He'd been shown to his office. It was much roomier than the cubby he was used to, but he was also used to privacy, or what privacy could be accomplished in a cubicle. Hugh Dawlish liked to eat onions and listen to very bad music on the wireless. He also had an odd habit of breathing through his nose and having it whistle. It was hard for Harry to ignore. Very hard.

He'd filled his desk with everything, and had the snap of him, Ron and Hermione hanging on the wall. The picture of Gin Dean had given him, shrunken to an appropriate size for an office, hung beside that. Of course, his Chudley Cannons pennant was stuck up as well. He smoothed his hands over the clean desk, knowing it would most likely not stay that way for long. In fact, he'd only seen the top of the desk in his trainee area the first time he'd moved in. After that, it'd been a lost cause.

Harry looked up when Dawlish made a particularly loud whistling nose noise as he filled out some paperwork. His eye twitched. This was going to be a long office sharing situation. He looked up when a memo flew into his office and headed at his face. Batting the thing away, he grabbed it off the floor, where it had twitched pathetically before lying still.

Auror Potter

As it is procedure for all Aurors, you will be responsible for the training of a possible Auror candidate and student. Your trainee is-

Natalie had been itching all morning to bust into Harry Potter's office and start peppering him with questions, but so far she had curbed that urge. She was anxious to get in there. She wanted to know everything.... yesterday. It was all she could do not to give in to her usual habit of pouncing.

Until now.

Well, she'd made it an hour and a half before rushing over there. She practically ran to the office door and knocked rather enthusiastically before swinging the door open.

"Hallo, gents. What laws are we upholding today?"

Hugh Dawlish was looking at her with a pinched look on his face. Harry just looked surprised.

Blinking, Harry stood slowly. He couldn't place her face for a moment. He always had troubles with faces and names. She was familiar, but seeing as she'd interrupted the reading of the note announcing her, he was struggling. He kept thinking about the protego charm, which didn't make much sense at first.

Of course, then he remembered. He had this horrible habit of connecting people with what spells they were particularly proficient at. Gin, of course, had her reducto and bat bogey hexes down. Natalie, now that he remembered her, had always caught his eye with the strength of her shield charm.

"Natalie. Hello. It's been a while, yeah?" Feeling appropriately awkward, he smiled slightly. "I didn't know you'd started training here."

"I am," Natalie said, stepping inside the office. "I'm ready to get started too. What did you have planned?"

Harry looked confused and Dawlish snorted. Natalie made a face at him. She'd never been overly fond of Dawlish. He seemed a bit... dim for an Auror. Why Harry, who was so charismatic and talented, had been paired with such a wet sock, she'd never know.

"Actually, I just found out about this right before you came in." He grabbed the note and held it up. "About 3 seconds before you came in. I don't even know where to begin." Harry head whipped around to glare in Dawlish's direction when the man laughed. He turned back to Natalie. "You feel like doing this somewhere else?"

Natalie could not help her nasty glare at Dawlish's snort of laughter. She was liking him less and less every moment she was around him. This could be a bit of a problem if he was Harry's office partner.

"It is a bit crowded in here," Natalie said. "Lead on, mentor-man. I go where you go."

Dawlish let out a snort and muttered something to himself that Natalie was certain she would not have liked one bit. Next time they had dueling practice perhaps she'd look up Hugh Dawlish. Maybe he wouldn't think he was so above her when a tiny slip of a trainee dropped him like a bad habit.

Harry grabbed his wand off the desk and pushed it up his sleeve before leading Natalie out of the office. He looked over at her with a ghost of a smile on his lips. "Unless you'd like me to call you trainee-girl, please don't call be mentor-man. Harry will be fine. Potter, if you'd like. I don't really know if that's crossing the line or not, but since I didn't know I'd be training anyone..." He rolled his eyes. The fact that the ministry hadn't seen fit to let him know in advance didn't really surprise him.

"All right then, Harry. So Harry when it's us and Potter when it's around others? Sound about right, boss?"

Harry gave her this look like he didn't know whether to be amused or irritated. Natalie got that look a lot. She knew it well.

"Where are we going?"

He was walking briskly and she was trailing after him slightly. People were looking at them, but people always looked at Harry. Natalie didn't know how he did it.

