Bloodline chapter 17

Chapter 17 -

"I cannot wait to get out of this place," Dan huffed as he got out of his bed, he slowly stood up and started rubbing his sore back. "A decent mattress, is that too much to ask?" He complained.

"For cheapskates like Petunia and Vernon, yeah," Iris said groggily as she swung her feet down onto the floor so that she was now sitting up. She let out a big yawn as she got up, rubbing at her eyes. She smiled as her cat leapt onto the bed, ready for his required daily morning affection. She happily gave him that affection while Dan extracted Hedwig from her cage, put her on his shoulder and dutifully got to work, cleaning her cage.

Once the two were done with their tasks, the door opened, and Harry walked in.

"Glad you two are finally awake," He said in the form of a greeting.

"Where were you?" Iris asked, putting her cat down on the floor.

"Went for a morning walk," He answered. "The less time I spend in this hellhole, the better."

"Amen to that," Dan said, placing Hedwig back on her perch. "So, breakfast before Vernon starts tossing chores at us?"

"We've done enough chores for a lifetime," Harry said firmly, putting his foot down. "If Vernon wants the house clean, then he can get his perfect family to do it or hire a bloody maid. We're eating some food, we'll finish some of our homework, and then we're going to go visit the Tonks's." Harry paused, and a thoughtful look appeared on his face. "Eat a light breakfast, Mrs Tonks will probably end up giving us a lot of food."

"I deserve nice food," Iris decided, hopping off her bed.

"That you do," Harry agreed easily. "You too," He added to Dan, who gave him a thumbs up in thanks.

A few minutes later, after the two younger Potters had completed their morning rituals, the trio made their way down the stairs. They entered the kitchen, seeing the Dursleys sitting at the table and eating their breakfast. Dudley, once more, hadn't noticed their arrival as his eyes were too busy being glued to the TV screen while absently putting food into his mouth. Vernon let out an unhappy grunt upon seeing them. Petunia's nose wrinkled and she sniffed, acting as if she had smelt something very unpleasant.

The Potter trio happily ignored them and started making their breakfasts. Partway through doing that, Uncle Vernon finally decided to speak.

"You know that the food that you're all eating costs valuable money, right?" He said, speaking in such a way that it sounded like he was trying not to growl.

"Food costs money, that's the lesson for today," Harry said with a nearly audible roll of his eyes. "Don't worry about it, Uncle Vernon, you can probably cover it with all the money you saved over the years on personal painters, houseworkers, cleaners and chefs, since my brother, sister and I had covered those duties for free for years while you spent the bare minimum on us. Now, if you're done with your pointless attempts to assert authority over us, we've got to eat and get out of here."

"And just where do you think you're going?" Aunt Petunia said, sending them her standard look of disdain.

"We're going to Harry's friend's house," Dan answered on Harry's behalf. "Apparently, they have lots of nice food."

"Huh?" Dudley finally looked away from the TV.

"If they're giving you food there, why the bloody hell are you eating my food here?!" Vernon demanded.

"They're serving lunch; we need breakfast." Iris shrugged.

"I can't wait till you're all gone from this place," Vernon grumbled. "It'll be the happiest day of my life."

"Mine will be when that heart attack of yours finally kicks in," Replied Harry.

(.)

'I love my wife, but damn, she can be scary sometimes.' Ted Tonks thought to himself, not for the first time.

Right now, his beautiful and loving wife, who would be more than happy to massage him and give him nice food after a long day at work, was now acting more like an army general than anything else. She had spent the whole morning cleaning the house and working hard in the kitchen.

"Alright, Mum," Tonks said, coming down the stairs. "I cleaned my room." She announced proudly.

"All of it?" Andromeda asked, raising an eyebrow. Tonks pouted and crossed her arms.

"Enough of it," She answered.

Andromeda let out a very deep sigh before deciding that that was probably the best she'd get. She then looked at her daughter, who was wearing tight black jeans, her favourite combat boots, fingerless gloves, a black choker, a shirt with a Hungarian Horntail on the front and a pair of mismatched earrings, a hoop on the left side and a star on the other side. She had a studded belt, and her hair was a bubble-gum shade of pink. All in all, if Andromeda's parents had seen her when they were alive, then they would have thrown a fit.

