It's What's Inside That Counts
Chapter 18
July 1st
The day had finally arrived: the start of Auror tTraining. Severus prepared a fry-up of Hermione's favorites and with a kiss, wished her luck and she left. He had some Lycanthropy potions to make. One of the kittens mewed from the corridor, so Severus tended to whatever the kitten needed, which was mainly attention. He chuckled at his life at this point: he wasn't at Hogwarts, he was in a comfortable manor living leisurely with the love of his life, talking to a kitten. For the first time in a long time, he was happy. When the kitten was finally asleep and back in "mummy kitty's" (Hermione's words) basket, he made his way back to the lab in the basement.
Harry arrived before eight a.m. and saw Hermione waiting with the group of new trainees. She was dressed in a pretty burgundy pant suit and was chatting with Ernie McMillan and Anthony Goldstein, the other two from Hogwarts also attending the Auror Academy. He have Hermione a quick hug and shook the hands of the other two.
"Well, this is it," Ernie said.
"I've waited years for this," Anthony said.
"I know what you mean," Harry said.
"So where's Weasley?" Ernie asked.
"Hit Wizards," Hermione said.
The doors to the Auror Division opened and a tall, broad shouldered Auror strolled through and spoke.
"Good morning Auror Trainees, and welcome. I am Chief Auror Hicks. I thought it might interest you to know that you are the seventh hundredth year class of trainees, so it might be a lucky number for you. Kindly follow me so we can get to work."
He swiftly walked through the corridors and partitions. Aurors and older trainees looked upon the newest batch and smirked.
"What the hell are they staring at?" Harry asked. He had enough of staring over the years. He took his wand from his pocket and twirled it, a nervous habit picked up over the years. Heads quickly went back into their cubicles. They were led into a conference room and found seats. A witch and wizard in Auror Uniforms entered the room. Hicks spoke again.
"I am pleased to introduce Aurors Miller and Ballantine, our chief trainers. For your first year, they will be your mother and father, your questions will start and end with them. Is that any way unclear?"
The trainees shook their heads.
"In the future, we appreciate answers to our questions, not wagging of heads," Ballantine said.
"The first order of business is uniforms. This morning, you will be issued sets of these uniforms," Hicks said, pointing to the two Aurors. They wore black button-down shirts, black trousers, a black belt and black boots. "However, the platinum badge that Aurors wear will not be yours for three more years. Starting tomorrow, we expect this uniform to be on your person when you arrive in this building until you leave it. In addition, jogging suits will be issued for use while you conduct...physical training. I do mean physical, ladies and gentlemen."
Hicks turned to the two Aurors, shook their hands and said, "They're all yours, good luck."
The 22 trainees were shown dressing rooms where tailors who took measurements and gave them to assistants, who gave them the uniforms and charmed them to fit each person. Hermione, who rarely wore black, gasped at herself in the mirror.
Lavender, you were right! Black does look good on me! she thought. Severus is gonna love this!
Hermione left the fitting rooms with a duffle bag full of uniforms and joined the other trainees in a classroom. She rolled her eyes when Harry whistled softly at her. "Hermione, you make this look good," Harry said with a wink.
The rest of the day was spent filling out paperwork, reading the First Year Auror Handbook and lectures regarding the behavior demanded of Aurors. At four p.m. they were dismissed for the day.
"Eat a good dinner and get plenty of sleep boys and girls, you're going to need it for tomorrow," Miller said lightly.
Severus was in the basement lab when Hannah barked, indicating the arrival of someone.
"I'm home!" Hermione called out.
Severus came from the basement and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of her.
"I thought you might like it," she said. "All black. I saw Ron, his is all dark blue."
"You look quite fetching," he said appraisingly. "Sizing charms?"
"Yes, good ones at that, we have to present an impeccable appearance," Hermione said, echoing Auror Ballantine's words.
"I am eager to hear about the rest of your day, over dinner," he said and they went to the back terrace, where dinner was already laid out.
