Forever Yours Chapter 3: James' Assignment, a harry potter fanfic

Chapter 3 – James' Assignment

Lily walked up the steps of the Ministry of Magic building, and blinked to adjust her eyes to the dimness in the building compared to the rare blinding light that was outside.

"I see that you're getting assigned too," James guessed as he walked over to her side.

Lily looked to her right and looked at James. "Yep, I am. How long have you been here?"

James shrugged and looked up when the strict and graying receptionist called her name from the safety of sitting behind her desk. "Just go through this door." She told James, pointing to a door that seemed bigger than all the rest.

"And what's your name?" the old lady asked Lily. Lily smiled pleasantly and replied, "Lillian Evans, ma'am." The old lady, by the name of Beatrice Yonder if the plaque was right, didn't even look up as she pointed Lily to door that had 'Intelligence' scripted on it in swishy, big letters. 'Intelligence'? Lily wondered. 'Why am I going into intelligence?'

Lily opened her mouth to ask, but decided against it, and just walked towards the heavy looking door and pushed it open.

Inside the room, there were doors upon doors with signs on them that said things like, 'Suspects', 'Cases', 'Files', and 'Lounge'. Lily walked on until she came upon another receptionist, except this one was younger.

"Hello, my name is Lillian Evans, and I was told to come into this room, do you think that you could help me?" Lily asked the young witch.

The lady looked up with a bright smile on her face, and in this chirpy, sweet, high-pitched voice said, "Sure, I'd be happy to help you. Lillian Evans did you say? Yes, well, the boss is awaiting you. If you'd just step through that door please?" The perky brunette informed Lily in one breath.

Lily nodded her thanks and walked through the door. Behind a big oak desk that dominated the room, an aging wizard sat, running, weathered fingers through his black going on gray hair, hunched over a stack of papers that sat on his desk. "Sir?" Lily asked, just a little timidly.

The man looked up and ran his cloudy brown eyes over Lily's build. "Lillian Evans, I presume?" he asked in a coarse voice as he leaned back in his chair and intertwined his fingers behind his head.

Lily nodded her head, having no clue if that was a rhetorical question or not.

"Well, what are you still standing for? Take a seat!" he demanded.

Lily rushed to do as he said and sat down in an overstuffed chair that lay directly in front of his.

"I'm Stephan Johnson, head of M.o.M Intelligence branch." Mr. Johnson introduced. Lily nodded her head, and held out her hand, which Mr. Johnson shook vigorously. "Nice to meet you sir." Lily replied as she sat back in her chair.

Stephan Johnson nodded in turn and got down to business. "You were originally recruited for the field job, but after going through your files, we thought that you'd be better suited with Intelligence. We're not saying that we don't think that you'd do well out in combat, we're just saying that you'd do the Ministry better in Intelligence. Especially if you're anything like your Father was.

"But what we do here is mainly try to break through systems, codes, strategies, and help the 'soldiers'" he said, holding up his hands to do quotation marks, "accomplish their missions. Any questions?" he finished.

Lily looked a little dazed, but shook her head. "No, sir, I don't."

"Right then. If you'd follow me?"

Lily got up and followed Mr. Johnson out of his office, and back down the hall with all the doors. He stopped in front of the one called, 'Cases' and opened the door. Lily blinked as she looked around. There were about twenty people in the room, and none of them were staying still! One minute they'd be walking towards the wall, the next, well in the next minute, poof – they're gone! Mr. Johnson must have seen the amazement and wonder on Lily's face, for he gave a hoarse chuckle, almost as if he wasn't used to laughing, and told her, "You'll get used to it. Each section of the wall leads you to somewhere else, some lead to other places in the Ministry, some lead you to different Ministry's, and others lead you all over England."

Lily nodded distractedly and continued to look around. She jumped when she felt a hand on her arm, leading her down the hallway. "I'm putting you on a new case so that you wouldn't have to catch up. You'll be working with one other person, and she should already be here." He mused as they walked through the wall and saw no body there.

"Sorry I'm late sir!" a young, slim, blonde woman gasped as she doubled over to catch her breath. "That's okay, Miss Miller," Johnson said with an amused look in his eyes.

"Now, on to your assignment." He started.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

James walked through the wall and down the hallway until he came upon another receptionist. He cleared his throat, but she didn't look up. So, he did it a little louder. She still didn't wake up. So finally, James gave up and said, "Miss?" Still no answer. James frowned and said it louder this time. She still didn't answer him. James frowned deepened. He bent down and waved a hand in front of her face, making the lady jump back in surprise. "You shouldn't go scaring an old lady like that!" the startled old woman informed James in a prim voice that reminded him of Professor McGonagall's.

James looked at the lady and frowned. Her hair was still a dark brown without a trace of gray or white in it, she had no wrinkles, and he reflexes were great. She didn't look old to him.

"I'm sorry ma'am. But I have an appointment, James Potter." He informed her with a charming grin.

The lady blushed and pointed to the door. "Thank you." James told her before he walked towards the door behind the desk and opened it.

Aladaster Moody (a/n . . . I don't know how to spell his name right.) sat behind a desk going over papers. He looked up as James walked in and nodded before going back to his paper work.

"James Potter? Yes, of course you are, you look exactly like your father. I do believe that you excelled at your training while you were at Hogwarts, or so Professor Dumbledore has informed me. Now, we are putting you on an assignment now. We want you to go to Egypt, and get some inside information on what kind of banned potion ingredients that they are selling." Moody told James without even looking up. "We have reason to believe that someone is going to try to make an immortality potion, and the guy we suspect it is, if he succeeds could be trouble for the world as we know it."

Moody then looked up at James, and straight into his eyes. "I'm not going to lie to you, this is a dangerous mission, but if I didn't think that you could do it, I wouldn't have assigned it to you. You need to be cunning, quick, and believable. And I have already seen that you are all of those. After all, not that many people are dumb enough to even half of the things that you did at school." He commented with a knowing look.

James' eyes grew round, and his mouth dropped open. 'He knows about the animagus.' He thought. "Don't worry Potter, I'm not going to do anything. It could be helpful." Moody waved aside James' shock and got right on to what he was trying to say. "Now, do you accept the assignment, or not?"

James though about it for a few seconds and nodded his head.

Moody smiled, which gave James the chills seeing as Moody resembled a monster ready to strike. "I though that you'd say that. Now, I'm willing to give you two days to get ready, but not a day more."

James nodded his head, and after being dismissed walked back into the main office to wait for Lily. 'I wonder what she's going to say?' he wondered as he watched her walk out of the door opposite from the one he did with a dazed look on her face.