Under Cover of Darkness
Title: Under Cover of Darkness
Characters: Charlie, Tonks, Remus
Rating & Warnings: PG-13
Word Count: 3865
Summary: Tonks was shaking her head. “I think one day someone will come along and I’ll - I’ll be so bowled over from lack of practice and by him, that my only chance of surviving it all is if he’s the same.”
Author’s Notes: I seem to have been writing this for about two months on and off, mostly off. It was inspired by the lovely hrymfaxe and her request for a fic about Charlie and the prompt ‘eclipse’. This was intended to be much shorter and a less angsty, rather different story, but the characters seemed to have ideas of their own and… I let them have their way. Hopefully, I shouldn’t have stuck with Plan A. ;)
Under Cover of Darkness
He forgot his tiredness when Tonks opened Grimmauld’s heavy front door with a smile as bright as her hair and said, “Just in time to get your backside kicked in a duel, Charlie-boy. Come on in.”
As if she’d seen him only last week, instead of last whenever it was. And it must be all the time that had gone by which made him think, ridiculously, my, how you’ve grown.
He stood in the shadowed hallway as she bolted the door and, as she was looking him up and down in the frank, unabashed way she always used to, he did the same in return.
“Good journey?” she asked.
“No.”
“Nice to be home?”
“Ye- Not yet.” He grinned, and she gave him a look and laughed, and he thought it was just like they’d taken up again from where they left off and the feeling of relief was immense. He hadn’t been able to do that at home, where there was always the sense of four small walls and well-meaning questions hemming him in.
If anyone had told him when he’d left school that he’d find work the easiest part of his life and everything else would be something he never quite got right, he wouldn’t have believed them. Thank Merlin for the girl with the pink cap of hair sliding the final bolt in with a forceful shove, and for the rush of reassuring memories she brought with her.
“New burns?” she asked, taking a wide path round what looked like the most unattractive umbrella stand ever.
He pushed back a thick sweater sleeve and showed her the latest, twelve inches long and peeling nicely. “Aiming for bubblegum, are we?” he said, gesturing to her hair.
She pulled a face, at either the question or his arm. “And only an hour ago, I was told it was the colour of strawberry ice. Thanks a bunch, Weasley. Follow me and watch out for the elf head decor.” She glanced back as she led the way up the dark, narrow staircase. “I’m glad you came round. You can’t have been back long?”
“I couldn’t wait to see this place. And the notorious Sirius Black. And you, of course.”
“Of course. How’s things at home?”
“You might say Percy is conspicuous by his absence.”
“I run into him at work sometimes.”
“You do?” He didn’t know why it hadn’t occurred to him that she would. “Does he say anything?”
“No.” She pulled up suddenly and half turned to face him. “Um… He uses the Aurors’ back staircase, pretends he’s running errands for Fudge.” She saw that he didn’t get her meaning and said, “It’s to avoid the lift and any chance of seeing your dad, I think.”
“Oh.”
“I know. It’s tempting to really run into him sometimes, but-” She paused, sounding like the fiercely loyal Tonks he knew of old, but it was a newer, more thoughtful girl who added, “It wouldn’t solve anything, would it? He thinks it’s all about family, but it’s all about a war as well.”
“Yeah.” Charlie wasn’t sure he’d fully grasped that himself. He’d been too busy with the anger on hearing the news, and then recognising the old familiar feelings when he saw Bill. Second son, second best. Made worse by the fact that he knew it was all in his head, and that he was probably prouder and thought more of Bill than anyone. “Anyway, it’s taken the heat off Mum worrying about whether I’m doing my washing properly, what I’m eating and my unconventional career choice.”
She’d started to move off upwards again. “Mothers worry, Charlie. About those scary dragons.”
“Yeah. About the scary things Aurors get to do, Tonks.”
“Yeah.” He could imagine the rueful grin. He found himself studying her denim-clad backside with slightly bewildered appreciation, and thinking no one grew at twenty-three, not even Tonks (unless she wanted to, of course), but there was something different about her he couldn’t pin down.
She seemed to have… He struggled to find the word or words he wanted, thinking that she looked more confident, more assured, more attractive than he’d remembered - all of which could be put down to age and experience - but that didn’t cover it, somehow. It wasn’t grown up so much as…
Fined down?
She’d always been slim and striking because of her ever-changing colour, rather than being conventionally pretty. “I’ll have to rely on brains and character,” she used to say at school and, unlike the other girls who said the same, he thought she rather liked it that way, as though that was what should count anyway. It was still the Tonks he’d known for over half his life who led him into a room at the end where the lamps flickered half-heartedly in the battle to shed some light. She’d always been cleverer than him but she’d never made him feel that and they’d shared a determination to go their own way. Despite all the jokes, he knew how ambitious and hard-working she was; she knew how necessary it was for him to get away, which was why he didn’t make any jokes about that at all. He even thought at one time she might have fancied him a bit but he never did anything about it.
