She handed him a sealed piece of parchment, saying, "Madame LeGrot told me to bring this to you." She didn't trust herself to say anything else. The whole department was dying to know how he did, and she was having serious issues not bouncing around like a first year at Halloween.

Harry swallowed harshly before a shaky hand reached forward and took the parchment from her hand. His eyes darted to the right, noticing that more than a few people were standing in the hallway, watching them. He looked back at Tonks. "Um... do you think we could go somewhere more... private to do this?" His stomach was flipping uncomfortably.

That almost cracked her. Her face soften slightly, "Of course. Schroeder is out today, you can use my office if you'd like." She turned and gestured for him to follow, barely missing hitting one of the other trainees in the eye.

"It's the third on the left, Harry. You'll have to excuse the mess, though. We've never quite gotten a hang of that filing system administration has in place," she said with a wink.

Harry eye's widened at the state of the office. Hermione had always scoffed at his filing methods, but she'd have an apoplectic seizure if she saw this. He made his way over to a chair, moving the piles and what looked like a dead puffskien to sit in it. He looked up at her once he was seated, the parchment gripping in his hands. "How are you, Tonks?"

Tonks shoved a pile over on her desk and leaned on the edge. She crossed her arms and considered his question. "I'm doing a sight better than you are. You look as if you've swallowed a frog. Or five. Why don't you open it up," she said, nodding at the note crushed in Harry's fist. "The sooner you know, the easier it'll be. It's like a band aide."

Harry laughed nervously, holding the piece of paper up and shaking it. "You mean, open this paper. See if the last three years of my life have been a waste? This little thing?" He sat back in the chair, staring at the parchment. "I don't think could be any easier. I'm pretty sure it can't be harder, though."

"Well, if you failed, we can always feed you to one of Charlie's dragons. No one'll have to know; we'll say you died bravely saving a toddler. Hero's way out," Tonks replied, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Still, she could sympathize. She remembered what it was like waiting for her scores, but she knew she had done a lot worse in a few things than Harry did, and he was famous. Boy Who Lived and all.

He nodded slowly, sticking his finger underneath the official ministry seal and breaking it. He spread the piece of parchment out, reading its contents. He sat back in the chair and looked up at her, a small smile on the corner of his mouth. "Wow. Fought and defeated the Dark Lord and I'm brought low by a piece of parchment."

She wasn't sure what the small smile meant. She started bouncing on the balls of her feet. "So so so? What's it say! Don't make me take it from you, I'm an Auror you know!"

"I'm in. I'm an Auror." He smiled, looking back down at the parchment. "I'm an Auror." He felt his breath go out of his chest in a whoosh, feeling utterly exhausted. He'd spent the last 3 months doing nothing but studying, getting ready for his exams, and now it was over. He was an Auror.

Tonks let out a shout of glee. "I knew you'd make it, Harry!" She pulled him into a hug. "I'm taking you for lunch. You deserve a celebration."

Harry laughed, patting her on the back. "Lunch would be great. I'm suddenly reminded that I haven't really eaten anything since Halloween." The parchment was still clutched in his hand. He was fairly sure that if he let go of it, they're somehow know and change their mind.

She pulled back and leaned over her desk and pulled a bag from the chair. "Just let me grab my cloak and we'll head off. You've anywhere you're dying to go to?" She asked as she left a note for Schroeder to let him know she was out for lunch, just in case he came back early. She was rather excited she got to take him out for a celebratory lunch, and wished that Sirius were still around to come too, even if it was in dog form.

"No one in particular. Just somewhere with food. Do you have any suggestions?" He pushed the piece of parchment in his pocket, patting it to make sure it was really there. He walked into the hallway as she pulled the door shut behind her. He looked up and down the hallway, a smile on his face. He wasn't just training here. He was working here. It made everything seem so much... bigger. He was sure it wouldn't feel like that in a few years. In a few years he'd probably be complaining about being here, but at the moment he couldn't imagine why he'd do such a thing.

Tonks grinned in response to Harry's infectious smile. " There's a great Indian place just a few blocks from the outside entrance to the Ministry. They have amazing curry," she replied, mentally drooling over the food they had there. She loved food, and she loved food with other people, it just made it that much better. They walked down the halls to the lift, ducking as flying departmental notes hovered about her head.

"We can Apparate out of the Ministry, or just take the lift all the way up."

"It's up to you." Harry was looking at everything in a whole new light. "I'm ravenous. So, Apparation might be faster." He hated to think it, but he had the sinking feeling he had a bounce in his step. Honestly, Potter, suck it up. You are not a girl. You are an Auror. Aurors don't bounce.

The bell rang, and the droll voice announced they had reached the Atrium. "I'll meet you in the alley next to the Ministry then," she said, and then disappeared with a loud crack. She waited until Harry had appeared in the alley as well, and then set about to the restaurant.

"How's it feel to be an Auror, Harry?" she asked, pulling her cloak a little closer.

