Nora arrived at the café at two-thirty in the afternoon, having chickened out of going earlier in the day. But, true to the woman's word, Nora found her sitting in the window of Copper's Café, waiting patiently.

Nora paced in front of a shop two doors down from the café for a while, watching the woman from a distance, debating whether or not she should go in. She was about to leave when she saw George walk out of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, looking up at a large sign which his brother was erecting outside the shop. It was only three storefronts up from the café and for some reason, rather than just Apparate away, she ran inside when she saw him.

The café interior wasn't what she'd been expecting. There were tables and chairs outside facing the street so she'd thought it was a fancy coffee shop, but inside she saw a large mahogany bar, white tableclothed tables, and even a few rogue chandeliers. As she walked up to the woman, she eyed the special of the day board which just read, Escargots.

"How do you know me?" Nora asked, finally sitting down across from the older woman.

"You're here," the woman said quietly, ignoring her question. "You're actually here."

"I... I am," Nora replied, looking around for another table. She could see that George was still outside, and she was also nervous that their current table was too close to the door. She saw space towards the back, and asked, pointing over at it, "Would you be okay if we moved to that one? I prefer to see the-"

"See the exit. Yes, of course, my daughter's the same," the woman replied, waving her wand. Her tea and cake followed them both over to the table Nora had pointed out, and when they'd sat down and Nora had ordered a coffee, the woman spoke again. "I'm glad you came."

Nora bit her lip nervously as her coffee arrived at the table, and then began to add a spoonful of sugar into her cup. She wasn't quite sure what to say - her interest over why she was following her, and who she was had taken over when she'd decided to come today, but now she was beginning to regret her decision.

The silence grew between them as Nora avoided the woman's gaze and continued to absentmindedly stir her drink, avoiding looking outside. When she did look up, she saw George changing even more displays in his shop window. She watched him for a moment, knowing that there was no chance he could see her, and her heart raced. She wanted to go out there and talk to him, wanted him to give her a long hug. But she knew she wasn't ready yet.

She gulped and began stirring her coffee again. "Who are you?" she asked the woman, trying to focus her attention. "And why have you been following me?"

The woman smiled and sighed. She took a sip of her drink and then said, "Andromeda Tonks. And the answer to your second question is a little complicated."

"No it's not," Nora replied, frowning. She didn't recognise the first name, but she had heard Tonks before... "You must know... people don't stalk other people for no reason..."

Andromeda sighed again and nodded, sitting back in her chair as she carefully placed her cup down on the saucer in front of her. Nora unconsciously sat up straighter, seeing Andromeda's impeccable posture even while relaxed.

"It's complicated because... I know that you don't want to talk about your past, but I have something I need to say," Andromeda replied.

Nora frowned. "So you are following me because of Eleanor then? I... I call the old me Eleanor," she said quietly when Andromeda raised an eyebrow.

Andromeda shook her head and then nodded. "It's... yes and no. To summarise a very long story, my daughter believes that she owes you a life debt, and I wanted to make sure that you were okay."

"That's ridiculous," Nora replied, her eyes wide. "And... and anyway, I'm not... I'm not Eleanor anymore, so... So even if she did owe a life debt, it's not to me."

Andromeda sighed deeply and nodded slowly, absentmindedly tapping the handle of her cup. "I agree to some extent. When you left the hospital earlier this year, I convinced her that a letter would suffice as a thank you... that you didn't need her watching you to make sure you were safe. I convinced her to stop checking in on you in person. So, when her maternity leave ended, she went back to work."

"But?" Nora asked, still confused.

Andromeda smiled sadly. "But one day a few months ago, I was in Diagon Alley and I saw a young woman staring out of a shop window, and it made me stop and stare. I'd only heard about you before, I hadn't seen pictures, but... but you were just like my daughter described."

Nora pursed her lips. "I am?" she asked quietly. "I mean, I was?"

Andromeda hummed. "You went through a lot. The papers splashed your name and heroics all over once your story came out, so the people who do know what you look like just... try to pass you by and give you the space you wanted. It's nicer for you that way I think."

