The Truth

A/N: Just a reminder, new chapter here officially means new chapter over on the P atreon now, where my patrons are currently voting on the future direction of this story!

Also, great news! As of the start of 2022, right freaking now, this story updates twice a month instead of once a month! Get hyped!

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After a long moment of thought, Tonks reaches out and takes her mother's hand in her own, giving it a comforting squeeze and smiling at the older witch.

"… Together, mother. We'll go to him together."

Biting her lower lip, looking much more unsure of herself than a Headmistress of Hogwarts should, Andromeda lets out an explosive sigh and just nods.

"A-Alright then. Together."

With that said, the two of them stand up in unison, neither looking entirely confident in what they're about to do… but also knowing, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it must be done. Straightening her shoulders, Andromeda Tonks presses her lips together in a thin line and leads Tonks over to a nearby cabinet. A cabinet that she proceeds to open up to reveal that it has a false back, allowing her and her daughter to access the same back passage that allowed Andromeda to walk in on Harry and Tonks weeks before.

Tonks tries not to let that get to her, she tries to let it wash off her back. After all, it was supposed to be water under the bridge now. She and her mom had talked, and had come to an understanding. Keeping that in mind, Tonks follows Andromeda into the dimly lit passageway, the two witches making their way to their ultimate destination with a nervous sort of haste.

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He's not expecting a knock at his door that night, which means he's certainly not expecting a knock from his wardrobe. Startling, realizing that there's someone on the other side of the secret entrance the Headmistress had used to enter his quarters some time ago, Harry walks over and opens the wardrobe, eyebrow raised in slight incredulity.

"Yes?"

"… May we come in?"

Recognizing Andromeda's voice, Harry just chuckles.

"Certainly."

Stepping back, he watches with keen interest as Andromeda Tonks steps out of the wardrobe and into his quarters. But not just her this time… her daughter follows her. Happy to see the mother-daughter pair apparently on speaking terms, if their mutual skulking is any indication, Harry gives them both a broad smile.

"Andromeda, Nymphadora. Good to see you both tonight."

When they don't quite meet his eyes, both of them averting their gazes and fidgeting under his own, Harry raises his brow and takes another step away.

"Or should I say Headmistress and Caretaker Tonks? Is this a social call, or a professional visit?"

In the end, it's Tonks who speaks up, not her mother.

"Call it both, Harry. At least for me. As you well know, I've been waiting to pay you a social call for quite some time. As we all well know, my mother has sought to stymy and stop me at every turn."

Far from standing up for herself, Andromeda flinches and continues to look anywhere but at her daughter or at him. Curiouser and curiouser. Frowning slightly, Harry gestures for Tonks to continue.

"A little earlier, I confronted my mother about all of this, and the two of us finally had a long overdue chat. A chat that's made it clear to me that, while I don't necessarily agree with all of my mother's actions… I understand them a bit better now, at the very least."

This was all sounding very serious. Moving over to the little lounge area within his quarters, complete with a pair of couches and a small coffee table, Harry sits down on one of the couches and gestures to the other. It's not lost on him how similar the moment is to when Andromeda had first come to convince him to take up the position of DADA Professor.

"Please, have a seat."

The Tonks women both sit down, with the younger giving a pointed look to the older.

"Mother… it's time to tell your story to Harry. Everything you told me and anything you left out concerning him. You know he has a right to know."

With a sigh, Andromeda nods, drawing Harry's gaze to her as his brow furrows at the strange dynamic. Exactly what does the older woman have to say that has Tonks treating her like a disobedient schoolgirl?

And then the words start spilling from Andromeda's mouth and they don't stop. More than once, Harry considers asking a question… but truth be told, he's just a little too taken off guard to do so. Instead, he listens. He listens as Andromeda outlines everything she knows about not just the Lodge of Sorceresses and the witches they've managed to implant in Hogwarts, but also the native witches and the witches from overseas that she managed to bring on board as well as a counterbalance.

