"Guys!" Tonks called out loudly. "There he is!" She pointed to Harry who was running towards her, Sirius and her parents.
"Where the hell did you guys go?" Harry said, panting lightly. "I spent ages trying to find you all."
"Are you hurt?" Sirius asked quickly, rushing forward to pull Harry into a hug.
"Um...I'm fine," Harry said awkwardly, patting the older man on the hand before Tonks ripped Sirius off of him so that she could pull him into a hug of her own.
"You scared the crap out of us!" Tonks hissed as she hugged him tightly.
"Sorry, Tonks," Harry said apologetically, hugging her back.
"We need to get out of here," Ted said quickly. "The atmosphere here is horrible at best, we should go."
"Ted's right," Andromeda agreed just as Tonks and Harry finally let go of each other. "Let's get out of here."
'All in all, that was a pretty fun night,' Venom said in Harry's head as the emerald-eyed teenager sat alone in the room the Tonks had let him stay in, not in the mood to go to sleep. They had only gotten back two hours ago, the events of the World Cup made it hard for Harry to even consider going to sleep.
'It was a bit, shame the death eaters had to try and ruin it.' Harry said with a mental snort.
'I'm glad they did,' Venom said before a black tentacle shot out of his right knee and faced him before the tip of the tentacle shifted into Venom's face. "Because now we ruined them!" Venom hissed with a sadistic grin.
"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself," Harry said quietly, a small smile on his own face. "We saved a lot of people."
"Like world-class heroes," Venom said proudly. "And I got to eat a lot of people!" He added cheerfully.
"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself," Harry said amusedly as he stood up, Venom retracted his tentacle self back into Harry. "I'm going to go drink some water." Harry decided, feeling quite thirsty. The young teen walked out of the door and headed downstairs into the kitchen, only to come to a stop as he found Tonks sitting at a table with a tub of ice cream in front of her. "Lo Tonks, you alright?" Harry asked as he walked over to the kitchen sink and poured himself a glass.
"Fine," Tonks said with a small sigh. "Just not in the mood to sleep, to be honest."
"Same," Harry said before gulping down a few mouthfuls of water. "Bit irritating, isn't it? The fact that we can't even go to enjoy the World Cup without some idiots trying to ruin things. I suppose that's usual for me, isn't it?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tonks asked before eating a spoonful of chocolate ice cream.
"Well," Harry began after putting the glass down and walking over next to Tonks. "There was my first year of life which was great apparently, but then promptly ruined by he whose name is too stupid to mention, then I come into the wizarding world and that's ruined by a bunch of idiotic idiots at school and more of Voldemort's followers," Harry added, ignoring Tonks's slight flinch. "Nearly every year something happens, I'd really like at least just one normal school year."
"Normal?" Tonks scoffed amusedly. "In Hogwarts? Fat chance of that."
"A guy can hope," Harry shrugged. "Do you know anything about what happened at the World Cup?" He asked in an interested voice.
"Not much so far," Tonks admitted in a disappointed voice. "I contacted a friend of mine who was working security, she hasn't been able to learn a lot. But apparently, the official statement from the Ministry is that a bunch of drunk idiots went crazy and dressed up as Death Eaters in order to cause chaos."
"Instead of it just being the Death Eaters?" Harry asked with disbelief.
"That's apparently the official statement," Tonks shrugged in a 'what can you do?' sort of manner. "There's not really much we can do right now other than investigate. Apparently, from what I've heard, a few of those idiots ended up dead."
"Really?" Harry asked in an interested voice, he could practically feel Venom puff up with pride.
"Yeah, some of them looked like they were mauled by some animal," Tonks confessed. "She told me that quite a few of them were missing their heads entirely, making it a lot harder to identify the bodies."
"Whoa," Harry blinked. "Sounds like something dangerous was on the loose that night."
'Damn straight,' Venom agreed quickly and quite happily.
"What was it?" Harry asked. "Any ideas?"
