Chapter 2

"Ready for your first day?" James asked his sister's boyfriend jovially while winking at his mother and father who were sat at the breakfast table with him.

"Ready as I'll ever be!" Raulph replied looking rather nervously at his girlfriend's eldest brother, he was a little bit wary of James Potter after having got his one and only sister into a dangerous situation earlier in the year and even though Lily had assured him that the whole family had forgiven them for the mistake they had both made, he still felt a little nervous with her oldest brother when he did not have Lily by his side.

"Come on then," James went on, "we can floo straight to the ministry from here and you'll be up in the auror office in plenty of time! Though they'll probably drop dead when they see me in there an hour before my shift starts!" he chuckled.

Raulph stood up and headed for the fireplace where Harry clapped him on the back and Ginny wished him luck then he stepped into the fire ahead of James and shouted, "The ministry," disappearing in a whirl of flames and appearing seconds later in the bustling main atrium of the British Ministry of magic. James appeared behind him and together they set off in the direction of the elevators which would take them to the auror's office on the fourth floor.

"What are you doing here so early?" asked a bemused looking administrative worker with long dark wavy hair and a cherub face on the main desk of the auror office.

"Well, you've got to make a good impression occasionally," he chuckled winking at Raulph as he leaned onto her desk, "thought if I got here early enough I might have a chance to chat to the beautiful Annemarie," he said suavely leaning over and smiling at her.

"It's not going to work James!" she replied pushing her chair back on its wheels and smiling back at him as she stood up with a pile of papers to be filed. "He tries it every day," she went on directing her conversation at Raulph, "you'd think he'd have got the message by now wouldn't you?" Raulph smiled a little as she continued, "James Potter, you are a well known womaniser and I am not going to be one of your notches, now I presume this is a new recruit," she gestured to Raulph, "judging by the nervous look on his face!"

"My sister's boyfriend," James replied standing up straight and returning to his companion's side, "promised her I'd bring him in for the first day and make sure no one was mean to him!" he joked nudging Raulph in the ribs with his elbow.

"Well tip number one," she said turning to look at Raulph again, "stay away from Mr Potter!"

"How dare-" James retorted and she began to laugh interrupting his rant.

"Thinks he has a special way with the ladies, but ask him how many of the auror department he's managed to get back to his flat."

"I think we'd better get you over to the new recruit's office," James said hurriedly quickly ushering Raulph past her desk.

"Oh no," Annemarie said stepping in front of them both, "that's my job," she added, "making sure they are not led astray by the current aurors!" and she took Raulph by the arm and steered him away from the affronted looking James. "By the way the answer was none of them!" she chuckled glancing back at James who shot her a very nasty look, "his reputation precedes him!" And she just caught his rude hand gesture before she took Raulph around a corner in the direction of the new recruit's office.

Annemarie reappeared a few minutes later and found James chatting up the new blonde receptionist who was laughing at his jokes and being drawn into his little web, "Stay away from that one Joanne," she chuckled as she took her seat at the main desk again, "he only wants to add you to his list of conquests, one quick lay and you'll never hear from him again!"

"Annemarie!" James barked angrily rounding on her as the pretty blonde turned her back on him and continued with the paperwork she was filing, "You spoil all my fun, if you're not going to go out with me yourself at least let me find someone who will!"

"What so I can sit here and listen to them whining to me? 'Why hasn't he flooed me? Oh James he's so...and so...' no thanks," she replied pretending to stick her finger down her throat and gag.

"Nobody has ever done that to you have they?" James asked his spirit lifting again at the thought that she had heard compliments about him.

"No, I'm just doing a pre-emptive strike," she said, "and making sure that it doesn't happen!"

James snorted at her and then sat on the edge of her desk, "You're only jealous," he said.

"Of what?" she shrieked, "How can I be jealous when I've turned you down half a dozen times or more!"

"Because you haven't got the guts to say yes, you're too scared of your own feelings for me," he went on lifting his eyebrow cockily at her and she swiped her hand at his leg before standing up to welcome another pale and worried looking young man who presented himself as Michael Woodhand.

