Just The Way You Are: A Ronks Story

Werewolf

The bed that Tonks slept on was solid rock. Or at least it felt that way. Making up with Remus was nice, and now she had a friend, but it was clear that her bed was not her friend. A rat scampered out from under it when she sat down. The mattress hurt her back. The pillow hurt her neck and smelled like stale peppermints, Sirius's idea of an amazing smell.

Tonks tried to convince herself of the advantages of having a room that grimy. At least so one would bother her for fear that they'd get attacked by rats.

"Oh well, at least I'm not being forced to sleep outside," said Tonks. "It's really all right in here, maybe the rats will want to be friends?"

Sighing, Tonks knew in her heart that that wasn't the case.

After a restless night of tossing and turning, Tonks headed off to work at 7:00 A.M., armed with some coffee.

Mad-Eye was waiting for her outside the Ministry building, and grunted a greeting of, "You're late."

"It's only five minutes," panted Tonks, having run all the way to the Ministry.

"Come on," grunted Mad-Eye.

Tonks followed him into the air-conditioned space of the Ministry of Magic, shivering as she was hit with a blast of cold air. It had been cold and foggy enough outside.

When they reached the Auror Office, Mad-Eye turned away from it and headed down a flight of stairs. "Well, are you coming?" he asked.

"Where are you going?" asked a very confused Tonks.

"We've got to see Arthur today, no Auror work."

"Oh." Tonks turned around and followed Mad-Eye down the stairs. "Why can't we take the lift?"

"We'll get there faster using the stairs." Mad-Eye looked back at his tired protege. "It's your own fault you ran here. Why not apparate?"

"You can't apparate into this place anymore, don't you know that? How did you get here anyway?" Tonks made a mental bookmark to borrow her father's bike before she tried to make it to work without magic again.

"I apparated outside, you idiot!" Mad-Eye shook his head in disgust, and still mumbling to himself, he sped up.

Tonks jumped down the last three steps, nearly falling into a window.

"Be careful!" growled Mad-eye, showing that now was not a good time to make a trip to the emergency room.

"Sorry!" Tonks tried to match his pace, and tripped over her robe, falling flat on her face. "Ouch."

"TAKE IT AT A NORMAL SPEED!" roared Mad-Eye, causing some wizards and witches to look out of their office doors into the hall.

Tonks got up, and glared at all the people who had come out to stare. Mad-Eye grabbed her by the arm, and roughly yanked her to the last door in the hall, and knocked.

Tonks snatched her arm back, and tried to massage the feeling back into it.

Mr. Weasley opened the door. "Alastor! And Tonks! What a nice surprise! Come on in!"

Mad-Eye stalked into the office, and Tonks hurried in behind him.

"Tonks, that was quite the disturbance you caused in the hall," Mr. Weasly commented, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

"Oh, you saw that?" Tonks's face turned red with embarrassment.

"No, but I definitely heard that."

Tonks flopped into a chair, slouching low. "I'm so clumsy!"

"You're a good, uh, um, dog walker," said Mr. Weasley, trying to console Tonks.