The Time of Change
by Olafr (olafrt@gmail.com)
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and associated milieu, characters, and situations are owned by J.K. Rowling and her licensees. This is a work of fan fiction, produced solely for enjoyment. No infringement of rights is intended.
Rating: PG-13
Last updated: 13 November, 2005. (V2. Thanks to Mark Hunter for feedback on the initial draft.)
Author's Notes: Introducing the Grangers. (The title for this chapter alludes to a recent British drama/comedy, At Home With the Brathwaites. But the Grangers are nothing like the Braithwaites. Really.)
10. At Home With the Grangers
It turned out that Harry was right. The small park was being well used by the mothers of the neighborhood with their children too young to go to school, enjoying the lovely sunshine of the day... and the nearest large park was some distance away. In the end, they huddled in the alleyway in which Harry had encountered the dementors a year before. Tonks brought out a portkey - a small, crumpled tin which had stored corn kernels in its previous life - and moments later they landed in the entry hall of the Granger home.
oOoOoOo
"Hermione, is that you?" The woman's voice emanating from the doorway which led deeper into the house was loud and somewhat strident. It was the voice of a confident person, with the projected tone of someone who has undergone formal voice training. Footsteps sounded, the sharp, echoing tok-tok-tok of wooden heel and shoe-leather on polished floorboards.
"Yes, Mum, it's me," called out Hermione. Harry was surprised to see that her voice now also had a more rounded tone. "Harry and Auror Tonks are with me."
The footsteps came closer, and then, in a flurry of blazing red track-suit pants and black pola-fleece vest worn over a lavender blouse, Emma Granger erupted into the room.
"Oh, hello, honey, it's good to see you home," she said as she engulfed Hermione in a hug which was returned with equal vigor. After a long moment, the two stepped back, and Mrs Granger turned to face Harry, a large smile on her face. "And you must be Harry. I've heard quite a bit about you from Hermione; I've wanted to meet you properly for quite a while now."
"Thank you for allowing me - er, us - to stay with you," said Harry awkwardly. He shook her offered hand, which was cool and dry.
"You're welcome, Harry. I'm looking forward to getting to know you." With that, Mrs Granger turned to face Tonks.
"This is Nymphadora Tonks, Harry's bodyguard and trainer," put in Hermione quickly but smoothly. Mrs Granger nodded and offered her hand to shake.
"Welcome, Nymphadora," she said warmly.
"Please call me Tonks," replied the pink-haired Auror as the two briefly shook hands.
"Well, won't you all come through? I'll make a cup of tea and we can discuss living accomodations," said Mrs Granger as she turned to lead the way through the house. "I believe that Mr Moody said you'd be using magic to do something about that?"
The hallway opened out into an enormous, sunny back room that combined a kitchen, dining, and living area. Large, rough brownish tiles on the floor and almost-white walls allowed the eye to pass through the wall of quartered sash windows to the lush garden of the back yard. A clerestory penetrated the middle of the ceiling and allowed light to shine on the rear wall of the room, which was covered in framed photographs, some old, some new; on the wall opposite the kitchen was a large fireplace bracketed by rather comfortable-looking bookshelves. The books therein looked at a glance as though they were used, rather than simply stored; some had worn spines and in many places the arrangement was somewhat haphazard, and to one side of the fireplace a television sat, this week's TV guide on top, drooping down in front of the screen. Large overstuffed couches and armchairs faced the fireplace and shelves, and between the kitchen and lounge area, a large eight-seat dining table currently bore a table runner, some globular glass tea candle holders, and a large arrangement of flowers that appeared to have been taken from the spectacular garden.
It was, quite simply, the most comfortable room that Harry had ever been in.
"Would everyone like tea, then? Or would anyone like coffee instead?" asked Mrs Granger over the sound of the tap as she filled the kettle.
"Tea, please, mum," said Hermione as she made a beeline for the lounge area. "Come on, Harry."
"How about you, Harry? Tea or coffee?"
"Tea for me, please," he said.
"Me too," said Tonks, who moved over to stand between the dining table and the large, flat kitchen bench near where Mrs Granger had disappeared into a walk-in pantry.
