Chapter 7 : Auror Headquarters

Akira had never been to the Ministry of Magic as she never had any reason to do so. Therefore, she discovered a whole new universe when Moody took her there on the second day of the Christmas holidays.

Whether it was the broken-down telephone box you had to take to enter by going underground, the gigantic hall crowded with an innumerable number of wizards who had travelled by the chimneys on the left side to come in or the twenty lifts which provided access to very specific departments, everything was impressive for someone who is visiting the Ministry for the first time.

The place was also labyrinthine for any newcomer, like Hogwarts when Akira started her first year of school there. Fortunately, she could count on Moody who was able to guide her with a sure step as he had been around the place for more than twenty years of career. Nevertheless, she almost got lost several times as she was regularly slowing her pace to contemplate what was around her.

"Constant vigilance ! An Auror isn't allowed to get distracted in a new environment. It could be deadly." Moody advised her to bring her out of her reverie.

Akira would have liked to follow this advice but after only a few minutes of wandering around the building, she would again stay behind to do some sightseeing.

However, the visit was limited to the Auror Office because Akira was there to join it. This department nevertheless promised its share of adventure, especially if it was made up of Aurors who weren't afraid of anything to stop the Dark Arts.

This task was more complicated than that as Moody gave Akira a brief explanation of what an Auror was and what his days consisted of. The job was hard, required lot of skills and also being able to work under stressful conditions.

"It's not for the weak ones." Moody commented as they were reaching the Auror Office which consisted in a large room on the second floor made up of offices separated into open cubicles.

And Akira was about to discover it for herself as Moody decided to get down to business immediately with her, without even introducing her to his colleagues who were working at their own tasks.

"Sit down." Moody ordered her while pointing to a spinning chair which was behind his own desk covered with magical objects of all kinds including several Sneakoscopes which Akira recognized for having already seen one.

Akira pulled the chair towards her and sat down while Moody came to stand in front of the desk to show her the different photos that were glued against the walls of his cubicle.

"They're all wanted wizards." He told her to her amazement as they were numerous. "They're unscrupulous assassins, manipulators or cowards who have joined the Dark Arts to save their skin. In short, they're dangerous for the wizarding community and our job as Aurors is to arrest them – or kill them if required - to get them judged and sent to Azkaban when deemed necessary. In my case, I take care of the files of all the people that you see on these walls. This is both office and field work. I seek information about them, about their misdeeds, then I track them down and capture them if I've tangible evidence to do so. And you could help me with this last point, unless you want to simply listen what's being said in our department without being involved."

"No. I would like to participate if I've the opportunity." Akira replied while straightening up on her chair as she was curious about the task that Moody was about to give her.

"I've expected that. Only, what I'll give you to do must remain confidential as the wizards we're tracking are still wandering freely. No one should be informed of the investigations that we carry out on them. Understood ?"

"Of course." Akira answered immediately. "I won't say anything to anyone."

"You don't have the choice because as someone external to this department, we can't take the slightest risk. So I'm going to cast on you a Tongue-tying curse."

"The what curse ?" Akira wondered while frowning at this strange announcement.

"Don't worry. It's painless and without danger for anyone who manages to hold his tongue. And for those who can't, their tongue will simply curl on itself to prevent them from speaking. That's it."

"If I have to go through this to get an interesting activity to do, then why not." Akira replied before swallowing hard at the prospect of receiving such a spell.

"Good." Moody added before taking out his magic wand which he pointed at her.

Akira had the reflex to move back a bit with her chair before closing her eyes. She only opened them again when the cold air flow that she received in the face dissipated itself as Moody was already putting his wand back in his pocket. This act didn't go unnoticed by some of his colleagues who briefly lifted their head from their work to see what was going on. But none of them intervened, except for a young Auror that Akira knew well after getting her as a Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor the previous year at Hogwarts.

"What's going on here ? I thought that we weren't allowed to cast spells in the office area." Olhrom said cheerfully once she reached their level. "And why do we have a new recruit that looks so young ?" She added while giving Akira a brief wink as she recognized her as one of her former students.