"Of course James, of course," she joked leading the second new recruit down to the office.

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"Maybe you should just go down to your office and get some work done early," she said to James when she returned to find him chatting to a young girl who was obviously here for the new training team too, he was regaling her with wild stories of his time as an auror and Annemarie rolled her eyes at him before leading the girl away and repeating her warning to stay away from James Potter. This time when she returned James was sat at her desk twiddling a quill around in his hands, his feet were up on the paperwork she still had to file and his eyes looked furious.

"Stop it Annemarie," he chided in a mock hurt voice when she pushed his feet down from the papers, "I wasn't hurting anyone," he went on.

"What by making up false stories of heroism? You haven't been on one dangerous mission yet James Potter," she chuckled, "Now get out of my chair, some of us are here to work! And stop worrying the newbies, they are scared enough on the first day! That one," she gestured her head in the direction she had just returned from, "was almost as scared as you were on your first day!"

"What?" James spluttered standing up and giving her a vehement glare, "I was-"

"Terrified out of your wits," she laughed, "oh yeah you came in trying to act all confident and sophisticated but you were as white as a ghost and stuttered though every word!"

"I...I..." he tried to reply utterly aghast at what she was saying.

"Aww, Jamesey, have I upset you twice now? Turning you down again and reminding you that you weren't always the cocky auror that you are now!" she laughed and he pretended to look hurt. "Oh come off it James, we have a love hate relationship and always have, surely you are used to my teasing by now!"

"So you do love me then?" he asked a cocky smile returning to his face.

"You know exactly what I mean!" she replied not falling for his wind up.

"You said you loved me, I'll remember that Annemarie, I'll remember it!"

"You can remember it as long as you want to James Sirius Potter, but it's never going to happen!"

"Just you wait for Abery's retirement do," he said getting up from the chair and sitting down on her desk again smiling serenely at her, "once you're swept up by the magical lights and the beautiful dresses, you'll see me in a whole new light, I'll be like a different person to you."

"Yes," she laughed, "because you'll be on your best behaviour with your Mum and Dad there!"

"I...what? You..." he spluttered and she pushed him off her desk with one sweeping motion.

"Some of us have work to get on with," she giggled looking up as another ashen faced young man approached her desk, "and this time when I come back I don't want to find you here hassling the newbies or the office staff, got it?"

"Ohh I love it when you're commanding," he guffawed and she swiped at him again before leading the recruit round the corner and off to the office. When she returned he had taken her advice and left and she sat back in her seat a little downhearted that he had actually taken her word and left as winding up the impossibly attractive James Potter was one of the highlights of her days.

Important team briefing in Room D,10am, all junior and senior aurors must attend along with leading administration staff.

The memo zoomed into his hand at nine thirty and James' face lit up, team briefings usually meant some kind of mission and he was desperately hoping to be sent on his first one soon, so far he had only been involved in minor situations involving visits to Azkaban and a few liaison meetings with other ministries around the world, this was the first briefing he had been requested to attend which included both senior and junior members. James was a junior member having been a fully qualified auror for a little less than a year, senior members held higher positions which could not be taken until they had been with the office for at least five years. His father had been a senior member throughout his whole auror career but James knew that was because he had taken on his most dangerous mission due to a prophecy and not because he had trained to be an auror, his father had also still been a seventeen year old schoolboy at the time. James did occasionally envy his father as he was more than ready to go up against dark wizards and prove his worth and of course as soon as his name was mentioned anywhere everyone remembered the boy who lived who had saved wizard kind from evil over two decades ago and everyone expected James to live up to the same reputation, he was just desperate to be given a chance to try.

