A/N: Hey everyone, I'm sorry that this update is a little later than I promised, my past few weeks have been very busy, especially the last few days, but better late than never!
This chapter holds the first mention of the name of the magazine Cecilia writes for. A few weeks ago I asked you all for suggestions, so I want to thank Rosie Loves Pi, Shirama, Autumn, Emma Stanger, Bubbly Bookworm, kIMaYa, and Venz for their awesome suggestions. It was difficult to decide, but I chose to go with Jennifer Jules's suggestion of In the Air, and changed it just slightly to be Up in the Air; which is now officially the name of the quidditch magazine Cecilia writes for, so thank you again to everyone for their suggestions!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Last Time: So we said goodbye to the kids going off to Hogwarts in the last chapter, and almost everyone had made it back to England except for a few of the Weasleys. At the beginning of this chapter everyone's back home, and it's time for everyone to start work again (or in Vic's case, start her residency for the first time).
Note: This chapter includes a quick, but detailed, summary of the the aurors cases from the last story, as well as explaining where the cases are at at the moment of the story.
Back to Work
Monday, September 5th 2022
The minute Teddy stepped off the ministry's lift and onto the floor that housed the Auror Department; he was almost trampled by his partner Auror Hayden Summers.
"Oh thank Merlin that you're back!" Hayden exclaimed both excitedly and gratefully, even going so far as to pull Teddy into a hug.
The metamorphmagus teetered awkwardly on his feet as he tried to shake Hayden –who seemed to be oblivious to the odd looks their fellow aurors and the aurors-in-training were giving them as they walked by– off of him.
"I take it that you missed me?" Teddy asked Hayden as the hug moved into the uncomfortably long territory.
Hayden finally let go as he replied, "You and Jilly are never allowed to go on vacation at the same time again."
"Why?" Teddy asked hesitantly as he and Hayden began to walk down the hall towards their office.
"Because Kurt and I are no longer allowed to work together by ourselves," Hayden explained in a slightly embarrassed tone.
Teddy rolled his eyes, "It can't have been that bad."
"I'm not exaggerating Teddy. Auror Burton told us that we're not allowed to play together anymore without parental supervision," Hayden clarified.
Teddy sent his partner a look with a raised eyebrow, "Seriously?"
Hayden nodded solemnly, "We did get stuff done . . . we just didn't exactly do it by the book . . ."
"Jilly was back on Thursday, so you had at least two days last week to be productive," Teddy pointed out as they got to the door of the office the pair shared with aurors Kurt Williamson and Jilly Donaldson.
Normally aurors of their level had shoebox sized cubicles instead of offices, but because the four of them were working together on a case that had to be kept secret for so long, they were sharing an office space that was only slightly bigger than four cubicles put together would have been. But on the bright side, it was much more private.
"I take it that there's also a stack of progress reports that I need to get caught up on then," Teddy mused as he opened the door to said office that made it more private than a cubicle.
"There are, but Kurt and I thought they were a little dry, so I wrote all of mine in iambic pentameter while Kurt's took on more of a Mad-libs vibe."
Teddy blinked and didn't respond, although privately he was starting understand why Auror Burton had put stipulations on who they were allowed to work with. He and Hayden walked into the office, but before he could say hello to Jilly, who was shuffling through papers at her desk, she informed them that they needed to go to Shacklebolt's office and go over everything they had on their ongoing cases again, so that they could prepare for the trial that would start the next week.
Upon entering Kingsley's office they found Kurt already there, apparently in the middle of reading his Mad-lib inspired report to the Head of the Auror Department. He had just asked his boss to name a part of the human body and an adjective ending in 'ly' when Teddy, Hayden, and Jilly sat down in chairs across from Kingsley's large desk.
"Good everyone's here now," Kingsley announced loudly, speaking over whatever convoluted sentence Kurt was reciting from his report.
Kurt just shrugged off his dismissal, and sat down next to Teddy while saying, "How in the world do you spend a week living on the coast of the Mediterranean and not come back with a tan?"
"How in the world do you get grounded at work?" Teddy retorted with a raised eyebrow.
"Touché."
Kingsley cleared his throat to get everyone's attention, "Alright, we've got one week until the trial starts so I think it's a good idea to go over everything we have, and what we still need to do to be ready."
The others nodded, and between the five of them they covered everything they'd already covered from both the cases.
Jilly and Kurt's job was to focus on the antiquity smuggling part of the case. In May, they were able to extract a confession from Samuel Alves (better known to Teddy and Hayden as Sir) about his part in the smuggling ring. Since the Peruvian culture board had put Alves in charge of the dig and the preservation of any artifacts found at the dig sites of the Moche ruins, he was in a unique positon to be of use to an artifact smuggling ring that was using as of then undiscovered tunnels to steal artifacts from the Moche tombs and ruins before the team of cursebreakers had a chance to find them and catalogue them.
