Pinkish Tone

From Very Good To Bad To Worse

Harry's pov :
I woke up with a weight on my chest which was a daily thing now, but I could also feel a cold metal circle on my pectoral, a feeling which was not usual. I looked at Tonks to see it was a choker. Last night's events came, rushing back, and I smiled to myself, inhaling her wonderful scent, through her hair before kissing the top of her head.
"Hmmm mm." she mumbled smiling. It made my smile widened.
"WAKE UP SLEEPY HEADS!!!" someone boomed, opening the door with a loud *BANG*. Next second, both Tonks and I were out of bed, aiming at one bound (thanks to Nymph) Sirius.
"Sorry! Don't kill me! I don't want my second last image to be my naked cousin and godson with the implication of what they did during the night, seeing the choker." I glared at him:
"One more word and I put you back in the grave, alive and the muggle way." I growled. He nodded, made a quick bow and flew. I turned toward my girlfriend and rolled my eyes. She snickered and we put some clothes on before I made to exit the room but:
"H-Harry?" Tonks asked nervously
"Yeah? What's going on Nymphadora?"
"Well huh.... I-I was won-wondering if you would do something for me... Pl-please?"
"Of course, in fact, that's what I wanted to offer you for Christmas : I would do anything you wanted..."
"Anything?" she asked somewhat sweetly.
"Uh.. Yeah... Just.... Don't make me do a naked Hippogriffe dance... I would do it.. But.... Yeah." she snickered
"I was not about to ask that, although I'm sure it would be a great sight. No, I was about to ask... If... If you would wear something to mark you as mine..."
"You want me to wear a choker?" I asked
"No! I..." she said nervously "I want you to wea..." she decreased her voice, so much that I didn't heard:
"Could you repeat please Nymphadora?"
"I-I... Iwantyoutowearapiercingplease !"
"Errrr.... Could you repeat that in a slower pace?"
"C-could you wear a p-piercing p-please?" she asked. Oooooh!
"OK."
"It's no problem, I knew you wouldn't agre-... Wait what?"
"I'll even do two if you want." I chuckled
"R-really? Oh thank you so much!" she said jumping in my arms. I smiled brightly :
"So, where?"
"Hmmm... I... Thought about the nose, and... Can I make a surprise for the second one?" I nodded and closed my eyes, waiting. Two minutes later and a brief ache in the left Ala, and in my ear, I was getting downstairs with a big smile, hand in hand with Nymph.
"Gooood morning everyone!" I greeted happily to the Weasley family -minus Fleur, Ron and Hermione-, Sirius, mom, Remus and Miss Macdonald (who was staring at my godfather and Lily.).
"Wo-ho, someone got an exciting night it seems." Remus said, looking at Tonks' choker.
"Damn right you are." I said, kissing Tonks cheek.
"WHAT ARE THOSE!?" Molly screamed, showing my nose piercing (a ring) and the helix piercing, and then the choker on Nymph.
"Piercings and a choker." I stated calmly.
"Bu-but how could you belittle someone and go to such degradation?! It's so-..."
"Molly Weasley!" two female voice screamed, one from the room and the other from the stairs. "They aren't your children are they!? If anyone could scold Harry/Dora, it would be me!" the voices' owner were Lily Potter and Andromeda Tonks. The latter continued.
"As it is, I know my daughter, and I'm pretty sure she was either in agreement, or the one asking for this mark of being his."
"As for Harry, even though I hadn't the chance to be with him, I've watched him, and know that he wouldn't, by himself pierced his ear or nose or anything else, so I'm sure it's just a way to show that he is Tonks' man." mom said. Molly opened her mouth and closed it:
"I'm sorry..." she mumbled guiltily.
"Well, that being said, welcome to the family Harry. Take care of Dora for me would you?"
"Mom!" Tonks whined as Andromeda and Ted chuckled, the first one, going to the kitchen with Molly and my mom who also chuckled. I snickered and kissed the pink haired before making my way to the kitchen :
"How can I help?"
