* ~ The Eighth Year Universe Series ~ *
PART FOUR
Brave New World
Chapter 7: Draco's Selection Test: Part 1
Draco's heart was beating out of his chest as he pushed open that white door and stepped into the testing room. He took a breath to steady himself as he surveyed his surroundings. He had expected something a little more spectacular than a white room, but that was what he found himself standing in. The room was small and square, it looked completely ordinary at first glance, but once you looked closer, it became apparent that there were several holes in the walls.
Draco tried to force down his nerves as he looked at the plaque in front of him. It read;
"When you cross the line, stinging charms will be fired at you in quick succession. This test requires you to place your wand in the holder beneath this plaque. Should you be hit with 12 or more stinging charms, you will fail this room."
Draco placed his wand nervously into the holder beneath the plaque. As he had expected, the holder then retreated into the plaque's wooden base, which meant he wouldn't get his wand back until he had either completed this room or failed it. The concept made him mildly nervous, he was good at shield charms, but this was a test of his reflexes. Without his wand, he solely relied on his senses and reflexes to avoid being hit by the stinging charms.
He glanced down at the red line on the floor and hesitated before crossing it. Draco wanted to think up a strategy before starting the room, but he knew that there wasn't a strategy that would help him through this. He had to be able to listen for the hissing sound that signified that a spell was imminent; he had to be able to identify within less than a second where that spell was coming from, then duck, jump or swerve.
So rather than trying to think up a strategy that he wasn't sure would even work, he stepped over the line. Immediately he heard the tell-tale hissing sound, and instinctively he jumped; it worked, and the spell shot under his legs. When he listened to the second hiss, he ducked, and the spell flew over his head. On the third hiss, he swerved to the side and narrowly avoided being hit by the spell. He quickly realised that every time he dodged a spell, the next one came just a little bit faster. All the same, Draco managed to rely on his sense of hearing for the first minute or so. At that point, the spells started to come out two at a time, which meant he had to duck to avoid one and throw himself across the floor to avoid the second at the same time.
"Shit!" Draco cursed as he was hit by one of the spells for the first time. It stung like a bad burn at the point of contact, but he tried to ignore it so that he could concentrate on not being hit by anymore.
That final minute was far more difficult, and it seemed to drag on for a lot longer. Draco was beginning to see why Sumner and Sheppard had told them that they would be black and blue by the end of the weekend. He lost count of how many times he threw himself into a wall to avoid being hit by a stinging charm, and this was only the first room out of Merlin knew how many. In the last 20 seconds, the spells began to shoot out at an even faster pace, and at that point, Draco was hit a further two times.
He breathed a huge sigh of relief when a loud click signified that the door opposite the one he had entered through had been unlocked. He picked himself up off the ground and dusted himself off as he walked through the door into the second room. The door snapped shut loudly behind him, and Draco looked around at his surroundings in this very different looking room. It seemed like he was outside, the sky was blue, and the sun was shining brightly in the sky above. Because of his fiancé's extensive knowledge of Artificial Weather Charms, he knew that this wasn't real. He was still inside some sort of room, like the room of requirement, and it was generating this image.
Laid out on the field before him was some sort of assault course. It was huge, and it was laid out over hilly terrain. Draco was sure of one thing; it wasn't going to be easy. The plaque before him read;
"When you cross the line, we will begin to time you from our observation area. This obstacle course will test every element of your physical strength, and if you fail to complete it within the 3-minute timescale, you will fail this room. You may use your wand, but only against any magical obstacles you come across, you will receive a 5-second penalty for using your wand for any other means."
"3 minutes?" Draco muttered as a wooden drawer extended from beneath the plaque. He shook his head in disbelief as he took his wand and holstered it safely in a holster on the side of his leg. He looked out at the massive assault course and sighed. He was positive he would fail at this hurdle.
This was another task where no strategy would help him. He just had to attack every obstacle as fast as possible and hope that he managed to get through in less than 3 minutes.
The first obstacle was three wooden hurdles which gradually got higher, so Draco took a running start. He darted over the red line and vaulted over all three sets of hurdles with ease. He kept the momentum going as he reached a low net that he knew he needed to crawl under. Unfortunately, it wasn't just any old ground he needed to army crawl through; it was boggy and muddy, which meant he would get filthy.
