Over the next few weeks, there was a noticeable unease in the castle. Most, if not all of the students had seen the attack during the Quidditch match, that was a clear assassination attempt, in the open daylight of all times. And now they were well aware that Harry Potter, supposed golden boy, knew the dark arts. But what was really worrying people was that there was almost visible tension between Harry Potter-Black and Nymphadora Tonks. Neither persons were speaking to one another, Tonks just silently escorted Harry to each of his classes, no words spoken between them. However no one knew how to approach the subject.

It also took very little time for the castle to come to the conclusion that during the free times when Harry was not around, that he was practicing the dark arts in the school. This resulted in the creation of worse rumors that began to fly around the school. Previously they had been related to Nymphadora seducing Harry Potter, but now, they were believing that the metamorph was training Harry as a weapon for her own gain.

The few friends she had previously, who figured she wasn't screwing an eleven year old boy simply because they've never seen the girl interested in anyone before, weren't able to rationalize this new revelation. The house of the loyal was now ostracizing one of their own, to the despair of Pomona Sprout.

"And you're certain there is nothing that can be done?" Minerva questioned as she had a number of tomes open in front of her, all based around the expansive backlog of rules that Hogwarts had. She was busy looking for a way to intervene in what was going on that wouldn't also cause a scandal for overreach.

"Unfortunately, no," Albus sighed, he had called an emergency session to discuss the Harry Potter situation. "What he is learning is family magic, and is receiving instruction from the closest member in the family to him, we cannot interfere without just cause."

"It's dark magic Albus," Flitwick slammed his small fists on the table. "And it is not the tolerable kind either. That is the "just cause" and he has to stop!"

"I am aware, but as it is, Mr. Potter has not used it in anything more than a self-defense capacity. He has broken no laws, as even if we attempted to punish him for using dark magic on school grounds, it was to protect his own life from a clear attempt to kill him. After reporting the incident to Madame Bones, she agreed that the ruling would be overturned by the Board of Governors if Mr. Potter raised issue, let alone it reaching the Wizengamot. In addition, I cannot honestly say with certainty that it is necessarily a bad idea for him to learn these spells." Albus said his piece.

"That was filled with a lot of extraneous words Albus," Severus drawled, realizing that the headmaster was very hesitant to make a move.

"After three clear attempts to kill him, of which, we were unable to prevent a single one, and were barely successful the first time at keeping him alive." Albus put his head in his hands. "I am not sure what to do with him any longer."

"And the stone?" Trelawny inquired.

"It is currently in a hidden location, however based on recent incidents." Albus said. "I will move it some time over the holidays, when the majority of the student population is out, I fear if I do not then Mr. Potter will somehow become involved in this scheme."

"My greatest concern is how much of his own childhood mirrors that of Tom," the elderly wizard stated, memories long since buried surfacing as details lined up. "When I first met him as a child in that orphanage, he was so full of rage. I had hoped that in time, around others like himself, that it would quell that anger and turn it into a greater passion. I was wrong."

"He was clever, resourceful and he saw weakness in others, weakness that he could exploit. And he did, he was able to seduce people by using their desires against them, but it was always a lie, the power he promised would always be his own, the wealth and control, he had no intention of giving up."

"And Young Harry, the abuse he suffered, because of the mistakes we have made, mistake I have made," Albus sighed as he blamed himself most for the way Harry had been raised, left alone where he should have been safe and loved. "I do not know if Nymphadora is drawing him down a path for her own gain, if he sees her as a pawn, or if this is all a coincidence. For the first time in many years, I simply do not know what to do, but I worry that if I do not do something, then we will have another dark lord on our hands."

Harry sat in the Gryffindor common room, he was one of only a few students to remain in the castle for the holidays, and the other remaining Gryffindors, the Weasleys were giving him space. This suited him fine, he was alone, with no one there to whisper about him or run away from him. And most certainly it meant he didn't have to think about the young woman he was feuding with, nope, not now, he was free to distract himself by staring into the flickering flames of the fireplace, as they changed color, from yellows, to reds and oranges. 'Just like Nymphadora's hair would do when she got frustrated." He thought as to how similar they were.

