Disclaimer : Skip back to chapter one
"Simply showed them what to expect."
Understanding dawned on Tonks. 'It was a test ! I had a strange feeling but got trapped anyway. He talked about sending them home. Except for me. Why is that?'
Chapter 3 - Torture and Tutelage
Bianca snorted angrily. "You were threatening us ! You told me you'd rape me." She turned from Moody to Kingsley. "And now you try to tell me that this was a kind of test ?"
Kingsley opened his mouth but Moody was faster. "Yepp. And you failed."
"This is scandalous. You are insane! I couldn't imagine a crazier thing and you call it test. TEST !"
The corner of Moody's mouth twitched. "Oh, I could for sure. Imagine something crazy, that is."
Kingsley attempted to save the situation. "I am sure we can sort this out. The morning didn't start as planned, I am afraid. We just had to attend to an emergency. I suggest we move this conversation to my office and begin anew."
'An emergency ? Sounds interesting.'
"I am moving nowhere !" The girl crossed her arms in front of her chest.
Kingsley's eyebrows rose higher, if that was even possible. Disbelief showed on the other aurors faces. This drama show didn't impress anyone, in fact they appeared to be quite offended at the girl's behaviour.
"Enough." another man stepped forward. "I suggest that you show some more respect girl. Mad-Eye is a weirdo, we all know that. But enough is enough."
"How flattering Dawlish." Moody grunted.
Tonks watched the conversation with interest. The former confusion forgotten already.
"Fine." Bianca snapped. "I will leave now. If anybody had told me how crazy you people are, I wouldn't have bothered to show up at all." She stomped forward but turned around, after taking a couple of steps. "Rose ?"
Everyone took a look at the other girl. Currently fidgeting with her bag's strap she eyed Bianca, obviously her friend, a bit insecure. "Alright." No more comments were made as both girls left the room in a hurry. One striding with her head held high, the other one with her eyes downcast.
Silence lingered for a while. 'Phew. Cannot say I am sorry. That was annoying.'
Kingsley sighed once again before turning around, to face his colleagues. "Well then. Time to get to work."
They headed to their desks, leaving the boy, Moody, Kingsley, Dawlish and Tonks standing there.
"Awesome Mad-Eye." Dawlish's voice was dripping with sarcasm.
"Quite. Wasn't just your nephew almost wetting himself. We'll be better off without them."
The reply came with a nod towards the boy, whose face instantly spotted a deep shade of red. Dawlish glared at Moody who simply stared back.
Tonks had to chuckle at Moody's comment. She started to like his directness and now, looking back, found it sort of amusing, how easy the Auror had managed to confuse and frighten them, herself included. Watching Moody and Dawlish, she was oblivious to Gerry, who was giving her the evil eye.
Kingsley harrumphed and interrupted the argument. "Welcome to the Auror Department you two. It's never getting boring around here, as you probably have noticed. My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt. Our leader, Rufus Scrimgeour is currently unavailable, so it's my job to get you settled in."
He smiled at Tonks and the boy. "Besides the emergencies and crime scenes, we busy ourselves with lots of paperwork. You can set up your cubicles later. Our leader and the senior Aurors got their own offices over there."
He pointed to a couple of doors to his left. "Those doors," he pointed at two doors to his right "lead to the locker rooms. Through those, you get access to the gym and our practice room. You'll get plenty of time to examine those during the next three years."
Tonks smiled at Kingsley. 'I cannot believe that this is happening. I am becoming an Auror ! Kingsley seems nice though. Moody seems...different. But I cannot say that I like that Dawlish guy so far.'
"Now follow me please, you need to sign your educational contracts." He took off to an office door. Tonks and the boy followed him.
"Wait a minute, Kingsley." Dawlish broke his staring contest with Moody. "Make sure to attach the mentorship form to Gerry's file. I'll come over to sign it later." A smug look spread over the boy's face.
Kingsley eyed the boy - Gerry - with interest before responding. "I'll see to it."
"Good." Dawlish smiled self satisfied and went to his own office, leaving a frowning Moody, a surprised looking Kingsley and a confused looking Tonks behind.
'Mentorship form ? What does that mean ?' She could hear some whispers coming from the cubicles nearby.
"...did you hear that ? "
"...Yes quite early don't you think?"
"...Mentorship form..."
"...he is his nephew after all..."
"Miss Tonks !?" Kingsley was holding his office door open for her, and gave her an expectant look.
Snapping out of her thoughts, she stumbled forward hastily. "Err, yes. Sorry."
Morning seemed to fly by. Tonks was sitting in her own cubicle around lunchtime.
She had signed her educational contract and got to know more about her curriculum for the following years. Duelling, Spells, Stealth and Tracking, Concealment and Disguise were main subjects. She would have to attend to those subjects, until she got her Auror certification at the end of her third year. Needless to say that she had to pass all the midterm exams, to be able to reach that goal.
There were several ranks among the Aurors. Right now, she was called a trainee Auror. Which was of course the lowest rank available. Trainee Aurors were not allowed in field work. Given that she passed her first midterm exams after one year, she would earn the junior Auror status. From there it would get more interesting. Depending on their skills, junior Aurors could be allowed to accompany senior Aurors in field work, to gain practical experience by firsthand observation.
