Monday, November 21
Neville Longbottom strode through the brooding crowds of the atrium with far less nerves than anyone in his current position would have. But he felt absolutely fine. In fact, he was quite excited and was barely able to contain his grin which felt quite out of place for a dismally cloudy Monday morning at the office.
"'Morning!" He said cheerfully to the lone other wizard in the lift beside him. The other man grunted in reply without looking up from his paper. Neville, wholeheartedly unperturbed, continued to beam at the golden grates in front of him and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. Patiently, he watched as the numbers approached level two, and before the grates even had a chance to open all the way, he strode out onto the carpeted hallway and moments later, pushed open the door to the Auror Headquarters a moment later.
When he arrived, only two people were in the office space already, both of whom gave him curious looks, then continued talking with their heads together. Albeit, he was quite early. But he couldn't help the tossing and turning in his bed last night or the struggle to fall back asleep to the point where he eventually gave in and had an early breakfast.
"Good morning," he tried for the second time that day.
One witch with straight brown hair smiled up at him. "Hello," she replied politely. "How can we help you? The office doesn't open for another twenty minutes."
"Today's my first day as a trainee," he explained immediately. "I'm Neville, by the way, Neville Longbottom." He extended a hand and after she shuffled her papers around, she was able to shake it.
"Nice to meet you, Longbottom. I'm Anne Williamson. The Training Director isn't in yet, so you can just have a seat somewhere while you wait if you'd like."
"Brilliant, thanks." Neville pulled out a seat at the front of the office and cast his gaze around the room, trying to commit it to memory. There were three clumps of desks across the long rectangular space and at the back was a large window to a private office. Doors ran along the sides of the walls and he squinted to try and read them all from across the room.
The main door opened and closed fairly frequently within the next ten minutes, each time letting in another auror who made a beeline for their desk with a few polite smiles in his direction and one or two hesitant, yet confused, nods.
The door squeaked open again and a black-haired wizard in open dark green dress robes entered, holding the door open behind him for the redhead behind him to pass through.
"Neville!" Harry cried once he turned from the door. Immediately, all of the aurors in the room swung their heads towards his voice and watched with some jealousy as Neville stood and clapped their bosses on the back as an old friend. After all, they would each be suggesting their personal choices for subdivision heads tomorrow and a select few were all vying for their favor.
"Hey guys!" Neville greeted. "Good to see you again."
"Blimey, I forgot. Is today your first day?" Ron asked.
"Yeah. Apparently the Training Director isn't here yet though." Slowly, the aurors present began to return to their work and their own conversations with only a few glances at their huddled group.
"Yeah, he tends to run on the verge of being late typically," Harry responded with a grin.
"My kind of person then." Neville nodded.
"But you're here early," Ron said, more as a question than a statement.
"True. But I was excited," he shrugged.
"Well there's another trainee starting with you today who is probably a lot more nervous than you," Ron apprised him.
"Really? That's great! I was worried I'd be alone." The door continued to swing open, letting in a continuous stream of witches and wizards, including one young man who approached the group with a hesitant gait. He had a thick head of dark hair, broad shoulders, and walked with his hands clasped behind his back.
"Good morning Potter and Weasley," he greeted with a nod in their direction. Barely giving them each enough time to respond, he said abruptly "Are you Neville Longbottom?"
"Yes…," he replied, slightly nonplussed.
"Excellent. I'm Chatura Prashad, Assistant Training Director. If you could follow me, please."
"Oh! All right. See you later!" Neville waved at his two friends who departed together towards their office while he followed the man through the door closest them. They entered a miniature version of the first room and Neville curiously peered around while following diligently behind Prashad.
"You can take any desk that you want except for those two," he pointed out two desks with an array of things scattered across their surfaces, "And once the other trainee and Tom come, we can get started. If you'll excuse me for one moment, I'm going to go set some things up." He walked briskly across the office, through one of the many doors, and left Neville in a sea of desks to choose from.
Assuming that the two occupied desks were for the two other trainees who started a month ago, Neville pulled out a chair near them that faced the front of the room and stared at the largest door, waiting for either Tom Zhang or one of the other trainees to come through.
After what felt like years, a witch and a wizard came through the door, one after the other, and filled the two seats next to him. They began to chat amicably with Neville, filling him in on what to expect on his first day and answering his questions about what Tom was like.
