never be fulfilled. Perhaps she was dead, perhaps she was in another country, never to be heard from again. Their paths would never cross.

I could have learned to forget her.

When she'd appeared, he felt betrayed. She'd been there this whole time and hadn't bothered to tell him. To let him know. She'd never known any of his feelings; he kept them too well hidden for that. But somewhere, deep in him, some crazy forlorn hope still resided that she in fact might have had some sort of feelings for him. But of course, she didn't. A gesture, a wink, that's all it would have taken for him not to feel like he hadn't mattered enough to tell.

Her face, which she was always changing, was exactly as it was when she was sleeping. That time he'd watched her sleep in the common room. It was heart-shaped and cheerful, even when she was deep asleep. Her hair changed, her eyes could change, but that face, that was the face he'd know anywhere.

You're alive, so close, and yet…for me…so far away, so far that I couldn't ever hope to be near you.

"I hope you like it."

That's what you're supposed to say, but you didn't have to waste words on me.

"Percy?" The voice made his heart seize again. He took a deep breath and turned to look at Tonks standing there. She had a sort of apologetic grin on her face. "Can I sit down?"

Percy sort of grunted and pushed up his glasses, trying to radiate indifference at her presence. She sat down clumsily next to him, brushing a hand against his shoulder accidentally.

"Um…" Tonks tried and then cleared her throat. "You seemed…kind of upset."

"I'm not. I was just overwhelmed, I'm fine now." Percy stared determinedly out across the pond.

"Oh okay." Tonks sounded slightly discouraged. "It's just…you know I couldn't say anything to you right? Even though we're old friends…Dumbledore made me promise."

"You still could have told me." Percy felt stupid for saying it out loud like a petulant little kid who didn't get his way. "You always liked playing jokes in school. Hope you liked this one."

"It wasn't a joke!" Tonks sounded like she was getting angry. Good. "It's really important! It's a matter of life or death for Harry! I have to be his double. I have to make sure that if Voldemort gets a hold of one of us, it's me. I have to make sure that if one of us gets killed, it's me. Harry has to live. He's going to end the war. I'm just small fries compared to that."

"Are you happy to do it?" Percy's voice was thick with venom. "You're happy to die? To not be your own person? To be someone's shadow?"

"What's with you?" Tonks' words trembled a little and he turned towards her. Her eyes were starting to shine a little, as though she were tearing up. "I thought you'd be happy to see me."

"Why does it matter to you?" Percy asked after a moment of silence and then he stood up. He was going to leave but Tonks was on her feet in a matter of moments and blocked him, putting her hands on her hips.

"Come on, Percy Weasley, stop being so mopey! Okay, so I didn't tell you I was undercover, but stop being so mean about it!" Tonks poked him hard in the chest with her index finger. "Here I thought you were genuinely upset about something but it turns out that you're just being a brat."

His eyes widened considerably at this and he didn't know what to do or say. Here she was. Finally, here she was. And she was telling him off because he'd said everything he hadn't meant to say or knew he shouldn't say. To push her away.

Don't get close…

It's just me here, and I don't want anyone else disturbing my peace…

Percy tried to step around her but Tonks wasn't going to let him get away so easily and she pushed him back to where he'd been with her two hands. However, she misjudged how hard to push him and Percy hadn't expected her to try to stop him so he didn't put up any resistance.

He stepped backwards but found himself on the edge of the porch. He clutched at thing air in a panic before he found himself falling into the pond. It was only two feet deep and he sat up, his clothes soaked. He spit some water at.

Tonks took one look at him and began laughing so hard that she was clutching her stomach. Percy found himself infected with the laughter but he fought to keep it suppressed. He gave a few small guffaws and found himself smiling in spite of the situation.

"Oh, Percy!" Tonks recovered enough to hold a hand out to him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to push you in!"

"It's alright. It's just water." Percy took her hand. It was small and somewhat delicate feeling in his own large hand. He always expected her hands to be very strong, like her. She was smiling, her cheeks flushed with laughter, her eyes shining. His heart skipped a beat. She pulled him up but didn't let go of his hand.

"So, truce?" She tilted her head to one side.

"Truce." Percy nodded. She didn't, couldn't understand the feelings in his heart, but he knew he'd just have to bury them as he always did.

"Good! I'll be glad to have someone to talk to! I mean, everyone's great and all but it'll be nice to have someone closer to my age." Tonks gave his hand a squeeze, causing him to gulp. Then she let go and began walking back towards the front door. "We should probably get upstairs and see if they solved the clue."

"What clue?" Percy started to follow her.

"Oh, that's right, you weren't there. There's another clue to help us find Dumbledore." Tonks explained and started to go inside before she stopped, one hand resting on the door frame. "Make sure you dry off. I'm sure the girls will appreciate this chance to see your nice body but I don't think Neville wants you to drip water all over his floor."

"What?" Percy blushed as he glanced down and saw that parts of his white shirt were clinging to him and were transparent. "Oh." And he quickly pulled out his wand from his pocket so he could do a spell to dry himself off. When he finished, he saw that Tonks was still waiting for him.

She caught his eye, winked, and walked in.

The wink made him flush all over again and he was quick to go in after her.

