A/N: Hello everyone. I want to thank you guys for being so patient with me, and I hope you enjoy this next chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Recap: Nadia's pregnant and she's been feeling the symptoms of it pretty badly, and she needs to tell her coaches that she's pregnant and can't play quidditch until the baby's born. Jilly and Teddy are on newbie-auror-training duty, and they are both excited and not to take on the role. James recently played for Puddlemere's starting team a week ago in the position of centre-chaser, even though he normally plays right-wing chaser, because both Nadia and their reserve centre-chaser were down for the count.
Announcements and Training
Tuesday, April 23rd 2024
8:24 PM
"One cream and one sugar, right Teddy?" Jilly Donaldson asked her partner as she handed him a mug full of tea she had just gotten him from the break room.
Teddy nodded in agreement and then thanked Jilly. She sat down at her own desk and took a sip from her mug of coffee.
"I thought pregnant women were supposed to avoid caffeine?" Teddy asked her curiously.
Jilly rolled her eyes, "I'm allowed one cup of decaf a day, and I know I'm going to need it now instead of later."
"Fair enough," Teddy agreed with a nod as he took another sip of his own tea.
The two aurors sat at their desks for the next serval minutes, sipping their beverages in companionable silence before the other two aurors they shared the office with whirled into the room.
Aurors Hayden Summers and Kurt Williamson stopped whatever conversation they were originally having mid-sentence when they spotted their partners sitting at their desks.
"What are you two doing here? Shouldn't you be teaching the trainees?" Hayden asked perplexedly as his eyes bounced between Teddy drinking his tea and Jilly sipping her coffee.
Teddy's eyes automatically glanced at the clock on the wall, "Yup."
"Then why aren't you there?" Kurt questioned as he threw himself down in his own desk chair.
"Yeah," Hayden added quickly, "Did you not just scare the life out of all of those trainees yesterday with your introductory speech on how you two weren't go to accept any unpunctuality or tardiness for any of your lessons or sessions?"
Teddy and Jilly had introduced themselves to their auror trainees the day before, and they had decided to start out with a very firm approach to show their trainees that they weren't going to take any rubbish from them. So, Teddy and Jilly had arrived an hour early the day before and had waited in the conference room the trainees had been using as their classroom for their lessons throughout the year.
Once the first trainees started to enter Teddy and Jilly didn't say anything to them or even give them direct eye-contact, instead they both took out a little notepad and began writing on them every time a new trainee came in. Every few minutes Teddy and Jilly would put their heads together and they would whisper to each other just to amp up the anticipation in the room. All of the trainees did end up coming into the room before their lesson for that day was supposed to start, and right at eight o'clock Teddy and Jilly closed their notebooks and finally faced the trainees who were sitting at the tables and chairs provided for them.
Teddy and Jilly made eye contact with each other, and then Jilly launched straight into a pre-written lecture about interrogation techniques. Every time she purposely paused Teddy would take up the lecture and add in his part of the lesson they had written together the week before. They lectured without pause for a full hour before Jilly stopped and asked their trainees if they had any questions.
The trainees looked at each other before one man raised his hand awkwardly and asked for clarification on something Jilly had said ten minutes before. Jilly repeated it with a different example that made it easier for the man to understand, and then they again asked if there were any other questions. When nobody else replied, Teddy asked the group why they didn't ask him and Jilly who they were.
The trainees shared a startled look and then a woman spoke up and said that they all knew who Teddy and Jilly were because their other supervising trainers had explained that aurors Donaldson and Lupin would be taking over them. Jilly nodded and then asked the group how they knew that they were actually the aurors in question. That question made the trainees go silent, and Teddy pointed out that they had sat there in silence for almost two hours listening to two people lecture them without even asking to see credentials or proof of identity.
Once the trainees seemed shamed enough, Jilly started in on their second lesson of the day: in their line of work they needed to be suspicious about everything, and to never take anything at face value. When she was finished Teddy asked them if they understood what they were saying. All of the trainees muttered out a 'yes' and then Teddy went on to explain more rules about what he and Jilly expected of them, especially promptness and punctuality. Jilly asked once more if they had any questions about anything they had discussed, and they all shook their heads. She and Teddy shared another look and Teddy sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose, and then announced that they should all have at least one question because none of them had actually asked to see Teddy and Jilly's credentials even after they previously berated them over it. None of the trainees made eye contact with them at that point, but one young man in the front did raise his hand and in a small voice asked to see both the aurors badges. Jilly and Teddy shared a glance that said that they wished that he had been more confident and assertive in his tone, but they pulled their badges out for the trainee to see because he was the only one who finally did what they told him to do.
"Oh yes," Jilly told the other two aurors, "We were very clear at the end of the day that punctuality is of the upmost importance."
Kurt and Hayden were still confused, "Then why are you guys here and not in the classroom? You're already a half hour late."
"It's alright, I asked Auror Donne to peek in unnoticed every few minutes to make sure that it doesn't turn into Lord of the Flies without our presence there," Teddy explained as he tapped a finger on his mug of tea.
Kurt narrowed his eyes at Teddy, "What about flies?"
"It's from a muggle novel about pre-teen boys who get stranded on an island and start to kill each other," Teddy explained.
"You two still haven't explained why you're being hypocritical to your trainees today," Hayden reminded them.
Jilly smirked, "Just keeping them on their toes. One of the problems their other supervising aurors told us they have is that since they're getting to the end of their first year of training they're becoming dangerously complacent. They think they know what to expect, and that makes them more likely to coast-"
"And any type of coasting can be dangerous in our occupation," Teddy finished for her.
Kurt and Hayden nodded in agreement, "So how long are you going to let them stew?"
"Just a little while longer," Jilly replied after glancing at the clock.
"Just enough time to help us with some paperwork then," Hayden announced as he tossed two files onto Teddy's desk.
