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Aurora Sinstra (amongthestars) wrote in wished,
@ 2010-01-17 21:43:00

Entry tags:

!1998: 01, !incomplete, aurora sinistra, nymphadora tonks

Who: Aurora Sinistra & Nymphadora Tonks
When: 17th January, 1998
Where: Scotland: Hogwarts - Great Hall
What: Tonks and Sinistra patrol the grounds of Hogwarts.
Rating: PG

Out of all the duties required of her as a professor at Hogwarts, Aurora Sinistra could easily tell you that patrols were her second least favourite one. Her least favourite was teaching students, of course, as a majority of them found sleep to be more important than her craft or were completely hopeless when it came to simple star charts.

The handful of students that were intelligent enough to keep up with what she had to teach were too far and in between to make the experience anything more than absolutely dreadful, but it wasn't for the first time (nor would it be the last) that she reminded herself that she would have to push on. Dumbledore may have been dead, but she still felt like a great debt was owed to the late Headmaster.

The more selfish part of her thought Hogwarts and the many rooms and resources it had to offer were incentive enough to stick around. Just as long as these new decrees wouldn't affect her personal studies, she saw no reason to leave the school. For the moment, anyway.

But she knew that if she ever did leave, she would be happy to rid of herself of the menial tasks that she thought were better left to Filch. Patrolling the grounds? Honestly. The Prefects were capable of doing the job themselves, if not the glorified janitor.

She was a few minutes early to where she had told Nymphadora to meet her. By her stance and look of distaste on her face, it was easy to see that she was already irritated. It didn't take much for Aurora to reach that point and merely the thought of being forced to patrol was enough.

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nymphadarling
2010-01-18 03:14 am UTC (link)

Tonks's robe had come off, the news was out, and she had no idea what to do now.

Had Aurora not reminded her of their patrol duties that night, it would have slipped Tonks's mind completely. There were much bigger things jostling for attention up there now, and had patrol been with anyone other than Aurora--or taken place at any point other than when a student had just been attacked by an overly large spider--she would have claimed a headache and stayed in her quarters.

But she had a duty, and now the very last thing she needed was to give Minerva another reason to fire her. So she arrived exactly on time, having forgotten to grab her robes again as she rushed out the door. There was no need to hide anything anymore anyway. She had plans to tell Minerva tomorrow, and whatever came of that simply could not be helped.

"Wotcher," she said, too worried and inside her own head to bother acknowledging Aurora's irritation. "Let's do this, shall we?"

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amongthestars
2010-01-18 03:29 am UTC (link)

Aurora arched an eyebrow in disapproval as the younger woman finally showed, though a hint of surprised touched her normally cool features as she took Tonks in. There was something decidedly...off about the woman. It took a second before her eyes reached the woman's stomach, but when they did, her other eyebrow joined the first in trying to reach her hairline.

A smile, void of any friendliness, crossed her face as she abruptly turned and started to walk in the direction of their assigned path. "Yes, of course. Try to keep up, darling. Having one too many slices of dessert doesn't excuse you from doing so, now does it?"

This was only the beginning of a long line of fat jokes, Sinistra thought, and the prospect of that night was suddenly turning out to more tolerable than she had first expected.

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nymphadarling
2010-01-18 03:40 am UTC (link)

Tonks wasn't so deep in her own thoughts that she didn't notice the look Aurora gave her, and she crossed her arms over her chest self-consciously. No doubt it was just the first of many disparaging comments, and better to get it out now while there was other news circulating the castle than to let it wait.

She didn't bother returning Aurora's smile. "Is that really the best you can do?" she said blandly. "All that dust in the tower must've invaded your brain, you poor thing."

She kept up easily, wand in her hand in case it was necessary. Never any reason to let one's guard down, after all.

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amongthestars
2010-01-18 05:18 am UTC (link)

It wasn't as if Aurora gossiped with the other professors or students, though the ancient urge was still there. While Aurora might have not thought much of Tonks, she didn't plan to lower herself to gossiping about what was surely a pregnancy.

Or an abnormally large food baby. For Tonks' sake, Aurora truly hoped it was just weight and not a baby. She might not like the Hufflepuff, but Hogwarts was not a place for pregnant women right then. Not many places in the wizarding world were.

"The night is still young," Aurora pointed out, who was the very definition of a 'night owl.' "Too late for a jog around the castle though,I suppose. Pity, you could use one." She glanced at her companion from the corner of her eyes, once again taking the bump clearly visible without the robes that Tonks normally wore. "So I have to ask, Nymphadora. Big dinner or are we to expect you to spawn, as terrifying as the thought is?"

