Title: Watermelon

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Harry Potter, surprise, surprise.

Universe: Canon, meshable with The Call and Appearances

Time: During the first war, Marauders still in Hogwarts

Characters: Ted, Nymphadora, and Andromeda Tonks

Ships: Slight Andromeda/Ted

Genre: Most just family with a bit of humor.

Summary: Ted Tonks is waiting for his wife with his four-year-old daughter Nymphadora, when Dora spots a lady who looks a lot like she has a watermelon in her stomach and of course that causes some questions Ted would prefer not to answer while sitting in a crowded waiting room.

"Daddy, daddy!" Dora squealed, running back over to him from where she had been staring at the pictures in old magazines for the past few minutes. She tripped over her feet, got back up, and kept scurrying forward as if nothing had happened.

"What is it?" he asked, reaching and picking her up as she pushed on his knees like she was trying to vault herself upwards, her grey eyes brightly shining. In her excitement her hair, which she had insisted on leaving to her shoulders and electric blue, had turned a violent shade of bright purple. She settled onto his lap and leaned towards his ear, her words coming out in a hurried four-year-old whisper: wet and nearly as loud as her regular voice.

"Daddy, that lady swallowed a watermelon seed!" She pulled away from his ear, caught his eyes, and pointed over at a young woman sitting across the St. Mungo's waiting room. Next to Ted and Nymphadora, a woman who looked to be in her mid forties laughed lightly.

"Dora, why do you think she swallowed a watermelon seed?" Ted asked, glancing over at the woman Dora had pointed towards. She was fairly young and was sitting, looking worriedly down the hall.

"Because she's got a watermelon growing in her tummy!" Dora exclaimed exasperatedly. Ted felt many pairs of eyes looking over at them. The woman next to him looked very amused. A man sitting across from them, who had been staring into space for the past five minutes suddenly came awake and gave a small smile. An older woman shook her head, and Ted was sure he heard her mutter something about "too young to have children" to her husband sitting next to her.

"Dora, shh, you need to use your inside voice."

"Oh, okay," she said in a breathy tone. "But Daddy, lookit. She's got a watermelon in there," she continued, her eyes wide with excitement and curiosity.

Ted stroked her hair. "That's not a watermelon in her tummy. It's a baby."

"She ate a baby!" The eyes came over towards them again. The woman next to him had broken down into full out laughter. He was receiving glares from the older couple as the wife shook her head, probably now fully convinced he was too young to have a child. Either that or she just didn't like Nymphadora's hair which had just changed in her surprise to stop-sign-red dreadlocks. Across from them, the man who had been spacing out earlier had begun to fully smile but was looking down at his shoes to hide it. They had even received a curious glance from the worried looking pregnant woman who was the subject of Nymphadora's fascination.

"Dora, inside voice," Ted stressed.

"Daddy, she ate a baby," Dora said in her whisper again, this time quite desperate. Ted pulled his arms more fully around her and she snuggled against his chest.

"She didn't eat a baby. There's a baby growing in her tummy."

"Oh," she concluded seeming relieved. Her hair turned to a soft yellow, possibly passable as blonde in a brief glance. She was silent for a moment and Ted looked down at her to see that she was thinking hard about something. "I guess I shouldn't eat watermelon seeds. I don't think my tummy's big enough to hold a baby." Now Ted couldn't help it. He laughed. Nymphadora turned her head and looked at him, seeming annoyed. The woman next to him was laughing behind her hand and the older woman muttered something about too young again. Ted could feel the man in their audience watching them like a pivoting moment on a primetime television show.

"Don't worry. She didn't eat a watermelon seed. If you accidently swallow a watermelon seed it's okay. They just taste icky and we don't want you to choke."

"Oh." Dora scrunched up her face in concentration again. "Then what kind of seed did she swallow?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Johansson?" a young male healer asked. Ted saw the older couple rise to their feet to follow him. As she was leaving the woman turned around and looked at him sharply.

"Just how old are you?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.

"I'm four!" Dora piped up brightly. The woman sitting beside him laughed again as Ted looked up at the couple.

"Forty-two. Surprising how well de-aging potions work, isn't it?" he asked, trying as well as he could to keep a straight face and the sarcasm out of his tone. The older woman looked startled before she hurried away.

"How old are you really if you don't mind my asking?" the laughing woman asked.

"Twenty-four."

"That's not so young."

"I should hope not. My wife's younger."

"My mummy's twenty-two!" Dora declared proudly.

"Thank you,-?" the woman paused, glancing at Ted.

"Dora."

"Dora," the woman repeated.

"My name's Nyff- Nynph-"

"Nymphadora," Ted answered for her.

"That's quite a mouthful."

"Yes," Ted sighed, again flashing to the debate he'd had, and lost, with Andromeda when their daughter was born.

