(no subject)
Title: Les Fruits
Author: carnivalgirl
Format & Word Count: Ficlet, 1002 words.
Rating: G
Prompt: Prompt 7, note on fridge.
Warning: None.
Summary: Due to *ahem* popular demand, here is a sequel to 'Boat Trip'. Tonks bonds with one of Remus's younger cousins in France, who somehow seems familiar.
Author's Note: Not as romantic as the others, I hope it's OK. 'Ananas' is French for 'pineapple'.
Les Fruits
Remus's relatives were an odd sort of people. Remus's aunt was a Squib, and so some of her children and grandchildren had powers, others not. As a family, they lived between the two worlds, and their large home was a mish-mash of Muggle technology and old-fashioned wizarding apparatus. In the windy November weather it was a bright and cheerful place in which Tonks felt instantly at home despite the language barriers between her and her in-laws. The holiday had started a little awkwardly, as Remus was greeting middle-aged adult cousins he remembered as teenagers, and vice versa. His cousin Odile's baby girl was now a shy twenty-year-old woman who knew little of this 'Rem-oo' and his odd family and was far happier in her room with her university books. However, after a little sharing of nostalgia and news, things had quickly settled and Tonks and Teddy had immediately been welcomed with love as if they had always been part of the family.
There were two small children belonging to another cousin, Nicolas and Rosalie, who had both fallen in love with Teddy and were spending hours with him on the rug in the living room, pulling faces to make him laugh, tickling him and singing French nursery rhymes. As Remus had said, if Teddy ever learnt to sing "Compère Guilleri" coherently, he would be better at French than his father ever was.
Having a duo of enthusiastic babysitters to watch Teddy, Tonks had a little more free time to herself, and one afternoon she decided to explore their home a little more closely. After slipping through a door in the kitchen, she found herself facing a large white cupboard that made a humming sound. It also had a number of magnets and some sticky notes on the front. It was...if she remembered correctly...a fridge.
She opened the doors and stared inside. There was an array of food inside under a bright light, all packaged in French of course, which Tonks took as a learning opportunity.
"Boo-er...oo-ee-ufs...juss d'orahnge...juss d'anananas...ananas..."
There came a chuckle from behind her. Another of the younger generation stood in the doorway. He was a small, thin teenager with a bright smile and eyes that reminded her of someone. Probably Remus.
"You 'ave to...close eet."
"Close it?"
"Ze food...needs to be cold." he said.
"Oh, um, sorry. Pardonnez-moi." she said, quickly shutting the huge door. "Je ne...see...les...fridges...beaucoup."
"No, I understand. You are a witch." he said. "I can...learn you those words, if you would like."
"Merci. Mon français est pas très bon." Tonks replied, giggling the best French she knew. At least it was better than 'Nein sprechen mie Deutsch.' "Comment tu t'appelles?"
"Tobie." he said, smiling again and awkwardly rubbing his black hair. She remembered which one he was now; he was the son of Remus's cousin Evy, who had been especially close to Sirius when the Marauders took a holiday here twenty years ago. Apparently they had even kept up a correspondence, and he had occassionally driven over to the other side of the Channel to visit her...
And so together they wasted a silly amount of electricity and time but had great fun labelling the food with English and French Post-Its. While Tonks struggled over the 'n's and 'a's of "ananas" young Tobie articulated "rhu-BARB" and "AP-le zeus". Though they both convinced their family they were slightly on the mad side, they had found in each other a new friend. And yet, as she watched her second-cousin-in-law smile, laugh and tease her, she began to wonder.
She and Remus spent that night in the dining room playing cards, with Teddy sleeping in the crook of his mother's arm. Tonks liked playing cards with her husband if only to see the way his amber eyes darted around and glowed with triumph every time he beat her, though he pretended to be sorry. Their hands met in the game of Snap, and cheesy as it was she held it for a moment and looked into his handsome face.
"This has been a wonderful holiday."
"I'm glad you think so." he said. "I've had a lovely time too."
"I'm even learning French."
"Vraiment?"
"Huh?"
"Never mind. It's nice you're breaking the language barrier..."
To see him so calm and relaxed made her suddenly eager to voice something that had been on her mind.
"You know...Tobie?"
"Yes..."
"His mother was...close to Sirius, was she not?"
A look of gentle comprehension passed over his face, and he told her kindly but firmly; "Dora, Sirius went to prison in 1981. Tobie is fourteen, he was born in 1984."
A heavy blush crept into his wife's cheeks and coloured her spiky green hair a little red at the roots. "Oh. I'm sorry, it was so stupid, really stupid, it's just the way he was...smiling..." She looked down at Teddy.
"Dora, don't worry." he said. "Perhaps you were just seeing something you wanted to see."
"Yes, and it was incredibly silly of me. And typical" she said, feeling really rather mortified now and unable to look at him. "You never do anything like that."
"Probably because everything I see nowadays is what I want to see." he told her, and his hand caressed hers gently. She looked up at him, her confidence returning.
"You always say the right thing." she said. "I love you."
"And I love you." he told her, and they returned to their cards, feeling a little more loved up.
"Although," he added. "Perhaps Tobie does have a bit of Marauder in him, you never know."
Tonks had not none quite what he meant until she looked at herself in the mirror that evening, and saw a Post-It note attached to her forehead proudly labelling her and her green hair an "ananananananas".