This story is my entry fic for The Great Maze Challenge / Competition. It is also the companion fic to Winter Solace, a story written for the Cross Fandom Pairing Challenge. The link to both Challenges are on my profile. There is a small bit of cussing at the end, but otherwise, it is child-friendly. Please read and review!

Fandoms: Rise Of The Guardians & Harry Potter
Characters: North & Nymphadora Tonks & Charlie Weasley

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own Harry Potter and Rise of The Guardians. I wish I did, though.

You're Boyfriend is Santa Claus?

Alternatively Titled: 《How The Boyfriend Was Revealed To The (Almost) [Ex-]boyfriend (And Vice Versa)》

"I do have a boyfriend! "

There was no reply to that. Apparently, whatever Charlie had been expecting, that wasn't it.

Determinedly looking away from Charlie, Tonks plowed on. "And my personal life was none of your business, anyways."

The silence dragged. Finally, Charlie asked, "So, who is he?"

A while later, Tonks replied. "He's called North."

"North?"

"Yeah, his parents were russian, but he didn't like his given name, so people who know him calls him North."

"Oh." A pause. Then, "What does he do for a living?"

Tonks was slightly relieved. Charlie seemed to be taking this well enough. They were good friends, even though she had once wanted to be his girlfriend. She got over it, but she valued their friendship. She did not want to have to choose between their friendship and her relationship.

"He's a toymaker of sorts, I suppose."

"A toymaker?" Charlie looked at her a little suspiciously now.

"Yeah, he makes toys." She did not elaborate.

'Oh, he's actually Santa Claus, but you cannot see him since you're an adult and don't believe in Santa Claus and Christmas, so I'll omit this little fact and stick to him being a toymaker.'

Yeah, that sounds so believable. It sounded crazy even in her head. There's no way she would say that out loud.

"When are you two going to be married, then?"

Tonks opened her mouth, ready to tell him that he was not going to be meeting North anytime soon when her brain caught up. Her mouth remained open. She was definitely not prepared for that question. "I haven't thought that far!" she yelled, fully aware that it sounded like a certain river in Egypt.

From the smirk on Charlie's face, she could see, clearly, that he had been baiting her. Blushing furiously, she stormed out of the room to look for her broom.

A fly around would clear her head. Maybe she would drop by and pay North a visit soon.

"Hey, so, are you going to tell North that he has competition?" Jack Frost whirled around her, turning upside down as he felt like it as he kept up with her speed, occasionally giving her a push to assist her on her way to the North Pole. The leaves swirled around her and she would swear that the wind had patted her on the shoulder as she studiously ignored the winter spirit and continued flying.

"He does not have competition. What are you talking about?" Tonks snapped. She was not in the mood for the winter spirit. The last mission was a mess and almost a total failure, she lost two aurors due to wrong intelligence. On top of that, it went from a week-long recon mission to a month-long mission to get everyone and everything back and out.

She missed being around North, it was as simple as that.

"What about that dragon tamer? Charles, was it?" Jack persisted.

"What about him?" She knew that she sounded irritable, but her goal was to get to the North Pole faster, and this conversation was distracting.

Jack hesitated before he started talking, and that alone would usually start the warning bells ringing in her head. He was an impulsive spirit and rarely hesitates, so if he did, it means nothing good was going to happen. She did not pay enough attention to notice, though. Her mind was somewhere else.

"Uh, well. I've read your letter from a few years back?"

Tonks frowned. "My letter?"

"The one you never sent, the one you buried at the bottom of the trunk to gather dust." He sounded a little wary.

It took her a while to recall the letter Jack spoke of. When she connected the dots, though, she lost her grip and almost fell off the broom. Alarmed, Jack shot forward and held her up.

"That letter!?"

"Yeah…" he sounded sheepish as he let go and flew around in circles a little, staying slightly further away from her.

"Why?" she asked, when she really meant to ask how. She was so sure that she was alone, that no one had seen her write that letter! And she had never meant to send it, anyway. She should have discarded it. Or never have written it in the first place.

"Well…"

"Yes?" she prompted.

"I was bored, alright? And you were there. I watched you write it, by the willow next to the lake." Jack Frost admitted. There was a trace of defensiveness in his tone.

Tonks was going to reprimand him for it when she remembered, abruptly, when North had told her that Jack Frost had been an amnesiac spirit who was mostly left to his own device and ignored for the better part of 300 years. Her heart softened a little and she kept quiet. It was not long before they arrived, with the help of the wind.

