Chapter Ten

"Ah Tonks, I hope you left Harry in one piece?"

Tonks nodded, while taking a moment to get her bearings. She hadn't expected to find the Order at the Burrow. "Yeah, he even conned me out of some curse after-effects...why are you here?"

Dumbledore chuckled, gesturing for her to have a seat. It was obvious (after what Harry told her) he didn't have a lot of strength. "Understandably, both Molly and Arthur were unwilling to leave their children alone in the house, and since we had need of both of them in the meeting, we moved here. We've just taken a tea break." Tonks grinned, immediately turning her hair a colour she knew Molly would fret over - a lovely baby blue.

"Wish we could have tea breaks normally."

Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "Perhaps. I might ask one of the Hogwarts House Elves to attend to Headquarters..."

Tonks noticed Molly backing out of the living room, tray in hand, and immediately stood up. "Erm...I just need a word with Molly." Dumbledore watched her curiously, as she quickly grabbed Molly's arm and pulled her outside the house. She moved a good deal away from the house as well, towards Arthur's shed. She always had the uncanny feeling he could hear people even from outside the door. The fact that he couldn't see her was more reassuring.

"Tonks what's all this? Is Harry alright? I hope you calmed down before you..." Tonks waved her questions aside.

"Did you know Harry hasn't been given the talk?"

Molly blinked, completely caught off balance before reddening a bit. "Excuse me?"

Tonks had to smile. "Harry. No one's told him anything about it."

Molly frowned. "Surely Sirius..."

"Nope, I asked..."

"You what?"

Tonks winced. "Well I was teasing him and he basically fled to the loo, so when he came back I asked him if he'd taken care of himself - he didn't have a clue what I was talking about!"

Molly paled. "Oh the poor boy. I can't believe...surely Ron must have talked with him about it!"

Tonks glanced over her shoulder at the sound of the door opening. "Well you can ask him now. He's coming over with Ginny and Hermione."

Molly began to blush again. "Oh lord the poor...girls, could you let us talk to Ron alone for a moment please?" Both Ginny and Hermione scowled, but after a few minutes of arguing slunk off to a corner. Ron looked nervously between his mother and Tonks. Tonks gave him what she thought was a reassuring smile, but only managed to make him pale more. She frowned while Molly gave him a motherly smile.

"Now Ron, I know you don't like talking about this kind of stuff with grown-ups, but have you ever talked about sex with Harry?"

Ron, like his mother previously, looked completely caught off guard, before his eyes bulged and his cheeks reddened violently. "Mum!"

Molly tutted. "Really Ron, this is important. Have you or haven't you?"

Ron stared at the both as if they were out of their minds. "No, why the bloody hell do you want to know?"

"Mind your language Ronald Weasley!"

Tonks had to refrain from laughing at the groan that followed. "What the heck's this got to do with anything?"

Molly scowled at him before suddenly glancing to Tonks worriedly. "Wouldn't his un...no of course not. Oh lord, no wonder he's so proper and charming!"

Tonks snorted. "Please Molly! It's not like he's totally innocent!"

Molly pulled a face. "Of course not, he has his little temper tantrums and the normal things but he's never eyeing down girls like Ron..."

Tonks did laugh this time as Ron turned as dark as a plum. "MUM!"

Molly paused and glanced over at her son. "Oh! Sorry Ron, I thought you'd gone." Ron huffed and turned heel before stopping short.

His eyes suddenly widened. "Bloody hell! You mean Harry doesn't know about...sex?"

Tonks grinned at him. "Well, he ain't no dummy, but where's he going to find out the details? Unless you're passing round dirty mags in the dorm..."

Ron blushed more but looked very bewildered. "He can't...not know. I mean that's...Merlin Harry!"

Molly scowled again. "Don't you think about saying a word, we'll figure out what to do about it. I hear you tease or mention it to him once and you'll be grounded the rest of your life!" Ron simply stared for a moment before blushing darkly and storming over to the girls.

Tonks watched him go in amusement. "Well that was fun."

Molly sighed heavily before turning back to her. "I never really thought...I mean it's just one of those normal things, and you never think about Harry and normal in the same thought."

"Right there."

Molly mumbled to herself. "I'm sure Arthur wouldn't mind..."

