Just The Way You Are: A Ronks Story

From Andromeda Tonks

The next morning, Tonks was playing chase with Sneakers before Remus even woke up. He was still snoring soundly as Tonks chased Sneakers around the room, giggling wildly. The German Shepherd, Sneakers's faithful husband, was in the yard. Tonks quietly snuck out to let him in, and soon the three of them were happily playing.

"Hehehe, you're gonna wake up Remus," giggled Tonks. "He isn't going to be happy. Oh, stop it, Richard," (the German Shepherd's name), "Stop it!" Tonks  was now laughing at top volume, as Richard playfully prodded her stomach with a paw.

"I don't want to go to school, mother," moaned Remus sleepily. "Homeschool me. Chop me up. Decapitate me. ANYTHING beside send me to school! The kids will be so mean, and--"

"Uh, Remus, you are a grown man of thirty-five, and you don't have to go to school. Your mother is somewhere in Florida, and why would she decapitate you?" Tonks sat back on her heels and stared at the bed, wondering whether or not Remus needed a therapist.

"Oh. How do you know how old I am?"

"Magic!" replied Tonks, waving her hands like a magician. 

"Oh, cut it out," snorted Remus, amused at this Muggle remark. "Anyway, why does it feel like an extremely large lion is breathing into my face. Is this a dream? It all seems very real. I can smell its breath, it smells like ham, and I can feel its nails digging into my chest. Is this real?"

"Uh..." said Tonks, debating whether or not she should tell Remus about Richard. "No, no, this is all a dream."

"There's a giant dog sitting on my head and chest, isn't there," said Remus flatly.

"You could say," said Tonks.

Remus shoved the dog off of him. Richard happily barked. Sirens sounded outside the house.

"What's that?" asked Remus.

Tonks ran to the window and looked out into the backyard. "Curse the window position!" she snarled, and ran out of the room, colliding with Sirius in the hallway, and then racing him to the front door. "They can't see us, right?" asked Tonks.

"As long as we're inside the front yard, then no."

"Okay," said Tonks. She walked right up to the gate. An ambulance was pulling up. Five men with a stretcher raced into the house next door. "That's where Richard came from!" Tonks whispered loudly.

"They can't hear us either." Sirius stuffed his hands in his pockets and rolled his eyes. Tonks could tell he felt bad for whoever was hurt. The men came back out carrying an elderly woman on a stretcher. Tonks's hands flew to her mouth.

"Oh my God!" gasped the Auror, her voice muffled by her hands. She sounded shocked.

"I'd hate for it to end this way for me." Sirius scuffed at the ground. Remus joined them, still in his pajamas,  with Richard and Sneakers at his heels. Upon seeing the woman on the stretcher, Richard whined and barked at the gate. He jumped up to it, and Remus pulled him back by the scruff of his neck. The dog whimpered.

"Sorry boy," said Remus. "But we can't risk being seen."

The trio plus two dogs watched the ambulance drive away.

"That was scary," whispered Tonks. "That seems really frightening."

"Yeah," said Sirius sadly. "And it wasn't even one of us dying. It seems impossible that someone we never knew could make us feel so... sad."

"Just goes to show  how fragile life is," said Remus. He brushed a few stray hairs away from his eyes. Tonks quietly went inside without a word. Remus and Sirius stood staring off down the path that the ambulance had taken.