Harry smiled at Hermione who flung herself into one end of a well-worn dark brown three-seat Chesterfield and patted the cushion next to her. He sat as directed, leaving room next to him for Tonks. He looked around, taking in the titles of the books and some of the photographs, twisting to see the ones on the wall behind him.
"What do you think?" asked Hermione after a minute. Tonks and her mother had struck up a conversation over the heating kettle, and she was free to concentrate on Harry. She felt wonderful and happy, and she drank in Harry's face as his eyes darted here and there, an expression of amazed joy on his face.
"This is super!" he exclaimed softly, his attention returning to her. "I love your place, Hermione."
She nodded. Looking out at the garden, she said, "I think it's pretty neat, too. I guess I've become used to it, but it is nice."
"It's lovely. Is your room like this?"
She shook her head. "It's blue, and really, it's still mostly decorated like an eleven-year-old lives there. I haven't had much of a chance to ask mum and dad to redecorate it. I only live there for two months a year, after all." She smiled to herself briefly. "Mum bought me a bigger bed a year ago, though." At his surprised glance, she added, "A full-sized single bed, you git." She slapped his forearm indignantly, but a grin took the sting out of her words.
Tonks and Mrs Granger joined them then, each carrying two steaming mugs. Tonks gave her spare to Harry, while Mrs Granger gave hers to Hermione. Mrs Granger sat in a large, pale armchair, while Tonks sat in a loveseat upholstered in deep, Turkish red which was almost buried in a sea of brightly-coloured cushions. After a ritual sip of the tea, Mrs Granger placed her mug on a coaster on the coffee table that sat between the seats and sat back, looking over at Harry and Hermione.
"Now, Dora, you told me that you hope to set up in our attic and expand the space in there to make a training room, library, and sleeping space?"
Tonks nodded while Harry smiled bemused at her acceptance of even part of her first name. His own use of 'Nymph' was at least partly teasing.
"Why is that? Surely you'd need separate rooms for privacy?" continued Mrs Granger.
Tonks' gaze flicked to Harry. "I'm sorry if this embarrasses you, Harry, but..." She turned to face Mrs Granger, and continued, "When I set up the attic expansion at Privet Drive, it was mostly because Harry's relatives had locked him in the attic and wouldn't notice. I didn't create separate bedrooms because he has terrible nightmares, sometimes on his own and sometimes fed to him via his link with Voldemort." At Mrs Granger's look of surprise, Tonks clarified, "We found out this year that there was a mental link of some kind made when Voldemort's killing curse bounced off Harry here, when he was a baby. As a result, Harry can see through Voldemort's eyes sometimes, although we're almost certain Voldemort can't do the same. But he can send visions to Harry, usually in his dreams."
"They hurt Harry dreadfully," said Hermione quietly, placing her hand on Harry's arm to keep him quiet and to offer comfort. "Sometimes his scar even splits open and bleeds."
"So as you can see," said Tonks, "I needed a way of getting to Harry quickly. Open-plan living arrangements with a separate bathroom and toilet seemed like the best idea. When Hermione came, we added her bed on the other side of the library area to give her privacy, and nobody had any problems."
"Harry's been doing training to help him control the link with Voldemort," said Hermione. "Usually afterwards his mental shields are at their weakest, like a muscle that's been exercised, and it was nice to be able to hold him and help comfort him when he woke up screaming in pain one night."
Mrs Granger raised an eyebrow at Hermione's pronouncement, whereupon Hermione blushed slightly. Harry's gaze was on his knees, and he too seemed to be blushing. Hermione could feel him trembling, and it came to her that he was in fact mortified with embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Harry, we don't mean to embarrass you," she murmured to him. "But mum needs to know."
"Why?" he muttered rebelliously.
"Because I'd been hoping to keep doing what we've been doing, and I need her permission for that."
Harry raised his head to look Hermione in the face, and she was shocked to see the look of a trapped animal in his eyes before he blinked and smiled weakly at her. "I suppose. I'm just being stupid, really."
"What are you trying to get my permission for, Hermione?" put in Mrs Granger.
"I want to keep the organisation we had at Harry's place - with library, training area, and sleeping area all in one large room with privacy dividers."
