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Chapter One
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She's having a not so good, only slightly terrible kind of day. It'd started late, not that Tonks had meant to over sleep-but it wasn't like Moody could hear that over his shouts of 'constant vigilance!' So, in prattles (because it was a prattle, but only the walking sort if that was a thing [she was going to make it a thing]) Tonks, already a solid 30 minuets late, only to have everyone and their hamster (if asked Tonks was certain that was the Muggle saying) start lecturing her about tardiness and how unprofessional it actually was.
And that was the word, actually. Professor Snape had looked her dead in the eye and said that she was 'actually quite unprofessional with the persistent tardiness.' Rightly so, Tonks' mood had gone from only mildly frazzled, to 'much too early picked lemon' sour.
To make matters even more difficult, on Potter-watch, Tonks was scheduled to work with Remus Lupin. Normally, Tonks' quite liked Remus, a cute sort of bloke, bit odd with the whole werewolf problem-but easy to overlook. No, no, the problem with Remus Lupin at the moment stemmed entirely from the fact that the fantastical full moon was tomorrow. Meaning Remus' temper was high, and he would probably act like a right prat.
Not that Tonks voiced any of this, she was hardly an idiot despite what everyone insisted due to her former house. Honestly, Hufflepuff was a bloody great house. Tossers.
"You've got work today." it was phrased as a question, and Tonks nearly jumped out of her skin at Remus' sudden appearance, her hair turning white from her shock.
"Blimey, Remus." hissed Tonks, placing a hand on her heart. "Give a girl a heart attack, will you."
She shook her head slightly, her hair quickly turning back to the vibrant pink. "Yeah, I'm 'bout to be off, just waiting on Moody."
Remus nodded, and made no move to say anything else. Tonks made a popping sound with her tongue, and settled on, "Well, oughta go. I've probably got a case."
The day, which was starting to look light it would be kind of fine and nothing else, took a drastic turn once she arrived at the Ministry. She'd gone ahead of Moody in her haste to leave the awkward conversation with Remus behind, and had forgotten to eat breakfast as well.
Fast forward about an hour, give or take, and there she was, in the middle of a really eerie cellar, investigating for the old cynical witch as punishment from Moody for being late. It wasn't a real case, seeing as once a month Old Lady Muriel called in saying, 'Someone's broken into the cellar!' Reasonably, it made good punishment because nobody ever found anything, and it stopped the old hag from harassing them for another month.
She's about finished, having spotted nothing, as per usual, when she heard it. Slowly, Tonks turned around, only mildly unsettled at the creaking sound coming from the stairs. And then, holding her wand tightly in her grip, Old Lady Muriel appeared on the bottom step.
Tonks gestured her wand in the old woman's general direction, the light illuminating her features and making her look particularly ancient, what with the vacant gaze and deep wrinkles.
"I'm almost done here," said Tonks politely. "I'll be up in a minute, but you'd be glad to know I've not spotted anything."
Old Lady Muriel didn't move, or respond in the slightest. Tonks frowned, stepping forward. "Are you alright, Miss Muriel?"
She never spoke, never made a sound, but the look in her eyes told Tonks exactly what was about to happen.
The curse left the woman's wand and only grazed Tonks' ear-but it was enough. Pain sliced through her, and she curled on the floor, withering in agony as blood poured from her ear.
Tonks grabbed for her wand wildly, blindly flinging a blasting hex in the woman's direction. It didn't hit, but the explosion was enough to give Tonks room to find cover.
Angrily, Tonks canceled her lumos with a bitterly muttered 'nox', and the world went dark. She stayed there for awhile, clutching to her watch and not moving and not sure what to do, really. Old Lady Muriel might be a raging loon, but it was quite out of character to randomly attack the Auror investigating-if anything, the old coot offered a cuppa when they were done (not Tonks ever, she had a thing against her since the whole 'pterodactyl incident' [though that still wouldn't have given her an incantation to randomly try and murder someone]).
