TITLE: Little Nymph.
Summary: Tonks sees herself as a grown accomplished wizard but Severus Snape insist on treating her like she is still one of his students. How can she make him see her for who is.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Tonks hated her life, it was a constant disaster. Even though she had been an auror for more than five years and fought against Voldemort on the front lines, she had been confined to desk work. Even though she got a new salary that her boss said better reflected her experience she couldn't help but be annoyed by it. The chief source of her annoyance was that her new boss, however noble his intentions, believed she was little girl who needed to be babied. His reasons for confiding her to desk duties were so silly that she sniffed out the real reason the moment it left his lips.
"You are in such a delicate condition, I'm afraid I can't risk you falling to pieces on such a dangerous mission."
Of course he was referring to the fact that he boyfriend had been killed while fighting against Voldemort. It had been two years and she couldn't see why this would be a logical reason to house her, which is what Aurors referred to desk duty as. She tried to plead with him. "I am certain I can handle it, I don't think Remus would have wanted me to be afraid to live my life."
"Well he certainly would not have wanted you to risk his sacrifice by going out in the field in such an emotional state, you're still having problems metamorphing." As much as she hated to admit it, he had a point, the only thing she could successfully change was her nose, and she hadn't been able to change her hair colour for years. It was stuck in a permanent bubblegum pink. "So put it out of your head little nymph, when you are ready I will consider it." He then dismissed her form his office and sent to sulk at her desk, which was located right outside his office.
She hated him, he taught her almost ten years ago and he still treated her like a child he had to supervise. She was a woman and he needed to know that. She thought that her relationship with Remus Lupin would have alerted him to the fact but instead he only expressed his disappointment that she would fall for someone even weaker than herself. He never thought anything of the fact that she could make a man his age happy instead he had decided that she needed even more babying as she had dangerous ambitions and fantastical ideas.
Tonks sighed as she passed her wand over a scroll of paper she had written a rather long report on. When the spelling was corrected she looked at it and made sure it was perfect, which was all he accepted. She rolled up the scroll and marched over to his oak door and knocked three times on it. She knew from experience that she had to wait about five seconds before she attempted another knock to avoid complaints. She knocked again after a small wait and was then told to enter. She walked in and closed the door behind her. As always he was behind his desk reading another long report, similar to the one in her hand she had just 'idiot proof'. "I've finished the McNair report."
"So quickly, I hope to find no errors in this."
"Have there ever been errors?" she asked frustrated.
"No, I can't say that there has. You see, your initial reservations about this job were unfounded."
"My reservations were not based on my ability to spot errors in a report; it had to do with the fact that you have made me a glorified secretary with a comfy cushion of cash that is largely undeserved."
He sneered form behind the paper. "If it is your salary that hurts your pride I will be more than happy to cut it half and add the balance to my loot."
"I never said I didn't want my salary, I would just like to earn it."
"And you are." He sighed in frustration and placed the scroll on the desk. "If you don't assist me in these matters I fear I would have no patience for the job. Put it out of your mind little nymph, why don't you go shopping, buy yourself a sun dress with that well earned salary."
She looked at him; she had an uncontrollable urge to throw something at him. The day that Minister of Magic decided to give Severus Snape an honorary position as head of Auror and Security Department was the worst day of her life. She had went from being a top recommended Auror for field work to not being trusted with the simplest of tasks, eventually he decided that her skills would be best served in the office. No doubt that her housing was a bit of a laugh for all her former colleagues.
She walked out the room and made a point to slam the door shot in his face as she was leaving. She went back to her desk and picked up another report that had landed on her desk in the short time she had been in his office. All these reports seemed to come in three lengths, there was long, longer and longest and they were all boring.
She could have been in the field taking down some Lord Voldermort wanna be but instead she was in house reading about all the accomplishments Aurors with less skills than herself had achieved. It ached her even more that the Aurors never had a higher approval rating. Snape, despite being an old fashion dictator was actually very good at his job and his scare tactics were very effective. Grown men had come out of his office in tears. Those moments were the only source of joy she had because she had known first hand what he was capable of doing.
A lot of people didn't know that Severus Snape was not always as brutal as he was, when he first started to teach Hogwarts he was a bit of a pushover. She was one of the students who took full advantage of this and always caused a raucous in his class just because she could and she knew he would do nothing about it. Back in those days he would come to class write some instructions on the board and sit behind his desk and sulk, looking like the world was over. She had always wondered what tragedy could have happened to cause one young man to look so hopeless but she never let that bother her, instead she choose to play the class clown by entertaining the class with impersonations, some were of him of course. She had done this on countless occasions but for some unknown reason, one day he decided that he had quite enough. She had again not managed to make an almost decent potion and when he walked by the cauldron two hours after the class had began he looked at her in frustration.
Flashback.
"Do it over," he said.
The green haired witch looked at him and amazement and a giggle escaped her lips. "Sir, please tell me you're joking." The whole class laughed along with her. But form the look on his face she could tell that he wasn't joking.
