Chapter 6- Revelations

Tonks woke up the morning after bowling with a large smile plastered to her face.

"You're late," Ginny said with a sly grin from near the door.

Tonks couldn't help but continue to smile as she sat up. "Sorry, I should be up," she said, rubbing her eyes. "I'm just—"

"Tired?" Ginny put in.

"Worried," Tonks corrected.

"Worried?" Ginny asked, brows furrowed with the question. "About what?"

"That last night was a dream," Tonks said. " I didn't want to wake up if it was."

Tonks would have never expected what last night could have done. She had only agreed to the date to prove Ginny and Hermione wrong. Part of her had thought that Charlie would back out after she had agreed, then when he didn't, she decided to take Charlie out of his comfort zone, see how ticked he'd get at her, but it all backfired, and Tonks was thinking it was for the better.

"This is so cute!" Ginny gushed as she sat at the foot of Tonks's bed. "I told you that you'd get along."

"You got lucky," Tonks retorted with a fake scowl. "Where's Hermione? Shouldn't she be dwelling in this 'I-told-you-so' moment with us?"

"Ron and her were up kind of late," Ginny said with another knowing look.

"You didn't spy on them too did you?" Tonks asked.

Ginny put on her best look of innocence. "Spy? Me?"

"I saw the two of you through the window," Tonks informed Ginny. "It's quite probable that you would do worse on stealth than I did," she added, throwing the covers off and standing to stretch.

"So tell me everything," Ginny said, excited.

"There's not much to tell."

Tonks saw Ginny roll her eyes. "What did it then? His charm? His dashing good looks?" Ginny said, giving each question an overdramatic flare.

"It just took him," Tonks answered with a smile. "He's always seemed so… fake, but last night he just—" Tonks trailed off with a shrug, unable to describe the change in her.

"He became a real boy?" Ginny asked with a laugh.

"Yes," Tonks said, sharing in the joke. "And the splinters are no longer a problem."

"What?" Ginny asked, a confused expression on her face.

"Never mind," Tonks said, turning back to the closet to find something to wear. For some reason, she found herself caring about what she adorned her body with more so than usual. Shaking her head, Tonks decided on a 'Once a Squib, always a Squib' shirt. Speaking about Charlie being himself, reminded her what was most important, especially since she knew she didn't want to be with anyone that didn't like her for her. Going to the mirror, she looked at herself. "How should I go today? Short?"

"Go with medium-length, black hair," Ginny said.

"Why?" Tonks asked. She had never done that before, and wondered where Ginny got this plan.

"Charlie likes black hair," Ginny responded with a raised eyebrow.

Tonks scrunched her face until her hair spiked up a royal blue. "Ready for breakfast?" she asked.

"Always marching to the beat of your own drum," Ginny said.

Tonks smiled at the comment, glad it was still true.

Following Ginny down the stairs, Tonks tried to wake up her senses, knowing she shouldn't allow herself to be distracted like this. It was bad for Ginny, and herself, for that matter. Still, she couldn't help a leap of her heart when she opened the kitchen door and saw Charlie sitting there eating breakfast. "Is there any left Molly?" Tonks asked, sitting as she locked gaze with Charlie.

"Of course," Molly said, not getting the joke, but Tonks took real heart in Charlie's joking glare at the comment.

"Oh, Mum," Charlie said, as though he just remembered something important. "I won't be going back to the colony for a bit longer."

Molly, with a large smile, dropped her spatula and turned around. "Why?" she asked, then the smile stopped with realization. "You didn't get fired, did you?"

"No, no," Charlie said. "There's a virus going around the clan in Romania. They can't risk any foreign bacteria to enter until they've cleared those concerns first."

"Oh, how nice," Molly said, with a broad smile back on her face. "About you staying, of course. I do hope it's nothing to serious."

"Didn't sound like it," Charlie said before taking another bite.

Tonks, who had been looking happily at Charlie during this announcement, broke away, though she couldn't rid her smile as she put a waffle on her plate. "How was Remus doing?"

"Good," Molly said. "He's got a new job."

"Really?" Charlie asked. "What's he doing now?"

"Something with the company that produces Nimbus brooms," Molly said. "A good friend of his gave him the job, so he should be able to avoid prejudice."

"Good," Tonks said. "About time, for him."

"Yes, I hope it works out this time," Molly said, slicing some fresh watermelon. "What are the plans for today?"

