Ted

Despite all of the years that she knew Ted, there was still a lot about the Muggle world that she was learning about. She wasn’t kept up to date with all of the music and bands that he was talking about, so she had to trust that whatever he picked out was good. “Definitely could go to the record shop. I suppose we’d need to get some Muggle money. They would look at us strange if I pulled out some sickles and knuts, wouldn’t they?” she chuckled as she set some of the books on the shelves.

It had be a while since they had gone out just the two of them. Even though his mom was supportive, Andromeda felt guilty for constantly relying on the older woman to care for Nymphadora. As it was, her own work schedule kept her away from the energetic child. Dora was tiring but completely worth it. She brought so much light to their lives that she almost forgot that she was estranged from her family. 

“Don’t ye know me at all?”  He mused with a soft chuckle.  “Always got some muggle money on me, don’t ah.”  Ted always kept a small amount of muggle cash in his chest pocket, mostly because he was through fairly often given that his parents and grandparents all resided there.  “But yeh, don’t go pulling out galleons at the local takeaway by mistake.” 

Ted didn’t think too much about his mother taking care of Nymphadora, only because he knew that his parents weren’t exactly getting along in their old age and their granddaughter seemed to cheer up Nicola Tonks to no end.  He’d never admit it, but seeing his mum happy was one of Ted’s biggest concerns outside of Meda and Nymph.  “Are we ready t’ go then?”

When she first found out that she was pregnant, she was scared. Andromeda had just gotten her freedom from her family. She wanted to live a life unrestricted of her family’s control and societal expectations. Being a mother meant giving up some of her freedom again. At least, that’s what she initially thought. But giving birth changed Meda in a way that she never imagined. She was driven to be the mother that her own failed to be. She wanted the world for Nymphadora and was determined to do whatever it took to give that to her. Andromeda pulled him back towards the shelves that she was stocking and handed him some of the books. “You can help me put these on the shelves. Jut this box and we’ll be good for the night. As for tonight… I don’t know. Something low key. Perhaps just going into London and walking around? I don’t need anything extravagant.”

Eyeing the box that Meda passed him, Ted feigned a sigh of exasperation with a smirk on his face.  In actuality, if he were to have his own way, they would spend more time like this, though he also knew that neither one of them envied the others job.  How Meda was able to deal with the rude customers was beyond him, Ted would probably last half a day before telling some entitled knob to bugger off.  

“London sounds good t’ me.  We could swing by my mums house after to pick up Nymph.” Humming to himself as he placed books on the shelves, he tilted his head to the side as a thought occurred to him. “Actually, Ah wouldn’ mind a wee look in a record shop, Fleetwood mac have a new record out.”  There were many things about his muggle upbringing that Ted happily cast aside, though music was never one of them.

“Just fine,” Avery assured the man as a soft smiled graced her features. As a Ravenclaw who read a lot of books while she walked even, it hadn’t been the first time she had been run into or done the running into. “Though admittedly a little fresh air is what anyone needs after,” she motioned to the place around her. A lot of the store’s customers liked to hand out there but Avery preferred other places to here.

“Question is are you okay?” Clearly anyone distracted enough to run into someone had other things on their mind.

Ted had always been completely useless at names, though he did have a decent memory for faces, and he knew that he recognised the woman as a fellow ex Ravenclaw.  Something that he always had in common with his housemates was that they usually had their heads elsewhere, deep in thought. Mind you, he usually managed not to physically bump into someone.

Andromeda loved listening to him talk. His accent was one of the many things about him that she was attracted to. Sure, others couldn’t quite make heads or tails what he was saying but she had learned how to decipher his words over the years.  She chuckled at his response and rubbed her hand up and down his arm. “I just have to close up shop and finish moving these boxes. Then I should be good to go. I would love a date night. It’s been a while. I love Nymphadora but I could definitely use a bit of a break,” she admitted. Being a mother so young was unexpected for her, but she cherished every moment of it. 

Ted hadn’t expected to be a parent so young, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.  He had always wanted a family of his own, but never in a million years thought he would be lucky enough to actually have it. When he had first set eyes on their daughter, he didn’t know it was possible to love anything as much as he loved her. 

