Disclaimer: Do not OWN!! I really really want to but NO, ME DO NOT!!
Pairing: Tonks/Charlie Weasley
AN: Why aren't there that many fics of this pairing, it really is great!
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There were only a few things in her life that could make Tonks really happy.
Being a metamorphmagus was one. She loved seeing people happy and was glad that disfiguring herself could actually engage people enough to make them laugh. Even she wasn't immune to her own humour and her mum often use to grace her friends with stories of walking in on her making pig and animal faces in the mirror. Much to the embarrassment of Tonks, she had even told her first boyfriend the stories of when she used to colour code her clothes and nail polish with her hair.
As if calling her Nymphadora Tonks wasn't embarrassing enough. She sometimes wondered whether those crippling moments of intense embarrassment had contributed to her almost threatening pose against her parents.
Another special pleasure of hers was something that people didn't normally expect.
Soft toys.
In her years at Hogwarts she had often invited her friends over to her house in the summer and before they arrived she always had to go on a half-day purge of moving all of her soft toys into the attic. She still had a few oh her favourite ones, especially the pink elephant and black and white panda that now lay safely concealed in the bottom of her trunk, only to be brought out at night.
But although she held a special interest in things, nothing could beat her ultimate love.
Food.
Food was the pinnacle of everything in her life. She lived to eat. Her mother's cookies were her favourite when she was young but lately she had found particular interest in fairy floss. She loved to turn her hair pink while she ate it. It made her feel like one big peace of chewy candy and sometimes she even found herself chewing her hair at the thought.
The first time she had met had a real conversation with Remus Lupin had been when she was attempting to cook. Molly had been teaching her to make cookies but had to go out for supplies and left her alone, in the kitchen. Obviously not a very good combination.
She could only explain it as being her amazing luck that the cookies had burnt beyond repair and creating a faint trail of smoke.
With Remus's abilities he had rushed down straight away and upon entering with his wand drawn, had surprised her to such a degree that she had tripped over a chair and made cookies fly all over the room. Seeing her with black hair that matched the cookies that was spread all around the room, he had laughed and promptly picked one up and ate one.
He was the third person in her life to have complimented her cooking skills. She had fallen for him at that very moment.
It was only until after Sirius's death that she realized how different they really were. It wasn't a difference she could work with either. He had always seems strong to her, even a little bit dangerous in that mysteriously dark and yet very light-hearted way.
But he changed. He couldn't forget Sirius and she had come to terms with the fact that he had shut down and denied all applications for her interests.
After a while she realized that the relationship would only bring pain for both of them, her being so much younger than him. When he had graduated, she was only just learning about the birds and the bees, or as her mother liked to call it, 'what two adults did when the lights were out and silencing charms were put up.'
She knew anyways, that her mind would be forever wondering. Although it may have not appeared it to the outside observer, she generally accepted what was given. If Remus didn't like her, then she couldn't change that. And if she happened to be in a constant fantasyland with someone else, well, she couldn't really change that either.
Sometimes she liked to revisit memories of Hogwarts, especially when times were tough. Not many people knew about her very close relationship with Charlie Weasley.
If you could really call it a relationship anymore. Just as all things started, it had started off by a very odd and unreliable friendship.
At first people thought they were enemies. When she would see Charlie Weasley walking down the corridors of Hogwarts she would morph into the first animal that would come to mind, usually something that most people would consider as being derogatory. She just loved seeing people's reactions.
However, turning a pig's snout to him as he walked past hadn't exactly made him react as most people did. He would laugh and then point his friends to her, creating more attention than she really needed, though didn't exactly disagree with.
It hadn't been long before he had approached her in the great hall and asked her how she did it. Obviously he hadn't been that up to date with what everyone exclaimed on. Sometimes she liked to believe that he was just using it as an excuse to get to know her.
Soon the odd eye contact had turned into walking to the great hall together (despite her being in Hufflepuff and him being in Gryffindor), helping her study her most hated subjects as he had done it already from being one year ahead of her, or even teasing the whomping willow by flying on his broom a few meters above it (though they had got into trouble for it many times and even she had to admit that it was not exactly the smartest thing she had ever done).
