Life Story
By Dimgwrthien
Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to the Harry Potter series or affiliates. Please do not due. Thank you.
Oh dear. That's a lot of people.
I stood nervously around them, watching everyone greet each other. You've made it this far, Nymphadora. You can get through this.
Since the beginning of the Order meeting, I had only been able to manage a moment of eye contact with everyone. They all seemed - well, old.
Well, not old as in old. Just old as in… older than me.
Still….
The only people I could recognize there were from work. Mad Eye was greeting Sirius, talking to him gruffly. Sirius looked miserable. I could only guess at what it would be like to be stuck in here. There were snakes everywhere, it stunk, and…
Someone had to have no fashion sense. House Elf heads? Nice, real nice.
I watched Kingsley over at the other end of the room, talking seriously with Emmeline. She smiled at something he said and glanced over at Hestia, who batted at Kingsley's arm before blushing.
I could only guess what they were talking out.
Sirius had managed to get away from Moody, making a face behind the man's back. I could only guess at that, too.
One he started walking over to me, I saw that another man had grabbed his arm. This one was a bit taller than Sirius, though that may have been Sirius' annoyed slouch. He had light brown hair with a touch of grey along with pale skin. He could have been someone Sirius knew well - he looked only about a year or two older than Sirius. At least, his face looked young.
They spoke for just a moment, and I watched with interest as Sirius seemed to brighten a bit. No one had managed that so far, I had heard. Moody had told me that all he did now was sit around, moping like an arse.
Finally, Sirius made a nod toward my direction. The light-haired man glanced over at me, and I could see the front of his face clearly.
Well, not really. My eyesight wasn't too since my third year at Hogwarts. Bad potions accident, to summarize it. I never spoke of that if I could help it. All I could remember of it was the nurse telling me that, with my abilities, I could just reshape my eye.
Yeah. I'd hate to see how badly I could mess that one up. Maybe sometime when I wasn't being clumsy.
Finally, both of them walked over to me. Sirius managed a small smile and asked, "Nymphadora? Is that you? I hard Dumbledore say your name, but I would have thought -" He broke off, smiling.
"It's Tonks now," I corrected. It still made me wonder, to this day, why I was given that name.
"Rebelling?" he asked with a smile. The taller one smiled too, though he didn't show his teeth.
"Of course," I answered airily. I was starting to wonder how long it would take Sirius to introduce the other man. "So…." Hopefully I gave a hint there.
Sirius glanced at the man I was looking at and went, "Oh. Oh! Nym - erm, Tonks, this is my friend, Remus. Remus - Tonks."
He reached out a hand, waiting for me to take it. I hesitated.
I couldn't remember the last time a man actually shook my hand. It - it was a proper gesture, after all, and who could call a pink-haired girl proper?
Ignoring the fact that, right then, my hair turned bright yellow.
Trying to cover up for it, I asked, "Now do you recognize me, Sirius?"
He smiled. Finally.
"So, tell me about you two," I said nervously. I can't stand silence - no matter how hard it is to get out of, I'll try my best. "When did you two meet?"
I blushed and busied myself with changing my hair. I decided to make it bright red with a few pink streaks. Merlin, I sounded as though I were talking to a married couple.
"Since our first year," Remus answered. I could finally see him clearly. He had on a patched robe, too, which looked too worn out to bother wearing anymore. Also, he looked tired. I almost asked why he obviously hadn't slept, but I bit my tongue.
Be a good girl, Nymphadora.
"Both of your first years?" I asked. Mentally, I slapped myself.
Sirius glanced at Remus once, smirking slightly. Remus answered, in a rather quiet voice (even for his hoarse one, I noted), "Yes."
"That's interesting," I answered. My voice raised a pitch or two. "I'll be over there, thank you very much."
I wanted to add, "Killing myself, of course." I didn't though. Imagine those looks.
I found Bill a moment later, breaking apart from a conversation with another woman who had dirty blonde hair. Finally, someone my age!
Walking over to him by pushing through a few people, I managed to grab his shoulder. "Bill!" I called loudly into his ear. I saw him wince.
Finally, he turned around to face me, smiling. The smile turned into a grin rather quickly once he recognized me. I even changed my hair back to brown, just like I had to do in school.
Of course, it's me. My hair was brown with blue strands among the knee-length tangles.
I could almost hear Snape's disapproving mumbling across the room.
He brought me into a warm hug, almost shattering my bones. I always thought it was Charlie who hugged like that.
Leaning forward, I gave him the smallest kiss on the cheek. I could tell that he remembered our school days from the way he blushed very slightly. We had started seeing each other back in our… was it my sixth year? Wow. He was only three years older, and he had always been nice during our classes, so we just met up for a while.
He was hot, though, I had to admit. Even after all of these years, he still had his long hair and earring. The fact that someone had passed on beautiful genes to him still amazed me.
"How have you been?" he asked, passing me a goblet from the nearby table. The meeting had consisted of less alcohol than expected, I guessed. There were still goblets and bottles littering the table, half of them still full. Only Mundungus remained sitting, of course, taking large gulps straight from the bottle.
"I'm fine. Just got out of Auror training, too," I added, grinning. Of course I didn't like gloating, but we can see how Curse-Breaker Boy liked that.
"Really?" His eyes went wide. I felt myself blush a bit and turned slightly so that he wouldn't see.