While Teddy and his partner Hayden Summers were undercover as cursebreakers at the dig in Peru organized and overseen by Alves, they literally stumbled upon the hidden tunnel systems of the ruins that the smugglers were using to steal artifacts. They were able to work a confession out of Alves about his involvement in the smuggling ring, as well as information that led them to believe that the Holmwood crime family was directly involved. Jilly and Kurt, with the help of Konstantin Krum and his contacts in Vratsa, were able to discover one of the men who was in charge of selling some of the stolen artifacts, and they were able to slightly firm up their proof of a Holmwood connection.
In the early days of both investigations, when they were separate and before they discovered Alves's involvement, an –as of yet– unnamed man who was involved with the smuggling ring ended up in St. Mungo's with a life threatening disease that none of the healers could name let alone cure. In very much a right-time-right-place situation, Victoire winded up treating and curing the unnamed man with an unapproved healing treatment that ended up saving his life. Said incident seemed totally unconnected to Teddy and Hayden's case, until the time at which the pair (along with Victoire and three actual cursebreakers) found themselves in the hidden tunnel system of the ruins and then were subsequently kidnapped by an underground tribe of Moche people that nobody had even found before.
While the group was held captive, Victoire discovered that the disease of the unnamed man that she had treated months earlier at St. Mungo's, had originated in that cavern system, which meant that the unnamed man must have been in the tunnel system before. All of these connections were only put together after the group had been rescued from the underground tunnels –literally seconds before the crazy high priestess of the Moche people was about to almost kill Victoire of course.
All in all, when they added together all of the information there were two separate cases that had to be considered. One was the large and intricate case of smuggling ancient artifacts that involved the Holmwoods, Alves, the unnamed man, and several others who were involved to varying degrees with separate parts of the smuggling process. The second case was the less confusing but surprisingly harder to prosecute kidnapping case.
The smuggling case would be the one going to trial the next week, and that was the one that the group of aurors were principally occupied in discussing.
"So, if we're going over the main players, Sir–I mean Samuel Alves, has promised to plead guilty to his part in the smuggling ring, as well as to testify against the Holmwoods," Hayden was saying as he handed over to Kingsley the paperwork that they needed to take to Alves's private hearing on Thursday in which he would plead guilty.
Kingsley nodded his head as he scanned the papers, "And Mr. Unnamed-Patient?"
Jilly sighed, "We still haven't been able to identify him. It's like he's a ghost who appeared a year ago when this smuggling ring started. He's obviously got a British accent, but according to McGonagall he never attended Hogwarts, nor has he attended any other wizarding school on this continent or North America or South America."
"Luckily, our bizarre court system will still allow us to try the man even though we don't know who he is. And we're confident that we have enough evidence to get a conviction," Kurt explained as he scratched his chin.
Teddy pushed his hand through his hair, "It might be harder to get the court to convict when he technically doesn't exist though."
Kingsley nodded in sad agreement with Teddy's words, "So we've still been unsuccessful in getting his identity out of him, and unsuccessful in getting him to snitch on the Holmwoods and get a reduced sentence?"
"He's either very stupid, very loyal, or more scared of the Holmwoods than he is of dementors and Azkaban," Hayden muttered.
"Which unfortunately seems to be a trend," Jilly added as she looked at her notes.
Kingsley pinched the bridge of his nose, "The Bulgarians are still holding Danchev, right?"
Anton Danchev was one of the men in the smuggling ring in charge of selling the stolen artifacts, and even though he worked mostly out of Vratsa, they had uncovered that he had been selling the artifacts to buyers from several different countries. Konstantin Krum and his colleagues –one of which Teddy had just met– had uncovered Danchev and his connection to the Holmwoods (only after Victoire and Dom stole a file from Colton Knott's office and secretly contacted Konstantin about it).
"They still have Danchev and combined we have a strong case against him," Kurt recited.
Kingsley pursed his lips, "Which means that Minkov is going to testify for us?"
Emil Minkov, a client of Colton's, had in his possession one of the stolen antiquities and, fearing that it wasn't legal, gave it to his lawyer to take care of. Colton handed it off to Dom to take to the Ministry, and she brought it straight to Jilly and Kurt, who were able to connect the antique pot to a shard of pottery that they had found on the unnamed patient's person when he was admitted to St. Mungo's. It was the first connection that they had to the unnamed man and the smuggling ring, as it happened before Victoire found the disease connection, and they had contacted Minkov about testifying that he had gotten the stolen antique pot directly from Danchev, who they assumed worked for the Holmwoods. Minkov was innocent and didn't want to get in trouble for accidently buying a stolen ancient artifact, so he readily agreed to testify at the upcoming trial.
"We've still got Minkov," Teddy repeated, "Colton told me in passing while we were in France that Minkov had contacted him and was starting to get cold feet about testifying against Danchev, and by that extension the Holmwoods. Luckily though, he convinced Minkov to go through with it, and for an extra push Colton told me that he was going to get Dom to work on Minkov if he gets scared again."
Teddy ended with a bit of an eye roll, knowing full well that Minkov would never admit to someone as pretty as Dom that he was too afraid to testify. It was actually a pretty cunning, if not Slytherinesque, type of plan.
