the one | h. potter

3. first day

As the morning sunlight slips through my window shades, I groan. Today's my first day as an Auror trainee... and I'm equal parts excited and nervous.

I make sure to dress my best, pulling on the Auror trainee robes I received by owl and my hair into a ponytail. I slide my reading glasses and wand into my pocket, grab a banana from a bowl on my dresser, and run over to the floor.

As I step through the flames, I immediately notice how crowded the Atrium is. I can barely walk without bumping into a witch or wizard. As I step onto the elevator, I notice the hoards of reporters next to them- which gives me a bad feeling in my gut.

I step off the elevator into the Auror department and spot Kingsley standing in the main corridor, talking to- oh Merlin. That's why there were reporters in the Atrium this morning.

Harry Potter starts today too. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Why am I freaking out? I knew this was going to happen. One of the reasons why I took this job was because I knew he'd be here. I stifle a gasp as I feel a low burn creeping up the back of my left ankle.

"Oh, Liz! We've been waiting for you!" My eyes snap away from Harry as I give Kingsley a warm smile and make sure to visibly relax. "You know Harry, right?"

"Oh I-, yes, yes I do. We were in the same year."

"Yes, yes we were." Harry Potter says, and I feel the burn start inching up my leg. "But I never got the pleasure to meet her. We were always in different classes, you see." I make eye contact with him. His eyes must be the most beautiful I've ever seen; bright emerald green and teeming with life.

"I'm surprised you know who I am," I reply easily. "I tried to keep a low profile at Hogwarts."

"Well, Hermione thought that it was incredibly interesting that we were going to school with a descendant of Merlin, so-"

"I'm here!" I hear a voice yell, running in from the elevator. I recognize Ron Weasley as he stops, out of breath, next to us. "Sorry I'm late, my alarm didn't go off, and there were so many reporters-"

"That's alright, Mr. Weasley," Kingsley says. "You're all here now, so let me introduce you to Miss Cormac, who will help you out today." He waves at a girl turned away from us with dark black curls, and she turns, as if on cue. As she starts to walk over my mouth drops open in shock.

"Katie Cormac?"

"Liz Smith, mother of Merlin, is that you?" Katie's face spreads into a wide smile as she runs over. 

"I can't believe you're here," I say, and give her a big hug.

"Missed you too," she laughs. "I sent you owls! Why didn't you respond?"

"I didn't get any owls."

Katie sighs and pulls away. She offers her hand to Harry and Ron, and they shake it. "Well, I'm Katie, I'll be showing you around, giving you the grand tour, and introducing you to everyone. I've already been training for a few months, but since you're on the enhanced course, we'll be working together and sharing an office."

Katie leads us down the hall and shows us the snack room ("I'll remember this one," Ron says), break room, apparition point, bathrooms, floo fireplace, and continues to turn right and left until she stops at a tall oak door. At the center of the door is a plaque, already ingrained with our names.

H. J. Potter

E. L. Smith

R. B. Weasley

K. E. Cormac

Katie opens the door to reveal the office. My eyes shoot up; this space is the nicest office I've ever seen. The room is large, pentagon-shaped, with deep blue walls, mahogany wood shelves, and four wooden desks set in front of each wall. The desks are angled towards the center of the room, where there's a large circular table surrounded by four chairs. Two indigo-colored sofas sit on either side of the door, and I hear someone flop down on one of them behind me.

"Wow. My old office didn't look like this," Katie says, breaking the silence.

"Reminds me of the old common room," I say, looking up at the ceiling. It's painted the same deep blue as the walls, with deep wooden beams forming a five-pointed star that intersect at a sparkling crystal chandelier in the middle of the room. I look around at the desks and pick the one on the right-hand side, closest to the door. "I pick this one."

"Being friends with Harry Potter worked out all right, didn't it?" Ron snorts.

"This looks like the Ravenclaw common room," Harry observes.

"You've been to the Ravenclaw common room?" Katie and I ask at the same time.

"Yeah. Luna let me in, during the-" he breaks off, and his voice waivers.

We stand in silence until Katie breaks it by walking over to the desk next to mine and plopping her purse on top. "This one's mine."

"Right." Harry and Ron walk over to the desks on the left side of the room and sit down. Harry sits at the desk right across from mine, straight in my line of vision.

Great.

The burn in my left heel, which has kept steady so far, strengthens and climbs slowly up my calf. We settle back into silence while we stare at the room in awe and organize our desks. I shed my robes and hang them on the convenient coat rack behind my desk. As soon as I sit down on the blue padded rolling chair, the nameplate at the front of the desk starts smoking, and I realize my name is being imprinted onto the wood. Beside the desk, there's an array of drawers, so I open them to explore. The top drawer is filled with several different types of quills, ink, and parchment. The second one looks straight out of a muggle department store; it has scissors, staplers, pens, pencils, highlighters, and sticky notes. A third of the drawer is sectioned off and marked as a paper shredder. The bottom drawer, the largest, is a filing cabinet. On top of the desk, two empty paper trays sit, one marked outbox, and the other inbox. I reach my arm out behind me and summon my wand and reading glasses, which zoom out of my robe pocket and into my waiting hand.

"Impressive." I look up and find Harry watching me with admiration. "I've barely gotten wordless spells down, and you've got them wandless?"

I smile. "I've been doing wandless magic since I was 16."

"Oh right, I forgot. Of course, you can do wandless magic- you're a descendant of Merlin." Harry smacks himself on the forehead and smiles goofily back at me. The pain in my calf starts to burn again and steadily curls around my leg.

"I've heard you're pretty powerful yourself, Mr. Savior," I reply. "I could probably teach you some time if you want. They're pretty handy in combat." The burn in my calf dies down and sinks back into my ankle.

Harry smiles back at me, a little twinkle in his eye. He bites his lip and responds. "I'd like that."

Ron looks at him with an expression of disbelief. "Didn't you just break up with my sister?" he sighs. "Keep the flirting to a minimum." I hear Katie giggle next to me, and watch as Harry blushes bright red. I laugh too, but fail to stop myself from blushing. My hand reaches to my ear to tuck a strand of hair behind it.

My hair's in a ponytail. Oh, Merlin, I'm such an idiot. Looking around, I find that no one looking at me, and I play it cool(ish) by asking Katie "So what's the schedule for today?"

"Right, yeah, I should have probably led with that... What time is it- oh, it's noon already? Okay, so I can show you upstairs towards the cafeteria, or we could go up to the street to order lunch and bring it back here. We've got an hour until your first defense lesson. That's until two-thirty, and then we have a break, strategical tactics from three to four, transfiguration disguises until five, and a debrief at the end of the day."

"Sounds like school," Ron sighs, "But this time we won't be able to ask Hermione for help."

"It's a lot like school, actually. Auror training is tough, since you have to learn all sorts of spells they don't teach you in school. You need to learn more defense and attack spells, increase your reaction time, and train yourself into finding quick, easy solutions. Auror's go undercover often, so they'll also be acting classes and interrogation simulations. They're putting you three into an advanced course; so if you work fast and do well in your classes, you'll be aurors by the end of next year. That's half the time it usually takes."

Harry clears his throat. "Wow."

"So, anyone up for takeout?"