Chapter Text
“Tonks, Lucille.” McGonnagal called.
Whispers and hisses echoed from the right side of the Great Hall. From the Slytherin side. They knew the story of Ted Tonks and Andromeda Black. They still resented the eldest Tonks’s audacity. They were still furious a mudblood convinced a Black to sully her honor and that of her family. They were furious and resentful, but they were curious. The first Tonks was a nuisance and the war hadn’t truly begun then. What would the littlest Tonks prove capable of?
Lucille Tonks was a cute little girl. Plump and round cheeked with thick blonde braids. She was surprisingly graceful, surprisingly prideful. A few of the Slytherins shifted in their seats. That was the way a Black held themselves, the way a pureblood child was raised to be. Andromeda Tonks had done unspeakable things, betraying things, if this little girl was any indication. It was one thing to cast off her family’s legacy for a mudblood. It was another thing to tell that mudblood their secrets.
The Hat lowered onto her head and laughed. It laughed and laughed, a booming sound that echoed over the Hall. McGonnagal stared down at it nervously.
Then, when the cackling subsided to a chuckle, it cried, “SLYTHERIN!”
Everyone froze. Everyone knew the story of Ted Tonks and Andromeda Black. They knew he was a muggleborn. They knew this little girl was his sister. They knew of the war being fought beyond the castle walls.
It seemed the girl did too. Her big blue eyes widened and she pulled the Hat further down onto her head, casting her childish face in shadow.
The Hat laughed again.
“Oh no, Miss Tonks. I’ll not be sorting you anywhere else. You are meant for great things. Terrible, yes, but great.” It laughed again, like it had told a joke only it could understand. “You will not achieve that greatness anywhere other than Slytherin.”
The girl clutched the stool in a white knuckled grip.
The Headmaster, who had been warring with himself on his throne, suddenly stood tall, resplendent in gold robes.
“Hat, perhaps it would be wisest-“
“Nonsense, Albus. I haven’t seen a hunger like this since Tom Marvolo Riddle himself.”
Albus Dumbledore paused. His fearful eyes darkened as they cut to the girl frozen on the stool beneath him.
“Go, Miss Tonks,” the Hat said. “Go and be terrible and great and come back to me so I can say I told you so.”
Later that night, Lucy Tonks sat up straight in her bed with her wand gripped tight in her hands. She stared at the emerald canopies and recited every spell she knew. She did not sleep that night. She would not sleep for two more.