A/N: this story was written for the golden Snitch forum's Jurassic Fever challenge. Points should go to Horned Serpent of Ilvermorny, please :)
Prompt: Iguanodon
Word Count (Not Including A/N): 919
Tonks tried to take in everything at once as Head Auror Shacklebolt led them through the entrance hall of the Auror department. She had been to the Ministry before with her mother of course, but her mother preferred to make as little visit as possible. Ever since she was disowned, the members of the sacred 28 would always sneak her out her whenever they saw her.
Tonks had never cared of course, and she certainly wasn't thinking about it now, not when she was about to enter her first Auror training session. There have been other doubts about her becoming an Auror from various people, such as the fact she was a Hufflepuff at Hogwarts and had often got herself into trouble at school for her "outlandish" appearances. This resulted in many house points lost and especially bitter professors giving her lower grades than she deserved, but she had made it in the end.
Auror Shacklebolt let the trainees down a hallway that led to a heavy metal door with a small red screen on it. The Head placed the tip of his wand on this screen, and after a few seconds a buzzer went off and the trainees could hear many locks unlocking from inside the door. He strolled in with Tonks and her future colleagues following in a single file line. Once they were all inside the door closed heavily behind them and they could hear the locks re-locking themselves.
"Welcome to the Auror training area." Auror Shacklebolt announced. "This is where you will spend most of your training, and train even after you become fully-fledged Aurors." He pulled a clipboard out of his pocket. "First things first we will take attendance. I expect all of you to be here every day on time unless you are seriously sick or have a legitimate excuse." He eyed them all intimidatingly. "The training is essential throughout the course and missing even one day could hurt your chances of graduating." Tonks heard some people gulp.
Auror Shacklebolt began barking out the names in alphabetical order and Tonks, since she knew she would be near the end, took the time to survey the training area. Along one wall were dummies of all different shapes and sizes. Another wall had targets lining it, with lines very distances away, from shooting so close you would be able to touch the enemy, or all the way across the room, aiming at a pin prick of a circle. Tonks, a very clumsy person, took note to try to get to that station first; maybe it would help her with her aim.
She was shaking out of her observations by the heads deep voice calling, "Nymphadora Tonks."
"Present!" she called. "But I would prefer if you called me Tonks."
Shacklebolt, who had opened his mouth to call the next person, closed it to stare down the skinny girl. "Take this as a warning, Tonks. Disobedience will not be tolerated." He gave a pointed look at her bright pink hair, which was now getting darker, and continue down the attendance list. When he was done, he flipped back to the top of the stack of paper and banished it with a wave of his wand.
"There are six types of training: close combat, distant combat, dueling, hand-to-hand combat, Muggle combat, and endurance. We will split you into groups, you will get to know each other, and then your group will spend 75 minutes in each station, with a 45 minute halfway break. There are specialized Aurors in each station to help you through the first couple of weeks, to see where your strengths are and your weaknesses are, and to work on getting those rough patches up to par. Here are your groups: Pearson, Tate, Lee, Tonks, Lucas…"
Tonks moved to stand by two girls and three boys that had broken off from the group when Auror Shacklebolt had announced the group. One girl had short straight blonde hair and was very tall and elegant in her midnight train he robes. The other was almost comically short compared to the other girl, with a very slim build and bright blue eyes, whose color grabbed Tonks' attention at once.
"Hi all, well, since we'll be training together, I guess I should introduce myself." Tongues said cheerfully. "I'm Nymphadora Tonks, but just call me Tonks because I don't know what my mother was thinking when she named me that." Tonks stuck out her hand to the short blue eyed girl.
After a minute, the girl smirked and shook her hand saying, "Harper Tate, pleasure to meet you."
The tall blonde stepped hesitantly forward and said, "Penelope Lucas." Tonks shook her hand as well. "How did you get your hair like that? All the dyes I've tried from Diagon Alley have never worked nearly that well."
"Oh, I'm a Metamorphmegas." Tonks saw Penelope's eyes widen at her statement.
"Wow," she whispered under her breath as Harper gave a long, low whistle.
"Here I'll show you…"
The first day was long and rigorous, and by the time Auror Shacklebolt dismiss them for break, Tonks was almost falling down. Harper, though she looked small and meek, was incredibly strong and held her up as they walked to the ministry cafeteria. Over the course of their training the favor was returned many times over.
Looking back on that day now, on her first mission with her best friends Auror Tate and Auror Lucas, Tonks knew she wouldn't have gotten through it without them.