Warnings: Implied use of drinking to cope with character death as well as brief discussion of two (canon) character deaths.
Prompts and author's note to follow.
HUGE thanks to Elizabeth (MoonytheMarauder1) for looking over this for me!
Surprises
The day Angelina Johnson found out she had made the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team, there was one person she knew she wanted to break the news to first. The problem was, said person was not responding - not to her owl, not to her Patronus message...Angelina had even stuck her head into Alicia Spinnet's fireplace, to no avail.
She trudged away from Alicia's house without informing one of her best friends of the biggest development of her career. She had wanted to tell Alicia the exciting news, but it wouldn't have been fair for Leesh to know before her girlfriend.
Angelina hadn't been raised to talk about her emotions much, but if she had to give a name to what she was feeling, she would have said she felt uneasy. It wasn't like her girlfriend to ignore her communications. Perhaps she had been called on a last-minute mission? Or maybe she had stayed late at work, again, and didn't want to deal with Angelina's scoldings. Well, whatever the reason was, she would know soon enough. With a loud crack, she Disapparated to their shared flat.
Angelina pulled her trainers off in the hallway and crept towards the kitchen. Peeking around the corner, she didn't see her girlfriend. Her eyes fell upon an empty bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky that had certainly not been on the table that morning and she frowned, moving from the kitchen to the small living room quickly. Her girlfriend wasn't there, either, but a book had been knocked off the coffee table and lay open on the floor.
Angelina drew her wand with care. If there was an intruder here, she needed to be quiet if she was going to have any chance of fighting them off. Her girlfriend, an Auror, spent most of her days chasing after Dark witches and wizards, most of whom had powers she and Angelina could only dream of. The element of surprise would work in Angelina's favor, though. She wiped a bead of sweat off her forehead as she continued to tiptoe forward, unsure whether she was perspiring due to nerves or the weather. It was a warm day at the end of July, and she had hoped to celebrate making her dream team outside with her girlfriend.
Past the living room was another small hallway, with doors leading to the bathroom and a small bedroom. Angelina slipped into this hallway, wand still aloft, then paused for a moment to listen. Was that a sniffle she had just heard? She checked under the bathroom door, but the light was off. The light seemed to be off in the bedroom, too, but Angelina was fairly certain the noise had come from in there. Outside the bedroom door, she hesitated, praying she would hear the sound again.
The sniffler obliged, letting out another faint sniffle. Angelina bit her lip. It could be her girlfriend...but it could also be a trap. She didn't lower her wand, and she tried to imagine what her girlfriend would do in this situation. She would likely head right toward the source of the sound. Act first, ask questions later.
Angelina took a deep breath to summon her Gryffindor courage, then pushed open the door and jumped into tiny room. She immediately felt foolish; her wand tip wasn't illuminating anyone and no bursts of bright light were shooting towards her...
She flipped up the light switch on the wall and screwed up her eyes, waiting for an attack that still wasn't coming. Her ears picked up a new sound, however: a dry sort of chuckle. Angelina opened her eyes and peered down at the floor in the corner of the room. What she saw there made her fall to her knees.
"Tonks?" Angelina said gently.
Her girlfriend didn't respond. She merely stared at Angelina as though she couldn't process what she was seeing. The Metamorphmagus' hair was currently a dull brown, and looked like it was matted against her head. Her eyes, a deep chocolate shade, were glassy and tired. Her legs were pulled up against her chest and a large tumbler that had presumably held firewhisky sat beside her. Angelina reached out and touched Tonks' hand, which had been resting on her knee. The older witch recoiled slightly.
"It's only me, Dora," Angelina whispered. Tonks sniffed, but still said nothing.
Angelina crawled next to Tonks and sat so that her left arm was touching Tonks' right. The two witches sat in silence for a long time. Or at least, it felt like a long time to Angelina, who wasn't sure what to say.
