Chapter 1
Hermione sat at the Griffendor table eating a piece of toast with strawberry jam. She was there early as usual and was always one of the first people to arrive there first. There were a few groggy-eyed students wandering around looking for their tables, despite being half asleep.
An owl came soaring down gracefully from one of the many windows near the top of the ceiling of the great hall. The owl landed softly in front of Hermione with a dull thud. She looked up from her plate and saw it was the usual owl that delivered her the Daily Prophet every morning. Hermione rummaged through her pockets in search of a few coins to give to the tawny owl. In exchange for the paper she gave 5 bronze Knuts to the owl in the little leather pouch dangling from its leg. When she untied the paper the owl gave a hoot in response and leapt up into flight. Before leaving he grabbed a piece of bacon off of Hermione's plate and ate it up before exiting the Great Hall.
Hermione untied the paper and began to read the front page, "Wacko Weasleys" the article title read. Hermione scanned down the page and read the article."Fred Weasley, 19, and his twin brother George
Weasley,19, are the joke shop owners extraordinaire!
They have had nothing but booming business and envious
competition throughout the year of owning their famous
joke and gag shop "Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes". They
soar to the top of the list, even above Zonko's! Their
mass amounts of unique items and hundreds of new to come have teen witches and wizards around the world crawling back for more…(for the full scoop and an exclusive interview go to page A6)"
Above the start of the article there was a picture of the twins smiling and winking in their expensive dragon hide jackets, in front of their shop, each holding a pygmepuff in one hand. Hermione turned the page and read the rest of the article as well as the interview on the other page. She finished the whole paper by the time Harry and Ron arrived, dragging themselves to the table. Dropping their bags and themselves at the table they began to load up their plates with a quick hello to Hermione.
Mostly everyone was in the Great Hall by now and Harry and Ron were usually the last to arrive. "You're unusually early this morning" Hermione said to the two zombies, "Had a rough night?" She added sarcastically. Harry stopped shovelling food into his mouth to answer her. "Yeah that assignment that Snape gave us was a killer! We were up 3 hours after you went to bed finishing it." "First day back and he gives a foot long assignment on the properties of gillyweed I mean give us a break! Who does he think he is?" Ron added, he still had food in his mouth so it was tough trying to decipher what he was saying but Harry and Hermione were used to this by now. "Anything interesting in the paper?" Ron went on after he had finished what he had in his mouth as he looked at the paper that was discarded by Hermione's plate. "There's an article on Fred and Georges joke shop in there that might interest you" Hermione told them and handed them the paper. Harry read it aloud so then they both didn't have to read it and that also gave Ron more time to eat.
When Harry finished the article he folded up the paper and put it in the middle of the table, and ate the rest of the food on his plate. When he finished all of the food left he made his fork into a pretend microphone and said into it " I am here with Ronald Weasley, brother to Fred and George Weasley successful joke shop owners, so tell me Ron, what is it like to be the brother of such famous and rich people?" He pointed his fork towards Ron and he had to finish what he had in his mouth before responding. "Well its great really, loads of free stuff when I can manage, um and I also find that the girls have an overwhelming attraction to me now than they were before." He was cut off by blatant laughter coming from his two best friends. "What?" He asked them. "I'm sure loads of girls find me very attractive and they would jump at the chance to go out with me." Ron continued. "Well I hate to burst your bubble Gildory Lockhart, but name one girl that thinks your attractive or that would go out with you" Harry said to him using the name of their previously image obsessed defence against the dark arts teacher which every girl would swoon over, including, incidentally their best friend Hermione. "Well…um…uh…I can't think of any right now but come on who wouldn't want to go out with the boy who lived's best friend?" He questioned them. "Ok Ron I'm saying this to you as a total honest, straight up, best friend ok?" Hermione started, Ron nodded his head. "Well the girls would only go out with you to get to Harry." She said. "Ugh I don't believe it how did I ever become friends with you guys, I'm leaving now, good day!" Ron said to them and scooted over a few spaces to the left.
"PSST Hermione" Harry said to her leaning halfway over the table and motioning for her to do the same. "Ill bet you anything Ron will be back in 5 seconds" and sure enough 5 seconds passed and Ron slid back hastily and said, "You guys win" And then smiled.