Right now, he was starting to wonder why.
“Rubbish timing,” she said, and he realised she was frowning at scorch marks on the wall with her hands on her hips in disgust.
It dawned on him then what she’d said at the door as he took in the cavernous room, all lines of imperious mahogany panelling and dark, grimy wallpaper, the furniture piled down one end. An almost electrical tension in the air as there was after numerous spells had been fired in a confined space. While she stood opposite him, all colour and light, in a white shirt with what looked like different shaped and sized buttons all down it, and shapely bare feet emerging from the frayed hems of jeans which trailed loosely on the floor.
“It’s your mother’s fault,” she said, following the direction of his gaze.
“Mum’s nicked your shoes? She swore she’d given up on the kleptomania.”
She grinned. “No, your mum left us some of her incredibly efficient cleaning solutions after this place was tidied up. And Kreacher - that’s the house elf here - likes to take Sirius’ instructions to the letter when it suits him. So because he knew today was duel day, this floor was like an ice rink when we came in here.”
“Doesn’t Sirius sort him out?” He thought about what he’d heard of Sirius Black, which was his mother muttering that Sirius was no role model for Harry while his father told her to shush, and all the rumours which he never trusted until confirmed in stone. If it had reached as far as Romania, there was no telling how many changes the original story had undergone. The last thing he’d read was a bundle of out-of-date newspapers with the headlines reporting that Sirius had lost the entire Black family fortune at cards, had founded a colony of atheists in the East, and was secretly inventing a new brand of coleslaw.
All of which suggested he must be nearly as tired as Charlie was. He was still keen to meet him though.
“You don’t have to duel. You must be knackered after getting here.” Tonks was smiling, but he noticed she hadn’t answered the question. “Remus will be back in a sec.”
“You duel Lupin and Black?”
“Not both at once! But, yeah. It’s good fun, and good vigilance, and it keeps Sirius occupied.” She frowned. “And they’re both right swines, as you’d expect.”
“They are?” They were discussing an ex-criminal who seemed to have rewritten the ‘note’ in notoriety. But it was a lot easier to imagine Lupin with his nose in a book.
“Sirius is brilliant, but then he’ll do something stupid because he gets bored and decides he won’t use a Shield Charm today as it’s for girls and sissies.” She pointed at a sizeable round dent in the wall. “That’s the result. And, of course, Remus is absolutely bloody infuriating.” She laughed, fiddling with the fine chain of her bracelet. “He just defends and defends ever so politely and then when you’re either completely knackered or let your guard down for a minute, he suddenly does some useful little spell, which no one’s ever heard of, and usually has nothing to do with the time honoured art of duelling. And you’re so gob-smacked it works!”
“Right.” Charlie felt awkward, hearing her talk with such obvious affection about them. Out of place again, longing for the solitude of the Carpathian Mountains with their snow-capped peaks, their isolation, and the animals that relied on him. “So… their duels must be good, then?”
She grinned. “Just before you arrived, Sirius accused Remus of letting him win, Remus said the last hex had addled his brain if he actually thought he was winning, Sirius lost his rag and did some incredibly complicated spellwork that had Remus on his backside, only while he was doing it-” She broke off, looking as if she was trying not to laugh.
“Yes?”
“R-Remus hit him with a Hair-thickening Charm. On his eyebrows. That’s why-” She gave up trying not to laugh. “That’s why there’s a whacking great hole in the wall. Sirius couldn’t see a thing.”
Charlie felt himself smile. It sounded like there were hidden depths to old Lupin after all, but he wanted to change the subject as the dim light from the window caught her white shirt. He thought he should probably look away but didn’t. He’d wasted enough time not looking at what was right in front of him. “Where are they now?”
“Oh, Sirius cracked his head a bit, and Remus doesn’t want him drowning his - is making sure he’s okay. He is, from the amount of swearing and name calling he was doing.”
So he probably hadn’t got much time and he’d never been any good at this anyway, but the thing with Tonks was that she’d tell you straight. Hopefully, without laughing in his face.
“How about we hold off on the duelling, and me kicking your arse, and we go somewhere instead?” He saw the surprise and added hastily, “A lot of old times to catch up on. Things to find out.”
She didn’t look as enthusiastic as he hoped, but she did look amused. “Like what?”
“Oh…” I’m about six years too late and I feel as if I never quite fit in anywhere nowadays, but I did with you once and I’d like to see if we could now… “Got a boyfriend?”
“Nope.” The amusement vanished and she was quite serious, as though she’d thought about this before. “I don’t think I’m the type many people would go for.”
“But you-”
“Nah. Couple of dates and then either they’re bored and uncomfortable or I am. Course it’s always me that gets to tell them - men hang around forever if they think there’s a chance they’ll get lucky.”
