Chapter Five

Doug and Garvan

Markus Brim sat backwards on a chair in the basement with his arms dangling over the back, watching as his father set up his drum set. As he had gotten older, he had begun to look more like his father, although admittedly in many ways his temperament was closer to his mother's.

"Can't I stay up and listen tonight? It is summer, after all," Markus asked.

"Not tonight, Markus. Next time it's our turn to play here, you can stay up," Doug promised. "I really need to talk to the others alone."

"You mean about quitting your job and all of that?" Markus asked.

"Yes."

"Oh. Well, I'll be quiet," Markus promised, then paused when he heard the echo of his name from upstairs.

"He's down here," Doug shouted, and the basement door opened. Essie came halfway down the stairs and looked over at them.

"Come on, Markus, it's time for your bath! I want you settled before my first reading tonight," Essie said.

"But it's summer! Your readings are later in the evening now!" Markus pointed out. But he got up and went over to the stairs anyway.

"I'm sorry, but your arguing simply isn't going to work tonight. You may as well give it up," Essie said sternly. "So, march!"

"Yes, Mum," Markus said, and the two of them went back up the stairs.

Doug finished setting up and cracked open the basement windows to let in the cool evening breeze. That was when he heard the familiar voices of his friends chatting in the distance, laughing at something before finally making it to the wooden porch, knocking on the door.

"Come on down," Doug shouted through the window. The three of them let themselves in, Danny coming down first, followed by Taylor and Corey.

"Sorry if we're late, we were busy introducing Duncan to Corey's kids," Danny said.

"Yes, you should have let Danny and Taylor bring him tonight. I'm sure Essie wouldn't mind babysitting so you could meet him," Corey said.

"Next time," Doug said with an apologetic smile. Danyelle frowned, wondering why he was so subdued.

"Is something wrong, Porthos?" Danny asked, putting down the sling with her keyboard in it.

"No, but there's something I want to talk to you guys about before we start," Doug admitted, pulling his stool out from behind the drums while the others took a moment to put down their instruments and grab a chair, pulling them out to the center of the room.

"All right, you have our attention," Danny said.

"It's about that night at Wisecraft manor... well some of it, anyway," Doug began, the others growing serious. "Actually, it started long before that in some ways, but that night when we were trying to help Mike, it shook me."

"I think it's safe to say it shook all of us," Taylor said somberly. "Five lives lost in seconds, and there wasn't much we could do but watch and wait until Craw and his LE officers got there to contain the blaze."

"Well, we were in above our heads out there, no question about that, although we did successfully track Mike down," Danny said. "None of our rescues ever involved anything like rigged accelerant potions before."

"At least I was able to use what little potions I had on me to keep it from spreading," Corey murmured. "But after that, I felt so helpless knowing all we could do was watch and make sure things didn't get any worse."

"Actually, I think we were pretty lucky. If we'd have been any closer to the manor when it went up, just the shock wave alone probably would have killed us all," Taylor admitted.

Doug nodded.

"Well then, maybe you three are going to understand what I'm going to tell you, because the day I was supposed to go back to work at Wiz-o-magic, I quit my job," Doug explained, looking over at his friends. They gazed at him with the same somber expression he had. Doug took a breath and continued.

"The three of you have all had moments in your life that shook you and caused you to step up when it was needed, and sometimes more than once; Corey's had that several times, and the latest bit had him daring to take on a goblin apprentice. Danny's been trying to pull kids out of messes because what happened to her for as long as I can remember. Even Taylor... first helping Harry with that bank during the goblin feuds, and then having to go organize and run that insurance co-op after we found out that Nelson had been behind some 'convenient accidents' when he was in charge of the school's insurance. Well, my moment may be coming later than yours, but now it's my turn to step up. I've decided to become an Auror. I may not be as young as Harry likes for new recruits, but I'm in good shape and have some decent experience going in thanks to running with you guys for so long. It does mean that there may be times when I don't respond to the call right away," he said apologetically, looking at Danny. But she was smiling thinly at him.