She attended every Quidditch game he was involved with, cheering him on as he chased a golden ball the size of her eye and they spent hours at a time using every method possible to annoy filch. He had not been very keen on creating a very suave reputation, preferring not to have the student population be in awe of him like they were of Bill Weasley.
The first time that they had discovered the kitchens, she had nearly died of joy. It had been after very humorous attempts at squeezing information out of a house elf by making it reveal secret locations or (if only) hidden treasure that the poor creature had revealed the locations.
Unfortunately, she soon was banned from the kitchens as she had tried to cook something and ended up burning one of the dinner chickens, dropping four knives and breaking a very very old set of china that she was sure had been around since before Dumbledore was born. That was when he had complimented her cooking skills. To her immediate surprise he had lifted a chicken leg and chewed on it, grinning afterwards and telling her that it was the most delicious thing he had tasted that day.
By the time that they had finished Hogwarts and boarded the train to return home, she had a prepared a little speech that she knew would make them more than just friends (as the cliché goes).
She remembered her mum and dad waiting for her in the background as she recited her speech, standing near a woman that must've been Charlie's mum.
Even as she said the first line she had noticed that he was going to go the opposite way she wanted. He was looking at her like he knew he was going to have to break her heart. She also noticed as she said it that he had a freckle on his eyelid.
He had hugged her quickly and then spoke in a voice that cracked horribly that his dream job was only a few years away and he was going away to train for dragon keeping. Tonks wasn't sure if she imagined that his eyes were watering slightly but she definitely recalled her eyes occasionally wondering to his ears that were a bright red.
He gave her a kiss on her cheek before he left and promised to write. He did keep his word but she never responded and found that the letters to her eventually stopped.
When he left, her mother had hugged her and she was sure that it was the first time she had let her in public. Charlie hadn't looked back at her as he left the platform.
I really will write, every week. I'll tell you all about the dragons and the training. Write back will you, I don't want to loose contact with you. And anyways, I'll be around for the holidays and birthdays, we'll still see each other, won't we Nymph?
She never visited at the holidays, in fact, the only contact she had with him over the past years had been when she was sure there was people around. Sometimes it was unavoidable.
Not to mention that she sometimes hated Molly for continuously mentioning his latest romantic interest. And, as morbid as it sounded, she was glad they never lasted very long.
When she heard that he was coming for Bill and Fleur's wedding, she had locked herself in her room, dug out her pink elephant and hugged it all night.
Once the day had finally arrived she had been so anxious that she had actually cared what she looked like. She had made her hair a specific colour (purple, she remembered him saying that he had liked it sometime in the fifth year), she had worn her best clothes and her best accessories.
All in all, she thought she looked pretty good. Better than Fleur in her opinion whom she thought looked like a tart in her white dress. She was happy for Bill though.
She had been sitting in one of the chairs at the dining table for lunch, surrounded by the order when he had arrived. More handsome than ever and his face dotted with an unimaginable amount of freckles. But his smile was just as charming and his eyes just as kind, even though they were a bit more aged.
Molly had sprung up and gripped him into a fierce hug, making him grin even larger. He shook hands with most of the members, winking at Ron who was sitting very close to Hermione and ruffling Harry's hair as though they were brothers. When he reached Bill he had hugged him just as strongly as Molly did to him and whispered something in his ear that had made Bill's ear light up like a howler.
If the Order hadn't of know of a past feud between them, they soon did. When he reached her he stood awkwardly in front of her, biting her lip in a way that she thought was actually quite cute. She put all feeling away and just stared. He shifted uncomfortably.
Soon the whole room was enveloped in silence and she was sure she knew why.
When conversation had eventually picked up she had still ignored him. He sat at one end of the table, she sat at the other. She even put on a great show of morphing her appearance just to annoy him, she knew he was watching.
For her it agonizingly slow until lunch finished. The kids, or young adults, went out to play a quick round of Quidditch, Bill and Fleur checking the last minute arrangements for the wedding the next day and the adults moving for a drink in the shady garden. Fred and George were trying to get Ginny to try one of their new creations.
