Pink Hair for a Different Reason

I've taken it into my head to start writing some Harry Potter FanFic, since I read it so much I thought I should try some of my own. This one's about my favorite character in the Harry Potter series, Nymphadora Tonks. There will be other parts to this story coming as soon as I can write them.

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Pink Hair for a Different Reason

When Tonks stepped out of her flat, breathing in the cool fall morning air to clear her mind, which was still fuzzy from sleep. She glanced at her watch. It was only 6:00. She had the day off from work, and even though there was much work to be done, she wasn’t one to protest. But that still didn’t give her anything to do. She shook her head, feeling her pink hair still wet from the shower slap her face, and stepped out into the street. Walking towards her favorite Muggle coffee shop, Tonks performed a useful little charm to provide enough hot air to dry her hair. I didn’t need the charm, she thought, I could have just stood too close to Moody for a while. Growling to herself about the injustices of having a constantly vigilant boss with an eye that can see out of the back of his head, Tonks tripped over a curb and put her hand out to break her fall…on the roof of a stylish red convertible. Ten minutes into my Great Day Off and I’ve already been hit by a parked car. She stumbled the remaining two blocks to the Caf’Fiend for something to wake her up-not that she’d be any less clumsy-and made it there without sustaining any more serious injuries. She tripped over to the counter and ordered a large white chocolate mocha with extra whipped cream. Slurping her sweet drink, she found a table and watched the people outside walk by. There seemed to be some sort of Muggle rally. People were just swarming through the road, and they were all wearing pink! This seemed to be Tonks’ sort of thing, so she stepped outside, to ask what was going on. Some people were carrying signs that said things like “Walk to save lives”. She walked up to the nearest woman and asked what was happening.
“It’s the breast cancer 3-day walk, dear, didn’t you know? I thought you were here for the walk, with that hair of yours.”
“Oh, no, my hair’s just for fun.” Tonks replied. “But…what’s breast cancer?”
“Dear, don’t you know? How could you not?” Tears were forming in the woman’s eyes. “It’s when tumors form in your breasts and it can be fatal.”
“What’s a tumor?”
“Good gracious, child, don’t you know anything? Tumors are clumps of cells that keep reproducing and getting bigger and bigger until they take over your body. Many women die from it every year. My mother did, 7 years ago.” Now tears were really running down the woman’s face.
“Oh. I’m really sorry.” There was an uncomfortable pause in the conversation as the woman wiped her face, until Tonks’ next question.
“What does the walk do?”
“Raises money for treatments and cures and raises awareness in the communities.”
“That’s great! Can I...walk for one day? I have to go to work tomorrow, and I don’t have any more days off.”
“Yes, we’d love you to walk! I’m Melanie.”
“I’m Tonks.”
“Tonks, eh? That’s an unusual name. Well, come with me, Tonks, and I’ll get you set up.”
Tonks followed Melanie to a table where she got a number pinned onto her pink Weird Sisters T-shirt and grabbed a plastic water bottle from the table. Tonks was thankful that she had worn athletic clothes today-they were the most comfy clothes she owned and NOTHING was going to mess up her Great Day Off, especially not uncomfortable clothing. She realized she should send the Order a message telling when she’d be back, so she ducked into a Porta-Potty and sent her chameleon patronus with the message. After retying her left shoe, she walked to the start line and got ready to run. When she got the signal to go, she blasted forward until she realized no one was with her. She turned around, looking for people, and they were far behind her.
“There’s a reason why it’s called the Three Day Walk, you know.” Tonks looked at the smiling woman and grinned back. She stopped running full tilt and waited for the other woman to catch up. She looked at her new acquaintance. She was wearing almost solid pink, except for lime green running shoes. “I like your outfit!”
“Thanks, but your hair beats all of it!”
“Maybe not the shoes!”
“Ha. You like?” She queried, stretching out one dark leg.
“I want.” The two women looked at each other and started laughing hysterically. “What’s your name?”
“Callypta. You?”
“I’m Tonks.”
“Looks like we both have interesting names!”
“Mine’s really Nymphadora, but I hate it, so I go by Tonks, which is my last name.”
“You win.”
