Disclaimer: I own nothing! Wait, let me rephrase that. I own a lot of things. Unfortunately, Harry Potter is not one of them.

Live Today Die Tomorrow

Chapter 4: Work Today Train Tomorrow.

Ron and Harry arrived at the Ministry Training Arena bright and early the following Monday.

They got lost a couple of times before finally finding the correct door that lead them into the office of the arena.

"Uh, we're here for training week." Harry spoke to the middle-aged witch hidden behind the counter.

"Names." She responded dully as she continued writing with her quill, not bothering to look up at their faces.

"Uh, Harry Potter."

The witch's head catapulted into the air, eyes wide in surprise. She froze in shock as she stammered her apologies. "Har… Mr. Potter… I'm… I'm terribly… oh, goodness… I'm sorry… forgive me… I…I…"

"Settle down. He's only a wizard." Ron spoke, quite annoyed at the reaction of this witch. Is there ever going to be a time where Harry's fame would die down?

"The Chosen -" The witch began.

"Yeah, Yeah, I know. The Chosen One. Where do we go?" Ron was losing his patience.

"Ah, well you two have to fill out these forms before you're allowed to enter the Training Arena." She answered semi-professionally as she handed them each a form.

"We don't need to fill these out." Ron gave a short chuckle and tried to hand his form back to the witch.

"I'm sorry, but the minister agreed that everyone taking part in this training needs to fill out this form." She said as she pushed the form in Ron's hand back towards him.

"But he defeated Voldemort! He shouldn't have to fill this form out! He's The Chosen One!" He hollered, waving the form about, using it to point at Harry. Harry just stood there watching Ron's reaction.

"I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do. The new program was finalised yesterday. Even the most famous wizards, such as yourselves, have to fill out this form."

Ron angrily stepped away from the counter, form in hand.

"There's got to be over 4 pages. Front and back." Harry whispered to Ron as they sat down on a couch opposite the counter, flicking through the form. Sighing as they came across a section dedicated to short answers.

"'How much do you weigh? What skills do you have prior to this day? Can you produce a fully formed Patronus charm? How long have you studied Defensive Spells?' This is bollocks!" Ron stood up abruptly and lunged towards the counter, the witch backing away out of fright.

Ron breathed in deeply and calmed himself down before he spoke. "Excuse me, Miss?" Fury was struggling to remain hidden in his voice.

"Y…yes?"

"Who authorised this form?"

"The Minister, Sir."

"Did the Minister write this himself?"

"No, Sir, he only authorised it. One of his Corporal Managers designed the form. He agreed to it only a couple of days ago. Like I said, it was finalised yesterday."

"I want to speak to this 'Manager'." Ron spoke with sternness in his voice.

"I can go and get h-"

"- Yes!" He interrupted her. The witch ran towards the Floo Network, mumbled something that Ron didn't quite catch and disappeared from sight.

A minute passed, then five, soon fifteen minutes had passed and both Harry and Ron had completed their forms.

"You know if you hadn't told the woman to find the Manager we could be training right now."

"I know. It's just… look at this!" Ron exclaimed as he flicked through the forms once again. "We're training to be Aurors. We're supposed to be out on the field. You defeated Voldemort. This Manager is a real piece of work. He must have never even heard of us!"

"I heard that you're disturbing my staff, Mr. Weasley." Came a voice from the Floo Network behind Harry and Ron.

Ron spun on feet and turned to see a familiar face, with a very familiar scowl upon it.

"Hermione?! What are you doing here?!" Ron half questioned half screamed in shock.

"I'm here doing my job. You, on the other hand, are not." She spoke far too calmly for Ron's liking. She had her arms crossed at her chest.

"Well, I would be doing my job, if I didn't have to fill out this bloody form." He stated waving the form in her face.

"Ronald, I made this form to gather information about possible Auror candidates."

"But you know us! Why do we have to fill out these forms?!"

"Every Auror needs to fill out this form. This form will be put into a personal file. A group of highly trained Aurors will then check over your personal file and training score, and from that allocate you to a specific starting level."

"Starting Level?" Harry asked.

