'Thump' was the reaction that Tonks' statement brought.
As she was waking back up Andromeda felt a decent sized headache coming on. She was trying to remember what exactly happened that caused the head ache to begin with. She vaguely remembered talking to Nymphadora that morning and that she had been informed of her only daughter's engagement.
Of course knowing her daughter as well as she did, she knew that Nymphadora never had any serious boyfriends. So she immediately demanded that she come to breakfast that morning and to bring her 'fiancé' with her. She had just assumed that this was some sort of a ploy to get a rise out of her. Never once had she brought home a boyfriend, not that there were too many to begin with…If her daughter was to be believed. She assumed that her daughter was just joking around and that she would bring someone from work with her to pull off the act.
Never in a million years did she expect her daughter to show up with Harry Potter. Then it hit her. The reason she had passed out and had a headache. Her daughter was there and claimed that she was engaged to the boy-who-lived. She sat up as fast as she dared and saw both her daughter and Harry sitting in the living room talking to her husband.
As soon as she sat up Tonks' noticed that she was awake. She got up and sat down next to her.
"Mum. Are you feeling better?"
"I'll feel better when care to explain why you show up in the middle of London with Harry Potter. You should know better than that Nymphadora." Ignoring her daughter's look she continued. "And you, Mr. Potter. You should know better than to be running around London in broad daylight with only one Auror. Its not that I don't trust Nymphy here but she is only one Auror. She wouldn't stand much of chance if you were spotted by a death eater and You-Know-Who himself decided to attack you."
Harry was torn between irritation at being treated like a kid and amusement at hearing the Tonks' nickname. One look from Tonks' decided that he should drop any comment he may have had about her mother's use of her name.
"Well Mrs. Tonks. I assure you that I am perfectly safe in London right now. My scar, while annoying, does serve a very useful purpose. It allows me to know whenever Voldemort is near me. I will know if he is anywhere close to where I am. As to why I am here, Tonks informed me that you wanted to meet her fiancé as soon as possible. So here I am."
"You? You are her fiancé?"
"Yes, I am."
Turning faster than anyone thought possible she was facing Tonks again. "Are you pregnant?" She demanded.
Tonks' mouth dropped open unable to respond. She had never seen her mother this angry with her before and for no reason at that.
"You are aren't you? You seduced the boy-who-lived and now are forcing him into marriage? I cannot believe you Nymphadora. How could you do that to him? He's just a kid himself."
Tonks is still sitting there trying to form words with silent tears streaming down her cheeks. She can't understand how her mother would just make these kinds of accusations.
Having heard enough accusations already and seeing how upset Tonks is getting Harry decides to step in.
"Mrs. Tonks! I assure you that no such thing has happened. I never grew up to know my own parents, so what I think in this situation may be irrelevant, but I am going to say it anyway. As of right now, I am appalled at you. I can't believe that you would automatically start jumping to such horrid conclusions without even waiting to hear any sort of explanation from the people involved, much less when it is your own daughter."
"Can't you see how much your words have hurt her? In the entire time I have known her, I have never seen her cry. Never. I have known her for over a year now and we have met on a few different occasions for different reasons. I have never seen her as distraught as she is now. Even when she was fighting with Death Eaters she never let her emotions go this far."
"Tonks and I will stay sitting right here until you decide to apologize to her." Harry finished coldly.
Ted Tonks had sat back and watched the entire scene unfold. He himself was rather surprised at the conclusions his wife jumped to. He had spent the last 45 minutes that his wife was unconscious listening to the two of them explain everything that had happened since Sirius' death. They had told him to begin with not to interrupt and to listen to the entire situation before making any rash comments or decisions.
He was as shocked as both Tonks and Harry were when they explained the existence of the 'Purity Laws' to him. He, just like Harry, was raised by muggles and never knew such laws existed. Tonks was also in the same boat as them because while both of her parents were magical; they lived in the muggle world and her mother had long since been disowned from her family.
After hearing everything the two had to say and their reasoning behind the decision, he asked a few questions of his own. He wanted to know if they both knew the consequences of being involved in a Wizarding marriage. Both Tonks and Harry assured them that they knew how serious it was since there were a series of wizard oaths involved.