Tom hurried into the room next, offering a stream of apologies for his tardiness before walking to Neville and shaking his hand heartily. At first glance, Neville knew he was a pleasant man. He wore red robes that poked out slightly at his gut and his eyes seemed to be permanently crinkled into a smile.
"The other trainee isn't here yet?" Tom asked, scratching his bald spot among his thinning hair.
"Don't think so," Neville replied.
"Huh… Well I'm going to go set my things down, but I'll be back in one moment." He turned away from the group, but stopped abruptly with a finger raised. "Oh! I assume Chatura is already setting up?"
"Yes," Neville answered, causing the older man to chuckle to himself.
"Naturally, naturally." He shook his head with a smile and continued towards his office. Right as his door shut closed, the other door blew open to let in an out of breath wizard.
"I'm so sorry I'm late! I got lost, but I'm…" he trailed off slightly when he saw the three lounging trainees and not his new boss. He had a thick Bulgarian accent and a neat buzzcut of dark brown hair.
"You must be Chernoz… chernozemski," one of the other trainees said, stumbling over his surname.
"Yes. Andrew Chernozemski, but most call me Cherno," he said and sank gratefully into a chair that Nevile had pulled out next to him.
"Neville Longbottom. I'm starting today too."
"Longbottom? You're the vune vith the snake and the sword? At the Battle of Hogwarts?"
"Oh… er… yeah, that's me," Neville replied, already feeling his cheeks growing warm.
"That was you!" Another trainee said, dropping his quill in adulation. The witch's eyes grew wide and her mouth formed a small O of surprise. Neville uncomfortably answered their series of questions, continuously glancing backwards at Zhang's office door, waiting for it to open and save him.
Thankfully, it did soon after and Tom strode back towards them. He greeted the final wizard of their group with the same amount of eagerness he did Neville.
"Why don't you come with me, then. Cherno and Neville, you two will be doing your initial test to see what you know. Since the department is so understaffed you can skip up to a year of training, but please don't be too nervous about that. You're already in the program, so no need to feel any pressure." He smiled at them warmly as they rose from their seats, Cherno already grimacing in preemptive nerves. He gave the other two trainees a quick set of directions which they seemed to understand because they immediately began to get to work on something, but to Neville, he could have sworn they were speaking in Bulgarian.
Prashad was already in the room bustling around a table and he barely looked up when they entered. The room itself had little to nothing in it with blank light gray walls and four dummies on wheels at the far end waiting in a line. The floor was made of dark wooden panels that made their soft footfalls sound much louder than they should.
Zhang clapped his hands together loudly, sending the sound reverberating across the silent room making the three other wizards jump slightly. "Let's get started!" He said with a beaming grin. "We'll start with spells and hexes and the like, so who wants to go first?" Cherno shared a nervous glance with Neville, and with a sigh, Neville stepped forward.
"I'll go."
"Excellent!" He held out his hand to the left, waiting for the clipboard that Prasahd quickly blindly handed him. "So Longbottom, you did rather well in your Defense Against the Dark Arts OWLs, which I must say I'm surprised by considering the professor for that year."
"Well, Harry actually… tutored me in a sense," Neville confessed with a smile.
"Oh ho! Well then! I won't bother testing you on the simple stuff! Step forward now, Mr. Longbottom… in front of a dummy… yes, good… now I'm going to be calling out a few commands and all you have to do is cast the appropriate spell. Okay?" Neville nodded and swallowed, suddenly feeling the full force of his smothered nerves. "Ready?" Neville nodded once more.
And the testing began.
He called out simple curses and hexes and spells and studied Neville closely as he flicked his wand this way and that after a moment or two of thinking. Then Prashad took the place of the dummy and he fired different spells at Neville while he deflected whatever came his way. While he managed to cast all but two of the spells in the first round, he was hit with quite a few more from Prashad since his reflexes were never his strength.
Before long, Neville was breathing hard, his chest heaving and a few beads of sweat rolling along his hairline.
"Well done, Longbottom! Well done! Go take a rest and let's have Cherno up here." They switched places and then moved on to testing their charms, transfiguration, and much to Neville's displeasure, potions. That was always going to be his downfall, he was sure. But, he managed to do quite well with the considerable less pressure than in the classroom and by the end of the day as he was walking out of the training center, he was well and truly exhausted.
