Sometimes it was difficult to keep it all together, though her life had been that way since she could remember. If it wasn't her attempts at keeping her face looking consistent it was learning that everyone in the family other than her mum and dad were evil. She didn't really believe it until she found out her mum was related to the Malfoys. She stopped looking into their genealogy after reading up on her aunts and uncles. Sirius was still a sore spot to her mum.
What really threw her in was a normal Saturday afternoon in muggle London where she was trying this new ice-cream place with her mum the summer after her second year. In retrospect it wasn't that unusual that she was a clumsy. Her body constantly changed on her, her hormones did not help at all. However, personally she believed it was her name that made her clumsy. Being named Nymphadora Tonks had to cause some kind of magical damage, right? It's what she preferred to blame anyway.
"It's a perfectly respectable name, Dora."
"I'm not even going to try to say how bad your definition of respectable has to be for that name to be respectable, mum"
Her mum just sighed and stirred her tea in that way she always did when they had that conversation, again. Her main victory was that her mum had decided to follow dad in calling her Dora, in public at least.
As she rose to get another scoop of whatever was in that bitchin' chocolate vanilla swirl she neglected to take care standing up and she clocked the woman at the next table with her glass ice cream thing in the head. She only wished she'd been that fortunate in the fight with her roommate the month before.
"What the bloody hell is wrong with you! You clumsy oaf, oh my god! I have a bruise on my forehead, on my forehead! It's huge, I can read it's "Made in China". I have writing on my forehead that says I was Made in China! AAAAAAHH!"
Tonks was sure that her mum would have whipped out her wand by now if she'd been at Fortescue's but she wasn't and knew her muggle ice cream trips were over for the foreseeable future. Foreseeable being until she got to her dad when her mum wasn't around and turned on the eyes, being an only child and a metamorphmagus was nice sometimes. It wasn't nice at the moment as her hold on her face had a tendency to waver when she freaked, like now.
"Marie, darling, what's wrong?"
"Look at my face! I look like a rejected porcelain doll!"
"Oh dear, that won't do. There's no way we can cover up all that for the shoot."
I just kept looking back and forth between the uppity chick with the bowling ball on her head and the broad with the glasses and backed up a little when she started staring at me. I was not hiding behind my mum because I was scared, ok!
"Oi, back off or I'll give you one too!"
"I'm so sorry about this. My daughter is a bit of a klutz, is there anything I can do to make this up to you."
I always hated when this happened. The day would be going great but I would inevitably screw it up somehow and mum and dad would have to fix it. I hated seeing my mum and dad grovel to make the problem go away. It was my fault, it was always my fault. Listening to them try to fix what I caused was always so much worse than whatever punishment my mum gave me afterward. Being grounded only gave me time to cry by myself for whatever I'd done wrong, again. Like that time in elementary school when I got suspended for kicking that one kid in the bollocks or painting the neighbors' cat when the kids next door made fun of my pink hair. Mum and dad were perfect it was my fault, it really always was. While my mum kept groveling, the creepy woman with glasses kept looking at me.
"Oh Merlin! Did I morph something weird on my face?"
I searched in my mum's bag and looked at myself with her compact and saw, well nothing too bad. I looked a lot like the bimbo I smashed into but without bump on my forehead and I had pink hair, again.
"I was a fashion designer for many years, still am sometimes but I mainly work shoots for fashion magazines your daughter is close to what I want for today's shoot. Seeing as your daughter has destroyed the only model we have for today's shoot I don't suppose you could let us borrow her for a few hours. How old is she anyway, 16?"
"Shite!"
"No, she actually turned 13 last week."
Mum was giving me the eye. The one that said I was in so much trouble that even dad wouldn't be able to bail me out. My mum could always make me feel like I'm 6 again with my arm stuck in in the jar of candy. I still stand by my assessment that she spelled the jar to get smaller just to catch me at it. I looked at myself closer in the compact and yeah I looked older, taller, Frencher and hot with pink hair. Not much for tits though, stupid bird could have at least had some nice ones.
"I don't know. I mean yes we'd love to help but Dora's not exactly the most graceful person for this sort of work."
It stung a little to hear it from mum but she was right. I mean, what did I know about fashion? I wasn't about to wear a frilly dress either no matter how many people I bonked in the head.
"Oh, pish posh, she'll be fine. It doesn't really take much brain-space to stand there and look pretty. I mean she's doing it right now with those pretty eyes and stubborn pouty lips. She's a natural, and today's shoot pays well. I'm sure there's some nice designer wear in it for the mum as well."
Oh, no. Mum was going to say yes. I could tell, bloody dad and his bloody muggle things. Mum, loved the whole girls fashion muggle crap. She was always watching them on the telly or reading some magazine about it. This was worse than the ballet fiasco. At least the French bitch was on my side. She looked pissed.
"Madame, this was my shoot!"
"Yes it was your shoot. I told you not to wander off before shooting and now look at you. You've got Made in China on your forehead. I suppose we could shoot your photos like that anyway and make some statement about the state of the fashion industry and say it was your idea."
"Why I never!"
"No, you didn't. Go home Marie and try to clean yourself up a bit."
My last hope for the day walked out in a huff and got stopped on the way out to pay her tab. Bitch had to come back for her purse too.
"This is why I prefer hiring locals, at least they're not French."
That's how I started living this mess. It started with just still shots for the magazine. I got scouted a few days after the release by some middle-ranked agency. I ended up agreeing because mum said I couldn't… Bloody Slytherins always picking on the Puffs with their tricks! Bet that she tricked dad into marrying her too, not that the poor sod cares. It worked out ok. I worked mostly during summers and the very occasional weekend during the school year. The first two summers weren't too bad. I was just doing still shots for catalogs mainly with nothing too exciting to wear. Dad really put his foot down on having to approve everything I would model.
I think mum found it hot when dad got all angry because she kept trying to get me to convince him to let me try some very racy stuff I know she would never let me wear. Things got more busy the summer after my fifth year. I made my "breakthrough."
Some posh woman with some posh boutique was doing a new school line and I was "perfect" for a section of it. I really wanted to say no. My agency had me practicing runway modeling since I signed but I never thought I'd actually need it. I figured it was like Potions something to survive through that I'd never need to use. I was going to refuse and I had dad on my side this time but then mum forbid me from becoming a runway model so I agreed to do it… Bloody mum, bloody Slytherins, bloody shoes, bloody dresses and bloody boutiques.
"That's how I ended up working as a model; now go to sleep you little terrors."
