Chapter 32: Hit Witch

January, Seventh Year

"This is rubbish!" Brittany exclaimed, dropping the leaflet back on the table with a huff and leaning right back on the sofa, her arms folded.

"You can't find anything?" I asked softly.

She frowned. "It's not that. I'm not good enough! They all want Es and Os and I'm never going to get those grades! Maybe Muggle Studies, but what's the point in that? No one wants Muggle Studies!"

I sighed, dropping my own leaflet on entry-level Ministry jobs and shuffling over to sit next to her instead of opposite. I looked down at the papers scattered in front of her, picking out one that seemed promising - Welsh Green Keepers.

"What about this?"

She glanced at it, but shook her head straight away.

"They want Os in Care of Magical Creatures and Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Oh… uh…" I searched again, pushing them aside with one hand while my other found hers and squeezed a little. As I browsed, flicking a few leaflets open, I started to realise just how right Brittany was - everything she was interested in wanted far higher grades than she was going to get, or lower grades in subjects she wasn't taking. Neither of us had really been thinking about jobs when we chose our NEWTs, even though the teachers kept going on about how important it was. For me it didn't matter, because I was taking more than most people anyway. But Brittany was taking less, and they weren't exactly the most academic subjects. I looked over at my pile for inspiration, and quickly straightened. "Hey! What about that department at the Ministry! You know, the one where they talk with muggles all the time?"

"No vacancies. It's tiny, Professor Schuester says there'll be nothing there until someone retires."

I hated hearing her sound so defeated. I released the leaflets to wrap my arm around her shoulder instead. There were other people about, but I was doing my best to care less about them.

"Come on Britt, there's gotta be something. We just have to find it, yeah? Didn't Professor Schue suggest anything else?"

"He said maybe I should look for muggle jobs since I could get away with pretending to be one."

My mouth dropped open at her words.

"That's… Ugh, ignore him. We're going to find something and you're going to love it, alright? He doesn't have a clue what you're capable of."

She gave a tiny nod, but she wouldn't look at me. I wasn't sure if she believed me or if she was just nodding because she didn't want to argue. I opened my mouth to reassure her again, but I jumped instead when loud chimes started sounding to mark 11am. I was late.

"I'm sorry, Britt, but I've got to go. Keep looking though, okay? I'll be back soon," I promised. I turned around as I climbed off the sofa, leaning in to kiss her lightly on the cheek. To anyone else it would probably just look like I was whispering, but it still made me nervous that someone might see. I pulled back quickly. She was trying to smile, but she couldn't get rid of the sadness in her expression completely. "Back soon," I repeated as I stepped away, scooping up a couple of leaflets I'd placed to the side and turning away reluctantly. I should have left five minutes before, but at least Professor Sylvester's office was close. I turned around one corner and found her door already swung open - waiting for me. I walked through and tried not to wince at the expression on her face.

"Got a job already worked out, Lopez? Don't need my advice?"

"Sorry," I muttered, dropping into the chair in front of her desk and placing the leaflets carefully on the edge. She scooped them up immediately.

"Curse breaker? You'll be in hospital within an hour, you haven't got the patience," she informed me coolly, tossing that leaflet into the bin next to her desk. It burst into flames. "The goblins will hate you, don't even try at Gringotts," she added a moment later. More paper flew into the bin and its contents continued to burn until only two leaflets were left in her hand. I was relieved that both were for the Ministry - at least my parents would be pleased. She leaned back in her chair, looking at me over the top of them. "Can't really see you working at a desk, Lopez."

I shrugged, a little uncomfortable. "Well I can't be an auror. I didn't take Potions. Basically everything else at the Ministry is a desk job."

"Have you considered professional quidditch?"

"Um… I don't think my parents will be up for that," I muttered. I hated having to take that into account, but I had enough other battles with them. Playing a game as a job would definitely be in their most-hated career paths for me - possibly only topped by writing for the Quibbler.

"Well the scouting day is in April if you change your mind," Professor Sylvester said, passing over another leaflet. "As for within the Ministry… there is the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad. You'll need at least an E in Charms and O in Transfiguration to enter training for that. The Invisibility Task Force has some practical work, but not until you've been there for a few years. And then the Magical Law Enforcement Squad - the hit wizards and witches are the most similar to aurors if you are interested in that."

"Oh, yeah," I agreed immediately, sitting up straighter. I hadn't even thought about them. Everyone always focused on being an auror, and I'd done the same until I realised it wasn't a possibility. It was kind of surprising how helpful Professor Sylvester was being, now she was done tearing down all my other options. "Do I have a chance at getting into that? Is there a training scheme?"