Nora blinked. "So you saw me in a shop window?" she asked.

Andromeda hummed again and took a long sip of her tea. "When I saw you, I went over everything I know about you, or know about the old... the old you, and- and I realised that I was so very wrong. You're not strong enough to get past this on your own. You're not fine, you're lost."

Nora sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. "I'm not," she protested.

"You are," Andromeda replied. "Even now, I'm guessing that you don't know where Eleanor ends and you begin? And you look at yourself in the mirror and wonder who you are now? You do, don't you?" she asked.

Nora pursed her lips and frowned down at her coffee cup. It took her a minute, but finally she whispered angrily, "I'm not Eleanor. There is no life debt, and you don't owe me anything. You don't need to look out for me, and I don't need your advice."

"Maybe not. But I can see from your reaction that you've drawn a line in the sand. Everything before the Battle of Hogwarts is Eleanor. Everything after it is you?" Nora pursed her lips, but she knew that she didn't need to nod for Andromeda to know that she was right. There was a lingering silence broken finally by Andromeda once more. "I think that until you confront your past and come to terms with Eleanor and where your similarities and differences lie, you won't be free to move on. You'll constantly be a little lost, and you'll always wonder if people see Eleanor when they see you, or if they see you. I'm right, aren't I?"

"Why are you telling me this? Why didn't you just leave it?" Nora asked in a huff, carefully tearing into her empty sugar packet, ripping the brown paper to pieces.

"I did," Andromeda replied, raising her tea to her lips. She took a long sip and then continued, placing the cup back to the table, "I left it for a long time. I checked in on you of course, but I left it because you were happy for a while. I could see it, and so could my daughter. But then over the weekend, my daughter came to pick up my grandson, and her hair was mousy brown."

Nora raised an eyebrow. "Is it not usually brown?" she asked, confused.

Andromeda shook her head. "Not recently," she said without explaining anything. "In any case, I knew something was wrong, and when I saw you in the Atrium..." She clicked her tongue and tilted her head to the side. "I thought that you had stopped feeling lost and were fine, but you're not. And I owe it to my daughter to make sure that you have a good future. I convinced her to stop meddling, and it's up to me to finish her job now."

Nora scoffed and remained silent, thinking that Andromeda was completely ridiculous for this. She didn't know how Nora felt, she didn't know anything about her. But then she began to think about it more and she realised that she was angry because Andromeda was completely right - she hadn't confronted the past, and it was already impacting her chance of happiness now and in the future.

"Well what do you think I should do?" she asked after a while, trying to keep the pout out of her voice. Andromeda, the witch who had forced her way into Nora's life, was now the first and only person she'd been completely open with about her insecurities about Eleanor and her current self. It felt... like a small relief from the burden, but it also opened the floodgates to her multitude of questions, and she needed guidance.

"Confront Eleanor," Andromeda replied. "Find out what you can about your past, learn your similarities, and then put her to rest. Avoiding the memory of her, ignoring that you are her... It'll make things worse."

"You think that can work?" Nora whispered, wondering where on earth she'd begin.

"Maybe. Maybe not. But I hope it can, and that's all we have right now."

"You sound like you know from experience."

"I do," Andromeda replied, lifting her cup to her lips as she stared into space. "I lost my husband in the war. So I lost a part of myself. And you lost a part of yourself in the war as well. Maybe that's why I need to make sure that you thrive, not just survive. I tried just surviving, it was exhausting."

Nora frowned and picked up her own cup again, sipping her coffee as they fell into an uncomfortable silence. "I'm sorry," she said after a while. Andromeda didn't reply, and so she continued, "do you want to talk about him?"

Andromeda raised an eyebrow but smiled after a moment and shook her head. "No. No, not yet. You're still a stranger."

Nora nodded and bit her lip. "Then... then would you tell me what happened? With your daughter? Maybe... maybe that would be a good place for me to start?"

Andromeda smiled. "I can't tell you everything. But my daughter and her husband can. I can arrange a meeting if you'd like?"

