'Sbeen a while, hasn't it?

Hello everyone once again, the Lonely Lorekeeper is here with another new chapter of To Date a Metamorph. Sorry for taking so long, I've been playing around with a few new schedules for writing so that I can get stories out as quickly as possible. The answer I came to, at long last, was to write 1,000 words a day for each of my stories. Since each of my chapters is about 6,000 words long, that means I should be able to get a chapter out every week—I say should, mostly because this means I am writing 3,000 words a day all told, and who knows how long I'll be able to keep that going.

Anyways, since I'm doing this, today I am also updating my two other stories, His Loyal Pet and The Legends of Valeron: Into the Unknown. HLP is over here on Fanfiction, and the seventh chapter is coming out today, while TLoV is over on Fictionpress—Fanfiction's sister site—and Wattpad. Go ahead and give them a read, too—especially The Legends of Valeron, it is my passion project of the past five years and I'm so happy to finally be writing it at last!

Anyways, I hope y'all enjoy the new chapter! Let's get to it!

Chapter 12: The Mad-eye Method

After enjoying their lunch in a nearby park—some sandwiches and chips they'd bought from a small open air café—Harry and Tonks had spent the rest of the day getting whatever supplies Tonks felt they would need for Harry's training. They kept at a rather comfortable pace through the rest of the day, but Harry couldn't deny being a bit curious of what would be awaiting him the next day after seeing what Tonks was collecting. Tonks, however, simply winked at him whenever he asked about it and promised he would find out tomorrow.

His curiosity was even further piqued when, once they got back to their attic-bedroom, Tonks immediately moved over to one of the empty storage rooms with all that she'd brought with them. When Harry tried to see what she was up to, she quickly closed the door and stated that it was part of the training surprise for tomorrow. Harry was a bit concerned, but eventually he relented and went to working on some of his homework—he had quite a bit still to do before the summer was over.

Once Dobby had brought up dinner for the night, and Tonks was finished with…whatever her project had been, the two enjoyed the rest of the evening chatting amicably—this time, Harry asking about what it was like being an auror, and how Tonks had decided it was the path for her. Of course, one thing led to another, and their chatting turned to snogging, as well as testing the durability of the bed several times over, before the two of them finally slipped away into another night of peaceful sleep.

"Up and at 'em, Hero-Boy!"

A peaceful sleep that was suddenly broken by Tonks' shout and an explosively loud booming sound that shook the walls of the attic and nearly knocked Harry out of his bed. The bedraggled fifth year looked wildly around, before realizing he couldn't see anything without his glasses, and quickly slapped them onto his face so that he could see what was going on.

Standing across from him, her hair now a cool lavender and worn back in a high ponytail behind her, was Tonks. Rather than her usual choice in fashion—leather jacket, punk rock band shirt, and ripped jeans—Tonks was wearing a rather well-fitting set of muggle exercise clothes. His girlfriend smirked back down at him and held her wand over her head again, the tip glowing before another massive, explosive sound made the room shake once more.

"Come on, Hero-boy, time to get to work!" Tonks declared once more, letting her wand drop and cocking her head playfully to the side. "We've got a very busy day ahead of us, so let's start burning that candle at both ends and get this show on the road!"

Harry blinked blearily in surprise, rubbing his hand over his eyes to ensure that he wasn't, in fact, dreaming this strange situation up. To his disappointment, the vision of Tonks threatening him with training didn't disappear. So, with a low groan, the black-haired chosen one slowly slumped back in bed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Nym, can't we wait until after breakfast?"

"No can do, Hero-boy," Tonks quickly snapped back, resting a hand on her hip as she strode up to him. "Bonesy told me to put you through the standard auror training regiment these next two months and that's what I intend to do—starting with a quick workout at five-thirty in the morning. Once you're done with your workout, you can have breakfast."

"Five-thirty?" Harry asked, his voice nearly coming out as a shout as he sat bolt-upright in bed. His hand fumbled for his wand and he cast a quick Tempus spell. Sure enough, the cloud that formed from the tip of his wand read five-thirty in the morning clear as day.

He was suddenly and intensely reminded of Quidditch training with Oliver Wood during his first three years.

