Harry Potter ficlet
Title: It's Not A Joke
Characters: Tonks, Moody, Shacklebolt
Rating: teen
Prompt: Tonks & Moody friendship, "with these kinds of role models, who needs cautionary tales?", written for the Awesome Ladies Ficathon
Wordcount: ~370 word
Summary: When word gets out that Mad-Eye has made Tonks his protégé, her fellow Aurors laugh.
When word gets out that Mad-Eye has made Tonks his protégé, her fellow Aurors laugh. But it's an uncomfortable laugh, the kind where their chuckles become chokes a second later when they remember that terribly important report Scrimgeour requested.
Tonks is old enough to remember the war. It's why she became an Auror, determined to never tremble again at the top of the stairway while her mom cries in the living room. She's young enough to blush just so when Mad-Eye's wildly rotating eye comes to rest on her after a successful hex, and he growls something under his breath, and he nods.
He wakes her up in the middle of the night, screaming her down if she doesn't reach for her wand first thing. He teaches her to know what's in her back, always, and to never enter alleys if she doesn't know exactly where they lead. When he learns she almost flunked her Apparation test back when, his lips grow thin and he drills her day and night, weeks at a time, until she can do it while cursed.
Not much later, she has started checking her wand for scratches whenever her hands aren't busy, and when Williamson levitates it away from her in training, she Apparates in front of him without thinking, kicking him in the balls.
The Aurors still snicker.
First day of Aurors' training, back before she even knew about the Order, she heard them making fun of Moody.
"Thing is this," Kingsley Shacklebolt had told her back then, noticing her looks. "Who would you say is the most paranoid person you've ever heard of?"
"Alastor Moody," she'd said, her voice a question, because, there was no point to that one.
Kingsley had given her a sage nod. "And who's the most successful Auror to survive the war?"
Remembering her mother's cries and childhood panic, Tonks has never even thought to chuckle about Moody.
It's war again now. Dawlish has started drawing his wand at every sudden move, and Proudfoot refuses to visit Diagon Alley in his free time - too many Wizards in one place. Williamson is dead.
Tonks still checks on her wand all the time. Nobody laughs about anything now.
Characters: Tonks, Moody, Shacklebolt
Rating: teen
Prompt: Tonks & Moody friendship, "with these kinds of role models, who needs cautionary tales?", written for the Awesome Ladies Ficathon
Wordcount: ~370 word
Summary: When word gets out that Mad-Eye has made Tonks his protégé, her fellow Aurors laugh.
When word gets out that Mad-Eye has made Tonks his protégé, her fellow Aurors laugh. But it's an uncomfortable laugh, the kind where their chuckles become chokes a second later when they remember that terribly important report Scrimgeour requested.
Tonks is old enough to remember the war. It's why she became an Auror, determined to never tremble again at the top of the stairway while her mom cries in the living room. She's young enough to blush just so when Mad-Eye's wildly rotating eye comes to rest on her after a successful hex, and he growls something under his breath, and he nods.
He wakes her up in the middle of the night, screaming her down if she doesn't reach for her wand first thing. He teaches her to know what's in her back, always, and to never enter alleys if she doesn't know exactly where they lead. When he learns she almost flunked her Apparation test back when, his lips grow thin and he drills her day and night, weeks at a time, until she can do it while cursed.
Not much later, she has started checking her wand for scratches whenever her hands aren't busy, and when Williamson levitates it away from her in training, she Apparates in front of him without thinking, kicking him in the balls.
The Aurors still snicker.
First day of Aurors' training, back before she even knew about the Order, she heard them making fun of Moody.
"Thing is this," Kingsley Shacklebolt had told her back then, noticing her looks. "Who would you say is the most paranoid person you've ever heard of?"
"Alastor Moody," she'd said, her voice a question, because, there was no point to that one.
Kingsley had given her a sage nod. "And who's the most successful Auror to survive the war?"
Remembering her mother's cries and childhood panic, Tonks has never even thought to chuckle about Moody.
It's war again now. Dawlish has started drawing his wand at every sudden move, and Proudfoot refuses to visit Diagon Alley in his free time - too many Wizards in one place. Williamson is dead.
Tonks still checks on her wand all the time. Nobody laughs about anything now.