Moving in Tandem

Dudley came into the kitchen. "Okay if I take the sprog to the park? He needs a bit of room to run that won't result in me having to re-plaster." The aforementioned child hung on the crook of his arm like a ragdoll.

Tonks assured herself that Teddy was breathing, then granted permission. Before the pair left, Teddy snaked out an arm and nicked the rest of the bacon.

"There's a smart boy," Dudley said as the door closed behind them.

"I think you've found your babysitter," Harry said. "They make quite a pair."

"That's not at all disturbing," Tonks said drily.

"Could be worse. You could leave him with Ron."

Tonks laughed. "When even his own family has stopped doing that? I don't think so."

"I miss him," Harry said quietly.

"The feeling is mutual. You should ring him up, go for a beer some time."

"Just like that?" Harry scoffed. "He'd have every right to hang up on me."

"Just like that," Tonks said firmly. "And he won't. He's waiting for you to make the first move."

Harry groaned. "I'm going to spend the rest of my life apologizing to everyone I know, aren't I?"

"That's your choice, but most of your friends won't require one." Tonks finished the last ward on the kitchen. "It's me who won't let you off the hook easily."

"Nor should you." Harry followed her past the cupboard and up the stairs.

"Which room should we start in?" Tonks asked.

"End of the hall."

As Harry moved past, his shoulder brushed hers. The urge to press him back against the wall hit her – hard. She breathed easier when he continued on. Her reactions to him had never been subtle, and they appeared to be getting less so over time. It was bloody inconvenient, considering what she wanted from him. Well, aside from what she wanted right now, which was also inconvenient.

Harry repeated the spells he'd cast downstairs, his wand work smoother, his voice stronger. He was rushing, though, his shoulders tense, body nearly still save for his wand hand. He didn't like this room at all. Tonks modified the wards for the second story windows to include a nasty fall. She knew that design well enough to match his haste.

They were back in the hall in minutes, his breathing a bit rough.

"That wasn't your room, was it?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Mine was here."

She pushed open the door he indicated and stopped short of entering. Unlike the other rooms, this one was fully furnished. A young Harry could have lounged on that bed and she would not have found it at all unusual. Unsettling, perhaps, but so many things were.

He inhaled sharply, just behind her. "He left it intact."

"It's like a shrine," she whispered.

Harry shook himself like a dog coming out of the rain. "I suspect Dudley thought I might want some of this. Either that, or he was waiting for me to clean it out myself. He's still a bit lazy." Harry put great effort into attempting to sound casual.

She took her cue from him and went straight for the practical. "Is there anything you want here?"

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Not in this room."

She cuffed him on the shoulder, walked past him, and began casting. He started on the complimentary spells. The blend of their voices was familiar, comforting, and Tonks lost herself in the words. They took their time, respecting the preserved space while willfully ignoring all the possible implications of it. They finished together, then stood in silence for a moment, the past unspooling in tatters. He did not have to tell her where his thoughts went, and she would do him the same courtesy. They had been each other's lifeline time and again. This was no different.

"I should keep this." Harry held up a lamp. "It's the same one Dobby tried to smash against his head as penance for some imagined transgression."

"Not imagined," Tonks said. "He believed it all until you came along."

Harry stared at the lamp and said nothing, but he tucked it under his arm when they left the room. He set it down long enough to secure Dudley's room, then carried it to the kitchen and set it on the counter by the back door. His shoulders sagged.

"I didn't save the world," he said.

"You did."

"Not me alone. Every step of the way, people held me up, pointed me on, kept me from despair."

"I know." Tonks wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek on his back.

"I couldn't have done it at all without Dobby."

"Probably not, though you would have tried."

"Did I have a choice?" The words were caustic, bitter.

"As much as any of us did. Fight or surrender. Live or die. It all boils down to that. Move forward or stay home and hope the world gets by without you."

Harry snorted. "Subtle."

"I never claimed to be anything but blunt. You still have choices. If you want people to let you go away, we'll see that they do. You can't ask them to forget you."

He put his hands over hers and leaned back. "If I asked you to let me disappear, you would?"

"Certainly not," she huffed into his shoulder blade. "I'd make sure other people left you alone, but you're stuck with me one way or another. You're the only one I can talk to about St Mungo's. Or the only one whose eyes don't fill with pity before the sudden realization that something vital demands immediate attention, far, far from wherever I am."

"You won't get pity from me," Harry agreed. "Though I am guilty of that last part."

"Guilt is almost as useless as pity."

"So, if I'm not guilty, and you aren't inclined to let me run off forever, why were you so angry when I came to see you?"

She stepped back. "Forget what I just said. I totally hold you to blame for not contacting me. I was trying to figure out what to do about that, working myself into a good snit, and you decide to come back on your own."

He turned to face her. "You're angry at me for not waiting for you to be more angry at me?"

"No, I..." Her thoughts refused to arrange themselves in anything resembling a coherent order.

"If I was a complete rotter, I would kiss you in hopes that it would be pleasing enough to avert a row."

"Don't want to argue." She gave herself a mental pat on the back for forming something resembling a sentence.

"Nor do I, but I suspect we have to hash this out sometime." He took her hands in his. "I am truly sorry for being a complete wanker, for upsetting you and Teddy, for not having enough sense to know when I had it really, really good."

She stared up into his eyes and saw herself reflected in his gaze. "Apology accepted. Now you can kiss me."

