Chapter 118: Auror Application
"Here we are." James said. "At the Ministry again." The three of them had just apparated and landed at one end of a very long and splendid hall with a highly polished, dark wood floor.
"Doesn't this whole place just look magical?" Remus joked. The peacock blue ceiling was inlaid with gleaming golden symbols that kept moving and changing like some enormous heavenly notice board.
"I wouldn't want to floo if I have another alternative." Sirius shook his head. The three guys walked down the hall, with many glided fireplaces at both side of the wall. Every few seconds a witch or wizard would emerge from one of the left-hand fireplaces with a soft whoosh, dusting themselves and straightening their robes as they headed towards the entrance. Some people chose to floo because it was safer than apparating in many aspects, with the exception of landing at some other fireplace rather than the one you wanted to end up in. Of course the other reason being the fact that they had not passed their Apparation test.
The most significant structure in the hall was the fountain. A group of golden statues, larger than life-size, stood in the middle of a circular pool. Tallest of them all was a noble-looking wizard with his wand pointing straight up in the air. Grouped around him were a beautiful witch, a centaur, a goblin and a house-elf. The last three were all looking adoringly up at the witch and wizard. Glittering jets of water were flying from the ends of their wands, the point of the centaur's arrow, and the tip of the goblin's hat and each of the house-elf's ears.
The three guys subconsciously put their hands into their pockets in search for a galleon or two to make a donation. Afterall, their parents had always reminded them to be charitable with their wealth. Money always flowed to those who were more generous and giving.
"Five galleons for you." James dropped five gold coins into the Fountain of Magical Brethren. There were scarcely any golden Galleons inside, although there were quite a number of silver Sickles and bronze Knuts glinting up from the bottom of the pool.
"Eight for you today. Give you more when I become an auror." Sirius dropped his eight galleons one by one, enjoying the little splash and ripples caused by his coins.
"Looks like I can only spare ten for you today." Remus dropped in ten galleons at one go and creating a louder splash. Right now, it appeared that there were as many golden Galleons inside the pool as the other coins.
"I give another five later when I come out." James shrugged off. "Let's go in. We're not here for this." The three guys continued heading towards the golden gates of the Ministry. They stopped at a desk on the left of the gates, with a sign saying Security, a clean-shaven wizard in peacock blue robes looked up as they approached and put down his Daily Prophet.
"We're here to get an application to be aurors, as advertised on today's Daily Prophet." James said politely.
"Your name, please." The security guard held up a long golden rod and passed it up and down their front and back, one after another.
"James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin." At one side, a quill was writing their names down into a big logbook and their purpose as well automatically.
"Okay, your wands." He put down his golden instrument and took their wands and dropped it on to a strange brass instrument, which looked something like a set of scales with only one dish. It began to vibrate and a narrow strip of parchment came speeding out of a slit in the base. He did the same thing for all three of their wands.
After reading and clarifying their wand types, he impaled the little slip of parchment on a small brass spike and returned their wands.
"Thank you." They thanked the security and went through the golden gates.
"Can't really remember when was the last time I stepped in here." Sirius commented, looking round at the bustling crowd of people.
"We just came here for our apparation test a few years back." Remus reminded. "That was like two or three years back." Other than that, they had went to the Ministry several other times, since their parents worked for the Ministry in one Department or another.
Jostled slightly by the crowd, they made their way through the gates into the smaller hall beyond, where at least twenty lifts stood behind wrought golden grilles. They joined the scurrying crowd around one of them.
With a great jangling and clattering a lift descended in front of them, the golden grilled slid back and the three of them stepped into the lift with the rest of the crowd. It was so tightly packed inside that they could barely make a conversation. The grilles slid shut with a crash and the lift ascended slowly, chains rattling, while a cool female voice rang out, announcing the level they ascended.
The lift door opened to an untidy-looking corridor, with various posters of Quidditch teams tacked lopsidedly on the walls. After two of the wizards departed, the doors closed and the lift juddered upwards again and the woman made the next level announcement.
"Apparation Test Center." James pointed out to Sirius when the lift doors opened. Five witches and wizards got out and several paper aeroplanes swooped into the lift. Once again, the door closed and continued ascending upwards, the paper planes were flapping idly above their heads but none of them gave it a second look.
It went on for another three levels before the woman finally announced 'Level Two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, including Improperly Use of Magic Office, Auror Headquarters and Wizengamot Administrative Services.' They followed the two others wizards out of the lift along with several memo planes that flew out towards their respective destination. They walked along the corridors lined with doors while sunlight streamed in through the enchanted windows.