"Candles and craters, how I envy you," Taylor swore, making Doug blink and looked over at him questioningly. "I thought about doing the same thing. Danny and I have talked about it a lot, actually. But since we just adopted again, I'm really needed at home right now. Maybe I can in a year or two, but not now," Taylor explained.

"I thought about it too," Danny admitted. "But then I think about my current Slytherin students, from Viorica and Maxen and everything in between... I just can't."

"I've thought about it," Corey admitted seriously, nodding when he saw how surprised Doug was. "The day after the Wisecraft mansion blew, I was half tempted just to tell Sprinter he could have the damn shop and sign up then and there. But the truth of the matter is that I'm more than just the local alchemist now. I've been an integral part of Hogwarts' security and a part of its information network for years. I couldn't turn my back on that, as tempting as it was." Corey put his head in his hand, looking over at Doug. "So I guess you're going to have to show up for all of us, Porthos."

"And here I thought all of you would think I was crazy for doing it!" Doug admitted with a grin.

"I think our entire relationship with each other is built on doing crazy stuff," Taylor pointed out.

"No truer words were spoken, Aramis," Corey said.

"You know, this has potential to help everyone out," Danyelle offered. "We may end up benefiting from Doug's Auror training, and maybe some of the team tactics we've worked on over the years may interest Harry too. As a side note, after we stepped in to help at the Wisecraft Manor, Alex has offered to give us paperwork for agents in her department, which would essentially get us out of any hot water we might have gotten into for 'vigilantism'" she said, making air quotes.

"We worried so much about that," Taylor chuckled.

"Well, I'm in favor... both for Doug's new profession, and for everyone having official paperwork," Corey said.

Danny nodded with a smile, putting in her hand.

"All for one, then," she said, and the others joined her, sealing the deal.

The next morning, Doug downed a hangover potion and arrived bright and early on the lawn of the Craw mansion, glancing at his watch and wondering if he should knock on the door. But a moment later, Mike came out and began to walk over. Then Garvan Willowby popped in, a little surprised to see Doug standing a few feet away.

"What are you doing here?" Garvan wondered.

"Same as you," Doug said with a shrug. "I'm a new recruit."

"What? At your age?" Garvan scoffed.

"I may be twice your age, but I bet I could knock you on your pudgy little arse," Doug said bluntly.

"Alright, that's enough you two," Mike said with a sigh. "For the first two weeks, you're going to be training together, so you may as well learn to deal with each other. After that, Garvan, you're going to be my partner for a while, and Doug is going to be Harry's. We have another recruit, Lord Owain, who is currently training with Tonks, but he's ahead of you two by a few months. In November, the three of you will be sent to Canada to train with the Flyers for a couple of weeks on broom maneuvers, but until then, we'll be concentrating on basic Defense, rules and procedures, and how to use the flag board. Once we're done out here today, we're going to head to the Ministry to show you the schedule and get your flag board shift. Someone will be with you during your first few shifts at the board to make sure you understand it completely and also so that you know what to do if you see anything suspicious going on," Mike explained.

"But before all of that, I need to assess a starting point. I have a basic idea of both of your aptitudes from Auror Club in Garvan's case, and internal reports for Doug, but now that I'm working with you, I need to make some fresh assessments. So, since there's two of you, we're going to play some hunt and capture... one of you will be the hunter and the other the hunted. Naturally, since Harry would have my hide if either of you got hurt at this stage, I will have your hides if either of you get hurt at this stage. Capture is either bound or any sort of non-harmful incapacitation method," Mike explained.

"Do bruises count?" Doug asked.

"Usually we overlook some of that, provided it's unintentional," Mike admitted drolly. "But nothing worse than a primary school fight or it's an auto fail."

"Understood," Doug said. "Boundaries?"

