Chapter 20: Hufflepuff Table

During our walk to the castle, I also told her what I want us to do. We keep planning until we reach the great hall, but before I can sit down at the Slytherin table, she stops me.

"Come to my table" she told me and I gave her an intrigued look, but I didn't refuse, "It is known that there is a Slytherin who goes from table to table as if it were his house, it's time for ours, don't you think? We deserve our share of Weasley," she said, grabbing my clothes and leading me to the Hufflepuff table.

"You love to watch the world burn" I told her to which she just smiled.

We got to the Hufflepuff table and everyone stared at us, first at me and then at Tonks.

"What do you think? Look what I caught, a complete Weasley" she joked causing them to look at her confused "He's been running away from us, but I finally brought him to our table, you didn't think it was unfair that he swaggers with all the other tables except ours. Now he can't escape and from now on he will come here too" When they heard that, many people frowned.

"Tonks stop playing" 5th year random Hufflepuff.

"Yeah, Tonks, how can you bring that trash here?" Random 6th year Hufflepuff.

"Shut up, Robert, or you don't want your muggle girl magazines showing up in Snape's office again, do you?" She said that she caused this Robert to cringe without being able to meet her eyes.

"Seriously Tonks why are you bringing him with us? We were doing pretty well without him showing up here" complained another student who seemed to be the same age as Tonks.

Unlike the other tables, in Hufflepuff, I had more disappointment. In Slytherin, they were like snakes, but I was still one of them; in Gryffindor I had my brothers and in Ravenclaw I had Penelope, who as a prefect had a lot of respect, besides they weren't particularly upset with me. But in Hufflepuff I had nothing, Tonks was known and appreciated, but also recognized for causing problems, in addition to Hufflepuff being full of Muggle-borns or half-bloods, so they always get hate from Slytherin, and hate always leads to more hate. So here we are, with a bunch of badgers growling at the snake.

"What's wrong with all of you? if I brought him here it's because I know he's trustworthy" Tonks complained.

"How long have you known him?" someone asked.

"A few minutes" she replied without the slightest hesitation. When the others heard her, they all saw her with a 'Relly' face but it didn't cause the girl with bubblegum hair to change her expression "It was enough to know that he is trustworthy"

"..."

"Come on Julia, you always liked pretty boys, I brought you the most handsome in all of Slytherin, you're not going to tell me you don't like him, are you?" She asks one of the girls with almost orange blonde hair.

"No, of course I don't like him, he's horrible" she denied her almost in an instant.

"What? Are you going to tell me that you don't like these beautiful features?" she said as she kneaded my face with her hand "Or maybe all the photos you secretly took of those guys are a lie and you don't like handsome young men anymore" She said confused by the attitude of the girl who has always shown interest in the appearance of the boys.

"Of course not" she said, a little red at the mention of the photos, "but how could I like him, he's horrible"

"I'm missing something" She looked at me closely confused once more, she didn't seem to understand how I could be horrible when I look pretty good in her eyes.

I grabbed Tonks's sleeve and pulled her down to bring her head closer to mine so I could talk to her.

"My magic has certain characteristics" I whispered in her ear "I can exude an aura that will make me look or feel like the natural predator of each individual, even though I'm not actively using it, now there is still a trail running continuously that I can't control. They cannot perceive my true appearance while they are afraid of me" I finished explaining.

"And why doesn't it affect me?" She asks in whispers, too.

"Because you are not afraid of me. You may not have a particular individual or being that you can call a natural predator or your mental strength is strong enough, like the teachers, that it has not affected them"

"Oooohhh.... HAHAHAHA" she laughed out loud confusing the badgers "I can't believe you're scared of a first-year" she teased her classmates.

"Shut up Tonks"

"Yes, we are not afraid of him"

"Oh no? Who among you thinks isn't one of the most handsome boys in Hogwarts?" she asked looking at the people at the table, causing almost everyone to eventually agree "I want to see your faces when you see this"

She took out her wand and pointed it at one of the cutlery on the table and transfigured it into a rope. Without being able to realize what happened, I felt something coiled around me and held me tightly, and from one moment to another Tonks threw me on the Hufflepuff table tied up unable to move.