Tuesday, November 22
"Damn," Harry muttered under his breath while stopping abruptly, causing Ron to look sideways at him curiously.
"What?" he asked, both of which ignoring the angry glances of witches and wizards forced to go around their stopped figures.
"I forgot the forms for choosing subdivision heads." Harry glanced at the golden watch wrapped around his wrist that he received as a birthday present from the Weasleys. "We still have time. I'll just go back and grab it."
"Want me to come with you?"
"No, I'll be quick. Say hi to Neville for me!" Harry was already striding away from Ron, back across the atrium and towards the rows of fireplaces.
"Good thing we were early today," Ron said, even though he knew no one was listening. He shook his head with a smile and thought 'How did we ever get a job without Hermione?' before joining the group waiting for the next round of lifts.
Another fifteen minutes later, and it was safe to say Harry was no longer early. He was on the brink of being late as he finally found the papers he needed and sprinted from the drawing room back into the kitchen at full speed, sliding through the door frame and grabbing a hold onto the corner just before he fell.
"The atrium," he said clearly into the fireplace, still slightly out of breath and the swirling embers surrounding him did nothing to help him catch it. For the second time that day, Harry walked briskly out of the fireplace and across the now almost deserted atrium filled with only the other witches and wizards running late. A few reporters sat along the fountain edge, waiting for today's Death Eater hearing to finish so that they could berate anyone involved with a perpetual flow of questions.
Harry slowed his jog to a walk as he reached the fountain, peering around him cautiously. Something didn't feel quite right. He didn't know what it was, but the hairs on his arm suddenly stood on end. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, other than the lack of employees, and he furrowed his brows curiously. Clearly, he was getting paranoid. All it takes to set his nerves on edge was an emptier than usual room, he thought sardonically.
He returned his pace to a light jog as he passed under the second dark stone arch of the Ministry on his way to the lift when a squeak of shoes on the stone echoed at the other side of the archway.
Then something heavy slammed into his chest, knocking the wind out of him and he flew across the room. The papers clutched in his hand floated gently to the floor while he smashed heavily into the base of the archway. A man dressed in all black and a gleaming silver mask appeared at the other side of the archway that he had clearly been hiding behind. Frantic screams filled the air as the few witches and wizards present fled the scene to the lifts or through one of the numerous doors that created the maze within the Ministry.
"You will pay Potter!" The dark figure spat, striding towards him and ignoring the other employees. Harry instinctively slid his wand out the loop on his leg and sprang to his feet, despite the violent ache in his back and the unremitting ringing in his ears. "That was my brother you attacked, you-"
Not waiting or caring to hear what he said next, Harry shot a jet of bursting red light from his wand, which the man deflected quickly. He stumbled slightly as if shocked that Harry had interrupted his prepared and most likely practiced monologue.
Harry sent a stream of curses, one after the other, in a blinding blur of movement, sending the man dancing to avoid the ones he couldn't deflect.
Meanwhile, the three reporters lounging on the fountain's edge eagerly snapped pictures and frantically began to write in their notepads. One of the lax security guards sent an urgent message up to level two, demanding a backup of aurors. Of course, Harry nor the Death Eater saw any of this.
The man had regained his footing and rather than stumbling back under Harry's torrent of spells, he began to fire back. Trusting his reflexes to keep him alive, Harry bent to the left as a loud burst of flames shot past his shoulder, knocking bricks off the wall behind him. Without having time to contemplate how close that had come, he kicked aside a brick from under his foot and stood back on solid ground.
He whipped away the torrent of short spears the Death Eater sent towards him and shot a rope from his wand towards the man, which suddenly melted into nothing just before it reached his quarry. The Death Eater, invigorated in his hatred, continuously thrust his hand forward, constantly jabbing at the air and sending deadly curses out of it, focused on nothing but his own deadly impetus. Rather than switching between deflection and firing, he jumped and danced around the flying lights, making his aim rather pathetic.
Harry didn't have to worry about half of the curses shot at him since most of them missed him by more than a foot. Those that did come close, he blocked or deflected them to shoot across the atrium in the other direction.
Realizing the Death Eater's pattern, Harry took a deep breath to steel himself for what he was about to do. Then, he dove out of the way of another blast of inferno and whipped his wand over his head while he fell, sending a stream of bright blue light towards the man from his side. Continuing as he did, the man leapt sideways to dodge the spell, but his instincts didn't process Harry's change in direction yet and his instinctual jump brought him straight into its path.
