I went to work the next morning. Or rather, I tried to go to work the next morning.
"Let her go, Padfoot," Remus said tiredly from the top of the stairs.
He had appeared there after I had squawked indignantly at my cousin.
"I don't want to," Sirius whined.
"Padfoot."
He sounded tired. Had he slept well last night? Had they woken him up? It was early, after all. Stupid early shift. Madam Bones obviously hated me if she gave me this shift.
Sirius, by the way, still hadn't let me go. In fact, he seemed to tighten his grip around my waist. He was quite strong for someone who technically had wasted away muscles.
Sirius just made a pathetic whining sort of noise that belonged more on a dog that it did on a human.
"I'll even back for dinner," I assured him, reciting the urge to pat him on the head.
"Let her go," Remus ordered again, coming down the stairs to prise him off.
It worked, though Sirius did not like it.
"See you later," I said with a cheerful wave. "I'll bring home a chippy tonight."
Before Sirius could complain again, I was out of the house and disapparating with a 'Crack'.
I kept my word and returned that evening with sausage suppers and a cod supper (cod was superior to sausages, okay?), not to mention the cheesy chip, gravy chip and curry chip for Sirius, Remus and me respectively. Look, I was hungry, okay? Paperwork tended to do that to a person. I had been thinking of this since three o'clock this afternoon! It had been torture.
"I had to go for that whole meeting with Sprout to go over my choices," I explained through a mouthful of chips. Mmm that was good curry.
We had got onto the topic of my Electives I chose for third year. That had been fun. Not. So many choices to make at such a young age.
"You discuss your options in Hufflepuff?" Remus asked confusedly.
I nodded, wondering what he was getting at.
"Of course. It's just to make sure you know what you're signing up for."
"Huh. That's useful."
"That's kind of the point. Wait, you don't do that in Gryffindor?"
Gryffindor sure looked like they didn't do a lot of things...
It was kind of nice having an appointment to Professor Sprout's office without being in trouble for a change. It was a nice and cosy office which you couldn't really appreciate if you were nervous and fidgeting. It really was quite a cosy office - all warm and welcoming. Of course, what made it warm and welcoming was the fact that her Head of House was actually smiling at her from behind her desk. Another uncommon occurrence. Did she really get into trouble that much?
"Well, I see you've done some thinking on what you want to do next year," Professor Sprout said cheerfully.
Well, yes, because that's what this whole meeting was about after all. They had been given a list to check off what subjects they wanted tondo and had handed it back to her. Pretty easy. Especially with all the booklets Professor Sprout had given them on each subject. They pointed out the exciting things you would learn. Though how you made Arithmancy sound interesting, Tonks didn't know.
"Yes, ma'am," she replied pointlessly.
That got her another smile.
"Shall we just go down the list, then?"
Tonks shrugged, not really caring either way.
"Righty oh, let's see..." honestly, why was she so cheerful? "What about Divination? Not much of an uptake of it this year. Does it interest you at all?"
Tonks vehemently shook her head. Oh, definitely not.
"Mum says Divination is for fools."
Professor Sprout hid a smile at that comment and coughed.
"Yes, well," she replied, shuffling the papers in front of her. "Plenty of people have that opinion."
"Can it really be taught?" Tonks asked sceptically.
Mum had always described it as either you had the Gift or you didn't. Much like being a Metamorphmagus. Dad, on the other hand, said it was for quacks and idiots. She knew she didn't have the gift and she was no quack either. So, definitely a no go on the Divination.
Professor Sprout didn't answer her and just sighed as she made a mark on the parchment.
"Arithmancy?"
"No." Tonks said flatly.
No numbers or maths, especially with spells. Casting spells was fun, not breaking them down into components.
"It is a very interesting discipline," Professor Sprout tried.
"No. It sounds boring."
"It is used for all sorts of things; spell creation, research..."
"All boring."
Because they were. Creating spells was nowhere near as interesting as it sounded. She had researched it. Only the best and the brightest could create new spells that worked without exploding by themselves. Normal Spell Creators just improved on existing ones. Boring.
Professor Sprout sighed at her but Tonks didn't know why. It was boring, why should she say otherwise?
"Okay, that's a definite no to Arithmancy then."
She nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
Professor Sprout made a note on her piece of parchment and then looked up at her again. "And just how involved are you in the Muggle world at home? I know you're a half-blood and you father is a Muggleborn but have you got much experience in the Muggle world?"
"Yeah, I do," Tonks nodded again. "I go to the movies and can go to the shops and stuff."
Dad made sure that she got as much out of the muggle world as possible. Which hadn't been a lot when she was younger because of her lack of control over her abilities but in recent years they had been able to do a lot more. The movies were her favourite.
"We even have a TV at home," she added.
That was good as well. Apparently, Professor Sprout thought so too as she looked impressed.
"Well, have a look at the Muggle Studies curriculum," she said, sliding a piece of parchment over to Tonks. "See if there's anything that might be of use to you."
Tonks glanced down it and nothing in particular stood out to her. Why did magical people insist on calling a car an automobile? Really?
She shook her head. "Nothing there that I don't already know."
"Fair enough," Professor Sprout said with a smile. "Always good to check."
Tonks supposed that was true though all this checking was taking up an awful lot of time.
"Ancient Runes? You've marked a tick next to that."
She sounded almost relieved at that and Tonks had to choke down a giggle. That would definitely not be appreciated.
"Yeah, I want to do that. Looks interesting. And cool."
Ancient Runes sounded way cool. It was how people wrote things centuries ago and they were still used for all sorts of things. Like enchantments and wards and things like that. According to Charlie, he said his older brother Bill said they were even used on the pyramids in Egypt.
"It can be quite the difficult course," Professor Sprout warned. "Lots to memorise."
All those ancient alphabets and writing systems but Tonks didn't care, that's what made it sound interesting.
"I still want to do it. That's what I like about it."
"If that's what you want," Professor Sprout said agreeably.
"It is."
"And finally, Care of Magical Creatures?"
"Yes," Tonks said firmly, glad to get to the end of the list. "I want to learn about animals."
And maybe learn enough to see if she could mimic some characteristics. Claws instead of nails would be so cool! Or maybe she could do wings! Or horns!
"So, you just took two?" Remus asked.
"Yep, I bet you tried to take them all," I teased.
"Definitely not. I had more sense than that."
"Barely," Sirius sniggered. "He tried to take four but Professor McGonagall had to talk him out of it."
"Mainly because I was trying to take Divination," Remus argued. "And you know her opinion on that."
"She didn't want one of her star pupils wasting their time," Sirius explained.
Fair enough, McGonagall's opinion on Divination was very well known.
"I guess you took three then?" I asked Remus.
"Yes," he nodded. "Everything was so interesting."
"I just wanted my free period," I defended my choice.
Sirius gave me a high five as Remus rolled his eyes.
