A/N: Yo, sorry for taking an eternity to update. I'm lazy and shiftless. I apologize. Also sorry if I haven't replied to your review. I can't recall if I've replied to them all and I feel like jerk if I haven't. I'll be better. Read, enjoy, review.

Andromeda sat the last dish on the table before taking her seat. Ted and Jesse began serving themselves and Tonks handed her plate to her mother. She hadn't been allowed to serve herself since the time she'd broken three pieces of china and stained her mother's favorite tablecloth all in one helping of soup. Alex looked on at the exchange with curiosity. Tonks caught sight of his expression and a blush rose to her cheeks. "I never quite got the hang of ladles and things," She answered lamely.

A mild look of surprise flashed across Jesse's face before it was replaced with a smile. "I always thought your parents were kidding when they said you were erm ungainly."

"Nope, ungainly just about sums me up." She said with a smile. She was impressed by his choice of words, "What about you? What do you do?" She said only just realizing that she knew very little about him.

"I make chocolate" He said in a way that indicated that he was a ware of how strange his profession was.

"Your kidding?" Tonks asked in awe.

"Nope," He answered as he withdrew a foil wrapped square from his pocket and handed it to her.

"That's awesome!" She said as she unwrapped the little square.

His nose wrinkled in confusion, " You haven't even tasted it."

She laughed, "Not that -well I'm sure the chocolate is awesome too- but the fact that you make chocolate!"

She unwrapped the square of chocolate deftly and cast the foil aside. She took a moment to admire the ornate "A" embossed in the center of the square. "Not nearly as cool as the frogs, but it tastes alright," remarked Jesse as he caught her inspecting the chocolate. She grinned at him before popping the candy into her mouth. Her lips curled up in a smile as the chocolate melted against her tongue. She closed her eyes and let out an appreciative mmm.

"Well I believe that means she likes it," Mr. Tonks interjected. Andromeda and Jesse chuckled. Tonks was still much to engrossed in the chocolate to do any chuckling.

"If I were as good at my job as you are at yours I'd be minister of magic by now."

"Thanks," Jesse replied as a grin spread across his face.

"How does one get into the chocolate business?"

He took a deep breath as if settling in for a story before beginning to speak, "Well first you finish your studies and come of age. Then you hang around your parent's for a while reading muggle fantasy novels or not doing much of anything at all. Eventually they insist that you do something. And when you realize there isn't much of anything you can do besides read fantasy novels they send you to work with an old friend of your grandfathers. And you just might end up as an apprentice chocolatier."

"Well, atleast they picked something you were really good at."

"Yup, too bad I won't be doing it for much longer." He turned away from her shock to face her parents, "I've finally found something career-like to do." He said it proudly as if fulfilling an expectation.

"Good Boy," Ted shouted affectionately.

"Oh what have you decided on?" Andromeda asked.

He looked sheepish for a moment, "Well the job title is live in tutor, but the description is more like governess, so I'm not to sure how that'll work out. S' in Australia though so that ought to be cool, and I do like the idea of being a sort of teacher though, maybe I'll get a job at a proper school someday."

"Wait!" Tonks exclaimed regaining his attention, "You are ditching the coolest job I've ever heard to play Mary Poppins to some little brats? I don't understand."

"Neither do I," Jesse said with an equally incredulous look on his face, "Who's Mary Poppins?"

Tonks screwed up her face for a moment before looking up at Jesse from a face that was the spitting image of Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins. "Does the face ring a bell?"

"No, and did you just? What just-?"

Tonks turned to her parents wearing her own face, "You told him what I do for a living, you tell him about my lack of coordination and all this other business, but you neglected to mention that I was a metamorphagus? Just slipped your minds?"

"Never came up," Ted answered with a smile.

"You're a -"

"Yes, I am. And enough about that back to the point. You want to be a governess and you don't even know who Mary Poppins is?"

"I've never heard of her, and I'm not going to be a governess!" He retorted a bit indignantly.

"Whatever, I just don't understand why you'd want to be a governess in the first place. Here you have this awesome job making all manner of children happy, and your going to trade that so that you can make children distinctly unhappy? Not that you'll be a bad governess, but-"

"I'm not a governess!" He interrupted gruffly.