Immediately, the man was hoisted into the air by his ankle and his wand spun out of his hand as Harry deftly disarmed the man before he had even fully left the ground. His black cloak dangled lamely over his head, scraping the floor, while his arms flailed below, trying to somehow gain a purchase in the air.
Harry pushed himself back to his feet and rubbed his arm where he could already feel a bruise forming from the impact of his reckless dive. He kicked a brick out from under him and eyed the dangling man curiously. Then he summoned the Death Eater's wand from the slight rubble he had created and began to pick his way towards his opponent.
Before he could take another step, a familiar voice shouted across the room.
"Harry!" From the lifts to his left, Ron sprinted towards him with his wand already out and followed closely behind with Bayman, Goldsmith, and Bowel (another auror of the action subdivision). He slowed down once he saw Harry standing in front of a pile of shattered bricks, apparently unhurt, and watching them approach.
"What the…," Ron started while turning towards the masked man floating upside down. Harry walked towards the Death Eater, meeting Ron and the group of aurors halfway.
"What happened?" Ron asked, making a vague motion to the scene around them.
"He attacked me. Said I attacked his brother or something, not really sure though." Harry pointed his wand at the man and removed his mask so that a face could be seen leering at them. He had bushy dark eyebrows with a large rounded nose and thin lips.
"So one man attacked you in the middle of the Ministry and in the middle of the morning?" Ron asked incredulously.
"Apparently," Harry said. The lifts opened again and a few select witches and wizards cautiously entered the atrium, clearly drawn in from the sound and the scene that unfolded.
"Where the hell were the security guards?" Ron demanded angrily.
"Probably sleeping. Bowel, can you talk to them at the security desk and find out what happened? It seems like we might need to update security measures around here on top of everything," Harry said calmly in an attempt to slow his racing heart.
Bowel hurried away towards the desk where two security guards were watching them guiltily. Ron was nodding and staring at the Death Eater appraisingly, who still glared defiantly up at them as his skin slowly turned redder as the blood began to rush to his head.
"Harry!" The Minister's voice called loudly. Kingsley and Mr. Weasley strode out of the gaggle of loitering employees, all talking quietly to each other and most likely sharing their theories on what had conspired. "What happened?" His booming voice grew softer as he noticed the assembled reportes trying to edge their way closer to hear the conversation.
"Are you okay?" Mr. Weasley added softly. The four aurors opened their circle to let the two in and he felt Bayman stiffen and hold himself a bit taller now that he was in the presence of the Minister.
"Yes, I'm fine Mr. Weasley. Just a few scratches," Harry replied with a tight smile, then turned to Kingsley. "And he was hiding behind this arch and started attacking when I was walking to the lifts. He mentioned something about me attacking his brother."
"Any idea who his brother is?" Kingsley asked, peering at the man through the corner of his eye.
"No."
"I might, sir," Goldsmith interrupted hesitantly. Harry cocked his head with interest and Kingsley nodded, prompting her to explain. "It was probably one of the two Death Eaters we captured first. Remember? There was a figure walking towards the house right before we left and Potter was standing in front of the window, so he could have seen you."
"That could be," Ron said. "Good thinking." She smiled graciously and Bayman scowled beside her. Evidently, their feud was still burning brightly even if they had managed to keep the blatant confrontations to a minimum.
"Any idea how he got in?" Mr. Weasley asked.
"Not yet, but another auror is talking to the security guards now," Ron responded.
"Good, good. Keep me posted on developments as you find them out," Kingsley said. "As for him, Harry you might want to put him down. He's turning a bit red." The group simultaneously turned towards him to examine his flushed face and bitterly, Harry had to agree. He flicked his wand and sent the man crashing to the floor before conjuring ropes that bound his limbs tightly to his body, leaving him lying awkwardly on his side.
"Care to add to the conversation? What's your name? Or how'd you get in?" Ron asked hopefully. To no one's surprise, he remained resolutely silent. "Had to try," he shrugged and turned away from the man indifferently.
"We should have a record of him. If he has a mask, he must have been pretty high up in the circle and his brother should recognize him… or at least they'll look alike," Goldsmith said thoughtfully.
"True, true… What's your name by the way?" Kingsley said curiously.
