Harry, Lily and Hermione spent the entire day chatting. Harry noticed Hermione’s behaviour and couldn’t help but sigh.

‘She knows I’m dating Lily, I don’t get what she’s thinking,’ thought Harry.

Soon it was time for dinner. They finally got off the bed and headed down for dinner. They were joined by Ginny, Ron, and the Weasley twins.

Harry noted Lupin and Tonks’ absence in the kitchen. ‘I hope things worked out for them,’ thought Harry.

The dinner went by in a flash. Eventually, everyone went to bed. Lily sat next to Harry with her head on his shoulder as they chatted.

“Lily, I want to talk to you about Hermione,” said Harry hesitantly.

“What about her?” Asked Lily.

“I don’t know what’s going on with her, but even though she knows I’m already dating you, she’s still being pretty obvious to her feelings for me,” he said.

Lily giggled, “I know right, it’s so cute.”

Harry turned to her, gobsmacked.

“You’re not jealous?” He asked incredulously, “if some guy was getting close to you, I’d be pretty jealous.”

Lily smiled lovingly and gave him a peck on the lips.

“I know. That’s why I love you,” she said.

Harry smiled, “I love you too.”

They kissed for several minutes, but Harry interrupted her before they could go any further.

“I still think we should talk about what to do about Hermione,” he said.

“I’ve thought about it a lot, you know?” She replied, “if I imagine you with any other girl, I feel sick to my stomach but with Hermione…”

“What?” Asked Harry.

“The thought of you doing stuff with Hermione or Hermione watching us do stuff…” she paused and leaked a shuddering gasp, “it’s incredibly hot…”

Harry stared at her, mouth agape.

“Are you serious?” He asked.

“I love Hermione. She’s the sweetest girl I know,” replied Lily. “if it’s Hermione, I don’t mind you dating her as well.”

“Hermione is my closest friend. I’m not sure if I can see her that way,” he said.

“If you had watched her masturbate earlier, you’d change your mind so fast,” giggled Lily.

“Was it that nice?” Asked Harry curiously.

“Let’s just say I almost had her join us,” replied Lily.

Turned on more than he imagined, Harry attacked Lily’s lips. Lily responded with equal enthusiasm. They made out for a while and moved apart only when it became a little hard to breathe.

Lily released a content sigh. “Thanks for being patient with me, Harry,” she blurted.

“Patient about what?”

“Not pushing me for sex,” she replied.

“Lily, you jerked me off in front of my best friend while she masturbated… I don’t think I’ll ever mind waiting for sex with you.”

Lily giggled and pecked him on the lips. “What can I say? I’m more of a pervert than I realized.”

They sat together for a few more minutes before she stood up. “I’m heading to bed. Are you coming with me?”

“I think I’ll stay and read for a little while before I join you,” replied Harry.

Lily smiled and went upstairs.

Harry sat in the now empty drawing room and picked up a rather interesting book he had found while cleaning the house.

As he got lost in reading, the door suddenly banged open. Harry looked up, surprised at the loud noise, and saw a visibly flushed Tonks.

The moment she saw Harry, a huge grin formed on her face. She rushed to him, threw her arms around his neck and she kissed his cheek, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she kept repeating while hugging him.

Harry laughed and hugged her back, waiting for her to calm down a little. After several moments, and many more ‘thank yous’ Tonks finally calmed down a little and moved away from Harry, settling down on the couch next to him.

“So I take it things went well?” asked Harry with a teasing grin.

Tonks grinned again, “and how!” she laughed.

“Good for you!” said Harry, “So, tell me the details! What happened?”

“Well, when you told me he was in that room, I immediately went there,” she said.

“He was just sitting in a corner, deep in thought. So deep in thought that he didn’t even notice me walking into the room,” she said indignantly, though she laughed a moment later, “You should have seen him jump the moment I put my hand on his head.”

Harry laughed along, imagining the scene.

“Anyway, he seemed rather surprised to see me, so I told him how I had talked to you about our situation and how you told me to go talk to him, figure everything out,” she said and with a cheeky grin she continued, “He told me to tell you he’ll get you back for playing him like a fiddle by the way.”

“What?” yelled Harry, “I helped him!”

Tonks laughed at his reaction.

“Anyway, we got to talking, and he told me everything he’s been worried about so we discussed how to work around all of those issues and after hours-” sighed Tonks tiredly before continuing, “-and hours of talking, we finally gave it a shot.”

“That’s good,” said Harry with a smile, then with a confused expression asked, “Then how come you guys didn’t show up for dinner?”

Tonks immediately turned red, extremely red. “We were - confirming - our relationship,” she said, her voice growing softer and softer as she spoke.

Harry cocked his head for a moment before he understood what she was talking about. He coughed awkwardly, turning his head away. “You could have just said you were talking,” he said exasperatedly.

“I didn’t want to lie to you!” she yelled defiantly. “You’ve helped me so much, I don’t want to hide anything from you!”

“That’s sweet - I think…” said Harry, shaking his head.

A lull followed in the conversation, though the awkwardness dissipated and they could just enjoy the silence.

“This is odd,” said Harry, softly.

“How so?” she asked, curiously.

“Well, it feels like I can be very natural with you, no need to hide how I am - if that makes any sense,” said Harry, eliciting a grin from Tonks, “I’ve had no siblings, maybe this is what it feels like to have a sister?” said Harry, an embarrassed smile on his face.

“Aww, that’s so sweet!” Tonks said, hugged Harry again. “You really do feel like a younger brother, even helping your older sister fix her problems,” she said with a laugh.

