And that was finally everything done and you'd think that that would mean that she could step back and be relieved except that Tonks couldn't step back and breathe a sigh of relief because she was freaking out. The fact that her thoughts weren't even pausing between words was a pretty good indication of that. Because you know what came after finishing tests? Waiting for results.

Results. Their results were due. Well, not right this second because they were getting added up and weighted and combined and whatever else happened to them. But they were due their results today. Today. On the same day they took their exams. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She supposed it was good because they didn't have to wait and stress out for a week but also it didn't give them a chance to breathe after a very gruelling day. She knew that she felt light-headed now that they were done never mind anyone else. She definitely should have eaten more at her lunch break but it was all she could do to even choke down the handful of biscuits that she had brought with her. Or rather, what her dad had made her bring with her. He had muttered about getting at least two Trainee Aurors a year fainting because of not eating during exam day. And then he went off on a rant about them doing all of the exams in one day. Apparently, that was cruel and unnecessary. Whatever.

"We're all going to be fine," said Jean with her usual optimism.

Which normally Tonks didn't have an issue and normally told McCabbert off if she tried to be sarcastic in response to the optimism but today it just rubbed her the wrong way. She didn't bother responding for fear of snapping her head off and Jean didn't deserve that even if she was being annoying. Couldn't she read the room? Couldn't she tell that none of them wanted to be told that they were all going to be fine?

What happened if you failed at this point? After three whole hears of learning and studying and training and it was all for nothing? What happened to you then? That would be horrible. Horrendous, even. It didn't even bear thinking about except now that was all that she could think about. Great.

She wasn't going to fail. Right? No, she wasn't. She had studied hard, practised even harder. She had worked and worked and worked and that had to pay off. It had to. She was good, she knew that. Well, maybe not good but good enough. Good enough to pass and become and Auror, she was sure.

Oh, she didn't know. She didn't know at all. There had been an awful lot of head shaking and tutting on her Stealth and Tracking Exam. Not to mention the dirty looks of that older examiner. Look, she hadn't meant to stumble into him at the very start, okay? That bad been an accident. Why in Merlin's name would anyone ever do that on purpose? But that had set the tone for the whole stupid exam. She had to have tripped over her own feet at least three times and she got caught by one of the people she was supposed to be tracking. Granted, that was towards the end but still. She wasn't supposed to be caught at all! And she didn't even manage to save herself when she was caught and throw him off her scent again so that he didn't raise the alarm which sucked. That bit had definitely been a failure. But was it a big enough failure? She didn't know. She felt like she didn't know anything anymore.

Did anyone? Tonks looked around her to see what everyone else was thinking. Nerves, nerves and more nerves, that's all she was getting right now. Nome of them were speaking. There hadn't been any speaking at all except for Jean's hopeful comment. They were all just standing around (none of them could bear even sit) all nervous and anxious. Wait, were those the same thing? She was pretty sure they were the same thing. Did it even matter? No, it didn't matter because she was definitely feeling both emotions and felt like she couldn't sit still, she was jiggling her foot as it was. She was doing it so much that she was actually annoying herself, never mind everyone else. So, she didn't. She got up and started pacing. Pacing was good. Pacing would help. Except it didn't because it was mindless and let her think too much. The whole point was that she didn't want to think! So, she paced harder, even added a stomp every now and then. No one cared. No one was even paying any attention to her.

Though, maybe she should have been paying a little bit more attention because one turn taken too quickly ended up with a full-on collision with Mainwaring. Literally, there was a BANG when their heads bounced off each other.

"What the hell?" He shouted, clutching his head.

"What did you do that for?" Tonks demanded, holding her own.

"What do you mean? I didn't do it on purpose! I wasn't the one pacing like some sort of maniac!"

"You knew I was pacing! I didn't see you!"

"Are you blind! I'm at least a foot taller than you!"

Which he was but he didn't have to point that out!"

"Shouldn't have been in my way in the first place!"

"Hwy! Knock it out!" Hissed Fontaine. "We're all in the same boat. We're all stressed but that does not mean you get to fight!"

Which made them stop, both of them looking sheepish. Fontaine tended to keep to herself so for her to tell them off meant that they were being really obnoxious. She was right, after all, they were all in the same boat.

Why were they even all put together like this? Surely that wasn't a good idea? She was pretty sure that you could feel the amount of nervous energy they were exuding in this room from the continent! It was impressive that they hadn't started arguing or fighting before this point. What time was it? How long had they been here? She could see out the window that the sun was starting to go down so it was getting late. Just how long did it take to get everything marked and sorted out? Not this long, right? Right?

An unnatural hush fell over the room as the door opened. Only for them all to figure out that it was just Eggleston coming back from the bathroom. He got such a telling off for that.

"I can't help that I have a nervous bladder!" He complained as he sat back down, still looking nervous.

"You are an idiot," Dubois told him.

"I'm nervous!"

Which started a whole argument where all of them got involved. See? They had been left alone for far too long. What else did you expect? They needed to lose some of this nervous energy and bickering was apparently the best way to go about it.

In fact, it worked so well that none of them realised when the door opened with the examiners for real.