AN: Anything in bold does not belong to me and is taken straight from Chapter 12 of Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince, Silver and Opals.

Tonks was in a bad mood. An incredibly bad as was evidenced by the stomping up the stairs and banging the door to the stupid flat she was sharing with three other annoying people. Dawlish scowled at her and looked like he was about to make a stupid remark but Savage elbowed him. Pity, she was sort of itching for a fight. She made a point to slam the door to her bedroom extra hard. The satisfying BANG it made reverberated throughout the flat.

"She must be on her period," Dawlish said obnoxiously.

"Shut up, Dawlish," she heard Proudfoot snap.

She stood very still in the middle of her room and breathed in and out heavily, resisting the urge to go right back out there and slap him. She did not need another mark like that on her record. She didn't want to be known for 'not being a team player' even if the git did deserve it. People would understand that it was Dawlish. Whoever made the decision to have him be in charge of their little unit had a screw loose or something. Oh, Tonks knew it was down to Office Politics and his seniority but still! She didn't have to like working with him. And she didn't. It wasn't like he liked working with her either.

It wasn't like she could really complain too much, she was in a bad mood and, unfortunately, the people in charge were the reason she was in this bad mood of hers in the first place. She couldn't exactly complain to them. Not when they had concerns for her "well-being".

Tonks snorted derisively. She couldn't believe Robards pulled a stunt like what he'd done this morning. He'd "requested" a meeting with her, allegedly to discuss how she was getting on. Why she had fallen for that, she'd never know. She blamed the recent lack of sleep. But anyway, he had lured her in – not that she could really refuse – and she had dragged herself in obediently only to be face to face with Scrimgeour! She had thought that she'd seen the last of him since he'd gone up in the world and almost said as much but fortunately had held her tongue. And he'd wanted the exact same thing as their last meeting, fishing for information on Dumbledore and his plans. Only this time there was more than slight suspicion she was involved with the Headmaster. Last year she'd been questioned because of her affiliation with Mad-Eye. Now it was because of his suspicions on what went down at the Department of Mysteries. Why on earth did she go and have to get cursed?

Swearing under her breath, Tonks flopped onto her bed. She didn't really think she'd pacified him at all but she hadn't given him any straight answers. Seeing the usually staid Scrimgeour get visibly frustrated was worth the bother of basically being interrogated. Groaning loudly, she buried her face into her pillow. Today really hadn't started off well at all.

"Tonks! It's your turn to patrol!" Dawlish shouted.

Apparently, it was going to continue to not be well. She growled at the door, really wanting to throw something at it to vent her frustrations but having nothing to hand that would smash as loud as she wanted it too. Tonks hauled herself of her bed and stomped out of the flat to show her displeasure of having to do this, not even bothering to fix what was undoubtedly a rumpled look on her.

[xxxxxx]

Not that that mattered at all, her hair soon sat flat on her head and her thin Auror Robes were drawn tightly around her, smoothing its wrinkles, as she waited for her warming spell to take effect. Dawlish failed to mention that the bloody temperature had dropped and the snow that had been threatening all week had finally come to fruition in the worst sort of way.

Tonks really hated sleet, not that she knew anyone who didn't. It was colder than snow and drenched you like rain and made a complete mess everywhere. There was even some in her boots already even though she hadn't splashed through any puddles. It didn't help that it was a Hogsmeade weekend, water being splashed everywhere from the heavier footfall.

Finally, the warming charm took affect and she could actually move less stiffly. She plunged her hands into her pockets only to discover her gloves weren't there. Looked like this patrol was going to be taken at a power walk.

The day was definitely not going well, that much was extremely evident if she recognised the shouting voice of Harry correctly. Merlin, that kid had some lungs. Kind of reminded her of the vague memories she had of Lily Potter shrieking at James and Sirius for some reason or another. Sirius. A shot of guilt shot through her as she figured out the fasted way to get to Harry. She hadn't thought about him in weeks. Another pang of guilt that she tried to stomp away by speeding up.

Was that Harry strangling Mundungus? Damn her Auror Robes. She wouldn't be able to run without causing some sort of a panic. Hopefully, Harry wouldn't do anything too rash. Well, rasher.

That particular problem was solved by Dung apparating away, something Harry was evidently displeased about if the language coming out of his mouth was anything to go by. It was impressive but not very inventive.

"COME BACK, YOU THEIVING-!"

She approached him from the side, not wanting to be the next person to be jumped on. The kid had really filled into his body this year and she didn't want to pit herself against those new muscles. She did need to talk him down however. He was causing a scene.

"There's no point, Harry," she tried to say soothingly but it fell kind of flat. "Mundungus will probably be in London by now. There's no point in yelling."

People were starting to stare. Harry didn't seem to care about that little fat as he spun around to face her, eyes blazing.

"He's nicked Sirius' stuff! Nicked it!"

"Yes, but still," said Tonks, making sure she appeared perfectly untroubled by this piece of information.

She did not need Harry any more riled up. Yes, Sirius wasn't attached to the stuff but Dung had no business making any of his 'decisions' about it all. It made her furious to think that the man was doing that and she'd deal with him at the next Order Meeting. Mark her words. Not that she could let the kids in front of her sense any of that, who knows what Harry would do.

"You should get out of the cold," she instructed.

Okay, that was weak but she hauled the door open and stared pointedly at them. It surprisingly worked as Harry took a deep breath, that didn't seem to calm him down at all, and stormed past her. She watched them through the door of The Three Broomsticks, wanting to make sure that Harry didn't go running off or something. Thankfully, Hermione and Ron herded him to a table. Merlin, teenagers were hard. How did Molly deal with so many?

Tonks sighed and checked her watch, relief flooding through her as she realised her shift was over. Thank Merlin. It had been an exhausting day. The only decision she had to make now was whether she wanted a hot chocolate from The Three Broomsticks or back at the flat. She wouldn't have to make it herself at the flat but there were marshmallows stashed away in her room…

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