The other tables were also alarmed by the movement of this place, my older brothers in Gryffindor stopped to see what was happening, so did Penelope in Ravenclaw. Some boys like Malfoy in Slytherin were amused by my situation, while others like Millicent or Davis were worried, other older students also stood up to protect the honor of their house in front of the others.

"Don't worry, this is all consensual" shouted Tonks in the room "Tell them Red"

"Yes, go back to breakfast" I humored, albeit a little dissatisfied.

My brothers sat back down, but didn't take their eyes off this table, while most of the Slytherins who prepared to attack were more displeased with me for letting me humiliate our house.

But that didn't matter to Tonks, she stood on the bench and raised her foot stepping on my back while I was on the table, although it was only in appearance. She was resting her foot on my back, but I could feel that she was trying not to put all your weight on me.

"Now look at he carefully and tell me what you think"

The badgers didn't understand what he meant, many were simply happy to see a Slytherin trampled, but some older students soon seemed to realize something when they saw me and widened their eyes. Little by little, some people seemed suddenly astonished to see me.

"And well?" Tonks asked with an imposing smile on her face.

"I... you're right that it looks a little nice" A Hufflepuff boy said sheepishly.

"What?!" Several people who still didn't notice it were puzzled at the same time.

Some did not understand why that 4th-year student had said that and how they seemed to see some of his classmates agree. But everyone came out of their stupor when a flash of light appeared. When everyone looked at its origin they saw how Julia had a camera in her hands with which she had just taken a picture of me, her face red and her breathing strong and rapid.

"Hey Julia, it seems that now you like him"

"Don't judge me Tonks, a moment ago it didn't look like this"

"What are you talking about?" asked random Hufflepuff confused.

"Let me explain you, idiots, he has a curse that makes anyone who fears him can't perceive how he really looks, what I mean is that anyone who doesn't think he looks beautiful is because he's a coward" She scoffed "Now what you know look again and tell me what you see"

"(Mutters)" Many nodded and agreed, but most of the older students were embarrassed to be afraid of a first year. Some seeing how there were people who confirmed what Tonks said had an uncomfortable situation not being able to see me, and there was even someone who said it was true without being able to see me as I really am just to follow the herd and not be branded as scared.

"Well, it seems that the great Tonks was right again. Maybe you should remember that the next time you want to contradict me"

"Well, can you untie me?" I asked, seeing that the scene had ended. Like Penelope, she took it upon herself to show me off to the others, albeit in a much rougher way. I'm grateful, but I want it to end since I've had a spoon stuck in my chest since she threw me on the table.

"Yeah sure…" she said, but when she tried to remove her foot from my back she tripped, causing her body to fall on top of me.

"Ahhh!" Damn spoon, I don't know what happened since I don't have eyes in my back, but now I have Tonks on me. The surrounding guys started laughing at my misfortune, but it seems they fell silent when Tonks gave them a few glances.

"Sorry, are you okay?" She asks as she gets up from me.

"As long as the spoon stabbing into my chest is removed and whatever is poking my butt is your wand, then yes, can you untie me once and for all?"

"Yeah, sorry" she said before dispelling the rope and returning it to his fork form "Well, now that we're good let's have some breakfast" she said trying to avoid her fall

"Wait, we only saw that he looks better than before, but we never said he could stay" Robert complained, I think.

"You want to end up like him a few seconds ago" she told the boy pointing at me.

"No?"

"Then shut up"

With that said, no one complained, although they were upset they didn't say anything. Although not much, Tonks is somewhat respected and they know that they can go wrong if they make her angry. I was about to seat myself at the table when Tonks stopped me.

"Let's go to another place, it seems that we won't have a good time here" she said looking at the rest of the Hufflepuff students who, despite not saying anything, still felt disgusted with me, except for most of the girls, they didn't seem to bother much, it's more when they heard Tonks say that we wouldn't be here they seemed a little depressed, especially this Julia who still had a camera in her hands and glared at Tonks like a child who had her new toy taken away.

"So, the entire previous show was for nothing?"