"Just last year, really," I answered.
"I thought you'd fail on Tracking before you made it this far." He gave me another bear hug, which really pleased me.
Yes, I have to admit that, for the next few days, I followed me around as much as I could. I mean, it was Bill. Everyone other girl at the meetings (except Molly, of course) gave him the same looks.
I just had a better chance.
I mean, I was still young compared to a few of the women there.
Sorry, Minerva.
As time went on, though, he began to leave sooner and sooner. He was never at Headquarters (who would want to be?) and he never took shifts. The one he did take were always planned around his own schedule all over the place, which seemed to run parallel to mine.
So I started talking to Remus.
Surprisingly, he wasn't as boring as I would have thought. He had so many interesting things to say to me. He always disappeared like Bill, but he always took the time to talk to me, have a cup of tea with me, everything.
I found myself nursing a mug filled with tea, sitting across from him at Grimmauld Place.
He took a sip before finishing his half of the story. "Of course, it was Sirius' plan."
The ending was disappointing, but before I managed to say a thing, he added, "That's what the teachers were told, in any case."
I grinned as he only made a small, polite smile with his lips closed.
"Tell me something else," I begged. Hey, his stories were interesting.
"I think I've told you my entire life story," he answered, though I noticed something in his glance.
"There has to be something," I coaxed. I had noticed that he had a long scar on his hand, running from his index finger's tip to inside his sleeve. "Tell me how you got that scar."
I had already told him how I got the scar on my jaw line, and the one on my shoulder, too. The one of my thigh, meanwhile, was something to only mention at the parties.
I had already noticed the thin scars around his own face, but I felt I shouldn't have asked yet.
"It's a long story," he answered shortly. "I have to get back to guard duty soon. My shift starts in less than an hour, and I want to make sure I catch Moody before he leaves."
His tone sounded clipped, and I had to refrain from apologizing. "But didn't you just get off - ?"
"Double," he answered quickly. "I'll be seeing you soon, then?"
I just nodded.
Of course, my day was already ruined. Next time I saw Bill, too, he had a woman with him. I hadn't wanted to get back together with him - we had drifted apart too easily. However, it was still unnerving.
Of course, she was beautiful. Blonde locks, blue eyes, pearly skin, the whole yard. Even her clothes radiated beauty - fine, blue silk with silver lining around the collar.
Damn, that girl had some style. I wished her death. Of course, she was a Veela.
The second she entered, I could easily hate everything she said. Her stupid accent, her stupid - stupid crush on Bill!
Once everyone left the room and that French poodle remained behind, I pounced.
I won't say I was subtle or peaceful.
I screamed. Loud. I don't even know what I was saying. All I remember saying was that I hated her for everything she had done.
Bill interrupted me. Thankfully, of course.
"Nymphadora!" he yelled, grabbing my arm before I was able to hit Fleur as hard as I could. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
I couldn't even look at him. I couldn't look at Fleur either, but that was different.
"Tonks," he growls, shaking my arm slightly to get me to talk.
"She's - she's -" I felt stupid, standing there with a balled-up fist and no real explanation. How do you explain hatred so deep that you lose your mind?
"Tonks."
"She's a damned Veela, and that's the only reason why you like her!" I shouted at him. A few tears pushed behind my eyes, but I'd be damned if I let them show.
"Tonks, don't do this."
Fleur tried to say something, but I ignored her voice.
"She just wants you because you're perfect!" I insist. A few tears do slide down my face and I wipe them away hastily. "I - I love you, though!"
Bill froze, letting go of me after a second. "We're engaged, Tonks," he answered quietly, taking my shin in his broad hand. I moved my head away. "We love each other. We're still going to be friends, you know."
I stormed out of the room, and Fleur's frozen expression will always stay in my mind.
Inside the protection of the bedroom I had claimed in the house, I managed to cry. I hated being caught crying. I mean, what kind of crazy woman with color-changing hair cries in front of people? I needed that kind of safety from everyone else.
A knock sounded at the door.
I wanted to roll over and die, tell them to leave, but the door opened before I could.
"Nymphadora?"
Oh, Merlin. It was Remus. I crouched down, ducking my face from view. I heard a clink and felt the bed sink slightly with his combined weight.
"Go away," I mutter.
Just like Bill, he forces my head up, lightly stroking my cheek with his thumb.
Whenever I break down like that, I tend to go back to my normal ways - brown hair, lank and annoying, in need of a cut, grey eyes. I hate it. Of course, that's how Remus saw me.
But he didn't move away in shock.
He never said a word as he took me into his arms. He just held me there tight for a minute. I wanted to seep into him, right there, and never come out of that embrace that meant the world and beyond to me.
Remus lifted his sleeve slightly, no more than an inch past his wrist, pointing out the scar that had started at his finger.
"It's from Sirius," he explained. His voice sounded cool like the dripping of a waterfall into a deep blue lake. "He had turned into Padfoot and hit me rather hard."
"You - you knew him then?" I asked, taking in a gulp of air. My tears had stopped falling, but I couldn't breathe yet.
"Of course," Remus answered. He paused and added, "He did it for me."
The rest of the afternoon, he told him his unabridged life story.
Suddenly, I felt as though Bill was unimportant. Someone else finally meant more to me.