Training

Ron paced anxiously back and forth before the entrance to Azkaban Prison. He was ready to begin the day's work, but as an Auror-in-training, he had to wait on his fully-qualified partner, Tonks.

Out in the field, she was great, always dependable, good to have at your side in a fight. But, take her indoors, give her a routine task and she'd be all over the place; tripping over things, knocking stuff down, breaking priceless family heirlooms.

And here they were, taking their turn at escorting prisoners between the Ministry and Azkaban. It was bound to be a nightmare.

"Wotcher Ron!" Tonks called as she jogged over to meet him.

"Hey Tonks. All set?"

"Almost." She retied her sneaker. "First we have to check in at the security desk. Then we do a round, checking every level, making sure all the prisoners are present and where they are supposed to be."

"Kind of like inventory."

"Yeah, sure," she said, giving him an odd look. "So then, we go back to the desk and get a list of prisoners to transfer."

"Exciting."

"Every minute of every day can't be too exciting or we Auror's would have an even shorter shelf life."

"Yeah, I guess," he grumbled. "I just though being an Auror would be more action and adventure than paperwork and simple tasks."

"Well, if you'd like, I could pretend to trip over something and accidentally let a prisoner escape. You could run him down. That would be fun."

"Accidentally?"

"Alright, so what I'm really saying is that it's been known to happen, so be prepared."

Ron laughed, grabbing her arm as she stumbled over the step-up in the doorway.

"Oh no," groaned the security guard. "Auror Tonks, how is it possibly your rotation again already?"

"I have a trainee now. He needs to see every aspect of our duties before his training is complete." She narrowed her eyes at the disbelieving look.

"They're letting you train?"

"Of course they are, she's a right good Auror. It's the simple things that cause her trouble." Ron glared at the man.

"Sure kid. Go on ahead. Try not to lock yourself in this time."

"Wanker," Ron grumbled on their way to the lowest level.

"Thanks Ron." Tonks smiled at him and tripped down three steps. "Here's the entrance to the life terms level. Mostly Death Eaters in here. And careful with the door, mind you."

"You didn't really lock yourself in, did you?" He shut the door softly behind them.

"See the emergency lock down button?" She gestured to a small red button protruding from the wall. "I tripped and triggered it. Took ages for them to pull down all the wards and let me out."

"Ah." It was all too easy to picture her tumbling into the button.

They made their rounds in good time; all the prisoners were in their cells, where they belonged. When they circled back around and reached the desk, the guard was already holding out the list they needed.

"Get started; you're going to need the extra time to fix whatever problems you'll create."

"Oh, ha ha, Rodney. Aren't you clever?" Tonks sneered, snatching the paper away. They headed back to the uppermost level to gather the inmates. "Hurry, Ron. He's actually got a point."

He sighed, following her closely.

They had all but two of the transfers out and contained when it happened. Tonks waved her wand to open the cell of one man, but tripped over a loose tile, effectively unlocking all of the cell doors.

"Son of a-" she bit off, landing on her stomach.

Yelping in surprise, Ron tackled a prisoner rushing past, pinning him to the floor. He waved his wand at several others, summoning them back to a random cell and locking its door.

Tonks, too, was ensnaring escapees with wand and body, trapping them all in the closest available cell. Finally, after they were all secured they looked at each other.

"You're right, that was fun." Ron grinned, helping her to her feet once more, as she had fallen yet again.

"Told ya so." She squeezed his muscular forearm before turning her attention to the mess of men. "This is going to take all day to sort out."

"Or, we could just identify our last two transfers and leave the rest for Harry and Crowley to sort. After all, we did our rounds; they were each checked off in the proper cell."

Tonks laughed. "I like the way you think Weasley. Besides, we owe them for that mess in the Muggle pub last weekend. Karaoke? Honestly, what were they thinking?"

"I don't know about Crowley," Ron answered, extracting the last two men from the cells and chaining them to the rest. "But Harry was trying to play matchmaker. Ginny convinced him we would be good together and planted ideas in his head. She's devious, that one."

"Wants to see you married off as badly as Molly, I reckon."

They herded the prisoners along.

"She's got a point though, hasn't she?"

"What's that?"

"I don't know about marriage and all of that mess, but we certainly can have fun together."

"That's true enough," he admitted, ears turning a light shade of red, as he looked at her.

Catching her eye, he was too distracted to notice the small step leading to the floo connecting Azkaban to the Ministry courtrooms. Stumbling on it, his wand accidentally ignited, blasting the chains off two prisoners who immediately tried for escape.

"Merlin's beard!" Rodney swore, joining the pursuit. "He's as bad as she is."

A/N: Thanks for reading! Don't forget to review.