Whiskey By Firelight (pre-obstruction)
Title: Whiskey By Firelight
Characters: Nymphadora Tonks, Minerva McGonagall, Charlie Weasley
Word Count: 875
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: But you, you were my favorite at hp_obstruction (this will be rewritten after I'm given a list of obstructions)
For Dawn
Tonks wasn’t sure she enjoyed Minerva when she was tipsy. If the woman got more than two fire whiskeys in her, she started to reminisce. There were times that the history lesson wasn’t bad, but usually it was just uncomfortable for everyone in listening range.
“I remember when you were just a wee little thing, jumping up the steps to the Great Hall because you couldn’t quite keep up with the other kids. Do you remember that red haired girl, deary? She had a funny first name. Started with a funny letter of the alphabet, too.”
“Zenith? Fiona? Margaret?” Who really knew what letter this professor thought might be funny. Maybe it was the shape. Maybe it was the sound. Maybe it was just the fire whiskey talking.
“No, I think it was-“
“What are you two talking about now? Anything fun?”
Tonks had never been so happy to see Charlie as she was right now. His rakish grin was irritating these days but he’d done the one thing she’d been unable to do. He stopped McGonagall in mid-sentence and she didn’t seem eager to start again. Instead, she smiled up in awe at Charlie as if he was a pretty piece of art on a wall. So pretty. So inaccessible. Yep, that summed Charlie Weasley up in a couple of words, funny first letters and all.
“Is your mother nearby?” Tonks asked in a low voice. “I could use some help here. Minerva’s in no shape to be getting back to the school but she seems to only remember me as a gangly eleven year old.”
“Hey, I remember that,” he exclaimed, grabbing up the bottle on the fireside table to see what they were drinking. “You were so tiny. And all those freckles.”
“Is this necessary?”
He wasn’t ready to be stopped, though. If there was one thing Charlie Weasley seemed to enjoy these days, it was irritating Nymphadora Tonks. Molly was constantly telling her to just let the words go by without responding to them and he’d stop but she didn’t believe her. There were a couple of things that Molly Weasley didn’t know. She was pretty sure that the woman’s son was one of them.
“Of course. Pull your chair closer to the fire, Tonks. Drink with us. Would you care for more, Professor?”
Minerva giggled. It was a strange sound coming from the wrinkled old woman. If Tonks had been blindfolded, she would have assumed the sound came from a hormonal fourteen year old.
“Just a bit, my dear boy. Just a bit.”
With a wary eye at her drinking companions, Tonks waved her wand until her chair was next to Minerva’s. It should have been far enough away from Charlie that she didn’t feel his warmth on her skin. Unfortunately, she still could. If she concentrated on the roaring fire, she could convince herself her skin was glowing with warmth from the flames and not from Charlie’s warm personality.
“Tell me a story about Tonks as a student,” he requested of Minerva.
Quickly, Tonks interrupted before the woman could begin. “You know what I was like, Charlie. You were there. Why don’t you tell her a story?”
“What a wonderful idea!”
Tonks groaned. She was close to giving up. It wouldn’t be hard to get up and walk out of the safe house. These two wouldn’t remember this in the morning. Heck, she might not remember if she kept drinking with them. Too bad that she became morose when she drank. It always looked like so much fun when other people did it.
“Not many people know that Tonks tried out a different nickname for awhile. One day, not long after school started, she decided she wanted to be known as Jex. “Everyone must call me Jex,” she announced to everyone in the Common Room. Luckily enough for her, there were only three people there. Stephen, Quinten, and Constance.”
“Constance!” Minerva exclaimed, having leapt firmly into the world of exclamation points now that she was done with her third glass of whiskey. They were almost visible in the air outside her mouth at the end of each sentence. “That was the red head I was thinking of.”
Charlie’s pout proved that the boy had a flair for the melodramatic. “I thought I was your favorite red head.”
“Oh, you were, my dear boy. You were. I was telling Miss Tonks that… what was I telling you about Constance?”
“That you should have flunked her out of Transfiguration? Too bad you can’t change those records now. I wonder where good ol’ Constance is now,” Tonks mused, twirling the little bit of whiskey in the bottom of her glass so that it caught the firelight and sparkled.
“She’s married. Five kids. Gained forty stone and has thick ankles.”
“Good ol’ Charlie. You always know how to make me smile.” She did indeed smile at him, knowing he was lying through his incredibly straight teeth but loving him all the more because he knew just want she wanted to hear. He smiled back and she wondered why she’d never kissed him before. Those lips begged to be kissed. She really needed to kiss him. Maybe she would… after she stopped being dizzy.