"I don't suppose I can convince you to change your clothes," Andromeda said with a deep sigh. She had to admit that while Nymphadora wasn't really 'Black Family' material, she did share a lot of their traits, including pure stubbornness that would rival her own. It was fifty-fifty most days on who would win between the two in arguments, and tempted as she was to get into one now, she knew that there wasn't much time for it, as Harry and his siblings would be here soon.

"Nope!" Tonks chirped cheerily.

"I thought so," Andromeda gave her a half-hearted glare before looking at Ted and narrowing her eyes. "That shirt is wrong." She decided, staring at his grey shirt.

"Eh?" Ted blinked intelligently, looking down at his casual Muggle clothes, clothes that his wife had chosen so that they matched her clothes.

"We need to switch to the green shirt," She said with the utmost seriousness.

"Umm...Andi, you remember that you were the one who chose this shirt?" He couldn't help but ask.

"I can also choose just how well you sleep tonight," She said lightly. Before anyone could respond to that, the doorbell rang. Andromeda's wand was out in a flash, and Ted yelped as he found himself suspended in the air. "Nymphadora, get the door." She ordered before walking out of the room and up the stairs with Ted floating after her.

"Don't call me Nymphdora," Tonks groaned.

"You know you could just transfigure the shirt, right?!" Ted's voice came from up the stairs as Tonks reached the door. She opened it with a wide grin.

"Wotcher," She greeted the Potter trio enthusiastically. "Welcome to the best house in the world," She said grandly, gesturing for them all to come in. The younger two entered with amused expressions while Harry gave her a fond look.

"Hey, Tonks," Harry smiled as they walked in. "Where are your parents?"

"Upstairs, Mum is ripping Dad's clothes off," Tonks answered without thinking. She winced as she realised what had come out of her mouth. "It's not as steamy as it sounds. Anyway, glad you guys are here."

"Thanks for inviting us," Iris said politely. Tonks was about to reply when her parents came down the stairs.

"Harry," Andromeda greeted Harry with a hug. "It's good to see you," She smiled before releasing him and greeting the younger Potter siblings. "And you two as well."

"Hello all," Ted said with a small wave. "Hope the trip here didn't take too long."

"No, we were fine," Harry said, ignoring the looks he was getting from Dan. The two siblings didn't want to apparate again, meaning that they had to take the Knight Bus, and Dan was still not happy about travelling on it. "Your home looks nice. Or at least this entrance does." He said, looking around. Like the Dursleys' house, this was a Muggle house, but unlike theirs, it felt like actual humans lived here and not weird creatures disguised as humans. The Dursley house seemed so sterile and plain in comparison.

"Glad you like it. Nymphadora," Andromeda turned to her daughter.

"Don't call me that," Tonks said with an exaggerated sigh, which Andromeda easily ignored.

"Please show our guests around the house."

(.)

"And this is my room!" Tonks gestured with a wide smile, deciding to end the tour on what she obviously thought was the best part of the house.

The walls were currently a bright purple, but were charmed to change colour every day. She had several posters, one of the Holyhead Harpie Quidditch team, another of a Muggle rock band, and an auror recruitment poster next to one of a muscular man holding a large gun. She had a wardrobe, desk and fairly normal-looking bed. There was a lot of random stuff that Harry could see had been half-heartedly stuffed under the bed. Right underneath her desk was a box that was labelled as 'probably safe', and on top of the desk was a computer.

"Be lucky you're seeing it after I cleaned up," Tonks told them as they walked inside. "Before, it looked like a hippogriff got into a fight with a werewolf."

"Your mum and dad let you have a computer?" Iris said in a slightly awed tone.

"I thought magic stops Muggle appliances from working," Dan said with a frown.

"That's only in highly concentrated areas like Hogwarts," Harry responded easily. "But even then, it can be worked around. The Ministry of Magic is literally in London. Besides, the three of us never short-circuited any of the Dursleys' stuff."

"As the brainbox over there said," Tonks confirmed with a nod.

