A/N: This story takes place between Chapter 14 and the Epilogue of Harry
Potter and Scrolls of Amor and will be a series of vignettes showing what
happened the intervening time. This vignette takes place during the summer
after Harry's final year.
Chapter One: Beginnings and Endings
Harry, Ginny and most of their friends spent the summer at Gryphon's Eyrie, enjoying the calm of living out of Voldemort's shadow. Ginny, Luna, Neville and their younger friends weren't spared the chore of homework, but as even Hermione admitted that they'd earned a break, it was done at a fairly relaxed pace.
Neville left about a week before term began, saying that he needed to return to help Professor Sprout with her lesson plans. Remus disappeared around the same time, but though Harry asked Sirius and the others several times where he had gone, no answer was forthcoming. Two days later, Harry received an owl from Antonio Cabeza, the Captain of the Auror Training Corps, ordering him to report to the Ministry's Combined Operations Training Centre in Devon by 0700 on September the 2nd. Ron and Hermione both received similar letters, although Ron's presence had not been requested until the 5th.
With the Death Eater treat considerable lower, it was decided that a large escort wasn't required for the trip to King's Cross on the 1st. It was decided that they would stay at the Leaky Cauldron overnight, and Sirius would drive the students to the station. Harry insisted on coming along, as did Susan, but they and Mrs Weasley were the only ones as Hermione was convinced that she needed to spend the day preparing for training, and had roped Ron into helping her.
Tom the bartender raised his eyebrows when Harry and Ginny said they would be rooming together, but acquiesced when Sirius assured him it was okay. In all, Sirius paid for six rooms: singles for himself, Mrs Weasley and Mark, twin rooms for the Bones sisters and Jamie and Luna; and the double room for Harry and Ginny.
The prospect of being parted for several months wasn't one that sat comfortable with either one of them, and the fervour with which Harry and Ginny made love that night reflected this, it was as if they were trying to fit months of intimacy into a single night, which was in fact very likely what they were trying to do. By the time they fell asleep at 1.30am, both lovers were exhausted.
----
They woke at about 8am, and it was scramble for them to shower, dress and get down to the pub in time to eat some breakfast. However, despite their late start, the whole group managed to arrive at King's Cross in plenty of time. Harry helped Ginny lift her truck and Hedley's cage into the train. Then he jumped back down to the platform.
"I'm going to miss you, Gin." Harry told her. "I'm not sure how much time off I'll have, but I'll try and get up for the Hogsmeade weekends and your matches. If I can't I'll see you at Christmas."
"I hope you can make, Harry." Ginny told him. "I'll really miss you too."
They held each other for a few minutes then kissed. When they broke apart, Ginny hopped onto the train. Harry said quick goodbyes to Jamie, Mark, Luna and Anita and then returned to where Sirius, Mrs Weasley and Susan were standing. He didn't move until the train had cleared the station, then he turned back to the group.
"Let's go and get our stuff from the Leaky Cauldron," he said. "We've got a big day tomorrow.
Susan nodded. Like Hermione, Ernie and Lisa Turpin, she had accepted a place on the MLES Training Programme as an Inquisitor Trainee, and would be Flooing to the Training Centre with Harry and his friends the next morning.
They drove back to the pub and packed, then used the fireplace to return to Gryphon's Eyrie.
Harry went up to his room once he got in, and satisfied that everything he needed had been packed into his large trunk, settled down to sharpen and polish his weapons. He continued doing this until Civis came looking for him for lunch. After lunch, he spent a little time in the Library, reading over some of the obscure - but useful - books that he hadn't bothered added to his collection. After a big meal, and a couple of games of chess with Remus, he headed up to bed.
----
When they arrived at the Training Centre, they were greeted by a short, stocky blonde who introduced herself Inspector Gelman, Captain Cabeza's assistant, and an athletic black man called Terry Parker, an MLES agent. Parker directed Hermione, Ron and the other MLES trainees to the west wing of Morpheus Tower, and they set off. Gelman told Harry, Romulus and Blaise to follow her.