Characters: Nymphadora Tonks, Minerva McGonagall, Charlie Weasley
Word Count: 875
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: But you, you were my favorite at hp_obstruction (this will be rewritten after I'm given a list of obstructions)
For Dawn
Tonks wasn’t sure she enjoyed Minerva when she was tipsy. If the woman got more than two fire whiskeys in her, she started to reminisce. There were times that the history lesson wasn’t bad, but usually it was just uncomfortable for everyone in listening range.
“I remember when you were just a wee little thing, jumping up the steps to the Great Hall because you couldn’t quite keep up with the other kids. Do you remember that red haired girl, deary? She had a funny first name. Started with a funny letter of the alphabet, too.”
“Zenith? Fiona? Margaret?” Who really knew what letter this professor thought might be funny. Maybe it was the shape. Maybe it was the sound. Maybe it was just the fire whiskey talking.
“No, I think it was-“
“What are you two talking about now? Anything fun?”
Tonks had never been so happy to see Charlie as she was right now. His rakish grin was irritating these days but he’d done the one thing she’d been unable to do. He stopped McGonagall in mid-sentence and she didn’t seem eager to start again. Instead, she smiled up in awe at Charlie as if he was a pretty piece of art on a wall. So pretty. So inaccessible. Yep, that summed Charlie Weasley up in a couple of words, funny first letters and all.
“Is your mother nearby?” Tonks asked in a low voice. “I could use some help here. Minerva’s in no shape to be getting back to the school but she seems to only remember me as a gangly eleven year old.”
“Hey, I remember that,” he exclaimed, grabbing up the bottle on the fireside table to see what they were drinking. “You were so tiny. And all those freckles.”
“Is this necessary?”
He wasn’t ready to be stopped, though. If there was one thing Charlie Weasley seemed to enjoy these days, it was irritating Nymphadora Tonks. Molly was constantly telling her to just let the words go by without responding to them and he’d stop but she didn’t believe her. There were a couple of things that Molly Weasley didn’t know. She was pretty sure that the woman’s son was one of them.
“Of course. Pull your chair closer to the fire, Tonks. Drink with us. Would you care for more, Professor?”
Minerva giggled. It was a strange sound coming from the wrinkled old woman. If Tonks had been blindfolded, she would have assumed the sound came from a hormonal fourteen year old.
“Just a bit, my dear boy. Just a bit.”
With a wary eye at her drinking companions, Tonks waved her wand until her chair was next to Minerva’s. It should have been far enough away from Charlie that she didn’t feel his warmth on her skin. Unfortunately, she still could. If she concentrated on the roaring fire, she could convince herself her skin was glowing with warmth from the flames and not from Charlie’s warm personality.
“Tell me a story about Tonks as a student,” he requested of Minerva.
Quickly, Tonks interrupted before the woman could begin. “You know what I was like, Charlie. You were there. Why don’t you tell her a story?”
“What a wonderful idea!”
Tonks groaned. She was close to giving up. It wouldn’t be hard to get up and walk out of the safe house. These two wouldn’t remember this in the morning. Heck, she might not remember if she kept drinking with them. Too bad that she became morose when she drank. It always looked like so much fun when other people did it.
“Not many people know that Tonks tried out a different nickname for awhile. One day, not long after school started, she decided she wanted to be known as Jex. “Everyone must call me Jex,” she announced to everyone in the Common Room. Luckily enough for her, there were only three people there. Stephen, Quinten, and Constance.”
“Constance!” Minerva exclaimed, having leapt firmly into the world of exclamation points now that she was done with her third glass of whiskey. They were almost visible in the air outside her mouth at the end of each sentence. “That was the red head I was thinking of.”
Charlie’s pout proved that the boy had a flair for the melodramatic. “I thought I was your favorite red head.”
“Oh, you were, my dear boy. You were. I was telling Miss Tonks that… what was I telling you about Constance?”
“That you should have flunked her out of Transfiguration? Too bad you can’t change those records now. I wonder where good ol’ Constance is now,” Tonks mused, twirling the little bit of whiskey in the bottom of her glass so that it caught the firelight and sparkled.
“She’s married. Five kids. Gained forty stone and has thick ankles.”
“Good ol’ Charlie. You always know how to make me smile.” She did indeed smile at him, knowing he was lying through his incredibly straight teeth but loving him all the more because he knew just want she wanted to hear. He smiled back and she wondered why she’d never kissed him before. Those lips begged to be kissed. She really needed to kiss him. Maybe she would… after she stopped being dizzy.