* ~ The Eighth Year Universe Series ~ *
PART FOUR
Brave New World
Chapter 8: Neville's Selection Test: Part 1
Harry, Neville and Theo made small-talk as they waited for it to be their turn to enter one of the testing rooms. They were all nervous for Draco, but they knew nothing they could do to influence what would happen to him now.
They kept themselves to themselves and didn't mingle with the others waiting in the room with them. Time seemed to drag on, but as there was no clock in the room and none of them were wearing watches, they had no way of knowing how much time had passed when Sumner's voice brought them all to attention once more.
"Alright, heat 2!" Sumner called, "When I call your name, line up in front of your door!"
"Hastings, Serafina: Door 1.
Kavanagh, Lesley: Door 2.
Longbottom, Neville: Door 3.
Marston, Harrison: Door 4.
Nott, Theodore: Door 5."
Harry smiled weakly at his friends and wished them good luck. He hated being a Potter sometimes. He was always last; it made him miss Ron a little bit, if only because "W" came after "P" in the alphabet.
Neville shot Theo a small, encouraging smile as they stood a couple of doors apart.
"On the count of 3, you may enter your testing room and begin," Sumner instructed them, "3…2…1."
Neville opened the door and stepped into the room nervously. He hadn't been sure what to expect, but he had expected something more intimidating than a small room. He took a step forward and immediately realised that there was more to this room than met the eye because there were lots of little holes in the walls. He glanced down at the plaque and read his instructions.
"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."
Neville groaned once he had finished reading this piece of information. He slotted his wand into the holder and shook his head. He wasn't built like a seeker like Harry, Draco and Theo. He was taller, and he was bulkier, which was great for tasks that required strength and power but not so much for something like this, which required him to be swift and flexible.
All the same, he stepped over the line on the ground and immediately heard the tell-tale hiss that indicated that a spell was about to shoot out of the wall. He managed to dodge the first few, it was easy enough for him to duck and swerve to avoid the spells, but because he was pretty heavy (from muscle weight rather than fat), he found it harder to avoid the spells that required him to jump. As a result, he had already been hit twice when the spells began to shoot out of the walls two at a time. At that point, Neville cursed to himself, he tried his best to avoid being hit, but he would swerve to avoid the first spell and hit the wall so hard that he didn't have time to duck to avoid the second one. He wasn't sure how many times he had been hit by the time the spells stopped coming, but he knew that several spots on his legs burned like hell, and he could see a burn mark on his arm. He was fairly sure he had lost part of his right eyebrow too.
Neville glanced anxiously at the door as he waited for a sign to say that it was unlocked. He was expecting it to magically open or something of that ilk, but when nothing happened at first, he grew anxious that he had failed the task. He breathed a sigh of relief when a click indicated that the door had been unlocked, and he hurried through it into the next room.
He recoiled slightly when bright sunlight hit him. The previous room hadn't been particularly dark, but then again, he hadn't expected to go from it into a wide, open field. He could tell straight away that the next task would be to tackle this huge obstacle course laid before him. He couldn't see the entirety of the course, but he scanned what he could see before reading the plaque in front of him;
"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 five-second penalty for using your wand for any other means."
A wooden drawer slipped out from beneath the plaque containing Neville's wand. He slipped it into its holster on his leg and took a step back. As Draco had, he ran over the line to have a bit of momentum for the first obstacle. He used the strength in his upper arms to vault over all three hurdles with ease, then dropped down onto the boggy ground and crawled underneath the large net. He sank into the mud a little more than Draco had because he was heavier. Still, because of the strength he had built up in his upper arms (through playing as a Beater for the past year) and his legs (through jogging around the lake every morning with Lilly), he found it easy to pull himself through the obstacle very quickly.
Once he had come out of the other end, he pulled himself up and ran towards the next obstacle. He hadn't broken a sweat yet, and he wasn't breathing particularly heavily, but he did know that he was going to find this next obstacle a little tricky. The steep incline he would have to crawl up wasn't a particular issue for him, but the tight tunnel he had to crawl through was. He managed to fit himself inside it, but his shoulders and arms scraped against the rough wooden sides as he began to pull himself up the steep incline. He wasn't slipping around too much because he was lodged so tightly in the tunnel, but the tight squeeze did slow his progress slightly. He could feel splinters of wood penetrating his skin, but he pushed on regardless. It wasn't a bad pain compared to some of the things he had endured under the Carrows anyway.
