"What's your favorite fruit flavor?" Tonks asked Inez Emmerson.

"Oranges," Inez offered.

"I like cherries," offered Polly Jenkins.

Tonks reached into her package from her mum and handed each of them a lip balm, a proud grin on her face. "Here you go!" she said happily. "My mum sent me a whole bunch of flavored lip balms!" 

"What is this? Like a chapstick?" Polly asked. She had opened the lid and was sniffing it. It really did smell like cherries.

Inez's eyes were wide. "It's a LIPSTICK," she whispered, awed.

"It's a lip balm! They just have flavor, don't worry, the color won't stay on so your mum won't get mad or anything. You have to magic them to make the color stay on if you want it to. They just taste good. Well, no actually, they usually taste like wax more than the fruit they say, but they're really fun anyway and look how colorful they are!" Tonks poured out the whole package of them on the table and they rolled about between the platters of bacon and eggs and serving bowls of beans. "They're from America but I have a friend there that sends them to me, and mum must have gotten them from his parents!" 

The girls ooohed and ahhhed over all the colorful packages and flavors in Tonks's collection, looking them and picking up the different tubes with amazement.

"You have a friend in America?" Polly asked. Inez was opening various tubes and sniffing them.

"Yes," Tonks answered, "We write each other a lot, but I see him sometimes. His dad travels here quite a lot. His name is Bradley."

"I've never had a pen pal," Polly said.

"I have," offered Inez. "But she doesn't live real far away. I can floo her if I wanted to. I just like it better being pen pals. I hoped she would be coming to Hogwarts, but I guess she really is a muggle after all." Inez shrugged. "Dunno what I'm going to write her about anymore."

"Bradley's a muggle, too, but he knows all about magic. He's adopted," Tonks answered. She picked up all her lip balms and put them back in the bag the owl had brought and tucked it into her book bag, along with the note from Andromeda that said her and Tonks's dad were really proud she'd been sorted Hufflepuff and that they loved her a whole lot.

"Adopted!" said Polly, "That's exciting."

"I guess so. He's been with the Scamanders so long he doesn't remember much else, honestly, but --"

"The Scamanders!" squealed Inez. "You're talking about Bradley Scamander!"

Tonks looked surprised, "Yeah?"

"I've seen him! Newt Scamander did a presentation about unicorns once at a wizard uni near my house once and my mum looooves magic creatures so we went to see the unicorns and he had his son with him there and he introduced Bradley Scamander as his assistant and Bradley's really cute!"

"Oh I remember when he did the unicorn presentations!" Tonks said. "Bradley helps Mr. Scamander with all the creatures, not just the unicorns. He wants to be a muggle zoologist when he grows up."

Polly crunched her nose, "What's that? Like a person who takes care of muggles?"

"Nooo!" Tonks said.

"That doesn't exist!" said Inez.

"Should, though." A wide shouldered boy with watery eyes and pale blonde hair leaned between Inez and the girl on her left, across from Polly and Tonks. He grinned nastily and said, "They should round up all the muggles and put'em in zoos."

"Gross," Tonks said.

The boy looked up and met her eyes and smirked. "Figures a blood traitor like you would say so." He backed up and ducked away as quickly as he'd stepped in, turning and sitting down at the Slytherin table behind Inez, who looked very wide-eyed and afraid.

"It's alright Inez," Tonks said, loudly enough for the boy to hear at the next table, and standing up to project her voice even more, "Anyone who says rubbish like that is a coward anyway."

The boy didn't react if he heard her, but kept his back turned to the Hufflepuff table a

Polly hissed, "Oh don't say things like that. He might come back."

"So?" Tonks said.

Inez shook her head, "Shhh! I don't want him to come back, either!"

Tonks took a deep breath and settled down in her seat again, cheeks red.

Inez quietly opened her tangerine lip balm and rubbed it on her lips, staring down at her plate, trying to ignore Tonks's glare over her shoulder at the back of the boy from the Slytherin table. She ran her tongue over her lips, then looked up, eyes bright. "It really does taste like tangerine!" she gasped.

Tonks pulled her focus back to Inez. "RIGHT?" she said, breathless with excitement. "And you'll get little tastes of it when you breathe all day, it's wonderful!"

"Imagine if they made magical ones?" Polly said, "They could sparkle or change flavor based on your preference that day? Or they could come in butterbeer and raspberry fizz and chocolate cauldron and --"

"That's brilliant!" Tonks cried out. "They could fizz like the inside of a raspberry fizz and they could plump your lips up so you looked like Marilyn Monroe or change your lips fun colors and--"

Inez's eyes widened at all the suggestions, "That's so fun!"

