An Eclectic Catalogue of Ideas

After he finished breakfast, Harry heard the chime announcing a floo call. Moving towards the sitting room, he answered the floo, "Hello?"

"Harry!" It was Hermione, "Can I come over? We have to talk."

Shrugging, Harry waved his wand towards the mantle and unlocked the floo. When Hermione arrived at Grimmauld Place, she moved towards him to hug him. Pulling a newspaper from her jacket pocket, she showed it to him.

"Yes," Harry said with a sigh, "I saw that already. I'm not sure how Rita got 'lovers on a battlefield' from 'Tonks saved my bloody life and was the one to kill Voldemort', though."

"You know Rita," Hermione said dryly, "I thought I should tell you that Ginny is not happy about the article. I don't know if she really believes it, but she's not happy."

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I don't see why she'd care. We're not dating. I mean, it's not true, but even if it were."

Hermione stared at Harry like he was crazy. "Harry, she was hoping to get back with you now that Voldemort's dead. The article will be on everyone's lips; she'd hate hearing about it, even if it's untrue."

"Er, I didn't give her any sign that I was planning on getting back with her. We only dated for two bloody weeks in the first place! Honestly, I wasn't planning on dating anyone in the near future," he admitted. "Relationships are too complicated right now. I was just going to hire tutors and take my NEWTs. And move out of this place, I hate it."

"You know the Weasleys. Ginny might be less prone to outbursts than Ron, but they have really bad tempers. I just thought you should know so you could wait for her to calm down." A pause and Hermione added, "Tutors? So you're not going back to Hogwarts?"

"I don't think so. Tutors will work better for me. I really don't want to deal with the constant gossip. And you know it will happen. Wankers believe whatever is in the paper." Harry chuckled, "I'd been planning on it before that bloody article as I think I'll learn better from tutors, but now?" He shuddered.

"I'll miss you at Hogwarts. I'm planning on going back for my last year as we missed it," Hermione said. "You're moving out of this place? Have you found a new place then?"

Harry nodded, "I found a really nice place listed online; it's a place out in the country. A five-bedroom stone cottage on about ten acres of land. It even has a furnished basement. It's a little expensive, but with Kingsley handling the goblins, I'll be able to easily afford it. Without having to get a loan and with magic, I should officially own it in a week or so."

"Oh, that sounds nice. Five bedrooms are rather a lot though, isn't it?" Hermione wondered.

"Well, one of the bedrooms will be for a study-slash-library, and I'll want a potion lab, though I might put that in the basement if it has proper ventilation down there. I'm kind of determined to do well at potions if only to spite Snape in the afterlife. Try to invent something, maybe. My great-grandfather was a potions master who invented a lot of cool stuff." Harry shrugged, "Plus at least one bedroom for a guest room."

"That makes sense and if you have the money, it's a good investment," Hermione agreed. "I heard the press conference on the wireless. You did pretty well. I was surprised."

"Wow, you have faith in me. Surprised, huh?" Harry teased her.

"You know what I mean. You never were good with public speaking. Or am I wrong?" she wondered with a smirk.

"Point, point," Harry said with a chuckle. "It's why I let Kingsley do most of the speaking. I still can't believe people took 'he and Tonks are in love' from what was said."

"No?" Hermione gave him an amused look. "Harry, you did stare at her an awful lot in the summer leading up to our fifth year. Maybe they picked up on that?"

Rolling his eyes, Harry said, "I was a teenage boy and she's beautiful. That doesn't equate to love. 'sides, I'm very sure she has far better options than a seventeen-year-old."

Hermione chuckled at him, and asked, "Can I get some coffee? I rushed out of the Burrow to talk to you."

"Sure. I have some eggs and bacon left, too. And can put some toast in for you?" Harry offered.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to put you out. Though a bit of bacon and eggs might be nice," Hermione said with a smile. She watched as he poured some coffee, adding cream and a dollop of sugar. When he offered the coffee and slid a plate of bacon and eggs in front of her, she added, "Thanks."

Sitting opposite her, Harry sipped his own coffee. "How're things with you and Ron?"

"Oh, well!" Hermione said with a smile. "He agreed to go back to Hogwarts with me, I was surprised."

