Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter because it belongs to J.K. Rowling. Sometimes I lie and say I do own it, but then people give me looks like I'm crazy and I'm forced to admit the truth, which turns out to be that I have nothing to do with owning it. Sadly.

Chapter Four- Mission

Cho coughed as she stepped out of the fireplace. The Floo Network was efficient, yes, but not her favorite method of travel. In fact, it wasn't anywhere near her favorite method of travel, which was quite obviously flying by broom. She dusted the soot and Floo powder off her robes before making her way out of the alleyway.

The Auror Headquarters were a different building than the Ministry of Magic, for unknown reasons. They also banned fireplaces from being set up within their building, for the sake of keeping unwanted visitors from the inside of the headquarters of the primary defense against magical dangers.

Cho approached the building, climbing the eight steps they had to the double doors. A goblin stood at the front with a rather disgruntled look upon his face. He looked at Cho, eyes narrowed in a suspicious manner. He was grumpy, as most Gringotts goblins were when they were assigned their day at the AH.

"Name, purpose, and identification," the goblin requested in a bored tone.

"Cho Chang," she replied, and withdrew her letter from Mr. Windsor along with a clear key. The goblin took these in to his clawed hands, inspecting the letter closely, and examining the key. He inserted it in to a keyhole next to the door, and traced his claw in a pattern on the door. The sound of many locks unlocking at the same time could be heard, if Cho put her ear to the door. The goblin gave her key back, and grinned wickedly.

"Good luck," he said sarcastically, and Cho sneered at him.

"Honestly, these goblins are getting more and more ill-mannered every day," she muttered once she entered the headquarters. Taking a left, she had to run briskly up the staircase before it moved to a completely different corridor. Taking another winding hallway to another moving staircase, this procession of hallways and staircases continued for five floors.

Panting lightly, Cho finally reached her destination- the office of the Head of Auror Commissions. Aurors were to report here before and after every mission, and Cho suddenly remembered that she hadn't reported to Mr. Windsor after the last mission. Now getting a little nervous, she desperately hoped he wasn't about to give her a boring job, like her first two had been.

She knocked on the door, her white knuckles contrasting to the dark wood. "Who is it?" said a deep voice from within.

"Er, Cho Chang, sir," she replied, and the sound of papers being re-arranged was heard. A moment later, the door opened and a dark, stern man opened the door. He was bald, not because of age, but for practicality.

"Ah, Miss Chang, so glad you could make it so quickly," he said, a pleasant note to his voice. He motioned towards a straight-backed wooden chair, which many an Auror had sat nervously and uncomfortably in for what seemed like hours. A nervous and uncomfortable Cho sat in this very chair now.

"Um, you wanted to see me, sir?" Cho questioned, her anxiety coming across.

"Yes, Miss Chang, this is regarding the case you just recently 'completed,'" Mr. Windsor said, the note of pleasantry gone. Cho wondered why he had singled out the word 'completed', as if she hadn't really completed the case.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry that I didn't come to report right after," Cho bit her lip, "but I was so tired and dirty I went straight home to take a shower, and I accidentally fell asleep." Truth be told, she had completely forgotten that she needed to report right after her mission.

The large man sitting across her sighed, "Cho, firstly, I have had Aurors come in here with limbs missing to report their completed missions," Cho felt extremely guilty- at the time, her filthiness and exhaustion had seemed like the worst thing in the world, "and secondly, you didn't complete your mission."

"Wha-?" Cho asked, shocked that he had just told her that her mission hadn't been completed. She played the mission back in her mind.

She had been very excited to find out that she had one of the tougher cases. Miyelda Gunewalde, a rather bizarre but previously homeless witch had tortured her nephew with the Cruciatus curse. Finding delight in giving helpless people pain beyond all recognition, the power had gone to her head and she had started to torture the most helpless human beings- Muggles. In the crowded London Underground, Miyelda had tortured nearly twelve people just for the fun of it before Cho had arrived.