"Nym, you can't be serious!" Harry exclaimed.

"Sure I can, Hero-boy, just watch!" Tonks replied with a devilish smile, before her face suddenly morphed into that of his shaggy godfather, making Harry sit up a bit straighter once more. "Now then, Harry, you can either train with me, or you can train with me wearing Sirius' face, but either way you are training! You agreed to it yesterday, so get a move on!"

"Alright, alright, shift back to normal and I'll get ready," Harry finally groaned out.

With that, Harry pushed up out of bed, quickly realized he was still naked from the previous night's activities, and bashfully began looking around for a change of clothes, noting a set of muggle workout clothes already laid out for him on the dresser. Behind him, Tonks cheered in success, before stepping back and not-so-subtly ogling him as he changed into the set of workout clothes that, like with Tonks, fit him rather nicely. While hers were a light grey and purple, his were a black and red.

"Looking pretty sharp, Hero-boy," Tonks commented with a smirk, before striding over to the far side of the attic where the window leading out to the balcony and the muggle fire escape was located and looked back over to Harry. "Now then, let's get a move on—auror trainees always start each day with a five-mile run, and it's looking like the perfect day for it!"

Harry groaned, the similarities between Wood's early morning training sessions and the auror training regiment sounding more and more similar with every word that left Tonks' lips. Still, he quickly pulled on a pair of running shoes Tonks had gotten for him the day before and fell into step behind her as they walked out the window onto the balcony and began making their way down the fire escape.

Tonks seemed to note Harry's mood, though, and she gave him a smile. "Oh, buck up, Harry—trust me, it may be a bit rough at first, but after a couple of weeks you might actually look forward to it. And, besides, you're lucky enough to have your instructor be your incredibly sexy girlfriend, who can promise you some very nice rewards if you do well~"

She ended her reply with a bit of a flirtatious wink, and Harry's mind began to wander a bit on what exactly Tonks might offer Harry if he 'did well'. Harry quickly shook his head, his cheeks now a bit pinked—though that could just as easily be from the slightly cool morning air as it could from her suggestive comment—and he nodded back to Tonks.

"Alright then, Nym, let's get on with it then."

Beaming back at him, Tonks turned and walked the both of them out of the alleyway that the fire escape dropped down into. As soon as she reached the end of the alley, though, she shot Harry a sly wink over her shoulder and took off down the sidewalk, nearly leaving Harry in the dust. Harry blinked in surprise, before quickly realizing that this, perhaps, was part of the training as well—that, or she was simply goading him on. Either way, it was working, and Harry bolted out after her down the quiet, barely-awake city street.

Tonks was remarkably fast, her body morphing into a fit and slender build that cut down the city street in a nimble dash. As she glanced back behind her, though, she found Harry quickly catching up to her—years of 'Harry Hunting' and running from all kinds of danger paying off in big dividends as his slender figure sprinted after her. Tonks' hair flashed a bright yellow of surprise, before her grin widened and she turned back around and hurried off down a nearby street corner.

Harry dashed after her, his heart pounding in his ears as he rounded the corner, catching her figure out of the corner of his eye and quickly keeping up the pursuit. The cool morning air burned slightly as he took great breaths in—while he had a history of being fast, he didn't run for very long. Wood had them run in the mornings, but that hadn't been for a few years now, and he could feel the lack of training making it a bit harder on him. Still, he pushed on—he didn't want to give Tonks the satisfaction of him losing so poorly.

Their run continued on for the next thirty or so minutes, with Tonks staying well ahead of him, but not so far that he couldn't see and keep up. Still, she changed directions and turned so suddenly that at times it was hard to keep up, and Harry found his lungs and legs burning by the time they were done, ending in the alleyway outside of Grimmauld Place, Harry dropping back against the wall with a gasping sigh.

"Not too shabby, Hero-boy," Tonks commented, pulling out a muggle stopwatch and clicking it off, checking the time with a nod. "You ran a bit out of steam there in the middle for a bit, but that's just a stamina problem that we'll be able to fix with time. Other than that, for a first run, you did above average by auror trainee standards."

"Wonderful," Harry wheezed, shooting a frown back up at Tonks. "Now, would you mind explaining why the 'morning run' was like that? Last I checked, morning runs are just supposed to wake you up and get your blood pumping, not make you feel like you're in the middle of some frantic chase scene."

