Tonks, Inez, Polly, and Charlie had found most of the classrooms without any trouble. They'd met Professor Flitwick, who had been carrying a whole bag full of feathers down the corridor. It was taller than he was, and Charlie had offered to carry it for him, but Flitwick had shown them how to levitate it and Tonks thought that was brilliant and wanted to try it out but she'd left her wand in her trunk.

"You'll want to get used to carrying it with you always," Flitwick had reprimanded her gently. "You don't need to be caught without it..." His eyes had gone sad at this and he said, "Terrible things have happened to wizards who have forgotten to carry their wands with them at all times. Please be sure to carry them." He'd given each of them an imploring look.

"I have mine," Charlie offered, and he showed Flitwick.

"Ash! Very stiff... twelve inches.. interesting." Flitwick looked Charlie over with concern, then, "What core have you got, boy?" he asked.

"A unicorn hair," Charlie said. "It's not the wand that picked me, but that one was too expensive, so mum had to purchase one second hand." He flushed, looking at Inez who looked scandalized by this information. "The one that wanted me was beautiful, sir, it had dragon heart string core and was hornbeam, 13 inches." His eyes sparkled with the memory of the beautiful wand.

Flitwick handed Charlie back the Ash wand. "I see," he murmured. "It sounds quite lovely."

Charlie nodded. "Someday, maybe, I'll go back for it. I really like that it had dragon heart string." He paused. "Did you know that wands made with dragon heart strings are very tempermental depending on whether the dragon willingly gave it's strings or not? There are people who harvest illegally and poach dragons for their heart strings, but Mr. Ollivander said that those wands choose wizards with a dispensation toward dark magic because the dragon's heart draws to inward anger and seeks revenge against wizards who have mistreated them. But dragons can give their strings willingly, too, and those wands are very, very loyal, just as pet dragons are to their keepers. Dragons are the most loyal companions you can have as a pet, you know, even more than a dog, and if you get a dragon heart string wand you should always, always ask for a certificate of death and donation signed by the dragon's keeper to ensure it was properly obtained. All of Mr. Ollivander's dragon heart string wands are certified properly."

Flitwick looked perplexed by all that, and he nodded, "That's quite a lot of information, Mr. Weasley, thank you."

Charlie smiled.

"That's really sad they poach dragons," Inez said.

Charlie looked at Inez, "It happens all the time, you'd be surprised. Even though it's illegal in England, it isn't in a lot of other regions and there's a very large market for dragon parts in China and you'll see a lot of illegal poachers in the mountains especially around Romania and in New Zealand and --"

"It was wonderful meeting the lot of you," said Flitwick, "But I really must excuse myself, I've got to get my classroom prepared for tomorrow!" he waved the levitating bag of feathers off into the classroom and disappeared.

After that they'd walked and found the Transfiguration corridor, the Defense Against the Dark Arts corridor, and the classrooms for History and Magical Theory. It was starting to rain, so they decided to skip looking for the Flying practice field, deciding to do that later in the week during a free period instead, and Inez and Polly complained they'd been walking all morning and decided they'd rather go back to their common room than keep looking around.

"But we haven't seen the potions classroom yet!" Tonks complained.

"I'll go with you," Charlie offered.

"There you are," Polly said, "Charlie and you can go find the Potions classroom and Inez and I can go back to the dormitory. You can show us the Potions room tomorrow when we go to class."

So off went Polly and Inez, giggling and whispering as they left, and Tonks and Charlie went down into the dungeons, where the Potions classroom was said to be.

The dungeons were dark and dreary and cooler than the rest of the castle. Tonks wished she had a jumper or her jacket on because of the chill, so she reached out and held Charlie's hand, which was warm and kind of sweaty about the palm. He didn't seem to want to hold hands at first, but he didn't pull away and she squeezed his hand reassuringly, and finally his fingers relaxed in hers and they walked together through the dark corridor quietly.

"Remind me to show you the painting of the dragon by Hufflepuff common room on the way back," she said suddenly into the dark.

"Yeah?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah, it's brilliant. You'll like it. There's an opal colored dragon, he's all iridescent and pretty."

"That must be a Prism-Scaled Quetzal."

"How do you know about so many dragons types?" Tonks asked.

"I have a book," Charlie answered simply.

They'd come up to the Potions classroom then and Tonks's eyes were wide with excitement and, rather than asking more about Charlie's book, she rushed up the steps to the classroom door, which was open a jar.