Despite her better judgement, Tonks peeked around the flipped sofa she'd ducked behind, her eyes locking with the old woman standing not inches away from her. Startled, Tonks flew backwards, taking in the old woman's suddenly feral appearance.
Her smile was a bit too cheerful with the amount of blood on the wall.
Blindly, Tonks hissed out a petrifying spell, forcing herself to her feet as the spell was dodged by a scarily agile crazy old bat. Without another thought, Tonks spun on her heel and apparated.
Her foot caught the hex, and fire spelled rapidly through her foot. Tonks hissed in pain, yanking off her boot and chucking it as far from her as possible.
It hit a trash can, knocking it over.
Breathless, Tonks laid on the cement, quite aware of the fact that she had fudged it up and ended with Muggle London instead of literally anywhere else. She stared at the sky blankly for awhile, her want out of sight but easily in reach as the Muggles stepped around her-occasionally giving her annoyed or worried looks.
Finally, when the sky began to darken and rain clouds billowed in, she stood up. Wiggling the toes on her barefoot, she passively changed the color of the nails to a vibrant orange, deciding the natural color was a bit dull. Nodding to herself, Tonks picked a direction and began walking.
Briefly, she debated calling Moody, or anyone, really, but the idea of being off the radar for a smidgen of time was suddenly all too appealing. So, Tonks prattled (it's a thing, remember?) along the road, occasionally kicking a stone with her foot that still had a boot, and woefully considered her day.
Without argument, it was probably the single worst day of her entire life. And that was considering both the time she convinced herself that she was in love with Charlie Weasley and the day she decided to become a mermaid to avoid Snape's class.
Her stomach rumbled, and then Tonks was reminded of the fact that she hadn't eaten yet. Annoyed, she blindly reached into her pockets, searching for Muggle money and only coming up with a few quid. Pursing her lips, Tonks decided the wizarding world needed better forms of communication, and looked around for a shop.
Finally settling on a smallish sort of place, she pushed open the door and took a step forward-only to trip over her shoelace and face plant directly onto the cold floor. She didn't move for a minuet, too embarrassed to really even consider that she had just embarrassed herself in Muggle London around a bunch of strangers.
Then, someone is pulling her up, laughing heartily. "You alright, Nymphadora?"
Her head tilted back, and she made a face at the man helping her stand. "Nymphadora's a ruddy awful name. It's Ton-" she cut herself off, ripping herself away from him violently. Instinctually, she reached for her wand, stopping at the last second.
"How did you know my name?" she demanded, a sinking feeling in her gut.
He blinked. "Well, you told me."
She looked him up and down, her eyes lingering on the jumper. "I'm sure I'd remember that."
He frowned, poking her forehead. "Oi, bit rude you are."
She scowled, stepping away from him. "Who're you, then?"
"Oh, me? I'm the Doctor, " he replied. "Nice to meet you."
"Well, Doctor," she said, considering the title. It wasn't common to meet a Doctor in the wizarding world, they were called Healers, or even Medics there—but hardly doctors. "Thanks for that. Helping me up, anyway."
"It's no problem," he said, looking around. "By chance, Nymp-uh, Tonks, have you happen to see anything unusual around here?"
His eyes lingered on her hair a moment, his brow furrowing as he leaned in suddenly, grabbing a strand. Tonks batted his hand away, taking a step back. "You alright, mate?" she asked, giving him an odd look.
"Hm, oh, it's just, that's an excellent dye job. You'd think it was natural." he smiled, his pocket beeping slightly. Tonks forced a laugh, suddenly aware of her missing shoe. She curled her toes slightly, hoping her wouldn't comment on her nails—for a mo, she debated lightening the color, or getting rid of it altogether, but decided he would be more likely to notice that then if she did nothing.
She finally looked up, noticing his patient expression. Her mind drifted back to his first question, and she nearly smacked herself, remembering batty Old Muriel. "Gimme an example?"
