Flatmates

by Lune Nu

Nymphadora Tonks and Fleur Delacour are forced to room together to make ends meet. Add in one truly awful alarm clock, an out of control grease fire, and the return of Charlie Weasley, and things get really complicated. Can they make it through the week?

Nymphadora Tonks and Fleur Delacour are complete opposites, and no one in their right minds would suggest they live together. No one, that is, but Bill Weasley, Fleur's boyfriend. Short on money and without other options, the two women decide to move in together in order to make the rent. Can they learn to live together without killing each other? Or burning down the flat? Add to the mix one truly awful alarm clock, an out of control grease fire, and the return of Charlie Weasley, and things are about to get complicated.

FLATMATES

SATURDAY

Tonks stared at her face in the mirror, wrapping one long strand of hair around her wand until the curl set. She was getting ready to go out and had wanted to try a fancier style, but it looked all wrong on her face, the delicate curls contrasting with her strong jaw. Tonks sighed. She could make her face more delicate, of course, but she tried to avoid doing things like that. It was fine and all for auror work, but when she was with her own friends Tonks preferred her own face. Changing it felt too much like putting on a mask.

Sighing, Tonks shook the clumsy mass of curls down and screwed up her face, concentrating on her habitual spiky pink hair. With a last look in the mirror, she grabbed her trenchcoat and keys and left the flat.

She was going to meet Charlie and Bill Weasley tonight. Charlie was coming to England for a few days on Order business, and had dropped her an owl. Apparently, his mum was trying to set her up with his brother Bill, and had been bugging him about it. Tonks sighed. She loved Molly, but she was always asking very polite questions about her love life, as if she thought Tonks needed a man in her life. She knew Molly meant well, but Tonks found it insulting. Charlie had said not to worry about it though, because Bill already had a scandalous girlfriend he hadn't told their mum about yet. He'd still wanted to get together for drinks though.

It would be nice to see Charlie again though, Tonks reflected. They'd been in the same year at Hogwarts, though in different houses, but they'd been friendly enough. They'd even dated for a while in seventh year, although by that time Charlie had been too focused on moving to Romania for it to be anything serious. Still, it would be nice to see him again. She hadn't seen him since they'd graduated.

In truth, Tonks thought, it would be nice to be doing anything, no matter who it was with. She hardly ever went out anymore, and hadn't at all since her last flatmate, Jennah, had dropped out of auror training and moved out. It seemed to be some sort of rite of passage that low level aurors had crappy hours and even crappier pay, Tonks thought, and cursed Jennah again for leaving her with the whole month's rent. With her wage-less Order work on top of that, Tonks barely had any free time or money these days, and so she was looking forward to a night out.

She apparated in front of the Leaky Cauldron, where Charlie had said they were meeting, and pushed the door open, letting in a blast of cold winter air. She spotted the Weasleys right away, their hair standing out even in the dusky pub. She grinned to see it. They were one of the few who could rival her own hair choices.

She headed over to them, raising a hand and shouting. Charlie looked up and went to meet her, hugging her and lifting her up. She thumped his back in response, grinning. He was looking really good. Dragon Taming obviously agreed with him.

They went over to Bill and she grinned amicably at him, reaching up to tug his ponytail and flick his earring in a fair impression of Molly Weasley. He grinned back and Charlie elbowed her.

"Still doing impressions, huh?" he said. She ignored him.

"So Bill," she said instead. "Tell me about this girlfriend of yours who's supposedly my competition." She winked at Charlie. "Is she pretty?"

"Naw," Bill said. "She's really ugly. And fat." Charlie snorted, and she raised her eyebrows at him, not getting the joke.

"She's part Veela," he clarified.

"Ah, so she's drop dead gorgeous then," Tonks grinned. "Well clearly, I have no hope at all, and must spend the rest of my days pining for the unrequited love of Bill Weasley." She sighed dramatically.

"Bill's a heart-breaker, it's true." Charlie nodded solemnly.

"Right, shall we get drinks then?" Bill asked, his ears going red.

"Alright, but I think it's only fair if you buy, in order to make up for breaking my heart and all," Tonks said.

Bill went to the bar to get the drinks, and Tonks followed him. She had wanted to ask Tom if he'd heard of anyone looking for a flatmate. The barkeep knew most everyone in the local wizarding community and heard all the gossip, so if anyone would know it would be him. She wasn't very hopeful though.

"You're looking for a flatmate?" Bill asked as they walked back to the table.

"Yeah," Tonks sighed. "My old flatmate Jennah moved out last week. Why? You know anyone?"

"Well," he said. "I think Fleur's looking for a place. I could ask her if you like. She just got kicked out of her old flat."

Tonks laughed at that. "What'd she do?" she asked. "I thought Veela could get just about anything they wanted, just turn on the sparkle and bam! people fall all over themselves..."

"Yeah, sometimes," Bill said seriously. "But I guess her landlady didn't like her. She's staying here right now, actually."

They reached the table and Bill handed Charlie his drink. "So Bill," Charlie asked suggestively. "Why isn't Fleur staying with you then?"

Bill sighed heavily. "She doesn't think we're "there yet,"" he said, making quotes in the air.

"Huh," Charlie said. "That doesn't sound like you."

Tonks suppressed a laugh. "She probably doesn't want to dazzle him too much with all that Veela charm."

"Hey!" Bill said.

Charlie grinned and punched him in the shoulder. "So Bill," he said. "You man enough for your Veela? Can you resist the sparkles?"

"Shut it, you," Bill snapped, his ears going read again. He turned back to Tonks. "So, should I tell her you're looking for a flatmate?"

"Why not?" Tonks said impulsively, and raised her glass to toast the two of them. She was happy to be out, happy to see Charlie again. Bill's taste in women couldn't be that bad, she thought.

o.o.o

It was late Saturday night, and Fleur couldn't sleep. Instead, she sat at a small desk in the corner of the room she'd rented at the Leaky Cauldron. She'd finally given up trying to sleep, and had set about making a list to try and organize her thoughts. There were two pieces of paper in front of her. One was an evacuation notice that she'd found pinned to her door earlier that week. She'd come home from work to find her meager possessions in boxes outside her flat, and the notice pinned to her door. Her key had no longer worked.

The other was a letter from Bill. It was sloppy and he'd obviously been somewhat drunk when he wrote it, but it was sweet all the same. It said he'd ran into a friend from the Order who was looking for a flatmate also, followed by several explicit reasons why it would really be better if she moved in with him. Fleur shook her head. She liked Bill, quite a lot actually, but moving in with him would almost certainly be a bad idea. She'd been seeing him regularly since the summer, but she was still limiting the amount of time she spent with him. Bill was sweet and stubborn and quite strong-willed actually, but spending too much time around a Veela reduced almost any man to a drooling puddle of adoration. You had to build up resistance slowly.

She looked back at the evacuation notice. She wasn't that surprised, really. She and the landlady had got off on the wrong foot right from the start, and Fleur was honestly surprised it hadn't happened sooner. She'd been tempted to just leave herself several times before, but the flat was in Diagon Alley and there were very few places there that Fleur could afford on her intern's wage from Gringotts. She sighed. It had been a really nice flat. Still, maybe she should have left earlier. Now, it was the middle of November, and it would be almost impossible to find another flat until the first of the month.

She returned her gaze to Bill's letter. She'd been staying in the Leaky Cauldron for the last few days, and while it was not exactly high class, she still couldn't afford to pay for a room for much longer. Probably, she should take Bill's friend up on her offer.

Quickly, she penned a letter to Tonks, introducing herself and explaining what Bill had told her. She finished by saying that she could move in as soon as was convenient.

Then, after sending the letter off with Bill's owl, she lay back in the skinny bed and finally went to sleep.

SUNDAY

Tonks was in the middle of scrubbing down her flat, in preparation for Fleur, who was moving in later that day. She'd got an owl from her late last night, explaining that Bill had told her she was looking for a flatmate, and saying she could move in as soon as convenient. She had been staying in the rooms above the Leaky Cauldron despite Bill's protests, but was hoping to finding a flat soon. Apparently even Veela had money troubles.

They'd agreed on today as the move-in day, after Fleur got off work, and so that was how Tonks found herself running around frantically, trying to make the flat presentable. Tonks was a fairly messy person on a good day, and she hadn't exactly had loads of time to clean lately, or much inclination since Jennah had left.

She was wearing a pair of old jeans and a jumper, and her hair was long and brown today, similar to her mother's. It had seemed appropriately domestic. However, she had the wireless blasting muggle songs, which she knew would horrify her mother, so she figured it balanced out.

She had her wand out, banishing various items to their proper places. She sent a crumpled pair of jeans flying to her bedroom and some dirty dishes to the already teetering pile in the sink. She must have sent them slightly too forcefully though, because they landed rather hard, cracking a plate in the middle of the pile and making the whole mass settle ominously. She cast Reparo! from across the room, thinking it was lucky she was good at reparos. She certainly used them often enough. She was about to turn away, but the whole pile gave an ungainly lurch upwards as the plate snapped together, and then began to tilt slowly, so slowly, towards the edge of the counter.

