Monday, September 6
The atrium at the Ministry looked the exact same as last time, except that it was now the height of rush hour. Witches and wizards hurried along the dark wooden floor towards the lifts where a large queue was already assembled. After they found their way out of the fireplaces, Harry and Ron joined the swarm into the lifts. Harry didn't bother to keep his gaze averted or hide his scar behind his bangs, but did do his best not to care if anyone recognized him considering that he was working there now. And luckily, the vast majority were too enraptured with their own to-do lists to care. Those that did happen to notice, only murmured to their colleagues beside them and Ron and Harry shared a knowing glance while moving along with the crowd.
"I'm still so nervous," Ron admitted quietly at the back of a lift as he fidgeted with the sleeves of his robes.
"It's Kingsley. It'll be fine," Harry replied in what he hoped was a confident voice. In reality, he couldn't stop his own hands from fidgeting within his pockets. A tall wizard at the front of the lift turned sharply at the use of the Minister's first name. But, the moment he recognized the two young wizards who were talking, his face turned beet red and he hastily turned to face the front again before hurrying out of the gate without the two noticing.
"Yeah, but he wants us to totally reorganize the whole program! How in Merlin's beard are we supposed to do that?" Ron whispered fervently into Harry's ear.
"We'll figure it out," Harry said evenly and waited for the lift to announce their arrival at level 1. With a deep calming breath, Ron led the way out of the empty lift, towards the first door on the right and knocked decisively before entering.
"Good morning," Kingsley greeted from behind his desk. "Please, have a seat." They did so and sank into the two chairs he had left for them on the opposite side of his desk. As per polite conventions, they exchanged the typical pleasantries before Kingsley got straight to the point.
"So, to put it simply, the auror department needs to be restructured. It got severely distorted under the Ministry takeover last year so that now, it runs off a system that praises each auror on high numbers of marked kills. Only one person was in charge with no ranks or levels of authority whatsoever, so that the more experienced aurors were equal to those that just finished training. And the training that the Death Eater's put in place is obviously no longer appropriate either, but we do still have the old training officer who's been reworking that." Kingsley took out a list from somewhere on his desk and turned it to face Ron and Harry.
"Here are the remaining aurors in the program. Moody used to be the head of the department and I was his second, along with another witch who died in the war. One other excellent auror moved departments and the other more experienced aurors retired once the Ministry was taken over last year. A few others either died or turned out to be spies for Voldemort, so we are critically understaffed as well. Tom Zhang has been running the department temporarily this past summer, but since he's in charge of auror training, he needs to get back to focusing on training."
"How many aurors are there usually?" Ron asked, peering at the relatively short list in front of him.
"We typically try to have somewhere around twenty-five, but now there are only fifteen, including the two of you."
"Are there any in training?"
"We had two in training, but one was obviously a Death Eater in the making, and the other joined during the Ministry takeover and has since disappeared." Kingsley looked up from the list to see Harry's stony expression and Ron still looking over the list curiously. "Hopefully now you see why you were the best options to lead the department. All of the remaining aurors are relatively inexperienced, none show terrific leadership qualities, and they are all very, very confused. I was hoping that you could give me a run-down on your general plan for the department sometime next week and I am completely open to your ideas. That's one of the reasons as to why I hired you, after all." Ron and Harry's eyes both opened as wide as galleons, but Kingsley pressed on, making his way through the general information that they needed.
"Besides revamping the department, there are still quite a few escaped Death Eaters on the loose that should be tracked down and arrested as soon as possible. Details and leads about those are in the headquarters on level 2, and the current aurors have been working on tracking down any information about them and their possible whereabouts. Any questions so far?"
"Er…," Harry said unhelpfully, not sure where to start. Ron had his brows furrowed in concentration and was leaning back in his chair with his hands clasped tightly in his lap;
"I know that was a lot of information thrown at you," Kingsley admitted, his kind eyes softening. "Why don't I show you to the auror headquarters so you can meet everyone? Feel free to ask me anything if it comes to you. And here are your badges, make sure to keep them on you at all times while in the Ministry or on a job." He rose from the desk, slid two badges with their names and positions in bold font, and without waiting for an answer, walked to the door in long strides, waiting for the other two to rise.
"Bloody hell," Ron cursed under his breath. Harry smiled, but didn't respond considering Kingsley was just a meter away, holding the door open for them. He led them into an empty lift and stepped out against moments after when it opened to level 2. They found themselves in a long corridor with doors on each side which Kingsley strode past quickly, leaving Ron and Harry to hurry behind him. They rounded a corner and Kingsley pushed open heavy oak doors, entering the auror offices.
