A month. Or roughly so.

That's how long she had been an Auror Trainee. And Grace Eddy was still wrestling with the question of whether pursuing the course was the right one for her. She had thought that making it through the interview process and the initial testing would confirm to her that she was doing what was best. But, more questions, concerns, and doubts seemed to surface as she went. At some point she expected them to be quieted and her time in the corps would become easier. It had to, she thought. Otherwise I may never fully believe that I deserve to be here.

As soon as she got to her desk that Monday morning, she saw a note that outlined her task for the day, along with one of her other auror trainees, albeit he was in his third year. As the details were explained to her, Grace could feel her jaw dropping a bit and she wondered if this was some kind of joke. And if it wasn't then she wondered if her uncle or even Auror Whitman who had conducted her interview, had a hand in planning it as yet another a way to test her.

Grace sighed and picking up the note, she headed towards the desk of Dylan Fleetwood, the third year auror trainee she was to be paired with for the day. Working with him was not something that she was going to mind, because he seemed to be a nice enough fellow.

The good news was that the task would allow her to get to know him better and the outgoing former Gryffindor never minded the opportunity to do that with people who seemed interesting.

Still, she approached him with some awkwardness and warily ventured, "Hey Dylan..." Once she got his attention, she pointed to the parchment in her hands and continued to say, "So yeah....so what's up with these.....errr....multiplying paper balls everywhere?" She scruntinized the paper more closely. "Apparently Mr. Rosier's office is filled with....balled up old Witch Weekly articles...."

OOC: This starts in the Auror offices but I anticipate the majority of the action will be in Rosier's office...

Dylan, who had just managed to sit down at his embarrassingly small desk space after a long morning of errand running, was surprised by the appearance of Grace Eddy, a relatively new colleague of his.

"Oh, good morning Grace," he said pleasantly, peering at the parchment she held. After briefly scanning over it, he grimaced, knowing that today would be yet another long day of office cleaning and de-hexing. Dylan didn't usually mind getting stuck with busy work, as he mostly saw it as a way to climb the ladder and pay his dues. He knew that every mission couldn't be an extremely important field assignment, as those were usually reserved for well-trained aurors and not lowly trainees. It did get old after  a while, however. After all, even the most diligent and hard-working trainee could only go on so many early morning coffee runs before his patience began to wane.

"Mr. Rosier's office again?" he asked, sighing. "How is it possible for so many things to go wrong in one man's office?" And then, learning that they would be dealing with enchanted flying paper balls, he added, "I'm not even sure how someone can make a mess like that, much less how to deal with it."

But Dylan knew there would be no use in complaining about the task; it was all simply part of being a trainee. "Alright then," he said, standing up and stretching a bit. "Let's get this over with, shall we?" At least, if he had to do such tedious and irritating work, he would have a little company. These days they usually either paired him up with his roommate (which got old quickly), or they sent him out to run errands by himself (which bored him to tears). Grace would be a refreshingly new face to work with, even if the task was tedious and unpleasant.

He hadn't talked to Grace much (as she'd only been with them for a month), so the opportunity to get to know her better would be nice as well. Dylan liked to make it a point to acquaint himself with everyone in the office. It made working with your colleagues so much easier when you knew them on a personal level rather than as 'the people in the cubicles next to mine.'

Inwardly, Grace released a bit of wariness that had managed to well up as she walked over to Dylan's desk. Given that it was a new environment (and one slightly less welcoming than Hogwarts), Grace worried about bothering her colleagues, especially if it was something that could be perceieved as trivial. And as stubborn as she was at times, Grace really didn't like asking for help too often, because it felt like it could be seen as her being weak, or not able to do the job. With so much doubt already surrounding her, that was the last thing she needed.

But thankfully, Dylan was nothing but pleasant when he responded to her, and given their limited interactions thus far, she was finding that he was quite likeable. Their task for the day, no matter how tedious it was, would at least give her the chance to get to know him better.

"So this has happened to Rosier's office before?" she asked, stepping back to allow him room to stretch. Her brow furrowed and her dark eyes fixated on Dylan's face, looking to him for a certain amount of "expertise", seeing as he had been there longer and likely had seen these kinds of goings-on before.

As they started to walk out of the auror offices, she resisted the urge to ask the question, "So, how long have you been an auror" seeing as it already had an answer and instead opted for something still related to their task. "Are pranks a big thing around here?"

Dylan chuckled as the two trainees made their way to the offending office. "This kind of stuff happens all the time," he replied, glad to share a bit of inside info with the newcomer. "Not just in Rosier's office, but everywhere. You get used to fixing crazy messes like this one after a while; it's pretty much one of the only things they think we're good for. ...Well, that and fetching their coffee."

If Dylan hadn't already known exactly where to go, the sight of enchanted paper wads spewing from the open office door would've immediately informed the young trainee that they had reached the right place. Apparently, the supervisors had failed to mention that the wads were still multiplying... and violently chucking themselves at whoever drew near.

Thinking quickly, Dylan ducked just in time to avoid one of the little beasts as it sailed straight for his head. "Whoah, watch out!" he shouted, pulling Grace out of the line of fire as he used his wand to zap some of the paper wads away.

"Well, this oughta be fun," he commented sarcastically, trying to come up with a good game plan as he shielded himself with his arm. "Any ideas for getting rid of the little buggers?" While Dylan had dealt with a lot of office mishaps during his days as a trainee, he couldn't recall another instance involving out-of-control wads of newspaper. This was bound to be a rather interesting assignment for both of them.

