"Ow, ow, ow, OW!" Tonks yelped as she was none to gently dragged into a room.

By the crook of her arm, nonetheless. Did you know how sore it was to be dragged along from there? It felt like her arm was being prised apart.

"Get off me!" Moody demanded at the same time.

He was also being dragged in against his will. Looking extremely pissed off as this all happened. Normally this would be something she would take great delight in but considering she was in the same situation, she couldn't.

She managed to throw him a glare in the middle of all of this. Of course, it was something he just completely ignored. Just like usual. It didn't even annoy her anymore. Kt didn't!

Okay, maybe it did. But not as much.

And that was a lie. But what did that matter?

She cursed under her breath and suddenly the hand wrapped around her moved and Tonks yelp in pain at the new position it took up.

"Ow!"

But, of course, she wasn't listened to at all and she was only released when she was in the position her captor wanted her in. And yes, McGowan was her captor because that's what you were when you just snatched someone from a corridor when they were just minding their own business! Who even did that? And why was she doing it? Urgh! And owww that was more of a pinch than was strictly necessary! Hello! Tonks really liked all of her body parts be attached to her! McGowan could yank all she wanted at Moody; he was used to losing body parts. She would rather not.

Eventually they were both let go. Quite unceremoniously too, which just added insult to injury. Actually, what did that was the way McGowan ignored both of them to close the door behind them.

"Why did you drag him by the arm but me by the ear?" Tonks demanded, rubbing furiously at the appendage in question.

It felt like it was all raw and red and swollen to about three times its size. And that wasn't her being dramatic at all, it really hurt!

McGowan didn't even bother answering her, instead gesturing at one side of the room - the opposite side to where Moody was standing. Which she obeyed albeit sullenly. And she didn't care if anyone noticed. This whole thing was just plain ridiculous.

"Stop being babies," she ordered.

"I'm not the one being a baby," Tonks said stubbornly, crossing her arms.

"Well, I'm certainly not," Moody growled.

If Tonks had been in a better mood, she'd realise how ridiculous they both sound and would have burst into uncontrollable laughter. But she wasn't so she didn't. Instead, she crossed her arms and made sure that she had a scowl on her face, holding her tongue. Because, yes, she was annoyed and a bit confused but unfortunately, she had to curb her natural reaction of swearing at the people who were the cause of it. They were her superiors after all. And as odd as both of them may be in comparison to all other Aurors, she was still a trainee and they were very much senior Aurors so a certain level of decorum had to be maintained. Sort of.

"You're acting ridiculous, Tonks told him.

"You're allowed to think whatever you want. That doesn't make it true."

She made an outraged noise. The audacity of this man! She could just, oh, she could just wrong his neck. Except she couldn't because this was Alastor Moody and if she even twitched at him wrong, she'd find herself on the floor, out cold. Argh!

A clearing of the throat caught both of their attention enough to stop glaring at each other. Oh yeah, there was another person in the room.

"Both of you are going to talk about this like actual adults," McGowan informed them. "And I know that it will be hard for the two of you to do that-"

"I act like an adult already," Tonks interrupted, shooting Moody a dirty look. "It's him that doesn't act like an adult."

"Lass, you don't even look like an adult half the time," he scoffed, making her bristle.

"Enough!" McGowan snapped, glaring at them both.

It was a testament to how wound-up Tonks already was that she didn't 3ven flinch at the glare. And McGowan had a pretty ferocious glare. This was all just so pointless and annoying; couldn't McGowan see that?

Moody crossed his arms, also glaring. They were all going to have some pretty impressive frown lines at the end of all of this.

"You do look like a child sometimes," McGowan informed her. "You're short, you have bright coloured hair and you can be a bit much."

Tonks' jaw dropped open and she was about to defend herself but McGowan didn't give her a chance to, holding up a hand to keep her quiet.

"Ha!" Moody said smugly.

Oh, she wanted to wipe that look off his face. And so did McGowan apparently because she turned to him next.

"Yeah, you don't really have a leg to stand on, Mad-Eye. She at least has youth and enthusiasm and genuine confusion on her side. You, in the other hand, used a freaking disillusionment charm to hide from her in that corridor last week!"

Tonks gaped at her. That's what had happened when she felt Moody stare at her and when she turned around, he hadn't been anywhere to be seen? A disillusionment charm? Really? Now that was just pathetic.

It was hard to believe that Moody could be that pathetic but apparently, he could. She just looked at him in amazement, unable to say anything. What did you say to that? Was she even supposed to say anything?

There was a rather long pause where none of them said anything. Tonks was both annoyed at McGowan and Moody, so didn't want to talk to them, but she so felt kind of awkward and squirmy which meant, you got it, she really didn't want to talk. So, she didn't talk and just kind of shifted her weight between her feet. It was all just very awkward.

And then it happened. She couldn't control it or it never would have happened. But it did.

A giggle escaped her. A soft one but it still appeared. And when there was only three people in a room and none of them were talking it was a very, very obvious noise. The other two turned to look at her in disbelief and then she couldn't hold it back. She laughed. And laughed. And laughed.

Then a snort escaped Moody. And McGowan did this weird chortle thing. And then they were all laughing. Oh, it was bad. Eventually they did stop and Tonks was wiping at her eyes. Oh, what were they like? How could they go from glaring at each other to stupid laughter like this?

And now they were all just staring awkwardly at each other. What were they supposed to do now? Talk? It had already been proven that they weren't very good at that.

Then Moody did something none of them had been expecting.

"Merlin, McGowan, just how hard did you grab her ear?" Moody exclaimed, forcibly turning Tonks' head to the side.

"Hey!" She complained. "Enough with the manhandling!"

Did she have a big sign on her today saying "Manhandle like you please"?

"It's not my fault she didn't move quickly enough!"

"You can't go around injuring trainees like that!"

"Like you're one to talk!"

Tonks couldn't help but smile. Despite the manhandling and the throbbing was, she had a feeling that things were going to get better.