Gaffrey retched loudly and turned away. He wasn't the only one to do the latter, it turned out that many of them didn't particularly enjoy the look of blood. Tonks scrunched up her nose, or the smell. But the sight of blood she was okay with, she'd seen enough of her own, after all. And it was pretty cool.

Yes, they had started their Intro to Healing module. If you were going to have a job where the whole point was to get into fights then it was a good idea to know how to fix yourself after said fights. And victims. And unfortunately, bad guys from what their Legislation module was teaching them. If someone could be healed and you had the capabilities then you healed them. It saved unnecessary trips to St Mungo's. No one liked a prolonged stay there.

Auror Taylor frowned at poor Gaffrey in a disapproving manner. He wasn't the instructor for this module - a Healer from St Mungo's was - but he was here to supervise and to give commentary on the injuries he'd seen Aurors get. It was gruesome in a kind of cool way.

"You aren't going to get far if you can't deal with a little blood," he lectured. "You're going to get injured. You're going to injure other people. It's something you'll have to get used to or get out."

He sent another disapproving look at Gaffrey who had wiped his mouth and was now shakily re-joining the group. He was carefully not looking at the injured person very patiently waiting for the demonstration to be over.

"You going to get used to this or get out, Gaffrey?" Taylor demanded.

"I'll, I'll get used to it," he said nervously.

"Good, then get your arse up here to the front and watch."

Gaffrey sent a long-suffering look to everyone but did as he was told, extremely reluctantly. He looked like he was forcing himself to look at the person's cut but still looked like he really would rather not. Thankfully he didn't throw up again but he did look decidedly green.

"So, these sorts of cuts aren't that dangerous," the Healer was saying, ignoring Gaffrey's uneasiness. "Though there is always a chance of -?" She pointed at Fontaine.

"Infection," she replied promptly.

"And what are the signs of infection?"

"Redness around the injury, tender skin, breathing problems," Eggleston rattled off before the Healer could volunteer someone.

She inked at him and nodded. "That's exactly right, Trainee-?"

"Eggleston."

"Eggleston. Right. Well, Trainee Eggleston, can you tell me if this patient has an infected cut?"

"I hope not," the volunteered joked. "I just sliced it on a piece of broken glass when a patient broke a door window."

Their "patient" was another Healer at St Mungo's who had happily volunteered when he found out what his colleague was demonstrating today and he just happened to have a bad run in with some sort of crazy patient.

Eggleston quickly looked the man over. "No, it doesn't appear to be infected."

"It isn't," the Healer conformed. "Though it is fairly easy to treat simple infections. It's a simple potion that is in a paste form with anti-inflammatory and what properties?"

Oh! She knew this one. Tonks stuck up her hand.

"Yes, Trainee?"

"Tonks," she said breathlessly. "The potion needs to have antibiotic properties too."

And they stung like hell. She knew that from experience.

"Exactly. We often also use a drinkable version of the potion to prevent infections. Though it would not be as concentrated."

They all nodded and made their notes. You never knew what questions you were going to be asked later.

The spell for healing the simple cut was demonstrated. A very familiar one for Tonks but she still paid close attention. She'd never really taken note of the wand movements of it. It was a pretty basic spell but you still had to be precise or did no good.

They now moved onto a sort of model, training dummy thing with a more obvious gash of a cut. It even bled like an actual person would. It was pretty cool.

"If you press the skin like so," the Healer was directing, making blood spurt out in a mini fountain and that was enough for McCabbert and she also lost the contents of her stomach.

She was the last person Tonks would have expected to throw up. She was so snarky and strong. Oh well, it was a good thing there was such things as vanishing charms. It made it very easy to deal with vomit. Imagine having to mop all of that up? Yuck! Blood, Tonks didn't mind but show her vomit and she would also be sick, she was pretty sure. Not that she wanted to check that right now so she was pointedly avoiding looking behind her until she was sure that the vomit was gone. She was not going to be embarrassing herself today.

"Huh, only one," the volunteer who was now all healed but still lingered said in an amused tone. "That's a record."

"Give it time," Auror Taylor said with an eye roll.

"Now, this cut is deeper, " the lecture began. "So, you can still use the same spell but you have to put a bit more power into it."

"What happens if you put too little power behind it?" McCabbert asked.

"You'll only heal the cut in layers, taking longer and more energy. Okay, who wants to try healing this simple cut?" The Healer asked them.

Gaffrey vehemently shook his head, still ensuring that the blood wasn't in his direction line of sight. His face was still very pale though he thankfully hadn't thrown up again.

Tonks found herself raising her hand along with Eggleston and Dubois. Hey, you weren't going to get anywhere unless you put yourself out there, were you?

"Tonks," the Healer decided, gesturing for her to come up to the front.

Jones snorted as she walked past him, probably hoping that she would fail. Well, she squared her shoulders, that wasn't going to happen. She hoped.

"Just as I just showed you," the Healer said encouragingly and Tonks remembered that her name was Healer Kingston, mainly because she could now see her name tag.

Tonks nodded. She had also seen her mother and father do this dozens of times before. Mainly on her. It wasn't a difficult spell.

Ignoring everyone who was watching intently behind her - and she was pretty sure at least one of them were hoping that she'd screw this chance up - she took a deep breath and raised her wand.

It was simple. It really was. Very basic. She could do this. One spell and then you drew your wand down the injury. Simple as that. Nothing too complicated.

"Huh, first time," Healer Sloan said in an impressed voice. "Well done."

"I, uh, get injured a lot," Tonks said sheepishly but let herself take pride in the compliment.

Auror Taylor snorted at her comment. "I believe that, Tonks."

And there went her ego getting pricked as she blushed in embarrassment. Yes, her clumsiness had been on full display these past few weeks - learning how to duel tended to do that. Why did her legs and feet not cooperate with the rest of her body? It was a good thing she never tried to learn how to dance. That would definitely not have ended well.