Chapter 16: Ron, the Rookie

Ron gloomily stared down at the Auror Registration Form.

Watching his friend as he circled the kitchen table, Harry chuckled. "It's not going to fill out itself, mate, no matter how much you stare at it."

At this, Ron's blue eyes suddenly brightened and he reached for his wand. Harry caught his wrist.

"OK, poor choice of words. Nice try, though. Even if you did attempt to fill it out with magic, though, it would only complete so much."

Ron's shoulders slumped and he scrunched down into his seat. For the umpteenth time, he muttered, "I wish Hermione was here."

"If she were, you'd be more intent on snogging her than filling out this form!" Harry tapped the parchment with emphasis. "The registration form isn't hard, Ron; it's just long and detailed."

He regretted that he hadn't gotten Ron started on completing the form weeks ago, back in July following the return from Australia. But now, there wasn't a more perfect time for it, as for once, the house was quiet: George was off to work at the joke shop, having found his own rhythm once again. Percy and Audrey wouldn't be due back from their honeymoon in the Bahamas for a couple of days yet, whereupon the newlyweds would be intent on shopping for a flat, using the Burrow as a home base. Their girls were safely back at Hogwarts, and had been for nearly a week. Punctual as ever, Hermione had already written her boyfriend a letter via owl post, but the missive of love and pining had almost been the opposite of the pick-me-up the beautiful brunette witch had surely intended, leaving Ron more heartsick for her than ever. Harry sighed. If only he could get Ron to focus…

"Why do they need to know my financial assets anyway?" Ron fumed. "I don't have any financial assets!"

Harry smirked, even though the allusion to the fact that they were each young and broke was far from funny. "You'll have to inventory your family's assets. That's what I had to do."

At this, Ron snapped his head up and he blanched. "You mean…. go to my folks' vault? At Gringotts?" He clearly remembered the last time they had visited there.

Harry nodded, gathering his traveling cloak. "Well, it'll get us both out of the house at any rate, plus you can tell your girl that we're being productive! Come along, wanker, spit spot!"

They headed to Diagon Alley, and the imposing wizarding bank at the end of the street. On the way, Harry and Ron peeked into Knockturn Alley; from the top of the thoroughfare, they could see Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, just in time to spot a tall, dark and statuesque woman slipping out the front door. From this distance and from the back, Harry couldn't tell, but….

"I think that's Angelina Johnson," Ron observed. He smirked a bit. "I hear she's been popping round because she's seeing Lee Jordan."

Harry let out a chortle of surprise. "I bet Lee just is thrilled about that!" The former Quidditch match caller had held a torch for the exotic Gryffindor Chaser for much of their time at Hogwarts. A beat, and then he glanced to Ron, bemused. "Where'd you hear that, anyway?"

Ron shrugged. "Just a rumor. Though it might have started with Dean Thomas." Harry nodded absently, as the pair climbed the marble steps up towards the bank.

In the lobby, they happened to bump into Fleur, who greeted them warmly and with French kisses on both cheeks. After quickly explaining the situation, she was only too happy to help her brother-in-law, even giving Ron and Harry a grand tour on their way to the mining carts.

Harry was glad for Ron's sake this mine cart ride would be far less awkward than the one he had traversed back in the summer. As they passed under an imposing stone canopy, sunlight flickered down and Fleur tilted her head back:

"Ze repairs are going nicely following ze break-out."

Drat. He had thought too soon, as Fleur nearly turned all the way around in her seat ahead of them to give Harry and Ron an amused, almost knowing look. "You boys wouldn't 'appen to know anyzing about that, would you?"

Harry and Ron just gave her far-too-strained smiles and shook their heads. Fleur's musical twittering of a laugh echoed all the way to the vaults.

Arriving at the Weasley family vault, Harry let the siblings-in-law go in alone and even turned his back to the open door of the safe, out of respect. He recalled, back when he had been a little boy, accompanying Mrs. Weasley here and the haste with which she had gathered up almost the entirety of their interest. How sorry he had felt for her, and the family that had taken him in.

Fleur left them off in the lobby once everything was sorted. Once again, she kissed her brother-in-law (and likely future brother-in-law in Harry) on both cheeks farewell.

"Good luck, Ronald. Stop in for lunch sometime! Bill would just love it!"

"Cheers, Fleur!" As the men stepped out into the late-summer sunshine, Ron dipped his voice low to hiss: "I'm not coming back until I have assurances that that bloody hole in the ceiling has been covered up!"

Harry threw back his head and hooted all the way up Diagon Alley.

The process was long and tedious, and it took some eleventh-hour cramming, but Ron got his Auror Registration Form into the Department with less than a day to spare before the deadline, otherwise he would have needed to have his consideration roll over into next season.

