"I'm convinced you're cheating," Tonks huffed in annoyance, throwing down her cards and shoving a handful of Knuts towards Remus. Remus and Sirius had come over to Tonks' flat for drinks that night, and Sirius had slipped out after their first round of cards, murmuring some excuse about how he didn't like gambling. Remus was not naive to his intentions, he knew his friend was trying to push him and this younger woman together, Remus could have blushed at the thought, but still, he continued to play.
"You can be convinced of whatever you want," Remus chuckled as he began to shuffle and redeal the cards, "it isn't going to change the fact that you're losing."
"I never lose." Tonks muttered, picking up her hand.
"You aren't doing a very good job of proving it." Remus laughed.
"Well, I usually don't play with cheaters."
"Hey now, Hufflepuff isn't the only house that values honesty." Remus chided jokingly.
"But you know what house does value winning and competitiveness? It isn't mine." Tonks replied quickly, defensive of her house.
"I'd believe you if your words didn't have so much fight in them." Remus was feeling quick on his feet, he hadn't felt that way in a long time, he liked being able to banter with someone again. It had been so long since he felt someone matched his humor. Tonks said nothing, only looked at him over her cards. She was very pretty, Remus' heart squeezed in guilt at the thought, but he knew it was true.
"Then I'll raise my white flag in surrender." Tonks laid her cards down. "It was a shitty hand anyway." She pushed up from the table and retreated to the kitchen. "You want another drink?"
Remus was collecting the cards on the table and stacking them nicely when he looked up to meet Tonks' gaze, there was something in her eyes that caused him to freeze. It was mischief, a certain brand of mischief he hadn't been in for some time. His heart nearly stopped. He didn't think highly enough of himself to think he deserved this attention, but he recognized that look in Tonks, the same one his love held for him so many years before.
"I shouldn't," Remus croaked out, averting his gaze, "I need to get back. I've intruded on your kindness for too long." He began gathering his coat.
"You haven't intruded," Tonks shook her head, "I'm happy to have you." She paused a moment while she watched him get ready to depart, almost desperate for more time with him. "I really like having you here, Remus."
"I appreciate that, Tonks. I like being here. But you don't need to entertain this old man any longer." Remus chuckled good naturedly.
"You're not an old man." Tonks wrinkled her nose. "I think you've got a lot of party left in you."
"Yes, well, when the party arrives, let me know." Remus joked, gesturing to the empty room around them.
"I'm serious." Tonks stated. "I really want you to stay." In a bold move, Tonks reached forward and grabbed Remus' hand. Guilt skyrocketed through Remus' body at their contact, understanding Tonks' intentions with more clarity now, he couldn't let it continue.
"I need to go." Remus let out quietly, and slipped his hand from hers. He missed feeling wanted, feeling loved. But last time he let himself get lost in that emotion, he had destroyed his favorite person in the world. He wouldn't let anyone get that close again.
"Remus, I-" Tonks started as the older man moved towards the Floo. She stopped her admission of feelings in its tracks and simply scooped up the Knuts that were left on the table. "Don't forget your winnings."
"Keep them," Remus insisted, then with a pang of guilt knowing his next words would hurt her but would result in her allowing him to leave, continued: "you're young, you can't turn down a few Knuts."
Tonks' mouth dropped open. She hated being reminded of how young she was, or how old he was. She didn't think it was a big deal, but he did and all he saw her as was a child, and in her eyes, he hung the stars in the sky. "I'm not that young," her eyes began turning black slowly as she lost her temper and so her ability to refrain from changing her appearance, "and I'm actually employed so I don't need the money."
Remus gave her a single nod. Though her words did sting a little, it had done the job, he was permitted to leave without any need for there to be an awkward talk about emotions.
He had expected Sirius to be asleep when he returned to Cordarri Castle, but found his friend waiting patiently by the Floo.
"You're back late." Sirius noted.
"Why did you leave?" Remus accused softly.
"I thought you two might want to be alone." Sirius wiggled his eyebrows at his friend.
"She wanted to be, but I can't." Remus shot back. "I needed you there."
"You do just fine on your own." Sirius assured. Remus rolled his eyes in frustration.
"I'm not doing this, Sirius."
"What do you mean?" Sirius demanded. "She's cute, and funny, and she knows about the whole werewolf thing. And not to mention, we're related so if you two get married, you'd be on my family tree."
"And that's a plus side?" Remus asked sarcastically. "She's wonderful but I can't be that person for her. She doesn't realize it now, but she isn't going to want someone who is so old, and so poor, and so dangerous. She has so much life in her."
"You know who she reminds me of?" Sirius started, ignoring all of his friends' concerns.
"Don't say it," Remus warned, knowing exactly what was going to pass through Sirius' lips, "I know who you're going to say, and I'm asking you not to."
