“Shhh!” Tonks warned herself as quietly as she could as she tripped down the stairs. Checking her watch, she saw that she was fashionably late, although this was only due to her sneaking as stealthily as she could across the Gryffindor common room and subsequently having to stop to mend a vase that had been sitting on one of the tables.

She arrived, thankfully without breaking anything else, to her destination outside the doors of the main Hogwarts entrance to find a pair of curious brown eyes looking up at her.

“Wotcher, Merwyn.”

“Hello Nym - Tonks” the boy replied, remembering the first condition on which Tonks had agreed to go out with him - that he was never to utter her first name again.

Tonks grinned and promptly began leading him across the grounds.

“So... er, what did you have planned for tonight? Moonlit walk by the lake?” Merwyn enquired as he struggled to keep up with her pace. Tonks burst out laughing.

“Oh yeah, then afterwards we can have a candlelit dinner before spending the night watching the stars!” She let out another cackle before seeing the embarrassed look on her dates face and stopped abruptly.

“Actually, I thought we might do something a little different tonight. Nice idea though.” She said quickly.

The second condition on which Tonks had agreed to go out with Merwyn was that she would choose the activity. Merwyn had wanted to take her to Hogsmeade, like most people, but Tonks had never really fancied the idea of a conventional date. She needed a little more excitement.

“Tonks,” Merwyn stopped suddenly when he realised where she had taken him, “Are we going into the Forbidden Forest?”

“Ooh, he’s a bright little spark! Hat didn’t put you in Ravenclaw for nothing, di it Merwyn?” She patted him on the back before continuing into the forest.

“But... but... it’s forbidden!”

“No kidding, with a name like Forbidden Forest? And here I though they were just trying to keep away tourists!”

Merwyn gave her an uncertain look and she smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Come on Mer, I won’t tattle to Dumbledore if you don’t.”

He looked at the hand on his shoulder and took a deep breath before nodding bravely, “All right. I’ll do it for you, Nymp - I mean, Tonks.”

“Er, yeah, top stuff.” Tonks replied awkwardly, hastily heading into the forest.

They walked in near silence for a while, heading deeper into the forest. Every now and then, Merwyn would clear his throat as if preparing himself to say something, but would then remain quiet.

“Er... Are you sure you know your way around here?” he asked nervously after a while.

“Course I do. If we go...” Tonks went to gesture down a path, but instead found herself toppling over a tree root onto the hard ground.

“Nymphadora! Are you ok?” Merwyn ran to help her up, suddenly becoming the very picture of chivalry. Tonks brushed away his extended hand and pushed herself off the ground.

“It’s ok, I understand. These things can happen in the dark.” Merwyn made an unnecessary attempt to console her.

“Yeah, the dark, and my inability to walk ten paces without falling over something” Tonks laughed, brushing herself off. Merwyn stared at her with a slight, intoxicated smiled on his face.

“You know, Nymphadora...”

“Ahem” Tonks interrupted, protesting against the use of her name as subtly as her personality would allow. Merwyn didn’t notice.

“Your name means ‘gift of the nymphs’. I don’t think anyone could come up with a name more appropriate.”

“Mmmm.” She replied indignantly, clenching her lips tightly together.

“You know, I...” he trailed off, his eyes suddenly becoming wide in fright as he saw something behind Tonks. She swivelled around and saw a pair of glaring yellow eyes looking out from underneath a bush. They heard a deep growl and the eyes moved closer.

“Aaargh!” Merwyn screamed and ran off back towards the school, his chivalry apparently left behind. Tonks couldn’t help but laugh as the harmless Nogtail waddled out from under the bush.

“What d’you reckon, Noggy? Not my type?” She asked it, causing it to dart off deeper into the forest.

“Yeah, I reckon you could be right about that.”

She smiled and shrugged, taking her time as she slowly made her own way back to the school, thinking that despite it ending with her date running away screaming, as far as first dates went, it could have been much, much worse.


THE END