There was so many things going on in the Auror Department at the moment that it was getting hard for her to keep things straight. The investigation into the whole suspected terrorism was still ongoing even though it had long been left off the papers. There was a weird incident of a pig being cursed with something that had got the Obliviators nervous so they had called in the Aurors. And then there was this other thing going on that everyone was being really hush hush over and every time one of the Probationary Aurors came along, everyone shut up like you did in school when you were gossiping about someone. But without the guilty looks at being caught. It was all very strange. All of this going on and she and her friends were involved in none of it!

Their involvement in the Suspected Terrorism had ended after their sorting of the public reports and doing sweep throughs after the fact (something she was still jealous a few of them got to do while she didn't). The whole cursed pig thing had been very weird from the incident reports but it had had to be handed over to Aurors that specialised in curses so, again, she didn't get to be involved in that. Not that she wanted to be near a cursed pig, in hindsight. But it might have been cool to at least see. The last she had heard on it was that they had had to call in the Curse Breakers at Gringotts. Hey, if Bill Weasley hadn't been in Egypt for his training maybe she would have seen him around. That would have been pretty cool. Not as cool as seeing Charlie, obviously, but she doubted that was going to happen any time soon. She missed Charlie. It kind of sucked not seeing him for a whole four years. Maybe more actually. Eh, she wasn't about to go into the exact months and days. Merlin, had it really been that long though? Four years. That was almost as long as they had been at Hogwarts together. Though she wasn't even twenty-two yet so four years was a decent chunk of her life.

A memo chose this moment to collide with her head. She was sure that they were either supposed to hover in front of you calmly until you grabbed it or land on your desk but nope, every one she had got (though, to be fair, she had only had four so far) had smacked right into her head.

'All Probationary Aurors are to report to my office at half eleven'

Huh. What did Scrimgeour want with them? She supposed she would find out in, she checked her watch, forty minutes.

Scrimgeour looked at them all sternly, making them nervous. He just had this look about him, like a lion staring down a predator. Tonks wasn't a fan; it made her skin crawl. Snape's glare really had nothing on Scrimgeour. Snape's was just mean. Scrimgeour, well, his was predatory, like he was waiting for you to do something. She was pretty sure that the Potions Professor would lose in a glaring match between the two.

Had they done something wrong? Was he glaring at them or was this just his usual glare? Tonks didn't actually know yet. She had yet to see the man smile.

Granted, it had taken an age to see Moody smile but this was different. Moody always gave the impression he could smile; he just chose not to. Scrimgeour looked like he didn't know how to smile.

"Right, we're actually going to let you do something."

Tonks' heart leapt excitedly at that. And then it calmed almost immediately as it was replaced by suspicion. What exactly did he mean by do something? The last time someone said that they had been given a whole bunch of regulations to rhyme off and it turned out the guy had been pulling their leg and they hadn't actually needed to do that. Yes, she was still pissed off about that and yes, she was thinking of ways she could get her revenge.

"You are going to be on your best behaviour and behave exactly as an Auror should."

Why did everyone who lectured you always around like a teacher? Did he really think that they wanted to screw this up? She looked around and everyone had the same eager expression she was sure was on her face. Even McCabbert! Come on, was he going to tell them what they were going to be doing or what? Why was he still glaring at them?

"Try to have some decorum," he grumbled.

Come on, come on. Get to the point! This better be as good as he was making it sound.

"Because you are going to be paired with a Senior Auror and go out on a patrol."

There was silence as they all processed that and then they broke out into excited whispers.

Patrols? They were going to get to go put on patrols? Like, honest to Merlin patrols that Aurors did to keep communities safe? They were going to do that? Cool! And a Senior Auror? They were going to get paired with a Senior Auror? She would have thought that they were all tied up in all these investigations? Was it better that they were paired up with someone senior? Oh, who cared? They were actually going to get to do something out of the office! Woo hoo! Should she happy dance? She felt like she should do a happy dance. Except that's not want respected Aurors did so she didn't. That and she didn't want to end up flat on her face in front of everyone again.

"You're vibrating," McCabbert hissed out of the corner of her mouth.

Oh, she looked down at herself. So, she was. Whoops.

"This is exciting," she whispered back.

"Yeah, well, try not to look like some hyper child and ruin this on us.

Senior Aurors started filing in, she had seen most of them around though she wasn't sure on all their names.

"You will treat your Senior Auror with respect and obey all instruction given," Scrimgeour said.

That's all she heard when she saw who came in last, his wand out and eyes looking about suspiciously. She bet a direction charm or three had already been set off. She could help the squeal that left her as she pounced on him for a hug. She caught him by surprise too because the momentum she produced actually made him bend backwards before he realised what was going on.

And he hugged her back! That was the third hug she had managed to wrangle from him, all in the past three months! That had to be some sort of record, right? Was there even a record? Did people even hug him? She hoped so because otherwise that would be kind of sad. Even grumpy, old, paranoid gits deserved hugs. Well, if the grumpy, old, paranoid git let them. Something she doubted that Moody willingly let happen.

Then she realised that people were staring at them. Like, really staring at them. The bad sort of string with all the weird looks and judgemental facial expressions. Great. Just great.

"Typical, of course Moody comes for her."

That was Dubois. She hadn't expected something like that to come from Dubois. He was normally so mild mannered and chill.

He had said it somewhat too loudly (or Moody had had his ears charmed so that they were like bats, which he probably would do if that was a thing) because Moody heard him. And Moody was not happy because he stared at Dubois. Thankfully he didn't glare but still. His stare was pretty intense and very few people could withstand it.

Tonks stuck her tongue at Dubois who looked like he didn't know whether to be shocked or horrified at the fact that Moody was staring intently at him. Either way he looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him whole.

As amusing as that was, that wasn't important right now so she elbowed Moody. Well, she tried to but he saw her coming and sidestepped it.

Scrimgeour interrupted all of this with a cough.

"Well, I see Auror Tonks and Auror Moody already knew they were partnered together. Now for the rest of you. Dubois! You're with-"

Tonks tuned the pairings out. They weren't important. She was with Moody again!