"I figured we'd say we're going on an assignment." He looked over at her with a smirk. "I've been an Auror for all of two whole days, and I haven't had one yet. I think we just got a call about a drunk at the Leaky. I think we should go check it out." They'd made their way down the hall and he pressed the button for the lifts. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Unless you'd like to work on Laws and Procedures, that is."

"But it's not even ten in the morning. Would there be drunks at this hour?"

"There have been before," Harry said. "But I heard Laws and Procedures are still terribly fascinating."

Natalie let out a very unladylike noise that would have had her father giving her a look. "Thank you, no. I've quite enough of the book side of Auroring in the last few months. Checking out drunks suits me right down to my toenails."

Harry stepped into the lift and Natalie joined him, mimicking his stance as they headed up. She was resisting the urge to squeal and dance about very hard. They were mostly quiet as he led the way. As soon as they were topside, Natalie flashed her most wicked smile.

"See you there," she disapparated with a pop.

Harry shook his head before apparating himself. He hadn't been to the Leaky in a bit, and Tom was always nice to him.He pushed open the doors, nodding at Natalie, who was already seated at a booth. He didn't really remember her much from the DA, but even as Dennis Creevey's little friend, she'd been full of energy. He reminded him of a less clumsy Tonks, to be honest. He couldn't really remember how good she was in the DA, aside from her protego charm, and that pained him. He wished he'd paid more attention. Maybe if he had, he could have done something for Dennis. Taught him better. Given him something that would have saved him.

He slid into the booth, smoothing his slacks on his legs. "Laws and Procedures was the part I almost dung-bombed on the test. It might suck, but you really have to pay attention in that class, no matter how much Parker likes to imitate Binns."

Natalie laughed, fully recalling Harry as the reluctant teacher. She looked around suspiciously.

"I don't see any drunk people."

"I wasn't serious about that. I wanted to get us out of there."

"Oh," Natalie said, cheeks coloring a bit. "Right then."

She fidgeted. Natalie was not much for sitting still. She sort of hoped a fight would break out.

"So what made you decide to become an Auror?" He was an idiot for asking it. He hated when people asked him that question, but he was finding himself actually interested in why she wanted to be one. He didn't know her, didn't know if she'd always wanted to do this or if it had just been a last minute decision, because of the war.

He knew a lot of his fellow trainees had signed up for that reason. Made sense that so many of them failed. They'd entered the training program specifically because they felt that was the only way they could help in the war. He hated those types of people, and considering he was going to have to be around Natalie for quite a bit, he sincerely hoped she had a better reason than not knowing any other way to help with the war effort.

"I thought everybody knew this one," Natalie said, chuckling. "Mad-Eye Moody, of course. I've wanted to be an Auror since meeting him... well, since meeting what I thought was him. I must say, the impostor had him down pat. I've just known that's what I wanted to be since starting Hogwarts. There was never anything else. Plus my Da's been friends with Kingsley for years. It didn't hurt having that sort of role model around. If I end up half as good at this as Kings has, I'll be pleased, but to be honest, I'd like to be better." Natalie grinned. "And turnabout is fair play. What about you then? Why'd you become an Auror?"

Harry frowned. "You mean besides the fact that I had a crazy homicidal maniac trying to kill me?" He laughed a little, realizing him making fun about Voldemort probably wasn't the best thing to say in conversation to people who didn't really understand him. "I think there's a lot of things wrong with the wizarding world, and most of them could probably be taken care of if someone in power actually paid attention. There are things getting looked over and missed and I want to make sure they don't fall through the cracks."

He nodded at Tom as he hobbled over. "'Lo Tom. How's it going?"

"Better. Everyone's avoiding Hogsmeade and coming here instead. Good for business."

"Bad for the wizarding world." Harry grinned when Tom nodded. "I'll just have a butterbeer."

"Me as well then thanks," Natalie said, fighting a bit of a crush on Harry. He was so brave. He spoke of You-know-who like it was nothing. He also wanted to put change into effect, wanted to make a difference. That was admirable.

Natalie sighed. "I wish people wouldn't avoid Hogsmeade. It's not like whomever did that is still there, hiding out. They only did it because loads of people were there. They wanted the crowd seeing it. Probably just some anti-Dark Lord fanatic playing a bit of a joke. Yes, poor taste, but something as lame as a peacock eating the skull and snake? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me."

