The usual disclaimers apply. This is fan fiction and I do not claim to own the Harry Potter universe or any of the characters or places that appear in the original books.

This is a sequel to 'In the Shadows (Hogwarts Year)', which charts Claudia Avery's last four years at Hogwarts. It sees her become close to Sirius and the rest of the Marauders, and finally break free from her family. That story is available on my profile.

This fan fiction is M-rated due to implicit sexual content, coarse language, and some triggering events (canon typical). I will put more detailed trigger warnings at the beginning of chapters where appropriate.

This story will again be novel-length and I will publish a new chapter every two weeks.

The Auror Office

Claudia opened her eyes and glanced at the little alarm clock on her bedside table. It was barely five in the morning. With a sigh, she turned over and watched her sleeping boyfriend's chest rising peacefully with each breath, hoping that it might send her back to sleep. It did not.

She turned back and looked at the clock again. It was now a quarter past.

Claudia tossed around for twenty more minutes before finally giving up. She made coffee, then took a shower and put on her new work clothes - black tailored trousers, brogues, and a lilac button-up shirt. Despite her upbringing, she was not one for formal robes.

She paced around the apartment fully dressed, occasionally taking a sip of her second cup of coffee, trying to read some book, washing the dishes, and eating a tasteless piece of toast… Nothing helped to distract her. She still felt more on edge than ever.

Trying to keep herself busy, she heard a slight noise from the bedroom. She looked through the open door and saw Sirius sitting up in bed and yawning. "Nervous much?" He asked sarcastically.

"Sure. Mock me!" Claudia scoffed. "What if it's horrible? What if it's boring? What if I mess something up?" she manically hurled out her anxieties and took another sip of coffee. "It's been my dream for years!"

Sirius got up from their bed, walked over to his girlfriend and took the coffee mug out of her hands. "How much of this have you had?" he chuckled when he looked inside.

"Not enough," she said and reached to get it back.

"Absolutely not," Sirius laughed and lifted the mug high above her head. "I don't want you to combust spontaneously," he added and brought the coffee to his own lips.

Claudia looked at him menacingly as he drank it.

"You're going to be brilliant," he whispered once he finished, sounding rather earnest for a change.

Claudia gave him a meek smile before checking her watch again. "I should go. I don't want to be late."

"It's not even seven!" he smirked.

"I'll walk."

"I'll walk with you."

"You're just coming to make sure I have no more coffee on the way," she rolled her eyes, as she watched him dive back to the bedroom and pick up a t-shirt from the floor.

Soon, they set off from their flat in Gower Mews towards the Ministry of Magic.

"What are you going to do today?" she asked just as they were about to cross Shaftesbury Avenue.

"Waiting for Dumbledore's owl, like every bloody day," Sirius mumbled. When their former Headmaster recruited them and their friends into his secret organisation, he said he would be in touch soon. But it had been four weeks since they left Hogwarts and they heard nothing.

"I'm sure it'll come any day," Claudia whispered, more in hope than expectation.

They walked around central London for a good half an hour before it started to rain, and they went to hide in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Coffee?" the barkeeper asked as he approached their table with a steaming pot.

"We'll have tea," Sirius jumped in before Claudia had time to say a word. When he saw her frown, he laughed. "You know, some people like it when their partner orders for them."

"I'm not some people," she mumbled and opened a copy of the Daily Prophet that was lying on the table, hoping that the papers might keep her mind off things. "Don't you dare do it again," she added with a chuckle.

The smile was wiped from her face when she read the front-page headline, which read:

'MUGGLE-BORN CRIME ON THE RISE?'

Claudia shuffled her chair closer to Sirius' and opened the papers properly in front of both of them. They huddled over it.

'A muggleborn wizard was found guilty of torching an apothecary and destroying the livelihood of his well-respected neighbours. This is just the latest in a series of violent crimes committed by muggleborns. Is there a link? Is their magic ability making muggleborns unstable? Find out in the special issue of the Daily Prophet next month!'

"Such bullshit," Sirius said before Claudia even finished the first paragraph. "I just don't get how they can get away with printing garbage like this."

"Because people read it," she sighed and looked at her watch. "I need to go. Really don't want to be late on my first day."

