Failing Together

A/N: This fic was written for the lovely Dessie (desertredwolf) as a (very late) Christmas lucky-dip present from The Golden Snitch forum. Although I wish I could have written a Morgana story for you, I hope you like this somewhat fluffy Tonks/Charlie short story :)

This fic will be beta'd ASAP, yet should any readers spot any flaws, feel free to point them out in a non-flame review :)

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy this! Xx

He couldn't believe it: he had failed. Failed. And all on a technicality.

Charlie Weasley placed his hands in his pockets, no longer bothering to shield the bright sunlight from his eyes. The sun seemed to be mocking him, breaking through the heavy cloud cover for the first time in weeks. It wasn't the only thing mocking him, either; the laughter of his peers permeated the air, over-excited for their own recent successes.

Charlie kicked a rock as he headed down to the Black Lake. Some of his peers had gone down there to celebrate, but not as many students as those lingering around the castle doors and courtyard. The lake was his thinking place, his safe haven, and as he approached its shimmering surface, he felt the tiniest bit better.

Only one other student beside Charlie was alone. On a grassy knoll by the lake's shoreline sat a girl. Mid-length, brown hair hung down her back, almost covering the yellow lining of her school robes. As Charlie passed her, he could see that her knees were brought up to her chest, her head buried in them.

Raking a hand through his fiery red hair, Charlie made a last minute decision and walked towards the girl instead of his usual spot. It was as though his feet took him there, and before he could stop them, he found himself standing next to her.

"Hi Nymphadora," he said.

The girl's head snapped up, revealing tear-streaked cheeks. It gave Charlie's heart a jolt to her so upset, pushing his own hurt to the back of the mind.

"Oh, it's you," she said, although she sounded less disappointed than surprised. Well, she did until she added, "Don't call me Nymphadora."

Charlie vaguely remembered that Nymphadora Tonks could get touchy when someone used her given name—it didn't matter if it was a student or teacher using it either. From what Ernie Langsbury had told him, the Hufflepuff had somewhat of a temper on her and wasn't afraid to use it. Still, Charlie couldn't help the small smile that made its way to his lips, Nymph—Tonks reminding him strongly of his own brother, Bill, whenever his mother called the latter 'William.'

"Want some company?" he asked, pointing to the patch of grass beside Tonks.

The girl pulled a blade of grass from the ground and shrugged. "Dunno why you'd want to; I'm misery for company."

Charlie smiled and sat down. Tonks sighed, wiping away a few of her tears with her robe's sleeve. He wanted to offer her a handkerchief, yet he never carried one on him, despite his mother's constant nagging to always have a tissue handy. As it was, she turned her head away from him, perhaps embarrassed by her loud sniffling.

Taking the hint, Charlie looked away, focusing instead on the Black Lake. Its surface was relatively still, but every now and then, it would be broken by the Giant Squid's tentacles. Charlie watched them whip up into the air, before disappearing just as quickly into the dark water. Like it was Apparating.

Closing his eyes, Charlie thought back to how he went wrong. He had made sure to practices weeks—months—before the exam. He had gotten his younger brother, Percy, to give him a few pointers from the books the boy read, and had even gone so far as to skip one or two Quidditch practices just so he could be sure he mastered all the steps involved. During the exam, he had concentrated so hard, had been able to feel the pull beneath his navel, had felt the familiar spinning sensation clouding his brain…

"So, care to tell me what happened?" Charlie said, shaking his head clear of the memories. It wasn't going to help dwelling on what had happened, not unless the examiners decided he had passed after all.

He turned his head to study Tonks, who sighed. A few more tears had slipped down her rosy cheeks as he had been busy going over the last hour or so, and she quickly wiped them away.

"Snape hates me," she said.

Charlie tilted his head. Potions had been cancelled that day because of the Apparition testing, the majority of their year group eager to earn the freedom of appearing and disappearing at random.

In all his nervousness, he had assumed that Nymphadora Tonks would have been one of those students eager to get her own Apparition license like everyone else and had thus not noticed her absence in the exams.

"Snape hates everyone. It would be weird if he didn't," Charlie said. Tonks gave him a half-smile. "So, why weren't you at the exam this afternoon?"

Tonks sighed, the smile disappearing. "Same reason Snape hates me."

Charlie watched her dark eyes well up with tears again. He shifted around, torn between wanting her to elaborate and not wanting to pressure her.

Tonks let out a deep breath before she finally answered. "I'm too clumsy for my own good. I managed to knock over a few phials in class today… some that contained potions Snape had apparently been working on for months."

"That could have happened to anyone."

"Yeah, but I made it worse. I tried to help fix it and wiped up all the spill, but that only ended up making Snape angrier because he couldn't then recover them."