He grinned, thinking some men had the right idea. “That sounds a lot like dragon mating rituals.”
She laughed, pointed her wand at the heap of furniture and a dilapidated two-seater leather sofa swivelled round to face them. “Forget the duel. Let’s sit down. You’ve done so well not mentioning the D-word all this time, and you must be dying to tell me how cute and cuddly your favourite one is. Still got that photo of the Swedish Short-Snout you were in love with? Daphne, was it?”
“It's Dorothy and she’s a very beautiful Hungarian Horntail.” He didn’t add that he’d not only still got the photo but many more besides and perched rather awkwardly on the edge of the sofa, while she tucked her legs and feet under her and grinned up at him. It was impossible to avoid grinning back.
“You don’t want to hear work stuff,” he said, but he wanted to tell her as he couldn’t do any of that at home because of the look of fear on his mum’s face, the doubt on his father’s and the loud excitement of the twins. So he told her about the animals which could kill you in an instant, but rarely did so out of malice. Which, by his reckoning, made them better than quite a few human beings.
“As long as they’re not protecting their young, or you get in the way of their food - or you are their food - then you’re pretty safe. Unless it’s mating season and then you really don’t want to meet a horny dragon.”
“I think I have in my time,” she said, laughing. “You were always fantastic in Care of Magical Creatures, but I never thought you’d end up doing anything like this.”
Her voice held all the awe and admiration he so rarely heard and he felt himself blush.
“I remember when you-” She stopped just as he was willing her to go on. “They’d probably have called you something completely different at Hogwarts if they’d known. Chunky Charlie?”
“Don’t call me that! It’s left me emotionally scarred for life!”
“You can’t tell me you didn’t lap it up when they were chanting it at Quidditch! I always wondered if they were referring to your biceps or somewhere lower.”
“It was definitely my brain.” He grinned, feeling the heat burning his cheeks even more but enjoying it all the same. “And everyone liked you, too. Boys liked you.”
Tonks was shaking her head. “I seemed to be an all or nothing girl even back then. I think one day someone will come along and I’ll - I’ll be so bowled over from lack of practice and by him, that my only chance of surviving it all is if he’s the same.”
He stared at her, his hopes rising as she fiddled with her bracelet again.
“So what about you? Got a girl waiting in every dragon shelter?” she asked almost coyly, turning the chain round and round her wrist, and it was odd seeing Tonks, his old friend, who he’d partied with and drunk with and trusted his most innermost thoughts with, behaving like this. It was how girls behaved with Bill, and he felt a warm thrill go through him.
“Do you know how hard it is to meet girls when you’re half way up a mountain?” He was conscious that he didn’t sound too upset about it right now. “I meet goat herders, and the few villagers there are around, and the people I’ve smuggled in and out for the Order, but a social life? Not so as you’d notice. Unless you count the dragon-keepers’ Friday happy hour where we all raise a glass to the fact we’re though another week and not burnt to a crisp.”
“Poor Charlie. But you know you love it, and it gets you away from all those nasty people and buildings that won’t leave you in peace.”
“You make me sound very simple,” he said, trying not to let on that her words had stung a little. “Bit dull.”
“Bit different, more like it. And that's you and me both, mate.” She didn’t look remotely sorry about it. “So definitely not dull. Wicked people think they’re exciting but that’s what makes them stupid.”
“You don’t go for the bad boys, then?”
He’d meant it as a joke, trying to be Bill-like again, but the line seemed to fall flat as soon as it left his mouth. A small smile tugged at her lips in return and wrinkled her pretty eyes. “Much more interesting when someone could be really wicked but isn’t, don’t you think? Takes guts to do that.”
He presumed she meant Sirius. They were related, after all, and everything always came back to family. Percy might have a point. He remembered how keen he’d been to see Sirius, but that could wait. And Lupin might be back any second now…
“How about a swift half then at the Duck and Lamb and we’ll discuss being good instead of wicked?”
She grinned. “You really know how to ask a girl. And to think I had such a crush on you when I was sixteen for at least a term and a bit.”
His heart leapt. “You did?”
“Yeah, only you were too busy dreaming of wild adventures to notice me going round like an idiot, crying tears of bitter sorrow into my pillow each night because Chunky Charlie would sooner read Dragon’s Den Weekly than notice me wasting away.”
He swallowed. Don’t get carried away, she’s joking. “Might not be too late if you… er… want to admire my muscles over a bag of crisps.”
“We’ll have to wait for Remus first. I promised I’d duel him and I’m sure he’d like to see you as well.”
“Lupin won’t mind, will he?”
“Actually…” A faint smile crossed her face. “He might.”
“But if you explain-” Charlie started, thinking Lupin might have his nose put out of joint a bit if they took off but would get over it, when a floorboard creaked behind him and a hoarse voice said politely, “What won’t I mind?”