"As long as you recognize it." Sirius shrugged. "I think it's just interesting the kind of women you attract."
"Shove it." Remus muttered, feeling like he was young again, rather than an aging father of a teenage girl. "I can't be with Tonks. I promised Nora I'd come back for her after the war was over."
"You see, I would accept that answer, but it's total bullshit." Sirius shook his head.
"What do you mean total bullshit? You don't know what I promised her before I took her memories away." Remus defended.
"You didn't restore them when Voldemort fell last time and you thought the war was over." Sirius pointed out.
"I'd just lost all four of my best friends in the course of 24 hours." Remus stated.
"Yeah, then you've had thirteen years before this all started up again, so I think your excuse is bullshit. I think you don't believe you deserve love so you deny yourself any little glimmer of it." Sirius stood up as he said this and began to leave the room, but turned around and delivered a final message. "Do what you want, Moony, I'm not in control of you. You can be with Tonks and leave Nora be, or you can tell Tonks what you promised Nora and wait until this bloody war is over and restore her memories. What you can't do - no - what I won't let you do is be alone forever because you think you need to punish yourself for what Greyback did to you when you were a child."
"I don't mean to keep bringing this up, because I really am happy for him but I just think it is funny how he was so critical of Harry going to Madam Puddifoot's with Cho last year and made so much fun, but when Lavender wants to do it, he thinks it's a great idea because he likes their cakes." Hermione had been huffing about Ron's date with Lavender Brown all morning. Always qualifying her annoyance with the assurance that she 'really was happy for him' and then would continue on with her complaints. Eleanor listened knowingly and didn't give much input, knowing her friend didn't even realize her own emotions yet. "And honestly, Lavender is just so daft, how could he have an actual conversation with her?"
"Ron is pretty daft, too." Eleanor put in with a soft smile as the two girls walked the streets of Hogsmeade together. Ginny and Harry had split off to get a Butterbeer, and the group had agreed to meet up after Ron's date.
"Not daft like her." Hermione shook her head quickly. "He's daft, but not empty headed."
"I didn't realize we disliked Lavender so much." Eleanor noted.
"I've always found her irritating. Her and Parvarti drive me mad with their Divination worship and endless gossip. You don't have to dislike them just because I do."
"Oh, I most definitely do." Eleanor laughed. "What kind of friend would I be if I didn't?"
"Well that logic didn't work with Draco." Hermione rolled her eyes.
"That was different, I loved him." Eleanor shrugged.
"Speaking of, where is he today?"
"He's meeting with Snape about this Ministry Internship he wants to apply for. Then I think he was going to study with Blaise." Eleanor replied. "Oh, he wanted us to check the Post Office and see if his mum sent anything."
"Ministry Internship?" Hermione questioned while turning down an alley to get to the Post Office. "Are his grades good enough for that?"
Eleanor rolled her eyes at her friend. "I don't tell him your grades and I don't tell you his. You'll find out when the class standings come out at the end of the term."
"What is the point of you dating him if you can't at least give me something to work with?" Hermione ground her teeth. "Should I be doing more? Professor Slughorn has this ridiculous club that I was invited to but didn't want to be a part of, but maybe it will boost my standing." She began wondering.
"Slug Club?" Eleanor clarified.
"Yeah, how do you know about that?" Hermione asked, knowing her friend wasn't in a potions class and had no way of knowing about Slug Club otherwise.
"No reason," Eleanor brushed off quickly, having gotten her intel from Draco, "but you should definitely do it."
"Damn it, Draco." Hermione said exasperatedly while pulling the door to the Post Office open.
"Hey, we're breaking ground on the garden in a few weeks, help me out with that, it might boost your standing a bit!"
"Won't Draco also be helping with that?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, but he isn't the lead of his own club working on a collaboration." Eleanor reminded. "I think S.P.E.W and the Environmental Herbology club can have a cross over, don't you?" Hermione cracked a smile at her friend and nodded.
The Post Office clerk handed Hermione her mail, and she thumbed through some Muggle magazines, and a few letters from her grandparents wishing her a happy start of term, then came across a letter with an unfamiliar name.
"'Aunt Cis'?" Hermione read out.
"Narcissa," Eleanor smiled excitedly.
The group had met at Three Broomsticks, and nearly immediately Hermione had picked an argument with Ron, and Ginny had excitedly seen Dean and went to sit with him, which put Harry on edge. The letter from Narcissa felt like it was burning a hole in Eleanor's pocket, so she dismissed herself early from the pub to walk back to the castle. Harry jumped at the offer to walk with her and tried, unsuccessfully, to not look at Ginny on the way out.
"What's going on there?" Eleanor asked with a raised brow.
"Nothing, she's with Dean." Harry bit out.
"But you don't want her to be?"
"She can do whatever she likes." Harry shrugged and spoke through gritted teeth. Eleanor nudged his shoulder a bit roughly to try to shake him out of his tension.