"Aurors with higher starting level will be paired with an Auror that has a lower starting level. Those who level on average will be paired with each other. This balances out the entire department of Auror development. Everything from this point on will be recorded for your file. Ronald, if I had to give you a starting mark based purely on this morning, it would be a 2." She said as she turned to face Ron.

"2 is good, right?" He asked concerned.

"2 is the second lowest." She answered him.

"Oh. Well, I'm not doing too badly then. I mean out of 10 I only need another 8."

Hermione laughed softly. "That's only if you want to score a 10."

"Hermione, what is the highest starting mark?" Harry asked now seeming less confident in himself.

"The highest mark is 100, that is level 10, but no one ever gets that high. 1 – 10 is level one, 11 – 20 is level two, 21 – 30 is level three and so on." She began to explain.

"You gave me a 2!"

"Yes! So pull yourself together, grow up, fill out your forms, get out there, and prove to me that you're better than a 2."

Ron looked down at his hands. He had his form clutched tightly in his grip. He handed the form to Hermione. "I completed it before you came here." He said guiltily.

"Oh, right. Thank you. Harry, do you have yours?"

"Yeah, I do. Here." He handed her his form.

"Thankyou. Now go. The more stations you get around to the more likely you'll get a better starting mark." She looked at the forms in her hands as the middle-aged witch made her way from behind Hermione back to her desk.

"Thank you, Vanessa. If they cause anymore troubles don't hesitate to let me know." Hermione said to Vanessa who nodded in response. Hermione went back to the Floo Network as the boys made their way into the arena.

The boys made their way through to the back of the office and opened the back door. There in front of their eyes was an enormous arena. The arena was shaped like an Olympic field. The stations were in the middle of the pitch while the running tracks surrounded the outside.

Harry looked down at his feet and realised he wasn't on the grass of the field. As soon as he stepped through the door and onto the green pitch a holographic picture of Harry's face appeared in the sky.

"Whoa, cool!" Ron exclaimed as he marvelled at his friends holographic picture plastered in the sky staring intently back at the two on the ground.

"You look professional, Harry." Ron stated in awe as he pointed to the stern looking holographic Harry.

Ron stepped forward onto the pitch. A holographic Ron appeared next to the holographic Harry.

"You look better as a holographic." Harry said with a chuckle. Ron just looked at his friend with a grin.

The holographic picture both had a large number 0 next to their face, underneath their picture the words 'track' displayed in capitals.

"What's with the zero?" Ron said as he turned to Harry for an explanation.

"I don't know. It could be some sort of scoring system. It might go towards our starting mark."

"'Track'. What do you suppose that means?" Ron asked again.

"'Track' refers to running. Maybe that's what they want us to do first."

Ron nodded at Harry and together they made their way over to the tracks starting point.

"So, what exactly do we do with this 'track'?" Ron asked. Harry was confused but then remembered that running for sport never really applied for wizards.

"We run it."

"Run? Is this considered a muggle sport?"

"Well, I guess. I mean, they do it in the Olympics."

"Limp… Icks? That doesn't sound like running to me."

"Never mind. The aim is to run faster than your opponent. In this case, it looks like your opponent is me."

"I have to run faster than you?" Ron laughed.

"Yeah." Harry smirked back at Ron, knowing full well that he had the upper hand in this challenge.

"Yeah, alright, I'll give it a go."

They got into their individual lane and prepared for the race. The buzzer rang and Harry shot off in a rate of knots. Ron, who was a little dazed, was late to react and started sprinting after Harry. By the time he caught up to Harry they were at the finish line and Harry had won.

"I hadn't warmed up. You won by chance." Ron huffed in annoyance at his losing.

Harry still couldn't speak properly. He barely managed to raise his hand toward his holographic self. Ron followed his pointed finger only to see that the number besides Harry's holographic face had been replaced with the number 1. Ron's screen still displaying the number 0.

"I meant to do that." Ron lied, "You see, now that I have tired you out, I will be able to win the next station. It's all part of my strategy. I was only warming up." He spoke unconvincingly.

"Sure." Harry barely breathed out. "What's the next station?"

"The screen says 'Weights'" Ron replied with a devilish smile spread across his face.

Disclaimer: Ron's ego was not harmed during the making of this chapter. One of the challenges during this training course is 'review'. So why wait? Do it now.