In Which a Party is Planned
-or-
The Invitation
Disclaimer: I own nothing pertaining to Harry Potter or the related words, characters, etc. that encompass it.
Author's Note: The second rewrite of SSW! I'll be quick this time, I swear!
Nymphadora Tonks was, for once, ordinary. The white cardigan and blue skirt that would have looked lovely on any other young woman in her mid-twenties made her an almost unrecognizable figure to both her friends and colleagues, though her family was used to it. This was because Nymphadora, who preferred to the moniker 'Tonks' and would physically enforce this preference, was a witch. But far from being the average witch, ignorant about Muggle, or non-magical, culture, Tonks was a half-blood and fully comfortable in the clothes customary to both worlds. Had she had a permanent residence at that point in her life, her closets would probably have contained an equal amount of skirts, trousers, and blouses as robes of the casual and work varieties. But, since she had no house and therefore no closet, all her worldly possessions were at that moment shrunk to fit in a magical trunk or stored at her parents' home, where she often made use of the Muggle washing machine that even her pureblood mother, Andromeda, had developed a dependency on. However, by far, the most unusual thing about Tonks was she had been born with a strange magical gift: she was a Metamorphmagus. This unusual gift allowed her to change her appearance at will, and she had made full use of this gift in the past, often sporting unusual hair and skin colourings, her favourite hair colour being bubblegum pink.
This ability had been a bit of a trial to her parents in her young days. In fact, when she had been an infant and had no control over her powers, she had randomly changed appearances, often looking like other people's children and generally creating havoc. When she had been born in early 1973, the hospital staff had been so perplexed over the small porcelain skinned, blue-eyed, downy haired baby's transformation to a chubby, ruddy, green-eyed, bald infant that they had ordered six blood tests before pronouncing the baby a Metamorphmagus.
The troubles had changed over the years to hilarity, with the ten-year old Tonks playing tricks on her friends and family as she masqueraded as other children. Needless to say, she had exploited her abilities to get her out of trouble on numerous occasions, often unsuccessfully trying to land the blame on her three year old cousin, Draco Malfoy, who she detested as a matter of principle from the day he was born. The two cousins saw each other very infrequently, only at Ministry of Magic functions, but Tonks was often apt to assume the young boy's appearance and toddle around biting important people's legs. It had always been a sore point with Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy that some of Lucius' most influential colleagues would always remember their pureblood son as simply a small blond boy with very sharp teeth.
But, upon the arrival of Tonks' adolescence, her ability had taken a different use. Unhappy with her "rather regular looks," which free from enchantment were a pretty but unremarkable heart-shaped face, dark eyes, and light brown hair, Tonks sought to carve out a niche for herself in the brutal world of adolescent hierarchy. No longer was she playing tricks; she was making statements and impressing boys. No look was too fantastic or wild for her: the different roles her body could play helped her to escape the tension and uncertainty that plagued her childhood and still shadowed her adolescence. A great and terrible Dark Wizard, who called himself Lord Voldemort, but whose name was never spoken, had arisen some years before her birth preaching hatred and intolerance of non-magical people, Muggleborns, and Half-blood witches and wizards. With a group of fanatical devotees called the Death Eaters, the Dark Mark of a skull and snake was seen hovering above the homes of both the "inferior" and those who opposed his cause.
Tonks had memories of being four years old and terrified, crouched in the basement with her parents, hoping that a charm of invisibility would hold. Her mother had seen strange shapes in the night and was fearful for their lives: in the eyes of her family, she was a blood traitor. Andromeda's sister Bellatrix was a Death Eater, her cousin Regulus had been too, but had died soon after joining: they were as brutal to their own as to their enemies. Only her cousin Sirius had stayed true to the side of light and little Tonks loved him. Tonks called him her cousin, because he was only thirteen years older than she was and she loved to snuggle on his lap and hear stories about his time at Hogwarts: the great feasts, the ghosts, the silly things that he and his friends had done. Once, she even met his friends Remus and James and Peter and was promptly silenced with awe: she had never met so many big kids who were willing to talk to her. But this had made the murder of James and Lily all the more terrifying: Andromeda was never really willing to believe that her young cousin whose loyalty to James and love of his godson Harry was physically tangible, whose devotion to his cousin's young daughter was uncommon for one his age, could betray them all. But she had stayed silent. Now she was in danger on two fronts, as a blood traitor to the remaining Death Eaters and as a harbourer of a traitor to those victorious.
