Summary:
Sam's finally graduated from Hogwarts and is somehow on his first mission with the Head of Aurors.
***
Sam took a deep breath as he fixed his clothes, holding his wand tightly as he stood outside of the Head Aurors' office. He has no idea why he was nervous, it was just Phil. Then again, being assigned to be the newbie under Phil is quite nerve-wracking considering all the expectations that's gonna be placed on him. Despite all that, Sam raised his hand and knocked.
"Come in!" Phil's strained voice came from inside.
Sam pushed the door open and found Phil pulling away a big stick from Charlie. "Umm, is this a bad time?" He asked.
"No, no," Phil grunted once he was able to pull the stick away from Charlie, setting it on his desk. "You're just in time actually. How are you feeling?"
"A bit nervous if I'm gonna be honest," Sam laughed.
Phil chuckled, "Yeah, that happens. I wouldn't worry too much, today's mission is pretty simple if we're basing on the reports handed in. Perfect for a newbie's first mission."
Sam nodded at him, "When are we heading out?" he asked.
"We can go now if—"
"We can't!" Charlie protested. "Not without my big stick!"
"Charlie, for the last time," Phil sighed, "it's very unlikely that we're gonna encounter an ostrich in the city."
"But we could," Charlie insisted.
"We have wands," Phil pointed out.
"The wiki says use long weapons! Have you seen how tiny this is?" Charlie asked comparing the size of the stick to the size of his wand.
Sam awkwardly watched as the two argued about sticks and ostriches. "Fine," Charlie whined, "but if I die to one, this is on you Phil." He walked out of the office grumbling.
"Sorry about him," Phil said, "he's taken interest in self-defense."
Sam raised an eyebrow, "How exactly is that related to ostriches?"
Phil groaned as he headed out, gesturing for Sam to follow him, "Hell if I know. C'mon, you know how to apparate?"
"Yes sir," Sam said.
"Please don't call me sir, I feel old," Phil chuckled.
"You mean older?" Charlie asked.
"I will leave you here, Charlie."
"Apparition it is!" And just like that Charlie was gone.
"We'll meet at my house and go from there," Phil told Sam before disappearing.
Lucky for him, Sam knew where the Craft household was as he had gone there plenty of times to, in Wilbur's words, babysit Tommy for the day. Sam disapparated and arrived at Phil's house where he found Charlie rummaging through the Craft's fridge.
"We're heading out," he hears Phil say from upstairs, "make sure you don't destroy, sell or make the house disappear while I'm gone."
A chorus of "Yes Phil"s can be heard as Phil came back downstairs.
"Okay, so there has been reports of weird incidents at a park nearby," Phil started as he gestured for the two to follow him out into the night. "They say they some random items floating around, odd smells and stuff like that. It's possible that it's just some prankster since usually we can track down magical activities through wands, but then again, this person could possibly perform wand-less magic. We've had those kinds of cases before."
"How do we know then?" Sam asked. "What are we gonna do?"
"Stake out!" Charlie exclaimed, pulling out stakes from who knows where.
"Charlie, put those down, we're not stabbing anyone," Phil reprimanded.
"And isn't it like, steak-out?" Sam asked, drawing a steak in the air.
"Ayyy!!" Charlie cheered.
Phil sighed, "I'm starting to believe that I'm actually too old for this."
They arrived at the park and decided to go invisible. The three also hid behind trees just in case the person was also magical and can sense them. "Are they here yet?" Charlie asked.
Sam shook his head, "I don't think—nevermind," he cut himself off when he spotted a hooded figure approach the park.
The three of them watched as the man took out his wand and began moving things around. The only thing in Sam's mind is, Why are they renovating the park? Followed by a more reasonable one, They're searching for something, aren't they?
Sam felt someone tap his arm. Looking to his right he sees Phil counting with his fingers. Once he reached three, he, Phil, and Charlie jumped out from where they were hiding and sent out an immobilization spell.
