Tonks winced as she edged along the benches to her assigned spot. Even that movement was painful. Actually, she shouldn't even be surprised anymore because for the past two weeks every movement had been painful. Which sucked, by the way. Partridge raised an eyebrow at her.

"Don't ask," she muttered.

"Oh, I'm definitely asking," he said with a grin.

"I'd rather you didn't."

Because she knew that he was going to think her incredibly strange if he did. Well, he probably already did but that was beside the point. She didn't want to be thought of as any more weird, if possible. And this wasn't even her fault!

"Too bad, I'm asking."

He said it loud enough to get everyone around them looking at them. She shushed him. Did he always have to be so loud? Sometimes she thought that he didn't have an inside voice. He didn't even have the decency to look embarrassed. Fortunately, no one cared enough to keep listening. Or they at least looked like they weren't eavesdropping which was good enough for her.

"I'm all bruised, okay?" She muttered sullenly, wincing as she rubbed a spot on her arm.

She'd landed heavily on it. Very heavily on it. Multiple times. She kept getting her arse handed to her in her hand-to-hand combat training. It was embarrassing. She had been doing okay for a lesson or two, she even landed a few punches, but now she wasn't. Moody had stepped it up again and now she couldn't even seem to swing a fist in the right direction. And it was only going to get harder from there.

"Bruised?" He raised an eyebrow. "Why are you bruised? Clumsier than usual?" He teased.

She gave him a less than playful shove.

"Shut up."

"Hey, I have to assume things because you aren't giving me anything."

"Because I don't want to."

"So that just leaves me with my imagination."

He even had the audacity to waggle his eyebrows at her. She shoved him again.

"Pig!"

"Oink! Oink!"

Tonks couldn't help the laugh that came out, even though she knew that all that would do was encourage him.

"Ah ha! So, it was something dirty!" He said in triumph.

"As if! Get your mind out of the gutter!"

"I kind of like it there."

She debated on whether or not to shove him again but he shimmied down the bench to prevent that.

"Just shut up."

"Can't do that."

He really was infuriating sometimes. Honestly.

"I'm doing hand to hand combat, if you must know," she said in a snooty a voice as she could muster.

Which almost made her giggle because hand to hand combat was the least posh thing you could do. Hell, the purebloods probably thought it was only a step above playing in mud or something. She wondered what her mum would have to say about it. That was going to be a funny reaction.

"Hand to hand combat?" Partridge blinked. "You're really doing that?"

She gave him a confused look. "Yes..."

"I thought it was just a weird rumour going around. Moody's actually making you, do it?"

"Yes."

Oh, she knew she said that very abruptly but she wants in the mood for Moody's methods to be questioned. Or for her to be made fun of. Because she was sore. Which meant she was in a bad mood.

"Huh. Weird."

Yes, it was weird. Tonks thought that herself but she still didn't like anyone else commenting on it. It was something Moody wanted her to learn so she was going to learn it. And some of the moves were kind of cool. Not that she had been allowed to practice them on a person yet. Moody had told her that was a sure-fire way of her knocking herself out. She had pouted for the rest of the day after that comment, which Moody just ignored. It was no fun pouting if it was ignored, by the way. Not that that had stopped her.

"What's it like?" Partridge asked when she didn't elaborate.

She shrugged. "It's alright. Hard work. I'm always covered in bruises."

"And how's that different from normal?" He teased.

"Shhh," she said instead of replying, realising that it was starting and she could really do without her lack of grace being pointed out to her yet again. "I don't want to miss anything."

Today they were watching a real, live interrogation take place on an actual criminal. An actual criminal. Someone who was stupid enough to practice Dark Magic and be caught. Am Auror who wasn't a part of the Academy was doing it so this was real and not some sort of teaching exercise conjured up.

They'd had to read up on the whole case and then come up with their own questions that they think should be asked of the suspect. That had been handed into their mentor and now they had to write down what was actually asked. They were to compare the two later and then analyse the difference and then learn why certain questions were asked and why others weren't. It should be interesting. At some point they were going to be able to interrogate someone themselves. Not a real criminal or anything but someone role-playing. Tonks wasn't sure if that would make everything more awkward or not. But she supposed that she would worry about that when the time came. For now, she took in the scene in front of her.

The man didn't really look like a dark wizard. He looked pretty normal in fact. Well, except for this smirk on his face. Tonks didn't know why he was smirking if he'd already been caught. Surely, you'd be mad or embarrassed or something if you'd been caught?

He wasn't even wearing dark clothes, which was a bit disappointing if she was being honest. Shed built up this whole image in her head of what a dark wizard should look like (mainly thanks to certain unmentionable family members) and he was ruining all of it. He was just in a shirt, trousers with a rip in them on the side so you could see his underwear and really muddy shoes. She wondered what went down when he got caught.

Somehow this was all a bit more tame than she thought it was going to be. Not nearly as much action as she imagined. Definitely far less thumping of the table. Which was a pity, it would make it a bit more exciting.

But she had read the rules of interrogation. Each of them had been given a length of parchment with them on it. You weren't supposed to intimidate your suspect with physical violence or anything like that. That could make the confession or any evidence coerced and therefore not admissible in court. Which would suck.

She wasn't sure whether or not thumping the table fell under that though. A question for Moody later. Though, somehow, she felt like he had his own rules for interrogation. She had heard the stories. How he was intimidating and could be a law onto himself. She wasn't sure whether or not she believed them though. There were some really ridiculous rumours about Moody that floated about. Sure, some of them were true but others even Moody got annoyed at when he heard them.

"I'm telling you, you're all idiots!"

Oh, this was about to get interesting.