All the same, he dropped to the ground and pulled himself through the mud. It was harder than it looked because the mud tried to pull him in, so he was fighting against it as he tried to pull himself through. When he reached the end and pulled himself up, he was already breathing heavily.
Draco ran forward to the next obstacle, and he could have groaned when he realised that he now needed to army crawl up a steep hill in a very narrow tunnel. He dropped to the ground once more and entered the tunnel; he was slippery because of the mud he had just traversed through, so he slipped and slid as he tried to pull himself up the steep incline. He managed it, even if he was exhausted by the time he reached the top.
Draco didn't have time to take a breath, though. At the top of this incline, there was a relatively narrow wooden beam stretching across a ravine. There was nothing to hold onto and a very steep drop down into fast-flowing water if he was to slip.
He stepped onto the beam carefully and mumbled to himself, "This isn't real. You won't actually die if you fall."
His words of reassurance didn't make him feel much better. He kept his eyes forwards and avoided looking down. He put one foot in front of the other as carefully as he could. He amazed himself by getting across the beam without slipping once, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he ran towards the next obstacle.
Draco jumped onto a net and began to scale it with ease. When he reached the top, he climbed over and glanced down; it was a much more significant drop than it had been a climb. He knew he had to take a risk, though, and he had a split second in which to make his decision. He had been relatively slow in some of the sections he had just gone through, and he could see at least four obstacles in the distance ahead of him. If he climbed down this net carefully, then he definitely wouldn't finish within the 3-minute time limit.
"Merlin, Potter, you've been a bad influence on me," Draco muttered as he threw caution to the wind and let go of the net. He let gravity pull him downwards and then grabbed the net again, nearer to the bottom. He cursed as his hands slid on the rough rope, he knew he would have friction burns, but he could deal with them later.
Putting the injuries out of his mind, Draco jumped the short distance to the ground and then ran to the next obstacle so he could take it with some momentum. He grabbed onto a rope and swung himself across a small river; he managed to jump off and avoid dropping himself into the water fairly easily.
Not that it would have mattered anyway, the next part of the assault course forced him to get wet. He had reached a lake that looked reasonably deep, and it was clear that he had to go through it. Running around it would probably constitute as cheating, and it would take so long that he would never finish within the required time.
"Thank fuck I learned how to swim after Finnigan tried to kill me," Draco muttered as he threw himself into the lake and swam as fast as he could towards the first of four wooden beams. He ducked under the water and emerged on the other side of it; then, he felt the tell-tale tug at his legs that indicated Grindylows were lurking nearby.
Draco managed to remain calm as he grabbed his wand and shot a burst of boiling water downwards. It must have hit the creature because its grip on his leg loosened, and he was able to swim towards the second beam. He got under that one and the third one with no further issues. However, as he ducked under the final beam and emerged, he saw the demonic-looking creature that was a Kappa staring him down.
Draco rolled his eyes, was he meant to fight it? He didn't have time, and he knew he could outswim a Kappa with ease, so he ignored the creature and swam to the lake's edge. He had pulled himself out of the lake before the Kappa had even reached the shallower waters.
He knew that his time was limited by now, and Draco could still see a few obstacles up ahead. He ignored his aches and pains and tried not to shiver as he approached a high wooden pole with hand and feet holds on either side. He scaled it as quickly as possible, considering that he was soaking wet and therefore bogged down. When he reached the top of the pole, he saw a wooden handhold that he had to grip. He gripped it as best as he could with slightly sweaty palms, then launched himself from the pole down a zip line. He shut his eyes as it sent him flying towards the ground; he didn't like heights much.
At the bottom, Draco hit shallow muddy water. He knew that there would be magical creatures lurking in it, so he wasn't surprised when he felt a sharp nip to his right ankle, "Shit," he cursed as he shook off the offending Dugbog and pushed on. The water was so murky that he couldn't see anything beneath it, so he was bitten two more times before reaching dry land.
