come away to the water

“ coming from the girl who’s only half as sarcastic as i am. oh, darling. someone already did that this morning, when i poured coffee all over her hair. ”

“Can you hurry the fuck up or get out of the middle of the corridor? Some people are trying to walk here..” Nic scowled, rolling his eyes as he tried to push past someone who was walking too damn slow. 

“ ‘m afraid you’re only going to make me go slower with that mouth of yours.” Glimmer of mischief evident upon the smirk that seemingly grows as she rounds on her heel to face the boy. “ Might I even bother asking where you’re going in such a hurry?”

“This can either end badly… Or badly.”

He was so close to getting just a sliver of a smile form her. So painfully close. “Maybe I am,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. “Let’s not forget how amazing my sense of humor is,” he said. “Isn’t that what all the bird want? A funny bloke?” He asked, waving his wand to levitate the parchment upwards for the quill. 

Surely, she’s seen the Daily Prophet and heard about the recent deaths. Too many names have been listed that a few had to be omitted, specially when they didn’t have any family left to care. It paid to be a mortician during this era, but only if you fit the criteria of pureblood. He often thought about what it was like to die, finding it hard to make peace with the idea although it may seem inevitable. Nightmares of being tortured kept him up at night, and it was all he could do not to turn dark and cynical. For all he knew, Andromeda’s family could be one of the many supporters of the Dark Lord himself. Her family could be behind all these attacks, after all, Bellatrix was turning out no different than those cold-hearted murderers. But he couldn’t see Andromeda turning out like them. She had so much more potential to do so much good in this world, and with a mind like hers, there was no stopping her–or at least that was what he liked to think. “I’m only speaking of the truth.”

“Speaking the truth could get you killed faster.” It’s as if she snaps out of mere judgement. The stupidity that she seemingly has no time for, freely speaking of a war surrounding them, of a cause in which she’s -- it stops there, the thought. Merely shaking her head in doubt, gaze growing colder within each passing moment, Andromeda manages to lean herself against the table and begins picking aimlessly at the sleeves of her robes. Foot tapping incessantly out of mere nerves at this point, an existential crisis that’s come too early if you’d ask her. “It’s a rubbish thing to talk about, don’t you think? A little morbid, also. You know, the whole bit about predicting your own death and all.” There’s an inkling of serious nature within her words, and yet she can’t for the life of her manage to speak out about something she’s been so buried in over the years. Merely making a mockery of the state of things had always seemed slightly easier in her mind, however troublesome that may have been. “ ‘Sides, i’m not so confident in your charm anymore. See, now you’ve gone and created this dreary setting and all, going to have to work on that if you ever plan on finding a nutter for yourself.” Flashing a smirk in haste, it’s the recovery of their entire situation that causes a rift within Andromeda’s soul to recover ever so slightly. Perhaps, it was not merely Ted that  had thought about the consequences of such a war, but her as well. Genocide had come to mind most of all, had kept her awake in the dead of night when she’d thought of her family in their shoes. If the tables had been turned, had she been simply burned at the stake for who she was? Had she been persecuted and damned without so much as the simplest conviction? “You’re a right piece of work, Tonks. Absolute bollocks.”

Amycus laughs, but says nothing to disprove her words. Instead he shrugs, “Everyone needs a break now and then, right?”

“Even the devil needs a break, it’s why he has men do his bidding for him. Men like to play God, and he likes to watch them try.” 

Narcissa’s face fell,hurt. “I’m sorry Andromeda,” She said quietly. “I didn’t mean to.” She sat in silence next to her sister for a moment before what was really bothering her bubbled up. “Bella thinks I’m still such a baby and she never wants to talk to me anymore because she thinks I’m too young to know whats going on or to even understand her. But I know a lot more than people think! I know why Mother is drinking and-” All this came tumbling out in one breath but she caught her self and looked around, afraid she might revel more family secrets in public. 

There was something, perhaps guilt, that arose within the girls core. A sight for sore eyes, Narcissa in pain was something that Andromeda could never counter. Gaze falling, a small sigh falling from her lips freely into the thickened air between the girls. “Perhaps, it’d be a better thought to keep our family matters private. Bellatrix cares for you as much as she cares for me, don’t think any less of that. There’s just - there’s things going on and I know you don’t want to be protected, but you’re going to. It comes with having two older sisters.” Her tone, now hushed as she leans in towards Narcissa, lips curling upwards slightly as if to lighten the tensed mood now thoroughly obvious. “It’ll be okay, you’ve got us and we’ve got you. What mum and dad are doing at home, well, it doesn’t concern us. Stop worrying about growing up so fast, ‘lright?”

He thought he had imagined the way her lips curled up at the edges, maybe it was a trick of the light. It was gone as soon as it came, and he knew there was no way he’d get that smile on her face, again. But for some reason, he felt as though he needed to do that again. “And how do you know I don’t swing that way? For all you know, I could swing both ways,” he teased, desperate to bring the conversation back to a lighter tone. “After all, I am fairly attractive, if I do say so myself. Being a prefect, a chaser and getting top grades does give me the upperhand, you have to give me that,” he laughed. 