"Yeah, she can," Eleanor replied, "and you don't have to be happy about it."
"Well, Ron doesn't like it." Harry tried to supply.
"Ron is a bit preoccupied at the moment."
"Yeah, with his 'Lav-Lav'." Harry began chuckling.
"No, he didn't call her that, did he?"
"I'm afraid he did." Harry confirmed.
"That boy better not say that in front of Hermione, she won't let him forget it."
"What?" Harry asked, apparently not catching on to Hermione's emotions.
"She was giving Ron grief all morning about how wrapped up he is in Lavender." Eleanor supplied, not going into full detail, Harry would figure it out soon enough.
Upon Eleanor's arrival back at the castle, it took a while to find Draco. She searched through the library for a bit before finally finding him, Blaise, and Crabbe sitting at a table with parchment and ink sprawled out around them. Though Eleanor had figured he would be with his friends, she was disappointed that she wouldn't be able to show off the letter right away. She was surprised by how excited she was to see what Narcissa had to say, and to share in the experience with Draco.
"Hello boys," Eleanor greeted happily, "what are we working on?" Crabbe and Blaise both gave her a tight-lipped, unenthusiastic smile, but Draco gave her a full grin.
"Potions." He responded.
"Oh, yuck." Eleanor wrinkled her nose as she peered over Draco's shoulder to look at the essay, and didn't understand a word. "I'm glad I dropped that."
"'Dropped' is a funny way of saying 'didn't get an OWL for it'." Draco laughed, Eleanor rolled her eyes at him.
"How've you two been?" She turned to Blaise and Crabbe now, hoping her cheer might send them away so she could talk to Draco alone.
"Fine." Crabbed responded, but Blaise said nothing.
"I was wondering if I might borrow Draco for a few minutes?" She addressed Blaise directly then.
"Dying for a snog that bad, Cordarri?" He asked without looking up from his reading.
"If you've ever snogged him, you'd understand the need." Eleanor shot back good naturedly, Blaise cracked a hint of a smile.
"Already have, wasn't impressed." Blaise retorted, causing Eleanor to chuckle. He seemed distant yes, but rather normal despite his circumstances.
"Well, I'll give him a few pointers and you let me know how he fares." Eleanor packed up Draco's books and pulled him away from his essay.
"El, can I just get this thought down?" He asked with a laugh, but Eleanor continued to drag him and his things through the maze of the library. They found a pair of armchairs unoccupied in a far corner of the library, and Eleanor pulled out the letter from his mother. Draco took it excitedly, surprising even himself with how giddy he was to hear from his mother. He opened it eagerly and there were a few pictures that fell out with it. He handed the pictures to Eleanor and she began to look through them. They were all unmoving, Muggle pictures. And many included her and another woman with kind eyes and a big smile. There were pictures of the two of them on the beach, or on bikes. Even one of Narcissa lounging in the living room of the beach house with a beer bottle in hand. Eleanor looked over Draco's shoulder to see what Narcissa had said.
Dear Draco (and presumably, Eleanor will read this too…),
I can't express to you how excited I was to receive that letter. I recognized your handwriting straight away and was so elated to hear from you. I'm so glad classes are going well so far, and that you both are safe under the protection of Eleanor's family. What is it about the family of Eleanor that is always so willing to protect and love us Malfoys? Any ideas about life after Hogwarts? Any news on the Ministry Internship?
I've been having so much fun here. The sun is always shining and it's always warm. The house is little, but fits me fine and is right on the beach. I've gotten rather good at cooking for myself, and swimming in the ocean, and even learned to ride a bike! My neighbor, Gladys, is just delightful. She's included in many of the pictures I sent your way. She's a recent divorcee who moved to the beach to get away from her ex-husband, who was such a piece of work! Her and I are having so much fun and doing a lot of activities together. We're going to start taking a yoga class next week - whatever that is!
I miss you both so much, and hope that when it is safe you two might consider coming out and living with me for a while so I can share some of my new experiences. I've never felt so free.
Write soon.
Love you darlings dearly,
Mum
"Your mum is a babe," Eleanor noted, pulling out a picture of Narcissa and presumably Gladys, lounging on the sand in shorts and tank tops, "she looks really happy."
"Yeah, she does." Draco agreed, smiling at the letter and the pictures. "Maybe that's what we should do. Run away, live on the beach until the world rights itself again." Draco let out a sigh.
"Maybe," Eleanor said softly, "but I think we have a bigger part to play here."
"Yeah," Draco nodded, "I think you might be right."
Bit of a filler chapter here, but I wanted the chance to show you what some other characters were getting themselves into during this time! I'm getting so excited for what is coming so stay tuned! And as always, let me know what you think! I love hearing your feelings, thoughts, ideas, everything! Your words always motivate me so much and are so very appreciated!