He watched the clock tick by for the next twenty minutes, idly thumbing through some documents and folders on his desk which had come from the Irish auror office the previous week and then stood up to head down to briefing room D on the lower floor. The auror office was a large department and though the main reception and most individual offices were on the fourth floor of the Ministry, they did have stairs access down to the third floor where most of the large rooms were housed which could accommodate numerous aurors for important briefing and training meetings. James passed room C on his way and saw the room full of new recruits being addressed by Simon Abery, the current head of the auror department and Terence Beerney, the man due to replace him in a months time as Abery took early retirement having served twenty years in the department. He smiled to himself as he thought back three years to his first day in the department and then realised that Annemarie had not known what she was talking about, he had always been confident about becoming an auror even on his first day of training. James took a deep breath before entering room D preparing himself for what he hoped was a briefing for a more substantial and perhaps more dangerous mission.

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"This is Michael MacNair, grandson of a death eater of Lord Voldemort's who was locked up in Azkaban until his death five years ago. He was schooled in northern Russia where he has been educated to believe that muggles should be inferior to wizard kind and serve them as the dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, once believed. The Russian Ministry are struggling to contain a growing number of followers to a dark wizard calling himself the High Lord and are using all of their current resources to contain him but he is hidden underground and using a range of tactics to try and overthrow the Ministry so that he can become supreme ruler of the Russian wizards and foist his opinions and ways upon them all. It is rumoured that MacNair has returned to Britain in the hopes that he can raise a large group of wizards who are sympathetic to the High Lord's cause, these wizards will join him and once the Russian Ministry is thwarted they intend to move from country to country trying to bring wizard kind out into the open to rule over muggles and oppress their way of life into subservience to us." This was Abery's address to the whole of Room D who sat silent and listened to his brief. "It is still early days in Russia but they are suffering both muggle and wizard losses as the High Lord's campaign continues, they are using inferi and the imperious curse to spread their cause and persuade people to join them." Abery looked very grave as he continued his address and then shocked them all by adding, "I will therefore be postponing my retirement while we attempt to deal with this upsurge in the hopes that we can at least stop it from spreading into our country."

The room gasped at his announcement and they all looked across at Beerney who did not appear to be flummoxed by the news at all. "Our intention is to find and capture MacNair before he has chance to recruit people to his cause and we are planning to send you all out into the field, juniors and seniors alike, to either find him or stop him from communicating with some of the more likely wizards to take up his cause. You will be grouped together into junior and senior members and each of you will take a leading administrator to record all movements and attempts undertaken. You will take sleeping and living quarters with you and be assigned to various places around the country where our recognisance team have seen MacNair operating. He has attempted to speak to many of the old wizarding families who were known death eaters and we know that many have turned him away but of course there are those who could be telling us this while still secretly joining him and biding their time until he has a large following before coming out to the world.

Your mission is to watch the family and the area which you are assigned to, try and infiltrate the homes if possible and record any conversations or meetings concerning the High Lord or MacNair and his campaign. Aurors will need to report back to administration staff who are under no circumstances to place themselves into any kind of dangerous situation, you are there in a clerical position only and will be required to record and send back to us any pieces of information that the aurors find," he went on turning to look at the administration team who were all sat together at the back of the room, they nodded agreement and continued to listen to the head of the auror department.

"Administrators will follow orders from senior aurors in their individual team but will report to the junior officers in the absence of senior staff, is that clear everyone?" he asked to the room at large and they all nodded their agreement. "Good and thank you everyone, your teams will be distributed later this afternoon along with all necessary paperwork and information that you will require, team tents can be collected by junior aurors at seven am tomorrow morning when your assignments will begin. Once the teams have been organised I expect you to meet in the senior member's office at three pm this afternoon to go over your individual assignment and discuss anything that you need to before starting the mission in the morning. Thank you for your time everyone and I apologise that the party has been postponed, I can assure you I am as gutted as the rest of you are," he chuckled trying to end the meeting on a lighter note.

At three o clock that afternoon James knocked on the office door of Blaise Zabini who was the senior auror he had been assigned to work with on the mission. Blaise had been an auror for over twenty years but was not yet ready for retirement, he had been a Slytherin at Hogwarts in his father's year and had been friends with some of the children of death eaters at the time. However he had proved himself as a non dark wizard when he had joined the fight against Voldemort and most of his own friends who were fellow death eaters and helped to bring them all down at the final battle. Zabini had fought alongside James' father during their early days as aurors and he himself had been pleased to learn that the former auror's son was to be his partner on this mission.