"Yes, I understand it lasts for one year… Here," she said, passing me a catalogue labelled Ministry Law Enforcement. "An E in Defence Against the Dark Arts and at least three other NEWTs. More competency tests, which you should have no trouble with so long as you can get your patronus into more than just a whiff of muggle cigarette smoke. The first round is next month. If you want to be registered for it there's an application in that catalogue, owl it in the next few days."

"Thanks," I said, already flicking through to find it and beginning to scan the form. Expected NEWT grades, OWL results, criminal record release – it was lucky I hadn't been caught shoplifting that one time - questions about adaptability and reasons for applying. It would take a bit of time, but… I could totally do it. This was perfect. A job in the Ministry, but with adventure too.

"Well, since you don't seem to need my advice anymore you can go." My head jerked up, but Professor Sylvester was already pulling out a bundle of essays from her desk drawer. "Do I need to tell you twice? Go!"

I jumped up, collecting all the new papers I had in front of me and leaving quickly. One of the leaflets slipped out of my hand as I started back towards the common room, and as I knelt to pick it up again I paused. It was the quidditch one. Brittany was an amazing seeker. Surely she'd stand a chance at that?

She was where I'd left her on the sofa, except now she was just stroking Lord Tubbington instead of looking through the leaflets. I had no idea how he got into Slytherin on his own, but somehow he always managed it. She scooped up a poster from next to her leg the moment she saw me, looking a bit guilty, but I ignored that as I dropped down next to her.

"Here, look at this."

She took the leaflet, her eyes widening a little as she read.

"Mike was talking about this yesterday," she said slowly. "He's going to the trials. I just… I don't know if I'm good enough. Professor Schue never mentioned it."

"That's 'cause he's an idiot, I already told you. You're easily good enough - you've got the record for catching the snitch the fastest, not Mike. You should go for it Brittany, this is perfect."

"I… yeah," she murmured, still reading but – finally – with a smile on her face. "I think I will. Oh, but how did it go with Professor Sylvester?" she asked, quickly returning her attention to me.

I grinned, passing her the catalogue. "You're looking at a future hit witch."

I waited for an exclamation of delight that I'd worked it out, but it didn't come. Instead, her face fell.

"…Hit witch?"

"What's wrong with that?"

"It's… isn't that really dangerous?"

"I mean, it is a little. But that's part the excitement! And you know me, I can look after myself," I pointed out, smiling again. "Come on, Britt, it's perfect! Just loads of duelling all the time, but I get paid for it!"

"But you could get hurt! They… they have reserved beds at St. Mungo's!" she protested. Lord Tubbington jumped off her lap, stalking towards the fire.

I tried to reassure her. "I'm sure it's not as bad as they make out. That's probably just a myth."

"I won't be able to look after you…"

I sighed, reaching for her hands, but she pulled them away. I hesitated, watching her face. She wouldn't look at me, and she was biting her lip.

"I don't want you to do that, Santana. I don't want you hurt. You'll be gone all the time and I won't be there to make sure you're okay," she said quietly, still watching the other side of the room.

"Brittany, I can't have just a boring desk job. I'll go crazy. I need to do something."

"But aren't there other jobs?" she demanded, spinning back to me. Wide blue eyes were suddenly looking straight at me. "Other jobs, that are exciting? Why'd you have to go for the most dangerous one?"

"It's not the most dangerous, aurors have a worse time."

"But they get more training! And you can't do that anyway, you're just doing the most dangerous thing you can do."

"Well I'll get training too! They're not just going to throw me in there!" I snapped back without meaning to. She looked away again, and I regretted it immediately. I tried to shuffle a little closer, lowering my voice. "Maybe they won't even accept me. But I really want to do this. I need to apply at least, okay? Anyway, I have to tell mamá I'm doing something."

"Fine." I barely heard her, she said it so quietly. She turned back to me, and I felt a moment of hope until I saw her expression. She was still upset. "Can I at least keep the catalogue? Read it tonight, so I know what they say about it?" she asked.

I sighed. "Sure." Maybe once she read it she'd be less hysterical about it. Or possibly more… I'd just have to wait and see, and hope for the best. She'd come around eventually.

Three days later

"Where is it, Brittany?"

"I thought I gave it to you already?"

"No, you definitely did not."

I was trying very hard to stop myself yelling, but it was hard when she was being so purposely difficult.

"Well Lord Tubbington must have stolen it, then."

"Don't do that with me, Brittany!" I shouted, losing my internal battle with that last line. Did she really think I was going to fall for her playing dumb technique? "You can't stop me applying by pretending to lose the catalogue! I'll just go get another one, so you might as well give it to me!"

"I don't know where it is!" she protested.

I knew she was lying, and she knew it. I spun away from her, shoving the door of her dorm so hard it slammed with a bang against the outer wall. I walked briskly out of the Hufflepuff common room, knocking into Artie as I passed him. Thinking of him worsened my mood even more. He thought he could just start being friends with Brittany again, like nothing had happened?