"And what gets your blood pumping better than a frantic chase scene?" Tonks asked. At Harry's flat expression, though, Tonks continued.

"Actually, there is a good reason why the run is like that. It's all part of the auror training regiment, like I said before—or, as I like to call it, the Mad-eye Method." Tonks beamed over at Harry. "It's a serious training regiment that my mentor, Mad-eye Moody, put in place in the DMLE before he retired. The goal of the regiment is to not only get you physically strong enough for auror duty, but also to hone your reflexes so that you're ready for literally anything."

Tonks chuckled awkwardly after a moment and rubbed the side of her neck. "Actually, if we had been doing the actual Mad-eye Method version of that run, you would've been the one out front, and I would've been throwing jinxes and hexes at you that you would have to dodge."

"What?!" Harry asked in shock.

"But, since we're only starting you out, and we're out in almost-broad-daylight, in the middle of a muggle city street, I figured it would be better if I adjusted that particular part of the method—at least, for now," Tonks added with a slightly devilish smirk. "Like I said, the method's supposed to train you in both body and mind, get your muscles strong and your reflexes fast."

"Sounds lovely," Harry muttered, groaning as he pushed himself back up into a standing position, his legs still burning a bit.

"Well, it was designed by Mad-eye, after all," Tonks replied with a chuckle, walking over and wrapping an arm around Harry's back to help him along. "Come on now, there's still more ahead we've still to do, and I don't want you dropping on me just yet, alright?"

Harry groaned but nodded back to her, holding on as Tonks suddenly apparated them back up into the attic bedroom—which, was a good thing, as at the moment, Harry wasn't quite sure he could climb up the fire escape. Of course, his legs weren't any better as they got back into the bedroom, and he quickly found himself collapsing back onto the bed with a low 'flumph' of momentary exhaustion.

Tonks didn't seem to mind too much, as she moved over and began getting things together for the next stage of the training session. "But, first things first," she announced suddenly, looking back to Harry, "I think I mentioned getting you breakfast once the morning workout was done, right?"

Harry perked up a bit at the mention of breakfast and nodded, and Tonks smiled back at him. "Well, I'll see if I can get Dobby to whip us both up some breakfast—we'll eat that, and then move on to the rest of the regiment." She paused, then added with a slightly sly smile. "And why don't you also freshen up a bit, in the shower—that way, you're starting fresh on the next part."

The sound of a fresh warm shower sounded very nice indeed to Harry, who pushed himself back up off of the bed and hurried over to the bathroom—why there was a bathroom in the attic, he hadn't the foggiest, but he was thankful for it nonetheless.

He had just changed out of his running outfit, climbed into the shower, and turned the water to the right heat he wanted, though, when he found himself suddenly interrupted by the sound of the bathroom door opening and shutting. Before he could do anything, the shower curtain parted and Tonks appeared, standing just as naked as him, and with that same sly look on her face. Harry blushed furiously, looking back to Tonks with surprise.

"Nym, what the hell—?" he asked, before she smirked back at him and stepped closer.

"Well, I did say you'd get a reward if you did well, didn't I, Lover-boy~?" she asked, letting the curtain fall closed behind her as she moved to join Harry inside the shower stall.

After getting a very thorough cleaning in the shower, one that left both Harry and Tonks very satisfied and refreshed, the two stepped out to find that Dobby had left their breakfasts waiting for them on a table near their bed. He also noticed his small friend had gone and taken their clothes to be cleaned, and had even made his bed for him. He smiled and shook his head, once more reminded of how glad he was to have a friend in the small house elf.

The two ate quickly, and once they were done, Tonks turned and shot a wink over to Harry. "Well, now that we're done with your warm-up and breakfast, it's time to show you what you'll be doing for the next two months."

With that, Tonks stood from where she was sitting and began walking over to the room she had been working in the day before, beckoning Harry to come along. Harry, his interest piqued, grabbed up his wand and quickly followed after her. He glanced to Tonks, who merely shot him a wink, before walking through the doorway…and instantly staring in shock at what he saw.