"No!" Tonks shrieked. "Stop! Wait! Impedimenta!" But it was too late and impedimenta couldn't hold back gravity. She darted forward, hands out as if to hold up the pile, but only succeeded in skidding to a halt just as the whole lot of it crashed around her feet.

"Fuck," she muttered, sucking on her thumb where a sharp edge had nicked her. There was so many broken pieces, it would be a headache to get them sorted out for reparo. Sighing, she levitated the lot back onto the counter and decided deal with it later.

She resumed looking around the room, and as a treat, decided it was time to mop the floor. Which meant lots of water and soap bubbles. Tonks liked bubbles.

She raised her wand and sent the rugs fleeing to the corners as she headed for the bathroom. One collided with a lamp on the coffee table, sending the whole thing crashing to the floor, but Tonks didn't notice.

She went into the tiny bathroom and started a bucket filling while she came back out and squirted soap all over the floor. She laughed as the soap flew in a long arc, and then dropped into a low crouch.

"Back foes!" she shouted, advancing across the room. "I am a trained auror, permitted to carry lethal weapons. Hah! Hah, hah!" she said, sending short bursts of the stuff in all directions. "Fall back before my mastery of the lethal soap. Back, I say! Back!"

She went and grabbed the bucket and upended it over the middle of the floor, using the mop to send the water sluicing to the farthest corners. As she was doing so, the song on the wireless changed, and she heard the opening notes of Raise Your Glass. She loved that song.

"Oh hell yeah," she said to herself, pointing her wand at the wireless to turn the volume as high as it would go. Her neighbors probably wouldn't appreciate it very much, but Tonks didn't really care. A girl needed some motivation in order to clean.

She pocketed her wand and grabbed the mop again, swinging herself around dangerously, and started to sing.

"So raise your glass if you are wrong in all the right ways... Just come on and come on and RAISE YOUR GLASS!" she yelled to the mop, then lifted it high above her head and spun, still singing at the top of her lungs.

o.o.o

At that moment, Fleur was standing in the hall outside Tonks' flat, contemplating the door. She'd been knocking for the last several minutes, and it didn't look like Tonks was in any hurry to open the door. Likely she couldn't even hear her over the thumping music.

Fleur sighed. Tonks was a friend of Bill's and a member of the Order, and she needed a place to stay desperately, but she couldn't help but be skeptical of the whole situation. Apparently Charlie had vouched for her, but Charlie lived with dragons by choice and Fleur didn't trust his judgment in the least.

She sighed and cracked the door open, wincing as the music inside got even louder. Squaring her shoulders, she pushed the door open all the way, and prepared to step into the fray.

"Tonks," she called. "It is me, Fleur. I am sorry I am early, I got ze afternoon off and I thought-" She stopped short, catching sight of the woman dancing in the middle of the room. She held a mop above her head and was dancing in the most awful way, alternating between jumping up and down and shaking her rear end provocatively.

When Tonks heard her call she spun around in obvious surprise, lowering the mop as she went and sending a stream of water arcing across the room, catching Fleur full in the face. The force of her momentum carried her too far though, and she slipped on the soapy floor, going down hard on her generous behind. Fleur stared in shock. Her eyes traveled slowly around the room, going from the floor, covered in several solid inches of water with large globs of brightly colored soap drifting across the surface, to the kitchen counter, which was covered in broken china, to a toppled lamp next to several crumpled and obviously soaked rugs, to a partially open door through which she could just barely see a mattress piled high with dirty clothes.

"Oh mon dieu..." she whispered, as water slowly soaked through her high heels.

"Sorry about all this," Tonks was saying, getting to her feet with an unusual amount of energy. Her lower half was almost entirely wet. "I meant to get all this cleared up before you got here, but..."

Fleur didn't really hear her, still busy staring around the room in shock. She shook her head slowly. There was no way, absolutely no way she could live here. Even if it meant staying at the Leaky Cauldron. Even if it meant moving in with Bill, which would almost certainly wreck their new romance. She could take anything but this.

She shook her head again and realized she had backed out the door without noticing. She turned and started back down the stairs, still unable to believe what she had seen. She would never trust Bill's opinion of anything ever again, she thought, not without checking for herself first.

"Oh, come on, look-" Tonks' voice startled her, and a hand grabbed her shoulder, swinging her around. She had obviously followed Fleur down the stairs. "Look, I'm sorry about that. I wasn't expecting you for another couple hours, at least."

Fleur stared at her.

"Look-" she started again. "I know it's a bit of a mess in there. I mean," she laughed at herself. "A complete mess. A holy terror of a mess. I go a bit crazy when I try to clean. It's the only way I can force myself to start." she grinned amicably at Fleur, and then caught sight of her expression again. "Oh, no, don't look like that. I do clean, I promise, I just haven't had the chance lately and, well, it won't stay like that, I promise. Just give me a chance to get things put together a little, you'll see..." she trailed off. "Look," she said finally. "I really need a flatmate right now. I've been looking for one, but I haven't had any luck so far. Maybe you could move in, just for the next month, and we could both look for other flatmates together or something. I don't know." She shrugged, and looked at Fleur hopefully.

Fleur looked back at her. She was a good six inches shorter than Fleur, who was admittedly tall, like all Veela. Her brown hair was in a long braid down her back, but the front was falling out, and wet, sweaty tendrils clung to her face. She was wearing some of the most unattractive jeans Fleur had ever seen, which were weighted down with water and hung low on her too-wide hips. Her jumper was frayed and too big; it hung off one shoulder and there was a large wet spot over her left breast. Fleur didn't know what to say.

"Look, how about you come back in an hour, after I've cleaned up a bit, and then you can make up your mind?" Tonks tried for another winning smile, and Fleur thought vaguely that non-Veela really shouldn't try that trick. It didn't work half as well.

"Oh, vairy well," Fleur sighed. She didn't really want to wreck things with Bill, and she couldn't afford to keep staying at the Leaky Cauldron. So it wasn't like she had much choice.

"Great!" Tonks said, relieved. "Well, I'll go and clean up then..." she said, already starting for the stairs, which she took two at a time.

Fleur sighed again and ran her hands through her own perfect hair, then headed outside.

o.o.o

Tonks walked through her still open door and surveyed the mess inside. Objectively, she could see what Fleur had been upset about. The water on the floor was slowly seeping into the hallway, and the bubbles were deflating sadly. The broken plates on the counter did look rather ominous. And things were kind of tossed all over the place, from when she'd been banishing them. But still. Fleur hadn't had to look so horrified.

Tonks pointed her wand at the floor and started siphoning off the excess water. She sighed noisily. Fleur looked like the sort of girl who was always put together, who would never dream of letting her flat get the slightest bit messy. She'd probably never woke up with her hair a complete mess, never been turned down by a guy, never been told she was less than perfect. Tonks never knew how to deal with girls like that.

But she'd make it work for a month. She could do that. And likely, they'd both be so busy they'd hardly see each other.

Feeling slightly better, she turned her wand on the wireless to turn it back on, although much quieter this time, and started putting the rest of her flat back together.

She was just sorting through the broken plates when there was a knock on the door, and she opened it to find Fleur standing there with a suitcase. She smiled pleasantly at her and ushered her in, and didn't miss the way her eyes cased the flat, looking for more signs of danger.

"Is this more acceptable?" she asked politely, watching Fleur out of the corner of her eye.

"Yes, zis looks much... much better," Fleur said. And then, "I 'ave several uzzer bags still at ze Leaky Cauldron-"

"Okay," said Tonks. "We can go get them. I'm sorry you can't apparate right from the flat, there's wards in place-"

"I understand," Fleur said.

"Okay, well, I'll show you the apparition point," Tonks continued. "It's two blocks down unfortunately, but it's the only safe place to apparate really. This is a muggle neighborhood, you know, and it's fairly crowded. A few months ago, a wizard apparated into the middle of the street and fifteen muggles saw him, and it caused a mass panic. The ministry had a horrible time tracking them all down and we were all pulled in for questioning, and I think he ended up getting jail time..." Tonks rambled on as she led Fleur out of the flat and towards the apparition point. It was an old bus stop which ministry officials had covered with muggle-repelling charms. "As long as you apparate within the shelter," she told Fleur, "you should be fine. The muggles won't notice anything. Why don't you grab your bags from the Leaky Cauldron and I'll wait here?"

When Fleur returned several minutes later, Tonks hoisted up some of the girl's bags, and they started back towards the flat. She shoved the door open and walked to Fleur's room, depositing the bags on the floor. She looked back to find Fleur standing in the doorway to her room, looking distraught.

"Tonks," Fleur asked coldly, "why is zair no bed? Tonks, why is zair only a mattress on ze floor?"