"Kathryn Goldsmith, sir," she replied with a proud smile and he nodded, locking the name away in his memory. Bayman's scowl deepened.
"Harry, Ron, come with me and talk to these reporters before they burst out of sheer excitement," Kingsley said, barely repressing a roll of his eyes and motioning towards the press with his head. "Goldsmith and… sorry, I don't know your name. You two take him up to one of your holding cells and look into your theories, Goldsmith." Before Bayman could interrupt and introduce himself, Kingsley strode towards the reporters with the two Head Aurors trailing behind him, having a full conversation in a few scarce mutters in the way that only two best mates could. It seemed that they would have to push subdivision head recommendations until tomorrow.
Wednesday, November 23
"And any confirmation on who he is or who his brother is?"
"He's Foldan Gudgeon, brother to one of the Death Eaters we first caught," Harry answered.
"Interesting… do you think there's any chance he was working with someone else?"
"We don't think so. The other Death Eaters that we caught were surprised to see him, so they at least didn't know. And if he was in league with anyone else, we can't think of any reason as to why they didn't come with him," Ron surmised.
"Okay, well keep on your toes. Especially on future missions." The two younger men nodded solemnly. "Did the security guards see anything?"
"Nothing," Ron answered Kingsley in his office. "It could be that he snuck in the night before."
"Possibly…," Kingsley mused and leaned back in his chair. "That's even more worrisome though if they missed him for a whole night beforehand. We'll really have to update our security measures." The two nodded in agreement. "All right, well keep me posted on any developments."
With the clear indication that the meeting was over, Ron and Harry rose from their seats and headed across the floor to the lifts and returned to the Auror Headquarters. The office space was bustling even with the small amount of aurors they had. Now that they had their three subdivisions, things were running quite smoothly and efficiently. The action group had already completed another successful mission and now had the paperwork and follow-ups to handle with that. The intel aurors were finding clues from the last mission and tailing two other leads. And now, the prevention aurors would be proposing updates to the security protocols of the ministry. Even the four trainee aurors were lending a hand to the influx of work, helping with the intel's paperwork now that they had another Death Eater to look into.
This was what Neville was doing when Harry and Ron strode into the room. He sat at an unclaimed desk in the intel cluster with a lengthy form in front of him alongside Cherno.
"Hello Neville and Cherno," Harry greeted with a nod of the head.
"Hey Harry!" Neville said, leaning back in his chair with an easy grin. "Did you see today's Prophet yet?"
"I've made sure not to look," Harry groaned, already imagining the headline.
"I want to see," Ron said, eager for more material to tease his friend. He grabbed the paper off a nearby auror's desk and unable to quelch his curiosity, Harry peered over his friend's shoulder to read:
HARRY POTTER, BOY WHO LIVED AND CO-HEAD AUROR, DEFEATS
DEATH EATER IN MINISTRY
Underneath was a picture of Harry diving and casting a spell mid air at the man, catching him by surprise and hoisting him up by the ankle.
"It is a good picture," Ron commented, perfectly aware of how red Harry would be by now.
"Probably a good thing that they didn't catch how I landed. I have a giant bruise on my arm," Harry added wryly, rubbing his shoulder. Neville chuckled loudly and stretched his tired fingers while Cherno remained silent. He hadn't quite gotten used to seeing Potter or Weasley walking around casually yet, or the fact that his training partner was apparently close friends with them both.
"Just a day in the life of an auror, huh?" Neville said.
"A day in the life of the Chosen One, more like," Ron snorted and dropped the paper back onto their desk. "A day in the life of an auror is mostly just paperwork and finding an occasional use for your wand."
"Oh good. Then I'm getting the full experience already," Neville laughed bemusedly, eyeing the form he had been working on.
"We'll let you two get back to it. The other aurors are on edge 'cause we promised to have them each fill out their forms with their top choices for subdivision heads today," Ron explained in a conspiratorial whisper.
"They're not on edge because a Death Eater snuck into the ministry and attacked their boss?"
"Just a day in the life, Neville," Harry said quickly. "Have fun with that paperwork to you both." Harry included Cherno in his departing nod. Neville shook his head and leaned over the form once more while Harry and Ron strode to their office and began distributing the forms to be turned in by the end of the day.
Happy Holidays to all of you lovely readers! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As always, reviews, comments, suggestions are always welcome!