Tilting his head as his smile softened further, “Y’know what my  mums like, she’ll happily ‘ave Nymph for most o’ the night if we let her.”   Ted’s mother had always wanted to have a daughter, as much as she doted on her only child, Ted always knew that she would have liked to have a girl too.   

“Two questions then, whatcha feel like doin’? And what can ah do t’ help?”

Life since she had been disowned had been a whirlwind. She left home and Ted had graciously welcomed her into his home. It wasn’t too long after that they had their little Nymphadora. She still couldn’t believe that she was a mother to a rambunctious five year old, but she was grateful for her little family. The only thing they hadn’t done was get married. Meda didn’t have family other than Sirius to invite anyways and they were working hard to get by. It didn’t make sense to waste what little money they had on something as extravagant as a wedding.

She set her box down and grinned as she saw who entered the shop. “Ted! What are you doing here? I thought you had work,” Andromeda said, wrapping her arms around him. With their conflicting work hours, it was rare for them to have an overlapping moment of free time that didn’t involve sleeping or taking care of Nymphadora. 

Ted’s playful smirk only softened as the pair embraced, and he pressed his lips to her temple.  “Moody let me get away, ‘cause of me comin’ in early this morn.”  A tired chuckle left his lips as he shook his head.  “Maybe he’s gettin’ soft in his old age.”   That definitely was not the case, if anything age had only made the Scotsman more brazen. Luckily for Ted though, he did seem to appreciate hard work and would very occasionally reward the trainee Aurors for it.

Raising his hand to brush away Meda’s hair from her face, Ted tilted his head for a moment.  “How much ye got left t’ do?  D’ya need help finishing up?  Me mam said she can take Nymph until late tonight, if ye wanted t’ go and do something.”

At the best of times, Ted was a pretty laid back guy, the only time that changed was when he visited his parents.  More specifically, his father… Eric Tonks was a corse northern sorta bloke, the kind that called a spade a bloody spade. “Jesus christ Ted, do you want to practise magic tricks and pull rabbits outta hat, or, d’ya want to be a man?”    But with everything that had been going on, he had felt obligated to check in on his mum.  Ted was always happy to see her, even if he felt three stone heavier after every visit.  “Don’t go listening to him, his head is so far up his arse, ah’m shocked he can hear anything….. here take some food away with ye”

It had been four days since Uncle Dafydd gave Caradoc an ultimatum, five days since Caradoc had been home from the hospital, and six days since he had momentarily stopped breathing. 

His uncle had become accustomed to checking on his nephew at night to make sure he wasn’t passed out face-up. Dafydd had found Caradoc laying in bed on his stomach and breathed a small sigh of relief, knowing he’d drank a lot that night. ‘It’s Da’s fucking birthday, and I’m going to drink to him being another year closer to death.’

He had turned to leave his nephew to sleep but a cold creeping feeling of unease came over him. Everything felt too quiet. He went inside, turned on the lamp, and tried to rouse him to no avail. He smacked his face a few times and yelled into his ear to wake up. No answer. Dafydd finally checked for a pulse…. Oh, thank god! It was weak, but there. He scooped him up, ignoring the pain in his back from a long day working at the docks and the fact his nephew was fairly heavy. He put Caradoc in the backseat of his car and sped to the nearest hospital, where doctors immediately set to work on saving his life. There was hardly a moment that Dafydd wasn’t with Caradoc, and when he couldn’t be with him he argued with the doctors until he was let back in. ‘He’s too young… Please…. I’m responsible for him…. He has to be okay…. He has to….’

When Caradoc blinked his eyes open groggily late the next afternoon, he felt like he’d been hit by the Knight Bus. His head was pounding, his eyes throbbed the moment light hit them, and his entire body just felt wrong. He felt like he wanted to be sick but there was nothing to bring up. Dafydd heard him stirring and rushed to his bed side. When Caradoc finally managed a decent look at him he could’ve sworn Dafydd had aged twenty years in only a night. He should have bloody apologized for what he put his uncle through, but it’s like the words in his head just couldn’t connect to his mouth. He stayed quiet, while his uncle sobbed from relief and fear. It would be too much for Caradoc to let himself feel the shame at that moment. He was too vulnerable, so his mind put up walls. They’d however be temporary and soon enough the guilt would seep in anyway. It always did.