"And the others?" Kingsley questioned.
Hayden and Kurt then gave a tag-team explanation about the handful of others who they discovered were connected to the smuggling ring. They found them either through Alves, unintentionally on Danchev's part, or through other means as their team had also found two others who had worked with the unnamed man in directly stealing the antiquities from the dig sites in Peru. They were able to find the two men directly involved because they had eventually shown up in different hospitals with symptoms of the same disease that the unnamed man had. They also had pretty steady cases to convict these men, and even though some of the men were of Bulgarian or Peruvian nationality in origin, the three ministries had agreed to work together and allow all of the legal matters to be dealt with in Britain and led by the Auror Department.
"Is that all then?" Kingsley asked the group almost an hour later after they had dealt with all of the details of the cases.
Teddy help his index finger up, "I've got something else, but it's sort of potentially disastrous."
"That sounds promising," Kurt mumbled sarcastically while Kingsley told Teddy to continue.
"I met Konstantin Krum and his partner Nikolina Krastev while we were in France. He specifically sought out Victoire and I while we were in a public place to tell me that things are getting unpredictable on their end. Apparently they've had a shakeup of who's in charge and somehow someone from their foreign relations office is now in charge of their section of the imports and exports division in Vratsa and has started censoring all of their information. Just before it happen, they got intel about someone else connected to the Holmwoods who was a part of the smuggling ring, who none of us had heard of before. Their new superior ordered them not to work on the angle and promised that someone else would pass it on to us here in England."
Kingsley's eyebrows pinched, "I haven't heard anything about that."
"That's what I figured," Teddy sighed, "And what Konstantin figured. He and Niko said that they observed that they were being followed, they assumed to make sure that they weren't contacting us on their off hours, which is why they came to France to tell us about this new aspect of the case."
Jilly glanced at Teddy in surprise, along with Kurt and Hayden, "And you have the name of this new Holmwood connection?"
Teddy reached into his pocket and pulled out the piece of paper that Konstantin had given him through their high-five. He handed it to Kingsley first. His boss read it, made a note of the name on a piece of paper on his desk, and then handed the note to Jilly.
"You and Williamson will need to start on that right away," Kingsley told her. He didn't even bother to ask Teddy why he hadn't told them the name once he'd gotten it, probably guessing that if Teddy had and the people from Vratsa had found out about it, that it would have put Konstantin and his partner in trouble.
Jilly and Kurt nodded, taking Kingsley's words as a dismissal.
When the pair were gone, Hayden settled a little farther down into his chair and frowned, "I take it that we're now going to discuss the second case?"
The 'second case' being the one in which Teddy, Hayden, Victoire and three cursebreakers (Tasha Bennet, Nathan Slater, and Caitlyn Klein) had been kidnapped and held captive in the hidden tunnels by the Moche people. Unlike the smuggling case, it was turning out much harder to prosecute the kidnapping one.
"We still can't set a date for it," Kingsley told them, the anger in his voice barely hidden.
Teddy exhaled crossly, "I take it that Minister Mendes is still refusing to allow the people involved to be extradited here?"
Minister Mendes was the minister for culture in muggle Peru, and even though he was a wizard and an old friend of Kingsley's, he had made it impossible the last few months to work on the kidnapping case.
Since the group of underground Moche citizens had been undiscovered until the group had stumbled upon their secret cavern system, the Peruvian Ministry of magic (along with Minister Mendes) was hesitant to charge even a few people of the Moche tribe with a crime since there was the new added issue of maybe stepping on their religious and cultural rights and freedoms.
As it was, there was a lot of grey area that they needed to work through, and even though kidnapping should be considered illegal no matter who was doing it, Peru was dragging their heels on allowing Britain to lay charges and extradite the people who were in charge of the civilization and the kidnappings. Despite the fact that the community had kidnapped some muggle and muggleborn children around the same time that they had kidnapped the others, and that it would be easier to lay charges since the children were Peruvian, since they were muggles their memories were erased and therefore no charges could be laid.
Therefore, if they wanted to see those responsible punished, it would only be done if a case went through on the kidnapping of Teddy, Hayden, Victoire and the others, which didn't at the moment seem like it would be happening anytime soon.
"It's not like we're asking for the bloody Holy Grail. All we want is for that crazy high priestess and that other dude –I think his name was Udah?– to be extradited to here so that we can charge them with kidnapping two aurors, one medi-witch, and three cursebreakers. That's basically nothing compared to the amount of people we think they've kidnapped," Hayden complained.
Considering that the people in the underground community were a mix of indigenous and non-indigenous people, and considering that they had been told by the high priestess that they needed to decide to join the community or else, the Auror Department came to the conclusion that many of the people in the community must have stumbled upon the tunnels themselves at one point or another and then been forced to join. However, none of them agreed to testify that they had been kidnapped as well, so privately Teddy and Hayden figured that they must have developed some sort of Stockholm syndrome.