Harry had been in this room a few times when he'd first moved into the attic—they'd ended up having to use some of its space for storing the boxes and belongings that had been left there by Sirius' family. Now, though, those belongings were gone, as was most of the room as Harry remembered it.

Instead of the small storage room that was barely more than eight feet wide and eight feet deep, the door Harry walked through led into a room that was easily ten times that length, and with a high vaulted ceiling. An obstacle course of sorts ran around the length of the room, while the center of the room was divided in two. The first half was filled with different weight-lifting and physical training equipment, while the second was bare save for a large ring with a single dividing line down the middle—a dueling circle.

Tonks smirked and walked up to Harry's side, resting a hand upon his shoulder. "Pretty impressive, ain't it? It's not exactly like what the DMLE has for us aurors to train with, but it's as good a start as any. Mind you, it's the bleeding edge of what I could do without breaking the wards around this level—expanding the room any further would've ruptured the privacy wards entirely, and I doubt you'd want that."

"The DMLE have something larger than this?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Of course! Though, to be fair, they've got to train a lot more that just a single chosen one, Hero-boy," Tonks stated, smirking as she walked out to stand before him, crossing her arms in a firm, serious stance. "Anyways, here is where the real part of your training—of being put through the Mad-eye Method—will really begin."

"Every day, from the end of breakfast until lunch, you'll be working out in here—half your time will be spent on the machines, the other half will be spent running the obstacle course, and both will have a few extra special features the help hone your reflexes, so be weary of that, too. Then, after lunch, your time will be divided between me teaching you all the spells and techniques you'll need to know to succeed, and the two of us dueling. And then, after dinner, you'll be doing yoga to unwind and cool down from the rest of the day."

"You will get breaks after nightly yoga and on the weekends, but other than that, you will be working non-stop for the next two months," Tonks finally stated, staring back at Harry with a smirk on her face. "By the time we're done, you'll physically be rookie auror material, and with my extra training, you'll have the smarts and reflexes to more than hold your own. So, then, Harry, are you ready?"

Harry stared at Tonks a moment, his eyes having gone wide from the list of tasks and training sessions he was about to go through. At her words, though, he shook himself back into focus, and looked back at her. He paused, then sighed. It sounded tough…but he knew that it might be his best bet to be ready for what he was now destined to do. And, besides, it wasn't as if he was a stranger to rough, painful situations.

"Alright, I'm ready," Harry nodded, looking back to Tonks with a firm nod. Tonks smiled, before her smile shifted into a slightly harder smirk, and she drew her wand to her side at the ready.

"Then let us begin, Hero-boy."

Miles away, unaware of the exhaustive training Harry was about to go through, Albus Dumbledore slowly paced back and forth within his office at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Though it was now almost a full day since his scare with the prophecy orb, his mind still remained troubled, especially in regards to the wards and trackers he had focused on Harry and anything of importance to his plans for him.

Three wards. Three of Harry's wards had either broken or gone off in the past three days—the indicator connected to Harry's trace had gone off and then broken the very next day, the ward surrounding and filtering Harry's mail had been left inert, and the barrier he'd set up around the prophecy had been broken just the other day, even though the prophecy itself had remained. Something very odd was going on, something he didn't know about, and if there was one thing Dumbledore hated most it was not knowing.

Frowning, Dumbledore hurried over to his desk where the rest of his trinkets tied to wards and spells remained. Only a few still remained in operation, but he was thankful to note that the trinket indicating he was still at Privet Drive was still active, as was the trinket that indicated that the wards were still surrounding Privet Drive. The wards were a bit weaker than he would've preferred, but after what Harry had been through the previous year, he didn't find it too surprising.

What was surprising was the trinket that was tied to his physical well-being—an odd hourglass with sand that changed colors depending on how well he was feeling, and changed speeds depending on whether he was under duress or at ease. At the moment, the hourglass was at an odd flux—the sand's color was a vibrant green, not the best color on the spectrum, but better than he had been in the past. However, it was spilling out into the bottom half at an alarming rate, much faster than he'd ever noted it before.

Dumbledore's eyebrows furrowed, and he pushed back from the desk again. Physically, Harry was well, but he seemed under stress or duress that was much worse than he'd ever seen before. He knew that Harry needed to work through his grief but…was something else wrong with him?