Tonks shrugged. It was true, neither room had a bed. The flat hadn't come with beds, and Tonks hadn't been willing to buy one. She shrugged again, "It's not that different really, sleeping on just a mattress. You get used to it."

Fleur looked like she had more to say, but Tonks shouldered her way out of the room. If Fleur wanted to have a tantrum about the lack of beds, she could do it by herself. Spoiled girl had probably never slept without one, Tonks thought uncharitably.

o.o.o

Fleur looked around her new room dismally. She wrinkled her nose at the single mattress on the floor, and at the slight smell of mold. The whole place looked shabby. It was larger than her flat in Diagon Alley, it was true, but much less nice. Despite Tonks' obvious efforts to clean it, the whole flat still felt second hand.

There was a small window above her mattress, and Fleur went it. It looked out on another row of apartments across a narrow alley. With a start, Fleur saw that many of them had windows that easily looked into her own. There was a man standing in one, and he smiled appreciatively at her. Fleur shut the blinds quickly.

Through her door, Fleur heard that Tonks had turned the wireless back on, louder than Fleur liked and set to a strange station. She didn't know any of the songs.

She looked up as her door cracked open and Tonks poked her head through. "I'm ordering takeout," she said. "D'you want anything."

"Non, thank you. I am not 'ungry."

"Kay." Tonks retreated and closed the door, and Fleur started to order her room. It was fairly bare, just the mattress and a dresser, so she ended up keeping several of her boxes in a line against the wall.

When she'd finished organizing, Fleur went back into the main part of the flat. She thought she might see if Tonks had any books she could borrow. Tonks was sitting on the kitchen counter in a bra and a pair of boxers, eating out of a takeout box and flipping through a magazine. She'd obviously just taken a shower, and her short hair clung to her face. Fleur stared. Something was very different.

"Tonks," she started. "Your 'air..." She pictured the long braid hanging down Tonks' back earlier. She must have cut it off, Fleur thought in shock.

"Mmm?" Tonks said, looking up. "Did you want some after all?" She held out the box inquisitively.

"Non," Fleur said, distracted. "Tonks, what 'ave you done to your 'air?"

Tonks looked at her for a moment, confused, then burst out laughing. "Oh, I suppose you don't know," she said. "I'm a metamorphmagus. And I hate showering with long hair. Actually, I kind of hate long hair in general, but it always looks so pretty..." she trailed off.

A metamorphmagus. Fleur shook her head. "Oh," she said. "Okay."

Tonks grinned. "You sure you don't want any?" she asked again. "I'm not going to finish it all."

Fleur leaned forward, peering into Tonks' carton, then recoiled in disgust. It was full of a brown, goopey mess.

"It's Chinese," Tonks said. "Haven't you ever had Chinese?"

"Non," Fleur said. "And I do not wish to." She was hungry though, now that she saw Tonks eating. She eyed the fridge speculatively. "Tonks," she said, "would you mind vairy much if I made some dinner? I will buy my own groceries normally of course, but would you mind-?"

"No, of course not," Tonks said. "Have whatever you want." She waved her hand vaguely at the fridge, looking at her magazine again.

Fleur went over to the fridge and opened it. It was practically empty.

"Tonks," she said. "What do you eat? Zair is nothing 'ere."

"Oh you know," said Tonks. "Mac 'n cheese. Ramen. PB 'n J. Regular stuff."

Fleur looked at her incredulously. "Tonks, zat is not food. You cannot live off of zat." She clucked her tongue. "I will cook for you some night, and show you."

"I can cook just fine you know," said Tonks.

"Clearly, you cannot," Fleur said. She turned back to the refrigerator. There was a carton of eggs towards the back. "Tonks," she said, "do you mind if I make ze eggs?"

"Go ahead," Tonks said. "There's pans in the cupboard to the left."

Fleur got one and went over to the stove, muttering the usual charm. Nothing happened. She looked at the stove in puzzlement. Fleur had cooked for herself over the summers and for the last six months, but she had never seen a stove like this one. She looked back at Tonks. "Tonks," she said, "I am sorry, but 'ow do you work ze stove? Ze charm does not work-"

"Oh," said Tonks. "It's a muggle stove, you don't use a charm. Here, I'll show you." She came over around the counter and turned one of the dials on the bottom. "That starts the gas, see. Turn it farther over to let more gas out if you want it hotter." She touched the tip of her wand to the rim, muttering the fire charm, and Fleur gasped in shock as her wand lit the ring of invisible gas. Tonks pulled her wand back quickly, blowing on it. "Be sure to be careful," she said. "I've started my wand on fire before. Also, you can always use the muggle lighter." She pointed to a small lighter lying next to the stove.

"But why would you not use your wand?" Fleur asked.

"Oh, if it's already dark out, or I'm trying to listen to the TV..." Fleur stared at her blankly, and Tonks clarified, "It's a muggle apartment. It all runs on electricity, and using magic makes it short out sometimes. So if it's dark and you have the light on, and you use your wand to light the stove, there's a chance you'll blow the power. Just lighting the stove doesn't usually do it, but too much magic will."

"Oh," Fleur said. "Zat is... interesting."

Tonks grinned at her in amusement. "Look," she said. "I know it's not your flat in Diagon Alley, but it's got its own charm. The muggle stuff is kind of fun, when you get used to it. You'll see." She patted Fleur sympathetically on the arm and went back to her magazine. Fleur rubbed her temples.

MONDAY

The next day, Fleur woke up in a complete panic, due to an unholy wailing that filled the apartment. It sounded like a cross between a chorus of banshees and an evacuation alarm, she thought.

She rolled out of bed, disoriented for a moment because there was no bed, just a mattress on the floor, then righted herself quickly. She grabbed a sheet to cover the chemise she slept in and ran out of the room.

"Tonks!" she called frantically. "Tonks, are you okay?" There was no answer. Fleur looked around quickly, then ran to Tonks' door. "Tonks!" she yelled again, pounding on the door. "Tonks, open ze door!" She was about to push the door open anyway, when the noise stopped, and a second later Tonks opened the door, bleary eyed and with her hair flat on one side.

"What," she said, "in the hell is wrong with you? It's not even six."

Fleur stared at her blankly. "But, zat sound, it was-"

"Ohh..." Tonks said, giving a huge yawn and scrubbing her face. "Sorry about that. That was my alarm clock."

There were several moments of long silence while Fleur stared at Tonks in shock, and Tonks looked sleepily back.

"Your alarm?" Fleur said faintly.

"Yeah," Tonks said. "Sorry, I should have warned you." She gave another great yawn and glanced at the small, innocent-looking clock next to her bed. It read five forty-nine. "Crap!" she muttered, startling Fleur. "I've got to go, I promised Stebner I'd meet with him before work." She was already turning away, throwing off her shirt as she went. She started to change quickly, paying no attention to the still wide-open door. Fleur shuddered and pulled her own sheet tighter around herself.

Turning away, Fleur went into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. She had another two hours before she had to be at work, but there was no chance of going back to sleep. Her body was still coursing with adrenaline.

A moment later Tonks skidded past on her way out the flat. Her work robes flapped open and her shoulder bag bumped heavily against her hip, stuffed full with sheets of paper. Fleur shook her head, marveling that Tonks could get ready so fast. Her hair was spiked messily but no longer lopsided, and her eyes had bags under them, but she certainly didn't look like someone who had woken up precisely- Fleur consulted the clock on the stove- six minutes ago. It was kind of incredible.

"Later Fleur!" Tonks called as the door slammed.

Fleur's own goodbye was lost in the clatter.

o.o.o

Tonks was in a bad mood when she got home. She'd gotten off work early enough, but then Shacklebolt had reminded her about the Order meeting that afternoon, which she had completely forgotten about. So instead of going home, she'd gone to Grimmauld Place and listened to Sirius mutter and Moody grumble and Mundungus snore. Nothing had gotten done. As usual.

Of course, that was par for the course for Order meetings, and if she were honest with herself, that wasn't why she was in a bad mood. No, her bad mood had to do with Remus, who had ignored her once again, despite several attempts on her part to talk to him. Bloody Remus. She kicked the couch as she went by, then grabbed her foot, cursing silently.

She couldn't get Remus's patronizing voice out of her head. He'd spent the entire meeting talking in a low whisper with Sirius, who was looking murderous about something. Sirius was always looking murderous, so Tonks didn't see why Remus bothered. She'd tried to talk to him after the meeting, and he'd been nice to her. Polite. Remus was nothing if not polite. She didn't want his politeness. She wanted him to joke with her like he did with Sirius or talk earnestly like he did with Bill. But instead he smiled pleasantly at her and asked her how her auror work was going, and if it was much different from training. She didn't want to be reminded she was only a year out of training. And then Bill had come up to talk to Remus and he'd excused himself, so politely, and she'd left the place in a huff.

She didn't know why she kept thinking about Remus. Clearly, he wasn't interested. She should give it up.

