Just The Way You Are: A Ronks Story

Hide and Seek

Later that night, Mrs. Weasley decided to bake a chocolate cake in celebration of her childrens' arrival, and remained shut in the kitchen while she baked, humming to herself. Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny were slamming Quidditch balls into each other, and trying to knock each other off of their brooms. They seemed like they were having fun.

Remus was sitting in a chair, content with the fact that he could just curl up and read. He also had a large supply of dark chocolate, the kind that everyone he knew except for him hated.

Sirius had built an obstacle course of paper towel rolls and books, and was now trying to coax Sneakers through it. They had all reached the conclusion that Sneakers should be Tonks's dog, for she was the one that had found the puppy, but Tonks let anyone who wanted to play with Sneakers, as long as they played nicely and didn't hurt the little dog. Sneakers appeared to be a Cairn Terrier. Her face was gray, framed by tan fur, and her legs were a beautiful silver, changing to a tan farther up her body. She was definitely a beautiful dog.

The only person who seemed unhappy was Tonks, who was feverishly filling out a paper for the Ministry. There was an entire stack of work, about six inches high, for her to do. Tonks was ready to cry, and hurriedly wiped a few tears from her eyes.

To Remus and Sirius, she seemed perfectly happy. So it was a big surprise when she suddenly burst into tears.

Remus looked up, sighing and wondering when he was actually going to get through a book without something interrupting him.

Sirius seemed a bit shocked as he saw his cousin heaving with sobs, her head on her knees.

"What's wrong?" asked Remus in a tired voice filled with impatience to get back to his book.

"I just can't do all this!" sobbed Tonks.

"What do you mean?" Remus popped another chocolate square into his mouth. It wasn't hard for Tonks to see why he had been a good teacher at Hogwarts. It seemed he was indifferent whether or not someone was bleeding, on fire, drowning, or crying their heart out into an increasingly wet piece of paper. He just wasn't easily upset.

"Yeah, Nymphie," said Sirius, hoping to get a smile, or even a 'It's Tonks!' out of Tonks. "What's up?"

"I just can't do all this work!" Tonks wailed.

"What work?" joked Sirius. "Could it be that infinitesimal piece of paper?"

"You know it isn't infinite!"

"Infinitesimal," corrected Sirius.

"Infested."

"Infinitesimal."

Tonks cried even harder.

"What do you mean you can't do all of this? You just do it, is all!" Remus was exasperated. Out of all the complaints that he could have gotten from Tonks, it was... work?

Remus, seeing that he was just making Tonks even sadder by sounding annoyed, tried again. "I see the problem," said Remus.

Tonks sniffled and dragged her sleeve across her eyes. "Hmm?"

"You've been working too hard," said Remus. "I suggest that you take a load off tonight, and just watch a movie or something. I heard Molly telling Arthur that she needed a break and we're going to watch Racing in the Rain; My life as a dog."

Author's note: So, my teacher handed out novels, and they were Racing in the Rain. The kids' novel. But he accidentally played the adults' audiobook, and he realized it too late. :)

"But this is due next week!" Tonks seemed stressed out at the thought of not finishing her work in time.

"I know," said Remus gently. It felt good to be able to sympathize with someone. He was tired of being a teacher and acting calm and not caring. He'd quit his position as the DADA teacher two years ago, but he found that teaching had just stuck with him, and suddenly found himself having to be nice and calm all of the time, to just listen to people's troubles and nod, and maybe give advice. He felt like teaching at Hogwarts had made him more mature. He'd stopped getting angry at people. But now...