I'd missed the previous year's apparition test, due to all the fallout of the Chamber of Secrets. Honestly, an apparition license seemed ludicrous on the face of it, considering that with OWLs completed and past my seventeenth birthday I could cast any other spell that wasn't blatantly illegal without a certificate in hand. The whole thing seemed like a weird nod to muggle children having to get drivers licenses.

But apparently they took it seriously enough that I'd been cautioned that I'd get in trouble if they found out I'd been apparating without one. When pressed, they claimed it was because of the danger of splinching: both to the wizard that was bad at apparating, and the Statute of Secrecy if muggles found wizard body parts lying around.

At least I got to take the test with Mathilda, who'd been studying at all the in-castle training sessions for the past several months. It was interesting to me that Dumbledore could selectively take down the anti-apparition wards in the great hall for the trainings, which seemed like a huge security hole since they were scheduled far in advance. But then, for some reason, the final test near the end of April had to be in Hogsmeade. On a school day. On the afternoon before a full moon.

I had Monday afternoons off from classes, but Mathilda (and most of the other sixth-years) were missing their extra-long potions class to take the test. Unsurprisingly, Maeve wasn't present for the testing: she'd probably bribe a private tester later, who wouldn't look too closely. When I'd seen the sidhe red cap teleport the previous summer, it didn't actually look much like apparition. Most of the rest of the sixth-years seemed to be there, though I guess if they weren't taking defense with me I'd be less likely to recognize them.

With me and thirty or so other students waiting for their exam in the Three Broomsticks, Dumbledore had at least stepped up security. Remus had gone ahead and cancelled his class with the fifth years for the afternoon, since he was already feeling peaky from his monthlies, but was on hand sitting at a booth with Tonks. She would probably be a bigger help than him if anything went wrong, but he wasn't completely helpless before his transformation. Since his potions class was cancelled for the test anyway, Professor Belby was also on hand, though slightly late. I'd noticed him hand Remus a flask that was almost certainly his last dose of wolfsbane potion as he headed in.

Moody, also there for security, slid into a chair with his back to the wall at the table where Mathilda and I were waiting for our test. "Been thinking about what you said," he started, without preamble. "Did the research on muggle private investigators. Might be able to make a go of it. Lot of crimes the aurors don't have time for that people would pay to have investigated to get enough evidence that the Ministry has to look into it. Probably less infidelity investigations than the muggle world, though."

"You might be surprised!" Mathilda suggested. I raised an eyebrow and she explained, "I hear things. My father didn't cheat on my mother. But people go to him for advice on getting divorced."

"Interesting," Moody considered. "So, what do you think, Dresden?"

"Apprenticeship?" I asked. "With pay?"

He nodded. "Start out as a quarter share partnership. We can negotiate raising it if you wind up doing more than a quarter of the work."

I glanced at Mathilda, who nodded. We'd already talked about it a little, after Moody seemed interested when I'd mentioned it to him after the last Death Eater run-in. Tonks had mentioned that being trained by Moody was extremely stressful, but she wouldn't have traded it for anything. I smiled, "Works for me."

He nodded and shook my hand, explaining, "I'll get you more information once I get the permits sorted. Speaking of permits, they're about to call you, I think."

Sure enough, I was called up next for the test. The actual process wasn't at all hard (as one might expect for a couple of officials trying to get through over thirty people in two hours). Apparate into a hoop. Apparate between three hoops quickly. Pop over to Honeydukes, grab a token to prove you'd been there, and pop back. Easy.

I heard there had often been a longer-distance apparition portion of the test previously, but the Veil was still fractured so nobody could do that anymore. Well, nobody that didn't know about the raths, and I was still sitting on that information as much as possible. Hundreds of wizards using them as springboards all the time would probably shake tons of monsters out of the Nevernever across Britain.

And then they would have to make a law and wouldn't let me get away with doing it.

I finished quickly and decided to wait for Mathilda to finish up before heading back to the castle. They were doing it alphabetically, and there weren't really any E or F last names among the sixth-years, so it was only Elora Dunn and Ross Gibberd in between our tests. She was just walking back across the inn's common room waving her signed license card when there were sounds of screams outside.