"The Peruvian government is still claiming that it would be more trouble than it's worth to hand over the Moche's male leader and the high priestess to us," Kingsley said sadly.
Teddy started tapping his foot on the floor, and if he had been in a better mood, he would have thought that it was a little touching to see that he had picked up the stressful habit from Victoire, "And what about Mitch? Have they found any sign of him yet?"
Mitch the medi-wizard who worked on the dig, had gone missing back in March and his vacant position was the reason why Victoire had been assigned to work there in the first place. They had found evidence to believe that Mitch had found his own way into the hidden tunnel system on his own, and therefore assumed that he had been kidnapped by the Moche people as well. When the aurors came in to save those who had been kidnapped, they were unable to find Mitch in the vast cavern system, although they did find his wand hidden in a room with all the other wands.
"No, no sign of Mr. West and they are not speaking about what happened to him either," Kingsley explained.
"Well this is a complete mess. I hope that Nathan, Caitlyn, and Tasha don't mind waiting for justice, 'cause it's going to be quite a while until we get it, if we ever do," Hayden glowered.
Normally Kingsley would have pointed out that it was unbecoming of an auror to mope like he was, but considering that they were discussing that the people in charge of kidnapping him would probably not be charged for it, he let it slide.
"Summers, you should go see how Donaldson and Williamson are faring."
Hayden knew a polite yet direct dismissal when he heard one. He was out of Kingsley's office before he needed to be asked twice. With Hayden gone, it was just Teddy and Kingsley left.
There were a few moments of silence before Kingsley said, "I take it you had a pleasant holiday?"
"Once Victoire finally got her residency offer and stopped freaking out about not getting it, it was great," Teddy said even though his tone of voice was rather flat.
Kingsley forced a slight smile, "And it's her first day today. I was tempted to send her flowers but I think I'll hold off until I find out if it was successful or not."
Teddy nodded.
"Not in a chatty mood today I see," Kingsley commented sardonically.
The younger man ran his hands through his hair, gripping at it even though he honestly had no idea what colour it was at the moment, "I know what this conversation is going to lead to, and hearing how bad the efforts to press charges for the kidnappings have gone, I'm going to assume that the third case is pretty much dead in the water."
"Sadly, you're right. They're not allowing us to extradite for the kidnappings, so I doubt they're going to allow us to extradite just the high priestess so that we can charge her for almost killing Victoire," Kingsley established quietly.
Teddy pulled at his hair again, "She almost died because of what that insane bitch did and they're not even going to make her pay for it. It was attempt at murder, but they won't even let us charge her for attempted manslaughter or even bloody assault causing bodily harm."
"The case is difficult, the woman says that Victoire allowed her to do that to her, so they're trying to argue that it was voluntary on her part and therefore that charges don't need to be placed because they'd be dropped," Kingsley reminded him.
Another yank at his hair, "I don't care what they say, Victoire didn't sign up to be exsanguinated and almost murdered so that that crazy woman could try to force out the imagined spirit of a long dead demigod high priestess."
"You and I and every-bloody-one else knows that, but we can't prove it to the contrary until we get a chance to try the case, which won't happen until charges can be laid against her," The head auror said, Teddy not even blinking at the fact that the composed man just swore while discussing a case.
Teddy sighed and rubbed his palms tiredly into his eyes, "The only positive part of this whole situation is that Victoire will be too busy with her residency to worry about her kidnappers and would-be murderer getting off pretty much scot-free."
12:34 PM
"This is so exciting," Cassidy Hopewell whispered to Victoire, her low tone doing a surprisingly good job at conveying her enthusiasm.
Victoire raised an eyebrow at her friend, "You were an intern here last school semester, I would have thought your excitement would have worn off by now."
Cassidy rolled her eyes at her friend's sarcasm, "It's exciting that we're going to finally be working together! You and me-"
"And the other two," Victoire added, her voice not much louder than a whisper because the other two were only a few feet in front of the two women.
The four who had ended up snagging the residency spots were presently still on a tour of St. Mungo's, getting a run down on what was going to be expected of them for the next year as resident healers in the Dark Arts Reversal Ward. They were just finishing up a visit of the emergency medical ward of the hospital, where their supervising D. A. R. W. healer was explaining to the interns that there always had to be at least one D. A. R. W. healer or resident in the emergency medical ward at most times in case an emergency patient suffering from dark magic suddenly came in.
Healer Seward, the supervising healer for the D. A. R. W. residents, just finished explaining how paperwork was to be handled in the emergency medical ward and then informed the residents that they could have an hour for a lunch break.
Victoire and Cassidy chatted animatedly as they travelled through the hospital and to the cafeteria, the two other interns walking silently behind them. Victoire was acquainted with both of the other interns in a sense. One of them was Malachi Fabius, the intern who had treated her along with Cassidy after her incident in the underground tunnels in Peru. He was intelligent, he wouldn't have gotten a residency offer if he wasn't, but he was also a know-it-all, and didn't have the best social skills. Victoire was going to try to be nice to him, despite the fact that he would have killed her with his poor potion recommendation back during her stay in May if she hadn't set him straight.
