Here is the next chapter guys. I know some of you might want to see the love aspect more in the story, but the story is more about angst and so there will be this separation phase where Harry's personality evolves to live up to this story's name.
Though I plan for weekly updates and have been able to keep it up till now, I might not be able to do so in the future as next two months are pretty busy for me. I will still try to update as soon as possible though, but not in a rush as I don't want to compromise on story and write just for the sake of it. Even this chapter was finished yesterday and I was actually about to update then itself, but I found my writing unsatisfactory and rewrote major portion of this chapter.
Finally, I forgot to mention that though my education has been in English, it is not my first language. So pardon me for simple English and any grammatical mistakes. Though I could use some AI tool to write beautifully, it would not give me the satisfaction that I get by writing on my own.
Harry reached auror office on the next day at sharp 5:50 AM. He was so excited for this that he barely slept the last night and had very light breakfast only upon repeated insistence of Kreacher. He was given directions to a kind of seminar hall which could fit upto 50 people in it.
The hall was shaped like a semi circle with each row at a larger height than the previous row to ensure that people sitting at the back can see everything easily. He saw that three boys of slightly more age than him were already sitting at the front row in the left column. On seeing him, they started whispering among themselves while stealing glances at him. Harry didn't like this and it somehow reminded him of Draco Malfoy and his gang. He ignored them and went to sit in second row's middle column.
Within next 8 minutes, the hall quickly filled up with 40 more people. Even though everyone looked at Harry, no one dared approach and sit beside him due to the stoic expression on Harry's face. Harry didn't complain as he wanted to be alone and away from people as much as possible.
Just then, the door opened and a boy and a girl of roughly Harry's age entered. The boy was tall, with a well built body and hair longer than usual. The girl was beautiful, with blonde hair and captivating blue eyes. They strangely reminded him of Ron and Hermione.
The girl came and sat beside Harry and the boy sat to her left. "Hello! I am Ivanka Bell. Nice to meet you", beamed the girl while holding out a hand to him. Harry gave a weak smile while shaking her hand and was just saying "Hello Ivanka! I am Ha..." when the boy interrupted "We know you are Harry Potter! No need to introduce yourself. I am Sam Clearwater by the way". Just as Harry shook hands with Sam, the door opened again and a woman entered.
"Good morning everyone. I am Elizabeth Jennifer, head of the Auror office" said the woman in a high pitched voice. Harry noticed that she was wearing squared glasses and had a hard look on her face as if she has fought hundreds of battles.
"So you all have opted to become an auror and have joined as junior trainees. Though I appreciate your goal, I must caution you that even becoming an auror is not an easy task, forget about doing the job itself" she said with a serious look on her face.
"You will have to undergo almost 3 years of training, though the more determined ones have finished training early as well. The current record for that is 1 year and 7 months by the famous auror late Alastor Moody" said Jennifer.
Harry felt energized after hearing Mad Eye's name, but sad at the same time that he cannot meet Mad Eye again in this mortal world. I can't wait 3 years to finish training. I have to do this quickly so that I can round up death eaters, especially Bellatrix, before they can regroup, thought Harry.
"You have to complete all subjects that are part of your curriculum. Most of the subjects have two levels: beginner and advanced. Don't go by the name beginner, as even the beginner subjects here are more advanced than whatever you have studied during your schooling years. Every subject will have sufficient practical component because this all is going to be applied in the real world and not just taught for academic purposes. Consequently you need to clear a theoretical and a practical examination for each subject, which would be scheduled for you at your request. Every subject has content that can be completed in just a couple of months, but it never happens because no one understands them at a single go. So people take the same class multiple times or do self study till they understand. Going by general trends, each subject takes approximately one year to finish".
Harry was listening to all this with attention and making mental calculations on how long would he take to finish entire syllabus. "What most people do is to take only beginner subjects in the first iteration and finish them in one year. Then they take the remaining beginner subjects and some advanced subjects to finish in the second iteration. Rest of the subjects are left to finish in the third iteration. This is not necessary but it is what usually happens, so I just wanted to highlight".