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"I have an announcement: I'm sick of clues." Hermione told the other two. Fleur was braiding her long silvery hair into two pigtails and looked rather peeved that she hadn't figured out the clue.

"What about 'vacuole'?" Draco suggested.

"No," Hermione shook her head. "But wow."

"Wow what?" Draco looked perplexed.

"I just wasn't expecting you to know anything about biology." Hermione commented and Draco harrumphed.

"How goes the clue?" Tonks came back with Percy in tow. He didn't seem the least bit bothered now and Hermione wondered why he'd left in the first place. She supposed it wasn't any of her business but she couldn't help feeling curious.

"Not so well." Fleur finished braiding one pigtail and pulled out a satin blue ribbon out of her pocket to tie it off with. "We cannot figure out zis clue."

Percy stepped over to where the book was laying open and stared at the word on the test. Vogoodle.

Hmm…

Vogoodle. Good Vole. No.

Good Levo? Good love? Good love?

He felt something stir in his memory. Something…something important…he'd heard this phrase or something like it once upon a time. Then he suddenly remembered the sea, the smell of salt, and a girl with a faraway, lost look asking him whether he believed in mermaids or not.

"Lovegood." Percy said at once. "Luna Lovegood."

"Luna Lovegood?" Draco grimaced.

"I met her when we were in Dieppe, when you and Hermione were off buying tickets and everyone else went to the store. She was just hanging around." Percy remembered. "Why, do you know her?"

"You might know her yourself." Hermione commented. "She was a year below me and Ron in school. I vaguely remember people calling her some kind of nickname…"

"Loony Lovegood." Draco supplied easily. They all stared at him. "What? She was nuts and she had awful fashion sense."

"If zis Luna Lovegood is in Dieppe zen we should go zere." Fleur had finished braiding her other pigtail and fastened it off with another blue ribbon.

"Guess we better pack up." Tonks glanced out the window. It was looking out at the backyard and from where Percy was, he could see that the other boys were playing soccer in the yard, including a fifth boy, whom he assumed was Neville Longbottom. There was someone standing to the side, it looked like Susan.

"Let's just get this over with. I want to go home and stay there for a very, very long time. All this rushing about is bad for my complexion." Draco put a hand to the side of his face.

"What a princess." Tonks commented before breaking into an evil grin. Before Hermione could say anything, Tonks had pounced on Draco, seizing him in a headlock and using her other hand to mess up his hair.

Draco began screaming as though she were causing him physical pain. "LET ME GO YOU BRUTE! YOU JUST WAIT UNTIL MY FATHER HEARS ABOUT THIS!"

"Oh, that sounds serious, what do you reckon, Hermione?" Tonks asked her jovially as she continued her torture.

"Very serious." Hermione nodded before casually flicking through a few pages of the book.

"HERMIONE, YOU HELP ME! GET THIS WRETCHED THING OFF OF ME! SHE'S RUINING MY HAIR!" Draco bellowed furiously.

There was a thumping of feet up the stairs and the door flew open. Harry appeared through it, looking around. "What's going on? We heard screaming." Ron was right behind him and it sounded like the others were not far behind Ron.

"GET HER OFF! GET HER OFF!" Draco ordered. "UNHAND ME AT ONCE YOU SHAPE-SHIFTING FIEND!"

"She's messing up his hair." Hermione explained.

"Draco would like you to save 'im." Fleur told Harry. He blinked in confusion.

"Er, let him up, he's making too much noise." Harry told Tonks who let the furious blonde-haired young man go. He folded his arms and tried to look as dignified as possible, even though his blonde hair was now sticking up at all sorts of funny angles.

"I'm not thanking you." Draco hissed at Harry.

"Good." Harry rolled his eyes. "I can't believe you were freaking out just because someone was messing up your hair. I thought someone was getting attacked."

"Everyone please be quiet!" Percy scowled furiously at them. "We have a serious matter and we are trying to discuss it like adults and we certainly don't need anymore…horseplay." He gave Tonks a sharp look. Tonks did an exaggerated impression of a child whose just been told off, by taking a sudden breath in, bugging her eyes out, and folding her hands in her lap as quickly as possible. Hermione smothered a giggle. "Now, we're going to Dieppe. We've figured out the clue. We need to make arrangements."

"I will take care of zat." Fleur held up a hand.

"Good." Percy nodded. "Now, are there any questions about this journey?"

"I have one." Zach, Ernie, and Susan were still standing around the door but they turned to see that Neville was standing in the hallway. "Can I come?"

"No." Draco answered first and Neville hung his head.

"Yes, you can come." Harry countered, glaring at Draco. Then he turned towards Ron. "It's okay, right?"

"Yeah, no problem." Ron and the real Harry seemed to have made friends quickly. Hermione marveled at that. But then, Ron was good at that sort of thing. She was very proud of herself when she only blushed a little bit at this thought.

"But how are we going to split up train compartments again?" Ernie wondered out loud.

Everyone that was not Harry and Neville moaned.

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AH! I'm so sorry it took so long for an update. But here is an update. It's good for you! That Complete Works of William Shakespeare thing, that occurs in my 1990 Longmeadow Press edition. Dunno if it works in any of the others. Poor repressed Percy! I'm excited to write more of him. But what's going to happen next to our gallant heroes? Time will tell! See ya!