"I'm not," Harry said after a moment's thought. "The battle was really tough after all; it probably made him take things a little more seriously."

"True..." Hermione's gaze flickered towards Harry. "Speaking from experience?"

"Especially after the Tournament and Cedric, yeah," Harry admitted with a sigh as he finished his coffee.

Glancing at her watch, Hermione blanched, "Oh dear, I'm going to be late, I promised Professor Flitwick that I'd meet him this morning. I need to hurry."

"All right," Harry said, rising to his feet. "Good luck. I'll open the floo for you again." He wandered into the sitting room, waving his wand in front of the fireplace.

Hermione offered him a brief hug before throwing floo powder into the flames and stating, "The Burrow," and stepping through.

HPϟHPϟHPϟHPϟHP

Over the next week, Harry did what he considered to be the smart thing.

He hid.

Locking the floo down, Harry told Kreacher to purchase groceries. The only mail he sent was to Gringotts, asking them to act as a purchasing agent and warders for his new home. He knew his tutoring wouldn't start for a month, so as long as he kept his head down, he could avoid and ignore the controversy.

It worked, if only partially.

He received a lot of mail, including a Howler from Ginny which he quickly destroyed, not wanting to hear it. Hermione had already warned him after all. A few days later, he received another letter from Ginny, apologizing for the Howler.

Other than Ginny's letters, Harry received letters from various fans upset that he was, or so they thought, taken. The many parcels with spells, potions, or poisons were sent to the DMLE while he burned the others. He wasn't going to simply accept the abuse like he had in his fourth and fifth years at Hogwarts.

After a little more than a week, the goblins contacted him. The house was both purchased and warded. They'd already taken their rather sizable fee out of his vaults.

Harry was ecstatic. No one knew about his new home other than Hermione and her only in vague terms. He'd included mail wards in the contract, so all of his mail would be collected and screened by an outside service.

Now all he had to do is move in.

HPϟHPϟHPϟHPϟHP

Harry was finishing packing, storing all of his clothes in his trunk when he heard a loud crash downstairs. Shrinking the trunk and pocketing it, he rose to his feet, frowning. He headed down the stairs, keeping his wand at the ready. Only a few people knew about Grimmauld Place.

"Harry, where the hell are you?" came a familiar voice, and Harry relaxed, slipping the wand away once more. "Get your arse down here."

"Hello, Tonks," Harry said as he nodded at the young woman, "How goes it?"

"How goes it?" The pink-haired woman snorted, "Oh, just fine. Other than the fact that I'm supposedly your bloody girlfriend. Do you know the amount of mail I've received?" She added, "And half the bloody auror force wants to string me up for taking advantage of you. The other half keeps asking me all sorts of strange questions. They're fans," she said, drawling out the word. "Berken asked me if you liked oral sex for god's sake. The woman's questions, gah."

"And this is why I've been staying in the past week other than visits to muggle London," Harry said dryly, blushing at the tail end of her comment. "I'd send the potioned and spelled letters to the DMLE. I have been."

"I'm an auror," Tonks said with a smirk, "Of course I was taking them into work. Gave them to some junior aurors to take care of. I'm a good boss, giving them something to do," she said, pretending to preen.

"Sure," Harry said, drawing out the word with amusement. "So, what do you want to do about this? As I said, I've been keeping inside for the most part."

"I figure that once they get the next big story, it'll die down," Tonks said with a shrug.

"I don't know. People always like to gossip about me, Tonks. Besides, you're my friend. I'm not going to stop talking to you because of some idiots, so they might keep talking." Harry said with a frown. "Hopefully you're right though. You'd think people would realize how silly it sounds."

Tonks suddenly frowned at him, "Silly?"

"Yes," Harry answered with a shrug, "I'm seventeen bloody years old. You're an experienced auror. You've got to have better options than me. I haven't even taken my NEWTs yet for god's sake."

Tonks' frown grew, and she slapped Harry on the arm, "Stop that. I don't like you talking badly about yourself."

Harry blinked in confusion, "I wasn't?"

She just gave him a look, before asking, "So, what have you been doing other than hiding?"