It was a large open space divided into cubicles where some witches and wizards sat, and more doors led off of the main space. Roughly ten witches and wizards filled a few cubicles, talking over the walls with only two hunched over something that resembled work. All of them seemed to look up at once when the door swung open, and their heads swung to watch their progress. Kingsley led the way towards the back of the open space where the wall had a large window looking into what was presumably their office. Inside were two desks at the back of the room- both facing the front window- and cabinets, boards, and shelves that were filled with scattered information.
"Right," Kingsley said with a clap of his hands. He turned suddenly as the door slammed behind Harry. "As you could see, no one really knows what they're supposed to be doing at the moment. I would ask for Williamson to give you any information that you need. She has been here the longest out of all of them- just under three years- and was one of the two actually working. So I would spend the day getting to know each of them, learning where things are, how things used to run, and hopefully some ideas should come to you. Any questions before I go on my way?" Harry and Ron shared a glance, and the former let out a pent up breath.
"No, I think we can manage," Harry said, extending his hand for Kinglsey to shake.
"Brilliant. If you need anything that one of them can't help you with, my office is always open." He shook Ron's hand next and swept from the office.
"Bloody hell!" Ron swore loudly the second the door closed. Harry smiled ruefully and leaned over the desk where a paper and quill sat, waiting for someone to use them. Ron stood, rooted in place, mumbling profanities and staring at the closed door and out the window where the group of aurors milled about uselessly.
"Ron!" Harry said loudly, over his friend's incessant cursing. "Help me remember everything he told us. Williamson has been here just over three years, yeah?"
"Just under," Ron replied automatically and made his way to sit on the desk next to him.
"Okay, and there are thirteen aurors total, not including us?" Ron nodded. For the next half an hour, Harry scribbled every minute detail that they could possibly remember haphazardly onto the parchment. When they filled two parchments with barely coherent notes, they locked eyes and knew they were thinking the same thing. The same thing that Ron was muttering about a half an hour ago.
"Now what?" Harry asked helplessly and he laid their notes on the desk in between them. "Where do we start?"
"Kingsley suggested we get to know them, figure out what's behind all these doors, and how things used to work back when this was a functioning office," Ron responded, his eyebrows raised pointedly.
"Right. Let's kill two birds with one stone and ask Williamson to show us around."
"Did you just say 'kill two birds with one stone'?" Ron asked, amused.
"Yeah, it's an expression. It means… well, nevermind. Let's just figure out who Williamson is." Harry shook his head and hopped off the desk.
"Wait!" Harry stopped, his hand on the door handle. "Aren't we supposed to give a speech or something? Isn't that what people do when they start a new job?"
"Be my guest," Harry shrugged.
"Why not you?"
"It was your idea!"
"Okay, okay. Fine. I'll just… introduce ourselves."
"Brilliant." He opened the door and the chattering immediately subsided as eleven faces simultaneously turned towards him.
"Hello, everyone," Ron began with a smile that he hoped looked genuine. "I'm Ron Weasley and this is Harry Potter," This is stupid, everyone knows he's Harry Potter, he thought to himself, but made sure to keep a smile plastered on. "And we're the new heads of the Auror Department." Ron stepped aside and gestured for Harry to say something.
Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he complied. "Kingsley told us what's happened to the department in general this past year, so we're planning on restructuring it and would appreciate any ideas or input that you have. For now, we just want to get to know all of you and how the department used to run. So, erm… which one of you is Williamson?" All heads turned towards a witch standing to the side. Her eyes grew wide and she raised a shaky hand.
"Hullo, Williamson. Do you mind showing us around?" Her terrified face seemed to sink into relief and she nodded pleasantly before stepping forward.
"Great, thank you. Everyone else, please go back to whatever you were working on earlier," Harry said carefully with a slight emphasis on the word 'working.' He then turned to the short witch in front of him who Ron was already shaking hands with. She was probably in her early twenties, and had light brown hair tied into a low ponytail.
"Hello, Mr. Potter," she said in a soft and quiet voice while extending her hand. "I'm Anne Williamson."
"Nice to meet you," he replied, grateful that she seemed to be acting normal around him.
