Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Please don't sue.
Harry worried about how Parvati would take what happened during that weekend, but apparently she was doing ok. While she wasn't her ordinary cheery self, she was acting relatively normal, and even smiled now and then. Harry silently thanked Lavender, who seemed to take it as a personal challenge to draw her out of her shell.
While no one forgot about the encounter at the Patil residence, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Harry put it out of their minds as the first co-op came up for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Both the 6th and 7th year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws entered Fleur's class at the start of Monday, and Fleur led them outside.
Harry smiled they all stepped into a giant horseless carriage. As soon as everyone was aboard, the cabin began skimming the ground at incredible speeds. Ginny huddled close to him, but Harry knew it was because the fast speed was making her a little nauseous. Harry didn't blame her. He was feeling a little queasy as well, and he was use to zooming around at fast speeds on his Firebolt.
Finally, they pulled up to a large building which Harry recognized as an adjunct building to the English Ministry of Magic. A tall man dressed in dark grey robes exited and walked up to the carriage. Fleur ushered them all out and the man smiled and introduced himself, "Hello! I'm Albert Brown! But I don't want any of you calling me Mr. Brown, and if any of you calls me Albert, I'll curse you back to the stone age. You can all call me Al."
Harry smiled; he couldn't help but like Al. "Anyway," Al continued, "I'm going to show you what Aurors do. Most people think we spend our time hunting dark wizards all day. In all truth, there aren't that many evil wizards. We really spend most of our time taking care of dark creatures, instead. For instance, did you know that the natural population of Bogarts had doubled within the last 50 years? Well, we're really fighting back against it now, and in fact, we're going to be doing work on that today."
Harry nodded – this didn't sound too bad. There were far worse things to be doing than hunting down dark creatures. "Tell me," called Al, "is Hermione Granger among you?"
Hermione blushed and raised her hand. "Excellent!" beamed Al, "I heard about you in the Triwizard Tournament last year. So how did you do, taking on all those bogarts the first task?"
If anything, Hermione blushed stronger, but said, "Er, I did alright."
"Alright?" Al boomed, "Alright?! You took on 30 bogarts at a single time, and you only did alright? Well? How did you do it?"
Hermione answered, "Well, I just made them do something humorous, one bogart at a time." Seeing the expectant looks on everyone's face, even Al's, Hermione reluctantly continued, "The bogarts all took the form of Professor McGonagall giving me failing grades." At this, everyone broke into laughter, even Ron, Harry, and Ginny, who already knew about the first task.
Hermione laughed a little as well, and said, "So I had them all break-dance." All the students broke into peals of laughter, imagining the strict professor tearing it up on the dance floor. Harry felt tears of laughter fall on his face, and Fleur was rolling on the ground.
When everyone calmed down enough, Al took them inside and introduced a few members of the team. "And finally, we come to Jim. Jim's a little down today, but that's because he realized he has no life."
"HEY!" yelled Jim, and Al laughed. Jim whispered to the students, "Al's still mad about the curse I shot him last weekend."
"I am not!" Al retorted, "besides, that's below the belt, making me prance whenever I tried to go anywhere." All the students laughed, and even Al joined them.
"Ok," Al instructed, "We're going to split up into four groups. We've got a suspected lair of bogarts on a hill not too far from here. Three groups will take perimeter, and a fourth will drive the bogarts to the other three. Ok, first group – Ravenclaws with last names A-M. You go with lifeless Jim." Jim laughed, and beckoned his group over.
"Jim's group will take the north perimeter," continued Al, "Second group, the rest of the Ravenclaws. You go with Susan. You'll take the South-West perimeter. Third group, Gryffindors with last names A-M. You'll go with Barb and cover the South-East perimeter. Finally, the rest of you get to come with me, Prancing-Al."
Everyone laughed, and the four groups went separate ways. Harry felt a little sorry for Hermione, who was separated from Ron, Ginny, and him. Al led them over to a special room, and everyone let gasps of surprise. The room contained a countless assortment of brooms, and Al proudly said, "This is the Auror broom transportation repository. When we need to get to someplace local quickly, we can come here." Ron's mouth hung as he gazed at Nimbus 2001 after Nimbus 2001 on the shelves.
Al led them through, and each of them grabbed a Nimbus and left the building. Finally, after flying for a few minutes, the group passed by the other three, already in a giant circle surrounding a small hill. Each group seemed to have taken different forms of transportation. One was dismounting from Hippogriffs, another seemed to have taken a modified version of Floo powder, given that a few still had puffs of smoke still billowing from around them. Harry didn't see any clues how the last group arrived, and made a mental note to ask someone.
