"How do you already know this?" He demanded.

Tonks had to visibly stop herself from laughing at the perplexed look on Moody's face. She had never seen it before and she wanted to savour it.

He had just asked her a random question about the legislation around cursed objects, which she had answered flawlessly. This, for some reason, had made him suspicious because he had yet to teach her that - they were focusing more on cursed objects this week again. This tome focusing on the laws around them (hence his argument with Auror Taylor the other day.

So, he asked her another question around the laws. Which, again, she knew. And then he asked her a completely random law about how curses were categorised which she also knew. This stumped him, hence the demand on how she knew.

This wasn't surprising to Tonks at all. Of course, she knew all these laws. She pointed to McGowan who just grin and gave a little wave. This did not clear up the confusion on Moody's face but it did make him frown at McGowan.

"What does she have to do with it?" He asked, sounding thoroughly disgruntled.

"She taught me them."

"She has a name," McGowan piped up.

"Auror McGowan taught me," Tonks repeated. "Well, not taught exactly..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Moody demanded.

"And I did so teach you them!" McGowan protested. "I am definitely taking credit for that!"

Tonks gave her a disbelieving look.

"You made me learn them."

"And?"

"That's not the same thing as teaching me them!"

"Eh, poh-tay-to, poh-tah-to."

"No, I'm pretty sure that it's different."

"I'm still taking credit," McGowan said matter-of-factly. "Because either way, you learned them because of me."

Tonks opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to come up with a counter argument. But she found that she couldn't because technically, McGowan was right.

"Can someone please explain to me what's going on?" Moody broke in irritably.

Tonks looked at McGowan and McGowan looked at her.

"You're the teacher, you can explain."

"And you're the student, so you have to show how much you've learned and why."

"I'm not your student, anymore," Tonks said triumphantly, sure that she had won this round.

"According to the Academy, you're technically my student again. Well, half of the time. Your half this guy's as well," McGowan pointed at Moody.

"You said that you didn't count yourself this time around!"

"Well, now I Do."

"You can't just change your mind when it's convenient for you!"

"Of course, I can."

Tonks spluttered, unable to come up with a comeback, much to her disgust.

A shrill whistle made them both wince.

"Moody!" McGowan complained, putting her hands over her ears.

Moody looked thoroughly unapologetic. In fact, be looked even more annoyed now.

"Neither of you have explained anything."

"I had to learn them," Tonks said simply, seeing how McGowan wasn't going to say anything.

He stared at her and crossed his arms while McGowan started laughing behind him. He spun around to her.

"You," he said, jabbing a finger at her, "Shut up and you," he spun back to Tonks, "Keep talking. You haven't explained anything yet."

"I have!"

"You said you have to learn them. That's not news to me because it is a part of your training."

"So, there's no problem then."

He actually closed his eyes to take a deep breath this time. Was he counting to ten? That was the look her mum got when she was younger when she'd done something particularly stupid. Which was unfair, because she didn't think she'd done anything stupid. Actually, she had done something right! She had learned legislation! Surely, he should be happy about that?

And now he was glaring again. Honestly, one of these days his face really was going to stick like that. Not that he would mind...

"Explain."

Okay, she was going to explain now.

"Every time I did something she didn't like she made me copy out laws. multiple times!" Tonks complained.

Okay, maybe the company was more like a whine but she felt like she had full right to in this case.

Moody still didn't look too convinced at this but Tonks crossed her arms and glared at McGowan. This was all her fault, after all.

And, yes, she didn't normally talk to McGowan like that. Because this was a bit too cheeky, even for Tonks. But she was so annoyed she didn't really care at this point.

He glanced over at the other woman suspiciously, who was looking decidedly smug and incredibly pleased with herself.

"Go on," he demanded.

Which of course, led Tonks to explain that McGowan had basically made her do lines when she wanted to punish Tonks. But, instead of simple sentences to copy out, she made her copy out laws. Multiple times. Tonks was completely petulant by the end of her explanation and McGowan was still far too smug. Moody actually looked somewhat impressed. Which just wasn't fair. It wasn't something to be impressed over, it was something that should be complained about. McGowan should be told off!

"It was fun to do," McGowan was now saying.

Of course, she would find that fun. She wasn't the one who had to do all that writing. Her wrist ached just thinking about it.

Much to Tonks disgust, the next hour was spent being grilled on the legislation she needed to know and noting down what she did know versus what she didn't. Surprisingly, there was more down on the "Did know" column than she thought there would be. Still more in the "Didn't know", there was a lot of legislation to go through and McGowan had only used learning it as a punishment of sorts. And as cheeky as Tonks was, she didn't actually need to do it as much as you would think she had to. Still, it was nice to realise that she already knew a fair bit. Still wasn't enough to make her think that they were worth her while.

"So, what do you prefer as punishment?" McGowan asked with a smirk.

"Isn't the whole point of a punishment that I don't like it?" Tonks answers carefully.

"Yep," Moody stated.

"Well, I liked, like, neither."

"One has to be worse," McGowan pressed.

Tonks shook her head. "Both horrible."

Was this a trick? It felt like a trick. If she chose one was that going to be the one that was used forever more? She was no going to be drawn into this argument. How would they know she was telling the truth? Could she say the opposite and they would use that? Surely nobody would at least know she was lying so was it even safe to lie? He would probably end up using both as a punishment, knowing her luck.

Moody and McGowan looked at each other and then, slowly smirks spread across their faces. Tonks got this vague feeling of impending doom. She couldn't help it, what else was she supposed to feel when they teamed up like this?

"I guess we're going to have to use both, right Mad-eye?" McGowan asked far too cheerfully.

"Aye. At the same time," he added.