She flicked her wand at the wireless, flicking through the channels. Every bloody one was playing romance songs. She turned it off and sat down on the couch instead, kicking her shoes off. She chucked one across the flat, where it hit the opposite wall with a satisfying thunk, so she threw the other one as well. She turned the TV on and flipped through the channels, settling on one that looked like a mystery show. She wanted something absorbing to take her mind off the real world.

o.o.o

Fleur came home from work exhausted but happy. She'd spent the whole day running errands for the goblins at Gringotts while her supervisors discussed the placement of some new charms. Fleur liked discussing the charms, but she hated doing errand work for the goblins. Despite the fact that she'd worked there for over six months now, they still demanded identification wherever she went anywhere alone, and seemed to go out of their way to be unhelpful. In addition, she'd run into Bill over lunch, and he'd cheerfully asked her how living with Tonks was going. It had been all she could do not to scream at him in frustration. Logically, she knew it wasn't his fault; after all, he had only told her he knew of someone looking for a flatmate. It had been her who had agreed to move in without meeting Tonks or seeing the place. She knew all this in her mind, but somehow it was still hard not to blame Bill. When he'd asked, she'd smiled tersely and said it was fine, then escaped as soon as possible. She'd spent the rest of the day avoiding him.

Fleur walked into the flat and dropped her bag on the floor, then went to the kitchen to make herself some tea. Tonks was watching TV on the couch. She'd evidently gotten home earlier, but then she had started work at six a.m. that morning. Fleur shook her head. She liked mornings herself, but six a.m. seemed a little extreme, and she didn't think Tonks was much of a morning person.

Her tea made, Fleur sat down at the counter and pulled some papers from Gringotts out of her bag. She had an intern position in the protective charms department, and her supervisor had given her a list of charms to study for the next day, when they would begin applying them. The first was a disillusionment charm. She read the brief summary and looked over the diagrams. Disillusionment charms were relatively simple, but were mostly used for concealment on the go. The trick of this one would be to make it stand up to extended scrutiny. Anyone trying to break into Gringotts would know there were things being hidden, and would attempt to find out where the charms were placed. The trick then was not only to hide the object, but also to hide the signature of her magic.

Fleur fingered her wand absentmindedly, tapping it against her teacup. The report said a practical approach was the best for learning this sort of charm. The theory was important of course, but she'd have to cast the charm in order to see how her own signature manifested itself, and then practice erasing it.

Looking up from her report, Fleur silently cast the disillusionment charm on her teacup. It faded away silently, taking on the exact texture and appearance of the counter behind it. If she tilted her head to the side, she could see a slight shifting as the magic changed to accommodate a new background- that was one of the common failings of the disillusionment charm- but it was very slight, and Fleur knew her work was better than many professional charmers. No, the trick would be making the signature invisible to revealing spells. She began with the most basic. Biting her lip in concentration, Fleur pointed her wand at the area of the teacup and muttered, "aparecium". A blue glow flared briefly, illuminating the outlines of the teacup, and Fleur cursed quietly in French. She consulted the report again. The report mentioned this as a common form of revelation, stating that the best way to counteract it was to imagine blurring the edges of the object as she cast the disillusionment. Almost as if she were casting the spell not only on the object but also on the air around it and the surface behind it. In theory, this would make the outline less defined, and from there she could move towards attempting to make it fainter. The report noted that it was often impossible to completely erase all signs that magic had been performed, but that it was possible to make the residual signatures misleading. For example, the report continued, charmers would often cast the charm on blank stretches of wall in addition to the objects they were trying to conceal, in order to confuse anyone looking for magical signatures. Fleur bit her lip and cast the charm again, trying to imagine blurring the edges as the report suggested. When she tried the revealing charm though, the blue outline showed up as clearly as before, so she repealed the charm and cast it again. Often, this sort of charm simply took time to get accustomed to a different way of viewing the magic as she cast it. That had been one of the most important lessons during her advanced charms courses: it was the subtle variations of intent during the casting that made the difference between simple charms and charms that could stand repeated attempts to break them. And most often, it took repeated experiments to understand which intention worked best in each situation. Fleur cast the charm again, and again.

She was completely absorbed in her work when Tonks' voice broke through her concentration, startling her badly.

"Hey," she called. "D'you mind not doing magic? You're interfering with the TV signal!"

Fleur shook her head, returning to the real world with painful suddenness. She looked inquisitively at Tonks. "What?" she asked.

"Your magic," Tonks repeated. "It's shorting out the TV signal."

"What do you mean?"

Tonks sighed in exasperation. "It's a muggle TV, it runs on electricity remember? Magic interferes with that somehow, and you're blocking my program. So could you stop using magic, please?"

Fleur narrowed her eyes. "I am studying ze protective charms we will be using at work tomorrow. I 'ave to use ze magic. Why do you not stop watching ze TV?"

"Because," Tonks said slowly, as if Fleur were a bit dim, "I was watching first. Can't you practice your charms somewhere else?"

"Where do you suggest? I cannot vairy well practice my charms in ze hallway. But per'aps you could watch ze TV zair?" she asked sarcastically. Fleur couldn't believe it. She was being quiet, unobtrusive, studying for her job, while Tonks was loudly watching television, and Tonks claimed that she was interfering? It was unbelievable.

Tonks stared at her incredulously. "I can't watch TV in the hallway, are you nuts? Can't you practice charms at your boyfriend's or something?"

Of all the nerve. "I should not 'ave to go to my boyfriend's to study my work." Fleur got up and grabbed her bag, then slammed into her own room. She could not believe Tonks. She paced back and forth across her room, breathing deeply and trying to calm down, then threw herself on the mattress and resumed casting the disillusionment charm. It was coming easier now. Sometimes, Fleur almost thought being angry made her magic better.

It wasn't long before Tonks threw her door open, eyes blazing. "You're still doing magic, aren't you?" she asked accusingly.

Fleur got up from the bed and strode over to Tonks, looking down her nose coldly. "Yes, Tonks, I am," she said disdainfully. "Because I am studying for my work and you are watching television. I paid you half ze rent already, zis is my flat too, and I need to study."

Tonks seemed to deflate a little. "Yes, I know," she said, holding out her hands. "Look, the program I'm watching will be done in fifteen minutes, could you please wait until then?" She looked at Fleur, and Fleur wanted to scratch her eyes out.

"Fine," she said instead, sniffing loudly.

"Okay," said Tonks, going back into the main area. Fleur shut the door behind her, not wanting to see Tonks anymore. She looked around the small room, with its tiny window that she had to keep covered and the mattress on the floor and the boxes that still lined the edges. She hated it. She sat down heavily on the mattress and pulled the report towards her, trying to get lost in the theory of the charms, but the words blurred before her. She was so sick of everything. She was used to having her own space, where it was peaceful and she could relax after a day of dealing with people. Fleur hated people some days.

TUESDAY

On Tuesday, Fleur woke up to her own alarm thankfully. She got dressed slowly, then walked into the main part of the flat. The place seemed quiet, but she didn't think she could have missed Tonks leaving, not with her alarm. She cracked Tonks' door open and peered inside. Sure enough Tonks was still passed out on the bed. Fleur remembered her saying her auror hours were often erratic, and realized she probably didn't have to go in to work until later that day. She studied Tonks for a moment. She was wearing only boxers and a sports bra, and her pink hair was in complete disarray. The blankets had been kicked to the floor and the sheet was bunched at the bottom of the bed. She almost looked cute, sleeping like that, Fleur thought, if still a complete slob.

Fleur sighed. Tonks was endearing, in her own way, but living with her was trying. She was so different from Fleur. Where Fleur was self-contained and collected, Tonks was loud and wild, her personality filling up any room she was in. She always had the TV or wireless turned on, and loved listening to the muggle stations. She couldn't go anywhere silently; she always slammed doors or dropped plates or tripped over her own feet. She was sloppy too. Two days after Tonks' epic cleaning, the apartment was already becoming a mess. There were half-full takeout containers on the kitchen counter and clothes strewn across the flat. She liked to wander around in jeans and her bra, and it never occurred to her that that might make a new roommate uncomfortable. Tonks was a nice person, Fleur could see that objectively, but she never considered other people. Everything she did was so loud and took up so much space, and it grated on Fleur's nerves in the most awful way.

Sighing, Fleur headed into the kitchen, reveling in the quiet of the flat. She fixed herself tea and then had her habitual yogurt cup for breakfast. Fleur might be a Veela, but she still had to diet to keep her figure. That was another difference between them, Fleur reflected. Tonks clearly didn't diet at all, unless you counted Chinese takeout as a diet.

While she was making a second cup of tea, the Prophet post owl clicked its beak against the window, and Fleur went to get the paper, dropping the correct change in its pouch. Sunday night Fleur had tried to leave the window open for the owl to just fly in, but Tonks had freaked out and treated her to a lecture on muggle safety precautions. On top of everything else, apparently they lived in a muggle neighborhood notorious for break-ins. Which explained why the rent was so cheap.

