Nymphadora Tonks.
How I hated the name.
I lay in bed, on my back, trying to come up with a logical explanation for why my mother would name me so.
The average passerby assumed it was a lewd joke, as in nymphomaniac. I rarely bothered explaining to these sorts that it was in reference to classic mythology. Nymph was a young goddess of nature, beautiful and maiden-like.
Sometimes I thought my mother was thinking more about bugs. Dragonflies and mayflies had larva called nymphs. These nymphs are immature and have not metamorphosed completely into their true form.
It was for those reasons, bug, sexual and goddess alike that I preferred for people to call me Tonks.
Besides, with spiky pink hair I tended to look more like a Tonks than a Nymphadora.
This morning I decided to go with a lizard green, dark and woodsy with kelly green highlights. Ordinarily the Ministry of Magic would frown upon such a wild appearance, but they tended to leave us Aurors to ourselves. In our department there was no dress code.
Breakfast was quick, some grub snagged from the kitchen of Number 12, Grimmauld Place.
I was staying here because of last night. I was here because of what had happened in the Department of Mysteries a few months prior. This was the first time all the members of the Order of the Phoenix could gather to talk business.
So much had passed in a single year.
I couldn't dwell on it before lunch. I had to get to Diagon Alley.
The sun was striking the rooftops in the Alley in just such a way that suggested they were made of silver and gold, rather than plain and simple metal and wood. The shops were just as tantalizing as they had been when I was child, holding such wonders that I couldn't help but stop and ogle the merchandise.
My errand today was to buy a new broom.
The old one, an ancient Comet 260 that had never done me wrong had been broken accidentally. I had clipped a church steeple trying to catch a suspect in a flying chase and when I finally landed I realized sadly that my Comet 260 had seen the last of its flying days.
I was going to pick up a Nimbus 2000 at Quality Quidditch Supplies. If I intended to keep up with suspects I was going to need a racing broom.
I'm not exactly sure how Kingsley had convinced the ministry to pay for my new broom, but I was grateful. He had secured enough funds for a top of the line broom and I was going to get one.
I ran my fingers over the smooth, dark wooden shaft of the broom I was going to purchase. It was sleek and polished to a sheen that was blinding in the late morning sun. The tail was smooth, not a single twig out of place. Written on the side in golden lettering: Nimbus 2000.
I picked it up and brought it to the register. The lady was more than happy to ring me out. "Excellent choice." She said, making polite conversation.
"Thank you." I said as she handed me the change.
"Would you like that wrapped?" She asked.
"No thanks." I answered. I had too much else to get done today to wait for her to wrap my package. I simply tucked it under my arm and continued on to the next shop.
I had to make three more stops that day. Mrs. Weasley had asked for some Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover. I needed to get come potion ingredients at the Apothecary for my mother and a new cauldron for Number 12 Grimmauld Place. The old one was used for some potion making and now all the food cooked in that particular cauldron had a distinctly acrid taste.
I picked up the all-purpose cleaner quickly enough. The potion ingredients were a bit more a hassle. The Apothecary had run out of ginger root, one of the simplest of ingredients. I shrugged. I could always pick some up at a muggle grocery store. I piled up on powdered bicorn horn, dried nettles and some aconite. I wondered what my mother could possibly be making with all of these ingredients but it wasn't my place to ask.
The cauldron shop was fascinating. I hadn't been back here since before Hogwarts. I looked over the myriad of containers, from gold to bronze to iron. I laughed at the pewter cauldrons, which tended to melt easily under the constant heat they were exposed to. Why anyone would make a cauldron out of a metal with such a low melting temperature was laughable.
I supposed something big was in order, large enough to cook a meal for up to fifteen people. I settled on a nice copper cauldron, shiny and thick. It was god awful heavy, but I knew that Mrs. Weasley, who did most of the cooking for the Order anyway would be very pleased.
The cauldron was bought and wrapped in plain brown paper. I managed to carry it off with the rest of my packages and plunk down for a bite to eat at the Leaky Cauldron. They served the best puddings come lunch time dessert and their Earl Grey tea could hardly be beat.
By the time I finished my quick lunch I was more than ready to leave. In the corner of the dining room was a bunch of rowdy goblins causing a general disgruntled hubbub about the place. I could hardly concentrate on my trifle they were so obnoxiously loud.
I wanted to speak to them, give them a few quick words about courteous public behavior, but working with goblins in the past had taught me never to try and speak about manners with their kind. It was just better to let them be rude and walk away.
When I arrived back at Number 12 Grimmauld Place I found the kitchen in general disarray. It seems the troops had stormed in for lunch and Molly Weasley was hurriedly trying to clean the place up.
"Can I help?" I offered.
"No thank you Tonks." She said briskly, grabbing the all-purpose cleaner out of my hands.
No matter how many times I offered Molly never accepted my help. I figured it had something to do with my general clumsy nature. My mother always used to joke that I had the grace of a stampeding pack of wildebeests. I was never sure if I should be offended at that, because the fact was it was the truth.
I went up to my makeshift bedroom and set my packages for my mother and my new broom on the bed.
I looked in the mirror mounted on the wall next to the closet and noted how pale I looked. My health just hadn't been the same since that night in the ministry. Enough dwelling on that, I thought. No use digging up painful memories in the light of a perfectly beautiful afternoon.
I went out to the street and wandered around the ramshackle neighborhood.
Even in its grim exterior this place was enchanting. There was magic at work here and if you stopped to look you could feel it in your very bones. Number 12 had become a temporary shelter for many of the Order and even with its evil history and that rotten Kreacher shuffling about and mumbling constantly it had started to feel like a home.
I looked back to the place where it should have been, hiding magically between the other houses that were falling apart. No one would ever know, ever guess that there was a place where important business took place.