After a short walk they reached the smaller East Wing, where they would be sleeping, although with the older Auror trainees and the ATP officers.
Harry was pleased to find that they had been allocated single rooms, which according to the inspector could be decorated as they wished. Harry hadn't brought much with him, only a couple of framed photographs, a spelled mirror, and some of the rarer, but more useful volumes from his Defence and Potions collections, plus his weapons. He unpacked his new uniform, which closely resembled his Quidditch uniform expect it was cream and white, rather than red and gold and put it on expect for the robe itself. He decided that he probably wouldn't need many weapons outside of class, so he selected only his new swordstick - broken down into its two halves - and a single throwing dagger, which he tucked into the sheath on his left arm. He removed his new wand - 12½ inches, rowan with another feather from Fawkes the Phoenix - from its box, and after a pause, slotted it into the sheath on his wand arm.
There was a knock on the door, and Romulus looked around the door. "Ready Harry?"
Harry nodded, and picked up the cream and white robe and slipped it on. "I am now. Where's Blaise?"
"She's still unpacking, she'll catch up."
"Okay, let's go then." Harry said, walking out of his room and locking it with a whispered spell.
"When did learn that trick?" asked Romulus. "I've seen you do it with the door of your old office at Hogwarts, but that door's specially charmed."
"It's not that difficult." Harry told him. "Once you get the hang of using something other than a wand, little spells like one are easy to do wandlessly."
Romulus shrugged and headed down the stairs, Harry followed close behind. When they entered the dining room, they saw Ron, Hermione, Susan, and Ernie sitting at one of the tables and hurried over. Blaise, Katie Bell and Katie's partner, Jacques Lien, who had been in the year below Fleur at Beauxbatons, joined them a few minutes later.
They chatted for a while, then fell silent as a men wearing captain's insignia entering the room, followed by a selection of officers including Gelman, Parker, and to Harry's surprise, Sirius.
"Did you know Sirius was an Auror?" he asked Katie in a whisper. She shook his head and continued to look at the assembled group of officers.
Captain Cabeza, who despite his name looked entirely English, was the first to speak. "Good morning everyone." He waited until his greeting had been echoed by most of those present and then continued. "I would like to welcome you to another year at the Combined Operations Training Centre. For some of you, this is your first time here, for others the final stage of a three-year program.
"My assistants will be handing around the partnership and class assignments momentarily. When you receive yours, you may go. You have until after lunch to find your partner and introduce yourself, then you should report to your first lesson together.
"What you do on your own time is your affair, but those of you on the Auror or Inquisitor programmes should be aware that your fate - your success - is as dependent on your partner as it is on yourself. If one of you fails. you both flunk out."
Harry groaned, it was bad enough that he was going to have problems himself, without the worry of someone else failing simply because he did.
However, when he received his assignments a few minutes later, he was a little relived, he'd been paired with Blaise, who he knew he could work with. The fourth member of their class, who turned out to be the Japanese student, Debra Ling, found them a couple of minutes later - she was of course paired with Romulus.
After lunch, the four new Auror trainees left their friends and headed to their first class, which turned out to be Unarmed Combat. Harry smiled, he was glad to be starting the year with something he already knew.
The Auror tasked with teaching basic Unarmed Combat, was a large, brutish Sergeant, called Fredric Bern who reminded Harry of Malfoy's goon, Crabbe. Bern leered at Harry went he came in. "Well, aren't we honoured. Harry Potter has decided to grace us with his presence. Step right up, let's see how well you do without your magic."
Blaise put out a hand to stop him. "Harry."
"I'll be fine, Blaise." Harry told her. He stripped down to his t-shirt and removed the two sheathes from his wrists, the sticks stayed in their holster at his hip. He walked up to the sergeant and assumed a fighting position.
Bern paused for a moment, then took a swing at Harry, his large, ham-sized fist whistling towards his face. Harry deflected the blow with his right forearm, then landed a hard left on Bern's chin. The Auror spun around and shook his head to clear it. Harry didn't give him a chance to attack again though, instead he curled back his foot and snap-kicked him in the chest. The Auror staggered back a little winded. Then charged again.
