A/N: I'm sorry this has taken me so long! I had written the first half right after I uploaded the last chapter but honestly, the second half gave me so much trouble. This chapter is quite a bit shorter, but I wanted to get at least something up. I might come back and add something onto this one, or I might just put it in the next chapter. Hope it's alright!
After class, Charlie waited for Tonks to gather her things. She heaved her textbooks into her arms, but as she did, her elbow knocked over her inkwell and sent it flying off the edge of the desk. Without thinking twice, Charlie's hand shot out and caught it before it fell to smithereens. Tonks shot him a grateful look.
As they left the classroom and into a fairly empty corridor, Charlie remembered something else he'd overheard the previous night, something he'd been dying to ask all morning.
"Is it true you can change what you look like?" he blurted out. She giggled and said nothing. Charlie waited for an answer, but when he heard none, he looked over at her.
"Argh!" he yelled, jumping about a foot into the air. Blushing, he tried to regain some of the composure he'd lost upon seeing his own face attached to a girl's body and looking back at him. "How do you do that?"
Tonks laughed, morphing her face back to normal. "Dunno. Just can. I'm a metamorphagus." The word meant nothing to Charlie but he nodded all the same.
Tonks piped up again. "Any special requests? I never got to change around my muggle friends, so I just muck around by myself in the mirror. I bet there's heaps of things I haven't tried."
"Can you only do humans?"
"I can't turn into an animal, if that's what you're asking."
"I heard you turned into a pig to prank Marlene."
"Oh that." As she walked, Tonks shifted her nose into a snout and ears into piggy flaps like she had done in front of the sixth-years last week. When she spoke, her voice came out normally. "I've figured that I can change parts of me that are already on my body, but I can't grow things that aren't there, like a tail, and I can't get rid of things." She pointed at her orange eyebrows to demonstrate.
"Could you do a dragon, then?"
Tonks paused, then stopped walking and turned to him with shining eyes. "I've never tried that! What features would a dragon have?"
Charlie beamed. He was in his element. Since he was four, his parents had read him books about dragons every night and he'd be damned if he didn't get this Tonks-dragon perfect. "You'll probably need a snout, first."
Tonks blinked in confusion. "But I already have a snout." She snorted through her pig snout to demonstrate. Charlie giggled.
"No, a reptile's snout! Dragons are reptiles –"
"Say what now?" Tonks seemed lost.
Charlie thought fast. "Um, have you seen a crocodile's snout?"
Tonks jutted out her chin and scrunched up her face. A long, toothy snout protruded from her face and Charlie looked at it critically.
"No, shorter."
It halved itself to about six-inches.
"Rounder."
Tonks rolled her eyes. "I thought you just told me to make it long and skinny!"
"Yes but that's because the pig was too round."
"Exactly how round is it supposed to be?"
Charlie ran through a list of animals he knew. "Like a dog's muzzle," he said with certainty.
"A short, scaly dog's muzzle with lots of sharp teeth?" Tonks asked with a touch of skepticism.
"Yep."
"If you say so." Tonks altered her snout again to exactly that.
"Right, now we'll do the eyes?"
"Yeah!" She cheered enthusiastically.
Charlie worked hard on getting her eyes looking as close to a dragon's as possible and Tonks worked with him. Before long, Tonks had not only altered the shape of her eyes, but also changed the colour of her irises and dilated her pupils. When they were done, Charlie took a step back and frowned. "It's still missing something."
Tonks turned electric blue. Charlie yelped. "Whoa! Not that!"
Tonks giggled and turned scarlet instead. Charlie looked thoughtful. "You know, there is a species of dragon that has bright red scales," he began slowly.
"Let me guess, it's red and gold?"
Charlie looked stunned. "How'd you know?"
"You're so very Gryffindor," she smirked.
"Oh," he smiled sheepishly. "Yeah." Then he fell silent for a while.
"Ooh, I have an idea!" Tonks suddenly shrieked. She concentrated hard. Charlie watched in awe as her hair gelled together to form a halo of golden spikes fringing her fearsome features. Her teeth sharpened to fangs, and her skin turned scaly.
The spitting image of a Chinese Fireball gazed out of Tonks' face and Charlie felt like crying with happiness upon seeing his favourite dragon come to life before his eyes. Seeing her new friend so happy made Tonks' hair turn bright pink with delight and the two scurried to their next class, animatedly discussing what she should try next.
"All right, listen up you lot!" James Potter's voice rose above the din in the Gryffindor Common Room after dinner the following week. "Thanks for coming to the first house meeting of the year. We'll try not to take up too much of your time, but we'll be holding these every month or so. And now, please welcome the one and only Amelia Bones for some announcements!"