Just the same, Harry thought as he and Ron pulled on their jumpsuits in the locker room, perhaps it would have been better to fall short and have Ron's registration lapse. After three months already on the clock, the Boy Who Lived knew that Auror training was no picnic.

So it came as almost a shock when Ron actually managed to keep up with the other recruits.

There were three seasons of cadets, depending on when one had registered: spring, summer and fall. Harry and Neville were already in the second level with their peers who had lasted the humid summer months, so the Chosen One had a good vantage point of how his best mate was faring with the fall division.

Ron had shed most of his Quidditch playing weight on their hunt for the Horcruxes, and what he hadn't managed to keep off, he had gained much of back.

To Harry's pleasant surprise, what weight Ron had regained had returned in the form of sheer muscle.

As both Harry and Neville watched in disbelief, Ron was the first to traverse over a grueling, sheer vertical slab of wood known simply as The Wall. No other new recruit even came close to his time.

Neville leaned into Harry, muttering. "My, my, Hermione must be pleased with the work-out our Ron gives her in bed…."

"Get on!" Harry nudged him aside, though he too was grinning saucily.

Ron moved through the ranks very quickly. It pleased Harry that his best mate was seeing so much success on his own merits, and not just because he was tight with the great Harry Potter. Though in truth, Harry wasn't sure how much sway he could have wielded on Ron's behalf, even if he had needed to. Here, he was just another prospective trainee, and there was something about bootcamp that proved to be the greatest of equalizers.

Before long, Ron had passed through the first level in record time and was suddenly training with the likes of Neville, Harry and Seamus Finnegan in the Summers group.

"Jolly good exercise, inn'it?!" the redhead cheerfully observed. He was still bouncy and gay returning home in the evenings, whereas Harry couldn't help but feel sore. Rested, refreshed and returned from her honeymoon, the new Mrs. Audrey Weasley noticed and tried to bolster Harry's confidence.

"He's happy…. don't let it get you down, mate." Harry tried his best for a smile. Audrey was lovely, and Merlin knew her heart was in the right place. He wondered if this was what it felt like to have a big sister.

In her letters to Ron, Hermione was expressing how proud she was of her beau and for how well he was taking to training. As for Harry, Ginny's missives to him were more perfunctory: to the surprise of absolutely no one, his girl had been made Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, and she reported on how Luna had actually managed to snag a coveted Chaser spot on the Ravenclaw squad, compliments of their Captain, Anthony Goldstein. Ron was thrilled when he heard this:

"Now there's a clever bird! I'm pleased as punch for Lu!"

"Ginny's not," Harry grunted, scanning the bit of parchment over their breakfast cereal. "Well, she's trying to be, but she's worried about who the hell they're going to get to call the matches now!"

The training continued, and by the time October had settled in, the group of trainees known as the Summers were greeted with a true challenge:

They were being called up to shadow a group of fully-fledged Aurors on their first mission.

The mission in question was what was known as a Contain-and-Extract, to those up on the latest Auror lingo. The raid was to happen at night, so Harry and Ron hung back following another grueling bootcamp session.

"What do you reckon?" Ron was practically gyrating in his chair with excitement. "Going after some Death Eater numpties we missed?" Harry rolled out a crick in his neck and tried his best not to glare at Ron's exuberance.

"OI! If you bounce on our Hermione half as much as you are right now, I'd wager you and she break the damn bed!" Seamus crowed, as he and Neville sidled up next to them.

Ron turned as red as his hair. "Shut up, Seamus."

A hush fell over the crowd of trainees as Gawain Robards, the Head Auror himself, suddenly swept into the briefing room.

"Good evening, you lovely people!" he called, with a tone bordering on light sarcasm. "Now, if you have read your briefing materials correctly, this is a classic Contain-and-Extract…. We received a call-in via Patronus earlier this evening regarding a werewolf sighting…" Robards paused impressively, allowing himself an eye-roll of almost dramatic timing. "Or, as some of you young, politically correct tykes would have it, lycanthrope. All right: there will be seven of you shadowing some of our Department's finest. Pace to the front when I call your name. Longbottom!"

Neville looked shocked but immensely proud when he was the first one called up. Both Seamus and Ron quickly followed. Ernie McMillan, a Hufflepuff from their year, was also in. Harry started to feel nervous that he wouldn't get to go, but the seventh name called was his.

Within hours, Harry found himself encamped with real Aurors and several of his friends out in the Forest of Dean.

The moon was high in the sky, and full. Next to Harry, Ernie McMillan shivered in the night chill, which if nothing else heralded a nippy autumn to come.

