Thicker than water
Draco was panting against the wall; the smell of smoke, and magic burned his nose. Sounds of explosions filled his ears. He needed to run but didn't have the strength.
He felt the thunder of another explosion far too close to him. The reverberations forced him to the floor, he tried to stand but felt something push him back down. A spell shot over his head, right where his head would have been if it hadn't just been pushed back down. He turned his head to see a young woman in her early 20's with bright pink hair, dark eyes and a heart shaped face looking back at him. She smiled as she saw him looking at her.
"I think it's safe to get up now." She said, looking around one last time before standing and offering him a hand. He took it and she pulled him to his feet.
"Thank you." He said, staring at her, he was sure there was something familiar about her eyes.
"Tonks, by the way." She said, eyes already scanning the area for something.
"Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." He said
She turned back "Malfoy." She said, and that's when it clicked in his head, the name Tonks, and those eyes. She was a Black or at least she would be if her mother hadn't run off and married a mudblood. "We're cousins." He whispered.
" You're the Malfoy boy," She said " you're not what I pictured."
He was about to protest, say that he was the spitting image of his father, but than he looked at himself, covered in dirt and ash, he knew there were shadows under his eyes and blood falling from a cut on his arm, he wasn't even sure where it came from. "Actually, I'm not what I pictured myself looking like."
She laughed, "I get that. I married a werewolf, didn't see that one coming from a mile away." He found himself laughing as well, maybe it was the stress of the battle or maybe it was just the kind look in her eyes, he knew he should hate her. She was a mix of a mudblood and a blood traitor, the worst of both, but he couldn't hate her.
"Thank you." She said
"For what? You saved my life."
"For showing me there's hope. You're a Malfoy, and face it, kid, you're not half bad."
"I resent that." He said, " I am my father's son."
"For all our sakes' I hope not. We don't need another Malfoy like your father, but we could maybe use one like you."
He wanted to correct her, tell her she was wrong, that his father was the perfect Malfoy. That he had tried all his life to be like his father, it was his own weakness that stopped him from being more like him, but again something held him back, a memory slipping through his mind; Voledmort's question from nearly a year earlier. "Will you babysit the cubs?"
"You and your-the werewolf." Draco broke off unsure of what to call Professor Lupin now. " Are you planning on having children?"
She smiled "We already have one, it wasn't planned, Teddy, named after my father."
Draco tried not to choke. "Is it a cub?"
"No" She said hurriedly "He's not like his father…or at least not like that. Speaking of his father, I should really go find him. " She started to walk away but turned back "Hey, Malfoy."
"Yes?"
"I hope we get the chance to talk later."
"So do I." He said, smiling, it was odd, he was in the middle of a battle and he felt like he was smiling more than he had for his entire life.
She had only walked a couple more steps before he called out to her "Tonks!"
She turned back.
"If you want, I might be willing to babysit sometime."
"Watch yourself, kid, or I'll take you up on that." He watched her pink hair disappeared into the crowd before turning back to the fight; it was time to look for his own parents.