Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: WARNING: There is another version of this story on other sites called "Of Mirrors and Wishes" that has a major character change done to make it compatible with those sites' new requirements that came up after HBP. I think this version's better, but if you started reading on a different site, be warned. This version is almost entirely Pre-HBP with a few changes to make events more probable in consideration of the new book.

The Mirror of Desire

By Eressea

Chapter 1

April 1983

Nymphadora Tonks tiptoed through the dark halls of Malfoy Manor, listening carefully for the noise of approaching footsteps. She quickly pressed herself against a tapestry when she thought she heard a door creak around the corner. If there were any Death Eaters approaching, their heavy boots on the hardwood floor would certainly give them away. There was nothing but a soft snuffling sound. A house elf, perhaps? She crouched low, a man might miss something so small and a house elf could be made to keep silent. Slowly, she peered around the corner and found herself looking into a pair of sleepy gray eyes. She sighed, exasperated.

"Go back to sleep Draco."

"But Nymphadora, I'm thirsty. I need a glass of water."

"I said go back to sleep."

"And I said I'm thirsty."

Silently cursing all stubborn, spoiled four-year-olds in the world who would not listen to people nine years their senior, she hissed, "Have Mipsy or Dobby to get it for you. No buts," she cut him off. "Back to bed or I'll tell Aunt Narcissa about those cookies you stole yesterday as soon as she gets back from London."

Faced with this dire threat, the child mournfully slunk back to bed, leaving Tonks to her task. She crept down to the drawing room and pulled back the carpet under the stairs. Though complex locking charms would not be taught until next year, her Aunt Bellatrix had trained the girl so thoroughly that she easily surpassed all the other Second Years in Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. She pulled out her wand and muttered several charms in quick succession, charms that she had many times heard her aunts pronounce, then slipped as silently as a shadow though the trapdoor and closed it behind her. Stepping in front of a chest full of files, she began to comb through them to find her Muggle-loving mother's whereabouts on the night of March 28, 1983, a few weeks previous. She knew that her Aunt Bella kept careful records of the woman's comings and goings, especially on nights when she may have need of an alibi; the two sisters looked so much alike. Tonks knew that if she could figure out where her mother was that night her aunt had gone to interrogate the Longbottoms, Bellatrix could be proven innocent as long as Uncle Lucius managed to get her a trial. If Andromeda had been in pubic and someone had seen her, Bellatrix could claim that she had been in that place at that time. Finally her mother would be of some use to her family. Tonks was filled with anger at the thought of how the day six years ago when her twin brothers were killed at the age of eleven in a forest by Muggles hunting deer, her mother had been cavorting about in some restaurant with her Muggle-born first husband. Though her dad had loved Andromeda so much that he took her back after things didn't work out between Andromeda and the Muggle-born, Tonks was never able to forgive her for her irresponsibility and for shaming the family. Now it was just Tonks and her parents left. Both of them were now in Mexico where they worked as treasure hunters for Gringotts in the ancient temples, so it was up to her alone to save Aunt Bella from the dementors.

Tonks shifted through the damp papers that clung to one another. She had figured out that they were sorted by date and was now searching for the current year. 1965. 1968. 1974. The name "Orion" caught her attention. Her elder brother who had been killed by Muggles. She pulled out the sheet of parchment.

February 8, 1974

Name: Orion Ramsey

Lineage: Unknown Muggle-born father. Mother is

Pureblood Andromeda Tonks.

No wonder Aunt Bella and Aunt Narcissa never wanted her in the house, Tonks thought. She had children with that Muggle-born she divorced! Tonks skimmed through attack plans detailing a kidnapping from a camping trip on February 12. At the bottom of the page she found the words "Status: Eliminated." She nearly dropped the parchment. They killed my brother. It wasn't Muggles. They killed my brother. She looked back to where she was in the chest and found a nearly identical parchment for her other little brother. She sat in silence for several moments, then heard heavy footsteps above her head. Her Uncle Lucius was home. Tonks quickly resumed her mission and flipped though the last sheets of parchment, looking for her mother's name. 1978 Gideon and Fabian Prewett. 1980 Harry Potter. 1981 Horace Bones. 1983 Ted Tonks. What was her father doing in Aunt Bella's files?

April 4, 1983

Name: Ted Tonks, suspected Auror

Tonks' heart leapt into her throat. Hands shaking, she sped through the rest of the report.

