The following morning Tonks woke up to a gloriously sunny dormitory. Alex and Robin were also stirring. With a yawn, Tonks pushed off the toasty quilt and forced herself out of bed. The girls changed quickly, Tonks settling on a baby blue colour for her hair and heading up to breakfast at the Hufflepuff table.
Tonks didn't see any sign of Charlie as she munched on some Rice Crispies followed by buttered toast. She, Don and the other First Years popped back to the Common Room after breakfast where they found their timetables perched on the bedside cabinets. Tonks chatted to some of the older Hufflepuffs about what to expect from her lessons before she and Don headed back up to the Great Hall for lunch.
The enchanted ceiling was grey and overcast, unlike the bright sunshine that shone through the windows of the Hufflepuff Basement, but they dug into Sunday Lunch all the same. Tonks didn't think she'd eaten so much in such a short space of time since she'd first broken her leg and received a huge basket of Honeydukes chocolates from her parents as a get well present.
Tonks was just telling Don about what one of the Hufflepuff sixth years had said about Professor Snape's potions classes when Charlie bounded over to them.
'So what's going on with that name Tonks? Nympho- what was it?' His voice wavered as he tried to stop himself laughing. Tonks blushed and knew that the tips of her hair were also flushing red.
'Nymphadora,' she muttered, cursing her mother once again for giving her that stupid name.
'That's the one!' Charlie grinned, 'anyway, I just popped over to see what subjects you, Don and I have together tomorrow.' Don had left his in the dorm, so Tonks fished her timetable out of her pocket.
'I've got Defence, History of Magic, Herbology and Flying,' she said, reading off her subjects. Charlie checked his at the same time
'Cool! That means we've got Herbology together, but not Potions or Transfiguration,' he thought for a moment, 'what about Charms? I've got it fifth on Tuesday.'
'Yes, we've got that! What about astronomy, midnight on Thursday?' Don asked, reading over Tonks' shoulder.
'No, I've got that Tuesday,' Charlie said. 'Hey, when you're done do you want to come on a tour around the castle? My brother Bill's taking me and the boys around.'
They had nothing else to do, so Tonks and Don accepted.
'Who's he?' Robin asked Tonks from down the table.
'Charlie Weasley,' she replied.
From the end of lunch until dinner time, Charlie's older brother Bill and two of his friends, Kirley McCormack and Myron Wagtail showed Charlie, Buck, Reg, Fergus, Don and Tonks around the castle and its grounds.
To begin, they headed out to the greenhouses and saw Professor Sprout, a short, dumpy woman pottering about with yet more strange plants than were in the Hufflepuff Basement. They saw the Giant Squid basking in the shallows of the Black Lake on their way to the Quidditch pitch. Don murmured that he had never heard of Quidditch before and was instantly set upon by Charlie, Buck and Fergus as they explained the rules to him.
Tonks chatted to Myron instead. Myron was a third year Hufflepuff who wanted to be a rock star. He was quite into Muggle punk rock, so that conversation easily lasted all the way over to Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Bill knocked on Hagrid's door but no one answered so they moved on.
'So why's the forest forbidden?' Tonks asked Bill as they passed a gnarled looking willow on their way back up to the castle.
'Well there's all sorts of dangerous things in there,' he said, 'there's the largest herd of centaurs in the UK in there, not to mention a bunch of other stuff you don't want to run into. Rumour has it there's also a large cluster of Acromantula living in there. There are unicorns too, and someone said there's meant to be werewolves in there, but I don't think there is.'
'You'd better not be Mudbloods!' squawked a portrait of a witch in a ruff and a dark dress as they entered the dungeons. She reminded Tonks too much of her mother's pure-blood mad side of the family.
'Get lost!' she told the portrait, which looked taken aback by the blue haired girl.
Despite being underground like the Hufflepuff Basement, the dungeons lacked all of the warmth. Yet another reason Tonks was happy she wasn't in Slytherin, however "interesting" the Sorting Hat thought that might have been. At the end of the corridor Bill pointed out the Potions classroom. Professor Snape, the sallow-skinned, greasy haired, potions master emerged from his office and told them to leave or he'd take points from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. Tonks decided that she didn't like him much.
'Try not to give Snape and excuse to take points away from you,' Bill advised as they climbed the spiral staircase back up to the entrance hall. 'He hates any house that isn't Slytherin.' It turned out that Snape was also the Head of Slytherin House.