"I was going to see if Ginny wanted to go to Diagon Alley," Charlie said.

Molly gave a sigh. "I suppose that will be alright. What about you Tonks?"

"I was needing to go there as well, if everyone else is going," Tonks told her, trying to remain inconspicuous. "Maybe we'l lget tosee Fred and George."

"Oh, I have some food for you to take them if you do," Molly said as an after thought. Tonks had noticed her often sending things to the twins these days. She figured one of two things: the twins were starving with their inability to cook or Molly was starting to really miss having a home full of people to cook for. She started thinking what was going to happen when she took Ginny with her at the end of summer-- considering Ron and Harry were looking tofind a place of their ownas well.

It wasn't an hour before everyone was dressed and ready to go to Diagon Alley with Tonks and Charlie heading up the casual crusade. "We'll be back before dinner," Tonks assured Molly, her hands piled with food for Fred and George.

"Okay, then," Molly said. "Stay safe and don't you go getting drunk, Ron," Molly reminded her youngest son.

"It only happened once!" Ron said in his defense, but was waved off as they started entering the grate.

Once they had come out of the grate at Diagon Alley, Tonks started leading the way to the twins' joke shop. They didn't stay long, as the shop was filled to capacity. Tonks had to wait for Ginny to stop talking to Lee Jordan—Fred and George's most loyal employee—and told the others to go on without the two of them, making plans to meet up at the Leaky Cauldron at 3 that afternoon, should they not see one another before.

"I have to get something for Harry's birthday," Ginny said, cheerful. "Can we go shopping for Quidditch supplies?"

"Sure," Tonks said. "I don't have much else to do."

"You could always go find a place to snog Charlie," Ginny said with a raise of her eyebrows.

"Spare me," Tonks said. "I'm watching you, remember?"

"Sure, sure," Ginny said. "I wouldn't mind some time alone with Harry myself."

"I'm sure Ron would, though."

They ended their conversation as Tonks saw brooms to comment on. "Look at that!" she said, exclaiming about the latest broom display. "The Stargrazer," she said, staring with great delight.

"You haven't got a new one yet, have you?" Ginny asked.

"Next year," Tonks said, as she did every year. Her biggest reason for not getting a new broom was lack of time. Hers still worked fine, and she couldn't find justification to invest in such an object when there were other things she needed more.

"I'm going to look at the new goggles they got in," Ginny said. Tonks nodded, and started moving to look at another shelf of merchandise, her attention on Ginny the entire time.

As she leaned down to look as though she were checking a price, someone squeezed Tonks's sides and she jumped, knocking over a display of practice snitches—which immediately started fluttering around in their packaging—and pulled her wand, pointing it up to the offender.

Standing over her was Charlie, laughing heartily at his prank. "Not funny," she said.

"Sorry, Tonks," he said, reaching down and helping her up before setting the store straight. The store manager (who had given the pair a dirty look) walked off grumbling.

"Shouldn't you be paying attention for Death Eaters?" Charlie antagonized.

"I am," Tonks said. "But I'm more concerned withthem sneaking up on Ginny."

"Be a bit concerned for yourself too, please," Charlie said, wrapping his arms around Tonks's waist and pulled her in.

"I'm watching your sister," Tonks repeated with a sing-song tone, stopping Charlie's kiss by putting a finger on his advancing lips.

"I was thinking we might go down to the pond this evening."

"Oh really?"

"Late," he said with a grin.

"We'll see about that," she teased. "Is Harry in here?" she asked.

"Yeah, he was looking for Ginny."

"Get him out," Tonks whispered. "Ginny was trying to find something for his birthday."

"Oh," Charlie said with realization. "Oh… I'll do that," he cooperated, giving Tonks a quick kiss on the cheek before going to find Harry.

Tonks sighed and walked back to where Ginny was looking at a pair of goggles.

After purchasinggogglesshe thought Harry might like, along with some broom care products, Ginny and Tonks left the story where Charlie was waiting with Harry and Ron outside.

"Where's Hermione?" Ginny asked.

"She was getting Harry something and said I wasn't being helpful," Ron said, resentment in his voice.

"Should we go to lunch once she gets back then?" Tonks asked, looking between the people in the group.

"Sure… there's this new—" Charlie started, but was interrupted by a voice.

"Tonks!" a woman in scarlet robes called. "Tonks is that you?"

They all turned, interested in who this was. "Wothcher, Chris. How are you?" she asked with a surprised smile.

