Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter Characters, I just write about them... But I do own Princess Elizabeth, if she should try and make her way into this story....
Author's Note: I just re-edited and reformatted this chapter. But i didn't email it to Nellabelle yet for betaing... so there might be some horrendous grammatical error that i didn't catch... even though i tried to skim, so i'm sorry if there are any errors.
Lauretta sighed, as her mother bustled around the house, looking for all of the supplies she might need before going on her journey. She walked slowly from the kitchen to where the mail came in despite the fact that it was only about ten feet. The Quidditch World Cup was always there thing. It was always something they did together, and this year, their mother had insisted that they leave early because of Ministry business. Everything was ministry business these days and Lauretta hated it.
There were in fact six letters that had been dropped on the door step by various owls, three whom were still lurking on the bushes. Lauretta motioned to the owl watering unit hidden behind a shrub and one of the owls hooted politely before the three of them converged on the water to drink thirstily.
Lauretta stooped over to pick up the letters and shuffled through them quickly. They were all from the ministry except one, which was marked carefully Lauretta Tonks bedroom at the top of the stairs. Lauretta's heart sunk as she turned over the letter and noted that it was from the Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
It wasn't that Lauretta hated going to school, she liked the actual school part well enough; it was the people at school that bothered her immensely. Hogwarts had been fun the few years she had gone there. But last year Lauretta's best friend had transferred to Beauxbatons. During Lauretta's fourth year the entire school began to divide up as purebloods versus half bloods or muggle born students, and Lauretta didn't care in the slightest what she was, and didn't know, so she'd been thrown into a group all on her own so school was no longer enjoyable.
Lauretta dropped the letters for her mother on the kitchen counter and then went into the family room where she sat on the couch pulling her feet up beside her, and then opened the letter.
Lauretta very rarely received any mail, so she took her time opening it carefully, so as not to rip the contents. She dropped the standard letter that came every year and glanced over the supply list: Standard Book of Spells Grade 5, Hogwarts A History, Decoding Deathly Dreams, Stumoflubs and 101 other poisonous Herbs, From the Sprout to the Remedy, Transfiguration: A guide to Transformation, Alywaters to Zatters; An ABC guide to Magical Creatureas, 1 Million Useful potions, and Defense Against the Dark Arts vol 1-4.
. Lauretta scanned over the list again, mentally counting the books. Not since her first year had she ever needed more than two or three new books. Sure this was the year they were taking their OWLs and she knew they would be cracking down on the books but she hadn't thought it would be this bad. When would she find time to practice Quidditch? She was the star Chaser for the Ravenclaw team and they would need her. Francis Lewis had graduated last year and she'd been hoping to be made Quidditch Captain.
She finally picked up her letter wondering if there could be anything different. When she picked it up a prefects badge fell out of it. She stared at it for a few seconds, shocked and dismayed. She didn't want to be a prefect. All the students would be furious at her if she tried to punish anyone. She sighed and unfolded the letter.
Dear Hogwarts Student,
The term at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry will recommence
as usual on September 1. Please purchase the listed supplies. We
look forward to seeing you.
Your new Headmistress,
Hermione Granger
Order of Merlin 1st Class
Lauretta stared at the words. New Headmistress? And the Hermione Granger? Of the Terrific Trio? She stared dumbfounded. There couldn't be more than one Hermione Granger. She got up from the sagging red couch and went back into the kitchen to ask her mother about it.
"Hey Mum?" She asked her mother who was hunched over some papers, her hair changing from white to pink every few seconds as it tended to do when she was stressed.
"Please, Lauretta, I don't have time right now, talk to me later okay?" Tonks said hurridly putting her hand up to silence Lauretta.
"Umm... sure," Lauretta replied walking away dejectedly.