Frowning, Dumbledore turned and focused on the wards surrounding Hogwarts itself, before turning on his heels and apparating through the one small gap that only the headmaster of the school could find and use. In a blur of colors and lights, Dumbledore came to a stop behind the large hedge outside of Arabella Figg's house, taking a moment to steady himself, before beginning to walk down the street towards the Dursleys.

He needed to check up on Harry.

Before he'd even gone more than ten feet down the road, Dumbledore's robes and clothes quickly shifted in appearance to become a rather nice—if not vibrantly colored—suit and tie, so that he would stick out a bit less than before. Wandless transfiguration came easily to him, and while it was a complex spell, any Muggles who might've seen him walking along down the street would've only seen his wizard robes for a second before blinking and seeing the man dressed, if a bit loudly, more muggle-like.

His appearance in check, Dumbledore moved down the road before arriving outside of the Dursley home. He sighed, stopping beside a nearby tree, slipped his hands into his pockets, and stated casually, "Good morning, Alastor."

There came a low grunt of reply from nearby, and suddenly standing beside him was Alastor 'Mad-eye' Moody, the former auror leaning hard on his walking cane. Dumbledore didn't bother to look over to him, but even so, he knew his old friend had a wand trained on him.

"Hello, Albus, if that is who you are. Question—the most fortuitous of victories…"

"…are often born in the fiercest of flames," Dumbledore softly finished, nodding.

Moody nodded back to him and surreptitiously slipped his wand back into its holster. "So, what brings you out here, Albus?"

"I am here, my friend, because I had a feeling I must check in on Mr. Potter," Dumbledore stated, his voice still soft, his mind going back to the trinkets out on his desk. "There have been a lot of odd situations in the past few days that are closely connected to him, and I felt it only right that I check in on him and ensure that he is still well."

Moody frowned and looked over to Dumbledore. "And here I thought you said we shouldn't disturb him, Albus—the boy needs to grieve by himself, that's what you said."

"And so he must," Dumbledore replied, though his voice sounded a bit hollow—after the last few days, he was beginning to feel as if he didn't know for certain on a lot of things— "However, he will not even notice I am there. I am, as you are likely well aware, very good at keeping from being noticed."

Moody gave Dumbledore and his bright purple, pink, and lavender suit a quick glance, before chuckling and shaking his head. "Whatever you say, Albus—go on in, the muggles are out for the day, and Potter's up in his room. He's been there all day, not really moving too much. He's probably trying to sleep the day away."

Dumbledore nodded, taking Moody's advice into account as he walked up towards the Dursley's house. He felt the wards of protection, a bit fainter than normal, and passed through them with ease. So, too, was it with ease that he managed to unlock the door, before gliding inside and letting it quietly shut behind him. He gave the entrance a small glance, before turning his attention up to the stairs, and began a silent climb up towards Harry's bedroom.

Before he'd even walked inside, Dumbledore was brought up short—the door had several locks on it, locks that could only be accessed from the outside. There was also a large flap across the bottom portion of the door, as if for a cat to walk through—but, from what the Order members had told him, the Dursleys didn't own any animals. The sight was a bit worrying for the old wizard, but he continued on nonetheless.

The door swung open easily for him, without even a need for a spell—though he did cast a simple silencing charm to hide himself. Inside, the room was squalid and unseemly—though the floors and walls were surprisingly clean and nice, the furniture was all broken and in poor repair. The bed, if Dumbledore could even call it that, was sagging and bare save for a few sheets, and the bed's frame looked as though it could break at any minute.

Dumbledore paused, recollection of the many times Harry had stated that the Dursleys treated him terribly. He knew there was no lost love between Harry and his relatives, but surely he had expected more than a dingy bed and broken furniture. It made him wonder what else Harry had told him was true…what else that Arabella Figg hadn't noted and mentioned to him, that only dwelt within these walls.

For a moment, the supposed greatest wizard of all time shivered at the mere thought of it all.