When Neville reached the top of the hill and pulled himself out of the tunnel, he breathed deeply. It wasn't because he was relieved; it was because he hadn't been able to suck in a proper deep breath for the entirety of the time he had been squeezed into the tiny tunnel. He had to stop himself from groaning when he saw the next obstacle; it was a wooden beam over a high ravine. He didn't have a problem with heights, but he did have a problem with balance, as proven by his uselessness on a broom as a youngster. He stepped onto the wooden beam carefully and put one foot in front of the other. He knew that he couldn't rush over this obstacle, so he took his time and made sure that he made it across without falling into the fast-flowing water beneath.
He knew as he stepped off of the wooden pole that he had a lot of time to make up, so he wasted no time in throwing himself onto the high net. He found it fairly easy to pull himself up and launch himself over the edge. He scaled his way down the rope net and dropped as soon as he was at a sensible height from the ground.
Neville knew he had an advantage in that he didn't need any time to get his breath back between obstacles. His breathing had only just begun to get heavy, and he reckoned that he was at least halfway through the obstacle course now. He ran at the rope in front of him and swung across the shallow river below. He dropped down without landing in the water and ran to the edge of the lake.
"Where's the bloody Gillyweed when you need it," Neville mumbled to himself as he jumped straight into the deep water. He was a very strong swimmer, so he wasn't particularly worried about this part of the course. He was reasonably sure that he would be able to make up quite a lot of time. He sucked in a breath and ducked under the water; he managed to swim underneath the first two wooden beams before he had to come up for breath. Even then, he wouldn't have needed to come up so quickly if a couple of Grindylows hadn't grabbed him.
"Accio fish!" Neville said as he kept himself afloat in the deep water.
All of the fish in the water floated up to the surface, and the Grindylows greedily swam away from Neville to scoff them. Neville shook his head in amusement at how easily satisfied Grindylows were. He ducked underneath the water once more and swam beneath the final two wooden beams. He emerged as he neared the shallower water, where he saw a rather mischievous looking Kappa waiting for him. Neville stood up to his midriff in the water and said, "Good day, sir Kappa!" as he bowed to the Japanese creature.
The Kappa looked so pleased to be addressed as such that he bowed back to Neville. In doing so, the water in the cap of his head sloshed out, which drained him of his power, "Aw man," the Kappa despaired in a squeaky voice, "I haven't had a bite of anyone yet."
"Sorry!" Neville called back to the Kappa as he pulled himself out of the lake, "You seem like a nice guy. I hope someone messes up so you can get some food."
"Thanks!" The Kappa called back squeakily as Neville ran forward onto the next obstacle. He was starting to feel the strain of the course now because his soaking wet clothes made him a lot heavier, and his next obstacle was a high pole that he had to scale.
He blew out a breath as he gripped the handholds and began to climb the pole. Heights didn't bother him, but the thought of falling did, so he tried his best not to look down. He lost his footing a couple of times because his feet were slippery, but he didn't fall, so he pushed on. At the top of the pole, he gripped the wooden handle and shut his eyes as he launched himself off of the zip line. He sped down at quite some speed and didn't open his eyes until he landed in the shallow marshy water below.
Neville knew that there would be magical creatures in the marshy water, so he cast a precautionary shield charm around his lower legs and waded through the water as fast as he could. When he emerged from it, he ran towards the last obstacle and shook his head in disbelief when he saw the size of the gaps he would have to crawl through in the wooden contraption.
"Seriously?" Neville muttered as he pulled himself onto the first level. He barely had room to move his arms so pulling his entire body weight along was incredibly tricky. When he eventually did reach the end, he had to twist his body so much to drop down into the narrow gap between the two levels that it hurt, "Did you design this thing for runty gits like the rest of my friends?"
