:::
Done. That's all Rufus could think. This is done and this will end. He had had it up to his eyeballs with this insistent hammering from Dumbledore. It had gotten to the point where Rufus was having dreams about it. He and Dumbledore. Together. In his dreams. There was the old clown, on the brink of losing his mind, and all he could think of to do was continually poke Rufus in the back. Right in between the shoulder blades. He never said anything but the gesture was enough to drive even dreaming Rufus mad.
This was the final straw when another owl landed on his desk at home. It was one thing to bother the head of the auror office when he was busy at the ministry but to continue in the same manner when Rufus should be at home resting was intolerable. The large owl knew better than to stay too long. Colleagues of his had been swatted at by Rufus—one he even attempted to hex. The bird came back with a few tail feathers missing and a promise to never return to that man's house again.
Rufus didn't need to look at the slanted and curvy handwriting to know who it came from. He didn't even need to read the message. Hogwarts would be taking Alastor Moody on as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year and because of that Dumbledore seemed to think that the entire auror office was in the middle of a crisis. All and all Rufus was glad Moody was gone for a year. He was gone forever to be honest. He had finally announced his retirement after this year and would never be back to stand idly around, staring paranoid at the quill on Rufus's desk or demanding information from visiting family members.
All of this was good. Moody was leaving and maybe Rufus could put things in order once again.
Of course he would need a good night's sleep to get that done. And he would need Dumbledore to stop continually bothering him at all hours of the day and in the world of his dreams.
Bitterly, Rufus took out a quill and quickly wrote his reply to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore,
I appreciate your concern for the well being of auror training but I assure you AGAIN that the transfer of Alastor from our offices to Hogwarts will not deter from the learning and growth of the future aurors here.
We have found a Mr. A. Tourkleson to work as assistant mentor for the recruits. Your suggested professor is not required.
I repeat, Dumbledore, I DO NOT have a job for this man of yours. Tourkleson will do a fine job in mentoring to the recruits. Your services in finding a suitable mentor are not required nor are they acceptable—particularity when the daily reminders of your find arrive at my personal address at all hours of the night.
R. Scrimgeour
With that Rufus sent his own personal owl with the letter and hoped that would finally be that.
:::
Unfortunately, that was not that.
Rufus had barely made it to the lifts when he heard a familiar humming trailing behind him. He quickly jumped into the lift and pretended as though he did not know who was so close behind him. Frantically he hit the button that took him straight away to the auror office. It seemed almost possible that he might make it there when Dumbledore called out so loud that no one could deny who he was looking for. People even turned to stare at the tall, white haired wizard as he trotted with an unusual energy towards the sullen looking Rufus.
"Good morning!" Dumbledore sang, "So glad I could catch you, Rufus."
"I trust you received my owl last night," Rufus said with a sneer, seeing a few trace auror apprentices slip past the two.
At that moment, Dumbledore began to smile even wider and Rufus knew this wasn't going to end well. The old codger merely continued in saying, "Well I trust you received my owl this morning."
It was then that Rufus noticed the second wizard, trailing behind Dumbledore. Dressed in shabby robes and wearing a look that said he wanted more than anything to not be here right now, Rufus could only guess this was Dumbledore's prior suggestion for the job of assistant mentor.
"I sent it this morning," Dumbledore continued, "I sent it right to your office."
Rufus narrowed his eyes, "I have not been into the office yet today, Dumbledore. Thus I have not received it."
"Oh yes, yes, yes. Of course," one could swear that the old wizard gave the smallest of winks to his younger counterpart who was mouthing a wordless plea to Dumbledore to stop. Stop, though, he would not, "You see, Rufus, when you sent me that owl last night, I got to thinking that perhaps when you said Mr. A. Tourkelson, you meant Archibald Tourkelson. Now, as you may know, I taught Archie like so many other students many years ago and I like to keep up with him. So I decided to pay Archie a visit this morning-"
"Quite an early visit-" Rufus growled.
"No time like the present," Dumbledore grinned, "And I'm afraid you were mistaken. Archie had no plans at all to come in and mentor to the aurors. Oh no. He is in fact traveling to the states of all places to research unicorns with a Mr. T. Elects. Do you remember Trevor? A student of mine as well. Sorted into Hufflepuff and very-"
"Where is Tourkelson, Dumbledore?" people began to stare again. But this time they looked at Rufus who now was turning a bright red color.
"In America," Dumbledore smiled, "But don't worry at all, Rufus. I have something better," his eyes fell on the now stark white faced wizard beside him, "Allow me to introduce a good friend of mine and former student, Remus Lupin…"
Rufus refused to even give Mr. Lupin a second look but Dumbledore stopped him before he could speak up and oppose, "He's an excellent teacher. Prefect when he was at Hogwarts and you'll see he's got the work experience to deal with anything. You'll find when you go up to your office that Alastor has also sent in his owl giving Mr. Lupin here his full consent and approval-"
"Moody approved you?" Rufus gave Lupin a good look.
"Of course! Oh, come now, Rufus," Dumbledore clicked his tongue and laughed, "You have a job. Remus needs a job. He can do this job. Better than anyone I know. It's a perfect match, Rufus. Besides, you don't want to stifle destiny, now do you?"
Rufus nearly choked hearing those words escape Dumbledore, "Destiny?" he sneered.
"Oh yes. That loaded term we give to any incident whose consequences were too large to ignore. I think the same thing, Rufus, but some times you just can't deny destiny when it comes," again Dumbledore appeared to give Lupin a wink, "You never know when it's going to stumble in," with that he gave a short bow to both Rufus and Lupin, "Best of luck to both of you. If you excuse me, I must return to school."
Dumbledore turned and was gone.
Left in his wake, both men standing outside the auror office had looks of complete astonishment on their face. Rufus's soon crumbled into detest as he surveyed the wry looking Lupin again.
"Destiny?" he spat, "Between you and me, sir, I believe Dumbledore is losing his mind," Rufus turned and caught sight of a bouncing intern just within shouting distance.
Before he could finish bellowing, "Tonks!" the pink haired witch was beside the pair dressed in torn jeans and a vibrant, hunter orange sweater.
"You rang?" she said.
Without so much as eye contact, Rufus dropped his brief case into Tonks's arms, "This is your new assistant mentor, Mr. Lupin. Please show him to his cubicle," before exiting Rufus gave the newest member of the auror team another shot of elevator eyes, "I do hope Dumbledore was right about you," and then he too disappeared.
"Charming fellow," Tonks said earnestly, "He grows on you."
Lupin seriously doubted that, "Really?"
With that the young witch smiled, "No. Not at all. I hate his guts."
For the first time all morning Lupin smiled.