Order Only Private message to Tonks

[alt_charlie]

I saw in Mum's journal that you were going to be at the Burrow for the Order meeting tomorrow. I will be too -- I'm free all tomorrow and all Sunday, and I didn't even have to bribe somebody for the whole weekend off, the scheduling gods just smiled upon me this time 'round.

Assuming nothing explodes at the meeting, and I'm hoping I haven't just jinxed us, do you want to do something after? I'd love to take you and Little Miss out for dinner somewhere -- I haven't got nearly enough time with my best girl lately. (And I wouldn't mind seeing you, either! ...don't hit me.)

Comments

[alt_nymphadora]

Oh, that would be more lovely than anything I can imagine! I feel a bit like a mole that's been working on a long tunnel, digging away, and never getting anywhere. A supper and a night and a Sunday with you would be... very, very nice.

Y'know, I've been rather dreading this meeting, and I've only just realised why. It's Frank. I suppose I thought he'd have got better by now. Long since. And now here we are, meeting, and he's still not got his magic back. And we'll have to be talking about that, or about how we've been redistributing things, anywiz. And what we'll do going forward, and that makes it feel as if now it might be permanent. That's terrible to think, I know.

[alt_charlie]

Yeah. I know what you mean. I've been thinking about Frank a bit myself, because I've been letting Alice lean on my shoulder some and you know she's worried about him, and -- well, on the one hand, I don't want to say that being without magic is a horrible awful fate that nobody can ever recover from, or that being without magic is like, oh, being without a leg or something, yeah? Because that's an insult to Fu and Regina and loads of other Muggles, and it's against what we're supposed to stand for. But on the other hand, Fu and Regina never had magic in the first place, so they learned all the ways of doing things without magic, whereas Frank doesn't know all those Muggle ways. So to him, being without magic is like being without a leg, because it's something he used to rely on and now can't.

I don't know what I'd do if it was me. I'd like to think I was resilient enough to be just fine, because thinking otherwise exposes a whackload of prejudices I don't like to think of myself as holding, but let's be honest, if I didn't have magic I couldn't be doing what I'm doing, and this is all I've ever wanted to do.

But I can see why you're dreading the meeting. If you want we can sit next to each other and I'll make funny comments under my breath and then all you'll have to worry about is trying not to laugh and get Alice narked off at you.

[alt_nymphadora]

Oh, yes, please!

We can pass notes and spit paper wads at Themselves if they're sitting in front of us.

All right, not really. We need to set a better example than that, but sitting together will improve everything 287%.


I hear you about the prejudices I didn't even realise I had. I just... sometimes it's so hard to know what to say to Frank when we're all training and he leaps up to demonstrate something and then remembers... I don't know. It's not even as if I think of something better I could have said later, once I'm home. So the next time, it's just as awkward all over again.

[alt_charlie]

I can imagine how hard that must be. Because again, on the one hand, you don't want to treat him like he's broken and fragile, but on the other hand, pretending like nothing's wrong is not exactly a good option either, and on the third hand he DOES still have a lot of things to teach you but he can't DEMONSTRATE anything and that must be bloody inconvenient sometimes, and and and ...

Spitballs. Or maybe -- since if we throw spitballs at people in Mum's kitchen she'll kill me -- things like charming their shoelaces together and transfiguring their pants fire-engine red and lacy. And I'd say we should try to get Snape to drink one of Fred and George's masterpieces except I like my bollocks where they are and I don't want to have to chase them across half the countryside.

[alt_nymphadora]

I'd prefer you kept your bollocks right where they are, and I'll happily tell Snape that if I need to do.

I expect that might stop him in his tracks. I don't think Severus is much for contemplating the... inner details of other people's social ties.

[alt_charlie]

I'm not certain Snape knows what to do with his own bollocks, no. Which usually predisposes somebody to not want to think about other people's and what they get up to with them.

I'm glad you've got a fondness for mine, though. They're awfully fond of you, too.

[alt_nymphadora]

As well they should be.

[alt_charlie]

Well, you're mighty easy to be fond of!

Right. I've asked around and come up with a place we can go for Sunday brunch -- that's you, me, and Little Miss if she wants to come -- and then I'll let you pick what we do for the rest of the day. I'll put my vote in for footrubs in exchange for you beating the knots out of my shoulders again, and then a few hours of nap, but anything you want is fine by me.