Round 6
Written for the QLFC, Season 5, Round 6.
Position: Beater 1
Position Prompt: The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Title: 'Bonding'
Word Count: 1833
Beta(s): The Wanderers, CrazyRopeDragon
Prompts:
(Object) Thistle
(Word count) 1883
A thousand thanks to CrazyRopeDragon for assisting me, and allowing me stay in her lovely home. You are too, too good to me my pal!
Every year, without fail, as the overcast, mild September weather gave way to cold, stormy October weather, so too did the homesickness among some students at Hogwarts. The cold gloomy weather left many feeling melancholy in general. But, for most, Christmas was the holiday that had students longing to be with their families. For Tonks it was Halloween.
Naturally, she insisted that being away from home never bothered her. Ever. Seeing the pointed hats she was so accustomed to did not remind her of how her dad would goad her mum into dressing up as a witch every single year - faux rubber nose with warts included. She didn't think about her mother's cinnamon flavoured hot chocolate while sitting in potions class. The cosy fireplaces in the Hufflepuff common room never had her thinking of her own small, cosy little fire place at home. She did not think of those rainy days when she'd curl up with her mum and dad on the sofa, and watch stupid muggle television shows on a Saturday night with bad, greasy take-out. And she absolutely never hummed any little jingles from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
She certainly wasn't humming 'Time Warp' to potions class that afternoon either, nor did she long to do the timewarp again with her dad. Nope. She wasn't thinking those things as a pair of girls she vaguely recognized muttered behind her.
"...I'm not sitting with her, you sit with her!" It was always the same with some people in her year. Who would sit beside clumsy, stupid Tonks in potions. Though thankfully, it was rarely those from her own house (rarely, not never, not all Hufflepuffs were tolerant, unfortunately).
"I can hear you, you know." Tonks said between gritted teeth. "I'm not that bad at potions!"
"Yeah, you just knock over the cauldron a few times, drop all the glass vials and manage to trip up while standing still…"
"I can still hear you!" She was fuming. Every single time. "I have ears! I can make 'em bigger if you have a hard time understanding that!"
"Damn it, Janet-"
Tonks spoke over her would-be defender, "I love you!"
"Just leave her alone…" He trailed off, and looked at Tonks as her hair and face went from a neutral colour to a flush of pink. Oh. Oh no. He was kind of good-looking.
"It was a reference to a muggle show- Stop laughing!" She hissed at the other girls, turning around to glare at them as they scurried off.
"A muggle show? Which one? Tell me everything about it." The boy said eagerly, seeming to have trouble restraining himself from leaning across the table.
Tonks gave the boy a once over; not her type, too pretty. But his hair was a gorgeous shade of red, and there was no denying there was something handsome about him. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."
He looked terribly confused, but still as curious and eager, as professor Snape swept into the classroom (in his usual bat-like fashion, bringing with him an aura of gloom and general unpleasantness).
"It's the greatest show on earth." She added quietly. Because he had to know. He simply had to.
"Is it on that picture box all muggles have these days?" He took a seat next to her (probably to the relief of some other students).
Her mum asked questions like that all the time, even after all her years living with her dad, "No, it's a live thing, in a theatre- Well, the film sometimes plays behind it and-"
"Nymphadora Tonks." Snape sounded out her name slowly. Tonks felt a wave of discomfort roll up her back. Snape knew it was all that was needed. She glared at him and fumed silently, slowly but surely feeling herself get smaller. She hated it when that happened.
"Nymphadora," The boy said, and somehow it felt even worse when he said it, "Funny name, that. Anything shorter?"
"It's. Tonks." She growled. "Tonks." She said the name again. It fit, it felt right. How dare he have the nerve to use that against her. And yet, she said nothing of it. Stupid name.
"Tonks, sorry," He smiled, "I'm Charlie Weasley."
"I think I've heard've you…" She mused, "Captain of the Quidditch team? Seeker? Prefect? I can never remember which one oh," She gasped, "Oh, wait, you're all of the above!"
He shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "I, um, yeah, I suppose so. Overachiever I guess." Okay, fine. He was kind of cute, she supposed. "So tell me about this muggle show."
"Well," And she was off. Whispering the details of each and every scene, but stressing that he simply had to see it to understand it's true glory. Then, of course, Tonks got carried away with herself and spoke louder and louder, her gestures becoming less and less subtle the more excited she got.
"Nymphadora, I will not warn you a second time."
"Her name is Tonks!" Charlie snapped immediately. At a teacher. At Professor Snape.
His sentence was detention that evening with Tonks - polishing silver while Filch supervised, until he dozed off in his chair.
"So, that muggle show you were on about earlier," Charlie began, "When does it show?"