"What are you doing here? Go back to the living room, we take care of that!" the three women said
"Not being a pureblood bigot or a sexist man, and I wasn't asking if I was allowed or not here, I'm asking what I can do." I cleared, and the three woman looked at me blown before giving me the dessert to do. Then, the three tried to made me go by talking about subjects that were going more and more borderline for a son to listen to, but they forgot where I come from : one from the muggle world, and two from the Dursley's family where Dudley leaves all the toys and things he don't want anymore in my room. And, surprisingly, this year he left a perfectly working Walkman, pretending that it wasn't any good use for him now. So here I was, in the Weasley's kitchen with three mom trying to make me go while I was just listening to 'Voodoo Child' and making a flamed dessert. They gave up making me go in the middle of 'Stuck in the middle with you', which was three songs later. Finally, we went back to the living room where we found everyone up.
"Love your piercings brother." Hermione said smiling
"Thanks sis." I winked at her. She winked back
"We were also telling Tonks that we love her new 'necklace'." Annabeth said with quotation marks
"Oh you too? I was pretty content with what I was able to do. Simple, but beautiful." I shot back, snickers went around the room. I kissed Tonks and we sat down to eat. Laughter filled the garden until one moment
“Arthur!” said Molly suddenly. She had risen from her chair; her hand was pressed over her heart and she was staring on the other side of the garden “Arthur — it’s Percy!”
“What?” Mr. Weasley looked around. Everybody looked quickly at the window; Ginny stood up for a better look. There, sure enough, was Percy Weasley, striding across the snowy yard, his horn-rimmed glasses glinting in the sunlight. He was not, however, alone.
“Arthur, he’s — he’s with the Minister!” And sure enough, the man I had seen in the Daily Prophet was following along in Percy’s wake, limping slightly, his mane of graying hair and his black cloak flecked with snow.
"Shit..." Sirius cursed transforming into Padfoot. Mom became invisible and Tonks let go of my hand. Just 1second after those actions were completed, Percy stood near the table. There was a moment’s painful silence. Then Percy said rather stiffly,
“Merry Christmas, Mother.”
“Oh, Percy!” said Mrs. Weasley, and she threw herself into his arms. Rufus Scrimgeour paused in the doorway, leaning on his walking stick and smiling as he observed this affecting scene.
“You must forgive this intrusion,” he said, when Molly looked around at him, beaming and wiping her eyes. “Percy and I were in the vicinity — working, you know — and he couldn’t resist dropping in and seeing you all.” But Percy showed no sign of wanting to greet any of the rest of the family. He stood, poker-straight and awkward-looking, and stared over everybody else’s heads. Mr. Weasley, Fred, and George were all observing him, stony-faced
“Please, come in, sit down, Minister!” fluttered Molly, straightening her hat. “Have a little purkey, or some tooding. . . . I mean —”
“No, no, my dear Molly,” said Scrimgeour. I guessed that he had checked her name with Percy before they arrived at the house.
“I don’t want to intrude, wouldn’t be here at all if Percy hadn’t wanted to see you all so badly. . . .”
“Oh, Perce!” said Mrs. Weasley tearfully, reaching up to kiss him.
“. . . We’ve only looked in for five minutes, so I’ll have a stroll around the yard while you catch up with Percy. No, no, I assure you I don’t want to butt in! Well, if anybody cared to show me your charming garden . . . Ah, that young man’s finished, why doesn’t he take a stroll with me?” The atmosphere around the table changed perceptibly. Everybody looked from Scrimgeour to me. Nobody seemed to find Scrimgeour's pretense that he did not know my name convincing, or find it natural that I should be chosen to accompany the Minister around the garden when Ginny, Fleur, the three Tonks, Percy and George also had clean plates.
“Yeah, all right,” I said into the silence. I was not fooled; for all Scrimgeour’s talk that they had just been in the area, that Percy wanted to look up his family, this must be the real reason that they had come, so that Scrimgeour could speak to me alone.
“It’s fine,” I said quietly, as I passed Lupin, who had half risen from his chair. “Fine,” I added, as Tonks opened her mouth to speak.
“Wonderful!” said Scrimgeour, standing back to let me pass in front, Snuffles followed me. “We’ll just take a turn around the garden, and Percy and I’ll be off. Carry on, everyone!” I walked across the yard toward the Weasleys’ overgrown, snow-covered garden, Scrimgeour limping slightly at my side. He had, I knew, been Head of the Auror office; he looked tough and battle-scarred, very different from portly Fudge in his bowler hat.
