Chapter Text
- Chapter Nine -
In Rooms With No Eyes
Tonks grinned at her in spite of his blushing cheeks, leaning against the kitchen counter for a moment.
‘Well, what would you like this to be, Ms Black?’
She almost laughed at the absurdity of his question.
‘I believe I asked you first.’ she replied evenly, keeping her smile wide.
‘No, you didn’t. You said a statement. I asked you a question.’
Andromeda straightened her gloves. ‘You are being rather childish.’
‘And you’re avoiding my question.’ He moved further into the kitchen, chuckling, looking about her kitchen with interest. ‘But it’s all right, we’ll shelve that one for later. You said you hadn’t eaten all day, so let’s get you something to eat.’
‘I never said such a thing.’ Andromeda dismissed. ‘I only said I hadn’t eaten properly.’
‘Who’s being childish now, eh?’ He narrowed his eyes playfully. ‘Go on, sit down. I’ll sort out your tea.’
‘But you don’t know where –’
‘I promise, I can manage a plate and some cutlery all on my own. I’m a grown man.’
Tonks set about opening her cupboards and drawers at random while she stood in the doorway, ever so slightly baffled.
‘Should I give you a clue?’ Andromeda asked, as Tonks opened the nearest cupboard, chancing on her collection of cookbooks. She had bought various cookbooks over the years and liked to make notes in the margin as she went through a recipe, noting where she had made any changes or what she had thought of the end result.
‘You’re all right.’ he replied, disconcertingly cheerful, pulling out one of her cookbooks and flicking through it. ‘I’m telling you, us Aurors have an instinct for this kind of thing.’
‘Yes, I can see that.’
He grinned, turning the book on its side to read one of her notes in the recipe he had landed on. Flicking to another random page, he scanned over more of her notes, chuckling to himself.
‘I like this.’ Tonks said, tilting the book towards her to reveal a rather grotesque, and yet alarmingly accurate, drawing of her aunt Walburga scrawled in the top corner of the page.
Andromeda laughed lightly. ‘Oh, that. That looks like my nephews’ handiwork.’
‘It’s good. I like it.’ Tonks looked closer at the drawing. ‘Very abstract. Very Picasso.’
‘Picasso?’
‘Muggle painter.’ he clarified, smiling as he carefully replaced the cookbook. ‘How old are they?’
‘Eleven and eight – and quite a handful as you can imagine.’
Whether Tonks let out a cry of delight because he now chanced on the glasses with the next cupboard he opened or because of the age of her nephews, she wasn’t sure.
‘So the eldest must be off to Hogwarts soon?’ he said, helping himself to a glass. ‘D’you want one as well?’
‘Yes, please.’ She watched him fill the glasses with water and bring her one before answering, inclining her head in thanks. ‘I believe I am taking Sirius shopping for his school things. My aunt prefers to defer such things to more patient family members.’
‘My sister got pregnant young but she’s now doing uni part time, so I try help out where I can.’ Tonks said, nodding knowingly. ‘Gwen’s a sweetheart really, but she has her days, that’s for sure.’
‘Your sister Tilly, wasn’t it?’ Andromeda took a sip of water before continuing. ‘She sounds rather wonderful.’
Tonks’ grin was uninhibited and rather disarming. ‘She is. They both are.’
He returned to his search, opening the fridge with a dramatic flourish.
‘I do not think you will find my plates in there.’
‘Yeah, but, you owning a fridge was not on my bingo card.’ He stooped down to peruse her shelves. ‘It feels a bit too Muggle.’
‘My uncle converts such things to be compatible with magic.’
‘What?’ Momentarily stunned, Tonks extracted his head from the fridge to gawp at her. ‘Your kicked-off-the-school-board-for-Muggle-baiting uncle Orion?’
She covered her mouth as she laughed. ‘No, no, a different uncle of mine. My uncle Alphard.’
‘Of course there’s more of you.’ Tonks muttered to himself, but he had returned his attention to the contents of her fridge.
‘He isn’t much like the rest of my family.’ she said.
‘Like you then.’ His words felt like a balm and a slap all at once. Her cheeks had long forgotten how to blush but there was a rather threatening tickle of heat there all the same. Fortunately, Tonks’ next discovery spared her from responding to this, ‘hang on, is this blood?’
He held out a vial she normally kept right at the back of the fridge, protected under extensive Preserving Charms.