Tonks noticed Charlie's recognition as he put on a forced grin to be polite. Chris—who's name was Christina Bowler—came up and gave Tonks a hug, which Tonks reacted to a bit awkwardly. "I'm good," she said. "How are you? It's been ages!"

"Yeah, it has," Tonks said with a smile. "You remember Charlie," Tonks said with acknowledgement.

"Charred? No way," Christina said. "What a coincident to run into the two of you at the same time."

"Yeah, real coincident," Charlie said.

Tonks read into the annoyance dripping in his voice. "What are you doing here?" Tonks asked.

"Oh, just getting a few new clothes," she said. "I've been offered a job with the Ministry, and my clothes for last year wouldn't do."

Tonks wondered where this was coming from. The 'Chris' she knew didn't bother with fashion on a day to day basis. She had always claimed it too much a hassle. Then again, that had been years ago; almost too many to remember. "Are you still with—"

"Calvin? No," Christina said. "We broke up ages ago. What about you?"

Tonks looked over to Charlie, unsure whether to say something, though he picked up on it. "We've been dating, actually," Charlie said, taking Tonks's hand, to her relief.

"Again?" Christina asked.

"We were just off for a late lunch," Tonks said, trying to guide Charlie away as his expression became involved.

"Again?"

"Yes," Christina responded, as though it were so obvious, then adjusted how she held a few bags while recalling something. "I guess you wouldn't have known at the time, would you? What did you use to call yourself again?" she asked, turning to Tonks. "Nora was it?"

Tonks tried to squeeze Charlie's hand as he looked dumb-struck and pulled his hand from hers. "Nora?" he said.

Christina looked between the two. "Oh," she said. "I… I thought you would know, since you two were… I'm sorry," she said.

Charlie looked at Christina before giving Tonksanother demandinglook. "Well, I have to go catch the Knight bus. Owl me sometime, Tonks," Christina said, before turning with a feeble smile and walking off.

"Nora?" Charlie asked again.

"Look, I can explain," Tonks said.

"Charlie, calm down," Ginny added.

"Ginny, stay out of this," Charlie said, not taking his eyes off of Tonks. "Why don't you two go to The Leaky Cauldron? We'll meet you there."

"I can't let her just go," Tonks said. "Why don't we talk about this la—"

"No," Charlie said. "No…" he repeated as though no other word was in his mind. Without another word, Charlie turned around and walked through the crowd.

"Charlie!" Tonks said, trying to catch up with him, but he was lost among the large group and had to stay behind, not willing to sacrifice Ginny's safety for the sake of stopping Charlie.

"What was that about?" Ron asked, confused.

"Not now," Ginny whispered, though Tonks heard despite her efforts. "Come on, Tonks. Why don't we get some tea? I'm sure you can talk to him when he's calmed down.

With a deep breath, Tonks willed herself to believe what Ginny was saying and nodded to the suggestion of tea. Perhaps this would be easier to deal with back at home.


A/N: That took me a while. I knew he needed to find out about the Nora thing… but I wasn't sure how to pull it off… then it hit me! Old friend comes into play. :)YAY! Hope you all enjoyed… and if you did REVIEW!

Thanks:

Marylovesharry: YaY thanks for adding me to that! I'm flattered. Hope you enjoy

CountessMel: yeah… it's easier for me with Charlie… since it had been from his POV… but hopefully this chapter helped establish Tonks a bit more, which was what I was thinking after writing chapter 5 lol. Yay for mind readers like you!

Bobilicious: I never know when they're going to be up… but I do have 21 or so other stories that (should you have spare time) I would love to hear from on hehehe

Coffeepleaze: Thanks a ton. I'm glad you like it. I've just gotten into the CT shipping, but the thought of it just clicked.

FCK All that's missing is U: lol it's all good. I'm glad you like it.

Redheadedweasley's2nm: no prob bob… I'm glad you like it. It isn't one often done… is it?

Ella Palladino: lol I'm not very good at writing kissing… I think the stuff leading up to it is more fun… and kissing is just… not something I have a TON of experience with… perhaps I should research hehehe

Shading in Grey: Thanks a lot. I'm glad you like Charlie. I find this version is fun to write.

Spacemonkeylover: lol yay for amusement! I love the fun of the arguments. Arguments can be so much fun, when it's not you in one.

Pedagogie: Thanks

Hermione30: Here you go… the twist!