When I woke up it was still dark. Penny was sprawled across my chest. She must have been exhausted, because she didn't even stir as I slid out from under her.
Most of the clothes I'd been loaned were up in Bill's room, which was the one place I wasn't going anywhere near until I saw he was up. I settled for pulling back on the clothes I usually slept in. Shorts and a t-shirt was better than strutting around naked.
I wandered downstairs. I could hear someone working in the kitchen, so I wasn't the first one up. When I got to the ground floor, Mrs. Weasley left the stove and poked her head through the doorway.
"Percy!" she said. "I knew I heard someone moving around. Of course it wasn't one of mine— they'd sooner sleep to noon than be up before seven. Terribly lazy the whole lot."
"Once I wake up, I have a hard time getting back to sleep."
"That's nothing to be sorry about," Mrs. Weasley said. "I'll have toast and eggs ready soon. You can eat it hot while the rest will be stuck with leftovers." She looked out the window, tapping a spatula against her shoulder. "Harry's out in the garden, if you'd like a bit of company."
"Thanks," I told her.
I was a little surprised that he was such an early riser. But this seemed like a good chance for a real conversation, so I stepped out the front door.
A slight breeze blew the chilly air against my face. The Weasleys' garden was slick with dew, the grass weighed down by water droplets. Harry was sitting on one of those flying brooms that I still couldn't believe were real, not flying so much as just floating. He kicked his legs out, letting the bottoms of his feet sway the damp grass.
When I came outside he looked over. He must've been expecting Mrs. Weasley, because he did a double-take the second he saw me.
"Sweet broom," I said.
"It's alright," Harry said. "Mine is better, but it's still at Hogwarts."
"Cool," I said to avert an awkward silence.
Harry wasn't even sitting on the broom properly. He was sideways, using it like a bench, but even in that position he maneuvered it easily, weaving between the flower beds with scary precision.
He wafted over like a cloud— one with a grim face and moody green eyes.
"Why did you come here?" he asked.
I scratched my head, which bled away a little of the tension.
"To protect you," I said. "And I guess to kill Voldemort, if I can."
"Don't say that like it's easy. Besides, you can't. Only I can."
"Did you call dibs?"
"There's a prophecy."
"Oh, I hate those. They make everything so complicated. Personally, I think it's the rhyming…"
"Rhyming?" Harry said.
"Does yours not rhyme? Lucky."
He bent forward. Unlike me, he was properly dressed. Behind his big glasses he squinted at my face.
"Are you making fun of me?" he asked.
"I'm serious!" I promised. "Cross my heart."
I would've sworn on the River Styx, but I thought that might scare him with the inexplicable thunder. Harry leaned back as if I passed a test, floating a little higher on his borrowed broom.
"...So you're here to fight," he said. "You look like you're my age. Did they really let you into the Order of the Phoenix?"
That was the name of Dumbledore's organization. I remembered Tonks using it in passing.
"I'm not an official member yet," I said. "They just gave me the job to protect you."
"No one told me anything about that, though." It seemed like he was getting a little mad.
"I don't think any of the Weasleys know. Only Dumbledore does— him and anyone he's told."
"But you're telling me," Harry said. "Were you supposed to do that?"
I shrugged. "No idea! I just thought, if someone was being told to protect me, I'd like to know. Even if they were my best friend, I'd be a little pissed if I found out they were on a mission and they kept it secret."
A stronger gust of wind blew through the garden and Harry's broom rose with it, lifting him and lowering him like a surfer bobbing through waves.
"Thanks," he said. "It feels like there aren't many people that actually tell me things. I've usually got to sneak around to figure anything out."
"Hey, while we're talking like this, can I ask something?" I said. "What are Death Eaters like?"
Harry's expression looked like I'd picked up a salt shaker and dumped it on an open cut— hurt for a second, then mad. Not at me, just in general. He gripped the broom with knuckles that were turning white from more than the chilly air.
"They're monsters," he said. "Evil to their core. They want to wipe out anyone who's not from the right family, no matter how brilliant a witch or wizard Muggle-borns are. They'll kill other purebloods that don't agree with them. They made friends with the worst magical races out there, and are trying to enslave all the rest."
"How do they fight?"
The question confused him. "Like wizards? They'll use more dark magic when they duel. The strong ones use the killing curse a lot. Or Crucio to cause the worst pain you've ever felt. They even know nasty things that will melt your insides, or peel off your skin."
"Are they fast?"
Again, Harry wasn't quite sure what to make of my question. "Depends on the Death Eater. Bellatrix is quick with her wand." Just saying her name forced Harry to take a deep breath before he could keep talking. "She's Voldemort's right hand woman. Just as evil as he is, and maybe more sadistic. The Inner Circle are all good duelists. The last time we ran into them, my friends and I barely survived."