They headed up the Grand Staircase and Bill pointed out the vanishing steps as they went. They saw the Transfiguration and History of Magic classrooms on the first floor, and the Charms classroom on the third. They stopped for a long conversation with the tiny Professor Flitwick who urged them to join the Charms club. They passed the ghost of the Grey Lady on the way to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, also on the third floor.
Then it was suddenly time for dinner and bed, ready for the first day of school at Hogwarts the next morning.
Tonks and the other Hufflepuff first years were some of the first people to arrive for breakfast in the Great Hall the next morning. Tonks was dressed in a white shirt, and black skirt with her newly sewn Hufflepuff robes over the top. She had spent fifteen minutes attempting to tie the black and yellow tie and ended up sporting a very short tie with a huge knot at the neck.
Tonks sat beside Robin and Alex, eagerly discussing what Defence Against the Dark Arts would be like. Don sat opposite Tonks, between Augustus Pye and Robin's twin Oliver.
As the Hall started filling up so did Tonks, as she ploughed through her plate of sausages, bacon, beans and toast.
She nearly spat a mouthful of her breakfast out when a crowd of owls streamed into the Great Hall, causing Don to jump about a foot in the air.
'They're just delivering the post,' Tonks laughed, once she had recovered. Don stared unbelievably up at the owls, jumping again when one swooped low over the Hufflepuff table and deposited a newspaper onto a plate of bacon.
'Aw, come on!' groaned Matthew Carneirus, retrieving his Daily Prophet from the plate.
Tonks was surprised to find an owl deliver her a letter. She opened the envelope, recognising her mother's handwriting, and read:
Dear Dora,
How was your first night at Hogwarts? Which house did you end up in? The house feels so empty without you, your father and I miss you already.
Owl us when you get a chance and tell us all about your first week.
Lots of love,
Mum and Dad
xxx
Tonks folded up the letter and slipped it into the pocket of her robes, thinking of home.
Double Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Ravenclaws and the new Professor Kelly was Tonks' first lesson. Professor Kelly stood at the front of the long Third Floor classroom, dressed in a three-piece suit with his robes on the banister of the staircase leading up to his office. His black and white hair stood out even more as the morning sunrays fell on it.
Tonks sat beside Don, behind the brown haired Martin Amerinus from Ravenclaw.
'Welcome to Defence Against the Dark Arts,' he began. 'You first years are my very first class, so I thought that I would begin with a fun lesson. So, a brief explanation of what this class is about. Simply put, this class is here to help you combat the effects of Dark Magic, and to do so we will be starting with simple distraction.' He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and took out his wand.
'There's a lot of practical work in my lessons and the theory will be given to you as homework. Without the theory you cannot attempt to cast the next lesson's spells, so I expect you all to do my homework or I won't let you into the next lesson. Understood?'
Tonks nodded eagerly, keen to get on with casting some cool spells.
'Now, common sense – something that a lot of wizards and witches lack these days. It would be hard to curse someone if you couldn't walk, wouldn't it class?' They nodded. 'You there, front and centre,' Kelly pointed to a bushy haired Ravenclaw next to Amerinus.
'What's your name?' Kelly asked.
'Gumboil, sir. Alastor Gumboil.'
'Well then Gumboil, this is very simple: I just want you to walk towards me with your wand raised. Don't try to cast any spells, just walk. This is only a demonstration, alright?'
Gumboil nodded.
'Okay then, walk towards me.'
Gumboil walked towards the Professor with his wand raised, his eyes wide in anticipation.
'Locomotor Wibbly!' Professor Kelly cried, a flash of purple flew from the end of his wand and caught Gumboil on his knees. Gumboil wobbled, trying to take another step, but fell over instead.
The class laughed as Gumboil tried to pick himself off the floor. Kelly walked over to the boy and muttered the counter curse before helping the messy haired boy back to his feet.
'You've heard the spell and seen what it can do, now it's your turn,' Kelly announced to the class. 'I'll write the pronunciation on the board. Find a partner and try to cast this on each other, remembering these steps for casting jinxes: pronunciation, imagination and conviction!'
Tonks grinned and looked at Don. They found a space at the back of the room and took it in turns to jinx each other. Don's first shot missed Tonks and hit the wall behind her, but Tonks caught Don on the knee and his legs weakened slightly.
By the end of the double lesson Tonks was able to cast a decent Jelly Legs Jinx and Don was able to hit Tonks, but not quite send her to the floor. Professor Kelly loudly praised Tonks' jinxing ability the sixth time he performed the counter curse on Don and helped him into a seat.
