"Still can't believe you get a whole week off in the summer," Mad-Eye grumbled as she shoved everything into her bag at the end of the day.
Mad-Eye had actually kept her a bit late today. There was this one wand movement that she just couldn't get. She did manage it. Barely. And then he made her repeat it like twenty times. Probably more than that. Until he was happy anyway. Hence the late ending.
"Everyone needs a break," she said, trying to contain her amusement at his attitude. "And this way there's an obvious start and end to each year."
He snorted at that. "You don't need to know when each year starts or ends. You just need to be here for three years. We own your arse for all three of those."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she teased. "Back in your day you got no time off and had to train for at least an hour more."
"We did! And we didn't complain about it either."
Tonks just rolled her eyes. She found that very hard to believe. Moody was definitely the type pf person to complain. Follow orders? Sure, but also complain about them.
"Well, too bad for you. Trainees have rights now. Kind of."
"Merlin help us all."
"You can't just work us to the ground. Though you're giving it your best shot."
He looked far too proud at that and she couldn't help but laugh a bit. Oh, yeah, Moody worked her hard, of course he did, but he wasn't as awful as McCabbert's Mentor was starting to be. He kept going on and on at her, never letting up. But he wasn't pushing her or letting her progress much. It was the same stuff over and over again and Tonks knew that the other Trainee was getting fed up. She didn't blame her; she was getting fed up with man and she had never even interacted with him. Moody was a hundred times better than that.
"Of course, I can work you into the ground, gets my job."
Another eye roll from her. She didn't even bother trying to hide it anymore - Moody had learned to put up with them from her. In fact, he tended to just roll his eyes right back. And grumble at the audacity of "young people these days" and their "lack of basic manners". He wouldn't be Moody if he didn't do that though.
"You have way too much fun doing it though," she ribbed.
"No point in doing it if it isn't fun."
"I knew it! I knew you liked tormenting me!"
"What are you going to do, report me?"
"I'm sure Auror Taylor would be interested in knowing," she sniffed, trying to look all imperious.
Her mother was particularly good at that look but Tonks didn't think she quite managed to pull it off. Definitely didn't, in fact because Mad-Eye's lips were twitching like he was trying to stop himself from laughing.
"Aye, you do that, lass."
"Maybe I will."
He chuckled at that! Actually chuckled. She tried to be all indignant about it but soon she was giggling as well. The very idea of complaining to Auror Taylor about Moody tormenting her was just ridiculous. It really was. He would probably say something along the lines of "That's Moody for you. What did you expect?" Which would be very correct. What else did you expect from Moody?
It wasn't like she would complain about him anyway.
Sure, any other Trainee complaining about their mentor would be fine. Normal even. She knew that a few of her fellow Trainees had lodged some complaints. And the outcome was either they were dismissed or the Mentor had to change something. That wouldn't happen if she complained about Moody. She knew that the higher-ups didn't believe that he was a good mentor in the first place. They'd probably just use it as an excuse to get rid of him. There was no way that she was going to do anything to jeopardise who her Mentor was. Nope. She wasn't going to go through time without him again. Knowing her luck, she wouldn't get paired with Auror McGowan again and she was the only vaguely acceptable replacement in Tonks' eyes. She got solemn at that, her laughter dying on her lips.
"Are you even doing anything with your week off?" He asked once he realised the change in her mood.
She shrugged. "Being lazy, mostly. Got a Weird Sisters concert to go to mid-week." And how nice it was to be able to actual plan something during a weekday evening for a change. "Might go up to Blackpool or something as well."
He looked thoroughly uninterested in any of her plans. Which she expected. Mad-Eye was rarely interested in anything besides work. Did the man even have hobbies? Except for being paranoid but that was more of a way of life than a hobby. Maybe if he got a hobby he wouldn't be as paranoid. Would that even work? What would Moody even be interested in?
"Do you like Blackpool?" She asked, trying to pry some information from him.
And, he just snorted at her. Seriously, what else did she expect?
"Why are we even talking about this?" He grumbled.
"Because I'm trying to prevent you from being boring."
Yes, she managed to say that with a straight face. And the outraged look he gave her was more than worth any of the punishment he would manage to come up with.
I am not boring," he dismissed.
He didn't even have the decency to look annoyed at her declaration. The man was no fun at all. She had been looking forward to needling him about being boring. It would have been funny because who would have ever dreamed of saying the great Mad-Eye Moody was boring?
"When you get back, we're working on your tracking skills," he told her. "And then there'll be those talks that you have to attend."
Tonks groaned at the schedule for her return. This was going to be no fun at all. They hadn't done much tracking practice but from what little she had; she really didn't enjoy it.
It was just so, so quiet. Oh, and of course that was the whole point of tracking someone but that didn't make it any better. She hated it. In case you hadn't noticed.
And the basics just involved her learning to walk quietly without falling over her own feet and getting quicker at that as well as learning some tracking spells. She hadn't done anything on a real person yet, however. And if that was pretty boring who knows how bad it would be when you had to do it for long stretches of time.
And then the talks. Oh, those talks. They were the bane of every second- and third-year student. There were talks covering the laws and regulations around things like poisons, antidotes, potions ingredients, enchanted items, ritual planning permission. Stuff like that. Those were just the second hear talks she had listed. She had heard that the third-year ones were even more boring, if that was possible. But she had to attend, get her name marked off and give Mad-Eye a report on each one. It was no fun for either of them.