Shaking his head, he quickly got off the couch. 'I've been in the common room too long, I'll go practice some spells, that'll take my mind off of this.' Harry reasoned as he pulled out a couple of text books and looked for the room he typically used.

'It's harder to get these right without Nymphadora here to walk me through the more complex motions,' Harry realized as he couldn't get the freezing hex to work the way he wanted it too. It was supposed to instantly turn any liquid into ice, the purpose being to solidify your opponents and then shatter them into bloody shards. 'I don't need her,' Harry grit his teeth. 'So what if it's more quiet without her talking, making me laugh and...' Harry slumped to the floor. "I miss Nymphadora," he finally admitted the reason why he felt the way he did.

Meanwhile back at the Ancient House of the Blacks. Nymphadora was glaring at her presents that she had gotten for Christmas.

"She's been like that for days, something is clearly bugging her," Ted said to his wife as they watched her sitting on the couch.

Andromeda shook her head. "I can only surmise it is one thing, a boy. This is how I acted when my parents forbade me from seeing you."

"Yes, but if she said she wanted to date a werewolf I wouldn't care as long as she was happy, this is not happy," Ted stated sadly as he hated seeing his daughter like this, and it was only the first time this had happened.

"And she's been out of the dating game for, well she never starting playing that particular game," Andromeda lamented. "And there is only one boy who has her attention at the moment."

"Yes, Harry Potter," Ted nodded. "So the question is, what did he do?" the father wondered what an eleven year old could have done to get his teenage daughter this emotional.

"Sweetie," Mr. Granger said as he sat at the dinner table with his daughter, there were only a few days left of the holiday, and they wanted to make the most of the time they had, but they could tell Hermione was trying to figure out something very important. "What's wrong? Is it something we can help with?" He offered as while he and his wife didn't understand magic, they were still well educated English folk and cared very much about her well being.

"I have two friends and they're fighting, I finally figured out why, but I don't know how to fix it." Hermione explained as much of the situation as she could, the attempted assassinations, how they became friends, the dark magic that Harry was using and how the other students were reacting.

"Wow, that is, very complex," Mrs. Granger whistled as they had simply expected it to be two kids having a silly argument as was normal, not life and death situations and structures of noble houses so ancient they went back to the times of Merlin.

"I know, I never thought any friend I made would be this troublesome," Hermione chuckled as before she had been in Hogwarts she had no friends, and that had been less dangerous than having friends.

"What I want to know is, are you safe?" Mr. Granger reached his hand out to his daughter's, who took it and gave him a comforting squeeze.

"Yes daddy, Harry and Tonks keep the nastier students from pestering me, and after the Quidditch match, they're more afraid of Harry now," Hermione nodded.

"Well, as much as you want to help, it doesn't seem like you can, and if this is some weird family dispute, you shouldn't," Mrs. Granger suggested as she figured it wouldn't be proper for Hermione to butt into the feud. "Instead, just be there for the both of them, people can be stubborn, children and teenagers just as much if not more so, one of them will eventually break."

"So I'm just waiting for them to make up," Hermione asked her parents who just nodded back at her. "Okay then," she said. "I wonder what Harry sent me as a gift," she said as she pulled off the wrapping from the package. "Oh my," she gasped as she saw what it was.

"How dare he, send me that..." Tonks seethed as she looked at the gorgeous jewelry Harry had sent her, the written note said. "For the first true gem in my life, these cannot compare to your beauty. You are truly unique Nymphadora, love Harry."

"Damn him," Tonks shouted as she gently set the present on the coffee table, the large necklace inlaid with numerous stones of various colors and size, like a rainbow of beauty it stared at her, her own hair swapping colors in a frenzy of mixed emotions.

"That looks very expensive," Mr. Granger commented as her daughter held up the diamond earrings. The way the gemstone caught the light made it shine brilliantly, the craftsmanship was clearly done by an expert.

"The note said this was left in his family's jewelry vault," Hermione commented as she read through the note Harry had written.

"He's rich enough to have an entire vault just for accessories," Mrs. Granger hummed appreciatively as she looked at the gift her daughter had received. "Diamonds might be a girl's best friend, but Mister Harry Potter seems to be a close second." letting out a soft laugh at her own joke.

