Tonks woke up the next morning with a semi-migrane from the night before. It was only wine, she kept having to remind herself. Then, she felt something hit against her neck. She looked down to see the Black Heir Necklace.
She felt tears run down her face when she remembered the night before. How Harry had given her a meal, a friend and, to her pleasure, the one piece of jewelry she would want to wear even if it did bring attention to her beauty.
'He probably had no idea', she thought, 'no idea how much I love this necklace. It's my family, my history, my legacy.'
She knew, though, that he has no idea how much he'd made her jeal... 'no! He didn't make me.. that! He's my friend!'
Deciding to get out of bed, Tonks sat up and immediately fell back as she saw Harry in the chair beside her. Unknowingly, she had clutched the necklace at that moment and a blush covered her face. Her eyes searched his sleeping form, something she was... ashamed to admit made her giddy.
She watched as a frown formed on his face, obviously having a nightmare. She gasped, though, remembering that Harry's dreams usually meant something.
A small whimper from Harry and Tonks walks over, wrapping her arms around him in an attempt to calm the now shivering boy down. She purred in his ear at the content feeling that she gained from the closeness. He was warm, she noticed, happily.
As he calmed down, she felt him slipping into a state of sleep, Tonks stood to walk out of the room. Harry gasped, she turned and noticed why. His scar had began freely bleeding. It had awoken the boy. She rushed over and grabbed a sheet off the bed, placing the material to the boy's head. She gulped air as, not even a minute later, his eyes shot open. His eyes widened as he caught site of Tonks. She blushed, looking down at her bed robe, it was red, silky.
"What? Where am I, why are you here Tonks?" The question, simple enough, you'd think but... 'how do I answer him?'
Seeing his confusion she takes pity on the boy and smiles. "Harry, you were having a nightmare. I fell asleep in here tonight, do you want to talk about it?"
He shakes his head, no.
The next day, Tonks avoids Harry. She couldn't let him know, let him see how he was affecting her. She knew it was petty, that she was being petty but, damnit, she had that right.
That night, she heard it again. Thursday the nineteenth had come and with it the dogs of winter. Snow had piled up and she was certain there would be no getting him out of the house. Something was happening, what remained the mystery.
The twentieth would have been the same had she not heard it. She jumped awake at the soft rapt on the door. her wand was on the bedside but she knew it was pointless as Harry was the only other in the house. She stood and made her way to him.
His gaunt, dreadful expression scared her, in all truthfulness. As she neared, she saw the fear that lay in his deep, emerald green orb. The saying, window to the soul, never sounded as good.
"Tonks", he whispered, his voice desperate, needing, wanting. She gasped and walked closer. She could feel his ragged breath against her neck now. "What is it Harry," she asked.
He was shivering, she knew something was happening, something horrible. "I-I-I s-s-saw, I saw... you... dead. Hermione, Ron, everyone... dead. All dead... because of me...."
She gasped. She tried to interrupt his rambling. "Voldemorts coming, Tonks. He's coming after me in the one way that scares me and there's nothing I can do to stop him."
She sighed and kneeled onto the hard floor, "Harry, its not your responsibility to stop Voldemort. It's mine, it's Dumbledore's. Harry, you just have to grow up and let Dumbledore do what he's always done."
She smiled as she thought he had calmed down. But she wasn't expecting what happened next.
"WHAT DO YOU KNOW, EH? ITS NOT LIKE YOU'VE EVER EVEN SET SIGHT ON VOLDEMORT! YOU HAVE ABSO-BLOODY-LUTELY NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING A---about. Tonks, Dumbledore didn't tell the Order did he?" She was surprised that he calmed down the way he did but shook her head. Dumbledore didn't tell them, anything, of why Harry was important to the Order or why he was to be protected at all cost.
"I'll forgive you for that outburst as you're not yourslef right now, Harry. However, no, the Headmaster has told us nothing about why you are to be protected."
Harry looked into her eyes and said, "figures. He tells me after Sirius dies but doesn't have the decensy to tell anyone else the bloody problem." Someone needs to knock the arse off his pedistal."
"Will you tell me, Harry?"
He nods. She sits down in anticipation as the boy begins the tale.
"Well, it was right after Sirius died, you see. I had chased down Bellatrix and tried to Cruciatus her. She starts begging to someone, I assume it was Voldemort, when I say something sarcastic. He arrives."
She gasps. "Voldemort?" He nods. "Well, he tries to possess me and Dumbledore fights him. After that arse you call boss sees Voldemort, he goes about trying to say he believed us... bologna. Anyways, I take a portkey to Dumbledores office. About thirty minutes later, the arse comes back, talking trash and basically says that Sirius died because he was foolish.
Then, to top it all off, the idiot tells me the prophesy."
She waits in wonder. Harry lets a tear slip down his face. She wraps her arms around his head. "What did it say Harry?"
He closes his eyes the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal but he will have powers the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hands of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies... whimpering as the last part is given.
"So you see, its either him or me, Tonks. I'm not so sure that it will be me... really. What do I have, what kind of power do I have that someone like Voldemort would even fear me? I mean, I'm only sixteen, Tonks. I'm not even of age, never done any of that boy stuff... I mean what kind of power would someone like me hold?"
She smiled and leaned forward. "Harry, there is one power you have that not even Voldemort, or any other Dark Lord, could defeat. Harry, you love people."
With that, Tonks left, leaving behind two questions, "What did she mean" and "why did she say that?"