"What are you doing?" Charlie asked.

"Having a peek!" Tonks said, "The door is open, so why not?" She hadn't gotten to look at the other classrooms, their doors had been closed, and she was eager to see the Potions room anyway. The idea of making magical flavored lip balms was still on her mind from their conversation at breakfast and she'd been looking forward to meeting the Potions Master ever since her mum had told her they were related to the man who would be her Professor. Another cousin! She hoped he would be like Sirius, and maybe they could be friends like her and Sirius had been and maybe they could write Sirius letters together and commiserate over how it was awful Sirius was in prison even though he was innocent and --

She popped her head in the Potions classroom and looked about. It was dark, but there was a smell in the room that emitted from a cauldron on a high table at the front of the room, which glowed with a purpleish-shine and emitted smoke that danced toward the ceiling. She breathed deeply and she could smell thyme and something else, something more earthy.

Rows of desks with little dips for fire pits and cauldron hooks filled the room, and there were high stools for seats and a huge chalkboard at the front, already marked up with a recipe and carefully hand-drawn illustrations of the parts of some kind of plant. There were other cauldrons and beakers and bottles and bowls all over the room on various shelves and levitating all around the teacher's desk were loads and loads of candles that flickered to illuminate the room, rather than harsher lighting that might be seen in most classrooms.

"Wow, cool," she whispered. "Charlie, come look."

"No, I'm okay here," Charlie replied, hanging back at the foot of the stairs. "We ought not to be snooping about," he murmured.

"I'm not snooping about," Tonks replied, but she was. She started to push open the door further when suddenly a form cut in front of her, a pale hand grabbing hold on the door and stopping it opening anymore than it was.

"Do not... open that... further," said a low voice.

She looked up and saw a pale, stern face staring down at her from behind long hair that hung forward like great greasy black curtains. The dark eyes that glowered out from behind them were cold and unreadable.

"You'll let in a draft, and if you had read the sign upon the door -" he pointed very sharply with the end of his wand at a parchment spello taped on the wood door, "You'd see it says clearly not to open the door further as there is a particular aeration process occurring within that is very important for this potion as it is very finicky. What is your name?"

The question was seamlessly blended in the same tone as the rest of the words he'd spoken, so it hardly seemed like a question at all.

Tonks swallowed nervously, "N-Nymphadora Tonks," she stammered. It didn't seem the sort of moment to explain the whole name thing.

The eyes were dark and continued to stare at her. "Do you know anything about potions, Miss. Tonks?" he breathed lowly.

"N-Not yet sir, I'm a first year," she answered.

"Then you do not realize how important it is to pay very close attention to details when it comes to the delicate art of potion making, but it would serve you well to do so in the future. In my classroom, you'll be expected to pay attention and notice things like parchments which tell you not to open doors due to aeration processes."

"Yes sir."

He reached up and pushed the hair back and she saw in the light glow of the candles and the torches in the corridor the silhouette of his face, his large nose and dark brows. He had pock-marked skin and a slight jut to his lower jaw...

"Oh! I know who you are!" Tonks was excited because she recognized her professor, simply from the description that her mum had given her. "You're Professor Snape!" she said proudly, "Snivellus Snape!"

The moment she'd said the name, she knew something was wrong. His eyes flashed dark with anger. "What did you just call me?" he hissed between clenched teeth.

"Your name?" Tonks ventured, less sure of herself now. "Snivellus Snape?"

"Ten points from Gryffindor!"

Charlie's eyes were wide, perplexed at the roaring anger and harsh punishment.

"But - but I'm a Hufflepuff!" Tonks stammered, confused.

The Professor turned red. "HUFFLEPUFF THEN," he spat, and he slammed the Potions classroom door so hard it shook the walls and the portraits on either side let out bleats of annoyance.

Tonks looked helplessly at Charlie. "What'd I do?" she asked.

"Dunno," Charlie said, "But he was angrier than a cross Welsh Ironbelly! Which those spit fire as far off as a quidditch pitch is long, they do!"

Tonks was so hurt and confused. She wandered along, following Charlie back to the stairs up to the Entrance Hall, half-listening as he talked about how amazing Welsh Ironbellies are and all the different distances that various dragons could spit fire, but only half hearing it. Try as she might, she couldn't figure out what she'd done wrong.