The other intern was also male, and his name was Wesley Hall, and Victoire somewhat remembered him as another intern who had been in the D. A. R. ward with Cassidy and Fabius, but she recalled him much better from a healthcare ethics class they took together during their second-year at healing school. She remembered him to be a quiet man, and the very studious type.
When the group of residents entered the canteen, Cassidy quickly pointed out to Victoire a table where Spencer, Donnie, and Sarah were all sitting. It seemed that Spencer spotted the women at the same time that they spotted him.
"Yo, Bewitching Blonde, Faith-Stream over hea'!" Spencer yelled to them along with moving his hand around to wave them over.
Victoire and Cassidy shared an eye roll, both knowing right away which nickname was meant for which person, and they walked over to the table and took a seat.
"How's orientation going?" Spencer asked them cheerily as he tossed an arm around Victoire's shoulder.
"It's a lot to take in, but it's very exhilarating to finally be here," Victoire explained.
Donnie smirked at her and took a sip of his coffee, "And not as a patient?"
Her friends laughed at her while she took a napkin that was sitting on the table, balled it up, and tossed it at Donnie's head.
"That's not funny."
Cassidy grinned, "No, it was pretty funny."
Another balled up paper napkin was sent at her head.
"So how was your holiday?" Sarah asked Victoire, trying to change the subject.
Victoire smiled, a slightly far-away look in her eyes, "Fantastic."
"It had to be considering that you were at the Britain/Italy game, I was listening to it on the wireless and it sounded brilliant," Donnie commented eagerly.
Spencer raised an eyebrow at Donnie, and then leered at Victoire, "I don't think it was the game that she was referring to as fantastic."
Before Victoire could comment back, a voice from behind her chimed in, "Well I definitely know that she wasn't referring to her family reunion as fantastic."
The blonde turned her head just in time to see her favourite cousin –by her definition not James's– sit down in the empty chair next to her.
"Lab coat!" Spencer greeted Ally happily as the dark haired Weasley gave her blonde haired cousin a tight hug.
Ally greeted Spencer in reply, and then said hello to Donnie, Sarah and Cassidy.
"So why wouldn't Vic be referring to her family reunion as fantastic?" Sarah asked curiously.
Victoire frowned and folded her arms across her chest, "Veela's are bitches."
"Didn't you once hex James for saying the exact same thing?" Ally questioned her cousin.
"I did, but if he had been referring to my great-grandmother and not me and Dom, I would have let it go," Victoire admitted.
Ally patted Victoire's hand, "So are you happy to finally be here as a resident?"
"So happy."
Spencer grinned salaciously at Victoire, "As happy as you were to spend the weekend alone on a beach in France with your fiancé?"
"I don't remember you always being this nosey and lascivious, I honestly think you're spending too much time with my sister," Victoire commented, smoothly side-stepping Spencer's question and its personal implications.
Spencer put on a faux-heartbroken expression, "I would have thought that you'd be happy that your sister and I are get along so brilliantly."
"If I can put my two sickles worth in," Ally added, holding up her hand, "While it's nice that you and Dom get along well, it is rather frightening to hear that you and her go out clubbing so often. Especially when neither of you actually end up stumbling in drunk into your flats until the next morning."
Spencer raised an eyebrow as he glanced at Ally, "I don't really think you should be one to talk Lab coat, Dom spends more time at your shared flat than you do."
Ally's cheeks and ears went red, and Victoire took pity on her cousin and changed the subject by asking Spencer about one of his favourite topics. Healing. Specifically disgusting contagious diseases and bugs.
"And the best part, is that Healer Weasley –Lab coat's Mom, not you Vic– asked me to be an assistant as she and the other researching healers experiment and further their work on those nifty bacteriophages," Spencer explained eagerly.
Donnie nodded, "I'm not sure how fun that sounds, but it will give you experience with research and even publishing, so that's good. It'll give you more of an edge when you apply for a job after your residency is finished."
"It will be good to get experience, and it will be fun thank you very much. More fun than you spending your days inspecting random women's lady parts," Spencer commented flippantly.
The obstetrics resident rolled his eyes, "For the last time Spence, vaginal examinations aren't done at every bleeding check-up."
"It is always like this? Because I'm starting to feel thankful that I didn't get an internship here last semester," Victoire mused, only partially joking.
Cassidy grinned, "Don't worry Vic, we're going to be so busy, and running on so many different schedules and late nights that you'll appreciate any chance you can get to sit around the cafeteria and listen to Spencer and Donnie bicker."
Victoire nodded at her friend's words. Healer Seward had already given them the preamble on what to expect shift and hours-wise, and since their department wasn't actually that large (because injuries caused by dark magic were not exactly as common as contagious diseases or giving birth), they were going to be running themselves ragged when they did have a ward full of patients.