"Steak, my favorite!" she said and sat in the chair Severus pulled out for her. "We were warned to eat a good dinner. Heaven knows what they're gonna do to us tomorrow."
The next morning in the classroom, Aurors Ballantine and Miller came into the classroom in jogging suits. They smirked at the class.
"You have five minutes to change into your physical training uniforms. When I say five minutes, I mean exactly that, starting now."
The class hurried to the locker rooms. Hermione was the first back, coming back into the classroom in two minutes.
"Good to see someone paying attention," Ballantine said lightly.
Harry and most of the others returned in the next three minutes. After five minutes passed, Ernie McMillan and two others had not returned.
"All of you will do sit-ups until the return of your colleagues," Miller said.
There was yelling and odd noises from the changing room. After three minutes, the doors opened and Ernie and the other two burst from the room, disheveled, wands drawn and breathing heavily.
"McMillan, tell your teammates what happened," Ballantine said.
"We were...attacked," he replied.
"When I said five minutes, I meant it. Every minute you are here has a purpose, every task has a reason. What you will learn here will save your life and the lives of others, so we expect you to take everything we say seriously, no matter how mundane it may sound," Miller said.
"McMillan was correct, these three were attacked by training mannequins, who were charmed to attack after five minutes time. What if you had been assigned a surveillance mission with a time limit and those had been Death Eaters?" Ballantine asked.
"They would be dead," Harry answered.
"Correct. We would be notifying your loved ones of your unfortunate death and the Daily Prophet would be printing the announcement of your heroic demise," Miller said.
The class was silent.
"Goldstein, how many sit-ups did you do?" Ballantine asked.
"I don't know."
"Potter?"
"Dunno."
"Reardon?"
"I didn't keep count."
"Granger?"
"54 sir," she answered.
"Trainees, your class leader is now Granger. Exit the rear of the classroom to the physical training field," Ballantine said. "Granger, a moment if you would."
"Do you know why you're class leader?" Ballantine asked.
"No Madame."
"Attention to detail is quite important in this line of work, you recalled how many sit-ups you did. Now, as to whether you counted or not, you gave an answer nonetheless. That's thinking on your feet, also important in this line of work. Understand? Good, now join your teammates."
She handed Hermione a silver armband and Hermione jogged to the track. To say she was woefully unprepared physically for training was an understatement. After stretching and calisthenics, a mile-long run was ordered. Hermione was the last one to finish while the other trainees did push-ups until she finished. Her side was killing her, she was out of breath and was sure she had a groin pull.
"Granger, a word!" Ballantine called out. "The rest of you may drag yourselves back to the classroom."
Hermione huffed and limped to the Auror. "Granger, as class leader, we expect more from you. No more finishing last, understand?"
"Yes Madame."
"Very well, join your teammates."
In the classroom, Hermione opted to stand instead of sitting.
"Have a seat," Harry said, gesturing to the chair beside him.
"Afraid not, I might not be able to get up if I do," she said.
"Why?" Harry asked, massaging an arm.
"Groin pull," she said.
After physical training, their first class about surveillance was given. At the end of the class, Miller spoke.
"I know many of you have never bothered keeping journals, but they can be a valuable tool to an Auror. They can help recall people, places and events in a pinch. On personal note, I like to look on my journals from the past twelve years ago with fond amusement and marvel at how many cases have been solved with simple observations jotted down on a page. Well, that's my rant about journals, take it as you will."
Hermione had plenty of empty journals at home, gifts over the years from well-meaning friends who never knew what to buy her. At day's end, she left by Ministry Floo Point, grateful that her home had been put on the Floo Network two days ago. Hannah announced her arrival with a bark them whimpered at the sight of her mistress. Severus came into the parlor and shook his head at her distress. She looked absolutely exhausted, had an odd limp, her traveling cloak was hanging off her left shoulder and she was dragging her duffle.
"I need a pain potion, hot bath and food, not necessarily in that order," she said and carefully sat on the nearest piece of furniture.