"How are we supposed to track this…. blooming….?"

The answer itself cut him off, as a great howl now pierced the wind.

"There she blows, boys!" Robards hollered. "Let's round her up!"

Harry found himself huffing and puffing as he pushed himself to the breaking point of his endurance in order to keep up with Robards, the Aurors and his fellow trainees. Just ahead of them, he could hear crashing and trashing through the underbrush, and he plunged into the thicket after the loose lycanthrope. Emerging into a moonlit clearing, he watched as the Aurors encircled the werewolf, forming a perimeter. Next to him, Ernie McMillan held back. Seamus and Neville weren't so reticent, clearly calling on their experience helping Ron take down Fenrir Greyback during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Speaking of Ron….

Harry saw his best mate's crop of red hair catch the moonlight as he edged in towards the snarling and threatened werewolf. There was a depth to his blue eyes that left Harry feeling curious, wondering just what his best mate was up to.

"Stop…. Everybody STOP!" The hubbub ground to a halt and Ron continued to edge forward, towards the snarling, snapping beast.

"Weasley! The sodding hell are you doing? Are you barking….?!" Harry had a feeling that if Robards could have yelled, he would have. As it was, the Head Auror was hissing in a strained whisper, angry at what he judged to be Ron not following the plan, if not outright disobeying direct orders.

"I know this… lycanthrope!" Ron lifted his voice slightly. A hush ensued.

"What's he bloody doing?" Ernie hissed. Harry just shook his head, spellbound.

To everyone's disbelief, Ron actually managed to creep nearer until he was directly in front of the werewolf. He even knelt before her, extending a trembling hand until he actually touched its muzzle.

Only once before had Harry ever witnessed anyone get anywhere near as close to a werewolf as Ron was now – not even. He thought back to third year, with Hermione, trying to talk down a transformed Lupin….

"Lav?"

Harry jerked, and his green eyes widened, zeroing in on the werewolf, and Ron speaking a name.

Ron stroked the snout of the werewolf, who was actually beginning to calm. "It's me, Lav…." and emotion appeared to be choking his voice. "I'm here, love…. We're going to get you some help…."

Partway around the circle ring, Robards was frozen everywhere except for his head, which now actually turned to Harry on a swivel.

"Potter! Can't you get your best mate to….?"

Harry shook his head. "When Ron has good instincts, I've always found it best to just follow them." He caught Ron glancing to him gratefully.

There the extraction party sat for more than an hour, until flecks of grey heralding dawn began to lighten the landscape around them. As sunrise proper arrived, Harry and the others watched as, after a series of blinding flashes of light, a statuesque and naked Lavender Brown reappeared in her human form.

Her gaze fell on the redhead before her, and she might have even whispered something aloud before she was swooning into Ron's arms.

Ernie whistled. "Got a free floor show for his trouble, didn't he?"

Harry elbowed the Hufflepuff in the arm.

Lavender was quickly taken to wizarding hospital, and sedated for her own safety. Out in the waiting room, Harry observed Robards making a full report to his superiors in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The Boy Who Lived wasn't sure how Robards would have handled Lavender or brought her in, but he had a feeling it wouldn't have ended as peacefully as it had, thanks to Ron's intervention.

Bill was right: lycanthrope reform was badly needed.

A few paces away, Ron was kneeling in front of an ethereal-looking Yorkshire Terrier, speaking quietly to it. A Patronus message, likely to Hermione. Sending it off, he glanced up and caught Harry watching him.

"Hermione will be up by now. Besides, she'll want to know."

Harry nodded, and sauntered over. "Being pre-emptively honest, are we, lad? I reckon I wouldn't want to hide from Ginny how I spent the night seeing my ex naked!"

Ron scowled, though it lacked any bite. "Did you ruddy ever even see Cho Chang naked?"

Harry walloped him in the bicep.

"Weasley! – a word?" Robards suddenly appeared next to them. Harry nodded and deferentially stepped back, though he kept a close watch on how Robards now turned Ron away and was speaking to him earnestly. Harry hoped for his best mate's sake that he wasn't getting chewed out.

So the little that he did manage to overhear surprised him:

"Weasley, I've gotta hand it to you! Not many trainees would have been mad enough to do what you did. I reckon we could use a man of your skills. How would you like to help with a complete overhaul of our Werewolf Containment policies?"

"Too right!" Ron's entire face lit up, beaming. "My best girl's been working to get lycanthrope reform legislation passed! Wait till I tell her!" He grinned back at Harry, who nodded back, trying to act thrilled.

However, inside, Harry couldn't help but also feel a little…

…. Jealous.