They said a brief goodbye and at twenty past eight, Claudia was standing in a telephone box, ready to use the public entrance to the Ministry of Magic. Once in the atrium, she walked up to the front desk.

"Today is my first day." Claudia blurted out toward a blond witch that was manning the reception desk. "I was supposed to come at half eight."

"Name and wand, please?" the witch asked without lifting her head from her papers.

"Claudia Lavinia Avery." Claudia replied and handed over her wand.

"Make?"

"Cedar with dragon heartstring."

The receptionist took the wand and put in on tiny golden scales, before looking through a thick folder. "There you are," she said finally, reached into a drawer and pulled out a golden badge, which she handed over to Claudia. "Take this – it will get you access to the right bits of the building - and wait over there for Mr Barraclough." She added, pointing towards a waiting area.

Claudia walked across the atrium as instructed, paying no attention to anything else other than the gleaming golden badge, which read:

Claudia L Avery

Rank: Trainee Auror

Service No: 079 226

She barely noticed that there was someone else already standing in the waiting area.

"First day"? they mumbled.

"Yeah." Claudia whispered and looked up to see that the person talking to her was Hugo Green, the former Ravenclaw Quidditch captain. "With the Auror office."

"Me too." Green mumbled.

They stood around awkwardly and waited. Despite being in the same year at Hogwarts, they barely knew each other. Or rather, they knew and liked each other about as well as the Ravenclaw and Slytherin Quidditch captains would.

After five minutes of awkwardness, Claudia was hugely relieved to see a familiar face. Frank Longbottom, her best friend's boyfriend and a fully-fledged auror, was slowly walking towards them.

"Are you Hugo Green?" he asked and, seeing Green nod, continued. "You're on my team, so come with me."

"Am I on your team too?" Claudia asked.

"I don't think so," Frank replied. "Didn't the receptionist say who was supposed to pick you up?"

"Can't quite remember, sorry," Claudia shrugged nervously. "Barrymore?"

"Barraclough?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, boy." Frank whispered. "Come with us, I can take you up." He added, turned on his heel and began walking towards the lifts unusually briskly.

"Oh, boy?" Claudia ran after him. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing." Frank avoided her gaze. "Look, the lift is here."

Frank launched into an elaborate explanation of how the Ministry's lifts worked and continued to ignore Claudia's badgering about the mysterious Barraclough.

"Your office's through there," Frank said when they were half-way down the second-floor corridor. "Green and I are further that way. And good luck." He added and was gone before Claudia could reply.

She took a deep breath and stuck her head through the door. There were four men huddled over something in the corner of the room. One of them noticed her and shushed everyone else. They all turned and stared at her without saying a word.

"Hello," she finally managed to whisper. "I'm Claudia."

"You lost, sweetheart?" asked a young man. He had slick brown hair and was very handsome. And obviously knew it.

"No," she replied, frowning slightly. She hated being called a 'sweetheart'.

"Claudia Avery?" barked another man before she had a chance to elaborate. "How did you get here? You were supposed to wait for me downstairs." He had a square face, stocky built, and light brown hair that was falling just over his ears.

"Longbottom picked me up," Claudia said defensively. "I take it I'm in the right place."

The square-faced man did not move a muscle. "I'm Barraclough," he finally introduced himself.

"This is Dankworth," he pointed at the handsome man who spoke first.

"Adebayo," he waved towards a black man in his thirties.

"And Fernsby," he finally pointed at a younger man with a high ponytail. The sides of his head were shaved, and he had an eyebrow piercing.

"Avery, you said?" Fernsby grumbled and shook his head. "Fucking fantastic," he added and picked up a leather jacket from the chair. "I'm out of here."

They all watched in silence as Fernsby walk out of the office. Then, Barraclough, Adebayo and Dankworth returned to their mysterious object, and began talking again in hushed voices.

Claudia stood rooted in the middle of the room, watching them. This is not how she imagined her first day in the Auror Office going. She had no idea what she was supposed to do and, given how well the last five minutes just went, did not dare interrupt them and ask.

"Are you Claudia?" she heard a gentle voice behind her. "Let me get you settled."

Claudia turned around and saw a pretty, young, blond woman smiling at her. She had not been this pleased to see a human being for a long time, if ever.