While he truly had no say in the matter because Harry was not his kid and Tonks was over the age of majority, he gave both of them his support. He informed them that it was their decision to make as it was their lives and not his. He told them he had no idea what he would do in that situation but he was proud of how they had taken the responsibility to make a decision after fully considering the effects it would have on their lives.
He decided now would be a good time to get involved in the conversation that he been silently watching. He stood up and walked over to his wife.
"Come on, Andy. We need to have a talk." With that he took his wife into their bedroom while give both Harry and Tonks a reassuring smile.
Tonks did her best to return it but found that she couldn't.
After Ted and Andromeda left the room Harry walked over and sat next to Tonks.
"Tonks, are you-" That was as far as he got before he found Tonks' arms around his neck and her crying into his shoulder.
"H-HHH-How could she say those things about me? Harry? My own mother? Does she think I am some kind of trollop that goes around seducing people just to get a husband?" She cried
"Shhh. It's Ok. I'm not sure why she thought those things. But you know they aren't true."
Harry tried his hardest to sound sincere. He was never any good at consoling women. Look at Cho. He remembered seeing a scene on T.V. show at the Dursley's one time when they weren't there. He just remembered the guy sat there and kept whispering things to her while she cried. So that is what he did. He sat there and held Tonks as she wept into his shoulder for a bit.
Finally she pulled herself together and gave Harry a small smile which he returned. They sat in silence for another 10 minutes before Ted and Andromeda returned.
Andromeda was much more level headed after the reprimand her husband just gave her. He refused to tell her anything about the current situation. He simply pointed out how disappointed he was in the way she accused their daughter of such things. He told her that he knew of the reasons behind the marriage and when they went back out there she would need to apologize to Nymphadora and Harry and listen to what they had to say.
She sat down where Harry was sitting before on the love seat with her husband sitting beside her. Tonks refused to look up at her mother and only then did Andromeda realize what kind of an impact her earlier words must have had.
"Nymphadora?" she asked quietly
Only then did Tonks address the fact that her mother was in the room. The amount of hurt in her eyes caused Andromeda's breath to hitch. She didn't say anything else she simply got up and walked across the room and pulled her daughter into a hug.
"I'm sorry Nymphy. I don't have any excuse as to why I said those things. I'm so sorry. I guess I was just shocked. I mean he's what 7 years younger than you? I know that doesn't make up for the things I said but I truly didn't mean them."
Tonks was still hurt by her mother's earlier words but she just nodded into her mother's shoulder that she understood.
"Six." She mumbled.
"What?"
"Harry is 6 years younger than me not 7."
"Oh. Well I still would like to hear how this came to be."
"Well I guess the best place to start is the beginning. Harry and I met last summer……"
Tonks proceeded to tell her mom all about how they met while she was apart of his escort and ended with the conversation that they had in the kitchen that morning. Andromeda calmly sat and listened to the entire story and frowned towards the end of it. She knew Sirius had died of course. Her daughter had told her as soon as she was released from St. Mungos, but that didn't mean that the thought had entirely sunk in until now. Had she not known that Sirius paid no attention to rules and much less some of the oldest pureblood laws she would have sworn that he had planned this whole thing out as one final prank that he couldn't get in trouble for.
She, like her husband, was proud of her daughter. She realized that in the end no matter what she said Tonks could do whatever she wanted to do and most likely would. Her daughter had always been strong willed. She was never coerced into anything. She knew that if the two of them were serious about this then they would have her blessing. After all she knew what it was like to be shunned by your parents and she didn't wish that on her daughter.
She decided she may as well give them her blessing and tell them to contact them if they needed anything.
Sighing she said, "I know that once you make up your mind about something there is no sense in trying to change it. I only ask that you are 100 percent sure about this as there are no second chances in regards to this. Your father and I will always be here for both of you. I know that you two must be on your way soon as you have your appointment that you kept talking about but I would be happy if the two of you would stay for a late breakfast."