"Usually around this time of year. My dad and I always go to see it. 'S why I was thinkin' of it I suppose…" She trailed off. She didn't miss him. Not one little bit.
"Oh, you can't see it while you're at school, I suppose." He sighed, looking sympathetic, "I miss my family around these times of year too."
"I don't miss them." She said quickly, "I just...I dunno…"
Charlie laughed softly - a gentle, tenor-range kind of tone, "It's okay to miss them, you know."
"Sure, right, if I were in bloody first year it would be…" She scoffed.
"Home is home, it'll always be home. You'll miss things about it, you'll miss the people when you're away. There's no shame in that, really." He scrubbed at a particularly stubborn stain on a plaque baring the names of the 1876 Slytherin Quidditch team, "Just means you love them a lot, and they must love you too. Which means they miss you, longing for places and people you love doesn't just go away when you get older. You know?"
Her parents did tend to gush in their letters to her an awful lot. It was somewhat embarrassing, heartwarming, but embarrassing. What was heartwarming and embarrassing? The way her parents gushed, or the way Charlie went on about the concept of longing?
Tonks cleared her throat, desperately trying to keep a hold on the shape and colour of her hair, "Why so interested in muggle shows? Or were you lookin' for an excuse to talk to lovely me?"
"I'm not telling," He winked at her, "My dad and me are really fascinated by muggles, see. And, I mean, I get on well with Hufflepuffs."
"Uh huh, sure, sure." She nodded.
"You're right, I've been secretly in love with you all these years."
"Everyone is. It's a curse, really." She flicked her hair dramatically.
Charlie laughed so loudly that he woke Filch, who bellowed at them to get back to work. Comments were exchanged, giggles were had, and the two ended up with another detention - separate from each other this time.
"You'll have to take me to see that show some time." Charlie said, as they made their way back to their respective common rooms.
"Are you askin' me out? The nerve." She laughed.
"Maaaybe." He hummed, "Would you like me to?"
"I dunno, would you like me to?" Was he flirting with her? Was this flirting? Was Charlie Weasley - captain and seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and prefect - flirting with her? Was she flirting back? Or was it friendly banter?
He chuckled, "One day, Tonks, you and me." He sighed wistfully and trotted up the staircase towards Gryffindor tower.
Oh Merlin. He was flirting with her.
They left the theatre, singing song after song, covered in glitter. Tonks had dressed up as Janet. Charlie didn't quite understand what he had gotten himself into at the time, but insisted next time he would go as Doctor Frank N. Furter.
"Oooh, I think I'd like to see that."
"Tonks Lupin! You are a married woman!" Charlie gasped.
"Oooooooh, Remus dressed as Frank N. Furter would be a lot better. Why'd you go and say that?! I'm all a tingle now." She giggled.
Her ankle went out from underneath her, she went down in a fit of laughter and hit the bush of thistles and weeds swearing and shouting. She tore her wand from her bag and pointed it at the bush as she clambered out of it with Charlie's help.
"Incendio!" She hissed, setting the bush alight, "Ha! Take that!"
"Tonks!" Charlie grabbed her arm too late. The flames from the bush caught onto the tree beside it, and the one next to that one. Muggles were starting to gather around - they couldn't use magic now, they had no choice but to make a break for it. They ran through streets, half-laughing, half-swearing knowing full well the trouble they would be in if they were caught.
They apparated back to Grimmauld Place and once inside, burst into a fit of giggles. They desperately tried to shush one another so as not to wake the whole house.
Tonks spotted Remus standing in the hallway, his eyebrows raised at her, "Do I want to know?"
"Uh, maybe not, love." Tonks tittered, glancing at Charlie.
"She fell into a thistle bush." Tonks hit him, hard. "Ow!"
"I take it she retaliated, and the offending bush is no more?" Remus sighed, not at all surprised.
Tonks looked at Charlie, not a word.
Remus just sighed heavily, smiling as he went back into the kitchen, leaving the two friends alone.
He was well aware of Tonks's old unrequited love. She had told him. It seemed the only thing Charlie Weasley was ever taken with was Qudditch, dragons, his dear friends and beloved family. He never once spoke of crushes, never mind talk of marriage. No, Tonks had long since resigned herself to channel that affection into their friendship instead. Then, naturally, she fell for someone else - for him, of all people...and to think, she was with child now, going to see muggle shows at a time like this… But perhaps, this was exactly the time for such joys, to bring a little bit of light to these dark times.
Charlie couldn't believe how like his mother he was. Young Teddy Lupin, so passionate and excitable when it came to what he loved. He already knew about The Rocky Horror Picture Show, sung along to all the words when Charlie took him to see the live show.
"You know, your mum and I bonded over Rocky Horror. I had no idea what it was, being from a wizarding family and all…"
"Tell me all about it."