“Hey-” Charlie, taken off guard was horribly awkward for a moment, almost leaping to his feet, but while he was recovering Lupin was shaking his hand affably and saying how good it was to see him again, and somehow they were past the awkwardness without him having said much at all.
“How’s Sirius?” Tonks asked, still seated.
“Would you believe he’s making tea for us?” Lupin smiled down at her. “The sudden blow to the head seems to have brought out an unexpectedly domestic side to him. It’s a pity it didn’t happen years ago. He’s looking forward to meeting you, Charlie,” he added, in a friendly manner.
“Me too.” He was going to say something else but stopped. Lupin was greyer than he remembered, his clothes had clearly seen much better days and the indigo blue of his jumper matched the deep circles under his eyes, but there was something about the man’s composure and intelligence which made Charlie feel like a short, squat country yokel, fumbling around for the right words again. Yet he liked Lupin and always had.
“Charlie suggested he and I go for a drink now,” Tonks said casually.
There was a fractional pause while she played with her bracelet again, and Charlie heard himself filling it by saying something about catching up on old times as there was a lot to catch up on. Or something. The bracelet went round and round the slender wrist and both she and Lupin seemed to be waiting politely for him to shut up. So he did.
Lupin nodded. “Good idea,” he said.
“Why?” Tonks asked almost before he’d finished the second word, as though she’d anticipated his answer. Her voice was light and easy, but Charlie glanced at her because there was a note there that wasn’t and which he’d never heard before.
He was conscious of that something in the air again, like an electrical charge, only this one had nothing to do with spells. A tension that he suddenly realised was nothing to do with him, either.
Involuntarily, he looked at Lupin - and knew. There was nothing in the older man’s face, unless it was the utter stillness and lack of expression, but he knew. What everything she’d said had meant, and why she looked and seemed as if she’d grown into a different young woman to the one he thought he knew.
Because she had.
Any hopes he had died in that split second.
“I’m… sure you youngsters would like to get out of here for a bit.” Lupin sounded almost like some understanding uncle speaking jovially to a favourite niece and nephew. He only missed it by a fraction, but it was more than enough.
“You know,” Tonks said slowly, raising her head as Lupin was the one to look away. “I think there must be some age where you stop being too young for things, don’t you Charlie? Like there must be some brief interlude where you’re the perfect age to cope with everything in life, and people know that you are and don’t try and protect you from things that worry them far more than you. Before you get too old, of course, which I reckon must be at about, say, thirty-six or seven. I’m really going to have to try and cram it all in before I get there.”
“Tonks-” There was pain in Lupin’s voice which Charlie didn’t want to hear - would it have been half as bad if it had just been all on her side? Even though he felt light-headed with shock, the whole scenario he’d been building in his head serving only to prove, once again, that it was animals he knew far better than humans, he heard himself say, “We can do the drink any time, Tonks. I did come here to meet the one and only Sirius Black, after all.”
Another loner, he thought. Another one who’s had to go his own way. We ought to get on quite well.
“Tonks wanted to duel you, anyway,” he added offhandedly to Lupin, and he might not have sounded half as smooth as the older man, or even very convincing, but their eyes met and he thought there was some kind of understanding there.
An impression confirmed when Lupin said quietly, “I’d like that and Sirius would appreciate the company.” After an infinitesimal pause Tonks said, “That’s okay with me, if Charlie doesn’t mind,” and then Charlie looked away as the last thing he wanted was to see them staring at each other.
He’d have liked to have escaped then, left them to it, but Tonks was still the kind friend he’d known for so long and she insisted on showing him down the stairs to the kitchen and doing the intros. Pointing out, rightly, that the house was like a maze of dark, shadowed corridors, and she couldn’t have it on her conscience that he might be left wandering round it for the next month or so.
From the way Lupin was now finding the dent in the wall completely fascinating, the pair of them were probably keen to give themselves a minute or two before facing each other.
He wondered how long this had been going on, whether they’d sort it out.
He followed her down in silence, acknowledging feelings both of bitter disappointment and relieved release. The past had been eclipsed for her; it should be for him as well. Momentary dreams and imaginings could be lost forever here under cover of darkness.
“I’d like to come and see you in Romania one day.” Tonks pulled up suddenly, possibly even on the same stair she’d paused on before, and he wondered what had made her say that as he doubted she ever would.
“Can’t see you in an isolated mountain hut.” He tried to grin.
“Why not?”
“You like people.” He hesitated. “You need people and… they need you.”
She thought about this, fingering the bracelet again before meeting his eyes with both appeal and self-mockery in hers. “Do you think hair the colour of bubblegum makes me look too young?”
Charlie took a breath. Tried not to think second son, second best.
“I got it wrong,” he said fondly. “It looks like strawberry ice.”