Draco wanted to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw the final obstacle, but he knew that this wasn't over yet, so he approached it as quickly as he could. This last obstacle was a large wooden platform that he would have to army crawl through. It was narrow and had three levels; Draco was glad he had a slim, seekers build as he pulled himself through the first level. Once he had done so, he had a very narrow space to twist his body around and pull himself up onto the next level, it was easy enough because of his build, but he was wet and tired now, which hindered his progress slightly. He crawled through the next level and pulled himself up once more. The finishing line was in sight now, which spurred him on. He darted forward, flung himself down the metal pole at the end of the platform and sprinted forward past the red line that constituted the finishing line.
As soon as he was over the line, he doubled over and allowed himself to start catching his breath. At first, he thought he had failed because there wasn't anything to say that he had passed this room. There was no door as there had been in the first room, which meant that there was no click to signify it had been unlocked and that he could, therefore, move forwards.
Draco was still breathing heavily as he pulled himself up and looked ahead of him. Where there had only been a field moments before, there was now a white wooden door. He breathed another sigh of relief as he approached the door and stepped through it into the next room.
It was very surreal to step through a door in the middle of a field and emerge on the edge of a cliff. This room was playing havoc with his senses, but he supposed that was part of the test. He could tell that the skill he would have to display in this room would be flying because apart from the plaque that gave him his instructions, the only other thing on this cliff-top was a broom rack with a selection of three broomsticks. Draco performed a drying charm on his clothes and his hair and allowed himself a few more minutes to get his breath back as he read the instructions on the plaque;
"When you leave the cliff-top, we will begin to time your progress. Throughout this flight course, there are 12 golden hoops that you must pass through. Should you miss any hoops, we will deduct 5 seconds from your overall time. Should you take any longer than 2 minutes, you will fail this room. You may choose between the three broomsticks on offer. Choose wisely."
Draco glanced around at his surroundings. He was on a cliff-top in a hot, arid climate. The sun was beating down and shone brightly in the sky ahead, he knew that it would make it easier to spot the glinting golden hoops that he had to fly through, but it was also going to be an obstacle because it could obstruct his vision. He had his Quidditch Captain head on as he assessed the conditions. Overall he thought that the sun would help more than it would hinder him.
Next, he turned to the rack and looked at the three broomsticks on offer. The choices were the most up to date edition of the Comet, a Nimbus 2001 and a Firebolt. He knew that the Firebolt was the fastest, but some people claimed that the Nimbus had better manoeuvrability. Personally, Draco found the manoeuvrability on the Firebolt just fine. He didn't even consider the Comet; it was too old, too slow and too laggy for his liking. Without thinking on it much, he took the Firebolt from the rack and mounted it.
He wasn't at all worried about this task, so he pushed himself off of the cliff-top and immediately saw the first golden hoop straight ahead. He had been right about the sun helping; the circle sparkled, which made it easy to see from a distance. Draco passed through it, and as soon as he did, the next hoop appeared. This first part of the flying course was through a narrow ravine between two cliff-tops, but Draco didn't find it particularly challenging. He passed through the fourth hoop and then flew out of the ravine into a wider part of the course; however, there were new obstacles in this part of the course. There was a fast-flowing river beneath him and several fallen trees that had gotten lodged between the two cliffs. There were also some tall trees obscuring the view in the distance.
He had to swerve between the cliff and a tree to hit the fifth hoop, but that was nothing considering the dodging and diving he had done in second year when he and Harry had flown beneath the Quidditch stands. He had been significantly smaller then, of course. The following few hoops were easy enough to hit, he just had to fly close to the water and swerve in-between the fallen tree trunks, but none of this was particularly challenging for him. He sped through the course with ease as the ravine narrowed once more towards the end. Draco knew as he passed through the twelfth hoop (which was in the middle of the narrowest part of the ravine yet) that he had passed that room with a good time.
There was another cliff-top ahead which Draco landed on. He dismounted the broom and looked around as he waited for something to happen. Surely enough, after a few seconds, a white door appeared in the side of the cliff. Draco grinned to himself and walked through the door into the fourth room. He looked around himself once more and frowned; he appeared to be in a muggle street somewhere. It looked like any generic street in any muggle city. There wasn't any way of telling where it was unless you had been there before.