"North!" she cried, tumbling into North's waiting arms.

"I missed you," he told her as he patted her on the back.

"Me too," she muttered, burying her face into his chest. They remained like that for a while, before a cough broke them apart. Jack Frost stood there, awkwardly, looking pointedly at the door.

A little abashed, North opened the door and the three of them entered. The toy factory was still bustling, although not with as much activity as when Christmas was near. "This way, there's something I want to show both of you."

After Jack left, North asked Tonks, "What is it?"

Tonks blinked at him.

"You wanted to ask me something, didn't you?"

"Well… would you mind if I bring Charlie here next time?" Tonks finished it in one breath, trying to get it over with quickly.

"Charlie?"

'Damn,' Tonks thought. He caught it.

"Yeah, Charlie, Charlie Weasley. He wanted to meet my boyfriend."

"Why?" North asked. "Does he doubt you?"

"What? No! He's just being an overbearing mother hen. He wanted to make sure that my boyfriend was treating me well."

"I'm not treating you well enough?" North sounded anxious and worried. He looked ready to start making her enough toys to fill a whole house as an apology to make up for whatever he was lacking in. (He had done it before, Tonks didn't have the heart to throw anything away, so she gave everything away, to Ron, Ginny, the Weasley Twins and orphanages. Suffice to say, she did not want to have to go through the explanations again. It did not help that they named it the 'Giant Explosion of Gifts Day'.)

"No, no, no," she hurried to comfort him. "He just wanted to make sure."

Now, North looked confused. "Make sure? Can't he take your word for it?"

Inwardly, Tonks cringed. How was she supposed to explain this? After mulling it over, she settled for "Well, it's just something that protective friends do."

Thankfully, North took her word for it and agreed. He even promised to let Charlie come with them to deliver the presents this year.

As she smashed the globe and was taken to her bedroom, she wondered how she was going to break it to Charlie that her boyfriend, Santa Claus, had agreed to meeting him and they were going to go on a ride in a chariot drawn by reigndeers. Together. Possibly accompanied by a winter spirit who, like the Weasley Twins, loved to prank unsuspecting people.

"Ah well, I'll worry about it later," she decided.

"So, when am I going to meet him?" Charlie asked the next time they met.

"Soon. During Christmas Eve," Tonks replied.

Charlie waggled his eyebrows at her. "You're bringing him to the family dinner?"

"No," she said. "I'm bringing you to him."

"What about the dinner?"

"You can afford to miss one, Charlie. Trust me, if you want to meet him, this is your only chance."

Truthfully, Tonks was a little worried that the magic was not working for Charlie. For the past five minutes, as she had taken them into the factory and was walking up the stairs to North's special workroom, he was uncharacteristically silent.

Then, he spoke. "Why are there yetis and leprechuans here?"

"They work here," she replied cheerfully. A little too cheerfully, upon reflection.

He stared at her suspiciously. "They work here?"

"Yup!" She maintained the same cheerful tone.

He looked a little creeped out now. "You're never this cheerful, you know?"

She rounded on him. "You did want to meet North, didn't you?"

"Yes…"

"Here we are!"

Charlie had gotten along wonderfully with North, although, for a while, he had seemed a little overwhelmed. He had requested to be left behind in The Burrow when they passed by, and North had relented.

After they returned to the North Pole, the two of them celebrated. Sometime between that and dawn, Bunnymund, Jack Frost and Sandman showed up. Tonks might have gotten a little tipsy on the eggnog North provided. When the sun rose, she bade North goodbye while he opened a portal for her.

As she stepped through the portal, she called out, "Oh, Charlie actually wanted to know when we're going to get married!" She could distinctly hear the chaos explode in the factory.

Charlie was waiting for her in her room when she broke down laughing. When she was done, she straightened up. She then toppled into him. Luckily for her, he caught her. He didn't bat an eyelash as her hair changed colours rapidly. "So… what are you here for? You've already met him…"

"Who is he?"

Perhaps she was still not thinking clearly. With the rational filter removed, she blurted out, "Santa Claus, of course!"

Charlie closed his eyes and pinched his nose bridge with his free hand. He sighed exasperately before opening his eyes again. Tonks remained spineless in his arms.

"Right. Who, exactly, is he? I'm pretty sure not many people employs yetis and elves to work in a toy factory and go around the world to deliver…."

Apparently, his brain finally started working. "Wait…" he said slowly.

The sh*t-eating grin was still plastered on her face as she passed over into the realm of unconsciousness.

"You're boyfriend is Santa Claus?!"