Caradoc was sent home the next day. Like a zombie he shuffled into his room, where he paid no mind to the empty bottles strewn across the carpet as he made his way into bed. Sleep claimed him for hours, but when he awoke he wasn’t alone. Dafydd was at the foot of his bed, watching him with a worried expression. It seemed he had been there a while. Caradoc was about to ask what was the matter when Dafydd burst into tears. He begged Caradoc to go get help, offering to assist any way he could. But as usual, Caradoc insisted he had things under control and that he didn’t need any help. Why bother? He felt he was beyond help anyway at this point, although that’s certainly not what his uncle would want to hear. ‘Caradoc, damn it! You’ve got to take this seriously! Serious as the bloody grave you nearly put yourself in!’ Dafydd shouted, desperate to get through to his nephew. ‘I can’t keep watching you slowly kill yourself without it breaking my soul more than any man could bear. You’re not just taking yourself down, but the people around you too. Caradoc, you need to get help. You need to stop drinking. Or else, I can’t let you stay here. It’s just too much…’

Self-loathing filled Caradoc’s mind. He had caused his uncle so much pain, when the man had done so much for him the past few years. How could he be such a selfish jackass? He found himself wishing his uncle hadn’t found him the night before. A dark thought that seemed to ache his entire soul because it was so heavy and so painfully real. Dafydd was right. He was killing himself with the drinking. Maybe that was subconsciously his goal the whole time. Looking at his uncle’s haggard face, he simply nodded and said ‘Okay, Dav’. I’ll try.’ He just didn’t have much (or rather any) hope that he’d succeed.

Caradoc stood outside the apothecary in Diagon Alley, finishing up his cigarette before going inside to get supplies needed to brew a couple potions he needed. He wasn’t much of a potioneer, but could manage simple recipes. Herbology had been more his thing, so he at least knew which plants could likely help him. He had been having trouble staying asleep ever since he woke up from that initial several hours of sleep after he got home from the hospital. Anxieties plagued him and he needed something to knock him out and quell the dreams. He was also hoping to brew up something to stop the headaches and the shaky hands he’d been experiencing. It’d been days since he’d had a drink, and he knew he was probably going to fall off the wagon soon but his uncle’s worrying kept him fighting for now. He didn’t want to let him down, even though it felt inevitable to him that he would. He always seemed to let everybody down eventually.

He looked down at his cigarette held between his twitchy fingers, and sighed at his inability to control the shakiness and knowing he probably looked half mad. He lost himself in thought for a moment, remembering the past few days as if he’d witnessed it from outside his body. He’d hardly noticed somebody speak to him. “Wait, what’d you want?” he asked, leaning in a bit to hear them repeat their words.

It had taken Ted months to be taken serious enough to actually be accepted onto the trainee auror program.  It wasn’t that he didn’t have the grades, he did, it just seemed that his reputation of getting into fights at Hogwarts had proceeded him.  Alastor Moody wasn’t exactly thrilled about having him on board, thinking that Ted was nothing more than a hot head, or maybe he thought that he was a muggleborn with something to prove.  Either way, he had finally backed down and allowed it.  Ted hadn’t worked this hard since being within the walls of Hogwarts.  How Sirius managed to train and work night shifts at the Three broomsticks and still be able to function was frankly beyond Ted. 

At this point he had been awake for easily around a day and a half, planning on picking up some food and heading home for a much needed sleep.  Thank god he had tomorrow off work.  Sliding his hands into his pockets, he let his mind slip into wondering what sort of food he wanted.  Something hot from the leaky cauldron sounded amazing, or maybe something sweet from Honeydukes, or hey maybe both.  As he absentmindedly traipsed down the cobbles, his eyes landed on a semi familiar face.  Spying a cigarette in the others hand, Ted crossed the busy street to ask if he happened to have a spare.  It was a habit he was trying to break,  but damn, he could use one after that shift.  

“Sorry mate, ah was just wonderin’ if ye happened t’ ave a spare smoke on ye.” Managing a sleepy smile as he spoke.  “Didn’t mean t’ bother ye.”

&&

molly couldn’t help but to laugh at ted’s comment about not recognizing her on her own. she was sure he wasn’t the only thing that would think so. it didn’t often happen, seeing as arthur was working later and later hours. “arthur’s parents have them. he managed to get the night off for once.”