"As you all know, our department has been severely affected in last couple of years due to the precursor to and eventual takeover of the ministry by You-know-who. There had been many casualties among our ranks. Some of us were even forced to work for him due to blackmails, threats to families and the use of imperius curse. But eventually the dark times are over and we have been able to recover quickly in the last couple of days. Still I must warn you: there is a high risk of death in this job. Many death eaters are still out there (though scattered and leaderless) who need to be captured, and any form of treachery to the ministry or revealing our secrets will earn you a lifetime in Azkaban without the possibility of parole. So, if anyone has second thoughts about joining this department, now is the best time to leave before you waste either your time or ours".
There was pin drop silence in the hall and no one in the hall was scared enough to run away from the dangers of the job. "Well looks like we got a brave batch this time. Let's proceed ahead then" she said and with a wave of her wand sent a booklet and a form to each student from the table infront of her.
"Each of you has been given a booklet that contains details of each and every subject. The form is to be filled by everyone after choosing the subjects to pick in first iteration and submitted at the academic desk after which each of you will receive their custom time table. You all have six hours to decide your subjects and fill the form. You can approach offices of faculty in case of doubts. As this is the first day, only half day classes would be there. All the best everyone, hope to see you all becoming great aurors!" she finished and left the hall.
There was murmuring all over the hall as trainees were talking with each other about what to do next. "Have you decided the subjects that you are going to take Iva?" asked Sam to the blonde. "No Sam, I am very confused now. I had asked my Dad about these things and was confident on the subjects to take but now listening to the speech of Ms Jennifer made me confused. What about you Harry, which subjects are you taking now?" she passed the question to Harry who was looking at the form. He raised his head and replied "I don't even know the subjects".
"That is fine. We can go to the cafe in common area and deliberate upon our decisions then" said Sam as he stood up. Harry raised his hand to refuse him and tell that he wanted to think about it alone when Ivanka grabbed his hand and pulled him with her "Come on let's go".
Harry couldn't refuse and merely followed them to the cafe where they settled on a small round table for three people. They all ordered coffee and were reading their booklets carefully, which had the subjects as follows:
Defence against dark arts (beginner and advanced)
Dueling (beginner and advanced)
Potions (beginner and advanced)
Mind control
Charms (beginner and advanced)
Magical creatures
Transfiguration (beginner and advanced)
Magical languages
Herbology (beginner and advanced)
Laws of the magical world
Situational problem solving
Arithmancy (optional)
Martial arts (optional)
Even though Harry was excited on looking at the long list, he knew it wasn't easy to get through this, especially for him as he wanted to break Mad Eye's record in completing the training. They all sipped their coffees, read the booklets with concentration in relative silence for a couple of hours and filled their forms before anyone broke silence.
"I have taken DADA, potions, herbology, transfiguration and dueling (all beginner) for now. Most people take 5 subjects in first iteration and increase it to 6 in the second one which leaves 6 for the last one. Which ones have you taken Iva?" asked Sam finally breaking the silence.
"DADA, potions, charms, magical creatures, transfiguration and herbology. I have taken 6 subjects as we will need to do the advanced versions later and I want lesser load during that time. What about you Harry?" asked Ivanka.
"DADA, dueling, potions, charms, magical creatures, transfiguration and martial arts for now. I plan to take mind control too but here it is mentioned that we need to take permission from professor Richard Greengrass if we want to take it in first iteration" said Harry.
"Blimey Harry! You have already taken 7 subjects. Even handling this much is almost impossible and you are talking about taking another one. Think again, because you can die from academic pressure, you know?" said Sam.
"No, I know he is strong enough not to die from a silly thing like this" snapped Ivanka. She turned to Harry and looked at him as if pleading "but please think again Harry. Why are you in a hurry to take everything at once. This can be extremely stressful if you won't be able to manage properly".
"I have made my decision Ivanka. There is no question of rethinking. I am now going to meet Professor Greengrass and get permission for taking mind control. See you guys later!"
Harry reached a corridor with offices of all the professors. He walked along it and stopped when he saw a door with nameplate on it which read:
Richard Greengrass
Professor, Mind Control
He knocked on the door. "Come in" said a voice from inside and he opened the door to step inside the office.