Giddy with excitement, Cho had attempted to stun the witch, but her spell had missed and the wall. Angered, Miyelda had turned all her efforts towards torturing Cho, and Cho had spent a good amount of time ducking and dodging the streams of spells aimed towards her. Tiring quickly, she had tackled Miyelda, both women hitting the dirty floor. Both their wands had been knocked away, and the Muggles still in the area did not dare to touch it. They tousled on the ground for a while, before Cho had finally wrenched Miyelda's arms behind her back.

Dragging the witch over so that she could grab her wand, she Stunned the witch. A green-cloaked figure that had hidden his face with his hood had arrived at that moment, showing a clear key and declaring himself a part of the Auror Headquarters. He said he would take the witch to Azkaban where she would await her sentence. Tired and not quite thinking straight, Cho trusted his clear key and nodded mutely. The figure carried Miyelda away, and Cho, in a flash of brilliance, decided to take a shortcut home and turn herself in to a rat and scuttle away.

The Muggles watching the incident saw a five-feet-and-one-inch Asian girl suddenly shrink, and a sleek, black rat took her place. It promptly hopped in to the tunnel the trains usually took from location to location.

Finally, something clicked in Cho's mind. "Oh my gosh, that guy wasn't an Auror, was he?" Much to her dismay, Terrence Windsor shook his head slowly. Cho's heart sunk in her chest.

"That man, who you encountered," Mr. Windsor started off slowly, taking in deep breaths, "well, we're not quite sure what he is. All we know is only certain people can see him. And he's malicious. We think he's plotting something, but hasn't really done anything yet. We call him 'The Prankster', because all he really does are pranks… except lately, they've gotten a lot more serious. Dead serious, if you catch my drift."

Cho nodded, not sure what else to do with herself. She couldn't quite come to grips with the fact that she had actually come face-to-face with such a dangerous and well-known criminal.

"So," the Head took a deep breath, even though he was used to dealing with such grave information, "you are the only living person who has ever seen The Prankster. It is for this reason that we must put you on this case." Cho stared at Terrence numbly, feeling a foreboding chill overcoming her body. She was the only 'living person'? That certainly wasn't comforting.

"You'll have a team of two of our best experts to help you, even if such a mysterious case as this couldn't have much help provided." Somewhere in the far, far corner of her mind, Cho had a little party. She actually had a team? Only the top, top Aurors got 'teams'.

"And," Mr. Windsor continued, "if you should complete this mission with your ability to accept more missions, we'll allow you your choice of missions in the future." Cho's eyes widened. That was a privilege given to only the best of the best of Aurors, such as Mad Eye Moody had been. Sputtering, Cho couldn't voice any opinions. Her mind weighed out the pros and cons- no one ever surviving, having a team, mysterious with little known, choice of missions… It was too much for her mind to handle, so she did the most reasonable thing- blocked all her thoughts out.

"Oh, um, thank you, sir," Cho said, finally able to think without any thoughts in her mind. Terrence Windsor looked curious at her reaction, but appeared to brush it off.

"I'll show you your new team."

After briskly walking down several hallways to another office, Cho was introduced to Alexander Labelle, a Ministry member and ex-Auror who specialized in criminal psychology- he was often used for interrogations. Two offices away, Cho met Terella Brioch, a witch who specialized in gathering as much information as possible for briefing Aurors on their upcoming case. Cho could only manage the polite courtesies during the introduction, but was really too shocked to say much more. Both her team members gave her sympathetic looks, as if they knew how fast all this was coming on.

After finally leaving the Auror Headquarters (the entry goblin seemed particularly gleeful at her shocked state) Cho headed back down the alley towards the fireplace. She was planning what she would do when she went home; the first on her list was to put the kettle on the stove, the second was to feed Gavyn. Filling her mind with these mundane thoughts helped her to gradually accept her fate.

With her mind swirling with thoughts, such as which tea should she boil, she almost didn't notice the cloaked figure slumped at the side of the alley. Her first thought, seeing as it was the most prominent, was 'The Prankster!' and Cho reached in to her robe and withdrew her wand. She would be prepared to fight, even if she probably wouldn't survive. Danger was part of the job description as an Auror.