Characters: Charlie, Tonks, Remus
Rating & Warnings: PG-13
Word Count: 3865
Summary: Tonks was shaking her head. “I think one day someone will come along and I’ll - I’ll be so bowled over from lack of practice and by him, that my only chance of surviving it all is if he’s the same.”
Author’s Notes: I seem to have been writing this for about two months on and off, mostly off. It was inspired by the lovely hrymfaxe and her request for a fic about Charlie and the prompt ‘eclipse’. This was intended to be much shorter and a less angsty, rather different story, but the characters seemed to have ideas of their own and… I let them have their way. Hopefully, I shouldn’t have stuck with Plan A. ;)
Under Cover of Darkness
He forgot his tiredness when Tonks opened Grimmauld’s heavy front door with a smile as bright as her hair and said, “Just in time to get your backside kicked in a duel, Charlie-boy. Come on in.”
As if she’d seen him only last week, instead of last whenever it was. And it must be all the time that had gone by which made him think, ridiculously, my, how you’ve grown.
He stood in the shadowed hallway as she bolted the door and, as she was looking him up and down in the frank, unabashed way she always used to, he did the same in return.
“Good journey?” she asked.
“No.”
“Nice to be home?”
“Ye- Not yet.” He grinned, and she gave him a look and laughed, and he thought it was just like they’d taken up again from where they left off and the feeling of relief was immense. He hadn’t been able to do that at home, where there was always the sense of four small walls and well-meaning questions hemming him in.
If anyone had told him when he’d left school that he’d find work the easiest part of his life and everything else would be something he never quite got right, he wouldn’t have believed them. Thank Merlin for the girl with the pink cap of hair sliding the final bolt in with a forceful shove, and for the rush of reassuring memories she brought with her.
“New burns?” she asked, taking a wide path round what looked like the most unattractive umbrella stand ever.
He pushed back a thick sweater sleeve and showed her the latest, twelve inches long and peeling nicely. “Aiming for bubblegum, are we?” he said, gesturing to her hair.
She pulled a face, at either the question or his arm. “And only an hour ago, I was told it was the colour of strawberry ice. Thanks a bunch, Weasley. Follow me and watch out for the elf head decor.” She glanced back as she led the way up the dark, narrow staircase. “I’m glad you came round. You can’t have been back long?”
“I couldn’t wait to see this place. And the notorious Sirius Black. And you, of course.”
“Of course. How’s things at home?”
“You might say Percy is conspicuous by his absence.”
“I run into him at work sometimes.”
“You do?” He didn’t know why it hadn’t occurred to him that she would. “Does he say anything?”
“No.” She pulled up suddenly and half turned to face him. “Um… He uses the Aurors’ back staircase, pretends he’s running errands for Fudge.” She saw that he didn’t get her meaning and said, “It’s to avoid the lift and any chance of seeing your dad, I think.”
“Oh.”
“I know. It’s tempting to really run into him sometimes, but-” She paused, sounding like the fiercely loyal Tonks he knew of old, but it was a newer, more thoughtful girl who added, “It wouldn’t solve anything, would it? He thinks it’s all about family, but it’s all about a war as well.”
“Yeah.” Charlie wasn’t sure he’d fully grasped that himself. He’d been too busy with the anger on hearing the news, and then recognising the old familiar feelings when he saw Bill. Second son, second best. Made worse by the fact that he knew it was all in his head, and that he was probably prouder and thought more of Bill than anyone. “Anyway, it’s taken the heat off Mum worrying about whether I’m doing my washing properly, what I’m eating and my unconventional career choice.”
She’d started to move off upwards again. “Mothers worry, Charlie. About those scary dragons.”
“Yeah. About the scary things Aurors get to do, Tonks.”
“Yeah.” He could imagine the rueful grin. He found himself studying her denim-clad backside with slightly bewildered appreciation, and thinking no one grew at twenty-three, not even Tonks (unless she wanted to, of course), but there was something different about her he couldn’t pin down.
She seemed to have… He struggled to find the word or words he wanted, thinking that she looked more confident, more assured, more attractive than he’d remembered - all of which could be put down to age and experience - but that didn’t cover it, somehow. It wasn’t grown up so much as…
Fined down?
She’d always been slim and striking because of her ever-changing colour, rather than being conventionally pretty. “I’ll have to rely on brains and character,” she used to say at school and, unlike the other girls who said the same, he thought she rather liked it that way, as though that was what should count anyway. It was still the Tonks he’d known for over half his life who led him into a room at the end where the lamps flickered half-heartedly in the battle to shed some light. She’d always been cleverer than him but she’d never made him feel that and they’d shared a determination to go their own way. Despite all the jokes, he knew how ambitious and hard-working she was; she knew how necessary it was for him to get away, which was why he didn’t make any jokes about that at all. He even thought at one time she might have fancied him a bit but he never did anything about it.
