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I did it. Just in time. A complete success. I felt a great stirring in the soul of the world as I completed the world to replace the child's blood entirely with my own, but the doctor says that the pregnancy is progressing as well as it could.
Or, well, as well as it can for any 17-year-old. I'm too young, they say, but I feel so old.
It was an interesting ritual; the components were hard to source, but I had help.
I extracted some of the blood and compared it to mine; it's the same DNA. This is the most excited I've been to have a child. Genetically, he will be my twin, just of the opposite gender. We'll have so much fun together.
In a way, it's good to get the pregnancy out of the way early. I've known that I've always wanted kids. Witches live for a long time. By having my son earlier, I will be able to spend more time together overall, watch him grow up, and go to Beauxbatons. I prepared a little cottage in the French south, and we will live there after I give birth. A mother and a son in a small fishing village. I will make a boat to go out to sea. I can visit Petunia whenever with apparition, just can't do it now due to the pregnancy.
The birth is scheduled to occur in the next few weeks. I feel like a misshapen balloon, but I guess most women in history have been where I've been.
When I feel sad, I just put my hands on my stomach and feel little Harry kicking. He's grown a bit more relaxed ever since the ritual, but he's still such an energetic child.
I love him already.
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Harry read the second-to-last page of his mother's diary before putting it down on his knees and throwing his head back to smash painfully against the stones of the Hogwarts walls.
Stowing away the book once again in his inner chest pocket, he stood up to go towards the large windows facing the forbidden forest.
Leaning forward and putting his head against the glass, he wondered how easy it would be to simply banish it telekinetically and let himself fall to his death.
It would be easier than lifting a finger. Literally.
"What's got you all gloomy?" Tonks asked as she entered the old classroom and closed the door behind her.
Harry sighed, slid to the floor, turned so he was sitting with his back to the glass and stared at her with a deadpan look.
The pink-haired girl raised her arms in protest. "Sheesh, I get it," she muttered, coming over to sit in the corner so that she could lean on the wall instead of the glass. She put a hand in her pocket and pulled out an amber-coloured bottle. She lay on the ground and rolled it so that it came to a stop against his leg, at which point she pulled out one of her own and opened it with her teeth, spitting the cap to the side.
"Butterbeer," she informed him before taking a long sip and sighing contentedly.
"Thanks," Harry muttered and snapped his fingers, causing the bottle to open itself and fly into his hand.
It was delicious, and mostly non-alcoholic.
"You haven't been to Hogsmeade since the incident," Tonks said, more as an observation than an accusation.
"It's hard to bring up the motivation," Harry replied, taking another swig. "Also, exams are in a few days."
"You know, I was a bit mad that seventh years take their exams a week early, but being done and having the results already is pretty nice. No classes, no exams, just one last week at Hogwarts. Graduation party, bam, home."
"Glad you're enjoying yourself," Harry replied. "What grades did you get?"
Hogwarts tested and scored the seventh years early and fast so that people could send out the applications for the positions they wanted. Tonks had just come back from the owlery where she'd sent her application letter to the Auror Department.
"Patronus got me an O+ in Charms, Flitwick was pretty pleased. Aqua Eruptio, for all that I can't control it perfectly, yet got me an O+ in DADA. Self-transfiguration got me an O+ in transfiguration, even if I can't take credit for it, and the rest was all Outstanding or Exceed Expectations," Tonks said proudly.
"The auror department will love you," Harry said with a smile. "A metamorphmagus who can cast the Patronus and one of the few counters to Fiendfyre."
Tonks laughed happily. "Thanks, unfortunately, I messed up in Potions and only got an EE. I didn't expect Slughorn to test us on modular ingredients. It was such a small part of the curriculum."
"I wouldn't worry too much."
"Yeah, Dumbledore said the same thing. He said that Aqua Eruptio itself will be enough on its own as long as I have at least an EE in all cores."
"Well, if Dumbledore said so," Harry mused. "He probably wrote you a recommendation letter, but just didn't tell you."
Tonks shot up excitedly with wide eyes. "You think so?!"
"You're by far the most capable graduate this year," Harry replied. "There's this guy who's apparently a whizz at Arithmancy, Runes and Astronomy, but I don't think the two of you are competing for quite the same thing."
"Ah, you mean Hopkins, he's a bit of a nerd. I think he's going straight to some Russian research institute. They have an observatory on the north pole," Tonks replied lamely before shaking her head. "It's actually sort of funny, Dumbledore taught DADA for the last three months, which probably looks great on the application even if he mostly covered the curriculum."
"He missed half the lessons," Harry replied with a roll of his eyes.
"I mean, he has a lot of jobs," Tonks said with a shrug. "And the lessons he did teach were awesome. Maybe he should just drop the other positions and come teach full time."
"Technically, being the headmaster is already supposed to be a full-time job," Harry laughed. "And yeah, he was a pretty great teacher."
Dumbledore had spent essentially his entire life as an educator, and it showed. The man spoke with such clarity and animation that it gripped everyone's attention. Through his ability to impart knowledge, he also always managed to speed through the curriculum and show off something cool in the end. Unfortunately, this was probably the last they'd see from him as a professor. Next year, another person would come to take the job.
"In a way, we're lucky," Tonks said. "The last two years, the professors for DADA have been amazing. Almost enough to make up for the mess we had before that."
Harry snorted. "Are you really celebrating the fact we had Voldemort as a professor for nearly a year?" he asked, causing the mood of the conversation to immediately take a dive-bomb.
"You're the one who took private lessons from him," Tonks snorted angrily. "That piece of shit, I can't believe it. Right under everyone's noses."