The group of healing residents –and Ally– got some food, and several caffeinated beverages, into them before slipping off to go back to their separate floors and wards, and Victoire and Cassidy went back to getting the ground work of the rules and procedure that they would need to follow. The four residents were standing around the information/admittance desk of the D. A. R. ward when Healer Rhee joined them, Healer Seward stepping back to allow the head of the ward to talk to the residents.
". . . You've all met me before of course, during your interviews, but I'd like to extend my personal congratulations on making it this far and being selected to spend the next ten months here. You've met Healer Seward here, and over the rest of the week you will also meet the other fulltime healer on this ward, Healer Demir. The you will all report to one of us three while on duty, and every once in a while you may see a couple other part-time healers working around here, but that will only be if one of us is scheduled to be out, and in that case you will report to whichever healer is designated as in charge during that shift."
Victoire nodded her head along with the other residents.
"Also, Healer Seward has explained to you all how shifts and schedules will work, but since this is a hospital, you all are of course aware that we work on a basis of need. Our department is small to start with, so there will be times when you won't get more than the minimal hours of work a week. As such, it is our department policy to suggest, if you are so inclined as to earn more experience to add to your resumes, to get a part-time residency in another ward. Now, we're not demanding that you do so, but I mention it because if you are planning on applying for any full-time healing position after your residency, you will need more healing experience than this residency may give you. In that vein, it is also important to pick another ward in which you are interested in, and not just because they have space since it will give you experience so that you can apply to positions in other fields of healing as dark arts reversal healing is a rather small field by necessity. Am I clear?"
Healer Rhee wasn't astonished that the four residents looked surprised and slightly uncomfortable after hearing his speech. It always happened that way. It meant that they were taking his words seriously. And just before he started in on explaining how to handle paperwork for a new arrival, he noticed Victoire and Cassidy share a worried glance.
4:50 PM
There were only ten minutes left in his work day, but Louis felt like he could pass out on his feet. He had had a very strenuous day of MLE physical training, which was followed by a two hour long session on learning how to properly file paperwork. Spoiler alert, the instructions really shouldn't have taken two hours to explain, but they explained the instructions minutely and had to wait even longer because one or two stupid trainees wasted more time asking stupid questions. The two MLE agents who were in charge of his and the other new recruits' training were agents McCrory and Alesci.
Louis had remembered Agent Alesci, although briefly, from when he and other MLE agents were assigned to Victoire's kidnapping case back in her seventh-year at Hogwarts. He also remembered that his older sister didn't exactly make the best impression on the MLE agent since she was rather upset about their inference on the Auror Department's case. Thankfully, Agent Alesci hadn't made one mention of Louis's sister, even though the younger man knew that his training agent knew about their relation to each other. The only reaction Agent Alesci had had upon being introduced to Louis was the minutest raise of his eyebrows at hearing the younger man's last name.
When the long day finally came to an end, all Louis had to do was take some paperwork up to the floor that housed the criminologists and lawyers that worked for MLE and he was done. Just before he was able to step into the lift though, he came upon a familiar face.
"Matt!"
"Hey Louis!"
Louis smiled brightly upon seeing his old dorm mate and friend Matthew Everheart, and the two shook hands enthusiastically.
"So how've you been? How's MLE training going?" Matt asked his friend cheerily.
The blonde smiled brightly in spite of the tiredness he felt, "It's long and hard but it's good. How's working for the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes?"
"Surprisingly boring, but that's probably only because I'm the lowest rung on the totem pole and I get stuck with all of the work that nobody else wants," Matt replied good naturedly, "How's Cecilia?"
Louis grinned at just hearing his girlfriend's name, "She's great."
Matt rolled his eyes and muttered something along the lines of 'I-don't-know-why-I-even-bothered-asking', before much more clearly saying, "Still going strong then I take it. I'd ask you how her job was going, but since I picked up this earlier this morning, I think I'd be able to figure it out."
This was a shiny magazine that Matt pulled out of a briefcase he was holding and showed it to Louis. It was the brand new copy of Up in the Air, the periodical that Cecilia worked for, and written in the corner of the cover page was the title of her interview with Valentin Krum along with the page number that it was on. Matt flipped directly to a page that he had dog-eared it earlier and showed Louis that her interview covered an entire page along with a picture of Valentin.
"Her interview is the first one in the section, all the other Jr. writers' interviews are after hers," Matt explained.
Louis nodded, "I'll need to grab one on the way back to my flat then. I had to be in at work for five this morning so I didn't have a chance to see one. I knew that it was supposed to come out today though."
"You don't already have a subscription for the magazine?" Matt questioned him surprised.
"Nope. Cecilia wouldn't allow me to take one out just because she's writing for it. She told me that I have to wait until she actually writes a good enough article that would make taking out a subscription understandable," Louis explained.
Matt rolled his eyes, "Of course she would say that. How's Baxter?"
"He's good." Louis had been tempted to say better not good, but then Matt would have asked him what was wrong with Baxter in the first place, and he knew better than to spread gossip about his cousin's hardships.
Matt nodded and then the two said quick goodbyes after Louis casually mentioned needing to drop some papers off.
