Moody was just staring at her again. That was all he had done when she came in this morning and that was half an hour ago! Tonks didn't even know what to do now to break the silence. It felt like she had let it go on too long now. It would just be awkward.

Seriously, she'd been brought to his office, all of the trainees were led to their respective Mentors' offices in the Academy, and he hadn't said a word to her the whole time. And that had been quite a long time because his office was well out of the way. Everyone else had long gone into offices when she had been brought into his. What was the point in being so far away from everyone and everything? Auror Moody really was a weird one.

Especially since he was still staring at her! How could one man stare so much? Did he even blink? Surely his one good eye Still needed to blink? It got dry, didn't it? Would that be rude to ask? Was kt weird to ask about someone's eye like that? Especially when the person in question technically only had one eye? Why was she so focused on Moody's eye? It wasn't even the one that was special. But she didn't really want to think too much about that one.

Not because it freaked her out or anything. Actually, it was pretty cool. All weird looking. And weird was cool in her book. But still, if she thought about it all she would do was scare at it and her mother had at least drummed into her that staring was quite rude. So, thinking about his normal idea it was.

Merlin, she was so weird. And not in a good way, she suspected. Being weird was definitely not a good thing when it came to becoming an Auror, was it? She certainly didn't think so. Could Moody tell that she was weird? Probably. He was the top Auror. He could read people extremely well.

And he was still staring at her. Why was she staring at her? Wasn't he supposed to be the one talking? Why wasn't her talking and justifying her to her thoughts like this? It felt weird and awkward and she didn't like it.

Tonks cleared her throat, making his eyes flick to hers. Because apparently even though he had been staring at her, he hadn't been staring at her face. He had been staring at her forehead. Why? She didn't know. Maybe this was an Auror Moody thing?

"You know that's kind of freaky, right?"

One of his eyebrows went up.

"You know," she gestured at him and then at her face. "The whole staring thing without talking. It's freaky."

His lips twitched.

"Freaky?"

Why couldn't she just stop talking? This wasn't helping. It was doing the opposite of helping. She should just glue her mouth shut. Merlin, even her thoughts were going a mile a minute.

She ducked her head down so she didn't have to look at him.

"Yeah, freaky," she mumbled, feeling very stupid.

Freaky? That was the best thing she could say? Of all the things she could say to her mentor on her first "official" day with him and she talked about how he was staring at her? Seriously?

"I mean..." she began helplessly, not knowing whether she should apologise or try to examine herself (though, really, what was there to explain?). "Yeah."

And then she fell silent again. Which was stupid and weird and uncomfortable and seriously was it really that hard for a super amazing Auror like Auror Moody to just say something? Anything? She wasn't the one who knew what she was doing!

"Right," he cleared his throat, making her sit up straighter in her seat.

"Sir?"

"What did I tell you about calling me Sir?" He asked irritably. "Can't you listen to orders?"

"Sorry s- I mean Auror Moody," she said promptly.

Seriously, she spent all her life, basically, referring to all adult males in her life as 'sir'. Did he really expect her to stop doing that immediately just because he asked? He was her Mentor for Merlin's sake; she was supposed to treat him with respect.

"There's no point in us doing this if you can't follow orders. I don't need someone who's going to go off on hare-brained schemes of their own," he lectured. "I need someone who follows orders and knows when to take the initiative."

Didn't those cancel each other out?

"I can do that!" She said eagerly, trying to make him believe her.

She could. Despite what Professor Sprout said about her and authority, she could follow orders. She could do as she's told.

He was now giving her a suspicious look and she tried to look as sincere and innocent as possible. She could do this! She really could.

"Hmm."

"I can!" She insisted.

He needed to believe her. Whatever his first impression of her had been didn't matter as long as he believed that she wanted to do this and do this well.

Another suspicious look. Did he give any other type of look? She had yet to see one.

Apparently deciding that she was worth having around for at least the next hour or so, Moody grunted at her.

"Right," he said gruffly. "So, you're here to be an Auror. I have some rules that I expect you to follow."

"Rules," she repeated, nodding seriously. She could do rules.

"Yes. Three. For the meantime. I'll be adding more but these are the important ones."

She nodded again, feeling like one of those bobble heads her dad always took great delight in.

"They are; never be unreachable - if I need to contact you, you better respond or, even better, get your arse to me as soon as possible. Don't piss me off or screw me over - you'll regret it -and never, ever go anywhere without a knife."

"A knife?" She repeated dubiously, completely distracted by that last rule than the other two.

He glared at her. "A knife."

Okay then. It was better that she didn't question it then. Even if she was confused. Wands were far more dangerous than a basic knife, right? Though, it looked like she was going to have to get herself a knife.

"Do you have these written down or something?" She asked hopefully.

"I don't write things down. Means there's a chance that it could be read by unscrupulous characters."

"Unscrupulous?" Tonks couldn't help but repeat.

Who even used words like that? And really, it was just a plan for what she was going to be taught. Who cared who saw that?

"Exactly," he said quite seriously as he nodded. "The type of people you do not want reading your notes of any kind."

"Oh-kay then."

Tonks wasn't sure what to make of that. Was it a prank? No, Moody didn't seem like the kind of person to pull those. Maybe it was a test then? She could see it being that. A weird sort of test but whatever. Like she had mentioned before, she didn't know what she was smart to be doing at the minute so she may as well just go along with it.

"Can I write it down?" She asked hesitantly, reaching into her pocket for a quill.

Only to have it summoned out of her hand.

"No notes," he said aggresiv3ly. "You'll remember it."

"But what if I don't?"

"Then your memory is going to have to improve, isn't it?"

"But-"

"No notes!"

Tonks sighed heavily and slumped slightly. Great. This was off to a good start, wasn't it? Were all the other mentors like this? Was this just how training was supposed to go from now on?

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" He bellowed, making her all but jump out of her seat.

Okay, maybe she did actually jump out of her seat. Well, more like fell out of it. Right on the floor, too, narrowly avoiding smacking her head off the corner off her desk.

"Oof!"

Her entire body collided with the floor because she had had no time to brace herself. It wasn't like you expected someone just to shout at you like that! She hadn't even done anything!

"Oww." She groaned.