Kurt more kindly asked Jilly if she would help him with the notes on one of the last cases they'd closed, and about an hour went by before Teddy and Jilly decided to take pity on their trainees.
Auror Donne was standing outside of the trainees' classroom when Teddy and Jilly got to the closed conference room door. Teddy shook Auror Donne's hand and thanked him for looking in on the trainees for them, and Donne reported that nothing earth-shattering had happened but that they were starting to get antsy and that he'd heard a few raised voices coming from the room.
The minute they opened the door, the trainees' inside the room went silent as Teddy and Jilly entered the room, almost a whole two hours later.
"Morning everyone, today's lesson is going to be on domestic investigation protocol," Teddy announced as he and Jilly walked to the front of the room.
"Now we know that you've already covered most of this before, but we thought we'd do a refresher so that way we know where everybody is at-" Jilly stopped speaking when she saw an auror in the middle of the room raise his hand, "Yes?"
The trainee smirked at her, "I need to see your identification Miss."
"Excuse me?" Jilly retorted as she put her hands on her hips.
"Your identification, to prove that you are Auror Donaldson."
Jilly stepped towards the trainee and her face went dark, "Are you trying to be funny Auror-in-training Meyers? You're asking me for my credentials? I've been a fully certified auror for five years and I've been instrumental in closing over fifty cases. You've barely made it through a year of first year training –nothing more than busy work– and you're trying to tell me what to do?"
"Uh-"
"You want to see my credentials," Jilly repeated as she moved to stand over top of the auror-in-training who was still sitting in his chair, "Would you also like to see my completed case reports and references from all of the aurors I've worked with? How about the test scores from my years of training? Would you like to compare skills?"
The trainee auror swallowed audibly, "No I–I was just doing what you asked us to do yesterday-"
"Oh, so now you're trying to be smart? Do you think being witty and trying to be funny is going to earn you any points here?" Jilly continued to badger the trainee.
The trainee started to shake his head in the negative.
"So do you still want to see my credentials?" Jilly asked, a cold fury leaking into her tone that even made the hairs on the back of Teddy's neck stand on end.
"No," The trainee replied quietly.
Jilly turned on her heel and walked back to Teddy, with her back to the trainees she dropped her ferocious expression and rolled her eyes for only Teddy to see. He nodded his head slightly at her and then cleared his throat to make sure that he had all of the trainees' attention.
"Trainee Meyers, why did you withdraw your request to see Auror Donaldson's credentials?"
From the trainee's expression it was obvious that he had yet to recover from Jilly's verbal assault before Teddy decided to single him out again.
"Because she . . . because she was mad that I questioned her?"
"Is that a statement or a question?" Teddy asked him in an even tone of voice.
"Uh . . ."
"Trainee Meyers," Teddy interrupted him, "You were exactly right to question Auror Donaldson."
Trainee Meyers's expression turned to confusion since Jilly had acted like she was very angry with him for doing so.
"You were wrong however, to give up so easily in asking for her credentials once you met with resistance. As an auror you will work with many different aurors as well as representatives from other departments such as Magical Law Enforcement. Our first instinct should be to try to get along with everybody we have to work with, but even if that doesn't work we need to be able to handle anything that comes our way. Including childish jurisdiction contests that often get people fired-up over who gets the most control of the investigation," Teddy directed his words not just at trainee Meyers but also the rest of the trainees, "In your career you will have to deal with at least a dozen people who will get up in your face and try to intimidate you for whatever reason. You can't let them do that or you will be undermining yourself and your own abilities in their eyes."
Jilly pulled the badge off her robes, called trainee Meyers's name, and then tossed her badge at him, "Here you go."
Trainee Meyers barely glanced at it before tossing it back at Jilly. She sighed as she caught it and then tossed it to the trainee beside Meyers, "Read that for me Trainee Jones."
"It says . . . Auror Kurt Williamson," Trainee Jones read carefully off the front of the badge.
Jilly gestured for Trainee Jones to throw it back to her, "Why didn't you catch that Trainee Meyers?"
"I uh . . ."
"You just assumed when you looked at it that it said my name?" Jilly answered for him.
Trainee Meyers gulped, "Yes."
"Everyone needs to be careful when checking people's credentials as well," Jilly announced, directing her gaze away from Trainee Meyers as not to make him feel as though she was specifically picking on him.
"While most of them will be official, you do have those weird people out there who will try to impersonate other officials and you need to make sure that they don't convince you otherwise," Jilly finished.
Teddy folded his arms over his chest, "So, back to today's topic, a refresher on domestic investigation protocol."
10:44 AM
Xavier Wood glanced at the clock on the wall of the Puddlemere United's starting team's weight room and then slowly set down the weights he had been working with. He picked up his water bottle and tried to seem casual as he wandered over to where Nadia Cassano was doing stationary cardio.
Nadia had a pair of headphones in her ears and was going hard at her cardio with an intense look on her face. Even though his teammate was usually always intense when it came to work outs or practice, the way Nadia was gritting her teeth made Xavier think that she was more preoccupied with trying to stop something from coming up. She automatically started to slow down her stationary cardio workout and took off her headphones when she noticed Xavier's appearance by her side.
"What's up Wood?"
The words were spat out quickly, but whereas she would usually be short with him because he was interrupting her concentration on her workout, she looked like she was more worried about accidentally vomiting on him like she almost had earlier that morning when she apparated to the stadium complex just a few seconds after Xavier had.
"It's a quarter to eleven, don't you have to be somewhere soon?" Xavier reminded her as he nodded his head in the direction of the clock on the wall.
That day was the day that Nadia and Malcolm were scheduled to meet with the team's publicist to decide how they were going to go about announcing her pregnancy, and since their appointment was for eleven o'clock, Nadia had told Malcolm that she'd meet him at the front of the stadium complex at ten-to so that they could go to the publicists' office together.