Draco stepped forward and read the plaque before him;
"When you cross the line, you will be required to chase down a suspect. However, you may not use your wand to aid you in this task. When you place your wand in the holder provided, we will provide you with a picture of the suspect. If you fail to catch the suspect within 3 kilometres, you fail this room."
A wooden drawer emerged from beneath the plaque. Draco placed his wand inside it and withdrew a wizarding photograph. It featured a tall, thin young man who was glaring at Draco from the photograph. The drawer shut, taking his wand with it, and Draco stepped over the red line on the ground.
All of a sudden, a heap of people materialised. Muggles with shopping bags and buggies crowded the street, and it was all Draco could do not to curse loudly. Of course, there was a plot twist; it wasn't as easy as just chasing a guy down the street. He spotted his suspect straight away, and he darted after him. He pushed his way through the muggles with all of the force that he could muster and gradually began to gain on the suspect. He could see a high wall at the end of the street, and he figured that was where the 3-kilometre zone ended, so he pushed with everything he had, and he just managed to catch the guy before he reached the wall. He dived on the suspect and tackled him to the ground, it hurt like hell, but he didn't let his pain show as the scene dematerialised.
The suspect disappeared, as did all of the muggles. Draco pushed himself to his feet and looked at the wall expectantly. After a few seconds, there was a click, and a door materialised onto it. He opened it and stepped through, expecting to emerge into another room that was set to test him. Instead, he emerged into a small room that looked like a waiting area. It was empty apart from a couple of comfortable looking armchairs, a table with essential potions and medical supplies and a water fountain with plastic cups beside it.
A disembodied female voice spoke to him from somewhere that he couldn't see, "Congratulations, Mr Black, you have successfully passed the physical aspect of our selection test. You have ten minutes to patch yourself up and refresh before starting the next test, which will assess your magical capabilities."
The voice said no more than this, so Draco walked over to the fountain and downed a cup of water. It honestly tasted better than water had ever tasted; he poured some onto his face for good measure as he perused the supplies on the medical table. He found a cream that treated burns, and he used this to treat the red, raw friction burns on his hands. Beyond that, he didn't have any injuries apart from bruises and aches, so he decided that it was a good idea to take a pepper-up potion. It gave him a fresh boost of energy and eased some of the aches and pains related to physical exhaustion.
As he sipped at another cup of water, Draco allowed himself to feel a little bit proud. He knew he still had a long way to go yet, and he had a feeling that the magical tests would be more challenging than the physical ones. Then again, apart from playing Quidditch, he didn't do much to keep himself physically fit, but he did duel with Harry every single day, so magically, he had trained himself up as well as he could do.
His ten minutes were over very quickly. The female voice spoke to him once more to announce this, "Your rest period is over, Mr Black. Please proceed through the door to begin our test on your magical abilities."
Draco frowned as he realised that there was only one door. The door that he had entered the room through had disappeared, leaving only the door at the far end. He stepped through it and was unsurprised when he found himself in a real place rather than in a room. This time he was in a generated part of Diagon Alley. He had Gringotts behind him and a crowded street full of witches and wizards ahead of him. He glanced down at the plaque and read the instructions;
"When you cross the line, Death Eaters will appear in the alley. Your task is to take down as many as you can. However, there are rules. You will be penalised for hitting civilians, and taking a Death Eater down without killing them is preferable. We cannot question a dead Death Eater, but we can force veritaserum down the throat of a captured one."
It made Draco nervous that there was no information on how you knew if you had passed or failed the room. Previous tasks had stated that if he failed to complete it within a certain timescale, he would fail, but this one was far less helpful. A wooden drawer emerged from the plaque containing Draco's wand; he took it out and surveyed the alley before him. He knew it would be hard to do this without hitting any civilians, but he had confidence in the accuracy of his spell-casting.
He stepped over the line, and with a whooshing sound, Death Eaters appeared amongst the crowd. They wore dark cloaks and tell-tale masks that protected their identities. People in the alley began to scream and run, making it harder for Draco to locate the Death Eaters and aim at them accurately because frightened witches and wizards were jostling him.