"I'm Primrose," the women added. "And I look after these clowns. Let's get your paperwork."

Primrose led Claudia to the Auror Office administrators to sign her contract. Then, they went to pick up her uniform – a long black coat with the Auror Office logo in silver embroidery. Within the hour, they were back in the office.

"Take the coat off before the boss sees you." Barraclough mumbled even before she was through the door. "He doesn't let us wear them. Civilian clothes only."

"The boss?" Claudia asked.

"Alastor Moody," Barraclough said. Claudia was getting the sense that he was not one for using unnecessary words. "He isn't in this morning. Should be back later."

"Constant vigilance." Dankworth added in a theatrical and slightly deeper tone. "It's like wearing target on your back."

"But doesn't that get you into trouble?" Claudia asked. She quite liked the coat and did not fancy taking it off just yet.

"Trouble." Someone snorted from the direction of the door. Fernsby was back.

"Your desk is over there," Primrose pointed towards a corner of the room. It was tiny and covered in boxes. "I'll help you clear it out," she added somewhat bitterly and shot the other aurors an annoyed look.

"Alastor Moody is in charge of this lot. He's an inspector," Primrose explained. "Barraclough and Adebayo are Senior Aurors. And Dankworth and Fernsby are just plain old Aurors."

"And I'm the bottom of the food-chain," Claudia smirked. "Got it."

Once Claudia's desk was clear and she finally managed to sit down, Barraclough came over and dumped an enormous pile of papers in front of her. "Read these and summarised them in a report. Want it on my desk tomorrow afternoon."

Claudia dived into the paperwork. As far as she could see, the papers related to six separate cases – ranging from minor misdemeanours, muggle harassment, to more serious cases of theft and suspected use of the Imperius curse. She found an old quill in the desk drawer and wrote up a quick summary of each of the cases on a piece of paper. Then, she began sorting the documents into six separate piles.

"Hey, how is the first day?" Claudia heard a familiar voice and looked up. The round face of her best friend Alice Adler was smiling down at her. "How's the team?" she added and grimaced. Claudia was not sure whether her face was projecting pity or worry. Possibly both.

Claudia looked around to check who was within earshot. "You tell me," she hissed.

Alice giggled nervously. "Come to the pub tonight. We can chat more."

"I'll see when I can get out of here," Claudia sighed and pointed at the piles of papers in front of her.

Alice patted her on the back and vanished again.

Not an hour later, Claudia was on her way back from the bathroom when she noticed Dankworth grinning at her.

"What?" she sighed.

"The boss is back, sweetheart," he smirked and pointed towards a door positioned in the corner of the office that Dankworth and the others occupied. It was clearly a separate room, just for Inspector Moody. "You should go and introduce yourself. He's expecting you."

Claudia walked over to the door, full of anticipation of meeting her new boss, knocked and entered.

She scanned the office but could not see her inspector anywhere. It was terribly messy. Papers, clothes and random objects were scattered everywhere. Suddenly, a gigantic pile of brown clothes moved, making Claudia jump.

"What do you want?" a man's growl echoed through the office. "Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?"

"Sorry," she mumbled. "I'm just here to-"

"Get out!" the man yelled, interrupting her.

Claudia backed out of the office as fast as she could, horrified. When she shut the door behind her, her eyes landed on Dankworth and Fernsby who were both in stitches. Even Adebayo raised a corner of his mouth, although he at least had the decency to pretend he was not finding it funny.

"Bastards," Claudia whispered under her breath.

Moody had not emerged from his office all day. Claudia was relieved. She hid behind the paperwork and counted down the minutes. At six, Adebayo took mercy on her and sent her home. The others were already long gone.

Claudia had never been more relieved to see Alice than that evening in the Leaky Cauldron. She dropped into the seat next to her, and Alice passed her a drink.

"Good day?" Alice asked tentatively.

Claudia shook her head and drained her drink. "What have I done," she mumbled and scanned the pub. Dankworth, Fernsby, and Barraclough were all in the pub too, sitting alone. Fernsby got his feet up on a free chair.

A colleague of Alice noticed Claudia was looking in their direction. "They're right assholes," he mumbled. "Thinking just because they work for Moody, they are the dog's bollocks."