Taking his mind off of the room itself, Dumbledore turned his attention to the young wizard that was laying on the dingy bed near the window. True to Mad-eye's word, Harry was laying fast asleep on the bed, his forehead pebbled with beads of sweat and his dark hair matted down against the bed's lone pillow. He'd grown in the month since school, but he also seemed a touch paler, and his sleep did not seem restful.

Dumbledore's blue eyes dimmed slightly as he stared down at Harry, and with a careful wave of his wand, a chair formed under him to sit in as he stared at the boy he'd been working to shape into the Chosen One. He'd done the planning, the analyzing, the sleepless nights pacing in frustration as he danced around what he'd hoped to be the perfect plan, the one true way to vanquish Voldemort once and for all. He'd done so much, knowing in his heart that it was the only way for them to win.

But as he sat and stared at Harry…he found himself uncertain.

Not in the prophecy, of course—that he was most certain of. And, even if he wasn't certain of the symbology and mystery of the prophecy, the fact that Voldemort believed in it was enough to make it true. No, Dumbledore found himself uncertain of his own choices in handling Harry.

Dumbledore had sent Harry to his relatives so that he would be safe from danger, but in turn he had placed him with the few people beyond Voldemort's inner circle who would treat him the worst. He had cut Harry off from much of his knowledge of the magical world and where he fit in it so he would not become proud and brash, but in turn he had made Harry someone who would leap into fights without understanding the ramifications, and could not truly defend himself against the law. He had ensured Harry would be loyal to him so that he'd be willing to die for him, but…

Dumbledore paused, staring back down at Harry.

He'd done all of this, all of this sacrifice heaped onto the back of a boy who was not yet even fifteen, with the sure knowledge that it was the only way to fully vanquish Voldemort once and for all, and yet even he couldn't lie to himself that this was the best option. Harry was here, alone and away from his friends, when other boys his age were having fun and laughing their cares away. It wasn't fair.

At that moment, Harry began to stir slightly on the bed. Dumbledore looked up in surprise, but Harry did not wake, instead rolling over and murmuring lowly. He caught a few words from the young man, and it made Dumbledore's heart sink.

"No…Cedric, please…run Cedric…don't let him…no…I'm sorry…it's my fault…" he heard Harry murmur, the boy's voice wrapping with soft sobs. Then, even worse, he heard him speak again, his voice even more sad and broken than before. "Mum?...no, please, Mum, stay…Mum, don't go…Dad, Mum, please…I can't…"

Dumbledore closed his eyes, feeling tears slowly glide down his cheeks as Harry continued to moan and cry, before he finally drifted off again, and fell into a slightly more restful state of sleep. Dumbledore stared a moment longer, before slowly standing up from the chair, which disappeared as he stood, and turned to walk back out of the bedroom once more. He let it slide closed behind him quietly, careful not to wake Harry, before turning and descending down the stairs.

He paid a bit more attention to the pictures that lined the walls of the Dursley home as he left, and every smiling, smarmy face he saw kindled the anger and sadness within his heart ever stronger, ever hotter. He was angry with himself for placing Harry here to begin with, angry with the Dursleys for how far they'd fallen from his already low expectations, and sad with this terrible, terrible situation that he and fate had pushed Harry into.

"The night of Harry's birthday," Dumbledore suddenly stated as he walked by where Moody was standing, once more hidden by the invisibility cloak, "we shall come to collect him and bring him to Headquarters. He is to spend the rest of the summer with his friends…and…perhaps it is time he comes to know his part to play in this game of war Voldemort has started up again."

Moody said nothing but a grunt in reply, and Dumbledore strode off down Privet Drive towards Arabella Figg's house without another word, his thoughts murkied and in need of a glass from the bottle of Ogden's finest that he kept in the bottom drawer of his desk.

Harry felt as if his body was about to collapse as he haphazardly dodged another of Tonks' flurry-cast spells, his own wand arm snapping out to toss a spell of his own at her. At the moment, he had very few spells that would truly be worth much use in a fight—perhaps his best was Expelliarmus, the disarming spell, but even that could be counteracted in some ways. And, compared to Tonks, he had far less experience with dueling.

As if to rest his case, Harry moved to dodge one of Tonks' spells once more before tripping on his own foot and falling over onto his back with a low grunt of exhaustion. Sighing, Harry pushed himself to sit up, only to find a long and slender wandtip pointed right at the space between his eyes. He followed the wandtip down to the hand that was holding it, along the arm, and up to the smirking face of Tonks staring down at him.

