Disclaimer: Anybody, any place, and anything that sounds familiar probably are. The Harry Potter world is all JK Rowling's.

"A wise, old man, huh? Was it Mad-Eye?" I asked curiously. Charlie looked at me for a second before nodding.

"Yeah, actually. How did you know Mad-Eye?" he asked. I chuckled.

"My dad knew several people in England when I was growing up. Mad-Eye was one of the few that came overseas to meet him," I said, laughing at the memory of my brother attempting to sneak up on ex-auror. "I don't know what happened to him though. Dad tried to floo-call him last year and didn't get an answer." I suddenly became aware of Charlie giving me an astonished look.

"Did you Americans not read newspapers or anything?" he asked, still looking stunned.

"Yes! We do actually! And we have TV's too!" I said, slightly insulted for the sake of my home country. "Just not much is said about England in the news. The most we heard was on your problems with ministers, but even that was strangely scarce." Charlie laughed bitterly.

"Yeah, I'd say problem with ministers!" I looked at him quizzically, but he waved me off. "Want something to drink?" he asked and I nodded. "Scotch, rum, butterbeer?"

"You have Guinness?" I asked. He nodded and brought me a bottle.

"You know of Voldemort, correct?"

"Yeah. In the nineteen seventies, he was a terror, even in the states. Then in eighty-one, Potter brought him down," I said, taking a sip of my beer. Charlie nodded.

"Well, he came back again. Harry's first year, he was sustained by living on unicorn blood, or so I'm told. The second year, his memory was in a diary. His soul possessed my baby sister and she was forced to let the basilisk out," he said in one breath. My jaw gaped. How did we miss all of that?

"And that was it, right? Voldemort was destroyed, vanished, never to be heard from again?" I asked, hoping I was right. Charlie laughed humorlessly.

"Not quite. Third year, Sirius Black?" he said. I straightened. I had heard of him on my news station in the States, so I wasn't expecting what Charlie had to say next. "Innocent the entire time. Long story there though. Fourth year, Voldemort's back, his servant with him. It just gets worse from there."

"So these worse years…they're what made you clam up? I mean, you've never been a real talkative guy, Charlie, but you're quieter than normal," I said. I watched as Charlie's eyes dimmed slightly. "Who was she?" I asked, lowering my voice slightly. Charlie looked up at me, and I wasn't sure if I really wanted to know.

"A friend. A good one at that," he said, before taking another swig of his firewhiskey. "She was in my year at Hogwarts, but in Hufflepuff," he said before clamming up.

"Oh? Was she pretty?" I asked, starting to get genuinely curious about this girl. Charlie chuckled.

"Tonks could look like whatever she wanted to look like. She was a metamorphmagus, see? She constantly changed her appearance. In fact, it got us both in and out of trouble."

"Really? A metamorphmagus? That's awesome!" I said, grinning. There weren't many of the in the world, and to know one was extremely rare.

"Yeah, it was really cool. Luckily, it was one of the things she passed on to her son. But I'll never forget when I first met her…." Charlie launched into the story without hesitating, now lost in memories.

"'Wotcher!" she said as she walked through the door to my compartment. I nodded politely. She was a girl, and I was more interested in my chocolate frogs.

"Oh, who's that? Circe? That's a really pretty color she has on," the girl said. I looked down at my card before glancing back up at her.

"Your hair!" I couldn't help but yell before covering my mouth. Where before it was a light brown, it now matched the color of Circe's dress: bubblegum pink.

"Oh sorry! Haven't quite gotten the hang of this completely. Whenever I get excited, it changes. It's the bane of Mum's existence in public," the girl said quickly. She wrinkled her nose, focusing as the hair slowly turned brown again.

"My name's Charlie Weasley," I said as I stuck my hand out. She shook it and grinned.

"Pleased to meet ya, I'm Ny—actually, just call me Tonks." We continued talking right up until they called her name for the Sorting.

"Nymphadora Tonks." My new friend tripped on her way to the stool, her hair turning flame red as she scrambled to where the hat waited.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" was yelled and she placed the hat back on the stool before running to where her new housemates were cheering. I caught her eye.

"Don't you DARE call me Nymphadora," she mouthed and I couldn't help but laugh."

Charlie suddenly cut off in midst of the story.

"So? Go on! I wanna hear about your years at Hogwarts!" I urged. He grinned slightly.

"That's enough for now. We need to go check on Gwen."