"Well whatever you plan to be to these children you can't be it without knowing who Mary Poppins is! And I thought you said you read muggle novels? How have you managed to avoid the crown jewel of their entire culture?" She urged waving away his argument over word choice.

"Tonks!" Andromeda said in admonishment, "Jesse is from a wizarding family. He can't be expected to have heard of all of your favorite muggle childrens things."

Andromeda's attempt was futile, Tonks was far too worked up to have things explained away by normal logic or any sort of logic for that matter, "If it were just my favorite muggle movie (yes it's a movie not a thing) then I could let it go. But this transcends just my list of favorites, or even movies. It is a cultural icon. It was wildly popular book before it was movie, there are even still live musicals of it."

Ted Tonks had begun to chuckle at them around the time governesses were mentioned, and continued chuckling more loudly. Andromeda glared.

"Even so, what is you're point?" Jesse asked as he still didn't see what bearing a childrens book could reasonably have on his life.

Tonks pulled her wand from pocket and gave it a wave. Andromeda got the feeling that something beyond the scope of a normal dinner party was occurring. She didn't like it. A dusty VHS tape flew urgently toward Tonks. She attempted to catch it deftly but it ended up hitting her forearm and falling to the table with a thud. Luckily it missed her plate.

"My point is that you need to watch this movie. As soon as possible. D'you have a VHS player?"

"A what?

"This is a bigger emergency than I thought. We'll have to watch it now." Tonks stated matter of factly.

"Really ? Is this entirely appropriate Tonks?" Andromeda said warningly.

"Yes," Came the firm reply from Tonks.

Andromeda gave a defeated sigh that was barely heard over Mr. Tonks' merry chuckle. He was quite fond of Mary Poppins himself.

Tonks stood up authoritatively; she gave her wand a wave over the table eliciting a look of horror from Andromeda. Luckily most of the dishes only gave a feeble sort of lurch before remaining firmly on the table. Tonks scowled at the offending plates as Andromeda sent them all gracefully racing toward the sink.

"So I suppose this means we're having our pudding in the television room, " Andromeda remarked petulantly.

"Well if you don't want to keep the boy here all night we'll have to. S'kind of a long movie. More than two hours."

Ted and Jesse who were both aware of Andromeda's delicate sense of propriety shot each other nervous looks.

"I really can't stay. I'm sorry, and I'd love to indulge you another time, but my parents are expecting me back home and Shelley is there with them. We're s'posed to be arranging wedding things and whatnot. I really-" Jesse stammered half making desperate excuses to get out of another two hours of confusion and being called a governess, and half telling the truth.

"Wedding things," Andromeda cried sharply.

Jesse's eyes opened wide like a house elves, "That wasn't supposed to come out. You were s'posed to get an announcement in the post and be cordially invited. Gah!" he stammered desperately, "I'm sorry."

Ted recovered first, "What's there to be sorry about m'boy? Congratulations are in order! I didn't even know you'd made up with Shelley, but I'm always glad to see young people settling down." He cried merrily.

"Congratulations!" Tonks said taking her fathers lead, "But don't think you're getting out of this that easily!" She gave her want another deft little wave, and three tattered old books bound in green, blue, and lavender cloth zipped toward her. She didn't catch these either. "And you've already confessed to knowing how to read, so you can read these at your leisure."

He smiled and shook his head at the books she thrust into his arms. She smiled contentedly. Andromeda still hadn't said anything. The business about a wedding still had her discomposed. For the first time one of her schemes to get Tonks married seemed to be going well, and then came this sudden fatal blow. She couldn't exactly handle it.

"Well thank you. I'll be sure to umm give this a read." Jesse said awkwardly.

Tonks shook her head and replied jokingly, "No, not nearly good enough. You practically need to study them."

Jesse gave a nervous chuckle; he still wasn't quite sure when she was joking. Ted was quietly trying to talk Andromeda into a more social mood, or atleast a less shocked and disappointed one.

"Well do you have to leave right this minute, or can you atleast stay for pudding?" She asked at last and you could hear the disappointment she struggled to keep out of her voice

"I don't think I could bring myself to leave without having any pudding." Jesse answered with kind of an uncomfortable forced cheer in his voice.