"Who's Moody?" Green asked.

"Just the best auror of all times, a legend," Alice's colleague replied. "As mad as a box of frogs, but brilliant."

Claudia remembered the cloaked men on the sofa. He did not seem especially legendary to her. Or brilliant.

Alice's colleague was on a roll. "That team though, all assholes. I was assigned there when I first started. I lasted three weeks, which is about as long as anyone manages," he paused and look at Claudia, his eyes were full of pity. "You can ask for a transfer, you know. There is no shame in that."

Before Claudia could say anything, Alice chuckled. "Right. That would be a first."

"What would be a first?" Claudia hissed.

"You giving up." Alice whispered so that only her friend could hear her. It made Claudia laugh a little.

"I'm exhausted," Claudia sighed. "I'm going to go home."

"I'll come with you," Alice mumbled. "I need the walk and can apparate from there."

They walked out of the pub together. When they were squeezing past the table where Claudia's delightful colleagues sat, there was a lot of sniggering. She could swear she heard the words 'pureblood princess' coming out of Fernsby's mouth.

"I'll show you who's a fucking princess." Claudia muttered to herself and left the pub in a huff.

"How's Sirius?" Alice asked casually when they were walking up Charing Cross Road towards Gower Mews. Alice tried to sound casual, but Claudia noticed a slight edge in her voice. Something was not right.

"Bored," Claudia sighed. "He's fixing that damned motorbike he found in the garage," she added, remembering the pile of metal that came with Sirius' flat. A pile of metal that was allegedly going to come together in the form of a functioning motorcycle. "Hopefully Dumbledore will be in touch soon. Otherwise, Sirius will implode."

"Has he not said anything, yet?" Alice inquired.

"No. I promise I'll tell you." Claudia shook her head.

"And put a word in for me?" Alice said with a cheeky smile. They walked for a while in silence.

"How's Frank?" Claudia asked automatically, but then remembered that she had seen him earlier that day. "Actually, tell him he could have warned me earlier. About what my team is like."

"You'll probably see him before I do." Alice frowned slightly. The unusual edge was back in her voice.

"Everything ok?"

"How do you trust Sirius?" Alice said instead of replying.

"I don't know," Claudia shrugged. "I just do. Can tell when he's hiding something from me." She paused, remembering how weird Sirius was acting when he was keeping the fact Remus was a werewolf from her. "It works both ways, though. I can't lie to him either."

"Yeah," Alice sighed. "It's not hard to tell something's wrong, is it?"

"What's going on?"

"It's nothing," Alice mumbled and looked away. "Frank's been bit distant lately, that's all. Anyway, I should go." She added. They were nearly at the flat.

"Are you sure you don't want to come up?" Claudia asked.

Alice shook her head. "Goodnight," she whispered, walked into a dark alleyway and apparated.

Claudia made her way home. When she opened the door, she saw Sirius lounging on the sofa and frowning over his motorcycle manual.

"Whole fucking day," he mumbled, "and the engine still wouldn't start."

Claudia crashed into the sofa too and, without a word, sunk into his embrace. He put the book down and kissed her.

"Drinking on the job already?" he smirked as their lips parted.

"My team are a bunch of assholes."

"What kind of assholes?"

"Do you remember you and James circa three years ago?"

"Oh, that's…" Sirius squinted. "Bad."

"They're about ten times worse," Claudia sighed. When she saw Sirius was chuckling, she shot him an annoyed look. "Yeah, it's hilarious," she barked.

"You'll be fine," Sirius replied casually and kissed her again. "You're very good at handling assholes."

Claudia had to smile. "Did you spend all day on the bike?" she asked, her mood improving.

"Pretty much," he shrugged. "And James stopped by, needed help with something."

"What is he up to?"

"Never mind that… Dinner?"

They ate some weekend leftovers, and Claudia recounted every detail of her first day in the Auror Office. That night, she did not have any trouble sleeping again. She was shattered.

The following morning, Claudia started where she left off the night before. She found an old display board in the storage cabinet and dragged it next to her desk. She pinned all her notes on it and then began to add more detail about the evidence, the suspects – their physical description, magical signature. It took her two hours before everything was on the board and resembled a giant web. Once she was done, she sat down on her chair and stared at her creation.