Fleur spread the paper over the kitchen counter and breathed in the steam from her tea. She loved reading the paper in the mornings. She loved reading what was going on and feeling connected to the larger wizarding world. She started with the international section, as always, looking for any news of France. Although she tried not to show it, Fleur was intensely homesick. She loved being on her own in England and supporting herself. She loved the independence her job at Gringotts gave her. But she still missed everything about France. She sighed softly. There was no mention of France today, so she turned to the other sections. Fudge was still denying the rising power of the Death Eaters, and Fleur clicked her tongue disdainfully at him. He was so stupid. Viktor Krum was going on tour for Quidditch Weekly, no surprise there. She turned a page. The ministry had reopened talks with Transylvania about their growing vampire population and the muggle attention it was attracting. Fleur smiled. Muggles had the oddest fascinations.

Shaking her head, she closed the paper and got up. Grabbing her bag and jacket, she left the flat and headed to work. They were repairing the charms on a vault which had been damaged in an avalanche, and Fleur was looking forward to seeing the disillusionment charms cast professionally.

o.o.o

Tonks got back from work late. She hadn't had to be at work until ten that morning, but it meant she hadn't gotten off until after seven. Not surprisingly, Fleur was already home. She was curled up on the couch reading what looked like notes for work, and Tonks wondered if she always worked at home. She'd been practicing charms for work the other night too, and Tonks felt briefly bad for yelling at her.

Tonks grinned pleasantly at her as she came in, and flicked her wand at the wireless. It was set to a news station which Tonks never listened to, so Fleur must have been listening earlier. She rotated her wand some, listening for her favorite muggle station. The wireless was magical, tuned to pick up wizarding stations which were hidden to muggles, but she could just get one of the local muggle pop stations to come in, and it pleased her immensely. Once she found it, she tossed her wand on the counter and her jacket on a chair and started rummaging in the kitchen. She was starving.

"You want any food Fleur?" she called. "I think I'm going to make mac 'n cheese." Tonks loved mac 'n cheese.

"Non, thank you," said Fleur, not looking up from her notes. Tonks shrugged. It was her loss.

She got the water boiling, and then jumped on the counter to wait, humming along with the wireless. She had a few free hours to eat and relax, but then she had guard duty for the Order later that night. Tonks sighed. She never got a break.

When her macaroni was done, Tonks wandered over to the couch where Fleur was sitting, and perched on the coffee table next to the TV.

"What're you reading?" she asked Fleur.

"Charms reports... from work," Fleur mumbled, not really looking up. Tonks wrinkled her forehead. She didn't see why Fleur should have to do work after hours, and said so.

Fleur did look up at that. "I am an intern, Tonks," she said, as if it should be obvious. "Of course I 'ave to study after work. Did you not study during your auror training?" Tonks supposed she did.

"What do you do," she asked Fleur, "as an intern?"

Fleur grinned. "Mostly a lot of fetching coffee and awful goblin drinks." Tonks knew all about that. "But it is good too," Fleur said, looking down and fingering her notes. "I am learning lots. I like ze chance to watch ze professionals working. And sometimes, zey do let me help."

"So what did you do before Gingotts?" Tonks asked, curious.

"I was in school, at Beauxbatons."

Tonks stared at her. "Wait," she said, surprised. "How old are you?"

"I am eighteen," Fleur said, looking puzzled.

"Oh," Tonks said. She'd assumed Fleur was older. Maybe it was a Veela thing, but she didn't look eighteen. Tonks had thought she was closer to Bill's age. "Oh," she started again, "I thought– well never mind. So how did you end up here then?"

"I won a scholarship for advanced charms, to come study with a professional charms company." She smiled slightly. "I was ze top of my class."

Tonks grinned. "Cool," she said.

"Yeah," Fleur said, then wrinkled her nose. "You know," she said, peering into Tonks' bowl, "you should not eat zat. It is vairy unhealthy." Tonks rolled her eyes and got up. Fleur went back to her reading.

WEDNESDAY

On Wednesday, Fleur woke up to Tonks' alarm going off at five forty-five, like it had on Monday. That thing had to be the single most obnoxious sound on Earth, but then she supposed nothing less would get Tonks out of bed.

Fleur gritted her teeth and waited for Tonks to shut it off, so she could go back to sleep for another hour. And waited. And waited. The alarm didn't stop.

Fleur rolled out of bed and stalked into Tonks' room. The alarm was still singing painfully on the nightstand, and Tonks was asleep with her head under a pillow, completely oblivious.

This was too much, on top of the last few days. Fleur grabbed the little alarm and threw it at the wall above Tonks' head, where it burst apart and fell to the bed in pieces. At that Tonks started awake, her hand scooping up her wand in one fluid motion and her lips already forming a curse. She had good reflexes, even asleep.

Fleur was already wide awake though and she was faster, saying a few choice words in French, before finishing with "and so you can find anuzzer bloody alarm Tonks, and make sure you turn ze next one off before it gets broken too!" With that she whirled around and left the room, slamming first Tonks' door and then her own.

Back in her own room, Fleur threw on the first clothes she saw, not caring what they were, then chose her highest heels, as she always did when she was angry. Grabbing her bag, she walked out of the flat, heels clicking loudly. She was too angry to stay any longer. She slammed both doors again as she went, spitefully hoping she woke up the whole bloody building.

She stalked down the block to the apparition point and made it as far as Diagon Alley before she ran out of steam. Once there, she collapsed against a wall and slowly slid down to sit on the cement. It didn't matter. There was no one out to see. She ran her hands through her hair, slowly, trying to detangle it after her hasty apparition. Apparating always made her hair messy, even when she was being careful, she thought distantly.

She sighed, and tried to think what to do. None of the shops were open yet. She considered going to Bill's, but he would be asleep and anyway, Fleur preferred to be alone when she was upset. Instead, she went into the Leaky Cauldron and picked up the morning paper, then ordered a shot. It was ten after six.

o.o.o

Tonks flopped back down on her bed and groaned. Her head ached. She hadn't got off guard duty for the Order until three o'clock last night, so by the time she'd gotten home she had got barely more than two hours of sleep, and she was already late for work.

She considered calling in sick, but she'd already done that three other times in the last month after nights like last night, and her supervisor was threatening to send her through training again if it happened any more. And it wasn't exactly like she could explain why she was so tired, because the ministry was looking for any reason to connect people with Dumbledore's "group of renegades".

She groaned again, and dragged herself out of bed. Work it was. Since she was already late, Tonks took the time to have a cold shower and make herself a much-needed cup of coffee. Then she began the slow walk to the subway station. Usually she apparated to work, but in the state she was in it was more than likely she'd splinch. With any luck, her supervisor would accept being too sick to apparate as a legitimate excuse for being late.

o.o.o

By the time she got off work, Tonks felt like a walking zombie. She took the subway home again, still not trusting herself to apparate.

Fleur wasn't home when Tonks let herself into the flat, but then she often worked late into the evenings. Tonks went into her room and put on pajamas and her bathrobe, then collapsed on the couch with the telephone to order Chinese and watch TV.

She was halfway done with her Chinese food and had been staring at the TV for some time without taking anything in when there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" she called, not really wanting to move.

"It's Charlie!"

"Oh, come on in then!" she shouted, and resumed staring blankly at the television.

She heard the door open, and a few moments later Charlie's head peered over the side of the couch, looking at her upside down.

"You look like crap," he observed.

"Gee thanks, Charles, that means a lot." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Seriously, what happened to you? Did you get drunk last night?"

"No," she said. "I had Order duty last night and work all day today. I don't think I got more than two hours of sleep. And this morning, Fleur woke me up by screaming at me and chucking the clock at my head."

"Well, that would do it," he said, still grinning at her. "Speaking of Fleur, d'you mind if I stay here for a bit? She came over to Bill's after work, and they went straight to his bedroom. I hate hanging around when they're like that."

"Urg," said Tonks. "I don't blame you. Stay as long as you want." She thumped the end of the couch with her foot. "Have a seat." He walked over and lifted her feet, putting them in his lap after he sat down. They watched TV in silence for a while.

After a few programs, Charlie looked over at her and asked if she wanted to go out for a drink. Actually, what he asked was if there was any chance she would be getting off the couch at all that evening.

"Don't know," she answered. "Depends on the motivation."

"How about for a drink?" he asked.

She thought about it. "I could use a drink, I guess. But couldn't you just find one and bring it to me?"

"Nope," he said. "I want a firewhiskey, and we've got to go to Diagon Alley for that."

"You could still go to Diagon Alley and bring it back to me," she said.

"No can do."

"Fine," Tonks said. "But I'm warning you, I haven't been apparating all day, I've been too out of it."

"Don't worry, I can side-along you."

"You sure you're up to it? Didn't you fail your first test?" she teased him. He chucked a pillow at her head in response.

