The first day they had off from training, it was raining.

But, Tonks had promised Harry and Neville that they wouldn't be stuck in the flat the entire time they were there, so she forced them out.

Two French Aurors whose names she could not remember and who never said a word, followed them at a distance. It somehow made it all more uncomfortable, in Tonks' opinion. Now they just looked like two ill-dressed Muggles following a woman and two teenagers, but the other Muggles didn't seem to take notice so she supposed it didn't look too suspicious to anyone else.

They ended up back at the apartment by lunch, the rain becoming too annoying, and each spent the afternoon catching up on ignored letters and studying. Tonks read most of the letters but still couldn't find the energy to write to her mother.

Tonks began pouring over the Brutum information again, this time the list of known werewolf prisoners. Many names had a question mark next to them, as if whoever made this list wasn't sure those were the right names or perhaps wasn't sure those people were there at all.

Remus Lupin, 21

Barely out of Hogwarts, having just lost his four best friends, and he had become a prisoner.

When she was twenty one, she had been nearly done Auror training. She had never experienced any of the stuff he had by the time he was her age- even her current age. She had never had her friends die until Sirius and Alastor were lost. She had not lost friends to imprisonment, or been imprisoned simply because of what she was.

It made her sad, to think of the quiet, kind and generous man she knew- or, thought she knew- who had been mistreated so terribly for something he couldn't control. Maybe this was all why he was so quiet and isolated himself. He constantly lost everything, so why would he try? Why make friends or get close to anyone, when he had a history of losing them all?

Another name jumped out at her: Dominic Wiggleswade, 35. Dempster had mentioned a Dominic and insinuated Remus would know him, but she had not yet had the chance to ask Remus.

She wondered how or if Dominic and Dempster were related. Demmy had looked, to her anyway, to be in his 70s or 80s. She supposed, in 1981, he could have had a son that age. There was a strange cross drawn beside Dominic's name, that was also beside thirteen other werewolves on the list. Five others had the same mark followed by a question mark. Tonks flipped through more sheets of parchment, looking for the symbol, but she couldn't find it anywhere else except for on the lists of names. There were two on the list of giants, seventeen on the list of goblins, four on the list of centaurs, but the lists for the other creatures rumoured to have been housed there as well were completely blank.

There were other handwritten memos detailing various issues leading up to the November 11th full moon, mostly fights and a few deaths. There were four on the 11th itself.

Deceased werewolf male removed. Strangled.

Goblins attempted to breach their wards.

Wards have fallen, send help.

Riot broke out. Twelve Ministry officials dead in the first five minutes. Unit is requesting help.

She couldn't find a final death toll in any of the notes, or any information about the subsequent escapes.

But, she discovered, this was the event that derailed the Capture Unit- the Being and Beasts Divisions had to have someone take the hit and the Capture Unit, having had the most prisoners and being already known for being a notoriously violent department, seemed a good choice.

She wasn't sure why she felt the need to know about Brutum, or why she was allowing Remus to intrude her thoughts so constantly. The whole idea of going to Paris, divorcing him, was to get away from him and werewolves. Yet, she still let him invade her mind for most of the day. It was impossible not to, and she hoped that Petra would be caught soon.

Maybe she could repair their relationship if Petra was finally caught. Maybe. There was still a part of her that was truly hurt and angered by the fact Remus still hid so much from her. She knew it was a complicated situation but she wasn't sure how she could be with someone who kept secrets so easily.

She saw an owl swoop down onto the balcony out of the corner of her eye, dropping a letter and disappearing. Tonks went out and grabbed the letter, which was addressed to her.

She settled on the couch again, opening the package.

Auror Lupin,

Attached is the assignment I would like trainee Potter and Longbottom to complete before I arrive.

I would like a 500 word case study into what they believe the suspect's motive and methods are. There is also a list of suspects, I would like them to try and identify who it is.

They can work together and will present their findings to me when I arrive, after I run a physical assessment on them.

You and I will need to have a meeting.

See you in two weeks,

Head Auror Dawlish

The package attached was thick and she scanned through it quickly. It was a very old case, from Kingsley's early days as an Auror. It was not a case she knew of, likely so she couldn't give them any answers. She stood again, taking it to where they were studying.

"Dawlish sent your assignment, he wants a 500 word case study about the motive, method and identity of the suspect. He'll be here in two weeks, I assume he'll tell us what day when he knows." She said, putting the files down. "He'll also be running a physical assessment. So after your Apparition tests tomorrow, we'll look at the different assessments and hopefully get you prepared. Are you sure you two feel comfortable Apparating? We could go in early tomorrow to practice."

"I think I've got it." Neville said, and Harry nodded in agreement. "When do we have to learn Side Along?"

"We'll work on it after you pass the test." Tonks said. "It's very easy, so don't worry too much."

The next day, during their tests, Tonks and Larry looked through the assessments and figured, out of all of them, Dawlish would likely start with something small and simple. A practice raid, perhaps. She had been tested with one during her training, nearly failing when her clumsiness got the better of her and she nearly gave away her position to the Auror pretending to be a Dark Wizard. Luckily, the Auror had also pretended he didn't see her slip and she was able to pass.

They decided that she would go over healing and more raid protocols, just to prepare them. Larry was being sent on a short mission, so they would be alone for the next week.

"Don't waste your time healing small wounds. Scrapes and bruises will happen every day and there is no point wasting your time and energy to fix them." Tonks said. "These spells are for the more damaging injuries- injuries that will incapacitate you, broken bones, stab wounds, head injuries... of course, depending on severity. If an Auror falls unconscious or is severely incapacitated, they are priority. They must be shielded until evacuation can happen. However, not at risk of yourself. If things gets too dire, sometimes they will be left behind if it is deemed too deadly to shield them."