Lineage: Muggle-born

Mission: On the evening of April 13 search his home for records concerning wife Andromeda's. . .

My father is a Pureblood. And that's tonight! If they thing he's Muggle-born. . . Tonks skipped to the bottom of the page and felt some of the tension in her body release when she found the words "Status: Living." I have to warn him, she thought, morphing her body to match that of one of the laundry maids who did work house elves were not capable of. The paper warmed in her hand, as if it had sensed her malignant thoughts against it. She threw it down, not knowing where to run if it were cursed, as footsteps upstairs had not yet ceased. But nothing happened. No sparks, no explosions. Warily, Tonks leaned forward, looking to see if anything had happened to the parchment. One word was twisting and morphing before her eyes. The ink that once shaped the word "Living" now spelled out "Eliminated."

June 1999

"Tonks! Tonks!" Charlie called, shaking his wife first slowly, then more roughly.

Tonks gasped, sitting up abruptly and grabbing him about the torso.

"Hey, it's okay. It's fine now," he said, kissing her temple.

"I dreamt about the night Lucius killed my father. That night my entire life was turned upside down."

"I know. And what were you doing sleeping when you're supposed to be getting ready to go to Mum's house?" he added trying to lighten the tone

"No you don't know, and I am ready," Tonks replied in one breath. How could you know what it's like to find out you haven't got the pure blood that you prided yourself on and that you're next on the hit list on the people who you thought loved you? That your father's dead and that the mother you despised was a good woman, far better than the ones you admired."

Charlie let her continue to rant on about how she had to go live with her mother and discovered the humanity of people she had always looked down on. Finally getting fully out of her dream she turned to her husband. "So are you ready yet?"

"Just about. I've just got to pack up the presents," he said, getting up to pull them out of the closet. "Mum and Dad, he muttered aloud putting their respective presents into the sack. Fred and George. Ginny, Ron, Harry, Hermione. Percy, Penny, Brianna, Ryan. Bill, Zhara, Sagira. He looked at the tags on two of the gifts more closely. "These aren't the same size. Did you get Ryan and Brianna different toys?"

"Of course. Ryan's one and Brianna's three. They wouldn't like the same things anyway."

"Yeah, but then they'll be constantly fighting over who's is better."

"So what do you want me to do, run out and buy new gifts for Ryan, Brianna, and Sagira too while I'm at it?"

"No way. You'd spend half a lifetime trying to find the perfect toy that's good for all of them while we're already late."

"The problem is that there are just too many children in your family."

"You think so?" Charlie asked, wrapping his arms around her. "I was just thinking that there aren't enough. And it's our turn to provide the next one."

"We've been over this a hundred times," Tonks responded, pulling away slightly. "I told you that I don't feel ready for a baby. You grew up with five little brothers and sisters. But I was the youngest and don't even know how to buy kids gifts. What if I mess up and something happens to it?"

"Sweetie. You need to let go and live your life," Charlie told her, rubbing her back. "I know the past has made you terrified of what would happen if you lose a baby. But trust me. I'll take care of the both of you. And we can have lots of kids, to keep on loving you even if tragedy does strike."

"You don't really think that we can replace them that easily do you?"

"Of course not. But I know how the love of a family can get you through the toughest of times. When my parents and Uncle Fabian died, Mum and Dad adopted me and Bill and never let us feel that we weren't loved. I still had my elder brother and then a new little brother."

"You make it sound as if the loss of you parents never hurt."

"It certainly did. I threw all sorts of tantrums, screaming for Mum to give me back to my parents and sometimes running away, hoping they'd find me." Charlie winced. "All that fussing couldn't have been good for Mum; she was several months pregnant with the twins at the time. But she never screamed back at me or let me spend too much time pitying myself. And the time I managed to get myself good and lost in the woods by the Burrow and was looking around wondering if my parents would be able to find me, it was Dad who discovered me crying at the base of a tree. I think it was then when I saw how worried they were about me that I realized that they actually cared."

"Your parents do love taking in their little lost sheep. First you and Bill, then Harry."

"Mm, I think Harry's taking quite a bit longer than I did to see how much they love him. I guess it's because he was already twelve and in boarding school by the time they met, while I was only five and Mum could spend all her free time with us kids," Charlie continued, not noticing how Tonks had smoothly managed to change the subject.