Andromeda gave a more genuine smile smile and scampered off to fetch whatever was for dessert. Ted and Jesse chatted cheerfully about Shelley -whoever she was- and Australia, and the wedding while Nymphadora took a moment to take stock of her feelings. She couldn't help but realize that she did feel disappointed that he was going to be married, but there was something else too. Possibly relief at not being expected to be charming anymore. Not that she was doing a great job of it before. Or possibly the relief of not hoping anymore because undeniably she was hoping.

Andromeda returned, dessert passed away uneventfully albeit a little stiffly. Jesse said his goodbyes. He gave Mr. & Mrs. Tonks his hugs and compliments. He offered Tonks a stiff acquaintance-y hug and tried to 'forget' his books on the parlor table. Tonks sent them flying after him with a little more vim and vigor than she intended and had a chuckle when one smacked him square between the shoulder blades. He turned around and gave her a look of mock anger before setting off with a chuckle. Nymphadora went to the kitchen to help her mother tidy up. Andromeda of course preferred that she do less helping and more sitting at the table brooding. Which she obligingly did.

She had found dinner enjoyable, and even though it didn't achieve her mother's desired effects, she was content with it. Jesse was friendly and nice enough even though he hadn't seen Mary Poppins. He was also a good sport about her governess jokes and flying books. All in all she could say she liked him very much, but she also couldn't shake the feeling that he reminded her of someone else.

"I'm done," Andromeda said in a serious voice startling Tonks out of her own head.

Tonks looked around, "Yeah, the kitchens clean." She said kind of wondering what the big deal was.

"Stop being cruel, you know that isn't what I mean. I'm done matchmaking. I'm just so sorry that happened, and just when it seemed like you two were getting on well it just-" Andromeda didn't look up, but just kept staring at the dishrag she was twisting in her hands.

It took Tonks a moment to realize it but her mother was actually apologizing, and sincerely. Tonks smiled, "S'okay mum. I'd only just met him. S'not like we'd moved in together or anything. Not that this means you can start your tricks again."

She soon returned to her natural and unapologetic state, "Oh, don't even talk about moving in with men! We still haven't forgotten about that dreadful time you told us you were engaged to a boy just so you could live with him. The sin of it all. And then just suddenly showing up no explanation. Never speaking of him, never telling us what happened. Hmpf."

Tonks felt as if she'd just been knocked in the stomach. There was no more contentment, no more Mary Poppins, just a flood of memories that threatened to break the carefully constructed dam in her mind. She determinedly ignored the images trying to force themselves into her conscious mind. "Not now," she threatened.

Andromeda seemed to be feeling particularly argumentative because she dove right in. "No, I think now happens to be the perfect time. Christopher was such a nice young man, so determined on settling down. I mean I really can't understand how even you scared him away. And you never even bothered to give us an explanation."

"I don't owe you an explanation okay! And have you ever considered that it wasn't me who scared him away?" Tonks shouted her cheeks coloring and her voice rising to that unpleasant octave of hysteria.

"Nymphadora?" Andromeda whispered worriedly.

"No, stop it. I can't. I won't. I'm leaving!" She scraped her chair back and rushed out of the room hiding her face in her sleeve.

"Stop, please," She called out to her before catching up in a few quick little steps. She reached out, grabbed her shoulder, and spun her around taking her in her arms. Tonks leaned heavily against her mother, and wept quietly in her arms. Andromeda hugged her tightly and whispered soothing mother against her hair.

Ted came down from Tonks' room where he'd been making her bed up with clean linen. He took stock of the situation and shot Andromeda an accusatory glance. She ignored him. "Well Dora I just came down to tell you that your bed is made up if you'd like to stay. Seems now your mothers got you in no fit state to travel, so uhh see you in the morning." He disappeared around the corner into the study.

"I'm sorry," Andromeda murmured.

Tonks broke the hug and stood back to look at her mother, "I'm going to sleep. I'll see you at breakfast."

–

E/N: I'll proofread it again in the morning, but I think its okay if you ignore all those dangling modifiers, and my inability to do dialogue, bleh.

Stay tuned, cause it's looking like the Tonks' are having drama for breakfast...dun dun dun.