February 1st dawned as blustery and cold as ever. The layers of ice and sleet that covered the Grounds and lake were so thick that the Weasley twins could be spotted skating across it, taking turns to melt the path behind them so that Filch could not follow. Lee Jordan had even managed to kidnap Mrs Norris, placing her on a thin piece of ice in the centre of the lake and melting all the surroundings. This resulted in a furious Filch having to rescue her in a small canoe, and a week's worth of detentions for Lee ("It was completely worth it!").

Harry, Ron and Hermione however, were having less fun. Harry and Ron were now so far behind on their homework that they were spending every night in the same squashy armchairs in Gryffindor tower, scarves wrapped around their necks and faces, poring over rolls and rolls of parchment. They barely had time to focus on anything else, and even though Harry no longer had Quidditch Practice, meaning he had more free nights – he was always the first one to reach the common room after lessons and the last to leave it at night. Hermione was, as ever, up to date with her Homework, but refused point blank to let Harry and Ron copy. ("No Harry!" she said reproachfully, when he asked to look at her work on one particularly tough Transfiguration essay. "If you don't learn it now you never will, and the uses of Human Transfiguration will defiantly come up in the OWLs, because I specifically asked Professor McGonagall which subjects we ought to be revising!")

Harry and Ron had therefore had to manage on their own abilities in Transfiguration, which, Harry felt, left a lot to be desired.
"P, Potter" said Professor McGonagall, handing back Harry's essay and looking rather irritated. "Did you even read page 65 of the textbook?"

Harry opened his mouth to respond but Professor McGonagall had already moved on and was saying "A, Thomas, an encouraging score" to Dean. Scowling, he shoved his essay into his bag with his foot, just as the bell rang for morning break.

"Just one minute please!" Professor McGonagall bellowed over the scraping of chairs and ruffling of parchment.

"As those who have read the notice board in the common room already know, Thursday and Friday of this week will be your Work Experience. This is a chance for 5th years to experience two days of work in the real world. It will help you to contemplate which careers you might want to consider once you leave school"

Harry and Ron had not read the notice board, but it seemed they were the only ones. Hermione was nodding anxiously and Parvati and Lavender were looking excited.

"...and so I need you all to write down somewhere you would be interested in applying!" Professor McGonagall was saying, "And give it to your Heads of House by tomorrow morning. Okay, you may go".

Once again there was a loud clattering of books and quills, and the scraping of chairs as the class left the room.

"It should be fascinating!" said Hermione frantically as they stood huddled in one corner of the snowy courtyard, "I've always wondered what careers are like in the Wizarding world, and it should be a real eye-opener, providing we get some good placements!"

"Sounds really dull to me" said Ron "following people around all day? Come off it."
Harry, who had been imagining spending the days sitting in a cramped cubicle in the Ministry of Magic, sifting through paperwork with Percy, had to agree.

"No, don't you see?" Hermione said earnestly "It's not all Ministry of Magic and offices, there are loads of different careers, like Aurors or Healers or Curse Breakers!"

"Well yeah" said Ron, "but what are the chances we get to be Curse breakers Hermione? Nah, I reckon it'll be working in the Three Broomsticks or something. Well, I suppose that wouldn't be too bad..." he tailed off, blushing.

Hermione shot him a withering look.

"You can't work behind a bar until you're seventeen anyway" Harry pointed out.

"Well I could clean tables and stuff" Ron said hopefully.
"Oh you are pathetic!" Hermione said, pulling her cloak around her chin to protect her from the icy wind.

"So is that what you're gonna write down for McGonagall?" Harry asked before Ron could reply. "Cleaning tables in the Three Broomsticks?"

"Well no, I was just saying... well it's better than working at the Ministry with Percy or Fudge" He said defiantly.
"Or you could work with your dad, Ron" said Hermione. "That should be interesting, I've always wondered about how wizards view Muggle objects..."

But before she could say anything else, the bell rang for the start of their next lesson, and the three of them hurried off to Charms, eager to get inside the warm classrooms and out of the snow.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, unless you count Crabbe breaking his fifth chair in potions, and there was no more talk of work experience until dinner, when Harry, Ron and Hermione were joined by Fred and George in the Great Hall.
"I mean," Ron was saying loudly, his mouth full of mashed potato "Percy's always going on about how great it is to be working and everything, and I just think, how am I going to enjoy anything" he swallowed massively, "that Percy thinks is good?"

"Work experience?" George asked, taking the seat next to Harry, who nodded.

"It's that time again is it?" said Fred, taking the seat opposite George. "Ah, such good memories..."

"Oh yeah I forgot you'd done it!" said Ron, who was now shoving Chicken into his already full mouth. "Ooh, where did you go?" asked Hermione enthusiastically.

"Zonko's" said Fred, who was surveying Ron with distaste. "We learned a lot on work experience, although not necessarily what the school wanted us to." He turned to Hermione and grinned.

"Any thoughts on what you're gonna put down yet?" George asked them.

"I've had loads of ideas!" said Hermione quickly, while Harry and Ron shook their heads. "First I thought of Gringotts, but then I thought the Auror office would be interesting, or maybe I could go to the Daily Prophet, try and get them to print something nice about Harry for a change."

"Ha, good luck with that!" Harry said. "The Auror office though... yeah that would be good..."

"Do they give placements there?" Hermione asked Fred and George.

"Yeah they do" said Fred, "they give them anywhere; a girl in our year even went to the Irish Quidditch team, helped out their training sessions!"

"No way!" said Ron.

"Yep" said George. "And a Slytherin in the year above us went to China to deal with dragons!"

"Well, yeah" said Fred as Hermione looked awestruck "but he had to stay off school the whole of the next week... something about burns in painful places..." he winced, and they all laughed, Ron accidentally spraying Hermione with pieces of roast ham. After that, the talk turned to OWLs, and Harry stopped listening and began to think. How cool would it be to be an Auror for a bit? He could see how they worked, the way they trained, and maybe even pick up some tips about Defence against the dark arts? If anyone needed them, it was him. But Quidditch though...

He was still thinking about it as they climbed the staircases that would lead them to Gryffindor tower, and it wasn't until they were climbing through the portrait hole and Ron said "Harry!" did he stop and turn towards him.

"What?"

"Hermione and I were just saying, we ought to write down our preferred placements now, so we don't have to rush in the morning."

"Oh, right. Yeah."

They settled themselves in their favourite armchairs by the fire and Hermione handed Harry and Ron

a piece of parchment and a quill each. Harry took them, made up his mind on the spot and wrote

"Auror Office, Ministry of Magic" on the parchment, along with his name.

**