She had thought about being here since her fifth year at Hogwarts. She had stuffed a handful of career pamphlets in her bag the morning of her career consultation with professor Flitwick headed down to the great hall. She had sat reading as she ate her customary breakfast toast .

"You want to be an Auror?" Ismene Knot had sneered, seeing the pamphlet Tonks was reading as she walked up the aisle between the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables. "Hoping to catch your cousin? Or your aunt?"

Until Ismene came up to her Tonks hadn't actually been thinking of trying for an Auror, she had just wanted to browse all the pamphlets and find out how many OWLs they required. Aurors were elite and the job was dangerous- so many had been killed in the war. She was not sure it was something she could be good enough to do. As she looked down her short nose at Ismene though she thought, I would love to keep the likes of her from making everyone's life a misery. Besides, I can't think of anything that would make grandmother quite as mad. So, she responded in a light tone, "Don't worry cousin, you will be first on my list when I pass my exam."

And so, here she was: the newest Auror, just moved in to her cubicle. It was tiny, barely big enough for a desk, chair and the small table on which she had placed a kettle. She could not live without tea. She glanced at her watch and sighed. Fifteen more minutes until the meeting and then she could go home. She would not get her first assignment until tomorrow, today was just "let-us-show-you-everything-so-fast-you-will-never-remember-it" day. She took a sip of her tea and pulled a small mirror out of her top desk drawer. She had decided to go with shoulder length black hair this morning, wanting to look professional on her first day. Her first choice would have been red but unfortunately it clashed badly with the red auror robes she was now expected to wear. Scanning the rest of her heart shaped face in the mirror she saw pale skin, a small nose and dark eyes. She had always thought her eyes were down right boring, I mean muddy brown, honestly! she thought. Still, when she had left school she had made a promise to herself: she was no longer going to change her appearance (well except her hair cause even muggles could do that), except when she needed a disguise. She no longer had people look after her in awe as she walked by, but it was a matter of principle. She was who she was, "If other people don't like it too bad for them," she told the mirror.

"You know, I would wait for the attitude until you have at least one case under your belt," said an amused deep voice from the entrance of her cubicle. She squeaked, jerking around in her chair, knocking it over and falling to the floor with a loud thump. "Here, let me her you up," continued the tall black man with a shaved head, whom she now identified as the owner of the voice. He reached out a hand to pull her to her feet.

"Sorry," she said ruefully, accepting his hand and standing up. As she morphed her face to hide her blush she continued, "I was talking to myself, I was not expecting company."

"Eh no harm done, everyone is nervous their first day," he said, picking up the chair and the mirror, which had dropped from Tonk's hand when she fell. He handed it to her and she quickly slipped it in her pocket. "I should introduce myself, Kingsley Shacklebolt, last cubicle on the first row. You're Nymphadora Tonks, aren't you?"

"It's just Tonks, please! My mother liked outrageous names, I don't. Nice to meet you," she said.

"Your Andromeda's daughter aren't you?" he asked her shrewdly.

"You know my mother?" she asked a bit disgruntled. "Everyone knows my mother!"

"I was a year below her in school. We were in different houses of course so we barely knew each other though. You would be hard pressed to find someone who does not know of her, with a family like hers… Anyway, I had come to show you the way to the meeting, I figured you would probably not remember how to get there."

"Thanks!" she said, honestly grateful. "I can't quite remember if the amber room is the yellow one or that big orange one and I have no idea what the password is! Gawain told me them all so fast-"

She was interrupted by a low rumble of a laugh as Kingsley turned and said, "Follow me". As he led her down the row of cubicles he said, "The amber one is the maroon colored one with the big mahogany table and you don't have to worry about passwords, just press your thumb to the keyhole and say 'open sesame'. It will open any door here".

"Number one," she said indignantly, as they passed a large poster of the Irish quidditch team, "Why do they call it the bloody amber room if it is not amber? And number two, isn't 'open sesame' from an old muggle book?"

"I have no idea why it is not yellow," he said as they walked through the already open door of the meeting room. "And as to 'open sesame', well we have a good laugh about it all the time. It's easy to remember though."

The room they had entered was good sized. Around the table that was its center sat about 25 comfortable looking cushioned chairs. In front of each chair was a quill, parchment and a cup of tea. A couple of the chairs were already occupied and more people were entering the room as Tonks looked around. Kingsley gestured her to the seat next to him and she sat quickly, only slightly tripping over the leg of her chair as she slid into it.

When all the chairs had been filled a man with a lion like beard sitting at the far end of the table stood up. When the aurors had come to a grumblng quiet the man, Rufus Scrimgeour said, "Hello everyone, I hope you all had a nice, quiet weekend whether you were in or out of the office. Our first order of business is to welcome our newest member, Nymphadora Tonks. She passed her test just last Friday and today is her first day. Please stand and tell us a bit about yourself Nymphadora."

Tonks winced as she stood up. "Wotcher," she said, in what she hoped was a confident voice. Gosh this lot is intimidating! She thought. "Please call me Tonks, just Tonks. My mother had a fondness for pedantic names, which I am afraid I don't share. Um I am a metamorphmagus. I promise though, I wear the same face every day!" She sat down hurriedly, however unfortunately in doing so she knocked over her cup of tea. It splashed all over the table soaking her parchment.

With a flick of his wand the wizard with the long ponytail sitting on her other side vanished the tea. He said kindly, "I see you forgot to mention the clumsy bit".

Tonks slid down in her chair, hearing a quiet chuckle from the rest of the group. Morphing her face to cover a blush she replied, "Yeah, might have slipped my mind".