"Shall we?" She cocked her head and led the way to the closest door along the right side of the room. "In here is the records room. This is where all records of arrests, cases, disturbances, trials, everything is kept." She held up a badge in front of the door handle, waited until the dark metal turned a light gray, and pushed it open. Racks of boxes lined shelves and shelves, filling the room in rows. "They're organized by year and then the name of the crime. So, way down there are the oldest cases we keep records of, and then those from his year are kept in this row." She took them through each door; one leading to an interrogation room, another to a room with temporary holding cells, another for holding meetings, a break room, and two smaller private meeting rooms.
Finally, they reached the last door of the office labeled "Training" and Williamson pushed it open to lead into a miniature version of the area on the other side. A few desks filled the floor, all empty and neat; clearly, none have been used in quite some time. Doors lined the opposite wall and an office was clearly visible in the back.
"This is where the Auror Trainees work. Each of these doors lead to a training room. Some are made for practicing dueling, some are made for simulations, and then that door over there is their meeting room." Harry and Ron followed her pointed finger toward the door in the back corner, but Harry was distracted by another head popping up from the office window. He watched as someone pulled open the door forcefully and hurried towards them.
"Oh, yes. This is Tom Zhang, in charge of auror training," Williamson introduced, gesturing towards the man speed walking towards them. He had a slight bald spot among thin and graying hair and wore crisp gray robes that swung about his feet loosely.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley! So good to meet you!" He took turns grasping one of their hands in both of his and shaking them eagerly, before stepping back again and smiling broadly.
"Nice to meet you too, Mr. Zhang," Ron replied politely, hands shoved in his pockets.
"Oh, call me Tom. Everyone else does," he said with a wave of his hand. "You'll be able to meet my assistant a little later, I'm sure. He's off hanging flyers in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade and basically any popular magical spot to try and recruit some new young witches and wizards."
"Do you have a minute to talk about recruiting, actually?" Harry asked.
"Sure, sure! Why don't you come into my office?" Harry glanced at Ron, who graciously thanked Willliamson and excused themselves as politely as they could before following Tom's retreating steps.
"I must say, I am simply honored to be able to work alongside you both. You're already so accomplished and talented, and I think you will do a lot of good for this department," Tom said with a warm smile the moment they entered his office.
"Thank you, Tom. We're looking forward to working with you too," Harry replied, ignoring the fact that he had never heard of him before today. He dragged an empty chair to sit across from his desk while Ron sat in another.
"So, what can I do for you?"
"Can you tell us the basics of the recruiting and training process?"
"Sure. Typically, we get around three students from the graduating class at Hogwarts every year and occasionally we'll get a student or two from an international school. So we've never had to work this hard at finding possible recruits. But, I have gotten into contact with a few possible witches and wizards who are considering starting the training process. I think they're all recently graduated students who were purposefully not part of the workforce these past two years or so because of everything that was going on. The hard part is that the training takes a few years, so no older witches or wizards want to start. Although, the Minister's new decision to let anyone admitted to the program who fought in the battle of Hogwarts enter the program immediately and skip the first year of the combat basics will really help our numbers grow."
"As for the training itself, the students must pass certain tests every six months, showing their growing proficiency in different areas, like tracking, dueling, disguising, all of that. They also shadow aurors with paperwork and occasionally tracking down suspects or planning missions. Then, in their third and final year, they start shadowing aurors on low risk missions to build experience that way. After three years, they take a final test and if they pass, they become full-fledged aurors and if they don't, they have another three months of additional training before they can take it again."
"And who does the actual practical training?" Harry asked, leaning forward in his seat.
"I teach the spells and hexes and things, and then they practice on dummies. The trainees practice actual combat dueling with each other and my assistant. I choose not to participate in those since I'm not as young as I once was," he chuckled ruefully to himself. "And I don't really want any more injuries from over-enthusiastic trainees."
"What kind of spells or hexes do you teach?" Ron pressed, his face twisted in concentration.
"The first two years are always the same defensive and offensive spells. But, in the third year we typically teach more specifics with the new types of spells that were recently discovered or if certain things have come back in fashion that we think the Death Eaters will be likely to use."
"And I'm guessing you have a lot more time on your hands at the moment, huh?" Ron asked, a smile slowly tugging at his lips.
"Yeah."
Roughly fifteen minutes later, they reentered their own office, the identical idea forming in their head without them even needing to say anything. Before the idea slipped out of their memory, they scribbled it down along with more notes on a new sheet of parchment and set it to the side on top of their other haphazard scribbles.
"All right. Next on our list is getting to know all of them," Harry started with a wave of his hand in the general direction of the window.
