"Come on, get up," Auror McGowan said far too cheerfully, prodding her with her foot.

Tonks just groaned in response. Cruel, that's what this was. Utterly and completely cruel. She was exhausted and aching all over and she was pretty sure that her bruises had bruises yet they wanted her to do more work? Seriously? Unfair and cruel. There had to be some sort of law against it. Seriously, there did.

"Why aren't you moving? Up! Up!" Moody barked.

She groaned again and twitched in a way that implied she was trying. Too bad Moody didn't buy it because the next thing knew was that her butt stung horribly.

Jumping up with a help, she rubbed the spot furiously.

"A stinging hex? Really?"

Moody shrugged. "It got you moving, didn't it?"

She couldn't argue against that but it didn't mean that she had to like it and she hoped her glare conveyed that. Of course, it didn't even affect Moody.

"Fine, I'm up. I'm up."

"Good. Do it again."

"But-"

She looked hopefully at the clock. They were coming to the end of this session. Mainly because they had something scheduled not because Moody gave anything any set time. His way of doing things was keep doing it until you couldn't do it anymore, whether it was passing out from exhaustion or being unable to take in any further facts.

Unfortunately, she had reached neither of those points right now. Even though she was exhausted and panting hard that meant she had to keep going according to him.

"Again, Tonks!"

"But the time-"

"You have enough time to do it again."

Groaning, knowing there was no arguing with him (why she even tried, she didn't know) Tonks made herself get into the right position.

And, of course, she didn't do it right for Merlin know what time this made it. She was sore and achy and annoyed with herself. Which was not a good mood to be in when dancing was her next thing to do. He idea of dancing was bad enough never mind when she was already in a bad mood. And achy. And sore. Had she mentioned those things?

"Tell me again Why you have me dancing right after a lesson on hand-to-hand combat?" She complained. "I'm already achy and sore and you want to make me more achy and sore?"

Yes, she had to complain about that out loud as well because Moody needed to be aware of this.

"Absolutely."

Had she mentioned that McGowan was taking far too much pleasure in her pain?

"Because you won't always get a break between being undercover and fighting," Moody barked at her. "You think a criminal is going to wait until you catch your breath to do something?"

It wasn't until she noticed that he was glaring at her that she realised be expected a response.

"No," she sighed heavily, stretching and feeling something crack that had no business cracking.

"You really need to work on your stamina," McGowan said critically. "If you're this tired after a sparring session you'll be of no use to anyone."

"I'd like to see you try it."

Because there was no way that she would keep getting told off and teased about this if they actually knew what they were asking of her.

"I once went from undercover in a Ball to chasing down a Death Eater," McGowan said smugly. "And I had been dancing for two hours and I still caught him."

Tonks gaped at her. How on earth was that even possible? Before she could ask anything else the door opened to a tall, darkhaired man.

The dance instructor, a Mr Blanchier, looked her up and down a sniffed. Okay, she didn't necessarily look her best but that was because she had literally been fighting not even ten minutes ago. No one was going to look good after that.

She was sweaty and gross and her hair was all over the place. Something she only just noticed and quickly morphed it back into her spiky pink look. It had been long and tied back on Moody's request because he had wanted her to learn how to avoid getting grabbed by her hair and what to do if she did. Which made for a very sore scalp, by the way.

Of course, this didn't seem to improve Blanchier's opinion of her because now he was frowning. Specifically at her hair. Well, too bad for him because the link was here to stay. She needed something that made her happy today.

[xxxxxx]

Half an hour later she was standing in a stupid position with a frown on her face.

"I feel so stupid."

"That's because you look stupid," McGowan told her.

"Thanks."

Moody elbowed McGowan and shook his head.

"You don't look stupid; you look like you don't know what you're doing."

"Because I don't. Hence why I look stupid."

"They're two different things, Tonks."

Yeah, she wasn't too convinced at that. She flubbed another step and swore.

"Concentrate, concentrate!" Mr Blanchier scolded her.

"I am!"

"You are not or else you would have got this right!"

She swore under her breath again, much to the dance instructor's annoyance.

"Again!"

In her defence, the reason why she felt stupid because she was technically learning a partner dance without a partner. Blanchier refused to even think of partnering her until she showed some competence. Which she didn't understand because surely, she would have to relearn the steps when she was actually dancing with someone? And did Moody and McGowan really have to watch? It was embarrassing.

Had she mentioned that she felt even less graceful than usual? Which was impressive considering her normal lack of balance. And she felt all awkward too which she really didn't appreciate. She preferred feeling confident. Like she knew what she was doing. She did not know what she was doing when it came to dancing. She didn't think she would ever know what she was doing. All the movements just felt unnatural and wrong.

"Non, non, non!" Blanchier exclaimed, pointing his wand at her feet. "Your foot does not go there, it goes there!"

The floor lit up where her foot should be. Her foot was nowhere near it.

"But then I have to stretch over there," she c9molained.

And she might look stupid now but that would definitely make her look stupid.

He tutted at her. "Because you aren't supposed to be there. You are supposed to be here."

He dragged her over to where she was supposed to be. Whoops. Look, she said that she didn't know what she was doing.

"I think that might be enough for today," Moody interrupted them.

The relief that Tonks felt at that announcement made her not even care that his lips were twitching. She was well aware that she looked hilarious but all she cared about was not doing this anymore. She didn't want to know how bad she looked if Moody was the one calling it off but she, like she mentioned before, she really couldn't bring herself to care.

Mr Blanchier turned off the music, still looking thoroughly unimpressed. Needless to say, that expression hadn't left his face all lesson.