"To be honest, I don't know," Tonks said in a frustrated voice. "At first I thought it could be a werewolf, but it's not a full moon. There's only one werewolf who could achieve results like that without a full moon, Fenrir Greyback, he used to work for you-know-who. He's overly fond of turning kids into wolves, and he's wanted in damn near everywhere, dead or alive. But that doesn't make sense either, he shouldn't even be in the country right now. Last I heard, he was on the run somewhere in Canada. So, it's probably not him either. So what then? An acromantula? An escaped dragon? A giant cat?"
"Maybe a three headed dog or a giant basilisk," Harry added. "Still, whatever it is, I don't fancy its chances much."
"Why not?" Tonks asked curiously.
"Because grandmaster auror Tonks is on the case!" Harry said dramatically, gesturing to her grandly. "When Tonks is on the job, come hell or high water, the job gets done."
"Darn tooting straight!" Tonks laughed at his antics for a moment, before sobering up. "It's not possible," She whispered to herself.
"Tonks?" Harry asked, sounding concerned. "Earth to Tonks? Are you okay?"
"I have an idea about one thing that could have done it," Tonks frowned thoughtfully.
"Oh?" Harry asked in an interested voice. "What is it?"
"When I was kidnapped, I was rescued by this guy," Tonks said, swallowing another spoonful of ice cream. "He was covered from head to toe in what I reckon was some sort of shape-shifting goo, he had a white spider logo on his front and back and he had these attention-drawing white eyes."
'My eyes are undoubtedly my best features,' Venom said proudly.
"When he rescued me, he killed most of the kidnappers," Tonks began.
"Wait? Really?" Harry frowned, pretty sure they hadn't killed anyone.
"Oh yeah," Tonks nodded her head. "Most of them died due to what was basically blunt force trauma, getting hit and thrown around by something with above human strength."
"Oh," Harry said quietly as he thought about what he had just been told. On the one hand, it was a bit bothersome that they had unintentionally - was it intentional on Venom's part? - killed some people, but on the other hand, it wasn't like these people were that nice. Besides, they had tried to kidnap him and Tonks, so Harry found his pity well to be surprisingly dry.
"Yeah," Tonks continued. "And one of them, a woman, had apparently run into him before. This woman had been missing one of her hands, then this guy grabs the woman, threatens her and then eats her other hand. Eats it! Like it was a chocolate bar!"
'She didn't taste as nice as chocolate,' Venom complained.
"According to what I had heard, the reason she had already lost a hand in the first place was because of the same person," Tonks said, still going on. "I don't even know if this person is human. But who or whatever he is, he can clearly eat people. And there were Death Eaters there without heads, so maybe it might be possible that he was there and he had attacked some of them. But then that leaves the question of why he was there and what motive did he have to attack those curse-happy sons of stupid bitches?"
"Proposition," Harry replied in a thoughtful voice. "Those Death Eater parasites with minuscule brains were going out to kill, torture and ruin the lives of everyone there. Conclusion: He was definitely going to eat their heads."
"A hero complex?" Tonks said curiously, thinking the idea over. "I suppose it could work, he seemed happy to try and help me out after he dealt with those kidnapping dickheads. Then he vanished when I wasn't looking, quite rudely, I might add."
'It was a bit rude,' Harry thought.
'Yeah, but it was cool though.' Venom said instantly.
"I should go and talk to my boss about it," Tonks hummed. "I'm not due for work for another day, so I'll send her an owl. Until then, I'm going to eat my stress away!" She declared happily before digging into her ice cream with gusto. "There's one more tub in there if you want." She added in-between mouthfuls.
"How gracious of you," Harry laughed before he got up to retrieve the ice cream, a few moments later he sat back down with an ice cream tub in one hand and a spoon in the other. "To ice cream," Harry smiled at her.
"To ice cream!" Tonks grinned before they both ate a big spoonful, Tonks quickly dropped her spoon and both hands came up to grab her head. "Ow, ow, ow! Brain Freeze! Fuck!" She blurted out with her hair turning a deep blue, causing Harry to laugh.
'This summer went by far too fast for my liking,' Harry thought to himself along with Venom as he arrived on Platform Nine and Three Quarters along with Sirius and the Tonks family.
'I know, we were enjoying ourselves, weren't we?' Venom agreed.