"I don't... I feel so... I don't want to talk to people about it... not..." Nora took a deep breath and tried to formulate a proper sentence. "It's... it feels weird. Okay? I- there's something different about the idea of meeting someone who Eleanor saved or she helped save, it's like-"

"You have to," Andromeda said, cutting over Nora. "Whether you feel uncomfortable by it or not, you need to confront that part of your life head on. Have you spoken to your old friends?"

Nora shifted uncomfortably in her chair and shook her head. "Not much... we don't really have much in common and they just wanted to talk about Eleanor, so..."

"Okay..." Andromeda replied. "Okay. Fine. I'll tell you what I know as a start. But you'll need to try and find out more from others. I can't speak for everyone, and once you start this journey, you have to finish it."

Nora listened to Andromeda's story for the next ten minutes, and then placed her hands on her stomach to try and hold the nausea in. "So... so all I did was bump into..."

"Bellatrix Lestrange. Yes. The shock of having a door opened into her wand arm gave my daughter the second she needed to duck."

"And that saved her life?"

"Apparently."

"And then I ran past someone else and just... just tried to disarm them and that saved your son-in-law as well?"

"No," Andromeda said with a small laugh. "You did disarm them. Antonin Dolohov is in Azkaban because of you."

Nora scoffed. "I'll admit, that all sounds rather ridiculous. I'm with you on this one. I don't think I saved their lives at all. That's... that's circumstantial at best."

"Try telling my daughter that," Andromeda replied with a good-humoured laugh. "But it's what she believes."

Nora sighed and nodded. "Okay... okay. That's actually really nice to know. Not too much pressure at all. Are all of the stories like this?"

"You don't know any of them?" Andromeda asked, her mouth dropping open in shock.

Nora gulped. "I mean... I know the high profile ones. Like... Like the Minister for Magic, but the papers made it out like it was loads of people..."

Andromeda sighed. "I think you need to find those stories out on your own. But yes, there are a lot of stories like this one."

"Do you... I'm guessing that you know George Weasley...? Does that mean that you-"

"If you're fishing for me to tell you what happened with Fred, you'll be here for a long time. Like I said, I wasn't at the battle. But I will say one thing. I may not think you saved my daughter's life, but I have no doubt in my mind that you saved Fred Weasley's. The only people who can tell you what happened there are Fred, and maybe his brother Percy. You should speak to them."

Nora shook her head. "I can't. Not yet."

Andromeda nodded and then her watch began to glow. She checked it and sighed deeply. "I'm sorry, I have to go."

"Can I meet you again?" Nora asked without pausing to think.

Andromeda smiled and nodded. "Of course. Send me an owl. In the meantime," she said, standing and placing some coins on the table, "I'll take one victory from today."

Nora raised an eyebrow.

"You didn't say Eleanor, you said, 'I'."

Nora watched Andromeda leave, and then turned back to her small coffee cup.

She sat there, staring at the cup and trying to figure out her next steps for quite some time, pondering what Andromeda had said - she was right. She had said that she had done those things.

xXx

At around five, around an hour since Andromeda had left, Nora went to the loo. In the small toilet room, she stared at her reflection and sighed deeply. Her eyes were red rimmed and bloodshot. There were deep brown bags under her eyes and yet her cheeks were a pale brown and had a sickly yellow tinge to them. Her lips, usually a nicer pink, were pale as well, and seemed smaller if possible.

She'd dressed in muted colours today for the first time in a long while. Her all black outfit of long sleeved t-shirt and black jeans seemed to extenuate her haggardness.

Her hair, usually out and curly, was pulled back into a bun, hiding her curls from sight. She'd thought she would be less conspicuous this way… and, she'd been tired and frustrated from having to push her tickly hair out of her face - when she was overwhelmed little touches like this felt like too much.

All in all, she didn't look great.

Coughing slightly, she rubbed her eyes and tried to pinch her cheeks. She let out a groan when she realised that instead of getting some colour into them, she'd only succeeded in making herself look more upset.

