So, I'm a little stumped on how I want the last three war years to play out.
Part of me wants Sirius to be more active in Tonks' young life, but part of me wants her to only have a few vague memories of him before his arrest. Same with the other Marauders- I definitely don't want adult!Remus to be well known to child!Tonks, it feels like it would mess their relationship up. Then again, I do have Mad-Eye and Kingsley married in this, so who knows.
Side note: I imagine Mad-Eye and Kingsley to be mid-late twenties at this point. I can't imagine them being the same age as the Marauders if they're Aurors during war #1(which we know Mad-Eye is- and if we assume Mad-Eye was born 1950- he would have been 47 at time of death, idk) so I'd say they were together at Hogwarts, a couple years ahead of Ted/Andromeda, I haven't decided what houses because it's never stated but I can see Kingsley being Ravenclaw. So I'll say they're something like 29 in this chapter and Ted/Andromeda were 25 or something.
And Mad-Eye has not yet lost his eye/nose/leg. We know he loses his chunk of nose after the war, but it's never stated what happened to his eye or leg(just that they were war related) so I'm just going to make an origin story for that at some point.
wow, sorry for the long sidenotes here, you get a virtual hug if you actually read it all.
One last thing: I don't see Alastor being as grumpy as in the books ALL the time. There must be a nice, soft side to him at some point. And I might make accidentally make both Kingsley and Mad-Eye a little less like their book selves. I'll try to keep them as close as possible(easy with Kingsley, he's so chill and awesome already) but Mad-Eye's so cranky in the books, I feel that needs to change.
One more last thing: this may not follow certain book events. For instance, I haven't decided yet if Mad-Eye or Tonks will meet their ends in Deathly Hallows, because that's just sad.
"Thank you, Lily."
"King, you've thanked me about ten times in the past few minutes alone." Lily said, smirking. "You thanked me when I took her for a bath, when I cleaned her clothes, when I borrowed a bathrobe for her- I really don't mind. I'll bring by some of my old clothes later, they'll be too big, I didn't keep all of my childhood clothes when I moved in with James. I'll go make some tea, shall I?" She headed for the stairs, pausing as he opened his mouth. "If you thank me again, I might hex you."
Kingsley smirked as the redhead vanished down the stairs. He turned back towards the guest bedroom(which, he supposed, would become Nymphadora's room now and would desperately need to be fixed up) and sat on the bed next to his goddaughter.
"How's the arm?" He asked, brushing her hair out of her face.
"S'alright."
"You should get some sleep."
"Where's Mama and Daddy?"
Kingsley sighed quietly. "They're okay, they're just going to be gone for a while, so you'll stay with us."
"For how long?"
"Just a while, but you'll be happy here, you'll see."
When Alastor returned home, the sky had taken on its usual predawn orange glow. He had expected Kingsley to have sent Lily home by the time he got there- after all, James would be waiting for her, he supposed, but he found Lily in their kitchen instead.
"She's alright." Lily said as Alastor entered, ignoring his raised eyebrow at her presence. "Her arm will scar, we tried a few spells and Dittany to fully heal it, but there must have been something on the knife- what?"
He had sunk down at the table, resting his chin in his hand, watching her with a slightly bemused expression. "I'm just wondering why you're not home with James yet. He'll be waiting for you." Alastor explained.
"Oh! Well, Kingsley is still with Dora upstairs, I figured you'd like some tea when you came home and quite honestly, you two need help in this kitchen. What do you guys eat? The fridge and the cupboards are almost completely empty!"
"We usually eat out, no point cooking when one or both of us are barely home."
"Well, that's going to have to change. You can't both be out of the house every second of every day now. I swear, boys are all the same- when I moved in with James, he admitted he barely went to the shop, he just ate at muggle restaurants every day! I assume one of you will leave the ministry?" She asked, setting down two cups of tea and sitting across from him.
Alastor frowned at her. "The Order needs Aurors in the Ministry-"
"And we'll still have Alice and Frank, and Nymphadora needs at least one of you here. You can't leave a five year old alone, while you both go chasing Dark Wizards!"
"We both won't be." A deep voice said from the door. They turned to see Kingsley standing there. Lily summoned a third cup, pouring out tea for Kingsley as he joined them. "She's sleeping." He added. "Lily's right, Alastor. One of us needs to resign. We can't raise her and both work, how would we manage? Drop her off with various Order members every day? That'd put her right back into the middle of the war, and they're not babysitters."
"Sirius would do it." Alastor countered.
"Yes, well, Sirius doesn't have the best judgement sometimes." Lily said softly. "Didn't you hear about the motorcycle incident last year?"
Okay, it's extremely short and I realise it's mostly side notes. Sorry haha!
But somehow, I can see Alastor being the total workaholic in the relationship, idk why. And I could see him being a total softie for Tonks(I mean, he basically is in the books, she can throw down with him and not be hexed, so)