This was it. The final bit. Well, not really the final step but it sort of, kind of was as well. It was important. Very important. But also, not important.

Exams. She was talking about their first set of properly marked exams. Everything else so far had just been a gauge of how much they knew. These were far more serious. These were responsible for part of their futures.

And she wasn't being dramatic here, she wasn't. These were important. So important.

Because, well, because they were. Even though they weren't. They were and weren't important at the same time. Did that make any sense? All she could think about was duelling tactics, legislation and Healing. You know, stuff she needed to know for her exams. Any other thoughts just took up valuable space in her brain which she simply couldn't afford.

She wanted to not just pass these exams but wanted to do well. Somehow this felt even more important than her NEWTs. At least with her NEWTs if she failed, she just could choose another career. But now, with six months of Auror Training under her belt, she didn't want to go through all that, have a taste of what she could be doing, just to not get anywhere with it.

Though, it would be hard to do that badly, Tonks had to remind herself of that. As long as you didn't outright fail (get below forty percent) then you'd be allowed to continue. Somehow, that didn't make her feel any better. Because what if she didn't know as much as she thought she did and she did absolutely horrendously? What if she had to resit her exams putting her back a whole year? Well, four months. Resits were in June. But still! That would be four months doing nothing. She doubted a Senior Auror would mentor someone who had to do resits! Did you still get a mentor if you had to resit an exam? What if she did so bad that she wasn't even lowed to resit them? Was that even a thing? No one had ever asked if that was a thing. Should she have asked?

So, she had to pass. She just had to. It would mark the end of this probationary period and then she'd get to do proper training. The real stuff, in her opinion. The proper duelling, the interrogation techniques, all of it. She was excited to get started. But she had to get past these exams first.

Exams she had studied so hard for that all the information was swirling about in her brain and she'd nearly forgotten to put a shirt on 7nderneath her jacket. There was just no space for her brain to think of anything else.

And now they were all just standing outside the stupid exam hall in this nervous silence. Everyone's faces were pinched and pale and Gaffrey looked like he was about to throw up. It was weird seeing that look on his face outside of their Healing module. Which was ironic because this was the exam for that module. He better not throw up on his exam paper. She didn't think he'd get many marks for that.

But looking at him was making her feel even more nervous so she let her eyes wander again. This was a very rub down part of the Academy building, the ceiling tiles were chipped, the skirting boards were scuffed and desperately needed a new lick of paint and the whole place just had the feel of being forgotten about. Tonks supposed that a corridor whose only purpose was to contain an exam hall was at the bottom of the list for things to update. It wasn't like Trainees constantly took written exams so they were rarely here. It would be now and then she'd be back here hopefully at the end of her third and final year of training. She frowned at herself. No, she wasn't to think like that. Positive thoughts. Confident thoughts. She was going to be in this corridor again at the end of her three years. Yeah! She was!

Just as she talked herself up, the door to the examination hall was flung open, a small, chubby wizard framed by it. He wore the robes of the Wizarding Examination Board. Black with a broad gold stripe around the hem and cuffs.

"I am Mr Jeremy Stone and I will be your invigilator for your exam. Any questions you have will be directed to me and me only. Please line up so you can enter the hall."

"Good luck," she said generously to Jones as she queued behind him.

Hey, just because she didn't like the guy didn't mean she wanted him to fail.

"Whatever," he grunted and actually gave her a dirty look.

She raised her hands and backed away. That's what she got for trying to be nice. Whatever. That was the last time she was going to try that.

"Ignore him," McCabbert said with a snort. "He's taking the whole 'view each other as your competition' thing very seriously."

Oh yeah, that big talk from Auror Taylor a few weeks ago. How from now on all they should care about was impressing the Senior Aurors who were possibly going to be their mentors. And they should want to impress them so you would be taught more or something like that. Definitely you would get the better Auror Mentor. Well, that's what Tonks understood anyway. Which meant that you had to outperform the other Trainees. Which was all well and good but that didn't mean you had to be nasty about it. And anyway, this was the exams, you weren't trying to impress anyone with your exams you were just trying to pass. But whatever. It was no skin off her nose to ignore Jones.

"Enter in a single file, please," the invigilator reminded them, making everyone fall silent immediately, not wanting to get removed from the exam before it had even started.

It was kind of eerie. As was the fact that everyone went pale and suddenly looked extremely anxious suddenly there was an awful lot of chewing on lips. They were like ghosts. She probably wasn't looking that much better, let's be honest here. What was worse that her hair was probably reflecting it as well. That's why she had pulled it back into a ponytail, so it didn't distract her.

She found her seat, the third row, fourth seat back - the last one. Was it in order of surnames? An exam paper, face down, was in front of her. Along with an answer booklet.

"Just to remind all of you, this is the exam for Basic Healing."

Of course, they knew that this exam was for Basic Healing. Would you really get important exams like that mixed up?

"Please find your seat with your candidate number, do not put your name or any other identifying information on your answer booklet."

Yeah, yeah, anonymity and all that so the was no prejudice when these were getting marked. It had been the same thing for their OWLs and NEWTs. Apparently, it was the same for any externally taken exams.

"You may turn your papers over..." the man looked at his watch. "...now. You have one hour."

Tonks didn't pay any attention to the rustling of papers as she yanked the pages of her exam open and tried to read the questions as fast as possible.

One hour. There was no way she was going to get this done in one hour.