Neville pulled himself up onto the second level with difficulty and pulled himself along. He found it even more difficult to pull himself up onto the last tier, and he was pretty sure he pulled or twisted something in his back while doing so. He limped forward and threw himself down the pole before running over the red finishing line on the ground, grimacing all the while.
He let himself fall onto the ground to catch his breath as he waited to find out how he had done on the obstacle course. He was reasonably sure that he had passed. Despite struggling through the tight tunnel, he had made up the time pretty well throughout the course. It was just a question now of whether that last obstacle had royally screwed him up or not.
"Please proceed through the door onto the next section of the test Mr Longbottom," A disembodied male voice said, "Medical supplies will be provided for you."
Neville pushed himself to his feet and looked up. Where there had only been a field a moment ago, there was now a door. He stepped through it and was momentarily blinded by the bright sunlight streaming down. He appeared to have emerged in a warmer climate, the sun was brighter, and the air felt very humid. Neville had, of course, realised that this was some sort of room of requirement. He expected it was one of the simulation rooms that he had heard recruits and Aurors talking about during the week he spent doing work experience with the Aurors.
Neville was standing on the cliff-top. There was nothing more than a plaque, a rack containing three broomsticks and a small table with a few potions on it. He was fairly sure that one of them was a pain potion, so he knocked it back and breathed a sigh of relief as it began to work its magic. As the effects of the potion began to reach his extremities, Neville read the plaque before him;
"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."
Neville could fly now, thankfully, but it still wasn't his strongest skill, and he was aware of that. He could hold himself up on a broomstick in the air, but he wasn't the fastest or the deftest, and for that reason, he wasn't sure that he could control a Firebolt adequately. He knew that the Comet would be too slow and lurchy for him; it reminded him of the school brooms that he had hated so much. Naturally, that left the Nimbus 2001, which was what he had used during his tenure as Beater of the Gryffindor team for the past year.
Neville stepped forward, grabbed the Nimbus and mounted it. He took a deep breath; he wasn't looking forward to this task. Realistically he knew that all he could do was take it easy and hope that he managed to finish within the required time limit. He pushed off and flew through the first golden hoop. He could have rolled his eyes when he realised that the first few hoops were contained within a narrow ravine. It wasn't as tight as some of the gaps he had been forced to squeeze through in the physical assault course; however, so he managed to make his way through it without causing himself an injury. He was grateful when the course widened out, but since he wasn't the most agile, he did find it difficult ducking underneath fallen tree trunks and swerving between trees and the edges of the cliff.
All the same, though, Neville was pleased when he reached the end of the course and dismounted the broom because he had managed to do it without missing any of the golden hoops. He waited anxiously to find out if he had completed the task within the required time limit, and he breathed a sigh of relief when a door appeared in the side of the cliff.
Neville stepped through it into the next 'room', and he frowned when he took in his surroundings. He looked around at what looked like any ordinary muggle street. He noticed a few familiar landmarks, a pub called "The Penny Farthing" with a sign that was half hanging off stood on the corner of the street and an old police box that the locals had nicknamed as the TARDIS was rotting just to his right.
"So I've just stepped into the East end of London," Neville said as he looked around thoughtfully, "I can nearly see my girlfriend's mum's flat from here."
Nobody said anything, although Neville knew that the Aurors assessing him could hear him. He couldn't believe quite how small a world it was as he read the plaque in front of 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."
As it had before, a wooden drawer emerged from the bottom of the plaque. Neville put his wand inside it and took a wizarding photograph out. A young man with shaggy blond hair who looked eerily like a young Grindelwald smiled mischievously back at him. Neville grinned because he had a plan. He stepped over the red line, and all of a sudden, the street became crowded with muggles bustling about their daily business. Neville spotted the young blond-haired suspect immediately, but he didn't chase the man. Instead, he darted to his right and ran down a narrow back alley that ran adjacent to the street. It was empty because all it led to was the back gardens of the houses that faced onto the street on the other side. This meant that Neville could run a lot faster than the suspect caught up in a crowd.