"What about defenses? How do they protect themselves?"
"Shield charms," Harry said. "How else?"
Interesting. So they countered spells with more spells. Good to know.
"Thanks," I said. "I feel better knowing a little bit about them."
"Are you sure you're ready to be protecting anyone?" Harry asked.
"I'm sure it'll work out!"
"Boooys! Breakfast!"
Mrs. Weasley's shout beckoned us back in. Harry dropped back to the ground, picking up the broom and bringing it in with him. The conversation turned to Mrs. Weasley's cooking, but in my head I was still going over what I'd learned.
The information Harry gave me was helpful, but to really understand what I was facing I had to see it for myself.
"Is there a way to get in touch with Dumbledore?" I asked as Harry and I sat down at the table next to Mr. Weasley, who had arrived while we were outside.
"You could always send him a letter by owl," Mr. Weasley said, taking a sip from a warm coffee his wife just delivered. "I'm sure Ron would let you borrow his."
By that evening, I'd scrawled out a letter that I thought was mostly legible. After proofreading until my dyslexia made the letters fly around the page, I sealed it and sent it off with Pigwidgeon, an owl so small that he was barely bigger than a baseball.
The core of the message was straightforward.
Give me someone to fight.
A day later, Dumbledore wrote back. He gave me a date.
O-O-O
Days passed at the Burrow. It was peaceful, excluding the ongoing feud between Fleur and the rest of the women. Penny didn't make another visit but Tonks came for dinner twice. Us kids spent most of our time in the garden, the other four playing Quidditch while I watched. They invited me to join, but told them, in no uncertain terms, that flying and I did not mix.
The day we ventured off to Hogwarts kept coming closer. Just a week out, after I'd been at the Burrow for almost half a month, I crept outside as it was getting dark. The Weasleys had been told that I would be visiting Dumbledore. The truth was much more dangerous.
"Wotcher, Percy!"
Tonks appeared on the front lawn with the crack that accompanied wizards' teleportation. She was dressed in red robes that were different from the ones I'd seen before. These fluttered around her body like a cape, loose and easy to move in.
"Sup Tonks," I said.
"Ready to go?" she asked.
My wand was in my left pocket, mostly because leaving it behind didn't feel right. It's not like I could use it yet. More importantly, Riptide was nestled where it always was. I nodded to Tonks and took her hand.
"Hang on tight," she told me.
Apparition was just as uncomfortable as ever, like Talos — Hephaestus' pet robot the size of a mountain — had swallowed me and pooped me out hundreds of miles away. This time I at least recovered quickly. The scent of ocean air helped with that.
"Welcome to Brighton," Tonks announced. The two of us were on a rickety boardwalk that ran between a city and a bleak beach. "As far as England goes, this is as beachy as we get."
I could smell salty water coming from the beach side and the tangy scent of beer from the city side. That, at least, screamed British beach getaway to me.
"I like it," I said. "What are we here for?"
Tonks led us down the boardwalk, sticking to the darker parts to avoid attracting attention with her wizard-y clothes.
"Word has it there's going to be a meeting here tonight," Tonks said.
"You mean—" At the last second, I remembered the warning about Voldemort's name. "The big bad is going to be here?"
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? Fuck no!" Tonks said. She didn't cuss much, but apparently my question was just that insane. "What would the two of us be doing getting close to him? Only Dumbledore would actually go looking for the Dark Lord, and even he has to do it carefully! We could have a whole squad of Aurors at our back and I doubt we'd be able to escape him."
"Then who's at the meeting?"
Tonks paused, looking at a dark wooden sign above our heads, then led us down sand-bitten steps to the beach below. "A small-time cursed item peddler is making a sale. He deals in simple stuff, like illegal love potions, rings that cause impotence, hand mirrors that cause semi-permanent blindness… That sort of thing."
"Illegal stuff," I said.
"The kinds that will land you a fortnight in Azkaban if you get caught with them, but won't earn you a life sentence," Tonks said. "Still, with Death Eaters running around, crooks like this are getting bolder. You've got to clean them up from time to time, and they don't typically come quietly. I'll take point. Watch my back and the two of us will take him down."
I tried not to show my disappointment. The darkness helped with that. When I asked for a mission, I was hoping for something a bit more intense. The guy we were aiming for sounded shady, but I wanted something with real Death Eaters. That way I could learn exactly what I was facing.
Still, this was better than nothing. If it ended too quickly, maybe I could get Tonks to spar with me. From what I heard she was one of the better fighters in the Order.
"That's it," Tonks said. "He operates out of there."