"I have to be able to see you so that I can monitor... here," Mike said, handing Doug a blue band and Mike a red one. "Put those on, it'll make it so that I can track you even if you're hiding yourself for the game purposes. You have to stay on the grounds... treeline, hedgerow, to the back edge of the house... also don't go in the house, neither of you are Craws, and as I said before, this should be a nonlethal exercise. Got it so far?" Doug nodded.

"So which of us is going to be which?" Garvan asked.

"Well, we'll do both, but we can decide who's first with a coin toss. Whoever wins will be the hunter. Who wants to call it?" Mike asked.

"Age before beauty," Garvan said.

"Compared to you, I've got both," Doug decided, and Mike got out a coin.

"Heads or wings?" Mike said, flipping it in the air.

"Heads," Doug said, and Mike slapped it down, revealing heads.

"Gods, this is going to be so one-sided," Mike said with a chuckle, shaking his head. Doug pressed his lips together and smiled through them knowingly.

"In favor of who?" Garvan squinted at him.

"Garvan, you can use anything you can think of to disguise yourself as long as it's within the boundaries. Oh, and if you take the flying route, nothing over 30 meters upwards," Mike added.

Garvan, who had been contemplating just that, decided against the idea.

"Alright, Garvan, go ahead and begin, I'll give you a few minutes head start," Mike said.

"How many exactly?" Garvan asked.

"Now how would a criminal know how many minutes exactly before anyone caught up with them? Less than it would have been since you stopped to ask a question, I'd say," Mike said. Realizing he was right, Garvan Disapparated.

"So how good is he, anyway?" Doug asked casually, knocking dirt off his shoe.

"Well, he's no Hope, but he's really good at using his head at working his way out of problems. Aurelius said he was second out of all of them by the end of term."

"HEY!" said Garvan's voice from all around him. "What the hell? Why are you telling him that stuff?"

"Oh, come on, Willowby! Nobody goes out on a capture without a briefing, be realistic," Mike shouted back, then went back to his normal volume level. "Harry thinks he has promise, though. He's got a lot of determination, I can say that."

"True, but he sure has a hell of a lot to learn," Doug said.

"So do you. Just not as much," Mike warned him.

"Yeah, I know," Doug acknowledged with a nod.

"So do you want to go after him?" Mike inquired.

"Sure, okay," Doug said, Disapparating.

A minute later, Doug Apparated just a few steps away from where he had been... but apparently not alone. Mirror images of Doug had appeared at the same time making it really hard to tell which one was the true Apparation and which one was the original. Just what was he trying to accomplish by that, Garvan wondered, peering out behind one of the chimneys on top of the mansion, a little baffled and trying to figure out which was the real one.

Suddenly, Garvan's hands and legs jerked backwards unexpectedly and he dropped his wand, nearly falling off the roof as he felt a rope lashing his limbs to each other from behind and a gag in his mouth. Fortunately, the rope kept him from falling, but he found his head was precariously close to the edge.

"Hi, Garvan," Doug said calmly from his broom, putting Garvan's wand in his belt as he wrapped the end of the rope around his arms then floated him gently down to Mike.

"Yours, I think, Mike," Doug said calmly, twisting the rope in such a way that it decided to loosen and relax, letting him go. Doug put his hand down in front of Garvan's face, offering to pull him up. Garvan pulled off the gag then took it.

"That was humiliating," Garvan said flatly.

"It's probably just as well," Doug decided, offering him his wand. "Shall we try it again?"

"Okay, but this time, I get to be the hunter," Garvan snapped.

"You can try," Doug said with a shrug.

Garvan jumped up irritably, privately swearing to himself that he would use the opportunity to get even.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Doug asked him calmly.

"Why are you asking me? If you're the one getting hunted, you're the one who gets to start first," Garvan pointed out.

"You're sure about that?" Doug asked.

"Of course I'm sure," Garvan snapped.

"If you say so," Doug said with a shrug.

"Begin," Mike said evenly. Doug popped out only long enough to come up behind Garvan, hitting him with a zipper hex and then hogtying him again, taking the wand out of his hand as he did so.

Mike sighed.

