"Madam Minister, shall we..." said a tall, thin, balding man dressed in a white and black tuxedo, while holding out his hand to help a young woman out of a limousine. He looked as if nearing his late fifties and had a sort of elder-wise and trustworthy air about him. "Thank you Charles," said a young woman holding her hand to recieve Charles'. Her tall elegantly thin frame gently stepped out of the car onto the side walk. Her brown curly hair bouncing gently around with her and her earings, shaped like wands at the end with a diamond star at the tip, swayed equally gently back and forth with her. The woman stepped lightly in her bronze-brown colored high heels, which matched her elegant and professional attire accented with golden jewlry, on the red carpet leading to a magnificent building.
As she approached the building she thought back to when she was a kid growing up at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. She had wanted this moment, dreamed of it, eversince she was a little girl; and now her dreams were coming true, she would finally be able to make a difference in the wizarding community, a BIG difference. As she anxiously approached the magnificent building known as the Ministry of Magic, she met many reporters including some muggle reporters, although sadly those stories only went as far as the tabloids and then ended up in the trash. However, she thought to her self, this is something she would fix during her time as Minister of Magic.
"Madam Minister Granger," said one of the reporters as Hermione reached the entrance to the Ministry of Magic, "How does it feel on your first day in office"
"Well," said Hermione, "This is only my first day, and I havn't even gotten to the inauguration yet...however ask me the same question tomorrow and I'm sure I can give you an appropriate answer." With that Hermione turned around and began to walk into the Ministry, while reporters were still trying to get their questions answered. As if they didn't already ask enough in the previous days before Hermione was officialy minister.
"This way madam," said Charles, her personal assistant, as he led her through the ministry, a place Hermione was quite familiar with by now with all of the trips in her long and enduring campaign process. After stepping off of the bird cage looking elevators, Hermione walked down, now a little more anxiously, what seemed to be a short hallway with a dead end. On the far wall of the hall way stood a statue, actually a pedistal carved out of white marble. On it was the most magnificent looking Phoenix also carved of white marble, at Hermiones request, as each new Minister had the option to choose the statue that gaurded the entrance to their office.
"Madam, the password has been set, and at your request it only opens when spoken by the people on the list of names you gave me," said Charles seeming as if he was very pleased with his work. As part of the job of Hermione's personal assistant, Charles was expert at getting things, magic, information, research you name it.
"S.P.E.W.," said Hermione trying to hold down a giggle. And with that, the Phoenix turned from white to red and leapt off the pedistal and began circling the hallway singing a beautiful song, while the marble pedistal dissappeared into the floor. The wall behind the pedistal vanished and revealed a door, which would transform into her office if she again said the correct password. Hermione closed her eyes, put her hands on the door knob and thought, "all work and no play makes Ron-Ron a dull boy." Again Hermione cracked a smile, she knew she would enjoy coming in and out of this room. She opened the door and stepped inside a bright office lit by golden rays filling the room completely, although the source of light could not be found. She had a large desk in the center that was clean and new, however Hermione knew all that would change in a day or two. Hermione walked over to the large comfortable red chair behind the desk, which seemed to call Hermione to it, and sat down releasing a sigh of relaxation as she did so. Hermione then took a moment, paused, then looked up at Charles and said in a sure tone of voice, "Let's get to work, shall we."
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"You do understand," began an elderly wrinkled woman in a gentle soft voice wearing an elegant green wizard robe which gently brushed the floor when she would walk. She was of moderate height, and had hair that was once somewhat blonde, but now almost completely gray. She sat up straight and wore a pointed hat which also added to her height as well as her authorative character. "that in this school we take the safety of our students very close to heart. Why we are all wiling to risk our lives for the students when the time comes. And on top of that we are completely dedicated to our students, you must never stop teaching those who want to learn, no matter how 'special' or incompetent some students may seem like sometimes. However I am sure that you will not give up on any students, after all, as I recall, you had a few problems during your time here at Hogwarts," said the woman with a chuckle.
"Yes proffesor," said a young man with shoulder length red-hair while lowering his head in slight embarassment. He was tall with a medium frame, and looked as if he kept himself in shape, maybe some sport he still enjoyed playing. He had this consistently positive expression on his face, as if he did not let much get to him, and seemed very friendly and easy to talk to. He wore an old brownish-tan corderoy suite, with a white shirt underneath that was unbuttoned on the top few buttons; most likely because it was uncomfortable to button it all the way, and no tie.
"Ronald, how many times do I have to tell you, you may call me Minerva now. Those years of 'Proffessor McGonagall' are long gone, though I do appreciate your concern for politeness," said McGonagal.
"Yes proffesor, I mean-Minerva," said Ron with a bit of hesitation as it felt wierd to call one of his former teachers by her first name, no matter how many years have passed, "and could you call me Ron instead of Ronald, Ronald is what my mom used to say when I was in trouble"
"Most certainly," replied McGonagal. "Now what made you decide to become a teacher at Hogwarts"
"Well, as I know you remeber, I had a difficult time learning spells and that sort during my time here. But I think Hermione finally rubbed off on me, because I've actually caught myself with my nose in a book, when normally I'd be out practicing quidditch or something else," said Ron.
"Oh, and how has Hermione been," interrupted McGonagal, "I heard that she was elected Minister of Magic"
"She's great," replied Ron, "and she's very, VERY excited about the election outcome. She was stressing for months before the actuall election. Bit annoying really"
"Lovely," responded McGonagal, "How long has it been"
"What," said Ron unsure of what McGonagal had meant, "Oh yeah. About 2 years this December"
"I'm sorry I couldn't attend the wedding, I just had alot of work that particular December, and the Ministry wouldn't let me put it off till January," said McGonagal in an apologetic tone.