Nadia slowed her pace even more as she also glanced at the clock. She sighed heavily and Xavier summoned a water bottle to him as she ended her stationary cardio, he handed it to her when she stepped down next to him. She thanked him with a quick nod of her head.
Instead of chugging down the water like he expected her to, she took slow small sips of water, which told Xavier that her stomach probably wasn't feeling the best.
Since it was almost time for the team to take a break for lunch, Xavier walked out of the weight room with Nadia a few minutes early and went with her to meet Malcolm. As they walked, Xavier asked Nadia how she was feeling.
"Surprisingly, I can handle cardio pretty well. The nausea disappeared when I started, and it came back when I stopped, but it was gone while I was actually working out," Nadia explained.
Xavier glanced at her worriedly, "Should you be working out in your condition?"
That day was the first day Nadia had been back at the stadium since she found out about her pregnancy. As far as her other teammates were aware she had been ill and recovering. That day was scheduled as a workout day, so she didn't have to worry about her teammates asking questions about why she wasn't allowed on the pitch with them.
Nadia rolled her eyes and snorted, "According to Healer Jarvis I can participate in my normal level of exercise. I'm also allowed to fly on a broomstick until I get to the point that my centre of gravity is thrown off from the added weight. The only real issue with my playing quidditch is the competitive nature-"
"And the bludgers," He reminded her.
She rolled her eyes again, "And the bludgers. So I can handle a bit of a workout."
Xavier shrugged his shoulders and left the topic there. He had no experience with pregnancy whatsoever. Even though he was seventeen when his mother was pregnant with Brogan, he was so busy with Puddlemere practice and avoiding her wild mood swings that he didn't really pay much attention to the whole dos and don'ts of physically gestating a human fetus.
Malcolm was on time for once, and when Nadia and Xavier got to the front of Puddlemere's training complex they found him standing in front of the security wizard's office. Nadia gestured for the security wizard on duty to allow Malcolm in, and he when he got into the complex he went straight to her to and anxiously asked her how she was feeling.
"Like I'm probably going to vomit in the next ten to fifteen minutes," Nadia informed him airily as Malcolm unintentionally rubbed not-so-gentle circles on her back.
Malcolm nodded his head hurriedly, "Same actually, I think I might have caught a bug."
"Or you're just nervous," Xavier suggested as he tried to keep a straight face.
Malcolm turned his anxious gaze to his cousin, "Yeah that could be it."
The three walked to the complex's lift, and Xavier wished them good luck before turning on his heel to head to the change room. Before he could get a few feet away Malcolm grabbed him by the arm and suddenly started begging his cousin to join him for their meeting with the publicists. Xavier reminded Malcolm that both Oliver and Katie had already agreed to sit in on their meeting and give them advice, but Malcolm in his harried and fretful state pleaded with Xavier to have him come as well even if just for moral support. Xavier glanced from Malcolm to Nadia, and Nadia rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's angst and then silently nodded to Xavier to let him know that she didn't care if he joined them.
Malcolm seemed a little calmer once Xavier agreed to go with them, but once they got off the lift and began to walk to the publicists office his face started to tinge green. He was silent as they met Katie and Oliver outside the office, and hesitant when the five of them finally entered the publicist's office.
After quick greetings, everyone took their seats and the team's main publicist went straight to business.
"So what can I do for you today Ms. Cassano?"
Nadia folded her hands in her lap, "I'm pregnant."
The publicist had an excellent poker-face, so if he was shocked by Nadia's announcement he didn't show it. Instead the man pulled out a fresh piece of parchment and picked up a quill.
"Have you received confirmation of your pregnancy from a healer?" Their publicist asked.
Nadia nodded her head, "Yes, do you need a written note or something from my obstetric healer?"
"No, we have our own protocol for this so a note isn't necessary as of yet," He explained, "I take it that you arranged this meeting as soon as you received confirmation of your pregnancy?"
"Yes, I'm just under six weeks. I had symptoms very early so it was caught quickly," Nadia enlightened.
The publicist wrote down what she said and then he made direct eye contact with Malcolm, "Am I right to assume that you are the father Mr. Wood?"
Malcolm nodded woodenly and his face tinged even more green.
The steady gaze from across the table shifted from Malcolm back to Nadia, and flickered down to her bare ring finger on her left hand.
"Am I also right to assume that a pregnancy announcement is the only thing that you are here to discuss?"
Nadia and Malcolm nodded at the same time, "Yes that is all we are here to discuss right now."
More notes were made, and the publicist made a hmming noise, "How long do you expect your absence from the team to be? The rules require at least eight more months and until the child is born."
"Yes, my healer has also explained to me that I probably won't be cleared to go back to training for at least six weeks after the baby's born, so I'm planning my absence to be no longer than nine and a half months," Nadia told him.
"And that is all the time that you would like to take off? Puddlemere will cover six months of parental leave at a percentage of your salary if you'd like to take more time," The publicist informed her.
She shook her head, "After being grounded for almost ten months I think I will be quite ready to get back to the team."
Beside Nadia, Katie nodded her head emphatically in understanding.
"Is there a certain way you would like to announce your pregnancy?" The publicist asked, now switching to the details.
Nadia and Malcolm turned to look at Katie and Oliver with bewildered expressions. The former asked, "Is there a specific way we should go about it?"
"Well, when I was first pregnant with Xavier, Oliver and I were doing an interview about our marriage after we got back from our honeymoon and I vomited all over the interviewer's white couch. After that there was so much gossip going around about my vomiting that we needed to either confirm or deny the rumours, so we had a big press conference for it and announced that we were expecting. When I found out I was pregnant with Cecilia it was at the end of the season so we had two months off before quidditch started back up again. I started showing really early with her so the media began speculating very quickly about whether or not I was pregnant again. We put out an announcement that I was going to be taking several months off from quidditch back when the season started, and people were able to put two and two together by then," Katie listed off.
