Disclaimer: No copyright infringement is intended. All credit goes to JK Rowling. If you see something you remember from the books or films, it does not belong to me. You can't sue me, I don't have any money.
Authors note: I'm sorry for the lack of updates for Trying Again, really I am... Just a short little something to keep the plot bunnies at bay. Don't you just love it when people review? I know I do.
Alastor Moody wasn't exactly happy. His current mood was mostly caused by his continued imprisonment.
He may have been freed from his trunk, but this was followed by another lengthy stay in the school hospital wing under the watchful eyes of that mother hen they call Poppy Pomfrey. Merlin, he hated hospitals, especially the smell of them. Disinfectant potions, healing potions, starched sheets and blood. Lovely. He took the bloody potions, but he drew the line at a sponge bath. Bloody hell, he wasn't dead yet!
It took the best part of seventy two hours before she couldn't take it any more and kicked him out.
He was barely out the door before Dumbledore cornered him and forced him to sit through tea, lemon drops and the worst briefing he'd had in decades. The abridged version was that Voldemort was back, a student was dead, the Potter boy saw it all and the order was desperately trying to regroup. The fact that Black is innocent and Pettigrew is alive didn't even raise his eyebrows.
"Ok, now what?"
"We are very badly outnumbered, Alastor, we need all the assistance we could possibly get. The old group is badly depleted and with the ministry denying the return most of the wizarding world is still blissfully unaware of recent events."
"The Diggory boy is dead, how the hell do you explain away a corps?"
"It's being labelled a tragic accident."
"Charming, although I suppose it's no big surprise that Fudge would rather save his own arse than do his job."
"True, it is rather unfortunate, though not entirely unexpected, but it certainly complicates matters."
He didn't bother to respond, he didn't see the point.
"Harry is safe a here, but the term is almost at an end and students will be returning home for the summer holidays."
"Potter will need to be watched, and for that we need warm bodies and shoe leather."
"Which brings us back to the order."
"Who's in so far?"
"Apart from us? Black, Lupin, the Weasleys, Vance, Mundungus Fletcher, Dedalus Diggle and Hestia Jones. Possibly my brother. They are attempting to spread the word and recruit, but so far it's been an uphill battle."
"It's one thing to recruit during war times when Hogwarts is churning out a new batch of soldiers every year and people are ready to fight, now you can't even get them to believe his back."
"Is there anyone in the auror department who may believe our side of the story, Alastor? We need as many ministry employees as possible on our side, and the aurors are the best of the best. I know you've been out of the loop for a while now, but surely there must be somebody..."
"Kingsley Shacklebolt, maybe. If we could talk the boy around to our side it would be a great help. And then perhaps... No, scratch that last, it won't work."
"Who, Alastor?"
He ignored the question for a moment, trying to reason with himself. The girl would be willing to fight, of course she would, it was in her blood, after all. The problem was that he didn't know if he wanted to drag her into this.
He never wanted a protege, but the decision wasn't his to make. The official, signed letter from his bosses was accompanied by a tall, thin girl in torn blue jeans and and a t shirt that proudly proclaimed the name of some or another group he had never even heard of. Strangely, that wasn't what caught his attention.
The girl had hair in the most vivid shade of fluorescent pink he had ever laid eyes on.
He didn't want her in the department. Not because she was a female, but because she was clumsy, childish and naive. He felt sure she would fall out at some point during the process, but she worked like a woman possessed. Outlasting her fellow recruits, passing every exam with top marks, fighting her way to the top of the ladder in the physical tests...
Then came her first assignment. It wasn't pretty, he would be the first one to admit that. The girl was shaken, but she didn't shed a tear, she didn't fall back, she just kept moving forward, fighting tooth and claw. It still wasn't enough for him though. That night as they sat in the hallway at St Mungo's waiting for news on the others, he tried one last time.
"Lass, this is just a suggestion, but you need to think about it. Try something else, maybe training or a healer or something like that. Get out before this eats you alive."
She didn't even bother to look up, she just informed him where he could shove his suggestion.
Perhaps that was when he first took a liking to her.
When she was the only woman left in the race, the powers that be forced her to share a locker room with the remaining male recruits. On the second day she broke the nose of a lad who had gotten a little touchy feely with her. Moody told the boy if he even as much as thought about pressing charges, he would personally make sure he never worked at the ministry again. Then he bought the girl a beer.
He had seen her fight with the sort of steely determination of a soldier in battle, he watched her bring down grown men twice her size and with decades more experience, he stood by her side as she braved the customary Azkaban duty, and on two occasions he sat by her bedside as the healers tried to figure out what the hell her assailant had tried to do to her.
He watched her at the funeral of one of her closest friends as she stood with her back straight and her shoulders squared, not daring to shed a tear...
He watched as she became a fully qualified auror and started the long, tedious task of working her way up in the ranks, fighting for her position in the group, fighting for the safety of people who didn't even know who or what she was...
When the day finally came for him to retire, she came to him. A hug was out of the question, but the handshake said everything they couldn't, her hand small and soft in his own callused ones. Her going away present was a strange one. A silly little muggle trinket really, but it meant the world to him: a metal badge with the words "world's greatest boss" stamped on it in bright pink ink.
"Alastor?"
"Hmm?"
"Who were you thinking of?"
"Pardon?"
"You mentioned another auror who might be able to help us."
"O, yes, there was one more. Nymphadora Tonks. She's young and fairly new to the aurors, but I'd trust her with my life..."