"Moody's really been railing me," Tonks huffed, collapsing into a chair. Merlin, that felt good.
"Hello, Tonks," Gaffrey greeted in an amused voice. "Tell me how you really feel."
"Trust me, you don't want me to," she said darkly.
"Can't be as bad as how I feel." He said in an unconcerned voice, playing around with his quill absentmindedly.
She snorted at that. Oh, his bad day definitely wasn't as bad as hers. Who did he even have as a mentor again? Someone decent, if she remembered correctly. Someone who taught normally. Something she would usually scoff at but maybe a little bit of normal was actually good for a person.
"Oh, mine's definitely worse. Did you know that the Auror Academy only requires you to have seventy five percent accuracy on your spellcasting in order for you to pass? Did you? Did you? Because I certainly didn't! Do you know why I didn't?"
She didn't even let him reply, not that he looked like her was going do.
"Moody! That's who. Freaking Mad-Eye Moody. The man who never, ever, lets me get away with anything less than freaking ninety percent and even then, he grumbles! Says it's barely good enough. I've been sweating all this time about getting my accuracy up only to find that I'm already meeting the expectations, no, I'm exceeding them! And Moody still isn't happy! How unfair is that?"
Okay, this time she did want some sort of response from him. Preferably, to agree with her because there was no way that people thought that Moody was the example of a sane mentor. Yeah right. Except, she got nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not even a snort.
"You're awfully quiet," she said suspiciously, finally looking over to him to see Gaffrey staring off into the distance.
Had he even been listening to her? Paying any attention to her rant? What was the point in ranting if no one paid attention to you? There was no point. Apparently, he hadn't been because there was no response. Not even a blink to show that he'd heard her.
"Hey!" She said, waving her hand in front of his face.
Thankfully, that did get his attention.
"What?"
He had the audacity to sound annoyed at her! He was the one who wasn't paying any attention!
"Were you even listening to me?"
"Yeah, yeah, Moody is making you work harder than you're supposed to. Boo hoo. Whatever."
Her brow furrowed. What was wrong with him? That had to be the most biting tone she'd ever heard from him. Granted, Gaffrey never really seemed to get emotional at all so even a slight change in tone was weird.
"What about you?" She tried. "How is your training going."
He studiously looked away from her. Because that wasn't suspicious at all.
"You're learning loads. More than the rest of us," he said instead, completely ignoring her question.
Shaking her head stubbornly, Tonks rolled her eyes. When were people going to give this up? Just because Moody taught differently didn't mean that she got taught something different. It was ridiculous that these rumours were still going around two years in. Surely there was something better to talk about?
"I am not."
"You are."
"Moody has to follow the same syllabus as the rest of the Mentors."
"Yeah, but he adds his own stuff."
"Pretty sure that's what mentors are supposed to do."
"But you're getting stuff added in by Alastor Moody."
Tonks say back and crossed her arms. What was with Gaffrey? He wasn't usually like this.
"Oh, what does it matter anyway?" He sulked, looking away. "It's not like that's important. Mentors aren't all that great anyway."
"Seriously, what is with you today?" Tonks asked in exasperation.
All this negativity was something you'd expect from McCabbert, though she would use far more snark and sarcasm. But that girl lived to be depressing sometimes. Or she just liked to complain. Gaffrey didn't. Not like this.
Now he just looked depressed as his lips turned down into a scowl.
"I threw up again." He said morosely.
Tonks bit her lip. She wouldn't laugh, she wouldn't laugh.
"Oh, no."
He groaned and closed his eyes. "Oh, yes."
"Was it another injury you had to heal?" She asked sympathetically.
Some of the ones they had to learn how to heal were downright nasty at times. They were considered 'battle wounds', after all. Because that's where Aurors were expected to get their injuries. Battles. Which meant a lot of bloods lots of exposed muscle and even bones.
Tonks shivered at the thought. And she didn't know if it was from fear or anticipation. Even she had gagged at the one with the bone jutting out of the skin at a completely unnatural angle. She would really prefer that she never ever saw that again.
"Even worse," he said, opening his eyes only to bury his face in his hands to mumble something.
"What was that?"
She wasn't even mocking him; she genuinely hadn't heard him.
He looked up with an utterly dejected look on his face.
"A potion. A stupid potion made me throw up."
Huh.
"Did you drink a poison or something? Or inhale fumes from one you need to have a vent spell over?"
He shook his head. "No."
Now she was confused. What else would you feel woozy about? She edged away from him.
"Are you sick?" She asked suspiciously.
She didn't want to be anywhere near him if he was sick! There was no way that she was getting sick. One, she hated being sick and two, she didn't want to miss any days of training!
"No!" He said hastily. "I'm as healthy as can be. Honest."
Still feeling distrustful, she sat back in her seat properly.
"Then what set you off this time?"
Silence. He just by his lip and stared at her. She huffed impatiently.
"It just smelled awful," he mumbled, looking away.
Trying to process what he just said, Tonks blinked at him. Did he really just say what she thought he said? One look at his face said yes. Her lips twitched.
"I can't help that I have a weal stomach," he said defensively.
She supposed je couldn't. It was still funny though. She would just have to laugh about it away from him. Because really? A foul-smelling potion? All potions stank.
"Hey, Gaffrey, I heard you threw up again," McCabbert said in a far too cheerful voice as she flung herself down onto the only free chair.
She looked all sweaty and out of breath - her robe sleeves were pushed back and her cheeks were bright red. But she seemed awfully pleased with herself as well. It looked like someone had a good day.
"Shut up!"
"What are you going to do when you have to interrogate a suspect?" She mocked. "Throw up on them? That will get them to talk."
"McCabbert!" Tonks hissed as McGaffery stomped away.
"What did I do?"
"Did you have to say that?" She asked in an exasperated tone.
"Yeah," McCabbert shrugged, completely unconcerned. "Of course, I did. He's the one that throws up. It's his thing, like falling over your feet is your thing. But his is way more gross and inappropriate."
"Inappropriate?"
Yes, she knew it was wrong but Tonks couldn't help but sound vaguely amused by what McCabbert just said.
McCabbert scoffed at her. "Yeah, inappropriate. How is he supposed to be taken seriously if he throws up all the time. He won't exactly be useful in the field if he does that."
"I didn't think of it like that."