"Hey, look, it's Rocky," Iris said with a grin, pointing at the poster of a man with a gun.

"Eh? Oh yeah, Stallone," Tonks smiled. "That's actually from his other movie, 'Rambo'."

"We've never watched it." Dan admitted.

"Really? Oh, probably because it's not really for kids."

"Our uncle and aunt are basically the anti-fun police." Iris crossed her arms as she scowled. "They're happy to limit anything that would be fun for us, so we didn't get to watch many movies. Age appropriate or not."

"Sounds like a bunch of twats," Tonks matched Iris's arms and scowls. "Say the word, I'm happy to go and sort them out for you." She offered. Iris's expression softened slightly.

"Thanks, but Harry has it covered," She said with an appreciative smile. "They don't mess with us when he's there."

"Yeah, well, that's the difference between stupid and suicidal," Tonks smiled at her. "Your big brother was so moody those first few years when you guys weren't at school. I half expected him to try to break out of the school to go get you guys."

"I did," Harry revealed. "First year, Dumbledore caught me and brought me back. Prick."

(.)

"Thank you so much for the food, Mrs Tonks," Dan said partway through the delicious lunch that the Tonks and the Potters were eating.

"No problem at all, Daniel," Andromeda said with a bright smile. "I'm glad you liked it. I'd be happy to cook for you all whenever you want."

"Really?" Iris's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Of course," Andromeda said at once. "You three are welcome over here anytime you want, come rain or shine."

"Thank you," Harry said appreciatively. "You've been most generous; words can't express how much we appreciate the time and effort you've put into hosting us."

"Nonsense," Andromeda said with a dismissive tone. "You're my daughter's best friend. I was friends with your parents as well. You would have lived with us if I had my way. As far as this house is concerned, you three are family. No thanks needed."

"As she said," Ted nodded in agreement. "You guys don't owe us a thing."

"You knew our parents?" Dan asked in a surprised tone.

"Oh yes," Ted smiled warmly. "Your granddad even helped me find my feet after graduating. Literally, I lost them in an experiment. He found them for me. But also career-wise, fresh out of Hogwarts, I got a job at his potion company."

"We own a potion company?" Iris blinked hard.

"We owned a potion company," Harry corrected her. "Death Eaters attacked it near the end of the last way. By that time, Granddad was dead, and Dad was too busy fighting a war to bother with rebuilding it. Especially since he put in a lot of the Potter funds into taking down the Death Eaters."

"Shame, would have been cool to have our own potion's place." Dan hummed thoughtfully. "What did you do after you left our granddad's company?" He asked Ted.

"I spent a couple of years working for 'J. Pippin's Potions' in Hogsmead. Very famous place, you know, been around since I believe...I don't know...the eighteen hundreds?" Ted guessed.

"Established in 1735," Andromeda reminded him.

"Right, that's where I've been working since." Ted smiled. "Apart from when I'm teaching my favourite students at Hogwarts," He said, winking at Iris and Dan.

"Your potion's class is really interesting," Dan said matter-of-factly. "Though I am still a bit confused as to why different types of beetles change potion properties."

"Ah," Ted's eyes lit up. "That's actually quite easy to explain. You see, the origin of the beetle, where it comes from, how big and how old it is, and so on, can change the potion by..."

"Ted," Andromeda said with a small sigh, though the amused smile on her face sort of ruined the look she was trying to go for.

"Right, right, no teacher mode at the table," Ted said in mock-surrender. "Later," He whisper-shouted to Dan, who gave him a thumbs up.

"Interested in potions, are we?" Tonks asked Dan.

"Interested in everything," Dan admitted. "So far, I've narrowed down my future career into either 'Potion's master' or 'Wand Maker' or 'teacher' or Iris's manager if she ever decides to go full famous."

"No," Iris said straight away.

"No to the manager part or no to the famous part?"

"Yes."

(.)

A.N: Hi guys, hope you liked the chapter. Not much going on for this one, the next chapter will be the trio visiting Daphne's house and then we'll get back into the action with the start of the 2nd year.

Thanks for reading, feel free to leave a review.