Tonks tried to contain her excitement as they were each given their security badges and then let into the building. She wasn't a child with wide eyes trailing after a parent. She was an adult. A soon-to-be Auror. She was mature and reserved and sensible. Okay, technically none of those words could describe her but she could pretend! And she had to because she had to be a proper adult and show that she really could act like an Auror. Because that's what she was going to be. An Auror. Who worked in the Ministry of Magic. Someone who was actually going to do some good in 5he world. Hopefully, anyway. She still had exams to pass and she was getting worried about not knowing enough but she pushed all those thoughts to the back of her mind. She wasn't going to even think of her worries today. She was in the Ministry of Magic. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Where all the, pardon the pun, magic happened. In her mind anyway. And it was so cool. Okay, that was the last bit of childish excitement she was going to let escape. Mature adult. Mature adult. She was a mature adult. And she was going to make sure that she presented herself that way. Adults didn't get excited about offices and desks and cork boards with notes all over them. They just regarded them as a place to work. That's all it was, a place to work.
Okay, she had visited the Ministry of Magic before. Mainly when she had to trail along with her mother when she had to check something with her clients. And that had been boring, sure. Though, the flying memos had always distracted her. They were always fun to watch. Otherwise, the Ministry if Magic was downright boring, in her opinion. But this visit was different. Way different. In the best way possible. She couldn't wait to get inside this time.
She had to calm herself down though or else Moody was going to think she had taken another pepper up potion or something. He'd already given her a suspicious look this morning when she had bounded into his room.
And yes, it wasn't like he was supervising them or anything (could you imagine him doing such a thing?) but it would almost definitely get back to him and she didn't need that.
This was going to be fun through, a look at what they were working towards. As long as it didn't turn out like that courtroom tour. She shuddered. That had been mind-numbing.
[xxxxxx]
Olay, this was a far better tour. A way better one. Though, to be honest, even touring a library would have been better than their little tour of the courtroom a few weeks ago. If you could even call it a tour. Which Tonks didn't. Because all they had down was down a loop around the courtroom and had then had to stand while listening to someone drone on and on and on about court proceedings that she had promptly forgotten about. Not that there had been much to forget because she hadn't exactly been paying attention in the first place. Hopefully none of what he said would come up in her exams or she'd be stuffed.
To distract herself she started looking around as they trailed after the Auror that had been appointed as their tour guide.
Cubicles. There were so many cubicles. And each of them had at least two Aurors in them! Were they partners? A part of a team? Aurors worked in teams, didn't they? You didn't always have all the Aurors working on one thing, she knew that much. Unless, you know, it was during a war. But that wasn't the case so they'd be working on all sorts of things now, right?
Tonks almost tried to eavesdrop on conversations but she decided against it. Knowing her luck they would realise and she'd be in all sorts of trouble or else she'd lose her group. And as much as she liked being able to see the offices, she didn't want to miss out on anything.
This was going to be where she worked in a few short months. This was it. This was what she was working towards. She was going to be sitting at a desk in one of those cubicles with a partner of some sort. And she was going to be writing reports, researching, tracking down bad guys and everything else an Auror did. This was the end goal. She could almost taste it.
The group was mostly ignored as they were hustled along but a few Auror smiled and waved at them indulgently. And then others scowled and rolled their eyes. She hoped that she didn't have to work with any of those ones. Did they not remember being Trainees? Surely, they looked around with the same wide eyes?
Oh, wow, they were actually going to the offices for the higher ranking DMLE people. This was so cool!
Okay, she really had to calm down because being in awe and looking around in wonder was probably not going to win her any favours from anyone. And made her look stupid. She didn't want to look stupid. Though, it appeared that all of the Trainees were doing the same thing so at least she wasn't the only one. They did all look a bit silly though.
Oh, oh, oh! That was Madam Bones walking in. Madam Amelia Bones. Head of the DMLE. Tonks had to make a concentrated effort to stay still and keep her feet on the ground or else she was going to be bouncing around like work sort of over excited teenager at their first concert. Which she was not. She was a mature adult. Had been for three years. Twenty-one years old. A twenty-one-year-old who was currently sporting deep red hair. And no, not Auburn or whatever redheads were calling it these days, the actual colour red. As in, the colour of the Auror robes. She had thought it would be fitting this morning when she had morphed it but she couldn't be meeting the Head of the DMLE with it, could she? No, she definitely could not. She would have to change it. As unobtrusively and subtly as she could with several Aurors nearby. Because that wasn't going to be difficult at all. She was going to have to try though.
There was just a small problem. One she had found out fairly early on in life. Panicking was definitely not her friend. It wasn't most people's but it definitely wasn't hers. Panicking tended to mean that she didn't have form control over her shifting abilities. She was more likely to be stuck on whatever she had currently shifted into. Apparently, it was because she couldn't focus her mind or something. Whatever, all she knew was that it meant that it felt like she had no control over her abilities and it sucked. Especially now because she couldn't change the colour of her damn hair.
Right. There was a way about going about this. Deep breaths. She had to calm the fuck down. Okay. She was there. Sort of. It would do. Now time to change her hair.
She glanced down at her shoulder where her hair should now be. It was brown. Success!
With a smile Tonks returned her attention to her surroundings only to see Madam Bones, Madam Bones, give her a knowing look.
Okay. Well, that was embarrassing.