Chapter 3: Through The Looking Glass
For a moment, Harry simply stared blankly. His mind had not caught up with his eyes, and it only struck Harry what had happened when he heard the Dursley's car roar to life.
"Wait!" Harry cried frantically, running towards their vehicle. "How… I mean, you're a… secret keeper?" The absurdness of what he was asking hadn't quite come to him yet, and he was still partially expecting to wake up in a few moments, his face buried in homework that he'd already completed several times. Aunt Petunia turned around and gave Harry a meaningful look, but said nothing as she climbed into the passenger seat.
Harry raised his hand to motion for Uncle Vernon to stop, but just as he was about to voice his protest a sound from the newly visible barn behind him drew his attention, giving the Dursley's their window of opportunity to drive away unimpaired.
"Wotcher, Harry! How are you?" Harry immediately recognized the young witch and offered a small smile before turning back to see the Dursely's pulling out of the gravel. "The Muggles treat you alright?" Harry turned back to Tonks, trying to organize the thoughts in his head.
This had all seemed so… blasé; anticlimactic in a way. There had been no startling event that led to his removal from Privet Drive this year, no attempt on his life, no efforts to keep him from returning to Hogwarts, or at least not yet anyway. The calmness was extremely unnerving to him, just as complete silence is a danger signal to many animals of prey.
He didn't feel like his summer with the Dursleys was over yet, but they were gone, and here he was talking to Tonks. Perhaps part of that was because the days seemed to blend together in Harry's dark room that he'd been retreating to.
"Er - yeah, I suppose," he offered lamely. He paused, realizing that Tonks was probably covertly trying to ask about Sirius as well. "I'm doing fine," he offered flatly in an entirely unconvincing tone.
"Right then," Tonks said, either not noticing his lack of enthusiasm or ignoring it on purpose. "Want to come in?" She motioned for Harry to enter to barn-like building. Harry went briefly to collect his things, then entered with Hedwig and his trunk in hand.
Inside was rather plain, with a large bed in one corner, a small kitchen in another and a table with a few chairs in the center of the single room, covered with only a few pieces of parchment. The walls were devoid of any decorations, except for three full length mirrors along the back wall which all had a different style to them.
"What is this place?" Harry asked pointedly. It was so plain that it did not appear it could possibly be a place you'd find Tonks, or drop off Harry Potter. His curiosity had conquered his confusion and gloom.
"This is Spinners End Harry." She glanced behind them and looked back at Harry's eyes. "Hold on, let me get the door." Tonks moved towards the open door and pulled them shut, latching them from the inside.
"So, you were saying?" Harry probed, sitting down at the table. He pulled up one of the papers on the desk in front of him, but they all instantly disappeared with a flick of Tonks' wrist. She gave him a pained smile, then walked over to the corner with the kitchen.
"Yes. This is Spinners End. It's a rendezvous for the Order." Tonks placed water on the burner for tea, and turned back to face Harry who was looking around the simple room.
"And my Aunt is the secret keeper?" Harry asked pointedly.
"Yes, but before you ask me why or how, I don't know anything about it. You'll have to talk to Dumbledore for that." She looked at him with what Harry was sure was pity. Harry didn't like being pitied nearly as much as he didn't like publicity. Pity made people coddle him like a child, and coddling is why he hadn't known the prophecy until just this last June.
"And why would this be the rendezvous? Why not at Grimmauld?" Harry looked at her intently as she turned around and lifted the now whistling kettle off the burner. She conjured up two cups and began to pour the boiling water into them.
"This place is a little more, er, unconnected if you catch my meaning. Grimmauld is an old wizarding house, known by many to at least exist, event if its actual location is now kept secret." Tonks handed Harry his cup of tea and took a quick sip of hers. "Even with the protections, it wouldn't look good if we all were coming and going from Grimmauld all the time." She grinned for a moment. "Plus there's nothing out here. A lot harder to approach unnoticed."
"I bet that's a pain for the Order though."
"No. You see, we have other methods of getting here." She gestured towards the mirrors on the wall. "Those are special two-way mirrors. Do you know what those are?" Harry's gaze quickly dropped to his swirling dregs, and his thoughts immediately went to the broken mirror in his trunk.
"Yeah," Harry said in a deflated voice. "I know what those are." Tonks looked at Harry questioningly for a moment, but quickly returned to regarding the mirrors.
"Well, these ones are special. These ones were made just for the Order by Dumbledore himself. Don't know what exactly he did, but they act like portals almost." She pointed over towards them. "The one in the middle goes to Grimmauld Place. The one on the left goes to Dumbledore's office. The one on the right... it goes to the Ministry."
Harry raised an eyebrow at Tonks. "The Ministry? Are we on friendly terms with them now?" Harry tried to make his question sound as innocent as possible, however, Tonks was not to be fooled.
"Sorry Harry, it's not my decision. Talking about Order business is something that Dumbledore mostly deals with." She gave Harry a pitying glance. "Let's just say they are more willing to listen to our point of view now." Harry snorted.
"I should hope so. They caught Death Eaters inside their own facilities... not to mention Voldemort himself!" Tonks flinched. "It's about time they woke up."
"Yes, well..." Tonks trailed off, looking around briefly as if to make sure they were alone. "I suppose I could tell you a bit." She took a gulp from her tea which was now a much more pleasant temperature. "Fudge is in a bit of a spot if you ask me."