"That would be great, Mrs. Tonks." Harry said cautiously while chancing a look at Tonks. Harry was still a bit unsure of his feelings towards Mrs. Tonks. He did not like the first impression he got of her but he was willing to try to get along if it would make Tonks happy. He had already told her indirectly, through her eavesdropping, that he would do whatever it took to make sure she was happy. Seeing that Tonks looked somewhat excited about having breakfast there he would give her another chance.
"Nonsense Harry. Call me mum. You'll be my son-in-law soon enough anyways." With that she left to the kitchen to start on breakfast.
Harry looked unsure about calling her mum considering he had never called anyone that in his life except for that one time with Aunt Petunia that he got punished for. But again Tonks seemed to take that as a good sign and smile widely at him. It appeared that she had forgiven her mother of her earlier outburst.
Harry, Tonks, and Ted all went into the dining room and made small talk until the meal was ready. Ted kept trying to ask Harry questions about growing up but soon gave up when he realized that Harry didn't want to talk about it.
They finished their breakfast around 11:15 and Tonks and Harry made ready to leave. They knew that it would be almost 11:45 when they got back.
"I really want to apologize again to both of you. I can't imagine what kind of an impression I must have left on you Harry. Please realize that both of you are welcome here anytime and I want to be kept informed of any information regarding the wedding. I expect you to let me go with you to buy your dress Nymphy dear."
Tonks tried her best to ignore the nickname but a small scowl could still be seen on her face. She thanked her mother and gave both of her parents a hug.
Harry shook Ted's hand and approached Andromeda. He was unsure exactly of what to do. He figured he should hug her but didn't know what she would think about it. Andromeda took the decision out of his hands and gave him a hug which Harry mildly returned.
Harry and Tonks went outside when the taxi they had called arrived. Since they had around 15 minutes before they would arrive at the Leaky Cauldron Harry decided to voice his opinion on her family.
"Well. I must say that it was a bit eventful but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I more expected a bad reaction out of your dad then your mum. I figured that when he found out that you were getting married he would chase me around the room hexing me. I had a dream similar to that a few nights ago just after the goblins told me everything. I dreamt of myself telling you and you didn't take the information very well. You did chase me and hex me. You hexed me so bad in fact that both of my legs ended up broken."
"Ironic how close that was to be a reality had you not heard me yelling at Ron." Harry said with a smile.
Tonks returned the smile before it turned into a mock pout. "Do you think that I am only capable of breaking your legs? I'm a fully trained Auror. I think I could come up with something a bit more amusing than that."
"I'm sure you would have too. My dream ended before you got a chance to finish hexing me."
"Maybe we could have a duel sometime and we can see just what will happen." Tonks replied with a smirk before turning serious again. "You know, my mum is not that bad. I don't exactly know what caused her to respond that way in the beginning but she really is a nice person."
"I understand Tonks. I'm not quite sure how you were able to forgive her so fast though after saying everything she did, but I trust you and if you say that she is normally a nice person then I will give her another chance."
"Second chances are a good thing Harry, most of the time. And as for how I could forgive her, I guess that just goes with being family. You can pretty much forgive someone you love for anything. Do you know what I mean?"
"No. Not really." He whispered but she seemed to have caught it anyway. After the way he dodged all of the questions about his family earlier she decided to drop it for now but she would be sure to get him to open up to her at some point.
They didn't say anything else the rest of the trip back. They arrived at the Leaky Cauldron and had to wait in the queue for about 10 minutes before it was their turn to floo out. They arrived at Grimmauld Place with 5 minutes to spare before the meeting. They decided the best idea would be to just go straight to the kitchen and wait for it to start.
"Now that we are all here I think it would be best if we got this meeting underway." Dumbledore announced from his seat at the head of the table.
"First let's hear from Mr. Diggle and Ms. Jones as to what they found out about these laws."
"Nothing, sir. Absolutely nothing. The loophole the goblins pointed out is the only way to get around it."
"Very well. Thank you Ms. Jones. It would appear that we need to start thinking about how to remove anything sensitive to the Order out of here. We will also need to start looking for another building to hou-"
"That's not necessary sir." Harry interrupted.
"Would you care to explain why not Mr. Potter?"
"Well you see, sir, Tonks and I had a discussion this morning. We decided that we are going to go ahead a get married on my birthday."
With that declaration all hell broke loose in Grimmauld Place.