Right now, he was starting to wonder why.
“Rubbish timing,” she said, and he realised she was frowning at scorch marks on the wall with her hands on her hips in disgust.
It dawned on him then what she’d said at the door as he took in the cavernous room, all lines of imperious mahogany panelling and dark, grimy wallpaper, the furniture piled down one end. An almost electrical tension in the air as there was after numerous spells had been fired in a confined space. While she stood opposite him, all colour and light, in a white shirt with what looked like different shaped and sized buttons all down it, and shapely bare feet emerging from the frayed hems of jeans which trailed loosely on the floor.
“It’s your mother’s fault,” she said, following the direction of his gaze.
“Mum’s nicked your shoes? She swore she’d given up on the kleptomania.”
She grinned. “No, your mum left us some of her incredibly efficient cleaning solutions after this place was tidied up. And Kreacher - that’s the house elf here - likes to take Sirius’ instructions to the letter when it suits him. So because he knew today was duel day, this floor was like an ice rink when we came in here.”
“Doesn’t Sirius sort him out?” He thought about what he’d heard of Sirius Black, which was his mother muttering that Sirius was no role model for Harry while his father told her to shush, and all the rumours which he never trusted until confirmed in stone. If it had reached as far as Romania, there was no telling how many changes the original story had undergone. The last thing he’d read was a bundle of out-of-date newspapers with the headlines reporting that Sirius had lost the entire Black family fortune at cards, had founded a colony of atheists in the East, and was secretly inventing a new brand of coleslaw.
All of which suggested he must be nearly as tired as Charlie was. He was still keen to meet him though.
“You don’t have to duel. You must be knackered after getting here.” Tonks was smiling, but he noticed she hadn’t answered the question. “Remus will be back in a sec.”
“You duel Lupin and Black?”
“Not both at once! But, yeah. It’s good fun, and good vigilance, and it keeps Sirius occupied.” She frowned. “And they’re both right swines, as you’d expect.”
“They are?” They were discussing an ex-criminal who seemed to have rewritten the ‘note’ in notoriety. But it was a lot easier to imagine Lupin with his nose in a book.
“Sirius is brilliant, but then he’ll do something stupid because he gets bored and decides he won’t use a Shield Charm today as it’s for girls and sissies.” She pointed at a sizeable round dent in the wall. “That’s the result. And, of course, Remus is absolutely bloody infuriating.” She laughed, fiddling with the fine chain of her bracelet. “He just defends and defends ever so politely and then when you’re either completely knackered or let your guard down for a minute, he suddenly does some useful little spell, which no one’s ever heard of, and usually has nothing to do with the time honoured art of duelling. And you’re so gob-smacked it works!”
“Right.” Charlie felt awkward, hearing her talk with such obvious affection about them. Out of place again, longing for the solitude of the Carpathian Mountains with their snow-capped peaks, their isolation, and the animals that relied on him. “So… their duels must be good, then?”
She grinned. “Just before you arrived, Sirius accused Remus of letting him win, Remus said the last hex had addled his brain if he actually thought he was winning, Sirius lost his rag and did some incredibly complicated spellwork that had Remus on his backside, only while he was doing it-” She broke off, looking as if she was trying not to laugh.
“Yes?”
“R-Remus hit him with a Hair-thickening Charm. On his eyebrows. That’s why-” She gave up trying not to laugh. “That’s why there’s a whacking great hole in the wall. Sirius couldn’t see a thing.”
Charlie felt himself smile. It sounded like there were hidden depths to old Lupin after all, but he wanted to change the subject as the dim light from the window caught her white shirt. He thought he should probably look away but didn’t. He’d wasted enough time not looking at what was right in front of him. “Where are they now?”
“Oh, Sirius cracked his head a bit, and Remus doesn’t want him drowning his - is making sure he’s okay. He is, from the amount of swearing and name calling he was doing.”
So he probably hadn’t got much time and he’d never been any good at this anyway, but the thing with Tonks was that she’d tell you straight. Hopefully, without laughing in his face.
“How about we hold off on the duelling, and me kicking your arse, and we go somewhere instead?” He saw the surprise and added hastily, “A lot of old times to catch up on. Things to find out.”
She didn’t look as enthusiastic as he hoped, but she did look amused. “Like what?”
“Oh…” I’m about six years too late and I feel as if I never quite fit in anywhere nowadays, but I did with you once and I’d like to see if we could now… “Got a boyfriend?”
“Nope.” The amusement vanished and she was quite serious, as though she’d thought about this before. “I don’t think I’m the type many people would go for.”
“But you-”
“Nah. Couple of dates and then either they’re bored and uncomfortable or I am. Course it’s always me that gets to tell them - men hang around forever if they think there’s a chance they’ll get lucky.”