The fight lasted almost five minutes, but by the second minute, it was obvious to everyone that Harry was more than capable of defending himself against the larger, stronger Bern. Eventually, Harry disabled him using a take-down he'd learnt from Shi Hu.
"As you can, I more than capable of defending my self without a wand." Harry said to Bern, once he had got up off the floor. The older man nodded reluctantly, and told him to rejoin his training partner. He told both pairs to practise sparring and then he returned to propping up the wall.
"Any limits I should aware of, Blaise?" Harry asked Blaise while they warmed up.
"Anything does, Harry. That okay with you?"
"Fine with me," Harry confirmed.
"Then let's fight!"
----
After the Unarmed Combat - which lasted two hours in total - they were told to take half-an-hour to clean up, and then report to Sergeant Halligan for their Charms class.
Sergeant Halligan was a pretty, slim redhead only a few years older than Harry himself and probably the same age as Inspector Gelman. "Good afternoon, in this you will be learning the complex charms needed in your work. Now, how many of you can cast a Patronus Charm?"
Harry, Romulus and Blaise could of course, Ling however, could not.
"Okay, you'll need to work on them and try and get them corporeal of course."
"Actually ma'am, they already are," Harry told her. "Mine's a stag, Romulus' is a wolf, and Blaise's is a viper."
"I see. Would you care to demonstrate Mr Potter?"
Harry nodded and stood, flicking his wand into his hand as he did so. He raised it and pointed it at the fall wall, thinking hard about his time with Ginny the night before. "Expecto Patronum!"
Prongs popped out of Harry's new wand as easily as he had from the old one, and prowled around for a minute or two looked for a target. Finding none, he disappeared.
"Excellent Mr Potter!" exclaimed Halligan. "Mr Moon, Ms Zabini?"
Neither of Harry's friends had any particular problem with the request, and conjured their own Patroni long enough for Halligan to verify that they too were indeed corporeal. Sighing, she told the three of them to read the chapter in their book on advanced shield charms, while she taught Ling the Patronus Charm.
At five pm, she released them, and they headed back to their rooms to drop off their stuff, and then went down to eat. When Harry returned his room a couple of hours later, he found that Hedley was perched on the pedestal reserved for post owls in his room and had a letter attached to his leg.
Harry removed it and lay down on his bed. "You don't need to wait, Hedley." He told the bird. "I'll send Hedwig with an answer when she gets back."
Hedley hooted a response and took off, flying out the open window. Harry slit open the envelope and began to read:
Dearest Harry, I just thought I'd send you a note to tell you that we've arrived at Hogwarts safely. It is a little weird being here without you, and Ron, Hermione and the others of course. I am currently sitting at my desk in the Head Girl's room, which is almost as grand as our room at the castle, but not as large. Tonight's feast was full of surprises: It was a bit of a jolt seeing Neville sitting at the Staff Table. Leona was sitting beside him and you'll never guess who was on her other side.
Obviously not, as I'm here, and not there with you, my love. Harry thought to himself.
It was Remus! Apparently McGonagall asked him to come back and teach as soon as Ambrose handled in her resignation. And that's another surprise! Dumbledore resigned over the holidays and McGonagall took over!
Harry smiled at that. He wasn't surprised that with the war mostly over, Dumbledore had decided on a quite life. He wasn't a young man and had been showing his age a lot since the war started.
Another surprise was that Fleur's sister Gabrielle has come to Hogwarts rather than going to Beauxbatons. She was Sorted into Gryffindor, and she was thrilled to be in 'Harry Potter's old House!' Jamie's taken her under her wing - so to speak - so she should be fine.
Jamie and I miss you already and we hope you'll be able to come up and see us soon.
With Love, Ginny.
Another A/N: Ok folks! I'm going to leave it there for now! I'll be starting work on Chapter Two, which will jump forward a few months to the Gryffindor v Slytherin match, shortly, but in the meantime, let me know what you think. See you soon, Shamrock.