Draco quickly realised that he needed a vantage point, so he shot a silvery rope from his wand, which attached itself to the railing of the balconied area above the door into Gringotts. He pulled himself up and started to aim at the Death Eaters from his high vantage point. He took out three with stunning charms as they ran towards the Leaky Cauldron in an attempt to flee the alley. He took out a further two with bone-breaking curses before they could try and climb up to reach him; it left them writhing uselessly on the ground in pain. He wasn't sure how many more there were, but he could see another two amongst the screaming witches and wizards. He managed to take out one with a stunning charm, but he accidentally hit a civilian as he tried to hit the second one. He didn't want to risk hitting anyone else and being penalised, so he shot a piercing charm at the Death Eater. He had been aiming for his shoulder, but he hit him in the head, and it was clear that he had killed him.
Draco tried not to focus on that as his eyes scanned the alley. He couldn't see any more Death Eaters in the distance, and for a moment, he wondered if he had gotten them all. However, it was then that he heard a noise from behind him. He spun around and was alarmed to see a Death Eater emerge from the door behind him. He knew that a stunning charm wouldn't take effect quickly enough to stop the Death Eater from hitting him, so he acted on instinct and used a piercing charm to the chest. It knocked the Death Eater back and enabled Draco to bind him with magical rope.
As soon as he turned back to the alley, he saw another Death Eater climb over the railing. He hit the man with a stunning charm, and he fell backwards off the balcony. Draco grimaced as he looked down at the puddle of blood that the Death Eater was lying in. He was pretty sure that he had killed that one too.
He was on high alert now as his eyes scanned the alley once more. He didn't see the last Death Eater quickly enough; he was just about to escape into the Leaky Cauldron. Draco knew a stunning charm wouldn't be that effective from this distance, so he opted for a piercing charm, but because of the range, he only hit the man in the leg, which meant that he managed to escape into the pub.
"Bugger," Draco cursed to himself as the scene in the alley dematerialised. The witches and wizards disappeared, as did the bound, dead and unconscious bodies of the Death Eaters. Draco hoisted himself down from the balcony and waited for something to happen, but nothing seemed to change.
He sighed heavily; he had failed. He had killed two of the Death Eaters and let one get away. He must have failed. He stood and waited for the disembodied voice to tell him this, but he was surprised when it did speak.
"You have passed this room, Mr Black," The female voice said, "Please proceed into Gringotts bank to begin your next task."
Draco's eyes lit up with surprise at that, but he did not question it. He opened the door and stepped into the bank, which wasn't anything like Gringotts bank on the inside. He was standing in something that looked similar to a firing range, but the catch was that he was in the area where the things you fired at usually were, and a Death Eater stood with his wand held high in the part where you would usually fire from. The reversal of the roles made him nervous as he looked at the instructions on the plaque before him;
"When you cross the line, the Death Eater will fire spells of varying levels at you which you must shield. To pass this room, you must not be hit by more than five spells. Note that the killing curse counts as two spells because it is the only spell which can instantly kill you."
Draco nodded to himself. It seemed relatively easy. He knew that there would be red herrings in there, the kind of spells that you couldn't shield against. He stepped across the red line on the floor with his wand at the ready, and the Death Eater began to fire straight away. The first few spells were easy to defend with a basic shield charm, but after that, it became clear that a standard "protego" wasn't going to cut it anymore, so Draco had to use more durable shield charms.
This wasn't a problem either; Draco was pretty good when it came to shielding charms. Granted, he wasn't as good as Harry, but shield charms were a bit of his speciality. However, he did trip up eventually when the Death Eater fired a cutting curse at him, which he hadn't encountered before. As a result, Draco didn't know that it wasn't shieldable, so it sliced a gash into his upper arm, which was more than a little bit painful. Thankfully it was on his left arm, which he didn't hold his wand in, so it didn't hinder him any further. It just bloody hurt.
As the spells got increasingly dangerous, Draco was hit by one more; he hadn't been aware that a standard "protego" didn't work against "glacius". The charm turned his shield to ice which meant the shield topped backwards on top of him, which also hurt quite a bit.
