Chapter 78: Tonks Interlude J

Tonks let herself into Sirius' house on Easter morning. She could barely make her way through the front hall, packed as it was with brightly colored boxes bearing the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes logo. One wall was covered with nothing but packages of Sticky Trainers; another was a mixture of Fanged Flyers, Box O'Rockets, and Electric Shock Shakes.

"Today isn't a good day, Tonks," said Sirius.

"Why's that?" she asked.

He didn't answer. A different tactic would be needed to approach him. "Fred and George have certainly been busy."

"They're graduating in a few months and they have new premises in Diagon Alley. They'll want to open straight away as soon as they've sat their NEWTs, so they've had to build up their inventory."

She stumbled into a stack of something labeled "Hair Style Transformation Brushes" and sent them scattering to the corners of the room. Sirius grabbed her before she was able to careen into the love potions.

"Sit here and don't move without my permission," said Sirius. "I do not want either one of us to be soaked with Love Potion #9."

"Wouldn't work on me," Tonks informed him as she took the proffered seat. "Nothing could make me love anyone else but Remus."

"I'm glad to hear it," said Sirius. He didn't sound glad.

"You wanted me to fall in love with him."

"So I did." Sirius pulled an uneven mess of parchment from behind a mountain of Skiving Snackboxes. "This is his mail. You can sort through it and get rid of the insults and keep the ones you'd like him to see, if you want. You still have the ones from the day he was arrested?"

"They're waiting for him in my wardrobe. And I saved the Daily Prophet with the students' formal letter."

"Good."

She set about sorting through the mail as Sirius had suggested. It was fitting that she should do it today. Today was the day that she would tell her parents that she planned to marry Remus.

She was pleased to find that most of the letters were supportive; several were grateful tributes from parents whose children had reported a sudden interest in the study of Defense after Remus had become their teacher. She was nearly in tears as she read one aloud to Sirius.

Sirius was unmoved. His frown neither deepened nor relaxed.

"Is it Bellatrix?" she asked at last.

"What's Bellatrix got to do with anything?"

"Is she why you're so sad?"

He laughed in the harsh, barking way that meant he found nothing funny about the situation. "Merlin's pants, no. Why would I bother being sad about Bellatrix?"

"She was your cousin and you had to kill her. I didn't feel great about killing Karkaroff, and I didn't even know him." She remembered for an instant the smell of the sea air and the moment when she'd grabbed Karkaroff's corpse with one hand and Kinglsey's rope with the other.

"Karkaroff would have killed you and Bellatrix would have killed both of us," said Sirius bluntly. "During the war, we asked far more of Aurors and members of the Order than to kill in self-defense. I'm not saying it isn't best to bring someone in alive if you can. But— Bellatrix—" He shook his head. "Shouldn't you be at your parents' for Easter?"

"Shouldn't you be?"

"No. And don't push me on that, Nymphadora."

"Don't call me that," she snapped.

"It's your name. I even put it on the family tree at Grimmauld Place while I was waiting for Bellatrix to show up."

"Didn't they blast Mum's name off when she married Dad?"

"I put Anna back on. Added Ted, too, of course." Sirius resumed glaring at the wall.

Sirius was, Tonks realized, in such a foul mood that she didn't even want him to join her at her parents' house for her wonderful, yet delicate, announcement. Any words he might say in support of Remus wouldn't even be helpful; her parents knew that Sirius and Remus had been friends before Tonks had even been born. They would assume that Sirius would speak on Remus' behalf even if he didn't think the marriage would be in Tonks' best interest.

Mad-Eye would be a more credible witness. Everyone knew Tonks was Mad-Eye's favorite. Even Karkaroff had known when he'd begun to strangle her.

"Why aren't you coming to dinner?" she asked. "I'm not gong to push you to come, but I need to tell Mum something."

"Tell her whatever you like. Tell her I'm sick, tell her I'm bad company, tell her I've run off and joined the circus."

"If I tell her any of those things, she'll most likely come after you herself, especially if she thinks you're really just upset about the whole killing her sister thing."

"The last thing I am upset about is Bellatrix Lestrange!"

She didn't step back. She stood and glared at him.

"It's about Harry," said Sirius quietly after a long moment.

Tonks' heart lightened. "Well, that's the best excuse! You obviously haven't been a parent for that long if you didn't think of using it sooner. Children are the best way of getting out of social obligations you don't want to deal with. Mum and Dad always skipped our most boring neighbor's parties by saying I had a performance at school they had to attend. Or if they felt like being more realistic, they said I was grounded and they had to supervise me…"

She trailed off, realizing that she was rambling. Harry didn't have a Quidditch match and he wasn't in trouble for wandering around the Forbidden Forest. "This is Voldemort business, isn't it?" She still didn't feel quite right saying the name, but she knew that both Sirius and Remus would respect her more if she did. And she saw their point. Fear of a name gave Voldemort a power he didn't need or deserve.

