"Daddy!" shrieked Tonks. "I got one!"
"Got a what?" asked Ted Tonks, who was sitting in the shade peacefully while his five year old daughter played in the shallow creek. He had been asleep before Tonks had awoken him with her joyful shout.
"A tadpole! Really, daddy, you should have known that."
"Oh, well, put him back."
"No way! I'm keeping him!" Tonks grasped the poor tadpole even tighter.
"All right," sighed Ted, who could see that he was fighting a losing battle. "We'll keep him. But you have to take good care of him. Also, quit squeezing him like that."
"Okay," Tonks agreed. She filled her pail with water and gently set the tadpole in it. It swam in circles in its cage.
Ted peered into the pail, which Tonks held up higher for him to see, sloshing a wave of water onto her shirt.
"Tonks, careful! You're spilling!" Ted backed up. He felt no attachment to the tiny creature swimming around in the bucket, yet he felt sorry for it. He resolved to return it to the water that night when Tonks was asleep. She wouldn't care, he knew, if he made up a story about how it had wanted to go back to its family. She knew how important family was, especially in these dark times.
As Tonks happily skipped down the side walk with her tadpole held captive in her pail, she hummed happily. She liked the tadpole, but even better, she liked the feeling of being responsible for a creature smaller than she was. Sure, there was the cat, but Bootsie didn't exactly like it when she played dress-up with him. He didn't like anyone except for Andromeda, Tonks's mother. That was fine with Tonks. Sometimes she played that she was a noble Auror, fighting the bad guys.
Bootsie was the bad guy.
When Ted and Tonks arrived home, they found Andromeda shutting all the blinds. She hustled her daughter and husband in, wrinkled her nose at the tadpole, and locked the door.
"What's going on, Mommy?" asked Tonks.
"Nothing, dear, just take your tadpole upstairs to your room, I need to talk to your father."
"No!" yelled Tonks, scaring the tadpole so that it splashed water into her face.
Ted sighed, and told Tonks to put the tadpole in the old fish tank with some water and watch it for a while. Tonks did this, and watched, enthralled as the tadpole continued to swim around in circles.
Tonks's mind wandered from the tadpole to her older cousin Sirius. She hoped he would visit again. He would tell her stories and jokes about him and his friends. They had formed a group called the Marauders. Tonks didn't believe him. It sounded too much like a fairy tale.
That night, when her mother came to tuck her in , Tonks asked, "When will Sirius visit again?"
Andromeda's mouth formed a hard line. Taking a deep breath, she answered, "Tonks... Something happened to Sirius today."
Tonks felt all the air go out of her, and she hugged her teddy bear tight. Thinking that something had happened to Sirius made her feel scared, and cold. Nothing ever happened to her older cousin, nothing. He was invincible.
Andromeda went on to explain about how he'd gone to jail for killing one of his best friends. Tonks felt sick, thinking about it. After her mother left, Tonks grasped her bear even tighter, and, as the tears poured down her face, the horrible realization that she might never see Sirius again hit her, and she cried even harder.
That was when she knew that all the amazing and wonderful things the Marauders had done were nothing but stories. Fairy tales.
"Nymphadora!" barked Mad-Eye.
"Hmm?" asked Tonks. She lifted her head off of the Auror report she was filling out for a stolen broom.
Mad-Eye shook his head. His protege, only twenty-two, needed more sleep. She drank at least five cups of coffee every day in an attempt to keep herself awake, but it didn't work. Every time he passed her cubicle that served as her office, he found her dozing off or staring at a piece of paper with a blank expression on her face.
"I know, I know," sighed Tonks. "Stay awake. Got it. I'm just so tired."
"So? Go to bed earlier!"
"Can't," yawned Tonks. "I have to write boring reports about stolen brooms. When can I have more exciting work?"
"Tonks, look, your mother doesn't want you to get blown to pieces. If anything happens to you..." Mad-Eye tried to reason with Tonks.
"So? I'm not five anymore!" snapped Tonks.
"Hmm," said Mad-Eye. "Fine, give me your stolen broom papers, I'll do them tonight. You need to get some rest."
As tempting as the offer sounded to Tonks, she shook her head.
"No? Why? You're always complaining about your work!"
"I still have to do it," said Tonks, looking down at her hands. "I can't slack off just because I'm the youngest here. No one actually trusts me, so I have to earn their trust. And what does that say about me if I can't even do the stupid stolen broom papers?"
"Yeah, what does that say about you if you keep falling asleep on the job?" asked Mad-Eye.
Tonks's face reddened, and she stared at the report she'd been filling out. She felt like crying.
"If you let me do your broom reports, I'll give you another assignment to do. A secret one," said MAd-Eye, knowing that would catch Tonks's interest.
"What kind?" Tonks squinted suspiciously at Mad-Eye.
"First you have to agree."
"Fine." Tonks rolled her eyes. "I agree. Happy?"
Mad-Eye ignored this last bit. "Meet me in two hours in my office."
"Okay," said Tonks. She handed her reports to Mad-Eye and picked up a book she'd been trying to finish for a few weeks. It was pretty good, really, and she wanted to finish it.
Tonks found herself completely immersed in the book, so engaged that she didn't notice when Kingsley snuck up on her and began reading over her shoulder.
"Dave's eyes hardened, filling with an anger so great that it--" Kingsley was cut off by Tonks jumping a foot in the air and dropping her book.
"Sheesh, Kingsley!" Tonks whirled around angrily. "What?"
"Sorry, Tonks, I just came to say hi," shrugged Kingsley.
"How nice. Go away." Tonks glared at him furiously.
"Mad-Eye sent me to to remind you to come to his office soon."
"Oh, I completely forgot!" Tonks jumped up. "And don't you dare tell him!" She dashed off down the hall to whatever awaited her.