“But you come close, let’s call it a tie. I like yours better.”
“Tie.” They shook hands.
“How are you connected to breast cancer?”
“I just learned about it, like half an hour ago, actually. How about you?”
“I have it.”
Tonks gaped at this new development. “But…I thought that it was some sort of debilitating illness, like you can’t move and stuff.”
“It’s better right now, but I don’t know when it will get worse again. The reason I have short hair is because I went through a treatment that made all my hair fall out. It helps, but it can’t cure it. Nothings so far can.”
“Oh. I wish I could do something.”
“It’s O.K. Just treat me like a normal person, and I’ll like you. Just forget about it so we can be friends. What?” Tonks was laughing.
“You sound exactly like someone I know. He also has…a condition, and I’m…interested in him, but he thinks his…condition makes it impossible for someone to be his friend.” Tonks suddenly yearned to see Remus. She told herself that she’d drop by Grimmauld that night, and she’d see him then. Maybe she would talk to him. Maybe…she hadn’t been paying attention, and Callypta was talking to her.
“-act like I’m some sort of charity case, just because I have a disease, that doesn’t make me their responsibility, it definitely doesn’t give them the right to be condescending!”
“Calm down. Deep breath. In. Out. I hope it’s not me you’re mad at. I know I’m shitty at making friends, but I’d hoped I didn’t fuck this one up.” Tonks pulled a long face and Callypta laughed, all traces of her previous anger gone from her dark brown face. She ran a long-fingered hand through her buzz cut and retied her pink headscarf. “What size shoe are you?”
“Why?”
“If you like my shoes so much, we could switch one! I’m an 8.”
“I’m around there, too!” They stopped and switched their left shoes. Tonks barely had to morph her feet to fit Callypta’s shoe. Her mismatched shoes looked perfect. She loved it. They ran up the hill and down the other side, flying in those beautiful shoes.
Thoughts were flying through Tonks’ head. Callypta, shoes, magic, Remus, breast cancer, death, Muggles, love, running, life, and the color pink all blended into a whirlwind of beauty and sadness. They were dashing down the hill, stumbling, but both staying upright, holding hands and laughing like schoolgirls. They collapsed at the bottom of the humongous hill, at the base of a massive, spreading oak tree and sat there, their panting the only sound in the companiable silence.
Tonks was thinking. There was no cancer in people with magic, and even if someone magical did get cancer, the healers could just Vanish it, but 552,200 Muggles die every year from something that could be prevented, if a wizard could become a Muggle doctor. Tonks knew it was definitely illegal, but she had to try. She didn’t want Callypta to become one of the 552,200. And Melanie’s mother would still be alive if there was someone to help. Muggles sometimes got better from cancer, but they had to go through chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and that seemed to Tonks like something just as bad as having the actual disease, not that she knew much about either.
“Hey, Tonks?” Callypta’s voice broke into Tonks’ thoughts. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just thinking.”
“You’re crying.”
Tonks swiped beneath her eyes and discovered moisture there. She hadn’t realized she was crying. “Oh.”
“What are you thinking about?”
“All the people who die from cancer every year. The brochure said the number was about 552, 200 people every year! That’s just… I dunno. It seems unnecessary. Like, if people could be cured, by some kind of magic, wouldn’t that be better?”
“Well, we do what we can,” said Callypta, hugging Tonks with one arm. “we have chemo and radiation, and that works wonders, but people are going to die anyway sometime, and that magic you’re talking about wouldn’t help with anything else people get, so when their immune systems are weakened by the cancer, they’d just die from something else.”
“But if the magic could cure everything?”
“Tonks, honey, that’s impossible. Even of it could cure everything, it couldn’t cure everyone in the world with every disease.”
“I guess you’re right.” Tonks sighed and looked down. “I just wish I could change the world by making people better.”
“You’ve made me better, happier, just by being my friend without treating me like an invalid.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
When the two women looped their arms together and continued running, people on the other side of the hill wondered who was laughing and singing so loudly, because just two people couldn’t possibly make all that joyful noise.

wow... just... wow.

