'BANG' went Moody's hands on her desk first thing that morning.

He didn't say anything. Or even growl or bark something, his preferred way of communicating in the morning. Or, well, any time of the day.

Of course, a sudden loud noise was not the way that she enjoyed being greeted with. She actually fell off the chair when he did it, much to McGowan's amusement.

She seemed to spend a lot of her time with them looking far too amused. And she always snorted loudly when she was trying hold back a fit of the giggles. It could be distracting.

"What was that for?" Tonks asked, pulling herself to her feet and dusting herself off.

Why was Mad-Eye's floor always so grubby and dusty? It was kind of disgusting. She was surprised she hadn't caught something gross and rare from landing on it so many times. She half expected to see imprints of her face and body on it.

She noticed that he hadn't answered her and was instead looking at her funny. Which was saying something, considering this was Mad-Eye. It was like je was sizing her up or something. It kind of made her want to stand up straight and start to fidget but she manned to restrain herself, keeping her slight slouch. Which she knew annoyed him to no end which, let's be honest, was why she did it.

She waved a hand in front of his face. "Hello?"

Fair enough, be all dramatic and mysterious if you wanted to, it made things interesting, but you had to have a reason for it! And Moody usually did. Usually. Sometimes Tonks thought that he just liked the dramatics. And making her jump. Yes, she had seen the smirks some of her... bigger reactions got from him.

"Interrogation."

One word. That's all she got? One word? A word that could mean no end of things.

Tonks gave him a blank look. "Are you interrogating me? I haven't done anything."

Mad-eye groaned and shook his head while McGowan laughed in the background. She didn't know why; she really hadn't done anything.

"I mean," she continued after thinking for a bit. "I really haven't done anything. Nothing terribly wrong anyway. I didn't out my books back on the shelves in the library there but that's technically your fault because you shouted for me and I just jumped up so that you didn't growl at me or something."

"I'm not interrogating you, Tonks," he said tiredly, running a hand down his face.

"Oh. Thank Merlin."

She'd heard the stories, the whispered comments. She knew that he had made the worst of the worst Death Eaters crumble before him after an interrogation. Yeah, there was no way she wanted to be on the opposite side of the table to him. No, thank you.

McGowan laughed loudly at that and it even got this amused snort from Moody. Glad to know they thought it was funny. She was seriously relieved that he wasn't going to be interrogating her. She shuddered. Nope. Not a good thought.

"I'm going to be teaching you my techniques," he finished off and then frowned. "Some of them. That way you can come up with ways of your own to do things."

"Are your techniques even legal?" McGowan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I never smacked anyone around in an interrogation," Mad-Eye said defensively. "Merlin knows what people would admit to if you did that." He then turned to Tonks. "You don't ever do that, you got that?"

"Hit people in an interrogation?"

"Exactly."

McGowan snorted. "I don't think Tonks would do any damage even if she did hit a suspect."

Mad-Eye looked Tonks up and down and agreed.

"Hey!"

She might be... well, she might be petite but that didn't mean she didn't know how to pack a punch! Or a kick. Especially when you aimed for the soft, squishy bits. Hey, the only time you needed to throw a punch if you were being attacked. And if you were being attacked then there were no rules. Her dad had made that very clear. Her mother had even agreed, though she did shake her head in exasperation at the idea of a physical fight. Proper young people just didn't get involved in such things.

Tonks smiled at the memory, her dad had mimicked her mum as she told Tonks that, pulling faces as she did so. Of course, Andromeda had realised this and promptly sent a mild stinging hex at both of them. She then informed them that see? There was no need to get physical.

"It's the truth, lass," Moody dismissed. "You a tiny thing."

Tonks made an outraged noise. That comment didn't help at all! She looked down at herself and then glared at him. She wasn't that small!

Mad-Eye and McGowan were looking at her with these stupid amused looks on their faces. She was not small! She wasn't! She tried another glare but that didn't work. They just looked even more amused.

"Argh!" She said in frustration, spinning around so she wasn't facing them and sulking.

They were being mean! Really mean!

"Have to get you some physical self-defence classes," he said to himself with a nod.

Tonks tried to keep the surprised off her face but she didn't think she succeeded. That was not something she had been expecting. At all. What a weird suggestion.

"That's not a part of the syllabus," she tried.

She wasn't even lying because it wasn't. Witches and wizards didn't tend to think of doing many things physically, when it came to fighting anyway. Because, why should they? They had wands and magic to do the heavy lifting (sometimes literally) for them. Thigh, Tonks didn't understand why some people didn't think they needed to learn how to run and run fast. Magic or not, Aurors still needed to be able to chase people. But there were still a lot of people who looked down on it. The idiots.

But learning how to physically fight could be fun. Despite herself, Tonks found herself getting excited even though it wasn't available on the course.

Mad-Eye just raised an eyebrow. Right. Of course. He just did what he wanted, didn't he?

"Physical strength is extremely important," McGowan lectured. "You never know when you're going to get grabbed and dragged off. Of course, you want to avoid even getting into that sort of situation but sometimes here thing happen."

Moody was nodding along with everything she said.

"It's also something people don't expect," he added. "Give you the element of surprise, therefore, the upper hand."

Okay, fair enough, they had good points. Extremely good points, in fact. Tonks sighed heavily. Yes, it sounded intriguing and useful and almost fun, in a way. But it was going to be even more work on top an already heavy load. The excitement was still there, just tempered by realism. Would she even be able to manage it? She didn't want this to come at the cost of failing somewhere else. But Mad-eye obviously thought she was capable or else he wouldn't even be suggesting it.

"I'm not going to get a choice in this, am I?"

"Absolutely not."

Yeah, she hadn't thought so.