I know it's been a long time. And I've been trying, really I have. But the story was dying on me, so I decided to speed things up a bit. This chapter was supposed to be in Nym's fourth year, but it works just fine in her third, and I've already got enough stuff planned for the fourth. Which is why this took so long, I suppose, since the third was an utter void. That has been remedied. As always, reviews are much loved.
Nym frowned thoughtfully at her reflection. She couldn't change it in some big and noticeable way, as she did when she became Minetta, but surely she could give herself a haircut without exciting too much comment. She had, according to her aunt, a pretty heart-shaped face, which it was a shame to hide beneath all that hair. Whether Narcissa was right about her being pretty was open to debate, but Nym was quite sick of her hair getting in her face, even when she tried tying it back. She frowned at the girl in the mirror, willing her to have shorter, almost spikey hair.
When Nym was satisfied with the result, she was quite positive her uncle would be furious. She smiled slightly at the thought. No matter; she would be leaving this morning anyway, back to Hogwarts for her third year. She wasn't completely sure she was looking forward to it. Again, there would be no Marauders to make life interesting, although she still wrote Sirius and Remus often. James wrote when he could, but he and Lily were busy with the new baby, and James of course was still at the Auror's college. Regulus, unfortunately, would still be there, though in his final year. She ought to have been more worried about how much more advanced at magic he was than her, but she put it out of her mind. She'd held her own last year, and would again this year.
On the other hand, third year held any number of exciting possibilities. There was the chance to go to Hogsmeade as herself, although Nym wondered if she would be able to pretend she had never been there before. It occurred to her that all the people who knew and liked Minetta Nigellus would never have heard of Nym Tonks. Rick had been talking all last year about how he couldn't wait to show her around Hogsmeade. It would be nice to have someone to go with, unlike last year, when she'd had to go all on her own.
Then there were the new classes. She'd looked over all the new options, and truth be told very few of them had interested her. She had signed up for Care of Magical Creatures and left all the other slots blank, hopefully freeing up a bit of extra time in her schedule. Whoever did the scheduling would probably just throw her into something, which was fine with Nym. She wanted to be an Auror, and already had all the required courses.
Narcissa gave a little shriek when Nym came downstairs with her new haircut. At first she seemed upset at the loss of Nym's long hair, but this was quickly changed to pleasure at how the new style suited Nym. With the ease of long practice, Nym ignored her aunt's comments, except to give an appropriate murmured response once in a while to show she was still listening.
Lucius made a "hurumph" kind of noise, which Nym took to mean, "well, if you must." He opened the door for her and, stopping only to give her teary-eyed aunt a hug, Nym made her solitary way to her carriage. Fleetingly, she longed for that day at the beginning of her first year, when her teary-eyed mother had kissed her goodbye on the train platform. True, she had been scared out of her mind, and had subsequently fallen in the lake, but at least there had been someone there to say goodbye to her. She hadn't really forgiven her mother, yet, but she did miss her terribly.
As usual, Nym was one of the first to arrive at the platform. She dreaded the boring time she would have to spend, sitting in a compartment and waiting for her friends to find her. As she stepped out of the carriage, though, and saw all the timid little first years waiting with their somewhat tearful parents, a slightly crazy plan began to take shape in her mind. Rick hadn't needed to come and sit with her that first day; he had lots of other friends. But he had, and look what a difference it had made! And that first year, she'd had James and Remus and Sirius keeping an eye over her shoulder, keeping her out of trouble (when they weren't dragging her headlong into it), and in general helping her out. In contrast, Nym didn't know anyone in the year behind her. Well, she thought determinedly, she would change that.
At first her plan was to seek out what looked to be the shyest, quietest little first year, the one that would be huddled in the corner of a compartment somewhere, probably balling their eyes out at leaving their dear mum and dad. After all, a few years ago that had been her. But something stopped her. She hadn't been a mouse when she first came to Hogwarts, she'd only thought she was. The Maurauders had shown her how wrong that self-assessment was. Mandy was a mouse, for all she roared like a lion at things that couldn't hurt her (like Rick). Nym was not.
