Ferinus Consanguinitas

Beta'd by Night the Storyteller

Harry turned to face his relatives, wand in hand and a faint smile on his face. The Dursley's on the other hand went deathly pale and all seemed to be trying to hide behind one another, Petunia was finally pushed to the front as the two whale looking men tried to hide their massive girths behind the sickly thin woman. This only made Harry smile more and he walked past them into the kitchen, and for the first time in almost 16 years, he ate the breakfast that he had cooked. After he ate his fill and read the article that Lyra had given him about the lifting of the underage magic restrictions, he returned to where the Dursley's had been standing, only to find them gone, the keys to the car were missing from where they usually hung. He shrugged, uncaring that they were gone, opened the door to the cupboard and levitated his trunk up the stairs. Hedwig hoo-ed a greeting as he opened the door, trunk following behind him, he walked over to her cage and let her loose. She gratefully stepped out of the mess and bit his unruly hair with affection. He then walked over to the window and with his wand rid it of its bars and locks and let his beloved owl have some well deserved flying time. A few scourgifys later and her cage was clean for her return, and Harry decided it was time to finally clean his clothes. But before he could finish gathering up all the dirty laundry another ring was heard from downstairs, he cautiously walked down the steps, wand in hand and made his way to the door. He looked through the peephole and spotted the top of a very bright blue head of hair. He smiled and opened the door to greet his visitor.

"Hello Tonks!" he said as he swept his arm to invite her inside, she was in her normal wizarding garb and would stick out like a sore thumb on this street. "Wotcher Harry, how have you been?" she stepped inside, tripping on the threshold of the door, Harry could only laugh and shake his head at her clumsiness. They moved into the living room and sat down at the same spots he had sat with Lyra only a little while ago.

"I have been OK Tonks, how about you?" he wanted to ask about the Order and the war and if the person who came by this morning was really a friend, but he supposed he could go through the niceties first before getting down to business.

"Oh I have been great Harry, things have been going pretty good with the Order and of course with Remus" she blushed a little at that and Harry could only envy her. "I saw that Lyra came to visit you this morning, she didn't look very happy when she left, did something bad happen? I saw your Uncle, Aunt and cousin leave not too long after." Harry smiled at this and explained what had happened that morning to Tonks.

"Yes well she seems to be a kind person, but it is always the quiet ones that tend to be dangerous, not to mention that she is an American and we all know how unpredictable that lot can be." They both had a good laugh at that comment before Tonks continued. "We did send you an owl telling you that she was coming, but I suppose with your windows being locked and all you never received it." Harry hadn't received any mail so far this summer, but that was to be expected as his owls did have a strange habit of not showing up over the summers.

"Well since I have my wand back now I will be able to keep my window open so that I can get and receive letters, in fact Hedwig is out hunting right now. Tonks, Lyra said something about staying here to watch me? Has the order been here before today?"

"Well of course Harry, a few members are always watching the house to make sure there is no attack." She said this as if Harry was a child and he just asked if the sky was blue. He was really getting tired of being treated like he still needed diapers, but he let it slide as he really missed having someone around to talk to.

"What is going on with the war? I have been having a few visions of Voldemort" Tonks shuddered but let Harry continue "yet they are all very vague, anger at his death eaters mostly, but I'm not sure which ones or why"

"We haven't really heard much lately, the attacks have cut back almost to nothing, and it seems like he is just trying to recruit more into serving him. Remus said the werewolves are almost fully committed to you-know-who's cause, but we are hoping Lyra might be able to help a bit with that." She seemed a bit angry mentioning Lyra's name in the same sentence with Remus.

"Why would Lyra be able to help with werewolves? Is she one?" Wouldn't Uncle Vernon be so happy knowing he had a werewolf in his home?

"No Harry she isn't, but Remus says she smells good or something, makes him want to listen to her, seems like it’s just an excuse to me for him to say he thinks she is cute." Tonks pouted and her hair reverted back to the mousy brown that it had been all last year. Harry could only shake his head.

"Remus isn't like that Tonks, he wouldn't just bounce around from one girl to another, I mean look how long it took for him to finally open up to you in the first place" he wasn't very good at comforting other people and he was nervous trying to figure out what to say, heaven forbid she started crying, he would have no clue what to do then. "Well think about it Tonks, she is even younger than you." death glare and Tonks’ hair turned black. "I don't mean to say you’re old Tonks, I just meant that Remus would want to date someone a bit older and I mean you’re an auror, one of the youngest ever and you’re really smart and pretty, please don't kill me." He was rambling and he knew it, but he was scared of the look Tonks was giving him.

"You’re right Harry I'm sorry, McGonagall just brings her in out of nowhere, doesn't even ask the rest of the Order, just says that she has known her since before she was born and that is all anyone needs to know right now." Her hair had toned back to a chestnut brown with bright red highlights and Harry felt a bit more relax. "She is nice enough Harry, but I know she is hiding something, she barely tells us anything about who she is, and on top of that she has taken it upon herself to make Remus' wolfbane potion, McGonagall says she is perfectly qualified, but you just don't have a stranger make that kind of potion for you." She seemed to have lost most of her steam then as both of their thoughts went to the person who had previously made the potion.

"We will find him Harry, we will make him pay for what he did" She said in a very quiet yet unwavering voice.

"I know we will Tonks." but he couldn't help but think that Dumbledore would be ashamed at him for his thoughts.

Tonks left shortly after and said if he needed any help just call out, they weren't actually supposed to come inside the house, but she wanted to check and make sure he was ok after Lyra's visit and his relatives’ departure. Harry was finally able to get started on his laundry. It was getting close to four pm when his clothes were finally all clean, he was showered, and was able to wear something that didn't smell like two week old garbage. 'I wonder if Tonks or Lyra noticed how bad I smelled, they probably did, but were too polite to say anything.' He heard the main door was slammed open from his room, then quickly leaned down to his bed and grabbed his wand under the covers from where he had set it while getting dressed. He began to edge towards his closed door, trying to miss the floor boards that creaked and would let someone know he was up here.

"Boy gets down here now, we need to talk!!" damn his relatives had returned from their impromptu outing. Wand in pocket he went down the stairs to greet the Dursleys.

a/n sorry about the shortness of this chapter, I will try for a longer one next time