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The silence is so brain-numbingly boooorrrriiing. Charlie has long since given up on writing his lines and is now instead doodling a whole family of Chinese Fireballs in the corners of the parchment. He's glad he brought his red ink instead of black because it means they look a little bit more accurate. He hums some old tune he's heard at the pub with his dad as he starts sketching on the scales of the hatchling.
"Hey!" is hissed at him and a scrucnched up piece of parchment is thrown onto his desk, right over his doodles, disrupting his focus. He looks up and towards the direction the paper ball came from.
It's a girl, she's got fantastically purple hair that's cut into a messy wolfcut-Charlie thinks it looks wicked. Her yellow tie's completely wonked but it still looks far neater than Charlie's red. She's looking at him with a hint of annoyance, she glances at the snoring Flitwick at the front of the classroom before introducing herself.
" Tonks" she whispers, pointing at herself with her index finger
"Weasley-Charlie" He points at himself
"I guessed" Tonks gives a nod to his reddish-brown hair "What're you in here for?"
"Brought a fire-breathing salamander into the common room," He explains "Henry got his hair singed off" he adds as an afterthought
Tonks burst into laughter "HENRY!??! LIKE UP AND TIGHTY FUSSY PREFECT HENRY?!?!" before slapping a hand over her mouth
"That's the one" Charlie nods solemly
"What was his face like?" She raises an eyebrow
"Like this" Charlie makes a horrified look, widening his eyes and starts frantically feeling at his hair, making grabby hands around his head. He can barely hold back his giggles as he does so
Tonks grins at him "Brilliant. The fucking twat deserved it"
"You?" Charlie questions her in return
"Mixed up me Plants" Tonks said simply
"That it?" Charlie looks at her quizzically. He doubted Sprout would put one of hers into detention just for that
"Well in mixing up the Plants I set the wrong fucking one alight and it exploded in my dorm" Tonks crossed her arms and leaned back
Charlie wolf-whistles "Any injuries?"
"None" Tonks confirms "Was empty at the time-I was tryinna do something nice for my dormmates. Look how that turned out" She rolls her eyes and scoffed
"And you only got lines?"
"Surprisingly yes" Tonks agreed before turning to glance at the other boy in the room "What's blondie in here for?" she flicks her thumb to point at him
A 3 seats down there was a third student in detention with them. He had his head down and on the desk and he was rapidly moving his quill across the parchment, Charlie couldn't see his face, only his blonde hair. He looks very focused on his task but also bored of detention.
"Only one way to find out?" Charlie offers hesitantly
"OI! BLONDIE! BLONDIE! OI!" Tonks hissed at him "OI! DON'T IGNORE ME SLYTHERIN PRAT!"
While Tonks was trying to yell at him as subtle as possible, Charlie had just walked up to him and leaned over his shoulder. He gives a little gasp of glee when he realises the boy's page is filled with doodle after doodle of scaly dragons. The whole sheet of parchment is covered in scales and wings and claws. Like Charlie's page of Fireballs would have been in due time.
Charlie dashed back to his seat to grab his own parchment and ran back to the blonde's desk. He slipped his own parchment over the other boy's. The blonde's hand hits Charlie's and he pauses, looks at the sheet for a few seconds. The blonde looks up at him at last and smiles.
"Chinese fireball" He grins at Charlie
"Hungarian Horntail" Charlie grins back
And it's like a little bubble has just opened up around them; the world seems just a little bit brighter. The sunlight through the window seems more radiant as it shines on Felix's smile and his dimples seem to be pop more. He passes Charlie his page of dragon doodles and Charlie takes it gladly. They look at each other, Charlie notes that his eyes are green. A bright green, not a dull greyish green. He wonders what Felix is thinking about as he stares back at him.
"OI! I'M STILL HERE! DON'T FORGET ABOUT ME IN YOUR GAY MOMENT!" Tonks calls, she's no longer at her desk but is now sitting at the desk right next to the pair of dragon nerds
"Oh Hi?" Felix turns to looks at her, the moment broken
"Hi yeh" Tonks rolls her eyes "I'm Tonks" She waves her finger to indicate Charlie "He's Charlie"
"Hi" Felix turns to look back at Charlie
"Hi" Charlie smiles again
"Well ~anyways~" Tonks draws focus back to her "I'm here for blowing up my dorm-He's here for some firebreathing newt-"
"Salamander" Charlie corrects
"Still one of those water lizards" Tonks says
"Actually Salamanders are amphibians" Felix cuts in
"Not reptiles" Charlie adds
"Oh lord help me...5 seconds in and they're finishing each other's sentances" Tonks jokes with a grin "What're you in here for Blondie?"
"Spark-Spitting Newt" Felix shrugs "It'd decided that the annoying art my dormmate put up needed to go"
"Property damage as well" Tonks notes "Nice"
"Where'd ya find the Newt?" Charlie asks
"School grounds, behind the castle, under the old oak-"
"Tree with the initials N.S + L.L carved in just above the-" Charlie realises
"Branch that grows on an odd angle" Felix finishes
"That's where I found my Salamander too!" Charlie exclaims
"And wouldn't you know" Tonks joins in "That's where I picked my exploding root from"
"How did we miss each other then?" Felix ponders
"Just bad luck or lucky chance" Charlie shrugs "Suppose it's how you want to look at it"
"You should probably get back to your seat" Tonks tells Charlie
"Why?" Charlie questions her
"Just got a feeling he'll wake up soon" Tonks shrugs
"Okay then-bye Felix" Charlie waves as he walks back to his desk across the classroom
Tonks still remains on the desk, watching as he makes his way back to his desk. She doesn't actually move-despite telling Charlie too. She taps her chin and hums thoughtfully before standing up again and glancing between the two boys either side of her.
"I've got a feeling the three of us will be good friends" Tonks smirked then walked back to her desk
Just as she sat down, Flitwick woke up. He raises his head from the desk and rubs his eyes, he stiffles a yawn. "Must have rested my eyes for a minute there" He fixes the 3 of them with a look "I trust nothing happened?"
Tonks turns her head left and right and winks at the the both of them.
"Nope-nothing at all" She says cheerfully "We've all been perfectly good and silent and not interacted at all"
Charlie is still staring at Felix. His hair is sort of glowing in the sunlight.
"Right?" Tonks says
"Huh?" Charlie looks back at Flitwick "Oh yeah definitely Professor"
Felix subtly waves the Chinese Fireballs at him. Charlie waves the Hungarian Horntails back. They beam at each other, just behind the line of Tonks' vibrant purple hair that somehow seems a little more pinkish than before to Charlie.