"Over here, Tonks! " Jean shouted over as she turned away from the serving hatch.

Grateful to have someone to sit with for a change, Tonks made her way over and slid in next to her.

"Hi," she greeted.

"Hi, it's a great day, isn't it?" Jean asked with a beaming smile.

Yeah, Tonks still wasn't used to how cheerful Jean was. And it had almost been three years now. You would think that some of that would have been chopped away but no. Jean wasn't like that. She was still surprised that Jean had made it this far. And she was still all sweet and nice and not hardened at all. For example, she was actually nice to the first years the other day. Who was nice to the first years? Certainly not her. She was a third year Trainee. Far better than any first year. Being nice to them just got their hopes up.

"It's okay," Tonks said carefully.

What? She wasn't about to jinx It! It had been a good day so far. She had successfully brewed one of the mid-level antidotes from memory and she actually managed to land several consecutive punches on the punching bag quicker than she had done before in her hand-to-hand combat training. So, yeah, it had been a good day. It was also going to continue being a good day because she didn't have any dance training. Merlin, she hated learning to dance. It was literally the stuff of nightmares for her. And yes, she had yet to get through a lesson without tripping. Which was somehow more embarrassing than tripping in front of Moody and McGowan. Blanchier was just so... so... sneering, if that was a thing.

"Brilliant!"

Tonks blinked at her.

"Did someone cast a cheering charm on you or something?"

Thankfully that made the unnaturally large smile diminish a bit. Only a bit but it was no longer as blinding.

"Being with Moody these past few years is making you paranoid."

Tonks threw a chip at her; it was one covered in tomato sauce which made her squeal.

"It is not. Take that back."

"Paranoid. Paranoid."

Tonks was about to launch another chip at her but then decided that her lunch would be better off put in her mouth.

"I am not paranoid."

Being paranoid was just a step below being crazy. And not the good kind of crazy.

"If you say so."

"I do. I'm just more aware of my surroundings. That's different. And we all should be."

That was kind of the point of Auror Training, after all.

Before Jean could argue any further, McCabbert flung herself in the chair next to them, making her tray crash on the table. Tonks was just glad that she didn't pick the stew or else the contents would have gone everywhere. As it was, some peas just escaped.

"Hi," Jean chirped in greeting.

McCabbert just grunted at her.

"Nice to see you too," Tonks said sarcastically, scooping up some of her baked potato.

"Have I mentioned that I hate my mentor?"

Tonks raised an eyebrow.

"You're just calling him your mentor now?"

"He doesn't deserve to be called by name."

Jean and Tonks looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Complain, that's all McCabbert he been doing every time they saw her. Not that that we very often these days but still. Yes, she had cause for complaint- her mentor didn't want to listen to her at all it seemed - but there was really only so much complaining you could take in one sitting. Especially when the person doing the complaining didn't do anything else.

"Would it help if I said that Moody was trying to kill me?" Tonks asked, hoping to cheer her up a bit and change the topic.

Unfortunately, McCabbert wasn't having it.

"Nope. Because that means you're actually doing something useful."

Jean coughed as her drink went down the wrong way.

"Auror Moody is trying to kill you?"

"Yeah," Tonks said in an unconcerned voice.

Jean gaped at her and turned to McCabbert.

"I don't care," McCabbert said before she could say anything.

"But Tonks can't just say something like that!"

"She can and I still don't care."

"Why don't you care?"

"Because if I care, I'll get jealous and when I get jealous, I'll get angry which won't help anyone."

Now Tonks and Jean were staying at her. What in Merlin's name were you supposed to say to that.

"Anyway," Jean said, turning away to look at Tonks again. "What do you mean, Auror Moody is trying to kill you?"

"Exactly what I said. He's trying to kill me."

"You keep saying that but you aren't explaining yourself."

"I thought it was pretty self-explanatory."

Jean huffed and crossed her arms.

"Well, it's not."

Tonks shrugged. "Not my problem."

"It is your problem if Moody is trying to kill you!"

"You do realise that Moody is an Auror, in an Auror Academy, surrounded by other Aurors?" McCabbert decided to interject.

"And?" Jean asked somewhat belligerently for her.

McCabbert rolled her eyes.

"Which means that he can't actually kill someone."

Tonks decided not to add any further to this and point out that if anyone could manage something like that then it was going to be Alastor Moody.

The other two turned around to look at her for an explanation.

"Fine," she sighed. "It only feels like he is trying to kill me."

McCabbert and Jean snorted at this, well used to that complaint.

"What's he making you do now?" McCabbert asked, interested despite herself.

At least she had stopped complaining and she didn't look as grumpy. Small wins.

"Hand to hand combat."

That got her a set of two identical, incredulous looks. It was quite funny, actually.

"Hand to hand combat," Jean said slowly.

Tonks nodded. "Uh huh."

"As in wandless magic?" McCabbert asked. "That's pretty cool. Isn't that meant to be really difficult?"

"Yeah, you need to be a powerful witch or wizard to do wandless magic," Tonks said, shaking her head. "But he's not teaching me that."

That would be really cool though but, like she said, you had to be a powerful witch or wizard and You had to be really in touch with your magic. That sort of thing took years. And definitely not something your basic witch or wizard could do. Huh. Moody probably could do it, couldn't he? She would have to ask.

"Then what is he teaching you that involves your hands?" McCabbert asked impatiently.

"Fighting. Actual, physical fighting."

Silence from her two friends and their eyes widened in disbelief.

"Physical fighting?" McCabbert bit out.

"Yep."

"Like hitting and kicking people?"

"More like twisting them and disarming them but yeah," Tonks corrected.

She had almost gone into a lecture about how kicks actually weren't that effective but she stopped herself, figuring that they wouldn't be receptive to that information.

"But physical fighting is what muggles Do," Jean said in confusion. "Because they don't have magic."

"That's the definition of a muggle," McCabbert said sarcastically.

"Apparently that's the whole point," Tonks told her, ignoring McCabbert.

"He wants you to be like a muggle?"

"He wants me to have the skills."

McCabbert was shaking her head.

"You get into weird situations, you know that?"

Tonks sighed heavily. "I know."