He got about halfway along the back alley and then jumped onto the garage of one of the houses. He dropped down into the back garden and vaulted the gate to emerge on the street on the other side. Neville smirked as he saw the suspect running straight towards him. However, he wasn't looking forward; he was only glancing behind him. Neville barged into him and knocked him to the ground, where he tackled and held him tightly.
He felt pretty confident, and a little smug about that one as the scene dematerialised and the street became empty once more. Neville got to his feet, dusted himself off and looked around for a way out. He saw that a door had appeared in the wall up ahead, so he walked towards it slowly to get his breath back. Chasing the suspect hadn't been difficult for him, but he had knocked the breath out of himself with the force he had knocked the guy to the ground with.
When Neville reached the door and stepped through it, he expected to emerge into another test. He was relieved when he realised that this was some sort of waiting area, which meant that the first part of the test was over. He scanned the room and saw the water fountain, the medical supplies and the comfortable chairs. He was already halfway to the water fountain when he heard the male voice that had spoken to him earlier.
"Congratulations, Mr Longbottom. You have passed the physical aspect of our selection test. You have ten minutes to refresh yourself before we start the next test, which will assess your magical capabilities so have a drink, patch yourself up and take a breather."
Neville didn't need to be told twice. He downed a cup of water and perused the medical supplies on the table. The pain potion he had taken before starting the flying obstacle course was still working its magic, and the only other injuries he had obtained were friction burns and splinters from crawling through the tight wooden tunnel. They didn't even hurt anymore, so Neville didn't bother healing them. He just sank onto one of the comfortable chairs and enjoyed his ten minutes of rest and relaxation.
They were over very quickly. Neville felt like his bottom had just touched the seat when the male voice said, "Your rest period is over, Mr Longbottom. Please proceed through the door to begin our test on your magical abilities."
Neville followed the disembodied voice's instruction and stepped through the door. After the last few rooms he had faced, he wasn't surprised to emerge in a place rather than a room. He wasn't in the muggle world this time though; he was in Diagon Alley, which was crowded with witches and wizards shopping and socialising. He looked around and realised that his position in the alley was just in front of Gringotts bank. With this established, he read the plaque before him;
"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."
A wooden drawer emerged from beneath the plaque once more, and it contained Neville's wand. He took it out and surveyed the alleyway. There was no way of knowing where the Death Eaters would appear yet, so he had no way of knowing where to set himself up to best defend against them. Neville took a step forward so that he was over the red line on the ground and the Death Eaters immediately began to materialise throughout the alley.
Neville knew he had to get up high to have a chance of hitting the Death Eaters without taking out a lot of civilians, so he apparated onto the roof of Ollivander's and took out two with stunning charms. A couple of the other Death Eaters spotted him and began to run up the alley towards the Leaky Cauldron, so Neville apparated onto the roof of Flourish and Blotts and took them out from behind with stunning charms. He twisted around as fast as he could on the roof and looked back down the alley as he tried to spot the other Death Eaters. He saw one lurking in the doorway of Eeylops, so he hit him with a piercing charm to the shoulder before he could retreat into the shop. By his count, that was five. However, he didn't know how many Death Eaters there were. He grew suspicious because he couldn't see any on the street below, but nothing had happened to say that he had passed the task.
Neville realised why this was when he heard a noise from behind him. He spun around and saw a Death Eater pulling himself out of the chimney. He aimed to stun the man, but before he had a chance to utter the words, the Death Eater had drawn his wand on him. Neville panicked a little and shot a piercing charm at the man as he ducked. As a result, he hit the Death Eater in the head, and he fell lifelessly into the chimney.
"Bugger," Neville muttered as he apparated further down the alley onto the roof of Ollivander's for a better view. He saw another Death Eater creeping towards the Leaky Cauldron using the shops as cover. He couldn't get a clean shot at the guy because too many people were running about screaming and panicking, so Neville decided to improvise. He used a cutting curse to cut one of the chains that held up the sign to the apothecary, hoping that it would swing down and knock the Death Eater out. However, what he didn't account for was that the sign was made of metal and had very sharp corners, so it slit the Death Eaters throat as it swung to the ground.
