E D W A R D "T E D" T O N K S
hufflepuff, 6th year, tedtonksss
There's no crime in being kind.
Perhaps he was followed by strange happenings – cupboard doors mysteriously flying open, lights flickering with no apparent cause, and the like – but no one would ever look to unremarkable little Ted Tonks as the source. He was the son of two average English parents, got average grades in school, and lived the decidedly unglamorous but perfectly respectable life as an average child. As far as anyone was concerned, including Ted himself, he was a kid that things happened around, and not to. That is, until a peculiar letter found its way to the Tonks home in a barn owl’s beak. To this day, Ted still remembers with perfect clarity the angle of the creature’s head as it stared at him from across his family’s kitchen with glassy, coal dust eyes and offered the letter to him. He remembers exactly how the parchment felt in his small hands, the way the ink smelled, and how his mother’s shrieking about a “wild animal in the house” sounded miles away as he broke the crimson seal.
After all, you don’t easily forget the day you’re told all those mad coincidences that shadowed you since you were barely out your crib weren’t coincidences at all. That they came from inside you.
Naturally, his parents were skeptical, and dismissed the invitation entirely. Ted couldn’t blame them, of course – who had ever heard of a magic school? – but he kept the letter tucked carefully away in his bedside table, as if it were a gift. A few days later, two more letters arrived, and failing that, a peculiarly-dressed woman appeared at the door. After much explanation and quite the eye-opening demonstration of magic, she warned the family that Ted’s magic would only continue to grow, and if gone unchecked, it could become destructive. It was a difficult and even frightening prospect for Mr. and Mrs. Tonks, sending their only child away to a boarding school they were not permitted to visit, but they allowed it, if only for the sake of their son.
Ted entered Hogwarts with a doofy, face-splitting grin (that he still has yet to grow out of), enchanted by every detail of the Great Hall and puzzled by the talking hat presented to him and his fellow first-years. Growing up with a father that juggled two jobs to ensure his wife could be at home for their son, Ted quickly internalized the virtue of hard work. Yet despite the double income, the Tonkses were a family of modest means, but they always impressed on him that no matter what, there was always room to give. The Sorting Hat could feel it thrumming within him, along with an enormous capacity for optimism and love. These traits made Tonks, Edward! a perfect fit for Hufflepuff house.
Getting adjusted to the magic world, however, was a challenge. There weren’t any record players, nobody played football, and writing assignments were like stepping into a costume drama. His ignorance didn’t help him fit in, and even evoked scorn among his more narrow-minded peers (who he pities, more than anything), but Ted did his best to understand. His search for a niche was met with one disappointment after another: he was too disorganized for Potions, was convinced the Mandrakes screamed extra hard at him, and was hopelessly clumsy at Quidditch, getting him laughed off the pitch during tryouts in his third year. It was almost enough to deflate him, until his voice broke during fourth year. Ted was left with a bright, mellow voice that turned out to be perfect for reading announcements. It was a small, sporadic thing, but it was something to call his own.
But Ted is beginning to worry. Not just about his uncertain future – though that’s more than enough – but about the rising tensions regarding him and people like him. He hates to play into the cruel “Hufflepuff coward” stereotype, but he knows he simply doesn’t have it in his heart to harm anybody if it came down to it. He’s not a fighter, he’s the boy with the dumb smile who’s friendly but sometimes tries too hard.
But with war on the horizon and neutrality burning away quickly, Ted Tonks may just have to find another role to play.
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