Chapter 17: Chapter 15 – The Advance Guard (1)

“What are you doing here, Professor Lupin?” asked Harry.

“We can chat inside. It’s not safe to stay out here for long,” Moody said moodily, cutting Lupin off.

“It’s nice to see you too, Professor Moody,” quipped Harry.

“Don’t know much about the professor part,” growled the voice, “didn’t get down to much teaching now, did I?”

Harry laughed lightly and turned to Jacob. “Mind if we let them in, Jacob?”

“As long as you say they’re fine, I have no issues with it,” shrugged Jacob as he stepped aside to let the group in.

“It’s okay Harry, we’re here to take you away,” said Lupin as he passed him.

Harry realised he didn’t know most of the people in that group. Though they certainly seemed to know him.

“He looks exactly like I thought he would, except for the glasses. I don’t see his glasses,” exclaimed a violet haired woman happily.

“What happened to your glasses, Harry?” asked Lupin quizzically.

“Don’t really need them anymore, not sure why,” replied Harry, as vaguely as he could as he followed the group into the living room.

As they entered the living room, Moody turned towards Harry.

“You sure this is him, Lupin?” asked Moody cautiously.

“What form does your patronus take, Harry?” asked Lupin.

“A stag” replied Harry.

“Yup, that’s him alright,” said Lupin happily.

Lupin walked towards Harry, placed a hand on his shoulder and spoke, “How are you, Harry?”

“Good. Lily got me out of that hellhole and Jacob and Ava have been great to me,” replied Harry.

“That’s good,” replied Lupin, “we orchestrated this whole thing where we distracted your muggle family and went to their house to pick you up but you weren’t even there.”

“Gave us a right scare there, boy,” said Moody with his usual glare.

“Well, if certain people didn’t just leave me in the middle of hyper-neurotic muggles without a single bit of news and let me stew in my head, then you wouldn’t have needed that scare,” said Harry.

Moody growled and just before he could reply, Remus put a hand on his shoulder and spoke, “Now, now, let’s leave it at that.”

Harry looked around at all the surrounding wizards with a smile as they kept staring avidly at him.

“So, what did you guys even do to get my uncle and aunt to leave the house? I imagine Dudley would have been easy. Just float a pie in front of him and he’d follow it to the ends of the earth.”

A few of the wizards chuckled and the violet-haired woman and Lily laughed out loud.

“Ha! I can imagine that lard bucket doing that. I’m the one who lured them away,” she said proudly. “I sent them a letter through muggle mail telling them we had shortlisted them for the All-England Best Kept Lawn Competition. They went off to the prize-giving last night. I wish I was there to see their faces when they came back.”

Harry and Lily laughed hard at that.

“Oh, they so deserve that,” wheezed Lily between laughs.

Harry looked around at all the wizards in the meantime and noticed the violet-haired woman frequently stealing glances at Lupin. All the others were staring at Harry almost constantly.

‘Hmm, I wonder what that’s about, thought Harry.

Lupin and the group sat on the couches in the living room and he started motioning towards the various wizards and witches in the room.

“This is Alastor Moody,” Lupin said, pointing at Moody.

“Yeah, I know,” replied Harry.

“This clumsy one here is Nymphadora-” he continued, only to be interrupted by her.

“Don’t call me Nymphadora,” she pouted, “It’s just Tonks.”

“This is Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers being called Tonks,” said Lupin.

“You try being named Nymphadora by your idiot mother, then we’ll see how you like it,” she mumbled.

Lupin ignored her and continued on with his introductions.

“This is Kingsley Shacklebolt,” he showed towards a tall, dark-skinned wizard, who bowed. “Elphias Doge,” he motioned towards a wheezy-voiced wizard, who nodded.

“Dedalus Diggle-” he started.

“We’ve met before!” squeaked Diggle excitedly, his violet-coloured top hat falling down.

“Emmeline Vance” he said, pointing at a stately-looking woman in an emerald green shawl, who elegantly inclined her head with a small smile.

“Sturgis Podmore” Lupin continued, pointing towards a square-jawed wizard who smiled and winked at Harry.

“And last but not least, Hestia Jones,” he pointed at a pink-cheeked black-haired witch, who laughed brightly and waved at him.

Harry smiled and nodded or waved towards the various members as they were being introduced.

“There really are a lot of people here, though,” muttered Harry.

“Many people volunteered to come get you,” said Lupin, having heard what Harry muttered.

“Yeah well, the more the better,” said Moody darkly. “We’re your guard Potter”

“I saw your uncle’s house, Harry. Much too clean, aren’t they?” said Tonks. “My dad’s muggle-born, and he’s a downright slob. Guess it differs from muggle to muggle” “

Harry laughed a little at that. “They might keep their house clean but they spew some really dirty stuff out their mouths though. Worse than anyone I’ve met so far and that includes Peeves, by the way.“

Tonks giggled, “I miss Peeves, he always made me laugh.”

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Lupin sighed a little and said, “You should get packed, Harry. We have around half an hour.”

“I’ll help you!” said Tonks brightly and started skipping up the stairs only to stop at the landing and look back, “Come on Harry, time’s-a-wastin!”