Sighing, she made her way back into the café, fiddling with the excess length of belt as she went, trying to thread it into the loop at her side. She wasn't looking where she was going, and she bumped straight into someone, who grabbed her by the upper arms to steady them both.

"Sorry," she uttered out of habit, stepping backwards and leaving the person's grasp.

"It's okay," George whispered, and Nora looked up at him and tried to take a deep, steadying breath. "You… Nor, you look-"

"Don't call me that," she whispered, finding her voice as she stared at him.

He ducked his head and nodded, looking down at the floor.

Nora felt awful immediately. "S-sorry," she said quickly. "I shouldn't've snapped. I just-"

George shook his head. "No. You asked me not to. I'm sorry. I'll do better," he replied.

Nora shifted, pulling her sleeves down over her hands, and then awkwardly scratched the side of her neck. She didn't know what to say to him, so she chose the easy route, and just didn't say anything at all as she dodged around him and walked into the wider café, crossing her arms and hunching her shoulders slightly to try and keep her profile as small as possible as she passed a load of empty tables which had been pushed together in a long line.

Nora bit her lip and thought for a moment. If George was here now, she should probably leave. She didn't want him to think that she was a sad case for sitting on her own with a cup of half-finished and now cold coffee. She grabbed her small backpack and tried to keep her eyes trained on the floor as she walked to the front door.

But before she got to the front, George turned her around and pushed her back towards the loos.

"What are you doing?" she hissed as he pushed her into the small hallway outside the toilets (which were in their own little rooms).

"Sorry," he muttered, shutting the door quickly. "I panicked. My dad's just arrived and I'm guessing you pretended to be ill to have the day off?"

Nora gasped and stepped backwards into the wall. "Shit. Does… does that mean more of your family are here?"

George nodded quickly.

She took in a deep breath. "I don't think I'm ready to meet them yet."

George blinked and asked, "Yet?" in a whisper, but when Nora didn't say anything, he shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around. "Right. Well you can't stay here all night."

"And I can't go out there or someone will…" She trailed off and frowned. "Do your family know about me?"

George paled and shook his head. "They uh… they know about you, but they don't know that you're also Eleanor. I think they'd kill me if they found out, all things..."

"Hence why you wanted to tell me yourself before they could," Nora mused, trying to ignore the pain in her heart. "So I can't go out there then. What should we do instead?" she asked, looking at the toilet doors which were both closed. One had a little red sign on it which read, 'Occupied', and the other was green and said, 'Free'. Nora wrinkled her nose and smiled when she saw that George was doing the same - they hadn't seen the person go into the toilet, and still hadn't heard a flush.

"I reckon a good distraction would work," he said thoughtfully.

"Like-"

They were interrupted by the door to the occupied toilet clicking. The sign on it turned green, and then Nora found herself shoved into a corner of the tiny hallway, with George's face centimetres from her own, her hands held tightly in his as he completely blocked her from view. Her heart thumped and she couldn't help herself from feeling slightly intoxicated, being so close to him for the first time in days.

"Fred? That'd better be Angie with you," said a voice, and Nora's eyes widened as she looked at George, who went red.

A baby gurgled, and Nora realised with a sigh of relief that the person was probably taking a while to change the baby's nappy.

George lifted his head slightly and looked over his shoulder. "Uh… no, I'm George. Give us a minute would you?" he asked, and the person must have nodded, because the door beside Nora opened slightly and the person and the baby slipped through.

"Who was that?" she asked, not recognising the voice.

"Bill. My older brother with the baby?" he asked, waiting until Nora nodded in recognition. "We're having an early dinner because they'll have to get Vic back home by seven for bed. Fleur says if they're even a minute late for her bath, there'll be hell to pay."

Nora nodded and bit her lip, looking to the now closed door, ignoring the fact that George was still pressed up against her, and he was staring at her face. "I don't suppose there's any chance he won't mention finding you in the hallway to the toilets wedged in front of someone?"

