Tonks looked around her as she went into the classroom that Monday morning and felt... Happy? No, that was the wrong word. Comfortable? That was better. Yeah, comfortable. She didn't feel awkward coming in and there were no nervous waves or head nods at people she didn't know. Because after Friday night she knew these people now. Well, knew how they were like when drunk but still. It was better than last week when they hardly knew each other. Sure, they still didn't know each other that well, considering most of their time on Friday was spent drinking (she winced at the memory she had of the headache she had that Saturday) but there was a certain amount of comradeship amongst them all now. Like they were all a proper group. It was kind of cool. She really liked it and it could only get better from here. What a great start to her Auror Training.

Of course, all of this was ruined when she promptly tripped over the leg of a chair and fell to the floor with an almighty 'CRASH'. She even brought the desk and chair with her.

There were one, two, three beats of silence before everyone started laughing. And laughing hard. Tonks rolled her eyes as she tried to pick herself back up, relatively unbothered. Honestly, she'd had worse and far more funny falls than this one but she supposed most of these people hadn't seen her clumsiness in action.

Of course, life couldn't go her way and let her get up gracefully. Oh, no. That would be far too easy. And she never did things the easy way. Where was the fun in that? Granted, some of it was her fault.

Instead of pushing herself up from the floor or something sensible like that, Tonks had decided to grab the nearest leg of the table she had knocked over. She did not get a good grip on this and when she tried to get up, her hand slipped down the length making her fall to the floor all over again. Much to the amusement of everyone else. At least she wasn't that far to the ground this time, though, it didn't stop her cursing. Loudly.

Someone gasped at that. Probably Jones because he was a prude like that. He was the type of person who thought you were low-class if you cursed. The idiot. But whatever. He didn't matter. Getting off this stupid floor mattered. She glared at the table that had betrayed her. Why was this never easy? You would think after all these years she would be an expert at getting her sorry arse back up again. But no. Of course not. If anything, she was getting worse at it. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She thought that she would be better at this by now, it was embarrassing for this to happen in front of all these new people like this. She didn't know them that well and she had hoped to be even a little bit more graceful in front of them. They were all adults, after all, and falling flat on your face didn't exactly scream grown up, did it?

"Oh, Merlin! Are you alright?" Cavendish asked, having just arrived and immediately bolted over to Tonks, who was still on the floor. "What happened?" She then glared at everyone who still looked amused. "What is wrong with all of you! She could be hurt!"

"I'm fine," Tonks offered but was promptly ignored in favour of righteous indignation.

"What if she hit her head? What if she got a cut? What if she broke a bone?"

Auror Taylor, of course, chose that moment to enter the classroom, her still on the floor.

"Then she'd be used for our 'Introduction to Healing' course," he said without batting an eye. "You okay, Trainee Tonks?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just pride and body bruised," she replied.

"Good. Then get up and put that desk back in place."

"Yes, sir."

She was about to scramble to her feet and do just that but Cavendish was having none of that and actually helped her to her feet. She then proceeded to them usher her back to her seat and right the desk and chair herself. Tonks was rather bewildered by all of this and didn't put up any sort of a fight.

"Thank you?" She said in a confused tone.

"No problem!" Cavendish said brightly. "Happy to help, unlike some people," she shot a glare around the classroom.

"If Trainee Tonks is able to stay upright and Trainee Cavendish is done trying to stir up drama, maybe we could begin with our lesson?" Auror Taylor said pointedly, making Cavendish sit down at the chair she righted with a red face. "Which, by the way, is not the Introduction to Healing."

They all groaned at that. Learning about Healing would be far more interesting than stuff they'd just gone over in school mere months ago.

"Sorry to disappoint you," he continued, not sounding sorry at all. "But before we let you even think about healing anyone, we must ensure that everyone-"

"Has the necessary basics down," Tonks finished for him under her breath.

Which he thankfully didn't catch as be said the exact same thing.

"Now, this week will require a lot more concentration from all of you as next week you will each be sitting aptitude tests on Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Herbology." He wrote each of these on the board and then underlined Transfiguration, Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts. "These are the ones that will be the longest, though they will all be theory. No Practicals. These are going to show us exactly where there are any holes in your education."

That little speech of his earned him more groans because nobody liked taking tests but they all nodded reluctantly because it made sense.

"Yes, yes, I know. You've all just done your NEWTs and now we're giving you more tests. You'll have more of that to look forward to the next three years. But in all seriousness, we do expect gaps in your knowledge in Defence Against the Dark Arts from those of you from Hogwarts due to the unpredictable nature of that subject."

Those not from Hogwarts all looked confused and curious. Which was fair because that last sentence probably sounded odd to them. But everyone from Hogwarts knew exactly what he meant. It wasn't exactly a secret that they had a new Defence Professor every year. Though, her parents had been surprised when they realised that back in her first year. Apparently, they had only ever had two Defence Professors. And it sounded like that was only because their first one had retired. Tonks, on the other hand, had had a new one every year. Nearly two, actually, a way back in third year after that injury of Professor Morgan's after falling down three flights of stairs but other Professors had filled in for the three-week gap at the end of the year. He had at least left good notes.

Hopefully all the different teaching styles hadn't left them too behind anyone else. That would just be embarrassing. Tonks resolved to revise for her Defence test more than any other subject. She wasn't going to have these home schoolers show Hogwarts up!