(no subject)

[clumsy_auror]

Nymphadora Tonks might not be the best cook in the universe, but she is English, and she does make a bloody good cup of tea.

There are two such cups of tea steaming comfortingly on the coffee table.

At the knock on the front door, Tonks rises to answer it.

Comments

[leplusbeau]

Fleur blinks at Tonks when the door opens. Her eyes are red and puffy and is dressed in things obviously stolen from Bill because her hands are lost in the sleeves.

"'ello."

And just hovers in lost manner.

[clumsy_auror]

Tonks' face falls at the sight of Fleur (friend, after all, friend) and leans over to give her a brief, warm hug.

"Come on in. Just put out the tea."

She steers Fleur over to the sofa.

[leplusbeau]

"Thank you."

She takes her tea and holds it.

"Thank you for. Maybe if someone else sitz with him it will--I do not know how much help I am. He--" She finally looks up from her teacup. "What do I do? I do not know what to do."

[clumsy_auror]

She bites her lip and wraps her hands around her own mug. "C'n you -- I mean, how is he taking it? He's lucid by now, isn't he?"

[leplusbeau]

"He. When he first woke up, he did not remember anything. And I waz stupid and juste blurted out everything with my leading questionz. Now, I can not tell what he rememberz clearly and what he does not. But, nothing from the attack. Nothing. Juste what I told him."

She bits her lip. "Should I have kept it from him? Juste said he hurt himself at work? Do we even have a way to prove--? I have not told the goblinz, yet! They still think he iz doing paperwork for Egypt."

The thought finally hit her. "Oh, Merlin. I have not told hiz family yet. I." She hides her face in her free hand.

[clumsy_auror]

The colour drains from Tonks' face. "Shite. Um. D'you want me to go with you? To tell them? I will. Absolutely."

[leplusbeau]

"I. Maybe? Yes. I juste, I have to tell him before. He asked about Charlie. But when I go to write him, he sayz, no, wait."

"I juste...we neveh talked about thiz. We talked if he...if he nevah came home, what he wanted me to do but not thiz. I have no idea what he would want. And he keepz asking for answerz and all I can say iz 'I love you' like, like! Some bandage!"

Her shoulders start to shake. "I don't understand--he iz a good man, why iz thiz--"

[clumsy_auror]

"Oh--"

Tonks scoots closer, setting down her tea and wrapping an arm around Fleur. She forgets, sometimes, how young the other woman is.

Not that it matters.

She'd be lost, too.

"There is no 'why,'" she replies quietly, stroking her hand down the golden, tangled fall of Fleur's hair. "It's not because of anything you did, or anything he did. It just... it just is."

[leplusbeau]

She is crying in earnest.

"What they did! You saw him! If we had not had thiz place--!" Great, heaving sobs. "And what they will do! Mark him like, like, like me! I won't, I won't!"

Fleur lays her head down on Tonks' shoulder and finally just cries.

[clumsy_auror]

Her own eyes stinging, Tonks takes the mug out of Fleur's hands at sets it beside her own, and pulls her into a hug. She rocks her back and forth, slowly, soothing noises murmured into Fleur's hair.

Tonks doesn't tell her it's all right, because it's not.

But it will be.

[leplusbeau]

Eventually, Fleur slowly sobbing to a few hiccups and dry heaves. She pulls away and wipes at her eyes.

"...sorry."

[clumsy_auror]

"Don't be sorry."

Her hand still rests on Fleur's back.

"It's really bloody scary. I know."

[leplusbeau]

"I juste. I do not want him to go through registration or labeled. It is not fair to him! He iz not a danger, but I can not get him help unless we tell someone. He haz to talk to someone, eventually, not juste think..."

She finally offers Tonks a small smile. "Meant to ask you something, not juste get your shirt wet. He haz been having nightmarez and I waz wondering, do you having any dreamless sleep potionz? I have been a lazy witch and not kept my suppliez up."

[clumsy_auror]

"I know someone he can talk to. So does he, when he's rational enough to remember it. A friend. Someone we trust."

Tonks doesn't say anything more than that, for the moment. She just gets to her feet and disappears down the hallway, reappearing a moment later with a few vials in her hand.

"Here. Let me know if you need more, I'll whip some up. It's no trouble."

[leplusbeau]

Confused look, "Tom? He asked for him. ...Or iz thiz something I do not want to know."

She hesitates. Then, "Tonks, you would. You would tell me if thiz waz for the Order, non? That he waz doing something. He said he would tell me if he waz but, waz he...?" She just looks so earnest.

[clumsy_auror]

"No, it wasn't." She shakes her head. "It wasn't anything I was aware of, at least. Only if it had come straight from Dumbledore without any of the rest of us knowing, and that's not likely."

Fleur's first question goes unanswered.

[leplusbeau]

Fleur just looks at her.

And sighs.

"Thiz iz why I waz a banker. The money doez not trying to kill you in the night. Only the goblinz. Doez it ever get any easier? Being a grown-up?"

[clumsy_auror]

"No," she says honestly, with a faint hint of a smile, "but it helps having someone else growing up with you."

Tonks takes Fleur's hand. Squeezes it.

"Like we do."

[leplusbeau]

She has a little smile herself.

"Thank you. For, you know." Because vague hand waves and emotional breakdowns are the same thing, of course. "And, these. Juste, thank you."

Just a quick kiss on Tonks' cheek and a light touch to her belly. "I should...I should go back up. Iz silly, but, I worry."

[clumsy_auror]

"You're welcome." The Auror smiles. "And it's all right. I understand. Come down anytime, honestly -- you know one of us is always around."