"Yeah. We should probably ask them about how things were run this past year to get ideas about what not to do," Ron added mirthfully, leaning back while maintaining his seat on the desk. Just as the rest of the aurors finished up their lunches, Harry and Ron finished deciding what questions to ask each of them and looked at the list Kingsley provided them with, showing a picture of each auror with their name, age, and time spent in the program. True to his word, no one had been in the department for longer than a few years and the majority were in their early twenties, just a few years older than Harry and Ron. After learning to be more prepared when making an announcement to the whole area, they left the office to call in the first person on the list.
"Excuse me, everyone," Harry started, causing the aurors to shift in their seats that they just sat down in and the few still standing stood straight instead of bending over a colleague's desk. "We're going to be calling each of you in for a mini-interview of sorts, just to get to know you and hear some of your thoughts on how the department was run in the past. Does that sound all right?" He looked about and saw a few small nods and mostly curious glances.
"Brilliant. So, first on the list is… Bayman," Ron announced. The wizard closest to them dropped his papers onto the desk and followed the two of them into the office. Ron and Harry had set up a triangle of three chairs so that they were all facing each other, and they both had a book acting as a flat surface in their lap to take notes.
"Hello, nice to meet you," Harry started the conversation pleasantly.
"You as well," the wizard replied stiffly as he took the last empty seat. He peered at them over his sharp nose and through thick blond curls that fell over parts of his face.
"Er… so it says here that you have been an auror for about a year now," Harry prompted.
"And in training for three years before that," he finished for him, leaning back in the chair with his chin upturned slightly.
"Right. So, what did you think of the department for the year that you were in it?" Ron asked, his quill at the ready to take notes.
"It was fine."
"Er…," Harry glanced at Ron, both of whom were expecting and hoping for more details than just three words. "How so?"
"We got done what needed to be done."
"Okay. So, which parts of the department did you like and which did you wish you could change?"
"That's not up to me."
"No, but we are asking you," Harry replied shortly, feeling his temper rise.
"We're hoping to make a difference," Ron interrupted, seeing the heat in Harry's cheeks. "And we think that the department will run smoother if we get as much input as we can, so if you have any thoughts or ideas, now is a great time to share them."
Bayman squinted slightly and huffed as he forced himself to sit straight. "Fine. I think that good leadership is important."
"And what does good leadership look like to you?" Ron asked, forcing his tone to stay polite.
"Good leadership looks like having actual experience in the department before picking a celebrity to run it," Bayman responded before he could stop himself, his brows furrowed in jealous loathing. His bluntness sent silence reverberating through the room, and Harry was the first to recover.
"Well, thank you for speaking plainly," he replied dryly and took a deep breath before continuing. "We know that we aren't from the department and we know that we're young, but that's what Kingsley wanted. He wanted new ideas and new perspectives that you can only get from someone who hasn't worked here before."
"And choosing you had nothing to do with being famous, did it?"
"He's famous for being great at Defense Against the Dark Arts and duelling and defeating Death Eaters and Voldemort countless times! Don't you think that's somewhat relevant?" Ron asked, his own temper catching up to the building tension in the room. Bayman refused to respond and only glared at them both.
"All right, fine. I don't think we're going to get anything else out of this conversation for now, so you're free to go." Bayman huffed dramatically and left the room as quickly as he could, leaving Ron and Harry to stare at each other incredulously. Luckily for them, the rest of the interviews went much smoother and they managed to get plenty of good suggestions and comments on what worked and what didn't in the past. At the end of the day, when the aurors slowly began leaving the offices with a few waves and calls behind them, Ron approached Bayman once more as he was packing up his briefcase and after a quick exchange, he followed Ron back inside their office.
Now that all three of them were standing, Harry was very much aware of the fact that Bayman was at least half-a-head taller than him and much less scrawny. Shaking this off and telling himself to get a grip, Harry started talking in an even and hopefully respectful tone.
"Clearly, we got off on the wrong foot earlier." Bayman smiled slightly, but his eyes remained squinted. "We get that you think there are probably better people for the job, and honestly, parts of us think that too. But that doesn't really matter because Kingsley hired us. So, I hope that we can make the best of the situation and work together respectfully."
"If you do have any suggestions or thoughts about the department, please let us know. And if you think we did something wrong, don't hesitate to tell us," Ron finished. Bayman stood, as still as stone, in front of them, taking in what they had said. A tiny flicker of unreadable emotions flashed across his face. Finally, he nodded slowly and extended a hand to Harry.
He shook his hand, then shook Ron's, and said in a hollow voice, "Thank you. I'll see you both tomorrow." And he left the office without another word.