Mrs Granger didn't answer, but took a sip of her tea as she thought. "I'll think about it," she said at last. Her lips pursed as her eyes flicked between Harry and Hermione. The action made him aware that he could feel the warmth of Hermione's arm where she sat very close to him on the couch.
Tonks picked up on the vibes and slurped the last of her tea noisily. "Ah, that was wonderful. Now, Harry, I think it's time to set up this room. You can practice your conjuring again once I get the anti-detection wards set up."
"Can I help too?" asked Hermione eagerly.
Tonks looked to Mrs Granger, who smiled and said, "I don't see why not, provided you're properly supervised. But I'd like to speak with you about something first, Hermione. Dora, why don't you take Harry and make a start?"
"Okay. Come on Harry."
Hermione got up and moved to help her mother with the mugs and the much-reduced plate of biscuits, taking them to the kitchen. As she moved to gather up a tea towel, preparing to dry the dishes that her mother would soon wash, Emma paused and turned to her daughter. "Hermione, is Harry your boyfriend?"
Confronted by a direct question, Hermione did not think of lying. She blushed a little and shook her head. "No."
"But you'd like him to be?" She put the plug in the sink and ran the water to fill it. A gentle smile formed as she said this, and her voice was caring.
"Yes."
Adding diswashing detergent, Emma waited for a moment while the sink filled but Hermione added nothing. "But?" she asked as she turned off the tap and started placing mugs in the water. She started washing the cups as she waited for her daughter to reply.
"But I'm almost sure he doesn't understand!" replied Hermione eventually.
"Understand what?"
"Anything at all!"
oOoOoOo
"Now, Harry, we're going to do something a little different this time. We're going to expand the attic like last time, but we're going to also extend the staircase."
"We? But I can't do magic at the moment or the Ministry will detect it."
Tonks nodded. "Right you are, loverboy," she said with a smirk at the way Harry rolled his eyes at the appelation. "But we're going to try something. Not everyone can do this, but if you can do a Patronus, this'll be a piece of cake for you. I could cast all the needed spells myself, but you're quite a bit stronger than me, Harry, so if you lend me some power I can do the whole lot in half the time, and without completely shagging myself."
"Lend you some power? I'm... stronger than you?" Harry's amusement at her teasing had given way to incredulity. Him? Stronger than a qualified Auror?
"Sure you are," said Tonks without a trace of resentment. "I... Look, Harry, let's get this done and then we'll sit down and talk, okay? I think it's time you knew a few things."
Harry's mood darkened and he frowned. "You haven't been doing a Dumbledore have you, Tonks? Keeping stuff from me for my own good?"
She shook her head. "No, yes, not really... Yes, but it was stuff you would have known anyway if you'd only been a little more observant anyway!" she added hurriedly as his frown turned into a glower. "And I'm going to tell you now, okay?" She stepped up to him and drew him into an embrace. "Please don't think badly of me, Harry. I would never mislead you, I love you quite a lot, you're the little brother I always wished I'd had." Harry's stiff body relaxed in her arms at last, and she kissed his forehead. He smiled at her in a tentative way as she let him go.
"I'm your little brother?"
"Well, yes, sort of. I mean, I you're closer to me than a real brother would be, but you're not really what I want in a boyfriend or husband so I don't love you that way. You're important to me and I feel very close to you."
"Oh." She looked at him and he thought she looked a little vulnerable, so he drew her into an embrace. "Well, I guess I feel the same way, Nymph. I never really thought about it; you were just there, but now that you spell it out I feel just the same way about you." He tightened the hug briefly and she lay her head against his shoulder. They stood there for a long moment before Tonks pulled away.
"Well, then, loverboy, let's get to it shall we?" she said, slapping him gently on the chest as she stepped out of his arms. "Then we'll find Hermione, do the furniture, and all sit down for a bit of a chat, huh?"
"Okay."
"All right then, where were we? Ah, yes, power sharing. Harry, I want you to find your magic and visualise feeding me a little bit. Only a tiny bit, mind you, at least until we know how much I can take."
