17

Ministry Woes:

They were interrupted in their Stealth & Tracking class one day to be informed that the Death Eaters had struck again. And this time it was the Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department who had been murdered. When Moody was informed them, his expression changed to something strange quickly and he left the room to discuss it further with the auror who had come in to tell him.

" He's worried" Sirius said seriously, " It's the third Ministry death this month"

Doe sighed. The growing number of deaths was alarming. It seemed as though Voldemort and his supporters were trying to make a point.

" You know they got a group of muggles last week? Murdered them all" Frank said solemnly.

" That's disgusting" Doe said shaking her head.

The entire platform of the Death Eater's was disgusting.

" You know, I wonder what You-Know-Who looks like?" Igor added, " no one seems to know"

" Not pretty, I'm sure" Sarah added, " otherwise he probably wouldn't be so mean"

" You're such a girl, Sarah" Piers said with a roll of his eyes.

Sarah narrowed her eyes angrily at him, " Oh and you have some great insight do you, Piers?" she snapped.

Piers smiled, " I just think he probably has a better reason behind his actions than his looks"

Sarah rolled her eyes and turned away from him pointedly.

" What about you Black?" Piers said turning to Sirius, " the whole lot of your family are Pureblood Slytherins, you must see where he is coming from, seeing as you were raised that way?"

Sirius stiffened, his jaw setting together, " I wouldn't know what my family's opinion is, I don't associate with them" he said formally.

Piers grinned coldly, " I asked how you felt about it".

Sirius narrowed his eyes at him, obviously annoyed at his intrusion.

" No in this room agrees with the ideals of Voldemort, Piers" Doe said. Everyone flinched slightly at her casual use of the You-Know-Who's name, " But you do seem rather interested, find him curious do you?"

Piers pursed his lips, " I do not speak the Dark Lord's name, but you do, funny that's quite brave of you"

" Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself" Frank said quickly.

Piers turned to him, " Only the foolish use his name"

The door opened again and Moody reappeared looking slightly grim.

" Alright back to reviewing, " he said quickly, " who can tell me the proper way to identify if a wizard has just cast a spell?"

Classes trudged on like usual. The workload had increased so much so that they had almost gotten through their entire textbooks. All of the auror student's felt overworked and exhausted. The amount of workload had gotten ridiculous. In addition to the massive amount asked of them at work, which they now were not leaving until seven some nights, they also had several hours of reading and practicing every night. Sirius and Doe had tried our best to study everything but it always seemed like there was something they didn't have time to finish.

So when Moody announced to all nine of them that they would be meeting in the training room the following day, they assumed it had something to do with the workload they had recently taken on.

Moody stood in front of the wall, eyeing them all curiously.

" I have a bit of an announcement for all of you" he said roughly, " In light of the growing number of casualties that have already occurred, Minister Bagnold, had officially decided to declare it a war"

There were several gasps around the room. It was something that everyone had been dreading. The definition attached to it made it seem even more real.

" And because of this" Moody said loudly over everyone's surprise, " the minister and I have decided that the need for aurors is at an all time high. So in order to fill our growing need, we have decided to end your study as of now and promote you all to junior aurors"

" Already?" Igor demanded, " but we hardly know anything!"

Moody eyed him angrily, " This is what is being asked of you, Karkaroff. If you can't handle it you know where the door is"

Karkaroff eyed Moody back, looking extremely angry, " I am not going to die because you guys are worried".

Igor got to his feet, " This is not worth it" he said and he left the room, slamming the door behind him.

Moody continued talking as if Karkaroff had not just quit, " So you will all begin performing tasks for the Department. You'll be sent to your own cubicle, and you will report to me everyday."

There was a new sort of excitement brewing among the remaining eight of them. They hadn't expected to be working this early. They had had barely six months of study, and they thought they would have three years.

A new thought occurred to Doe. If six months of training was sufficient, then You-Know-Who must have become an extremely large threat.

" Part of being an auror is making sure you are completely and entirely devoted to the job" Moody said sternly, " and one of the ways we ensure this is by having you choose a partner"

He looked at them with a stern gaze, " Choosing a partner is one of the most important things you will do as aurors. They will work closely with you, and you must be able to trust and depend on them."

Moody cracked his knuckles, " So don't choose anyone you don't trust with your bloody life, as for those of you who don't know each other very well" he paused, " I suggest you get to know each other"

He dismissed them after that, telling them that they would be reporting to the office at nine the next morning to begin working.

" I can't believe we're going to be actual aurors" Sirius said shaking his head, " that's crazy"

" You were right about the war" Doe told him, " I can't believe it's starting"

Sirius frowned, " This is one thing I'd rather not be right about"

They walked out of the ministry and into the street. Seeing as it was still early, it was entirely empty.

" Im starving" Sirius commented, " Let's go get something to eat."

" How about the Leaky Cauldron?" Doe suggested.

Sirius nodded and they apparated. Landing in the small pub.

" Sit anywhere guys" Tom called from behind the bar.

Doe followed Sirius and sat down at one of the smaller tables in the corner. The pub was filled with a strange assortment of people.

There were mostly odd witches and wizards sitting around. In the far corner, a group of Goblins sat discussing something in very hushed tones. and closest to them sat a pair of older witches gossiping under their breath.

" So we have to choose partners now" Sirius said, " I didn't know we did that".

Doe nodded, " It's to ensure you have someone to trust".

" So Meadowes" Sirius said wiggling his eyebrows, " wanna be my partner?"

Doe shrugged playfully, " I don't know, I was thinking Piers and I would get along so much better" I joked.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her, obviously unamused.

" Yes, Sirius. I'll be your partner" Doe corrected herself.

" Save the joking for the marauders, would you?" Sirius said with a laugh.

Doe rolled her eyes, " What a nice way to treat your new partner"

Sirius only grinned, " If I haven't irritated you enough to stop spending time with me yet, Beautiful, It's not going to happen"

Doe rolled her eyes at him and watched as Tom came over to take their order.

Turns out choosing partners ended up being quite the stressful affair for the rest of their fellow aurors. Sirius and Doe were excluded from this group. Doe had never been happier that they had both decided to become the same thing. Doe completely trusted Sirius, and she knew it would make working with him easy.

She couldn't imagine trying to work with someone you hardly knew.

Moody had shown them where they would now be working. They had been each given a cubicle on the main floor with the aurors. Sirius and Doe had one's flanking each other. And so far all Moody had had them do was things like file, and read through handbooks and procedures.

It wasn't terribly exciting yet.

When Sirius and Doe informed Moody they had decided to be partners, he didn't look surprised.

" Friends either make the best partners or the worst" he told me sternly, " I hope for your lives' sake that it's the first"

He turned to both of them, getting more excited now, " I don't care if you two are bloody best friends outside of this office. When you are in it, you watch each other's backs. Do I make myself clear? And Black, that means her back and not her arse. You two both have the potential to be great aurors, and I do not want anything to stand in the way of that, got it?"

Sirius and Doe had nodded and Moody left for his office.

Sirius and Doe returned to desks and began working on the filing tasks that Moody had left for them. They were more like Interns than anything else.

" This is bloody boring" Sirius said slipping a piece of parchment into the correct folder.

" I'm sure it will get more interesting eventually" Doe told him.

However the thought didn't occur to her, that interesting may mean dangerous.