"And that's another win for me~" Tonks replied in a teasing lilt.

Harry groaned, letting his body drop back down onto the training room floor again. "Yeah, I know," he grumbled softly, pushing his glasses up to his forehead and running his hands over his eyes wearily. "To the surprise of literally no one, the highly-trained auror swept the floor with the not-even-yet-fifth-year Hogwarts student. Nicely done."

Tonks rolled her eyes at Harry's sarcastic response, twirling her wand a few times before sliding it back into her holster. "Oh, cheer up, Hero-boy! This is the auror corps' training regiment for all of their trainees, and frankly you've been doing pretty well so far. Considering you're three years younger than most of the trainees that go through the regiment you're going through, you're doing an incredible job."

Harry rolled his head to the side to give Tonks a flat, disbelieving stare. "No, really, you are!" Tonks emphatically stated again. "Barely anyone can get through the obstacle course on their first day in under ten minutes, and you managed to get through it at just barely nine. And most initiates drop from sparring and dueling after three rounds, and it took me five to finally get you to drop here. You're doing a great job for your first day, Harry!"

In spite of his exhaustion, Harry allowed a tired smile to slip onto his face, and he slowly pushed himself back up into a sitting position. "Well, if you say so, Nym…though, I really don't feel much like I've been doing a great job, if you ask me…"

Tonks snorted out a laugh and took Harry's hand in hers. "That's just the exhaustion talking—it speaks pretty loudly, but try to ignore it for now—come on, up you go!"

With a small grunt of effort, Tonks pulled Harry up to his feet, the young man swaying slightly where he stood before wrapping an arm around Tonks' back for support. Tonks smiled back at him, before turning the both of them around and leading them out of the training room, Harry's shambling pace making the trek just to the door a bit longer than it should've been.

Outside, Dobby was waiting with a tea tray in hand, with two warm cups of something aromatic waiting for the both of them. "Dobby thought the Great Master Harry Potter and his Tonksie would like some tea after their training," Dobby announced.

"Thank you, Dobby," Harry replied, taking a cup in one hand as Tonks carefully set him down on the bed. "You really are a wonderful friend, you know that?"

Dobby's ears turned a bit pink, and he dropped the tea tray just as Tonks took a hold of her cup to wrap his thin arms around himself and shake slowly side to side from overflowing emotions. "Oh, the Great Master Harry Potter is too kind! Dobby is more than glad to be a friend to the Great Master Harry Potter, for Harry Potter is both a great wizard and a good man!"

With that, Dobby and the tea tray disappeared with a sudden pop, leaving Tonks and Harry alone in the attic bedroom once more. Tonks shook her head at where the slightly insane house elf had once been standing, before moving over to sit beside Harry, and shooting him a smirk. "You know, if he keeps calling you that, I might just have to pick it up myself. Would you like that, oh Great Master Harry Potter~?"

Harry shivered—somehow, the way Tonks said that title had a far different feel to it than whenever Dobby said it, and he found himself briefly envisioning having Tonks call him that in a far different, far more personal setting. His cheeks turned pink at the thought, and hurriedly he raised his cup to his lips to try and hide it. At Tonks' laughter, though, Harry just scowled over at her in mock frustration. "Damn you Tonks…"

"Oh, come on, Harry, don't deny that you wouldn't like it!" the young witch teased, her eyes shining with mirth.

Harry shrugged, choosing not to say anything, and instead kept his attention on the tea Dobby had offered them. It seemed to be more than just tea, as he felt his whole body starting to relax, the exhaustion and tension from the day of training slowly easing off of him and down through his body and out his feet. Sighing, Harry leaned back to lay down on his bed, staring at the ceiling blankly.

"So…that was the Mad-eye Method?" he asked slowly, tapping his cup in thought.

Tonks nodded, taking a sip of her drink as well. "Yes it was…and it's only going to get more intense from here as well, just a warning…"

Harry sighed and nodded, letting his eyes slowly drift shut, his exhaustion coming back for just a moment as he thought ahead to the very long two months still ahead for the both of them.