Tonks looked at her feet. She began to tear out more grass, the blades tearing in her firm grip. Her sniffling was becoming more frequent, and as she ripped out one blade by its roots, Charlie placed his hand over hers and gave it a squeeze.

The girl froze underneath his touch, and it was a moment before he realised what he had just done. He quickly withdrew his hand, running it through his mane of hair again. He thanked Merlin for his freckles, hoping there were enough to cover his blush.

Tonks gave him a small smile and looked away, her cheeks having turned redder. Charlie saw that the tips of her hair had transformed from brown to mauve. He mumbled something about Tonk's accident being "not so bad," before looking back out at the lake.

Seconds turned into minutes as he stared out at the landmark, neither one of them speaking. Charlie's mind drifted from thoughts about failing his test to his recent faux pas in grabbing the girl's hand like he had. It had simply been a natural reaction, the Gryffindor in him wanting to comfort her. He hadn't meant anything else by it, but he knew hand-holding was the first step boys usually took to initiate a relationship—at least that's what he usually tried. What he should have done was pat her on the back, or simply said, "Cheer up." Now she probably thought he only wanted to talk to her to 'get with her' or something, and he berated himself for not realising sooner.

He hadn't realised his thoughts had escaped from him in the form of a sigh until Tonk's voice cut into his thoughts.

"So, are you going to tell me what's eating you up?" she said.

Charlie blinked, turning to her. "Uh, nothing really."

"Go on, I have a gift for spotting liars."

"Really?" he said.

He was surprised to see the girl break out into a smile, bigger than the last she had given him. Her eyes were twinkling mischievously as she nodded. "Yep."

Seeing her smile, Charlie sighed and cleared his throat to tell her what had happened. After all, she had trusted him enough to share her story with him, and somehow she didn't seem the type of person to laugh at his expense.

"Well… I took the Apparition test today."

"No, you don't say?" Tonks said, nudging him on the shoulder.

Charlie rolled his eyes and continued, "And, well, I failed." He looked to see if the girl was, perhaps, going to mock him, but she sat there.

"Huh, I thought you'd pass."

"So did I… and everyone else…"

Tonks tilted her head and prompted him to continue with a wave of her hand.

He adjusted his position, folding his legs underneath him and starting to pick out blades of grass himself. "It was all going well at first, actually. I really did think I would pass; I probably got a tad cocky that way. I was ready, though, when they called my name and even executed the steps as we're supposed to.

"And I did, in fact, Apparate. But, well, you see… I may have, possibly, accidentally, landed on top of a Muggle doing her shopping."

He expected that if she hadn't before, the girl would have started laughing by now. In truth, it probably was a little funny to think of, especially the bewildered expression on the old lady's face as he sat on her stomach, prying pieces of lettuce and egg off his robes. He, however, could only remember the instructor telling him off for breaching magical security laws and his incompetence, let alone the screams of "You fail!" that accompanied it.

Instead of laughing, however, Tonks took his hand. Startled, Charlie looked at it, then slowly trailed his blue eyes up to her face.

"Well, the way I see it, there'll be another opportunity for you to take the test," she said, her smile growing.

"Yeah, in six months," Charlie retorted, but he didn't take his hand away. It felt nice—warm and comforting.

Tonks snorted, and somehow she made the action endearing. "Until then, by which time you will pass," she added, glaring at the way he started to protest, "we can be failures together."

Charlie was once more thankful for his freckles, his cheeks feeling warm. He looked back to the lake as he said, "I don't think you're a failure."

Peeking back up at her, as though he was nothing more than a young schoolgirl rather than a sixteen-year-old male, he saw that the red in her hair had almost spread to her roots.

"For one, I don't know anyone in this school who can do that," he said and chuckled at how cheesy he sounded.

The girl had seemed to make everything better, easier. Tonks rolled her eyes at his comment.

Charlie rubbed it. "Oh, and don't forget, there will always be another potions lesson," he added, echoing her words.

He grinned at the shocked expression her face, his amusement worth it even as she then pulled her hand away and punched his forearm, again.

"Well, that's certainly cheered me up," she said.

Stretching out his legs and leaning back on his elbows, Charlie stared back out at the lake. Tonks followed suit with a contented sigh, her face turned up towards the sun and eyes closed.

They didn't speak much as the sun set, basking in their own thoughts. Charlie continued to play through what had happened during his exam, yet for some reason, he could now only see the funny side of it, especially as he replayed the moment when the Muggle woman had started whacking him with a baguette. Perhaps it was his exhaustion making him feel incapable of feeling sorry for himself any longer, or perhaps it was because his new friend had made him realise there were no failures when it came to second chances.