I racked my brain for something cheerful to share. Why was I even sharing the crappy ones? If I didn't tell them, they would never know. But I said them anyway. Why was that?

But I wasn't going to dwell on that now. Not when we all needed cheered up. It just had to be one that got us all laughing. Or at the very least chuckling...

Bingo! I had one.

"Want to know how James dealt with Hokey?"

Tonks was busy doing her homework in the library (Third year apparently meant even more work than last year) when she was oh so rudely interrupted by something poking her in the back. Something sharp.

Spinning round to tell the person off, she discovered it was none other than James.

"Abbot, what the hell?"

It was a quill he had poked her with. He was still holding it in mid-air like a goof.

"Hi, Tonks!" he greeted chirpily.

"What was that for?"

"Good afternoon to you too."

She gave him a look which he was completely unfazed by. She really needed to work on being more intimidating.

"Good afternoon," she gritted out. "Now, what was that for?"

He blinked innocently at her. "I had to get your attention somehow."

"And saying 'hi' wouldn't have worked?"

"This is a library, Tonks. You can't just talk."

She gave him a dark look before returning to her textbook. Maybe if she ignored him for long enough, he would actually let her get some work done.

Of course, it didn't work like that. James was the type of person who needed to be constantly talking. He was pretty hard to ignore. Though she did try.

"Tooooooonks."

She put her hands over her ears in an attempt to ignore him. Work! She had work to do! Lots of it!

Of course, that didn't stop him. Why on earth would that stop him. James just tried to pull her hands away from her head. Well, she wasn't giving up that easily.

The pair of them scuffled a bit, pulling back and forth. One of them, she blamed James, pulled a little bit too hard and Tonks ended up sprawling out of her chair and sending both of them to the floor. Ouch.

"Look what you did!" they both exclaimed at each other.

That, unfortunately, got them rather unceremoniously chucked out of the Library. Madam Pince didn't get any less terrifying the older you got.

"That was your fault," Tonks told he so-called friend as she pulled her bag over her shoulders.

"It takes two to argue."

"Yeah, well you were the one who started the argument."

"I just wanted to talk to you!"

"And I very obviously didn't!"

"Who wouldn't want to talk to me?"

"Me."

James clutched at his chest dramatically and gasped, "Tonks, you wound me."

"I just wanted to do some work," she complained. "I don't want to get behind. Not with an extra two subjects."

That was a lot of extra work, didn't he realise that?

"Come on, let's go!" James exclaimed, completely ignoring what she just said. "You can show me Hokey again now!"

"What? No!"

She was not going to do anything for him when he had just got them kicked out of the library! No way! Was he mad?

"Yes!"

He grabbed her by the arm and started to drag her down the corridor. That didn't exactly go to plan as he forgot about her decidedly lack of any sort of grace. Meaning they ended up as a heap on the floor.

"Ouch!"

"Hey!"

Some of the students walking past laughed at them. Which was just annoying.

"Seriously!" Tonks complained.

"Okay, this time it was my fault," James admitted, jumping to his feet.

He offered his hand to her but Tonks ignored it and pulled herself back up.

"It was your fault last time as well."

"Whatever, come on. You were going to show me Hokey!"

"I never promised that!"

Okay, James got his way. Tonks took Hokey out and actually took him outside.

"I got to hold him," he bragged.

They had met up with the rest of their friends in the quad. It was a nice September day but it was always good to be somewhat near cover because those clouds did not look good.

"He's a wiggly little thing, isn't he?" Samantha stated.

James' face fell. "Wait, you've already held him?"

"Of course! I have been to her house after all."

"Aw!" he pouted and kicked at a stone with his feet. It when skittering across the grass.

"That is such a weird thing to be jealous of," Tonks told him, shaking her head.

"Hmpf," James huffed and crossed his arms. He wasn't impressed by this revelation at all.

"I just wanted to be first, okay?"

"At holding a moke?" Davey asked incredulously.

He had joined them as well. More like Samantha had dragged him down. For some reason he hadn't exactly been enthusiastic about coming out here. Which was weird because it really was a gorgeous autumn day. Probably one of the last of the warm ones.

"Yes!"

"You really are ridiculous, you know that, don't you?"

Privately, Tonks agreed but she didn't want to get into another argument with James so she said nothing.

"Do you want to hold him, Davey?" Tonks offered, holding Hokey out to him.

Davey actually took a step back and shook his head. "No, I'm good. I don't want to drop him or anything."

"Davey here is scared of any creature that isn't a cat or an owl," Samantha teased.

"For good reason!" he exclaimed in a high enough pitched tone that made Hokey complain. Poor thing. "Animals are wild things that we've barely tamed!"

Tonks held Hokey up, he was rubbing himself against her hand. "Hokey's tame!"

Just stubborn sometimes. But he was trainable! She had trained him. Davey didn't look too convinced.

"Why on earth are you taking Care of Magical Creatures then?" Samantha demanded.

He grimaced at that. "Dad made me. Said I had to toughen up or I'd get nowhere in life."

"That's a bit harsh," said Tonks with a frown.

He shrugged. "I have to do it."

Did he really? Though she supposed that he still had to do as he was told. They were all only thirteen or fourteen, after all. It still seemed a little cruel and unfair.

"Well, we'll be together," Tonks tried to encourage him. "You won't have to do it alone."

Thankfully, that brightened him up because Tonks had no ideas how else to sooth his worries.

"Hey, you're right!" he said happily, puffing his chest out a bit.

"Your friends are crazy," Remus told me.

"Yes, because yours were the epitome of sanity?"

"Exactly." Remus' lips twitched.

It wasn't helped by the fact that Sirius was pulling faces at us.

"See? Completely sane."