"Finally. I could die in that lift." Sirius shook his head. "How did it managed to hold so many people and so many things and yet move really bewilder me?"
"I know what you mean. It was like so cramp inside until I can hardly breathe." James laughed, reading the signs on the doors as they bypassed them. "You better get used to that if you intend to come here on a daily basis."
"I probably will figure some way I can get up here without going through the squeezing lifts episode." Sirius said nonchalantly.
"I'm looking forward for your discovery then." Remus laughed. "If you can do it, that would be impressive. I'm sure many other people would have done it, if not for strict limitations I believe."
"I think we've reached." They turned around a corner and walked through a pair of heavy oak doors and emerged in a clustered open area divided into cubicles, which was buzzing with talk and laughter. Memo planes were zooming in and out of cubicles like miniature rockets.
"Wow, cool!" Sirius was looking around the office, which did look like a happening place.
In front of them was a signage that read:
Application for Auror position.
Go straight.
Third door on your right.
"Let's go." The three of them walked straight in, by passing two offices and reached the third one. From the glass window, they could see the wizard behind the desk was speaking to someone else, so they just stood outside and waited, rather impatiently.
After about five minutes, the young man came out, gave a quick smile and departed.
"Go ahead." James and Remus told Sirius, since he was the most impatient one of the lot.
"Come in." The wizard in the room gave the cue and Sirius entered the office. James and Remus took a seat nearby and waited for their turn.
Within ten minutes, Sirius came out of the room, before they could ask him about his interview; he gave a quick thumb-up sign and an encouraging smile before leaving them there, the same look the previous wizard gave.
"Weird." James raised his eyebrows. "That's not very Sirius." With that he knocked on the door and entered when the wizard inside gave a 'come in' cue.
"Good afternoon, sir." James greeted politely as he entered.
"Good noon. Take a seat. I'm Alastor Moody. What's yours?" Alastor Moody introduced himself. One of his eyes, a large, round and electric blue, was spinning around his socket extremely quickly, and it seemed to be scrutinizing him.
"My name is James Potter, sir." James was looking at Moody's magical eye in amazement. His father had told him about Alastor Moody back then, and he had seen him in his family parties, but never had he just faced him one-to-one in an enclosed office in the Ministry.
"Ah, Harry's son. I see. I see." Alastor nodded approvingly. "He was a great man. I see your father in you."
"Thank you, sir." James thanked him sincerely.
"So what makes you want to be an auror?" Alastor asked.
"I want to be in the team that defeat Voldemort. Rid the world of evil villains who take innocent lives for no reason." James said with a tinge of anger in his voice.
"That's a noble dream." Alastor's magical eye seemed to tone down a little in movement.
"Are you fully aware of the dangers?"
"Yes." James said with determination.
"Including death."
"Yes, including death." James affirmed.
"Good. Cast a spell."
"What spell?" James questioned on the open-ended statement.
"Cast a spell."
"Ok." James thought for a while and cast the Disillusionment Charm on himself. His body now took the exact colour and texture of the chair he was sitting on.
"Very good, now reverse back." Alastor nodded approvingly, with a tinge of smile. James lifted the Disillusionment Charm off himself. "You're officially part of the team of Aurors from today onwards."
"Thank you, sir." James could hardly contain his excitement.
"Report here on next Monday at eight-thirty. You'll be learning from a senior auror here until you're ready."
"Ok."
"Now leave this department, do not stop to speak to anyone inside here. My magical eye can see through walls. And don't even try me." Alastor said in a serious tone.
"Yes, sir."
"I'll see you next week." Alastor leaned back on his seat as James left the office.
"Thank you." James left the office; he gave an encouraging smile at Remus, who was still sitting outside, with two other auror-to-bes now and walked towards the exit.
"Woah! James! I've got it!" Sirius overly excited voice could be heard echoing along the entire corridor.
"Me too!" James gave Sirius a pat on his back.
"Oh, yeah. Let me introduce. This is Sturgis and this is James." Sirius introduced him to the wizard whom left Alastor's office before Sirius.
"Sturgis Podmore. Nice to meet you." The wizard said politely.
"James Potter. Pleasure to meet you." James smiled. "Looking forward to work together."
"Pardon me, I'm wondering if you are the son of the late Minister." Sturgis was rather straightforward.
"Yes, that's my father." James nodded.
"He was a great man, an amazing wizard." Sturgis complimented earnestly.
