"Repello Muggletum!"
The few square feet of and above the alley shimmered with pale orange, and Malfoy brought his wand back in front of him. Urquhart kept still, eyes darting between our faces and our wands. Slowly, he turned his back to us to reach into his back pocket for his wand.
"Weasley. Wait for him to level the wand before you strike," Malfoy whispered from the corner of his mouth.
"Why the bloody hell would I do that?" I whispered back. "He's unguarded, it's the best time to attack!"
"Just—trust me okay," he muttered. "And whatever you do, don't attempt a direct hit." I nodded reluctantly. We watched Urquhart raise the wand inch by inch.
The Auror's wand tip was almost level with our chests when I shouted, "Stupefy!"
Malfoy ran as Urquhart managed to deflect my attack and launch his own. His Stunning Spell grazed my shoulder, and my wand clattered to the ground. My arm froze up, and jets of light soared over my head as I scrambled for the wand with my good hand. I tried to stand, but my knee slipped into a puddle of water and scraped the jagged concrete at the bottom.
I looked up to see that Malfoy has climbed a third or fourth storey fire exit, and was firing at Urquhart down below, who was flicking his spells away like they were puffs of dust. He was headed towards the exit ladder, and Malfoy was looking increasingly panicked. I shot at a couple of trash bins just behind Urquhart, who looked around to see what made the noise. At that moment, I hit him with a Leg Locker Jinx. He pointed at the fire exit.
"Relashio!" The ugly sound of unhinging metal echoed in the alley, as the exit broke. Malfoy's limbs thrashed in the air as he tried to hang on to anything that might break his fall. It looked unreal—and Urquhart just stood there, looking intently at Malfoy, and occasionally at me. I remembered I had a wand, and cast a Cushioning Charm on Malfoy. He landed softly on the ground, and turned to the Auror.
"Obscuro!" he cried, swathing black mist around the other man's eyes.
"Accio Urquhart's wand," I said. His wand zoomed to me and I let it fall, both hands being unable to catch it. Malfoy picked it up.
"Not bad,"the Auror shouted to the sky, eyes still Obscured. At that moment, a wad of parchment appeared in one of his hands. With the sheaf, he gestured vaguely towards our direction. I expected Malfoy to give Urquhart back his wand, but he hung back.
"Come on, Malfoy. He's not going to attack." I said. He glowered at me.
"Well, yes and no. If this were a real duel, I most definitely would. But it isn't, so I won't. Kindly approach me initiates, as you have to acknowledge these test scores." We walked up to him, and handed him his wand. With a flourish, he undid our jinxes. He gave me a look and tossed me a tablet.
"For that," he said, pointing at my paralyzed arm. I popped the tablet in my mouth, and immediately, the feeling returned. Brilliant. I flexed my arm, and the Auror smiled, wiggling his eyebrows at me.
I took the sheet with my name."Acceptable. Huh."
"It's not so bad," the Auror said. "It's either Acceptable or Unacceptable, and I'm guessing you'd rather stick with your rating. Come on, you need to get to the final stage." I gaped at him, and he shrugged.
"Don't hex the messenger," he said, sticking his wand back into his pocket and clamping two hands on our shoulders. As we swirled into darkness, I felt a churning in my stomach that I'm not about to chalk up to motion sickness.
At around five P.M., we were standing behind a Boots Pharmacy outlet just off Kingsbridge, beside discarded shopping carts and cardboard boxes. Across the street is The Elderflower (closed for repairs), hopefully our way into the training center. Urquhart left us hours ago, and the passing of time was chipping away at any semblance of civility Malfoy and I have for each other. A noontime sandwich didn't do anything to improve our moods, as Malfoy was too busy grimacing at the ingredients. Apparently, he takes cheese with fruit, not bread.
"Are you sure this is it?" he said, eyeing the empty pub anxiously. He checked his watch. "We don't have time to go look for another possible entry point. This is our last chance."
"Positive." I replied.
"You said that about all the other bogus leads."