Louis finally entered the lift and travelled up one floor, and when he got off he wandered over to the secretary pool that was the first desk area that he could see. He explained to the lone male employee sitting there that he had come to drop off some papers from MLE and the man said that he could take them. Louis had just gotten the last of the paperwork off his hands when a voice called out his name from behind him.
Louis recognized the voice, he had only heard it last a week ago after all, and made a face before slowly turning around to face her.
"Hello Gloria."
Gloria Dustin smiled brightly at him and with three steps came a little too close to him, "It's so great to see you again! What are you doing up here on my floor?"
"Your floor?" Louis asked hesitantly as he tried to take a step back without seeming rude.
The Ravenclaw alumnus was still smiling as she uncharacteristically flicked her hair over her shoulder and clarified, "I work as a junior criminologist here."
"Oh," He wasn't entirely sure what to say after that, so he just awkwardly shoved his hands into his pockets.
She didn't seem to notice that he was uncomfortable, "So are you up here on MLE training business?"
"Yeah, I just had to drop-off some papers here – wait. How did you know that I work for MLE now?" Louis asked perplexedly.
Gloria let out an even more uncharacteristic giggle, "I heard it through the grapevine."
"Uh huh," He replied. He couldn't guess who the grapevine was, but he could guess that he probably didn't want to know.
She smiled at him again, "So did you enjoy your time in France and the game last week?"
"Mmmhmm," Louis responded. He was attempting to sound non-committal as he tried to slide over to the lift, but she took a step to the side that stopped him. He went into more detail the next time, as he tried to figure out how to, politely, get around her, "The game was fun. We went to a party after it, and the next day we went to an amusement park. We had a family reunion on our last day there, and then it was back to England and back to work after that."
"So you had a good holiday then?" Gloria asked.
Louis's plan to distract her had worked, he had slyly turned them so that he now had his back to the lift, and all he had to do was take a few steps backward to it, "Yes, but to be honest Cecilia and I could have just been sitting around doing nothing and we probably would have still appreciated the down time."
He was just about to take a step back closer to the lift when Gloria's face twisted into an irritated expression, "How nice."
Her words were flat and in a rare moment of rationality Louis figured that it was probably because he had mentioned Cecilia's name.
"So you and Wood are still together then?" Gloria asked, she forced another smile onto her face but her teeth were clenched, ruining whatever effect she had been going for.
Louis took several steps back and even though he didn't look at his feet, he assumed that he was only about another foot away from the lift, "Yes, well luckily she's still putting up with me, so I assume that we're going to be together as long as I keep playing my cards right."
He hadn't meant to sound so self-deprecating and put so much emphasis on how grateful he was for Cecilia wanting to be with him, but he was nervous so he just blurted out his feelings for his girlfriend.
"Hmmpf," Gloria muttered before forcing another smile on her face, "Hey, I just had a great thought, how about some time you and I-"
"I actually need to leave right now Gloria," Louis interrupted as he finally turned and pressed the button to call the lift.
Her face slipped into a pout and Louis offered her a wave before turning his back on her and jumping into the lift as soon as the doors opened. When they closed behind him without her following –which he was half afraid she would– he let out a thankful sigh. He then reached into his pocket, pulled out his mobile phone, and sent Cecilia a text message asking her if she was going to stop by his flat and see him after work, or if she wanted him to visit her at her home.
He had just stepped off the lift into the Ministry's atrium when Cecilia responded. He smirked a little when he read her message, and then wondered if he could make it to his flat in time to see if he could clean up the mess he –briefly– recalled making of his room earlier in the morning as he tiredly stumbled out of bed and got dressed. He decided that if he apparated directly home he might have time to make his room, and the flat, presentable by the time she was able to convince her parents that she wouldn't be gone long.
6:32 PM
"Is there something wrong?" Victoire questioned Teddy later that evening the minute he stepped into their flat.
Since their living room and kitchen were open concept, she could see him closing the front door behind him from where she stood in front of the stove.
"Not at all, why would you think that?" Teddy asked his fiancée curiously as he kicked off his shoes and wandered over to the give her a kiss on the cheek.
She looked down at her watch and then back at him, "You're only two minutes later than what you said you'd be. That never happens. You're usually at least twenty minutes off."
He rolled his eyes at her and took the spoon she was using to stir out of her hand so that he could do it instead, "I'm not always late."
"You are when you're working on an important active case," Victoire pointed out as she summoned a glass and poured him a drink.
Teddy put the spoon down and then thanked her for the drink, "I'd be careful about complaining about lateness if I were you, you just started your St. Mungo's residency. It'll be amazing if the both of us will be able to meet at any given time, let alone for dinner every evening."
"Fair point," Victoire replied with a shrug before leaning into him and resting her head on his chest, "As long as we both make it to dinner at Andromeda's on time on Saturday, I think we'll be good."
His arm, which he had slung around her waist at some point during her sentence, tightened around her and he looked at her quizzically, "Saturday? I think you're confused Love, dinner with Grandmum is on Friday."