She pointed down the beach at a… sandcastle?
"Out of curiosity, is the criminal a leprechaun?"
"Of course not," Tonks said. "Everyone knows they never live this far south. Just follow me, you'll see."
She said that, but no matter how close we got it just looked like something leftover from a kid's beach day. It was pretty well constructed as far as sand castles went. It had turrets, an open front gate, and a moat that looked like it was dug with a plastic spade.
Tonks pointed her wand at the sand castle. "You might want to cover your ears."
She cast a real spell. If Reyna had been here she would've understood it perfectly because the incantation was all Latin, but my Greek brain couldn't make sense of the words. A green projectile fired from Tonks' wand. As soon as the spell hit the sandcastle, a sound like a Laistrygonian dragging its nails down a chalkboard hit my ears.
"I'M BREAKING THE WARDS!" Tonks shouted above the noise. "IT'LL ONLY TAKE— there we go."
The sound stopped as suddenly as it started. Not just that, the sandcastle sprung up in size. It grew to the size of a large tent, the front entrance growing so much that an adult could fit through it. Tonks held her wand in front of her.
"Stick to my back," she repeated.
Stepping forward, she ducked through the entrance. As I followed her, I moved Riptide from my pocket to my palm.
A sandcastle rising to the size of an igloo was already weird, but hey, I'd seen weirder things. Stepping inside to find a room as big as a high school gymnasium really threw me for a loop, though.
"Wands down!" Tonks shouted. "Hands up! I want to see empty palms or I start cursing!"
I spotted the guy we were here for. His face just screamed petty crook. I think it was something about his nose. He had a gilded chest open in front of him, showing all kinds of glittering items off to his customers. It was those customers that were the problem.
Tonks' plan seemed to revolve around nailing this guy before he met up with his clients. It didn't count on the clients arriving before us, and it really didn't count on there being six of them. There was something about these guys that looked serious, too. Especially compared to the diminutive cursed items dealer they were standing next to.
They turned to look at us, light from candles on the walls glinting off their metal skull masks. Instead of dropping their wands, they drew them and took aim.
"RUN!" Tonks told me. "Protego Maxima!"
She conjured a translucent half-dome in front of us. Spells hammered into it and created cracks, but the shield bought us precious seconds. The dealer twisted a ring on his finger and said some kind of incantation. The door we came through started to close, sand spilling down like a garage door, but I grabbed the back of Tonks' robes and slammed through the falling sand, pulling us outside.
We rolled a short distance, my arms wrapped around Tonks for a smoother landing. When we stopped, me on my back beneath her, she quickly pushed herself up.
"We have to go!" she said.
"Hey, this is just a guess, but were those—"
"Death Eaters!" she finished my sentence. "Too many of them to fight! We need to leave."
She grabbed my hand and Apparated. Somehow, the feeling was even worse this time. Right after the metaphorical Talos swallowed us, we ran into an equally metaphorical trampoline at the speed of a car, bouncing back. Tonks and I were thrown to the ground, the recoil making my stomach twirl.
"They got an Anti-Apparition jinx up!" Tonks cursed.
"At least they're stuck in the sandcastle," I said.
The sandcastle hideout had finished sealing itself, but a sudden explosion blew it wide open. Sand sprayed out, and only Tonks raising another shield kept us from being coated in the grains.
"Run," Tonks said.
"Sure! Let's do that!"
"No! Just you."
"Not happening."
The Death Eaters were emerging. Those masks were really creepy, but I couldn't help thinking that they looked like something Nico would put on to scare Will Solace. That made it hard to take them seriously.
"I'll delay them," Tonks said. "It's fine. I've got an emergency Portkey, and they haven't blocked those."
"Except you could've used that for both of us," I said. "If it existed."
I think Tonks was frustrated with me, but she didn't get the chance to yell anything mean. The Death Eaters started cursing. Tonks raised a big wall of sand in front of us and turned it into steel, creating cover from nothing.
That was pretty cool, but unfortunately the enemies = had magic too. They blasted the metal the same way they did to the sandcastle. It didn't take long for the metal to start showing craters.
Tonks peaked over, sending a few spells back. Meanwhile, the Death Eaters used their numbers by spreading out to surround us. Spells flew overhead as I huddled behind the wall, and I watched their colorful forms pass by.
"Is it possible to dodge spells?"
"At long distance it's possible," Tonks said. "If you run now, you can make it. But once they get closer, unless you're as fast as a vampire, don't even think about dodging."
"How fast are vampires? Is it about the same as Empousai—"
Tonks didn't get to answer. Death Eaters appeared on either side of her wall. One aimed at Tonks. As soon as she started trading spells with him, the other one aimed at her back.