"Yeah," Harry said awkwardly. A lot of people had known about the deal he'd had with Quirrell. Not everyone knew that the man had been possessed by Voldemort, but most of the school knew he'd been a dark wizard who'd tried to steal something, dying in the attempt on the third-floor corridor.
This naturally cast some suspicion on Harry as he'd interacted so much with a known dark wizard. The school environment hadn't been all that friendly towards him for the last two months. The Gryffindors were the most suspicious. The Ravenclaws didn't like him, regardless, because he always outscored them, and the Slytherins hated him on principle and were maybe a bit jealous.
Suffice it to say, other than Hermione, the only non-Hufflepuff member of the golden trio, Harry's reputation amongst the other houses had hit rock bottom.
Hufflepuff thankfully stood by him, but only Tonks, Cedric, Penny, Neville and Harley really mattered.
Being the main point scorer of the house and having the confidence of the boy who lived helped quite a lot in the house of badgers.
"The other students," Tonks muttered. "We can never tell anyone, obviously, it would lead to a total panic. But technically, the students who were at Hogwarts this year will be the only ones who can brag that they were taught by both You Know Who and Dumbledore."
"A dubious honour," Harry replied.
"Well, you can say what you want about You Know Who, may he rot in hell, but he was a surprisingly good teacher," Tonks eventually said.
"Don't remind me," Harry groaned.
He'd accepted Quirrell's offer of tutelage and he'd learned a lot, but now the consequences of his actions were coming to bite him in the ass.
Dumbledore and his friends had forgiven him, but if it ever came out that he'd taken lessons from that particular one he'd probably be fucked.
Well, it wasn't like he wanted to stay in Britain past his graduation anyway.
The Dursleys were potentially going to Barcelona, and now his mom had a cottage in France?
The world was vast. Hogwarts was just a school, and Britain was just a small island. Not even one that would fare particularly well in the next thirty years if history followed the trajectory he knew.
If anything, Harry should use the upcoming duelling tournament in Helsinki to scope out the living, considering that no matter where he went, he wanted to continue interacting with the Muggle world, and Finland would soon start consistently being the most well-run country in the world for a whole decade starting in like 2010.
An apartment in Finland and a seaside house in Sardinia? A vanishing cabinet between the two?
"What's the plan for summer vacation?" Harry asked to break the amicable silence that had descended on the room.
"I'm taking a bloody break, no internships," Tonks snorted. "I heard the Auror Academy is rough. If all goes well I'll have two months of rest before it starts and then I'll be busy as shite again for several years."
"Enjoy the break, you'll never have so much free time again in your life."
"You talk like my mom," Tonks replied with a sigh.
"She sounds like a smart lady," Harry replied while rolling his eyes. Teenagers thought that sounding like an adult was either funny or an insult, but it really wasn't.
"She wants to meet you, by the way," Tonks suddenly said.
This surprised Harry. "Why?"
"Because you're my best friend and you spent a weekend at our house last year?" Tonks replied sarcastically. "All my letters home don't include the usual people I used to hang out with. She noticed."
"Sure, we can grab dinner sometime," Harry eventually replied. "Maybe she can help me with some more advanced healing spells. I noticed a gap in my skills recently."
Tonks groaned. "No work talk at the dinner table," she chastised. "I'm going to spend the summer going to concerts, to the seaside and to the cinema. I want to watch every movie that's coming out this season. You should join me for the concerts, take that ageing potion you have," she said with a blush.
Harry nodded. "Sure, I have my ways of getting around, I can be anywhere, anytime. Just drop me a call, you have my number. I'll just be gone for a week for the tournament."
"Cool, that's settled then," Tonks said happily with a clap. "And what are you doing this summer?" she asked.
Harry thought about it for a moment. "Well, Flitwick told me to just relax a bit before the tournament. So I guess if I don't have that many duelling obligations, I can mostly focus on other things. I want to continue to work on enchanting, it's fun because it's hard, and I'd really like to make some progress." His wasps had reached a level that wasn't worth increasing anymore. Same for the Mists of Moria. This meant he could refocus on the cabinet.
Tonks sighed loudly and theatrically. "Anything not study-related?" she asked.
"Hmmm." Harry had Dobby now, which technically meant he could go anywhere, anytime. He had to give a few lessons to Draco, which he couldn't tell Tonks, but otherwise… Having Dobby snap him to a mountain to read a book or eat lunch, and then hike up or down, sounded quite fun. Same with swimming at the seaside. "Some hiking, some swimming, some museums, some concerts, the usual," he thus replied.
"You're so boring sometimes," Tonks replied with a sigh.
"What, and you're so interesting?" Harry retorted with a raised brow. "Then let's go to East Germany, they just got out from under the USSR's thumb. We'll take a bunch of crystal meth and lock ourselves up in a Berlin nightclub Friday night till Monday morning. The people there are probably partying like crazy, finally being done with that authoritarian nonsense."
Silence descended on the room, causing Harry to look up and see Tonks staring at him with wide eyes. She shot him a shaky thumbs-up. "Haha," she laughed brokenly. "You're a bit crazy, Harry, let's not. Maybe a night at the Hacienda?"
Harry rolled his eyes. "Penny signed up for a year skip in Potions, I'll help her out with that a bit."
It would be a full summer.
But first, he'd have to get through the exams.
Not that that would be any issue.
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AN: Just a joke with the berlin thing… Unless…? But no haha, unless…? Some short chapters now since a large arc just ended. Sheesh, always get so emotional finishing a year at Hogwarts. This is the third, *wipes away tear. Anyway, duelling arc just ended on patreon for tier 2 subscribers! Considering supporting me if you like the story and vote on extra chapter and interlude polls!