A/N – I'm still struggling through these! This was another difficult one, but hopefully it has come out alright… A young Tonks and Charlie Weasley fic.

Prompt – It was a foolproof plan, or so they thought…

It was a foolproof plan, or so they thought. Charlie and Dora had set up the trap and were now just sitting and waiting for little Mrs Norris to come running around the corner into it.

Ever since Dora had started Hogwarts a few weeks ago, she had watched Filch and his little cat. Dora had taken an instant liking to the cat. She was barely more than a kitten, a scrap of brown fur and claws – and boy, did Dora know about the claws! Every time she saw the little kitten she tried to pick her up and stroke her, only to be rewarded with a scratched face or arm.

She'd mentioned it to her friend Charlie Weasley when she'd seen him in Herbology and he had pointed out that Mrs Norris was probably just scared and didn't know Dora was trying to befriend her. Charlie was crazy about animals so Dora figured he was probably right.

So they had devised a cunning plan to catch Mrs Norris and spend some quality time with her, playing with her, feeding her tasty things stolen from the dinner table and showing her that they were much nicer than Filch!

And being on the good side of the caretaker's cat would always come in handy if she was prowling the hallways looking for students up to no good.

At that moment they heard a meow from down the hall and Dora turned to grin at Charlie. Mrs Norris slinked around the corner, stopping every few steps to eat the scraps of chicken that led her towards the trap, which was just a huge wicker basket suspended in mid-air, that would scoop the little kitten up and hold her.

Dora watched with excitement as the cat got closer and closer to the basket until suddenly it dropped and there was a startled yowl and a hiss.

"Yes!" Charlie crowed, leaping up. Dora followed him over to the basket.

Mrs Norris looked angry, she was hissing and growling, her paws sticking out between the gaps in the basket, claws splayed.

Charlie hoisted the basket in his arms and they ran to the small abandoned classroom they had found and readied for this moment, Dora only tripping over her own feet twice. There were plates of chicken and fish dotted around the room, lots of soft blankets and hidey holes and plenty of string for playing with. It was a kitten's dream.

Or it should have been.

Mrs Norris shot out of the basket when Charlie carefully lifted the lid and dashed straight to the door, yowling and scratching at it, standing up on her hind legs to bat at the handle uselessly.

"You have to wait for her to get used to us," Charlie said knowledgeably, sliding down to sit on the floor, his back against a cushion they'd borrowed from the Hufflepuff common room. Dora whined.

"I want to stoke her!"

"We have plenty of time, just wait. In a while she'll settle down and realise that we are only trying to love her."

But that's where the plan went wrong. For they had forgotten the most important factor in Mrs Norris' existence. Filch.

If Mrs Norris was around then Filch was not far behind and when Mrs Norris started yowling, like she was now, Filch came running.

The door banged open, revealing a very angry Filch.

"Try to steal my cat, will you? I'll see you punished!"

Mrs Norris leapt onto his shoulder, glaring down at Charlie and Dora, who cowered slightly, their faces bright red.

They both received a week of detentions and their names permanently on Filch's list of most hated students.

A/N – Well, here you go. Because I figure Charlie and Tonks would have been friends at school. Let me know what you thought :)