She could clearly remember the day they'd all talked about Professor Snape because Sirius had been over their house - it was the last time she'd seen him, actually...

She had run away - as usual - and gone to Sirius and Remus's flat in East London. Her mother had been absolutely ridiculous and purchased a horrible frock that she expected Tonks to wear and they'd had a terrible row about the same old things - whether Tonks should be allowed to change her hair or her eyes, whether make-up was for girls older than she was, and whether or not she was going to even go with them to the wedding they were supposed to be attending. She didn't even want to go to that stupid wedding, she didn't know who those people were, and her mum had gotten so angry she'd started in telling Nymphadora all about all the terrible things her grandmother would've done to her mum if she had ever dreamed of talking back like Tonks did... and so Tonks had yelled some choice things about how she wished grandmother had done them, and there'd been a crescendo of a screaming match, ending with Tonks carrying her train case resolutely out the front door.

Hours later, once they'd both had time to cool off from their match, Sirius had insisted that Tonks needed to go home and that he'd talk to "ol' Dromeda" as he worded it. He had started having private talks with her mum whenever she ran away to their house, and for awhile mum would be nicer about things, so Tonks knew whatever Sirius Black told her mother, he was getting through to her.

Anyway, he'd been dropping her off and her mum had asked if he wanted dinner because he was looking peaky. Sirius had lost weight and he didn't have much to lose, as her mum had said, and Sirius had explained it had been a rough time because James and Lily Potter had gone into hiding, targeted by the dark Lord and now Remus Lupin was away doing business for the Order. The Order of the Phoenix excited Tonks - she'd learned by listening through the kitchen door that it was a secret organization which was fighting He Who Must Not Be Named independently of the Ministry because the Ministry had been corrupted. All of her favorite people were part of the Order and she'd already decided that, if something should happen that the Order was still fighting when she grew up, she wanted to join it. She figured she needed to be at least thirteen to do so, and so she'd childishly marked in her journal that she would be joining the Order on October 28, 1985.

So, he had stayed for dinner and Sirius was angry because Remus Lupin had applied for a job at Hogwarts as a teacher. "The Defense Against the Dark Arts position is open again and Dumbledore's having a hard go of filling it this year - nobody wants to teach in that fucking cursed position. I don't even want Remus to teach in it. Everyone that's ever taught it has ended up fucking dead or without a job with in a year. I'd live on nails all year if he bloody took that up, but he's insisting he would be fine - and honestly whatever gets him away from these damned missions Moody and Dumbledore always have him going on - I'm so sick of them using him like this, you know? But anyway, you know who he saw there? He saw bleeding Snivellus Snape, applying for a job at Hogwarts!"

Mum had flinched at every curse word Sirius had said. "Please, Sirius, watch your mouth." She'd paused. "He wasn't going after the Dark Arts job again, was he?"

"Yeah he was. Made some horrible comment to Remus about if he was a Defense teacher then he'd have to go on and teach them how to defeat himself, and Remus being cool told him that was a part of the curriculum he would be presenting to Dumbledore. Didn't even take up the bait for the fight that ol' Snivellus was dishing out."

"Who is Snivellus Snape?" Tonks had asked.

"Apparently in a few years, when you go to Hogwarts, he'll be your new Potions Master," barked Sirius. "Unless that job is now cursed, too, which hopefully it is... I can picture Slughorn cursing it when he moonwalks out the door."

"Slughorn is retiring?"

"Yeah, spending a couple years to train Snivellus up, but apparently when Dumbledore was seeing Snivvey out Slughorn volunteered to take Snivellus on as an apprentice and teach him the ways of Potion Mastering and Remus said Snivellus tried to turn it down, but Dumbledore jumped on the idea and bada-bing - presenting Hogwarts latest ridiculous acquisition..." Sirius had shaken his head and leaned back in the chair. "This is nearly as stupid as when Dumbledore took on fucking You Know Who as Muggle Studies teacher! You remember that?"

"I remember hearing about it," Mum said.

"Why don't we like Snivellus Snape?" Tonks asked.

"He's a git," Sirius said.

"Sirius, please." Mum had sighed, rolled her eyes, and turned to Tonks, "Snape is one of our cousins."

"Everyone is," Tonks said, nonplussed.

Sirius snickered, "That's where generations of incest gets ya."

"Sirius!"

"What? True, isn't it? She'll figure it out one day on her own."

"Hopefully not," Mum had replied to him.