The only children Tonks ever saw were the Weasleys. Charlie Weasley was her age and Bill Weasley was two years older. Even at the ages of seven and nine, these three children spent many days quietly playing, (Being quiet was very important, it did not do to draw attention to yourself.) as their worried parents whispered in hushed tones about who was dead and who was missing. From a very young age, this left Tonks convinced she would become an Auror, to fight for the side of good. When Bill Weasley left for Hogwarts when she was nine, and baby Percy was finally old enough to have fun with, suddenly the man who had overshadowed her childhood was gone. In an act of sacrifice, Lily Potter had refused to stand aside to see her son killed and in her death had shielded him with her love. Voldemort's killing curse had not been able to penetrate this love-shield and he had been destroyed.
But far from rejoicing, Tonks was sad. Her favourite cousin, Sirius, had been the Potter's secret keeper and their deaths meant that Sirius had betrayed them all! Sirius was hunted down by the Aurors and sentenced to life in Azkaban, murdering his friend Peter Pettigrew and a street full of Muggles in the midst of evading capture. So, the young girl thought, Remus is the only one left of the happy boys who'd play with me. And this saddened her on many levels that she was really too young to understand.
But children grow up, and by the time that she and Charlie were to enter Hogwarts, things had settled enough that the Tonks family were not well liked, but no longer shunned. This child-Tonks, a precocious thing of eleven, had quickly integrated herself into the Hogwarts cliques – something as complicated and murky as the lake outside. Her ability to change herself left her at both an advantage and disadvantage: while any group could be persuaded to like her, a large following of males regularly sent her pinups of the Muggle and Wizarding varieties with hopes she would make them the girlfriend of their dreams. Tonks, as a matter of principle, ignored them all. But then along came Charlie Weasley, when Tonks was 16 and Charlie and just returned from a summer job in Russia at a sanctuary for endangered magical creatures. Tonks had promptly lost her heart and her sense, and only a furious lecture from Andromeda had put her back on the path of pursuing her career in Magical Law Enforcement.
The years had passed quickly and now Tonks was a qualified Auror, albeit a highly dissatisfied one. One of the few women in her field, she had steadily grown sick of being the nominal woman in both the Order of the Phoenix and the Auror Department and had sought to make herself both androgynous and distinctive at the same time. She shrunk into her outlandish hairstyles and clothes to hide a bored and lonely woman. As much as she'd never admit it, Tonks longed for the kind of life her dear friend Charlie Weasley was living now, the kind that brought the letter to her hands.
It seemed that Charlie and Helena, a Portuguese witch who Charlie had met when he was transferred to a dragon rehabilitation program in her county, were finally going through with the wedding they'd been talking about for three years. Helena, a teacher in a school for deaf witches and wizards, was the type of woman Tonks longed to be: confident in her own body, sure of her talents, and not afraid to tell the world what she wanted. Sighing, Tonks pulled out the reply card for the wedding and managed to put aside her own feelings of discontent to be happy for her friend. As she mailed the card, she opened a second piece of mail: Ginny Weasley was throwing the happy couple an engagement party which was neutrally addressed to friends of the bride, groom, and bride and groom's families. Her first instinct was to reply her willingness to bring food, a confirmed date when it was available and whether or not Helena had set up a bridal registry. She folded up the letter and set it on her mother's counter to mail at the post office when she left, as she had come to do her washing.
However, not long into the spin cycle, she began mulling over the guest list in her head: Of course, all the clan will be there, and Charlie's friends from work, Helena's sister and brothers, possibly some friends of the family like Harry and Hermione, and… wait, friends of the family? It couldn't be… Suddenly Nymphadora gathered up her laundry not caring which parts were dry or clean and hurried out of the house intent on getting as quickly as possible to a shopping centre, with a very important party in mind.