Al descended into the center, and began directing his group. "Ok, everyone!" he yelled, "Stick together! Don't let anyone go off by themselves. Now, form up in a line, and let's do some sweeps." The 10 students in Harry's group obligingly formed a long line, and began walking together over the hill.
Suddenly, several odd shapes popped up from the ground, apparently from nowhere. One was a giant spider, two were vampires, another appeared to be a dementor, and the last actually looked a little like Voldemort. A few people gave gasps of surprise, but the rest immediately cast "Riddikulus" Harry had to laugh as the spider burst into flames, the vampires tripped over each other, the dementor took off his hood to reveal a face that looked exactly like Dumbledore's, and Voldemort started dancing and singing in a high pitched voice, "Follow the Yellow Brick Road…"
The bogarts seemed to realize they were under attack and fled in their various humorous shapes. However, as they retreated east, Hermione's group drew their wands and made short work of them, and everyone cheered as the bogarts blew up.
Harry's group patrolled some more, but they didn't find any other bogarts. "Ok!" called Al, "I think those five must have been all of them! Good job, groups." Everyone cheered again, and they all left back for the ministry.
The next day was just as enjoyable as the first, and all the groups got to do something, since the new hill had a total of 23 bogarts. Harry laughed as he got to see a breakdancing McGonagall firsthand.
However, as Friday came around, Al announced, "Ok, we've got another task for you all to do. We've actually got a location for two suspected Death Eaters. Now, we're not going to actually send you in, since that would be a grave risk for you. Instead, we'll use you as the location backup. Location backup is the group that prevents any wizards or witches from leaving or entering the scene by physical means – broomstick, walking, etc. It's the lowest risk assignment for aurors, but it's still an important role, since it prevents anyone from escaping or getting reinforcements. Unless, of course, you'd rather hunt down some more bogarts…"
Everyone shouted "NO!" – it seemed everyone was anxious for an exciting job such as this. Even Susan, Barb, and Jim seemed happy for the change in plans.
Al grinned and said, "Ok, we'll be doing same groups as on Monday. Group 1 take the north perimeter. Group 2 take south, group 3 take east, and Group 4 take west. Your orders are simple. Don't allow anyone, regardless of who it is, to enter the scene until you see the code signal. This operation will have a code signal of blue sparks, followed by white sparks. Everyone clear?" There were several silent nods, and Harry's group followed behind Al.
Al again led the group to the broom storage room, and everyone grabbed a Nimbus again, and they took off. Apparently all the groups were flying by broom as well, and Harry fell comfortably behind the slipstream of group 3. Al led them in a long line circling the west part of a rundown house. Harry was eager to enter the house, but that wasn't his job.
As soon as the groups were formed, Al left, and put Harry in charge. "I'm going in. Remember, blue then white is the all-clear signal," Al said, and then snuck towards the house. Harry briefly wondered what would happen if the plan didn't go off correctly.
However, it looked like Al, Barb, Jim, and Susan entered the house without problem. Harry grew somewhat bored, as they stood at position for 15 minutes. 15 minutes grew to a half an hour, and Harry was starting to get a little worried.
"Excuse me, we need to get in there." Harry turned around, and saw the new voice came from a group of 3 people wearing ministry robes.
"I'm sorry," Harry said, "but our orders are to prevent anyone from entering the zone. When the aurors inside give the go-ahead, you can enter."
"Listen kid," another said, "we need to enter. Are you going to stop us?"
Harry looked at the group; he drew his wand and shouted, "Group form up!" After several members turned around to meet the new threat, Harry said, "I'm sorry, but I'll have to ask you to leave."
The group of three did something Harry didn't expect – they laughed. "Good job, Potter," one said, "but look behind you."
Harry didn't look, but Ron's voice called, "Harry! It's the signal; blue, then white sparks."
Harry lowered his wand, and said, "You're free to enter now."
The four laughed again, and pulled down their hoods. It was Al, Barb, and Susan, and apparently they had magically altered their voice! "Good job, kid!" called Barb, who then patted him roughly on the back.
Harry shook his head, wondering how the three of them got on the other side of them, and asked, "Well, what happened inside the house?"
"Textbook operation," called another voice from behind him, and saw Jim smiling at him. "The two in question are already at the ministry, being questioned."
Al said in his new voice, "Well, good job all around, but I think we should get you all back to Hogwarts now. And I hope I see some of you as aurors when you get out!"
Jim whispered, "Nice voice, Al. I can just see you singing in it, while prancing"
Al laughed, and led the large group back to the carriage which Fleur was waiting in.
"Well," asked Fleur, "did you enjoy yourselves?" Most of the class grinned, and Harry relaxed for the ride back to Hogwarts and regular classes.
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