"He keeps her safe and gives her shiny things," Mr. Granger mused. "I think I might need to have a chat with this young man." His fatherly instincts telling him to find out Harry Potter's intention with his daughter.

"Daddy," Hermione whined as she knew what her father wanted to do.

"Don't worry, he's not in any danger," Mrs. Granger waved off her daughters concern. "Your friend will still have all of his limbs."

"Harry's not the one I'm worried about," Hermione folded her arms. "You know he can throw around lightning that could probably disintegrate our car like it was nothing right?" She smirked as her father's features falters for a brief moment. "Gotcha," Hermione laughed as she hugged her parents.

"I should have known you were joking, throwing lightning," Mr. Granger tickled his daughter, feeling silly for falling for such a ludicrous statement.

"Oh, I wasn't joking about that, he blew up a bludger with a bolt of lightning," Hermione corrected. "That's a ten inch ball of iron that travels about 200 kilometers per hour and he shot it out of the sky." Hermione explained the situation. "He's just a very polite boy and wouldn't do that to you daddy."

"What is that school teaching our daughter?" Mr. Granger reeled back from that information.

"Well, Harry's learning that, of course the school wouldn't teach us dark magic," Hermione hummed as she decided to spend time with her parents and not focus on the school for the rest of the holidays.

"Harry," Hermione shouted excitedly as she returned to the Gryffindor dormitories, she had ran up the stairs to find the young black haired boy sitting by the fire, on a couch by himself, the other students had moved around him to talk to each other about their holidays. She almost launched herself at the boy when she noticed how sullen he looked.

"Hello Hermione," Harry responded as he knew the girl wanted a hug, she was a very touchy-feely person, and Harry didn't dislike the affectionate gesture. So he acquiesced and opened his arms to indicate that he was fine with giving her one.

"Thank you so much for the earrings," she said graciously as she pulled back her hair to show them off, the gemstones reflecting the light of the fire brilliantly.

"Damn," Katie Bell whistled in appreciation, seeing the jewelry out of the corner of her eye. "He gave you those as a gift?" she asked as it was not every day a girl got diamond earrings that even not being a jeweler Katie could tell were worth five thousand galleons easily. This outburst caused a few of the other girls to take notice of the expensive item.

For once Hermione was the center of attention as the girls oohed and aahed at the gift. "Jeez, maybe I should be Harry's friend if I'd get stuff like that," Lavender said as she got a tad jealous seeing how expensive the gift the homely looking girl received.

"I am NOT his friend because he gets me expensive things," Hermione angrily shouted at the vain girl. "He's a good guy and you've all been absolutely horrid to him, just because he's learning the dark arts."

"That's because the dark arts are evil, not like you'd get it," Ron sneered at the muggleborn.

"He only needs them because apparently people won't stop trying to kill him," Hermione screamed as she grabbed Harry's hand and dragged him out of the common room and up the stairs to vent. "Can you believe them, after everything you've been through, they still... gaaaah," she screamed through her teeth as her frustration at her housemates rose to an entirely new level.

Harry leaned back on his bed as he knew to just let Hermione work through her emotions as she paced back and forth, this was not the first time she had done this after hearing a rude comment from some other student. "How was your holiday?" Harry asked as Hermione ranted.

"Good, my parents are excited to meet you," Hermione said, finally calming down enough to not be loud. "They might have questioned how... appropriate, it was for their twelve year old daughter to get a gift that was more expensive than their car. Not that I didn't like it, they are lovely Harry," she quickly added on, not wanting to offend him or make him feel like he did anything wrong. "But they just worry, I told them about the troll attack, and how you were attacked at the Quidditch match. Professor McGonagall told my parents that Hogwarts was safe, but with multiple instances where some unknown person or persons have tried to kill you, they are less certain of the idea of Hogwarts."

"I get it, if I had parents they would probably be worried," Harry said sadly as he had wished many times that he wasn't an orphan, that there were people who would worry about his well being.

Hermione crawled up onto Harry's bed. "Well, you have me, I care," Hermione said, trying to cheer up Harry. "And, and, even if you didn't have me, you'll always have Tonks," Hermione said.

"Nymphadora doesn't like me anymore, I made her mad," Harry responded as he rolled over to not show his face to the girl, to not show weakness.