"You already showed me that move, Doug. Couldn't you at least have shown me something different? I'm supposed to be assessing your ability here, and it's hard to if you just use the same methods over and over," Mike pointed out.

"Oh yeah, sorry. Danny always taught us to use whatever was reliable enough to get the job done," Doug explained.

"Normally I agree with you, but not when I'm doing an assessment," Mike said. "Now, be a good sport and unhex him."

"Oh, right," Doug said. "Sorry, Garvan," he said, pointing his wand and releasing both the rope and the zipper hex.

"What in craters are you doing? I was supposed to be the hunter that time!" Garvan shouted angrily.

"May I answer him, Mike?" Doug asked. Mike shrugged and nodded.

"Sure, you've earned the right," Mike agreed.

"If I'm being hunted by someone, one of the best ways to stop being hunted is to turn around and take them out before they have a chance to catch up with me," Doug told Garvan seriously. "Assuming someone that you're hunting is going to run from you is a fatal mistake. I don't know how many missions we've been on trying to rescue someone where running was not on the other sides' agenda, and to be perfectly blunt, right now you're really not that scary. So, it's easier if I get you out of the way from the start. The only difference between hunter and hunted is who has the upper hand and who doesn't. Also, running is a short term solution that should only be used to put yourself in a better position to get an upper hand. Are there people stupid enough to think running can be a long-term solution? Sure, plenty. But there are a lot more out there who know better. When the match starts, it is your actions alone that determine whether or not you're the hunted or hunter. I suggest you take more advantage of it next time."

Doug offered his hand again, but Garvan ignored it and stood up on his own. Unconcernedly, Doug held out Garvan's wand. Reluctantly he took it.

"Mike, how about one more time?" Doug asked.

"Considering I've really not seen much of anything yet, I'd say it's a good idea," Mike agreed. "All right, you may begin."

Doug immediately Disapparated, and Garvan quickly did the same, realizing that doing anything else would cause him to be a sitting duck again. Apparating around the building, he flipped his cloak backwards and pulled up his hood, turning invisible. Now that he had some reliable cover, maybe he could search the area and catch him by surprise. Garvan peered around the side of the building, but he didn't see anyone but Mike, writing on his clipboard. He frowned. Could Doug have a cloak too, he wondered? No, he doubted that... there were too few of them and too expensive. Maybe Chameleon Powder? Thinking that made the most sense, Garvan began looking to see if there were any garden hoses to give the area a good dousing with.

Shaking his head from where he sat on a broom, Doug saw the pair of feet by the hose. He pointed at his wand and cast, a pile of marshmallow crème landing on Garvan's head. Even before Garvan managed to clear it out of his eyes, Doug followed up with a Petrification spell. He landed the broom as Garvan fell over. Mike walked over to them.

"He's still playing the hunted," Doug commented.

"I can see that. I think those earlier two captures totally threw him off and got him on the defensive," Mike said. "Clean him off, will you? We'll try something else. By the way, nice touch hiding your shadow before getting on your broom."

"Yeah... remind me when we're not working and I'll tell you about the incident that got me into the habit," Doug said. Mike grinned at that as Doug released him from the Petrification spell and then used a cleaning spell to get rid of the marshmallow. Garvan looked up at them with a groan.

"All right, Garvan. We're going to change this up because this isn't working," Mike said, helping him up. "You two are going to fight a Wizard's Duel, but at the same incapacitate not harm level."

"So... like a spar," Garvan said.

"No... like a Wizard's Duel," Mike said grimly. "I want you out there thinking like your life is in danger, not like you have to go sit on a bench the rest of the night. Professor Craw's not going to be out there putting you in your place if someone crosses the line. And to make sure this is taken seriously, whoever loses is going to end up with an extra training session with me this week, and trust me, it's not going to be as easy as this one."

"Where are the boundaries?" Doug asked. "I'm a little worried about us scuffing up Minister Craw's lawn."

"I think he'd be more worried about how his training session is going," Mike said bluntly.