Tonks leaned back in her chair and glanced over several objects that piled up in front of her.
'Oh my. And there I thought we had to work with umpteen books at Hogwarts. This is just...gross.'
She reached for her first lesson plan, somewhere underneath her stack of new robes and a gym bag which contained all of her sports gear, two large piles of books rested besides it.
'Soooo...tomorrow is Tuesday and starts with the Spells course, followed by a minor subject...Potions. I hope the fella' teaching that one is not similar to Snape.'
Each subject would be taught by Aurors with different specialities. Kingsley told them, that every one of them was an "expert in their field". He had also told Gerry and Tonks, that there could be last-minute changes of teachers and the lesson plan itself, due to sudden emergencies and upcoming cases. Tonks was intrigued with the fact, that her working schedule would always be unpredictable. She liked to act spontaneous and one obviously needed a huge amount of flexibility to be able to do the job.
She studied her lesson plan once more.
Monday : Athletic exercise ; Duelling -lunch break- Concealment and Disguise
Tuesday : Spells ; Potions -lunch break- Legal knowledge ; Duelling
Wednesday : Athletic exercise ; Stealth and Tracking -lunch break- Interrogation Technique
Thursday : Concealment and Disguise ; Healing -lunch break- Spells ; Duelling
Friday : Athletic exercise ; Free study time -lunch break- Stealth and tracking
'Mhhh. Four courses on Tuesdays and Thursdays, three when there is some sporty stuff in the morning.' Tonks read a note on the bottom of the plan.
The main subjects will be attended by the junior Aurors as well.
'Man, I really hope the other apprentices are different from Gerry.'
Gerry Jackson. Her fellow trainee Auror. Today was their first day, but she already knew that he wasn't that type of person she wanted to be friends with. He sort of looked down at her. Why ? Just because his uncle was a senior Auror ? Besides that, his blue eyes resonated with a sort of frostiness she didn't like. 'Time to think about that later.'
Tonks grabbed one of her new robes. They were hooded, full-length ones, made of a thick cotton but feeling comfortable nonetheless. Gerry's and her robes had a lot brighter colour, compared to the others. Certificated Aurors wore deep scarlet red robes, at least when they were at the office. While doing field work it wouldn't be wise to wear uniform clothes, especially with a colour like that.
'Fair enough.' Tonks thought. 'A bunch of Aurors in shiny red robes, running around to catch criminals. Too conspicuous for sure.' She chuckled to herself, imagining a situation like that.
Putting the robe back down, she started to rummage through her books. She grabbed the ones, that covered courses she wouldn't deal with during her first year, and stored them inside the drawer underneath her desk.
Tonks got up and headed to survey the women's locker room, taking the gym bag with her. On her way she glanced over the huge amount of cubicles, most of them were empty again. There had been many witches and wizards coming and going during the morning. Some wearing office robes, some in casual clothes.
'Looks like most of them are taking their lunch break. Or was there another emergency ? I should have paid more attention to my surroundings, while looking through my new things.'
As she passed another row of cubicles, her right foot hit a table leg, causing her to sway and drop onto her knees. She cursed inwardly, making sure not to draw more attention to herself. When she stood again, her eyes met staring blue ones.
'Awesome, Tonks.' growing angry with herself, she shrugged and continued walking.
Gerry sneered at her, while arching an eyebrow. Just as she passed him, he muttered "Wrong career choice you clown." only loud enough for her to hear. He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms, a smug look on his face.
Tonks stopped dead in her tracks. That caught her off guard. She frowned at him. 'Did he really just call me "clown" ? I imagined that for sure.'
"Clown." he whispered again.
'Oh. He really called me a clown.'
Tonks wasn't sure why this situation made her feel uncomfortable, she had always been able to simply ignore such nasty comments back at Hogwarts. His words stung somehow. Confusion took over and she wasn't able to think about a smart retort, so she decided to move on and leave him be.
'Did I do anything to provoke or offend him ? No.' She was sure that she hadn't done anything to offend him.
Tonks entered the locker room and leaned her back against the door once it clicked shut, after reassuring that it was empty.
Closing her eyes, she tried to calm her inner turmoil. She dropped the bag next to her feet.
'Get a grip ! He's just a stupid boy and this is day one of...well three years. We don't have to like each other and there are the junior Aurors. They just have to be different, and some of them nice, right !?'
How deeply she missed her friends...and then she got lost in her thoughts.
Tonks couldn't say how long she had been standing there, thinking about her friends and good old Hogwarts. Her growling stomach brought her back to reality. She checked the time.
'Shit, shit shit ! About five minutes left to put away my things before Kingsley returns.' He had shown Gerry and Tonks their cubicles, and left them to their own devices, so that he could enter a meeting. He said he would be back at two o'clock. And now she had no time to fetch any food.
'Alright, one starving day won't kill me.'
She picked up her bag and for the first time, took note of her surroundings.
