A/N: Thank you to all reviewers and readers! This is devoid of all angst, so I hope you'll be happy, though you may groan at the terrible jokes. This is dedicated to my lovely betareader ladyofthelight101, who also isn't feeling too great at the moment. Get well soon!

Whimsy

Nymphadora Tonks was in pain. Chronic back pain, to be precise, most likely the result of her being only a month away from having a baby. She had not expected to get quite so enormous, and felt very undignified lying on her bed wearing her mum's maternity leggings from the seventies and one of Remus's shirts, which was also probably from the seventies. She had asked her mum if she had any of that wonderful balm that had soothed her pain in the past, but, tragically, Andromeda had none.

"I told you to tell me when you were running out."

"I was going to, but..." There wasn't really a reason why. She just hadn't, and she was literally sorely regretting it. "This bed is so uncomfortable anyway." It had been her single bed, bought three years ago when she was a slim, single twenty-one year old (how long ago that seemed to be!), put under a long-lasting Engorgement Charm to share with Remus for the brief time that they lived in her flat, then shrunk and re-grown again to be moved into her parents' house. For a bed that was never intended to hold someone as heavy as Tonks was now, it was holding up fairly decently, but it was still uncomfortable. "Can I use your bed?"

"Of course."

Tonks placed her hands by her sides and tried to lift herself up "Ow...ow...on second thoughts, I'll stay here for a minute."

"Fine." Her mum said, tutting. "I'll go and get you some Healer Daisy's Lavender Balm. Is that the one?"

"Yes, obviously." Tonks said in the tone of a world-weary teenager, as they'd never had another one, though she instantly regretted her attitude when Andromeda left the room without a word.

As Andromeda prepared her hat and sunglasses for a venture to the shops, Remus slipped in through the door.

"Hello," she said. "How was...whatever you did?"

"We went to persuade Aberforth to come back, and convince him we're not all doomed even if the Death Eaters are taking over the country. We tried our best, but he still refuses. It really is most depressing...Where's Dora?"

"Upstairs. She's got back pain and is sulking about it. I'll need to get her a balm, because Healing Charms act on the cause of the injury and we certainly don't want that in this situation. I'll see you later?"

Remus did not respond for a second, then said; "Yes, goodbye. Sorry, I'm just...learning something new every day here."

Andromeda laughed. "Bye-bye. See if you can cheer her up."

Tonks was too awake to fall asleep and too tired to get up and do things. She stared at the ceiling as she waited from Remus or her mum to come back, and decided to talk to the only person keeping her company, and who would hopefully make all of this worth it.

"Hello there, you. How's life? I wonder how well you can hear. Does it sound like murmuring, or does it sound like speech? Perhaps it's like whale music. I wouldn't mind some of that. I'm sorry, am I waking you up? You have been quiet."

Even though the baby was very much a real person, she still felt like she was talking to herself. It was not even moving in response...bored too, she supposed. "Oh well. Hello again, ceiling."

Suddenly, she thought she saw a floating teddy bear at the end of her bed, out of the corner of her eye. When she turned her head to face it, however, it disappeared. She sat up a bit, leaning against the headboard. She pointed confusedly at the space in front of her.

"I swear to Godric, baby, that teddy I found you was staring at me just now."

The teddy bear popped up again, and this time it seemed to sit on the end of the bed. It was joined by a plush dragon with small baby wings and soft green fur.

"Hello!" the teddy bear said. It had a deep and growly but friendly voice.

"Hi." Tonks replied with a straight face, and then burst out giggling. "What are you doing here?"

"We heard you weren't feeling too good." The dragon added. Its voice was so high-pitched Tonks could hardly hear it for her own laughing. "So we are here to entertain you! Would you like a puppet show?"

"I would love a puppet show." Their audience replied, adjusting herself to sit more comfortably.

"Dun-dun-dunu-nuuunnn..."

"Hello, Mr Teddy Bear, where are you going today?"

"I'm going home. I went to work at the building site but someone had taken my equipment."

"All of it?"

"Yes-my spade, my drill, my pick, everything."

"Don't you know? Today's the day the teddy bears have their picks nicked!"

"Ka-boom-boom-chh..." Tonks added, chuckling.

"How do you start a teddy bear race?"

"I don't know!"

"Ready, Teddy, Go!"

"Oh, that's dreadful." she groaned.

"Oh what day do dragons eat people?"

"Monday?" she suggested, though she could guess the answer.

"Chewsday!"

After several more bad jokes, the puppets sang her an adorable song called 'Pete the Dragon Had a Fly upon His Nose'. But after the third round of "And he flicked it and he flopped it and the fly flew away" she called "Remus...it's OK, I've had enough."

The toys dropped to the floor and laughter ensued from outside. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah..."

Her husband came in, and gave her a small bow. She applauded enthusiastically.

"That was wonderful." she said, beaming with delight. "You can levitate two objects independently?"

"One of them was kept up with wandless magic."

His wife's jaw dropped. "Remus! I am amazed. I always knew you could do it but that went on for ages! You're…wait a minute! You can't do wandless magic and sing at the same time! You're good, but no one's that good."

He gave her an amused look. "Dora, where's your wand?"

"Just..." she looked behind her. It wasn't there. "Oh..."

He held it up. "There you go. I Summoned it, and you didn't notice a thing. You were too busy chatting to our baby."

"I'm sure it enjoyed your puppet show much more than my inane babbling." she said.

He placed a hand on her belly. "Yes, because that wasn't inane at all. No."

"It was...a whimsy. An adorable whimsy."

Just then, she heard her mum come back into the house. Andromeda shouted upstairs:

"How's your backache, sweetheart?"

Tonks said, "Huh?". Then, realising what had happened, gave her husband a very grateful smile.