“Charming,” said Scrimgeour, stopping at the garden fence and looking out over the snowy lawn and the indistinguishable plants.
“And this dog, is it yours?”
"Yes." the minister made a move to pet Padfoot, but the latter growled menacingly, the hand quickly came back to it's owner. I could tell that Scrimgeour was watching me.
“I’ve wanted to meet you for a very long time,” said Scrimgeour, after a few moments. “Did you know that?”
“I guessed so.” I said
“Oh yes, for a very long time. But Dumbledore has been very protective of you,” said Scrimgeour. “Natural, of course, natural, after what you’ve been through. . . . Especially what happened at the Ministry . . .” He waited for me to say something, but I did not oblige, so he went on, “I have been hoping for an occasion to talk to you ever since I gained office, but Dumbledore has — most understandably, as I say — prevented this.” Still, I said nothing, waiting. “The rumors that have flown around!” said Scrimgeour. “Well, of course, we both know how these stories get distorted . . . all these whispers of a prophecy . . . of you being ‘the Chosen One’. . .” We were getting near it now, I thought, the reason Scrimgeour was here.“. . . I assume that Dumbledore has discussed these matters with you?” I deliberated, wondering whether I ought to lie or not, looked at the little gnome prints all around the flowerbeds, and the scuffed-up patch that marked the spot where Fred had caught the gnome now wearing the tutu at the top of the Christmas tree. Finally, I decided on the truth . . . or a bit of it.
“Yeah, we’ve discussed it.”
“Have you, have you . . .” said Scrimgeour. I could see, out of the corner of my eye, Scrimgeour squinting at me, so I pretended to be very interested in a gnome that had just poked its head out from underneath a frozen rhododendron. “And what has Dumbledore told you, Harry?”
“Sorry, but that’s between us,” I stated. I kept my voice as pleasant as I could, and Scrimgeour’s tone, too, was light and friendly as he said,
“Oh, of course, if it’s a question of confidences, I wouldn’t want you to divulge . . . no, no . . . and in any case, does it really matter whether you are ‘the Chosen One’ or not?” I had to mull that one over for a few seconds before responding.
“I don’t really know what you mean, Minister.”
“Well, of course, to you it will matter enormously,” said Scrimgeour with a laugh. “But to the Wizarding community at large . . . It’s all perception, isn’t it? It’s what people believe that’s important.” I said nothing. I knew where we were
heading, but I was not going to help Scrimgeour get there. The gnome under the rhododendron was now digging for worms at its roots, and I kept my eyes fixed upon it.
“People believe you are ‘the Chosen One,’ you see,” said Scrimgeour. “They think you quite the hero — which, of course, you are, Harry, chosen or not! How many times have you faced He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named now? Well, anyway,” he pressed on, without waiting for a reply, “the point is, you are a symbol of hope for many, Harry. The idea that there is somebody out there who might be able, who might even be destined, to destroy He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named — well, naturally, it gives people a lift. And I can’t help but feel that, once you realize this, you might consider it, well, almost a duty, to stand alongside the Ministry, and give everyone a boost.” Sirius growled and I could almost hear mom clutching her wand
"What you want me to do is to say that the Ministry is doing a good job?" I asked with a twitch in my eye.
"Something like that, Dolores said you want to become an auror, in exchange, you could go and train in the department." he stated, apparently glad that I got where he wanted to go.
"Is that so... And did Dolores Umbridge said what she done to me?" I asked showing the scars on my right hand. Scrimgeour flinched "Also, I won't say that the Ministry is doing a great job because it's a lie. And I must not tell lies." I said full of hatred.
"So that's how it is?" the minister said coldly "Dumbledore's man through and through?"
"No. I'm on my own path, Dumbledore just brings very useful tools, we are... Partners I would say." I said much to the surprise of the man before me. He stormed off, and stopped only a second to wait for Percy (Weasley) who also stormed off having been jabbed and pranked by Percy (the other chosen one), Ginny and the twins.
"Well... That was close." Sirius said switching back to his human form while mom reappeared from thin air and Nymphadora walked to me. I could only nod in approval.