When he didn't move, she chanced a step closer to take a better look. A white-gold sort of sheen to his hair brought back a certain memory, from Hogwarts.

"Draco?" She questioned, seeing as it was the first name to come to memory. An awkward pause elapsed when it didn't move.

"Er, well, I meant Malfoy," Cho explained, caught up in the awkward moment, "and um, that's obviously not who you are, seeing as Malfoy probably is somewhere else doing something better than leaning against an alley wall and, um, it was your hair color that sort of brought back the… memory…" Cho trailed off as the figure looked up, and was indeed Malfoy.

He gave her a questioning sort of look, as if he didn't remember who she was, and Cho was taken aback at how silvery-gray his eyes still looked.

"Who are you, and how do you know my name?" He asked with a rather dangerous note to his voice. Cho was certain that if she didn't give the right answer, he would probably attack her.

"Cho Chang, a former Hogwarts student from Ravenclaw, a year above you," she replied evenly, Auror training kicking in.

"You dated Potter," Draco replied, after thinking a bit, his voice dripping with contempt for the name he mentioned.

"Um, yes, that's me," Cho sheepishly responded, wondering why he would remember that about her of all things. Usually the Hogwarts alumni, who attended the school at the same time as she, mentioned that she had dated Cedric Diggory.

Malfoy contented himself with half-glaring, half-examining Cho. He stood up straight, still leaning the top of his back against the wall, and crossed his arms.

Cho looked up nervously, realizing he was nearly a foot taller than she, and he wasn't even standing up all the way. 'Being short really is a bummer,' she thought to herself. Thinking it her duty to banish the weird silence, she blurted out the first question she thought of.

"Uh, what are you doing in this alley?"

Draco looked at her- she seemed really compelled to talk a lot, he mused. "None of your business," he replied, not saying it coldly but more like he was stating a fact. Cho rolled her eyes. He seemed a little worse for wear, Cho noticed, and saw that his fingers were white with cold. Personally, she didn't think the weather was that cold, but she felt sorry for him. Especially because she had found him slumped in an alleyway, she thought. In any case, whatever had happened to him was definitely not good.

"Er, want to come with me for some tea?" She asked, wondering if it was really such a good idea. He looked a little surprised at her offer, but seemed to actually consider it. It was certainly better than the alley, seeing he had no idea of what he was doing and where he was going.

"Why not?" He said, the slightest bit of his usual sarcasm easing its way in to his voice. Cho picked up on it, but said nothing. She pointed to the other end of the alleyway.

"We're going to have to get there by Floo, though, hope you don't mind." Draco shook his head, and picked up his broom, his bag still hanging off the end. They made their way to the end of the alley, and it seemed like the longest two-minute walk Cho had ever taken, due to the silence. The silence was made awkward, for her, because he really was a lot taller than her.

"How tall are you?" She asked randomly, and Draco seemed amused, as if he were thinking about the same thing- their height difference.

"Six feet," he smirked, and Cho childishly stuck her tongue out.

"I think it's much more practical to be five feet and one inch," she declared, and Draco shook his head.

Finally at the end of the dark alley, Cho reached in to her robe and gave him a pinch of her emerald Floo powder. She pinched out a bit herself, and threw it in to the flames, which promptly turned the same green color.

"451 Atticus Street, London," she called out, and stepped in to the flames. Draco heaved a big sigh. Going in to the Muggles world didn't seem like such a good idea, seeing as he would feel completely helpless, like a fish out of water, to use a cliché. Finally making up his mind, he sighed again, and threw his bit of powder in to the flames.

"451 Atticus Street… London," he paused before finally saying the name of the Muggle city. What was he getting himself in to?

Kitch says: Wahhh, school's starting. I'm hoping to update once every week… 'hoping' being the key word. But, um, here's another chapter.

My Humble Thanks to- Serena Goodkey, artificial-sprite, m.d.h.t., and Mimi.