"You mean, how have I felt in the whole 10 minutes since I found out? Brilliant." He grinned, following her down the street, not even feeling the chill in the air through his trainee robes. "I'm an Auror." I don't think I'll ever get tired of saying that. "What do you tell people when they ask how it feels to be an Auror?"

She chuckled. "Well, it depends on who's asking. Mostly, though, I tell people there isn't anything else I'd rather do." She tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and mentally cursed. You'd think being an Auror would have trained that out of me. They rounded the corner and the restaurant came into view.

"This place is magic friendly, so you needn't worry about your robes or waving your wand about," she said as the spicy scents assaulted her nose. Her stomach rumbled, and she grinned sheepishly.

Harry laughed. "Maybe I'm not the only hungry one. I have the feeling we might eat them out of everything they have." He pushed open the door and held it for her, following Tonks as she made her way to a table. He sat, reaching out and downing the glass of ice water in front of him. Smiling, he leaned forward. "So, are you going to give me the talk? You know, about how I'm the last line of defense for the wizarding community and all that rot?"

"You won't be the last wizard defense with trainers that look like that. You'll need boots," she snorted, sticking her foot out from under the table to show her own. "Now, they aren't standard, but they keep your toes from falling off, and you can hide all sorts of useful things in them." She pulled her foot back under the table as the waiter took their orders. She attacked the plate of flat bread the waiter had left behind.

"Constant vigilance, that's what you need. And a sense of humour." She leaned in to stage whisper, "Don't forget a good protection spell, all the witches, and some wizards, will want to have their way with you." Her eyes sparkled with mirth. "Sirius would've advised you to take advantage of that, I frankly, would rather not know."

Grinning, Harry let himself wonder what Sirius would have thought about this. He knew his godfather would have been proud of him, glad that he'd followed through on his plans. He probably would have told him that he knew all along he'd be able to do it, and then chastise him for being worried about it in the first place.

Shaking his head, Sirius' voice still running through his head, he reached out and grabbed his own piece of bread. "Yes, well, I don't think I'll be having any problems in that department, thank you. Sirius made sure to show me all the charms he knew when we were staying at Grimmauld Place so I think I'll be alright."

He placed an elbow on the table and leaned towards her. "And you? Will there be any tiny Tonks running amuck and bumping into things in the near future?" It only seemed fair that if she was able to talk about his sex-life, he be able to talk about hers.

She pulled a face and laughed, imaging Sirius teaching Harry all the charms. Oh, she did miss her cousin. "Hardly," she said derisively. "It seems that being a bootsy Auror and a werewolf for an ex scares off all potential tiny Tonks makers." The waiter, thankfully, choose that moment to show up with their food. A change of subject was better all around.

"So, have you any idea who you'll be paired up with? I'm not really sure when we're up for office rotations. Most trade off with Schroeder or me because we're the only ones who can take the other's filing, or lack there of."

Harry's eyes widened. "I had no idea I'd be put in an office with anyone. Do we get to choose? I don't know anyone but you and Kingsley." The thought of his idea of cleanliness and someone else's clashing did not seem like a very fun time to him. He chewed on his bread, imagining having to share an office with someone who was worse than Hermione at being clean. Or someone messier than Ron. He wasn't sure which would be worse.

"You thought you'd get an office all to yourself?" Tonks raised a blue eyebrow. "Everyone shares. The rotations aren't that long, and they give us a good reason to clean out the offices twice a year. You won't believe some of the stuff they find." At the look Harry was giving her, she stopped. Best not to scare him too soon. "It really isn't that bad. If you're lucky, you'll spend most of your time outside of the office, actually doing things. It had been a bit slow of late." She chewed thoughtfully. "Not that I'm complaining."

"It really had been slow. I had one call on Halloween. One." He shrugged. "Besides the whole Hogsmeade business..." He sighed, feeling slightly odd and guilty that he was a little sad about missing out on the drama that had happened. Dark Marks flying through the air and he'd been in an office. Studying. He'd thought being granted the watch of the whole of the law enforcement division on the ministry would have been more exciting. The fact that everything had been so quiet was disconcerning and didn't sit right with him.

Tonks frowned, her eyebrows burrowing together. "That's causing a bit of worry with everyone, except those who don't want to think anything is happening." She had been buried in a pile of rubbish, literally, trying to chase after a bit of petty theft. She wasn't even aware of what had happened until the next morning.

"I'm sure we'll hear from Those Above Us soon enough."

Nodding slowly, Harry sat back when their food was placed in front of them. "I'm not complaining, really. I mean, I'd rather have it quiet than this. I just... from what Sirius told me, you start to get itchy when you feel something coming on. Something on the horizon, and I've been scratching a lot lately."

{SUMMARY: Harry passes his Auror exams, YAY! Tonks takes him out for lunch. They talk about charms, the Halloween incident, and Harry's itch.}