"Shit," Neville cursed, that was two deaths now, which he suspected would go against him. All the same, he had to remain calm, so he scanned the alley for any further Death Eaters and managed to hit one with stupefy just before he got to the Leaky Cauldron. However, he was a little too far away, so the spell didn't quite work correctly. Neville was about to apparate down from the roof when he saw another Death Eater running through the screaming crowd. He tried to send a stunning charm flying towards him but lost his footing and slipped slightly, which meant that the charm hit a civilian. He could have cursed at his own clumsiness as he tried to hit the Death Eater for a second time, but the spell only just brushed his hand, so he managed to escape into the Leaky Cauldron too.
He was starting to give up hope when he saw the final Death Eater. He didn't want to lose that one too, so he wasted no time in shooting a stunning charm at him. However, he didn't expect the Death Eater to fall face-first into a barrel of water that would surely drown him.
"Seriously?" Neville despaired as the scene dematerialised, "The sign killed the guy, and that one just happens to fall into the bloody water! Are you taking the piss? This is like the bloody Cornish pixies all over again! Why is it always me?"
"You have passed this test, Mr Longbottom," The male voice announced, and it sounded distinctly amused, "Please proceed inside Gringotts bank to begin your next test."
Neville was still shaking his head as he apparated down from the roof and yanked open the door to Gringotts. He stepped inside and frowned as he realised that this wasn't the inside of Gringotts at all. Instead of being in a grand bank full of goblins, he was in a firing range, and he seemed to be the target. Neville looked from the motionless Death Eater who was pointing his wand at him to 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 kill you."
Neville smiled slightly as he stepped over the red line. He didn't envision himself having any problems with this task because he knew that he was bloody good at shielding charms. They were one of Harry's specialities, and Harry had spent a lot of time teaching Neville in their fifth year. It was when they had bonded over the situation with their parents, and as a result, the two of them had spent a lot of their spare time in the room of requirement together.
The Death Eater began by using charms that were easily defendable with a simple "Protego" charm. After a few spells, they started to get more complicated, but Neville knew lots of different types of shield charms, so he continued to block every single one with ease. He knew they must have been getting near the end of the task when the spells began to become interspersed with spells that were unshieldable. He managed to dodge those spells because he knew that they couldn't be shielded against. When the Death Eater threw "Glacius" at him, Neville acted quickly. He knew that there was no magical shield that could protect against the ice curse, but it could be blocked by something solid. Neville conjured up a large block of stone that the curse hit. It turned the block to ice which meant that Neville could remove it from his way by simply tapping it. The ice block fell apart, and Neville had to act quickly as he saw a very familiar green light soaring towards him. It didn't give him any sort of flashback; after all, it had been thrown at him several times in the war, especially during the final battle. Neville threw himself to the side to avoid the beam of green light.
After that, the Death Eater disappeared, and Neville looked around, "Was that it?" he asked, perhaps a little too cockily.
The male voice spoke to him once more, "You have passed this test, Mr Longbottom. Please make your way into Ollivander's wand shop."
Neville left the bank feeling pretty good about himself. He was doing a lot better than he had expected, he thought he might crumble under pressure, but the war seemed to have prepared him pretty well for the Aurors tests. He crossed the sunny alley and stepped into Ollivander's, which, like Gringotts, wasn't really Ollivander's. This room also resembled a firing range. There was a dummy at the far end and a plaque by the door, which Neville read;
"When you cross the line, you will have two 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."
Neville nodded to himself. It seemed relatively simple. It was mainly a test to establish the range of spells that he knew. He didn't think he would find it particularly difficult, so he stepped over the line to begin the test. Neville started by using the only skilful spell that he knew, which was the Patronus charm. His Patronus bounded across the room and disappeared behind the dummy. After that, he began to fire every spell that he knew at the dummy, from the basics like "Expelliarmus" right through to every blasting curse and cutting charm that he knew. He was fairly sure that he didn't use any spells more than once, and it wasn't difficult for him to avoid using dark magic because he didn't know any dark curses apart from Sectumsempra, and even then, he used it very rarely.