"I wonder who the new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher is?" Hermione asked the two boys, because it didn't say on their timetables. "I bet it's a Vampire this year" Harry said to them and all three laughed. "Well it could be a merman, we haven't had one of those yet" Hermione said and they all laughed again. As they were walking into the classroom Ron said "With our luck the new teacher will be you know who himself." And once again they all laughed. As they sat down at a three-person group of desks they heard a familiar voice behind them. "Do I look like Voldemort to you?" Harry, Hermione, and Ron looked at each other in amazement and then looked behind to see the familiar and shocking color of bubblegum pink hair. "Tonks what are you doing here, are you our new teacher?" Harry managed to say. "The one and only, at your service" Tonks said and bowed to the three. "How did you get the job?" Hermione asked her. "Dumbledore couldn't find anyone else and I also wanted a change from that dreary house so I decided to take up teaching." The auror told them.
The bell rang a few seconds later and that meant that Tonks had to go to the front and start the lesson. By now everyone was in the classroom, but the bad thing was that they had to share their class with the Slitherens, joy! NOT
"Ok everyone settle down!" Tonks yelled over the numerous conversations. It took a moment for the class to realize that there was an authoritative figure trying to get their attention, but a few seconds later everyone was hushed and quiet. "Hello everyone I am your new teacher Professor Tonks. How are you all today?" she asked the class but there was no answer, only Malfoy's group snickering in the back corner, with an occasional squeal from Pansy Parkinson. Hermione got fed up by this and motioned for Tonks to look her way. "Your hair, they're staring at your hair" Hermione mouthed to her pointing at her own hair, and right away she got it. "It's my hair isn't it?" she asked the silent class running a hand through her pink spikes. There was no answer. She took out her wand and conjured up a full-length mirror, and began to look at her hair. "Too pink you think?" and before anyone could answer she made a funny expression on her face and her hair changed from short, pink and spiky to shoulder length platinum blonde. There was a gasp in amazement and the whole class was shocked even Draco and his gang. There was a murmur around the class until Dean Thomas, one of the trio's friends asked "UH Professor, how did you do that?" She grinned. "Well I'm a metamorphmagus you see and that means I can change my appearance at will." She answered. Then she clapped her hands together and said, "Now take out a piece of parchment and a quill and I have some notes for you, chop, chop!" There was a rustle of parchment and scratching of quills, the whole class was silent except for a smiling Tonks teaching the lesson.
"WOW I can't believe Tonks ended up as our teacher that's so awesome!" Ron said as they were walking out of the class to the Griffendor table to start Lunch. They found Ginny sitting all alone at the table so they decided to join her and told her all about Tonks. Ginny was thrilled. Tonks was always a source of entertainment at number 12 Grimald place. When Neville, Dean, Seamus and Lavender came to join them Ginny was screaming with joy. "What's floaten' her boat?" Lavender asked Hermione. "Tonks" Hermione replied and Lavender said "Ahhh Tonks". All of them filled their plates and talked about their classes until the end of lunch bell rang.
The Buzz about Tonks spread through the school like a wild fire and whoever hadn't seen her today was itching to see her hair change color. The 8 sat together again and instead of talking about teachers, this time they talked about what they did over summer holidays. As they loaded up on dessert Neville was telling what he did.
When most people were done eating the food evaporated off the table and Dumbledore stood up from the big table at the front of the hall. He waited for everyone's attention, and sure enough after a few seconds the hall was silent. Dumbledore began to talk. "I trust everyone has had an excellent summer vacation and a wonderful 2 days back at school." He stopped talking for a moment and surveyed the students, pausing for a fraction of a second longer for the trio, knowing that Tonks would excite them. "I have good news however. For every 7th year there will be a grand ball held in two weeks time." The whole hall cheered at this but mostly the girls. They were giggling and screaming to each other, already starting to discuss their dresses and whom they wished to be asked by to the ball. Dumbledore waited for the noise to die down and then continued. "It will be a masquerade ball, so naturally everyone will be wearing masks. There will be an unveiling at midnight. That is all that is needed to be said so with that goodnight" There was a shuffling in the hall and then Dumbledore voice boomed over everyone silencing them for the time being. "I almost forgot, Hogsmade trip next weekend to get those outfits" And then he motioned that it was ok to leave the great hall. Now they were more exited than before, with a Hogsmade trip to look forward to. Harry, Ron and Hermione trudged slowly up the many staircases discussing the ball like the numerous people around them. When they got up to the common room they went slowly to their dorms to get on pyjamas and also to get their books to start on their long and tedious school assignments.