Chapter Nine
Anything Draco might have dreamed up, paled in comparison to his first day at the IAL.
Draco reported to head quarters at six thirty in the morning. The IAL had put him and the others up in nice apartments. They got keys and portkeys to their apartments so they could have a place to call home at the end of the day.
His place wasn't as lavish as he was used to, but it was fully furnished and after three weeks on a rock hard cot, the king sized bed was a welcome addition.
He dressed in the standard uniform and spent a second admiring the silver pin that said his clearance level. As squad leader, he was at level fifteen. The rest of his group had varied from level eleven to level thirteen.
He Apparated to the station outside head quarters and went inside. For a second he had a horrible moment when he thought that Ginny had just been kidding with him. Then one of the level twenties offered to show him up to Ginny's office. Though he had already been there, Draco remembered Sarge's lecture about etiquette and let the older man lead him up stairs.
According to Sarge, there were two types of IAL members: those who rose up in the ranks until they were practically running things, and those who got to a level where they enjoyed doing what they did and settled there. Both types seemed equally appealing to Draco.
"Weasley's your mentor?" the other asked. Draco leaned over to read his name tag. Callahan.
"Yes," Draco confessed. "Got any tips."
"Wouldn't know where to begin. She's never mentored before so you'll have to keep us up to date on what she does with you."
"I'll do that."
Callahan glanced at him and smiled. "If you ever want to talk, there's a group of us that meet at the Pub every Friday night. You're welcome until you piss us off."
Draco laughed at that as the elevator stopped on the proper floor.
"I'll keep that in mind. So if Ginny were a normal mentor, what could I expect?"
"Paper work. Weasley might be the best and the brightest of us, but even the highest stars have to do paper work around here."
"Thanks for the tip," Draco said as they reached the office in question.
"Good luck. See you later."
"You too."
"Made ourselves a friend?"
Draco and Callahan spun, saluting Ginny sharply. She returned the salute absently. "Malfoy, in here. Now."
Draco stepped into her office. She handed him a stack of papers. "I hate to do this to you, but I have to take statements. You can charm your quill, but you have to be there for the entire statement."
She took a stack of papers from her own desk and headed out, muttering about bureaucracy and idiots who couldn't take care of their own members.
Draco stood in her office, clutching the papers. He looked down at the first one. It was a standard de-briefing form, a list of questions, with space for the answers. He flipped through, sighing when he saw that they were all like that.
Each page had a name on the top and he stepped out in search of the first name.
"Want a hand?"
He glanced at Callahan. "Yeah. Julia Westhaven?"
"Third floor. In one of the cubicles."
"Thanks," Draco said, heading towards the elevators.
Julia was a pretty American witch with a nasty scar running down her face. It had the glimmer to it that said it was bewitched to disappear in the next several days.
"Julia Westhaven? My name's Draco Malfoy. I'm supposed to walk you through your de-breifing."
She smiled at him. "Don't look so scared. I don't bite. Have a seat."
He did, pulling out a pen. "I hate to be informal, but..."
"I remember how paper work works," Julia said dryly. Draco glanced at her and made a decision. He flipped the page over and set his pen against it.
"Why don't you start at the beginning? Tell me what happened."
Julia looked at him. "You're gonna make it far," she finally said.
"Why's that?"
"You have a heart. Anyway, it began about a week ago..."
The next six hours were spent with half a dozen witches and wizards. He meticulously wrote down their stories, using shorthand where he could. Lunch came and his papers were covered in his neat writing but the fronts were blank. He made new copies of each of the papers before spending most of his lunch filling them out based on the statements.
"Two pages."
He looked up as Ginny sat down with him. She stole his papers and shoved a plate with a burger and fries across the table to him.
"What was that?" he asked as he attacked the fries.
"You do two pages. You get them to tell their story. Charm your pen or quill to take the full dictation then keep track of what they're saying and use it to fill out the form."
"You don't sound surprised that I'm getting the story," he said as she started writing at a breakneck pace on his forms.
"I'm not. I wouldn't be mentoring you if weren't worth it."
"I take it you were doing the same thing."
"You got that right. Finish your lunch. You can take care of the rest of these after lunch."
After lunch, Draco took Ginny's suggestion after lunch and the rest of his six took less time.
He'd just finished his final record when Ginny came tearing down the hall like hell was on her heels.
"Wand!" she snapped, grabbing his arm.
He stumbled, pulled out his wand and matched her stride.
"Watch yourself," she said.
One second they were running down the hall of the head quarters. The next they were in the middle of a battle field.
Ginny released him and dropped into a defensive position. Draco didn't think. He bellowed commands. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ginny kneeling beside a wounded wizard. He continued to scream spells as she tended to the wizard.
"Status report!" she snarled.
"Seven lost. The others are protecting the herd. We need a virgin in there," the man gasped.
"Cover me," Ginny said to Draco. He nodded and roundhouse kicked an approaching creature.
He took a second to absorb what he was seeing. A dozen witches were protecting a herd of white horses. After a second he realized that they weren't horses, but unicorns. Half a dozen witches lay dead on the ground. The creatures attacking were golems, fire dancing in their eyes as their fleshy limbs wilted.
"I thought only virgins could go near unicorns," Draco said to the wizard by his side.
"European unicorns maybe," the guy scoffed and Draco wondered where the hell they were. "Down here, anyone pure of intention can go near a unicorn but only a virgin can command them."
Draco glanced at Ginny who was atop the tallest unicorn now. The horse reared beneath her and she roared commands.
"What's she doing?" Draco asked.
"Calling the Bruja."
So we're in Mexico, Draco thought, looking at the barren land. Around him the creatures continued to attack. He pulled his mind from what was going on with Ginny and focused on the battle.
He was doing pretty well when the Bruja showed up.
Draco knew little about that sort of thing but even he could tell who this dark haired woman was.
She stalked onto the field, scowling at the creatures. She snapped her fingers and Draco flinched from the awesome power behind her.
The creatures howled then dissolved back into the ground.
Ginny dismounted and ran over. She placed one hand over her breast and bowed deeply to the dark haired woman. Draco repeated the gesture, remaining in the bow as Ginny rose.
"Bruja, thank you for your intervention."
The Bruja waved a hand. "Think nothing of it, Brave one. Your name carries echoes even here. Thank you for taking care of my steeds."
"You're welcome. Shall we call it even?"
"Hardly, Brave one and you know it. A thousand generations of my kind could never pay back the debts we owe you."
(A/N: Whoa, that was a long chapter. Okay, so Bruja is going to come back, I promise. Anyway, Bruja is Spanish for witch. In Spanish mythology, they can turn into animals. I'm gonna bring her back in later chapters. You'll also figure out why she owes Ginny such a huge debt.
To 1ce-in-4ever12- It is filler and it isn't. I wanted to establish a relationship between Draco and the others. They're going to come back. Of course! :3