"Has that ever happened, to you?" Harry asked. "That an Auror gets left behind?"

"It's rare, we usually don't have to leave someone and can split the task force up to have someone shield the injured but it did happen once when I was working a raid shortly after the Quidditch Cup. The suspect tried to smoke us out so they could escape and the fire spread extremely fast, since he used Fiendfyre. Two Aurors had to be left behind in order for the other six of us to get out. One was already dead. One was still conscious but was trapped, freeing him would have taken us too long and put all of us at risk. He called the evacuation." Tonks explained. "Obviously, it's not ideal, but Fiendfyre has to burn itself out and we wouldn't have been able to escape otherwise. Aurors are taught how to use the Killing Curse on themselves for incidents like this. If we can't escape, it gives us a painless exit."

"Someone could do that? I thought our wands couldn't turn on us." Neville said.

"They won't usually, but if your will is strong enough, it will work. Obviously, there's no way to practice it so we go through the training from a specialist, and hope it works if we need it. I have a hard time using the curse against anyone else so I don't think it will work for me, but I guess I won't know until I have to do it. It also alerts the Ministry to the location of your body, so we can recover it when it's safe. Again, not ideal, but things can get pretty bad, it's best if Aurors have the option."

"That won't come until much later, there is one wizard designated to training you for that." Tonks continued. "These healing spells are important to learn first. Especially wandlessly, there will be times you lose your wand."

"How many have you lost?" Harry asked, he was looking at his wand. She knew, from experience, the loss of the wand purchased at eleven hit on a deep emotional level- she hadn't felt so gutted about the others, but her first wand had left her feeling like she had lost a limb.

"Two during work and one at the battle. I did have two but now I only have one." Tonks said. "It's a pain to have to buy new wands, sometimes it takes an uncomfortable amount of time for a new one to choose you. The wand I have now, I bought it shortly before Ollivander went missing, it took nearly an hour to find one. Most Aurors will buy a spare, just so they don't have to make frequent trips to a wandmaker. So, maybe we should visit a wandmaker here and each get a spare, I lost my spare at the battle at Hogwarts and haven't replaced it. I'm fairly certain Bellatrix might have it."

"You can own more than one wand?" Harry asked. "I thought, because it has to choose you-"

"Oh, no, my Uncle had four." Neville said. "You could own as many as you wanted, in theory."

"Wandless magic is also extremely important, though. Some cultures don't even use wands, but since we all start out using wands, it takes practice to learn anything else." Tonks said. "So, I want you two to be able to cast Episkey wandlessly since healing broken bones is one of the most important things you can learn. Usually, Episkey is better for smaller breaks, but it will work on broken wrists and ankles. Broken bones will slow you down, so you will get a lot of them, because Dark Wizards want to escape. They don't generally want to be charged with murdering a Ministry official, they just want to escape. You'll get a few who want to kill, but most just want to run off and continue what they've been doing."

"Really? They're already going to Azkaban." Harry said. "What's the difference if they kill us too?"

"Different crimes carry different sentences." Tonks said. "Using Dark Magic to reanimate dead animals will get you a few years in Azkaban, killing the Auror sent to arrest you will get you The Kiss. Even maiming an Auror will increase the charges, but a lot of suspects are beyond the point of caring and sometimes, that's why we call Hit Wizards in. They'll take a lot more risks to arrest someone."

"Is it true they get their own beds at St Mungo's?" Harry asked.

Tonks nodded. "Most MLE officials will get priority at St Mungo's, but yes, they're the only ones with assigned beds." Tonks said. "I think they must be more willing to take risks because they'll hire anyone who reckons themselves brave enough. They don't have half the requirements Aurors do... I was actually offered a job there if I didn't get accepted as an Auror."

"Would you have taken it?" Neville asked. "They don't have very long careers."

"I think, fresh out of Hogwarts, I may have. All they ask is that you're seventeen, have enough OWLs, it would be an easy career for an Auror reject. If they asked me now, definitely not." Tonks said. "I like the investigation more. We do a lot of paperwork compared to the other departments, but that's a mild inconvenience. A lot of what we do is mild compared to Hit Wizards, we also get more mild injuries unless things go really bad."

"How often have you ended in St Mungo's?" Neville asked. "How bad did it get?"

"I only really did missions for a year and a half, so compared to other Aurors, not often. Three times for Auror missions, so far. One was just to check that I had healed my wand arm correctly, which is why it's really important to know how to use Episkey properly." She said. "Most people can manage small things with it, broken noses and toes and small wounds, but with enough practice, you can heal bigger injuries with it. There are other healing spells, but I believe in mastering a few spells instead of having a glancing knowledge of many. When you're in a tight spot, I find it's easier to think on your feet when you're not sorting through thousands of possibly helpful spells in your head. Another spell that will help you is Brackium Emendo, but I don't like that one because it can go wrong and-"

"Vanish your bones?" Harry offered.

"As you know, yes, and then you're in more trouble." She said. "There's also Reparifors, which can reverse a lot of magically induced injuries but again- if it's a mild enough injury that you can keep moving, it's pointless to heal it. If it's one that incapacitates you, it's more useful but it can take a few minutes to work and that's not time you always have. That's when you'd need a fellow Auror to cover you so you can heal yourself, or have them heal you, while remaining safe. Hopefully, though, things will settle down a bit and Aurors won't be dealing with what they were during the war."

"It would make the job familiar, though." Harry said.

Tonks laughed a bit. "Yes, keeping the same routine would be nice, wouldn't it?"