AN: And this is it, the end. Time for Tonks to go and face the big, bad world herself. Well, the Auror Academy, at least. Which you can read all about in "Standing Firm" (already published and complete).

Why, why, why, after all these years did, she leave packing to the very last second? Why was she like this? It wasn't like she enjoyed the stress of running around like a headless chicken while trying to gather her things, tripping over said things and getting scolded by her mum for being unorganised. None of that was fun, trust her. In fact, it was the opposite of fun. Very much the opposite. Also, it didn't help at all. In fact, it made her slow down because of course she had to argue with her mother when she got scolded. And then she had to huff and glare at her trunk and the mess that inevitably remained on her floor because she wasn't going to tidy anything up if her mother scolded her like that. Then of course she tidied things up because that was what a grown-up did and she was now a grown-up doing a grown-up job and having a grown-up apartment. That and she had to literally wade through socks at one point so it was really time to tidy up. Seriously, where did all these socks even come from? She was pretty sure that she didn't actually own this many socks. She looked down at her floor and sighed. She bet none of them matched either. She could never find matching socks. Not even her school ones and they were all the same - grey! But, let's be honest, even pairs of all grey socks were never the same. There was that pair that had shrunk slightly in the wash and always left marks on your legs and there was the pair that had stretched and always fell down. Then there was the pair that was inexplicably scratchy or the ones where the seam across the toe always bothered you no matter how you positioned it. It was that pair that had sometimes made her wear her socks inside out.

On that note, where were her school socks? None of them were in this pile and there were a lot of socks in this pule, even the fuzzy bed socks that had snowmen on it from a couple Christmases ago. There were socks with holes in them that should have been thrown out a good while ago in this pile.

Why was she focusing so much on socks? Oh yeah, she was supposed to be tidying and then got freaked out by how many socks she seemed to own. She should probably get back to tidying. And packing.

At least it wasn't quite as bad as going back to school. That was a tight deadline that she had to meet or else she wouldn't be getting the Hogwarts Express. This was a bit different. It wasn't like if she didn't turn up to get her flat keys at eleven then she wouldn't ever get them. They were already hers. Hers. Hers. Hers.

She had a flat. She was moving out. She was going to the Auror Academy. She was going to have to work so hard for the next three years. They were a whole lot of ups and downs there. But it was a good thing. It really was. This was the start of everything for her. Everything that she wanted to become. Just as soon as she packed all the essentials.

She was pretty sure that there were no matching socks in her trunk but that was fine. That wasn't important. Who the hell was looking at her ankles anyway, a Victorian? And if they were looking close enough to see she had mismatched socks then she was pretty sure she was legally allowed to call them a creep. Maybe something to check with her mum.

Were socks even that important? Maybe she should tidy up something else. Or hoover. Something crunched under her feet. Yep. Definitely hoover. She didn't even want to know what she had stepped on.

Hoovering had been easy and she had only accidentally sucked up two (odd) socks and a shoelace that she had had to wrestle out of it because it made the machine make an alarming noise. As in, about to explode alarming noise Yuck. It got all tangled up in hair. And yes, they used hoovers. No charm got the dust and dirt up quite as well as a hoover according to her mum.

The past week had been a blur and that wasn't even a metaphor or a hyperbole or whatever it sounded like. Seriously, she couldn't remember a single thing that happened over the last week. Not one. All that she had been thinking of was that she was going to become an Auror. She had got in. It was actually going to happen. This was it. This was the first step. Everything was actually falling into place, surprisingly without her falling as she ran around trying to get everything ready.

There was the whole packing so she could move into her apartment and then figuring out where she would buy food in her new area. Then her dad decided that she needed to be dragged around the area where her flat was in so she was at least familiar with it and didn't get lost when she was walking around because, as he had pointed out, she wouldn't be apparating everywhere. It was a muggle area and sometimes you just liked to walk places. Well, she did anyway.

They had decided that it was in everyone's best interest that all her important documents like her passport, birth certificate and OWL and NEWT certificates stayed here. That way she knew where they were and they stayed safe and she didn't lose them. She was so scared of losing them if she was responsible for them. And it wasn't like they were hard to get if she ever needed them. She could just apparate home. Easy peasy now that she could apparate. She was getting better at that too, she no longer let out a gasp of air when she appeared somewhere. The trick was to breath out just as you apparated, it turned out. But yes, if she ever needed her important documents, she could just apparate from her flat and get them.

Her flat. Her flat. She was actually moving out. To London. Into her own place. Because she was an adult and going to the Auror Academy. Oh, wow. It was still somewhat surreal even after rereading the letter every single day since she got it. She was still going to get it framed but right now she kept on wanting to reread it so it stayed on her, folded up and put in a pocket so she could just whip it out whenever she liked.

Was she aware of how pathetic that was? Yes. Did she care? No. Not really. Look, it was an achievement, okay? She had achieved her dream! Well, was om the way to achieving her dream because she wanted to get into the Auror Academy so she could become an Auror but whatever. She was proud of herself!

She was going to be an Auror! She was going to be an Auror!