"Yeah, my dad almost couldn't make it. But it was either face the Minister, or face my mom...I think he made the right descision," said Ron with a chuckle.
"Now look at me, all ready distracting you, where were we," said McGonagal, glancing at the old grandfather clock located in the Headmistresses Office.
"That's alright," said Ron, "Well, after i started to actually enjoy reading, I began to learn alot. More than I was able to learn at Hogwarts. And then I started to think about how stressful it had been to be one of the slower kids who couldn't get a spell right. People always made fun of me, although I made fun of myself half the time. But it didn't feel good to be the one who never got it, the one always finishing third, and feel as though maybe I can reach out to those students...to all of the students, and help them to learn and have fun while doing so. Help them to see when they would need to apply magic to their daily life. Help them see why it matters that they learn these spells and do pages of work"
"Very Noble of you Ron," said McGonagal, "Now I see on your application you wanted to teach defense against the dark arts"
"Yes Minerva," agreed Ron. "Well I'm sorry to say Proffesor Flitwick will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts," said McGonagal, "He asked for the job long before your application was even recieved and I told him when I found a replacement I would move him to Defense Against the Dark Arts first thing. Which leaves the position of Charms open, and I'm sure that you will do fine there. Now I am sure you will be pleased to know that Gryffindor is in need of a Head of House. So you will be incharge of Gryffindor, and I expect that you will run the house as carfully and judiciously as I did when it was under my watch"
"Sure thing," said a much happier Ron. He had hoped, wished even, to run the Gryffindor house, the very same house he had been in when he was at Hogwarts.
"Well, now that that's settled allow me to take you to your classroom. You will find that it's a bit empty, but I'm sure you will have it fixed up nicely before classes begin," said McGonagal as she led Ron out of her office to see the room where Ron would spend many years in, teaching students, this time, his way.
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"Imobulus," thought a tall young man with short, shaggy, dark hair, wearing black wizard robes accented with goldent laces running through the edges, and a crimson red Phoenix flying across the front. He had a thin yet lean frame which showed the strength he'd worked on for years and yet allowed for a great amount of agility. Wand in hand pointing straight at his opponent he no longer had to say the spells out loud like he did when he was at Hogwarts, all he had to do was point his wand and think the spell. His oponent immediately froze in place, in a pose as if she were about to throw a spell of her own at him.
"Well done Harry! Well done indeed," said a large man wearing a dark colored suit so tight it seemed as if he had to squeeze himself into it; his mechanical eye wizzing around in circles as if looking at something Harry could not see.
"Thanks, Mad Eye," replied Harry very pleased with his success. Harry then began to wave his wand in the air thinking to himself, "finite incantatem," inorder to release his friend from the frozen body-bound state she was in.
"Sorry 'bout that Tonks," said Harry only feeling about half sorry, knowing Tonks was about to pull something dangerous in an attempt to stop Harry.
"Yeah, thanks alot," she said sarcastically, "I'm just kidding, don't sweat it, I was about to put a crucio curse on you"
Harry was immediately taken back by this, "you were going to use an illegal curse"
"Yeah, but its not illegal during auror training, you know, anything goes with the dark side," said Tonks smartly.
"Yes Harry, to become a great auror it is imparative that you remember what Tonks just said," sputtered Mad Eye Moody, "The number one rule when dealing with the dark side is that THERE ARE NO RULES! You must always remember that Harry or you will live a very short life as an auror"
"Yes sir!" replied Harry. Harry had been training to be an auror for several years and was now in his final stages. After all of the stamina and endurance training, intense indepth studies of various arts ranging from dark to light to ancient magic, indepth studies of various magical creatures including anything from unicorns to dementors, and equally if not more intense drills on the application of that knowledge in times of emergency. Right now he was in his last stages, almost about to become a full fledged auror. However he still required 25 more duals with various members of the Ministry's auror team, and to complete his AEF, Auror Examination of Fundamentals, which consisted of a quite lengthy written exam, and a very difficult obstacle course for him to complete. Harry began to glance around, he felt as if he'd been in the dimly lit large square room, that looked like a library with books on all of the walls but was virtualy empty other than that, for ages. This was the auror's private training and research center, "the box," as the aurors simply put it.
"Wow Harry," said Tonks rushing to catch up to Harry who was on his way out of the box, "you've really improved since the last practice, I thought I was going to have to purposely miss you with the crucio, to give you somewhat of a chance, but damn! You were really fast"
"To be honest with you I thought you were going to have me again too," said Harry, feeling very fortunate to have jinxed Tonks first. "Hey listen...this has been one long day, I'm going to go fly laps around the quidditch field. Wanna join me"
"Gee, I wish i could Harry, but tonights a full moon," started Tonks, "and I have to get back to make sure Remus doesn't kill himself or anyone else for that matter. Sorry"
"That's okay, I forgot it was a full moon anyway, so I guess I'll see you Monday then, Moody didn't give me any training this weekend, he said that I should take a weekend to rest up"
"Yeah, I think we could all use a little vacation," sighed Tonks, "oh well, see ya later." Tonks waved good by and then apparated out of sight.
Wow, how long had it been since Harry had a weekend to do nothing. Training really took up alot of his time. "Infact," thought Harry, "I can't even remember the last time I flew around at night during a full moon in the empty quidditch stadium...Oh wait, yeah I can, it was the last time me and Ginny..."
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