Reviews:

Chaos Snow Kitsune : That's a good story idea. How about a story where one Tonks is trying to raise Harry while several others are trying to get with him?

The Geeky Folkteller : Ok, thanks for the criticism (I'm not being sarcastic, I'm actually thanking you)

GideonBlackthorn: You have to keep reading to find out.

Chapter 53 -

"Stupid Dumbledore," Harry muttered under his breath, walking away from Professor McGonagall's office. With Venom's strong hearing, it wasn't that much of a hardship to hear Dumbledore's conversation with Professor McGonagall. He had always respected the older woman, and he felt his respect for her rise as he listened to her defend him against Dumbledore.

He just couldn't believe the old man had the audacity to compare him to Voldemort. Him! He was the one who stopped Voldemort repeatedly since he was old enough to crawl. Dumbledore couldn't keep his own bloody school safe for longer than five minutes and was now actively wanting to keep an eye on the teenager who stopped the place from going down in flames. And if that wasn't bad enough then he kept giving him shit for not breaking down into tears over the fact that his aunt and uncle were dead. Even Professor McGonagall could understand why he didn't, how come Dumbledore couldn't do the same?

Did the old man really think he was going to mourn his tormentors because they were connected by blood? Did Dumbledore honestly think he was exaggerating and lying when he begged to stay at Hogwarts instead of going back to the Dursleys?

'The old man is becoming a problem,' Venom growled in Harry's head.

'Did you hear what Professor McGonagall said?' Harry asked him. 'She would've adopted me, she would have taken me in. I could have lived with her this whole time if not for Dumbledore.'

'We should kill him,' Venom said softly. 'Let's surprise him, rip his head off, let me eat him.'

'No,' Harry said with a small shake of his head. 'We need him, Voldemort's back or at least will be eventually, and while Dumbledore isn't great at keeping him out, he will stop old no-name from making a direct attack on Hogwarts. For now, we have to keep him around. Still, I don't fancy the idea of him actively keeping an eye on us.'

'He won't be able to,' Venom assured him. 'I can spot him if he gets close,'

'He's crafty,' Harry reminded him. 'Dumbledore didn't get to where he is without being smart, he won't be following us under an invisibility spell the whole time. Especially since we kind of gave away that we could see him. We can detect his physical presence but we need to find a way to make sure he isn't tracking or following us through some spell. I know there are listening and tracking spells, we need to look up counters until we find a better way to stop him from following us.'

'He's far more experienced than us when it comes to magic,' Venom grunted. 'It's possible he knows spells that we can't ever find, this is a true concern.'

'Agreed, let's not do anything big until we find out a way to counteract him,' Harry replied.

'Agreed'.

'Now, about this ball,' Harry replied. 'Should we go?'

'I don't know, do you want to?' Venom asked.

'Not particularly, but old McGonagall did want me to go, and she did just defend me against Dumbledore, so I'm going to give it a small try and see if I can get a date.'

'Let's ask Tonks!' Venom said excitedly.

'Tonks?' Harry blinked. 'I...I don't know...'

'She'll be happy to go with us!' Venom said confidently. 'Come on, you're a catch! Better go and ask her before someone else gets to it.'

'Found her!' Venom cheered as they turned a corner and spotted Tonks talking to one auror. 'Quickly! Quickly! Ask her!' Harry walked forward mentally preparing himself as he did so, fortunately, Tonks hadn't noticed him yet.

"I'm just saying," The auror said, he was a brown-haired man who looked to be in his early thirties. "If you ever want to go out for a drink together then I'm free most of the week."

"Are you asking me out on a date?" Tonks asked, raising an eyebrow at him

"I just might be," He smiled down at her. "What do you say?"

"Tonks," Harry quickly called out, taking a bit of effort to keep his voice natural. "Are you busy? Can I talk to you for a bit?"

"Uh...yeah, sure, give me a second Henry," She told the older auror before walking down the hall with Harry. "So, what's up, Harry?" She asked once they were far enough from the other auror.

"I hope I wasn't interrupting anything," Harry said quietly.

"Nah, it's fine, I've always got time for you," Tonks said with a grin. "So, what's up, Mr Dragon Slayer?"

"Not much, and please don't call me that," Harry said with a light snort. "Anyway, I just had a meeting with old McGonagall,"

"Oh," Tonks gave him a sympathetic look. "Are you in detention or something?"

