Professor Potter Ch. 13 (Harry Potter) (Patreon)

A/N: Alright here we are with Chapter 13. I know this will be a contentious chapter and that I'm going to lose readers. But in all honesty I just didn't see a satisfying path forward for this story without introducing some sort of new element to keep my interest. It was either this or let the story die. That said, this chapter is going to be a sort of transitionary chapter, as well as a soft reboot for this fic. Hope people enjoy the potential inherent within it if nothing else.

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Nymphadora Tonks was desperate. And desperate women took risks. What else was she supposed to do, when her own mother was seemingly so intent on cockblocking her at every turn?! She needed to find a way to get the Headmistress off her game. She needed to find a way to get Harry alone, so that she could have her own taste of the Man-Who-Won.

Was it so much to ask that she get to have some fun with Harry, while also rewarding him for his service to the Wizarding World? Was it truly so terrible for her to try and start a sexual relationship with the godfather of her son? Tonks didn’t think so, but obviously Andromeda did. And unless Tonks took drastic measures, she was never going to manage to get Harry into bed.

Luckily for her, she was not without options. This year, Hogwarts’ faculty had seen quite the shakeup. The entire school had been… jostled a bit, and a lot of the old timers who had been stuck in the stonework and seemingly impossible to get rid of both during Tonks’ time as a student as well as for decades before, had been shaken loose.

It wasn’t just people like Minerva McGonagall who had been forced into retirement, nor people like Harry Potter who had been brought in to try and break the curse on the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. No, while Tonks was well aware of Harry’s general oblivious to the nature of most of the strangers who now walked Hogwarts’ halls and taught its students, the fact was, many of them WEREN’T unaware of him.

In fact, if she didn’t know any better, Tonks would say most of them were here FOR Harry. Actually, in at least one case she was pretty sure she DID know better. The position of Potions Professor had been taken up by a witch that Tonks was actually VERY familiar with in fact. Potions Mistress Yennefer hailed from somewhere in Europe originally, and was a long-time acquaintance of her mother’s, from what Tonks knew.

Apparently, back when Andromeda had originally been kicked out of the Black Family, she’d been in dire need of support. Yennefer and her European Colleagues had provided that support, some sort of organization called the Lodge of Sorceresses from what Tonks recalled. Indeed, while Yennefer was the one that Tonks was most familiar with, she was pretty sure several other witches from the Lodge had taken up positions at Hogwarts this year as well.

If she stopped and thought about it for a moment… there was Triss Merigold, a feisty red head who had taken over Charms from Professor Flitwick. There was Philippa Eilhart, a no-nonsense Owl Animagus who had taken on the Transfiguration Professorship. There was Fringilla Vigo, the new Hogwarts Librarian. And Margarita Laux-Antille, the new History of Magic teacher.

Honestly, to find out that it had been as simple as exorcising Binns after all this time… Tonks had to wonder just when Dumbledore had turned senile, because the old man had damaged more than one generation of wizards and witches by letting Binns turn History of Magic into a never-ending droning lecture about the Goblin Rebellions and nothing fucking else.

Still, those were just the women that Tonks knew were from the Lodge of Sorceresses. There were also several women from overseas in the Americas who Tonks knew a LOT less about. Herbology had been taken over by a red-haired American Witch named Pamela Isley who not only had a green thumb, but an entirely pale green body. Her assistant, Harleen Quinzel, was a bit manic from what Tonks had heard.

Meanwhile, Astronomy was now overseen by a regal blonde name Emma Frost. She too had an assistant, a shy red head named Jean Grey. And rounding out the collection of American Immigrants was the new Arithmancy Professor Zatanna Zatara and her assistant, Raven Roth.

One might think they were suffering an invasion, but luckily it wasn’t all Europeans and Americans taking over good, solid Professorships at Britain’s Premiere Wizarding School. Of course, Nymphadora wasn’t entirely sure it was a good thing that Narcissa Malfoy was now the Professor for Ancient Runes. There were a lot of leftover bad feelings between her and her aunt. Andromeda and Narcissa might have made up in the wake of the war, but Tonks just wasn’t sure she could feel the same… possibly ever.

Still, Penelope Clearwater had been a good choice for Muggle Studies, and Tonks knew precisely how capable Angelina Johnson was at flying, so she’d probably make a good new Flying Instructor. Especially with Alicia and Katie supporting her.