George coughed and shook his head. "Wait a second," he said, moving to open the door to the café a touch. He peered outside and shut it immediately. "Yeah, he's telling everyone," he added quickly.

Nora groaned and roughly rubbed her face. "Who's everyone?"

"Uh… so I'm one of seven kids. And then there are the partners, and a few friends..."

"This isn't dinner, it's a party," she scoffed and then, despite her worries and the knowledge that she had told George she needed time to be alone and digest everything, she asked indignantly, "If all the partners are here, then where was my invite?"

George grinned, and Nora realised it was the first time she'd seen him smile properly, happily, in almost a week.

"It was a spur of the moment thing to celebrate two years of my having only one ear. Or at least that's what Fred told me. I think it's actually a 'Sorry you got dumped' meal out to try and cheer me up."

"I didn't dump you," Nora said indignantly. "Asking for more time to come to terms with the fact that your boyfriend knew all about your life before, and had a history with-"

"-no history," George interjected. "We didn't have a history."

Nora continued without a beat, "-you, and was even there when your previous self lost all of their memories like some weirdo-"

"-I was asked to stay-" George said over her, obviously taking offense to the weirdo comment.

"- and only met you now because he wanted to tell you about your life and thank you for saving his brother's life and then happened to fall in love and start lying to you is not dumping him. Personally, I think it's well within my rights to ask for more time-"

"- it is. You are -" George agreed.

"- and I thought you understood that I while I love you so much it hurts, I have to come to terms with this for us to try and move forwards. I deserve that, don't I?"

"You do," he agreed in a whisper. "But obviously I couldn't tell my whole family that, and they had to go on the look of the situation."

"Which is?" Nora asked, crossing her arms and trying to ignore George's grin.

"That I went to see my girlfriend on Saturday and she stood me up, then I got a letter from her on Sunday that shocked me and I had to call in sick."

"How did you call in sick?" Nora asked abruptly.

"What?"

"Like, physically. Someone said I should Floo in to say if I'm ill because I don't have an owl... and, well, you own the shop, right? Who do you call in sick? And how did you pretend?"

"Oh," George said, laughing at the memory. "I just told Fred and threw up on his foot."

"You... threw up? But if you were faking it, how did you...?"

"Ah, I took half a puking pastille," he said jovially. "Just enough to make it believable, but I could hold it in until the right moment."

"A what?" she asked, dropping all pretence now as her interest completely took over. It felt as though this hallway was Switzerland, and they could be their usual selves without the heavy weight of their issues.

George fished around in the pocket of his magenta work robes and produced a small sweet, wrapped in a bright green wrapper. "Puking Pastille. Instructions on the packet but basically does what it says on the cauldron. One side makes you puke. The other stops it all."

"Genius," Nora whispered, looking down at the packet, and then she slipped it into her back pocket.

"Oi!" George said, reaching into her pocket to retrieve his sweet.

She placed her hands on his chest and pushed him backwards, laughing slightly. "Finders keepers."

"You didn't find it lying on the road," he complained, trying to get to her pockets again (not that he put up a big fight. He seemed to be enjoying the moments of amnesty). "I gave it to you!"

"So you admit it was a gift," she replied, smiling cheekily up at him.

George stopped, and the smile on his face faltered as he lifted a hand to her chin and gently tilted her face up.

Nora swallowed thickly. "Did Fred...?"

"What?" he asked, a look of hurt confusion on his face that made Nora want to cuddle him.

"Did Fred believe you?" she asked.

"Oh," he replied, smiling as he dropped his hand to her waist and stepped forwards again until he could slip his other arm around her back. Nora's breathing escalated at the contact when his chest brushed up against hers. "No," he whispered, returning a hand to her face as he brushed away a few stray baby hairs at her temple. "Hence the 'cheer up George' party out there."

Before Nora could say anything else, the door to the little hallway opened again and George once again blocked her from view. It was a different embrace - less charged, more necessary.

