Weird Writings - A Family (With Some Problems)

A Family (With Some Problems)
by Sabrina SnapeThey started out normal enough. Or as normal as a wizarding family can be, with some extra weirdness. A happy couple, Saphira (Tonks) Starclaw and Remus Lupin married only three years after leaving Hogwarts, at age twenty. They were perfect for each other. Both were-people, and they understood each other. Perhaps it started with their first child, William, a werewolf like his father, and a lover of music. He loved to bang around on the grand piano Saphira had inherited from her mother, which otherwise was never played. Saphira was a wonderful singer, but she had to admit, she wasn’t very good at the piano, and was glad it was being put to some use. Or perhaps it was Hamster Bat, Bat for short, a wombat that had arrived at their doorstep when William was two, and Rusalka, the baby, had just turned one. No one knew where he came from. Even after a brief trip to Australia (much to the delight of the children), they were unable to find the creatures family. So, he became a pet, much adored by all the children in the house.

William, turned out to be quite the musician. At age five, he was sent to piano lessons, where after the teacher eased him out of his banging tendencies, he picked up things fast, and was playing complicated classical pieces by the time he was eight. Rusalka, at age three, was already messing around with the little makeup her mother owned. She loved to dress up and was one of those kids who loved the camera (once Remus figured out how to use it), and was a natural model. When Will was four and Rusalka three, another child came into the family. Little Nessie, who loved the family goldfish and quickly mastered the child’s fish imitation. She wasn’t much trouble, as she was content to stare at the fish take all day. The year after that came Ophelia. Perhaps it was she who started the problem. She was a quiet child, with dark, soulful eyes. She too was often content to sit by Nessie and watch the fish, but her eyes always had a far away look to them, as if she saw past the fish, into another world. She was quiet, but had a flair for the bizarre. Then there was Jean. She was the epitome of a wild child, always crawling or climbing into dangerous places, ending up on the refrigerator with a maniacal grin on her face. Was it she that spun this family out of control? After Jean was born things got insane. Five children on her hands made Tonks, as she had begun to call herself, a very busy woman. Remus of course, helped as much as he could, but with frantic job-hunting on his hands, he was away from home most days. Poor woman. Her friends, the Lady Marauders, dropped by to help as much as possible, but they too all had day jobs. Tonks’ life was one hell of a mess.

“Mommy!! Jean is bothering me! Make her stop!!” yelled William, now seven, from the living room.

“Coming dear! One moment, please!!” Tonks hurried to wipe the remaining makeup off a five-year-old Rusalka’s pouting face.

“Why’d you have to wipe it off Mommy? It made me look pretty!” Rusalka scowled, her arms folded over her chest as she slumped down into the wooden chair she was sitting on.

“Rusalka, honey, Mommy’s makeup isn’t meant for little girls. It might hurt your face or something,” Tonks peered at the child’s round face, checking for rash.

“Hmmpphh!” Rusalka stuck out her tongue angrily, squinting up her eyes in an attempt to look mean. Tonks sighed.

“Stay here,” ordered a frustrated Tonks as she ran to the living room. William was giving nasty looks to a barely one year old Jean who accompanied him on the polished oak piano stool, and was pounding her tiny fists on the piano keys.

“BOOM!! BOOM!!” she giggled excitedly at the roar that rose from the piano every time she banged on it.

“See Mommy? See? She’s bothering me! Make her stop, now!!!” William as his brow furrowed and he looked ready to bash his baby sister to death. Tonks surveyed the scene and suddenly began to laugh.

“It’s not funny, Mommy!! You’re not supposed to laugh! You’re supposed to be on my side!!” William screeched. When Tonks finally managed to stop she gave William a huge grin.

“You know you did just what Jean was doing when you were little, Will? That’s why we signed you up for piano lessons,” Tonks tousled William’s dishwater blonde hair fondly.

