A/N: Hi everyone!! Long time no read, huh? I know this took forever, but life as an art student tends to zap you of all your creative juices. I finally got the urge to pick up a pen (so to speak) and continue this story. I'm trying to remember what I had in mind for upcoming chapters, but I'll hopefully get more up soon. Enjoy and REVIEW!! ^_^
Scratch scratch scratch.
Tonks squeezed her eyes shut against the sound.
Scratch scratch.
She rolled over, pulling the covers over her head.
Scratch.
She huffed and rolled over onto her back, throwing the covers off of her and stared up at the ceiling in aggravation. She finally gave up the idea of sleep and sat up. Tonks became painfully aware of the source of the noise. There, on the floor by an ancient armoire, was a single Doxy. Tonks sat perfectly still, hoping the creature hadn't noticed her. When it didn't turn, she cautiously reached over to her nightstand for her wand. It scraped the table as she dragged it toward her, which drew the Doxies attention. She paused and the Doxy bore its horribly sharp teeth at her, letting out an unnerving hiss. Suddenly, the fairy-like creature leapt at her. Tonks screamed, throwing her arm up over her head to block the Doxy's bite. She attempted to jump out of bed, knocking the Doxy away with her arm as she did so and sent it crashing into the wall. Just as she made it to the door, it flew open, and two men blocked her escape. Tonks covered her head with her arms and tried to shove past the two.
"Out of my way you bloody gits!" she shouted and finally broke free of her barrier and ran down the hall.
"Don't go downstairs, Tonks!" shouted Mrs. Weasley as she bustled down the hallway, a rag held to her face in one hand and a can of Doxy repellent in the other. Tonks, in her panic, didn't listen and took the stairs two at a time before she tripped over the hem of her pajama pants and tumbled down the rest of the stairs and crashed to the bottom. Tonks let out a yelp of pain, immediately waking Mrs. Black.
"FOOLS! MENACES TO SOCIETY! FILTHY HALF-BREEDS! HOW DARE YOU ENTER MY HOME!" she shouted as Tonks unsteadily tried to stand and move to the now open curtains. A stampede of footsteps came down the stairs as Sirius and Remus hurried to Walburga's painting. Tonks gave up her attempt to fix the situation and leaned against the wall, where she slid to the floor and held a hand to her head. The two managed to shut the curtains and Remus turned his attention toward Tonks as Sirius headed upstairs to check the Doxy situation.
"Are you alright?" Remus whispered, nearly inaudible. Tonks looked up at him and nodded sheepishly. She allowed him to help her up and lead her down to the kitchen, keeping his hand gently at the small of her back to keep her steady. "How about some tea?" He offered, sitting Tonks down at the kitchen table. Tonks nodded and folded her arms on the table and rested her forehead against them. As Remus headed over to the kettle on the stove two bright red heads entered the room.
"What's all the bloody racket?" One of the Weasley twins asked.
"It's too bloody early." The other grumbled. Tonks raised her hand off the table, not bothering to move her head and waved at them.
"Tonks had an unpleasant morning." Remus said, setting the cup of tea in front of her. Tonks slid it over and leaned her head above it, allowing the aroma from the steam to drift past her face.
"Bloody Doxies…Can't stand the buggers." she grumbled before taking a sip of tea. Her face contorted and she scanned the table for sugar and milk.
"I'm sorry about that, dear. I thought Sirius had cleaned that room already." Molly Weasley said as she came down stairs. Sirius followed close behind her, the slight hint of a smug smile playing across his lips. Tonks glanced up at Molly and gave her a smile before noticing Sirius' grin.
"Sirius told you that, did he?" Tonks asked, clearly accusing Sirius of some wrong doing. Molly turned to Sirius just in time to see a truly smug grin form.
"Oh, Sirius! You didn't!" Molly exclaimed. Sirius barked a laugh.
"I'm sorry, cousin. It gets right boring around here. I couldn't help myself." Sirius admitted along with a satisfied laugh. Tonks groaned and threw a sugar cube at his head which he easily batted away. Sirius and Remus grabbed themselves a cup of tea and sat down at the table. Just as Remus was about to take a sip, a rather unattractive house-elf leapt onto the table and snatched the cup right out of his hands and jumped down to the floor.
"Filthy half-breeds drinking from Kreacher's mistress's cup. The nerve…Disgusting." it grumbled under its breath as the elf walked away with the cup clutched to its chest like a baby. Remus sat with a defeated look, folding his hands on the table. Sirius slammed his cup down and went after the house-elf.
"Kreacher, you fool! That's not even my mother's cup! Give it back, you thief!" he shouted as he attempted to wrench the door from the elf's crawl space. Remus sighed.
Tonks turned to him and asked, "What was all that?"
"That would be the Black family house-elf, Kreacher. He doesn't accept Sirius as his master as Walburga never accepted him as part of the family. That wouldn't be the first time he's stolen things from me. We replaced all the china in the house, assuming he'd give up. Apparently we were wrong." Remus explained. Tonks half grinned as she watched Sirius stick his head in through the now open door. "Sirius, give it up!" Remus called to him.
"I'm sick and bloody tired of that wretched Kreacher stealing from me!" Sirius bellowed as he stood and sat back down at the end of the table closest to Kreacher's door, just in case the house-elf left again.
"A house-elf with prejudices." Molly scoffed from the stove where she was preparing breakfast for everyone.
"You can't blame poor Kreacher. He's clearly been brainwashed. If house-elves would fight for their freedom, they'd be allowed to make their own assumptions." Hermione said as she and Ron entered the kitchen. Ron groaned.
"Hermione, save us the SPEW lecture, would you?" he pleaded, taking a seat beside Remus and across from Tonks.