If I'd been thinking about it, I'd have realized the timing couldn't have been coincidental. Five more minutes and we'd have been back inside the school wards. But, in the moment, Gryffindor doesn't train you to assume innocents in danger is a trap for you.

I was out on the street like a shot, Mathilda right behind, and Remus, Tonks, and Moody following. I'd gotten very efficient at spilling out of the Three Broomsticks for screams over the course of the year. Bold as anything, Sirius Black in his animagus form was just standing in the middle of the road outside of the joke shop, snarling at the rapidly-fleeing passersby, visibly missing one ear where Crouch had splinched it off his human form in their previous escape.

He got a good look at me, red eyes flashing, turned, and tore off down the street.

If I wasn't expecting a trap before, I was after that. Where were the other Death Eaters? At least it was broad daylight, so there likely wouldn't be any vampires about. Unfortunately, while I was trying to figure out what their plan could possibly be, Remus was shouting, "Wait! Sirius!" and charging after his friend. I blamed the stress of the impending change.

"Remus! It could be a trap!" I shouted after him, but he was already sprinting down the street with moon-powered ferocity. Moody snarled in agreement behind me, but Tonks was also already sprinting off to cover her boyfriend.

"Lupin can manage a patronus, right?" Moody asked, somewhat rhetorically, looking up as the dark shapes of dementors began to swoop in from whatever shadows they were stationed in near the town, waiting for someone to yell Black's name. "Let's get these people off the street!" I heard him mutter, "If that girl survives, I'm going to kill her." With his prosthetic leg, there was no way he was going to keep up in a footrace with an animagus, a werewolf, and an athletic 20-year-old.

Instructions from the senior auror helping to restrain our own Gryffindor natures, Mathilda and I summoned patronuses and began to help Hogsmeade citizens back into buildings who'd been caught out. Fortunately it wasn't a school Hogsmeade weekend, so the only students to corral were already in the inn.

The day had been only a little cloudy and not too cold before the dementors began to stream in, but it got dark and chill as they swarmed. I was grateful to have my patronus nearby, which made even the mass of creatures easier to deal with. It helped that most of the mass was floating after Remus and Tonks, and I hoped they had the presence of mind to protect themselves even though they hadn't when they ran off.

We'd mostly gotten the streets cleared when an adult wizard shouted, "Help!" from nearby. Somehow, he'd caught the attention of two dementors, who descended from the sky and began to follow him as he rushed into the nearby house.

"These things are worse than Death Eaters!" I swore, charging down the street. Mathilda pelted along behind me with a grunt of agreement. We must have gotten separated from Moody in the confusion.

When we got into the house, it was already too late. Two bodies were unmoving on the ground, the wraithly creatures hovering above them. "No!" Mathilda screamed. "Hoc est corpus!"

She'd had an easier time learning the soulfire charm than any of the other Apologies, possibly because it was simple for her to assemble the proper emotion. The bright blast from her wand filled the living room in fiery, reddish light as it impacted against the first dementor, turning in what could have been surprise. A tornado of silver sparks whipped through the creature, shredding it like a black rag in a blender. Shadowy substance simply unraveled and evaporated into the light, briefly illuminating a desiccated skeleton within that, itself, crumbled into dust that spun away and disappeared.

The second dementor tried to charge us, but I already had Mouse in position, pressing it into the corner. Mathilda breathed heavily, trying to recover from the powerful magic. Under the silvery light of the patronus, I had a moment to examine the citizens that had their souls devoured by the creatures. A man and a woman… naked and suddenly familiar-looking where they'd been concealed behind the dementors.

Perfect copies of Mathilda and me laid on the floor, unmoving.

The wizard we'd rushed in to save poked a head around the door of the next room, gave us a manic grin while licking his lips, and tossed a potion into the room. Wait, not a potion… a grenade.

I hadn't exactly prepared to deal with a flashbang. In the blast of sound and bright light I was disoriented enough that I couldn't defend myself, and even the spells on my duster weren't enough to hold up to the barrage of stunners.

Hopefully the others dealt with the obvious trap better than we had.