"Come on Morwyn. Let's find us a mousie that'll fight back," she told her cat. Morwyn swatted playfully at her mistress's nose. First, though, Nym stashed her trunk on the train, so that she could begin her quest unencumbered by her luggage, the amount of which had grown alarmingly ever since she began staying with the Malfoys.
There were lots of first years Nym passed as she made her way along the train. Some of them had met up with childhood friends, and were happily swapping hear-say stories about Hogwarts. Others tagged along silently behind an older sibling or cousin, watching wide-eyed and staying out of the way. She saw one or two, curled up in the corners of their compartments, oblivious to the world, or bawling to their mothers who stood outside their compartment windows. But towards the back of the train, she found him.
He was a skinny boy, tall for his age, so his feet reached all the way to the floor when he sat, unlike most of his year-mates. His robes looked a little worn, as though he'd had the for some time, or they were hand-me-downs. They were well cared for, though, and Nym doubted she would have noticed their age if she hadn't spent so much time with Narcissa, who had lately decreed that 'softly aged' was the newest style. She dropped into the seat across from him. The boy looked up from his quidditch magazine, startled, and stared at her through bright red hair that fell into his eyes.
"Wotcher," Nym greeted him. "Nym Tonks. And you are?"
"Billy Weasley." He extended an affiable hand to her. "You a second year?"
"Third," Nym said with a small grin. She'd only just met him, and she liked this boy already. No cringing wee mousie was he! "Gryffindor. And you'd be a wee little firsty, still without a House."
Billy paused for a moment, obviously deciding how to reply. Then he grinned at her in return. "This wee firsty is taller than you." Nym stuck her tongue out at him, trying to hide her delight.
"You're here pretty early, firsty. How come?" Nym asked, curious.
Billy rolled his eyes. "My mum. She's so anxious about me coming here, she's been balling her eyes out for the last week! It's embarrassing. And you? Eager to get back to work?"
Nym laughed. "Not a bit of it. But I am looking forward to getting back to Hogwarts."
"It sounds amazing," Billy commented, and Nym grinned in reply.
"You should have seen it when my brothers were there. Damn if it wasn't the most exciting place in the world." And she proceded to tell him about the time the boys had stolen all of Snivellus's underwear, and hung them in the Great Hall in place of the normal hangings. Not the most original prank, but in terms of scale and shock value, a good one. "Only don't spread it around. He'll probably be teaching you Potions this year."
Billy shrugged. "But it's worth remembering for when he's being a bugger."
"That it is."
"You're lucky to only have three brothers, though."
"Only?" Nym asked.
Billy nodded, a bit miserably. "I have five. Little Ron was just born in the spring, and Mum's already talking about trying again. She really wants a girl."
Nym snorted. "And with six of you silly buggers, no wonder."
"Hey, your mum had three silly buggers of her own," Billy shot back.
"Not a bit of it," Nym replied cheerfully. "I'm an only child. My brothers and I just adopted each other. One's actually my mum's cousin."
"Bugger. That's quite the confused family. Are you sure..."
"There you are!" Whatever Billy had been going to say next was cut off by a jubilant Mandy. She fluttered in, a feathery scarf about her neck, and gave Nym a hug. "I have so much to tell you, oh, I have no idea where to start!" Nym rolled her eyes at Billy over Mandy's shoulder. He grinned back at her, plainly amused by her friend. "Let me look at you," Mandy declared, stepping back to hold Nym at arm's length, just as her Aunt Emily had used to do when she was little. "Why, your hair! Your beautiful hair! What in heaven's name have you done to it?"
"Ach, away with you," Nym said, a bit red faced. "I like it this way."
"You'll have to forgive her," an amused voice in the compartment doorway said. "Mum let her watch too many movies over the summer." Nym felt like her heart stopped for a second when she saw Zack leaning jauntily in the doorway. He'd grown over the summer, and his shoulders filled out his robes much better than they had before. Now why would I notice that, she wondered. She shoved both thoughts irritably aside. She wasn't some brainless twat like one of the "Lion Grlz," falling in love with any halfway good-looking boy that glanced at her twice.
"You'll have to forgive my brother," Mandy retorted. "He was dropped on his head as a child. Who's the firsty?" she asked, noticing Billy for the first time.