"Come in," Blaise called at the knock and James opened it to see him sat behind his desk, a familiar looking dark head of hair was sat with her back to him and James smiled slyly when he realised that the administrator assigned to his mission was Annemarie. She swung her chair around and smiled at him as he sat down beside her and then the two of them looked to their head auror awaiting their instructions. "Well, team," he began smiling at them both, "we are team nine and have been assigned to watch over the Malfoy Manor in Surrey where Draco Malfoy and his wife live. Now you, James, of course will be better acquainted with Scorpius Malfoy, Draco's son," he went on as the junior auror pulled a face, "I take it you got on at school as famously as Draco and your father did?" he chuckled as James nodded his head. "I can imagine," he continued, "Harry and Draco's relationship was anything but friendly even though your father did in fact end up saving his life which is probably why they were able to call a civil truce of sorts between each other, eventually. I'm guessing the truce did not extend to their sons?" He asked and James shook his head as he remembered the numerous pointless arguments that he and Scorpius had had during their time at school together. However none of them had been remotely serious compared to the fact that he might be alleging himself with a dark wizard and James prepared himself to come across a more angry and violent Malfoy than the one he had encountered at school.

"Now as far as I know," Zabini went on Scorpius is still living at home with his mother and father in the Malfoy manor house, Lucius died a few years ago but as far as I know Narcissa is still living with them too. If I know Draco as I did in school he will be far to afraid to fraternise with any dark wizards without a hoard of other supporters so I imagine if he's already been approached he has either turned MacNair down or he has told him to come back when he has a larger group behind him. Scorpius however I do not know at all so he may be the one we need to watch carefully." James smirked at Blaise who understood that Scorpius may be a little more action than mouth unlike his father had been. "We set out at seven am tomorrow morning and we will camp in the woodland beside Malfoy manor, I visited the house many times as a schoolboy and know that there are a few secret entrances we will need to watch carefully. Potter you will need to get the tent from the store before you leave tonight and Annemarie you need to collect together all supplies for paperwork that you think we will need for the mission. It is up to you how you record what we do but it needs to be transferred to Abery on a daily basis and you will be in charge of that, do you understand?"

"Yes Zabini," she replied nodding.

"Right, well as I said we leave from this office at seven am, bring along everything you will need for a long trip as I am not sure when we will be able to leave the manor, we need to watch it at all times either until something happens there or MacNair is caught. Until tomorrow then," he said standing up and shaking the other two members of his team by the hand.

James and Annemarie rose and shook the proffered hand before exiting the office together and closing the door behind them, "So," James said smiling, "in the absence of the senior auror the administration staff will be required to follow orders given by the junior aurors, are you prepared to do what ever is asked of you?" he chuckled raising his eyebrows at her.

"James, this is serious," she scolded looking at him aghast.

"I know and I'm taking it seriously Anne, when we are out there in the field nothing is more important than the safety of the team, you know I wouldn't seriously abuse my position, I was only joking." He said looking hurt and severe for once.

"You're right, I'm sorry, you are a good auror James despite your skills at being a man," she chuckled and then returned a serious look again, "you wouldn't do that James I know, but just because I might have to follow your orders one day does not mean you can joke about them now, I am a free woman and I will only follow those orders which relate to my job and my safety," she added, "and as I won't be seeing this other side of James Potter for a while now that the party is off, I won't be seeing you in a new light so any other orders are off the menu!" she joked walking away to gather her things for the impending mission.

James grimaced and watched her go, her long dark hair swinging behind her as she walked away, she was an attractive girl and he enjoyed the banter they had with each other but in all seriousness he did not want to spoil that by making her one of his conquests because he knew that he would treat her the same way he did every other girl and then he would miss their cheeky interactions at work. He sighed knowing that if they were just two random people who met in a bar he would love to have his way with her as her cherub face and sensual eyes were mesmerising when they were not goading each other and another part of him still longed to find out if she would be as good in bed as he imagined her to be.