The office had a silent and dark look, as if it was a meditation room. There were pictures of eyes and brains on the walls while the shelfs were full of books and potions. It reminded him of the potions classroom of Snape.
He saw that a blonde girl with hazel eyes was sitting with professor and she turned to look at the intruder.
"Harry Potter! How come you are here of all the places?" exclaimed the professor.
"I will come later Dad" said the girl as she stood up. She looked at Harry with a cold expression and walked out of the room.
She must have inherited her traits from her mother, thought Harry as there was no resemblance between the jovial and round faced man and his cold expressioned but beautiful daughter.
"Sit down Harry, sit down" said the professor as Harry took a seat to face him.
"Sir, I wanted to take mind control in this iteration. It is of utmost importance to me that I tame my hot head and learn to unleash it's full potential" said Harry trying to convince the professor.
"Normally I would have taken a detailed interview with someone who would want to do this. But if you are so sure about it Harry, I permit you to take it. My daughter is also taking it this time. No one else from first iteration is taking it, so you both can help each other with doubts and practice sessions" said Greengrass with a happy smile.
Looks like he doesn't know his daughter. The last thing a pure blood slytherin will do is to talk with a gryffindor, thought Harry as he thanked Greengrass for giving him the permission and stood up to leave.
As he exited the office, he was surprised to find Daphne Greengrass waiting for him there. "Hello Harry, how are you?" she smiled and extended her hand to Harry as a friendly gesture.
"Slytherin's Ice Queen smiling and addressing me with my first name. I think this is a dream!" said Harry with an amused grin while shaking hands with Daphne.
On being addressed as ice queen, Daphne blushed but then hid it by rolling her eyes "There is nothing like that. Just that you gryffindors never notice good in slytherins"
They started moving together while Harry asked something that he wanted to know but couldn't get a chance to ask anyone "How was your last year at Hogwarts?"
Daphne's expression turned even more serious and said "I know, you think that all Slytherins are supporters of You-know-who and so we must have enjoyed it. But you are wrong. Many slytherins didn't support him and I am one of them"
"I know Daphne. Infact Voldemort couldn't have been defeated without help from slytherins like Snape and Slughorn, and of-course the likes of you who fought against him in battle of Hogwarts. I just asked because I don't know how the situation there was for last one year" said Harry.
"It was terrible. We learnt nothing and everything was so strict that it didn't feel like Hogwarts anymore. By the way where were you for the last one year Harry? Everyone was saying that you were just on the run to avoid capture but I thought you were doing something important along with Weasley and Granger" asked Daphne curiously.
"You are right. We were doing some important tasks which finally led to the fall of Voldemort" said Harry not revealing anything.
They reached the academic desk where they submitted forms and got their timetables. Both of them had Potions as the first subject.
"I thought you were going to be a professor at Hogwarts along with Granger, but you chose being an auror which was what everyone else was thinking. Why did you chose this?" asked Daphne.
On being asked the purpose of his decision, he remembered his reasoning and replied "Some decisions are born out of necessities rather than interests"
Even though Daphne wanted to ask more about his cryptic reply, he politely excused himself to library and started reading potions book before the class.
If Hermione would see me reading like this, she will curse me and Ron to eat slugs for all the times we didn't study despite her making schedules for us during our Hogwarts days, quipped Harry's heart and chuckled.
Only count yourself to be at the receiving end of the curse Mr Potter. She is in a relationship with Ron now. Most probably Ron would physically seduce her before she can even curse him and they would likely end up making out with each other while you vomit slugs, chided Harry's brain.
Will you not let me be happy even for a few beats huh? Why would you remind me such a thing when you know how much it pains me? responded his hurted heart.
I am just saying the facts. Besides, you should focus on why you came here instead of thinking about hypothetical scenarios, said his brain.
Fine fine, you win! I am not going to daydream anymore. But be aware that if I stop beating suddenly someday, you would be the sole reason for that. You never let me be happy, even if it's through imaginary thoughts, replied his heart.
Yeah yeah so touching. People like you will stay emotional fools( as Tom Riddle said once) and never learn from past experiences. Forget your goals if you are gonna stay like that, said his brain as it won the little argument, which would be the case in future as well, making him more stoic each passing day.
Thus began Harry's Auror training...