"Oh crap!" Harry hissed before he landed on the cobbled street below, the stones he landed on cracking viciously. Harry looked back up at the three storey building he had jumped off of. "Wow." Harry breathed out before walking out of the alley, thankfully his hood was still up and decreased the chances of him getting caught. 'I swear, one day you're going to get me killed.'
'Why would I do that?' Venom asked. 'You are far too good of a match to throw away.'
'Yeah? Well, if I die then you just go and find a new host or something, right?' Harry asked.
'Yes,' Venom admitted. 'but that does not mean I would enjoy doing so. There are no guarantees that I will ever find a host that I can bond with like you, only probability.'
'Perhaps, but you still forget that normal humans don't casually jump off buildings.' Harry pointed out.
'You are right,' Venom agreed. 'normal humans do not. You, are far from normal, even before meeting me.
'Sad part is, I can't argue against that.' Harry's sigh wasn't simply limited to being in his mind.
'Normal is overrated.'
'You sound like you're in a bad movie.' Harry told him just before stopping and looking around.
'What about that shop on your right?' Venom asked.
Be specific,' Harry told him as he looked right. 'which shop? Wait, are you talking about that one?' Harry asked, staring right at Eeylops Owl Emporium.
'Yes, I'm up for some experimentation.'
'Not in my body, you're not.' Harry quickly sent back. 'We'll try something else,' Harry thought before looking around and spotting a stall with a man selling various sweets and chocolate. Harry couldn't help the grin that appeared on his face as he was unintentionally reminded of buying a ton of stuff on his first ride to Hogwarts. 'How about some sweets and chocolate?' Harry asked.
'Sweets? Chocolates?' Venom hummed in Harry's head. 'Buy a few, buy some animals as well, just in case.'
'I will buy some meat from the butcher's shop and...
'No!' Venom hissed. 'It needs to be live!'
"Of for Merlin's sake." Harry groaned under his breath. 'Let's just try the sweets first, yeah?'
'Fine.'
'Chocolate, I like chocolate.' Venom declared a few minutes after the two had finished their tasting
spree.
'So, brains and chocolate then,' Harry snorted. 'so very similar.'
'I like what I like,' Venom growled.
'Fair enough,' Harry replied, not wanting to get into an argument with the alien inside his head. 'so, what do you want to do now?'
'Eat more.'
'We have already eaten enough,' Harry replied. 'I suppose I can just hurry up and get my homework over with. That would stop Hermione from harping at me.'
'If boredom is an issue then you could get a job.' Venom suggested.
'A job?'
'It is my understanding that human children around your age will sometimes get jobs and begin earning money early,' Venom replied.
'I suppose it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world,' Harry took a moment to think about it. He would like a lazy summer, but he didn't really mind staying busy. Hermione could keep herself busy for days by just reading books, Ron could do the same as long as they were quidditch books but would likely just waste time sleeping and eating. Harry didn't think that he could do that, his mind was constantly active and he needed to be doing something until he was tired enough to go to sleep.
'I think Flourish and Blots has an opening.' Harry bit back a chuckle as an image of a wide-eyed
Hermione finding out he would be surrounded by books entered his mind.
'Good, ' Venom said in an approving voice. 'an excellent choice, a beneficial one. You have a chance
to improve greatly.
'Improve?' Harry asked. 'What are you on about?'
'Harry, you have the opportunity to learn more about your powers, the powers that let you manipulate reality itself! And yet you prefer to goof off with Ron.'
'Excuse me, but have you forgotten that I'm a thirteen-year-old kid?' Harry protested defensively.
'A thirteen-year-old kid who has nearly died multiple times since coming to the wizarding world, one that now has a mass murderer chasing after you.' Venom argued. 'Wouldn't it be easier for everyone involved, including those that you are trying to help, if you were the best wizard you could be?' Venom asked.
Harry almost stumbled but managed to avoid it, barely, but as he continued working he felt his thoughts being rained down on by Venom's words. He wasn't entirely sure if the symbiote was messing with his mind or if his thought process was natural, either way, he had no choice but to think about it. On the one hand, he wanted to protest that Venom was wrong, that Harry had done as good as someone in his position could, given that he had been muggle raised and that he was still quite young. But had he?
Harry had no doubt that if Hermione felt like she was the centre of everything then she'd hit the books with a vengeance, she'd likely pass out in the library but still, it was the thought that counted.
Some may believe it to be arrogant of him to believe that he was crucial to whatever was happening, but he did truly believe it. In his first year, it had been him that had been targeted by Quirrell and it had been him who had fought Quirrell. In his second year, it had been him who had killed the basilisk and he destroyed Voldemort's diary. Of course, Ron and Hermione helped, but it felt like they were more along for the ride while everything seemed to be centred around him. Heck, even this year he had an insane mass murderer chasing after him after having broken out of an unbreakable prison, meaning the man was clearly quite skilled and/or intelligent.
Did Harry really want to rely on luck? Did he not want to reduce the chances of him and his friends dying if Sirius Black attacked? Though it's not like he could actually practise during the summer, maybe he could find a way around that, and if he couldn't, then he could still learn the theoretical and practise the practical at school. That was a good idea, but he also didn't want to become like Hermione or Ron. He couldn't afford to take Ron's lazy approach to books and he couldn't bring himself to continually do Hermione's extreme approach to books, Harry honestly wouldn't be surprised if one day that girl marry's a book. Maybe he didn't have to do either, he could find a nice middle ground. Besides he didn't have to put the same level of effort into all of his subjects, he could put most of his effort into the classes that could help him survive while putting a reasonable amount of effort into his other classes.