All the same, Draco ignored the blood staining his arm and the pain he felt throughout his body and pushed himself to his feet just in time to hear the words "Avada Kedavra". The moment he saw the green light flying towards him, his instincts set in, and he dropped to the ground. He let his entire body go limp as he fell heavily onto the hard, concrete floor. It hurt like hell, especially when his chin hit the solid concrete, but Draco's instinct, when faced with the killing curse, had always been to drop to the floor and play dead. He had learned a long time ago that it was the safest thing to do.
He groaned to himself as he lay on the ground, aching and bleeding. He pushed himself up with some real difficulty, and he was glad when he saw that the Death Eater was gone. He felt black and blue now. His body shook from the effort that it took to push himself to his feet, and he was really glad that he had decided to take that pepper-up potion.
"You have passed this test, Mr Black," The disembodied female voice said, "Please make your way to Ollivander's wand shop. You will find sufficient medical supplies there."
Draco dragged himself out of the bank into the bright sunlit alley once more. He was starting to worry that he wouldn't be able to push through this, especially if there would be a duel at the end, and he fully expected there to be. He crossed the alley and made his way into Ollivander's. Like Gringotts, it looked completely different on the inside. Draco found himself inside a relatively small room with nothing in it apart from a dummy about the height of an average man.
He ignored the plaque, to begin with, and looked through the medical supplies on the table next to the door. He applied a cream made with powdered dittany to the cut on his arm, which acted as a temporary solution because it weakly joined the skin back together. He also took a pain potion and downed it. He breathed a sigh of relief as the aches in his body gradually ebbed. He spat out a mouthful of blood and read the plaque at the entrance of this room;
"When you cross the line, you will have 2 minutes to fire as many spells as you can at the dummy provided. You will lose points for using the same spell more than once or for using dark magic. You will gain points for portraying any highly skilful spells."
Although Draco suspected that he would have temporary memory loss about the number of spells he knew as soon as the time limit began to tick away, this one also seemed reasonably simple. He stepped over the line and immediately started to fire spells at the dummy; he began with the basic spells they had learned in their early years at Hogwarts like "Flippendo" and "Expelliarmus". He just shot spell after spell at the dummy as they popped into his head, but the more spells he fired, the harder it was to keep track of the spells he had and hadn't used. He was pretty sure he used Expelliarmus twice, but he managed to get through without using a single dark magic curse. Towards the end of his allotted time, he suddenly realised that the Patronus charm would probably count as skilful magic, so he sent his Patronus (which was no longer an otter and was now a dragon) flying towards the dummy.
A loud buzzing sound announced that his time was up, and Draco waited for the disembodied voice to tell him what to do next.
"Congratulations, Mr Black, you have passed this room. Please proceed to the final task by using the door ahead."
Draco looked up at the door which had just appeared at the other side of the room. He was prepared for a duel as he stepped through the door into the final room, so he wasn't surprised when he realised that there was nothing in it apart from a duelling platform. Standing atop that duelling platform was a middle-aged woman with cropped blonde hair who smiled at him, "Congratulations on getting this far, Mr Black. Would you join me up here?"
Draco climbed up onto the duelling platform and took his place at the opposite end from the woman.
"I'm Auror Carter," She introduced herself, "And as you may have guessed, your final challenge is to duel a real, experienced Auror. Does that make you nervous?"
"Well," Draco said honestly, "I've duelled Harry Potter a good few times, and he's the third-best in all of Britain, so not really."
Carter raised an eyebrow at him, "We'll see about then, won't we?"
Draco didn't want to appear overly confident, but he couldn't help the smirk that came to his face. He and Auror Carter walked towards each other, bowed and then took their places at either end of the platform as the duel began.
Draco let the Auror make the first move to assess what kind of spells she would throw at him. She started with the basics, "Expelliarmus!"
"Protego! Stupefy!"
"Protego! Petrificus Totalus!"
Draco matched her fairly basic spells, but it became clear to the Auror very quickly that she would get nowhere with O.W.L level spells, so she upped her game a little bit.
"Reducto!"
"Protego, Bombarda!"