"Nah, just had a bit of an announcement." Harry began explaining. "First the whole of Gryffindor was there, she told everyone about the Yule Ball, a dance."

"I know about it," Tonks told him. "I'm doing security for it,"

"Ah," Harry paused, wondering if that might mess with his plan. "Well, she told me that I had to open the dance, I told her I wasn't really interested in dancing. But I do like her enough and she's done a lot for me over the years so I thought I'd make a small attempt for her and try and get a date."

"Oh," Tonks said a bit awkwardly. "And um...you want me to help you get a date or something?" She asked, lightly rocking back and forth on her feet.

"Um...no," Harry coughed, feeling a bit awkward himself. "I actually was thinking about who I wanted to go with me and to be honest, I think you're probably the only person I know that I actually want to go with. So...I was wondering if you would like to go with me to the ball?"

"Harry...I...are you asking me out on a date?" She asked for the second time today.

"I...suppose I am," Harry said, looking her in the eye. "If you want to go as just friends then I'd be okay with that too, honest. I just...well...I suppose I just really want to go with you, you know...if you're not opposed to it?"

"Look, Harry, I...I think you're a great guy, really, I do," Tonks told him honestly. "I think you're smart, funny, pretty badass as well if I'm being truthful. And if you were a few years older then I wouldn't really mind, or if I was a few years younger. But I think I'm too old for you,"

"Tonks, it's not like I'm asking you to marry me," Harry pointed out. "I'm just asking you to come with me to a dance, besides, you're not that much older than me."

"But still, I am older, and Harry, you're the boy-who-lived, if you take me then you know that it'll attract a lot of attention."

"Oh..." Harry gulped, looking down. Was Venom messing around in his chest? Because his heart suddenly felt a good bit heavier, he felt like his stomach was shrivelling and never once had he ever so hardly wished that someone would shoot a killing curse at him. He was the boy-who-lived, of course, she wouldn't want to get too involved in the circus that was his life, why would anyone willingly want to deal with reporters following them constantly and tracking every bit of their life while also dealing with all the danger that came with it? "...I'm sorry, Tonks, I understand. You don't deserve to go through all that for me," He said in a quiet voice.

"No! Buggering hell, Harry! That's not what I'm saying!" Tonks said quickly. "It's for you that I'm refusing, you deserve better than me, Harry."

"Shouldn't I get to be the one to decide that?" He grunted, doing his best to resist the urge to turn and leave.

"I'm sorry, Harry, but really I'm doing this for you. Reporters will be all over you when they find out you take someone like me to the ball," She said with a deep sigh. "They'll treat you like some naive school boy who fell for the first pair of tits he saw, they'll act like you're just a lovestruck little boy who's been led astray by me. It'll ruin you, Harry and I can't have that. You don't deserve any of that. You deserve to find a nice and pretty girl,"

"You're nice and pretty,"

"One that's closer to your age, Harry," She told him. "I'm serious, Harry, it's for you I'm doing this. You need to find someone better than me, someone your age. The person you take to the ball could just be one evening for you or they could end up being your whole life, I don't want you to miss out on that possibility for me."

"You know, I'm sick and tired of people deciding what's right for me without asking me," Harry said tightly. "Don't you think I should have the right to decide, Tonks? I'm not a little kid,"

"And nobody in their right mind would treat you like a kid," Tonks told him firmly. "You are a one-of-a-kind guy, Harry, and you deserve better than me. I'm sorry, I really am. But please don't be upset, use this as an opportunity to find someone that's good for you. I'm really sorry, Harry. I...are...are we cool?" She asked nervously. Harry stared at her for a moment, many emotions were warring within him, but none of them seemed to have the same hold on him as the vulnerable look on her face.

"Sure," He let out a small sigh, forcing a sincere-looking smile onto his face. "We're cool, Tonks, I could never hate you."

"Oh great," She sounded so relieved that Harry couldn't help but feel bad for making her worry. "That's great, I...I should probably get back to work,"

"Sure, but um...I don't really know if I'm going to be at the ball or not, but if I am then maybe you can spare me a dance?" He asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I think one dance should be okay," She gave him a weak smile. "Alright, see you later, Harry."

"See ya, Tonks," Harry said as she walked off, leaving Harry alone with the voice in his head.

'Well...that was...'

'Don't,' Harry told him just as Tonks finally reached the other auror.

"What was that about?" The auror asked Tonks.

"Oh, he takes lessons with my mum and wanted to ask me a few things about her," Tonks lied with ease.

