"Don't worry about that." Tonks insisted, setting down the plate she was washing in the sink to scold her husband as he was going to scrape the remains of his unfinished plate into the garbage. Remus stopped in his tracks and let out a sigh. She quickly picked up that something else was bothering him. "Remus? What's wrong?"
He wordlessly shut the lid on the can, turning his head towards her. "I need to go talk to Lena."
"Why?" Tonks cocked her head, tilting her head. She shut off the water.
Remus rubbed his hand over the bandage on his forehead. "There's a bunch of food in there, wrapped up in napkins. She spat out her dinner."
"Erm," Tonks awkwardly walked over towards the trashcan. "What?"
He reached down into the trashcan and picked up a wadded up a napkin that appeared to have chewed up food in it. His eyes flickered with anger and he tossed it back down. "Dora, I'm going to talk to her."
"Well geez, I think she could've just said she hated my cooking." She mumbled.
"We can't let this keep happening. I'm done. I am so tired of putting up with this. She can't be allowed to act like this."
"Woah, woah, hey, what?" The anger oriented at their daughter was off-putting. Tonks tried to draw him back in. "What the hell are you going on about?"
"She isn't eating. How can you not see this?"
"Remus..." Tonks took a deep breath, putting her hands on the sides of his arms. "You're... you sound a bit... I'm sorry, but a bit delusional, love."
"Excuse me?" He shot back in bewilderment. "Delusional?"
She shook her head. "You're picking through the trash to feed into a theory that there's some big conspiracy about Elena... not eating her dinner? You sound completely paranoid!"
Remus turned his head and huffed. "You're okay with her spitting out her dinner?"
"I'm not going to jump down the throat of my teenage daughter simply because she's not hungry?"
"It's more than that, Dora. Have you not noticed how much weight she's lost?" He put his hands on his hips. "How baggy her clothes are? Have you even seen her in her quidditch uniform on her? She's too thin!"
"What are you even going on about. Really, if there was something wrong, the healers would've said something to us by now. She'd be... we would notice more symptoms!" She grumbled. "Did you completely forget about the... damn, I can't remember the stupid name. The deafness! The damn bloody noses, and the bruises, and the fainting! This has always been normal, this has always been the way she is, Remus."
"This? This is not normal." He snapped. "How can you not see this?"
"I dunno, I don't see how you can make a mountain out of an anthill." Tonks said defensively. She could feel her worst fear creeping up behind her. The healers has made it very clear that with his own illness, his body would break down, piece by piece. Eventually, his mind was going to have to go. "You are completely paranoid. I can't even... I can't even begin to fathom what you're talking about. Why-how could you even say that?"
"I don't know." Remus's voice got quiet. "But I think this has been going on for longer than we give her credit for. We need to talk to her."
"I'll do it." Tonks said. "I'll... I'll sit her down, I can... figure out how to talk to her about it. What can we even say to her about this? I don't want to frighten her, but I'm worried that if this gets out of hand..."
"She is killing herself, Dora."
"She's not killing herself. You are blowing this out of proportion." She sucked in a breath. "Come on, I'm sure if there was a problem, we could make sure she got medical attention and everything would be fine. Really, you don't think this is something all girls her age go through?"
xxxxx
The front door shut with quietly. Tonks turned her head away from the stove to see who had let themselves in. "Elena?" Her voice broke.
"Hey Mum," Elena tried to sound as casual as possible. She dropped her duffle bag on the floor.
"You're back." Tonks said bluntly. "I was just starting on dinner if you're... you know, if you're sticking around."
"It's almost September." Her daughter tried to slip in.
Tonks turned back to the vegetables she was boiling. "So you're going back to school?"
"Yeah... why?"
"I thought maybe you were dropping out." Tonks sighed. "I didn't know anything, when you were coming home or if you were going to go back and take classes."
"I think I should. Only two more years left, I guess, and I'm still prefect. Slughorn would be mad at me."
"Are you still seriously thinking about pursuing potions?"
"I think so."
"Are you thinking about any jobs you might want?"
"I dunno, maybe like, an apothecary or something. Making medicine."
"I think that might be a great fit for you. Have you talked to any of your friends over the summer?" She tried to keep her voice from sounding upset.
"They don't really write to me." Elena said bitterly. "'Cept maybe Dominique and Vic."
"Maybe they're busy—Lena, could you help me get the strainer out of the cabinet?" Tonks was carrying a hot pan of water and vegetables, being extremely careful not the spill the boiling water on herself or drop the pan on her feet. It seemed to be perfect timing too. Tonks was now big enough she couldn't quite bend down to get into the lower cabinets the way she wanted to.
"Okay." Elena dug out the strainer and set it beside the sink, obviously ignoring her mother's outstretched hand. "How much longer until dinner?"
"Thanks." Tonks grumbled at the passive aggressive gesture. "Dunno, I'm following one of Nana's recipes for lasagna and I think it looks underdone, but I don't know. Might take another ten minutes or so. Could you go let your brother know?"
"'Kay." Elena turned on her heels. "TEDDY!"
Tonks squeezed the bridge of her nose. "Elena, I meant go get him."
"I don't know what he's doing up there." Elena shot back.
"Just go knock on his door please." Tonks said out of exhaustion.
Elena bounded up the stairs. She pushed open his door, but he was gone. He probably hadn't left the house. She looked out the window and saw a person sitting on the porch. Teddy was slowly coming down off of his tears. His hair was jet black and long enough that it made him look raggedy. His auror academy acceptance letter was clutched in his fist, crumpled and tear stained. It was too muggy outside for him to be wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, sitting on the hot concrete of the back porch with his knees pulled up to his chest.
