"Are you quite done?" I asked loudly as Remus' laughter showed no signs of calming down.

I thought Remus was meant to be the nice Marauder. Apparently not. He was literally howling with laughter. Hehe. Howling. Okay, that was a really bad werewolf pun. I am ashamed of myself. Well, maybe not as the werewolf in question was still laughing.

"Is he broken?" I asked Sirius who, like a sensible person, had stopped laughing a while ago.

"I think he'll finally has," Sirius said solemnly, nodding his head. "It had to happen sometime."

We just had to watch him until he laughed himself out. It was both amusing and frustrating. Sirius even tried to give him a shove but that didn't work. Eventually he did stop and was soon giving us a sheepish look, which was kind of adorable and...no! Bad Tonks!

"Sorry," he said guiltily and, despite being annoyed, I couldn't help but forgive him. Begrudgingly, mind!

"Well, what else happened during your second year?" Sirius asked impatiently. "I want to get to the good stuff, like, I don't know, OWLs and Auror Training and dating and more pranks and... wait, you're my baby cousin. I don't want to hear about you dating."

"It does happen though," I assured him.

That immediately made him clap his hands over his ears. "La, la, la, can't hear you!"


There had to be at least five books on ears stacked in front of her. And that was only the ones Madam Pince had in arm's reach. And none of them were what you would call thin or light. The thinnest one, if you could even call it that, had the same thickness as her closed fist. Which, okay, her hands weren't exactly large but that was pretty thick for a book! Especially one just on ears! At least the other ones that were three times its size where on the whole body so of course they were thick. This one was just on ears!

She couldn't believe she was actually going to read these too. Who read books on ears? Apparently, she did. Because research. Because Metamorphmagus. Tonks felt like that was going to be the excuse for many weird book searches over the years. How any could be weirder than this one, she didn't know but she was sure eventually she would manage it.

But right now, she was focusing on the ear. Or rather, her ear. Because she couldn't get the idea of improving her hearing out of her head. It would be pretty cool to be able to hear people's whispers or have a greater range of hearing.

She just had to figure out how to do it first. Hence all of the books.

"Found a few more for you," Madam Pince said, suddenly appearing with at least three more books in her arms.

No, it was actually four, Tonks realised as the woman placed the books in front of her.

"Thank you," she said gratefully, feeling an odd mixture of surprise, gratefulness and exasperation.

Who knew there were so many books on ears? Really?

"Might not be what you're looking for," she was warned. "Some of those describe spells you can use on your ears - ear wax removal and such. But some should be useful."

The woman looked almost proud of this fact. Tonks had to admit that she was impressed.

"It really should," Tonks told her with a grateful smile. "Thank you ever so much."

"Not a problem at all, I like a challenge," the woman dismissed. "Tell me if you need something more specific."

"I will."

Tonks watched her walk back to her desk, snapping at a bunch of fifth years that were talking too loudly. Madam Pince really was quite nice when you had a legitimate reason for being in the Library and you were polite about your request. Who would have thought? Her mum always did say that manners were everything. Looks like she was right.

Hard work was also everything. Tonks looked at the books in front of her and a determined look came over her face. Nothing ever came of not trying. Feeling very hopeful, she reached for the book closest to her. It had several ears etched into the leather cover. Surely that was a promising start?


Two hours later she had definitely made some sort of a start in the books. Maybe a promising start was a little bit too optimistic but it was a start. There was just so much material and who knew ears were so complicated? Everything about them was so small and necessary and she couldn't even pronounce half of the words associated with them.

Sighing heavily, Tonks let her head fall to the table. Gently, because she didn't need a bruise on top of her headache.

Maybe she could just turn her ears into bat ears. Bats could hear incredibly well, couldn't they? She frowned. But there would be nothing subtle about that, would there? And she would still need to know their internal working to be able to morph her ears so she was back to the same problem.

Why was this so difficult? Actually, why was the human ear so complicated? She looked down at the diagram in front of her in disgust, again. There was no way she was going to be able to memorise that to a point that she would be able to visualise it in her head. Never mind get to the point where it would be an instinct like her hair and nails. Even her nose! All those were easy. Flesh was easy. Nothing like bones. Bones were going to be so hard. Especially ones she wouldn't be able to see the results of.

Like, how on earth was she supposed to see inside her ear? Mirrors wouldn't work, she'd have to somehow shove one right down her external auditory canal and somehow get right through her eardrum (see? She knew some of the terminology now) to even get anywhere near the pieces she needed to morph. And even then, she still wouldn't be able to see anything because the mirror would be inside her ear.

She sighed again. She was definitely tired because that was just a really stupid idea. Everything she had read so far had stressed the importance of the ear drum and how you should most definitely not pierce it. Not that she wanted to. Pushing glass up there sounded downright painful.

Would it be weird to ask Madam Pomfrey about her research? Surely as a medical professional she would have to know a way to see inside a person's ear. People got ear infections, didn't they? It would be something that she would have had to treat, right? That would hopefully mean that she had to see inside someone's ear.

Were there specific types of Healers for ears? Could she contact one of those or would that be too weird? Maybe she should study more and then ask other people?

Tonks looked down at the rather intimidating sized books in front of her and then at the diagrams she had copied out rather messily.

Why on earth was she putting herself through this?


Sirius pulled a face at me.

"I can't believe you did so much research," he said with exaggerated disgust. "It's just not natural."

"Padfoot, you did far more research about Animagi at the same age!"

"That was different".