Tonks said, "We should study really hard and really make it happen someday."

Polly laughed, "You're silly."

"We'll have to be really very good at potions to do something like that," Inez said.

"I'm really excited for potions, actually," Tonks answered. "Mum says it's like cooking, sort of, but magical. She said the potions professor is related to us, too. Our family's really crazy, though, so that could be good or bad."

Polly was putting on her cherry lip balm now and licking her lips eagerly, then reapplying the lip balm.

"Speaking of families," Tonks said, turning to Polly, "Are you related to Maryrose Jenkins at all?"

Polly lowered her lipbalm slowly. "Maryrose Jenkins was my cousin."

"She was a metamorphmagus," Tonks said. "Like me."

Polly nodded, "Yeah. Maryrose was a metamorphmagus." She put the cap on her lip balm and tucked it into her skirt pocket. She hesitated, then, "It's Sunday - we don't have classes until tomorrow. What do you lot want to do?"

Tonks was surprised by the change in conversation. She wasn't done talking about Maryrose and the metamorphmagus-ness. She had so many questions! But it was clear Polly was done talking about her for now and Inez quickly suggested that they take their course list and visit all the classrooms so they knew how to get to them all before the classes started

Excited, and with yummy-flavored lips, they rushed to get their schedules from the common room and Tonks grabbed a quill and parchment to make notes about the best ways through the corridors. The three girls rushed up through the corridors back to the entrance hall and sat in a cluster in the corner by the grand staircase, next to a potted plant with funny fruit hanging off it. Tonks brushed one of the fruits out of her way and leaned over the class schedules, looking at them closely.

"We're going to be so busy. Look at all these classes!" Tonks was staring in amazement at the schedule. "Oh I don't like this. There's barely any time for fun."

"And look at that, we have to be at Astronomy until nearly one o'clock in the morning and back to Potions first thing the next morning!" Inez pointed. "When are we supposed to do our hair?"

"That's what curlers are for," said Polly. "You can sleep in them."

"You have curlers?" Inez's voice was fiery with jealousy. "Mum won't let me have them she says they might get stuck in my hair."

"Your mum worries about a lot of things," said Polly.

Inez sighed. "I know."

A crowd of loud boys went by then, nearly stepping on their schedule as they threw a quaffle about between them. Tonks looked up, "Oi be careful where you're going!" she shouted.

The boy had on a Gryffindor tie and he smirked at her. "Bold little first year," he laughed, "What're you doing in Hufflepuff with a mouth like that?" He chucked the quaffle off across the room where it thumped into the chest of the boy who had thrown it to begin with, "Wotcher Brixton."

Brixton had to jump to catch the quaffle before it slammed into the hour glasses full of jewels in the corner. His eyes were wide as he looked back over, "Chauncey, you eejit, you nearly hit the bloody points!" 

"Good way to lose all the points," said another boy, coming 'round the corner, "Although it looks like someone's already done some kind of kissing up over in Ravenclaw - how'd they already get so many points?" 

"Don't worry Edwin, you've got plenty of time to kiss the toes of all your professors and earn us up some, too," the boy they'd called Chauncey said with a wicked grin.

"Or maybe you could try for a change and do something right yourself for once," said a voice Tonks recognized and she looked up to see Bill Weasley just coming 'round the corner of the stairwell. Brixton tossed Bill the quaffle and he caught it easily with one hand, then turned and handed it off to --

"CHARLIE!" Tonks leaped to her feet, her mary-jane shoes squeaking on the flagstones, "HI CHARLIE!" She ran over and gave him a hug, surprising Charile, who took a step back quickly as soon as she'd let go, his eyes wide and staring at her.

"Oooohh," sang Chauncey, "Charlie's got a girlfriend already!"

"I haven't got a girlfriend," Charlie said, wiping Tonks's kiss off his cheek and looking very flustered and uncomfortable.

But Chauncey wasn't listening. "Look at that, Bill - you're right, your kid brother is cool. Got a girlfriend first day at the castle. Been three years wishing that Cathy Marbauger might do the same as that to you, 'ey?"

"'ey shut up, Chauncey," Bill called, then, "Hey Tonks."

"Hi Bill," Tonks said. She turned to Charlie, "I'm so glad to see you!" 

Charlie was still flushed. "Thanks," he said awkwardly.