A buzzer announced that his time was up, so Neville slipped his wand into its holster and waited for the disembodied voice to tell him where to go next.
"You have passed this test, Mr Longbottom. Please proceed through the door ahead."
Neville hadn't noticed any other doors in the room, but he realised that another door had appeared at the other side of the room as he looked around. He walked through the door and wasn't surprised to find that it contained nothing other than a duelling platform. Atop that duelling platform was a man dressed in deep red Auror robes. He was relatively short, not much taller than Harry, in fact, and he had dark brown hair.
The Auror smiled at Neville. "Well done for getting this far, Mr Longbottom. My name is Auror Lorne, and I've been the one assessing you today."
"You mean listening to my rants?" Neville quipped as he climbed up onto the platform.
Auror Lorne smiled, "You have been a rather amusing candidate to assess," he admitted.
Neville chuckled, "Well, I'm glad my misfortunes keep someone amused. I'm assuming that this set up means the final task is a duel?"
"Indeed," Lorne replied, "Are you ready to start?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," Neville replied. He and Lorne walked to the centre of the duelling platform, bowed to each other and then walked back to their respective places at the ends of the platform. With that, the duel began.
Auror Lorne began with the more basic spells, just as Auror Carter had with Draco. After all, they aimed to assess the candidate's ability not to kill them by bombarding them with dangerous hexes straight away.
Lorne began by using spells that wouldn't do Neville much harm like "Expelliarmus" and "Stupefy". Neville didn't use any offensive spells to start with. He defended against the Aurors spells to gauge the Aurors skill level and style of duelling. He worked out that his spellcasting was quick and that accuracy was his strong point which meant that Neville couldn't afford to let his shield drop for one moment.
Once he had realised this, Neville began to fight back by throwing cutting curses and stunning spells at the Auror. He defended every single one with ease, and Neville could see that he wasn't getting anywhere. He wracked his brain to come up with a way of bringing the Auror down as he defended against a couple of more sinister curses.
In the end, he let the Gryffindor inside him win out and decided that brute force might be the answer here. He began to throw every blasting curse that he knew at Auror Lorne. One of his strengths lay in power behind his spells, and this came in very handy with blasting charms. He hit the Auror with the spells in quick succession, and Neville could see that his plan was working. The Aurors shield charm had transitioned from a bright blue to a soft pink. Still, he was so busy trying to defend against blasting curse after blasting curse that he hadn't realised yet.
The moment the shield shattered, Neville, got straight in there with, "Expelliarmus!" and disarmed Auror Lorne.
The Auror brushed the ashes off his robes and smiled at Neville, "Good duel Mr Longbottom. Do you mind giving me my wand back?"
"Sorry," Neville said as he walked to the other end of the platform and handed Auror Lorne his wand.
"You fight like a Gryffindor," Lorne said with an amused smile, "Brute force combined with an air of foolish bravery. You didn't have a shield charm up while you bombarded me with curses. You're lucky there wasn't an enemy behind you. You left yourself open to attack."
"Noted, sir," Neville said with a nod as they stepped off of the platform together, "What house were you in, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Hufflepuff," Lorne replied, "I had to work on my duelling. It didn't come naturally to me. I know more spells than the average red robe around here, and I'm great at thinking up strategies, but putting them into practice was never my strong point."
"I have a friend like that," Neville said thoughtfully as he let his thoughts drift to Theo. He wondered how his friend was getting on in testing room number 5. He wondered whether he had reached this point.
"If he's anything like me, he'll pass with flying colours," Lorne assured Neville as he led him out of the testing area into a waiting area that looked very similar to the one he had been in with Harry and Theo.
Neville glanced around and grinned when he saw Draco looking bored out of his mind as Maxwell Harper and Eddie Carmichael had a very animated conversation over him. Draco caught his eye and grinned when he saw Neville.
Lorne chuckled at the sight and said, "Take a seat over there, Mr Longbottom. I'll grab your performance report and let you know how you did overall."