There was a suspected break-in at Borgin & Burke, although it was not formally reported by the owners.

A known black-market trader was found stunned. His flat was turned out.

There were reports of some muggles getting harassed in Muswell Hill, London. Use of dark magic was alleged.

This made no sense whatsoever.

Claudia's time was running out. The report was supposed to be with Barraclough in two hours. And so far, she had nothing.

She squinted at the board again. Muswell Hill sounded familiar. She went back through her notes. That was where the nephew of the shop's owner lived. Could there be a connection?

Could he be the burglar? Testing whatever was stolen on some unsuspecting muggles?

And the black-market trader. Maybe he was just in the way. Or maybe he was the one who burgled the shop, and the nephew went to get the things back?

"This is so confusing," Claudia sighed but forced herself to pick up the quill. She was out of time. If she wanted to get that report finished on time, she needed to start writing.

"You done?" Barraclough mumbled the moment he walked through the door, following his lunch break.

"Yes," Claudia replied and waved the parchment in the air to dry the ink.

Barraclough snatched it out of her hand and skimmed it. "Very well," he said and dropped it into the tray on Primrose's desk marked 'IN'. "The boss will get to it this afternoon."

Claudia swallowed dry. She went back to sit at her desk and watched as Primrose took all the documents from the in-tray and carried them into Moody's office.

After an hour or so, which Claudia's spent glued to her chair with her eyes firmly on Moody's door, it finally flew open and the legendary auror burst into the room.

"Dankworth, Fernsby!" Moody barked. "Bring the shady bugger that runs Borgin & Burke for questioning. And his nephew too."

"What charge?" Dankworth asked, as he jumped up from his chair, standing to attention.

"Just a friendly chat. No charge," Moody's face twisted in a smirk. "Yet…" He paused, and his magical eye swirled and turned to Claudia. "And take Avery with you." He added, turned on his heel and slammed his office door shut again.

"Does she really have to come?" Fernsby growled in Barraclough's direction. "We don't have time for babysitting."

"Just once in your life, do as you're told," Barraclough mumbled and returned to his paperwork.

Claudia was allowed to tag along for the rest of investigation. It did not last long. The following day, she watched in amazement as Fernsby and Dankworth dismantled the proprietor's nephew in an interrogation. It transpired that he had hidden an illegal artefact among the store's merchandise, which was taken when the black-market trader robbed the store. The poor old nephew tried to retrieve it, causing the other offenses along the way.

"Impressed?" Dankworth winked as he and Fernsby left the interrogation room, and the suspect was being led away by officers from the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol.

She was impressed but was not especially keen to give him a confidence boost. He clearly did not need it. "Where are they taking him?" she asked instead.

"Azkaban," Dankworth explained. "He'll stay there until we prepare the trial."

Out of nowhere, Primrose appeared in the door. "You done?" she asked. "Crouch has called a briefing of the whole Auror Office."

"When does it start?" Dankworth asked.

"Five minutes ago."

They all followed Primrose briskly, and she led them to the largest courtroom that the Ministry had.

"Who's Crouch?" Claudia asked Primrose as discreetly as she could.

"Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The Department is huge and the Auror Office is part of it."

They all squeezed in through the door of the courtroom as silently as they could. Barraclough, who was standing near the door, was the only person who noticed them come in. The room was packed, and everyone's eyes were fixed on a raised platform at the front.

"As I was saying," a short grey man with a moustache, which Claudia presumed to be Crouch, bellowed from the podium, "from now on, qualified aurors are authorised to use Unforgivable Curses in exceptional circumstances."

A murmur swept through the courtroom.

"These circumstances include self-defence, but also – importantly – when the adversary poses a severe threat and would get away if only conventional means were used."

In the crowd, a couple of hands went up.

"I do not have time for questions," Crouch said. "Your inspectors have been fully briefed and will give you more detail."

"Great," Fernsby sighed. "The boss is going to love this…" His tone was full of sarcasm.

"You'll need to wait to find out for sure," Barraclough replied. "He's gone on a mission and won't be back for few days. However," he paused and turned to Claudia, "before he left, he said you are to help me with a case we just got."

"What case?"

"A murder."