"You should have paid more attention to the last Thursday's meeting. It was mentioned that we would be eventually welcoming a Hogwarts student during the Christmas holidays." Moody grumbled as he was visibly upset that Olhrom had come to bother them.

"I probably dozed off during this passage. These meetings are so long." Olhrom complained before turning towards Akira. "If you're here for several days, I have to take you to my Stealth and Tracking class for beginners that I teach. This should interest you."

"So you finally managed to become an Auror trainer ?" Akira asked her after remembering that Olhrom mentioned during her time at Hogwarts this ambition which was her dream career.

"Yes but being a newbie Auror, I can only teach the apprentice Aurors who just finished their studies at Hogwarts. And my lessons are still monitored by an experienced trainer but otherwise…" Olhrom explained with some pride in her voice before being interrupted by Moody.

"You'll talk about your life later. In the meantime, I must tell Miss Chitsute about the task that I would like to give her."

"Fine. I'm leaving." Olhrom replied while taking a few steps to the side. "But if you ever get bored or don't want to have Moody as a mentor anymore, you can always come find me. I would be happy to teach you a few things."

Then she quickly left before Moody could tell her anything else. The latter turned towards Akira to continue his explanations but a second person that she also knew appeared at the same time.

"Well, well, well. I never thought I would find you at my working place." Tolfius told Akira dryly after stopping next to them as he was crossing the Auror Office. "Especially after you left me alone at Hogwarts when I had the task to look over you. I would still be there, wandering like an idiot, if it wasn't for Dumbledore who finally told me that you were in London."

"If you've nothing more to say than mentioning your lamentable failure, you should go back to your business while we go back to ours !" Moody snapped at him.

"Hey. Don't be so harsh. We've the right to discuss between office neighbours. After all, my division on the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts is right next door." Tolfius pointed out while indicating with his index finger a wooden door that was at the end of the Auror Office. "And you're not the only one who has a lot of work. Arthur and I are working on a case of cursed pocket trays that were sold to Muggles. Apparently, what they put in it disappears to reappear at the home of the unscrupulous wizard who sold these objects. We still don't know what was his real intentions but he got enough keys of all kinds to open a shop."

"If he knows where his victims live, he can open the house door with the right key and rob them without using any spells." Akira guessed.

"That's a possibility." Tolfius agreed with a smile as he seemed to consider Akira suggestion. "You should help us on that case. Being a Muggle-born, you could spot things that Arthur and I don't."

"That's not what was planned so go find yourself another assistant." Moody advised him in a threatening tone that worried Tolfius.

"I better go. As I just said, I'm overloaded with work." The latter justified in a small voice before striding towards the door leading to his office.

"Before my nosy colleagues disturbed us again, I better tell you what I expect from you." Moody announced to Akira while scanning the surroundings with his magic eye to spot any new troublemaker who would eventually bother them. "I'll give you access to the files of each criminal that you see on the photos in my cubicle. I complete these files myself with information but I'm lacking of time to highlight or make connections between important details. I therefore authorize you to perform this task."

"That's all ?" Akira wondered after a few seconds of silence. "You just want me to reread your notes to give you a summary ? I won't participate in collecting this information, or in the arrest of suspects ?"

"Negative. Reading and reporting are already enough. If we give you more to do, we'll put your safety or the one of others at risk and we don't want anyone to get killed."

"Okay." Akira quickly responded before Moody changed his mind and no longer involved her at all in his missions. "So, when do I start ?"

"Right away" was Moody's response. He then reached a cupboard with drawers that had no handle. They were perfectly smooth and to open them, Moody had to cast spells that he didn't formulate aloud. He did so on the second drawer and took out a file from it that he then threw on his desk, in front of Akira who had approached with her chair.

According to Moody, this file was a fairly simple case so Akira could get the hang of it. It was talking about a certain Mundungus Fletcher who was reselling various illegal objects fraudulently. It was punishable by law but not really related to Dark Arts so his case was pending.