I seem to be pretty bad-ass!
Try the test.
It's kinda fun!
Even if I am in the 8th level of Hell...
Whatever.
I didn't even know Hell had levels!


The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Eigth Level of Hell - the Malebolge!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Extreme
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Extreme
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Inferno Test

A master's student at Georgetown is working on fan fiction for her thesis. There's a survey and she needs as many people from as many fandoms as possible to complete it so that the diversity of fan culture is represented.

If you read fanfic (My writing doesn't count) take the survey!!!

Chapter VII

Chapter VII
“Maria, Maria, wake up!” She felt a touch on her shoulder.
“Mother?” Maria’s eyes snapped open, her heart filling with happiness. She’s back.
“Maria, I’m scared.” Linnea would never say that. Neither did Linnea have such small hands or such a young voice. It wasn’t Linnea at all. It was Elaine. Maria sat up with a disappointed sigh. She’d been dreaming all night about her mother, and none of the dreams were very pleasant. Not wanting her mind to replay images of Linnea being torn apart by wolves, Maria stood up and walked outside with Elaine. It was still nighttime, and the moon had reached the highest point in the sky. Maria felt Elaine's small arms close around her waist, and returned the hug. The two sisters looked up at the stars, Maria finally feeling peace after her long night of fright.
“Look, Maria, that one looks like a tree!” Elaine’s youthful voice made Maria giggle.
“I don’t see a tree,” She replied jokingly. “Only white dots in a black sky.”
“Can’t you see it?” Elaine’s small finger traced the contours of the shape she saw in the stars.
“Find me another one. Maybe I’ll be able to see that one.”
“There’s one that looks like three people holding hands.”
“I see that one.” Maria’s heart plummeted as she said the words.
“It’s me, you, and Mathieu.” Maria couldn’t think of a reply. Even if she did, she didn’t trust her mouth to pronounce the words.
“Mama’s over there watching us.”
“I see her too.”
“She’s on the other side of the tree.”
“Elaine, I miss her too, but you know that now there is only us, we have to stay together even more than before. You will have to be grown-up now.”
“All right. “ A pause, then, “Does that mean I can’t cry because I miss her?”
“No, Elaine, cry as much as you want. I cried too, last night. You just have to be more careful with what you do because I can’t always watch you now. You’ll have to watch Mathieu, and do chores, but don’t ever, ever, be afraid to cry.”
The arms wrapped around Maria’s waist tightened. They stood there for a moment, like they would never let go, but then Maria broke Elaine's hold.
“It’s time to go in. If you’re afraid you can sleep with me, but we both need our rest.” She ushered Elaine back into Gertrude’s house –their house too, now, Maria supposed- but before entering herself, she paused and looked back up at the sky, to take one last look at the star-family. But in between mother and children, Maria could not find the elusive shape of the tree.

Chapter VI

Chapter VI
Maria threw the door to Gertrude’s house open so violently that its hinges squealed violently. She rushed outside, thinking that her mother had gotten sick. Linnea wasn’t in sight. Maria looked around for the tracks of a wild animal or of another person, any clue to where Linnea might be, and why.
“Mother!” She called, beginning to sob. “Mother, Mother, where are you?” The noise she was making disturbed her younger siblings, and Maria heard Elaine racing out of Gertrude’s house as fast as her six year old legs could carry her, half carrying, half dragging Mathieu along behind her, as he still could not walk. When Elaine reached her, holding Mathieu by one arm and one leg, Maria had sunk down to the ground, and was weeping uncontrollably, ignoring the stains and dirt on her cleanest dress. Rescuing Mathieu from Elaine’s grasp, she hugged both children to her, ignoring their questions.
They sat together in silence, Maria crying, the bewildered Elaine watching, and little Mathieu asleep. It seemed to Maria as though time had stood still for hours, even though they had only been there for a few minutes. Maria had been recalling years of memories of her mother and wondering what would happen to her and her siblings, with their father too busy being a noble to care about the children he fathered, and their mother…dead, Maria presumed. Or kidnapped, as Maria knew that Linnea would never voluntarily leave her family. Besides, if she left, what would she do? Maria was the main breadwinner for their family, using her few specialized talents to bring in a meager amount of money, just barely enough to keep them alive if added to the money brought in from begging and other things. Linnea had no remarkable talents, and most occupations for average women were full.
Elaine’s childish voice broke into Maria’s thoughts.
“Look, Maria, what’s that?”
“What’s what, darling?”
“Shiny, over there!” Elaine escaped Maria’s hold and trotted over to pick up the “shiny”. When the mud had been wiped off with the hem of Elaine’s skirt, it proved to be a pewter angel.
“Maria, this is Mama’s. Let’s go give it back to her. It will be a surprise! Maria, where is Mama?”
“Elaine, sweetheart, I don’t know.” Maria’s voice felt as heavy as her heart. She took the cold metal trinket out of Elaine’s pudgy hand and placed it gently in her apron pocket. Once again absorbed in bleak thoughts about their even bleaker future, she picked Mathieu up and took Elaine’s hand in hers, and they walked back to Gertrude’s house, realizing never to let go of each other, because they were the only things they had left.

