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Post by Ted Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 11:07:57 GMT -5
Ted couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to get out of London and just forget things for a while. He doubted he'd be missed... the Ministry already told him to lie low, and Lord knew Andi didn't want to see him.
But there was one place a little boy could go and always be welcome, and that was back to Mama. He hadn't seen her in ages and knew she would love to see him, and there was the added benefit that, being muggles, his parents had not read the damning article.
Unannounced, but looking for all the world like a lost little boy, he stood on his parents' doorstep and knocked on the door.
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Post by Karen Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 11:32:03 GMT -5
Karen Tonks loved baking. Even though she had no event to prepare for, sometimes she baked things, just because. Today she was baking an apple pie, which was her husband's favorite. Having slipped the pie into the oven, she cleaned up the kitchen and settled down on the couch with a book to wait for the pie to finish baking.
She had only been sitting down for a few minutes when she heard the knock on the door. Since this was a good neighborhood, filled with close friends and neighbors, it wasn't uncommon for someone to stop by for a visit or to borrow a cup of sugar during the day. Karen loved these visits, because they kept her from being alone all day while her husband was at work.
Setting her book down on the coffee table, she removed her apron and brushed off her skirt before going to the door. She was pleasantly surprised when she opened the door and saw her son standing outside, looking terribly forlorn.
"Theodore!" she gasped, throwing open the screen door and immediately wrapping him in a warm hug. Pulling back, she put her hands on his cheeks. "But look at you... you haven't shaved, and you're so pale. Come inside and tell me what's wrong."
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Post by Ted Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 13:39:10 GMT -5
"Hey Mum," Ted said, hugging the woman back. He caught a whiff of the apple pie and he took a deep breath. The house always smelled like something good. "How are you?" he asked, ignoring her all too sudden concern.
He stepped inside the house and closed the door behind him, looking around. Exactly as he had left it. "What are you making? It smells wonderful."
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Post by Karen Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 13:56:11 GMT -5
Karen smiled. It was so good to see her son; she saw him so infrequently and it made her heart ache. As she looked at him now, there was something different about him. Something about the look in his eyes and the way he carried himself. He looked... beaten down by the world. "There's an apple pie in the oven," she replied. "Should be ready in about 20 minutes. Would you like some tea?"
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Post by Ted Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 14:05:55 GMT -5
"Oh, don't tell me that," Ted said, glancing at the clock. "I'll have it gone before Dad even gets home." He smiled at her good naturedly, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes.
"Some tea would be wonderful, actually," he told her, but put his hands on her shoulders. "I'll make it. Do you want some?"
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Post by Karen Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 14:17:06 GMT -5
Karen noticed instantly that his smile seemed off and didn't reach his eyes. He couldn't hide anything from her; she knew him too well. She eyed him worriedly, but smiled at his offer.
"Yes, that would be lovely," she agreed, taking his arm. "I'll come into the kitchen with you, so we can talk. What brings you here today? Not that I'm not glad to see you, but you don't usually drop by unannounced like this."
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Post by Ted Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 14:30:32 GMT -5
"Just wanted to see you, Mum," he said, walking with her into the kitchen and letting go of her arm so that he could take down two mugs for the tea.
He quietly went about heating up the water and everything before he continued. "I had some time off from work and realized it had been a while since I've dropped in." That was a bit of a lie, as he was technically still working.
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Post by Karen Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 14:47:06 GMT -5
Karen was not fooled. As he went about preparing the tea, she watched him carefully, appraising, but not judging him. He was trying to hide it, but he looked lost. A mother always knew when her son was in pain, and Ted seemed to be radiating it. There was only one thing that could make a young man like Ted look so lost.
"Well, I'm glad to see you. I've missed you so much. How is your job? You know, I still don't understand exactly what it is that you do; I've never known quite what to tell my friends." She smiled.
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Post by Ted Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 15:12:23 GMT -5
Ted smiled again. "Even if you understood what it is I do, you couldn't quite tell your friends, Mum. I... I'm like magical law enforcement," he said, and then shook his head. "No, that's not quite true either. I hunt bad guys?" He tried, giving her a playful look. "It's going all right, though. Pretty slow of late, actually." For him.
"How have you and Dad been? I haven't gotten to call recently." He was changing the subject. He wanted to be home, he didn't want to think about her.
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Post by Karen Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 15:28:03 GMT -5
Karen laughed. "No, I guess I can't, can I? Well, I'll just have to tell them you're a secret agent. Wasn't that what you wanted to be when you were 8 years old? You wanted to be just like James Bond." She smiled and reached across the table to touch his cheek.
"I'm fine, as always. Your father's trick knee has been acting up again, but otherwise, he's fine, too. But you're not fine, are you, baby?" She took his hands in hers and squeezed them lightly. "Come on, tell me. What's her name?"
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Post by Ted Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 15:39:07 GMT -5
Ted sighed, knowing it would come to this eventually. His mother always knew, no matter what it had been, how old he had been, she just always knew.
"I wish you hadn't caught on so quickly, Mum. Maybe I should have been James Bond. He never had girl problems." He sighed again, and leaned back in his chair.
"Her name is Andi," he figured that would be easier for his mom to swallow than Andromeda. "And her family is one of, is not the most influencial families in the wizarding world."
