House: Slytherin
Class: DADA
Category: Standard
Word Count: 1189
Prompt(s): [Character] Andromeda Tonks | [Action] Pushing Someone on a Swing
Warnings/Disclaimers: Canon Speculation, Canon Divergence (probably), Slight Angst, Mentions of Character Death
- 1965 -
Andromeda frowned. The swing was not as fun as she'd imagined it would be. Merely obtaining it had been quite an endeavor, and now more and more often it was becoming her duty to push her sisters on the swing, never getting a chance to enjoy being pushed herself. Unless of course she enchanted it (which was forbidden), got a house elf to do it (which she felt too bad about doing), or used her own momentum and swung on her own (which kind of defeated the purpose.) She gave another push on Narcissa's back.
"Why don't you just learn how to push yourself?" she complained.
Narcissa pouted. Andromeda couldn't see her face, but she knew her sister well enough to just know. Narcissa was a very pouty ten year old. Her sister said nothing, continuing on the swing happily.
"Don't act like you didn't hear me," grumbled Andromeda. "Or I'll stop pushing you."
A threat both of them knew was empty. Narcissa continued pretending like she didn't hear her, and Andromeda continued pushing her. She had considered bringing it up with their parents on countless occasions, but they didn't seem to care about fairness when it came to the swing.
"Was it not you who wanted that muggle contraption?" they had said when she'd complained about being the one to always push Bellatrix.
Which really wasn't fair because Bella was older than her and should have had to push Andromeda at least once. Now they would most likely just claim she was too old to be pushed on a swing anyway. She gave Narcissa a particularly strong shove. Her blonde hair went higher than any of them had dared, and Andromeda felt her heart jump into her throat. Oh no. The swing came back down, and slowed to a stop. Her heart beat even faster, because Narcissa was shaking and surely that was a bad sign. She rounded the swing. Narcissa's face was split with a contagious-sort of smile. Oh thank Merlin, though Andromeda, at least she's laughing.
- 1977 -
"Higher Mama!" shouted little Nymphadora.
She was barely five but already she adored the swingset in the local park. It was nothing like the swing Andromeda remembered. The swing of her childhood she looked back on so fondly. It was a different time then, she supposed, but it had been so very magnificent. She remembered how her parents had the finest woodworker craft the swing 'the muggle way' for them. It was a gorgeous pine wood, magically engraved with little golden etchings of their names and future goals and charms to make it glow in the nighttime.
When she was a girl she'd been struck by how very muggle-like it appeared. Now, having gotten so well acquainted with an actual muggle swing, she knew just how wrong she had been. They'd hung it on the old willow tree on the property, the one they used to play beneath when their mother wasn't watching. She smiled at the memory. It was one of the only fond memories with her sisters that she had left.
"Mama I said higher," whined Nymphadora. Her hair turned a bright orange color.
Andromeda paled, but tried not to frighten her daughter. Being a Metamorphagus was rare, special, and very, very dangerous when you were hiding in a war like the one they were in the midst of.
"Nymphadora," she chided, "remember what Mama said? If you do that we have to go home, and we can't swing anymore."
Nymphadora pouted, but her hair returned to its natural color. Andromeda was flooded with relief. She continued pushing, giving her daughter the stronger push she desired. She giggled, kicking her little legs. Andromeda was careful not to push her too high. After an incident from her childhood where one of them had gotten injured 'accidentally' (they were holding a contest to see who could jump and land on their feet from the highest height) their parents had charmed the swing to keep them on it until the swing was stopped at the bottom of the tree.
This swing was nothing like that. Nowhere near as safe for children as it was claimed to be. Sometimes she considered charming the swing in the same way her parents had done, but she knew the risks were too high. They couldn't chance their magic being traced; Merlin knows Voldemort had enough followers in the Ministry to be keeping tabs on them should they do as much as utter a single simple incantation.
Nymphadora giggled again. Her hair changed to a bright, bubblegum pink. Andromeda sighed and let the swing slow. They'd been out longer than usual already, and she couldn't risk a Muggle spotting them. She lifted Nymphadora from the swing and into her arms. Her daughter's hair slowly faded to a more natural shade, and she pouted.
"I'm sorry Mama," she said, "I won't do it again, please can we swing more."
"It's alright my darling. It's late, we have to get home to see Papa."
She hurried home, hoping not to be seen. Andromeda always took the back alleys, and the slow, long ways where no one would be able to see them. She breathed a sigh of relief when she made it in, and bolted the door shut.
"Can we go tomorrow mama?" asked Nymphadora once she was safely snuggled beneath her blankets.
Andromeda placed a kiss on top of her head. "Of course darling."
- 2003 -
It seemed like all she ever did was push little Teddy on the swing. Like herself and his own mother he couldn't get enough of the damned thing. Andromeda had developed a bittersweet relationship with swings nowadays. They carried too many memories. Memories of her sisters and the way things were now. Thoughts of those she'd loved, those she'd lost. Her sisters, her daughter. She didn't want anything to do with swingsets during and after the second war. But now she had little Teddy to look after, and Merlin, he loved swinging.
He was a quick learner. Just five, but he already knew how to use his own momentum if he wanted to get higher. Which Andromeda had to admit she didn't hate; she was getting a bit older and it was hard after all she'd gone through to push him for so long. He didn't mind though, of course not, because swinging was his 'most favoritist thing in the world' and he would do anything to ensure it lasted as long as it possibly could. Today was no different. She gave him another push, and he giggled his contagious little giggle.
It reminded her of the good times, of the laughter swinging had brought throughout her life. She preferred remembering that instead of the sorrows. Remembering Narcissa laughing after she'd gotten scraped up from jumping off when the swing was too high, and Nymphadora screeching with laughter when she'd propelled herself all the way around one time. She gave him another push, a stronger one and he laughed again. She smiled, because at the end of the day everything was okay now. They were safe. That's what truly mattered.