"Harry," Hermione rolled her eyes. "You did make her mad, but that doesn't mean she hates you."

"I can't even talk to her," Harry said, trying to prove himself right, that what was happening between him and Nymphadora was no different than all the animosity he was used to receiving from the people in his life.

"Because you're scared," Hermione pulled his shoulder to force him to look at her. "You are afraid that you'll do something bad again, because you know how you feel and you know what you want to do," Hermione said as she gave her advice.

"But what if it's the wrong thing to do?" Harry asked nervously. "I really miss Nymphadora."

"I know you do Harry, just walking with her, it's no different than being alone, so you have to take that risk," Hermione pleaded. "If you don't nothing changes."

"I don't know Hermione, please, leave me alone," Harry whimpered as he didn't want to confront his feelings at the moment. He wanted to sleep and pretend this hadn't happened, just avoid the topic even as it pained him to do so.

"I will respect your wishes Harry," Hermione said as she slid off his bed and closed the drapes around his bed. "Tonks is back in the castle and you'll see her tomorrow."

The next morning Harry quickly dressed and hurried out of the tower and headed down the stairs to the great hall. He had hoped to quickly get his breakfast and avoid the young lady that was on his every other thought, but those were dashed when he saw that she too had the same idea. "Nymphadora," Harry quietly said as he saw her digging at her food.

"Lord Black," Tonks stopped eating as she looked up at the young boy who called out to her.

Harry wanted to run away, he wanted to yell, he wanted to do something, anything but what he was doing. The soft patter of his feet carried in the nearly empty hall. Tonks only had a few moments to open her arms to embrace Harry as he slammed into her.

"Nymphadora, I'm sorry," Harry sobbed as he held her tightly. "I was wrong to order you around like that, I was just so scared and I didn't want you to get hurt anymore, please forgive me," he said as he buried his face into her stomach. "You're the best thing that has ever happened to me and not having you to talk to was awful, but what hurt the most was that I hurt you."

"Oh Harry," Tonks cooed as she stroked Harry's hair as she softly swayed. She nuzzled the young boy close to her as the emotionally stunted child tightly held onto her. "I forgive you, I was wrong to act the way I did. I understand why you felt that way, after everything in your life, I should be more patient with you."

"Can we go back to how things used to be?" Harry asked, hoping that the silence would finally end.

"I'd like that," Tonks smiled down at Harry. "Also, I'm wearing your gift, it's really beautiful." she said pulling down the collar of her robes to show the necklace to Harry.

"It reminded me of you, all the colors," Harry quietly said as he slowly let go of Nymphadora. "I hoped you would like it."

"I love it Harry, thank you," Tonks replied as she kissed Harry on the cheek.

"You called me Harry," Harry said as it finally registered with him that she hadn't used his title for once.

"Oh my apologies," Tonks quickly said as she realized she had gotten to casual with Lord Black.

"No, don't, I like it," Harry stopped her. "I like it when you say my name," Harry blushed as his chest felt light as he finally shucked off the weight of his angst that had been weighing on him for nearly a month.

"Okay Harry," Tonk sighed as she went back to her food, with Harry pulling a plate towards him to get something to eat as well.

"It's so much better now that you two are talking again," Hermione smiled as she watched the two work through another curse from the Black Book, it was a horrific curse that flayed a person's flesh from their muscles, leaving them in agonizing pain. She hoped that Harry would never have to use it, but she also knew that there might a time when that spell would come in use.

Harry smiled over at Tonks. "I'm really glad that we're talking again too," hoping to never go through a time when Tonks didn't want to speak to him.

"It's because Harry's sweet on me," Tonks teased as she saw Harry blush, something he had taken to doing when she used his name. So it was only said out of the earshot of other students. Only she deserved to see the tinge of pink on his cheeks from just hearing her say his name. And maybe Hermione since she hung around them, but that wasn't the same.

"A little," Harry admitted that out of everyone in the castle, Tonks was easily his favorite. Not that he disliked Hermione. But there was just something about the older metamorph that enticed him, something about her that no one else in the castle had. "Maybe more," he thought privately as he was a budding young man and sometimes he had thoughts about girls that he knew he never had before.