Nodding, Harry closed his eyes and slipped into the light trance he used to find his magic. Once he had finally mastered occlumency - which was nothing more or less than an adamantine shield he visualised surrounding his head that he had first established that night after Snape's taunting - Tonks had urged him to try to use the meditative techniques to find his so-called magical core. It had taken him only one session to do so, with almost catastrophic results. When he had found it, it had come to him as a glowing ellipsoid of energy sitting in his abdomen, its base resting between his hips. Then, when he had reached out and touched it, it had filled him with a sense of boundless, writhing energy, squirming and trying desperately to find a way out of his mental grasp. He had been able to maintain control, but only just, and the experience had left him weak and rather cautious. Since that initial experiment, he had confined himself to simply increasing the speed of his visualisation, Tonks saying that they would work on different ways of him gaining direct control over his core once they were settled at the Grangers.
Now, though, Tonks was asking him to do something different. It didn't sound hard, so he opened himself to his magic and opened his eyes. Tonks herself still stood in front of him, smiling encouragingly, so he very carefully imagined feeding energy to her. He thought of a hose between them, and one appeared to his sight, a translucent cylinder about the size of a garden hose that joined them at their belly buttons. As he watched, Tonks appeared to glow briefly, then settled down, breathing a little more quickly than usual.
"Try that," he said as he concentrated on maintaining the connection, maintaining a nice low pressure in the "hose".
Tonks felt... wonderful. She had known the moment Harry had succeeded, as there had been an almost orgasmic rush as Harry started feeding power to her. It was almost more than she could take, and she feared that despite her cautions that she might be quickly overwhelmed, but she soon realised that somehow he had managed it so that the magic was simply present, and was not trying to force its way into her being. She smiled a brilliant smile at the somewhat distracted youth, and turned to her work.
The rush as she cast the spells that created a new opening into the attic space above the stairs and extended the staircase was like nothing she had ever felt. Magic positively leaped to do her bidding, and for the first time she could feel the reaction in her hand and wand as she channeled power into the spells. She walked up the newly-created stairs, carefully at first then confidently as it became obvious that the construct was quite solid. Quickly looking around the attic space to judge the proper layout of the wards, she saw that the Granger home had the same general outline and roof arrangement as the Dursleys - a simple gable roof - and the same arrangement of wards could be used. Drawing her shrunken broom from the bag containing the ward blocks, she quickly expanded it and placed the six blocks as before. Then, with a smile at how easily this was going, and with an utter confidence she had never felt before in her magic due to the backup from Harry, she went ahead and cast the room expansion spell.
"Oh, bugger."
oOoOoOo
"What do you mean, 'anything at all,' Hermione?"
Hermione flushed bright red, but she pushed through the embarrassment and said, "I don't think he understands what a girlfriend is. Or what a relationship is. Or what love is, for that matter."
"How can anyone not understand that? I mean, telly, and books, and newspapers, and... What's wrong, Hermione?"
"You don't know how Harry's been brought up, mum. His aunt and uncle are abusive, even if they don't actually beat him. But they never let him watch the telly, force him to work like a slave, they made him sleep in a broom cupboard. The summer of '92, they kept him locked in his room with bars on the window and fed him through a cat flap. Like a prison cell." She wiped her eyes, determined not to cry. "He used to tense up when I touched him or hugged him, mum, like he thought, like he thought I was going to hit him. He always wears these horrible rags, but his relatives are quite comfortably off, and he's always so thin at the start of term. It's like they don't feed him."
"Are you sure, Hermione? Harry certainly doesn't look under-fed. Are you sure you weren't being fooled by his clothes? And are you sure they weren't just a fashion statement?"
Hermione just shook her head sadly. "This year has been an exception, mum, and even this year started with Harry locked in an unsealed attic with no furniture and only cold water to wash with. I saw it when Tonks took the charms off earlier today. It was filthy and dark, and it heated up really quickly even though it's not all that hot today."
Emma nodded, her expression even. "And what about you, honey? Even if Harry doesn't understand about love and relationships, you certainly do. Should I allow you to continue to share the training room with Harry and Dora?"
"Mum!"