"And of course Katie had stopped playing by the time Brogan came along," Oliver added.
Malcolm began tapping his fingers on the arm of his chair, "What are the options anyway?"
"Full press conference, a large photo shoot and photo spread as a pregnancy announcement, one picture and a written announcement, just a written announcement, or you could try Katie's approach and announce that Ms. Cassano's taking nine month's off from quidditch and see where that leads you," Their publicist described, his lips turning up into a bit of a smirk as he said the last option.
One of the options seized Nadia's attention immediately, "So we don't have to make a big thing out of it then? We can just put a small written statement in the papers and be done with it? Keep most of it private?"
"That is an option," The publicist agreed.
"However," Katie interrupted with an apologetic look on her face, "Sometimes giving the media and the public more can help you keep some of your privacy. I would suggest some sort of photo of you and Malcolm in the announcement because that will solidify the idea of you two as a partnership, that you're in this next stage of your lives together."
Oliver nodded his head, "In addition, the fact that Malcolm is my nephew isn't going to just slide by the media. They're going to expect us to comment on this new development, and if you keep the announcement to just the barest of details they're going to be suspicious about it."
"As much as I dislike the way this sounds Ms. Cassano," Their publicist spoke up, "Your baby isn't going to be just your child; it's also going to be a Wood. And as much as Mr. Xavier Wood's marriage in August will take some of the heat off of you-"
The publicist nodded in Xavier's direction and the sandy-haired keeper waved his hand in acknowledgement and mouthed 'You're welcome' to his cousin.
"I fear that there is plenty of time before that event occurs for people to get caught up in your pregnancy," The publicist continued.
Nadia exhaled heavily and then glowered at Malcolm, "Why did you have to be part of a quidditch dynasty?"
"It's not like I had a say in it!" Malcolm complained.
Nadia exhaled once more and pinched the bridge of her nose, "So how do you think we should handle the announcement?"
"At least one picture and a write up with enough content in it should be enough for the public, there will always be speculations and gossip, but something solid printed in a reputable publication should give the media enough information about it to leave you alone and give you a bit of privacy," The publicist suggested.
Malcolm grabbed Nadia's hand and gave it a squeeze, "Is there any publication you would suggest?"
"Quidditch Weekly and Witch Weekly will both write and publish respectable articles if we give them the option and the exclusive rights to it," Their publicist explained.
"I think I would prefer if we went with Quidditch Weekly. The announcement could be written from the approach that I will be taking a leave of absence from the team because I'm pregnant and not just an announcement that I am pregnant. I feel like Witch Weekly might focus more on the scandal of me being pregnant and not the main portion of my not being able to play," Nadia said.
Oliver nodded his head, "The announcement can also mention who will be filling in for Nadia during her absence, which will remind the readers that the announcement is strictly quidditch related."
Everyone in the room nodded, they all seemed to agree with the suggestion.
"I would also like to make a suggestion," Katie said as she held a finger up to get everyone's attention, "I think that you should write the announcement Malcolm."
Everyone in turned moved to stare at Malcolm, and he blinked in confusion at his aunt, "Wha–Why?"
"Because you're a writer," Xavier supplied in an obvious tone of voice.
"I write travel and exploration pieces, not pregnancy and job announcements," Malcolm reminded them even though they hadn't forgotten that.
Katie smiled softly at her nephew, "I think you would do a wonderful job of it Malcolm, and I think in the end you and Nadia would prefer to have your announcement be something that you wrote instead of a stranger."
Nadia squeezed Malcolm's hand and made eye contact with her boyfriend, "I do like Katie's suggestion. Would you write up the announcement? Please?"
"Well I can't really say no to you," Malcolm told her quietly, "I did knock you up after all."
Nadia smirked at him, "I wasn't going to bring that up and use it as ammunition . . . but if you're still feeling guilty about it I'll take it."
"So the next step is to speak to the coaches and verify who will be playing Ms. Cassano's position while she's on pregnancy leave," The publicist said, looking mostly at Oliver and Katie.
Katie nodded, "We are the only ones at the moment who know about her pregnancy, but I did arrange a meeting with the other coaches after this appointment so that we could get on filling her position and getting an announcement ready."
"Are they on their way up right now then?" The publicist asked as he glanced down at his watch.
Katie nodded.
"Well you don't need me for this," Malcolm said as he began to push himself up from his chair.
Nadia reached out lightning quick and tightly grabbed his wrist, "Oh no you don't! This pregnancy isn't only my fault so I'm not going to take the heat on my own."
Malcolm opened his mouth to complain, but Nadia interrupted him by making sudden gaging noises. Beside Malcolm, Xavier quickly conjured up a small rubbish bin and he practically threw it at Nadia. She caught it easily just in time to vomit into it. Malcolm quickly began soothingly rubbing circles on her back as she retched the small amount of food she had forced herself to eat at breakfast.
When Nadia finished, Katie handed her a wet cloth that she had conjured up so that she could clean her face. Nadia placed the whole cloth on her face and groaned from underneath it.
"You might need to get a prescription for a potion for nausea," Katie informed Nadia.
"Ugh, don't remind me. Both Victoire and Ally told me that on Saturday," Nadia muttered from underneath the damp cloth.
Several minutes later Nadia pulled the cloth off her face just in time for two of Puddlemere United's head coaches to enter the room. Xavier unobtrusively slipped out of the room before the office door closed, and Malcolm felt decidedly petrified as the new arrivals eyed him as if he was the odd man out in the room. Which he was.
Before either of the other coaches could ask what was going on, Nadia turned towards them in her chair and clearly announced, "I'm pregnant."
