Chapter 29: Breakups before Christmas
Chapter 29 –
"So, what did you want to ask?"
"Have you heard back from Puddlemere United?" Tonks asked as she sat opposite the red-haired boy while staring at the snow-covered lake "It would be perfect if we could both stay in England."
"Oh, Yeah, I have." he said hesitantly as he turned to look at his purple-haired girlfriend "I got it."
"You did!" she exclaimed, leaning over and draping her arms over his shoulder "Charlie, that's wonderful. Merlin, I'm proud of you."
As excited as she was, he couldn't quite match the sentiment, only hugging her seemingly as a courtesy, "That...isn't all I got." he finally admitted, looking down at her to gauge her response, "I was accepted into the internship program in Romania."
Tonks's arms dropped from around his neck immediately, "Charlie-"
"I really don't see what the harm is in giving it a go, you know I love Care of Magical Creatures, and dragons have always fascinated me," Charlie admitted, as he tried to explain everything to her, as he watched her face morph into a myriad of emotions
"We've talked about the harm in it." she grumbled, her hair turning a flaming red color as she yanked her arm away from his shoulder, and tossed a pebble into the icy lake "I don't think you understand how difficult it's going to be - you there and me here. When are we ever going to see each other? Have you even considered-"
"Of course I have." he insisted, trying to get her to see from his perspective "We were going to try a long-distance relationship for the next two years anyway," he said but as he noticed tears pooling from her eyes as he hurried to explain "I assumed that once you're done with Hogwarts, you could come with me to Romania."
"Come with you?" she practically shrieked, whirling on him then, "Charlie, I have to train. You know I have always wanted to be an Auror. And I have to do it in London. I need you here."
"Well, then it seems like we're at an impasse, doesn't it?" he said darkly, his chest heaving with barely-controlled anger, "This is important to me."
"And my training is important to me," she bit back, glaring back at him with equal fury in her eyes.
After a moment's longer stand-off, Charlie turned and marched away towards Hagrid's Hut, to watch the animals to get him some semblance of peace. Watching him turn and leave was something she hadn't fully expected. Tonks shook with anger as she stood up, whirled on the spot, and headed back up the hill toward the castle. Just to add insult to injury, the small window of the chilly weather swiftly changed and the skies opened up in a melancholic drizzle.
After their argument, she had gone straight back to her dorm and had sat alone, curled up in a sad, damp ball in the middle of her four-poster bed. She hadn't heard from a single one of her housemates nor friends from any other house.
She stayed there holding back her tears in desperation to not feel weak for almost the entire afternoon.
She tried to will herself to sleep, but try as she might, her sadness combined with her hunger due to lack of food didn't allow her to get a wink of sleep. Pushing down her pride, she crawled from her bed and cleaned herself up. Looking over at her clock, she realized it was only minutes to curfew. She had to act quickly. Wrapping her nightgown tightly around herself, she slinked from the dormitory and down the hall, sending up a silent prayer that she wouldn't run into Filch, Mrs. Norris, or Peeves, for that matter, and she headed into the direction of the kitchens, which luckily for her were near the Hufflepuff common room.
As she made her way to the corridor where the kitchens were located, she heard a voice in the dark.
"-y is it that I am left with the duty to get food in the middle of the night. Just because I made the bloody map, doesn't mean they don't have copies -" The voice suddenly cut off, and then for a good few seconds nothing happened. Then, suddenly from right in front of her, the voice sounded again "Tonks?"
She squeaked, as she tried to search for her wand, but realized that in her morose stupor along with her hunger, she had forgotten it back in her dorm. She stumbled back a few feet as she tried to raise her arms to protect herself from her would-be attacker, but then the voice came back.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! It's me, Nathan!" The voice said and Nathan undid his disillusionment charm. Seeing that Tonks wasn't calming down, Nathan firmly but softly caught her wrists and made her face him.
Seeing Nathan's curious face, and the comforting presence of the younger boy, the dam that she had been holding back for the entire day finally broke and she flung herself around him and started bawling her eyes out into his shoulder.
Nathan was surprised by the sudden change of emotion, having suddenly found his arms full of a crying older girl, while still holding onto the few pieces of Croutons he could find in the kitchens. He decided to float the croutons behind him, and let the girl vent out all her emotions.
Tongs clung onto him for more than a minute, as she wept into his shoulder.
After some time, her sobbing subsided and Tonks leaned away from him.
She looked at him for a second, and wiped her eyes from the tears as she stuttered "I-I am sorry, I d-don't know what came over me."
Nathan shook his head, and as patted the girl on the shoulder, and pulled her into another short hug. "Hey, shhh! It's alright. There's no need to apologize, why don't you tell me what's wrong?"
Tonks pulled herself from the hug, immediately missing the comfort the younger, shorter boy had provided. She said "No, no. You will think that- never mind. It's alright, I have troubled you enough. I should go back to my dorm, and what are you doing out here anyway?"
But her stomach decided that was then that it wanted to betray her, and grumbled in a loud noise.
Nathan chuckled, as he stared at her embarrassed face, and said "There's an unused potions lab just next door, let's go there and I will share these delicious croutons with you, while you tell me what's wrong. Okay?"
Tonks stared at the Croutons, which she finally noticed were floating behind him, and her stomach grumbled again. She nodded, and he chuckled again, as he led her to the classroom.