"I guess so.." Remus' appearance from the Auror's Headquarters office saved James' any further comments regarding his decreased father.
"Remus, how was it?" Sirius asked the moment Remus walked out.
"I've got it." Remus grinned. "Didn't really expect that."
"Congrats, dude." James gave his best friend a pat on his back. The four budding-aurors made their way out of the Ministry together, talking about the upcoming challenges they would face at work.
"I'll see you all next week. Bye."
"See you." Sturgis apparated away with a 'pop'.
"Let's get back." Remus said. They had been at the Ministry for more than an hour already.
"Let me drop five more galleons inside the fountain." James dropped another five gold coins inside the already galleon-filled pool and then they apparated home from the lobby.
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"Congrats!" The six goblets filled with Vodka Lime gave a series of 'clings'. Afterall, they were sort of adults now; so a little dosage of alcohol would do some good.
"I can't believe Moody gave me the job." Remus was grinning from ear-to-ear.
"You're brilliant, and you know that." Stefanie reminded him.
"Thanks, but well, you know what I meant." Remus draped his arm lazily around Stefanie's shoulders.
"You all should see Moody. His left eye looks – well – magical, if you would describe it that way." Sirius was attempting to dramatize Moody's magical eye with his eyeball, but failing to look even remotely like the actual one.
"Cut that out. That's look nothing like the real magical eye." Arabella told him. "Though I never met him in reality, I knew he can't have look as stupid as you spinning your eyeball."
"His magical eye is supposed to look creepy. Alright, it does look creepy. Imagine that can see through walls." Sirius was thinking, with a finger tapping on his chin. "I wonder if that eye can see through clothes.." Before he could complete his comment, Stefanie and Arabella hit him on his head at the same time from both sides. "Ouch!" Sirius massaged his head and stood up in defense. "That's just a thought, besides, he might be scrutinizing girls all day long when he's not working. You never know."
"I wonder how did he get his magical eye, or more like, where did he get it from?" James said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, I would like to change one of my eyeball magical so I can see through – ouch!" Two hands hit Sirius' on his head again. "I was going to say walls."
"Are you sure you will intending to say walls or something else?" Lily teased. "You don't have to put so much emphasis on walls, you know. And walls do rhyme with some other words.."
"Like balls, calls, galls, halls, malls.." Sirius started listing out the rhyming words.
"So you think that Moody saw your balls and decided to hire you based on their size?" The group laughed and the lame joke James came up with.
"Well, at least I think my balls are of decent size." Sirius defended. "Not like there could be some guys with small, or single, or probably no balls to start with."
"Looks like without a magical eye, you had seen so much. Do you think you really need one?" Remus added on to the teasing.
"I would like to see the balls of the opposite sex." Sirius stood up before making that comment, knowing very well that the two of them would hit him again.
"Then we must make sure Sirius never know where the magical eye come from." Stefanie pointed out.
"Then I shall start looking for a magical eye." Sirius said with determination.
"Simply ask Moody where he got it." Remus suggested the most direct way.
"Brilliant idea." Sirius said with enthusisium. "Maybe after working with him for some time." He thought for a moment. "It would be strange if I ask him that on the first day of work."
"You never know, worth trying." Lily suggested.
"Hey Sir, your magical eye really intrigues me. I am just wondering where did you get it. I'm sure that would be very useful for my work as an auror." Sirius said in a joking manner to James, taking him as Moody in his little joke.
"Black, you ought to be spending time at your work, and not mind other people's business." James mimicked Moody's voice, reprimanding him. Everyone just laughed at the whole act between the two guys.
"If Moody can see through wall, he probably can see what you two are doing." Arabella said in between her laughs.
"The Ministry is underground. Not to mention that it is such a long distance away." Sirius assured. "Moody won't know what happen unless he's here."
"I'm right here." Remus spoke in a voice that did not sounded like him. Everyone jumped, but Sirius was the most shocked by that.
"You had me for a moment." Sirius scolded in his acting-serious look. "I don't want to get into trouble with my boss before I even start to work for him."
"I think that's the sanest statement you made tonight." Arabella commented.
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"Good morning, sir." James, Sirius and Remus greeted their boss as he walked into the office at eight on Monday morning. They had just, once again, gotten squashed in the lift, but this time the situation was much more hectic and filled with the morning rush and Monday blues.
