It was October 31st 1987 and Nymphadora Tonks, or Tonks as she prefered, was sitting alone in detention with Professor Severus Snape, the Potions Master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Being in detention with him was nothing unusual for any of the students at Hogwarts, least of all Tonks, due to her seemingly high levels of clumsiness. She often seemed to break things or blow things up and he chose to punish her repeatedly for that, usually making her clean up the mess she had made, write lines or sort through his store room. She, like any other student, despised him for giving her detentions when it was only due to accidental occurances that such things happened anywhere but it seemed there was no real way of getting out of a detention with the formidable Potions Master. It was far easier to just sit the detention and leave than to argue with him unless the reason for doing so was to have all the points from your house removed. This was something Tonks didnt want to happen and therefore she would simply sit there until she was told to leave.

That day, she had yet again managed to concoct some sort of potion that had blown up the cauldron and sent boiling liquid of some sort all over Professor Snape. She hadn't done it on purpose, of course. She hadnt even realised she had done it at all until she saw he was soaking wet and steaming. Sure she disliked her teacher. Everyone did. But why would she want to hurt him like that? Annoy him perhaps but she knew that hurting a Professor would put her in deep trouble with the Headmaster and, as much as she liked Professor Albus Dumbledore, she didnt want to get on the wrong side of him and have her life ended at the age of fourteen. She was just very clumsy and so, accidents like that happened. Unfortunately, Severus Snape was not one to ignore these sorts of events, accidental or not.

While everyone else was downstairs having fun at the party for Halloween, a tradition at Hogwarts due to the general nature of the school, Tonks was sitting with her Potions teacher counting down the hours until the end of the party and the end of her detention. She had hoped he would let her go if she actually finished all of the work he set her and so she had finished cleaning the room as quickly as she could. However, Professor Snape hadnt seen that as good enough for a punishment as it had been over too quickly so she was forced to sit out the rest of the party there as well. She was beginning to really get annoyed at being kept there and her hair kept changing between several shades of red as she sat there, much to the annoyance of the Slytherin Potions Master who hated anything that remotely resembled Gryffindor.

She had been staring at the desk for the past hour and a half and was getting rather bored of doing so. Her eyes flicked up momentarily in order to glare at the teacher but she noticed something she had never seen before when it came to the man seated at the desk in front of her. He looked sad. Truly sad. It wasn't a mocked up look of annoyance or anything like that for once but it was true sadness. He almost looked as though he was missing something or a part of him had died. Her glare had softened to more of a look of concern but before she had a chance to really analyse the look in his eyes though, his eyes met hers and she looked away as she didn't want to appear too intrusive.

His voice broke the silence in the room, "Would you mind telling me why you were staring at me, Nymphadora?" His voice sounded rather harsher than usual as he had been caught not looking like his usual grumpy self and therefore he used her first name to avert her attention to something else before she had much time to think about what she had seen. With a bit of luck, she might forget seeing it. It seemed to have worked as her hair turned a more violent shade of red and she said nothing. She had temporarily forgotten that look in his eyes and she just shook her head, "Sorry Professor," she mumbled as she bit back the anger at his use of her first name. He knew she hated it, yet he always insisted on using it. With all the other students, he would use their last name but not with her. It was almost as if he wanted to annoy her. Perhaps he did. She would probably never know, though.

She continued to stare at the desk for a few more minutes as she wondered who Charlie Weasley, the guy who should have been taking her to the Halloween party, had gone with in the end. She hoped it wasnt anyone she disliked, or her best friend for that matter. That would simply be awful. Her hair continued to glow a violent red at the thought of it and Professor Snape watched her for a few moments as if contemplating whether to query her prolonged choice of hair colour. Normally, it had returned to pink within a few moments as she would think about the Gryffindor boy or whomever she was interested in now. This time, it was his turn to be caught out though as Tonks glanced up and caught him watching her.

He glanced at the sun dial (something which none of the students could understand him having in such a dark dungeon) and found that it was almost 10 o'clock. "Go to your dormitory," Snape said to her, no hint of politeness in his voice at all as he simply wanted to get rid of her. He hated how he often seemed to have to waste so much time keeping her in detentions. Maybe one day she would learn but at the moment, that seemed highly unlikely.

Tonks got up and left the room, slamming the door as she did, but she headed straight to the Hufflepuff common room. She didnt see the point in disobeying Snape because she would only end up with more detentions and she really didnt want any more after the number she had been forced to have recently. She walked slowly through the corridors, eventually arriving at the common room and heading up to her room. She slumped onto the bed and her mind wandered back to Charlie again. She certainly hoped he hadnt gone with anyone she didnt want him to go with. Hopefully next time they would be able to go together. She just hoped she wouldnt end up with another detention the next time there was a party at Hogwarts, presumably Christmas.