The last two replacements, a mediwitch named Shani taking over Madam Pomfrey’s old job, and another witch named Keira Metz taking on the Divination Professorship, Tonks knew even less about. What they wanted, who they had ties to, and what their goals were… she had no idea, one way or the other.

But facts were what they were. Hogwarts was filled to the brim with foreign witches and witches who, deep down inside, Tonks was quite sure all wanted a piece of Harry Potter. He wasn’t just the most eligible bachelor on the faculty staff after all, he was also the Man-Who-Won. He was the Vanquisher of Voldemort not once, not twice, but several times over if one counted every encounter they had where Harry came out the victor, as well as every horcrux he’d had to destroy in his quest to end the Dark Lord once and for all.

Tonks couldn’t protect Harry if she didn’t have access to him. And her mother seemed obsessed about blocking Tonks from getting to the young man. Which meant it was time to bring out the big guns… it was time to make a deal with the devil.

“Auntie Yen~”

Calling out in a sing-song voice, Tonks walks into the Potions Classroom with a smile on her face. The day is long over and it’s just Yennefer behind her desk, looking up with those beautiful lilac eyes of hers as she raises a perfectly sculpted brow in response to Tonks’ words.

As always is the case when she finds herself in the absolutely stunning witch’s presence, Tonks finds herself subconsciously shifting her form until she’s as beautiful as she can possibly manage. Truth be told, when Tonks was younger, Yennefer was part of the template she’d used for her favored form. As a metamorphmagus, she had a somewhat disconnected view of her physical body. There was no ‘base’ or ‘standard’ form for one such as her, merely a favored form that she was constantly changing, adapting, updating, and altering to make as spectacular as it could be.

Yennefer was… Tonks was pretty sure the other witch wasn’t actually a metamorphmagus like she was. But if the Potions Mistress hadn’t used potions and rituals to sculpt and transform her body into the vision of perfection that sat before her now, Tonks would quite literally be willing to eat her own tongue. The purple-eyed, raven-haired woman was just too fucking perfectly proportioned to be natural.

“Oh? I’m your auntie now, am I? As I recall, you only ever called me that when you wanted something from me, Little Nym.”

Flushing a bit at the old pet name, Tonks squirms a bit in place. It was true that Yennefer wasn’t technically related to her or her mother by blood… at least as far as Tonks was aware. But Andromeda had leaned heavily on Yennefer and the Lodge of Sorceresses’ help back in the day, and so Tonks had grown up with Yen being around all the time. In what she would eventually come to realize was a rare display of affection, Yennefer had deigned to allow Tonks to call her Auntie Yen… and Tonks had turned around and really only done so when it benefited her most.

“O-Oh c’mon, you know that’s not true!”

Cheerfully lying through her teeth, Tonks skips forward until she comes to a stop in front of Yennefer’s desk. The Potions Mistress snorts derisively, managing to make even that action look sexy, even as she crosses her arms over her chest.

“What can I do for you, Caretaker Tonks?”

Tch, she was really going to act so cool and haughty, was she? Pouting mightily, Tonks plants her hands palm down on the desk in front of her, leaning forward and getting serious.

“I need your help Yen. It’s my mother.”

“Andromeda? What about her?”

Scowling, Tonks curls her hands into fists, though she thinks better of banging them on the desk in front of her like a petulant child.

“She’s being insufferable! I want her reined in… and I know that you can do it.”

Lifting both eyebrows at that, Yennefer lets out a light, tinkling bit of laughter, a melodic tone as she shakes her head.

“Whatever do you mean by that, Caretaker Tonks? I am but the Potions Professor here at Hogwarts. Your mother is the Headmistress and therefore my direct superior. If anyone is going to be reining anyone in, I would imagine it would be she reining in me, presumably.”

Even as she speaks, her violet eyes are twinkling with mischief. Tonks just puffs out her cheeks, narrowing her own eyes and growling.

“I’m not a child anymore, Yen. I know that my mother owes you. Maybe she owed you enough to get you this job, huh? Or maybe you guys did a little quid pro quo and your Lodge helped her get the position of Headmistress if she, in turn, made all of your dreams come true.”