'We were,' Harry replied. 'Our next summer should hopefully be just as good.'
"You alright, Kiddo?" Sirius asked, pulling Harry out of his mental conversation.
"Hmm? Oh, fine, I guess." Harry hummed. "Just thinking about the school year, hopefully, this year will be a quiet one. No dementors, no weird monsters that shouldn't be there,"
"No criminals escaping Azkaban as well," Tonks added hopefully, sending a cheeky grin to Sirius who happily laughed at her joke.
"Hopefully," Harry grinned.
"Well, I for one am hoping to see your potions work this year," Andromeda said with a smile. "I'll meet you in Hogwarts soon, okay Harry?"
"I'm looking forward to your lessons," Harry said, giving her a bright smile. "You're a much better teacher than Snape, much better looking as well." He added with a cheeky grin.
"True," Ted nodded without hesitation, pulling Andromeda into a side hug and kissing her forehead, causing the woman to blush slightly while Sirius chuckled at the two.
"Oi, can both of you stop flirting with my mother?" Tonks complained to Ted and Harry.
"Well, I was going to flirt with you but your father is right there, have some shame, Tonks," Harry said in a mock-disapproving voice.
"You're a barrel of laughs, you git," Tonks said dryly before she pulled him into a hug. "Okay, look after yourself, alright?" She whispered into his ear.
"I will," Harry whispered back as he returned the hug.
'I'll help,' Venom said enthusiastically.
"Okay, see you soon, Pup." Sirius pulled him into a hug once Tonks had let go of him. "Feel free to write to me whenever you want, no matter what it's about. Girls, brooms, pranks for Snape, you name it. I'm here for you."
"Thanks, Sirius," Harry said in an appreciative voice once Sirius had let go of him. He did truly appreciate the man's desire to be in his life, though he couldn't help but feel like it was a bit too late. Harry just didn't feel like he needed Sirius as much as he might have before meeting Venom. Still, he was glad that Sirius was here now, it meant that he had an alternative place to stay, someone who was connected to his parents and a new member of his family. The man was family, even if Harry didn't need him as much anymore.
"Alright, see you guys," Harry said, before walking onto the train, waving goodbye to the group, the four of them happily waving back at him. Harry walked down the train until he was able to find an empty compartment, he easily lifted his trunk up and placed it on the overhead rack. He was prepared to sit down and relax when he suddenly heard a rather loud voice.
"What are you on about, Loony?" A female voice scoffed.
"Loony?" Harry repeated before walking out of the compartment and looking down the train, he saw Luna backed against the train wall, as a lanky girl that looked like she was in her third year towered over her, pointing a wand at Luna's face. Most of the other students seemed content to ignore what was going on, not doing more than looking at the two. "Oi," Harry said as he walked over to the two of them. "What's going on?"
"Not much of your business, is it, Potter?" The third year scoffed.
"Actually, it is," Harry said in a matter-of-fact voice.
"Why?"
"Because I said so," Harry answered, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "Now, back off of her,"
"Or what?" The third year said challengingly, looking like she thought Harry was as intimidating as an injured insect, or at least she did until Harry took a step forward, and glared down at her with a look that promised pain.
"Or I'm going to knock your teeth out of your skull," Harry said in a low voice, barely above a whisper.
"You...you can't do that..." The girl stuttered. "...I'm a girl." Harry narrowed his eyes at her and leaned forwards, looking down and locking his gaze with her.
"I'm an equal-opportunity face-puncher." He growled. "Now," Harry reached out and gently grabbed Luna by the arm. "Luna," Harry said with a clear emphasis on her name. "Will be coming with me now, unless you have any objections to that?" He asked Luna.
"Not really," Luna said in an airy voice, a small smile on her face.
"Good," Harry smiled at her before turning to the other girl. "Now, piss off."
"I'm going to tell on you!" The third year glared at him. "I'll report you for bullying."
"Before or after I report you for bullying?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow and an unimpressed look on his face. "Because in case you hadn't noticed, you're hardly innocent here." The girl simply growled before storming away.
'Just say the word and I can make her disappear,' Venom offered.
'I will think about it.'