Two rows of lockers were located in the middle of the room, standing back to back. The floor was made of light grey linoleum, walls and ceiling were painted in a warm yellow tone. Five doors lined the walls. Three to her right side and two in front of her, behind the rows of lockers. Those two were obviously the entrance doors to gym and practice room. One of the doors to her right stood ajar, so she peered inside.
'Ah, over there are showers. Okay, time to search for my locker.' Upon finding it, which wasn't that complicated because it was tagged with her name, she stuffed her bag inside.
Tonks left the locker room and walked straight into somebody. She staggered backwards and her shoulder hit the door frame. A groan escaped her throat. Then she looked up, to face... Alastor Moody ... whose mouth quirked at her actions. She eyed him questioningly.
"Thought you got lost in there." He stated, tilting his head towards the door behind Tonks.
"Err, no thanks." She felt a wave of heat rushing over her face. 'Don't blush, don't blush ! Damn, that's embarrassing.'
Tonks did blush indeed but he didn't comment on it. By all means, he couldn't know what was going on before, could he ? 'No way, so calm down.'
How wrong she was.
He had been watching the little incident from inside his office. Moody had stopped mourning for the loss of his real eye, until he found out how practical the magical one was. Yes, this time it proved to be useful again.
As curious and paranoid as he was, he was watching every single move those greenhorns made, since they stepped onto the second floor's corridor.
He had noticed her being late, and Dawlish nephew's arrogant behaviour. Oh how he hated tardiness, but he despised arrogance even more. Not to mention the incredible actions of those other girls. Screaming their heads off. He had been teaching them a lesson indeed, and was glad that they were gone, but it wouldn't have surprised him, if they had been running around like headless chickens as well.
Picking on that idiot boy in front of Dawlish had not been one of Moody's wisest decisions. But he had never been one for wisdom. Leave that up to people like Dumbledore. Unfair behaviour needed to be punished. No matter what.
Pushing those thoughts aside he, once again, focused on the red haired girl in front of him.
He didn't like what he had observed about half an hour ago. In fact he couldn't hear what the boy had been saying, but his facial expressions had spoken volumes. He was sure, that she wouldn't have left to hide inside the locker room, if those words had been "nice".
So there she stood in front of him, blushing. It wasn't that he cared, no. He didn't even know the girl. He sensed something special about her. His instincts never betrayed him. Well, at least most of the time. Some of his errors had been leading to lots of painful experiences. He had learnt from his mistakes, oh yes.
'Let them all laugh at me. Constant vigilance, at all cost.'
What was it, about the girl now ? Possibly just her unique appearance. Yepp. That was different for sure and made her special in a certain way. He studied her from head to toe, with both of his eyes.
"Sir ?" she frowned at him.
He grunted at that.
"Errm, sir ?" she repeated timidly, stretching the second word in an annoying way.
"Not necessary." he barked, louder than actually intended.
She flinched, looking rather confused. "What ?"
Rolling both eyes he leaned onto his stick. Wasn't it obvious enough !? "The formality."
She stood still for some seconds and he noted, that the blush had dissipated from her cheeks. "Oh. Fine. What to call you then ?"
Merlin's balls. Why was he standing here, and having this conversation again? Oh right. The incident and something interesting about that girl. "Moody will do."
She extended one hand to him and smiled slightly. "Hi Moody, I am Tonks."
He narrowed his eyes, both of them scrutinising her hand. Moody refused to shake hands. Avoiding body contact whenever he could, he wouldn't break one of his principles today, nor any other day. "I know who you are."
"Oh, that's 'cause of that constant vigilance thing, right ?"
Her cheekiness baffled him, but his countenance didn't slip. Would be best to ignore that comment. "Kingsley sent a memo. You can knock off for today."
"Good...but weren't we supposed to meet your, I mean our teaching Aurors today ?" she asked with a curious look on her face.
"Yes, but they're out in the field." Interesting. Most of the other trainee Aurors would have left without questioning my statement.
"What about you then ?" she asked, pushing her hands into her trouser pockets.
Moody frowned again. "None of your business girl." She was absolutely quite good at asking juicy questions. He wasn't one to share personal information with others. Just imagine what could happen, if those information got to the wrong person.
"Tonks. I'd like to be called Tonks."
He grunted once again and turned around to walk back into his office, his magical eye continued watching her.
She looked startled at his sudden departure, and scratched her head. Moody watched as she turned around herself after a while, and passed the boy, who was still sitting at his desk. She didn't notice him sitting there, or staring at her. She was stalking down the many rows of cubicles, and stopping by at her own desk, to grab her office robes and books and shrank them, so that she could put them away in her jacket pockets. Meanwhile, the boy glared holes into her back and continued staring at the office door, she had just been stepping through.
'What a poor boy you are. Her chuckling hurt 'ya pride, eh ? Too bad that she wasn't really laughing at you, idiot. You'd earn it for the behaviour you showed her. Let's see how long you'll be sitting there, until you notice that you could've gone home liker her.' Moody chuckled to himself. 'I am not going to tell 'ya.'
He reached for the flask in one of his pockets and took a sip. Yes, he would definitely keep a watchful eye on that boy, well, on Tonks as well. He would watch, if she really had it in her, like he assumed.