Apparently one of the side effects of helping your extremely drunk friend (and she was a friend now) be safe when she was extremely drunk meant that she was extremely grateful for the fact that you let her throw up in your toilet and that you gave her a headache relieving potion. And a very grateful Jean was a very... cheerfully clingy one? If that made any sense whatsoever. Well, maybe clingy was the wrong word. But Jean hadn't exactly left her alone in the past week since that fateful night out. Like, literally, she was always by Tonks' elbow.

Tonks didn't really mind. Mostly. It was nice to always have someone to eat lunch with and to bounce ideas off. Sometime though, and Tonks felt bad for even thinking it, Jean was just... well, she was just too cheerful.

Now, Tonks thought of herself as a happy person, she certainly wasn't an angry one or a depressed one. But it was just unnatural to be so bloody bubbly and, and... peppy all the damn time. Unnatural. But that was what Jean was like. And Tonks didn't know how long she could put up with it without snapping. And snapping at Jean would be like snapping at a little kitten or something. She'd just feel bad.

Speaking of always being close by, Jean had just arrived and frowned when she noticed that there were two free seats next to Tonks. Now that they were a few weeks in, they each had kind of claimed "their" seats now, even if they didn't have assigned seating.

Jean actually looked like she was going to ask Dubois to move but thankfully Auror Taylor arrived and directed her to her usual seat.

"Please sit down, Trainee Cavendish," he said impatiently. "Don't block the doorway."

Blushing slightly, she did that though not before sending a pout Tonks' way which she studiously ignored. Hey, she wasn't about to tip someone out of their seat!

Mannering shoved his hand in the air as soon as Jean sat down.

"Yes, Mannering?" Auror Taylor said tiredly.

For good reason, Mannering always asked a lot of questions. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing but he asked the same ones over and over again.

"Are we getting our results back this week, sir?"

Tonks winced. Mannering had asked that every day since they had taken those exams. Auror Taylor had actually snapped at him last week, saying that they'd be marked when they were marked and him pestering him wasn't going to make it happen any faster.

"If you would give me a chance to speak, Mainwaring," he said pointedly, making him squirm. "I would have told you all that all of the exams have been marked."

"Oh," he said, shrinking back down in his seat.

Tonks would have felt a bit of sympathy for him but he had been rather annoying the last week. They all were waiting on tenterhooks for those results, that didn't mean that they wanted to be constantly reminded of it! All it made Tonks think about was what questions she definitely got wrong and wonder if she fealty should have put down a certain answer. Which sucked.

"Please let it be good news," Tonks heard Domański mutter from behind her, making her jump slightly.

She had forgotten that he was there. He was really quiet and hadn't really interacted with them much, though he had gone out with them all the few times they had. He just wasn't much of a talker, it seemed.

But she was hoping for the same thing as him. Good news. Though, she wasn't sure what that would look like. That she didn't ha e any academic issues? That none of them did? That it wouldn't put them behind or, even worse, get them kicked out of the program already? They couldn't do that this early, could they? That was a bit drastic bit now it was all that Tonks could think about. Great. She really hated her mind sometimes.

Speaking of her mind and getting lost in it, Auror Taylor was still talking and walking down the room, handing out everyone's results. Kind of like a report card, from the looks of things.

"To the surprise of absolutely no one," he continued. "You all have gaps in your Defence knowledge, so we'll be focusing you on that."

Tonks couldn't help but sigh in relief at that, he said all of them. Which meant not just those from Hogwarts.

"Also, you lot from Hogwarts need some help with your brewing. It's not up to scratch."

And there went her hope. She even felt her face burn. Hogwarts was meant to be one of the best schools in the world, allegedly, and they were academically behind? That was embarrassing, even if it's something that couldn't be helped. Oh, wait, he was still talking.

"We're more than happy with your results in everything else. Some of you will have to work harder in subjects than others but none of you are truly behind in the remaining subjects."

That was good news, right? Tonks good that she wasn't one of the ones je was referring to. Though, she suspected she was because of Charms. It wasn't her strongest subject, okay?

"So," Auror Taylor was finishing up. "We'll be doing classes in NEWT level Potions and Defence but we can now get started on the introductory modules as well."

Now, that was something that perked them all up, finally they would actually be doing something new, though he doused their excitement pretty quickly with his next statement.

"Like, Legislation, the purpose of being an Auror..."

They all groaned as one at that. Oh, come on! Those modules? Really? Why couldn't they start on the more interesting things? Like, like, whatever the Endurance Training module was supposed to be. That sounded exciting. Healing would be pretty interesting too but Tonks supposed that they weren't doing that until all of them had their potions abilities brought up to scratch.

She looked down at the little results parchment she had been given. It didn't give them their actual marks, just the basic NEWT subjects and either the words 'Below Expected' or 'As Expected' next to it. Unsurprisingly, Potions was marked as 'Below Expected'. Though, for her, nothing else was. Not even Herbology. Huh. Tonks supposed she should be pretty proud of that. He she had got 'As Expected' for Defence, she didn't know. It wasn't like her education in that area had in any way been consistent. Well, she wasn't going to complain. And she supposed it was a good thing that she hadn't promptly forgotten all of that information after NEWTs like she normally did after exams. Though, the tests Taylor had given them focused questions on asking about practical applications of things, which kind of stuck with you. With her, anyway. Much better than useless background knowledge anyway.

"Today we will begin with The Purpose of Being an Auror," Auror Taylor told them. "This will detail our role in the Ministry and the community and our responsibilities in these areas. Also, what is not our responsibility."

Tonks just about managed to stifle a groan. Speaking of useless background knowledge...