"No, if it served any purpose, it served to show them that I was right and they were wrong" she said proudly as she led me to another part of the Hufflepuff table "Here we are with the Hufflepuff first years. Hello everyone" she greets the kids.

Because they couldn't see what happened before, everyone here seemed self-conscious and shy, my presence put pressure on them, so when we arrived everyone was silent.

"Hello, Miss Tonks" A girl had the courage to say.

"Miss Tonks?" I asked sarcastically, earning me an elbow.

"I haven't trained them well yet, they still call me that, but I'm working on it" she told me "Hello everyone, this is Red Weasley, yes, the rumor boy. I brought him here to make friends"

They all remained silent, unlike the older students where my influence is not so strong, here with the children nobody jumped to oppose it because of the innate fear that it caused them, they are not like the Gryffindor lions that can jump to complain even with the fear that I bring

"Come on, don't be shy, I'll show you that you have nothing to fear..."

"Tonks I don't want you to tie me up again" I warned her before she could do something like the above, once a day is enough.

"You take the fun out of it. I thought you'd like to be tied up by an attractive girl, I know you'd love it if I did" she said ambiguously.

"Yes, but I'm not ready to do it in front of everyone. What happened before was a one-time thing and it's because you took me by surprise" I followed her game.

"Come on, don't be shy, here is sister Tonks, if you're embarrassed just close your eyes and let me do all the work, I'll make sure you enjoy the experience" she put a hand on my shoulder and caressed my face with the other.

While we were talking, the badgers looked at us confused and some of them who understood a little more about certain topics looked at us with surprise at the fact that we said it so openly in front of the others, although in reality we were talking about something else and they misunderstood it.

"Okay, let's go with the boring way" she said somewhat despondent when she couldn't convince me "I want to tell everyone, this boy next to me may seem scary and evil, but it's not like that, I consider him someone quite nice and with whom I can hang out. He has a magic about him that will prevent you from seeing how he really looks, it's not that he's as scary as you think, if you stop being afraid of him you can see that he's not very different from the other kids, well... maybe he looks better" she explains "Could you bother to try to overcome your fear and try to see it for what he really is?"

After explaining that the children looked at each other and then between Tonks and me, spending a second, some of them nodded and tried to do it. Some forced themselves to look directly at me, others you could see in their faces as they tried not to fear me or to think of something else to avoid fear. It took a while, some were getting it, and telling their colleagues and talking to them, made their work easier. By the time they finished, almost every student at this part of the table had a shocked face at the truth they had been shown.

"What do you think, the little badgers are quite brave" She exclaimed aloud as I looked towards the area of ​​the table where we were before and where most of Tonks' companions were "Keep in mind that the magical world has many mysteries like this and not everything is what it seems" She explains to the children "Now I want you to keep in mind that even though he is a Slytherin he is not like the others. I know you have heard about his house or some of you have already had mishaps with them in the short time you've been in school, but I want you to put aside that adversity with Slytherin for a moment. He's not like the other snakes, all his brothers are in Gryffindor, and from his personality, I think he is too could be there, but it so happened that it is not. With the little time I have known him it even seems to me that he could enter Slytherin just to annoy the snakes with his red hair" she said while ruffling my hair laughing and making fun of me.

"In fact, if I did so when the hat gave me the choice of any house, although my target was my brother, I didn't care about the other Slytherin"

"You see, he can practically be considered one of our own inside the enemy. So... what do you think? Will you give him a chance?" she asked, and was greeted with acceptance from the young badgers "Great, let me introduce them to you Red, they are Hannah Abbott, Ernie Macmillan, Megan Jones, Susan Bones, Justin Finch-Fletchley..." She introduced me to all the students of the first year" and this is Red Weasley, now make space, we want to have breakfast.

They made room for us and we sat down to eat after the presentation. The situation was somewhat awkward because the only person who was speaking was Tonks. It's not like they're disgusted with me like the other Hufflepuff, they spent too little time at Hogwarts for the house division to rub off on them, plus several come from Muggle houses so they don't have a habit of separating themselves from others. The only reason they didn't speak to me was because of my intimidating presence, which even though they've overcome it, they still need a push to remove all traces of it from their minds.