"Hey, meathead." Elena announced loudly, letting the door bounce off the hinges as she walked out to see what he was up to. "Came to get my stuff for school. Mum said dinner's almost ready.
Her brother squeezed his eyes shut and groaned. "Why are you here?"
"Dude, why are you crying? Your hair looks weird. You look like you haven't washed it in a few days."
"I'm sorry, am I not allowed to cry at my own house?" He snapped back. Teddy sniffled hard, his breath evening out.
"What's wrong?" Elena pressed, sitting down beside him. "What's up?"
"Just shut up, will you? I don't want to talk to you right now." Teddy wadded up the paper onto a ball and threw it hard against the ground before retreating back to his curled up position. His sister leaned over to retrieve it and flatten it out.
"Your acceptance letter." Elena remarked. "Why did you ever turn them down in the first place anyways?"
"I thought it was a good idea. I thought it was better if I stayed here to help Mum." He growled. "And now I don't know what I'm even supposed to do! I've gone to four job interviews this week, I don't know if I even want to take them, but I know I have to because I need money, but I don't even know what I want to do and I don't want to spend the rest of my life working a minimum wage job! I'm trying to be grown up, but I don't have any fucking clue what I'm doing!"
Elena sighed. "You could... you could always ask they take you back in."
"I already talked to them. They aren't accepting again until next fall." Teddy remarked. "Besides, I don't want to be an auror."
"What are you even talking about, you've wanted to be an auror for years. I remember how badly you wanted to get into the academy, what changed? Were you waiting for another war or something? No offense, but you don't seem like a big hero type."
"I never wanted to be an auror, I just... I wanted to sound smart when people ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up."
"And now you're grown up and you're stuck." She sighed. "What about Victoire at the bank? I think we're lucky enough that you can name drop some pretty important people until someone has to hire you. Grandpa Weasley, Uncle Harry, Bill and Fleur, Ginny..."
"How is that supposed to help me? I'm not really good at anything, I don't have any meaningful skills, I feel like I've not done anything meaningful with my life."
"Yeah, I feel like that sometimes." Elena said.
"But you play quidditch. You're one of the best on your team. You're a prefect." Teddy pointed out.
"I didn't ask for any of this. I don't know." She leaned her head on his shoulder. "You're smart, you've got to be a little smart-you were captain of the chess team-you've got friends and a pretty girlfriend. You've got so much going for you, but you're kind of self-sabotaging. Like... really? You don't have to try and play dad. You're putting so much pressure on yourself to succeed that you can't even focus long enough to work."
Teddy looked incredibly distressed. "Thanks, Lena." He snarled. "Then what does that make you?"
"Hey, I never said anything about me being some kind of saint." Elena said quietly. "I don't have it any more figured out than you."
"Is that why you don't eat?"
Her eyes shifted down to the grass. "I eat."
"No you don't." Teddy didn't want to argue. "Mum doesn't say anything about it because she doesn't know how to talk to you about stuff. She knows you hate her and she doesn't want to try fighting you anymore."
"I don't hate her."
"Maybe you should make sure she knows that. And I think Dad wanted you hospitalized, but Mum was too frantic about him. She cares, I know she cares about you. She's just confused about what to do to help you."
"Why would Dad do that? Why would he want that?" Elena said shakily.
"Because what if you fall off your broom? What if one day you get so sick you fall down a whole flight of stairs? Because maybe you're doing something you aren't supposed to do? It's going to make your heart stop, one way or the other, but I guess if that's what you're going for, I'm not going to sit here and let you do it." Teddy said. "Why? Why do you do it? Is it because of Dad? Or Mum, or me, or Dominique?"
"I just... I dunno, I feel like I'm not good enough for anyone."
"I don't know how to tell you that you are, without you hating me, saying I'm lying, or it being weird." Teddy remarked. "But I have to ask as your brother... it's not because of what was going on between and and Dominique, was it? Because you're... you know, the two of you..." He left his sentence open ended.
"No!" His sister was miffed. "That's stupid. Get over it."
He bit his lip nervously. "Why weren't you going to tell me that you slept with Myles?"
Elena just shrugged. "I didn't. The whole rumour started 'cause one of the boys saw him helping me back into my dress back in his room. We just... we didn't do anything. We didn't do anything other than kiss."
"Why did you do that?"
"I was mad at you for dating Victoire. I lost my best friend because of you." She tilted her head. "I wanted to make you mad at me."
"You made me more confused than anything. Don't worry though, Myles didn't gossip about you or anything. He was nice about the whole thing. I don't think he was any more interested in you than you were in him." Teddy said. "Can I ask you one more thing?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you smell something burning?"
Elena lifted her head. Something nearby did in fact smell like it was burning. She groaned and got to her feet. "Come on, let's go clean up the mess."
Their mother was standing trying to pry open a stuck window, a cloud of white smoke hovering in the kitchen. Teddy coughed. "Hey, um... Mum?"
"I know, I know-" Tonks walked time the other side of the kitchen as the smoke detector started going off. Elena was already climbing onto the cabinet to take the smoke detector off the wall. Tonks rubber her hand over her face. "Sorry."
"Does... anyone want to order pizza?" Elena suggested timidly.
"Me." Teddy replied.
Tonks stared at the lasagna, dejected. "You get the phone, I'll go get my wallet from my bag." As she disappeared into the other room, Teddy cut his eyes at his sister.
"You're going to eat it, right?"
"Of course I am." Elena feigned confidence, hopping down off the counter.