However, the next cases that Moody gave to Akira turned out to be closer to the criminals that Moody would send to Azkaban. Some files could even be downright gory, with cases of victims' corpses being mutilated or found after several days of decomposition. Any fourteen-years-old student would be shocked to hear – and sometimes see as photos were attached to the file – about such awful things but not Akira. And Moody was aware of it as he told her that Dumbledore had informed him that she was working in a hospital during her free time where it wasn't pretty every day.

Moody advised her about what he was looking for as relevant information and once he got sure that Akira had understood her job, he would let her work while he was performing his own tasks, like going on the field to investigate and collect more things to put in the files. Therefore, Akira regularly found herself on her own in the office as she didn't know any other Auror and Olhrom was spending lot of time teaching in her classroom.

This allowed Akira to truly immerse herself in the job of Aurors, even if she was convinced that going on the field would also have been very beneficial for her training. Indeed, by keeping her ears open here and there, she could hear what Moody's colleagues were working on. And according to them, the task was hard as the Dark Arts were everywhere, omnipresent in the wizarding world and even in the one of Muggles. Much more than the students of Hogwarts could imagine as they were staying safely behind the walls of their school. It was the Aurors who were on the front line to protect them from all dangers. Akira learnt it from Kingsley Shacklebolt – a bald black wizard with a gold hoop earring – who had been kind enough to explain to her patiently what was going on around Hogwarts after Akira had heard him talk about the school on several occasions.

Shacklebolt was one of the few Aurors in the office to see Akira as a person who had the right to know what was really going on in the wizarding world instead of a young student who couldn't understand the threat that was on their head.

The other Auror who was taking Akira seriously was Olhrom. The latter was ready to train Akira like the apprentice Aurors that she was supervising. Whenever Moody wasn't around – that's to say frequently – she would drag Akira to the rooms where a class was taking place. Akira, however, didn't have the right to really take part to the lesson. She could just stay at the back of the classroom to listen but that was enough to learn more about Dark Arts and spells to counter them than in four years of Defence Against the Dark Arts classes.

All these activities made Akira completely forget about Christmas and New Year. The Aurors around her weren't also really in the mood to celebrate, with all the dark events that they had to deal with. At most, a tiny decorated tree appeared on a cupboard on Christmas day and Tolfius - with the help of his colleague Arthur Weasley, a young red hair wizard with green eyes hidden behind glasses - set off fireworks that they confiscated during one of their raids for the New Year. However, they should have read more attentively the warnings written on the fireworks as they were Muggle ones. Indeed, contrary to the magical fireworks that you can light in a room as they don't produce any heat, the latters were producing real flames when they exploded. Fortunately, nobody in the Auror Office got burned as everyone managed to protect themselves with Shield Charms – Shacklebolt even saved Akira by casting one in front of her – but some papers didn't get this chance. They were reduced to ashes and Tolfius as well as Weasley had to leave the office for the day as several Aurors were mad at them.

The days then flew by until reaching the end of the Christmas holidays and Akira didn't really know what she wanted to do after. Return to Hogwarts ? She still wasn't fond of continuing her studies there. Get to Konoha ? Not really as she was wondering if she would be fit to kill the one responsible for Matsuo and Tatsuno death while a horde of battle-hardened Aurors struggled to deal with some recalcitrant wizards. Ultimately, remaining as an intern in the Auror department seemed very tempting to her. But she already knew what Moody's answer on the subject would be, namely "Negative".

Her future was more than uncertain so it was slightly grumpy that Akira arrived at the office on Friday which represented her penultimate day at the Ministry. And for the first time since she was there, the Auror Office was completely empty. Indeed, those in training were in their classrooms while the other Aurors were all gone on the field or in holidays.