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nymphadarling
2010-01-18 05:29 am UTC (link)

Ah, there they were. At least Aurora had the gall to ask the blunt question. "I jog as much as I can," she said blandly. "At least three times a week, up through Hogsmeade and back. It's nice. You ought to join me sometime."

She took a breath and considered lying, but that would go nowhere. It wasn't as if she could hide it forever. "Both," she said. "The food here is better than my mother's cooking."

There. At least it was out now and they wouldn't be dancing around it all night.

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amongthestars
2010-01-18 05:43 am UTC (link)

"I'll take my chances and not, thank you very much." Climbing these dreadful stairs every day were exercise enough for Aurora. She had never been particularly athletic, though she had participated in yoga on a bi-weekly basis. At least, when she could be bothered to pull herself away from her many little Astronomy projects.

Starting the climb up one of the many moving staircases Hogwarts had to offer, she did marginally slow her pace so that Tonks wouldn't have to powerwalk to stay at the same pace. The move was unconscious and Aurora would have vehemently denied being anything resembling nice to Tonks, for it.

"I don't suppose you know who the father is then?" Had they still been students at Hogwarts, the term 'slag' would have rolled off her tongue without thought.

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nymphadarling
2010-01-18 06:12 am UTC (link)

Tonks eyed Aurora out of the corner of her eye. "Your loss," she said, and as an afterthought she added as an unnecessary (and untrue) barb, "You could do with losing a few pounds yourself, though I suppose there isn't much need to pay attention to your personal appearance when you keep to yourself like you do. You're lucky in that way."

Tonks had little trouble keeping up, and what little difficulty she had was due to her petite stature, which put her at nearly half a foot shorter than Aurora. She wasn't so heavy yet that the extra weight was getting to her, or so she liked to think.

"I've no idea," she said airily. "Though you might want to ask my fiance. He might know."

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amongthestars
2010-01-18 06:46 am UTC (link)

Just because Aurora was slender, didn't mean she was healthy. It was likely that Tonks could beat her in a foot race any day, pregnant or not, because it was ridiculous how good of a point Tonks made when she said Aurora should go running. Because yes, it wasn't healthy to spend all that time up in the Astronomy Tower. But good luck to anyone that tried to get her to say that. "Do pregnancy hormones make one delusional? I wonder..."

Reaching the next landing, she took off down the corridor, speeding up to let Tonks play catch up if she wished. While Aurora may insist that she didn't care how she looked in front of others, she was vain to the core.

"A fiancé you say? Did we get pregnant to trap the poor man then? That would explain so much."

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nymphadarling
2010-01-18 07:04 am UTC (link)

"No more so than stale air and lack of human contact," said Tonks easily. "Less so, I'd imagine." She made a mental note to talk to Minerva about partnering her with someone who wasn't so tiresomely nasty, though it was a relief from the other stresses in her life.

Tonks made no move to quicken her pace to join her. They hardly had to walk side by side to do a proper patrol, after all, and if Aurora got too far ahead, she would be the one to have to stop. "Would it?" she said in the same mild tone she'd been using for the rest of the conversation. "I suppose that would be the only way someone like you could ever hope to find someone to vow to put up with you for the rest of their life, but not all of us have that problem."

As it happened, that was a touchy subject for Tonks at that point. All of her enthusiasm for marrying Remus had disappeared with this revelation, overtaken by her worry that he would only go through with it because he felt obligated. That wasn't what Tonks wanted. Stigma be damned; she would've much rather remained unmarried for the rest of her life than stand beside a man who didn't want to stand beside her with everything he was.

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amongthestars
2010-01-18 08:03 am UTC (link)

It was times like this when she wished Snape wasn't some sort of murderous bastard. Because for all his faults (and Dumbledore's death was not the only fault), he had been the sort to be quiet on patrols or share in her contempt of the useless students attending this miserable little school. Not many people understood her desire to keep to herself. Snape had and it had been one of his redeeming qualities.

Before he had gone and killed the Headmaster, that is.

"If I had wanted to marry, I wouldn't need to use a child a sick sort of bait, Nymphadora. I find it telling that you aren't denying it," Aurora called back over her shoulder, though she did even her paces out so that she didn't move too far ahead.

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nymphadarling
2010-01-18 08:25 am UTC (link)

It was times like this when Tonks also wished for silence. She wasn't purposely instigating Aurora, as pleasant a past time as it was to ruffle her feathers. Merely retaliating as mildly as she could manage. Mostly.

"I find it telling I was engaged before this happened," she said just loudly enough for her voice to carry. She continued at her normal pace, eventually closing most of the distance between them. "And we've made no plans to put a rush on anything. So I'm afraid your theory is flawed."

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