"So, that was your second year over?" Remus asked.

I shook my head. "Not quite. There was one more thing that I remember."

"I thought you said you didn't remember loads from being younger?" asked Sirius.

"I do," I corrected. "Just not what year they belong to. It's hard to get them in order."

"Oh yeah. I can't remember whether we pulled the Great Duck Heist in fifth or sixth year," Sirius said absentmindedly.

"It was fifth," Remus said. "Because that was the first big one we pulled during the year and I was so annoyed that I lost my Prefect's badge."

"I think a duck ate it."

"Ducks don't eat metal, Padfoot."

"Pretty sure these ones did."

I had to raise an eyebrow at that. Who wouldn't at such an odd statement?

"You have to tell me about that," I told them.

It would be nice to hear other people talk for a change. I don't know how they weren't getting sick of my voice.

"We will," Sirius said vaguely. "Once you finish."

I got the very blatant hint.


Tonks swung her legs impatiently as she reread the same paragraph in the textbook for what had to be the hundredth time. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the diagram behind her eyelids. That should be good enough. Especially for what she wanted to do.

You see, this wasn't a schoolwork sort of thing. Definitely not. What sort of subject would she be studying the diagram of an ear for? None. No, she was reading one of the many, many books Madam Pince had given her a few weeks ago. The 'Inner Workings of your Inner Ear'. Perfect for what she wanted to do. Maybe a little bit too perfect. Tonks hadn't realised that there could be quite that many diagrams of the inside of your ear. Like, come on! It was really small in there! Hardly enough space for anything, right? Wrong. So many things were inside your ear to make all your hearing work and stuff.

Then there was the outer bit too. Not as much going on there but it was all still important. Your body didn't mess around.

Also, for a book on the inner ear there was quite a bit of information on the outer part of your ear as well. Eh, it probably didn't make as good a title or something.

But she wasn't reading the book anymore. She had done enough of that. No, she was actually going to put all that new knowledge to good use now. Hopefully. Maybe.

Closing her eyes, Tonks tried to visualise exactly what she wanted. It was actually a diagram mainly of her outer ear that she needed because that was where the external auditory canal was. On the outside. Relatively speaking anyway. Thankfully it wasn't near anything important inside her or she would have to learn to morph those as well. Nope, there was just skin on either side of it. So, it should be easy. Allegedly.

Okay. Tonks took a deep breath. Visualisation, it was all about visualisation. That was it. Just had to visualise the diagram and imagine it widening. Just a little bit. Didn't want a gaping hole on the side of her head after all.

Her ear quivered. Or wiggled. It did something. Did it? It wasn't like she could see.

She looked around for someone to ask - anyone. But all she could see were a bunch of upper year students. And she definitely wasn't going to ask them. No way. That was a sure-fire way of getting snapped at. Or laughed at. Neither of which she particularly wanted.

Then she spied a very familiar figure with red hair. Bright red hair that only one family had.

"Charlie would you measure my ear?"

"Excuse me?"

She supposed it was rather an odd thing to ask a sort of friend but he was the only one who was around and she really needed to know this.

"Would you measure my ear?" she repeated impatiently. "Well, a part of it?"

Charlie blinked at her and said nothing in response. Tonks waved her hand in front of his face. Had he even heard her?

"Hell-lo? Earth calling Charlie Weasley?"

He blinked and shook his head, his shaggy hair going every which direction.

"Did I hear you right? You want me to measure your ear?"

"Yes."

"Riiiiiiight."

He looked thoroughly unconvinced by this. She didn't know why? It was a perfectly acceptable question.

"Well, it's really the hole inside my ear," she amended.

Which didn't seem to help matters.

"Okay then," he finally replied in a very doubtful tone.

"Great!" Tonks sat down next to him and tilted her head to one side. "Tell me if it gets bigger."

"I still don't know what 'it' is."

She gave him a look.

"I told you. The hole in my ear."

"And you want me to...?"

"See if it gets bigger," Tonks finished for him.

"It gets bigger?"

"That's what I'm trying to do."

"Oh. I can help with that."

She would not smack her head off the table in frustration. She wouldn't. Instead, Tonks tilted her head to one side yet again and gestured to Charlie to watch. Thankfully he did so with no further question.

Now, onto that visualisation she had been practicing. It wasn't hard. She had looked at it often enough. Sure enough, she could see it. All she had to do was imagine that getting bigger. Tonks felt something move inside her ear, like something crawled down the length of it. Was that it? Charlie wasn't saying anything.

"Well?" Tonks asked impatiently. "I'm getting a crick in my neck."

"I think it's bigger," Charlie replied in a doubtful tone.

"Let me try again."

Two seconds passed. Then five. Then ten-

"Oh! It definitely grew!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Really?"

It worked?

"And now it's back to normal size again."

"But it worked?" she asked eagerly, straightening her head up so she could look at him.

"Yeah. What's this even for?" he asked, sitting next to her.

"I wanted to see if I could improve my hearing."

"Did it?"

Tonks pondered over that for a moment and then shrugged.

"Don't know. Library isn't really the best place to test that out."

Though inside her ear had definitely felt odd so she hoped that meant she had done something right. But she would have to test it outside.

"I could help if you want," he offered. "I could go different distances away from you to see what you could hear."

That was actually a fantastic idea. Maybe she would be able to improve her hearing even more!

"That would be cool," she agreed.

"Why can't you just make your ear bigger?" Charlie asked curiously.

"Because that doesn't actually make your hearing better," she lectured in exasperation even though that's exactly what she thought before reading all these books.

She was more educated thanks to them. And now, so was Charlie.

"Figures," Charlie muttered.

"I can still make them big," she said, feeling a bit put out by how unimpressed he was. "See?"

She screwed up her face and let her ears change. Visualising what she wanted; she heard a gasp from Charlie.

"Wow! They're big!"

Reaching out, she felt the air for where the edge of her ears were. They were a good bit away from the side of her head.

"They're like elephant ears!" Charlie said enthusiastically.

"Oh, I can do those too!"

Those were easy things to shift. And a lot of fun as well.

"Cool!" Charlie said far too loudly.

"Shhh!" Madam Pince scolded.

Charlie ducked his head in embarrassment.

"Cool," he repeated in a barely audible whisper this time.

Tonks giggled and made the rather large ears wiggle and flap. Oh, that felt weird.

"Can you do dragon ears" je asked eagerly.

Tonks stared at him. What type of question was that?

"What do dragon ears even look like?"


"And that is my final memory from second year." I said proudly.

It felt good to get another school year over and done with. Just another five to go. Merlin. There was another five to go. It was going to take a year just to go through them knowing my luck.

"Did you manage to do dragon ears?" Remus asked in interest.

"Once I figured out what they looked like, yeah."

I had always been good at morphing my ears. They were the easiest thing next to my hair. Well, my nose was easy as well.

"Cool." Sirius said. "Um, what dies a dragon ear look like?"

I did it to show him and both were very impressed. Scales were ways slightly itchy for me for some reason so I quickly morphed back to my normal skin.

"Onto my third year then," I announced importantly.

Then I blushed as a very, very specific memory came to mind. Damn it! Why did it have to do that? Memories were stupid. Especially this one. Well, I wasn't going to dwell on it so ha!

Unfortunately, Sirius seemed to have other ideas.

"Oh? Did you think of another one?"

"No!"

"Your hair says something different," he pointed out.

Damn my hair for giving away my emotion. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.