"Okay, fine. Give me a few minutes to get ready."

She stepped in the shower for the second time that day and scrubbed her face, trying to will herself into wakefulness. Then she went into her room to get dressed again, for the third time that day, choosing a skirt and leggings with black combat boots. Tonks smiled at her reflection. She might not be as pretty as Fleur, but Fleur could never pull off this look. She grabbed a trenchcoat and her keys, swatting Charlie on the head as she went by.

"Up, Lazy One. You have to come buy me a drink."

"Oi! Who's waiting for who here?"

They apparated to the Leaky Cauldron. Charlie did have a shot of firewhiskey, as did Tonks, but then they got several bottles of butterbeer to go so they could walk through Diagon Alley. Tonks sighed happily. The cold air was doing more to wake her up than anything else so far, and Diagon Alley looked gorgeous. It was snowing lightly, and the different shop owners were just starting to decorate for Christmas. Fairy lights twinkled in several windows, and all the lamp-posts were wrapped in garland.

"So how's living with Fleur going?" Charlie asked.

"Bloody awful," Tonks complained. "She's a complete bitch. She's so stuck up, with her perfect Veela hair and her French accent and her bloody job..." Tonks trailed off. Fleur was driving her mental. She was always so high-strung, complaining about everything Tonks did. The noise of the TV. Her clothes on the floor. The food she ate. It reminded Tonks of living with her mum again.

"That good, huh?" Charlie laughed.

"Oh shut up," Tonks said, knocking shoulders with him. "It was your stupid brother's stupid idea anyway."

"Yeah," he said. "It's kind of funny actually. Fleur should just stay with Bill and I could sleep on your couch, and then everybody would be happy."

"Oh yeah?" she said. "And where would I be in a week when you left for Romania and I had to pay the rent, huh?"

"Begging Fleur to take you back, I guess."

She let out a bark of laughter. "Not in a million years."

"Seriously though, are things really that bad?" he asked, looking concerned.

"I don't know," Tonks sighed. "I guess not really. But we're such complete opposites, and we can't seem to go two hours without screaming at each other." She thought of Fleur chucking the alarm at her head that morning, or screaming when Tonks had broken a glass figurine of hers. She looked at Charlie thoughtfully. "Really, what does Bill see in her?" she asked.

"Dunno," he said. "Guess he likes all the Veela sparkles."

"Yeah," said Tonks. "Bloody Veela sparkles."

"You know," Charlie said. "You could look like her anytime you wanted. Have hair like hers or whatever. Why don't you?"

"I happen to like my hair," Tonks said. "It has much more personality than Fleur's. It has more personality than everything of Fleur's combined," she said, still thinking about the figurine. It hadn't even been that pretty. And Tonks had repaired it. She didn't see what Fleur's problem was.

"I like you hair too," Charlie said, reaching out to ruffle it. Tonks ducked, laughing a little.

She straightened after a moment, and considered Charlie's question. "I don't know, really," she said slowly, biting her lip. "I guess I just always feel fake going for something like that. Fleur's so graceful, you know, and I'm-"

"A complete klutz, I know." He grinned at her.

"Yeah. Exactly." She shrugged. "I'm not saying I haven't tried it, going out somewhere looking completely gorgeous, but it always feels weird. Hair's more like clothing, you can change it and still stay the same, but you start changing your face, it just doesn't sit right."

Charlie nodded. "I guess that makes sense."

"Yeah. I love changing my hair though. Like this." She screwed up her nose in concentration, and a second later she had blond hair to rival Fleur's. She tossed it over her shoulder like Fleur always did. "Like it?" she asked.

"Naw, I like the pink better." Charlie said.

"Me too," Tonks grinned, and switched it back.

They walked around together peacefully for a while longer, sipping butterbeer and joking with each other. It was good to have Charlie back. After a while though, Tonks' head was spinning from butterbeer and lack of sleep, and she decided it was time to head home. They took the subway back since they'd both been drinking, and Charlie walked Tonks up to her flat.

"Check if Fleur's back," he whispered, giggling in her ear. "I don't want to go back if she's not. Who knows what those two are doing."

Tonks opened the door stealthily, then ran in, ducking behind the kitchen counter. She surveyed the room slowly. There was no sign of Fleur. She darted across the room, stopping to duck behind the couch, and ended up falling on her face. Charlie was doing a very bad job of staying silent, laughing openly at her from the doorway. Righting herself, she tiptoed to Fleur's door, and peered inside. The room was empty.

"Coast is clear!" she called back to Charlie. "Guess you'll have to stay here." She went back to the doorway and grabbed his arm, pulling him into the room. And then, it was the most natural thing in the world to reach up and wrap her arms around Charlie's neck, pulling him down for a long kiss. She didn't even notice dropping her butterbeer bottle on the floor.

THURSDAY

Fleur woke up with Bill Weasley's arm draped over her, almost suffocating her. He was snoring loudly, his face pressed up against the side of her head. It was rather uncomfortable really. She grinned.

Early morning sunlight was streaming in Bill's window, lighting up the tiny room. She looked at the clock. It was just after seven o'clock, and she had work at eight. She sighed and turned her face towards Bill's, pressing her forehead against his. She should really get up. She had paperwork to get from her own flat, not to mention a change of clothes.

"Bill, 'oney," she whispered, pressing a kiss on his mouth. "I 'ave to go."

"Mmmrrg," he said, tightening his arm. "No."

"I 'ave to. I'll see you at work." She kissed him again, then lifted his arm and slipped out of the bed. He rolled over and resumed snoring, and she shook her head in silent amusement.

She got dressed quickly and let herself out, then apparated to the hidden spot on her own street. Tonks had warned her explicitly to only apparate to this one spot, because they lived in a muggle neighborhood and had to be very careful about blending in. She sighed. She was getting used to the area and the muggle appliances, but she missed her flat in Diagon Alley.

She walked down the block quickly, climbed the stairs to her flat, and let herself in quietly. Tonks always liked to sleep until the last possible moment, and waking her up the other morning had not gone well at all. She was just fixing herself a cup of tea and organizing her bag, still very quietly, when the bathroom door opened and a man walked out, completely naked and towel drying his hair. She shrieked, and dropped her cup.

"Shit, Fleur, I'm sorry, I thought you were at Bill's-" He scrambled to cover himself with the towel, and Fleur realized it was just Charlie Weasley. Well. That was interesting.

"I- I was," she stammered. "I just came back for some papers, before work." She held up her bag, as proof.

"Right," said Charlie. "Well, I'll just-" He motioned to Tonks' door and slipped in, looking rather hunted.

Fleur shook her head. That was new. Or maybe not. She didn't actually know. It had been Charlie after all who had vouched for Tonks as a roommate.

Smiling to herself, Fleur waved her wand to clear the spilled tea, then grabbed her bag and left. She didn't really have any desire to hang around and make more awkward small talk with Charlie Weasley. It wouldn't hurt to get to work a few minutes early. For the second day in a row.

o.o.o

Tonks rolled over as her door opened, and cracked an eye. It was one of her late days, and the extra two hours of sleep felt wonderful, especially after the last few days. She watched as Charlie slipped in, his hair wet from the shower and clutching a towel protectively around his waist. He looked really good, she reflected. She liked the moving dragon tattoo that curled over his shoulder and down the left side of his chest. He hadn't had that during Hogwarts.

"Fleur's back," he said.

"I heard." She smiled. "No one screams like Fleur."

"Yeah." He started to get dressed, pulling on jeans and a jumper and finally his robes. She sighed and rolled out of bed, grabbing her own clothes.

They fixed breakfast together amicably, then left the flat, parting ways at the apparition point. She kissed him quickly on the lips in goodbye, then grinned at him. He grinned back.

"Ready for another glorious day of being working adults?" he asked.

"Aren't I always?" she answered.

o.o.o

Tonks let herself into the flat and went straight to the couch, plopping herself down in front of the TV. It had been a long day. They'd had to chase down a couple of delinquents who'd somehow got their hands on some muggle guns. Luckily they hadn't really known how to use them, but one of her team had still been shot and they'd had to rush him to St. Mungo's. The guys with guns had got away, which was going to mean a lot of pointed questions from her supervisor.

She'd been watching TV for about half an hour when Fleur let herself in, looking just as worn out as Tonks felt.

"Long day?" she called sympathetically.

"Yes," she answered. "Ze goblins were being... rather difficult."

"Ah," Tonks said. Goblins were famous for being distrustful of the humans they worked with. She'd heard Bill complain about it enough during Order meetings.

"Tonks?" Fleur asked hesitantly. "I was going to make some dinner. Would you like some?"

"Sure." She smiled in thanks.

Fleur smiled sweetly back. "It will be good for you not to eat takeout for a change."

Tonks stuck out her tongue and went back to watching TV, but it wasn't long before the signal started to short out and bursts of static filled the screen. She looked over, and sure enough, Fleur had her wand out, dicing some potatoes and onions.