I chose to ignore that. If this is wrong, well, I'm going home. I crossed the street and pushed open The Elderflower's rotting front door. Wearily, we both readied our wands. In the gray light filtering through the pub's boarded-up windows, I saw Malfoy exhale, his breath scattering motes of dust.
I fought the urge to run out as a piercing shriek sounded across the place. The banshees advanced toward us with skeletal hands outstretched, eerie voices like needles to my ears. My throat tightened, and air came into my lungs in gasps. Malfoy took over. He waved his wand and Spellotaped their mouths shut. The banshees started morphing. "Your turn," Malfoy said, closing his eyes, his knuckles white as he grasped the back of a chair.
An army of spiders fell upon chairs and tables, into goblets, on the chandeliers, and across the floor. Millions of hairy limbs scuttling towards us, making little shuffling noises. It was disgusting, and I get why he hates the creatures. I jinxed the legs off and the spiders knocked into each other like black walnuts.
A fire, a mass of snakes, a colony of doxies—several incarnations and one particularly vengeful Riddikulus later, the boggarts were reduced to wisps of white smoke. I collapsed against the bar counter. Soon afterwards, we dropped to our hands and knees, crawling under the tables, peering through holes. Behind grimy wine bottles, I found it—a plastic vase decorated with overlapping leaves. Gingerly, I lifted the vase and set it on the counter. We held it by the mouth and waited.
With a sleeve, I wiped the sweat off my forehead. "I can't imagine this being another fake lead. I mean, we've checked about half of Urquhart's sheet already!"
"There's a big chance we'd be out on the street again," he said. "In any case, be prepared."
I remembered a feature about Malfoy Manor in Wizarding Homes Monthly, and the pictures that came with it. Among their gilded furniture and their heirloom pieces, Malfoy was photographed with his mother and father, all haughty-looking in designer robes from France or someplace fancy. And then there's this guy, who was covered in soot, dressed in Muggle clothing, and frankly, reeked the way someone would when they've been sweating under the sun all day. I was about to ask him what he's doing, testing to be an Auror, when I felt a familiar tugging at my navel. "Here we go," I yelled, the dank gloom of The Elderflower blurring all around me.
My face slammed against concrete, and I felt the vase skid a few inches away. A throbbing pain started between my eyes and bloomed down my face. Wish I had one of Urquhart's super pain killers right now. Beside me, Malfoy curled up, clutching at his stomach. I looked up, expecting Boots and its trash bins, but instead I found myself facing several pairs of shoes. With feet—took me a couple of seconds to realize that the shoes had feet, and that the feet were connected to people. Who were staring down at us. I opened my mouth to speak, but all that came out was a gurgle of pain.
"Good of you to join us, Miss Weasley and Mister Malfoy," a voice said. I got up slowly and faced the speaker. By her voice, she was probably just a little older than me, but her square-framed spectacles made her look more grown up. She wore her shoulder-length brown hair in a ponytail, gold studs in each ear, and deep blue robes emblazoned with the crossed wand and quill of the Auror Instructors. Under the logo was a patch that read 'J.H. Tuttle.' She seems like the kind of person who can do fifteen things at once.
"I'm Instructor Joana Tuttle, and I'd like to welcome you to the Auror Training Division." She gestured at the people standing with her. "I was telling the other initiates that we're just waiting for any stragglers, like yourselves."
"We're the last to arrive?" Malfoy said.
"Among the last," Joana said, consulting a clipboard. "All true Portkeys will deactivate after the quota is reached." I looked around at the other initiates as Joana introduced them one by one. I couldn't remember all their names, but I recognized a few from school. Malfoy had already begun to chat up Kurt Pucey, who was a Beater for the Slytherin team, and a dark-haired witch whom I only knew by face.
"Hi! You're a Weasley, right?" a girl near me said. "Agnes Proudfoot," she thrust out her hand jauntily, and I took it. She came up to my ears and had wavy, sandy brown hair. Her hazel eyes almost disappeared under the fleshy apples of her cheeks, and she had a toothy grin. Her thick arms had a smattering of different-sized moles, and she was wearing a billowing floral sundress paired with brown galoshes. She reminded me of those round, smiling ladies on the labels of cookie tins.