"Oh, okay, anyway...about that date?"

"I..." Tonks paused, glancing briefly towards Harry. "...I don't really think I have enough time to date right now, sorry," Tonks said before walking off.

"Wait, what?" Henry blurted out before following after her.

'He's going after our Tonks,' Venom growled deeply.

'She's hardly ours, is she?'

Late that night, all of the occupants of Gryffindor Tower had fallen into a nice deep sleep, all except one unfortunate third year who was stuck on the toilet with diarrhoea, a fifth year who was having her second mental breakdown of the year and one Harry Potter who tossed and turned in his bed as sleep failed to claim him. After an hour of trying to sleep, and failing, the young Gryffindor was more pissed off than before. A familiar sensation hit him as he felt his body start becoming wrapped in the black goo of his best friend, he sat up and pulled open his curtains, knowing that all of his dormmates were deep asleep.

Venom had completely covered him by the time he reached the window, the window was opened and the pair quickly began climbing up the tower with one tentacle shooting out his back to gently close the window behind them. In no time they had reached the top and perched on the highest point of the tower, a wave of both arms had created a silencing charm around them. Taking in a deep breath, they looked up in the air and let out an enormous roar that would have probably frightened even the horntail itself, they were both mildly surprised that the silencing charm had actually held up.

Their head dropped down, and the goo retracted from one half of the face to reveal Harry's face.

"It'll be alright," Venom reassured him, speaking out of his half. "We can still win her over."

"I doubt it," Harry huffed. "She said we're too young,"

"We'll play the long game!" Venom snapped with furious determination. "We'll wait patiently, slowly wear her down and eventually we'll win her over."

"Venom...I don't know..." Harry sighed. "...I don't know if that'll work. She'll have probably hooked up with somebody else by that point."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Venom growled.

Harry did his best to not appear as angry as he was, he wasn't entirely sure if he was succeeding judging by the way that everyone was staring at him. A few first years even jumped out of his way as he walked towards the great hall. Heck, even Draco Malfoy had gone quiet when Harry was near, looking like he had swallowed a very sour lemon. It didn't take him long to work out just why everyone was acting this way.

"He's a dragon-slayer," He heard one older student whisper to a first-year.

"A Horntail!" Another student was saying.

"Did you see him? I thought him being the boy-who-lived was a fluke,"

"My sister said he could end up being the next Albus Dumbledore...or the next you-know-who." Harry moved past the second year that had said that before he gave in to the urge to start breaking some teeth.

"Hiya Harry!" Colin Creevey suddenly stepped in front of him. "Do you mind if I take some pictures?!" He chirped loudly, holding up a stupid-looking camera that looked like it was half his size. A low growl resonated from Harry's throat, it seemed to have got the message across nicely as the excitable boy realised - perhaps for the first time ever - that Harry wasn't in the mood for him to take hundreds of pictures. "Um...maybe next time," He squeaked before rushing away. '

'We could eat him, but he'd also be a pretty good follower,' Venom said thoughtfully.

'Shut it,' Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Once in the great hall, he took a seat at the Gryffindor table, he had barely gotten three bites into his breakfast when he felt two people sit down, one on his left and the other on his right.

"So, Harry," The Weasley twins chirped. "Nice work on the task," They grinned.

"Made us a fair bit of money, that did," Fred grinned.

"Aye, we bet on you winning, truth be told," George added.

"Though we should have included a bet around dragon killing,"

"Well...we probably would have if we thought that that was possible,"

"True, such a stupid oversight,"

"Ah well, we're young enough to still have time to learn."

"You sure, you two seemed to have grey beards not that long ago," Harry smirked.

"That was an unfortunate incident regarding an age line, I assure you that I'm still in my young prime," Fred told him. "Though George seems to be getting on a bit,"

"My knees feel like they're as old as Dumbledore," George moaned dramatically.

"So, can I help you two troublemakers?" Harry asked in an amused voice.

"You just might be able to," Fred replied.

"We were wondering if you had managed to get a date yet," George added. "You see we're thinking about starting another betting pool about your love life."

"Yeah, like who you're taking to the ball, if we play it right then we can all make a fair bit of money, what do you say?"

"Excuse me," An accented voice spoke up from behind them, they turned around to see Fleur Delacour standing there. "Do you have a date yet?" She asked Harry.

A.N: Hi guys, hope you liked the chapter, I was going to make it longer but some stuff has come up so I'm cutting it short here. Thanks for reading.