"All the time?" Grace echoed incredulously. She immediately flushed, realizing how foolish that sounded.  But then she tacked on with an equal lack of thought. "Does that mean you and the other auror trainees get tasked to clean stuff like this up?" It wasn't lost on the redheaded recent graduate that she was now included in that lot. Was she destined to be a lackey for three years until training was over?

She was sure her expression fell a bit as he explained what they "were good for". Briefly she wondered if Healer training included such menial tasks. Surely it too had work that was pawned off on the underlings? No job -- or no important job -- could really function without that, right?

Grace's disappointment was forgotten when a wad of paper came sailing in their direction and Dylan had pulled her out of the way. She instinctively ducked too and then crouched lower to the ground, hopefully preventing them from firing on her more.

Grace bit her bottom lip, deep in thought as she pulled out her wand. Had any of their classes prepared them for this kind of endeavor? Smirking, she imagined Professor Storm instructing on this sort of thing with all of his unorthodox methods. She couldn't recall a spell or curse that would help right in that moment, but she did manage to say something that she felt applied. "Well, the Auror motto is Constant Vigilence, right?" She took a deep breath. "Maybe we just need to try to get rid of as many of them as possible before they multiply." She smiled sheepishly. "Easier said than done, I know..."

Noticing that his words had troubled the new trainee, Dylan quickly tried to mend his previous statement. "Don't worry," he assured her. "Assignments like this one are just a rite of passage; they don't last forever. We just have to try our best to grin and bear it until it's our turn to do the real work around here."

Dylan had always understood his purpose as a trainee. He hadn't always liked doing the odd chores of his higher-ups, but he knew that complaining about his position wouldn't do him any good in the long run. It had taken him a long time to learn this lesson, but Dylan was sure that Grace would be quicker to discover the merits of being an Auror-in-training for herself; she seemed like a smart, level-headed girl to him.

Of course, Dylan had little time to muse over this, for the task at hand was becoming more and more pressing with each passing moment. Thinking quickly, the Auror quickly shot a Shield Charm at the flying menaces. "There," he said, brushing himself off and standing back up. "That oughta hold them until we figure out what to do." The young Auror knew that his charm would only hold the nasty buggers for a short time, so they were going to have to act quickly if they wanted this mess to be cleaned up before it got any more out of hand.

Dylan chuckled as Grace recited the Auror motto. "A very good point," he answered. "Though I'm afraid I'm as stumped as you are at the moment." After all of the training he'd been through, Dylan was almost ashamed to admit he didn't have a perfect solution to this seemingly simple problem. The young Auror couldn't help but frustratedly tap his wand as he tried to think of a plan of action. Fortunately for him, Grace seemed to have an excellent idea already in the works. "Stop them from replicating? Now there's a good idea," he murmured, already running through a list of spells in his mind that could manage this.

After a few moments of brainstorming, Dylan had some semblance of a plan formulating in his head. "Well," he thought aloud, "Geminio is the spell used to duplicate an object, right? If that's what was used here- and it seems very likely that it was- perhaps we can counter that spell somehow to stop it?" Dylan phrased the suggestion as a question, unsure how well it would go over. Behind them, Dylan's Shield Charm had already begun to falter as the pressure of hundreds of little balls of paper began slowly pushing past the magic barrier he'd created to shield them from it. They were going to have to figure this out soon, or else risk being buried under the pesky wads.

Grace visibly relaxed with Dylan's reassurance about the future as a trainee. She flashed him a small smile and decided that she liked him already, even if they had not worked very long with one another. Even with his own relative newness, his knowledge and support could certainly be helpful if she let it.

All diligent thinking on her part seemed to take an immediate back seat to their attempts at subduing the multiplying paper wads. One came sailing straight for her and Grace released a shriek of surprise.

Luckily, Dylan's shield bought them some time to think: this time about which charms to use to combat the paper. Grace quickly started to sort through the list of charms that came to mind. She just as quickly shot down quite a few but after hearing some of her cohort's suggestions, she blurted out, "Or what about using a sticking charm on the floor....which would catch any that fall there and we can also use the immobilizing charm to aim at any flying through the air?" Her brown eyes were wide, filled with both excitement and apprehension at the idea. She looked to him expectantly and asked, "How's your aim?"

Dylan returned the younger trainee's smile, glad that he'd been able to ease her mind. Though she was newer to this job than he was, Dylan felt that he could learn a lot from Grace's love and enthusiasm for the Auror profession.

A chuckle escaped Dylan's lips as Grace dodged yet another projectile paper wad, still deflecting a few stray ones of his own as they contemplated how to fix the mess. "Careful there!" he shouted, but not before he'd taken a wad to the face himself. For once, Dylan found himself grateful for his glasses, which created a nice shield for his eyes from the little flying devils. It seemed that his shield wasn't quite the fool-proof protection he'd thought it to be.

The older trainee's smile widened at Grace's new suggestion. "Good thinking!" he replied, preparing to lower his shield so that they could try it. "I'm all for the sticking charm, but if you're asking me to aim at moving targets in the air, well... I can't make any guarantees," he added sheepishly. Try as he might, Dylan was still not the best at executing spells. In theory, he could spout off almost any attack, offensive or defensive, and tell you the exact time to use each one. Actually performing these complicated spells was a completely different story, however...