The coach for the chasers that worked with Katie didn't seem too surprised at Nadia's admission, "So I take it you haven't actually been ill the past few days?"
"Well I have had morning sickness for literally every waking moment . . . but that doesn't actually count as an illness," Nadia said in a tone very close to griping.
Both coaches nodded, politely offered her their congratulations, and then they asked Nadia if she had the opportunity to see a healer yet. Nadia explained that she had, and that she had just discussed with the publicist about putting out an announcement.
"How far along are you?"
Nadia tapped a hand on her leg, "Almost six weeks."
Her coaches nodded and then asked her how long she expected to be on paternity leave so that they could decide how long they would need a new centre chaser to fill in for her.
"I'll be back on the pitch once a healer clears me after the birth, so about nine and a half months, but no more than ten."
The other two chasing coaches glanced in Katie and Oliver's direction, "I take it this information isn't new to you two?"
The married couple nodded their heads.
"So if you've got a public announcement covered, I assume all that's left to discuss is who will be taking over your position for the duration of the season and for the beginning of next season?"
Nadia frowned a little, "Well there's not much to discuss. Hawthorne's the reserve centre chaser so he'll fill in for me."
Katie and the two other chasing coaches shared a look before Katie turned to Nadia, "A few months ago Hawthorne came to us and told us that he was considering looking into offers to play starting chaser for other teams, specifically for the American league."
It wasn't unusual for reserve quidditch players to move around between teams and even between leagues. Reserve positions on quidditch teams were highly coveted out of Hogwarts (and upon graduation of other wizarding schools) but after a few years of training and practicing at the reserve level many players looked into switching to other teams if it gave them the chance to play on a starting team. It happened very often with Puddlemere and other teams that had a rather concrete starting team roster that didn't often change.
Since Puddlemere's reserve centre chaser did not have any indication that Nadia would become pregnant and that he would be required to play for the starting team, he had been speaking to other clubs about any openings they had on their starting teams.
"Well I'm sure he'll change his tune on that when he finds out I'll be gone for almost a year," Nadia said.
Another coach replied, "Hawthorne informed us two weeks ago that he received a serious offer from a club in the American league and that he would like us to release him from his contract. The paperwork has already been started, and even if this new development might change Hawthorne's mind I think that he is too far into this process to turn back without ramifications."
Malcolm looked a little confused at this reply, but Nadia understood and unintentionally summarized it for him, "So Hawthorne's moving to a different club and I have to stop playing immediately."
"Yes," The other coach replied.
"So where does that leave us? Have Potter or Eason cover for me until the team can trade for a centre chaser of starting caliber?" Nadia enquired.
Katie pursed her lips, "I think we're all aware that finding a new chaser, no matter how good they may be, and training them to work with the rest of our team as well as teaching them our plays will take quite a while. We need a fantastic chaser to replace Nadia, but someone who won't feel pushed aside later when Nadia comes back from her leave."
"You might have a difficult time finding someone good enough to cover Nadia who will be willing to take the temporary contract," Oliver added somewhat unhelpfully.
One coach nodded his head, "And once we get this figured out it'll pretty much be time for Knopp to retire."
John Knopp was the starting right-wing chaser for Puddlemere United, and as he was presently the eldest player on the team and in his mid-to-late thirties, he had discussed with his coaches about ending his career in a season or two so that he could retire.
"Well that won't be too much of a problem, James'll more than likely be ready to step up to the pitch by the time Knopp retires," Katie told the chasing coach conversationally.
He nodded and then sighed, "If only Potter could play centre chaser too."
Katie's gaze snapped to the coach that spoke and her eyes flickered with something, "Why can't he?"
"Pardon?"
"Why can't James Potter play centre chaser while Nadia's on leave?" Katie questioned.
The coach glanced at her perplexedly, "Because Potter's our right-wing reserve chaser. He doesn't play the position of centre chaser."
"He did last week when Nadia was sick and Hawthorne had a concussion," Katie reminded them.
Oliver nodded, "He did a very good job at it."
"Even if we found a new starting chaser, Potter or Eason would have to play centre chaser until we found one. Which of them, based on their skills and what you've seen of them, would you have chosen in that situation to fill-in for Nadia?" Katie asked the other two coaches.
One coach replied quickly, "Between Eason and Potter, Potter is obviously the most skilled of our reserve chasers and the best at comprehending our plays, there's no question there."
"So if you would let James fill in the position of centre chaser until a replacement for Nadia could be found, why can't he fill in for the entirely of the next nine and a half months?" Katie asked.
"As skilled as Potter is, do you believe that he could cover for Nadia long term?" One of the coaches asked Katie seriously, "I'm sure that he'll give one-hundred percent during practice, but learning how to play centre chaser will require extra work and practice on his side."
The other coach chimed in, "He might still be young, but I think Potter could keep up. I think he could play reasonably well in Cassano's position for the rest of the season as the team's already in good standing. If he works extra hard during the off-season when everyone else takes a break, I think he may be able to come into the beginning of next season at the level we need him to be to get the season off to a good start before Cassano's due back."
Katie and one of the coaches seemed to be on board with the suggestion, and Nadia decided to put her two sickles worth in, "Moving from playing right-wing chaser to centre chaser will be difficult for Potter, but I agree that he can handle it if he works extremely hard at it. He's got a lot of natural talent and skill that's hard to find, and he already knows all of our plays. I think it'll take less effort to build James up to a reasonably good centre chaser than it will to find another good centre chaser and teach them how to be a Puddlemere player, only to be relegated back to the reserve team once I came back off my leave."
The third coach took Nadia's words into consideration as he genuinely deliberated on all of the pros and cons of the situation. Knowing that James Potter, or their reserve left-wing chaser Eason, would probably have to fill in for Nadia Cassano for the next several months until the end of the season was important to remember. To him giving Potter the chance to show his stuff for the next few months until the season finished and going from there was probably the best course they could follow at that point anyway.
