Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. This story is meant purely in tribute to the original work.

Although Neville felt that auror training had overloaded his brain and deluged him with training, he could not help but feel underprepared when reporting for his first day on the job. His first year as a junior auror would be a probationary period before he would be even considered for handling cases on his own, if necessary. Thankfully, Neville soon found out that no one expected a junior auror to save the world on their first day (Even if said rookie had helped do so only a few years ago). He was also grateful to find that his superiors were quite adept at guiding new aurors along and keeping them out of trouble.

One aspect of academy training that Neville found surprising was the amount of time spent on studying and touring the Muggle world. These courses weren't anything like the complete waste of time and rubbish of Muggle Studies that the Carrows had forced on students at Hogwarts. Some of the recent Wizarding War had spilled over into the Muggle world. It was also well speculated that Voldemort would have taken the conflict onwards into that world had he achieved his goals in the wizarding one. As such, the Powers That Be (PTB) at the Ministry had decided that it would behoove aurors to learn more about the Muggle world. Since aurors were also the closest thing the Ministry had as a counterpart to the UK Armed Forces, MI5, and police, the PTB also decided it would be a good idea for aurors to meet their counterparts. Hence a good part of Neville's third year of training involved familiarization tours at the aforementioned organizations.

Neville found most of the tours an eye opening experience. His visits to Scotland Yard and MI5's headquarters quickly gave him insight on something Muggle and wizarding law enforcement had in common. Massive amounts of paperwork. Some of the procedures were so similar, Neville wondered if one had copied the other at some point. He had also heard of firearms before but had never handled one. On a tour to a Special Air Service base he was allowed to handle and fire one for familiarization purposes. Neville found the experience thoroughly unpleasant. The most prominent lessons he took away were that firearms were very loud and the acrid smell after discharge. He wondered how Muggles ever hit anything with the way the weapon recoiled and the ballistics of a bullet. He began to appreciate how much easier it was to aim spells. An instructor pointed out to Neville that with repeated training, Muggles became very accurate with firearms just as aurors did with spells. He went on to assert that with enough practice even Neville could become proficient with firearms. Neville kept his doubts about that to himself.

Neville had also never seen an airplane before and had never known that Muggles used machines to fly. Neville remembered his disastrous first lesson on a broom and had never progressed beyond an intermediate skill level. He had to admit he never much liked flying. However, on a tour to a Royal Air Force training range in Scotland, he found himself thinking an airplane would not be a bad way to fly, probably more comfortable than a thestral (Thinking of thestrals also caused Luna to invade his thoughts again, which he quickly shrugged off). At any rate, Neville thought being enclosed would be far safer, although the machines did seem terribly loud. Any further thoughts of flying in an airplane came to an abrupt end as Neville watched the same aircraft streak in at less than 100 feet above the ground and at just under the speed of sound. The results of the aircraft delivering its ordnance were quite formidable looking. The fireball was quite impressive, the ground shook, and Neville could swear that the very air shook as well. The other part of the aerial display involved parachutists and aerial assaults, which Neville found to be bordering on insane. He had no idea how anyone could be convinced to jump out of a perfectly functioning machine and rely on a fabric canopy attached to one's body by ropes to bring them safely to the ground. He also found that just watching people jumping from an ungainly contraption called a helicopter and sliding down on ropes gave him a case of sweaty palms.

All in all, when it came down to it, Neville was surprised at the level at which Muggles seemed to be so dependent on machinery. Computers, calculators, music players, televisions, radios…it seemed so overwhelming. After thinking on the subject some more, Neville supposed he could draw some comparisons to the wizarding world's use of magic. The demonstrations he observed also convinced Neville that Muggles could really dish out quite a bit of damage if given the opportunity to do so. He was also dismayed to find out that Muggles regularly employed such firepower on each other on a fairly regular basis.

Seven Months into the Probationary Year

Neville sat back from his desk to rub his tired eyes and give them a break for a few minutes. It was only the third case he had worked on but the tedium of paperwork never went away. "At least this is another Death Eater off the streets.", Neville told himself. Still he could not shake the dread that this report would be bounced back to him for revision at some point. A soft knock on his cubicle wall commanded his attention. David Collins, Neville's minder and mentor during his probationary period, stood in the entryway.

"How's the report coming Nev?"

"Just finished Dave. I was just about to send it to you for review."

"It'll have to wait. We've got hot one."

Neville rose and started pulling on his coat. "Who are we going after this time?"

"That's the interesting part. This one is already dead. Someone else got him before us."

"Really? Kind of takes care of our work doesn't it?"

"I would agree with you but this particular Death Eater is demanding the Ministry's special attention. Someone really did not want this chap to make it to Azkaban."

"Great. Probably means a lot of late nights. Do we know who it is?"

"Lucius Malfoy."

Author's Note: It is very common for modern militaries, law enforcement, and clandestine intelligence and operations agencies to cross-train with each other. Not only does this allow for commonality in training, it also allows them to learn from the other and increase their effectiveness. I figured since aurors are the Ministry of Magic's closest thing to the aforementioned agencies, it would make sense for them to cross-train as well. At the very least, the aurors could learn non-magical skills from their "normal world" counterparts, even if the Muggles are unaware of the nature of their guests. With the threat the Muggle world faced in the last Wizarding War, it probably couldn't hurt. I'm not sure how much Neville is familiar with the Muggle world so I took some artistic liberties.