Chapter V

Chapter V
When they reached Gertrude’s house, the woman herself was standing by the door. She had an uncharacteristically large smile on her face, which immediately roused Maria’s suspicions. Gertrude never smiled. No reason was given to her to be cheerful about anything, least of all Maria. Maria, admittedly, never really gave Gertrude a reason to like her, giving as good as she got for every verbal slap and kick, sometimes doling out of her own verbal abuse. Not without warrant, she told herself. Gertrude needed to be taken down a notch or ten sometimes, and though Maria was usually quiet and demure, something about Gertrude incensed her.
Gertrude’s smile seemed to get wider as they approached. And, somehow, expectant and malicious at the same time. Maria felt even more wary and felt like hiding behind her mother, as little Elaine was. Elaine didn’t like Gertrude much, either.
“Come on in, everyone!” Gertrude’s unnaturally sweet and welcoming voice brayed. The family filed through the door, with Maria last. The house that Gertrude lived in was very…Gertrude, was the only word Maria could think of. It was covered in distractions to take the viewer’s mind off of the obvious dirtiness and poverty of the house and surrounding area. Through the only window-half covered with a pink curtain to disguise the lack of glass-there was a cherry tree in full bloom. It was beautiful, Maria admitted to herself, but its beauty was tarnished by Gertrude. After a closer look at the tree, Maria realized that the tree was old and gnarled and obviously hadn’t been tended in years-the weeds around its base were threatening to choke it to death. Maria felt a stab of pity for the tree, but was jolted out of her thoughts by Gertrude, who was handing her a cup of tea.
The three women chatted comfortably at first, but when Maria’s mother excused herself to use the outhouse, the conversation was very forced-Linnea was the only person who really wanted to talk to Gertrude. Maria would never reply to Gertrude’s queries with more than one-word answers, if she could help it. After three cups of Gertrude’s cheap, but very strong tea, Maria was also feeling the need to relieve herself, but her mother had not come back from the outhouse!

Chapter IV

Chapter IV
The answers to her questions were provided the next morning.
“Maria, come here please,” her mother said gently. “I need you to help me take Mathieu to Gertie’s. She will watch him while we go out and…work. ”
“What kind of work?”
“The kind that will get us money.”
“Where are poor women like us going to get work? Oh, no… No, no, no…”
“Maria! Do you really think that I’d do something as disreputable as that? Or to you? I’m ashamed.”
“Well, then what? If I’m going to be the one doing the work, I want to know what I’m going to be doing!”
“You’ll see.” They walked for another five minutes, Maria holding Mathieu and their wicker basket, Linnea holding Maria’s younger sister, Elaine, with one hand and their tattered suitcase in the other, until Maria realized what was odd.
“Mother, why are we taking Elaine and the luggage if we’re dropping off Mathieu at Aunt Gertrude’s and going to work? Why do we need the luggage mostly.”
“We might be staying at Gertie’s for a while, seeing as soldiers are looking for us, I thought it would be safest.”
Not altogether reassured, Maria followed her mother to Gertrude’s.