Chapter 48: The Order's Concern
"Alright Harry, here you go." Tonks said after escorting Harry to the door of number 4.
"Thank you, oh mighty auror, for helping little and defenseless me get back." Harry said with a dramatic bow.
"Yeah, very funny." Tonks said, rolling her eyes.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Harry asked.
"Well, I sort of have to still play guard and all, Dumbledore will..."
"Tonks," Harry cut her off. "you don't have to play guard."
"But Harry I..."
"Tonks," Harry cut her off again. "like I said before, Dumbledore is not my guardian nor is he in any position of authority over me when I am not at school. Tonks, if you want to visit and come and hang out or something then fine, but I do not want you or a bunch of old men outside my house and trying to 'guard' me without my knowledge or consent. I mean, how would you like it if your mum told me or some other person to hang outside your house and 'guard' you without asking or telling you about it?"
"I still live with my mum but I get your point." Tonks sighed as she ran a hand through her hair, yes Dumbledore had ordered her but she understood Harry's point and she thought that it was a valid one. She would throw a fit if she realised that somebody was trying to guard her without her permission.
"Besides," Harry continued. "do you even know why I stay in this hellhole?" Harry said as he gestured to the house.
"Um...because they are your family?" Tonks guessed, though she instantly realised that that was a wrong answer. Harry had looked pretty forward to moving in with Sirius at the hospital, if his family was a good one then he would have at least had second thoughts about wanting to move in with a man who had spent the last few years in Azkaban and on the run.
"Wrong," Harry said after making a buzzer noise. "I am here because Dumbledore is forcing me to stay here. Some crap about blood wards that are supposed to protect me from harm, if they really work then your wasting your time and if they don't work then I should be taken out of here and somewhere safe instead of constantly having one person outside of my house."
"You're right," Tonks sighed. "they probably won't be happy with me but I think I should probably go back and talk to them."
"Them?" Harry asked.
"Right, you obviously did not hear the following from me, and even if you did you would forget about quickly..." Tonks paused and looked at Harry for confirmation.
"Obviously." Harry nodded.
"I am a new member of this group called 'the order of the phoenix', it's a club that Dumbledore set up in the last war to battle the death eaters. He' restarted it and I was asked to join. From what I have heard, your parents were members and so was Sirius. Anyway, I'll be off, you stay safe yeah."
"Yeah, thanks by the way Tonks, you're the best." Harry said, smiling at her.
"Stop it, you'll make me blush." She said, smiling back.
"There are easier ways to make you blush."
"Oh yeah? Like what?" She asked, raising a challenging eyebrow.
"I'm sure you can think of something," Harry said as he placed a quick kiss on her cheek before he went inside the house, he glanced at Tonks before he closed the door and nearly laughed when he saw her slightly open mouthed look with a hint of red on her cheeks. "see ya Tonks." Harry grinned before closing the door.
.....
"And then he basically said if the wards were really working then it would be pointless for there to be guards." Tonks said as she was in an order of the phoenix meeting in Number 12 Grimmauld Place, Sirius's home and current headquarters of the order of the phoenix, all of the order was there apart from Snape and a few others. Sirius still was not really happy with Dumbledore but had agreed to let the man use his home as headquarters for a few reasons. One of which was the fact that the place was very strongly warded, secondly because Sirius thought that Harry would like to be able to have a way to know what is going on with the order and because Dumbledore offered to put a Fidelius on the house which would make it pretty much one of the safest places in the country. Plus if Harry decided he didn't like them then Sirius would gladly boot them out. "And he said if they weren't working then it would be better to just remove him from there." Tonks said,
She had told them what happened today, while obviously omitting certain details like Harry going to Knockturn alley to get a tattoo. As she looked around the room, a few of the order members looked like they were considering what Harry was saying while the others were all looking towards Dumbledore to see his response.
"Nymphadora, I am disappointed in you." Dumbledore said. "It was your job to guard Harry and keep him safe, you should not have allowed him to go to Diagon alley."
"Don't call me Nymphadora." Tonks gritted out. "As for letting him go, I couldn't stop him. I don't have any authority over him, what did you want me to do? Force him to stay? If he got pissed enough to go tell anyone then I could lose my job. Besides he told me he had an appointment with Gringotts and I don't want the goblins pissed at me as well for keeping him away."
"But you should have still made it clear that it was better for him to stay there." Dumbledore argued.
"Sir he apparently already knew about the wards so that means he doesn't really care. He was going to go one way or another so I decided it was better to go with him and make sure he's safe rather than fighting him so he stays or guarding an empty house."
"Why don't we just pull Harry out of there and bring him here to my place?" Sirius suggested.
"He'd like that." Tonks nodded in agreement, earning a smile from Sirius. "I don't really think he likes staying at Number 4."
"I do not think that that is the best idea." Dumbledore said quickly, anyone could respond.
"Why not?!" Sirius demanded.
"Watch your tone!" Molly Weasley admonished.
"If Harry doesn't want to be there and if it's unsafe then why not bring him to my place?" Sirius asked, ignoring Molly. "You said you wanted to set the Fidelius up tomorrow, once that's done Harry will be perfectly safe here."
"The safest place for him, besides Hogwarts, is his aunts house." Dumbledore replied in a calm voice. "The extra guards are just extra precautions."
"And how sure are you that it's perfectly safe?" Moody asked, glaring at Dumbledore. "There is no such thing as too safe. Constant vigilance! You said Hogwarts is the safest place yet I spent the better part of a year trapped in a trunk!" Dumbledore groaned at that as he knew that Alastor was still not happy with him right now.
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