Mike walked away from the mansion, closer to the treeline where there was only turf. He got out his wand, using it to burn a large ring in the grass to mark the boundary. The two trainees walked over to where Mike was.

"All right. This is a ground fight, so no brooms this time. After paces, no Apparating, and no going invisible or any of that rubbish," Mike said, conjuring up a series of wards along the turf ring to protect himself from the battle. "If anyone gets hurt, the other person wins on technicality. Otherwise, it's whoever incapacitates or immobilizes the other. Questions?" Mike asked. Neither of them spoke, they simply entered the ring.

It wasn't lost on Garvan that Doug had walked into the ring with incredible poise, stepping to the center and facing out with strange grace as if he had dueled many times before. His chin was raised and his gaze was more gentile somehow, and yet incredibly serious. It was almost as if he was a different person, Garvan thought, putting his back to him. It was only as they were pacing to the edge of the ring that realization set in; he was facing someone else.

Garvan started with a reflection shield, knowing there was no way in hell he was going to beat Porthos to the draw, veering right the moment the first spell deflected so that he could cast a spell of his own. Porthos, standing with his left hand on his hip, blocked Garvan's spell with an easy flip of the wrist on his wand hand. A smile curled on his lip, apparently in approval of Garvan's change of tactics and seemingly content at the moment to wait and see what he was planning to do next.

Garvan realized just how outmatched he was now, and that he had no choice but to be bolder in his attacks. Even if I don't have a chance, I'd settle for forcing him to drop his cocky attitude and make him take that left hand off his hip, Garvan thought after being blocked a second time.

"Terramotus!" Garvan cast, pointing at the ground.

But after hearing the words, Porthos had realized what he was trying to do and wordlessly flicked his wand towards his feet, levitating them just enough to be above the shaking ground. It was that point that Garvan realized that at no point since they had begun had Porthos used a single verbal spell.

Of course not, Garvan thought to himself. Their wands were disguised as swords... using verbal spells would out which one had a real sword, so they were forced to learn as many non-verbal ones as they could! And he has had decades to learn the more difficult versions of those spells!

"Craters!" Garvan cursed.

"I do not believe that is the name of a spell," Porthos replied glibly, pointing his wand at Garvan.

Garvan dove, realizing that he had no idea what to expect, while Porthos knew what to expect every time Garvan opened his mouth. He did know most of the first year spells non-verbally, plus all of the basic protection wards, as well as a few complex protection spells taught in Defense class for situations where vocalizing wasn't an option. When he rolled to avoid what ended up being a freeze spell of some kind, Garvan made certain to get closer to the center of the ring so that Porthos would have less time to prepare for any spell that required Garvan to cast verbally.

Realizing he couldn't stay lying on the ground for long, Garvan kipped up and cast the flame spell at Porthos' shoelaces, knowing it would be hard to block. It only took Porthos a moment to put it out, but it did give Garvan enough time to get back to his feet again and into a better attack stance. Seeing that Garvan was preparing to attack again, Porthos got off another spell; this time, Garvan countered with the Sonorous Shield spell. Luckily, whatever Porthos had cast had fallen short. Porthos pursed his lips.

"You are probably better off just sticking with that Reflection spell you used when we first started. That spell won't block everything," Porthos ventured.

"Don't help him!" Mike snapped, reminding Garvan that Mike was watching. For a moment, he had completely forgotten.

"Sorry," Porthos said.

Garvan used the opportunity to quickly cast the Blue Sparks spell as a distraction and to make Porthos stop to counter it. As Porthos swirled his wand to remove it, Garvan followed it up with the disarm spell, knowing he was unlikely to be able to counter after that movement. Porthos' entire arm was flung backward with the spell, forcing him not only to drop his wand, but also to drop his left arm to counterbalance the movement. But Garvan's momentarily triumph was quite short-lived, because Porthos simply responded by making a fist and punching Garvan in the eye.