"D'you want to go explore the castle with me and my friends - Inez and Polly and I are going to go look around and find all the classrooms so we're not completely lost tomorrow."

Charlie glanced at Bill, Edwin, Brixton, and Chauncey, who were all headed into the Great Hall for breakfast, pushing each other and laughing. Chauncey was bouncing the quaffle now like a basket ball, and they were completely unaware that Charlie wasn't following after them. He looked at Inez and Polly, kneeling on the floor, looking over their schedules and Tonks, looking at him hopefully. 

"I don't know," he said, torn.

Tonks said, "You should come with us! Unless you're hungry. I suppose you're probably hungry, huh? You haven't eaten breakfast yet?" She looked disappointed though and Charile had never had anyone look disappointed they couldn't spend time with him before.

In fact, before they'd left the dorms, Bill had made sure Charlie bring his duvet and pillows and Dragon back down to his own dormitory, reminding him for like the thirteenth time that sleeping on the floor in his room had been a one-time-only-thing-alright? and Charlie had sadly dragged his stuff back down and thrown it unceremoniously on his bed at the end of the row in the first years dormitory. Ethan, Cameron, and Darin had already gone to breakfast, apparently not even noticing that the weird kid wasn't in bed.

"Alright, I'll come," Charlie said.

"D'you wanna go get some toast or something so you don't starve?" Tonks asked.

Polly and Inez were getting up and dusting off their knees and pocketing their schedules.

"I dunno," Charlie said awkwardly. He didn't want to hold them up if they were ready to go, he felt like the exception was being made for him to come along at all, not to mention making them wait up for him while he ate breakfast...

"Here, I'll go with you," Tonks said, recognizing he was nervous. "Polly, Inez - I'll be right back. We're gonna get Charlie some toast and he's going to come along with us."

"Okay!" said Inez, smiling.

They watched Tonks and Charlie head into the Great Hall and Polly whispered, "Is that the dragon boy?"

"Yeah," Inez whispered back. "Tonks is friends with him."

"I hope he doesn't talk about dragons the whole time we're exploring," whispered back Polly.

"Me too," lamented Inez.

But Tonks and Charlie didn't hear any of that, they were already in the Great Hall and Tonks had marched right over to the Gryffindor table, Charlie in tow, and taken up a plate and started grabbing toast. "You ought to have some bacon, too, and some eggs. Look, you can make it like a sandwich," she said, piling bacon and eggs onto the toast. "Do you like cheese?"

Charlie nodded.

"Oi, what're you doing, Tonks?" Ethan Sprout asked, seeing her taking the food. "You ought to be eating Hufflepuff's food, not ours!" 

"There's plenty at all the tables for everyone," Tonks replied, "And besides, it's not for me, I already ate my breakfast at the Hufflepuff table. It's for Charlie." She finished assembling the sandwich and flattened it with her palm to squish it all together, then turned and handed the platter to Charlie. "So mind your business."

"He needs you to make his plate for him?" snickered Darin Sinclair.

"I told you, he's weird," whispered Ethan.

Tonks glared at him, "Shut up, you don't even know him." 

"Know him enough," muttered Ethan, and Cameron Marbauger laughed.

Tonks said, "You're mean." She turned away and ushered Charlie toward the door.

"At least I'm not a weird little baby," Ethan said.

Tonks whipped around and Charlie whispered, "Please don't," but it was too quiet and Tonks was already fired up. "Yeah but at least Charlie's nose doesn't look like an owl tried to bite it off."

Ethan's cheeks flushed as Cameron and Darin laughed and he said, "Shut up, pink head."

"My hair is cool and you're just jealous of me being able to change how I look when you can't," Tonks said firmly, "And you're jealous that Charlie gets to be friends with the cool girl." She flipped her hair over her shoulder, screwed up her face and changed her nose to look like his and crossed her eyes, then turned around and took Charlie's arm. "Come on, Charlie."

He was so red, clutching his bacon sandwich, and feeling altogether like he was going to pay for the whole exchange immeasurably more than the breakfast had been worth, and plodded along the way Tonks was leading him.

"What took so long?" Inez asked when they came out into the entrance hall.

"And what happened to your nose?" Polly asked.

"Oh just showing a jerkface how to mind his own business is all," Tonks said, and she turned her nose back to her own.

"That. Is so. Cool," breathed Inez.

"Yeah," Polly nodded.

Tonks grinned, proud of herself, then, "C'mon, let's go find all the classrooms!"