Tonks glanced at her sharply. "Not a good idea, at least at the moment. Harry's got enough on his plate without being embarrassed about sex."

Molly's face darkened. "Albus told us what happened. If I ever stand face to face with that Fudge I'll break him..."

"Molly!" Tonks chastised in mock shock. "Think of the example that'd set for the children!"

Molly flushed darkly. "Oh yes, of course, got ahead of myself."

Tonks grinned cheekily. "...you don't hit him, you curse him! Right between the..."

"As enlightening as the rest of that sentence may be, would you ladies care to rejoin us now?" Tonks blushed as Dumbledore twinkled brightly at her, leaning on a wooden cane at his side.

"Sorry sir."

"No harm done, none at all. Ah, Mr. and Miss Weasley, and of course Miss Granger. Would you care to join us as well? I believe you might be interested in our meeting." Tonks couldn't hide her smile as all three faces lit up identically.

"Is it about Harry?" The second Dumbledore nodded all three were immediately at his side, asking questions. Dumbledore promised it would be covered inside, and gestured to those who had left for a breath of fresh air to return. Five minutes, later they sat in the magically expanded front room of the Burrow, watching as Dumbledore leant forward.

"To summarize for those who weren't here earlier, Harry was ambushed while in both mine and Tonks' presence by a previously unthought-of number of Death Eaters. After some truly spectacular curses, we were separated and I was overcome..." His eyes laughed as three identical gasps came from the youngest in the audience.

"Yes, nothing is impossible. Tonks was injured. Harry performed some minor healing charms and got them both under cover. Unfortunately, he wouldn't hear of leaving. From what I heard, he forced Tonks to apparate and bound her ability to apparate. From what I can remember, after her departure Harry turned up in a cloak similar enough to resemble a Death Eater at a distance, and when close enough, used the element of surprise to push back the Death Eaters with various physical curses, such as a Reductor curse. He summoned me, which I must say is an achievement in itself, since human bodies do not take well to being summoned, least of all magical bodies. Then, after some fancy fireworks, he activated a hidden emergency portkey to take us to his bedroom. Unfortunately, we both were washed in the Killing curse and amazingly survived. I must also say that Harry's potion skills are extremely underestimated, Severus. He had me up and running in only a few hours and they were without the bitter aftertaste."

The room chuckled as Snape darkened. "Perhaps he wishes to show me up then in lessons by failing and putting the blame on my teaching." He said smoothly.

Ron was immediately on his feet. "What? Half the people in the class can't brew right cause you're breathing down their necks every two seconds!"

"Do not..."

Dumbledore coughed pointedly. "Do you wish to take this outside, because I will not allow it to be discussed here." Both of them returned to their seats grumbling an apology. Dumbledore smiled happily at them before turning to Tonks.

"If you care to report from your perspective?"

Tonks blushed but nodded. "Where should I start?"

"Perhaps from when we left the house."

Tonks nodded again and took a deep breath in preparation. She really wasn't one for public speaking. "Well, I noticed the streets were empty which I thought odd considering it was the holidays, and last year there kids were all about, so I was a bit on my guard. Nothing happened until we were in sight of the park; then Harry tells us as offhand as you please the wards are coming down. You pulled out a pocket watch...or something that looked like one and said they were perfectly intact."

Dumbledore frowned. "Yes. I'm still unsure how they managed to bring the wards down without alerting me." Tonks waited a moment before she was sure he wouldn't continue.

"Well, they came down and, as fast as anything Harry stunned a guy who just apparated in. I've got no idea how he did it so fast, but he has some bleeming fast reflexes."

"Quidditch." Ron intoned as he smirked. There were a few laughs.

"Yeah, well, then he pulled Dumbledore down to avoid a killing curse, and that woke me up. I looked around for a target but couldn't find any. Dumbledore just began to warn me about invisibility cloaks before Harry summoned them all at once." There were many murmurs at that.

"He summoned them before you warned him Albus?" Dumbledore glanced at Mad Eye.

"About the same time I'd say. He reacted so quickly, before I'd even finished my sentence."

Moody's normal eye sparked. "Wonder if he can see through them." There was a collective mutter at that.

"Perhaps we can test that theory later. It may have just been quick reckoning on his part. Tonks? Could you continue?" Tonks nodded, wondering how she had forgotten to ask Harry that herself.