"Oh!" Harry perked up, "You know how I was talking about getting a house? Well, the goblins got one for me! It's all purchased and warded." He smirked, "Mail wards included, so no crazy mail for me." He continued, "I'm all packed, I was about to go look around. I plan on having this place renovated to hell and back. I'll be meeting my tutors here so I can keep my home private."

"Oh really?" Tonks perked up, "That sounds cool. Let's go!"

Harry blinked and considered. He'd wanted to keep his home a secret but Tonks was a good friend. She'd saved his bloody life. If anyone deserved to know where he lived, she did. "All right," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a scrap of paper and a small stone coin. "Read this. Then touch the coin; it's a portkey."

"'Potter Cottage is in Hertfordshire near St Albans'? We're not going to end up in a creepy love dungeon, are we?" Tonks joked as she smirked at him, touching the coin.

"Tonks!" Harry's cheeks coloured, "No, nothing like that. Property." As he said the last word, he felt a hooking sensation as he found himself elsewhere, landing in a heap on the ground. He glared as he saw that for once, Tonks didn't trip. "Aren't you the clumsy one?" he asked.

"Ha! I can be clumsy, but I had to learn to recover from a portkey. Aurors use them a lot," Tonks said with a smirk. They were in front of a large, three-story stone house. "Nice place!" Tonks said. "Must have cost you a pretty penny."

"It did. I need to thank Kingsley for fixing things up with the goblins and my inheritance, or I'd never have been able to afford it." Harry led her to the door, opening it. "Right now, I'm the only one who can apparate in. I'll add you to the wards so you can visit if you like," He said, looking around. There was a staircase leading up to the first floor, and a large sitting room was visible through an archway. The decor was a mixture of stonework and rich hardwood."

"You already furnished it," Tonks said in surprise as she looked around. There wasn't a lot of furniture, but there was a couch and chairs in the sitting room as well as a few tables, and she could see some pans on a counter in the kitchen.

"More or less. I will need to pick up some more, but I had Kreacher get the basics. The hardest part was convincing him I didn't want Slytherin-esque greens and silvers," Harry said, chuckling.

"Well, at least you didn't go for red and gold. That'd be a little tacky," Tonks said with a smirk.

"I actually prefer non-pastel blues and maybe darker reds, to be honest," Harry admitted. "I have a potions lab in the basement, too."

"Potions? You?" Tonks said in surprise, glancing at him. "I thought you hated potions."

"I hated Snape," Harry corrected her. "When I first went to Hogwarts, I wanted to do well in Potions because I heard my mother was really good at it. Learning my great-grandfather invented a lot of recipes was a factor as well. Sadly, well..." He trailed off and shrugged.

"Yeah, I know," Tonks said with a snort. "So, hey, show me around?"

"Sure thing," Harry said easily, "Upstairs is my bedroom, study, and a guest room. There are two more bedrooms and a storage attic on the third floor..."

HPϟHPϟHPϟHPϟHP

A few days after the students returned to Hogwarts, Harry received a letter from Hermione. In it, he learned that Hannah Abbot was in St Mungo's and Justin Finch-Fletchley was dead. Harry read the rest of the letter with a heavy heart.

They were working on a project for herbology. Somehow one of the mandrake pots fell and the mandrake screamed. Justin was close enough to take the full brunt of its cry and died. Hannah was on the other side of the greenhouse, so was severely hurt but survived. Neville was really distraught and has managed to get permission to visit Hannah. They'd started to date over the summer...

Reading further, he sighed. It seemed bad things kept happening even without Voldemort. I'll have to remember to visit St Mungo's. I hope she's all right, Harry thought to himself.

Putting the letter down at his desk, he rose to his feet. He had to floo to Grimmauld Place to meet his tutors for the day.

HPϟHPϟHPϟHPϟHP

"Hey, Neville," Harry greeted the other Gryffindor. Neville was sitting by Hannah's bedside, holding her hand. "How is Hannah?"

"Hey, Harry. She's all right," Neville said after a moment. "The healers said she'll sleep for a while, but she was far enough away that there wasn't any permanent damage. They have her on a lot of potions to help her heal."

"Did they ever find out how the mandrake pot fell? Professor Sprout is really careful about her greenhouses," Harry asked after a moment's thought.

"Not really. Professor Sprout was heartbroken," Neville said with a sigh. "She blames herself. Especially as Justin came through the battle hale and healthy. Honestly, it was probably one of the second years not being careful, but we can't prove anything."