"Fleur!" she yelled. "I'm watching TV!"

"Relax, I am almost done!"

It did take her only a minute and the TV went back to normal, so Tonks held her peace, but within another two minutes it had shorted out again. She looked over to the kitchen to see Fleur lighting the stove with her wand.

"Fleur!" she yelled again. "Quit using your wand!"

"It is your dinner too you know, you could be a little more thankful!" Fleur yelled back.

Tonks muttered under her breath and then kicked the TV, hoping that would get rid of the static. She didn't really understand muggle technology all that well, but it made her feel better. However the static didn't get any better, and she saw that Fleur was now using her wand to spread oil on the pan. She was about to yell again when Fleur began to levitate the chopped vegetables, but then Tonks noticed that the stove seemed to be brighter than usual. In fact, it almost looked as if-

"Fleur!" she shrieked, running towards the kitchen. "Your pan's on fire! Do something!"

Fleur whirled around, saw the fire, and sent a stream of water at it from her wand. The next second they both dropped to the floor as the whole stove seemed to go up in flames. The fire reached the ceiling, which started to crackle and burn slowly.

"Fleur!" she shrieked, getting to her feet. "Do something! You're good with charms, make it stop!"

"I tried!" Fleur yelled back. "I did! I shot water at it, and it did zat! How else do you stop fires?"

"I don't know, but we have to do something! It's going to burn the flat down!"

Suddenly both girls screamed and grabbed each other as a shrill wailing added to the commotion.

"What in ze hell is zat?" Fleur screamed over the noise.

"The fire alarm, I think!" Tonks answered after a moment. She heard the alarms in the other flats in the building go off in answer to theirs, and gulped. "We need to get out!" she yelled in Fleur's ear.

"But- but ze fire?"

"We'll call the fire station! They'll take care of it!" She eyed the fire, which was now advancing halfway across the ceiling, and started dragging Fleur out of the flat.

Outside, the other residents were milling around, trying to find out what had happened. Tonks borrowed a cell phone from one and called the fire station. Minutes later, several fire trucks screamed to a halt in front of their building, and Tonks finally relaxed. She turned to Fleur.

"D'you want to go out to dinner? I don't think I can face any more cooking."

Fleur sniffed. "You were not even doing ze cooking."

Tonks opened her mouth to snap back, but Fleur seemed to deflate before her. "I am sorry," she said, touching Tonks' arm lightly. "Yes. Let's go out."

"Okay," Tonks said, and smiled weakly. "There's this really good Chinese place just across the street."

"Ze one you are always getting takeout from?"

"Yeah."

o.o.o

They walked in the door, and Fleur wrinkled her nose in disgust. The whole place smelled like grease, which after the affair in the kitchen was the last thing she wanted, but Tonks sighed in what sounded like pure bliss, so Fleur didn't say anything.

They got a booth and Tonks looked at the menu, smiling happily to herself.

"I think I'm in the mood for fried rice. Fried rice and crab rangoon, maybe." she said.

Fleur looked at her own menu and grimaced. She couldn't understand any of it.

"I do not know what any of zese things are," she complained.

"You should try Moo Goo Gai Pan," Tonks said. "It has mushrooms. Mushrooms are very French, right?"

"I suppose," Fleur said doubtfully.

They ordered, and then Fleur remembered something she had wanted to ask Tonks.

"So..." she started. "You and Sharlie Weasley? You are togezzer?"

"No," Tonks laughed, and then blushed a little. It matched her hair nicely, Fleur thought. "No we're not."

"But you are sleeping togezzer, are you not? Zis morning, I saw-."

"Yeah, Charlie told me. You frightened him pretty badly, I think." Tonks grinned in amusement, and Fleur smiled back. "But we're not," she added. "I mean, we did last night, but in general, we're not."

"So you like someone else, zen?" Fleur asked.

"Yeah, I do actually. Someone I work with." At this Tonks blushed much more than before, and Fleur knew she wasn't lying.

"An auror?" she asked curiously.

"No, I know him through the Order," she said.

"So," said Fleur. "Why are you not seeing 'im? Or are you seeing zem both, Sharlie and your Order man?"

"Of course not!" Tonks said, looking appalled. "I wouldn't do that."

"Pity," said Fleur devilishly, and Tonks let out a startled laugh. "So, who is zis Order man? Would I know 'im? Would Bill?"

"Yeah," Tonks said. "Bill knows him. They love to talk together, they're both so academic."

"Ah yes," said Fleur wisely. "Bill is vairy smart. I 'ave noticed zis." She grinned, and Tonks laughed again.

"Well, so is the man I like. But I don't think he's noticed me at all."

"Why not?" Fleur asked.

"Well, he's quite a bit older than me, for one, and..."

"An older man!" Fleur said, delighted. "Zat is good. Older men are vairy... worthwhile."

"I wouldn't know," Tonks sighed. "But you would, I assume. Tell me, how many were there, before Bill?"

"Too many to count," said Fleur. "It is not good, you know, for a Veela to go too long without, you know. Our 'ormones get, 'ow would you say, rather out of 'and."

"Oh really?" Tonks laughed. "I didn't know that."

"Oh yes," Fleur said. "It is quite troublesome, really." She lowered her eyes demurely, and looked up at Tonks through her eyelashes. Tonks was cracking up, and the couple at the next table over was eyeing them suspiciously. "But back to your man," she said. "What is 'is name? Does 'e know you like 'im?"

"It's Remus Lupin. And I don't think so," Tonks sighed.

Fleur didn't know him. "Well," she said. "Per'aps you should tell him. If 'e is older, maybe 'e does not realize you could be interested. I 'ave zat problem sometimes, with ze men. Zair are some zat cannot imagine a Veela would be interested in zem, and of course zey are always ze best ones, zen. Bill was like zat."

"Oh," said Tonks. "I don't know. Maybe."

At that moment their food came. Fleur poked doubtfully at hers. Perhaps there were mushrooms in it, but she couldn't tell. Everything was covered in a thick, gooey sauce.

Across the table, Tonks was already wolfing down her own food, as though she hadn't eaten in days.

"Go on, try it," she said through a full mouth. "It's good, I swear." Fleur smiled to herself, and took a dainty bite. Tonks' manners were atrocious, but they didn't bother her as much as they had a few days ago. The food wasn't bad either, although still unidentifiable. It was hot and greasy, and although Fleur could never eat it every day like Tonks, it was good right now.

FRIDAY

Tonks walked into the bathroom as Fleur was doing her hair. Bill and Charlie were coming over shortly to celebrate Charlie's last night in London, and she wanted to look good.

Fleur smiled to herself, thinking of Bill. She'd spent all of Wednesday evening with Bill, and when Charlie hadn't come home, she'd stayed the night too. Of course, Fleur reflected, she knew now where Charlie had been. She looked at Tonks through the mirror and couldn't help grinning a little.

"What's so funny?" Tonks asked, but Fleur just shook her head, and concentrated on curling her hair around her wand.

"You know," Tonks said, coming up to her and running a hand down one long curl, pulling it so it sprung back up. "I tried to do that same hair style, last week. It didn't look nearly as good one me." She sighed and boosted herself onto the counter, still studying Fleur's face. "It looks really good on you though."

Fleur smiled to herself, preening a little. She couldn't help it. She loved it when people complimented her. "Thanks," she said shyly. She looked at Tonks thoughtfully. "You know," she said, "I 'ave always liked your 'air also. It is vairy... unique. Not everyone can pull off pink 'air."

"Well," Tonks said, considering her. "You probably could. A pixie cut would probably look really good on you. And just think. The dye would take really well because your hair's so blond. Imagine Bill's reaction if we did it."

Fleur looked at her, appalled, and Tonks grinned.

At that moment they were interrupted by a knock on the door, and Charlie's loud call. Fleur grinned at Tonks happily, and ran to get the door. She opened it to find Bill and Charlie standing there, red-faced and dusted in snow, laughing.

"Bill," she said happily, and reached up to give him a kiss on the cheek. He scooped her up and she laughed at the shock of his cold arms. He'd probably have swung her around too, if that wouldn't have sent Charlie tumbling down the stairs.

"How're you?" he asked her, low in her ear. She shivered happily.

She grinned and kissed him in response, as Charlie shouldered his way past, jostling them. Bill put her down in order to sock Charlie in the arm, and they all went inside laughing. Fleur saw Charlie sweep Tonks up in a hug also, and laughed as Tonks thumped his back, hard.

Charlie put her down laughing, and looked around curiously. "What happened in here?" he asked. "It smells like a dragon camp." Fleur supposed the flat did still smell rather like smoke.

"Well," Tonks said, catching Fleur's eye and grinning. "We had a bit of an incident. The flat thought it could outwit us, you see. But don't worry, we triumphed in the end. It was a valiant battle."