"Well, you sent the feather off for the rest of the Order while we were fighting. Then Harry did that whopping curse...I've never heard of it before."

Dumbledore chuckled. "I'd be very surprised if you had. I didn't remember it until I saw the effects. I read about it many years ago, in the same book talking about the Fidelius charm." More murmurs. Tonks frowned. Hadn't he told them about all of this already? Dumbledore seemed to understand her expression.

"I thought the action would be better depicted by you."

Tonks flushed and gave him a small glare before shrugging. "I don't know. The curse seemed to charge for about thirty seconds and then it shot out like this massive black vortex thingy. I thought he'd blown up the whole street or something; it felt like there was a volcano going off somewhere. Weird thing though, nothing happened to anything or anyone, the DE's even stopped and checked themselves over for a minute."

Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, a very clever curse actually, though I am very surprised he managed to pull it off. I've never attempted it myself, but I can imagine it would be extremely draining, considering the effects."

"What happened?"

Tonks winced. "Well, they cast curses at us, except the curses backfired in every wand the vortex thingy had been near. That probably accounts for most of the bodies." There was a very deep silence.

"He...he forced all their spells back at them?"

Dumbledore smiled. "No. The curse works on rightful vengeance if I remember the paragraph correctly. It works in a manner that forces the first spell after the wand is affected to rebound on the caster. Unfortunately, in this case, many cast the killing curse. Harry was already stunning others, he did nothing but let them seal their own fates." There was a hush in the room.

"He turned around the killing curse? That could save lives!"

Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "It is possible I suppose, but, for one, should the curse become publicly known it could lead to very many messy situations, and for second, I'm not quite sure it could be performed by many. As I said, I was very surprised he managed to use the curse, never mind the fact he still fought a lot afterwards. Of course, it is worth a try. I shall have to find out where Harry learnt it. Tonks? Perhaps the rest?" She thought back for a moment.

"Pretty much straight away after that I got hit with something in the side. I don't know what it was...but it was pretty nasty. Burnt like hell and started eating away at me. I went down but lucky sir was drawing all the attention, really giving it to them. Harry got the guy cursing me then did something that stopped the curse, healing charms I suppose. He poured some sort of potion onto my side that stopped the pain and cleared my head."

Snape leant forward, his expression actually showing interest. "Did you note the colour of the potion?"

Tonks scowled. "Course not, I was bloody in pain! He had it in a purple vial anyhow, I saw him toss it to aside when he finished with it." Snape sneered and sat back.

"Yeah well, I'd like to see you pay attention to something like that!"

Dumbledore chuckled. "Tonks?"

"Oh yeah...he pulled us behind a fence to get us out of the path of a Reductor curse, and then he said out of the blue that they were concentrating on you, and they had you under the Cruciatus... and that you'd dropped your wand." Everyone turned to Dumbledore who smiled back at them cheerfully.

"Perhaps we should give him extra lessons with Sybil."

Minerva snorted hard with many other people in the room. "Albus, you shouldn't be up and about if you've been..."

Dumbledore raised a hand. "I am perfectly fine for now Minerva, do not worry. Harry gave me numerous potions to counteract both that, and the killing curse wash. They were extremely potent." He gave Snape a very long side-glance before nodding at Tonks. She shuffled her feet.

"Well of course, I didn't have any idea how he'd know that, so I pushed it aside and tried to get him to apparate to head..." There was a roar in the room and she felt her eyes widen in horror when she realized what she said.

"He can apparate!" Tonks started swearing hard under her breath. Harry was going to kill her!

"Well that explains a few things." She grimaced and bit her lip as she pondered how much Harry was likely to hurt her.

"If you can continue?" She groaned quietly, carefully choosing her words to make sure she didn't drop anything in the conversation.

"He...wouldn't leave you sir, so I tried to pull protocol and tell him that he was top priority."

"As well you should." She smiled, thankful that no one was giving her trouble over leaving Dumbledore.

"Well, all that did was make him raise his wand. I summoned a shield of course, but I wasn't expecting him to do anything except perhaps stun or disarm me."

Dumbledore smiled. "I doubt he would have done that with Death Eater's running about the place." Tonks scowled before taking a breath.