The culprit was ready though. They managed to dodge and deflect the spells, and was now aiming their wand at Sam. Flames erupted from the person's wand. despite being shocked, Sam managed to cast a shield in front of him.
Phil and Charlie once again tried to immobilized the person, but they blocked them again. The person looked like they were going to disapparate and Phil was getting ready to follow them, but stopped when he heard Sam yell in pain.
"Fuck," Phil cursed as the person got away. He rushed to where Sam was getting consoled by Charlie. "What happened?"
"I couldn't cast the spell fast enough and my arm still got caught by the flames a bit," Sam explained.
"I already healed it as best as I could, but I'm no healer," Charlie said.
"Let me see," Phil said. Sam showed him his arm making him click his tongue. "Pretty bad burn, does it still hurt?"
"A bit."
Phil pointed his wand at the burn, "that should numb it long enough for us to get a healer," he said. "C'mon, hold on to my arm for a bit. I'll apparate us to the ministry. Charlie?"
Charlie nodded, "I'll follow."
Sam held onto Phil's robes and the man apparated them. "Sorry for not being able to do much," he said.
"Mate," Phil gave him a kind smile. "That was literally your first mission. The fact that you managed to shield yourself after being in so much stress is amazing."
Sam couldn't help but smile at the comment, "Thanks."
They arrived to the healer's division, "I'm going to have to leave you here. Don't worry though. The healer inside is one of our best," Phil said, "I just have to report the incident to Callahan. It was odd. They used a wand, but we haven't been able to detect anything in the area, so either the monitoring spell's wearing off or someone's hiding something."
"Thank you for bringing me here. I hope the report goes well," Sam said.
He watched Phil retreat before knocking on the door. "Come in!" Someone from the inside said.
Sam pushed the door open and the healer approached him, humming. "You're new aren't'cha? Have a seat."
Sam did as instructed. "My name is Ponk and I'm the healer on duty," the healer introduced themself. "Let's see the damage."
Sam handed him his arm and Ponk started to work. Sam had no idea what they were doing, but then again, the only healing he knows are the basics. "Ah!" Sam exclaimed.
Despite his pain, Ponk continued what they were doing without missing a bit, causing Sam to hiss, trying to power through the pain. "Okay! Okay! Can we stop for a moment! That freaking hurts!"
Ponk stopped for a moment to stare Sam in the eyes, "I'm messing around with the burn, 'course it's gonna hurt! I have to keep it up so it'll be effective. Do you want the burn to be so bad that you need to cut your arm off?"
Sam sighed, she had a point. "Sorry, sorry. Go ahead."
"Thank you," Ponk said before continuing.
Sam choked down a yelp. Ponk was pressing the wand harder on the wound. Sam was 99.9% sure he was doing it on purpose.
After, possibly ten, more minutes of suffering, Ponk's next words sounded like music to Sam's ears. "All done," they said.
Sam moved his arm around and it didn't hurt anymore. "What?" Ponk smirked, "You think I would've done a bad job?"
"N—no—"
"Yeah, yeah, get out of my office," Ponk said, shooing the man away. "I hope i don't see you around anytime soon."
Sam sighed before leaving to find Phil. Ponk's last comment made him wonder. Was it because he didn't want him to come back hurt or was it because he didn't like him.
Sam was 99.9% sure it was the second one.
+++++
Ayyy Ponk appearance! I hope you guys enjoyed this part.
Sorry for not updating for like a month lol. I've been busy with school and stuff. Also, I'm running out of ideas for this series, so if you want to see a scene or a specific character dynamic, feel free to comment suggestions! I won't guarantee I'll write every single one, but I'll try my best!
Rules though. No romance, don't like writing those in general. No boundary breaking. Also, no scenes that happen in HP Goblet of Fire (i.e. Yule Ball, etc.), I'll be writing those in the Dark Era (multi-chapter fic set in same universe/timeline for those who don't know)
Thank you for reading! Comments and suggestions are appreciated.
-LuminaStarCrest