Tonks leaned across the table to Remus, "What's spew?" she whispered.
"It's not spew, Ronald, it's S.P.E.W. The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. Get it right. I don't think Kreacher has been given the proper chance to behave civil. He was brought up with foul wizards who mistreated him. If Kreacher were free, I'm sure he'd behave more decently." Hermione continued. Sirius scoffed.
"Kreacher? Decent? I don't think he knows the meaning of the word." he stated with the upmost contempt. As Ron and Hermione continued their argument on the morality of house-elves as servants, a thought occurred to Tonks.
"Where's Harry?" she asked as she took a sip of her tea.
"He's at his hearing. He and Arthur left early this morning." Remus informed her. Tonks nearly choked on her tea and stood up, her chair screeching across the stone floor.
"Bloody hell! The Ministry! I have to get to work!" she exclaimed and headed for the stairs. In her haste, Tonks missed the top step and stumbled into the wall ahead of her, sending a rather disgruntled painting to the ground. The occupant's demands to be set right were drowned out, however, as the noise awoke Mrs. Black for the second time that morning.
Tonks boarded the lift to her department, breathing heavily in her rush to get there on time. Ministry workers shifted on and off the car along with memos heading to their recipients. Two floors below Tonks', two unexpected occupants boarded the car.
"You did brilliantly, Harry!" Arthur Weasley patted Harry Potter on the shoulder as they boarded the lift. Arthur noted Tonks' presence and, with his back turned, stated in what should have been a hushed tone, the outcome of Harry's hearing. "All's well that ends well. You'll be off to Hogwarts in no time. Wait till Ron and Hermione hear they let you off." Tonks smiled to herself, inwardly congratulating Harry on his victory, deciding that she would definitely be stopping by Headquarters that evening.
Tonks forced herself to finish all of her paperwork before leaving the Ministry, which caused her to stay behind almost three hours late. When she finally left, Tonks headed straight for 12 Grimmauld Place. She caught her reflection in a darkened window and decided that the shoulder length, wavy blue locks were not appropriate for celebration. She wrinkled her nose and out sprouted bubble-gum pink spikes, her favorite look. She entered the house, being very cautious not to wake Walburga for a third time that day and headed to the kitchen, where she assumed everyone would be gathered.
To her surprise, no one was there. She wondered the house, searching for a sign of anyone. Upon reaching the second floor, she heard muffled whimpering as well as unintelligible speech. Following the voices, she found the whole house gathered in a drawing room, huddled around Mrs. Weasley. She was crying and Arthur had his arms around her. Her children all stood behind her, Ginny next to her on the couch, a hand on her mother's arm. Remus was knelt on the ground in front of her, her hands in his. His was the voice Tonks had heard coming up the stairs. Sirius stood against a writer's desk, arms crossed, looking sorry for Molly.
"It's ok, Molly. It was only a boggart. We'll take care of it as soon as Mad-Eye arrives. We've already sent for him." Remus consoled her. Molly took in a shaky breath and let out another sob.
"All my children…My husband…Dead!" she whimpered as more tears flowed from her eyes. Tonks hesitantly entered the room.
"Molly, what happened?" she asked cautiously. The occupants of the room all looked up at Tonks, unaware that she had arrived. Molly didn't respond.
"She had a bad run in with a boggart, I'm afraid." Remus responded before turning back to Molly. "Everything will be fine, Molly. It was just an illusion." Tonks watched as Arthur stroked his wife's hair and her children watched her sadly.
"We aren't dead, Mum. We're all here." Ron whispered. Tonks sighed.
"Molly, I'm going to go make some tea for you, alright? I'll be right back." She turned to Remus. "Want to give me a hand?" she asked. Remus nodded and began to stand before Molly stopped him.
"No, Remus, you stay in case the Boggart breaks loose again. Bill, why don't you go with Tonks?" she offered, turning her blood shot eyes on her oldest. Bill nodded and patted his mom on the shoulder. He and Tonks left the room and headed for the kitchen. As they left the room together, Tonks felt an unexplainable twinge of disappointment in her stomach and glanced back at Remus as he knelt back down, again trying to comfort Molly.
"I don't know what she was thinking…" Bill stated absently as he and Tonks worked on getting tea and biscuits to take back upstairs.
"What did she see?" Tonks asked. Bill glanced at her.
"She saw my whole family lying dead and bloodied on the floor along with Harry and Hermione." Tonks gasped and covered her mouth.
"That's horrible!" she said. Bill nodded.
"This whole Order business as her all out of sorts. She's certain that we're all going to die…" There was a moment of silence before Bill chuckled slightly. "And to think, after all that, she still has room to try and bring another woman into my life." Tonks grinned at him.
"What's your mum got against Fleur anyway?" she asked, leaning against the counter and folding her arms. Bill sighed.
"She doesn't think Fleur's my type. Mum thinks she's shallow and pompous. Fleur isn't like that, though. Honestly, she's a very nice girl and supports me. I just wish Mum could see that instead of spending all her energy trying to get me to fall in love with someone else." Tonks grinned at Bill.
"Better?" she asked, sensing that he'd bottled that up for quite some time. Bill grinned and nodded. "You can't help who you fall in love with, Bill. As long as you're happy, Molly should accept that." Bill didn't respond as he poured the tea into a cup and held the tray out for Tonks to lay the biscuits on.
"You've got a good head on your shoulders, Nymphadora." he said as he headed for the stairs. Tonks threw the can of tea leaves at Bill's head, just missing it. The can burst open as it hit the wall, scattering the leaves all over the floor.
"Bugger!" Tonks exclaimed and started cleaning up.