“That’s still not funny,” growled William, “now get her away from me!!” Tonks chuckled a bit more than scooped Jean into her arms. William immediately calmed down and began to practice his C scale.

“BOOM!! I make go BOOM!!” squealed Jean happily. Suddenly realizing that she was being taken away from her newfound toy, the baby began to wail.

“God, where is that pacifier?” muttered Tonks as she dug around in her pants pockets. Jean morphed into a small blue-green dragon and bit her mother viciously on the arm. Tonks winced. But in motherly defiance, she picked up the tiny dragon by the scruff of its neck and gave it long stony glare. “You do not bite Mommy,” she growled, “You do not bite Mommy ever again.” Jean turned back into the cute little baby she had previously been and began to whimper, her bottom lip trembling dangerously. “There, there,” she patted Jean gently on the back, “Nap time.” Tonks trudged up the stairs and softly laid Jean down in her crib. “Night-night,” whispered Tonks and began to walk back down the stairs.

Suddenly, a series of furious knocks on the door, and loud shouts of “PHEARY!” erupted from the front room. Tonks whisked down the stairs and into the front room, almost tripping over Ophelia and Bat.

“Bat, do you bweive in…” Ophelia’s soul to soul conversation was interrupted as Tonks nudged Bat out of her way, grabbed the two-year-old quickly into her arms, and opened the door. Outside stood a beautiful young woman with long red hair, stony-faced, and with her arms crossed over her chest. Beside her was a pale woman with black hair, her grey eyes cold and a motorcycle helmet resting lopsidedly on her head. Sabrina Snape rode a motorcycle because she found brooms to stereotypical for her liking, Muggle cars too slow, and because she had said, “she hadn’t quite figured out how to fly a mortar and pestle yet.”

“Auntie Wiwy! Auntie Sabrina!” giggled Ophelia happily.

“Please, call me Tonks now,” said Tonks, flashing a weak smile. To Tonks’ surprise neither Sabrina nor Lily had the nerve to call her “Nymphy”, the nick-name she hated, or perhaps they were both just too upset to think about it. “So…..um…..what’s up?”

“Sabrina, here, has practically broken the Marauder’s code!” exploded Lily. A look of slight shock on Tonks’ face, she turned to Sabrina.

“Oh, come on you guys, don’t go all Montague and Capulet on me!” Sabrina complained. Fatigued, Tonks didn’t pick up on the reference.

“Wha…?”

“Montague and Capulet?! Romeo and Juliet? William Shakespeare? Feuding families? Or in this case, friends,” yelled Sabrina.

“Oh,” murmured Tonks. Out of no where, William appeared at her side.

“All that shouting interrupted my C scale,” he burst out angrily. Both Lily and Sabrina let out small grins from their masks of hate, if only for a moment.

“MOMMY! You hurted the fishie’s ears!!” called Nessie from the living room. Tonks could here various crashes from upstairs, from where Rusalka was probably piddling about in her makeup again, and Jean had woken up and had begun to wail.

“We need a meeting of the Ladies, NOW!” screamed Lily over the din.

“I’ll write a message to Rasha and Ice,” said Tonks, hurriedly shoving Ophelia into a shocked Sabrina's arms. Lily put a pair of comforting arms on Tonks’ shoulders.

“No, I’ll do it,” she said, producing a quill and parchment, “you go take care of the kids.”

“Thanks!” gasped Tonks, and rushed to attend to her children.

Lily quickly penned a note, whispered, “Duplicare!” watched the letter double, than with a flick of her wand they whizzed off. “No time for owl post,” she murmured, as she stroked the tiny desert owl in her pocket, who had a slightly disappointed look on his face. “Now we wait.” Slowly things calmed down again. Jean quieted, after brief sounds of a tussle Rusalka’s crashes stopped, the soothing sound of William at the piano started up again, and all was at peace. Then, with a knock at the door, Rasha and Ice arrived.

What has Sabrina done? What will the Lady Marauder’s do about it? And will another person’s secret turn up?

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