You couldn't shield against a blasting charm as strong as that which the Auror knew. She ducked and let the spell hit the wall behind her. Draco threw a stunning charm at her, but she was on her feet before it was halfway across the platform, and she blocked it with ease.
"Impedimenta!"
"Protego! Relashio!"
"Protego! Expulso!"
The duel was getting far more dangerous now. The spells that were flying back and forth were fully capable of doing serious harm to their victims, but Draco hadn't broken a sweat yet, and he wasn't finding things particularly difficult. This Auror had fast reflexes, but this duel was nowhere near as fast-paced as those he and Harry shared. There had been no attempts at beheading or expelling the entrails of the combatant yet either, which made the whole thing awfully dull.
As Draco defended and dodged cutting and blasting curses, his mind whirred as he tried to think of a way to beat the Auror. He didn't want the duel to go on for too long. After all, the speed at which you could disarm your opponent was a key factor when assessing a person's duelling capabilities. He knew her reactions were too fast for him to knock her out with any spell that he knew, so he resorted to using sneaky tactics.
Draco defended a blasting curse that Auror Carter had thrown at him and then said, "Fumos!"
The spell enveloped the entire room in smoke for a few seconds. He heard the Auror coughing, so he knew that the smoke had reached her. In the few seconds that he had before he came back into her view, Draco disillusioned himself and used an illusion charm to create a false image of himself. He moved forward slightly and to the far right side of the duelling platform as the smoke began to clear.
"Stupefy!" The Auror called as soon as 'Draco' came back into view.
At the same time, Draco whispered, "Expelliarmus", and sent a spell shooting at the Auror from thin air. She had been concentrating on the fake image of Draco as she waited for him to defend, so by the time she noticed that another spell was flying towards her, she didn't have time to defend against it. The spell hit her and yanked her wand out of her hand, it flew through the air into Draco's hand, and he appeared again with a grin on his face.
The Auror raised another eyebrow at him, "Sneaky but effective, exactly what I would expect from a former Slytherin. May I have my wand back?"
Draco walked towards her and handed her back her wand.
"Do you always use sneaky tactics to win your duels?" Auror Carter asked curiously as she led Draco off of the duelling platform towards another white door.
"I normally use dirty tactics when I'm duelling Harry," Draco admitted, "But that's because it's the only way I can beat him. When I'm duelling for real, I'll only use sneaky tactics if I can't disarm the opponent any other way."
"Well, if it works, we can't knock it," Auror Carter admitted, "Unless you're using dark magic, in which case you will be disciplined."
"Yes, ma'am," Draco said with a nod.
They had reached the door, and Carter led Draco through it into another waiting room. This one was far larger, around the same size as the one he had waited in before being told which door to line up in front of for his test.
"Sit down, Mr Black," Auror Carter said as she motioned towards the chairs in one corner of the room.
Draco took a seat in the empty waiting room and watched as the Auror walked towards a desk. She picked up a brown folder and flicked it open. She scanned it curiously, then walked over to Draco, "Would you like to hear your performance report for the first two tests?"
Draco nodded, "Yes, please."
Carter took a seat next to Draco and began to detail his test results, "You did very well in the physical tests. You took three hits out of a possible 12 in our test on your reflexes. You completed the physical assault course in 2 minutes and 50 seconds. I particularly liked your strategy of letting gravity take you down the net. That was an audacious tactic from a former Slytherin."
"Harry Potter has been a bad influence on me," Draco said with a roll of his eyes.
Carter smirked, "Well, it's a good thing he has been. If you had tried to tackle that net the way it should have been done, you would have failed. Your best score by far was in the flying assault course, we estimate that it should take 1 minute and 38 seconds to complete that course on the Firebolt, and we got an International Quidditch player in to test that. You completed the course in 1 minute and 37 seconds."
Draco grinned, "Take that, Potter."
"Mr Potter has yet to set a time," Auror Carter reminded him.
"He'll struggle to beat that though, won't he?" Draco asked.
"Anyone would struggle to beat that," The Auror admitted as she ignored the smug look on Draco's face, "You didn't do quite as well in the suspect chase, but you did get him, even if you did cut it a little fine."