"Everyone else can leave, Miss Tonks will brew this potion again."
"But sir this can take almost two hours."
"Then you should have thought about that before you decided to play your silly little game in my class, everyone leave, and Miss Tonks start your potion." He walked back to his seat and wand back on the table and sat behind the desk with arms folded. Everyone started to leave flashing confused glances in her direction.
She was so angry that she could feel the blood in her veins boiling. It was a Friday and she was forced to spend another two hours in the dungeons brewing a stupid forgetfulness potion. She was so angry that she found herself dumping ingredients in cauldron instead of pouring and placing gently. She decided that just to spite him she would finish the potion as quickly as possible and not say a word to him.
An hour later she presented a vile to him. He looked at it and closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh of frustration. "Miss Tonks kindly read from the bored the bored colour this potion is supposed to hold when successfully brewed."
She didn't even bother to look at the board. "Lavender."
"And what colour is this mess you just handed me?"
"It looks Lavender to me..."
"IT IS GREY MISS TONKS, GREY. YOU WILL BREW IT AGAIN."
She went back to her desk slamming ingredients all over the place. She hated the little bustard. He wasn't much older than her, who gave him the right to boss her around like that. She brewed the potion even more quickly. She walked up to him and presented a Lavender colour potion to him. He didn't even look at it. "Adding a colouring to it will not make it anymore useful, you will brew it again."
And again she brewed it and again she presented it to him and again he looked at it and told her to brew it again.
By her fifth try she could feel herself getting wozzy and hungry but he didn't seem bothered by this, he just sat there staring into space, looking at nothing in particular. She wasn't sure when she started to cry but once it started she couldn't stop. She wanted to stop because she had a feeling like that was what he wanted, to humiliate her like she had done to him but she couldn't help it, she felt sick and tired. She walked up the desk with the vile and handed him a potion. Her hands were shaking so much that it almost fell as it went from her hands to his.
He looked down at it and examined the texture. "It is still wrong; you have mishandled at least a dozen ingredients, you will brew it again."
"Please sir can't I try tomorrow?"
"No you will not leave this dungeon until you brew this potion successfully."
She broke down in heavy sobs but this seemed to have no effect on him. He waved her back to the table. "Don't get any tears in the cauldron because it will render the potion useless," he added as she started to prepare the ingredients a yet again.
After a while she had stopped presenting potions that she knew were imperfect. If she made a mistake she started over, if tears fell in the cauldron she started over. She had started over so may times that it was well after nine o clock in the night and she still didn't get it right. When she heard the bell toll she looked up and saw the time and she realised that she might be there until the next day. She started to cry even more loudly, not because she thought it would have any effect on him but because she knew that it was hopeless and she would never brew the potion correctly.
She had just managed to get another gush of tears in her cauldron when he slammed an open book on her table. She looked down at it and back to him.
"Follow the instructions form this book," he said and walked back to his desk where he was now marking essays.
She looked down at the book that was defaced with small cramped writing. She began to do as he instructed, she followed the directions. But she still managed to get some tears in the cauldron. She wiped her tears away and made an effort to keep her face as far away form cauldron as possible. On her second attempt using the book he handed her she was successful. She was so relieved. She put the vile on his table and handed the book back to him.
"Can I leave now sir?" she asked.
"You may leave," he said quietly. " But be warned; the next time you cause a raucous in my class to hide the fact the you can't brew a potion to save your life I will not go so easy on you. You're dismissed."
END FLASHBACK
She left his dungeons exactly ten minutes to eleven that night. She made a point of telling everyone about how cruel he was and even complained to Professor Sprout. After that incident everyone was well behaved in his class as his punishment had become a legend of sorts. She was convinced that she hated him for almost a year. She only changed her mind about him when she looked down at her Potions paper during the OWLS and saw the potion they were required to brew. They had three options and among them was a forgetfulness potion. She smiled so widely that the examiner felt the need to examine her to make sure she hadn't sneaked any notes in the examination room.
She brewed the perfect forgetfulness potion and by the end of the exam she was certain that she got an Outstanding in Potions. After the examination she was so drunk with happiness that she actually sent her Potions Professor a thank you note that was followed by an apology. The following term she was accepted into his NEWT. After career advice when she expressed a desire to become and Aruor he even showed more tolerance for her inability and clumsiness and gave her notes to follow so she might be bale to pass her NEWT potions. She was absolutely certain that her apology had made her a favourite of the now notorious potions teacher.
Tonks sighed at realisation that he was mostly responsible for her being Auror, there was no was she could have gotten to move on to NEWT potions if he wasn't as horrible to her that day and subsequently kind to her during the NEWT years. A small smile crept upon her face because she had just remembered the secret she had harboured for years following the potion incident, she was had a hopeless crush on Professor Snape.
NOTE: This is my first Snape and Tonks fanfiction. So please give me some reviews.
Expect an update, maybe Wednesday. I usually update on Wednesdays and Mondays.
