Somewhat Belated Disclaimer: Now might be a good time to point out that I do not own the world of Harry Potter. It belongs solely to JK Rowling. I have, however, created some of my own characters to use in combination with existing ones in Ms. Rowling's world of wizarding Britain.
Chapter Ten
Over the next weeks, Tonks spent increasingly more time with Sherry. They would often opt to work together when they were doing partner exercises, and they would study and socialise together on weekends and before and after training sessions. Through her developing friendship with Sherry, Tonks also got to know several of the girls in her training group, particularly Stella Thatcher and Ariadne Honeysuckle, who would sometimes join Tonks and Sherry when they went to The Three Broomsticks for Butterbeer. Tonks discovered that Stella and Ariadne had known each other since they were babies, through their mothers, who had met at Hogwarts and stayed friends ever since. That was the definition of true friendship right there, thought Tonks.
She would also occasionally bring Sherry, Stella or Ariadne (or sometimes all three) home to stay for dinner, much to her parents' delight. They had been worried that her daughter wasn't socialising, considering that she had a bright and bubbly personality and generally liked being around people. It had been a welcome change when Tonks started talking about the things she was doing with her friends. It seemed to Andromeda and Ted that their daughter had finally found her place in the group of trainees, who had come to like and respect her as their peer and friend. No-one treated her differently now. Her morphing was just as normal to them as changes in mood were. Using their ease to her advantage, Tonks came to training with obnoxious hair colours nearly every day, from her signature bubblegum pink, to forest green, to black and white patches reminiscent of a Friesian cow. She would now go to her friends' houses of a morning and they would walk to the Ministry together, sometimes picking up breakfast on the way.
It was a dreary overcast day when Tonks and Sherry arrived early to training, hoping to practise some skills before the rest of the group arrived. To their surprise, however, Moody wasn't there. Instead, there stood a tall black man whom Tonks was sure she'd seen before, but she couldn't put a name to the face. The two girls exchanged confused glances. Moody had never missed a single session before. There had to be something seriously wrong before he'd be absent.
"Where's Mad-Eye?" asked Sherry.
The man sighed. "He is unable to be here today. My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt. I'll be supervising your session in his absence."
"But where is he? Is there anything wrong?" Tonks persisted.
The man rubbed his forehead as if he was trying to be rid of a headache. "He's taking the day off for personal reasons," said Kingsley, almost tiredly.
"But what personal reasons?" said Sherry, frustrated at the lack of information. "It's got to be something really serious for Mad-Eye to take a day off."
Kingsley sighed heavily. "I'm sure Alastor would appreciate your concern, girls, but it's not my place to disclose information about your instructor's personal life."
The two witches collapsed onto the wooden floorboards, defeated. They supposed that they just had to accept that Kingsley really wasn't going to tell them anything, no matter how hard they pressed.
Soon, the rest of the group had arrived, posing just as many questions as Sherry and Tonks had. Somewhat exasperated by this point, Kingsley held up a hand to silence the group. "Alright, alright," he began. "As I'm sure you're all aware by now, Alastor is not coming today. My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt. I'm a senior Auror here and I'll be supervising you today. I know you're all probably concerned about Alastor's whereabouts, but all I can tell you is that he is away for personal reasons and that he will be back tomorrow. He has asked me to get you to tell me about what you've been learning over the past few months, and then he wanted you to read some material about Dark creatures and how to combat them. And no, we're not doing any practical application today." A collective groan went up from the young wizards and witches. No prac work? This was going to be a boring session.
The trainees made it very difficult for Kingsley to do his job. They were restless and unresponsive. Getting information out of them reminded Kingsley of the garden gnomes which he had had extreme difficulty pulling from the ground in his backyard. However, Kingsley thought as he looked upon the sour faces of his colleague's trainees, Mad-Eye must have been doing a hell of a good job with them if they missed him this much.
Kingsley turned around, startled, as the large wooden door creaked open. The younger witches and wizards whipped around at the noise, their faces lighting up.
Kingsley frowned deeply. "What the hell are you doing back here?"