"Why are you all staring at me? It's a little embarrassing."
A pretty witch with dazzling purplish-red hair brazenly accepted everyone's stares, without the slightest trace of embarrassment in her voice.
"Stop fooling around. Change back, Nymphadora." Clunking footsteps sounded behind her, accompanied by a gruff, stern reprimand delivered in a low voice.
"I told you, even if you're Moody, you still have to respect me and call me Tonks!" the witch complained, puffing out her cheeks. Her face began to change magically, returning to that of the young woman Su Er and Hermione had met before.
Nymphadora Tonks, a newly qualified Auror who had finally secured a permanent position after two and a half years as a trainee in the Ministry of Magic's Auror Office.
The reason she disliked people using her first name and preferred to be called by her surname was that the word "Nympha" was a rather unseemly term.
"Hi, everyone." Back to her original appearance, Tonks smiled and waved at those eating.
"Oh, don't block the way. Move over, Tonks. I've been busy all day, and I'm starving. I need the food my wife so lovingly prepared to replenish my energy." Arthur Weasley's voice rang out as well.
"I'm glad to see you're safe and sound, Mr. Bones."
"Thank you, Mr. Weasley."
Nymphadora Tonks had already bounded energetically over to Hermione. She grabbed a fork and wound a long strip of fried bacon from the table into the shape of a rolled-up quilt, then stuffed it into her mouth in one bite, while simultaneously cramming in a slice of bread with her other hand.
Strangely, Tonks managed to eat all that food together without the slightest difficulty.
Hermione was all right, but Ginny looked a little frightened.
Tonks had used her Animagus ability to make