I remembered my talk with Harry that morning. He called these people monsters without hesitation, and I'd learned that he wasn't the type to exaggerate things like that. The fear Tonks was showing was real too. She was terrified of what would happen if we were captured. Even knowing that, she offered to stay behind.
It looked like I got what I wanted in the end. I flicked Riptide's cap off with my thumb.
The sword appeared in my hand, its sharp bronze edge glistening in the night as I ran straight at the Death Eater targeting Tonks' back.
I closed the gap while he was still focused on the sudden appearance of my sword . When I was five steps away, he finally used a spell. It was almost dismissive the way that he cast it.
I didn't recognize the spell, obviously. The sadistic gleam in his eye told me it hurt, maybe even kill. The light was bright orange. It almost looked like it was bubbling as it flew at me. It was fast, fast enough to reach me in less than a second— but it was slower than a bullet, and I say that from experience.
I ducked to the side, tucking my head down, moving out of the path before it could hit me.
"What—!" shouted the Death Eater.
I swung Riptide. The celestial bronze sliced through him on account of his magical blood, cutting his throat. He dropped to his knees, failing to understand what happened right up until the light left his eyes.
I didn't take a break. Everyone else stopped to stare at me, but I was moving. I went for the next Death Eater.
"Stay back!"
This one created a shield like the one Tonks first used. Just for science, I hit it with Riptide. It trembled, but didn't give out. The Death Eater sighed with relief.
That lasted until I got behind him in one quick step. He couldn't raise another shield in time, and Riptide exited his chest from the back. His blood hit the inside of his own shield as the magic faded with his life.
I pulled the sword out, already heading for the next one. Until Tonks' voice stopped me.
Her wand was out of her hand, which she was cradling. When they saw two of their friends fall that fast, the other four Death Eaters ganged up on Tonks, overwhelming her.
"Stay over there, or you're going to hear this one scream!" shouted one of the Death Eaters.
"Just kill them!" Tonks said.
A Death Eater kicked her in the stomach, making her cough.
"Stand still," said another one. "Make this easy. Diffindo!"
They had good aim. The spell flew at my face. I let it get close, then bent my neck. It still grazed my cheek, creating a thin bleeding cut.
"Don't dodge, or we'll hurt this one!" the first Death Eater repeated.
"Too late," I informed him.
It was already a dark night, but it had become darker. They looked back, sensing something was wrong, to find that the stars had disappeared. The ocean had eaten the sky.
"Bye," I said.
They couldn't hear it over the crash of the wave. Water went everywhere, hitting the Death Eaters so hard that their bodies were pulverized. Tonks shut her eyes, waiting for the worst, but the wave parted around her. Not only was she not hurt, she didn't get a single salty drop on her body. The water rushed over my ankles, healing the only cut I'd sustained. The ocean retreated to its natural state. Suddenly it was just us and the cursed items dealer on the beach, accompanied by six bodies. Even his enchanted sandcastle and the metal wall Tonks made had been washed out to sea.
I only had to look at the crook we were originally here for. I've never seen someone bow faster.
"I'll turn myself in!" he said. "I'll do it tonight! I'll turn over a new leaf! I'll… I'll start an orphanage! An Orphanage by the beach!"
"Can you handle him?" I asked.
Tonks came back to life. She'd been staring at me like a statue.
"Yeah!" she said. "I'll get him. You, hand over your wand and present your hands!"
She made sure the guy wasn't a threat, then pressed a Portkey into his hands and sent him off to the Ministry. She hadn't been lying about having a Portkey earlier, but the truth was that the Death Eaters had blocked it along with Apparition. Until they died and their spells disappeared with them.
When that was done, Tonks and I stood in front of each other. I put Riptide away. The seawater had cleaned it of any leftover blood.
"Your cheek is healed," Tonks said.
"That's what you're focused on?"
She blushed. "It matters to me, alright? I was going to offer to treat it back at Grimmauld Place. Now I don't have an excuse."
"An excuse to take me home for the night?"
"After seeing that, can you blame me? I'm not sure what you are, but that was the most kickass thing I've ever watched."
"If you want it that badly, you could always try being honest."
Tonks swallowed. I could tell she was replaying the whole fight in her head, trying to make sense of it.
"Will you come and fuck me tonight?" she asked.
I put my arms around her back. It might sound fast, but I'd found that happened a lot. Fighting and making love are a lot more connected than you might think. Tonks Apparated both of us, and this time, we reached Grimmauld Place without any pesky anti-teleportation spells. Tonks pulled me along by the hand, leading us up to her room.
We didn't run into anyone along the way, and that was just the way I wanted it.