"What's that mean?" Harry glanced back at the mirrors, then turned his attention to Tonks again.
"Well." She paused, eying Harry carefully. "This is all my own speculation, so don't think this is any special Ministry insider tidbit." She took another sip. "After the break in at the Ministry a few weeks ago, it's slowly been coming to light that Fudge was running things according to how he wished things to be, not how they really were. The Prophet's been grinding him into the ground over it." Harry watched her, listening intently.
"He's had to accept many of the, er, 'measures' which Dumbledore had proposed before in order to keep his office." She finished off her tea, looking at empty cup a bit sadly. "If you ask me, he's on his way out and he knows it."
"Well that's a good thing," Harry said brightly. Tonks shook her head.
"No, he's on his way out, Harry, and he's trying to hold on to power. I suspect that he might take some... drastic measures to remain Minister as long as possible." Harry got a sudden vision of Percy furious writing a nasty letter to someone in order to make his boss look better.
"Yeah, I see what you mean."
Tonks looked at Harry for a moment as if inspecting him for something, before finally breaking away and grabbing something off the bed. "Something for your birthday Harry. Don't know if I'll be around then or on duty." She handed the small package to Harry which was, as he noted taking it from her, remarkably light for its size. He opened it, and from the inside came two mirrors.
"Real two-way mirrors," she told him, beaming. Harry could feel pain welling up inside him, and he held onto his composure with all his effort. "You can talk to a friend if you want from across the grounds. Nifty little things really." She stared at his face for a moment. "Well, I thought it was a good gift..." she trailed off, still staring at Harry.
"No," he said, "it's perfect. Thanks." With that he motioned towards the hanging mirrors. "Best be going, shouldn't we?" Tonks nodded.
"Don't worry about your things," she told him. "I'll send them with Shacklebolt when he comes around later." Harry nodded, but suddenly remembered something.
"There is one thing I'd like to grab," he said, dashing out the door as quickly as he could manage. He searched for a few minutes before he saw its faint essence and grabbed the Invisibility Cloak. He ran back inside, shutting the doors again. "Couldn't leave this lying around," he told her, grabbing the present and heading for the mirrors.
"Are you ready?" Tonks asked. Hairy nodded. "Alright. Middle mirror. Step through as quickly as possible. They're expecting you." She smiled. "Happy Birthday Harry." Harry flashed her a genuine grin and stepped through the looking glass.
The experience wasn't quite like a portkey, but it wasn't like Floo either. He felt like he was being stretched as he put his hand through the mirror. Already his finger tips could feel the other side where they lost the elongated feeling, emerging normal once more. He pushed his arm out first, but it acted like a slingshot and the more of him came out the other side, the faster his stretched body approached the barrier. He came tumbling out the other side feeling as though he had stepped through solid steel, thoroughly disoriented. The feeling was compounded however as momentarily his vision was clouded by brown hair, the sound of several people yelping adding to his confusion.
"Hello Hermione," he said, realizing who has accosted him. She pulled away and beamed at him. He could see Ron and Ginny right behind her and could hear the approach of Mrs. Weasley.
"I'm so glad you're finally here," Hermione said emphatically. Ginny was grinning madly in agreement and Ron came over to clap Harry on the back.
"It's about time you had a proper birthday," he declared. Harry grinned, looking at Ron then Hermione. I wonder what my birthdays are usually like... Harry mused. It took him a few moments to realize that he already knows what his birthdays are usually like, unimportant and tortuous.
"Yeah," Harry responded, but his mind was drifting elsewhere. He looked at his friends and all he saw was his failure. He'd been separated from Ron, but Hermione had been right there in front of him when Dolohov cursed her.
He knew that they were looking at him concerned, as he had suddenly slipped out of the present, but all Harry could see was the surprised look on Hermione's face and the purple streaks, then rushing over to check her and having Neville tell him there was a pulse. The moment in which she had fallen had seemed like an eternity in which he felt helpless.
He saw Ron being attacked by an ethereal pickled brain, grabbing him with tentacles of what were apparently thought. He saw the horrific screaming that Ron had emitted when the brain attacked him. All he saw was failure. He never wanted to see a friend of his fall like that again. Ever.
"Are you alright mate?" Ron asked. Hermione glared at him for asking such a stupid question; and Harry had to agree, the question sending him into reliving the last couple of weeks, which even now seemed too dark altogether. The mere presence of his friends seemed to separate him from the before, something that Harry would do anything to have.
"Yeah, I'm alright," Harry told him, flashing a quick smile and quickly averting his eyes to the door where Mrs. Weasley had just entered.
"There you are dear! I was beginning to get worried." She pulled him into a quick hug. "I expect that you left your things with Tonks." Harry nodded his reply. "Well then, Arthur has a pair of pajamas that you may wear for tonight if Shacklebolt can't make it." He nodded. "Your birthday will be terrific Harry. We even managed to remove the painting of Sirius' mother."
And it was at this moment that realization came crashing down on Harry, and it dawned on him that this was Sirius' house, where he had tried to contact Sirius through the fireplace but instead gotten Kreacher. His face suddenly filled with something which puzzled Ron, but made Hermione gasp.
"Don't Harry! You don't even have your wand!" she told him.
"I'll kill him." Harry said it with such cold indifference and stark determination that it made Hermione's eyes begin to water. Ron seemed to catch on at this point and stared at Harry in confused shock. "I'll kill him with my bare hands."