Vesta Lestrange's first few days at Hogwarts School were completely uneventful, Draco insisted on her sticking with his posse so that he could show her where everything was. She tried to ditch them more than once but considering they knew the castle much better than she did they always seemed to catch up. Everywhere she went with them it felt like everyone in the room was staring at her, she felt claustrophobic even in the widest areas of the castle, and no matter where she went she swore she saw flashes of bright pink. Saturday, Vesta decided, was the day she finally broke away from Draco and his friends; they had shown her most of the castle by this point. What could go wrong… right.

Turns out, everything.

After Vesta had woken up early to sneak out of the common room she had spent most of the day outside exploring the grounds, for a while she sat by herself near the lake simply enjoying the time to herself. Around noon Vesta realized she would have to start making her way back to the castle if she were going to make it to lunch on time. Which is where she made her first mistake, as soon as she entered the school it nearly immediately turned into a labyrinth. She swore that she passed through the same hallway nearly 4 times. She could feel people's eyes on her. She felt like the walls were closing in and the room was spinning. She quickly ducked into an empty classroom, feeling herself starting to hyperventilate. Trying to calm herself she slid down the wall sitting down onto the floor, pulling her legs to her chest and squeezing her eyes shut. Vesta heard the door open and close again.

"Alright dear, let's get you sorted." Vesta shook her head feeling someone kneel next to her. "It's normal to feel overwhelmed when you're first learning how to get around. You're not the first one to panic, and you won't be the last." Vesta looked up to see the hufflepuff girl with the bright pink hair kneeling in front of her. "There you go, all better. Sorry, I didn't mean to follow you in here, well I suppose I did, I saw you duck in here and I didn't think it was going to be for good reasons, I wasn't following you, well, I suppose I was, but like, not in a weird wa-... Feel free to shut me up at any time dear." Vesta just nodded assuming silence was her best option in this situation. "Nymphadora Tonks, although most just call me… Tonks…"

"Vesta… Lestrange…"

"Don't worry dear, I know your name."

"You do…?"

"I really am not making myself sound like any less of a stalker am I."

"Not really no." Vesta looked mildly concerned at this point.

"Sorry, Draco hasn't exactly made it easy for me to talk to you, as soon as Fred and George said there was a stranger with him I knew it had to be you. We've never met but I'm your cousin, and also the very reason Draco has attempted to not let you out of his sight, mostly because he knew I'd tell you. Sorry, I tend to ramble."

"Draco is my only cousin…"

"No Draco is your only cousin that wasn't disowned before he was born. My mum married a muggle-born, it's a whole ordeal. I told Draco too, he didn't take that news very well. Our mums are sisters."

"Right…"

"Sorry, I don't mean to spring this on you. But I figured you'd want at least a friend other than Draco to help you learn your way around?" Vesta said nothing for a moment but eventually nodded.

"That would be great… yeah…" Tonks grinned holding her hand out to Vesta, "come on then, it's almost lunch and I already told my friends I would be bringing you." Vesta took Tonks' hand and Tonks pulled her to her feet.

"C'mon. Everyone is excited to meet you." Vesta smiled following Tonks into the great hall. They hadn't even reached the table when Vesta was being squished in a hug by none other than Ace Lupin.

"What the fuck-"

"Tonks actually pulled it off! I fully thought you were gonna say no-"

"Is that still an option?" Vesta groaned trying to push them off of her.

"Not a chance newbie." Ace grinned before grabbing her hand and dragging her over to the Hufflepuff table where Vesta noticed Ace's brother, Asher, along with the twins from Gryffindor, and a girl from Ravenclaw that Vesta had never seen before who was sitting on the table. "Welcome to the Mischievous." Ace grinned holding out their arms towards the group

"The… what?" Vesta looked at them confused before Tonks chimed in again.

"It's what Ace has nicknamed our little group here. We've cycled through a few. This one just happened to be the one to stick for some reason. Anyway, you've met Ace and Asher, those two," Tonks pointed to the twins, "Are Fred and George Weasley, don't feel bad if you never learn them apart, because at this point I'm convinced Ace is the only person in the entire school who can tell which is which. Which makes the fact that they were both sorted Gryffindor entirely more annoying than it already was."

"And the grape over there," Ace pointed to the Ravenclaw girl who Vesta was now noticing had purple hair, "Is our little sister, Iris."

"You know what fuck you too carrot. You act like your hair color doesn't change like every other week."

"You called me, of ALL the people here, a fucking carrot,"

"There's not a rainbow food dipshit." Iris rolled her eyes laying back on the table.

"Yeah, but-" Ace glanced back and forth between the twins and Iris, "Me? I'm? The Carrot?" Vesta leaned closer to Tonks who grinned.

"Are they always like this?"

"You haven't even seen half of it." Tonks grinned, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the table. "See, isn't this much better than eating with Draco and his cronies."

"Infinitely," Vesta laughed.

Almost instantly Vesta Lestrange was no longer nervous about having transferred to Hogwarts, she had already found her people.