"Yes," Fleur whispered in Bill's ear. "A vairy valiant battle. On ze part of ze firemen. While Tonks and I went out for Chinese." Bill bit back a laugh.

o.o.o

Tonks sighed happily to herself. The four of them were sitting in her cramped kitchen, passing back and forth a bottle of firewhiskey that Charlie had brought. Charlie had gone into the kitchen to admire the blackened ceiling more closely while she related their epic battle, and somehow they'd ended up staying there. Right now, Charlie had his arm around her and was arguing loudly with Bill. They were recounting their adventures abroad, each trying to outdo the other. The stories were so exaggerated that Tonks doubted half of it was true, but she listened to them bicker with one ear, feeling content. She caught Fleur's gaze and rolled her own eyes at the pair of them.

Fleur smiled slightly, and leaned her head against Bill's shoulder. "Bill," she said, plucking at his sleeve.

"Here," he said without really paying attention, and passed her the bottle of firewhiskey. Fleur considered it for a moment, staring down the neck of the bottle, then raised it to her lips. Tonks laughed. Bill had had to convince her to try it earlier, and Fleur still looked as if she couldn't quite believe she was drinking firewhiskey.

"Bill," she said again, running her hand along his arm and balancing the bottle of firewhiskey on her knee.

"Hmm?" he said, finally turning to look at her.

"What do you know about Remus Lupin?" she asked. Tonks sucked in her breath.

"Great guy," he said, grabbing the firewhiskey back and taking a swig. "Why?"

"No reason," she said, smiling sweetly. "Tonks and I were gossiping about ze Order members ze uzzer day, and she mentioned 'im. She said you two like to talk."

"Yeah," he said. "We do. He's fascinating. Did you know he traveled all over eastern Europe before he came back to work for Dumbledore?" Fleur shook her head. "Well he did. He's got some great stories. You know," he continued, "he was asking about you the other day Tonks. He knew I went to school with you."

"Oh?" Tonks said, too casually.

"Yeah. I told him I didn't know you all that well, but that you were friendly with my brother." He winked at Tonks. Bill knew exactly how "friendly" they'd been.

"Oh," Tonks said again. She didn't know what to make of that. Remus Lupin had been asking about her. After a minute she shook her head, and noticed Fleur looking at her significantly. She scowled, then smiled as a thought occurred to her. "Bill," she said slowly. "What would you think of Fleur with short hair?"

"She'd look dead sexy, I bet," he said, pecking her forehead. Fleur wrinkled her nose.

"What about pink hair?"

Bill let out a large guffaw. "I'll believe that when I see it."

Fleur glared at her, and Tonks smiled sweetly back.

The rest of the evening passed in much the same way, filled with stories and jokes. Bill and Charlie amused them with more boasts of their adventures. Tonks did an impression of Bill that made Charlie cry with laughter. Fleur told them stories about some of the things men had done to get her attention in the past. They passed the bottle of firewhiskey around until it was nearly empty.

At one point, when Bill and Charlie were in the middle of a loud argument about who had tried more exotic substances, Tonks caught Fleur's eye and grinned ruefully. Fleur grinned back. "Boys," she murmured.

"They never grow up," Tonks mouthed.

"Well, zey do in some ways," she mouthed back, then turned to whisper in Bill's ear. His eyes widened, and Tonks laughed. Fleur got up and said goodnight, winking at Tonks, and Bill wasted no time in following her out of the room.

Tonks turned her head against Charlie's chest and sighed in contentment. Everything was kind of fuzzy from the alcohol and she felt extremely peaceful.

Charlie tightened his arm around her. "So things are better with you and Fleur then?" he asked.

"Yeah," Tonks said thoughtfully. "I guess they are." She paused. "Did you know she's only eighteen?"

"Yeah," Charlie said. "Believe me, Bill's told me everything about her. He's crazy about her."

"Okay," Tonks laughed. "Fair enough. It's kind of impressive though, isn't it? I mean, she came out here all by herself right after school. And she's really smart. She reads the paper everyday you know and she actually cares about politics and her charms work..." She shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, she's still spoiled and stuck-up and she'll probably drive me to homicide in another week, but apart from that she's not so bad."

Charlie laughed at her. "If you says so."

"Yeah, well," she sighed, and nudged her head against his chest. "I wish you weren't going back to Romania," she said.

He sighed heavily. "I kind of wish I wasn't going either."

"But you're still going." It wasn't a question.

"Everything I have is out there Tonks."

She nodded. She knew that. "Tell me about Romania," she said. "Are there lots of pretty women there?"

"Oh yeah," he laughed. "You know the life of a Dragon Tamer. Parties all the time and a different woman every night."

She grinned. "I'm sure," she said in a low voice.

He looked down at her, surprised, and sighed a little. "Actually, it's kind of lonely out there. We have to have the dragons in such a remote part because of security and the Romanian wizarding population is way more spread out than here. They don't have any place like Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade."

"Why not?"

"I don't know really. It's just different. There's a few pubs that attract a wizarding crowd, but mostly people keep to themselves. I hardly know anyone besides the other Tamers, and there aren't near enough women Tamers." He looked at her forlornly, and she reached up to pat his head.

"You poor thing."

He shrugged. "Hey," he said, suddenly sounding overly casual. "So what was the joke about Remus Lupin? I didn't get it."

"Oh, nothing," she said, feeling her cheeks heat up.

Charlie pulled back to look at her shrewdly. "Nothing, right." He snorted, and leaned back against the wall. "Well, at least he sounds like a good guy, from what Bill said."

"He is," Tonks said. "The best."

"Huh," Charlie said. "Does he know?"

"Know what?"

"That you..." Charlie waved his hand in a vague gesture that seemed to encompass her red face and the general situation.

Tonks sighed. "I don't think so. He doesn't pay much attention to me really."

"I figured he must not," he said, and Tonks looked at him questioningly. "I mean, if he knew, you guys'd be..." Charlie waved his hand vaguely again. He didn't seem very comfortable, Tonks thought. "I can't imagine any guy knowing you like him and not..."

"Not what?" Tonks said quietly.

"Not wanting to be with you." Charlie raked his hand through his hair and sighed heavily. "You should tell him," he said finally.

"That's funny," Tonks said. "Fleur said the same thing yesterday."

"Huh," Charlie muttered. "Never thought I'd agree with Fleur." He ran his hand through his hair again, clasping the back of his neck, and glanced up at the stove clock. "I should go," he muttered, shoving himself to his feet and staggering.

"Stay the night Charlie. You shouldn't apparate like that." She laughed awkwardly. "You can't even walk like that."

"I'm fine," he said shortly, and Tonks got to her feet, stumbling also. She grabbed Charlie's arm.

"No," she said. "Don't go anywhere." And then she felt Charlie's arms wrap around her, pulling her into a hug. She tilted her face back to look at him.

"You're leaving," she told him matter-of-factly.

He nodded. "I am. And you love someone else."

Tonks sucked her breath in slowly. "Yeah..." she said. "I guess I do."

He nodded again. "Right." She leaned her head against his chest, and he tightened his arms around her, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear.

"Charlie," she whispered. "Will we still be able to be friends?"

"Yeah," he said heavily. "'Course."

"Good," she said, and motioned him to follow her out of the kitchen. "C'mon. You need to sleep before tomorrow. You have all those border apparitions to deal with." He followed her, not quite walking straight, and made to go for couch.

She stopped. "You can sleep on the bed if you want," she offered. "It'll be more comfortable, and anyway, it's not like it hasn't happened before." She shrugged.

"You sure?" he asked.

"Yeah."

SATURDAY

Tonks woke up to Charlie kissing her and cupping her face in his hands. It was still dark out.

"I've got to go," he whispered. "Bye Tonks."

And then he was gone and the bed was empty without him. Tonks stared at the ceiling blankly and scrubbed at her face with her hands. She tried to go back to sleep, but she couldn't get Charlie's face out of her head. His arms. His voice. She sighed, and got out of bed.

When she went into the kitchen, Fleur was already up and reading the paper with a cup of tea. She was wearing a silk dressing gown and looked like some domestic model dropped in the middle of Tonks' shabby flat. Tonks smiled at her weakly and went to make herself some coffee. When she sat down across from her, Fleur peered intently at her face, and Tonks scrubbed her forehead again, feeling self-conscious.

"How are you?" Fleur asked finally. "I saw zat Sharlie left."

"I- I don't know really," Tonks said. It was true. She didn't know what to feel. "I wish he didn't have to go." Fleur nodded sympathetically. "Hey," Tonks said, casting around for something else to talk about. "I've been meaning to ask you. How are things going with Bill?"

"Quite well actually," Fleur said, blushing prettily.

"That's great," Tonks said, and meant it.

"Yes, it is." Fleur smiled down at her teacup, then lifted it. "To ze Weasley boys," she said, smiling ruefully.

Tonks laughed. "Yes," she said. "To the Weasley boys. And to us."

"And to us," Fleur echoed.