Collecting Cards
"No. No, no, no, no… no, ye—no. No..."
"How long has she been like this?" Pamela asked, taking a seat at the table.
Ebony looked at the blonde and shrugged. "Since the owls came at breakfast. She got a brown paper package from her dad and she hasn't stopped looking since. She's lucky Weasley blew up his cauldron in Potions; Snape would've gone ballistic if he saw what she was doing."
It was true; Snape had been doing his usual rounds of the classroom, sneering at the goopy messes the class had produced. Tonks had been opening her chocolate frogs under the desk, unaware that Snape had finished insulting one of the Hufflepuff boys and was on his way over to them. If it wasn't for Charlie Weasley suddenly mixing up his ingredients and causing purple smoke to waft around the dungeons, Tonks would probably be spending her afternoons and weekends in detention for two months.
"Neither of you is helping right now," Tonks muttered, her blue eyes trained on the deck of cards before her. Her fingers flipped through the pile, her heart racing as she examined each picture. "Out of all the cards I've gotten, not one—yes!"
Ebony shook her head as Tonks leapt up from the table, holding a chocolate frog card high in the air. She didn't appear to notice, nor care, that the chocolate frogs from the discarded wrappers were now hopping into their peers' lunch. A grin replaced her previous frown, and as she kissed the card, her hair turned a bright, sunshine yellow. It matched the sunny weather the Hall's enchanted ceiling was displaying.
"Well, someone's happy," Pamela said, taking a long sip of coffee.
Ebony wished she had a cup herself to drink, not sure how much longer she could keep up with Tonks' random energy. Alas, her own mug had been knocked over in her friend's triumph.
Tonks simply beamed at them both, taking her seat once again. "I've been looking for the Alberta Toothill card for ages now! Just two more cards and my collection is complete!"
Ebony looked at Pamela and rolled her eyes. Their friend had always collected the cards since their first year, Tonks' father encouraging her behind her mother's back—Andromeda Tonks may have been a kind witch to the girls, but all three of them knew that her disapproval of sweets made Tonks all the more willing to sneak in confectionary whenever she could. Lately, however, her collection had become an obsession.
"I thought you already had Toothill?" Pamela asked, picking up her sandwich.
Tonks shrugged, still smiling at the card. "I do."
Pamela raised the sandwich to her thin lips but stopped halfway. Shooting a glance at Ebony, she asked, "Ok… so, why do you want this one?"
Still smiling at the card, the yellow-haired witch sighed. "Oh, no reason. I just… you know. Needed it."
Ebony tilted her head. Her friend's cheeks were a little more rosy than usual, and she was now stroking the card as though it were a pet cat. If she didn't know any better, she would have said that Tonks' pumpkin juice was spiked with Amortentia or something.
Her brown eyes widened at that thought, and she stared at Tonks' goblet. She couldn't remember if Tonks had poured her own juice for lunch, or what she had drunk for breakfast, either. What if someone really had spiked her friend's juice?
She looked at Tonks to find out more, but the girl was now standing up.
"Where are you going? Lunch isn't over for another ten minutes," Ebony said, starting to stand up.
Tonks shrugged her shoulders, still grinning from ear to ear. "I should really catch up on what I missed today, maybe get to class early and get in some extra study."
Pamela spat out her coffee, blinking her baby blue eyes rapidly. "Wha—" she began, but seeing a few faces staring at her, she blushed and lowered her voice. "What do you mean?"
"Extra study. Anyway, I better go," Tonks said, picking up her tattered backpack. She managed to stir up a few more chocolate frogs with the movement, but her eyes were focused towards the Great Hall doors. "See you at Divination!"
Pamela was still blinking. "Well, that was strange."
Ebony, however, had grabbed Tonks' abandoned goblet. Sniffing it cautiously, she tried to see if there was anything amiss with the juice. She couldn't detect anything more than the pungent aroma of pumpkin and spices and placed the cup down with a sigh. Maybe it wasn't poisoned? But if it wasn't, then why was Tonks acting so strange?
"Oh, I see," Pamela said, giggling into her hand.
She turned to Pamela with a raised eyebrow, but the girl was staring towards the Great Hall doors. Following her gaze, she saw Tonks still inside the room.
The girl's hair was now a bubble-gum pink, and she was giggling much the same way Pamela was as she spoke to the Gryffindor boy in front of her.
"No way." Ebony watched as Tonks held out the card she was holding, placing it into the Gryffindor's hand.
The red-headed boy smiled, his blue eyes growing wide as he looked at the card. His features seemed to light up and, leaning down, he gave Tonks a quick peck on the cheek. Tonks' hair turned even brighter and she quickly ducked past the boy into the Entrance Hall.
Ebony rolled her eyes, the mystery now solved. Of course Tonks had gone to all that effort for a boy, and not just any boy. Well, at least her friend could now focus on her studies rather than littering the table with card wrappers.
Pamela continued to giggle into her hands. "Only two more cards to go, then," she said, picking her sandwich back up. "Let's hope her father is able to send more frogs tomorrow."
Ebony pushed her plate away from her and pressed her nose to the table. Letting out a groan, she could only hope that for once, Mrs Tonks would catch on to Tonks' chocolate habit.
A/N: This story was written for Cheeky Slytherin Lass' 'The Great School Bake Off' competition hosted on The Golden Snitch forum (go join now!). Prompt: Banoffe: 1. Banana cake (Pairing: CharlieTonks) 2. Dipped in chocolate ganache (Object: Chocolate Frog card) 3. Topped with toffee frosting (Action: drinking coffee) 4. Toffee drizzle (Weather: sunny).
This story was originally going to turn into a race between Charlie and Tonks to see who could collect the most cards, with the ending being something about Charlie giving Tonks a rare card. However, when I started writing, it seemed to come more from Ebony's POV rather than Tonks herself, and I found myself just going with the flow. I hope you like it, and maybe, just maybe, I may continue this as an MC Charlie/Tonks story if I ever get the time (and if it's good enough—I've only just picked up writing again today after months of not doing so).