I shook my lizard green head and smiled.
After a good forty-five minutes of wandering around it was time to go back to headquarters and see if I could make myself useful.
Molly was still cleaning the kitchen, scrubbing the floor while some charmed sponges worked on the plates and silverware. I offered to help again and she simply sighed.
"You can cut up some onions for dinner." She said.
I grinned. She must have been really taxed to finally let me do something in the kitchen. I picked up my wand and charmed a knife to slice up the onions for me. It chopped and chopped while I pushed the onion underneath it as carefully as I could. I managed miraculously not to cut off any fingers or even scrape myself, but I did ruin the chopping block. My charmed knife was a little vigorous.
Molly grimaced. "I can fix it." I said quickly.
"No, that's all right dear. I'll have Arthur do it when he gets here."
"Are you sure?" I asked, already knowing the answer. She was going to insist that it was nothing and that Arthur would be delighted to tinker with the thing.
"I'm certain." She said. "Are you ready for guard duty tomorrow night?" She asked, trying to change the subject.
"Of course." I replied with a smile. "Have to be. It's my job."
Molly nodded. Tomorrow night would find us once again bringing Harry from his relations' house to Number 12. It was almost the end of the summer, almost time for school to begin. Harry Potter was going to need an escort to get here safely. His safety was one of the biggest concerns of the Order. Dumbledore was convinced that Harry Potter was going to save us all.
Of course I trusted Dumbledore. Why else would I have joined the Order? Yet I couldn't help feeling that he was expecting too much of Harry. He was a great kid, but that was the problem. He was a kid.
The entire operating principle of the Order of the Phoenix was to end the reign of Lord Voldemort. Of course, Harry had done the job for us the first time, but I had my doubts that he could do it again.
It didn't seem right to heap so much responsibility on the shoulders of one very volatile sixteen-year-old.
I watched Molly dump my onions into the new cauldron. She admired it and smiled at me kindly. "Nice choice." She said.
"Oh thanks." I replied. She set to work with cooking and without asking I started to set the table. I figured I'd save the magic and just do it by hand. I might just have better used magic because as usual, I made a general mess of things.
I ended up tripping on my own feet with an armload of dishes and landing on top of them with my full weight. The cracking sound of porcelain rang out in the kitchen and Mrs. Weasley shook her head. I smiled sheepishly and whipped out my wand. She made a tutting noise, but I fixed the dishes without much ado and set them gently on the table, no cracks or visible breaks.
I wasn't worried about damaging the silverware so I set that out as well.
"You'll need one more place Tonks." Mrs. Weasley said as kindly as she could manage. "Dumbledore will be joining us this evening."
I looked at her puzzled. He hadn't bothered to come last night when we had our official meeting about guard duty. He must have had something else to do. Perhaps he wanted to give us some last minute instructions. Then again, he might just have enjoyed Molly's cooking. She was a superb chef and I wouldn't skip a single meal that she cooked.
Dinner was interesting, sharing bits of conversation over our delicious stew. Molly had really outdone herself.
I had been right in assuming that Dumbledore was coming for Molly's cooking, but I was also correct in thinking that he wanted to dole out some last minute instructions. He wanted to change our planned route from Little Whinging to Number 12. He thought it would be safer if we took a less direct route than was decided the night prior. He also thought that using the same route as last year was a bad idea.
Mad Eye Moody agreed and slammed his fork into the table as he commented on how carelessly we were all thinking. I rolled my eyes. Mad Eye was so serious about protection that I think he wanted us to lock Harry in the basement of Hogwarts and only let him out for supper.
Arthur was talking aggressively with Remus about how uncooperative the ministry was being, even in light of Cornelius Fudge's announcement about the return of Lord Voldemort.
Mundungus was sitting at the end of the table with swollen eyes, looking morose. He'd been swindled out of a business deal and had taken very hard to it. He had been drinking heavy amounts of mead and it looked like he hadn't showered in a good long while. He didn't talk much, but attempted lighting his smelly pipe under the table where Molly wouldn't notice. It didn't take her long however to smell it and she kicked him out into the backyard.
I helped clear off the dinner plates with Bill Weasley, much to Molly's dismay but we managed not to break any this time. When we were finished I took Kingsley upstairs and showed him the broom I bought and he grinned. "Got the ministry's money worth, huh?"
I grinned. "I want to try it out before our mission tomorrow."
"Pretend you're going to sweep off the back porch and give her a ride before you head off to bed." He said with a wink.
I snuck downstairs with the broom hidden behind my back. I tripped down three stairs, but apparently no one heard me. It was dark enough now and perfectly overcast. I could try out my broom and not worry about someone spotting me without an invisibility cloak. I needed to be in top form for tomorrow's mission and there was no better time than the present to test out the pristine new Nimbus.
It was as if the broom sensed my thoughts before I even touched it. It moved smoothly to the left at the slightest inclination of my body. It turned to the right as I leaned in that direction.
My faithful Comet 260 was forgotten in the splendor of the Nimbus 2000.
I cruised around for as long as I could, but I realized I would need a good night's sleep. Tomorrow would be another busy day filled with tasks and errands. I had to at least make the pretense of going to work at the ministry tomorrow and then we would have to retrieve Harry that evening and fly him to Number 12.
As I lay in bed that night I reflected back on the past few months. So much had transpired and I still had so little grasp on it. I had been in hospital so long. I had gone on several missions for the Order. I had been living out of a dim and dusty bedroom at Number 12 with Kreacher always underfoot and waiting for a swift kick from my big, black chunky boots. Perhaps there wasn't anything to understand about it. Perhaps it was just the passage of time in a human life.
I sighed and as my eyes dropped I laughed at how philosophical I got when I was tired.