'You're a natural at this Miss Tonks,' Kelly told her, 'maybe by the end of the year I'll show you all the Bat Bogey Hex,'
The bell rang to signify the end of the double lesson and the entire class groaned because they were having so much fun. Professor Kelly did a final round of counter curses and advised them not to go running for a while and to take care on the Grand Staircase.
Tonks and Don met up with Charlie at break time and told him all about their lesson. He enviously told them about how double Potions with Snape had gone.
'He hates everyone who's not in Slytherin,' Charlie complained, 'he kept telling me to watch Rowle or take advice from Scabior, like I would do that! Then he kept saying I was an idiot!' Still fuming, Charlie headed off to Transfiguration while Tonks and Don continued on to History of Magic.
The best part of the lesson was undoubtedly the start of the lesson. Shunpike, a lanky Slytherin boy, swore loudly when Professor Binns, the only ghost teacher at Hogwarts, drifted into the classroom through the blackboard. Oblivious to his sniggering class, Binns started to read notes, in a reedy voice, on some goblin rebellion that Tonks barely understood. By the end of the lesson Tonks had her head in her hands and her eyes were closed. She had tried to take notes, but decided that it was pointless when she realised that she really didn't care. Don was in a sleepy stupor, staring at the blank parchment on his desk.
After a refreshing lunch, Tonks and the Hufflepuffs joined Charlie and the other Gryffindors on the way down to Greenhouse One for Herbology.
Professor Sprout was Head of Hufflepuff House and had the cheery outlook that was expected of everyone in her house. She was rather short and quite dumpy, with flyaway hair and dirty hands from gardening all day.
'Right class!' she called as they gathered around a large work-table in the middle of the warm and sweet smelling Greenhouse. 'Today we will be learning the correct way to prune aconite, now, can anyone tell me what other names this plant goes by?'
Wolfsbane and Monkshood, Tonks thought, not bothering to put her hand up.
Pye and a Gryffindor raised their hands. 'Elkins?' Sprout addressed the Gryffindor girl.
'Wolfsbane and Monkshood,' she answered.
The class continued like a question and answer session with some gardening thrown in, Tonks decided that Herbology was her second favourite lesson so far.
The Hufflepuffs had Flying class with the Ravenclaws fifth lesson, so Tonks and Don found themselves out on the grass in front of the Castle. The air smelled of freshly cut grass and the sun was peeking out from the thin clouds above. The Ravenclaws were already congregated on the lawn around fifteen or so broomsticks.
Tonks had been on a broom once before. It had been her father's and it was a secret they both kept from Tonks' mother – she knew Tonks' track record on the ground and didn't care to put her daughter in even more of a precarious position hovering above the ground. But as it turned out, Tonks was alright with flying and was much safer away from the ground.
The Flying teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived shortly after the Hufflepuffs. She had short grey hair and yellow hawk-like eyes that flitted from student to student as she made her way to the front of the class.
'Stand by a broomstick, come on!' She barked. Tonks got a rather battered looking broom between Don and Robin. The Ravenclaws filed opposite the Hufflepuffs so Tonks found herself facing the brown-haired Arkie Philpott.
'Get a grip Tarrick, the broom won't bite you!' A blonde Ravenclaw nervously stared down at her broom. 'All of you stick your right hand over your broom and say "up!"'
'UP!' They chorused. Tonks' broom needed telling twice before it leaped up into her hand. She nearly dropped it in surprise. Don's broom got halfway to his hand before dropping straight back to the floor, and Robin's simply rolled around on the grass.
Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms properly so they wouldn't slide off the end, and then saw everyone individually to check their grips.
'When I blow my whistle,' she told them all, 'kick off from the ground. Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and return to the ground by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle – three – two – one!'
A high pitched shrill pierced the air and almost all of the class rose a couple of feet into the air. Lucy Tarrick needed some encouragement before she took off. The wind picked up and blew through Tonks' hair, it felt great and she just wanted to fly off around the grounds.
'And touch back down!' Madam Hooch ordered.
Tonks reluctantly leaned forward a fraction and her broom descended back to ground level.
'Oh my god that was amazing!' Don panted when his feet were back on the ground.
'You looked terrified,' Tonks pointed out.
'I was! But I was flying! I didn't even have wings or anything!' Tonks chuckled at his excitement; it was how she had felt when she'd first flown too.
'Okay, spread out! We're going to do some flying in straight lines!'
After Flying, the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws went back into the castle for dinner. They were all chattering excitedly about the lesson, and Don was almost jumping about with eagerness to write it all down and send to his parents.
Back in the Hufflepuff dorm Tonks and Don settled by the window in the Common Room and started on their Defence homework.