Sadly, he couldn’t avoid the conversation from turning a bit dark, again. But he did try to manage a smile, even if it didn’t reach his eyes. “You’ve barely scratch the surface, but maybe you’ll hear something else next time on Ted’s Life Story. Can’t tell you too much, or we’d have nothing to say to each other,” he said, taking out a quill and some parchment, charming it to start with the night’s report. “You would know as much as anybody that muggleborns like me have as little to no chance of surviving this war. It’s simply natural selection with a dash or psychotic tyranny.”

The roll of her hazel hues comes with ease, as if at this point she’s just used to the late nights she’s spent feigning any actual notifications of entertainment from the boy. “If that’s the sort of thing birds are into, then you sound like every girls’ dream.” Voice laced with sarcasm as a laugh tickles her  throat, suppressing it for the mere sake of her dignity at this point.  The moment his voice turns somber she can’t help but feel an inkling of guilt. Here she stand, completely and totally secure from the impending danger simply because she was born into it. A lingering disgust seems to crawl down her spine, causing her heart to fall to the pit of her stomach. For, she can’t help but feel responsible. Responsible for Bellatrix who so often found herself tormenting those below her, for Narcissa who turned her nose at everyone she deemed unworthy. Her parents, most of all, who had taught her that the world was only fair to those who deserved it, to those who remained pure. Magic was a privilege, and those not born into the purest of families were simply taking advantage. It was a speech she’d heard time and time again, and up until this moment she’d been trying to convince herself that it was true. As if forcing herself to believe that they deserved it, that innocent people had done something wrong by being born with a gift. Lips part slightly as her voice lowers, remorse noticeable as ever within her gaze. “Don’t joke about that. About all of this.”

“You think so?” He grinned. “I think I have a pretty good face for the papers,” he chuckled. Andromeda had to be one of the first people to let him casually let his thoughts out since Alice and Lily. He was surprised to feel so comfortable around her, a Slytherin girl from the Noble House of Black, of all people. But as she started talking about the possibility of him writing a book to get younger women, he found himself mentally crawling back into his figurative shell. He visibly flushed, hoping the bad lighting from the candles hid it well. “I’ve never been all that good with women, surprisingly.” Though he had no idea why he was telling her this. “I’ve only ever had one relationship, and we realized we were much better off friends, if anything–which is good because she’s one of my best friends, now. Shagging someone would be great and all, but I prefer not to, especially when I know it won’t mean anything.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t got a clue about what’ll I’ll do when we graduate–if I manage to make it that far. I agree. Fate is a fickle thing.”

Merely nodding at the thought that he seemingly took that as a compliment, her lips curl upwards in a moment of impulse, allowing a shred of her wall to crumble. However brief the moment may have been, it had come and gone by the time her lips tightened together, thin as ever. “You don’t say, well perhaps this is a chat for you and some other bloke then. I’ll leave you to your woes about your lack of appeal. Not really my type of discussion.” She’d assumed by now that everyone had known her business. Andromeda had never been one for relationships, or people at that. The only frequents within her life seemed to be family and Emma, and she was rather content  with it that way. “Well, now I seem to know your entire life story. How lovely.” The thought soon rang through her mind, first her mother’s voice, then Bellatrix’s and all of the sudden the girl felt her bones get rigid and her throat go dry. As if she’d known what she had done was wrong, a punishment she’d surely pay for later in her dormitory. “I haven’t the slightest as to why you wouldn’t. Or anyone else.” Sugarcoated at best, it’s only takes a moment for the girl to realize that he was perhaps right. That there was an ever looming darkness hung over the castle, that there was the slightest chance that the people she’d pass within the corridors on a day to day basis wouldn’t even make it to their eighteenth birthdays. “How morbid of you, Tonks.”

“Hey! The badger is very becoming,” he said, feigning being hurt. “It’s the symbol of hardwork and morality,” he smiled, quite intrigued. “You misunderstand me. I think love is as easily lost and broken as it is developed. Think of it as glass. At the start of it’s time, it’s easily breakable. But as it goes through patient heating, molding and tempering, it turns into something strong and practically invincible. That’s love. It’s a choice people have to make. We can choose to mold it to become stronger or let it be. We have to choice to keep on fighting or give up entirely. It’s cynical, but it’s the way it is,” he shrugged. “I think you’ve mistaken the two. The way I see it, fate is something beyond our control, divinely planned  the moment we are born. Destiny is something that can be influenced by man’s actions and changed to his liking.”

“And you seem to be the spokesperson for them.” More so finding it easier to slide retorts back at the boy, she allows a small shrug to roll from her shoulders before continuing. “Have you ever thought of writing a book for all the fourth year birds? I’m sure you and your philosophy and outlook on love would be very popular with them. Perhaps you might even get your wish of a tumultuous love with one of them, they seem to be the type you’d go looking for. Especially in third floor broom closets, maybe you just need a good shag and you’ll realize that you sound like a mad man.” Andromeda questioned, painfully true and blunt as ever. “No, I meant what I said. I believe my fate is in question right now, my younger sisters fate is more so obvious. She’s going to marry a perfectly suitable man who will buy her all of her hearts desires and have children and live in a mansion big enough to hold the annual Christmas Ball. Bellatrix on the other hand, she’s more so like me. Fate it fickle, perhaps we’ll all die tomorrow.”