Beep, beep, beep, Beep!

Tonks didn't know what to do. She didn't know what to do at all! The alarm was going off, there was all this smoke billowing out of the pan and she was waving around a tea towel like it would actually do something. Let's not forget about the sink that was somehow overflowing! When did she turn the taps on? She couldn't remember turning the taps on!

Beep, beep, beep, beep!

And now she was wet. The tea towel was wet! One end must have got dipped in the sink, easily enough done with all this daft waving about she was doing. She just needed to clear the smoke and that beeping would stop and then she would be able to actually think. Why was everything going wrong all at once? Her back was all wet. There was still smoke everywhere, was it getting blacker? She hadn't been trying to do something that complicated!

Beep, beep, beep, beep!

"Oh, shut up!" She snapped at the smoke alarm. "I hear you; I hear you!"

Her elbow crashed into something and it hurt but she didn't care because she needed to get rid of all this smoke. The window! She could open the window!

Except when she reached over to the window she slipped on the now wet floor. Thankfully she didn't fall to the ground but that was because she crashed into the counter. Ow! Why was the counter so hard? And the window wasn't even open. Was the smoke supposed to be this dark? That wasn't a good thing, sure it wasn't? And that acrid, plastic-y smell definitely wasn't a good thing nor was the throbbing pain up her arm. What one was she supposed to address first?

"Nymphadora, just what exactly are you doing?"

Tonks could have groaned and buried her face in her hands if she wasn't otherwise urgently occupied. Of course, her mother was the one who had to have come home first and see all this. Of course. Why couldn't it have been her dad who would have laughed at her? Now all that was going to happen that she was going to get told off. Around the smell of burnt eggs of all things. She was pretty sure that that made it worse.

Andromeda took one look at the situation and already had a plan of action. Before Tonks could blink, Andromeda's wand was out and there was a jet of water aimed at the pan, siphoned off from the overflowing sink which gave her mum time to dart over and twist the taps to the off position. A quick jab upwards with a finger and the smoke alarm was off. Something Tonks took a second to register because her ears were ringing. Had they been ringing this whole time? Tonks just gaped at all this activity; her brain unable to play catch up just yet.

"Why could you have not done any of that yourself?" Andromeda demanded, hands on her hips.

"I'm too short to reach the smoke alarm," Tonks grumbled.

Because she was. It wasn't her fault that she didn't inherit her mother's gorgeous height. Which was unfair, if you asked her because weren't girls supposed to inherit mostly from their mums or something? Look, she didn't know how genetics worked but that logic seemed pretty sound to her.

Andromeda gave her a look and shook her head fondly.

"Come on, let's do this right."

"You're going to make eggs for me?" Tonks asked cheekily.

"Nice try. I'm going to teach you."

She stuck her tongue out at that. It was the only mature response, after all.

"It's your kitchen."

"That I will be teaching you to deep clean properly if you make any sort of a mess."

"That's not fair!"

"What's not fair is you coating the kitchen in egg."

"I haven't done that yet!"

"Something I am going to prevent you from doing."

Tonks decided thar the best response to that was to pout which just made Andromeda tut and shake her head.

"Honestly, child, how do you not know how to make scrambled eggs?"

"You two spoil me during the holidays?"

Andromeda rolled her eyes. "Obviously."

The truth was, she got up late during the holidays, as close to noon as possible (her mum never let her sleep past noon) so breakfast was either already made or it was so close to lunch that she just made lunch. Sandwiches and soups were easy. Well, as long as you didn't slice an appendage on the soup can it was. And yes, appendage meant that she had sliced more than a finger or hand on a soup can. There was that one time she had sliced her side but that was because she had tripped and the can was on the table... Was your side even an appendage? It was a part of you. Technically a bit of skin but so was your whole body. And you didn't go around calling your butt an appendage. Either way she had sliced her side on a soup can. A deep slice too. Her dad had had to use two separate healing spells on it even before the Essence of Dittany came out. Look, she had still needed her parents to use the child safety charms in the kitchen all the way up to when she was thirteen! And it wasn't like at thirteen she got less clumsy (actually, she seemed to get MORE clumsy) it was just like her parents felt it was wrong to have the charms around for a thirteen-year-old. But still she could hardly be trusted around the combination of hot thigs, sharp things and slippery things. It really was a recipe for disaster.

"Right, come on," Andromeda said, retrieving another pan from the cupboard and sending her one straight to the sink that was now filled with water.

"What?" Tonks asked, herking her head away from the sink.

How had her mum done that without her noticing?

"I'm going to teach you how to cook scrambled eggs."

How did she manage to make that sound all foreboding?

Okay, so maybe they were a little bit scorched. But only down that one side that got stuck to the pan. It was all still edible! Well, she said so even though her mum said she should throw that part away. But she had a point to prove. She could cook edible eggs!

"You are going to give yourself indigestion." Andromeda said with a bit of concern. "Swallow," she added when she realised Tonks was about to answer.

"My stomach's made of stronger stuff than that. Some eggs aren't going to give me indigestion," she bragged, pointedly shovelling another forkful into her mouth.

She had to swallow heavier than she would like. There was a particularly scorched bit that had gone hard and sharp. Ouch. And okay, maybe her stomach didn't actually feel that good after that mouthful, like the eggs were sitting kind of heavy in there but it was fine. She was fine. She certainly wasn't about to tell her mum otherwise. Not that her mum looked that convinced.

"Uh, huh," she said, standing up. "I think I will go and get those indigestion potions your father brewed up the other day."