"Rose Weasley. I think our fathers are workmates. Who are you partnered with?"
"Oh, yeah, I remember you from those Ministry galas. Wild! I got here with Lorcan Scamander, over there." She pointed at a lanky, long-haired boy reading in one corner. "We're next door neighbors, so we go way back. Arrived a couple minutes before you, and we came from a public ladies' room in some kind of shopping district. Anyway, thank Merlin we all grabbed a sensible Portkey, right? I'd have hated to go home not being a proper Auror trainee. My brothers would'a teased me to no end. "
"Good to see you, Misters Wood and Dawlish. You make numbers nineteen and twenty," Joana said, and we turned to see a couple of boys sprawled on the floor, looking dazed. Connor, whose family occasionally comes over, is an old friend. His father's a spectacular Quidditch player for Puddlemere United. Lionel I don't speak to much, but he's in Gryffindor with Connor and I.
Joana instructed us to fall in line. Now that I had my bearings, I looked around to see that we were in a courtyard of some sort, with thorny rosebushes and wild hedges, and a stone rampart looming ahead. "The Tower," Joana said, sweeping a hand at the structure. She marched us through the wall's colossal wooden doors, which opened as we approached. "This is where the demonstrations, drills, and lectures take place. There are also living quarters for students, a couple of bookstores, lots of places to eat, an infirmary, a complex for independent training, and facilities for recreation and rest."
The Tower looked more like a walled city than a tower. It was several football stadiums across, with buildings, houses, patches of gardens, a Quidditch pitch, and even a small park with boys and girls milling about. Some of them carried books, some were chatting, and others were trying out spells on their friends. "Levels 2 and 3 initiates," Joana said. She acknowledged a couple of students who waved at her.
"This way, Level 1," she called out to our group. She led us into the lobby of one of the buildings. I sneaked a look at Malfoy, who seemed to be hanging on to everything that tall witch was telling him. Since we got here, he never once did so much as look at me. I knew this would happen, but I wish he'd be warmer. I mean, I know what he's afraid of—that has to count for something, right?
I realized I had been staring for quite some time, because when I caught Agnes' eye, she gave me a thumbs down and pretended to barf.
"Don't get ideas," I said.
Joana cleared her throat. "You will be housed here with the other Level 1 sections. There are five sections for each Level. Within the next couple of days, the building will fill up with the rest of the students, some coming from other parts of the world just to train with our Ministry." At the last sentence, she seemed to glow with pride.
She started handing around sheets of paper. "That's your class schedule, and your dorm room number. Term officially starts September 1. You can shop for requirements at the Tower Alley, we're pretty well stocked. But if you wish to get your supplies elsewhere, or want to visit your families, just inform the Administration. In the morning, you may retrieve your personal effects from your respective homes. For now, please use the night shirts and toiletries available in your rooms." She grinned at us. "Aurors often remember Training as the best days of their lives. Hope it's the same for all of you."
Joana waved good bye and exited the Level 1 dorms. We initiates looked at each other uncertainly, until people started talking all at once and going up to their dorm rooms. "Agnes, where'll you be?" I said above the din.
"One twenty-one," she said. My heart swelled with relief; I'd hate to room with someone I haven't spoken to. We climbed to the second floor, where we found a door with our names on the plates. Two other plates were there, right under ours, both blank.
"Do you think we'd be rooming with weirdos or something?" I said as I pushed my wandtip on the pad under the doorknob.
"I hope not," Agnes said, as I swung our door open.
The walls were bare, save for a large rectangular window on one end. Each corner of the room had empty shelves, a cabinet, and a bed with identical dark blue sheets. On the pillows were the promised toiletries and change of clothes. We grabbed these and made a beeline for the lavatories. Back in the room, as soon as her head hit the mattress, Agnes started snoring. I stared at the shadows on our ceiling for a long time before drifting into a dreamless sleep.
Thanks for reading. Reviews and constructive criticism are very much appreciated. Hope to update soon~