“Coming, coming. Come on Lily, let’s go, you’re helping,” said Harry and followed her up to his room, Lily in tow.

As they walked up the stairs, Tonks looked around with a lot of interest, curiously checking every single thing out.

Following Harry into his room, she looked around and then sighed in relief. “Much better”, she said. “Looks more like a room I’d want to be in.”

Harry looked around and noticed wizarding robes and muggle clothes strewn about. His trunk was ajar, with various wizarding goods peaking out. Books were strewn on the floor, though Harry wasn’t sure when he took them out.

“How did we even get everything everywhere, Harry?” asked Lily. “I’m sure it wasn’t this bad earlier.”

Harry laughed, “we had other things occupying our time.”

“Oooh, what’s this? I smell romance in the air!” squealed Tonks. “What’s going on between the two of you?”

“We started dating a few days back,” replied Harry, unabashed, while Lily just busied herself around the room. Though a closer look would show a light blush on her face.

“Get to work, you two, or we’ll never be finished,” said Lily.

Harry started picking up things and throwing them into the trunk, not particularly paying attention to what he was throwing in.

Tonks looked around for a few more moments before stopping in front of his open wardrobe, staring critically at her reflection in the mirror on the inside of the door.

“You know, I think violet’s not really my color. What do you reckon?” she asked, continuing almost immediately, “It really isn’t my color.“

She screwed up her eyes in a strained expression and a moment later, her originally violet hair turned a bright bubble-gum pink.

“I liked the violet. Though, the pink makes you look brighter and more cheerful,” said Harry, after looking at her for several moments.

Tonks spun around, looking at Harry with a surprised expression. “Not even going to wonder what I did right now?” she asked.

Harry fought back a laugh at her expression and acted as if he were trying to recall something. “I remember reading about this in some book. Metamorphmagus or something, wasn’t it?”

“Well yeah, surprised you knew that. I got top marks in Concealment and Disguise in Auror training thanks to this. I was born one, though.” She said.

Lily, on the other hand, was gobsmacked.

“How did you do that? Can I learn?” she asked excitedly.

“Sorry, sweetie, you need to be born with it,” replied Tonks, making Lily pout.

“Auror would be my top job choice,” said Harry, bringing the conversation back to the earlier topic.

“You’d be good at it, too. I’m dead clumsy,” she said, “I only qualified a year ago. I almost failed Stealth and Tracking.”

Harry stared wistfully at her hair. “Wish I could learn how to be a metamorphmagus.”

Tonks’ expression turned gentle as she looked at his face, her eyes sweeping for a moment across his scar. “I bet you’d want to hide that scar, huh?”

“Yeah, among other things,” mumbled Harry.

Wanting to change the topic, Harry asked something that was on his mind since a little while ago.

“So, what’s going on between you and Professor Lupin, anyway?” asked Harry, rather nonchalantly.

Tonks, who was just about to turn around and look at her reflection in the mirror again, froze.

Several moments later, she jerkily asked, “wh-what do you mean, what’s going on? Nothing’s going on!”

Harry felt rather confused. ‘Was this a sensitive topic?’ he wondered.

“Well, it just seemed like you were more than friends, is all. I’m sorry if I was wrong, though,” said Harry.

Tonks slumped her shoulders, giving up trying to defend herself.

“Was it really that obvious?” she asked, depressed.

Harry considered the matter for a moment before he replied, “well, not really obvious. It just felt like maybe there’s something there, maybe there wasn’t. It’s a little hard to explain”

“What he means is, yes, it was rather obvious that you liked him,” said Lily with a straight face.

“Well, there really isn’t anything between us,” said Tonks, even more depressed. “I’ll be honest with you guys. I want there to be something between us. I really do like him and I’m very sure that he has some feelings for me as well.”

Harry stopped packing and straightened himself before looking at her. He could almost see a fog of depression around her.

“If that’s how you feel, then just tell him. Why not just go for it? Or are you just afraid he might turn you down?” asked Harry.

“You think I haven’t done that already?” she asked, her voice growing fainter. Then, a moment later, her agitation seemed to come out as she raised her voice a little. “Every time I bring it up, he says that he isn’t the guy I should waste myself on. He says he’s not worthy of being with someone else! The idiot keeps saying that he would never want to do something that would ever end up hurting me,” she said, getting more and more agitated.

“I wish I could just hit him over the head every time he says something like that! Argh!” she growled.

“Sounds like you should do just that,” said Lily as she went over and hugged Tonks.

Harry watched her take her irritation out and sighed. “I understand where he’s coming from,” he said to Tonks, which earned a glare from Lily and more irritation from Tonks.

“Even though I understand where he’s coming from, I don’t particularly agree with him,” he said, causing her irritation to dissipate a bit.

Harry paused for a moment after he said that, getting his thoughts into order. “Maybe I could talk to him about it,” he offered.

Tonks looked up at Harry, surprised at his offer.

“You’d do that?” she asked.

“Sure I would,” replied Harry. “Professor Lupin has helped me out a lot, so it’s the least I can do. Even if he feels he doesn’t need help”

Tonks sighed at his reply. “You’re a good boy, Harry, thanks for listening to me. If you end up talking to Remus about this, tell him I said he’s a blockhead,” she said, with a slight smile.

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