She stretched up onto her tiptoes and gave him a tender kiss on the lips before smirking, "I think it's you who's confused Honey. Dinner with Andromeda is Saturday."
Teddy rolled his eyes again, but he knew that arguing with her wasn't going to get them anywhere. Instead, he summoned the note he had received from his grandmother two days before, the one which had invited them to dinner on the upcoming Friday, and figured he would just show her undeniable proof that he was right and she was mistaken.
The paper came whizzing into his hand and Victoire leaned out of his arms and jumped up to sit on the kitchen counter while he read it. She smirked a minute later when he pursed his lips before pressing them into a thin line.
"So what day is it again Dear? Friday or Saturday?"
He sighed heavily, crumbled up the paper, and tossed it away. When it was out of reach, Teddy turned to Victoire and rested a hand on the counter on either side of her hips, leaning forward until their faces were only a few inches apart. He was so close that he could clearly see each freckle that dusted her nose.
"How was your first day?"
Her eyes were zeroed in on his lips, so she read his words more than she heard them, as she was having a hard time hearing anything other than her own racing heart and the blood thumping behind her ears.
"I don't want to talk about my day right this minute," Victoire whispered, her words slow and heavy as she was still very focused on his lips.
The edges of his lips turned up at the corners, she was playing right into his hands –or more appropriately, lips. "What do you want to do then?"
"I want you to . . ." She began, enunciating her words slowly as she leaned her face even closer to his, her mouth just brushing against his lips as she spoke, "Finally admit that dinner is on Saturday instead of Friday."
Teddy pulled back from her and frowned, "Fine. You were right, dinner is Saturday. But we might need to switch it because I have to work until six-thirty on Saturday-"
"I'll stop by Andromeda's tomorrow after work and tell her not to expect you until six-thirty then. It's probably best to do it in person anyway, it'll make it more definitive and take away any confusion about exactly when we'll be expected for dinner," Victoire said.
He sighed, "I'm not going to live this down, am I?"
"Not until the next time I do something stupid," She assured him.
He grinned and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him, "Well in that case it won't be too long then."
She glared at him and he chuckled as he pressed a kiss to her pouting lips, "I love you."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah."
A/N: So, I know that there was a lot of info about the cases and the Holmwoods thrown at you in the beginning of the chapter, so I suggest reading over that part more than once if any bit is confusing, and if an extra read through doesn't answer all of your questions, feel free to ask me questions in a review or PM. If a few people ask the same question several times, I'll answer a list of them in my A/N of the next chapter. There are some points that I'm leaving a bit ambiguous because they'll be discussed more in depth later, but don't let that stop you from asking questions.
Anyway, I hope that you've enjoyed this chapter, and please let me know what you thought of this chapter, good or bad!
Next Update: I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to keep to my two week posting schedule for the next little while.
Next Chapter: Victoire goes to visit Andromeda to establish when exactly their Saturday night dinner will occur; we get to see Louis hold a baby and some more interaction between Eliza, her friends, Benjamin, and Benjamin's fiancee; and we get to see Victoire actually agree with Colton Knott about something.
Teaser for Next Chap:
"Victoire did decided to speak loudly as she entered, so that it wouldn't seem as if she just snuck into the house, "Hey Andromeda, I just stopped by to let you know that we might have to push dinner back an hour-"
As she spoke, she turned the corner of the entranceway and stopped just a foot into the living room. Andromeda was sitting on the sofa, her younger sister sitting on the chair across from her. Both of their gazes snapped to Victoire upon her entrance, and the younger woman looked briefly between Andromeda Tonks and Narcissa Malfoy before slowly finishing her sentence.
"On Saturday.""
Thanks as always to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed!
BIGGEST thank yous to:
rosenlilies, NicoleTheSmith, Rosie Loves Pi, GryffindorsRock, TheProphetBVB, Jennifer Jules, kIMaYa, BuckBeak90, MuggleCreator, no cure for crazy, Devi2509, Guest(1), DaughterOfTerpsichore, WishIWasAMarauder07, Guest(2), Jules, Seher Syed, reheni, cpnjky, and silverlover02!
rosenlilies: I'm sorry, but everyone likes to see their favourite characters, and I needed to say goodbye to the Hogwarts kids.
NicoleTheSmith: Melanie transferred to Hogwarts, she wasn't a part of an exchange program, so she's at Hogwarts until she graduates (ergo, one more year).
Rosie Loves Pi: Well Clark really wants Dom to get together with him.
TheProphetBVB: Mark actually fancies Clark's sister Tabitha. I like your theory about Dom and Clark though ;)
BuckBeak90: Sorry, but I'm not really sorry.
Guest(1): Don't worry, we'll learn more about Cecilia and Louis as the story goes.
WishIWasAMarauder07: We will see a tiny bit of Eliza and Benjamin interaction in the next chapter.
Jules: We will see more of Cecilia and Louis's relationship later in the story, and that means several aspects of their relationship.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and thanks for waiting for it,
Please leave me any questions, concerns, or comments in a review or PM,
Until next time, DFTBA!