"Morning. Come with me to my office." Alastor said. The three excited fresh graduates followed closely behind him, wondering how was the whole first day of work experience going to be like. They had arrived just a few minutes before Alastor and their working life was about to start officially. "Before I assign you to your seniors, is there anything you would like to know?" They shook their heads, and James shot Sirius a knowing look.
"Yes, Mr. Black, you have a question?" Alastor's magical eye spun while his normal eye looked at him questioningly.
"No, sir." Sirius replied.
"Alright then." Alastor's tone was unconvinced but he did not dig into the matter. "If there's no question, Potter, you're assigned to Edgar Bones; Black, to Gideon Prewett; and Lupin to his brother Fabian. You may go now." He looked down and took the stack of documents placed neatly on his 'in' tray and started going through them with his normal eye, while his magical eye was still spinning around. Of course, Sirius looked at it in awe, as always.
"Ok, we've got to look for their desks." Remus said, looking across the whole office full of little cubicles when he spotted four guys heading towards their direction.
"You three must be new aurors." The tall and sturdy guy spoke first. "I'm Edgar Bones and you must be James." He held out his hand and they shared a firm handshake. Most workers in the Ministry would have no problems recognizing James because he looked exactly like a younger replica of his late father, who was the Minister of Magic before Millicent Bagnold.
"Please to meet you." James said respectfully. He knew that he was going to learn loads from this guy
"Fabian Prewett." One of the twins introduced.
"Gideon Prewett." The other twin introduced. Both of them looked identical with a similar dress sense in a slightly different color tones.
"Caradoc Dearborn." He shook hands briefly with the three newcomers. "There should be one more new guy coming, Sturgis Podmore."
"I'm sorry, am I late?" Sturgis walked towards the seven men who were standing a few steps away from Alastor's office. He checked his watched to confirm that he was still ten minutes earlier than the reporting time.
"You're not late, we're early." James assured him.
"I think it's better for you to report to Moody first before doing any other thing." Caradoc told him and prompted Sturgis to go over first.
"This is such a cool place." Sirius said honestly. "It must be awesome working here."
"This is definitely an awesome place to work in, but most of the time we're outdoors. So there's really not much office work we can enjoy here." Fabian replied and directed them to their desks, which were in a row next to them.
"So you need to follow us closely for a year or two before going off on your own, and after three to five years of experience, you'll be ready to train new aurors." Edgar commented.
"So you guys must have had loads of students before." Sirius asked.
"We learn from one another. All the aurors here are considered a team, and we need to work as closely as possible. Before Voldemort was in power, we had about eighty to a hundred aurors at any time, but now, there's barely forty of us left." Edgar said with a tinge of anger and sadness.
"That's why you must be prepared for anything. What had happen are truly tragedies, but we chose the path, we have to accept the way it is." Caradoc, who was another experienced senior auror told them.
"Sorry, I'm late." Sturgis came over and joined the seven men. "Sturgis Podmore, please to meet all of you."
"Caradoc Dearborn." Caradoc introduced himself again, and the rest re-introduced themselves again.
"Let's just with the simple rules and regulations first." Fabian pointed out.
"That's right. First and foremost, it is most recommended that you should report here on Monday morning before eight. Moody implemented this rule to keep track as who else are still with us after the week so everyone still know one another existence. Department meeting always happen on Mondays. Usually it's so rarely that we meet one another, most of us would be here before eight just to hang out and have breakfast together, discussing about the recent happenings. So it is most recommended." Edgar told them.
"But no worries, you will be more or less permanently stuck with your buddy for the next year or so." Gideon gave Sirius a slap on his back.
"I'm sure you four would have no problem with adapting here. Most importantly you must be prepared to be an auror mentally. Once you conquer the mental part, which is the most difficult part, the rest should be no problem." Caradoc said. "Be prepared for the unprepared and expect the worst."
"What a statement for the first day of work." Remus joked.
"Well, it's better to be informed than be ignorant. Other people always thought aurors are highly paid for nothing. It's all in the risk we take to protect so that they can be safe in their home and office." Fabian told them. For a beginner auror, they were being paid three thousand galleons per month and would increase five hundred with each additional year.
"Department Meeting at 9a.m. in Hall A." A loud voice boomed over the entire Auror's Headquarters startling the four of them.
"That's Moody making the announcement." Gideon laughed. "We still have another thirty minutes for a quick bite at the pantry."
"That's what I want exactly." Sirius agreed wholeheartedly.
"I think the two are going to be great buddies together." James shook his head, laughing along with the rest while Sirius and Gideon were already in the pantry looking for food.
"Both of them share the same passion for food."