Lady Tonks, Lord Potter

My spidey senses are tingling

A cool wind blew over the hill, enough to make a person raise their collar or pull their robe closer to their body, but the chill was lessened by the bright sunlight. The sun, however, did not seem to raise any spirits amongst those toiling down in the little valley. Harry stood up on the hillside, next to Effie, wearing those ancient 'Lord Potter mucking about outside' clothes that were still in his wardrobe. Verbel was still rather insistent that even if he was just going to visit Blackhome village, or what was left of the village, that he look the part of the Lord of the land. Sometimes the house elf could be a bit much, but since he still didn't have a lot of Muggle clothing he agreed with Verbel, mostly to avoid an argument. Not that Verbel argued, actually; more often than not the old elf just 'suggested' things in a tone that made it known that it really wasn't a suggestion. Regardless, as the wind whipped up again Harry was glad he had on thick trousers, a heavy cabled wool jumper and boots appropriate for hunting something with antlers under the thick black cloak.

Tonks stood a ways off, speaking to an Auror she'd known when she served in that capacity, the two of them looking out over the activity. Harry watched as she put her hand on the man's shoulder. Being at Blackhome was affecting the Auror and Harry's thoughts went to the reason; did he grow up in the village? Did his parents or grandparents or other family live there?

"Sickle for your thoughts, Harry."

He turned and saw Effie standing there, giving him an odd look. "Just wondering why it's affecting that Auror. The village, I mean. Hard not to be affected."

"Understandable." Effie nodded. "It reminds me of pictures of certain parts of Britain after the last Muggle war. The Muggles weren't the only ones to suffer in that war, you understand."

Harry's thoughts went back to when he was in Muggle school, how one of his instructors had done several lessons on World War Two. As he looked out over the village he could see the similarities; houses were only partially standing, sometimes there wasn't much left except a wall with a chimney or a part of a roof. Even now, with the passage of time and the wind and everything a vague smoke smell seemed to permeate everything. But there was movement; a group of wizards and witches were waving their wands, vanishing ruined walls and clearing rubble. A group of goblins stood with several odd-looking tools in their hands, working hard on a large stone house that seemed as if it would tumble down if a single brick was removed.

Tonks turned back to Harry, pointed down towards the village and walked off with the Auror. As she made her way through the rocks and long grass he turned to Effie. "Where will our house be?"

"Ah." Effie smiled and then reached into the canvas coat and pulled out a piece of parchment. The wind began to play with the parchment, trying to get it out of her fingers, so she scowled and looked around for some place out of the wind.

It made Harry smile, watching her. Before Sirius' will reading, if you would have told him that he had a Gringotts account manager, that would have been enough to make him nervous. Goblins didn't have the best reputations amongst the wizarding populace; rebellions tend to do that. But now, watching Effie, with her somewhat overly large coat and the floral print kerchief around her head, he had a sudden thought that she reminded him of pictures of Queen Elizabeth that he'd seen when she was out in the countryside. It made him smile, thinking that not only was Effie his account manager but that he considered her a friend. A good friend whose advice he counted upon.

Finally, though, Effie found a little spot a bit further down the hill, a slow dip that was blocked from the wind by the combination of a rather large rock and a tree that had been severed, it's top torn off, leaving only a broad trunk and scorched, splintered shards of wood exposed. He followed her over, and once they'd manoeuvred behind the rock the wind seemed to drop away.