"Ms. Krieger?" a clear female voice asked. Ted looked up too as his seat companion got to her feet.

"That's me," she declared. She looked back at Ted and Dora as she walked away. Nymphadora watched her for a moment before crawling out of Ted's lap into her chair.

"Daddy," she started. "What kind of seed did she swallow?" Ted flinched. He really didn't want to approach this kind of conversation with his four year old in the middle of a waiting room.

"A special kind. Like you came from swallowing a Nymphadora seed so you grew into a Nymphadora."

"I was in your tummy?" she asked in astonishment. Pink this time, her hair turned pink. The man across from them was still stifling his laughs.

"No. Only mums can have babies in their tummy."

"Oh." She considered this for a moment as she sat with her knees curled up, sitting sideways in the chair. "So I was in mummy's tummy?"

"Yes."

"I don't think I pro'ly liked that very much," she said seriously. "I don't like staying in real small places. And mummy's tummy is small!"

"Mmm," Ted agreed, not entirely sure how to respond. "Yes, you kicked a lot."

"But I wouldn't want to hurt her!" she startled, leaning forward and somehow managing to nearly fall out of the chair. Ted instinctively reached out and grabbed her before she hit the ground without skipping a beat.

"Oh, you didn't hurt her," Ted assured her as she settled back in the chair, her hair now calming to a quiet brown color. Then she decided to crawl back into his lap. Ted kept his hand on her back to catch her if she began to fall again. "She said it mostly just felt funny." Unless, of course, one counted the time her pride had been badly hurt when Dora kicked on her bladder right as she was laughing. It had taken all of Ted's energy not to laugh in his wife's face. Scratch that, he had laughed and Andromeda had hit him with a hex that made him have to run to the bathroom. "She even let me feel her tummy when you were in there." Dora giggled, leaning her head against his chest.

"So I kicked you too?"

"Yep."

"And you didn't get mad?"

"You were just a baby. You didn't know you were kicking me or your mum."

"Do all baby's start in tummies?"

"Yes, everybody does."

"Whoa," Dora said, her hair changing over to dark blue waves. "That's a lotta people."

"It is."

"Daddy, how do they get out?" she asked in alarm.

"Mr. Rivers?" someone called. Ted looked up to see Andromeda in her healer's robes. She caught his eye and smiled at him as the man across from him got to his feet.

"Mummy!" Dora squealed half sliding, half falling out of Ted's lap.

"This little girl's yours?" the man asked as Ted stood up and walked over. Andromeda nodded as she bent down.

"Not right now Dora. You have to wait a minute, okay? I need to take Mr. Rivers to go see his daughter."

The man looked at Andromeda. She smiled at him. "She's awake. She's going to be fine. We're going to keep her here a while to recover from the curse but she will be okay," she assured the man. He grinned widely and suddenly hugged Andromeda as she was the closest person to him.

"Thank you!" he said, his eyes welling with tears of relief. Ted couldn't help but smile too as he scooped Dora up in his arms, settling her on his shoulders. She giggled happily. The man, Mr. Rivers, smiled up at her. "Very inquisitive little girl you have there," he mumbled seeming a bit embarrassed for his hug now.

"Yes, she can be," Andromeda said suspiciously. "Your daughter's in the Delta Jones ward if you need me to show you-"

"I know where it is. I passed it earlier when I was coming to the waiting room."

"Well in that case, be by guest," Andromeda told him kindly, stepping aside. The man, still grinning with relief took off down the hallway. Andromeda glanced back at the man and then looked at Ted and Dora. "So what was she being so inquisitive about?"

"You know, Dromeda, I have to go to work. I got called in and that's why we decided to wait here until you got done with your shift, so-" he leaned in and kissed her before he took Dora off his shoulders and handed her over. "I'll let Dora ask you her remaining questions."

"What questions?" Andromeda inquired as she let Dora down and squeezed her hand gently, sticking her tongue out at her to make her giggle.

"I'll let Dora ask them," Ted repeated as they started walking away towards the point where Ted could disapparate and Andromeda and Dora could floo home.

"What were you asking about Nymphadora?" Andromeda asked.

"Oh, I asked Daddy about the babies that grow in mummies tummies. He said I was even in your tummy."

"Mmm, yeah, that's right" Andromeda agreed.

"Of course it's right. I do understand the concept," Ted laughed. Andromeda rolled her eyes at him.

"But, see, I don't understand how they get out." Ted smiled as he got to the point where he could disapparate. "And what happens if a mummy eats a seed on accident?"

"Eats a seed?" Andromeda asked, looking up at Ted. He grinned and then kissed her on the forehead.

"Bye, Dromeda, love you too." He ruffled Nymphadora's hair, currently an orangish shade, right before he left.