"Tonks, Nymphadora!"
Tonks walked up to the Sorting Hat, uneasily. She was also a little annoyed that Professor McGonagall had used her first name. Now everyone would know. Great. The teasing will never stop now...
She sat down, and the Sorting Hat was placed on her bright pink spiky hair.
"Hmm. You're a feisty one. Lots of spunk, I see. Very loyal, very loyal – ahh, and talent, too! Impatient, are we?" It asked, as Tonks began to tap her foot. "And cunning – hard to place, hard to place. Better be... HUFFLEPUFF!"
Tonks smiled, relieved that she hadn't been put in Slytherin. She was worried when the Sorting Hat had mentioned the word 'cunning'. Her Dad would be proud, at least. To show her house spirit, she changed her hair to egg-yolk yellow as the hat was taken off and hoped for the best.
There was silence in the Great Hall. Then, as suddenly as the silence had come, it passed. The whole Hufflepuff table was on their feet, cheering and hooting for the Metamorphmagus. A prefect was yelling, "Suck it, Davies! We got the Metamorphmagus! We got the Chameleon!" McGonagall hushed the Hufflepuff table, and continued. Tonks felt great. Until...
"Weasley, Charles!"
It could happen, she thought, it's happened before. Happens all the time! Siblings don't always get put in the same house! Just because Bill's in Gryffindor, it doesn't mean Charlie couldn't be in Hufflepuff – remember Uncle Sirius? Didn't he get put in Gryffindor after generations of Slytherins? Yeah, another part of Tonks thought, that worked well for him, didn't it? Now he's in Azkaban. Shame, I liked him.
The Sorting Hat had barely touched Charlie's head when it called out, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Tonks' heart sank.
Charlie walked to the Gryffindor table and sat next to his brother. He shot Tonks what he thought was an apologetic stare, which was not seen by Tonks, who was too busy playing with her dinner. Her hair faded to a mousy brown as she constructed a mountain of mash potato.
"Tonks!" he cried, trying to catch her before she went off to the Hufflepuff common room, but his consolations were lost in the sudden rush of students escaping the Great Hall to their dormitories.