When in Paris

In all the years that Aimee knew her, Tonks had never sent her a letter longer than a few sentences and it seemed that that tradition would be unbroken for now, thought Aimee as she unfolded a very small piece of parchment.

Dear Aimee,

We eloped. I AM A MARRIED WOMAN. I repeat I. AM. MARRIED. I am happy beyond words.

XXX

Tonks, no suppose it's Lupin now! (Still call me Tonks though)

Aimee grinned broadly as she read the good news. She passed the letter along to Fred who was sitting opposite her at the small wobbly table. They were in muggle Paris and had just ordered croissants and coffee at a little cafe.

'She probably knocked herself up', concluded Fred after he read the letter.

'Aren't you the romantic…', scolded Aimee her boyfriend, but nothing could spoil her good mood. Or so she thought.

'Back to England tonight', sighed Fred. 'What'd you reckon happen if we just don't go?'

Aimee sat up straighter as her good mood vanished. She was suddenly aware again of the nervous pit in her stomach, a feeling that had settled there after the Headmaster at Hogwarts was murdered and her school had closed early for the summer.

Where she should have spent her summer waiting with dread for her OWL results like a normal sixteen-year-old witch, she had spent her summer waiting with dread for bad news, like random muggle murdering and sudden deaths of Ministry members.

'I suppose if we don't go, we will experience the wrath of your mother.', joked Aimee, trying to maintain a light mood, although Mrs. Weasley's mood was hardly a laughing matter these days. Molly Weasley had been so tense and stressed that Aimee had not seen her best friend Ginny once since the holidays, because she feared letting her children out of her sight. (Though Fred was also one of Mrs. Weasley's children he was of age and had the tendency to ignore orders.). 'And I expect my parents would miss us on the ferry.'

She was in France with her mum and dad, like most of her summers, to visit her father's younger brother and his family and her grandparents. Fred had managed to overlap his business trip to Place Cachée, the French equivalent to Diagon Alley, with Aimee's stay in France.

Aimee had been able to introduce Fred to her family, who lived just an hour south of Paris, although they could not tell that they had met at a wizarding school for Aimee's family was full of muggles and that would have been a breech with the Secrecy Laws set by her Ministry. It still had been an important moment to introduce Fred as her copain to her grandparents and somehow it had given some more gravity to their relationship. This feeling had only been reimbursed when her parents had allowed them to spend the last days of their holiday in Paris with just the two of them. (The only small setback had been a howler from Mrs. Weasley reminding Fred to be a gentleman.)

The last two days had been spent in blissful ignorance as they had strolled both muggle and wizard Paris. Aimee had bought a beautiful dress for the wedding and Fred had managed to sell some of his merchandise to sur le blague, a wizard joke shop at the Place Cachée. Just for a short while they could put their minds off the looming war back home.

In all the six years since she found out she was witch, Aimee had never dreaded going back to school after the summer, but now she could not help but feel some slight apprehension at the thought of going back to the wizarding world. Most of all because it felt like there were more important things for her to do. When she had boarded the Hogwarts Express all those years ago, she had been excited to learn magic and meet unicorns and though both of those things had happened, it had not been quite as she expected.

She knew it was mostly bad timing, but the fact that she had a muggle-heritage (meaning both her parents were non-magical people) had put her at the receiving end of quite a lot of prejudice. This of course, had all to do with the rise of You-Know-Who. Twice now, had someone died at her school, not to mention that she had almost been murdered by a scary basilisk under the influence of a shadow of You-Know-Who in only her first year. What scared her most, was that lots of magical people did not seem too worried about it all, muggles were found dead left and right and it felt as if hardly anybody cared.

It meant that at sixteen, she worried about the safety of her muggle parents and she wished nothing more than to help in the fight. If You-Know-Who would rise to full power, she knew she would be the first to go. She felt that she should defend herself. Yet, she had two more years of education lying in her future and even though she would be of age in less than two months, it did not seem that the Order would allow her to join their ranks before she had graduated Hogwarts. Not for her lack of trying though, because Aimee had closed all her letters to Tonks with a plead for letting her do something useful.

'We still have time to visit musique magique.', said Fred, in an obvious attempt to cheer her up.

It worked a little, both because Fred's attempt at pronouncing French words would always make her smile and because she loved the store. In the three days that they had been in Paris, Aimee had managed to visit the shop no less than four times and she would not mind going once more. The music store was one of the most beautiful shops on Place Cachée, four stories high and filled to the brim with instruments, sheet music, books on magical music and singing birds.

She had almost spent all her galleons on one amazing microphone, that would enhance her voice (not that she really needed that for she could sing quite on key without help) but it would be fun to be able to sing a whole octave lower or higher and the possibilities that provided were intriguing. In the end, she could not justify spending such a large amount of money, because as she sadly reminded herself, the band had broken up.

Aimee knew it should be the least of her worries in the midst of an impending disaster, but she truly missed her band Break the Houses Down.

Aimee had joined the band in her second year at Hogwarts. Everything about the band was amazing. She loved making music and she loved singing. It had been an outlet. She, Barry, Oliver and Beau had become the best of friends. Which was unusual since they were all from different houses. Even more unusual perhaps was the fact that they all had different bloodlines. Barrick Mirck was a half blood, and Oliver and Beaumont Selwyn were purebloods. Still they had gotten along fine, to all their surprises. Yet now, with Voldemort on the rise the Selwyn brothers did not want to be seen with Aimee. Their uncle was a Death Eater and even though the brothers were not on good terms with him, they were afraid that their uncle would hurt Aimee because he thought the fact that purebloods and muggleborns were friends was a disgrace. They meant well by breaking contact, it was for her safety really, but she missed the boys.

She also really liked being in the band because it meant she was the best at something. She knew she was not the most brilliant of witches. Her magic was just average at best and in some areas it barely seemed to exist. Despite this, she was "somebody", because of her talent. She had really enjoyed that.

Still it seemed stupid to mourn not being the best at something, when there were so many deaths to mourn. She felt a bit petty.

'Come on then', said Fred, slamming some muggle coins on the table. 'I'll buy you that book that you've picked up three times and somehow did not buy. Almost, as if you wanted me to buy it for you.'

Aimee sent him a sly smile, for that had indeed not been a coincidence.

A/N: Let me know what you think!