As Garvan went sprawling backwards, Porthos grabbed Garvan's own wand off the ground and pointed it at his head. Garvan wasn't paying much attention; he was too busy holding his eye and cringing in pain. Mike sighed.

"Match goes to Garvan... what the hell, Doug? What were you thinking with that last stunt? I said no injuries," Mike scolded critically.

"I was thinking that perhaps he'd learn something," Doug said, picking up his own wand as well. "You did say bruises were acceptable..."

"Unintentional ones! There's no way you can say that was unintentional! Come on, Garvan, let's head to the Ministry," Mike said, offering his hand. When Garvan blearily looked up through his good eye, he saw Doug had his hand out as well.

Garvan took Doug's hand and he helped him to his feet. Then Doug pulled Garvan's other hand away from his face so that he and Mike could get a look at his eye.

"I want a rematch," Garvan protested.

"What? Eff no, it's time we get back. I think it's time Harry heard how our day went," Mike said sternly. Doug shrugged at him and smiled unapologetically. Mike got a cloth out of his pocket and conjured up some ice for Garvan's eye, then the three of them took their keys to the reception area.

When they got back to the department, Aurelius was standing next to the flag board watching it, while Harry was sitting in his office with the door open. Aurelius glanced up at them, rolling his eyes at the different perspectives he was getting from the three of them about how their training session went.

"They're back," Aurelius said loudly.

"Oh, who won?" Harry said from his office.

"Garvan," Mike said.

"What? Really?" Harry asked, then stepped over to the door curiously. He sighed when he saw the ice pack over Garvan's eye. Aurelius stepped into his office long enough to get his emergency kit.

"He lost on a technicality. He kicked my arse," Garvan explained.

"Punched your eye, at any rate," Harry said, moving the ice and taking the salve that Aurelius had offered, applying the salve around Garvan's eye and then handing him the jar for later.

"I told them that whoever lost today was going to have an extra training session this week," Mike said.

"Good, I'll do that one myself. I'll take him out for some restraint training," Harry said evenly. Doug seemed interested in studying the ceiling.

"I think we should break these two up and start individual training early. They're too mismatched," Mike complained at Harry. Garvan frowned at that. "If you saw how one-sided it was today, Harry, you'd agree with me."

"Well, I disagree," Aurelius said with such certainty that Harry turned and looked at him questioningly. "I think they're equally motivated to stick this initial training period out together, and I think they'll both be better Aurors for it."

"What in craters are you seeing that I don't? It was a slaughter out there today," Mike protested.

"They've bonded," Aurelius shrugged, checking the flag board. "Doug was intentionally hard on his nephew because he wants to keep him alive, for his niece's sake if not his."

"True," Doug admitted.

"And during the last match, Garvan suddenly realized just how much he could learn from 'the great Porthos'," Aurelius added in a mocking tone, making air quotes. Garvan winced with embarrassment, but Doug put a hand on his shoulder.

"Also true," Doug said supportively. Harry sighed.

"To be honest, I had forgotten the two of you were related," Harry began reluctantly.

"Are you serious? After that brilliant speech of his at the wedding?" Doug asked incredulously.

"Harry," Aurelius chuckled, leaning against the wall and folding his arms. "Within two years, you'll have three more Willowbys who will either be rookies or in training. You don't have a chance in hell keeping up that policy of 'no relatives partnering together' rule, so you may as well just give it up now."

"Fine, they can train together," Harry said in resignation. "It saves me from having to change the shifts around again."

"Do either of us have anything tonight?" Doug asked.

"No... not until tomorrow," Harry replied.

"Then why don't you and Nat come have dinner at my house tonight, Garvan?" Doug suggested.

"That'd be great. I would really love to learn a lot more non-verbal spells than what I know," Garvan admitted fervently.

"I agree. Rel, you should teach that Auror Club more non-verbal spells," Doug told him.

"Congratulations, you just volunteered to be my assistant next term," Aurelius said dryly.

"Come on, let me give you your schedules," Harry said, and the three of them went into his office.