"I guess we should go speak to Coach Bissenette then and inform him that we would like to promote Potter to the starting team until further notice," The third coach announced.
It only took about fifteen minutes to collect not just the second-string team, but also the starting team members and all of their respective coaches and trainers. They all met on Puddlemere's quidditch pitch, and after Nadia came back from escorting Malcolm out of the stadium she slipped in between some of her teammates so that she was standing closest to Xavier.
Her team's keeper raised an eyebrow in question at her and then gestured with his head towards where the head coach for the starting team's chasers was whispering in quiet tones to the reserve team's Coach Bissenette. When the chasing coach finished, Bissenette frowned at him, but he turned and cleared his throat to get the attention of all of the players.
"Thank you everyone for coming back from our nutritional break early-"
Clark Westin interrupted him with a garbled shout of 'no problem-o' which was rather distorted as his mouth was actually full of a peanut butter dipped banana he was munching on.
The chasing coach ignored the first-string beater and continued, "We have a few things to discuss as a collective Puddlemere United unit, so first things first, your teammate Nadia Cassano has an announcement for all of you."
Nadia sighed but held her head high as she took a few steps forward and turned to face her teammates and the second-string team. Xavier sent her an encouraging smile from where he stood with a loudly chewing Clark Westin standing to his right.
"So," Nadia began as she took a deep breath, "I'm pregnant. Five weeks along. I'll be on leave from playing quidditch for the next nine and a half months."
She spoke in simple and informative sentences, which she had decided on utilizing earlier when she realized that her coaches would force her to announce to her pregnancy to everyone else.
All of the players, expect for Xavier of course, looked shocked at her announcement. Clark and Mark both seemed as though their eyes were going to pop out of their faces, but Mark recovered swiftly and quickly offered Nadia a sincere congratulations. Clark on the other hand took longer to verbally respond, and when he did he prefaced it with a low whistle.
"Damn, I guess Woods do procreate more than Blibbering Humdingers."
Both Xavier and Mark cuffed Clark on the back of the head –from opposite sides– the second the words were out of his mouth. Nadia glared at Clark and asked her coach if she was finished. Upon hearing the affirmative she stepped away from the coaches to join her teammates, and stalked towards Clark who resignedly stayed put so that she could punch him very hard on the shoulder in retaliation for his words. Despite the fact that he was definitely going to have a bruise that the team's mediwitch Claudia and mediwizard Steven would later go on to refuse to heal out of protest, Clark didn't regret his words one bit.
"And for our second announcement, we would like to offer Everard Hawthorne the floor," The coach continued.
The second-string centre chaser, who still looked shocked at Nadia's announcement and everything it entailed, stepped up to the space his teammate had vacated and faced both squads.
"I've recently completed the paperwork for Puddlemere to release me from my contract so I can accept an offer to play for a squad in the American league. The deal should be finalized in a few days," Hawthorne announced to everyone.
While Hawthorne's declaration wasn't as shocking as Nadia's, it was more confusing as everybody from both squads could do the maths and came to the conclusion that both the starting centre chaser and the reserve centre chaser were either officially on leave or leaving the team.
It fell to Xavier –who knew that Nadia would be unable to play but who had always assumed that Hawthorne would just move up to take her place– to ask the question that was on everyone's minds.
"Uh," Xavier went so far as to raise his hand before speaking, "So who's going to play starting centre chaser during our game on Friday? Nadia's not allowed to play anymore, and Hawthorne can't play if he's being traded to another team. I don't think it will be possible to trade for anyone else within a week either."
The chasing coach nodded, "That's an excellent question Wood. We have decided that since he did such a wonderful job filling in for Cassano last week, that we will have Potter play centre chaser for our game this week, if you are amenable to putting in the extra time required for learning the intricacies of the position of course Potter."
James nodded at the sound of his name, "Of course Coach. I'll do whatever you require of me to be ready for this week's game."
The coach nodded, "Thank you Potter. However, since Wood is right about the unlikelihood of us finding someone to sign on as the team's centre chaser on such short notice, we would like you to fill that position for the rest of the season."
Despite the fact that James's mind was running at a speed of about a mile a minute, there was a lengthy pause before he was able to respond to the coach's statement. He had so many thoughts flying around his head and he was trying to calm himself down so that when he did speak he wouldn't sound like an overeager plonker.
"O–Of course Coach. Whatever you need."
James impressed himself with the calm and collected tone he utilized in his reply, and it seemed he wasn't the only one as Xavier nodded at him encouragingly while he spoke.
"Excellent, you'll be required to put in extra hours of practice with the coaches and trainers of course-"
James began nodding his head hurriedly, "I'll do whatever you require."
His words weren't just obsequious agreement for the sake of looking good to his coaches; he would do whatever it took to be ready for this new position they had decided to trust him with. Even though both Nadia and Hawthorne were down for the count, he knew that he wasn't exactly their last resort when it came to finding a player to fill in for Nadia. Sure he probably would have been handed the position for that week's game anyway (although they could have always gone with Eason instead) but the fact that they wanted him to play out the rest of the season meant that they saw something in him that they thought they could work with. That they trusted him to put in the work to learn the new position and still be their best chance at success even though they had the budget in the franchise to pay for someone with much more experience playing the actual position.
He would do whatever it took to be ready. He'd take every extra practice with the chasing coaches and Katie, he'd bug Nadia about her specific playing techniques so that he could play more like her, and he'd even beg his mother to help him practice on their pitch at home after Puddlemere Practices were officially finished. He would do whatever he needed to do to live up to the expectations that his coaches had of him.
