A/N This little sketch was inspired by blvnk-art Auror Potter. Her work is amazing and I love it.
Hermione accepted the glass of wine from Ginny with a grateful smile. "Thanks I really need this tonight." She was sitting in Ginny and Harry's London flat, enjoying her regular catch-up evening with her good friend. She smiled knowingly at the expectant look she got from Ginny as she sat down with one foot tucked underneath her the other on the floor. "What?" She asked innocently taking a sip from her glass. Ginny groaned and rolled her eyes.
"You know don't you? You know why Harry's been acting so grumpy, muttering about ministry employees." She couldn't help but let out a chuckle, although she had not found it amusing at the time "Spill Granger!"
"Well. Ok. So it all started when the decree came out that all Ministry employees were to prove themselves capable of performing a disarming charm and an acceptable shield charm." Ginny nodded eager for her to continue. "If anyone failed to produce the spells to an acceptable standard they would receive individual instruction from the Aurors, until they could." Hermione noticed the wicked smile that had crept onto Ginny's face as she realised who's job it would be to asses and teach, if necessary every single person who worked at the ministry. "So I went to the Auror department with everyone else from my office…."
Hermione waited with the three other people who currently worked in her very small office, along with everyone else from the department for the regulation and control of magical creatures. She was not really sure why it was necessary for her to be here. Harry and Ron both knew how good she was at performing both required spells. She looked at her wristwatch impatiently, at least she hoped she could get it over with quickly and not waste anymore time that could be better spent working at her desk. The room they stood in was a large cube with no windows, similar in size and shape to the gym hall at her muggle primary school. They had all shuffled in and spaced themselves around the room to form a circle, at the centre of which stood their instructor, Harry. It made sense for it to be him as he was now in charge of the Auror training program. Hermione hoped he chose her quickly so she could leave and get back to more important things. Her colleague Olivia did not seem to mind at all the time wasted.
"Isn't he dishy." She whispered to her, obviously forgetting that Hermione knew him better than most, and in all honesty, had never really looked at Harry in that way. She was well aware of how the other witches saw him though, she had to put up with them giggling nearly every day. He stood in the centre of the room looking at a spot on the ground a little in front of him. He wore the same thing she saw him wear every day at work, black belted trousers, tucked into tall black leather boots, a charcoal grey shirt with the top buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up above his elbows. His stiff collared black wool coat was nowhere to be seen, probably left at his desk. It was not the official Auror uniform, but it was what Harry had made his own, muggle enough so he didn't have to change, wizard enough that he didn't get bothered by his bosses. He held his wand loosely in his right hand, looking completely at ease. As Hermione looked around the room she saw more than a few witches licking their lips and smoothing their own clothes. The wizards looked nervously at each other, intimidated by the thought of facing him. When everyone was in the room and the door closed he finally looked up and regarded them all one by one. He nodded his head to her as their eyes met, she twitched her lip in the slightest of smirks in response. She knew he was annoyed, he never liked to be the centre of attention, despite this he always seemed to find himself there.
"OK let's get this over with shall we." He stated to the room. "This should merely be a formality. I would expect the department that regularly has to deal with dangerous animals extremely capable of producing shields." There was a hint of something in his tone, perhaps impatience, perhaps sarcasm. She wasn't used to being around him in his closed off public personality and couldn't read him as well. A few faces went red at his words obviously not so capable as they felt they should be. "Show of hands who is ready to show me their shield charm?" Perhaps half of the assembled people raised their hands herself included. "Hermione, why don't we start?" He almost sounded cheerful at the chance to try and hex her.
"Of course Harry." She said coolly taking out her wand and stepping onto the spot he indicated on the floor. She felt a slight tingle as she passed the wards set up to protect everyone else from stray spells.
"I will countdown then cast my jinx." He winked at her cheekily, "nothing nasty I promise." She merely raised an eyebrow at him and resisted the urge to tap her foot. He was teaching and she always respected those who were giving instruction. "When I get to one cast your shield as strongly as you can. Don't hold back, you have no idea how strong the spell I send you could be if the shield is too weak it could break through." She knew his words were directed as much to the crowd as to her. He set his feet and faced her once more. "Ready?" She nodded. "Three. Two. One."
"PROTEGO." She shouted. His jinx bouncing off her shield and dissolving as it hit the wards, and staggering him. He nodded to her in silent approval once he had composed himself. She had no idea what spell he had cast at her, as he had cast it non verbally.
"Thank you Hermione for that excellent example." To her annoyance when she retreated back to the circle she wasn't allowed to leave. Instead she was directed to stand in a green circle on the floor. So she was forced to watch everyone else. The next person he selected was from the animal round up team and set up a shield so strong it knocked Harry to the floor. He did not seem the least upset by this, in fact it made him laugh and slap him on the shoulder. The wizard joined her inside the green circle and was standing a little taller than he had before.
The next person who he selected was a particularly pretty witch who kept blinking at him very slowly. The shield she put up was so pathetic Hermione wanted to yell at her about giving witches a bad name, and he wasn't that bloody good looking. Harry reversed his jinx with an impatient wave of his wand and sent her to stand in the red circle. Despite the fact that Harry was giving them a count down so many were still slow to put the shield up. The group of people who needed further training was getting steadily bigger, whereas the crowd around her was quite small and consisted mainly of the field teams. Some of which were muttering quietly about how many people were failing, most of whom were witches. After he had reversed several tarantallegra, jelly legs, and levicorpus jinxes, he was beginning to show his frustration."You know it's coming be ready." He glanced at the two groups and frowned thoughtfully. "Auror Weasley!" He bellowed suddenly and an unseen door opened and in came Ron, looking highly amused at his friends mood. "Please take this group for further instruction" he pointed at the large group of witches who's faces suddenly fell as they realised it would not be Potter giving them the one to one training. Ron ushered them through the door, throwing her a little wink as he left with them. "The remaining people to be tested were those who had admitted to not being overly confident with the spell, all of whom Hermione knew worked in the offices and were never required to go out for field work. He had managed to remove the time wasters, so all that was left were the people who genuinely needed help. Harry's tone changed as he lined the dozen remaining up on one side of the hall. He counted out twelve from Hermione's group to line up across from them. He spoke to each of them in turn down one line then up the other, adjusting the grip on wands of those who were still to have their shields tested, speaking softly to them with gentle encouragement. Watching him took her back to their fifth year and the DA meetings, she remembered the way he spoke to her and the others, never doubting that you would be able to do the spell brilliantly, it was his confidence in her that had made it seem so easy. Well of course you could do it if Harry said you could.
Olivia was one of those who had admitted to having trouble and Hermione could hardly contain her grin as she watched Harry, completely oblivious to the effects he was having on this girl, as he placed his hand over hers and spoke softly to her. Olivia was not an overly silly girl, and Hermione knew she would not of pretended to be rubbish just to get the chance to spend more time with him. She nodded as he spoke to her, eyes a little big, but as he moved on she saw her set her jaw firmly determined not to let him down. She watched him breathe confidence into every person along that line, like he had done to so many before. He stepped away from the lines and joined her little group. "Everyone ready." Firm nods met his words, "three. Two. One." All up the line jinxes rebounded off shields and dissolved into the wards, nobody was knocked off their feet but Harry looked pleased. "Right then, who wants to try and disarm me."
Ginny laughed as she listened, a whole new appreciation for the crap her husband had to put up with. Not that she wasn't going to tease him about the witches lining up to be jinxed by him.