The older woman looked Hermione in the eyes, and she gradually broke into a broad smile. "Yes, I think I can trust you. You're going to spend all your time with them anyway... and of course, if I can trust you for ten months of the year, of course I can trust you for the other two. Besides," she added a little wistfully, "I can understand you not really wanting to sleep in a little girl's room any more." She sighed. "Well, you'll be seventeen in three months. I think you can make your own decisions about where you sleep and with whom you sleep. Just remember that if you want to talk about anything, dear, even if it's sex or things like that, you can come to me. And you might not want to get too used to male company - you do still have another two years at Hogwarts, after all."
Solemnly, Hermione nodded, before getting up and pulling her mother into an embrace. "I love you, mum. Thank you."
"I love you too, hon." The hug soon broke, and Emma nodded in the direction of the stairs. "Why don't you go and see what they're up to? I'll just tidy these away and then I've got to go into the surgery."
oOoOoOo
Harry dashed up the stairs, worried that something had gone wrong. "What's wrong, Ton...? Oh, wow." The attic had been expanded to the same shape as before, but to an enormous degree. The room was easily large enough to hold a cricket ground - including the stands! It was also quite high, and Harry could easily see himself practising his flying in a space like this. "Why'd you make it so big, Nymph?" he asked enthusiastically. "Not that I'm complaining, of course."
Tonks saw Harry grinning wildly at the thought of this enormous space and contemplataed leaving it as it was. The larger space would cause problems as far as organisation of the beds and so forth was concerned, but.... "Well, we'll leave it be if you want it that way, loverboy, but you'll be responsible for doing the decoration, then."
"Decoration?" This enormous room was far bigger even than a cathedral; it was like a piece of outdoors. Outdoors. Hmm. "Yeah, decoration. Great idea." He turned as Hermione thudded up the steps behind them, coming to a halt with a gasp. "Hi, 'Mione. Do you like the room? All Tonks' work!"
"Why did you make it so big? I didn't even know it could be done so large! This is amazing!" Their voices echoed back softly after several seconds in a kind of rarefied hush.
"I didn't mean to make it this big," said Tonks with a small frown. Then she broke out into a big grin and looked around, head craned back to take in the ceiling. "But it sure is amazing, isn't it?"
"How did you make a mistake?" asked Hermione, honestly curious. "We were taught to visualise the difference in size, and I read in The Magic of Space by Venn that it's best if you try and put an actual number on the expansion or shrinking factor."
"Yeah, well, I always just learned how hard to push to get the result I needed," said Tonks, rather nonplussed. "Thing is, loverboy here was feeding me a little extra power."
"Feeding you power?"
"Yeah." Her gazed moved to Harry, and she added, "Look, I was going to leave it the way it is but I think this is just a bit too big to be practical without setting up other walls and so on, and we're trying to avoid that. So let's redo the expansion charm and furnish this place, and I'll tell you all about it. Harry, I want you to do something for me, and I promise I'll explain this evening. I want you to maintain the link to me, feed power to Hermione, and do the furniture. We'll do the unpacking, decoration, and stuff like the pots and so on. Okay?"
"I don't need extra power," said Hermione, confused.
"It gives Harry a chance to practice. We'll discuss the reasons why this evening, okay, Hermione?"
Hermione looked Harry briefly in the eye, then smiled and nodded. "Okay."
Harry returned her smile then calmed himself and closed his eyes to set up the power link to Hermione. It took only a moment - he simply duplicated what he had done for Tonks - and a brief "Oh!" let him know he had succeeded. Grinning, he opened his eyes to see Hermione staring at him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tonks collapse the rather excessive expansion and then redo it, this time much more slowly so that she could cut it off when it reached the correct size.
"What first?" he asked.
"Library shelves, please," said Hermione before Tonks could say anything. "Then the bed suites, then the tables and chairs."
"Good," said Tonks. "I'll do the bathroom and plumbing. Can you handle the decoration, Hermione, and start the putting away?"
Hermione grinned widely, like a kid in a candy shop. "Oh, yes please!" Harry almost expected her to jump up and down, hands clasped under her chin, but he saw that she controlled herself. "I've always wanted to try something like the ceiling in the Great Hall."