"Yes," said Sirius. "This is Voldemort business."

"Can't I help? I have a good wand and proper training. If this is something that makes you this worried about Harry, you can use all the help you can get. I already know so many of your secrets, and you can trust me with more, I promise."

"I do trust you. You— might be able to help. I'll message you if you can. But for now, you need to leave me alone."

She nodded and accepted the dismissal. She was glad that she hadn't told him about her plans for the afternoon. But neither would she give up her plans unless Sirius summoned her. She had almost left telling Remus that she loved him until too late. She wouldn't ever leave their relationship until too late again. When he got out of prison— if he even got out of prison— she was going to marry him. She would marry him before the inevitable war between Voldemort and Harry Potter engulfed them all again.

As always, Mad-Eye spent dinner checking his food for poison and refusing to drink the wine. Luckily, Tonks' parents were used to him by now.

As they finished the meal, the conversation turned to politics. "I think Umbridge has finally overstepped," Mad-Eye rumbled. "No one is taking her seriously, and not even the werewolf law is as popular as Fudge expected it to be."

"As anyone would have expected it to be," said Andromeda. "When you announce that the eccentric headmaster of the best school for magic in the world decided to appoint a werewolf to a position of authority, you expect the children's families to panic. I haven't had a chance to ask you, Nymphadora— did you know that he was a werewolf when you were working with him?"

"He told me," said Tonks, and she decided to seize the opening she had been granted. "He told me the first time we kissed."

Mad-Eye was genuinely unsurprised; he'd already known about that.

Andromeda hid whatever surprise she might have felt.

Ted dropped his glass of wine. "The first time you did what?" he asked.

"Kissed," repeated Tonks firmly.

"And this... romantic entanglement.. is ongoing?"

"I plan to ask him to marry me the minute he's released from Azkaban."

"Why the rush?" His voice was almost neutral, but she could tell that he didn't like the idea at all.

"It's not a rush. When you were my age, you'd been married for five years and had a child."

"That situation was a bit different."

"How?"

"We needed to get married before your mother's family put all of its wealth and power into forcing her into a so-called 'proper match.'"

"And I need to get married before the Ministry decides that because my husband is legally a beast, we shouldn't be allowed to marry." And before Voldemort rises again, she thought but didn't add.

"How well do you know him?" asked Ted. "Your mother and I were very young, but we'd been at school together for seven years."

Tonks snorted. "Please. You were in different houses and you had to sneak around if you even wanted to dance at a ball. Remus and I have worked together and traveled together. We know each other's friends and families."

"Speaking of which, he's the same age as Sirius. Only a few years younger than your mother and me."

"You were teenagers when I was born. It's not like he's forty years older than I am. And so what if he's older? It's not like there's some kind of power imbalance. I'm an Auror. I have more power and more support and more money than he does. And I know my parents wouldn't dare suggest that a woman shouldn't marry a man who has less money than she does."

"Of course not." Ted tore his fingers through his hair. "But you can't expect me not to be surprised. I've barely met this man. He's been by at holidays sometimes, but less often than Mad-Eye." Ted jerked his head in Mad-Eye's direction. "You're quiet."

Mad-Eye shrugged. "I've known about this for over a year. It came up in the line of duty."

"And what did you think when you found out?"

"I wouldn't have guessed it." Mad-Eye offered Ted the closest thing to a smile his scarred face would allow. "I never would have chosen them for one another, but I understand why they made the choice themselves. I don't have any concerns about it. My protege could have made a far stupider decision. Some of my former proteges did."

"'Could have done worse' isn't overwhelmingly reassuring, Mad-Eye," said Ted, but Tonks could tell that he was getting used to the idea. That left Andromeda.

"Mum?" asked Tonks. "What do you think?"

"I think congratulations are in order." Andromeda flicked her wand, and a bottle of champagne flew to the table, accompanied by three champagne flutes.

"No questions about when this happened or whether I've thought it through?"

"I don't need to ask," said Andromeda. "You are my daughter and I have always known better than to argue with you when your mind was made up."

"Thanks, Mum," Tonks smiled.

Her mind was, indeed, made up.

To be continued.

Recommendation:

Noble and Most Ancient House of Drabbles - The Other Black Sisters by Farbautidottir. It is story number 13562490 on this site.

Summary: Callidora, Cedrella, and Charis Black don't often get the recognition they deserve. Their stories go mostly untold. That changes today, with a collection of three distinct tales for the Noble and Most Ancient House of Drabbles competition in QFLC's Dailey Prophet Issue #5.

Because the world needs more Blackfic. Too bad I didn't have this one a few chapters back when Cedrella got a name-check, but it will do nicely here too. :)