He set down the croutons on a conjured plate and offered them to her. She immediately wolfed one down, and she savored the hint of Garlic in them. She looked at Nathan, as he offered her more food with a smile, and said "Now, why don't you tell me what's wrong?"
Tonks finally relented and narrated what happened over the afternoon to her friend who listened patiently.
Nathan thought over the situation and said "Tonks, I have to be honest with you. I am no expert at relationships. But you have to talk to him. You can't let it all bottle up inside you. If this goes unresolved, you will start to hate him, and that will tarnish the memory of the good times both of you shared with each other. You want to work together and find a solution to this problem. Don't let it fester, and just be frank with each other."
Tonks thought over the advice that Nathan offered, and said "I-it's not easy."
"I understand, and you don't have to do it right now, or the first thing tomorrow either. Think over it, and then go talk to him. It will be alright." He suggested.
Tonks reluctantly nodded as she finished the last of the Croutons on the plates.
"Damn, I will have to get more." Nathan dejectedly grumbled under his breath.
"Thanks, Nathan, I needed that. I will talk to him first thing in the morning." Tonks finally said, after a while.
"You're welcome, Tonks. What are friends for, huh? Now if you're done, I need to go get more Croutons. Will you be alright on your way back to the common rooms?" He asked, as he stood up and vanished the plates.
"Yeah, I will be fine." Tonks then wrapped the smaller boy in a tight hug and said "Thank you, Nathan. You're a good friend."
On her way out, she stopped and turned to face him and commented "You know, you're really mature for a kiddie your age."
She chuckled and quickly made her way out of the potions lab and trudged back to her room in a much more refreshed and composed mood than she had been in previously.
Nathan shook his head, as he made his way back to the kitchens requesting the elves there to make him more food, and made his trip back up the castle to the room of requirements under a proper disillusionment charm, noise-canceling charm, and scent removal charm, having learned from his recent mistake.
"What took you so long?" Jeremy asked as he watched Nathan enter the Room of Requirements with an assortment of croutons and other snacks floating behind him. "We've narrowed our search by at least half the planet."
"You've not found a location yet? Guys, we need to find a good place fast, you guys know we have to scout the place during the Christmas break. I don't want to put this off till Summer." Nathan said as he took a seat on the couch where his friends were pouring over world maps and cartography charts.
"Why are we looking for an abandoned Island anyway? Why not just lift parts of the ocean floor, the ancient one and the other sorcerers can probably do it." Mary-Anne grumbled.
"Ugh, I've said enough times, that we shouldn't mess with giant landmasses in the middle of the ocean. The rising sea level and the subsequent Tsunami it will cause on the nearby coasts will be devastating. And that is something the ancient one won't be able to handle on her own. Tsunamis and water level is no joke, With the amount of land we would need, we would practically be causing cities like London, to sink. The ancient isn't a god to be able to handle that. Even if she deals with monsters and deities on a frequent basis." Carlisle replied as she made space for Nathan on the couch.
"She's right, now let me see the map," Nathan said as he placed the food on conjured plates again, and looked through to find a remote enough island that would not have any population living on it. He did not want to displace the regional population to make space for his own people.
He sighed knowing this would be a difficult task for them to decide on.
oOOOOOOOOOOOOo
Tonks made her way toward the figure that was sitting by the edge of the forbidden forest watching over the Giant Squid as it played around with the kids at the edge of the icy lake.
"It's been a long day." He said, not turning to face her.
"Yeah." she agreed, her lips pursed into a grim line, "We should, um, we should probably talk about it, shouldn't we?"
"I don't really want to."
She let out a deep groan, pulling herself down to sit beside him as she watched the juniors play as well. "I don't either." she admitted, "But a friend advised me that it would be the right thing to do, and I think we need to. We aren't going to be able to skirt this forever, are we?"
"No, I guess we're not." he said reluctantly, "Where are we supposed to start. I don't even know-"
"You're dead set on Romania?" Tonks asked as she placed her palm over his hand. She already knew the answer.
A moment's silence told her all that she needed to know. However, after a deep breath, Charlie managed to eke out a, "Yeah. I-I know that you were always going to be an Auror, and it was selfish of me to assume that you would follow me to Romania and abandon your dreams" he sniffed, running the back of his hand over his cheek, batting away tears "This is the worst."
"I know," she whispered, finally risking a look in his direction. Sure enough, there were tears streaming down his cheek in steady, thin lines, matching her own. "I'm sorry, Charlie."
"Merlin," he grumbled with a sniff and a half-hearted laugh, slumping as she placed a hand over his for what little comfort it would provide, "We would have been good together, Nymphadora," he said weakly.
"Don't call me Nymphadora." she chided weakly, "But for what it's worth, I agree, we would have worked out if only life didn't want us to head separate ways" she said, her fingers slipping between his and holding on tightly "I don't want this to be over."
She let out a sigh before she laid her head on his shoulder. Finished though their relationship may have been, they still found comfort in the presence of the other and both immediately started to calm.
"We'll still be friends, right?" she asked weakly, as his arms wrapped around her, "You don't...hate me or anything?"
"I could never hate you." he chuckled lightly, "I'll write. As often as you like – every day if that's what you want.."
"It will be too painful, I won't be able to handle it."
"Alright, I will write if you ever write to me"
"Promise?"
"Promise"
Contented in this assurance the two held each other for what would be the last time.
**************
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