Title: Sence of Duty Author:
Magnam13 Summary: A short chronicle of Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin's defining moment before the final battle.
Rating: T
Feedback: Please do! It's nice being told I suck...(kidding...please be nice I have no beta)
Chapter1
She sat in the cozy sitting room. The room was bathed in a orange glow from the fireplace, casting a stark contrast to her midnight blue hair. Her eyes seemed to stare into the fire, watching something only she could see. Her leg was twitching nerviously, a habit she could never shake herself of.
"'Dora," she jumped at her mother gently voice and cold hand on her shoulder, her silent trace broken. "Oh, I'm sorry dear," Andromeda said slightly taken aback, "I just wanted you to know that I went ahead and put Teddy to bed...not before he scared the wits out of me by doing that bloody trick you show him with your nose," she finshed trailing of towards the end. Tonks let out a half-hearted chuckle and withdrew back into her thoughts. Andromeda's look of certain grew more so, as she sat down next to for daughter on the sofa, throw an arm around her and squeezing her shoulder lovingly. "Your doing the right thing, 'Dora."
"It doesn't feel like the right thing."
"You're doing what any sensible woman would do."
"Staying behind, knowing I could be helping? staying behind while the man I love is in danger?"
"Staying behind to insure that your son grows up with a mother, even thought...if 'he'..." Andromeda stopped before she could say something she would wind up regreting, watching her daughter's eyes narrow. Tonks knew that her mother liked Remus. She, at one point, jokingly insisted on him calling her "mum", making light of the fact that he was only a mere 7 years her junior. However, sometimes weither her mother liked it or not the old prejudices of her upbringing would boil up.
"Mum, it just doesn't feel right..."
"I know, honey, I know, when your father," she paused catching the lump in her throat,"...I wanted nothing more then to go with him, but I stayed knowing that my duty was to you and Teddy."
"But," Tonks stood up "That's the reason I feel I should be there, not just because of Remus, I want to help because I want my son to live in a world where he doesn't have to be worried about the stigma of being the son of a werewolf, without worrying about his muggle-born friends and family," her mother's gaze went from her to the floor,"And I want to help make a better world for him, and could be out doing that right now!" She finished with her hand pointing at the window and her heart in her throat.
Her mother stood up and faced her, her dark eyes locked on her daughter's, as if search her soul. Then pulled her into a hug. "My sweet brave little girl, even when you were younger, you had such passion for good..." Tears started falling from Andromeda's eyes. She let her daughter out of her tight embrace, " I can't talk you out of it, can I?" Andromeda asked look into her daughter's now glistening eyes. Tonks shook her head. Andromeda gave a weak smile, leaned in and kissed her daughter's forehead, "I'm so proud of you, Nymphadora, I hope you know that." Tonks nodded with a weak, quivering smile.
With a loud crack, Androemdra watched as her daughter disappear knowing, in the back of her mind and the pit of her heart, that this would be that last time she would see her little 'Dora.