This takes place about fifty years ago when Alastor Moody had just finished school, presumably between the defeat of Grindelwald and before Riddle became Voldemort.

A rather sinister looking young man approached the office. Any positive utterance about his looks would have been a downright lie: He was not very tall with longish dark brown hair. His face looked slightly lopsided, and the scowl he was wearing didn't improve his looks either. At the door there were two trembling people of about his age. He, however, was not trembling. He looked at them through dark beady eyes. One of the others looked back for a moment. 'Have you spoken to them yet?' The new arrival eyed him for a few seconds before answering

'No. You have?' The other nodded but didn't have time to answer for the door opened, and an ancient wizard stepped out.

'Ashley has left?' It was the third young man, who had been silent before, who answered.

'Yes. He remembered an appointment elsewhere.' The ancient wizard sighed.

'Good idea. And you can go as well. Brody, I think your motives are not quite as noble as you pretend they are, and Minger, well, we discussed for some time, but I think you'd better try somewhere else.' The two young men nodded, one of them looking severely disappointed, the other seemed at least partly relieved. 'So you are another candidate?' He merely nodded. 'Come on in, then.'

The young man entered an enormous room. There was a long table along one wall with only six seats at the right side. He listened into himself, trying to detect nerves, but failed. He had never been nervous, and even now he was absolutely calm. He had always known beforehand if he would pass or fail an exam, and this time there was no doubt that he would pass gloriously.

'Name,' said a young witch at the end of the table.

'Moody, Alastor,' replied the young man in the same businesslike tone.

'Age?'

'Eighteen.'

'Sit.' Alastor looked around but didn't find a chair. The office floor was rather dusty. He remained standing.

'Obedience,' said the wizard who had led him in, 'is an important thing.' Alastor considered for a moment. He had seen people doing that spell a hundred times, and he had tried it himself once or twice, but he had never managed to do it properly. It hadn't seemed important. He decided it was worth an attempt. He waved his wand and, for the first time in his life, managed to conjure a chair out of thin air. He sat down and fixed his gaze on the committee before him.

'You are insolent,' said the wizard. Alastor found that this was neither a question nor an order, so he remained silent. 'There on the left is Belinda Clery, she's the secretary today. Beside her are Robert Eyling, Jack Lombert, Urania Gallows, Adriana Prophy, and I am Simon Lithus, Head of the Auror office. Stand up.' Alastor rose again, fixing Belinda Clery with his dark eyes now. 'As you have realized, Belinda is important for you. She is the one who will take notes on how you are doing, and she is a member of the jury. Show us something.' Alastor prodded Lithus' glass of water with his wand, causing it to melt. The water spilt and Lithus jumped aside. Alastor looked at him unsmilingly. 'Good. Continue.' Alastor wanted to end this for good, so he decided to go for the grand effect.

'Expecto Patronum!' he yelled louder than necessary, and an enormous silvery bear emerged from his wand. Six pairs of eyes widened. The creature began ambling towards the jury. It seemed to focus its attention on Lithus. The Auror made a shooing gesture at the spell.

'All right, all right, thank you.' Alastor lowered his wand and the bear vanished. 'Wanted to be impressive?'

'Is it my fault that it isn't a ferret?'

'There was no need to shout,' said Lithus. Belinda Clery raised one eyebrow.

'Excuse me, but I do think there was. I assume you imagined a situation where you need your Patronus?' Alastor nodded. 'Talkative, are we? Anyway, in such a situation it would be astounding if he'd whisper.' Alastor looked both grateful and proud. Clery offered a pleasant smile. 'Come here.' She pointed at a quill before her. Alastor took it, and a moment later he felt the funny jolt in his stomach that told him he had just taken a Portkey.

Alastor looked into the intense darkness that surrounded him when something brushed against his sleeve. He felt the hairs on his neck rising and dropped the quill. Panic built in his chest when the thing that seemed to be prowling around him seized him and threw him hard on the ground, but he managed to master it. This was a test. Whatever it was that lingered around him, it could not be too dangerous. The others were certainly watching him. Something cold touched Alastor's face, and he shuddered. There was something invisible around him, and there was nothing that could frighten him more. 'Hang on,' he said suddenly. 'Riddikulus!' he roared then, again louder than he would have needed to, and the phenomenon became a see-through shape wrapped into a towel. Alastor gave a laugh of relief, and the Boggart was gone. Still grinning, Alastor picked up the Portkey, and found himself back in the office.