The accusation does not fall on deaf ears, and Tonks feels like she’s finally getting somewhere, even as Yennefer’s eyes narrow in turn and a tendril of something odd makes its way down Tonks’ spine.

“Careful there, dear little Nym. What are you insinuating, exactly?”

“N-Nothing! Nothing more than this… the relationship between you and my mother isn’t quite so clear cut as you might make it appear. I think you can help me with her. I’m willing to make a deal.”

A moment later, the tense atmosphere disappears, and Yennefer is all smug little smiles and raised eyebrows again.

“Are you now? And what sort of deal are you looking for, darling? How exactly is your mother being… insufferable?”

Grimacing, Tonks can admit to herself how silly it feels now that she’s about to say it out loud. Still, in for a penny, in for a pound, right?

“… I want some alone time with Harry Potter. The Headmistress has been stymying my efforts to do so at every turn.”

Something dark crosses over Yen’s face then and she bites back a bitter laugh, muttering something under her breath.

“… You and everyone else, my dear…”

Blinking, Tonks furrows her brow, wondering just what she heard.

“Sorry, what was that?”

But Yennefer just shakes her head and waves a hand airily.

“Your mother is indeed protective of the fine young gentleman who’s taken up the DADA Professorship. She’s told me that she wants to give him a chance to… acclimate to his new position before drowning him in too much interfaculty interaction. Perhaps you just need to be patient and wait for her to decide he’s ready for more?”

Could Yennefer be right? Tonks’ own observations had led her to believe that many of the women in the castle this year were here for one reason and one reason only… Harry James Potter. But almost none of them had made a move yet. Apparently, it wasn’t just Tonks that Andromeda was holding at bay, but everyone else as well.

On the one hand, Tonks could understand her mother’s reasoning if that WAS the case. On the other…

“Fuck that. She has no right to keep me away from him. Which is why I need your help, Yennefer!”

Seeing the Potions Mistress staring at her quietly, Tonks forges onwards, undeterred.

“I know that if we work together, we can stop my mom from interfering! Harry should have the right to make his own choices about who he interacts with, don’t you think?!”

“I agree.”

Yennefer’s sudden agreement makes Tonks blink, taking some of the wind out of her sails.

“Uh… y-you do?”

“Oh yes. I’ve been wanting to approach Mr. Potter for some time now and have only refrained because of your mother’s… edict. Admittedly, he has seemed oblivious to my presence and indeed all of the new faces in the castle. That said, I wasn’t going to wait much longer. Still, if you’re going to do this, you know you’re likely to make an enemy of your mother, don’t you? And at the same time… I don’t do anything for free.”

Yennefer’s words don’t exactly fill Tonks with confidence. Not for the first time, she finds herself once again second-guessing herself. Was it right, coming to Yennefer with this? Or should Tonks have considered another option? There were other choices, and the way Yen was staring at her so hungrily, those violet eyes practically glowing with purpose… Tonks wondered if maybe she wasn’t supposed to be here.

Or maybe she was just overthinking it and paranoid. Maybe she was just letting her preconceived notions about things get in the way. Yennefer had never done wrong by her! Really, there was no reason to doubt the Potions Mistress now!

“… What do you want, exactly?”

Humming, Yennefer glances at her nails for a moment, clearly feigning disinterest.

“If I’m going to help you distract your mother long enough for you to sink your claws into dear Mr. Potter, I’m going to want assurances. You’ll owe me one, Tonks… and I can assure you, I will likely collect before the year is out. On the other hand, you could go to one of my colleagues and strike a deal with them. Philippa, for instance, would be just as capable of helping you.”

Furrowing her brow, Tonks stares at Yennefer, unsure of why the Potions Professor would… suggest an alternative like that. She didn’t even KNOW Philippa Eilhart that well, other than the basics. But then, perhaps that was the point. Yennefer was contrasting herself with Philippa to show Tonks that she was the better choice. The Devil You Know, and all that rot.

But then… by that logic, the true devil would be Tonks’ own mother. That was the third option, wasn’t it? She could go directly to Andromeda and actually TALK to her, woman to woman, instead of this backroom dealing she was doing with Yen.

… She just really, REALLY didn’t want to. But she needed to make a choice. She needed to decide just how she was going to get to her goal. That being one Harry James Potter, buried inside of her.