Tonks looked at Hermione but said nothing. Harry turned, guesstimated where to establish the first shelf, and began.
oOoOoOo
It was some time after dinner, and Harry, Hermione, and Tonks were sitting in the lounge area. Tonks had created a large fieldstone fireplace and chimney, and true to her word, Hermione had cast a charm on the room that made it appear as though the tops of the walls and the ceiling were transparent. A fire was blazing against the cool of the evening, and above their heads stars spread themselves across the inky sky in glorious display. Harry knew that the sky outside was in fact rather washed out, so he assumed the spell actually presented the sky as though there were no aircraft or light pollution. Whatever the cause, it was stunningly beautiful.
The three of them were seated on a large, soft, circular cushion about the size of a double bed that faced the fire. Tonks had conjured it when she realised that she did not want to set separately from Harry in an armchair, but she also didn't want to isolate Hermione by having her sit on the other side of Harry. So now the three of them sat fairly closely, facing each other, with Hermione perhaps closer to Harry than Tonks.
They had been building to this discussion all evening. The fitting and furnishing of the reborn attic had gone well, and with Hermione helping, the three of them had finished the entire job by the time the Drs. Granger had returned home. By then Harry had re-established the wards, so Harry had known Hermione's parents were coming even through the silencing charms and they were welcomed at the top of the staircase. Hermione in particular had reveled in this chance to show off her skills, as she had never before been able to show her parents her skill in magic. Mrs Granger had seen that her daughter had privacy and unfettered access to a small but high-level library. She had smiled to herself at this reminder of her daughter's quirks.
Dinner - Indian take-away, eaten downstairs in the dining room - had been late.
Now, the three were back up in their open-skied domain and it was time to talk. Tonks leaned forward.
"Harry, let me start by apologising to you. I've been hiding something from you, and I suppose you could say that by doing so I've been not so much manipulating you, but allowing you to develop unfettered by normal constraints."
Harry had initally frowned, but by the end of Tonks' opening statement was staring at her in confusion. "Huh?"
Hermione laid a hand on Harry's arm. "Perhaps if you explain, Tonks. When you're finished, I can come clean too."
"What?" Harry's surprise was total - Hermione had played a role?
"Whoa there Harry, don't jump to conclusions," said Tonks. "Just listen to me, to us, and then you can decide how you feel."
"Yeah," added Hermione with a nervous smile. "You don't want to do a Ron, do you?"
Grimacing, Harry nodded and reached to Hermione's arm to return her comforting touch. "Okay." Turning to Tonks, he said, "What's going on?"
She swallowed before plunging ahead. "Harry, the thing we've been keeping from you is just how special you are. We've been keeping limits from you so you don't prevent yourself from doing something by telling yourself you can't do it, simply because the books say it can't be done.
"I was all for it, initially. It started when we realised the stuff you conjured wasn't disappearing like it usually would. It seems you have a knack, Harry. Things you conjure tend to be permanent unless you vanish them. People like you are called Makers.
"As a result of that, the Headmaster asked us not to tell you the ordinary limits of things, to see if you could go beyond them. And since then we've found a couple of other ways in which you're special, too.
"You understand, don't you, Harry? There's nothing at all wrong with being special. I'm special, and I revel in it. If you can do that too, and if you can learn that just because a book says you can't do something that you might be able to anyway, then we'll all be better off. Okay?"
"I don't like being special," muttered Harry, feeling decidedly sorry for himself even though he could see Tonks' point. "People point and expect me to do all the work - that's when they don't turn on me."
"So? Ignore them. We know the truth, and we love you for yourself."
"Why can't Harry sue the Prophet for libel?" put in Hermione. "I can't believe they got away with that scurrilous rumour-mongering over the last few years. And Minister Fudge must be exposed to a slander suit?"
"Neither slander nor libel are criminal activies, so it's not something the Aurors get invovled in," replied Tonks in her 'professional' voice. "Harry'd need to launch a civil suit. But he's not of age, so it's his guardian's responsibility."
"The Dursleys," spat Harry.
"That doesn't mean you can't write some threatening letters, though, Harry," said Hermione brightly.
"Yeah," said Tonks. "A nice letter warning whomever that if they don't cease and desist, and make amends, then you'll launch a suit once you come of age, should get them to shut up."
"Wish I'd thought of that when it mattered," grumbled Harry. He sighed deeply and gave a weak smile. "I suppose you're right, Nymph. I agree with what you've done and I'm glad you didn't let it go on very long before telling me. More than I can say for some," he finished darkly.
