Fanfic: Tonks drabbles
Fandom: Harry Potter
Character/s: Tonks, various others.
Word count: About 1232 in all.
Rating: Nothing above a G, really. Fun for the whole family.
Author's notes: This is what I do when I should be finishing up my ficathon assignments. Six drabbles in all, no particular theme or order.
“Selwyn, Stephens, Tarquin, Tonks! You’re up.”
The minute she heard her name, she jumped up from the bench so hastily she nearly landed on her bottom. Chuckles rang through the corridor, along with snatches of conversation. “Clumsy idiot ....think she’s fooling, anyway....just ‘cause she’s got some dodgy gift....too many as it is...doomed. Completely doomed.”
Her hair turned a red that was nearly as bright as her face. Only the presence of the Auror in the doorway, with the patient pained smile she’d come to expect from her instructors, kept her from turning around and letting them know exactly what she thought of their mouths. Instead she marched towards the Inspection Chamber, head high and face forward. Emmeline reached out to squeeze her hand as she went past, and Tonks smiled to her gratefully.
Then the doors swung closed behind them. Tonks took a deep breath. This was it. She’d worked too hard to let her traitorous feet hold her back now.
“Mommy, what does ‘blood traitor’ mean?”
Andromeda Tonks stopped in the act of chopping up her carrots and stared down at her daughter. The girl was surprisingly quiet and still, looking up at her with large eyes she had gotten from Ted and a small, sad frown that had come from her mother.
“It means - “ she paused, debating the wisdom of explaining Nymphadora the intricate theories and brutal realities of blood prejudice. The girl was only six, after all. “It’s a very bad word that you should never call someone, ever. Where did you hear it?”
“Auntie Narcissa was talkin’ to Draco after they left. He asked ‘Why don’t we come more’ and she said ‘Cause they’re - ‘ Her daughter pauses for a moment and screws up her face with the effort of remembering. “She said ‘Cause they’re blood traitors.’ And that’s why I wanted to know.”
So Andromeda took her bright, stubborn daughter outside and told her as much as she could. About her family’s history. About how they’d been angry when she’d married Daddy. About how prejudice was wrong, and that if any of her friends started talking about such nonsense that she should come right back and tell her.
Later on, cutting vegetables with a bit more force than necessary, Andromeda decided that Narcissa and her family were never coming over for tea again.
“You ever wonder if this is going to end?”
Tonks looked up in surprise. She’d never expected Remus, of all people, to ask her that question. He’d always seemed like a firm, reliable pillar in the middle of the all the chaos and uncertainty. Work was a constant strain, a constant effort to keep her allegiances hid from Fudge and his cronies. Order business was little better. They had no idea where You - Know - Who was, or what he might be up to, or where his followers had hidden themselves.
Her aunt Bella could be out there right now. She shivered and told him “No.Or, well, at least I hope not. Because it’d be a hell of a thing to have worked our arses off like this and have it all be for nothing.”
His smile made her warm a little inside.
When she first got the letter from Albus Dumbledore, she had to read it a couple of times to make sure the address was real. Real, and not some sick joke. The fact that he was telling her her cousin’s conviction had been a lie was stunning enough, but the chosen meeting place was just icing on the cake. She’s Apparated straight to Grimmauld Place in the middle of the night and stood staring at it for an hour.
So there was where her mother had spent so much time as a girl. There was the family home that had produced Sirius, Regulus, Narcissa, even Bellatrix. Hesitantly, she went and put her hand to the door. Slowly, gently, as if handling fireworks, she pushed the door open.
The hinges had been well oiled; there was nary a squeak as the great dark doors parted. The huge portrait of an aged, bitter old woman snorted and grumbled in her sleep. With a minute sigh of relief, Tonks started walking down the halls, conscious of every severed elf head and every piece of spiked iron furniture. There was a warm light coming from the basement, and she started towards it when she heard a babble of familiar voices.
Still, one room made her pause. It was the room with the Black’s family tree, their motto of Toujours Pur emblazoned above. And there in the middle, right between Bellatrix Black Lestrange (1951 - )and Narcissa Black Malfoy (1955 - ), if she put out her hand she could just feel it......
She pulled her hand away from the burned circle with a shudder and headed towards the basement.