Amelia stepped up onto the table, smiling wryly. "Yes, thanks for that James."
Hopping off, he gave a dramatic sweeping bow to the Head Girl. "Floor's all yours, Ames."
Shooting him a quick mock-glare, Amelia addressed her house. "First of all lions, congratulations! We're six weeks into term and sitting comfortably at the top of the scoreboard." That brought out a great cheer from the crowd. "That aside, the Headmaster would like to remind you all that the Hallowe'en Feast is coming up and Mr Filch has banned all Filibuster Fireworks indoors." She looked suspiciously at the Marauders, who stared back innocently. "And if any of you lose points over something as stupid as that, I will personally wring your throats."
"Love you too, Bones!" Sirius called. Amelia rolled her eyes and gestured for Remus and Lily to make their announcements, before climbing off the table herself. She left the Common Room to go to Ravenclaw Tower and update them on the news as well.
Lily watched the Fat Lady's portrait swing closed before clearing her throat. "Right, I'll keep this short. As your prefects, Remus and I would just like to remind the younger year levels that if you're having trouble in any of your subjects, we run a help desk on Saturday mornings. For the older students, please make sure you put your name down for a shift or we will start allocating them." She glanced at Remus. "Is that all?"
"You'll get more reminders as we get closer to the holidays, but make sure to let Professor McGonagall know as soon as you can if you plan to stay at Hogwarts over the Christmas break." He nodded at Lily. "That's all from us." There was some polite clapping that turned into whoops and cheers as James scrambled back onto the table.
"A big thank you to the beautiful Lily Evans and equally beautiful Remus Lupin!" he grinned. Remus shoved his friend before stepping off and Lily swung her leg down, blushing. Why are you blushing? she scolded herself. He pulls that kind of stuff all the time. But looking up at his cocksure figure, so confident in himself, she found herself more amused than irritated, as she once might have been.
"In case you haven't heard already, Quidditch season is coming up!" he was saying. A roar of approval met his words. "We have three spots open this year – almost half the team. Sign up sheets are already pinned up on that noticeboard over there," James pointed to a wide corkboard spanning the wall between the two flights of stairs leading to the boys and girls' dormitories, "and try-outs will be held next week." The room broke into excited whispers.
"If you have any questions, feel free to ask me or one of the other Gryffindor team members. Otherwise, have a good night folks!" James jumped off the table to a round of applause. Students started to break apart, chatting about the impending Quidditch trials as they drifted up to their dorms in groups.
Grinning, James made his way over to Remus and Lily who were busy going over the mentoring roster. He slung an arm round each of them and Lily had to pretend not to notice the casual familiarity he touched her with.
"I reckon the first house meeting of the year went well!" he exclaimed.
"Nice job out there, Prongs," Remus smiled. Lily nodded, but her next sentence was interrupted by the current members of the Gryffindor team joining the trio.
"Way to go Captain," whooped Marlene. James turned, dropping his arms to receive three high fives from his teammates.
"How's the team looking?" Frank rumbled.
"Pretty good, I'd say. We've got some talented prospects to pick from." James sounded quite pleased with his house.
Sirius' eyes glinted. "Fresh meat. Mate, we should hit them with some kind of induction ceremony."
Marlene slapped him on the shoulder before turning to James. "We've had a question about a reserve team? You haven't told us if you're organising one yet."
Lily watched as James ran a hand through his hair, steeled himself, then followed Marlene over to a group of second and third years who were bursting with questions. He calmly answered each of them, assuring a few nervous-looking ones and even chuckling at something one of them had said. From the wide eyes and bright smiles they sported, it was clear that the younger students adored him.
He is such a natural leader, Lily thought. She knew that she'd never manage the kind of innate leadership ability that James had, but she didn't mind. Instead, Lily felt her respect for him grow.
A/N: In case you were wondering, I'm fairly sure I'm going to make Amos Diggory Head Boy. And Amelia Bones is a Gryffindor so she usually addresses the Gryffindor Common Room then goes over to Ravenclaw to do the same because they're both on the seventh floor (I think?). Amos, being a Hufflepuff, would do his own house and then cross the basement to the Slytherin Dungeons.
And yes, the Gryffindor Team is currently just four sixth-years, but I'm planning to add in two fifth-years and a particularly talented fourth year. We'll just pretend the seventh years aren't very good at Quidditch? Let me know if you think there should be a reserve team - I'm hesitant to add too many characters for fear of confusion.