Akira was the only one to occupy the room once Moody left for Knockturn Alley after giving her a file. It was really tempting to fool around while everyone was away but Akira wasn't in the mood to do so. Instead, she sat at Moody's desk and read what the latter had given her. It was the file of a certain Fenrir Greyback, of whom no one could really tell whether he was a wizard or not as he was claiming to be a simple Muggle tramp. But suggestions were made that he was indeed a wizard and even a werewolf.

Akira was so fascinated by this entertaining case that she didn't immediately realize that someone had ventured into the Auror Office. It was only when she heard drawers being slammed shut that she looked up to see who was making all this noise. She then spotted a man that she had never met before. He was tall, had shoulder-length black hair tending to grey and his pale eyes darted from one desk to another as he seemed to be searching for something.

Akira thought that it was just an employee of the Ministry and was about to resume her reading when the newcomer startled at seeing her while putting an end to his search. His face indicated that he was surprised by her presence – this was understandable since fourteen-years-old Hogwarts students weren't admitted in this office normally – but it rapidly changed to display an angry look as he was coming at her level.

"What are you doing here ?" He asked her harshly. "This place isn't a daycare for children."

"Alastor Moody gave me permission to be here." Akira replied defensively. "And you, what are you doing here as I never saw you in this office before ?"

"What do you have there ?" The newcomer asked her instead of answering to her question as his eyes were focused on what Akira was reading. "Could it be one of the files of the wizards that Moody is tracking down ? It turns out that I was looking for a few of them. If you could tell me where Moody is keeping these files. I wouldn't want to disturb him for so little." He added in a much more pleasant tone.

Akira was torn between saying nothing to this stranger or responding to his request as he seemed to be an employee of the Ministry who knew on what Moody was working. However, at this thought, she felt her tongue curl in her mouth and she remembered the spell that Moody had cast on her so that she would reveal nothing about the cases that she was examining. It was surely a warning as this man seemed rather suspicious.

"So ? Where are they ?" He added with a certain impatience at her silence.

"I don't have the slightest idea." Akira lied as she knew indeed the cupboard in which Moody was keeping the files and that was kept locked by spells.

"I don't believe you." The man replied while advancing towards her with a threatening look. "I'm an Unspeakable myself who works in the Department of Mysteries so I can recognize when someone is holding his tongue. So you're going to tell me where these files are otherwise..."

"Otherwise what ?" A voice intervened which startled Akira and the man who had been caught up in their conversation.

It was Tolfius who had just left his office. He walked towards Akira and stood at her side, facing the newcomer who seemed annoyed by his arrival.

"If you want a file belonging to Moody, all you have to do is contact him directly, Rookwood. And not asking Miss Chitsute about it."

"You don't have to tell me what to do, Tolfius. And even less come to hinder my work." The man called Rookwood replied.

"Your job has never consisted in poking your nose into Auror files, so move on." Tolfius recommended to his colleague who wasn't impressing him in the least.

"You neither, so go back to your Muggle objects." Rookwood said with disdain.

He then turned on his heels and left the room without even greeting them.

"Quite a character, this Rookwood. Always meddling in things that don't concern him. It must surely be a professional deformation with his post in the Department of Mysteries." Tolfius commented while shaking his head. "At least, it taught you an important lesson. Never let your guard down. A good Auror is suspicious of everyone, even his colleagues. Well, after being around Moody for almost two weeks, I think that you've already learned this lesson."


Happy New Year everyone (with a bit of delay) !

I hope that you celebrate the transition to the new year properly. That wasn't really the case for Akira this time as she was too focused on her new job. A desk job but which was quite interesting, especially to know which wizards to avoid in the future based on their mischief summed up by Moody in a file. I don't know if I would have the courage to go on the field like the brave Aurors but I would definitely have no problem doing some paperwork that could help them.

However, I wouldn't like to work with this Rookwood. Something seems... off with him, wandering in an empty office to get top-secret files. Hopefully, Tolfius was there to save the day and Akira. Let's hope that she won't have to cross his path again. But that's a story for an other day, more precisely one at the end of the month since it's at that time that I'll publish the next chapter.