Tonks really didn't like the feeling of being watched. Had she mentioned that before because she was pretty sure that she had. Who did like getting watched? Especially when you weren't even doing something that was worth watching.

She was brewing an antidote to a fairly common poison. Something all Aurors were supposed to be able to do and it was fairly simple, as far as Potions went. And she knew that she wasn't screwing it up so there was no need for McGowan to scrutinise her like she had been doing for the past hour. Didn't she have better things to do with her time?

Apparently not because all she had done was stare at her! Would it really be that rude for her to go up to McGowan and tell her not to stare at her? Or ask her not to? Yeah, asking would be a lot more polite. Though she doubted that either would be welcome.

Tonks sighed as she gave her antidote three careful stirs. It bubbled briefly before turning bright yellow, just like it should. Great, at least something was going her way. She wasn't going to do either of the things she wanted to though it was nice to think about. So that was no demands or no questions about staring directed at her superior. Whatever.

"You're annoyed at me," McGowan said, interrupting the relative silence of her potion brewing.

"Ma'am?" Tonks said in surprise, slightly shocked that she said anything at all.

She hadn't taken her eyes away from her potion (even for a simple antidote that was just bad practice, even it could very easily turn into a poison) but Tonks didn't have to turn around to know that the "ma'am" had earned her a disgruntled look.

"You are. You're annoyed at me."

Tonks felt like it was safer just to stay quiet. Mainly because she had absolutely no idea how to respond to that.

"It can't be the whole writing out legislation thing," the woman mused. "You get annoyed by tab but nothing like this."

"This isn't anything!" Tonks felt like she had to protest.

Because it wasn't! So, what that she was quiet. So, what that she was tired. That was just life, wasn't it? It didn't mean it had anything to do with her.

McGowan didn't say anything else to her except gesture at the door so it looked like she had some free time now. Time to finish writing up the explanation over a piece of legislation about magical restraints that McGowan had made her look at. Tonks groaned. This was definitely her least favourite part of ten course so far.

Oh, sure, she was nearly done. But her work was at the point where she didn't know quite how to finish it nor did she have the motivation to finish it. And it wasn't helped by the fact that she was being stared at while she was trying to do it. Made her completely lose her focus. Oh, who was she kidding? She wasn't exactly focused on it in the first place. It was just so boring.

Tonks had never done so much theory work since in the last three weeks since the probationary weeks way back in first year. That's what she missed about not having Moody. All the practical work. McGowan had things more balanced. Which Tonks supposed she needed; Moody had probably been skipping around some subjects (like this legislation on restraints) but that didn't make it fun.

"Go take a break," McGowan ordered her.

"Sorry?"

"Go on," she herked her head at the door. "You've done plenty of work this morning."

Well, you didn't hang around for your Mentor to change their mind when something like that happened so Tonks did as she was told without looking too much into it. The library was probably a good spot to get some peace and quiet even if you weren't doing work.

She walked over to the table some of her classmates had commandeered and heir chatter almost immediately fell silent as she pulled a chair over.

Well, that was never a good thing. And could they be even a little bit less obvious when they were talking about her? A little finesse would be much appreciated.

"Stop staring at me," she grumbled.

Why was she was getting stared at? She wasn't that interesting or weird. Okay, actually, maybe she was weird between the whole Metamorphmagus thing and then the Moody thing and the other Moody things. Tab was all weird. But that didn't mean she should be stared at.

Okay, maybe she was being a little bit touchy, it was an odd thing to happen to someone, after all. But being watched careful by McGowan earlier had used up all her patience for being stared at.

"You are very strange," Domański said slowly only to get an elbow in both of his sides, courtesy of Dubois and Fontaine. "Ow! What was that for?"

Dubois rolled his eyes while Fontaine hissed, "You can't say things like that!"

"But she is strange!"

"It doesn't matter! You can't say that."

"But she-"

"Is sitting right here and can quite easy hear you," Tonks interrupted with a long-suffering sigh.

That made the three culprits shut up. She was pretty sure that she heard their jaws snap as they did so. She rolled her eyes. Honestly, they were being incredibly annoying. Actually, there were always annoying. They were just being more so than usual.

She sat down heavily and rummaged around in her bag, only sitting up properly to look around in confusion as conversation didn't resume around her.

"What?" She asked irritably as she realised that they were all still staring at her.

She made an impatient noise. Staring seemed to be the only thing they were good at. Why did they keep on doing this when they knew damn well how much it annoyed her? Did she have to pull a Moody and start flinging out mild stinging hexes when they did so to stop them? Though, she wouldn't be so nice as to make her stinging hexes mild.

"So," Jean began, clearing her throat. "How is Auror McGowan?"

Tonks gave her a suspicious look, not trusting her a second that she asked that out of genuine curiosity. Even if it was Bubbly Jean. Everyone had spent the last three weeks carefully skirting around the fact that she suddenly had a new Mentor. There was no way that McGowan was just going to casually be brought up.

"Fine," she answered curtly, very much in a tone that encouraged no other questions at all.

Which, of course, Jean went ahead and ignored because she was like that. It was like she didn't pick up social cues or just ignored them. Tonks was willing to bet tab it was the latter because you couldn't be that oblivious. Could you?

"Is she better than Moody?"

And of course, she had to start off with that question. Tonks just let out a sigh in response which only seemed to make Jean even more curious.

"Oh, come on, you can tell me!"

"Tell you what?"

And now Tonks groaned. Of course, McCabbert had to just join them, didn't she?

"What were you going to tell Jean?" McCabbert asked, lofting books off the chair next to Tonks and settling herself into it. "I could do with some gossip. My head's whirling. Did you know that there are twenty different poisons that have Lethe water as their main ingredient but only if it's used in the exact right amount?"

"Seriously?" Tonks asked in interest, now that sounded cool.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Then we can talk about how Tonks is getting on with Auror McGowan," Jean said with a smile.

"No."

But unfortunately, McCabbert also looked interested.