Eurgh. Yuck. Ew. Argh. She made all of those noises. Rolling onto her back so she was staring at her ceiling (was it just her or was that crack getting bigger?), Tonks groaned. She really hated being a Trainee some days. Because some days it really, really sucked. Like yesterday. She didn't think she stopped even for a second. And it had all been physical work. Not something she usually complained about but yesterday had been particularly exhausting. The obstacle course. The duelling ring. She was pretty sure that Moody had somehow made it even more difficult without her noticing. Then there was brewing antidotes, ones that needed to be stirred and checked constantly. And then it was dodging practice. It was a lot yesterday and it felt like a good night's sleep didn't help any. And yes, she had actually managed to get a good night's sleep. Being exhausted beyond anything tended to ensure that sort of thing.

But she still felt tired. So tired. Extremely tired. And she could be tired today. Or any day. She had work to do. So much work. Work being training and learning which meant that you had to keep your brain switched on. Something she didn't feel like she could do today. Her head felt all fuzzy like she'd just woken up when she'd actually been up for an hour and she'd had a shower and she'd had a coffee. She should be bright eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to take on the day. Except she wasn't. She wanted to go back to bed. She eyed her bedroom and then shook her head. Nope, she couldn't do that. She had to be a grown-up and go to work.

Which is where this came in. This being a vial of pepper up potion that she had bought the other day when she realised that a nasty cold was making its rounds in the building. Could she brew it herself? Technically. Did she have time to these days? Absolutely not. Hence buying it. Thankfully, it wasn't expensive.

Now, she wasn't exactly going to be using it for its intended use or anything. She wasn't sick. Just very run down and tired so it wasn't like she needed a full dose or anything. Like she said, she wasn't sick. She just needed her head to be clear and to get some energy. That was it. That didn't require a full vial. Not even half. A mouthful. Maybe even two. Yeah, that's all she needed. Not much at all. Two mouthful, that's all she was going to take. That wasn't even a proper gulp. Was it the approved way of taking it? No. But nearly everyone used it like this. In Hogwarts anyway. Late night revision couldn't exactly happen when you were falling asleep.

She eyed the vial and bit her lip. Okay, she was going to do this. She just had to grab it, uncork it and big it down. Three easy steps and she would be feeling much better. Downright perky, with any luck. Trying not to think too much more about it, she uncorked it. It made a very satisfying 'pop' noise.

Knocking her head back, she swallowed a mouthful. She had developed this knack for swallowing potions down without them hitting her tongue, it was very useful because she knew that Pepper-up potions had a taste that made your tongue want to curl up, something she didn't want to experience. Sure enough, her trick worked. No curling up tongue and only a third of it had gone. If even that. She had measured it perfectly. Energy boost here she came.

[xxxxxx]

Half an hour later, as she was making her way to work, she was having second thoughts. And third thoughts. Maybe even fourth ones. Because this, this wasn't as good as she thought it would be.

In hindsight, this might have been a bad idea. Her head throbbed. Scratch that, it was a bad idea. But it was too late now. She had done it and she couldn't exactly undo it. The most annoying thing was that it hasn't even given her an energy boost. She was still tired. And she had a headache to boot. Maybe you were supposed to take the whole vial and not kind of portion it out like she had. She had never actually seen a Healer give that potion out in any other way but a vial. The whole half vial, couple of sips was just something that students tended to do. One of those old wives' tales.

Right. Fine. She'd take the rest of the vial. That was easy enough to correct. So, she did. And felt nothing. Not even a little jolt. There wasn't even steam coming out of her ears or anything. Maybe she was supposed to take the full vial at once? Would a full second one help balance everything out and give her some energy?

She heard the thud of Moody's leg as he came down the hall so she of had a few seconds to decide. Granted this wasn't exactly something you should be deciding if your thought processes were somewhat impaired but because of that she didn't really think of the consequences and chugged down another vial. Ah. Now that was a surge of energy. And her ears were warm and she could feel steam coming from them! Perfect. Thankfully, it went away quickly because not even a second later, Moody came through the door. She straightened up and tried to l9ok eager for work.

[xxxxxx]

Moody paused in what he was saying to stare at her closely. Uncomfortably closely. That eye of his definitely didn't help matters either. Oh, did he take the eye off if he was questioning kids? Or cover it up? Or-

"Are you okay?" His voice interrupted her thoughts.

"I'm okay. Yes. Of course, I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be okay?"

Moody raised an eyebrow. "Because you just spoke a mile a second, which is fast, even for you, and, I don't know, you're vibrating."

"I'm not vibrating. Are you vibrating? Are you okay? I think that-"

Her next words were cut off by Moody placing his hand firmly across her mouth. Without even thinking, she licked it. Surprisingly, he didn't pull away.

"I've dealt with getting covered in far more disgusting things," he explained, seeing her confusion.

And then horror dawn on her as she realised what she had done. She had just licked Moody. Licked him. As in, with her tongue. Sure, it had just been his hand but she had licked him. Why had she done that? Like some sort of stupid dog. She wasn't a dog. Dogs were cool though. Could d9 cool tricks. She could do cool tricks. And she lucked people now apparently. Did that make her a dog?

"You know what?" He said, eyeing her. "I think you're done for the day. Go take a nap or something."

He then tried to steer her gently out of the room but Tonks wasn't having that. She wasn't tired. She didn't need a nap. In fact, she had lots of energy. Lots and lots and lots and lots of... what was she saying again? Energy! Oh, yeah. She had a lot of energy.

She managed to twist her body and dart away from him before he even realised what was happening. Normally the confused look on his face would be hilarious but she was otherwise occupied.

Jumping over to his desk, she rummaged through the textbook that lay open there. He had been teaching her things from it. Defensive stances and the like. Normally he didn't teach from textbooks, not even Defence ones, but even he thought that the diagrams of how your body should be positioned was useful.

"Can we try something in this? I feel like o need to be doing something. Something useful. Like casting a spell. Oh! Can I try this one?"

She didn't even look at the page she jabbed her finger at. It had to be pretty cool though, right? It was a spell! Spells were cool!

Moody looked over her shoulder and muttered something under his breath. Before she could ask him what he had said, he took her arm and gently led her towards the door.

"Oh! Where are we going? Outside? Is it warm? Raining? We are in England so it probably is. Can I cast a spell outside? That would be better, wouldn't it?"

She didn't pay any attention to her surroundings as Moody herded her down the corridor. Several corridors actually because they went through a lot of doors. Doors were nice. Then they went through a very plain one into a very white room.

"This isn't outside," she told him.

"It isn't. It's the Medi-Witch's office."

"What have you done to the poor girl now, Moody?"