"I really do not think that this is a good idea, Nymphadora."
"It's not meant to be either a good idea or a bad one. It's meant to be a fun idea."
She may or may not have said that a little bit too cheerfully than was necessary of the alarmed and disapproving face her mum was giving her was anything to go by.
"A dangerous one, you mean."
"It's only rollerblading," she said as she busied herself lacing them. "Rollerblading is fun."
"And how do you know this? You have never done any sort of rollerblading before."
"Well, it looks fun," she amended.
Was this boot on tight enough? Was it supposed to be tight? Your ankles weren't meant to wobble in them, right? That seemed like a hazard. But how tight was too tight? She didn't want to cut off her circulation or anything. Ouch! Like she was doing right now. Okay, let's try lacing those again. That felt a bit better but still secure. Okay, that should be her good to go. No, wait. She was going to be sensible about this and tuck the ends in. No point in tempting fate, after all. There. The ends were all even in like some sort of really untidy tapestry work. They were out of the way and that was all that mattered.
She looked up at her mum for approval but all Andromeda did was give her feet a pointed look and shake her head. Hmpf. Her feet looked good. Her feet looked excellent. She wiggled her feet with a smile at what was on them. It was a pair of these new inline ones that she had seen in the shops. Apparently, they were supposed to go a lot smoother than the ones that had their wheels arranged in a square. And smoother had to be better for her, right? Though, she wasn't really sure how she was supposed to stay upright on them but she was confident that she could figure it out.
She had seen people do all these cool tricks with them and she wasn't so stupid to think that she would be able to do them right away but she could work up to it, right? She would eventually be able to do these speedy turns and jumps and stuff. Though, she wasn't sure that you were ever going to get her on a ramp but none of that mattered right now because first she had to learn how to rollerblade. Right. She could do this.
The rollerblades were firmly on her feet. She was outside. The driveway was in front of her and clear. Ready to go.
Now, how did she ger up and balance without falling flat on her face? Huh. She hadn't thought of that. She tentatively tried to push herself up like you would if you were just standing up. That made her feet go outwards alarmingly so she stopped that. Nope. That wasn't how you did it. Feet together. Feet together. How was she supposed to get up without moving her feet like that?
Eventually, she did get it. A couple of false starts and she definitely felt like she was going to do a cartwheel that one time. But she did get jt. She was now upright in them. Woo! Progress. She pumped her fist in the air in celebration and then quickly put her hand back down when she wobbled. Whoops. No sudden movements. She had to be careful about this. She didn't want to end up on her arse just as soon as she got upright. No, let's save that for when she actually got moving. Not that she actually wanted to end up on her arse or anything.
One foot forward and then the other. But both feet had to stay in contact with the ground so it wasn't a step she had to take it was kind of like a glide...
Like that! Look at that! She was rollerblading! Sure, it was in a kind of slow glide but still! It was something! Cool! This was cool! It wasn't that hard either. Foot up (okay, so her feet didn't always stay in contact with ground, not if she wanted to get some distance), down and glide, repeat with the other and then keep on repeating the same two actions. She was doing it! This felt so cool!
Back and forth. Back and forth. Alongside crashing into the lamppost to stop (using the brakes on her heels made her feel a bit unsteady so crashing into things to stop it was).
Okay, she had got the speed bit down and it was just as fun as it looked. The world went whizzing by and it almost felt like she was flying. Almost. It was pretty cool. She could see why muggles liked it. She certainly did.
A jump. She wanted to be able to jump in them. Just a little jump, nothing too fancy. Just get in the air a bit and then she bet she would feel even more like she was in the air. That and it would be pretty cool.
Glide, glide, get a bit of speed, pish off a bit harder, take a deep breath and then jump. Yes! Both feet left the ground! Look at that! She was in the air!
A feeling that was over all too soon as she landed. Except, she didn't land. Well, she did. And then one foot slipped. And the other. And then she was on the ground. Against her will.
She looked down at her wrist which was definitely not meant to be bent that way. And then the pain came. Owwwww.
Okay, maybe her rollerblading journey was going to be a short one after all. Speaking of journeys, why did she have to end up so far away from her house?
[xxxxxx]
It turned out that it was incredibly awkward and painful to take rollerblades off when you had one good hand and the other being broken. Well, that's what she suspected and she had dealt with more than her fair share of broken bones over the years so she was pretty confident in her assessment. Maybe she should have gone into Healing instead of fighting. That would have been an extremely useful career choice for her even if it was frowned upon to heal yourself. Unfortunately, knowing that didn't make taking her rollerblades off one-handed any easier.
Of course, this meant that she had to walk back to her house in her socks while holding her wrist at a weird angle and the other hand very tightly held onto her rollerblades. Yeah, it wasn't really a pleasant experience. She had one broken wrist on one hand and now a cramp going through the other. Great. Just great. Ow! She had to pay attention to what she was doing or else she moved about too much. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.
You never did get used to the pain of a broken bone. Trust her, this was something she had a stupid amount of knowledge on. It was always sore. It wasn't always the same type of pain - that could vary from a prickly pain to stabbing to all-encompassing - but pain was pain and she did not like it. Hence her wanting to get rid of it as soon as possible. How in Merlin's name had she managed to get so far from the house?
She did eventually get there, and a whole street had never felt so long.
"Mu-um!" She called as she awkwardly came into the house.
She had hand to open the door by leaning on the handle with her elbow. The one with rollerblades in hand. She almost slipped down the door before getting it open. But she did get it open and now she was standing awkwardly in the hall.
"Nymphadora?"
She was upstairs. Right. Tonks looked at the stairs in askance. She didn't think she could get up them easily and, knowing her luck, she would just fall down them getting herself even more injured.
"Uh, I need your help!"
"Pardon?"
"I need you to fox something for me!"
There was silence and then her mother said in an exasperated voice.
"You hurt yourself, didn't you?"
"Yes..."
"What did I tell you, Nymphadora?" Andromeda said as she came running over with her wand outstretched, ready to heal her.
Honestly, kt wasn't fair. How come when her mum ran, she looked all graceful yet when she did, she looked awkward and half the time ended up falling flat on her face?
"Can you tell me off after you've fixed my wrist, please?" She requested through gritted teeth.
Broken wrists always hurt so much. She never had got used to it despite her breaking at least one wrist about once a year.
"I can do one better and tell you off while I heal your wrist," Andromeda said.
Despite that, her mum didn't actually scold her as she carefully set her arm on the table, straightening it as gently as she could (Tonks had to bite her tongue to stop from shouting out) before tapping it with her wand making Tonks feel the familiar warmth flood through her bones. That was always a weird feeling. A very welcome one but still weird.
"So, about you being completely ridiculous-" Andromeda began while Tonks groaned.