"Hey, Tonks."

"Hey, Gaf-" but the returned greeting died in her throat.

Gaffrey was standing in front of her, in his normal robes. With his bag over his shoulder. Hell, even his shirt was buttoned up and that definitely wasn't a normal sight. Had she mentioned that it was the middle of the day? Lunchtime, in fact. Which is why he looked all wrong.

"Are you injured?" She checked, even though he didn't look like it. He would have been fixed up by his mentor or the on-call Healer if that was the case anyway. "Sick?"

She took a step back at that thought. There was no way that she wanted to get sick. And miss days of training? No, thank you. She heard that someone in the year above got sick and it took them months to catch up. They even graduated late! That was not going to happen to her.

He was shaking his head.

"No, I'm not sick."

"Oh, thank Merlin." She said in relief and then frowned. "Then, what are you doing?"

Though, she had a sinking feeling that she knew exactly what he was doing. Because there was really only one reason, wasn't there?

"You manage to get a half day or something? Lucky thing," she continued, speaking quickly and being careful not to look at him.

Because of course that's why he was packed up and all ready to leave. He had a half day! Never mind the fact that they had precious few days off and they were very rarely wasted on half a day. What was the point in that, after all? If you were going to take time off you may as well take it off properly. Tonks always made sure her time off was on a Monday or a Friday so she gave herself a long weekend. Mind you, she'd only done that... three times? But still, best way to take a day off.

"Tonks-"

No, he wasn't going to get to speak. Because if he spoke then it would become real and it couldn't become real. No way. She wasn't going to let it become real. Because it wasn't real.

"I don't even remember what having a day to myself that wasn't the weekend was like," she rambled. "And I'm always too tired. Like last week, I passed out as soon as I got out of work. Woke up half dangling off my sofa. That might have been because I'd gone to a Weird Sisters concert the night before. That was a good concert, by the way. Best I've ever heard them. And I've heard them a lot. Own all their records."

"Tonks-" he tried again.

"Do you know that I actually haven't smashed a record yet? Like, ever. Which is impressive, I thought. Mum says it not particularly impressive for someone past the age of seven or eight but come on! She should know better. You wouldn't believe how many of her plant pots I broke. It's actually a rather embarrassing number."

She didn't even know why she was pushing so hard. It wasn't like she was particularly close to Gaffrey or anything. Though she didn't dislike him. He was one of those people who was hard to dislike. But still, not close to him at all so it wasn't like him leaving would affect her much.

"Also, unbreakable spells are all well and good fo4 the pots but that doesn't stop them from being knocked over. Did you know that plant pots can hold a lot of soil? Definitely too much for the size of them. I'm convinced that there some sort of expansion charm in them. I managed to get soil the whole length of the living room once. Quite impressive, I thought. Mum was not so impressed. Neither was dad, in fact. And he normally found falls like that funny. You know, the ones that didn't involve me getting injured. Apparently, they're still finding dirt in nooks and crannies in the living room. Which I think is a lo e. There's no way that that's from me colliding with a plant pot years ago. They just like to blame me an-"

"TONKS!"

That got her to shut up pretty quick. She couldn't help but stare at him with wide eyes. He had never been that forceful before. He was quite mild-mannered. Actually, Tonks didn't think that she'd ever heard him shout. Probably why that shout there was so effective.

"Hi," she said nervously, making him shale his head.

"Just let me talk, will you?"

"What if I don't want you to talk?" She mumbled.

Because she didn't, if that wasn't already clear.

"Let me talk."

"I'm letting you; I'm letting you," she said, making a zipping motion across her mouth.

He rolled his eyes at her. But he was now smiling. Which was nice to see. Even if what was coming wasn't going to be worth smiling about. He took a deep breath.

"I'm leaving. I've quit."

Yep, she was right. Tonks knew she shouldn't have let him talk. Didn't make it any easier to hear however.

"But, but, but why?"

He shrugged the bag further up his shoulder and pulled a face.

"I just can't hack it anymore."

"What do you mean, you can't hack it? You're doing fine!"

She hadn't heard anyone mock his casting or duelling or anything like that. Unlike poor Fontaine who still wasn't living down the way she flourished her wand when she duelled. Like she wanted to show off, McCabbert always said. Which was kind of funny because Fontaine usually tried to keep to herself. The flourishing didn't even do anything except slow you down and put you at risk. Which Fontaine just couldn't seem to get. Even though she had been shown in multiple ways. Like showing how you were meant to pull out your wand. And timing her and another trainee when they hit a target with the same spell. Nothing seemed to work. Her mentor was actually kind of despairing over it, much to Moody's amusement and satisfaction.

Moody, as usual, made her go a step further and try to condense her wand movements to short jabs. Which was tough going, after it being drummed into her at Hogwarts how important wand movements were. Apparently, they weren't as long as you had the power and visualisation. It was the visualisation she was working on.

But he was shaking his head again. Why was he shaking his head again?

"I'm really not, trust me."

"But-"

"No," Gaffrey said firmly.

What was she supposed to say to that? Even though she knew he was doing fine he obviously didn't want to hear it. He had made his mind up.

"But you'll be the third," she said quietly.

That earned her a smile. It was a small one and kind of a sad one but it was still a smile.

"I will."

Tonks didn't know what to say to that. What did you say to that? She swallowed heavily.

"Want me to walk you out?"

Another head shake.

"I'll be fine."

And with that, he gave her a hug, shook her hand and walked away. It wasn't until he got to the doors that he turned back and gave her a small wave.

And then he was gone.