Draco nodded, and the Auror flipped the page, "Now onto your magical ability. You scored 35 points out of a possible 40 on our accuracy test in Diagon Alley. I was particularly impressed with your tactic of getting up high for that one. After the war, we changed that test to make it take place in a simulated Diagon Alley and out of 35 candidates last year, not one of them thought to do that. Your total score was 36 in the end, but you lost a point for hitting a civilian. The only way you could have improved that score would have been to take all of the Death Eaters out effectively but frankly, the fact you hit all 10 was impressive."
Draco nodded again, "Thank you."
"You did well in the shielding test too," Auror Carter continued, "You were only hit with two spells, and we rated your reaction to the killing curse as adequate. It didn't hit you, but you did injure yourself through the way you chose to avoid it, so there is room for improvement there. On your spell casting test, you acquired 25 points, you fired 22 spells, but you lost 2 points for repeating two of them. You didn't use any dark magic, and you did show skilful magic with your Patronus charm. Finally, I have already told you I was impressed with your duelling capabilities, if unsurprised by your tactics."
Draco nodded again, "So what happens now?"
"You wait here," Auror Carter replied, "If anyone else in your heat passes, they will join you in this room. Your friends will join you in here too; if they pass their heats. It will get busier, but as it stands, you are the first one to pass both of our tests."
Draco smiled proudly, "So that's it for today? I just get to sit around and wait?"
Auror Carter nodded and got to her feet, "Yes, but don't let your guard down. Today you faced the easy tasks, tomorrow you'll face the hard ones."
She got to her feet and left the room. Draco was beginning to wonder how long he would be left to his own devices when one of the five doors opened, and two people emerged from it. One of them was one of the guys who had gone into the testing rooms at the same time as Draco, and he was accompanied by a tall man in red Auror robes. Draco tried not to be too nosy as the Auror went through the man's report with him as Carter had done with him. When he had finished, the Auror left, and the man approached Draco with a grin, "So we're the first two to make it through, huh?"
"Looks like it," Draco replied.
"I'm Eddie, by the way," The man said. He was slightly taller than Draco and a lot stockier. His build was similar to Neville's "Eddie Carmichael."
"Draco Black," Draco said as he shook the man's hand.
Eddie blew out a breath and sat down next to him, "You're Harry Potter's friend, aren't you?"
Draco nodded. He much preferred being referred to as Harry Potter's friend rather than as 'that kid who was a Death Eater', "Yeah, do you know him?"
Eddie snorted, "I know of him but doesn't everyone? I've never spoken to the guy though; I was a couple of years above you in school."
"What house were you in?" Draco asked curiously.
"Ravenclaw," Eddie replied, "I always wanted to be an Auror, but I figured I'd take a couple of years out first to get some experience, you know?"
Draco wasn't sure what to say to that, so he just nodded. This guy seemed nice if a little talkative. Thankfully, he wasn't stuck alone with him for too much longer because another door opened, and a third candidate stepped out. Draco immediately recognised him as Maxwell Harper; he was accompanied by a fairly short red-robed Auror with dark brown hair.
"Hey, look, another one," Eddie chirped.
Draco nodded, "I know him. He was in my house at Hogwarts."
"Another Slytherin, eh?"
"Yeah," Draco replied, "He's a year younger than me. I figured he'd pass the physical, but I wasn't sure about the magical part."
"I found the physical well harder than the magical ability test," Eddie admitted, "Didn't you?"
"Yeah, the physical was harder," Draco agreed as the Auror who had accompanied Maxwell left the room. The younger Slytherin boy grinned as he approached them, "Two Slytherins through already, nice one Draco."
Draco smiled at him, "Nice one Max, how did you do?"
"Scraped by on a couple of them," Maxwell shrugged, "But I still got through. That's the main thing, right?"
Draco nodded at him, "Yeah, do you reckon anyone else will get through?"
Maxwell shook his head and sat down on Draco's other side, "Nah, Auror Lorne just told me that I was the last one to pass from our heat."
"I guess we just need to wait and see how the next heat does then," Draco said thoughtfully. His eyes flickered to the doors as he kept his fingers crossed for his three friends while Eddie cheerfully introduced himself to Maxwell.
* ~ TBC ~ *