From the sound of things, Andromeda might be the Lodge's pawn, but she was far from their ally. While the fact that it all comes from her own lips makes it potentially suspect, it at least sounds like she's done all she can within the confines of her agreement with this… Lodge. At least, Tonks seems to think so, as she nods along with Andromeda's story, giving her mother more support than Harry would have expected in the process.

Harry, meanwhile, is beating himself up for his lack of observational skills. He'd allowed himself to get completely caught up in… well, in his own personal shit. He'd vaguely noticed just how much Hogwarts' Faculty had warped and changed in the time since he'd been a student. In all fairness, Hogwarts had gone through a VERY intense upheaval over the last few years, starting with the death of Dumbledore and culminating in the Battle of Hogwarts itself, in which Voldemort had finally been defeated.

In the aftermath, Harry had figured that many of the old guard might have just wanted to retire… those that were left alive anyways.

Now though, he was left wondering how many of his old Professors were forced out to make room for this new cohort. Would Minerva McGonagall have been Headmistress of Hogwarts if not for the Lodge stepping in to make sure Andromeda got the role instead? Would he have been tapped for DADA Professor, if not for the Lodge's machinations?

Back ramrod straight, shifting in his seat, Harry frowns deeply as he regards a fidgety Andromeda. Her story finished, the older witch is now waiting for him to condemn her, to judge her most harshly for her actions. She has, after all, no matter what countermeasures she's taken, set him up to be manipulated and possibly collared by these Lodge Sorceresses.

And yet… and yet, call it what you will. Harry just has a soft spot for her. He finds it easier to forgive her, even knowing what she's done. Hey, silver lining, it's sort of nice to be so universally wanted, he supposes…

"I forgive you, Andromeda. Keeping me in the dark this long… it's not exactly what I would have preferred, but you had your reasons. The fact that you listened to your daughter and let her convince you to come to me after all, even if it's rather belated… it counts for a lot."

Her shoulders sagging, the Hogwarts Headmistress mumbles her thanks under her breath. Harry just waves her off, looking between the two Tonks women for a long moment.

"So then, how do we fight back? Where do we even begin unraveling the Lodge's machinations?"

Tonks starts to nod, the younger of the two witches clearly in agreement with his immediate impulse, only for Andromeda to shake her head wildly.

"N-No! You don't! There isn't… this isn't a clear cut case of Good and Evil, Harry. This isn't like the Dark Lord, where it was you or him. The Lodge of Sorceresses have been playing this game a long, LONG time. All you can really do is stay on the defense. At least now that you're aware of what they're planning, you can protect against it better. Just… just don't give into their advances. Keep them all at arm's length, let the rest of the year play out, and then you'll have no reason to stick around. You can graduate and retire at the same time, and go do whatever you want with your life!"

"… Fuck that."

To Harry's mild surprise, it's not him who speaks those words, even if they resonate deep in his soul. Instead, it's Nymphadora Tonks, fierce and loyal as ever, who bites out the two word response to her mother's long monologue. Taken aback, Andromeda just blinks owlishly as her daughter growls.

"We didn't tell Harry all of this just to tell him to sit tight and wait the rest of the year out, mother. There must be something we can do, some way that we can turn their game back on them. You said they would corrupt him slowly, that their goal would be incremental control. Well, that sounds like we have all the time in the world to corrupt THEM and their little organization from within instead!"

Looking rather faint, Andromeda continues to shake her head in the negative.

"You can't… you can't just expect to take on these witches in their own arena and come out on top, Nymphadora. Certainly, the Lodge is not a monolith… there is minor infighting and squabbles between witches with differing goals at every single level. But they are an old organization for a reason. They come together against outsiders, against enemies. Taking any one of them on is just asking for them to close ranks, forcing you to take them all on."

Despite her inability to see a way of fighting the Lodge… Andromeda's words nevertheless give Harry plenty of ideas. Leaning forward, he presses his lips tightly together.

"What do you mean by infighting? What sort of squabbles do they have? And differing goals… that sounds like our way in. We just have to figure out what they each want and use that to pry them away from the whole. If we can give some of the more reasonable ones a reason to come on side, then the others will be severely weakened, right?"

