I know it's been two years and most of my readers probably disappeared into thin fucking air, but here I am, back from the dead. While this is kind of a filler chapter, be rest assured I will be actively updating this story now. Life was a mess, I got diagnosed with bipolar, the whole nine yards, but I'm back! Please leave a review to know y'all are still reading lol

First day jitters.

Kate wasn't expecting to be so nervous to join the academy - after all, it was going to be the same few people she knew from Hogwarts - but it was the thought of facing a new curriculum with new instructors and a lot more at stake that was making her palms sweat.

"You will do just fine," Tom reassuringly rubbed her shoulders, the two standing in a telephone booth that was the established Ministry entrance. "You have been preparing and practicing just for your first day, and I doubt any of your fellow batchmates would have had the foresight to do so. I would be more worried about making enemies."

"Enemies?" That drew her out of her cloud of worry.

"Yes, enemies; greatness spurs envy, and envy spurs hatred."

"Greatness is not an adjective I would apply to myself," she scoffed, to which he just shook his head amusedly.

"For someone so astute, you can be woefully short-sighted." He bent forward to place a kiss on her cheek, giving her a parting smile as he opened the booth door behind him. "Knock em dead, my dear." Once he was out of sight, she turned around to punch in the code into the keypad, the receiver tucked between her head and shoulder. A voice coolly spoke into it, asking her to announce her name and purpose of the visit. Once that was done, the lift rattled and clanked as it made its way downwards. The doors shuddered open, and she stepped into a coolly lit, marble-floored atrium.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic," the voice beside her spoke. "Please present your wand for identification." The man pointed at the metal weighing scale in front of her, and she put it down. A few seconds later, a clear beep issued, followed by a slip of paper listing her name, wand type and an identification number. She pocketed both, looking at the man to ask where to go next. "The number is only for today - the receptionist on floor 6 will be there to guide you through the rest."

She turned around and called the lift , pressing the button reading six when she stepped in. There were two more people in with her, a portly gentleman smiling at her and a tall, stately lady wrapped in a burgundy shawl. The lady was reading a file and looked up when the lift clanked open, walking straight through without even taking a second look at the number above her head.

"New recruit?" The man asked her. She smiled, fingers fidgeting with her wand and the receipt. The lift dinged and clanked again. "My son's in Law Enforcement right down here. Have a good day!"

The lift went down another floor until it rattled to a stop and she emerged into another coolly lit atrium, this time finding a crowd of people her age milling around, some of them chattering between themselves. As she made her way looking for familiar faces, a shock of blond hair caught her eye. "Alden?"

"I was worried you'd been abducted," he said with a twinkle in his eye.

She beamed at him, shaking her head. "By whom, the mole people?"

"Who knows - they have their ways."

"Well, I can assure you the mole people want nothing to do with me. I'm not pretty enough to be taken by one of them. You, on the other hand," at which her friend scoffed.

"Please, the only one pretty enough for them is Walburga, and I don't think they really want her in the first place."

"I think they'd end up running a gang, with her as its head and them as her minions." To that, he gave a speculative shrug. Before the conversation could take another turn, she spotted Arabella Vance emerging from the elevator, waving at her.

"I am both excited and terribly nervous for today," the Ravenclaw said as she joined the duo. "My mother and my aunt both ran me through the training day activities just so I don't mess up terribly and somehow end up in the worst cohort."

"Aren't training cohorts based on random assignment?"

"I mean it's random to some extent," Arabella explains. "The training cohorts are meant to be as well rounded out as possible, so they utilise your Hogwarts report card from your NEWTS and the comments left by each professor in your seventh year to create as well rounded a group as can be. Some groups end up being all specialists, some end up being all jack of all trades; either way, they're all hard, but there's also some horrendous kids that end up in each of the groups that are just so snobbish and such assholes."

"You mean the legacy recruits?" Alden comments. There's a gaggle of them talking amongst each other in a corner, and she can catch snippets of conversation about their parents and the positions they held (or still hold). "Wait, aren't you a legacy recruit?" He directs it at her.

"My mother's been gone long enough that not many would remember much of her, or any if at all," Kate says in response. "So yes, my mother was an Auror but she also hasn't been around for a decade." This especially isn't the time to mull over dead parents. There's a silence that falls over everyone as the head of the Auror department makes his way into the room, surveying them with keen interest.

"Good morning, everyone," he begins, "first of all, I would like to congratulate you all on your entry in what is very well known to be a difficult program. Being an Auror not only requires tremendous skill and quick thinking, but it is also not for the faint of heart. The following three years will test whether you can live up to our expectations, and your last year will be a true test of resilience and will push your limits." She can already see some blanched faces. "Some may find that they are weaker than they think they would be, whereas some of you will find strength you'd never seen in yourselves before. As for today, this will probably be your most difficult day in all your time here," he chuckles.

Given the amount of paperwork she's been made to fill out, she agrees with him. The whole day goes in formalities such as registrations, wavers and filling out emergency contacts. "The most important part of your paperwork," a passing Auror had told her with a grin. There really isn't anyone she can call on apart from Tom, Alden and Arabella, so she puts the three of them down. "Two of these are Aurors in training," the gentleman handling her papers states as she turns it all in. She shrugs to convey that that's all she's got. At that, he gives a non-committal grunt and accepts it. "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic and the Auror training program." Her first day concludes with that and she begins her journey home, lounging in the front room alone with a training manual until Tom returns. "Good evening," he greets her with a kiss, "I'm assuming today went well?"

"Actually, terrible," she groans, "there was so much paperwork." This makes the man laugh as he takes a seat next to her, fingers playing with an errant strand of her hair. "Of course you would despise being confined to the safety of an office," he says teasingly. They fall into their usual routine again, settling in their bed as they discuss muggle vs wizard-written books as he casually drapes a hand over her shoulder and pulls her close in his sleep.

She's going to have a rough ride the next three years, but it will be more bearable with Tom by her side and for that, she's undeniably grateful.