Lady Tonks, Lord Potter

Welcome Home

Two weeks after the wedding

Harry and Tonks' portkey deposited them in the London Portkey station, thankfully in a very secluded, private area. It looked like the waiting area of any office, as several well-thumbed and severely outdated magazines laid on tables next to chairs that looked like they would be uncomfortable after ten minutes of use. Harry had worried that their arrival back in Britain would be a replay of their trying to leave the wedding reception, a throng of people wishing them well and making any attempt of moving towards their goal very difficult, but it was all for nought.

Tonks turned to him and let out a snort. "Well, I expected a bit more being Mrs. Boy Who Lived."

Harry rolled his eyes at her, as she had been teasing him all week that she was going to introduce herself from now on as 'Mrs. Boy Who Lived.' She'd even gone as far as sending a Thank You card to Daphne Greengrass and signing it 'Dora Boy Who Lived.' He'd always hated being called that, but Tonks had kept adding on to it, calling him the 'Boy Who Lived Through a Rather Good Shagging,' the 'Boy Who Lived Through My Attempt at Cooking Lamb' and 'The Boy Who Lived Through a Hilariously Bad Sunburn.' He glanced over at her, incredibly tan, and wished yet again he could at least look like he'd spent two weeks in Greece out on the beach and playing tourist out in the sun. Obviously with her ability she could morph her skin into any colour she wanted, but she said a true tan was easier since she didn't really need to concentrate. Instead, as she had oh-so-helpfully mentioned, he had sunburned himself rather badly one day. No tan for him; just burn, peel and back to pasty white. At least he had mastered the sunblock spell.

A door opened and a young witch in a Portkey Office robe hurried into the room. "Ah, right on time. Congratulations on your marriage, it was quite the night. Welcome back. Now, if you'll follow me there are a few forms and then you can be on your way."

"Forms?" Harry looked over to Tonks who gave him a resigned shrug of the shoulders. "There's forms?"

"Government must be back up and running." Tonks nudged Harry. "There's always forms."

The Portkey witch nodded. "Thankfully with the new temporary Ministry up and running now things are back to...well, they're better than they were. These will be as easy as falling off a broom, just the standard 'I didn't bring any illegal potion ingredients or dark magical items back from my international trip' type things. Won't take but a 'mo."

After following the witch down a hallway they entered a small room where a little table sat, rows of shelves filled with parchment. The Portkey Office witch waved her wand and three forms zoomed out of the shelves and appeared at a table. Harry and Tonks sat down, picked up the quills from the table and dipped them into the ink pots. As Harry moved the parchment with his left hand he focused for a moment on his ring. That was something that he was surprised about, as the traditional wedding rings weren't a part of his wedding ceremony. Daphne had explained that the ceremonies were older than the tradition of exchanging wedding rings so they weren't included, but Tonks had decided that if he was to be her husband he was to have a ring. They had stopped at a little jewellery shop outside of one of the towns they had visited for supper one night and bought him a ring. It was perfect for Harry; plain gold, no ornamentation, no inscriptions, just a plain, solid band of gold. It felt heavy and rather odd on his hand, even after two weeks.

Once all the forms were done, and the witch approved everything, Tonks looked over to Harry. "So, back to the Lodge?"

Harry shrugged. "I guess. I mean, I haven't really thought much about what we do now. Looks like the Ministry's back up, so I dunno what we'll have to do. Hope to Merlin that means we're off of the High Council."

Tonks took his hand in hers. "Oh Lord Potter, I'd bet my copy of Exile on Main Street you're not getting off that easy."

"Exile on what?"