AN: Am I ever going to get to the actual plot, or did I get myself sidetracked into writing some sort of Daphne romance story? Who can say. Not that I'm implying this is a Daphne/Harry story. That'd be a spoiler.

Tonks was sexily sitting in her history of magic class, which, in her opinion, had somehow managed to get worse than when it had been taught by a monotonous ghost. She hadn't even thought that was possible. The stuttering was seriously giving her a headache. Luckily for her, she had a game she played to pass the time. She hadn't played it in a while, ever since she got the perfect score, but a new teacher might mean a new challenge.

The game consisted of her gradually transforming her body into something sexier and sexier until she had as many boys as she could looking at her instead of teacher. Even her ability to become anything didn't make this an easy feat compared to the soporific nature of Professor Binn's voice. Eventually though, she did get the gaze of every single male on her, declared herself the champion, and stopped playing the game.

Now, though, she figured it was worth playing again. The boys were a few years past puberty now, a little more capable of fighting hormones, and Quirrel's infuriating stutter would probably make her attempts at passive seduction more difficult, if her headache was any indication of the state of mind of the rest of the class. She was even thinking about playing dirty and dropping her quill so she'd be forced to bend over and pick it up when finally the words Quirrel was saying crashed through her reverie. She shot up in her seat.

"What did you just say?" She called out aggressively as the teacher paled and shrank backwards. Then he tried to stutter out a response, but Tonks was fed up with that stupid stutter. She silently cast a healing charm on him that should have had him talking like a normal person for a few minutes at least, but even that didn't work and he kept gibbering like a Gandabherunda. Tonks had a mind for mystery though, she loved her novels with the plucky female detective solving crimes, she even wanted to follow a similar path for her career. So, Tonks deduced quite readily that the reason her spell failed to cure the Professor was because he didn't have a problem in the first place. It wasn't the only possibility, but it was the one that made the most sense, so she decided to call him on it. So she cast a silencing charm on the rest of the class before she spoke up.

"I know you're faking your stutter, now tell me in a normal voice if it's true that You-Know-Who cast a curse on his own name?"

Quirrel's demeanor seemed to shift at once, and he replied in a perfectly normal tone.

"Yes, it's true. That's why his name is no longer spoken, apart from a few brash Gryffindors who are too stupid to know better."

"And can anyone cast this sort of spell?" Tonks pressed the professor eagerly.

Quirrel shrugged. "You could try, but I suspect you will find your power a little lacking compared to that of a Dark Lord. The taboo on his name was strong enough to make him aware of the location of anyone speaking his name in the whole of England. Plus, the taboo did nothing by itself, the fear came from the knowledge he may show up. I don't think your presence would be able to strike the same fear into the heart of the nation."

Tonks smirked. This professor was smarter than he let on, he already knew just what she had in mind. Though, it was hardly a secret how much she despised her first name. She strode right out of the class, not caring for the dumbfounded stares she was receiving from the rest of the Hufflepuffs. Her mind was whirring furiously. No, she didn't have enough power or a bad enough reputation to strike terror into a whole country. But she did have enough power to strike fear into the hearts of a single castle. Any student from here on out was going to be sorry if they said the name Nymphadora from here on out. Dark Lady Tonks would see to that. She didn't particularly want to be a Dark Lady, but striking fear into hearts didn't exactly seem like something noble light warriors got up to...

While Tonks was still planning some sort of reign of terror, another would-be villain by the name of Daphne Greengrass came and plopped herself down in a free seat at the Gryffindor table. They were puzzling over Harry's poor mood and she was happy to enlighten them to the reason. In fact, it's what she had been looking forward to all day.

"He's pouting because he got outsmarted by his mortal enemy." Daphne announced.

A shock went through everyone around the table and Hermione immediately hissed a question to Harry. "You met VOLDEMORT?"

Daphne was pouting. "No Hermione, I'm his greatest enemy, not the Dark Lord."

The was a moment of silence before everyone in earshot burst out in laughter.

Daphne pouted harder and tried to shrug it off. "Yesterday was just a warning about not being around your enemy without your wand. I let him off easy. I could have Harry Potter kneeling before me in less than a week if I bothered to try."

"How?" Hermione asked simply.

"I'd kidnap some muggle child everyday and murder them in some public place and make sure Harry knew it wouldn't stop until he came to me unarmed. He'd do it."

Hermione spluttered, totally aghast. "You'd do that?"

"No." Daphne answered solidly, and made it clear she had no intention of elaborating by studying her nails intently. Hermione seemed more and more affronted the longer the silence dragged on, but seemed to be struggling with what to say. The tension between the two was being felt by the rest of the crowd at the table, even Harry seemed to forget about his funk in favour of the fight these two were waging over him.

Finally, Hermione seemed to decide on a tact. "Well, I suspect there's no point trying to talk you out of being a murderess, but could you at least not insult my heritage? It's very rude to call people muggles, the preferred terminology is mundane."

Daphne dropped her fingernails from in front of her face and seriously studied Hermione for a moment before bursting out into laughter.

"You have a good vocabulary, Granger, that much is clear, that's why it's completely baffling you would think it's a good thing to be called mundane. Synonymous with boring, humdrum, banal, and whatever else. Why on earth would you WANT your parents to be called that?"

Hermione's eyes widened and as Daphne watched the brunette struggle to try come up with a counter, Daphne's grin also began to widen. Then she cackled. "I'm on a roll now, and I haven't even had to get in a duel yet." She reached over and patted Hermione's shoulder in mock compassion. "You've got a long way to go if you're planning on being Harry's shield-maiden." Daphne rose gracefully, and started skipping back over to the Slytherin table.