"The only reason I know what he was doing was because I've seen Moody do it once. We were on a raid and one of the Aurors was hit. We managed to take control long enough to learn there were more on the way to fight against us and the guy was dead weight. Moody used an incantation to apparate him to base. Harry did the same to me, though I've no idea where he learnt it."

Moody grunted. "It ain't easy to learn either. You need to know where you're sending the person beforehand, to the last detail. Ain't taught either, I learnt it off Albus."

Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully. "When he said he was studying, I neglected to ask where he had gotten his studying material."

"I've only seen old books. That wasn't all he did though. He bound my ability to apparate as well. Bindings not the same as the anti-apparition jinx of course, it's taught at the highest level of Auror training. No idea how he got his hands on that either; he didn't use the standard version. It took both Moody and Arthur almost ten minutes to break it."

"Really?"

Tonks grinned at Hermione. "Yeah, Arthur said something about it."

Arthur nodded with a hint of a smile. "It wasn't the standard one, but it had a lot of similarities. I think he...altered it. Made it harder to break."

Tonks groaned quietly. "Yeah, he mentioned something about merging some normal things with some magical theory to make them harder than the normal stuff to break and counter." She snuck a glance at Hermione and found her eyes alight with challenge. Her thirst for knowledge was incredible.

"Well, that's why then. It just took us a while to figure around it."

Tonks nodded, yawning. "That's pretty much it. Got back here, got Arthur, tried to go back and found couldn't apparate. There were temporary wards around the area, probably DE's work. We flooed to Arabella's and that's it pretty much."

Dumbledore nodded. "I wonder why Voldemort wasn't there himself." He ignored the number of flinches before sighing.

"It's probably best that he wasn't, I doubt the outcome would have been the same. Would you care to enlighten us on Harry's latest attack?"

Tonks flushed darkly. "Oh...I didn't hurt him...not that much anyway..."

Dumbledore chuckled. "I won't ask. I take it he took it well?"

Tonks let out a small breath of relief. "Yeah, pretty much. Nothing interesting happened except I'm sure now he's not over Sirius he's pushing it aside. Oh...and his uncle's a pig, but other than that..."

Dumbledore gave her a stern look that lacked power because of the twinkle in his eyes. "I asked you not to do anything to him!"

Tonks whined, "Oh come on! He was still where we left him, snoring his fat ass off!"

"Tonks! Language!" Tonks gave Molly a withering glare. She was not fifteen.

"I..."

"Anything else Tonks? Very well, Minerva, if you could see to it that Vernon Dursley is returned to his proper state?" Minerva nodded, her lips twitching greatly as she walked regally from the room. Tonks sighed and slouched back in her seat. She'd hoped the old oaf could stay like that for at least...

"Oh wait! I forgot. I apparated back after I was sure Harry knew I was gone - he was fast asleep. I reckon those curses took a lot out of him."

Dumbledore nodded vaguely. "I would have thought so, especially when Percy Weasley forced a magical backlash on him, which really wears..."

"WHAT?!"

Dumbledore winced. "Alas, my mumbling gets me into trouble."

Molly didn't soften. "What did you say?"

Dumbledore let out a long sigh before sitting back. "Harry erected wards around Number Four and merged them with the blood magic, very impressive feat in itself. The wards kept the Ministry, and Cornelius' rage, out for a good few hours before your son had a go. He brought them down by playing a bit dirty and forcing the magic in the wards back to the source - Harry. I was surprised he didn't all out faint, he just gasped and stumbled." Molly's face darkened along with every other Weasley in the room. They all opened their mouths to say something, but a polite cough cut them all off.

"I don't believe we have heard anything from our youngest visitors?" Dumbledore glanced thankfully at Kingsley before turning his attention to the three on the couch, who promptly blushed a very great deal.

"Well? Any thoughts?" There was a small silence until one of them got the courage to speak up. Surprisingly, the first one to speak was the youngest.

"What was the Ministry doing fighting Harry's wards?"

Dumbledore blinked. "Oh, my apologies, it seems I neglected to mention. The Ministry was summoned with amazing speed to arrest Harry for underage magic and murder. He's to be taken to trial on Monday." The roar at this was unbelievable. Dumbledore had obviously been expecting it, because not a second after it started he cast a silencing charm, looking calmly around the room. It took everyone a moment to realize that there was no sound coming out of their mouths, and then they sat and glared. Dumbledore chuckled quietly to himself before administering the counter.