‘It is for potion-making.’ she said, taking a steadying sip of water. ‘There are more potion ingredients in the bottom drawer.’
‘You put me to shame, Ms Black.’ he replied, replacing the vial and closing the fridge door. ‘Shouldn’t say this too loudly, but I nearly failed that part of Auror training.’
‘Oh, I’m no potion-maker, but my mother always taught me a well-run household has all the basics available.’
Tonks snorted. ‘I grew up in organised chaos – there’s no one that’d describe it as well-run, not even my parents.’
‘My mother despises chaos.’
Anything in her childhood that had been even considered putting the slightest toe out of line was quickly punished. Her left-handedness had been the first misstep. It had set her up from the start to be something to be corrected. Casting spells with her right hand was possible but difficult and initially very clumsy. Bellatrix, blessed with a dominant right hand as she was, had been quick to learn and progress, while Andromeda had struggled desperately to follow in her footsteps.
‘My parents tried so hard to keep things tidy.’ He laughed suddenly. ‘God, I remember they used to try combine tidy-up time with hide and seek. We’d go off and hide and they’d run about trying to clear up as much as possible while we were out the way. When I got older, I joined in while Tilly hid and then she got older, and now it’s like a code word for tidying.’
Andromeda had hidden in her wardrobe on the nights she knew her father would come looking for her. Folded in between the hanging robes, muffling the sounds of her breathing, she would listen for her bedroom door, listen for her father’s footsteps as he entered the room. There in the wardrobe she was safe, he never found her. At breakfast the next day, Bellatrix would say Andromeda had spent the night with her. It was the nights when her sister had not been at home where she had had to remain in her bed in wait.
She all but jumped to her feet, her heart suddenly pumping madly. Her insides winced at the movement.
‘I must use the bathroom, please excuse me.’
If Tonks was surprised by her abrupt departure, she had shut herself away in the downstairs bathroom before he could say anything.
Her breathing was quick to follow her, propelled by the slamming bathroom door into short, sharp breathes. She stumbled over to the sink. The tap did not seem to be in focus. Her vision was shrinking, blurring.
‘It’s all right.’ she said, gripping at the edges of the sink. ‘He can’t find you.’
But there had been a night where he had found her.
‘He’s not here.’ she mumbled, almost pleading with herself. ‘I promise.’
Air was fleeing her lungs now. Her grip slackened. She could not see where she was.
‘You gave me a taste for scared little virgins.’
That time in the broom cupboard at school. She had been so aware of her body. Bellatrix had told her she must do it. Her father would be furious she had shared herself with another. They all told her not to tell anyone.
‘Oh, Salazar, he really is dead.’ Lettie said, her grip on the shovel suddenly slack. ‘You can’t stay here, Meda. We’ll find another way.’
‘I can’t leave Cissy.’ Andromeda whispered into the wind, into her bathroom sink, the tears then as real as the tears now.
Her breathing began to slow.
She caught sight of herself in the mirror, hastily wiping her tears away because daughters of the House of Black did not cry. Focusing her mind, she ran her hands through her hair and her appearance restored itself to one of order and calm. The blood of her blotchy cheeks receded as did that of her reddened pupils.
Her breathing was not yet quite what it should be.
There was a gentle knock on the bathroom door.
‘You all right, Ms Black?’ Tonks asked softly from the other side of the door.
Andromeda glanced at her reflection to reaffirm her appearance was now presentable.
‘Yes, of course.’ she answered, making sure to add a bright, positive inflection to her tone. ‘I’ll be with you in a moment.’
‘You’ve been in there over 10 minutes.’ It was not an accusation, but the concern in his voice felt to her as much of a threat as if he had shouted it.
‘I assure you, Superintendent, I am quite well.’
She heard him smile. ‘Not very well then?’
Tears welled in her eyes anew.
‘Why must you be so pedantic?’
‘Some might call it being an Auror.’ Tonks cleared his throat. ‘Do – do you want to talk about it?’
‘No – I mean – if it’s all the same to you… I’d rather not, if – if that’s all right.’
‘’Course it is.’ She heard him take some steps away from the bathroom door. ‘I’ll get your tea plated up, you take your time.’
Andromeda dabbed at newly accumulated tears with her gloved hands. ‘Thank you, Tonks.’
‘Just let me know if someone needs arresting. I can do that too.’
She let out a watery laugh before returning to the mirror to correct her appearance once more.