Jack Snipe
It was a warm day in the middle of summer and there were some new workers at the Ministry of Magic. They had been on training courses for the past few months and now they were starting work in the Ministry. Tonks had offered to help look after one of the new workers and show them around but they hadn't arrived yet. She assumed that Mad-Eye had kept them busy in the reception for the past half an hour, explaining how the Ministry was run to them.
Tonks decided to go and see what was going on and, sure enough, Mad-Eye was telling them all about losing his eye.
"Mad-Eye, I'm not sure they all want to hear about that," she said, laughing at the indignant look on his face.
"I'm almost finished, Nymphadora," he replied, this time he was laughing at the annoyed look on her face.
"It's Tonks," she snapped, then looked at all of the new employees, then back at Mad-Eye, "Anyway, you've already kept them away from work for an hour. I should think that's plenty long enough."
"An hour?" he asked, checking the clock above the floo network "Bloody hell! I didn't realise time had gone so quickly! Come on you lot, lets get to work. Tonks, could you take some of them up to level 7 please?"
"Yeah, sure. Who do you want me to take?" she asked. Mad-Eye hurriedly sorted them into a few groups.
"These ones," he said, indicating a large group of people he had separated, "They're all assigned to someone up there. You've got one of them as well," he added before hurrying off with the rest of the workers.
Tonks took the group he had given her and left them in the reception of level 7, taking her apprentice with her back to her office.
She turned to him and said, "Well I'm Nymphadora Tonks but please call me Tonks unless you want to be in pain," she laughed, offering him a hand to shake.
"Nice to meet you, Tonks. I'm Jack Snipe," he smiled and shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you too," she said, smiling back. "So how long have you wanted to be an auror then?" she asked, looking at his brown spiky hair with blonde highlights. She noticed that he was dressed quite smartly in a white shirt, black trousers and blue tie.
"Ever since I was a child really. I always liked the idea of catching the bad guys," he laughed, "Although Mr Moody made it sound much less interesting!"
Tonks laughed, looking slightly surprised by the sound of Mad-Eye being called "Mr Moody" but dismissed it, "Oh believe me he only gets worse," she said, laughing again, "And when he cleans his eye in front of you and tells you the same damn story about it over and over again you'll realise just how annoying he can be!"
Jack smiled "That would certainly get annoying. Do you enjoy working here then, Ms Tonks?" he asked, still smiling as they walked through the Ministry corridors towards her office.
She nodded, "Apart from working with Mad-Eye it's usually alright. And please don't call me Ms… It just sounds weird," she said, smiling.
"Oh ok then, just Tonks then?" he asked.
"Yeah just Tonks," she smiled. They arrived at her office and she unlocked the door, opened it and let him go through first, closing the door behind them.
"Is this your office?" he asked, looking around at all the paperwork and the empty desk to the side of the main one.
She nodded again, "And that desk there," she indicated the desk to the side, "Will be your desk while we're working together," she smiled at him.
He smiled back and walked over to his desk, looking at the few files that had been left on it for him to do, "Should I get started on these then?" he asked.
"Yes that would probably be a good idea. It's best to get them out of the way before the next lot arrive and knowing Dawlish, another worker here who likes giving me a lot of work, it wont be long before there's a lot more work to be done," she laughed and sat down at her desk, picking up a quill and signing a few documents before sending them out of the window attached to the leg of an owl.
Jack sat down and turned to the first file. It looked quite complicated and Tonks noticed that he looked like he was struggling a little with it. She thought she would see if he would ask for help so she left him to it as she signed a few more documents and sent them on their way.
"Tonks… What am I supposed to do with this?" he asked, looking even more confused now. She stood up and walked to his desk and looked at the file he had been given. A regurgitating toilet report. And a particularly nasty one at that.
She turned it over to the last page where there was space for comments and a signature. "You need to read it, note any massive mistakes such as spelling errors, incorrect streets or place names or missing details and then sign it. This report looks pretty confusing though. Perhaps rewriting the whole thing would be easier," she said, laughing at the number of missing words.
He nodded, "It's certainly confusing… I wouldn't want to seem as though I am condemning their work on my first day though…" he said, looking a little worried about putting a bad comment.
"It's ok, I'll sign it as well so they'll know you asked what to put," she said, smiling.
"Ok then," he said, nodding and smiling. He wrote "Re-write the report with use of proper sentences" and then signed it. Tonks signed after his name. "Now what do I do with it?" he asked.
"You need to send it back to the other office on the other side of the building." The first owl had returned and was sitting on Tonks' desk. She threw it a treat and it flew and landed on Jack's desk. "Tie it to the owl's leg and it will take it to the other office," she said, smiling at him again.
He did as she said and the owl flew straight to the other office as he watched it from the window.
Once he had done the same with the rest of the files he needed to sort out he turned to see Tonks had already finished and was sitting with her feet on the desk reading the Daily Prophet. He couldn't help but laugh at her.
"What's so funny?" she asked, smiling at him laughing.
"I just didn't exactly expect you to be sitting with your feet on the desk reading the paper," he said, managing to stop laughing but he was still smiling.
She laughed, "Well I have nothing better to do…" she laughed again, "We could go down to the canteen and get something to eat if you like?"
He nodded and smiled "That would be nice. I always thought there would be a lot more work involved in the Ministry," he said laughing as they stepped out of the office and Tonks locked the door behind them.
"There will be more work later. There's just not too much excess work at the minute which means less overtime," she smiled as they made their way to the canteen.
They arrived at the canteen to find Mad-Eye telling his unlucky apprentice all about his eye as he cleaned it as he usually did.
Tonks and Jack looked at one another and laughed, "I see what you meant earlier," Jack said as they ordered two black coffees and two pumpkin soups.
Tonks nodded "I had to put up with him and it was torture," she said, looking at the bored look on the apprentice's face. "I probably looked equally bored when it was me," she laughed.
They headed over to a table in the far corner of the room away from Mad-Eye and had their lunch together, watching Mad-Eye recount his story over and over again with the occasional cry of "Constant Vigilance!" which had the entire canteen in hysterics every time he said it.
A while later they headed back up to the office to find more files and paperwork which they got on with as quickly as they could.
After a while Mad-Eye and his bored apprentice knocked on the door. Tonks let them in and Mad-Eye sat in a chair talking about his eye for a while. Then he remembered what he had actually gone to see them for, "Oh yes, I came to tell you both that there will be a meeting in the Three Broomsticks, tomorrow night at 7pm. Don't be late! And Constant Vigilance!" and with that, he left the room muttering something about some dust on his eye.
Tonks and Jack just looked at each other and fell about the place laughing. "He's mental!" Jack said, hardly able to control the laughter still.
"He's more than bloody mental!" Tonks replied, just about able to speak without laughing.
They managed to control themselves and Tonks sent the last file to the main office before tidying her desk ready for the next day's work.
"Do you know what this meeting is about then?" Jack asked her as he closed his drawer and leant back on his chair, resting.
"I haven't got a clue. He likes arranging meetings where he forgets to even turn up though so it's probably one of those," she replied, standing up.
Jack also stood up. "So is this the end of the day then?" he asked.
"Yes it is," Tonks replied, "I'll see you at the meeting tomorrow I guess?"
"Yeah I'll be there," he replied, "See you tomorrow," he added as he smiled and left the room, heading for the floo network downstairs. Tonks smiled to herself, thinking that this could turn out to be a very interesting friendship.