"Now, stay calm. Harry managed to discredit Cornelius enough for me to convince him I would escort him to trial on Monday, so he was able to avoid a holding cell and lord knows what else our Minister had planned. As Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot I have absolutely no plan of allowing Cornelius to rig the trial in anyway."

Hermione swallowed audibly. "What charges?"

Dumbledore watched her carefully for a moment before replying, "Murder and underage magic, as I mentioned. I have a feeling though that this trial will account for much more. There is an awful lot Harry may be accused of." The room visibly sobered.

"If he condones Veritaserum he could give away half the Order."

Dumbledore sighed. "That I am aware of. I do hope that I can convince the questioner to stay on a strict guideline if it comes to that. There is also the fact that Harry has been breaking the law of late."

Ron blinked. "What?"

Dumbledore gave Tonks a very long look. "For one, he has stunned an Auror. He has been performing massive amounts of underage magic, and erected wards to prevent Ministry monitoring of him. I also believe he has possession of a second wand, though I could not summon it when I attempted. Tonks? Perhaps you should speak?" Tonks felt her cheeks flare. This was most definitely not a good situation.

"I..."

"Obviously, you have Harry's trust, but these things will be vital to the outcome of the trial."

Tonks chewed her lip nervously, glancing around the room. She felt a prickling at the back of her head and gasped, slamming up Occlumency shields. "Get out of my head!" Snape snarled but sat back and the relief filled her.

"Tonks. I understand your hesitance, but I know you understand how important this matter is. Does he have a second wand?" Tonks swallowed painfully. Everyone was looking at her, and she knew that Dumbledore would order her to answer any minute. Harry was going to kill.

"None of the things Harry got this summer were illegally obtained. He owns all of them perfectly legally." She squeezed her eyes shut as mutters filled the room. Opening them again, she found Dumbledore smiling to her relief.

"Very well, that is enough. I commend you on your loyalty to him. We can also add illegal apparition to the charges if he's under Veritaserum. I'm unsure what else until I speak to him." There was a long pause in the room.

"This is going to turn out bad isn't it?"

"I intend it to turn out very well Mr. Weasley; I just hope my intentions are enough."

Tonks shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. "Can I..."

"That's another point Tonks, how did you get into his house?"

Tonks blushed as she glanced at Moody. "He said the blood magic let in people he trusted, just not those that meant him great harm and made him feel threatened."

Dumbledore looked up. "Interesting. I could have sworn I created it to lock down the house completely in the event of a threat...perhaps he altered it."

"Maybe. Can I go and..."

Dumbledore chuckled. "You are eager. Shall we perhaps move the meeting to Privet Drive? I am certain a good number of us will be able to enter the house with this news." There were some murmurs.

"Very well then. Tonks, if you'll go and make sure he's...appropriately ready. Molly, if you could prepare yourself not to crush him and scold. I'm afraid the younger ones will have to be left here with those who can't get into the house...but I will let Arthur fill you in when he gets back." Tonks stayed just along enough to see their scowls before disapparating.

---

A soft smile filled her face as she found Harry fast asleep on his pillow, his arms holding another pillow tightly to him. He actually looked peaceful, which she, sadly, didn't expect of him. Waking him up from that state didn't appeal to her at all.

She carefully sat down at his side, knowing that the others would be arriving shortly. Chewing her lip, she watched his breathing for a moment, trying to gather herself. She carefully reached out and brushed his fringe from his eyes before gently resting her hand on his shoulder, giving him a gentle shake.

"Harry." He murmured something quietly and moved onto his side, mumbling in his sleep. She smiled; he was most definitely cute.

She made to shake his shoulder again, but stopped as numerous cracks filled the room. Harry's reaction was so fast she was amazed; he was asleep the second before.

He sat forward, his eyes opened in a blink of her eye, a wand in his hand, and a shield covering the whole bed. She stared at it, rather impressed at how it enveloped the whole space around them. Harry most definitely had some interesting books.

A faint chuckle seemed to bring Harry to his senses. He blinked, took account the people facing him, and her herself. After a long moment he slowly lowered his wand, and so in turn, the shields.