Harry shook his head, settling down by Neville, "How are classes?" he asked, deciding to distract his friend.

"Pretty good," Neville told him. "Professor Tonks is the new Potions Professor. She's really good." He admitted, "I was a little curt with her at first. She reminds me of her sister." He trailed off and shrugged.

"Tonks' mum?" Harry said, blinking. "She didn't mention that."

"It was a recent decision, I heard. Slughorn was going to stay, but he left suddenly," Neville explained.

Harry idly wondered if the man left because Harry decided not to attend for his final year. Was that arrogant? "Hrm, well, I'm sure Mrs Tonks is far better than Snape."

"Like that's hard," Neville said with a snort. "So you're using tutors? What NEWTs do you plan on taking?"

He and Neville talked for about an hour before they were asked to leave for the evening.

HPϟHPϟHPϟHPϟHP

That evening, as Harry was preparing for bed, he heard a loud crack from downstairs. Grabbing his wand, he walked down the steps and then rushed across the sitting room.

Tonks was slumped on the floor near the front door, leaning against the wall. The dragon leather jacket she wore was charred black in spots and she had some nasty-looking burns on her hands. "Tonks! What happened?"

"Ugh." Tonks shook her head, "I was stupid and overconfident. Moody would yell at me if he could see me now." She chuckled, wincing, "There was a parcel with the mail outside my door. I did the standard check for spells and potions and didn't find anything. So I tossed the box in the pile with the others. Stupid of me."

"What happened?"

"It exploded. Do you smell that? Kind of like oil and burnt sugar?" Tonks chuckled, "That's erumpet fluid. Must've had some in the package. I barely apparated out in time. Still got burned like an idiot."

"Smart of whoever sent the package," Harry said as he considered. "Come on. I'll help you upstairs and bring a healer to look at you."

"No!" Tonks' shook her head, "I know you wanted this place to be your haven. I'll be okay."

"Tonks," Harry said with a frown, "Look at your hands."

"Erumpet fluid is nasty, but it won't leave a mark with the proper potions," Tonks told him stubbornly. "I can go to a healer tomorrow, all right? For now, I just need some anti-burn potions."

Harry sighed, "You're stubborn." Then again, he could relate. "All right. Come on upstairs, you can stay in the guest room. Kreacher!"

"Master summons Kreacher?" asked the old house-elf when he appeared.

"Yes. Go to the apothecary and pick up as much as you can to treat burns," Harry ordered as he led Tonks up the stairs. The house-elf nodded and disappeared as Harry opened the door to the guest room. Much like the rest of the house, it was very spartan in its decoration: there was a bed, end table, and cupboard and little else. "The room has a half bath, so you'll have your privacy."

"Yeah, I remember," Tonks muttered as she sat down on the bed.

Kreacher appeared and put down a small package, "Here are the potions, Master," the house-elf stated before again disappearing.

"Good. It looks like he got something for the burns themselves, some stuff to stop infection, and some pain potions. This will do fine until you go to a healer on the 'morrow. I hope." Harry added, "Are you sure that it'll be okay?"

"Positive. Mum's a healer, remember," Tonks said, hissing as she tried to pull off her jacket.

"Tonks. Stop." Harry sighed, "Let me look at your hands first. Drink this for the pain," he said, holding a potion vial to her lips. Once she drank the potion he tossed the vial to the side and began to apply the burn cream to the burns, his touch gentle.

"Oh, that's better," breathed Tonks, the potion and the cream deadening the pain. "Still can't believe how stupid I was."

"Sounds like you did the standard check. You just didn't expect some arse to use bloody erumpet fluid. That stuff is pretty hard to come by," Harry pointed out. "You can't predict everything. I learned that really early."

"Still." Once Harry finished, she started to slide off her jacket, letting Harry help her. "This was my favourite jacket too," Tonks said with a shake of her head.

"Better the jacket than you," Harry said as he got up, putting the jacket in the cupboard. Perhaps it could be repaired. "Lay down. Relax. I'll bring up some food for you."

Tonks sighed, and collapsed back against the pillows at the head of the bed, "Yeah. Thanks, Harry."

"Any time, Tonks."