Neville nodded and took a seat at the opposite side of the room from Draco. Lorne came back over to him with a brown file in his hands. He flipped it open and took a seat next to Neville, "So let's go over your results in the physical first. You took seven hits out of a possible twelve in the first test designed to test your reflexes," Lorne began.
"Yeah, not a strong point of mine," Neville said sheepishly.
Lorne chuckled, "I know I'm shorter than you, but I'm stocky too. Being swift and agile is always harder when you have a build like ours. You still passed, which is all that matters. Your time on the physical assault course was 2 minutes and 48 seconds. I particularly liked the fact you fed the Grindylows instead of using violence against them, and I don't think I have ever seen someone hold a conversation with a Kappa in the six years I have been a trainer here."
Neville smiled slightly, "They're nice enough if you get to know them."
"When they aren't sucking your blood?" Lorne said with a vaguely amused look.
Neville just shrugged, "Most magical creatures are just misunderstood."
Lorne chuckled, "I think you might be going into the wrong line of work," he joked.
Neville just laughed, and Lorne continued, "I will mention the difficulty you faced with the tunnel. You are one of the bigger guys we've had try out, so it's not something that has come up before, but those tunnels are very narrow, so we will take that into consideration."
"Thanks," Neville said with a nod, "I appreciate that."
Lorne continued, "Now onto the flying assault course; you did just fine in that. You weren't the fastest, but you didn't pick the Firebolt, and you did about as well as you could with the Nimbus. We reckon it should take about 1 minute and 45 seconds, and you did it in 1 minute and 50 seconds. You did well in the suspect chase too, even if you did have a slight advantage."
Neville grinned, "I can't help that the street you chose happened to be near my girlfriend's Mums house."
Lorne smiled slightly, "All the same, you showed initiative, and we like that here, so that was a definite pass. Now onto our tests on your magical abilities. You scored 32 points out of a possible 40 on the accuracy test. You hit all 10 Death Eaters, which not everyone manages to do, so that's a plus point, you did lose a point for hitting a civilian, but 32 is a good score. You could have improved it by effectively knocking out those two that got away and by not accidentally killing a few, even if your narrative of the event was rather amusing."
Neville rolled his eyes, "That task summed up my life so far. If anything stupid can go wrong, it does, and it happens to me."
"Hey, you passed, didn't you?" Lorne said calmly, "And you aced our tests on your shielding ability. You didn't get hit by a single spell, and we were very pleased with your response to the killing curse. You did great in the spell casting too, you got 25 points overall, 20 of those were for the spells that you managed to fire, and you gained five bonus points for your use of the Patronus charm. You weren't docked any points in that test because you didn't use dark magic, and you didn't repeat any of the same spells."
Neville nodded, "And my duel?"
"A clear pass," Lorne replied, "We deduced from your duel and the other tasks we set you that your strong points are blasting charms and shield charms. We like your duelling technique too. Your performance report is excellent so far. Just make sure you keep it up tomorrow with your mental tests."
Neville nodded and smiled at the man, "I'll do my best. Thank you, Auror Lorne."
Lorne smiled back at him and patted him on the shoulder, "You're welcome," he said genuinely. As the Auror got up to leave the room, Neville approached Draco, who moved out of his spot between Maxwell and Eddie. The two friends sat down next to each and Draco patted Neville on the back, "Well done."
"You too," Neville grinned, "Didn't I tell you that you could do it?"
"Hey, we haven't done it yet," Draco reminded him, "This is just day one, remember?"
Neville nodded and glanced at the five doors, "Am I the first one through?"
Draco nodded, "Who else was in your heat?"
"Theo was in it if that's what you're really asking," Neville said as he shot his friend a knowing look.
"I thought that he might be," Draco said as his eyes darted anxiously towards the doors.
Neville smiled at his friend, "I know it's hard for you, but try to stop worrying about your boyfriend, alright?"
Draco rolled his eyes at Neville, "Shut up, fatbottom," he muttered affectionately.
Neville smirked at the blond boy and leant around him to congratulate Max on getting this far. As he did so, Eddie, who was beginning to get on Draco's nerves a bit, cheerfully introduced himself to Neville.
* ~ TBC ~ *