"I see I was correct in thinking you had a second wand. Extraordinarily fast draw; I didn't even see where you got it from." Tonks saw Harry's eyes widen and glance quickly to his bedside table, where she saw his normal wand. When she looked back, she discovered his second wand had somehow disappeared.

"What happened? Why are you all here?" Tonks glanced around the room, surprised at the amount of people that had gotten in. She nearly gasped outright when she saw Snape lurking in a corner, the surprise on his own face still there. Also present were the ones to be expected - Molly, Arthur, Moody, Kingsley, Remus, Dung, and everyone who had been in his guard last year.

"Nothing to worry about Harry, just yet anyway. Perhaps you should change?" Dumbledore said. Harry scowled. Tonks opened her mouth to give a warning, but already he changed his pajamas into ordinary robes without a thought, much to the surprise of everyone. Only a few seconds later he realized his mistake and swore.

"Harry! Language!" Tonks groaned quietly. That woman really had a problem!

"Interesting Harry. If you'll excuse me while I provide seats?" With a wave of his wand, the room suddenly expanded four times. Another few waves and large comfortable chairs were conjured around the room. Tonks noticed that she seemed to be expected to keep her seat on Harry's bed.

There was suddenly another crack, at which Harry stopped reacting halfway through doing so. A flustered McGonagall appeared in the room and glanced around.

"Really Albus, you could have told me you were coming here or I wouldn't have doubled back."

Tonks blinked. "Wait a second, how come you sent her here if you didn't know the blood magic would let her through?"

Dumbledore blushed gently. "A small hindsight on my part, I forgot." There were chuckles around the room, though Harry didn't join in. His eyes were scanning them all warily, flickering to his trunk and wand more than a few times. Tonks smiled and handed him the latter, which he quickly pocketed.

"What exactly are you here for?"

Dumbledore quietly sighed. "We were in a meeting trying to discuss the pros and cons of Veritaserum use on you during the trial on Monday. Unfortunately, we aren't aware of what you have been doing the past week, and so need to know just how much can be placed upon you should you be asked about it." Harry paled a great deal at that.

"Now, we are already aware of your use of magic and wards illegally, and Tonks let slip you could apparate before pummeling herself for doing so, but we should also know what else you could possibly be charged with."

Harry looked like he had swallowed a very painful potion. "Erm..."

Dumbledore gave him a small smile. "Of course, it's none of our place to tell you off for anything you have done, and nor will anyone do so. This is quite simply for your own safety."

Harry eyed Dumbledore before carefully moving out from under his covers. "And?" He looked caught between being resigned and cautious.

"Well, we will need to know of any illegal spells you've used firstly."

Harry thought for a long moment. "I haven't, that I know of, although the curse I used earlier could be classified as one. It isn't at the moment because barely anyone knows about it so...no."

"Who have you used spells on?" Harry grimaced and glanced at Tonks who chewed her lips.

"He guessed about Levi."

Harry winced but let out a long sigh. "Well, that git. I've dueled a bit now and again with Tonks, but haven't used anything more serious than a Petrificus Totalus." Dumbledore watched him for a few seconds.

"And?"

Harry gritted his teeth. "That's it."

Dumbledore simply stared for a moment at him. "Harry, you're lying." Harry didn't break eye contact with Dumbledore.

"I know. I'm not telling about the last person. Don't worry, he won't press charges." There were a number of frowns at that.

"What did you do?"

Harry suddenly laughed. "I didn't kill him. It was just some...friendly curses." Dumbledore's eyes narrowed but he nodded.

"Very well. Anything else illegal that comes to mind?"

Harry shrugged offhandedly, almost as if he was bored with the conversation. "Apparition, an illegal potion, erm..."

Snape leaned forward. "What potion?"

Harry glanced at him in distaste. "Why?"

Snape snarled. "Because some carry very great punishments for brewing."

Harry let out a very frustrated breath. "Areter Vacuum." Tonks had absolutely no idea what he was talking about but Snape's eyes widened a great deal.

"Where did you get the recipe for that?" He all but spat. Harry shrugged carelessly.

"One of my books."

Dumbledore glanced at Snape. "What is it, and what is its sentence?"