'Sit,' said Lithus, and Alastor dropped into his chair. All four legs gave way underneath him and he landed hard on the ground. He rose again and brushed the dust off his robes. 'Sit. No conjuring.' Alastor decided not to allow them to make fun of him. He went to the left end of the long desk and sat down on it.

'Oi!' shouted the witch Lithus had introduced as Urania Gallows. He turned, and she tossed a small object at him, which he caught intuitively. That proved to be a mistake. It was a bad egg. Grudgingly Alastor cleaned his hand with a muttered spell and remained seated silently. For a whole while they didn't say anything, and Alastor wondered what they were up to. He decided to throw caution to the winds.

'Listen, I do not see what I am supposed to do.' Suddenly the door burst open and Alastor slid down from the table, wielding his wand at the thing that had just entered. It was enormous and black. It looked like a cross-breed between a human and a dragon: Its face seemed vaguely human, but it was scaly and the proportions looked incorrect. Its body was lizard-like and its tail had three nasty-looking stings. Alastor backed away and hit a wall: The jury were behind what looked like a glass screen but was certainly more solid. 'Have you all lost it?' roared Alastor. 'First you give me a Boggart a first-year could deal with, then you set a full-grown Naga on me? What comes next, I wonder?' He pointed his wand at the creature and shouted 'Stupefy!' It was as useless at he had expected it. Alastor's mind was racing. Suddenly he remembered a spell that could be used to get through a solid wall. It was difficult, because you had to know thickness and density of the wall, and that was hard to estimate with a live, moving creature. He didn't care, had no time to think of a different, safer solution. He wrote a huge X before him and yelled 'Dimetans!'

The beast roared with anger, and for one horrible moment Alastor thought it would rip him into pieces, but then he saw its body drift apart: The spell had worked. Instead of lying dead on the floor, the Naga vanished. 'What the …' began Alastor, frowning.

'Come in, Jimmy,' said Lithus. The door opened, and a tiny old man entered. Alastor frowned. His face looked as if he had tried to snog a Naga some twenty years ago. 'This is Jimmy Baker, and you have just encountered his worst fear.'

'Met a Naga once?' asked Alastor, and Baker nodded. 'So this thing was his Boggart. I take it you are done with me, so will you tell me what you'll do with me?'

'Wait outside,' said Gallows, and Alastor obeyed. He was furious. If he had known that this was only a Boggart he wouldn't have made such an effort, it would have been enough to get its full attention. He had to wait for fifteen minutes before the door opened and Lithus led him back in. It was Urania Gallows, however, who spoke to him.

'You are aware that these days many think they can apply for a job here and have an easy time.' Alastor didn't know what to say to this and so remained silent. 'Actually, we didn't intend to take anyone new into the office this year. So I am sorry to say that in fact we haven't got an open post.' Alastor stared at her in disbelief. 'We assumed that all the candidates would be as pathetic as the two young men right before you.'

'Three,' corrected Alastor automatically. According to Lithus one must have left before his arrival. Gallows waved him away.

'Right. One was surely convinced that this would be a nice and quiet job these days, and the other fainted when he saw the Naga. The last one ran for it when he saw his Boggart.' Alastor felt like cursing the jury into next year.

'Fine,' he said instead. 'Good day.' He headed for the door, willing himself to believe that this was true.

'Wait a minute,' said Clery behind him.

'For what?' asked Alastor through gritted teeth.

'We have noted that in the last eight years you are the only candidate who would have survived even if this had been a real Naga. Look here.' Alastor approached. Before her lay a scroll of parchment with what he recognized as Professor Dippet's handwriting. 'We asked for information about every student who wanted a job here. Professor Dippet told us that you are proud, have a nasty temper and that you are easily scared.' She looked up at Alastor. 'I think you are very proud, but if you learn to master that it can become an advantage. Just don't ever underestimate your enemies. You have a quick temper, but that is no problem. You are a bit jumpy, but you can control yourself all the same, so I think he got you wrong there: You are not lamed by panic. I have to disagree with Professor Dippet, for once.

'Furthermore you react quickly and correctly, and you are a good observer. Your last test was actually Urania here talking about the two young men before you, which were, as you said, three.

'The one thing that could have failed you here is your absolute lack of patience. Work on that.' Simon Lithus rose from his chair, grabbed Alastor's hand and shook it.

'Urania Gallows is going to be your Personal Coach,' he said. 'Welcome to the Auror office.'