Staring at him blankly, Andromeda looks a little baffled, for a moment. It's almost like she didn't think he had a political bone in his body. Truth was… Harry had been reading up. He'd been studying what made people tick. After what had happened with Voldemort not once, but twice, the young man had come to wonder just how the Dark Lord had managed two separate rises. If it wasn't for Harry fucking Potter, Tom Riddle would have taken over the entire British Wizarding World not once but two times. Both times, it was ONLY Harry who had truly been able to stand up to him for some reason.

That had weighed on the young wizard's mind more than he cared to admit. So yes, he'd been dabbling in politics and the human condition, reading a book here and there to try and better understand. It was easy to just say things like 'The Wizarding World is full of idiots', but another entirely to understand not only WHY it was full of idiots, but how those idiots thought and operated.

After all, unless Harry wanted to leave magic behind entirely and go live as a muggle for the rest of his life, he HAD to learn how to work with and work around all of the idiots he found himself surrounded by on a regular basis.

"Well? Andromeda, you know the most about the Lodge and its members. It has to have a few weak links, right?"

"… C-Certainly. I'm one of them, I suppose. And the others… there ARE others. Merlin, even at the top, there is a power struggle. Philippa, the new Transfiguration Professor, is technically the leader of the Lodge. However, Yennefer, our new Potions Professor, holds comparable power within the organization. The two of them do not always agree all the time… but they are much more likely to set aside their differences than allow their alliance to be torn apart by a young man's wants and desires, Harry."

Nodding, assimilating that information, Harry nevertheless forges onwards.

"So then we don't start with them, obviously. But what about the others? What about the ones at the very bottom of the ladder? Did any of them come to Hogwarts? Are any weak links within these walls for us to try and manipulate?"

Just from the considering look on Andromeda's face as she thinks about it, Harry knows there are. But after a moment, she frowns slightly, clutching at her knees.

"… There is a chance, albeit a very slim one, that your plan might work. However… I would need to have some assurances that you could handle the trials ahead."

"Assurances?"

"Mother?"

Harry and Tonks both speak up in matching confused voices at the same time, even as Andromeda stands… and vanishes away her clothing. With a flick of her wand, she does the same to Tonks, leaving both mother and daughter before him naked, one standing and one sitting… though that doesn't last long as Tonks yelps and jumps to her feet, before blushing and even smiling at the sudden realization of who she's naked in front of.

Harry, meanwhile, is having a hard time not staring at the two beautiful witches. He's seen them both naked before at this point to be fair, but not in this context… not in this fashion.

"If… if we're going to go through with this, then I must demand that you show us the true nature of your will, Harry. If you can't resist the temptation that our bodies offer, then you will be ill-equipped to resist the temptation of even the lowliest witch within the Lodge of Sorceresses, let alone the real powerhouses at the top."

Tonks' smile falls as she processes her mother's words and realizes what she's saying.

"Wait, you want us to tease Harry while he holds back and… doesn't fuck us?!"

The high-pitched tone in her voice gives Tonks' feelings on the matter away quite nicely, even as Andromeda glances over at her daughter drily.

"This is more important than your overflowing libido, Nymphadora. If Professor Potter can't keep his hands off of just the two of us, then he'll be eaten alive by the others."

And then, putting her money where her mouth is, Andromeda saunters forward. She leans over him, planting her hands on either side of his head and all but daring him with her eyes to reach out and touch her. Harry doesn't, of course, but as she begins to tease him and Nymphadora joins in with a pained, needy look on her face, he can't help but feel like this is… counterproductive.

Certainly, he could hold himself back. He could likely succeed in not touching either woman for however long until Andromeda deemed him 'good enough'. He could also take her up on her original offer if he didn't think he could succeed, and just play defense for the rest of the year. Now that he was aware of the Lodge's true goals and machinations, it should be easy to avoid getting caught up in their webs, right? He'd be done at Hogwarts with the year's end, and everything would be fine.

Or… he could do what he's always done. He could take the road less traveled, the third option that no one ever seems to expect from him. He could turn this all on its head and show Andromeda she didn't have to worry about him in an entirely different way. Tonks… Tonks would probably even help.

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