5:04 PM
Even though Jilly and Teddy had technically started their training session with the aurors-in-training late that morning, they still let their trainee aurors go at regular time since even that second day with them, that had been shortened, had been long enough. As the trainee aurors slowly got up from their tables, Jilly called a reminder to them.
"Don't forget that we're having a little fieldtrip tomorrow. You're all to meet us at that address we handed out yesterday by eight-thirty sharp."
Most of the trainee aurors nodded their heads in acknowledgement of her words, and a handful of them patted their pockets and searched through their notebooks to double check that they still had the address written down to the meeting place Teddy and Jilly had told them the day before when they first explained to them about the outing.
There was only one auror-in-training who seemed to have a specific question about their fieldtrip for the next day, and he was a slight young man with a very unassuming presence. When he came to a stop in front of Jilly and Teddy, after all of the other trainees left the room, the latter tried his best to remember the trainee auror's name but for the life of him he couldn't remember. It wasn't too surprising though, Teddy had only had a few days to prepare and become familiar with the aurors in the training class after being so suddenly placed on desk duty (and only then because Harry and Ron were scared of their twenty-three-year-old niece).
"Auror Lupin, Auror Donaldson, I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time?" The trainee asked them a little hesitantly but a bit more firmly near the end of his sentence. He must have felt more confident as he spoke.
"Go ahead," Jilly replied to the trainee courteously.
The fact that Jilly didn't respond to the trainee with his name told Teddy that she couldn't remember who he was either.
"Well," The trainee began, a bit of hesitancy still in his voice, "I looked into the address you gave us yesterday and found that it's a building in the middle of muggle London."
Teddy and Jilly nodded their heads.
"So I went there last night under a disillusionment charm to see what kind of clothing I would need to wear for tomorrow and to see whether it would be best to get there via muggle or magical travel-"
Teddy held in a grin. The trainee seemed to be the only one who had completed prior scouting for the fieldtrip. Beside Teddy, Jilly sent him a sideways look agreeing with him that she was impressed that he had successfully jumped over the first hidden hurdle of the training assignment.
"And while I was there I observed the building for a little while. As I watched it, I found some aspects of it a little odd so when I got home I looked up the businesses that were in the building. There was only one, but when I tried to dig deeper I couldn't find any more information. Some things still didn't make sense so I dug into a textbook that we used a few months ago in our Communication with Muggles section and I found the address listed in an appendix. The appendix listed the address as a known muggle MI6 building and that there were a handful of witches and wizards placed in that building as a part of the Wizard-Muggle Intelligence Exchange Act of 1999," The trainee explained.
Teddy and Jilly shared another look, and even though they were both rather impressed with how their trainee had sussed out the history of the address they hid their approval in emotionless expressions as the auror trainee continued to speak.
"And since you gave us this address it's obvious that you already know this. So you also know that when my fellow trainees try to gain access to the building that they will be dealing with the full force of the muggle secret intelligence community. They will either: A) be denied access to the building and fail the exercise; B) become arrested as they try to talk their way into the building, after which they will have to talk their way out of a holding cell; or C) they will use magic on the muggles to gain entrance and then be breaking Ministry laws."
Teddy let his grin leak through his expression; it seemed he had passed the exercise at the second hurdle.
"You are correct, those have historically been the outcomes of this training exercise," Jilly told the trainee; confirming for him that his hard work had not fallen upon deaf ears.
The training exercise that Jilly and Teddy had set up was an old exercise, but a good one. It was one of Harry and Ron's favourite exercises to put trainee aurors through, most likely because it was one that Ron had come up with (with Hermione's help of course) to further teach the trainee aurors how to interact with muggle law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
It was a rather simple exercise to set up from Jilly and Teddy's end. It mostly required them giving the address to a secret muggle law enforcement or intelligence building to the trainees (they had chosen the undercover MI6 building that year) and contacting one of the agents form the wizarding world stationed in the building to let them know that the exercise would take place. The rest was up to the trainee aurors. Usually the trainees would try to gain access to the building and try many different methods to get into the building. A good number of them would most likely be detained as the trainee auror in front of them had supposed, and that is when their contact in the building would step in –after a couple hours or two– and get them off the hook as they were at least preauthorized to use magic within the building and in front of those muggles.
In the end the trainee aurors would learn a lot –usually through failure– about how to interact with muggle law enforcement; it was the main theme of the exercise. The other important lessons the trainees were expected to learn were how to act calmly and collectedly when a mission suddenly goes sideways, how and when to use magic appropriately in situations concerning muggles, and how to properly prepare for missions.
The young auror trainee in front of them had completed the exercise via what it was known in the department as the Ravenclaw route. Not many aurors took the Ravenclaw route (not named because of which house each auror had been sorted into, but because of the skills utilized to complete the exercise) and in the years that the exercise had been used –not every year or the trainees would come to expect it– no more than three trainees in each class took that route, although there were also many years where none of the trainees discovered it.
The Ravenclaw route was when a trainee properly looked into and prepared for the exercise to the extent that they were able to figure out the point of the exercise before it took place.
"And since you have correctly identified the hidden elements of this exercise," Teddy told the trainee with a slight smile, "Or as we like to call it, you took the Ravenclaw route, you have successfully completed this exercise."
The trainee frowned a little in confusion, "Pardon?"
"You don't need to join your other trainees tomorrow for the fieldtrip, since you took the time to scout out the location ahead of time and have discovered the purpose of the exercise. You don't need to participate anymore," Teddy explained.
The trainee still didn't look convinced, "But isn't the point of this exercise to actually interact with muggle law enforcement and learn how to work with them, especially during surprise situations?"
"That is the main point," Teddy allowed, "But this exercise, like many things in life, is multifaceted. While it is important for you to learn how to interact with muggle law enforcement, learning how to properly prepare for a mission and how to avoid getting caught interfering with muggle law enforcement is also very important, and a valid strategy. If you prepare well enough, you don't need to worry about getting tripped up by something unseen because you will have already anticipated everything."
