Like Mother, Like Daughter
A/N: This is a one-shot on my perception of Tonks telling her mother about her relationship with Remus. It's from Andromeda's POV.
Oh, and also, I'm not JK Rowling. None of these characters belong to me!
In the small kitchen of Andromeda Tonks' house, the tension was palpable in the air, making it dense and harder to breathe. The brightly lit room was too warm from the cooking, although the scent of chocolate cake was welcomed by her nostrils. She was sat across from her daughter in the wooden table situated in the middle of the room. Her husband had gone to work and her daughter had come to visit, looking rather anxious. Nymphadora had something to tell her. In all meaning of the word, it was blatantly obvious.
Firstly, her hair switched between her usual bright pink and a light blonde, which was always an indication that she was nervous. For example before her interview to become an Auror, her hair had flashed light blonde the entire morning. Secondly, she had stuttered through the pleasantries of their meeting and stumbled so much that Andromeda had to seat her at the table for the girl's own safety. There was also the fact that the smell of the baking chocolate cake had gone completely unnoticed by Nymphadora, whose cheeks were flushed and who was currently biting what was left of her fingernails. Quite frankly, her daughter was terrible at hiding things and even more terrible at hiding things from her.
"Mum?" Her voice was hoarse and fretful. Here comes the revelation… – or bombshell – she added worriedly. Although truthfully, she had no idea what her daughter was about to say, only that it was something significant and evidently something she was nervous to tell her mother about.
"Yes, Nymphadora" Andromeda replied and noticed with concern, the absence of her daughter's usual frown at the use of her first name.
"Um, well y'know Remus Lupin?" Nymphadora asked hesitantly.
"I do, yes. Why?" Andromeda replied; confused as to where this conversation was headed.
"Well… I… we… um…" she stuttered, her face flushing chagrin again, yet she was so preoccupied that she failed to morph it away. Andromeda rolled her eyes;
"Spit it out, Nymphadora, or we'll be here all day" Andromeda said lightly and Nymphadora smiled slightly.
"Oh thanks, Mum. Um, well, don't freak out but we're… we're together" she said, breathing in a sharp and shaky breath.
"What!?" Andromeda almost shouted in absolute unreserved shock. This certainly hadn't been what she was expecting. She didn't quite know what she had been expecting, but not this. Not that her daughter was going out with a man thirteen years her senior and a werewolf as well. It wasn't that she was prejudiced as such, but it would have a huge impact on her daughter's life. Werewolves were dangerous and society had a rather negative opinion of them, not that she necessarily agreed with that but the prejudice was there, she couldn't change that. She just didn't want her daughter to experience it as well.
"I know, okay. I know what you're thinking, Mum, but I love him. I really love him!" she told her, her tone pleading. Andromeda sighed but as she was about to voice her concerns, she suddenly stopped. Very suddenly, a memory long buried was remembered in all its indignity;
A young woman of eighteen was sat in her mother's dining room, fidgeting on her seat. Fear and adrenaline coursed through her simultaneously as she listened to her mother. Her nails dug painfully in to the palms of her hands and her dark eyes were on the floor as her mother repeated her abhorrent words.
"A filthy Mudblood, Andromeda! You will break this off at once; I will not have you bringing shame to this family! Look at me when I'm speaking to you!" The fact that her mother was not screaming but speaking in a low and dangerous tone was even more disconcerting to young Andromeda. She looked up; hateful eyes bore in to hers. Druella Black was a scary woman, as most Blacks were. She was unnaturally tall, had terrifyingly wild black hair and dark, glaring eyes. She was the very epitome of pure-blood beauty, a symbol of the stunningly deceitful Black's.
"Mother… I…" Andromeda started but to no avail. Druella refused to listen to the pleas of her daughter.
"Andromeda, I will not have my daughter, a member of this noble family, with a filthy Mudblood! You will not be with him, or you will leave this house, young lady, for good." The woman snarled, her voice was manic with rage and Andromeda shuddered at the venom in her voice. There was simply no reasoning with a person filled with so much unjustified anger.
"Mother, please. I love him. I… really love him" The young woman said, her voice was a whisper of truth, a whisper that nonetheless her mother heard. Her eyes manic with fury, Druella slapped her daughter hard across the face, a throbbing red whelp appearing quickly on her cheek. The slap was painful yet it meant nothing; nothing compared to what it represented. It represented what she'd always known; that she'd have to choose between her family and him. And in the end, it was rather horrible just how easy that decision was.
"You cannot love a Mudblood, Andromeda! That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard…" her mother continued her tirade of insults but, for once in her life, Andromeda wouldn't stay to listen. For once, she put herself first, she put her own feelings first. She'd long denied the love she felt for Ted, but she was tired; tired of pretending. There came a time when she had to make a decision…
And she walked out of that house no longer a Black.
She sighed as she remembered the conversation. She looked at the young woman across from her who stared at the floor and bit her nails nervously. At once, she saw her past self and her past choices. Immediately she realised she wouldn't be like her own mother. She wouldn't make her daughter choose between her love and her family because, in the end, she knew the outcome.
"Are you sure?" she asked her daughter seriously. She had to be sure, absolutely sure, that she was in love with Remus. If she was, she would be nothing but supportive. She wouldn't make her daughter feel the way her mother had made her feel. She had vowed when Nymphadora was born that she would raise her properly and that she'd be nothing like her own mother. She was determined, now more than ever, to do just that.
"I've never been surer of anything else in my life" Nymphadora said with conviction, looking her mother in the eyes. "But Mum, please, please, don't fall out with me over this" she added pleadingly and Andromeda sighed.
"Does he love you?" she asked. She didn't know how long they'd been together but she had never heard her daughter say she was in love with someone before. For Nymphadora's sake, she hoped the feelings were mutual.
"Y-yes" she said, apprehensive but again, with conviction. This was all she needed to know.
"Remus is a nice man… Please stop biting your nails, Nymphadora." Andromeda rolled her eyes.
"Err… Sorry" Nymphadora said with a slight smile.
"You look rather terrified" Andromeda commented and Nymphadora sighed.
"I don't want us to fall out over this" she said, her dark eyes pleading.
"Nymphadora, I won't stand in the way of love. I have my reservations but Remus is a good man and if you truly love each other, then Merlin, why would I want to get in the way of that? My parents did and look how that ended up! I won't have that between us, ever. Come here" she said, wrapping her arms around her daughter, who visibly relaxed in her arms, her hair once again an annoyingly vivid pink.
Andromeda loved her daughter more than anything in the world. She always would. Nymphadora and Remus weren't exactly a conventional couple but then again, neither were her and Ted. And in the end, love was the most powerful weapon they had in this war. Remus Lupin made her daughter happy and after careful thought, Andromeda decided that there was no way that couldn't be good news.
She laughed slightly as she noticed the blatant similarities between herself and Nymphadora; like mother, like daughter she thought. And she wouldn't have it any other way.
A/N: Tonks is constantly referred to as Nymphadora in this. This is just because it's in Andromeda's POV and I assume that's what she'd call her in her head. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, please review and let me know what you thought!