Harry frowned as he continued walking, every argument his mind could conjure against the idea was being shot down almost immediately. Once more he wondered if that was Venom's doing or if he was naturally coming to this himself?
"Hey! Stop!" A voice shouted. Harry stopped and turned around in time to see the crowd departing and a man running through, throwing spells behind him in a wild manner. Looking past the man, Harry could see two people dressed in auror robes chasing after him, though not firing spells beyond defensive ones, likely because they didn't want to risk harming the nearby crowd, unlike the man who was throwing out spells like they were going out of fashion.
Harry's instincts took over and in a rather Gryffindorish move (brave and stupid) tackled the man as soon as he got near, something that was made easy given that the man had only occasionally glanced forwards to make sure he didn't run into anything while putting the majority of his attention towards shooting spells at the aurors.
"Son of a bitch!" The man cursed, shoving Harry off before trying to get to his feet. He had barely got to a kneeling position before being hit with a disarming spell followed by a stunner. Harry blinked before popping up to his own feet just as the two aurors arrived. Harry took a look at the two as they tied up the man, the first was a tall man with dark skin, he looked experienced and quite intimidating. The second was a much younger woman with bright red hair that descended down to her shoulders, a soft face that was currently glaring at the man they had just captured and bright
violet eves.
"That wasn't a very smart move, kid." The man, the oldest of the two, frowned at Harry as he spoke in a deep voice. "you shouldn't have done that, you could have gotten hurt."
"Sorry." Harry apologized, ducking his head down. He looked up again upon hearing a second voice speak.
"Ease up on him, Shack, he did us a favour." The female auror said, her hair colour shifting from a red to light pink.
"Whoa." The word had escaped Harry's mouth before he could stop himself. "What spell is that? I didn't see you use a colour changing charm? Was that time-delayed or something?"
"No spell, Hero. It's all-natural talent." The woman grinned at him. Harry couldn't help but feel his cheeks redden slightly as he stared at her.
'Quite an attractive female, isn't she?' Venom's voice echoed in his head, causing Harry's red cheeks to become much brighter. He coughed and saw the woman staring at him with a knowing look in her eye.
"You're either having some very disturbing or very flattering thoughts, I thank you if it's the latter." She winked at him.
"Trainee Tonks," The older man, apparently called 'Shack', sighed. "he did us a favour but it is still our job to catch criminals and it is dangerous for untrained civilians to tackle criminals, especially when the civilian in question isn't of age. Now, I will take the suspect away, you deal with this and report back, understood?"
"Aye-aye boss." The woman, apparently called Tonks, gave him a mock salute. Shack let out a deep sigh before he grabbed the unconscious man and disappeared with a pop. "Alright, the show's over, folks!" Tonks said loudly to the gathering crowd. "On your way, nothing to see here!" She barked and stared until the crowd eventually began moving. "Alright, come and sit with me." Tonks gently grabbed Harry's arm and guided him to a nearby bench, once they both sat down she waved her wand around them a couple of times.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked curiously.
"Basic privacy charms," She explained before pulling out a notebook. "you didn't seem that happy with all the attention.'
"You noticed that?" Harry asked in an embarrassed voice.
"Don't worry, I've got a couple of friends like that," Tonks replied. "and yeah. I'm great at reading body language, comes with the natural shape-shifting I suppose. Also, don't worry about Auror Shacklebolt, he's big and strong but he's honestly a big softy. So, what's your name?" She asked.
Harry hesitated before raising a hand to his hood and gently lifting it and his hair enough for her to see his scar. "Merlin!" She blurted out as she recognised his famous scar.
"No, I'm not really that strong yet." Harry joked before lowering his hood.
"Sorry," Tonks apologized, having recovered quickly. "just got surprised. Now, I'm just going to tap my wand on this notebook and it'll start recording everything we say, got it?"
"Is this necessary?" Harry asked.
"Yep," Tonks said shortly. "ready?" She asked and when Harry nodded she tapped the tip of her wand to the book. What followed was a quick interview where Harry explained how he had been walking and simply tackled the suspect, once it was done she tapped her wand to the book again.
"Okay, that's over. Thanks a lot, Harry." She smiled at him. "You might be contacted sooner or later, but other than that you're free to enjoy your summer. I might see you around, I patrol around here with a few different aurors and we all know that you're staying here.'
"Okay," Harry smiled at her before an idea came into his head. "um... Tonks, could I ask you a hypothetical question?" He asked.
"Oh? Go on." Tonks stared at him.
"Well, let's just say that hypothetically there was an underage student that wanted to practise magic over the summer, is there any way he could do that without getting in trouble?" He asked.
"And why would this hypothetical student need to do that?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Maybe because he had a mass murderer who is coming after him after escaping an escape-proof prison, who could say?" Harry shrugged in a casual voice.
"Oh," Tonks winced. "right. well, between you and me, as long as you practise out of sight in Diagon Alley, you should be fine. The sensors can't pick you up here.
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah, too much magic makes it almost impossible to single out anyone." She explained. "Though, you didn't hear that from me, got it?"
"I'm sorry, who are you again?" Harry asked in a mock-confused voice.
"You know," Tonks grinned at him. "I feel like this could be the start of a great friendship." Or a romance.' Venom whispered.