Snape stared hard at Harry. "It creates a temporary mental shield, quite a strong one actually. The reason its illegal is mainly because it is so dangerous to brew and the fact it can counteract most truth serums. Depending on the use, and context, it can cost a few years in Azkaban. I do hope you haven't poisoned yourself yet Potter!"

Harry's eyes narrowed. "No actually."

Snape nodded. "Very well, give me the potion and I will dispose of it. You can't be charged without use..."

Harry yawned. "I haven't got it."

Snape froze. "You brewed it for someone else?" Harry rolled his eyes.

"Of course not, who would I brew it for?"

Snape frowned. "You mean you actually took it? Are you mad boy! That could kill you..."

Harry gave him a very harsh glare. "I'm not dead am I?"

Snape's lip curled. "You should summon Madam Pomfrey, Albus; he's got poison in his..."

Harry grunted. "I would be dead by now if I had Snape."

"Professor Snape, Harry." Harry completely ignored Dumbledore, glaring full force at Snape.

"When did you take it?"

Harry snorted. "Oh lord, you said I was thick! Last night!" There was a silence in the room and then Moody started laughing.

"Well I never."

Tonks grinned as well as Snape flushed ever so gently. "I think you're a bit slow today Sevie." Snape sent her a glare that just made her grin wider, and sunk back into his corner.

Dumbledore sighed. "How great would a sentence be in that context?"

Snape growled. "Because it was used to protect his own mind, there shouldn't be a sentence." A visible breath of relief stole through the room.

"That is good. Anything else Harry?" Harry scowled but seemed to be thinking. He glanced at his trunk for a long moment.

"Not really. Well...I think I might have permanently injured some Death Eater's earlier, especially the one who got the Flipendo to the chest."

Dumbledore smiled. "I hardly think that will be our concern considering who you were cursing. Are you sure that's everything?"

Harry slowly nodded. "I think so..."

Dumbledore smiled suddenly. "Very well. Do you think I could perhaps have a closer look at your portrait? I've been wondering where I recognized the women from."

Harry blanched. "Now's not the best time."

Dumbledore frowned. "Why ever not?"

Harry began to blush. "It'll take much too long. After everything's over will be much better. She's quite...insistent for knowledge of recent events."

"Really? Portraits normally care only for their rest after so many years..."

"She's not like other portraits." The confusion was evident on Dumbledore's face but apparently, he was willing to let it slip.

"Very well Harry. Is there anything else you feel you should share before we leave?"

Harry shook his head, before pausing. "Oh, I'll meet you for the trial, I need to do something first." He blushed as every head turned to him.

"Don't worry, it's nothing illegal." Tonks laughed at the surprise on everyone's face, while Harry just scowled.

"We'll talk about that nearer the time. Make sure that the blood magic is maintained, I don't want Fudge getting his claws in you."

Harry snorted. "I wouldn't go anywhere with him." There was a palpable silence in the room before Dumbledore stood up.

"Very well, I'll be in touch soon. To headquarters, at last I believe. Molly, if you'll return home and appease your children, direct everyone there. This has been a rather long day, hasn't it?" With that, he gave Harry a smile and small wink before disapparating. Slowly everyone followed, Snape last, scowling menacingly. The moment he was gone Harry seemed to deflate and fell back against his bed.

"This is going to be fun." Tonks nodded and slowly took his wand from him to put back on his bedside table.

A thought occurred to her. "How did you draw your other wand so quickly? Where is it?" Harry gave her a tired smile and pulled up his sleeve. His face scrunched up in concentration, and then to her surprise a wand holder became visible.

She grinned. "Sly Harry." He nodded before forcing the holder to disappear again. He slumped back against his bed, yawning widely.

"Can you ask them to leave me alone until Monday? They can talk to me on the parchment." Tonks nodded slowly, wondering if they'd take a thought to anything she said.

"Sorry about slipping about apparition Harry, I was..."

Harry waved a hand. "Don't worry about it." She watched him as he slowly began to close his eyes. With a soft sigh, she saw him slip off to sleep. She carefully moved him under his covers and simply looked at him for a long moment, before she too disapparated. There was only so much one person could take, and she was worried Harry was at his limit.

A/N: For regular story updates and notifications, please join my Yahoo Group which can be found on my profile

Sorry for the update delay, I've had problems with my computer which are now hopefully fixed