He grinned, thinking some men had the right idea. “That sounds a lot like dragon mating rituals.”
She laughed, pointed her wand at the heap of furniture and a dilapidated two-seater leather sofa swivelled round to face them. “Forget the duel. Let’s sit down. You’ve done so well not mentioning the D-word all this time, and you must be dying to tell me how cute and cuddly your favourite one is. Still got that photo of the Swedish Short-Snout you were in love with? Daphne, was it?”
“It's Dorothy and she’s a very beautiful Hungarian Horntail.” He didn’t add that he’d not only still got the photo but many more besides and perched rather awkwardly on the edge of the sofa, while she tucked her legs and feet under her and grinned up at him. It was impossible to avoid grinning back.
“You don’t want to hear work stuff,” he said, but he wanted to tell her as he couldn’t do any of that at home because of the look of fear on his mum’s face, the doubt on his father’s and the loud excitement of the twins. So he told her about the animals which could kill you in an instant, but rarely did so out of malice. Which, by his reckoning, made them better than quite a few human beings.
“As long as they’re not protecting their young, or you get in the way of their food - or you are their food - then you’re pretty safe. Unless it’s mating season and then you really don’t want to meet a horny dragon.”
“I think I have in my time,” she said, laughing. “You were always fantastic in Care of Magical Creatures, but I never thought you’d end up doing anything like this.”
Her voice held all the awe and admiration he so rarely heard and he felt himself blush.
“I remember when you-” She stopped just as he was willing her to go on. “They’d probably have called you something completely different at Hogwarts if they’d known. Chunky Charlie?”
“Don’t call me that! It’s left me emotionally scarred for life!”
“You can’t tell me you didn’t lap it up when they were chanting it at Quidditch! I always wondered if they were referring to your biceps or somewhere lower.”
“It was definitely my brain.” He grinned, feeling the heat burning his cheeks even more but enjoying it all the same. “And everyone liked you, too. Boys liked you.”
Tonks was shaking her head. “I seemed to be an all or nothing girl even back then. I think one day someone will come along and I’ll - I’ll be so bowled over from lack of practice and by him, that my only chance of surviving it all is if he’s the same.”
He stared at her, his hopes rising as she fiddled with her bracelet again.
“So what about you? Got a girl waiting in every dragon shelter?” she asked almost coyly, turning the chain round and round her wrist, and it was odd seeing Tonks, his old friend, who he’d partied with and drunk with and trusted his most innermost thoughts with, behaving like this. It was how girls behaved with Bill, and he felt a warm thrill go through him.
“Do you know how hard it is to meet girls when you’re half way up a mountain?” He was conscious that he didn’t sound too upset about it right now. “I meet goat herders, and the few villagers there are around, and the people I’ve smuggled in and out for the Order, but a social life? Not so as you’d notice. Unless you count the dragon-keepers’ Friday happy hour where we all raise a glass to the fact we’re though another week and not burnt to a crisp.”
“Poor Charlie. But you know you love it, and it gets you away from all those nasty people and buildings that won’t leave you in peace.”
“You make me sound very simple,” he said, trying not to let on that her words had stung a little. “Bit dull.”
“Bit different, more like it. And that's you and me both, mate.” She didn’t look remotely sorry about it. “So definitely not dull. Wicked people think they’re exciting but that’s what makes them stupid.”
“You don’t go for the bad boys, then?”
He’d meant it as a joke, trying to be Bill-like again, but the line seemed to fall flat as soon as it left his mouth. A small smile tugged at her lips in return and wrinkled her pretty eyes. “Much more interesting when someone could be really wicked but isn’t, don’t you think? Takes guts to do that.”
He presumed she meant Sirius. They were related, after all, and everything always came back to family. Percy might have a point. He remembered how keen he’d been to see Sirius, but that could wait. And Lupin might be back any second now…
“How about a swift half then at the Duck and Lamb and we’ll discuss being good instead of wicked?”
She grinned. “You really know how to ask a girl. And to think I had such a crush on you when I was sixteen for at least a term and a bit.”
His heart leapt. “You did?”
“Yeah, only you were too busy dreaming of wild adventures to notice me going round like an idiot, crying tears of bitter sorrow into my pillow each night because Chunky Charlie would sooner read Dragon’s Den Weekly than notice me wasting away.”
He swallowed. Don’t get carried away, she’s joking. “Might not be too late if you… er… want to admire my muscles over a bag of crisps.”
“We’ll have to wait for Remus first. I promised I’d duel him and I’m sure he’d like to see you as well.”
“Lupin won’t mind, will he?”
“Actually…” A faint smile crossed her face. “He might.”
“But if you explain-” Charlie started, thinking Lupin might have his nose put out of joint a bit if they took off but would get over it, when a floorboard creaked behind him and a hoarse voice said politely, “What won’t I mind?”