"So… Susan Bones, right? Do you have any relationship with Amelia Bones? The director of the 'law enforcement department' of the ministry of magic" I asked to try to make conversation with the badgers and break the awkward silence.

"Yes…she's my aunt" she answered me shyly in a very low tone.

"She is a great woman from what I hears"

"Yes, I know, although she doesn't spend much time at home because of it" she complained somewhat depressed.

"Oh, you live together?" I ask, only to be stomped under the table by Tonks.

"Yes, I live with her" she answered me and then hesitated, but still said with clear sadness in her words "my parents died, so I'm staying with her since it's the last family I have left" her words made Tonks feel mad at me for asking.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know"

"Okay, it happened when I was a kid and I still have my aunt, although we hardly ever spend much time together because of her work"

"I'm sorry about what happened, I don't know what it's like not having the parents and I'm not willing to kill mine to prove it" I end up blurting out a joke at the end involuntarily because I'm so used to doing it with Hermione when I want to raise her cheer up.

Everyone stopped when they heard me, even Tonks looked at me in surprise with an 'I can't believe you said that' face, but what puzzled them the most was that they heard a slight laugh from Susan. I realized that I may have screwed up, but thanks to me [Joker Essence] I had the opposite effect. I wanted to take advantage of the situation to avoid having the entire Hufflepuff as an enemy because of a slip of my tongue.

"I can't change the past, but I think I can help you a bit" I said, getting up from the table, gaining everyone's confusion, including Tonks.

I put my hand on my chin and a red liquid began to flow from it and stuck to my face. Around my mouth and covering my chin was a liquid mass hanging in the form of an inverted red triangle that simulated a kind of beard made of blood. If it wasn't for the fact that it's a uniform liquid mass and not a bunch of strands, it could almost be mistaken for my real hair due to the identical color these two have.

I stroked my new beard down like a wise old man from the east and with a grave voice.

"My dear Susan, you've grown up enough and it's time for dad to give you some advice" I said causing Tonks behind Susan, to make signs with her hand on her neck to cut this off, not to continue, but I didn't. Anyway, if I want it to work I have to move on" especially about the boys, don't believe anything they say, they are all lies to take advantage of you, don't trust anyone, especially Zacharias, I can see the bad in his eyes" I said, making everyone look at the child. Then I approached Susan and hugged her resting her head on my chest startling Tonks making her stop to stop me once and for all" Or my little girl is already growing up and you move further away from me, soon you will chase some a boy and you will no longer want to this old"

The best thing about my whole performance is that while I was hugging her, I received a prompt from [Auras and Essences: "Paternal/Maternal Aura" obtained].

[Paternal/Maternal Aura]

-You can release at will the welcoming and loving aura that only a family can give, you will give those affected the feeling of comfort and security that a father/mother gives to their offspring. Under certain actions, it can be activated involuntarily.

'Thank goodness' I love how convenient the timing of this ability is for this situation.

Everyone at the table was about to jump at me, everyone knew that this topic was something affecting for Susan, especially considering how old the girl is at the moment, and with me making these comments or jokes it was almost like stabbing someone to then add salt. Tonks wanted to grab me and carry me away, inside she was regretting bringing me to the Hufflepuff table so early. But they all stopped their attempts to hang me when they heard a laugh

"Hahahaha, that's enough, let me go" Susan was heard, but without a sad or angry tone, rather fun and happy one, like the talks and jokes between friends.

When she pushed me and I could hear her laugh I knew it worked and next to me, I made my clone appear who, like me, had some additions. He had a smear of blood hanging from his hair causing it to appear longer than normal and on his chest he had a liquid mass under his clothes, dyeing it red almost forming a couple of lumps.

When Susan pushed me, I put my arm over my eyes and said in a sad tone and like I was crying.

"My daughter doesn't love me anymore" and then I leaned on the shoulders of my busty clone.

"Look what you did, you made your father cry" my clone said with a high-pitched voice as he stroked my head.

It was all very surreal to those who saw it, including the other tables. Susan could be seen laughing holding her stomach while she cried, a very interesting image and that gave me the feeling of déjà vu.

