Written For:

Hogwarts Houses Competition

- House: Gryffindor

- Category: Drabble

- Prompt: Autumn

- Word Count: 471

Hogwarts Assignments:

- Wild Words: Ebullience

- Around the World: Maroon/Malta

"Eet eez too quiet, no?"

Tonks nodded, setting the kettle down between them. Flowery steam was filling the kitchen, making both women smile. "Where's Bill?"

"He eez with ze Goblins." Fleur sighed, shaking her magnificent head. "I am so useless."

Tonks summoned over a teacup. She always picked flower patterns for Fleur. Today she picked maroon dahlias, trying to match the season. "Don't say that. Don't ever say that, Fleur." As she poured, she gave the younger woman a stern look. "Who took out Rosier? Who defended me from Greyback? Who held off Bellatrix?" She set the teacup down a little too fiercely, cracking it. "Oh...reparo. Who convinced Remus to marry me?"

Fleur smiled softly. "After all zis is over, I would like to become an Auror too."

Sipping her tea, Tonks placed her hand on Fleur's shoulder. "I'd love that. You'd be brilliant. Shall we go outside?"

They headed into the garden. Autumn at the Burrow was beautiful. The fields, trees, everything was brilliant shades of red and orange. "Do you still hate it here, Fleur?"

Surprised by the Auror's bluntness, Fleur said nothing. Tonks smiled. "I used to want to be you, you know. The man you love wanted to marry you, and you were planning this huge wedding."

They sat down, casting heating charms to cut the chill. Neither felt the need to speak. This was their morning routine; sometimes they had heart to hearts, sometimes they sat in silence, and sometimes they did both.

"I wanted to be you, too. You 'ave such ebullience. You are so loved 'ere."

"I know." Tonks remembered the happy - relatively happy, anyway - early days of the Order, when she'd tease the boys and giggle with Hermione and Ginny and Molly. "I...I am very loved here."

They sat until the clang of Molly's alarm, almost half an hour later. Both women took a final gulp of tea. "Time for ze meeting."

They wouldn't Apparate; leaving the wards was too dangerous. Fleur pointed her wand at the fireplace and muttered, "Incendio." Tonks knocked over the Floo powder, cursing as it covered both of them. But Fleur, to her surprise, didn't seem bothered. She cleaned it deftly with a single charm.

"Of course you'd be good at these household charms. Together?"

It was a friendship few noticed, and fewer understood. But they were bonded - bonded by cups of tea during wartime mornings in fall, by weddings shadowed in fear, by Fenrir Greyback's mark on their lives. And, more than anything, by their spirits. Different on the outside - but at the core, very, very alike. Tonks grabbed a fistful of powder. "Fleur?"

The Frenchwoman nodded.

"You're very loved here too." She opened her palm, and they stepped into the fireplace.

Fleur took her hand as the flames engulfed them. "Merci, meilleur ami." Thank you, my best friend.