Molly had started to clean up but Tonks had insisted on taking over, though she did notice the slightly anxious expression of having Tonks dealing with the plates and overall, fragile utensils.
To her horror, Charlie had stayed behind. She did her best to ignore him but he was always in the corner of her eyes, leaning against the kitchen corridor with his arms crossed over his chest in a way that she thought was surprisingly sexy.
"Tonks-," she dropped a plate when he said that and he winced. She cast a quick repairing charm and he settled back into his position.
He attempted conversation again, "Tonks… how have you been?"
She snorted, morphing her face into a pig snout to create a better effect, "Oh, just dandy. You know, the usual: flowers, butterflies, little magical horses."
She smirked at the flick in his eyes as he recognized her sarcasm, having not heard it for years.
He sighed, "Um…. Would you like some help with those dishes?"
"I can handle a couple of plates."
She walked over to the table and collected a couple of plates and walked back. Unfortunately as she tried to walk very smoothly past him she tripped on a raised floorboard. The plates came crashing to the floor and she fell straight on her chest, slightly winded from the fall.
He got down quickly as she pulled herself up into a sitting position, a huge blush plastered on her face and her hair turning red.
He grabbed her hands and looked at them, "Are you hurt? Did you cut yourself?"
She shook her head and looked away, embarrassed but not at all surprised at the fact that nothing was going to plan. That was how life usually went with her.
He kept a hold on her hands and spoke softly, "I'm staying here. I quit my job."
She snapped her head up, "what? Really?!"
He nodded and she could see that he was actually quite sad about it. She knew how much he had loved his job but she heard that it was becoming an even more dangerous occupation. Not that being a dragon keeper was harmless at the start.
He sat down next to her, avoiding the glass remains but not yet bothering to clean them up.
She spoke again, "So… did you break up with the latest one yet?"
"Yep," he shrugged, not seeming very distraught, "we weren't really very close. I wasn't really in love with her and she wasn't really in love with me."
A silence spread over the room.
Tonks tilted her head back and spoke with a wry smile, attempting humour, "Oh well, you know me. I've had to beat them off with a stick. The buggers wont leave me alone."
He smiled, "I know what you mean, though, I'm sure you have a lot more than me."
She nodded, "I do, I won't deny it."
He laughed.
"I missed you," he sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "a lot. It just isn't as much fun without you around."
She rolled her eyes, "Good work Merlin, you've figured out that I'm insane."
He held her eyes. She held his, to stubborn to break his gaze.
Tonks was glad that she was at least the most dominant one as he broke eye contact first. She whipped out her wand and cast another repairing spell, noting that it was her most used spell these days.
They finished the dishes in what could only be called a comfortable silence and she found her hair colour becoming unpredictable as it flashed from colour to colour. She drained the sink and wiped her hands on the closest towel. She could feel the tension drain from both of them as they settled their emotions, to weary to create more arguments in a time of war.
They stood beside each others, listening to the sound of the rest of their little family laughing and talking in the backyard, forgetting for at least one day that their world was being torn apart.
Charlie gestured with his hand to the door, "Would you like… to maybe, go for a walk with me?"
She considered it for a moment. Should she attempt to try something with him again? Perhaps he would try to start something with her. Frankly she was tired of making everything work, he could do the work for once.
He walked over to the door and held it open for her, "After you, Nymph."
She glowered, though only in mock anger, "Thankyou kind sir."
He grinned and followed her out into the garden, "You know… You could have just used magic to clean up."
She punched his arm, hard, "And miss your attempt at grovelling? Nah."
He slung an arm around her shoulder, "Why is it that you can say something like that and still manage to be cute."
She blushed, hair turning from pink to purple, "It's the hair."
He grinned.
"Yep, I guess it is."
It wasn't long after they had walked through the door and towards one of the overgrown paths that Mrs. Weasley came in again, a confused look on her face at the sight of clean dishes and two missing people.
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AN: Hope you liked! I really do like the couple!
TonksxCharlie are awesome!!
Please review. I would really like to know if I kept Tonks in character. She isn't present very often in the book so it was hard to keep her in character…
So please tell me! I would really like to know if it's good or not!