I walked to dinner alone, making a mental note to find Professor Sylvester later and get a new catalogue afterwards. I couldn't believe Brittany. Why say she was fine with it and then pretend to lose the form I needed to apply? That wasn't like her at all, saying something and then doing the opposite - at least, it wasn't like her when she was with me. When someone bumped into me I was just about ready to hex them across the Entrance Hall, but I released my wand immediately when I saw Kurt in front of me. I still owed him. We all did, even if Karofsky and Azimio were denying it.

"Sorry," I muttered.

He shrugged, giving me a much brighter smile than I'd been receiving from him since the jara incident last week. He'd put some paste on the black eye Karofsky gave him that had made it fade within a day, but I still felt a bit guilty whenever I looked at him. I'd been the one to convince him to come, thinking that maybe it was a chance to finally settle things between them. I should have known Karofsky would react badly.

"What's got you so happy?" I asked curiously as we walked into the Great Hall together.

He grinned wider. "Blaine came to Hogsmeade over the weekend to look over my St. Mungo's application. I just sent it off."

I laughed, glad for the distraction. "So are you happy because of the application, or because you got to see Blaine?" I teased. "He stay the night?"

For once Kurt didn't blush – not too much, anyway – and just lifted his chin, a smile playing at his lips.

"I refuse to let you tarnish my wonderful weekend."

I laughed again, pausing when I realised I was walking towards the Gryffindor table. He grinned as he glanced back at me.

"You can sit with us. We don't bite. Unless of course you have a prior engagement with one Miss Pierce."

I sighed at the reminder, rolling my eyes as I started walking again.

"Nope, no obligations there," I muttered, ignoring the curious gazes being sent my way as I sat next to Kurt. I didn't really recognise anyone sitting nearby except for Sam, who waved cheerily.

"Trouble in paradise?" Kurt asked, reaching for some shepherd's pie.

I opened my mouth to respond, but didn't have a chance before I was silenced by the sight of Brittany entering the Great Hall - with Artie right next to her. Was she seriously trying to do everything possible to annoy me today?

"Oh," Kurt whispered next to me.

"Yup," I replied shortly, snatching the serving spoon from him to get my own portion. "Suddenly they're friends again." It was easier to moan about that than explain the job thing as well.

I really didn't understand it, though. Brittany hadn't spoken to him properly in over a year - at least, not when I'd been about. Maybe she'd just been hiding it from me. But why would she do that? She loved me, not him. So why had she been disappearing all weekend and then turning up with him?

"She's just being friendly, I'm sure."

"Why? We leave in five months. What's the point in getting friendly again now?"

"It's Brittany, she probably just doesn't want to leave things on a bad note."

"I don't want to talk about it," I snapped, shovelling a forkful of shepherd's pie into my mouth. For the rest of the meal I ate in silence, glaring across at the Hufflepuff table and willing her to look at me, so she would see that I was upset. She didn't, though. She talked and laughed with Artie for the whole meal and didn't turn once. The moment I was done with my food, I stood. I couldn't stand watching them a moment longer.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning," I muttered to Kurt.

He nodded and lifted a hand to wave goodbye. I was glad he hadn't tried to force me into conversation about Brittany - especially in front of all these people. I glanced over at Brittany one last time, but she still wasn't looking. I turned and left.

As much as I searched the Slytherin table while trying to listen to what Artie was saying, I couldn't find Santana there. I'd figured she'd have come straight to dinner, but I was a bit worried now that I didn't know where she was. I hadn't meant to make her so upset. I just couldn't think of any other way to make my plan work without lying to her. But I hadn't lied well enough, so now she was mad at me. I sighed, and Artie touched me lightly on the shoulder.

"You okay?"

I shrugged. I didn't want to try lying again.

"Are you sure you're still up for tonight? We can do it tomorrow instead if you want."

"No, I need as much practice as possible. And the form needs sending soon, and that's going to take ages."

"Don't worry so much about that, you'll have a perfect application once I'm done with it. Let's just concentrate on the spells, yeah?"

"Okay," I agreed, dropping my spoon onto my plate. I wasn't that hungry anyway, and I noticed Artie had finished his pasta. "Can we go now?"

"Sure," he said with a friendly smile.

I helped him out from the bench and we left the Great Hall together, climbing the stairs to return to the abandoned classroom we'd been practicing in all weekend. I wasn't sure if I'd improved at all, but Artie said I had to be patient and I'd get there eventually. I had to, if I had any chance of being able to look after Santana like I wanted to.

"What do you want to do, more protego?" he asked as we entered the room. All the tables were pushed to the side and some looked as though they might fall apart, but at least we'd got rid of most of the dust.

I thought for a moment, then shook my head. "I think I want to try a patronus. Because I know that's on the test, Santana mentioned it. Something about visiting Azkaban a lot."