The following morning, Harry and Ron arrived in the atrium again at two minutes past eight and joined the throng of employees streaming towards the lifts and up to level two. They pushed open the door to the auror headquarters and greeted those who were already there by name (they quizzed each other on each of the aurors names last night over Kreacher's homemade dinner) and talked with them for a few minutes before retreating into their office to start piecing together all of their scattered thoughts.
Within an hour, they had pieced together two of their ideas and they had agreed upon all but one or two minute details that they had already started discussing last night.
"Right. You take Zhang, I'll take Williamson," Harry said confidently, not turning from the large chalkboard that they had scribbled all over with random arrows and lines connecting thoughts along with plenty of marks scratching others out.
"Sounds good," Ron replied before marching out the door, twirling his wand in his hand. Harry followed and poked his head out the door momentarily before calling Williamson into the room. She smiled as she entered and shut the door behind her before sitting at the chair opposite Harry. For some reason, at that moment, Harry realized that he and Ron still hadn't decided whose desk was whose; they had both been using the same one closest to the door.
"Good morning," she greeted politely, her hands clasped tightly in her lap.
"Good morning," Harry echoed automatically. "So, Ron and I are figuring out how to restructure the department, and we could really use some help leading the process to track down the remaining Death Eaters. Since you've been here the longest and Kingsley clearly approves of you, would you be willing to help us out?" She blinked rapidly and shook her head slightly to get the ringing sound out of her ears.
"Hang on, are you promoting me?" she asked incredulously, leaning forward so some of her loose hair fell in front of her shoulder.
"Er… kind of? For now, consider it a temporary test run of a possible promotion in the near future," Harry replied, carefully choosing every word. She smiled brightly and nodded before squeezing her lips together out of excitement. "Great. So where are you all with finding the Death Eaters?"
"One moment, I'll go grab my folders." She hurried out of the office and within moments, she was shutting the door behind her again, now clutching a stack of folders under her arm. She dropped the stack on the desk, dragged the chair closer to the surface, and opened the one on top which she turned ninety degrees so that they could both see it if they held their heads at the right angle.
"So this is probably the one we're closest to finding. We know for sure where three of his hide-outs were in the past, and we think that he's alone at whichever one he's at because the two other Death Eaters that he was usually with before died in the war." Harry nodded and gazed at the unfamiliar image, trying to place him somewhere. She slid the folder to the side and opened the next one, giving him a brief update for each escaped Death Eater they have a record of and faint ideas of plans started to form in Harry's head.
After they worked their way through each folder in the stack, Ron slipped in through the door with two thumbs up and a grin. He caught the door as it swung shut and held it open for Williamson as she left to work with a group to collect any information they know on those three locations.
"He's in! And so is his assistant," Ron said happily. "He said that he could have a schedule ready by next week."
"That's great! Williamson had some decent stuff on most of the Death Eaters and she's collecting any information on three possible locations for one with a few other aurors."
"Brilliant," Ron collapsed into the chair opposite Harry. "Back to the structure then?" Harry nodded and waved his wand at the board in the corner so that their notes from yesterday reappeared. They spent the rest of the morning and afternoon erasing and adding to their notes and plans, learning to write smaller so that their all of their ideas could fit. Occasionally, aurors would come in and ask them questions or update them, trying to peek a glance at what they were thinking, but no one could decipher their handwriting or where to begin considering the board was largely covered in arrows.
As the clock neared five o'clock, Ron and Harry gazed at their three chalkboards satisfied with how their plan was starting to come together.
"We should probably clean this up before we talk with Kingsley, huh," Ron commented light-heartedly as he scraped his chin with the tip of his wand.
"Probably," Harry responded standing next to him. And that they did. Their Wednesday was filled with figuring out how to make their broad ideas sound coherent and trying to organize them somewhat appropriately, which Ron assured he would finish on Thursday along with working with Williamson to make a plan about that Death Eater. They worked through the weekend, finalized their plans late Sunday night, and felt reasonably prepared to meet with Kingsley the following morning.
But, they found their confidence dwindling as they sat before the Minister who was hunched over his desk, responding to an urgent message that had arrived at the same time as them. He let out a short breath while straightening his back and picking up his wand from beside him. Immediately, the paper folded itself into an airplane and flew out of the office.
"Sorry about that," Kingsley replied as the door shut closed again. "The Department of Law Enforcement is quite slammed at the moment. They've been having hearings and court cases for accused Death Eaters for weeks now, nonstop. Speaking of which, you'll probably be getting a message about that soon, Harry." He added thoughtfully before shaking his head to rid himself of the distraction.