"How-" she started, but her mouth had gone dry. She cleared her throat and tried again. "How long have you been sitting here?"
"Long enough," Tonks shrugged.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really," came the hoarse reply. "I'd rather just forget..."
"Forget?" Angelina used her left hand to brush Tonks' hair away from her face. "Forget what?" Tonks turned to her, a tortured look twisting her features.
"Today," she wailed. Angelina waited for her to elaborate. "It's the-the five year anniversary of M-Moody's..."
Tonks trailed off, but Angelina figured out what she had been about to say. Five years ago, Tonks' mentor Alastor Moody had been killed while trying to protect and move Harry Potter. She thought back to the news she had wanted to share only an hour before. It seemed so trivial now.
"I'm sorry," she said finally. "I know you were close to him."
"He's the one who p-pushed me to become the Auror I am today," Tonks said, gulping back sobs. "I don't think I would have passed Stealth and Tracking without his-his encouragement. He believed in me when no one else would. I owe my entire career to him, Ange."
"I'm sorry," Angelina repeated. She wished she could think of something else to say. Was this how people had felt trying to comfort her after Fred's death? Probably.
Thinking about Fred made her want to cry, too, but she told herself that she needed to keep it together for her girlfriend. Although she had arguably been closer to Fred than Tonks had been to Moody, a loss was still a loss, and Angelina Johnson of all people knew how much it sucked having someone close to you die.
"No, I'm sorry," the Metamorphmagus said suddenly. As if she had read Angelina's mind, she continued, "Here I am moping around about Moody, and you...you lost Fred..." She reached for the tumbler at her side, realized it was empty, and cursed under her breath.
"That's quite enough firewhiskey for you, Tonks," Angelina said firmly. She stood gracefully and extended a hand to her girlfriend. Tonks' palm was sweaty but Angelina gripped it tightly and pulled the older witch to her feet. "Sit," she commanded, steering the unsteady Tonks toward the bed. "I'll get you some water."
She padded away to the kitchen, where she Vanished the firewhisky bottle. She grabbed a glass from the rather cluttered countertop next to the sink, rinsed it out, and filled it with water. On her way back to the bedroom, she replaced the fallen book in the living room with a flick of her wand. She realized Tonks had probably knocked it over at some point, and almost laughed at how scared she had been, thinking someone else had broken into the flat.
Once back in the bedroom, she found Tonks curled up under the thin sheet, staring at the wall.
"Drink this. You'll feel better."
Tonks sat up and gingerly sipped the water, then looked up at Angelina gratefully. "It beats downing more firewhisky, anyway, eh?"
"I'd think so," Angelina nodded.
Tonks placed the cup on the bedside table and went back to contemplating the wall. Angelina watched her for a moment, then climbed into the bed with her. It felt nice to wrap her arms around the smaller woman, though Angelina noted with some concern that she seemed thinner than usual.
"Hey, Ange?" Tonks whispered, twisting around to face her.
"Yeah?"
"What are you thinking about?"
Angelina answered honestly, though she knew Tonks wouldn't like it. "I'm thinking about how thin you've gotten."
"You sound like Molly," Tonks groused. "She's always trying to get me to eat more."
"She has a point. You're all bones these days, Dora." Angelina cupped Tonks' face and planted a light kiss on her lips. Tonks closed her eyes and smiled shakily.
"Perk of the job."
Angelina frowned. "That's not funny."
"I don't know how else to deal with this, Ange." Tonks wrapped her arms around herself and looked away from Angelina's gaze. Angelina had never seen her look so vulnerable.
"Well, you don't have to do this alone," she said softly. "I've been through this, too. With-with Fred." Her voice caught and she blinked back the sudden onslaught of tears threatening to spill over. This was Tonks' moment and she couldn't make it about her own grief. With time, she had realized that what she had felt for Fred had been little more than puppy love. And yet, he had been a major part of her life for so long...she had been devastated by his death, and Tonks was the only person who had been able to make her feel anything close to happy since.
