"That's it. I've had it."

It wasn't often that Tonks got to go to the trainee canteen these days. Moody made her work and work hard and she got so focused on things that rarely did they realise it was lunch time. Which just meant a hastily eaten meal in whatever room he had her in that day. Hey, he managed to get them good sandwiches so she couldn't really complain. And he actually let her eat instead of rushing her through it. Something about he couldn't do anything with her if she was faint from hunger. Which she supposed made sense.

But today she was actually eating lunch at lunchtime. Wonders would never cease. Though, she was starting to regret that now. Because it was actually lunchtime, Moody had ushered her to the canteen. Saying something about other Senior Aurors had been telling him that he had been working her too hard and she needed to socialise with the other trainees at least some of the time. Which he had snorted at but then he had been dragged into a meeting and Tonks was not going to sit in his office alone like a loser.

That and this way she actually got a hot lunch. Granted, not the healthiest but who would ever turn down sausages and chips?

The only thing that spoiled it was the fact that Jones was complaining. The fed up looks on everyone's faces indicated that he did this a lot. Did he never get sick of it? And was there really that much to complain about? Sure, they all did it - they were bottom of the barrel, first hear trainees after all - but Jones did more than your basic complaining. He whined and fussed and never seemed to be happy with anything. Tonks was starting to agree with Moody on the whole whining thing. To stop herself from saying something biting to Jones, she stabbed a chip and shoved it in her mouth. Oh, that was a good chip. Much better than listening to Jones.

"We're just a month into having Mentors," Jean was trying to cheer him up. "It's hard. We all knew it was going to be hard."

"It's more than hard, it's ridiculous."

Everyone raised their eyebrows at that. What exactly was he being made to do that was ridiculous? Everything they did had a point, didn't it? Even Tonks could see that all of Moody's excessive exercises were for something - mainly because he explained it in excessive detail. Maybe Scrimgeour wasn't explaining things to Jones? But he was supposed to be one of the best Mentors to have...

"I should not have to demean myself like I have been doing."

"We're all 'demeaning' ourselves," Tonks said, putting her fingers in inverted commas. "We're first year trainees," Oh, that was nice to say instead of probationary. "We're the bottom rung of the ladder. The bottom of the heap. Just a step up from nobodies now."

Moody had made that quite clear to her. And then proceeded to tell her that he was going push her to be a someone. Which was both disheartening and heartening. Apparently being confused was also par for the course for trainees.

"I am not a nobody."

"Sure, you are," Tonks said cheerfully, mainly to rile him up. "You're just like the rest of us. A bunch of nobodies."

He looked thoroughly scandalised at the thought of being compared to the rest of them.

"It's up to us to be somebodies," Fontaine agreed with her.

"You are all impossible!" Jones exclaimed, standing up and slamming his hands on the table. "You might all be happy with this but I'm not going to stand for it!"

Before any of them could say anything to him - encouraging or not - he turned around and stormed off. Leaving his lunch. Everyone in the canteen watched him in amazement.

"Jones really thinks he is a somebody," McCabbert snorted. "What an idiot."

They all agreed with that. Jones was an idiot. An idiot to inflate himself with self-importance. An idiot to complain. An idiot to throw away such a brilliant opportunity, even if he was blind to it.

"Is it bad that I'm not actually going to miss him?" Gaffrey asked, looking at Jones' retreating back.

Everyone made noises of agreement and reassurance. Tonks privately thought that it was good riddance but it was probably in poor taste to actually say that.

"Guys," Jean protested but she wasn't exactly putting any heart into it.

"I'm just sorry we didn't bet on it," Cavendish said ruefully.

"I would have lost," Dubois said. "I thought he was going to quit when he found out he was working under Scrimgeour."

"I never did figure out why he thought that was so bad?" Matt asked, scratching his head in confusion. "I mean, the guys a shoo-in for Head of the Auror Department next year. Being his trainee could only be a good thing."

"If you do well," Cavendish pointed out through a mouthful of blueberry muffin. "If you're bad then you're never going to be thought of as a decent Auror by him ever."

"That's true," Dubois agreed. "What do you think Scrimgeour thinks of Jones?"

Mainwaring shrugged. "Who knows. He tells Jones off a lot but we all get told off a lot."

"Not me," Jean said cheerfully. "Ellison is so encouraging."

They all stared at her. Well, at least that explained why she was still so cheerful these days.

"I just don't understand why Jones thinks that he's being treated any differently than the rest of us," Young said with a sigh.

"It's because he's a snob to the twelfth degree," Tonks said and then rolled her eyes at the confused looks she got.

Really? Had they not picked up on this at all? It was obvious, after all.

"Well, yeah," Cavendish said with a snort. "We all know he's a snob. What's that got to do with it?"

"He thinks he's better than everyone else," she said simply.

Everyone exchanged looks with each other as she calmly ate another chip.

"Yeah, that's also not exactly news to any of us, Tonks."

Tonks absentmindedly wondered if she should go up and grab a scone. There was still quite the queue and she didn't want to waste any of her precious free time if there were only raisin scones up there. Eurgh. Adding rains to deserts had to be some sort of a crime in her book.

"You don't get it," she said with a sigh. "Jones is a Jones."

More confused blinking. Great. This is what she got for having Andromeda Tonks for a mother.

"You know," she prompted them. "They can trace their line back to Hufflepuff."

Everyone from Hogwarts went "ahh," and nodded their heads, looking vaguely impressed despite themselves.

"He's got a reason to be snobby, then," Eggleston said with an annoyed sigh.

"Eh," Tonks dismissed. "His family's a cadet branch from a cadet branch."

"But that doesn't stop him from thinking that basically makes him a Hufflepuff and we should all be treating him accordingly." Cavendish said shrewdly.

"If he thinks he's that important, why does he even want to be an Auror? People like him don't exactly have to work for a living." Dubois asked, confused.

"For the glory," Mannering said suddenly before Tonks could say anything. "He wants to be admired and looked up to, doesn't he?"

"Feed his ego," Cavendish added, scrunching up her nose in disgust.

"Exactly." Tonks nodded.

She looked over to where Jones had stomped off and then back at the table where everyone was now avidly discussing if Jones had really quiet or was just throwing a fit and would beg for his job back later. Most people were leaning towards the latter though Tonks thought he had seriously quit. He had been in quite the rage there and he'd been looking miserable and fed up for at least a week now. She tried not to groan. This was an awful lot to happen over lunch. Was the canteen always this dramatic?

Lunches with Moody were a lot calmer.