"Don't worry though, you will have many more opportunities to interact with muggle law enforcement before you officially graduate after your second year of training," Jilly added helpfully.
It seemed like the auror-in-training finally accepted that they weren't just letting him out of the exercise just because he'd figured it out and knew what to expect, but that they honestly were impressed that he had figured it out and that it was a valid strategy to complete the exercise before it even started.
"Thank you, but could I still participate in the exercise tomorrow?"
Teddy and Jilly shared a surprised look and the latter replied, "Tomorrow almost all of your fellow trainees will fail this exercise. It's not exactly designed to be completed successfully unless you discover the secret of the exercise ahead of time like you have. It's extremely rare for any auror trainee to make it into the muggle law enforcement building without casting spells within sight of a muggle or on a muggle without prior authorization."
"I understand, but I'd still like to try? May I? I promise not to tell the other trainees what I've learned," The auror trainee asked them respectfully.
Jilly and Teddy shared another look, and while neither of them knew why the trainee would want to take part in an exercise he had already successfully completed only to most likely fail it on the second try because it was supposed to be impossible, they both immediately respected his drive to try.
"Of course you may try to complete the exercise tomorrow with your fellow trainees. Please use all of the information you have learned and we wish you the best of luck," Jilly told the younger auror with a polite smile.
Teddy was excited to see how the trainee would do on the exercise the next day. After the conversation they had just had, Teddy felt that the slight man in front of them was one that they should definitely keep an eye on, and to do that he would need to know his name.
"Hopefully we will see you tomorrow then Trainee-" Teddy paused specifically for the trainee to fill in the blank.
Instead of replying with his name right away, the trainee sighed softly and blushed a little before he responded.
"O'Toole. I'm Trainee O'Toole."
"Are you-" Before Jilly could finished the question, Trainee O'Toole answered swiftly, already knowing what she was going to ask.
"Yes," There was a bit of a pause while Trainee O'Toole looked down at his feet, "Uh, I understand that you're familiar with my older brother."
Jilly bit her lip to stop her expression from saying exactly what she thought of the O'Toole she knew, who she thought was the only O'Toole, and allowed Teddy to be the one to answer the question.
"Ah . . . yes, we've worked with your brother before . . ." Was Teddy response.
As he said the words memories of all of the times he interacted with O'Toole over the past two years drifted through his mind. He still wasn't sure how O'Toole had completed his second year of training and graduated to become an actual qualified auror last summer.
The younger and not yet fully qualified as an auror O'Toole fidgeted with his hands but made eye contact with Teddy, "Is it too much to ask that you don't judge me based on your past interactions with my brother?"
"No, it's not too much to ask," Teddy told O'Toole softly. If there was anyone who knew about being treated differently because of your last name and who you were related to, it was Theodore Remus Lupin.
Trainee O'Toole smiled, "Thank you." He left the room soon after that and Jilly let out a long sigh.
"Poor guy's gonna have a rough time stepping out of his brother's shadow."
Teddy nodded, "Yeah, but he's onto a good start. It's been almost a decade since the last time this exercise was used in training, so he couldn't have had any idea what it was. He did all of the preparation and studying on his own."
"I can't wait to see what he does tomorrow when he gets to the building, he'll be the most prepared trainee that's done this exercise in forever," Jilly told him conversationally as they left the conference room.
"Yeah, tomorrow should be interesting at least," Teddy replied.
A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! I know we didn't move along too far but as always there's some important information in it. Please let me know what you thought about this chapter, and let me know if you're all still here with me.
Next Update: I'm not sure exactly when, but it won't be longer than a month :)
Next Chapter: We get to see the kiddos at Hogwarts as well as Victoire being her normal interfering self.
Thanks again to everyone who had been reading, following, favouriting, and especially reviewing! All of your feedback and comments really help me get into the writing groove and motivate me to carve out time to write this story.
BIG thank yous as always to:
Lostinwords23, zalavi0309, RebekahGrace, Guest (1), Elisa, no cure for crazy, audrey3horses, zvc56, Saagarika, Break This Spell626, Guest (2), Guest (3), Guest (4), NicoleTheSmith, rosesnlilies, bookstar97, Strangerdangerbaby, and Jilly71102.
Lostinwords23: We will learn more about James's incident later, but it I will tell you that it has to do with a lot of events culminating into one large incident.
zalavi0309: Teddy knows a lot about James because James feel comfortable confiding in him, which is adorable. I'm glad that you feel that Vic and Teddy's dynamic is consistent; I've tried to show that they're both grown up individually and together in their relationship while also trying to keep their dynamic what it was because it believe it's what makes them fit so well together. I've been having a surprising amount of fun writing and planning for Teddy and Jilly to train the trainees.
RebekahGrace: As if James would be able to just be straightforward enough to simply ask Selene out on a date. That'd be no fun ;)
Elisa: Thank you for the wonderful review. Dom's a firecracker but she does appreciate social justice every once and awhile, even a metaphorical one that comes at the expense of her sister's sanity.
no cure for crazy: I appreciate the review! Also, Vic' family aren't going to appreciate her stipulations when its a few days to her wedding and she's obsessively nagging them all about it.
Saagarika: I'm glad that you like the flow of the story, I know it's taking longer than normal but it's either a long time between chapters or I won't be able to finish the story at all.
Guest (3): We won't see too much of Lily in this story, but that doesn't mean that eventually she won't get a storyline.
NicoleTheSmith: I think you know me well enough by now to know that I won't be giving you such concrete answers this early on.
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter,
Please let me know what you thought of it in a review or PM,
If you have any questions or concerns leave me a comment as well,
Until next time, DFTBA!