It was the dead of night at Hogwarts. Dora crept up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower, carrying her trainers by the laces for silence and so that she wouldn't trip—not on them, at any rate. She reached the door and pushed it open, highly pleased with her progress this far. She hadn't seen a soul, living or dead, and was quite sure that no one had seen her.

Stepping outside, she took sever deep breaths of the cool, crisp night air and grinned broadly. It was a gorgeous night. Since she was all alone, she let her hair turn a violent shade of purple (her favorite color of the week) and sighed contentedly. Andromeda was, she thought to herself, a very paranoid woman, to not want her estranged family to know that her daughter was a metamorphmagus. Sure, most of them used to be Death Eaters, but with You-Know-Who gone, what were they going to do?

Dora followed her mother's wishes, partly because her fears might be founded but mostly because Andromeda was still her mother. Nevertheless, not using her powers at school, sometimes for months at a time, made it feel like they were just going to burst. So she came up here every once in a while.

With new briskness and energy, she crossed to the outer rim of the Tower and scrambled up onto the ramparts, balancing carefully lest she fall off.

"Hello," said a voice behind her, quite nearly causing her to jump out of her skin.

"AAH! Oh, uh, I'm sorry, I, uh, I didn't know anyone else was up here…" Oh, that was a brilliant thing to say if it was a teacher, but she couldn't see for the darkness. The stars were out by the hundredfold, but it was a new moon and her eyes hadn't fully adjusted.

"No, I'm sorry for startling you. And really, it's all right, it's nice to have company." It was definitely a boy's voice, she decided. Not a teacher, then! But not a voice she could place either…

"So, what brings you up here?" the boy continued, startling her out of her thoughts again. "If you're just an avid stargazer, I think we would have met out here before now, so…" he trailed off.

Dora was thinking as fast as she could along two different lines. The first was thinking of an excuse, while the second tried to remember what shade of violet her hair was, and whether she should change it to black, brown, or blond in order to keep him from noticing in the dim light.

"Nothing too much," she said more off-handedly than she felt. "I'm kinda disappointed in my classmates; I thought they were more mature than to laugh at a person 'cuz she tripped on the stairs…" She hazarded a guess and went with black for her hair. Darkish brown was probably a better guess, but she'd always hated her hair brown.

The voice in the darkness laughed, "Yeah, well…you're up here, so I'll assume you didn't hurt yourself."

"Yeah," she answered, meaning to sound jovial, but it didn't come out that way. He caught on.

"That wasn't really it, was it? Something's wrong, let's hear it," her companion prodded.

"What? Nothing's wrong—"

"Come on, it can really help to tell all your problems to a complete stranger," he said jokingly. When she hesitated, he added, "I promise."

She quirked her mouth in annoyance, but took a deep breath and said in a rush, "The-guy-I-fancied-completely-blew-me-off."

The boy paused long enough that she thought he might not answer. Finally, he said, "That's rough. Actually happened to me recently, too—with a girl, that is!"

Dora couldn't help but laugh. "Of co-ourse," she said teasingly.

"Hey!"

"Sorry!" she said quickly, "My big mouth, and all that."

"It's alright."

They sat in silence for a while—at least, Dora was sitting. She still couldn't see her companion, only hear him from not too far to her left.

Then he said quietly, "You shouldn't worry about him. He was probably a jerk anyway."

Dora wasted no time in adding, "And she must have been a prat!" as if she were making a particularly vehement toast, and they both dissolved into gales of laughter.

More than a few hours later they were still talking animatedly when the first inklings of false dawn snaked across the sky, and that was when Dora's companion caught her yawning.

"Oh, jeez, we talked all night. Come on, let's get to bed…"

"T'morrow's Saturday," Dora protested weakly. She didn't want to go anywhere, but she was sleeping on her feet.

"Today's Saturday, by now. And besides, I've got Quidditch later."

"You're on a Quidditch team? So'm I! Wait, who are you, anyway?" She could still only make out the silhouette of the boy—now her sight was blurred from lack of sleep.

"Charlie Weasley, at your service," he said with a little bow.

"The Charlie Weasley? I just spent the entire night talking to—"

"Ah, come off it, I get enough of that from the mobs!"

"the Charlie Weasley, and I didn't even know it!" Dora finished, ignoring his interruption. "Jeez…"

"I gave you my name," he reminded.

"Nymphadora Tonks, pleased to meet you," she answered, pretending at a curtsey.

"Hufflepuff? Merlin's beard, I'm glad you're not a Slytherin!"

Dora giggled, "What would you've done if I was?"

Charlie's face screwed up a bit in with the unpleasant thought. "And on their Quidditch team to boot? Retracted the bow, for a start…"

"There aren't any girls on Slytherin's Quidditch team," she reminded him, irked.

He just tilted his head to the side as he held open the door, grinning. "That's true, isn't it? So I didn't have anything to worry about!"

Dora snorted at that to keep from laughing, then frowned at the stairs. "Broom's the only place I'm not a complete klutz," she muttered.

"So, you really did trip on the stairs?"

"Well, yeah."

Charlie laughed, but she found she didn't mind it from him. "Come on, then. I won't let you fall," he said with very heroic hand gestures, causing Dora to laugh again.

At the bottom of the stairs, realization caught up with Dora's overtired mind. "Hey, you're playing Ravenclaw later, aren't you?"

Charlie frowned mock-woefully, "And that's why I need some sleep. You'll be rooting for Gryffindor," he asked, eyebrow raised.

"Oh, really, I was going to root Ravenclaw," she said innocently, but at his glare added wickedly, "but the guy I fancied, you know, the one I told you about, is a Ravenclaw. So I really need to find my red and gold scarf…"

Charlie smiled, fully appreciative. "I'll see you there, then."

"Just make sure you fly well so I can brag!" she called back at him as he took the corridor to Gryffindor tower. Rightly cautious of Filch, he responded with a thumbs-up gesture.

It was with a considerably lighter heart that Nymphadora Tonks returned to the Hufflepuff common room.

fin.

A/N This is, I hope, a fairly original take on how Tonks and Charlie meet if she's not a Gryffindor. I have no idea where it's going, so if you have any ideas review and let me know what you think. Also let me know if you want more, peeps .