"Just like that?" he asked.

"It's not as though I can stop loving you, is it? And you are very, very good at the whole snogging bit. Distract me well enough, and I may forget half of what I had planned to say to you."

"You know it will never be that easy for us," he said softly.

She barked out a laugh. "Nothing is easy with us, but what's a little more hard work, when we've come this far?"

He pulled her close and trailed butterfly kisses up her neck until his breath tickled her ear.

"Speaking of work, we should finish the job here," he murmured.

"Mmm, and I should not have given in so easily. Why not call it a draw and kiss me properly?"

He smiled at her – that secret smile she was almost certain no one else had ever seen – and proceeded to make her forget all her grievances, if only because there was no point in thinking at all when his thumb was grazing her hip, and his leg was wrapped around hers, and her pulse beat a tattoo in her ears that matched the pounding of his heart, and she knew beyond all doubt that he loved her.

Trumpets blared, not exactly what she'd expected from the music of the spheres.

"Bugger," Harry said against her lips. He waved his wand and muttered, "Desistare."

Tonks pulled back. "That's a bit old-school."

"True, but very few wizards will think to use it, considering how long ago it fell out of favor for being too simple. If I'd made it so it could be canceled with Finite Incantatem, then it wouldn't be a very good alarm system, would it?"

"Um, Harry? Dudley's not a wizard, and I doubt he wants this racket every time he comes home from work."

"Dudley didn't set it off. Teddy did." As if to punctuate his words, giggles drifted to them.

"And what happens if a wizard does manage to get past our wards and protections?" she asked.

He went back to exploring her curves while keeping one eye on the doorway. "I suppose the Ministry will have to dispatch someone to see what the problem is."

"How would they know about it?"

"Because I keyed it to them. He may be my cousin, but I don't want to spend my whole life looking after him, especially when there's an entire organization which has insisted, repeatedly, that they are in charge." The last was spoken into her collarbone.

"So, you're going to tell them how to shut down the spells? Makes all this seem pointless." She thought she heard footfalls on the stairs, but could not be sure over the pounding of her heart.

"No, the only one who will be able to shut down the alarm, besides me, and probably you, is Dudley himself." Harry turned her gently and pulled her back against his chest. His fingers played over her hip bones.

"A Muggle." She hoped he inferred the rest of whatever she might have said, as she found herself unable to form complex sentences – a common side effect of having her body pressed against his.

"Not any Muggle," he replied as his hands slid up over her ribs. "A very specific Muggle."

She took a deep breath – so what if it sounded like a gasp – and spoke carefully. "That's a very fine piece of spellcraft."

"I've been working on it since that night on the balcony." He might have meant the spell, but perhaps not.

She flushed at the memory. "I can see why you might have wanted something precise after that particular incident."

"And why I've kept it simple." He spun her around, kissed her swiftly, and stepped to the side. "The purpose is to make Dudley feel, and be, safe, not instruct him in the finer points of Latin and spells."

"You are far better to him than he deserves."

"He is, that," Dudley said from the doorway. "But he needs me."

Tonks turned to face him, hoping desperately that she was no longer blushing. Harry would never let her forget it. Dudley held a perfectly bland expression a few seconds too long, revealing that he had, in fact, seen them separate.

"Why do you think Harry needs you?" she asked.

"Because I'm the only one who won't kowtow to him. Or I was, until he pulled his head out of his arse and asked you to have him back."

Her hair turned pure white. "Has he?"

Before Dudley could answer, Harry stepped between them. "I have. I am. At least, I would. If you would, that is."

She laughed. "Don't hurt yourself. I'll give you another chance, but please stop trying to ask for one."

"I figured she was in when you were grinding – " Dudley choked and fell silent at the two wands raised in his direction.

"Maybe we should talk about something else," Harry said softly. "Or wait until there's not a child about."

"Right, then. Minding my own business."

Tonks gave Dudley a pat as she walked by him. "See, smarter than we all thought."

"I can learn, anyway." He turned to listen to Harry explain the magical protections.

Tonks went in search of Teddy, giving each room a final spell check. He was not upstairs, and a survey of the small yard from the window did not reveal her son. She didn't panic. Teddy was very good at hiding. On her way to the back door for the inevitable search of the hedges, she noticed a light coming from under the stairs. She opened the little door to find Teddy curled up in a ball, snoring softly.

Harry stepped up beside her. "Let me, please."

She nodded and backed up.

Harry bent down and scooped up the sleeping boy. "He's done in."

"I'm ready to get off my feet, too," she admitted. "If you're through with this place, I'd like to go home."

"Can I call you tomorrow?" he asked.

She stared at him, unable to fathom how he could be so slow when they had just been going very fast indeed. She willed her hair crimson, just so he would get the point, and said, "No, you idiot. You can wake me tomorrow. I'll be cursed if I let you get me all worked up and then leave me – again – and you will literally be cursed if you try it. Now, hang on tight to my boy. We're going home."

"I wasn't going to presume," he said.

"How very noble of you, but my threat stands. Come home with me, or go into hiding forever." She raised her wand, then realized that they could not, in fact, leave in the usual manner. So much for dramatic exits.

"We're going to have to find a different way to get where we want to go," Harry said, trying very hard not to smile.

"Yes," she said, "I suppose we are."

Finite

for itchyfoot, who sent me on this journey. Thank you for the chance to tell this story. I hope you like it. :)