He frowned, crossing his arms in front of him. "I… look, Brittany, I don't want to interfere. I know this is between you and Santana. But are you really sure you want to do this? Hit witches don't exactly have an easy job, and I can't imagine you around dementors. And it's dangerous, you could get hurt. I don't want to be visiting you in St. Mungo's."

"But that's why. I have to look after Santana," I replied simply, getting out my wand. He was still frowning, and I didn't know if he understood or not. But that didn't matter. He'd already agreed to help me practice for the tests. "Okay, so it's expecto patronum, right?"

He nodded, leaning against the wall. "And focus on the happy memory, remember?"

It shouldn't be too hard to find a happy memory. I thought back to a couple of weeks ago, when Santana had surprised me with flowers in the prefects' bathroom, making them float on top of the water. That had been really nice of her. I smiled, thinking back on it, then realised I had to do the spell as well. I held out my wand, trying to concentrate on both the words and flourish, as well as the memory. It was hard to think of everything at once. I opened one eye to watch my wand movements.

"Expecto patronum!"

Nothing happened.

"Expecto patronum!" I tried again, but with no luck. I didn't even get a wisp of white. Everyone in the class had managed at least that. If this spell was meant to be powered from happiness, surely I should be good at it? I had lots of happy thoughts and memories. "Why won't it work?" I asked, turning to Artie.

"Are you thinking of something happy enough? The memory has to be really strong. And you need to exaggerate the wand motions a little more - not too much, though."

I frowned, flicking through memories with Santana. Just being around her made me happy, how was I supposed to pick one memory? I thought of what had happened recently, and one stood out in particular - at Christmas, when she'd told me about telling her mum. I grinned. "Okay, I've got a better one. And like this?" I redid the wand motion a little bigger.

"Almost. A bit higher."

I tried again.

"Yeah, just like that! Now try the real spell."

I closed my eyes, then opened them again. I wasn't sure which was better. Should I concentrate on the memory, or watch my wand movements? I settled for closing them halfway, but that really just meant I was squinting. Santana's words drifted in and out of my head as I made the motion a little slower, making sure to do it exactly the same as just now.

"Expecto patronum!" I shouted again. For a second I saw a silvery glow at the end of my wand and opened both eyes wide to see it better, but then it disappeared. "I had the wand movement right then didn't I?" I asked, spinning around to face Artie again.

"Yes, but… it must just be the memory," he told me with a slight shrug. "I didn't think you'd have any problem with that, you're always so happy, but - maybe that's why. You're happy most of the time, so you need an even better memory than everyone else. And you're concentrating too much on your wand as well. You have to let the memory fill you up inside."

I sighed, slumping against the wall next to him.

"Can I see you do it?"

"Uh, I guess," he said, standing up properly to move into the centre of the room. He took a deep breath, his shoulders relaxing and eyes closing as he raised his wand. I held my breath as I watched him just stand there for several seconds before starting to make the wand movement, faster than I had.

"Expecto patronum!"

A pure white Labrador burst from his wand and gambolled across the room. The edges of it were much mistier than Professor Sylvester's patronus, and it only lasted a few seconds before dissolving into mist, but it was still way better than anything I had managed.

"That's amazing," I whispered. "I don't… I don't understand why I can't do it. I'm happy. Am I just not good enough at magic?"

"No no, I'm sure that not it," Artie reassured me, hurrying over and tucking his wand away as he put an arm around me and smiled. "It's a hard spell, it just takes a while to get the hang of it. You'll get it eventually."

I sighed, resting my head on his shoulder.

"What if I can't? What if I fail the tests, and Santana has to do it all on her own? I'm meant to look after her," I mumbled. I was starting to think this was a stupid idea. What chance did I have of getting accepted as a hit witch? Just getting an E in Defence Against the Dark Arts seemed impossible, let alone passing all these extra tests even with Artie's help.

"That's not the Britt I know!" Artie objected. "You've got to be optimistic, yeah? We can't do patronuses while you're feeling like this. Come on, let's get the paperwork out of the way. Do you have it?"

I nodded, not replying verbally as I reached down to pull the catalogue out of my bag. I flipped to the back of it until I reached the many application forms.

"It's here, these three pages," I said, passing it over.

"Alright," he muttered, glancing over them. "Okay, this is gonna be fine. You just need to write what I tell you. Don't worry so much, Britt. You're going to have such an amazing application there's no way they'll turn you down," he promised with another wide grin.

I gave him a small smile, a little encouraged. Artie was good with words. And we still had plenty of time to work on my spellwork.

"Okay," I said with a bigger smile, digging into my bag again for a quill and ink jar. No matter how much work it took, no matter how hard it was, I was going to be a hit witch right next to Santana. Maybe quidditch would be easier, and more fun, but I was going to protect her just like I was meant to.