After dinner, two pain potions and a hot bath, Hermione sat at her desk and made her first ever journal entry.
Tuesday July 2nd, 1998
Today was the first day of physical training. I'm surprised I'm still conscious enough to make this entry. My physical performance today was abysmal. Period. I've never finished last at anything in my life- it's never going to happen again. We also had out our first class-of many to come-about surveillance. What we thought to be some big, secret cloak-and-dagger intrigue turned out to be six simple rules.
Aurors are not to be seen.
Aurors are not to be heard.
Aurors are not to be smelled.
Smelled? Yes, smelled. Apparently, the sense of smell in regard to memory is acute.
Aurors will remember everything they see.
Aurors will remember everything they hear.
Aurors will remember everything, you guessed it, they smell.
Bless Sev and his extra-strength pain potions. There's nothing that can be done for a groin pull I'm afraid. I think I'll invite Harry and the Weasleys for dinner Saturday night so we can have a good laugh about this week, as long as it doesn't hurt too much to laugh. Harry says...
Severus came into the den and saw Hermione asleep at her desk, pen still in her hand. She had fallen asleep while writing. He chuckled at her journal entry and rubbed her back to coax her awake. She stirred and said so faintly he could barely hear, "I'm so tired." He carried her to bed.
The summer passed quickly for Hermione. She enjoyed reviewing her journal entries.
July 27, 1998
Harry still can't make a decent Veritaserum potion to save his life, (let's hope it never comes to that!) despite how hard we worked on it in Advanced Potions in school. We were introduced to evidence analysis today, simply fascinating. We had a hands-on lesson with objects confiscated from past raids, a dagger in particular rumored to have come from Malfoy manor..
August 3, 1998
We were informed of our first test to come in September. All we were told is that it will "be in the field and will utilize everything we've learned thus far." I hope I've paid enough attention.
August 20, 1998
Poor Sev, he doesn't know what to do with himself if he's not teaching! He's meeting with his solicitor to patent his new Polyjuice Potion and thinking about offering his services as a private tutor! How funny!
As she grew stronger, her confidence level rose and it showed. She never again finished last in physical training, she was one of the top duelers and pleasantly surprised the trainers at lunch one day in late August. She was working the latest arithmancy puzzle contest in The Daily Prophet when Ballantine walked by and noticed her gnawing her bottom lip in thought.
"Granger," the Auror called out. Hermione looked up and rose.
"No, have a seat, finish your lunch and puzzle."
Hermione took her seat and continued what she was doing.
"Do you actually finish those puzzles and send them in?" Ballantine asked.
Hermione shook her head. "I do the puzzles, but no, I don't send them in."
"Are you kidding? She does them for fun," Harry said. "If it wasn't for Hermione, I wouldn't have passed Arithmancy."
"But there's a ten galleon prize for the winning solution," Ballantine said.
"I don't really care for the money, I just like doing the puzzles," Hermione said.
"I have a favor to ask of you Granger. Feel free to say no if you'd like, but hear me out," Ballantine said.
"Okay," Hermione said.
"Well, Aurors are looked at as all brawn and no brain, so to speak. I can't remember the last time anyone looked upon we Aurors as intellectuals and it would give us a bit of intellectual pride if...everyone were to open their papers and see that someone from the Aurors solved those puzzles. If you're so sure of yourself, you can give the galleons to charity."
Two days later, Hermione received many claps on the back and handshakes when the bottom left hand corner of page 3B of The Daily Prophet read: This week's Arithmancy Challenge winner is Miss Hermione Granger, from the Auror Division. Look for next week's exciting Arithmancy Challenge, "A Negative Can Be A Positive!"
"Next week's exciting challenge?" Harry asked in disbelief. Only the very smart who liked the subject would find that exciting. Hermione snatched the paper away from him with a glare.
"Laugh if you like Harry, but I'm sure the Hogwarts Board of Governors appreciates my donation," she said primly.