Order Only: Private message to Tonks

[alt_charlie]

It's actually quiet over here -- touch wood and Felix have mercy that I haven't just jinxed us -- and all the factions I'm talking with have gone off to think for a bit, so unless Alice wants me to eat some gillyweed and go play nice with the Merfolk, I think I can actually wrangle twelve whole glorious hours with nothing to do on Thursday or Friday.

Got anything on your plate you need someone to tag along behind you and look big and dumb for? Or we could go Octoboros-hunting some more. Or we could just hole up somewhere and nap on each other and snog for a while. I'll rub your feet if you dig your elbows into those muscles in my shoulders, they're not speaking to me again and you're better at fixing it than anybody I know.

Comments

[alt_nymphadora]

Oh, let's do both! A bit of Octoboros-hunting and then some excellent snogging and massage. That sounds wonderful.

Do you have a bit of coast you'd especially like to explore for ward-stones and ley-disturbances?

[alt_charlie]

I'll pull out Evelyn's maps and have a look -- she's extrapolated a bunch of likely places from the ones we know about already. Kid's got quite the brain.

Mostly I'm just looking for the excuse, though. Depending on when we schedule for, snogging and massage might turn into cuddling and a nap. Merlin, but I'm tired. And I could really use an afternoon where I don't have to watch every word that comes out of my mouth. (Mind you, that's not the only reason I thought of you. Or even in the top five. Now, the thought of you in just your knickers, that's in the top five.) (Kidding, the top five are all about how much fun it is to spend time with you. The knickers do hit number six or so, though.)

Shall we do Thursday? Probably better not to keep you out all day before the weekend rush.

[alt_nymphadora]

Oh, say. We don't have to do anything but rest. You know, that sounds utterly wonderful. Almost beyond imagining, really, so, yes! Let's do just meet somewhere quiet and warm and cozy.

I'll see if I can't get my knickers a bit higher up your list!

[alt_charlie]

I like spending time with you in or out of your knickers! ...That came out very wrong. Or very right, depending on whether or not it made you laugh, I suppose.

Seriously, though, let's play it by ear and see what the weather's like. If it's snowing and miserable, I'm all for skiving off and holing up somewhere -- hell, we could come up here and commandeer one of the spare cabins.

Actually, that might be nice to plan for no matter what. I keep threatening to show you around the place, and for all that it's rough up here during winter, now's definitely the time if you wanted to meet people as well as seeing the facilities, since everyone's got more time free at this time of year. What do you say we go flying for a while in the early afternoon, then when it starts to get later, come back up here and I'll give you the two-knut tour, then I'll cook us dinner and we can build a fire and stretch out on the rug in front of it? And maybe I'll let you decide where my pants are on your list!

[alt_nymphadora]

Mine's quite exclusive, and you are very high up the rankings. Extra marks for all the ways you make me laugh!

(Your pants, however, don't make the list at all.)

[alt_charlie]

Right, then, no pants it is.

Which reminds me of the story Thom likes to tell when you get him drunk enough, of the days when he was but a wee dragonkeeper and little things like safety gear wasn't standard issue yet, and how he discovered the hard way that just a pair of keeper robes with nothing on underneath is not a good idea.

There's a reason we all call the flameproof pants "Tommies", you see...

[alt_nymphadora]

Oh, my.

Well, that's a reminder of the sort of precautions needed up there, isn't it!


Mind you, if I'd known you've got flameproof knickers, I'd have assumed they worked the other way round.

[alt_charlie]

I've heard a lot of jokes about flameproof pants and fire-red hair, that's for sure.

And yeah. We have flameproof everything. Because if you don't, you very quickly have a puddle of ash that used to be the thing. Traditional hazing of the new folk: wait a week before you teach them the charm to flameproof your hair, and did you know that the Flame-Barrier potion doesn't protect anything past your actual skin?

I look very funny without eyebrows or eyelashes. Just so you know.

Me and my flameproof pants are taking ourselves off to bed now. Night, luv. Sleep well, when you do.

[alt_nymphadora]

I've cleared it with the blokes and put it on the calendar.

Officially looking forward to it now!

[alt_charlie]

That's lovely news. Firecall when you're ready to face the world on Thursday, and I'll grab my broom and come running as soon as you do, O my lovely lady. I can't wait.

And thanks. You're still the best person to run away from home with.

[alt_nymphadora]

Is it the Goblins who've got so many factions--or the Centaurs? Or have you started up with the Werewolves?

[alt_charlie]

Oh, Merlin, if Alice added the werewolves in on the list I'd have to give up sleeping until Easter. No, when we're ready to approach the werewolves I'll be picking Remus's brain first. Right now it's the goblins for the Gringotts connection and the centaurs in hopes we can negotiate better access to the Forest for wand material.

The goblins are the ones with all the clans. I'm starting to get the hang of which clans are allied to which and who you just don't mention to who, but oh, if you thought memorising Binns' litany of the commanders of the Goblin Wars was tough, this is twice as bad. If you gave Binns the wrong answer, he wouldn't threaten to behead you. (No one has threatened to behead me yet. Well. Not exactly. There was a lot of heavy hinting at first.)

Still, I'm definitely getting somewhere with the goblins -- us offering to let one of them apprentice with Melli was huge, and I think I can build on that. I like most of the clan-leaders (ugh, words. clan-elders? clan-heads?) that I've met so far. And I think they like me, for a wizard. They at least appreciate that I've been exceptionally careful to make it clear that I'm not so much trying to figure out what they can do for us as trying to learn enough that I can be a good advocate for them later, you know?

The centaurs, on the other hand, are driving me spare. I might be this close to negotiating a treaty with them! I might be this close to having them throw me out and go running straight to Voldemort to betray me! I have no bloody, blinking clue! Getting a straight answer out of a centaur is harder than getting a straight answer out of Professor Dumbledore.