Harry sighed dramatically. “I can’t believe I ended up with such a clumsy sister,” he shook his head even more dramatically.

“What did you say?” Tonks shouted. “Oooh, my brother seems to get cheekier by the day.”

The two looked at each other and burst out laughing. The mood turned brighter and very natural.

“Thanks Harry, really,” Tonks said suddenly, “I really don’t know what I would have done if things continued the way they were.”

“You’re welcome,” Harry said with a smile, “though knowing you, you’d probably would have bulldozed your way to this result yourself, given enough time.”

“Can’t say you’re wrong,” she replied sheepishly.

Harry laughed and soon they relaxed together on the couch, discussing various matters, both serious and casual.

‘Oh, wait!’ thought Harry suddenly, his face brightening up, ‘I could ask Tonks to help me with the Fudge problem. She can change how she looks after all.’

“What’s the matter Harry? Your expression turned weird suddenly,” asked Tonks.

Harry took a moment to get his thoughts in order before he started speaking.

“Do you like Fudge, Tonks?” asked Harry.

Tonks snorted furiously, “Who even likes that man?”

“I don’t know, Umbridge seems rather fond of him,” chuckled Harry.

“Oh please, what that toad likes isn’t Fudge but his post. If it were a cockroach as Minister, she’d be trying to woo it as well,” said Tonks, incensed.

Harry laughed at the comparison before continuing.

“Well, if I said I may have a way to get Fudge out of office, would you help me?” he asked.

“Are you thinking of killing him?” she asked with one brow raised. “Not that I’m saying no, just wanted to know.”

“No, no, no killing,” Harry replied hastily. “Even if we killed him, Dumbledore would end up taking all the blame and it would make it that much harder for people to believe him.”

Tonks nodded, agreeing with Harry.

“So, what I was thinking was, we could give him a taste of his own medicine,” said Harry.

“What do you mean?” Tonks asked with a confused expression.

“Well, you know how Fudge and the Prophet have been doing their very best to defame Dumbledore and me? Making us look like jokes?” asked Harry, his tone turning slightly venomous.

Tonks flinched, and her expression showed hints of anger. “Yeah, of course.”

“So, I thought we could do the same to him. Make him look absolutely insane. In front of his colleagues, the press and even in front of the entire wizarding community,” said Harry.

“How in the world do you plan on pulling something like that off?” she asked in wonderment.

“I have a few ideas. Most, if not all, involve me having to be near Fudge,” said Harry with a sigh. “Which brings me to what I need your help with.”

Harry paused for a moment. “Basically, I need you to morph into me and take my place whenever I’m out messing with Fudge.”

“Wa-wait, why? Can’t we just use polyjuice potion?” she asked, a little flustered.

“I thought about that, but polyjuice potion would take too long to make and I have less than 10 days to finish all this,” said Harry with a sigh. “Plus, I need someone I can really trust and there are too few such people.”

“Wait, you trust me?” she asked with eyes wide. “We’ve only really known each other for a few days, Harry.”

“I do, oddly enough. I trust my gut a lot and it’s telling me I can trust you, so I’ll go with that.”

Tonks blushed a little, “That’s really sweet Harry. You already know that I trust you, right?”

Harry laughed, “Of course, why wouldn’t you trust your brother?”

Tonks giggled as well, then quickly turned serious. “If I’m turning into you, then I’ll need to do something about my work as an Auror and an Order member.”

“Sorry for asking so much of you,” said Harry, feeling a little guilty. “I know this would really inconvenience you.”

“Nah, what’re you saying?” Tonks said, shaking her head. “What we’re doing will ultimately help the Order and the Ministry, so I really don’t mind.”

“Thanks, Tonks,” said Harry.

“Don’t worry about it. Though, honestly speaking, you know how clumsy I am. Are you sure it’s a good idea to have me be you?” she asked warily.

“Don’t worry, if they ask later, I’ll just joke about it. No one would take it too seriously,” he replied confidently.

“Though I’m kind of worried about whether I can handle this myself,” she continued.

“Actually, you don’t need to do this alone,” said Harry. “Sirius is basically a co-conspirator for everything I’ve been doing lately, Hermione and Lily know everything as well and if you explain things to Remus, he should be able to help you out as well. With those four supporting you, even if you slip up, they can help cover it up. Plus, you don’t have to worry about lying to Remus right after starting to date.”

“Oh, thank god!” she said, with a heavy sigh of relief. “I’ve been worried about that, to be honest. I really didn’t want to lie to Remus a day after we finally got together.”

“I wouldn’t want you to do anything you’re uncomfortable with Tonks, you know that,” said Harry with a gentle smile.

“You’re right,” she replied. “Alright! I’m on board! Let’s get the moron off his pedestal!”

“Shh! Do you want everyone to know our ‘secret’ plan?” Harry asked in exasperation.

“Hehe, sorry about that,” she smiled sheepishly.

They ironed some more details out and Harry told her about his powers. Her reaction to what all he could do was beyond comical, but she still took it in her stride and got excited instead. Eventually, seeing Tonks yawn, Harry stood up.

“Alright, it’s late and we both need sleep, so why don’t we meet in Buckbeak’s room tomorrow and we can discuss this with Sirius, Remus, Lily and Hermione? You bring Remus along and I’ll make sure the other three are there,” said Harry.

“Al-alright Harry, good night,” she replied, stifling a yawn.

“Good night Tonks,” he said and exited the drawing room, making his way to Lily’ bedroom.