McGowan rubbing her hands together with a look of glee on her face was never a good sign. Tonks knew this from experience. Too much experience. Moody was also looking particularly pleased with himself. Neither of these things boded particularly well for her.

But, because apparently, she had no sense of self-preservation, she walked into the room albeit hesitantly. Making no sudden movements seemed like a good thing.

"Morning," she said carefully.

"We're going to get some of your self-confidence back." Moody said gruffly instead of replying to her.

"And hopefully that will translate back into your dancing," McGowan added, earning herself a glare from Moody.

"Nothing is going to get me dancing again," Tonks said immediately.

Because there wasn't anything in the world that would. Her dancing or, rather, non-dancing days were over. It was just safer for everyone involved.

"What's that look for?" McGowan asked Moody, ignoring Tonks.

"You weren't supposed to mention dancing!" He hissed.

"I didn't say we were doing dancing!"

"Never again," Tonks felt like she had to reiterate.

"We agreed to not even mention the word!"

"You did. I didn't."

"McGowan!"

"She's not going to self-combust just from hearing the word."

"I'm right here, you know?" She tried to interject but she was ignored.

"Did you not hear the part where this is supposed to be a distraction? Mentioning it isn't a distraction!"

"Again. She's not made of glass."

"I never said she was."

"Then stop treating her like she is!"

"I'm just trying to be careful."

"Since when have you been careful?"

"Since I wanted this to work in our favour!"

Tonks didn't know whether she was supposed to be flattered about the fact that they both seemed to be defending her. Even if it was from each other. Which was kind of funny. Well, it would be if they stopped ignoring her!

"It will work, trust me."

Moody actually snorted at that and gave McGowan a sceptical look. Wait, what had she missed when she had been lost in her own thoughts? She really should know better by now.

"Guys?" Tonks interrupted. "Um, what was this about building up my confidence?

Okay, she had to admit. She was feeling a little bit better about herself. Only a little bit, mind you. It turns out that their idea of building up her confidence involved her doing the very thing she was a natural at. Literally.

Because what they had been focusing on all morning was her morphing abilities. That was it. Nothing sneaky or hidden or extra, just her morphing. Seeing what she could stretch herself to do and how many things she could do at the same time. It was exhausting but in a good way. She really did feel good about herself. Tonks wasn't sure if that was sad or not but she was going to roll with it. For today anyway. There was always tomorrow to stretch and push herself.

It was nice to get back to something that she was effortlessly good at. Sure, she was now good at duelling and brewing but she had to work at those. Which, don't get her wrong, was satisfying and rewarding and all that good stuff. But sometimes you had to remember that there were things you were good at without even trying. And morphing was one of those things for her, obviously.

Moody and McGowan seemed to enjoy themselves as well, watching her with great interest and giving her pointers. They seemed to be particularly impressed by now quickly she could transfigure her clothes so that they matched her current body type. They also had some cool ideas on how to disguise herself; describing the types of people that others seemed to ignore. The ones that faded into the background. Very useful for an Auror who couldn't conceal themselves using spells for one reason or another.

All in all, it was pretty cool and yes, Tonks was feeling much better about herself.

"Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that if you male yourself shorter your clumsiness doesn't change but if you make yourself taller it gets worse?" McGowan asked, laughing slightly.

"Shut up, McGowan," Moody growled.

"Come on, it's a fact," she gestured at Tonks who gave them a sheepish look from the floor.

Moody ran a hand down his face.

"We're supposed to be building her confidence back up, not bringing it down again."

"I'm fine," Tonks said with a dismissive wave, getting back to her feet. "Pride a bit knocked but I'm good." Moody gave her a doubtful look so she reiterated, "I'm good. Seriously."

It was sweet and all that he was worried about her belief in herself but he didn't need to be all overprotective. She could take critism. Especially when it was kind of funny.

"You sure? " Moody asked again.

"Yes," she said in exasperation.

There was only so much coddling that she could put up with, after all. Especially from Moody. Time to get things back on topic. It was better for them to keep talking about her abilities and less about how she felt. Well, better for her anyway.

"Maybe it's because when I'm shorter, I have a lower centre of gravity?" She wondered out loud.

Did that even make sense? Was that a thing?

"That means that short people should never fall over," McGowan pointed out. "And you're pretty short but fall over all the time."

"Hey! I'm not that short!"

There were people smaller than her...

McGowan gave her a sceptical look. "What are you? Five foot two?"

"Five three."

"Because an inch makes all the difference."

"It does!"

Moody made this weird coughing noise behind them, making the two women turn to look at him. He was a weird shade of pink too.

"What's wrong with you?" McGowan asked bluntly.

"Nothing," he croaked out.

McGowan gave him a puzzled look while a look of realisation dawned over Tonks'.

"Moody's having dirty thoughts!" She exclaimed and then realised what she said and blushed heavily.

"What!" "No!"

McGowan and Moody shouted at the same time.

"Just ignore me," Tonks said, shaking her head. "Pretend I didn't say that."

Why did her mouth run away with her like that? One, that was completely inappropriate and two, she really didn't want to think anything like that about Moody of all people! She was going to have to bleach her brain. Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, YUCK!

"Moody doesn't have dirty thoughts," McGowan said scathingly.

Cue more spluttering noises from Moody. Was it normal to be able to turn that shade of purple? It didn't look very comfortable. Then she realised where her mind was going and made a spluttering noise herself.

"Let's go back to the centre of gravity theory," Tonks said, desperately trying to change the subject.

"Yes," Moody agreed. "Your theory doesn't hold, lass, or else everyone who's tall would always be falling over."

McGowan looked between the two of them, looking put out.

"I wanted to tease Moody more."

"No," Tonks and Moody said in unison.

McGowan looked between the two of them before pouting. She looked ridiculous. Tonks wondered if that's what she looked like when she pouted, no wonder Moody got impatient.

"Fine," the older women gave in with a sigh and then perked up. "Hey, Tonks, can you make elephant ears?"

Thankfully she could.