Tonks hugged Harry. "Thanks, Harry," she said, kissing him on the cheek as she released him. "You're a sport."
He smiled at that, not sure how to respond since a flirty reply to Tonks felt wrong with Hermione present. Eventually he said, "So what else is there?"
"Huh?"
"What else about me is special. You may as well give me the full list." He grinned, finally thinking of a way to respond to Tonks' earlier statement. "Or do I have to tickle it out of you?" he grinned, reaching out with the first two fingers of each hand hooked, ready to play havoc with Tonks' ribs.
Tonks retreated wide-eyed, scooting around to hide behind Hermione. "No, no! That's okay, I'll tell you!" Hermione grinned at Harry, and the two of them tackled Tonks with a four-pronged tickle attack. The Auror dissolved in shrieking laughter.
At length, the three of them lay together on the enormous circular cushion, breathing heavily.
"So," said Harry, "you were saying?"
"I dunno if I should tell you after that display of treachery, lover boy."
"It wasn't that bad."
"I almost wet myself." Hermione giggled. Tonks added, "And as for you, missy, I'll get you later."
There was silence for a time as Harry decided that simply waiting was better than pressing for getting information out of Tonks right now. After about a minute, Tonks sat up and looked at Harry seriously.
"Okay, Harry, pay attention. You already know you're a Maker, and that Albus thinks you're a Mage."
"That means he'll have the ability to directly see magic?" asked Hermione, looking for confirmation.
"Yep. It doesn't necessarily mean that he's very powerful, but as it happens Albus thinks Harry's also got quite a bit of raw power. After the power sharing thing we did this afternoon, I think I've got to agree with him.
"Let's see, what else... that little ceremony on your birthday is a community ritual; it was developed back in the days when a community would elect one or two defenders to protect the village from outsiders - you know, bandits, raiders, acquisitive lords. It's supposed to set up power sharing channels but Albus rigged it so you'd make them much larger than normal. That's what I was testing this afternoon. In theory you can share power with anyone who drank the potion, and likewise you can draw on their power if you need to. It's not done all that often these days - it's mostly a family thing - I believe he did it so you would have an extra pool of power to draw upon when you're facing Riddle and his merry men.
"Umm, then there was the fact that you don't seem to be limited by ordinary limits - or maybe that's just that you don't know what you're not supposed to be able to do, and some of the rest of us would be well served by not being limited that way as well. And finally, there's something odd about your body. I'm pretty sure you're not actually a metamorphmagus, but you seem to have magical control over your body somehow. Your hair doesn't seem to grow if you don't want it to - you've never been to the Hogwarts barber, have you? - and-"
"What barber?" interrupted Harry.
"Oh, really, Harry."
"See?" said Tonks with a smile. "In addition to the hair, you've grown muscle much faster than you should have over the summer. I deliberately tried to get you to do this to find out if you are in fact a metamorph, but you've changed much too slowly to actually be a metamorph but much too fast for it to be anything but magical. I don't know what's going on, but I plan to keep pushing you physically so we can get you looking all nice and buff. Besides, if you're nice and fit you won't get hit by a curse when you're too puffed to dodge out of the way." She shared a glance with Hermione that told the younger girl that it was also being done simply for her enjoyment, but Harry didn't need to know that.
Harry felt rather odd. He was wasn't sure if he should feel proud, or outraged, or something else entirely. It was all rather overwhelming, really. Eventually he simply decided not to think about it, but instead to just get on with his life, and maybe live a little rather than simply existing.
"Thank you, Nymph," he said. "I do appreciate you looking out for me."
Tonks' expression softened for a moment before returning to its normal animation. "Don't thank me just yet, lover boy!" she crowed. "Training starts again tomorrow morning. Don't forget your shield!"
"So what is on tomorrow's agenda?" asked Hermione.
"Tomorrow? Tomorrow, we're going to teach you two to Apparate, and once you've got that down we're going to visit an old disused quarry the Aurors use sometimes for training."
"What ever for?" asked Harry.
"Remember how we decided you needed to try some powerful spells to get started seeing magic? That's what for."