Harry nodded slowly. Something hadn't set well with him about that night. He hadn't been there, but the idea of people cheering with any mention of the Dark Mark was stomach churning. Seeing it in the sky the night of the Quidditch World Cup still made him grimace. "I haven't really been able to talk to anyone about it yet, but apparently they want me to look into it." He rolled his eyes as Tom set their butterbeers down in front of them. "I wasn't there. I didn't see it. They should have someone who was there take care of it."

"People panicked, Harry. It was mayhem. I know you wouldn't have. People were saying Malfoy did it, but I was standing a yard away from his near public indecent exposure at the time. He couldn't have. It went up. There was a bit of a pause filled with screaming then the other mark went up. People were freaked. There's no way to know who did it. Too many people. We needed more security there. There were too many people and too many places to hide."

"Exactly." Harry took a sip of his drink, looking at her carefully. "There's too many people to question, too many different stories that would be told. Crowds make things difficult." He was impressed she understood why it'd be difficult to investigate. Most of the trainees were still having trouble understanding how the floor in the ministry worked.

He set his mug down on the table. "I'm hoping it was just a drunk thinking it'd be funny."

Natalie snorted. "That's the other part of this that makes things very difficult. The beer, ale, wine, and firewhisky were flowing VERY freely that night. Any accounts might be... skewed. Loads of drunks, but as your official minion now, I'll be glad to help."

Harry smirked. "I'd prefer to think of you as a glorified house-elf and not a minion, but you can call yourself whatever you'd like." He moved the mug back and forth across the wooden table. "I'll need to start taking accounts of people in the area. Probably shop owners. I feel like they were probably keeping a better eye on everyone that night, even if just to make sure no one stole anything in the throng of people. Maybe they saw something that others didn't. We can start tomorrow, after your first round of classes."

"Can I interview the owner of the Sticks?" Natalie said, grinning. "He's dreamy. Sure he wears a skirt, but he makes it work."

Trying not to think about Brody MacDougal wearing one of the skirts Mac had bought, he nodded. "Yeah, if you'd like. I know they were probably busy, but they would have seen the most drunk people, if that was what happened. Maybe someone started a fight and just wanted to scare everyone. In that case, you should ask Mac. She probably was the one breaking them up."

He took a sip of his butterbeer, sighing when he emptied it. "It'll be a lot of work. I hope you don't mind staying later than normal."

"Of course not," Natalie said. "I'm totally committed. I don't even date because I don't want it in my way. And would Mac be the sister? Set of pipes on that one. Lots of stage energy too. Crazy on the violin."

Deciding not to tell her that the stage wasn't the only place she had energy, he nodded. "Yeah." His eyes flicked to a clock on the wall. "We should probably head back. The first day of training and I take you out for a drink. Probably not the best way to start as a teacher."

Natalie snorted. "Just tell them we had to get away from Hugh Personality Dawlish for a bit. I'm sure they'd totally understand. I'm surprised they didn't give famous Harry Potter his own office with a gold desk," she joked.

"As if they'd waste money on something like that." He paused as he stood. "Actually, yeah, that's probably something they would have done. Thank Merlin that Madame LeGrot has more sense than that." He placed a few coins on the table, throwing in a little extra for Tom. "Do you have classes this afternoon?"

Natalie sighed. "Wandless combat. Which I am absolute pants at because I'm petite. I'd skip it if Kings wasn't trainee supervisor now."

"Well, if you ever need help, let me know. I think I'm supposed to be helping you anyway, so just say the word and I'll kick your arse in the name of training." He grinned over at her as they made their way out of the bar. "You'll be fine. Just fight dirty. Never be afraid to pull hair or poke at eyes."

Harry Potter would lower himself to sparring with her? Excellent. "Sweet. Am I allowed to fight dirty with you?"

"No." He smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow after your class?"

"Sure, I'll report to you directly after, Auror Potter, and you can't stop me from fighting dirty. You'll find I'm a little unstoppable when I set my mind to something. Constant vigilance and all."

He rose an eyebrow. "We'll see. Have fun in your classes." He smiled again before apparating out.

With him gone, Natalie took this time to do her hell yeah dance in the street. Shadowing Harry Potter was going to be rocking the Casbah. He didn't treat her like a little girl. That was excellent. Natalie disapparated. She needed to hurry if she wanted to change before Wandless, and people were looking at her oddly because of the dancing.


{SUMMARY} Harry meets his charge. Natalie's a bit impressed with her mentor.