"Oh she will," Sirius replied.

"Snape is one of our cousins and he apparently is going to be a Potions Master so you may see him some day when you go to Hogwarts."

"Just a couple more years," Tonks said. "It's my birthday tomorrow, Sirius."

"I know it is, love," he answered, then, "What do you want for your birthday?"

"A leather jacket, just like yours."

"Tonks, I already told you you're not wearing a leather jacket, you are not a hooligan." Mum had sighed, then looked at Sirius, "No offense, of course."

"Some taken," Sirius had said smirking.

It had nothing to do with why she remembered that his name was definitely Snivellus Snape, but remembering all the rest of that had brought her back to the moment when Sirius had offered to tuck her in before he left and she'd showed him her bedroom and all her secret make-up stash, sent to her by Bradley Scamander, who Sirius knew really well, or else snuck into her train case by none other than Sirius himself, and he had laughed and told her to stay true to herself and that really, deep down, ol Dromeda really did understand it and was probably even jealous of her. Then he'd knelt down and looked her in the eyes.

"Look, it's very important that you stay true to yourself no matter what, especially these days, Nymphadora, because everyone's trying to be someone they aren't these days and it's really getting hard to know the truth from the lies and to figure out who's genuine and who's a liar. It's very important that you be you always and remember that you're good - good in your heart - and always stay that way. Always stand up for what you believe in and be a rebel if that's what it means, step outside the lines people draw for you because fuck them, you know?"

"Yeah," she'd said, and she'd stared into his grey eyes, "Just like you."

"I try," he said, "But sometimes even I fail at it. It's really hard to stay true to yourself when there's loads of pressure and you're heart broken and you're just trying to make sure everyone you love is alright..." he'd paused and a very heavy sort of expression had come over him then, like he was thinking about something that really weighted heavy on his heart. Then, he'd looked at her again. "Now, about your birthday."

Sirius stood up, shrugged off his leather jacket, reached into the pockets and took out a great handful of things, which he put into his trouser pockets. He'd looked the jacket over, then held it out to Tonks.

"What?" she breathed.

"This is for you," he said.

She'd taken it with shaking hands. "Your jacket?"

"Yeah. I'd get you your own one, but I haven't the money."

She pulled the jacket on, still warm from him having been wearing it, and it smelled like him and it gave her goosebumps feeling it's weight around her, like a hug from Sirius himself and she'd started to cry with joy and she ran into him and wrapped her arms around his torso and her cheek had pressed against his chest.

"Your growing up, Nymphadora," he murmured, "You used to barely reach my stomach when you did this. Someday you might even be taller than me at this rate you're growing."

She'd hugged him so, so tight...

"Tonks? Tonks!"

"I'm sorry, Charlie, I was distracted. Thinking, you know?" Tonks felt a funny pain in her belly. Thinking about that time with Sirius made her feel profoundly sad. She swallowed and murmured, "You know, Charlie, I - I think I want to go back to my dormitory for awhile after all But I'll see you later, at dinner maybe, alright?"

Charlie hesitated. "I thought you were going to show me the painting of the Quetzal?"

"Another time, Charlie," she promised, and she scurried away before he could argue with her.

Back in the common room, Tonks slipped past Inez and Polly who were marveling over their Charms book at one of the tables in front of the fireplace, and she slipped down the stairs to the dormitory and through the little round door.

Quickly, Tonks opened her trunk and dug through all the things she'd packed away in there until she finally found it, wrapped up in a pillowcase for safe keeping and to help at preserving the smell...

Sirius Black's leather jacket.

She pulled it onto her shoulders, tugging it tight and zipping the front to hold it on, then crawled into bed and curled up in a ball, hugging her knees, and wondering what it was about Professor Snape that had upset her so much.

Back in the Potions classroom, Snape was cursing at the ruined cauldron on the desk - the aeration ruined by his own temper in slamming the door, and he shook as he siphoned it up from the cauldron.

He didn't think he'd have to worry about offspring of the Marauders until Harry Potter had come to school - he thought he'd have more time to prepare for miniature versions of the pisspots, but no - no he hadn't been even slightly prepared for the little pink-haired ghost of Sirius Black that had stood on the stoop of the Potions classroom moments before. True, not a real offspring - biology luckily had kept this world from that sort of suffrage - but in personality there was no mistaking it.

The spirit of Sirius Black was back at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry and Severus Snape hated it. With a passion.