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Post by Karen Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 15:46:47 GMT -5
Karen smiled softly. "I knew it the moment I saw you at the door," she replied. "I didn't want to push you, but I can't let you hide from it, either. You came for comfort, and I want to give it to you, but I can't, if I don't know what's going on."
She took in his appearance and the sound of his voice. He seemed defeated, and it worried her. "So she's rich, then? What happened? How did this Andi break your heart?"
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Post by Ted Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 15:51:29 GMT -5
"Yeah, I knew I could count on you to pull it out of me," he told her, and all pretenses of a smile were gone.
"She's beyond rich. She's powerful, she's in the social spotlight, and her family hates muggleborns, like me. But isn't that the kicker? She's not the one who broke a heart."
He finally relented and pulled out the daily prophet with the article in it, and handed it to his mother, his eyes on her the entire time she read it.
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Post by Karen Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 16:23:33 GMT -5
Karen read the article silently, her expression growing darker with every word. She didn't really understand all of it, with the politics of the magical world being quite foreign to her, but the implications of the story made her most unhappy. Clearly someone--this Rita person, perhaps--was out to smear her son's name, and she didn't like it one bit.
"What a lot of hogwash," she declared, folding the paper up so that Andromeda's picture was at the top of the page. The girl was pretty, Karen noted silently. "I don't believe for one second that you were trying to ruin anyone, or that you kissed this Rita person. It's clear to me that you love this girl. It's written all over your face. Why don't you tell me what really happened?"
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Post by Ted Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 16:42:11 GMT -5
Ted let out a rush of breath, beyond thankful that his mother was on his side. Although Arthur was, too, he was still against Ted in a way. And he felt terrible, being the cause of his problems with Molly.
"I kind of kissed her. She kissed me and I pushed her away as soon as it happened. None of the rest of it is true," Ted said, coming clean with his mother right off the bat.
"I know you don't know how it works all of the time, Mum, but her family... I'm the boy from the wrong side of the tracks. And... her family is dangerous. They made her give up her right to the family name because they caught her with me. Her mother came to my apartment to warn me... and I do love her. So much that it hurts and I can't... I can't even function normally without her. But I won't let make her give up her family, and I won't risk her getting hurt. And she's still a couple of years younger than me... I know how I feel about her, and she may feel the same right now, but what happens if it's a crush and she moves on, and it's too late to go back to her family?" He spilled this all at once, finally having someone that he could talk to.
"That's not even the end of the problems. I'm not allowed in the office for a while, because this painted such a terrible light on two Aurors, the Department, and the Ministry. I was told to lay low... and I'm still working, but it's a miserable assignment."
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Post by Karen Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 22:13:01 GMT -5
This was all a lot of information for Karen to take in at once. But she let Ted spill out his feelings, knowing that right now, what he needed to do most of all was just let it all out. The part that caught her ear, however, was the part about the girl and how much he loved her. It brought a tear to her eye, as she remembered how it had been for her all those years ago, when the wild bohemian dancer had realized she was falling in love with an ordinary electrician. She had been unable to function; her concentration slipped, her art suffered, and she missed dance steps.
Immediately, Karen rose from her chair and moved over to her son, wrapping him in a hug and holding him close to her. Her little boy was in love. To her, none of the rest of it mattered, except the fact that he was in pain. As his mother, all she wanted to do was to make him feel better.
"That's it, baby," she cooed softly, rubbing her hand along his back. "Just let it out. Let it all out. We'll figure out a way to fix it, but you need to let those emotions out first."
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Post by Ted Tonks on Oct 10, 2008 22:24:56 GMT -5
Ted wrapped his arms around his mother, closing his eyes and just finally *feeling.* He had been so caught up in keeping appearances for everyone that he hadn't actually given himself time to realize how much this had desroyed him, too, and he wanted Andi back so badly.
At his mother's urging, Ted Tonks, the invincible, laid back, too cool Ted Tonks, cried. Ted never cried. But he was too tired, too stressed, to worn out, and he missed her too much.
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Post by Karen Tonks on Oct 11, 2008 0:02:52 GMT -5
Karen just held him close, her heart aching for him. For him to break down like this and cry, she knew this had to be really serious. This was true love, at least for him. She wondered about the girl, and if she was feeling anything like Ted was right now. If so... it seemed wrong that anything should try to keep them apart. It shouldn't matter who her family was, or anything else. They shouldn't be apart and unhappy. Yet she also knew that reality sometimes didn't agree.
"That's right... just let it out. If you hold it in any longer, you're going to explode."
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Post by Ted Tonks on Oct 11, 2008 0:31:34 GMT -5
Ted let out a long, shuddering breath. It felt so good to just release, and to have a place where he could. "I miss her so much, Mum," he whispered. "I just wish I could tell her... but it's complicated. She thinks that article is true, and if I tell her it's not... I'm just so worried about her."
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Post by Karen Tonks on Oct 11, 2008 0:40:41 GMT -5
Karen frowned. "If she believes that any of this article is true, aside from what she actually witnessed, then she clearly isn't very smart. And I'm not sure I want you with a stupid girl," she declared loyally. "Even the kiss, she should know better than to assume you were kissing this girl... She should have asked for an explanation, and if she really loved you, she would believe you when you told her the truth."
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