"Nev, Hermione, meet my cousin Tonks." Harry called as he stepped into the Ravenclaw common room. "Tonks, these are my first two friends, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom."
"Wotcha!" Tonks grinned, her hair turning blue and Hermione's eyebrows shot up.
"How did you do that?"
"She's a Metamorphmagus." Neville supplied and Tonks gave an approving nod.
"Yep, sure am. Been changing daily since I was five. Surprised the heck outta my mother first time I did it."
"And you're Harry's cousin?" Hermione asked.
"Well, sorta." Tonks wobbled her hand in the air. "It's kinda complicated and takes several generations and marriages to explain, but yeah. He's my cousin and I like him a lot better than my other cousin. Then again, let's not talk about Malfoy, he's a git."
"And that's the downside." Harry mock-mourned. "If Tonks is my cousin, so's the blond pillock."
"Language, Harry!" Hermione scolded, causing Tonks to laugh.
"Oh, I'm going to like you!" She declared, causing Hermione to blush slightly. "So, I'm Tonks, Seventh Year Hufflepuff Prefect and cousin to Harry… you know, once I tell mum and dad that I've met you, they'll probably invite you over for a meet-and-greet."
Harry smiled.
"Nice place you got here." Tonks continued, looking round at the walls of books and the giant map. "Bit stuffy, but not bad. Hmmm, several good books here that could be useful for my final exams… hey, Harry, okay if I get you to let me in to take a gander at these sometime? If I'm going to become an Auror, it'll really help."
"Well, it'll be up to Professor Flitwick as our Head of House, but I'll see what I can do." Harry said.
"I see no problem." Flitwick noted from behind them, causing both Harry and Tonks to jolt in surprise. "After all, the more good Aurors we can get, the better."
"Thanks, Prof." Tonks chirped, her hair changing from purple back to her usual pink. "Oh, anything I can help you with as thanks?"
"Well, Hermione, Neville and me are trying to learn the Duelists Shield…"
"Say no more!" Tonks grinned. "Tell you what, on Saturday I'll help you get it sorted. Anything for the Boy-who-drooled."
Harry shook his head as both Hermione and Neville looked at him in confusion.
"Tonks…" He growled warningly and his new-found cousin burst out laughing.
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"Wotcha, Harry!"
Harry looked up as Tonks flopped down opposite him, totally ignoring the looks that the other Ravenclaws at the table were giving her.
"Hello, Tonks." Harry replied as he picked up his knife and fork ready to start cutting into the steak before him.
Tonks opened her mouth to say something, then stopped, her eyes wide as she stared at the main door of the hall. Harry turned to see what she was looking at and his eyes widened in shock.
"What the… Draco is a Metamorphmagus as well?"
"I don't think so." Tonks mused as the two boys flanking Draco finally paused, staring at his hair. Draco stalked onward, unaware that his escort had stopped, then he half-turned to see them still standing by the doors.
"What's wrong with you two?" He half-asked, half-sneered and one of the two pointed at him.
"Your hair…"
"My what?" Draco asked in confusion, then he reached up and pulled a strand of his hair forwards so that he could look at it. "What's wrong with my haAAAAAAAAAYYYAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
Draco's hair changed color again, this time turning yellow, then it changed to purple as he started to run around in panic.
"My hair! My hair! Someone do something! My glorious hair! What's happening to it? What's happening?!"
Tonks reached across the table to tap Harry's hand, then motioned to the Gryffindor table where a pair of redheads were exchanging high-fives.
"Looks like the Terrible Two managed to pull quite the prank." She noted as gales of laughter filled the Great Hall. "I wonder how they did it?"
"My hair!" Draco screamed as he ran past. "My haaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiir! It's ruined!"
"He's being such a girl." Hermione said before she could stop herself, earning several looks amidst the snickers.
"Malfoy! Stop where you are!" Severus Snape's voice cracked across the Great Hall and Draco stumbled to a halt as the Potionsmaster stalked across to him, wand appearing in his hand in a manner very familiar to those who knew about wrist-holsters. Reaching Draco, he planted one hand on the boy's shoulder to hold him steady while his wand danced above the boy's head, causing runes to briefly appear.
"Interesting." He mused. "A potion that causes random but frequent color changes when applied externally. Draco, has anyone poured anything over your head?"
Draco shook his head and Severus gave the suddenly-innocent-looking Weasley Twins a suspicious glance.
"Washing it off will solve the issue, but before you do, I will check your shampoo."
"I also use a conditioner…" Draco half-whispered.
"Then I shall check that also." Severus sighed as he led the now-green-haired boy out of the Hall as the laughter rose once more.
"Well, whatever happened, it's going to take cousin Draco a loooo-oooong time to rebuild his reputation." Tonks chuckled. "Couldn't have happened to a more deserving person."
Harry nodded and started to apply himself to his food, only to pause as Tonks spoke again.
"So, I hear from my contacts in the Ravens that you've got yourself a new nickname." Tonks teased. "Protego Potter as you haven't let the Quaffle past you once, no matter what the Ravenclaw Chasers come up with."
"I try." Harry shrugged as he lifted a forkful of meat.
"You do indeed." Tonks agreed. "So, looking forwards to next month when you go up against the Snakes?"
Harry paused to give her the most evil grin he could and Tonks giggled, then her face changed. A moustache and goatee appeared, her nose expanded into an almost beak-like shape while her eyes turned red and narrowed.
"That is a truly evil grin." Neville congratulated her and Hermione nodded in agreement. Tonks laughed as her face returned to normal.
"One of the perks of my ability." Tonks smirked. "So, why are you three learning the shield?"
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"Okay, you three." Tonks said firmly. "Flitwick learned this decades ago, so he's probably forgotten the trick I'm about to show you. First, present your wands."