Chapter One: Beginnings and Endings
Harry, Ginny and most of their friends spent the summer at Gryphon's Eyrie, enjoying the calm of living out of Voldemort's shadow. Ginny, Luna, Neville and their younger friends weren't spared the chore of homework, but as even Hermione admitted that they'd earned a break, it was done at a fairly relaxed pace.
Neville left about a week before term began, saying that he needed to return to help Professor Sprout with her lesson plans. Remus disappeared around the same time, but though Harry asked Sirius and the others several times where he had gone, no answer was forthcoming. Two days later, Harry received an owl from Antonio Cabeza, the Captain of the Auror Training Corps, ordering him to report to the Ministry's Combined Operations Training Centre in Devon by 0700 on September the 2nd. Ron and Hermione both received similar letters, although Ron's presence had not been requested until the 5th.
With the Death Eater treat considerable lower, it was decided that a large escort wasn't required for the trip to King's Cross on the 1st. It was decided that they would stay at the Leaky Cauldron overnight, and Sirius would drive the students to the station. Harry insisted on coming along, as did Susan, but they and Mrs Weasley were the only ones as Hermione was convinced that she needed to spend the day preparing for training, and had roped Ron into helping her.
Tom the bartender raised his eyebrows when Harry and Ginny said they would be rooming together, but acquiesced when Sirius assured him it was okay. In all, Sirius paid for six rooms: singles for himself, Mrs Weasley and Mark, twin rooms for the Bones sisters and Jamie and Luna; and the double room for Harry and Ginny.
The prospect of being parted for several months wasn't one that sat comfortable with either one of them, and the fervour with which Harry and Ginny made love that night reflected this, it was as if they were trying to fit months of intimacy into a single night, which was in fact very likely what they were trying to do. By the time they fell asleep at 1.30am, both lovers were exhausted.
----
They woke at about 8am, and it was scramble for them to shower, dress and get down to the pub in time to eat some breakfast. However, despite their late start, the whole group managed to arrive at King's Cross in plenty of time. Harry helped Ginny lift her truck and Hedley's cage into the train. Then he jumped back down to the platform.
"I'm going to miss you, Gin." Harry told her. "I'm not sure how much time off I'll have, but I'll try and get up for the Hogsmeade weekends and your matches. If I can't I'll see you at Christmas."
"I hope you can make, Harry." Ginny told him. "I'll really miss you too."
They held each other for a few minutes then kissed. When they broke apart, Ginny hopped onto the train. Harry said quick goodbyes to Jamie, Mark, Luna and Anita and then returned to where Sirius, Mrs Weasley and Susan were standing. He didn't move until the train had cleared the station, then he turned back to the group.
"Let's go and get our stuff from the Leaky Cauldron," he said. "We've got a big day tomorrow.
Susan nodded. Like Hermione, Ernie and Lisa Turpin, she had accepted a place on the MLES Training Programme as an Inquisitor Trainee, and would be Flooing to the Training Centre with Harry and his friends the next morning.
They drove back to the pub and packed, then used the fireplace to return to Gryphon's Eyrie.
Harry went up to his room once he got in, and satisfied that everything he needed had been packed into his large trunk, settled down to sharpen and polish his weapons. He continued doing this until Civis came looking for him for lunch. After lunch, he spent a little time in the Library, reading over some of the obscure - but useful - books that he hadn't bothered added to his collection. After a big meal, and a couple of games of chess with Remus, he headed up to bed.
----
When they arrived at the Training Centre, they were greeted by a short, stocky blonde who introduced herself Inspector Gelman, Captain Cabeza's assistant, and an athletic black man called Terry Parker, an MLES agent. Parker directed Hermione, Ron and the other MLES trainees to the west wing of Morpheus Tower, and they set off. Gelman told Harry, Romulus and Blaise to follow her.
After a short walk they reached the smaller East Wing, where they would be sleeping, although with the older Auror trainees and the ATP officers.