“Hey-” Charlie, taken off guard was horribly awkward for a moment, almost leaping to his feet, but while he was recovering Lupin was shaking his hand affably and saying how good it was to see him again, and somehow they were past the awkwardness without him having said much at all.
“How’s Sirius?” Tonks asked, still seated.
“Would you believe he’s making tea for us?” Lupin smiled down at her. “The sudden blow to the head seems to have brought out an unexpectedly domestic side to him. It’s a pity it didn’t happen years ago. He’s looking forward to meeting you, Charlie,” he added, in a friendly manner.
“Me too.” He was going to say something else but stopped. Lupin was greyer than he remembered, his clothes had clearly seen much better days and the indigo blue of his jumper matched the deep circles under his eyes, but there was something about the man’s composure and intelligence which made Charlie feel like a short, squat country yokel, fumbling around for the right words again. Yet he liked Lupin and always had.
“Charlie suggested he and I go for a drink now,” Tonks said casually.
There was a fractional pause while she played with her bracelet again, and Charlie heard himself filling it by saying something about catching up on old times as there was a lot to catch up on. Or something. The bracelet went round and round the slender wrist and both she and Lupin seemed to be waiting politely for him to shut up. So he did.
Lupin nodded. “Good idea,” he said.
“Why?” Tonks asked almost before he’d finished the second word, as though she’d anticipated his answer. Her voice was light and easy, but Charlie glanced at her because there was a note there that wasn’t and which he’d never heard before.
He was conscious of that something in the air again, like an electrical charge, only this one had nothing to do with spells. A tension that he suddenly realised was nothing to do with him, either.
Involuntarily, he looked at Lupin - and knew. There was nothing in the older man’s face, unless it was the utter stillness and lack of expression, but he knew. What everything she’d said had meant, and why she looked and seemed as if she’d grown into a different young woman to the one he thought he knew.
Because she had.
Any hopes he had died in that split second.
“I’m… sure you youngsters would like to get out of here for a bit.” Lupin sounded almost like some understanding uncle speaking jovially to a favourite niece and nephew. He only missed it by a fraction, but it was more than enough.
“You know,” Tonks said slowly, raising her head as Lupin was the one to look away. “I think there must be some age where you stop being too young for things, don’t you Charlie? Like there must be some brief interlude where you’re the perfect age to cope with everything in life, and people know that you are and don’t try and protect you from things that worry them far more than you. Before you get too old, of course, which I reckon must be at about, say, thirty-six or seven. I’m really going to have to try and cram it all in before I get there.”
“Tonks-” There was pain in Lupin’s voice which Charlie didn’t want to hear - would it have been half as bad if it had just been all on her side? Even though he felt light-headed with shock, the whole scenario he’d been building in his head serving only to prove, once again, that it was animals he knew far better than humans, he heard himself say, “We can do the drink any time, Tonks. I did come here to meet the one and only Sirius Black, after all.”
Another loner, he thought. Another one who’s had to go his own way. We ought to get on quite well.
“Tonks wanted to duel you, anyway,” he added offhandedly to Lupin, and he might not have sounded half as smooth as the older man, or even very convincing, but their eyes met and he thought there was some kind of understanding there.
An impression confirmed when Lupin said quietly, “I’d like that and Sirius would appreciate the company.” After an infinitesimal pause Tonks said, “That’s okay with me, if Charlie doesn’t mind,” and then Charlie looked away as the last thing he wanted was to see them staring at each other.
He’d have liked to have escaped then, left them to it, but Tonks was still the kind friend he’d known for so long and she insisted on showing him down the stairs to the kitchen and doing the intros. Pointing out, rightly, that the house was like a maze of dark, shadowed corridors, and she couldn’t have it on her conscience that he might be left wandering round it for the next month or so.
From the way Lupin was now finding the dent in the wall completely fascinating, the pair of them were probably keen to give themselves a minute or two before facing each other.
He wondered how long this had been going on, whether they’d sort it out.
He followed her down in silence, acknowledging feelings both of bitter disappointment and relieved release. The past had been eclipsed for her; it should be for him as well. Momentary dreams and imaginings could be lost forever here under cover of darkness.
“I’d like to come and see you in Romania one day.” Tonks pulled up suddenly, possibly even on the same stair she’d paused on before, and he wondered what had made her say that as he doubted she ever would.
“Can’t see you in an isolated mountain hut.” He tried to grin.
“Why not?”
“You like people.” He hesitated. “You need people and… they need you.”
She thought about this, fingering the bracelet again before meeting his eyes with both appeal and self-mockery in hers. “Do you think hair the colour of bubblegum makes me look too young?”
Charlie took a breath. Tried not to think second son, second best.
“I got it wrong,” he said fondly. “It looks like strawberry ice.”