Harry ejected the wand from his holster, then grinned as Hermione followed suit.
"You got one, then."
"Sure did." Hermione chirped with a grin. "I've been practising with it, too."
"Pay attention!" Tonks interjected. "Now, feel for your magic and how it flows through your wand. Push it through and at the tip, pull it back over the wand and back to your hand, whereupon you pull it back into the wand and push it forwards again. Feel how it flows and how it flexes, pull it as close to your wand as you can."
Harry frowned in concentration as his magic tried to arc away from his wand, only his willpower preventing it from doing so.
"Now, spiral it round the wand as it flows back to you." Tonks continued her instruction. "Try one way, then the other, feel which one seems better. Once you've got it, double the layer and spiral the outer layer the other way."
Harry felt a bead of sweat form on his forehead as he concentrated on manipulating his magic as Tonks was directing. After a long moment, the magic stabilised and Tonks nodded.
"Okay, Harry's got it. Nev, looking good and Hermione… How?"
Hermione grinned as she lifted her wand, the magical shield extending in a straight line almost three feet out of its end.
"I was inspired?"
"I had no clue you could even do that!" Tonks admitted. "Okay, that's worth experimenting with. What do you call it?"
"I'm not sure." Hermione admitted, looking at the blade of pure magic. "Magesaber?"
"I gotta see whatever inspired that." Tonks admitted.
"Hermione?" Harry prompted.
"Erm… the Star Wars films…"
"I'll have to get them over the summer." Harry declared.
"Invite me?" Tonks asked, her eyes expanding to create the best lost-puppy look that Harry had ever seen.
"…okay."
"Yay!" Tonks cheered, then she calmed down.
"Okay, since you all have at least the basic shield, let's test them. I'll fire a low-powered stinging jinx and you try to swat it back at me. Okay?"
All three nodded and Tonks grinned as she raised her wand.
"Get ready!"
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"Ow." Harry groaned, rubbing his left shoulder.
"Hey, it was your fault." Tonks smirked at him. "I mean, you should have expected that Hermione'd get you back after you accidentally deflected my third jinx at her and it hit her chest. Just be grateful she didn't nail you in the meat-and-two-veg."
"On the other hand, we proved that my Magesaber works well in deflecting spells." Hermione added and Tonks nodded.
"Yep and I am so going to learn that. Maybe see if anything else can combine with it, such as a cutting spell."
"That would be awesome!" Hermione breathed, her eyes unfocused. "If I can learn how to lift things without a wand, I could be a Jedi!"
"A what?" Neville asked and Hermione returned to reality.
"Never mind. Probably not possible, I mean, how can I move things without a wand?"
"You mean like Accidental Magic?" Tonks asked and Hermione froze.
"Accidenta… I'm an idiot!" She face-palmed. "I've done it before as a child, I just have to remember how I did it!"
"Um, just so you know, wands focus magic to increase the applied power." Tonks said quickly. "Without a wand, the magic spills out in all directions and only a little bit of it goes into doing what you want."
"Makes sense." Hermione admitted after a contemplative pause. "The wand acts as an antenna, like a transmission aerial."
"A what?" Neville and Tonks asked at the same time while Harry nodded in understanding.
"It's a Muggle thing." Hermione sighed.
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"Nice." Flitwick said in admiration as he watched Harry, Hermione and Neville use a stinging spell in a manner similar to a tennis ball, deflecting and reflecting it at each other, even using different striking styles to vary its speed. A slow move away from the incoming spell sent it back at a slower speed while a quick parry could double the spell's velocity.
"Yep, they've got it." A voice said from the corner and Flitwick mentally cursed himself as he turned to see who had spoken. He had aced the Situational Awareness tests as a spawnling, there was no way he should have let himself get so sloppy!
"Ah, Tonks." He said, showing no signs of his internal self-beration. "I assume that you are the one who has been helping them?"
"Yep." Tonks grinned as she lifted her own wand. "Hey, wanna test them?"
Flitwick nodded and Tonks' grin widened in a way that only a Metamorphmagus could achieve.
"Okay, brats, three-on-two and we've got you outnumbered!" She shouted. Neville responded not with words, but by swinging his wand to launch the stinging jinx at her, then his shield lengthened, as did Harry's.
"…how?" Flitwick gasped as he reflexively parried the incoming spell, then his eyes narrowed. "Ah, I think I see… so if I do this…"
"And that is why he's a Charms Master!" Tonks exclaimed as Flitwick's Duelist's Shield extended into a rapier-like magical blade.
"Alright, let's see what you can do." Flitwick smiled, his normally-genial expression becoming one that looked demonic even as he deflected the jinx once again.
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"Well, that was certainly quite a workout." Flitwick noted as he looked round the classroom. The other four occupants, all of whom were sprawled on the floor, groaned.
"How did we lose?" Harry finally managed. "I mean, Tonks joined us, we had him outnumbered four to one!"
"I think he had us outnumbered one to four." Neville managed.
"I need fencing lessons." Hermione gasped. "I didn't know the shield could be used that way…"
"He disarmed me three times!" Harry groaned as he levered himself into a sitting position. "How?"
"What sort of Dueling Master would I be if I didn't know how to use a Rapier?" Flitwick asked with a smirk. "Several of the competitions require you to use both sword and wand. If you want, I could arrange for a Fencing Tutor to come in on… say, Saturdays to help you learn?"
"How much will it cost?" Harry asked, earning a wordless protest from Hermione.
"Ah, Harry, you really are coming to understand the Goblin mindset." Flitwick praised. "I'll have a list for you by tomorrow… for a five percent fee."
"Sounds fair." Harry agreed and Hermione gave them both a look of confusion.