"I know," Tonks said, her eyes meeting Angelina's again. She took the younger witch's hand and squeezed it gently. "I don't know how you kept going. I don't know what I would do if I lost you." A few tears slid down her face, and Angelina wiped them away with her thumb.
"I'm not going anywhere," she promised. "But now you can see why I feel the way I do about your line of work."
Tonks stiffened, and Angelina instantly regretted her words. Tonks' job was a sore spot in their relationship - despite knowing Tonks was an extremely capable Auror, Angelina was constantly worried about something happening to her. Tonks, meanwhile, adored her job, and resented Angelina for trying to talk her out of dangerous assignments.
"I'm sorry," Angelina murmured. "That wasn't fair of me."
"'S'okay," Tonks said. Angelina noticed that her eyes were starting to look a little droopy.
"You look like you're ready to doze off there, love."
"Mmhmm." Tonks snuggled closer to Angelina, resting her head on Angelina's broad chest. Within minutes of Angelina stroking her hair, she had fallen asleep. Angelina stayed awake a while longer, thinking about Fred and how excited he would have been about her Harpies appointment. The last thing she remembered thinking before drifting off was that she should visit his grave sometime soon and tell him.
The next morning, Angelina slipped out of bed early to make breakfast. A short time later, she brought it into the bedroom to find Tonks yawning and stretching. She placed the tray she had been carrying onto the small table she had summoned out of nowhere.
"Morning, love," she said brightly. Tonks groaned and squeezed her eyes shut.
"I made you breakfast," Angelina continued in the same upbeat voice, suppressing a grin.
"Don't, Ange," Tonks moaned. "Don't use that chirpy tone right now."
"Tone? What tone?" Angelina teased. "I'm not using a tone."
Tonks flipped her off. "Why do you insist on being your most annoying when I'm hungover?"
"You know you love me," Angelina smirked. "Besides, I'm being annoying for a reason."
"It'd better be a bloody good reason," her girlfriend grumbled.
"How's being asked to join the Harpies?"
Tonks' eyes flew open. "The-"
"Harpies, yeah, I made the team!" Angelina shrieked. She saw Tonks wince at her loud volume and adopted a softer tone. "Sorry. I wanted to tell you yesterday but it just didn't seem-"
She was cut off by Tonks' lips against her own. The older witch had launched herself out of bed with surprising speed and agility and wrapped her arms around Angelina's neck.
"That's amazing, Ange!" she breathed. "I am so proud of you." Angelina gazed down at her, admiring the trademark bright pink that was beginning to seep back into her hair, and leaned in for another quick kiss.
"Thanks, love."
"We should celebrate! Erm, without firewhiskey, though, preferably," Tonks said hastily, reaching for a pastry. "I think I've had my fill of that for a while."
Angelina laughed. "Yes, I think it would be best if firewhiskey was forbidden in this house for the foreseeable future."
Word count: 2,073
Written for Angel's A Rare Chance at Love challenge! My pairing was Angelina/Tonks (obviously) and I used the word prompt: forbidden.
Other prompts:
Hogwarts Seasonal Challenges:
Days of the Year - April 6th - Plan Your Epitaph Day: write about remembering someone who isn't around anymore
Elemental Challenge (Earth) - (dialogue): "You don't have to do this alone."
Hufflepuff Challenge (Characters): Nymphadora Tonks
Hogwarts Writing Club
Bex's Basement - "Why do you insist on being your most annoying when I'm hungover?"
Hogwarts Gym
Oliver Wood's Quidditch Training Camp Level 1 - Burpees: write about someone in the occupation Auror (does not have to be canon)
Magic Kingdom
Main Street - Emporium (dialogue): "You know you love me."
Yearly Challenges
Insane House Challenge #441 (occasion): anniversary of a death
A/N: A bit more angsty than my usual fare, and also my first attempt at femslash. Let me know your thoughts!