Harry was pleased to find that they had been allocated single rooms, which according to the inspector could be decorated as they wished. Harry hadn't brought much with him, only a couple of framed photographs, a spelled mirror, and some of the rarer, but more useful volumes from his Defence and Potions collections, plus his weapons. He unpacked his new uniform, which closely resembled his Quidditch uniform expect it was cream and white, rather than red and gold and put it on expect for the robe itself. He decided that he probably wouldn't need many weapons outside of class, so he selected only his new swordstick - broken down into its two halves - and a single throwing dagger, which he tucked into the sheath on his left arm. He removed his new wand - 12½ inches, rowan with another feather from Fawkes the Phoenix - from its box, and after a pause, slotted it into the sheath on his wand arm.
There was a knock on the door, and Romulus looked around the door. "Ready Harry?"
Harry nodded, and picked up the cream and white robe and slipped it on. "I am now. Where's Blaise?"
"She's still unpacking, she'll catch up."
"Okay, let's go then." Harry said, walking out of his room and locking it with a whispered spell.
"When did learn that trick?" asked Romulus. "I've seen you do it with the door of your old office at Hogwarts, but that door's specially charmed."
"It's not that difficult." Harry told him. "Once you get the hang of using something other than a wand, little spells like one are easy to do wandlessly."
Romulus shrugged and headed down the stairs, Harry followed close behind. When they entered the dining room, they saw Ron, Hermione, Susan, and Ernie sitting at one of the tables and hurried over. Blaise, Katie Bell and Katie's partner, Jacques Lien, who had been in the year below Fleur at Beauxbatons, joined them a few minutes later.
They chatted for a while, then fell silent as a men wearing captain's insignia entering the room, followed by a selection of officers including Gelman, Parker, and to Harry's surprise, Sirius.
"Did you know Sirius was an Auror?" he asked Katie in a whisper. She shook his head and continued to look at the assembled group of officers.
Captain Cabeza, who despite his name looked entirely English, was the first to speak. "Good morning everyone." He waited until his greeting had been echoed by most of those present and then continued. "I would like to welcome you to another year at the Combined Operations Training Centre. For some of you, this is your first time here, for others the final stage of a three-year program.
"My assistants will be handing around the partnership and class assignments momentarily. When you receive yours, you may go. You have until after lunch to find your partner and introduce yourself, then you should report to your first lesson together.
"What you do on your own time is your affair, but those of you on the Auror or Inquisitor programmes should be aware that your fate - your success - is as dependent on your partner as it is on yourself. If one of you fails. you both flunk out."
Harry groaned, it was bad enough that he was going to have problems himself, without the worry of someone else failing simply because he did.
However, when he received his assignments a few minutes later, he was a little relived, he'd been paired with Blaise, who he knew he could work with. The fourth member of their class, who turned out to be the Japanese student, Debra Ling, found them a couple of minutes later - she was of course paired with Romulus.
After lunch, the four new Auror trainees left their friends and headed to their first class, which turned out to be Unarmed Combat. Harry smiled, he was glad to be starting the year with something he already knew.
The Auror tasked with teaching basic Unarmed Combat, was a large, brutish Sergeant, called Fredric Bern who reminded Harry of Malfoy's goon, Crabbe. Bern leered at Harry went he came in. "Well, aren't we honoured. Harry Potter has decided to grace us with his presence. Step right up, let's see how well you do without your magic."
Blaise put out a hand to stop him. "Harry."
"I'll be fine, Blaise." Harry told her. He stripped down to his t-shirt and removed the two sheathes from his wrists, the sticks stayed in their holster at his hip. He walked up to the sergeant and assumed a fighting position.
Bern paused for a moment, then took a swing at Harry, his large, ham-sized fist whistling towards his face. Harry deflected the blow with his right forearm, then landed a hard left on Bern's chin. The Auror spun around and shook his head to clear it. Harry didn't give him a chance to attack again though, instead he curled back his foot and snap-kicked him in the chest. The Auror staggered back a little winded. Then charged again.
