Bored
AN: Hey all! This may or may not develop into a multi-chapter fic, seeing as Tonks is my favorite character. But either way, this little scene jumped into my head, and I just had to get it down and share it with you. :)
EDIT: I am keeping this up as a short story, and continuing the story of Tonks and Lupin in my new fic, Hufflepuff Auror. Thanks!
Tonks had quickly heard through the grapevine at the Ministry of Magic that her teacher had been impersonated, locked in a box for the school year, and was now at St. Mungo's recovering. She knew he wouldn't stay there long, so she headed over as soon as she heard to visit Mad Eye.
"Wotcher, Mad Eye," she said as she stumbled over the visitor's chair set up next to her mentor's hospital bed.
"Purple hair, eh? I thought you'd settled on that bright green," Mad Eye said.
"Purple for now, I'm not sure about it," she said.
There was a brief awkward pause. Tonks looked around the room, as if a conversation topic would be hiding on a post-it note somewhere, waiting for her to find it.
"So, all the stories true?" she eventually asked, knowing what a cliché it sounded like.
"Probably."
Well this is awkward. Tonks thought. Why did I come here again?
"So, locked in a box all year?" she asked. He nodded his confirmation. She gave up and defaulted to her goofy personality to get her out of this.
"So all that time, stuck in a dark box, are you afraid of the dark now?" she asked.
Mad Eye snorted, which was as close as he could get to laughing. "What? No, of course not. I'm only here still because they took my clothes and I don't want to walk out of here in a hospital gown."
"Afraid of small spaces?" she asked.
"No."
"Afraid of dark small spaces?" she asked.
"No."
Tonks returned to looking around the room, knowing her attempt at humor was failing. Finally, one thought about her mentor's time trapped by the enemy popped into her head, and she had to confirm it.
"You were bored, stuck doing nothing, weren't you?"
Mad Eye snorted twice.
"I have never been so bored in my life," he said.