They were now a little over two months in and boy had it been a long two months. Theory. Theory. Revision work. And more revision work. And then there was the way that whole "Purpose of Being an Auror" module that they were actually going to be tested on. Tested on! It had to be the most boring thing Tonks had ever learned. And that included History of Magic! Wait, that might be going a little too far...

Anyway, it didn't help that that stupid module was going to lead into another equally dry and boring one. Legislation. The rules they were going to have to follow as Aurors as well as the laws they were expected to uphold. Eurgh. There was no action there. Nothing exciting. Just reams and reams of rules after rules.

Look, she understood that they were important, obviously. The whole point of being an Auror was to uphold the law and keep people safe from Dark Wizards and all that but that didn't make learning all those laws any more fun to learn. No one sane would find them fun to learn. Hm. Did that mean Jones found them fun to learn? No, she wasn't wasting any energy on him. No, thank you. She was better off using that energy to figure out what was going to happen next. Try and get ahead of the game, as it were.

They had finished up what they should have covered in NEWT Defence. They were still doing NEWT Potions, however. Mainly theory though. Everyone's brewing was pretty decent now but before they could do a couple of the more complicated ones, they had to cover reactions and stirring and cutting methods first. Something Snape never really explained properly. Typical. His instructions had ways been good but his actual explanations had been more than a little lacking. Thank Merlin for Hogwarts Library, that's all Tonks could say. It was probably the reason she got the results she needed for Potions.

But whatever. That didn't matter anymore. What mattered was that they were pretty much finished with the NEWT stuff which meant they could finally, finally, finally move onto more advanced subjects. More interesting subjects.

Like actual Duelling, now that Auror Taylor was satisfied with their DADA skills. They were actually going to start duelling next. Well, the basics of it. But still! Duelling! Now this was what being an Auror was all about! Learning how to fight the bad guys. It was going to be so much fun! And miles better that reading legislation that Tonks was sure was a hundred years old and no one had seen fit to update the language since then. How her mother did it when studying to become a Solicitor, she would never understand. And all of her job involved the law. Tonks knew that she'd never be able to do it. No way. The amount that she was going to have to learn was going to be more than enough, thank you very much.

"Okay, your lunch is over," Auror Taylor interrupted her thoughts as he swept through the door.

Everyone automatically straightened up and Tonks moved so that her chair was actually the right way around. She had been straddling it as she had dreamed away her break. She couldn't help but notice that he had changed his robes from his standard Auror ones. These weren't as billowing, nor were they as clean and sleek looking. Not that there was any dirt on them but they were a little threadbare. Like they had be used hard without being fixed or replaced.

"Time to start the practical portion of your Duelling module," he said happily.

Which should have been a hint for things to come but no one paid that any mind because they were too busy cheering at that announcement. Finally, something interesting to do.

"You won't need your wands for this exercise," Auror Taylor said with a smirk on his face.

They all looked at him incomprehensibly, freezing in the middle of taking their wands out. They were doing duelling now, weren't they? Wasn't the whole point of that to have a wand?

Now Auror Taylor looked positively gleeful and Tonks was starting to get the feeling that she wasn't going to like this one bit.

"I will be firing spells at you in that circle," je pointed to the warded off circle in the middle of the hall they were using today. "And you will be dodging them."

That got him open-mouthed stares. What?

Tonks was right. She bad not liked this little exercise. Not even a little bit. She didn't tend to like things that meant she repeated ended up flat on her face with far too many bruises to count. At least she wasn't the only one this time.

Auror Taylor hadn't been joking when he said dodging. Dodging with no wands even to help just a little.

You see, the whole point of the exercise was to demonstrate that you didn't need just good wand work to dodge spells, you also needed to be in good physical condition. And you needed to be very aware of your surroundings. Very, very aware of your surroundings. And where your feet were in said surroundings. Something she wasn't exactly good at normally never mind when there were spells being flung at her!

Granted, the spells were basically paint splatter ones. Or were they paint balls? It felt hard when they hit you... whatever. They were being hit with paint and, as the day progressed, very mild stinging hexes to encourage them to move and duck and jump and whatever else they had to do to get out of the way.

Something Tonks was not good at. Well, not when she had to bend or step out of the way. Those actions made her fall or trip over her own feet. Strangely, she was okay at jumping out of the way. She didn't fall as much. Which was just odd but not something she was going to overthink because it meant that she actually stayed on her feet and dodged successfully for some of the time. Not all of it though. Definitely not all of it. The bruises on her body could attest to that.

On the plus side, like she had said before, Tonks was not the only one that had ended up on the ground too many times to count. They all had when Auror Taylor had upped the speed and the number of staining spells their way. Some sooner than others.

Eggleston had been surprisingly good at it, lasting the longest out of all of them. He was quick on his feet and seemed to be able to predict Auror Taylor's next moves.

Tonks was just thankful that she wasn't one of the worst. Oh, she wasn't the best, nowhere near it (curse her clumsiness) but she wasn't the worst either. Just the middle of the road and, for once, she was pretty happy with that.

"Alright, Trainee Tonks! Up, up, up!" She got barked at. "Another round and then back to Jones."

Tonks stood up and made her way back to the ring, Cavendish limping past her.

It turned out she had sprained her ankle in her last round. Ouch.