The fight lasted almost five minutes, but by the second minute, it was obvious to everyone that Harry was more than capable of defending himself against the larger, stronger Bern. Eventually, Harry disabled him using a take-down he'd learnt from Shi Hu.
"As you can, I more than capable of defending my self without a wand." Harry said to Bern, once he had got up off the floor. The older man nodded reluctantly, and told him to rejoin his training partner. He told both pairs to practise sparring and then he returned to propping up the wall.
"Any limits I should aware of, Blaise?" Harry asked Blaise while they warmed up.
"Anything does, Harry. That okay with you?"
"Fine with me," Harry confirmed.
"Then let's fight!"
----
After the Unarmed Combat - which lasted two hours in total - they were told to take half-an-hour to clean up, and then report to Sergeant Halligan for their Charms class.
Sergeant Halligan was a pretty, slim redhead only a few years older than Harry himself and probably the same age as Inspector Gelman. "Good afternoon, in this you will be learning the complex charms needed in your work. Now, how many of you can cast a Patronus Charm?"
Harry, Romulus and Blaise could of course, Ling however, could not.
"Okay, you'll need to work on them and try and get them corporeal of course."
"Actually ma'am, they already are," Harry told her. "Mine's a stag, Romulus' is a wolf, and Blaise's is a viper."
"I see. Would you care to demonstrate Mr Potter?"
Harry nodded and stood, flicking his wand into his hand as he did so. He raised it and pointed it at the fall wall, thinking hard about his time with Ginny the night before. "Expecto Patronum!"
Prongs popped out of Harry's new wand as easily as he had from the old one, and prowled around for a minute or two looked for a target. Finding none, he disappeared.
"Excellent Mr Potter!" exclaimed Halligan. "Mr Moon, Ms Zabini?"
Neither of Harry's friends had any particular problem with the request, and conjured their own Patroni long enough for Halligan to verify that they too were indeed corporeal. Sighing, she told the three of them to read the chapter in their book on advanced shield charms, while she taught Ling the Patronus Charm.
At five pm, she released them, and they headed back to their rooms to drop off their stuff, and then went down to eat. When Harry returned his room a couple of hours later, he found that Hedley was perched on the pedestal reserved for post owls in his room and had a letter attached to his leg.
Harry removed it and lay down on his bed. "You don't need to wait, Hedley." He told the bird. "I'll send Hedwig with an answer when she gets back."
Hedley hooted a response and took off, flying out the open window. Harry slit open the envelope and began to read:
Dearest Harry, I just thought I'd send you a note to tell you that we've arrived at Hogwarts safely. It is a little weird being here without you, and Ron, Hermione and the others of course. I am currently sitting at my desk in the Head Girl's room, which is almost as grand as our room at the castle, but not as large. Tonight's feast was full of surprises: It was a bit of a jolt seeing Neville sitting at the Staff Table. Leona was sitting beside him and you'll never guess who was on her other side.
Obviously not, as I'm here, and not there with you, my love. Harry thought to himself.
It was Remus! Apparently McGonagall asked him to come back and teach as soon as Ambrose handled in her resignation. And that's another surprise! Dumbledore resigned over the holidays and McGonagall took over!
Harry smiled at that. He wasn't surprised that with the war mostly over, Dumbledore had decided on a quite life. He wasn't a young man and had been showing his age a lot since the war started.
Another surprise was that Fleur's sister Gabrielle has come to Hogwarts rather than going to Beauxbatons. She was Sorted into Gryffindor, and she was thrilled to be in 'Harry Potter's old House!' Jamie's taken her under her wing - so to speak - so she should be fine.
Jamie and I miss you already and we hope you'll be able to come up and see us soon.
With Love, Ginny.
Another A/N: Ok folks! I'm going to leave it there for now! I'll be starting work on Chapter Two, which will jump forward a few months to the Gryffindor v Slytherin match, shortly, but in the meantime, let me know what you think. See you soon, Shamrock.