When Nymphadora Tonks was eleven, she went to her first Quidditch match.
She hadn’t quite known what to expect, but once she was up there with all her friends in the Hufflepuff bleachers her nervousness faded away. The first few hours went by in a blur of screaming and cheering, the players below nothing more than yellow and green streaks through the air.
It was just after Adrian Summers had scored his third goal that she nearly fell. She and Emmeline were leaning out together, hollering at the top of their lungs, when her foot caught on some piece of debris littering the bleachers and she toppled face forward towards the pitch. For one sickening minute she hung there, convinced that this was it, she was going to die, clumsy little Nymphadora had stumbled for the final time.
Then she noticed that Emmeline was holding onto the back of her robes with all her might. The game went on, and most of the crowd still cheered and whooped, but those around her were staring in shock. “Well, what are you waiting for?” Emmeline snapped, her eyes changing from thoughtful to sharp. “Come and help me pick her up!” Chastened, they ran forward to give aid.
Dora didn’t stop shivering until an hour after the match was over.
“Dora.....”
“Mum.” Dora sighed and looked up from the cradle where her son - her son! - was gurgling happily. The family room was bright and cozy, but something seemed to be out of place. After Dad had died, the whole house had seemed suffused by some kind of melancholy. Dora put it firmly out of her mind. There’d be time to grieve later.
“Are you sure you want to go through with this? Hogwarts surely doesn’t need two more pairs of hands right now.”
“It’s You - Know - I mean, Voldemort, mum. I think they’re going to need all the hands they can get.” Her hand trailed down to caress Teddy’s head. “And I’m doing this for him. If there’s anything I can do to keep Teddy from growing up in a world ruled by Him, then I’m going to do it.”
She could see in her mother’s sharp eyes that the battle wasn’t over yet. Then Remus Apparated into the room.
“He’s coming,” he told them breathlessly, his robes in disarray. “Voldemort’s on the move. He should be at Hogwarts any minute now.” He looked at Dora expectantly.
She reached out and took his hand in hers. If it was shaking slightly, well, he was sure he’d forgive that. “Yes. Let’s go.”
Character/s: Tonks, various others.
Word count: About 1232 in all.
Rating: Nothing above a G, really. Fun for the whole family.
Author's notes: This is what I do when I should be finishing up my ficathon assignments. Six drabbles in all, no particular theme or order.
“Selwyn, Stephens, Tarquin, Tonks! You’re up.”
The minute she heard her name, she jumped up from the bench so hastily she nearly landed on her bottom. Chuckles rang through the corridor, along with snatches of conversation. “Clumsy idiot ....think she’s fooling, anyway....just ‘cause she’s got some dodgy gift....too many as it is...doomed. Completely doomed.”
Her hair turned a red that was nearly as bright as her face. Only the presence of the Auror in the doorway, with the patient pained smile she’d come to expect from her instructors, kept her from turning around and letting them know exactly what she thought of their mouths. Instead she marched towards the Inspection Chamber, head high and face forward. Emmeline reached out to squeeze her hand as she went past, and Tonks smiled to her gratefully.
Then the doors swung closed behind them. Tonks took a deep breath. This was it. She’d worked too hard to let her traitorous feet hold her back now.
“Mommy, what does ‘blood traitor’ mean?”
Andromeda Tonks stopped in the act of chopping up her carrots and stared down at her daughter. The girl was surprisingly quiet and still, looking up at her with large eyes she had gotten from Ted and a small, sad frown that had come from her mother.
“It means - “ she paused, debating the wisdom of explaining Nymphadora the intricate theories and brutal realities of blood prejudice. The girl was only six, after all. “It’s a very bad word that you should never call someone, ever. Where did you hear it?”
“Auntie Narcissa was talkin’ to Draco after they left. He asked ‘Why don’t we come more’ and she said ‘Cause they’re - ‘ Her daughter pauses for a moment and screws up her face with the effort of remembering. “She said ‘Cause they’re blood traitors.’ And that’s why I wanted to know.”
So Andromeda took her bright, stubborn daughter outside and told her as much as she could. About her family’s history. About how they’d been angry when she’d married Daddy. About how prejudice was wrong, and that if any of her friends started talking about such nonsense that she should come right back and tell her.