"Anyways," he continued, peering at Harry's confused face. "What have you got?"
"Er…," he stumbled at the sudden prompt, forgoing all pleasantries. "Right. So, here's our general ideas for how we want to structure the department. It should make more sense once we get more aurors, of course, but we reckon it'll still work with our fewer numbers." Ron handed him a small stack of papers and scooted his chair closer to the desk so that he could point to the pages.
"We want to split the department into three subgroups: intel, action, and prevention. Intel is generally finding out where criminals are and tracking them, that sort of thing. The action group is the more hands-on group that fight back and would typically be the first choices for missions. And prevention would be the group that are there to protect people or places that need it," Ron explained, pointing to the three lists of duties as he briefly addressed them.
"Eventually, there will be a head for each subdivision and in the third year of training, the auror trainees will spend some time in each group so that they can pick which they want to go into. Any auror can switch groups with a reason, so long as there's room so that they are still somewhat equally balanced."
"So the action group is the only one in the field on actual missions, then?" Kingsley interrupted, staring intently at the papers.
"Not necessarily," Harry replied. "They are definitely on missions often, but the intel group can go out to watch suspects or collect information from others as needed and the protection group goes out as needed too, just on less dangerous missions." Kingsley nodded thoughtfully, flipped the page, and began reading the next. Then the next, and the page after that. Harry and Ron sat silently, fidgeting in their seats nervously, waiting for him to reach the end of their notes. When he did, he leaned back in his seat and gazed at the wall slightly above them clearly lost in thought.
"Prevention aurors… they would be similar to guards, yes?" he asked, his large hand stroking his chin in deep thought.
"Yeah, I suppose," Harry answered with a quick glance at Ron.
"A law will be announced in a few weeks that gets rid of the dementors guarding Azkaban, and I was thinking of replacing them with aurors taking turns as guards."
"You're getting rid of the dementors!" Ron cried out in shock.
"Yes. They're untrustworthy and cruel," he replied in disgust. "So can I expect a few of your aurors to rotate in as guards? I'll have a few regular law enforcement witches and wizards too, but I think the presence of aurors will prevent any potential trouble."
"Absolutely," Harry replied, sharing in his disgust with the vile creatures.
"Good. Now, talk to me about what you call extended training," he prompted, before Ron had gotten over his shock.
"Every auror will have an hour of practice with Zhang every week to either learn new spells, potions, strategies- whatever he thinks is appropriate. Or practice dueling or going through a simulation to make sure they don't get rusty," Ron recited immediately. "It will also help develop teamwork and trust across all three groups so that they don't feel like separate departments."
"Won't that decrease efficiency?"
"No because not all aurors will be in the training rooms at the same time. There will always be aurors working, but this will just be a break from paperwork or the stress of the job. And if there's an emergency and all aurors need to be working, then we'll just cancel the extended training for the week or until things calm back down," Harry responded. About an hour after Kingsley's questioning and a few edits to their plan, they found themselves in the second level of the Ministry, re-explaining their new plan to the assembled aurors in the meeting room.
"Questions?" Harry finished. Luckily for them, all thirteen aurors were here today since two of the missing aurors had returned from protecting an employee this past weekend.
"Yeah," Bayman said, leaning forward in his chair so that his elbows rested on the table. "How and when will the heads of these subdivisions be decided?"
"Well, we want each of you to spend at least one week working for each subdivision before ranking your choices of the three. About a month after everyone is situated, Ron and I will have our own opinions about who would be good, and we'll ask whoever is in the subdivision to anonymously suggest their top choice and hopefully, they all line up." Bayman nodded slowly and sank back into his chair.
"So is it safe to say that the action group will be working most with other departments?" another wizard by the surname of Kenning asked.
"Not necessarily. Chances are they will be working most with court cases and hearings since whoever they capture will eventually have a trial that you'll need to answer questions in. But, the prevention group will have to work alongside whatever departments or outside businesses request auror presence. The intel group is probably the group with the least interaction with other departments, and probably the most secretive because we don't want any hints of future plans getting out before we can implement them."
Another hour or so later, everyone had signed up for their first rotation and started working on their assignments. Tom Zhang later announced the sign up schedule for extended training and announced that two trainees will be starting in two weeks, and their new plan for the department was underway.
As always, thank you for reading and all of your lovely reviews! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and get ready for chapter 26, which has some George Weasley in it!