"We're all happy for you, though I'm disgusted that you chose here of all places to make up," a woman said, "but if you could come out soon that'd be great. Some of us didn't have lunch and are starving, and Mum said we can't order until you're back. Oh, and hi Nora."

Nora pursed her lips and covered her mouth to hide her laugh. With her other hand she waved behind George's back in greeting.

"I'll have the steak frites," George replied quickly, "medium rare with peppercorn sauce. I'll be out soon. Thanks Ginny."

The door closed and George sighed in relief while Nora placed her forehead to his collarbone and started to laugh. He joined her, and she felt his arms slip around her back again as he hugged her to him, and buried his face in her neck.

The door opened again and George looked up, while Nora hid her face again.

"We're doing starters as well," Ginny said, and George groaned audibly.

"I am in the middle of something!" he half-shouted.

"That doesn't stop the fact that we need to order!" Ginny half-shouted back.

Nora placed both hands to her mouth and began to shake with laughter again.

"This isn't funny," George scolded her with a smile on his face. "Just choose for me," he said to Ginny, looking over his shoulder still.

"Phlegm wants escargots," she replied with a pout in her voice. "If you don't say something now then you can't complain if she orders a sharer platter and you're included in the headcount."

Nora raised an eyebrow at George who tilted his head this way and that and whispered, "I'll explain later." He raised his voice. "Okay. What're the options?"

As if the situation couldn't get any more ridiculous, Ginny, rather than summoning the menu, called over her shoulder, "Someone bring me a menu?"

Nora stared up at George with a horrified expression and he grimaced.

Soon enough, the menu had been passed to him by yet another person, and he chose, "Lobster." Nora flicked him in the middle of his forehead and he winced. "What?" he asked.

She pointed to the asparagus and he looked at her as if she'd grown a second head.

"That's basically salad," he complained.

She turned the page and pointed to the desserts, which had a soufflé listed.

His eyebrows lifted. "That changes things," he muttered to himself. "Are we doing desserts?" he asked over his shoulder. Ginny giggled.

"Probably," a man replied. "Charlie by the way, nice to meet you Nora."

Nora waved behind George's back again.

George sighed and said, "Right. Okay. If we're having dessert then I'll have the asparagus, and then the steak frittes."

"Perfect," Ginny replied. "Thanks Nora."

Nora gave Ginny a thumbs up.

Once Ginny and Charlie had left, Nora said, "There's a window in that toilet," and pointed to the one she'd been in before. "If you can enlarge it I think I should be able to get out and Apparate from the alley."

"Cool," George replied, but the next moment he was in front of her again as the door opened once more. "What now?!"

"Mum says Nora's more than welcome to join us," Fred said jovially. "I said you wouldn't mind picking up her tab and there's another seat if we need it. And Nor, don't worry, we don't bite. Much."

Nora shook her head frantically, but George replied without even looking at her. "That's alright. Another time. She's about to jump out the toilet window."

"Ah, well, nice to meet you anyway," Fred said, laughing when Nora gave him a thumbs up as well.

A minute later, Nora found herself in the alley, having kissed George on the cheek as thanks for his help.

"Hey," he called through the shrinking opening. Nora turned and looked up at him. "How much time... how much time do you think you'll need?"

Nora bit her lip and shook her head. "I don't know."

"Okay. I'll wait. But when you're ready, will you let me tell you what happened? And why...?"

Nora blinked rapidly, swallowed thickly, and then, not trusting her voice, nodded. And then she turned on the spot, and Apparated to the park near her house.

She sat down on the grass, thinking about the odd day, and her odd conversations, and her odd relationship.

But she kept getting stuck on one point - if she and George could just fall back into a rapport like that… maybe they could just continue where they left off and while they were together she could come to terms with everything and-

No. She wanted and needed George to explain everything from his point of view, and for that she needed to be mentally and emotionally prepared. And Andromeda was right. She needed to know where Eleanor ended and she began.

xXx

Thank you so much to my reviewers, followers and favouriters! With a special shout-out to my wonderful reviewers, BryonyS, Beautilicious, and totallyHufflepuff! Thank you such!