Later on, cutting vegetables with a bit more force than necessary, Andromeda decided that Narcissa and her family were never coming over for tea again.
“You ever wonder if this is going to end?”
Tonks looked up in surprise. She’d never expected Remus, of all people, to ask her that question. He’d always seemed like a firm, reliable pillar in the middle of the all the chaos and uncertainty. Work was a constant strain, a constant effort to keep her allegiances hid from Fudge and his cronies. Order business was little better. They had no idea where You - Know - Who was, or what he might be up to, or where his followers had hidden themselves.
Her aunt Bella could be out there right now. She shivered and told him “No.Or, well, at least I hope not. Because it’d be a hell of a thing to have worked our arses off like this and have it all be for nothing.”
His smile made her warm a little inside.
When she first got the letter from Albus Dumbledore, she had to read it a couple of times to make sure the address was real. Real, and not some sick joke. The fact that he was telling her her cousin’s conviction had been a lie was stunning enough, but the chosen meeting place was just icing on the cake. She’s Apparated straight to Grimmauld Place in the middle of the night and stood staring at it for an hour.
So there was where her mother had spent so much time as a girl. There was the family home that had produced Sirius, Regulus, Narcissa, even Bellatrix. Hesitantly, she went and put her hand to the door. Slowly, gently, as if handling fireworks, she pushed the door open.
The hinges had been well oiled; there was nary a squeak as the great dark doors parted. The huge portrait of an aged, bitter old woman snorted and grumbled in her sleep. With a minute sigh of relief, Tonks started walking down the halls, conscious of every severed elf head and every piece of spiked iron furniture. There was a warm light coming from the basement, and she started towards it when she heard a babble of familiar voices.
Still, one room made her pause. It was the room with the Black’s family tree, their motto of Toujours Pur emblazoned above. And there in the middle, right between Bellatrix Black Lestrange (1951 - )and Narcissa Black Malfoy (1955 - ), if she put out her hand she could just feel it......
She pulled her hand away from the burned circle with a shudder and headed towards the basement.
When Nymphadora Tonks was eleven, she went to her first Quidditch match.
She hadn’t quite known what to expect, but once she was up there with all her friends in the Hufflepuff bleachers her nervousness faded away. The first few hours went by in a blur of screaming and cheering, the players below nothing more than yellow and green streaks through the air.
It was just after Adrian Summers had scored his third goal that she nearly fell. She and Emmeline were leaning out together, hollering at the top of their lungs, when her foot caught on some piece of debris littering the bleachers and she toppled face forward towards the pitch. For one sickening minute she hung there, convinced that this was it, she was going to die, clumsy little Nymphadora had stumbled for the final time.
Then she noticed that Emmeline was holding onto the back of her robes with all her might. The game went on, and most of the crowd still cheered and whooped, but those around her were staring in shock. “Well, what are you waiting for?” Emmeline snapped, her eyes changing from thoughtful to sharp. “Come and help me pick her up!” Chastened, they ran forward to give aid.
Dora didn’t stop shivering until an hour after the match was over.
“Dora.....”
“Mum.” Dora sighed and looked up from the cradle where her son - her son! - was gurgling happily. The family room was bright and cozy, but something seemed to be out of place. After Dad had died, the whole house had seemed suffused by some kind of melancholy. Dora put it firmly out of her mind. There’d be time to grieve later.
“Are you sure you want to go through with this? Hogwarts surely doesn’t need two more pairs of hands right now.”
“It’s You - Know - I mean, Voldemort, mum. I think they’re going to need all the hands they can get.” Her hand trailed down to caress Teddy’s head. “And I’m doing this for him. If there’s anything I can do to keep Teddy from growing up in a world ruled by Him, then I’m going to do it.”
She could see in her mother’s sharp eyes that the battle wasn’t over yet. Then Remus Apparated into the room.
“He’s coming,” he told them breathlessly, his robes in disarray. “Voldemort’s on the move. He should be at Hogwarts any minute now.” He looked at Dora expectantly.
She reached out and took his hand in hers. If it was shaking slightly, well, he was sure he’d forgive that. “Yes. Let’s go.”