It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Actually, it had appeared to be a great idea. The best of ideas. Of course, it hadn't turned out like that.

You see, their exams were coming up. The competency ones. The ones that judged the level they were all on. The ones that would determine just how intense these first six months of training would be.

Tonks was hoping that there weren't a lot of gaps and they could get right into it but she knew it wasn't going to go like that. There were bound to be gaps. Her Defence Education had been more than a little chaotic and although she had done well on her NEWT for it that was more down to her intense reading up on things than her professors.

But back to their good idea that was definitely turning into a not such a good idea. Which had been that they decided that it would be better if they all studied together. Because, multiple head were better than one, wasn't it? And Cavendish, she was definitely the perky one of the group, had happily pointed out that it could be more bonding.

It had started out well, they had laid claim to one of the bigger study rooms before any of the third year Trainees could get at them. They had even brought a rather large collection of books, quills and parchment- all ready for taking notes. See? The best of intentions.

That only lasted about... fifteen minutes. And even that was generous.

"This so boring," Dubois complained, throwing his quill across the room. "I know this stuff."

"I think I'm going cross-eyed," Tonks complained.

Why had she chosen Potions first? She should have started with something easier. Like Transfiguration.

"It hasn't even been half an hour," Young said with an eye roll. "You can't already be going cross-eyed.

"Well, I am. This is so boring!"

There, she'd said what they had all been thinking. Going over all this was boring and repetitive and not exciting at all. She couldn't stick it.

"It really is," Partridge agreed, rubbing a hand over his face. "If I have to recite Gamp's Laws again..."

"Those are easy," Tonks scoffed.

"I can never remember the third one!"

"Are you two seriously arguing over Transfiguration Laws?" Eggleston asked.

"Pathetic," McCabbert said.

"Says the one who's looking at his Defence textbook upside-down," Tonks retorted.

Eggleston went bright red and hastily shut his book. "The diagram makes more sense that way!"

"We are never going to be learning anything exciting," Mainwaring said with a groan, leaning back against the wall from his position on the floor.

"We are," Cavendish tried to be encouraging. "We just need to get past these first six months and then we'll get onto our actual training."

If they even made it past six months Tonks thought morosely. That was just too far away.

"Your positivity is unnatural, Cavendish," McCabbert informed her.

"There's nothing wrong with being positive!"

"Learning how to interrogate people is going to be the best one," Fontaine put in his opinion, trying to stop the argument.

He always got twitchy around arguments. Unfortunately for him, his opinion was met with everyone loudly disagreeing with him.

"No way."

"What about actually Duelling?"

"And fitting puzzle pieces together?"

"Well, I think Stealth and Tracking sounds cool," Partridge said, flipping through something that was definitely not his notes for his tests.

"That's just sneaking up on people," Jones said derisively. "No action at all."

"You can't get into any duels if you can't sneak up on someone!"

"You couldn't interrogate a paper bag," McCabbert informed him with an eye roll.

"Well, that's the whole point of that subject."

"You'd hardly intimidate anyone."

"Concealment and Disguise is definitely going to be the best one," Tonks disagreed.

McCabbert snorted. "That's because disguising yourself is all you do."

That attracted the attention of the ones who hadn't gone to Hogwarts.

"What does that mean?" Gaffrey asked.

"Oh, nothing," Tonks dismissed.

Somehow, no one who hadn't been from Hogwarts had figured out that she was a Metamorphmagus yet, despite her having a different hair colour every few days. She still hadn't quite settled on her favourite colour yet, thought the bright pink was slowly growing on her. But so was this cool dark blue she tried out the other day. The short hairstyle was here to stay, however - it was just so easy to manage. Even doing all that hadn't made anyone ask her any questions and she hadn't advertised it. She could do without all the stares again, thank you very much. Though she was quite exasperated by how oblivious everyone could be.

"She's a Metamorphmagus," McCabbert said in a bored tone.

"Really?" Four voices said in a surprised tone.

"Thanks, McCabbert," Tonks said sarcastically.

"You're welcome."

Tonks shook her head. That girl really just existed to be annoying, didn't she?

"You've literally seen her change her hair colour every day," Fontaine said incredulously. "What did you think that was?"

"That she was casting a charm on herself," Dubois said defensively. "People do that."

"Nope," Tonks said cheerfully, trying to brush this whole thing off - maybe they wouldn't look at her like she was some sort of a freak if she did that. "I'm a Metamorphmagus."

"Ridiculous, isn't it?" Jones sniffed but was ignored by the non-Hogwarts crowd looking at her with awe and confusion.

"I didn't think they were real," Cavendish said.

"Really?" Eggleston snorted.

"Well, it's not like I've ever seen one!"

"They're just really rare," Jones said with an eye roll. "And a black sheep of a prominent family got the ability of all things."

"What does that mean?" Mainwaring asked in confusion.

"Just you shut up, Jones," Tonks said fiercely.

Right. That was it. She was never going to like that guy. She wasn't.

"She can do all sorts of weird things," McCabbert piped up unhelpfully. Again.

"Oh, really?" Mainwaring asked almost as excitedly as Cavendish looked.

Tonks sighed. This was one thing she'd rather not be at the centre of attention for.

"Yes. See?"

And she changed her nose so it was like a beak. Only flesh toned. Much to the amazement of those who hadn't known.

"Wow? Can you do other animals?" Cavendish asked with wide eyes.

"Like a horse?" Dubois asked.

"Or a cat?" That was Mainwaring. Everyone gave him a weird look. "What, cats are cool."

"I'm a person, not an it, you know," Tonks said dryly, shifting her nose back to its normal form.

That made the four look vaguely guilty and uncomfortable.

"Sorry," Cavendish said contritely, chewing her lip. "It's just so cool."

"And weird," Dubois added, looking like he didn't know what to make of her.

And he had been so nice too. Tonks hoped he wasn't going to start calling her a freak or something.

Tonks shrugged. "So, I'm weird. Big deal."

Maybe if she owned it, it wouldn't be so bad. But no one said anything to that, just looked at her and looked at each other. Great. Now she had made it weird.

"Well, I think learning about Poisons would be really interesting," Cavendish said brightly, breaking the silence and getting them back to the topic they had originally been talking about.

Tonks gave her a thankful look

This made everyone look at her with a fair bit of concern. Behind that cheerful, chirpy mask was there a serial killer or something?