He pursed his lips, hesitating slightly before saying whatever had been bothering him. "I'd say anything resembling an uncontrollable rage monster."
Tonks face contorted harshly, and she cleared her throat in attempt to regain herself. "Um, why do you ask?"
The window shattered seconds later, and the worst day or Tonks life promptly reached it's peak when she realized with a sense of horror that it was, in fact, Old Lady Muriel. Cover in what was probably Tonks' blood, carrying her discarded boot, and nursing a seriously intense piece of wood jutting out her her neck, the old hag lunged for Tonks, and began throwing curses.
Reasonably, Tonks whipped out her wand, tackling the Doctor to the ground and wilding countering the curses. "Bloody hell," Tonks hissed, hiding behind a flipped table next to the Doctor. "Like the old woman who's been trying to kill me since this morning?"
The Doctor glanced at her, a look of confusion on his face before his eyes settled on her wand. "Distract her!"
Then he was reaching into his pocket and pulling out a strange device that began frantically beeping. Dropping into a crawl, he gestured wildly to a frozen Tonks. "Keep her busy!" he hissed, moving to what could only be Muggle technology.
Tonks huffed, casting an array of spells at the berserker.
She felt she was making some progress in keeping the woman at bay too, o she was, until the Doctor reappeared and pointed the beeping object at the old hag—who immediately dropped dead to the floor and exploded.
The Doctor pulled Tonks to the floor, looking just as baffled as Tonks felt. A second later, he sat up. Hitting the device lightly as he looked at the strange spores now in the room. "That really wasn't supposed to happen."
"You-" shouted Tonks. "You just blew up Old Lady Muriel!"
He looked offended. "It's not like I meant too, besides, she would have killed everyone here if I hadn't. And she's not really dead."
"What?" Tonks demanded.
The Doctor gestured to the spores, holding out his hand. "We should probably run."
"Run?"
"Definitely run, now." his hand clasped hers into a tight grasp, and tugged her violently in the other direction, where part of the wall had been blasted open (seems Muriel had a thing about holes in walls [though arguably the first one was Tonks]).
As he all but dragged her through the hole, Tonks glanced over her shoulder, watching in shock at the spores began forming shapes—specifically, the shape of some unknown magical creature, looking vaguely like a leprechaun.
Tonks blinked in bewilderment, finally running on her own accord when she spotted the fangs. "What the bloody hell is going on?!" she yelled as the Doctor skidded to a stop in front of a blue box.
"Goeguhm, nasty creatures." he explained, opening the door. "Basically mean, alien, leprechauns."
"Aliens?" questioned Tonks as she blindly followed him inside. She glanced around briefly, noting the size. "I hadn't realized."
"Realized aliens?" he asked, glancing up from whatever he was doing at the counsel.
She shook her head. "That you must not be a Muggle."
"Muggle," he mused. "Funny word that, alright. So, quick pop into a few hours ago, and we can have this solved in a few moments."
The Doctor ran around the centre piece, pulling leavers as the machine whirled, stopping in front of her. He passed her a wire, looking at her intensely. "You need to change your hair."
"What? Why?"
"It was blue when I saw you, off you go." he nudged her to the door, and she paused in front of it. "How do I find you?"
"Just yell." he replied, grinning cheekily. "Don't worry, Tonks, I won't leave you here."
She nodded warily, deciding that without a doubt, while it easily topped as probably worst day ever, it was also going to be marked as most absurd. With a sharp inahle, Tonks changed her hair to the same blue as the box, a shocking and intense shade that she decided would have to do.
"Yeah?" she asked the Doctor, who nodded a bit smugly (probably at the choice, seemed a bit fond of the color).
Then she opened the door, and stepped outside.
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Note: AND BREAK. I'll probably upload the next chapter soon, though you never know. I'm so excited about this story, regardless of the fact that I have basically nothing planned for it other then a vague idea.