"How dare you do something like that" jumped a second-year Hufflepuff girl when she saw her classmate cry, she is the voice of all the badgers who thought the same about what I did.

"Well, everybody calms down, let's relax and leave this for another time, will you?" Tonks appeared trying to alleviate the situation, "Why don't I and Red go somewhere else for now and come back later" she said, grabbing my clothes to pull me away from this place.

"No… Olivia, Tonks, it's fine, I'm not upset, it was…fun" Susan said calming down a bit and stopping the two people. Tonks who was trying to avoid a fight and Olivia who wanted to swallow me alive.

"Don't defend him Susan, you're crying" Hannah Abbott comforted her.

"Yes, but...they aren't tears of sadness, it's more like...as if a heavy burden was lifted from me" She try to explain her complex emotions "please don't fight" She asks her elders causing them to be a little in conflict, but they will stop after all.

"Hmm, if we see you make Susan cry again we will all be against you, no matter how scary you can be with your magic, you understand Weasley?" Olivia roared at me with the assent of all the other badgers.

"He understood loud and clear" Tonks answered for me "It wasn't his intention from the beginning Susan, he's just a bit of a joker" She's holding on to my shoulders" now we're going to do our things" she said, dragging me away from the table.

"Bye everyone and bye Susan" I greeted them as I was dragged out of the great hall.

"Goodbye... and... um... thank you... for making me laugh" Susan said, not knowing what to feel at this moment.

As we left the great hall, Tonks lifted me off the floor and forcefully pinned me against the wall.

"That you can't understand a few simple signs? You couldn't stop yourself? You almost sent everything to hell with what you did" she yelled at me angrily.

"Yes, I understood you, but if I had stopped we would end up the way you were trying to avoid. Not that I wanted it to end like this. When I realized I was wrong I did my best not to end up causing a problem and so I did what did I do"

"Susan's parents are a sensitive point, if it wasn't for her taking it well you could have earned the hatred of many people" she complained annoyed.

"I noticed, that's why I kept up the joke to keep her from feeling bad"

"Was it on purpose? Is that why she kept laughing at something that is known to be so painful for her? What did you do to her?"

"My ability allowed me to amuse her despite being somewhat hurtful, I thought that if she could amuse her she would ignore my slip"

"Well you saved yourself from a big one, when I saw her cry I even wanted to give you what you deserved so that you learn to close your big mouth, I thought I'd do it right now" she said letting me go and starting to walk, to which I followed her.

She was no longer as angry as at the beginning when I told her why I did it and seeing that the little girl was not bad.

"I understand, at least I could see that her crying while laughing was part of the release of the weight of her parent's death, allowing in the future to take that issue more naturally and without as much pain as before, accepting the situation in which she lives leaving her sorrows behind"

"Really?" she asks seriously.

"I have no idea, I just made it up"

"You should learn to talk less, you know?" She complained, but laughed a little.

"You know I'm not the person with the most social experience, right? I'm just now interacting with people and for some reason, I respond to nervousness and other emotions with jokes and jokes, it's harder to control than it seems"

"At least you have that ability of yours to keep people from getting mad at what you say. Should we put you to give therapy to take advantage of it or something?" She joked, showing that she wasn't mad at me anymore, not much.

"I don't plan to repeat it, this was very risky, but luckily it worked. I plan to try to control what I say more from now on."

With our talk we relax from the previous tension. Tonks wasn't too mad at me because she saw that Susan wasn't bad and seeing her laugh a little pleased her, so she saw no reason to blame me when I corrected my mistake, albeit funnily. She asked me more about how I did it and I explained a little about the [Joker Essence], again she was fascinated and envious of my abilities, but she also recommended I not trust her because if it goes wrong it can end up much worse than that it seems.

"I'm hungry, you interrupted my breakfast" she said, hitting me on the shoulder dissatisfied with having to leave the great hall early.

"Shall we go to the kitchen? I mean, we weren't planning to go to class anyway and after we eat something we can go practice as we agreed" I suggested.

"I like the idea, let's go" she said before running to the kitchen.

I followed her so I could eat something and see what I could do with Tonks today, which for only being the early hours of the morning was already quite busy, even for me.