"Billy," Nym said, "I'd like to introduce to you two very good friends of mine. The one in the dumb scarf is Mandy, third year Hufflepuff, and that sorry example of the human species is her brother Zack, fifth year Ravenclaw."
"Every House but Slytherin," Billy observed, his face neutral.
"Our Nym isn't so fond of Slytherins, not since one took it into his head to kill her," observed a newcomer in lofty tones.
"Rick," Nym greeted him, her mouth twisting slightly in distaste. "Regulus is not trying to kill me. He's just a bullying git. I don't think Mandy was the only one who hit her head this summer."
Rick shrugged affiably. "Whatever you say, dearest. Hallo, Weasley, how are you?"
"Trelawney, isn't it?" Billy returned. "Fairly well, and yourself?"
"Much better, now that I have my darling Nym back again." He dropped into the seat beside Nym and slung his arm around her shoulders in a very affected way.
"Oh, get off," Nym muttered. Rick and Zack were chuckling, but Mandy looked ready to do murder, even if no one else had noticed it yet.
"How do you know Billy, Rick?"
"Is that the one? Knew it was a Weasley. There's just so damn many of you," he added apologetically to Billy.
The first year shrugged. "Don't apologize to me. My mum's the one that has to deal with us all."
"Red-haired and freckled to the man, they are too, the whole brood. And then the names just - pop! - right out of my head."
"Oh, be serious. How come I've never met so many of the people you know?"
"That, darling, is because your relatives will never sully themselves with us common folk."
"If by 'common folk' you mean the sort that don't serve twelve course meals, then yes. But that doesn't mean their friends aren't total scum."
"Not arguing, sweetheart." He put his arm back around her, and Nym shrugged it off with an irritated sound.
"You're one of those old family purebloods?" Billy sounded surprised, then seemed to realize what he'd said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"
Nym waved him to silence. "Hardly. My mother was a Black, but they disowned her when she married a muggle-born." She shrugged. "But I've been staying with my aunt and uncle lately, and they…"
"Are the Malfoys," Rick supplied, as though that explained everything. And apparently it did, because Billy nodded and made a sort of 'I understand' noise.
"If you're done?" Mandy asked huffily.
Rick leered playfully at her. "What's wrong, Mandy? Upset that you aren't the center of attention?"
With a huff, Mandy dropped into a seat and pulled out her magazine, pointedly ignoring Rick, who just shrugged as though to say 'What did I do?'
"That wasn't very nice," Nym chided quietly.
Rick chuckled. "We'll discuss that later," he said, his tone oddly serious, and his eyes moved very pointedly towards both the Smith children. "So, young Weasley," he added, jovial once more, "excited to go to Hogwarts, I'm sure. It's a grand old place, to be sure, but did anyone tell you about the Crumple-skinned buffkin that lives behind the herbology shed? No? Why then…" and he proceeded to give Billy a highly imaginative account of a creature that preyed primarily on unwary first year students.
Billy, for his part, listened very seriously to the whole account, and then commented, "If it's invisible, how did you manage to spot it?" Which prompted a careful explanation of a pair of magical glasses Rick just happened to own. When Billy rolled his eyes again, Rick switched to an elaborate tale about a first year student that fell out of one of the boats that took the firsties across the lake, and how the child was never seen again. Zack, by this time, had taken his seat across from Nym, stretching his legs across the compartment. Nym was uncomfortably aware of how close he was. It's just his feet, for Merlin's sake, she chided herself. Zack didn't notice the effect he was having on her, but was instead engrossed in helping Rick with his story.
"Bosh," Billy said when they were done. "No one's ever fallen out of the boats."
"Want to bet?" Rick demanded.
Afraid this was going to lead to an account of her own disastrous arrival at Hogwarts, Nym cut in. "Leave him be, Rick."
Sensing her mood, Rick did stop, but only after adding a final warning. "Just don't you lean too far over the side, you hear?" Billy rolled his eyes and promised to be good.
As they left the train and parted ways, Nym paused just long enough to clap a hand on Billy's shoulder. "We'll save you a seat for when you get put in Gryffindor," she told him, then slipped away through the crowd.