“Merlin’s balls...” Head Auror Pratt muttered. “Merlin’s great big sweaty balls.” He stepped into the office he’d been inside countless times. The same office in which he’d been welcomed, reprimanded, warned, congratulated, threatened and scared. It was the same office that he’d walked past millions of times, stood outside of listening in millions of times and avoided millions of times. It was the same office he’d hexed furniture to fly into from the ceiling. But he wasn’t the same wizard.

The wizard that had been welcomes, reprimanded, warned, congratulated, threatened and scared had been first a trainee auror, next an auror. Now he was a different wizard.

Now he was the Head Auror.
The Head Auror

Now this office was his.

“HA!” The realisation hit and Eddie ejaculated the sound after pushing the door shut. “Holy skrewts!”

All the way from the Department Head’s office Pratt had kept a straight face. He’d calmly walked the corridors and through the auror office into this office. No one had stopped him. No one had suspected a thing. He’d been the picture of calm.

Now he couldn’t help himself. A broad grin spread across the wizard’s face and he swore yet again. He’d really done it! Eddie had really just been promoted as the Head of the Auror Office. Years of hard work, over time, a life dedicated to the job and a failed marriage and now he had reached a goal he hadn’t even known he’d had.

“Head Auror Pratt.” The wizard laughed, excited and disbelieving as he moved further into the office. “I’m Head Auror Pratt. Oh my flaming earwax…” Then he stopped as eyes settled on the desk. Of course, the job wasn’t just a name. He actually had to sit there and work. People would be coming into this office, his office to speak to their boss, him, Edward Pratt. “Wow.”

For about ten minutes Eddie tried to acquaint himself with the office. He opened cupboards, drawers, looked under tables and even pulled up a corner of the carpet to see if anything had been left there. He sat in the chair and swung around in it to survey his new empire. He even found the office too quiet and ended up feeling far too isolated. Never before had Ed had the opportunity to work outside of the hubbub of the regular auror office and very quickly he realised why Raynor always kept her door open.

So he stood and made his way back to the door. He opened it and looked back at the sign. Since Raynor’s promotion the sign had remained blank. Now it needed a new name. Eddie pulled his wand from his robe pocket and pointed it at the sign, muttering his name under his breath. A neat and curved gold line weaved its way along the gold plated sign to form the words

“Head Auror Edward Pratt”

Archer had accepted Tamis’ promotion to Head of the Department.  That hadn’t even been his problem in the first place.  Tamis was the reasonable choice for the promotion, he didn’t know anyone else who could – or would – do it, but she hadn’t even bothered to tell him until it was already decided.  That had been the crux of his problem.  It’d been a row that could have ruined things for another couple.  Thankfully, two years was a big investment for them and Archer had made his point.

Granted, Tamis had made a few of her own, but that wasn’t the point.  Archer was just glad he forced her to consider him in things.  Then, there’d been a fire and an investigation that kept him busy.  He hadn’t kept up with who would be replacing Tamis as Head Auror.  It wans’t his concern because it wasn’t going to be him, that wasn’t what he wanted.  Some people tended to want to rise through the ranks, but Archer was a senior auror and that was good for him.  Paperwork and desk time was the last thing he wanted. 

Hell, he’d seen Ray do it enough that he had zero interest in taking that up.  His original thought was someone like Harcroft would take it up, or because irony was cruel, Bailey.  So, when he went into the office on the morning of May 31, he did not anticipate anything being solidified yet, the office would remain closed until they knew for sure. 

So, at the office, Archer walked to the coffee that he required to function when he saw that the lights in the Head Auror office were on.  Raising his eyebrows, he slowly poured the coffee into a mug.  Taking a sip, Archer couldn’t help himself: curiosity was part of the job of auror and he had to see what was going on and why that office was open.

As he approached, he started to make out the words that were on the door and he was shocked – frankly.  Knocking on the door, Archer pushed it wider open without invitation – Eddie might have been the ‘boss’ now, but they’d been mates first and he had to know for sure.  “How the bloody hell is anyone going to read your paperwork, Pratt?” was the first thing that came out of his mouth, a wry smile on his face.  “Congratulations on moving to desk duty,”

To door was pushed open to Eddie stood over his desk, a set of thickly rimmed glasses propped on his nose and him staring at a large leather bound folder. When faced with mountains of paperwork left over by Raynor, Pratt had decided this was as good a place as any to begin trying to understand his new job. He’d purposefully avoided getting involved in admin leadership tasks in the past. He’d always come in to do his job without any real interest in the job Raynor had been doing and now he was probably going to regret it.

“How the bloody hell is anyone going to read your paperwork, Pratt?” Radley’s voice greeted Pratt yet the new Head Auror didn’t look up immediately to see his old friend and colleague. Instead he waited a moment while Radley congratulated him.

“I’m gonna’ need me own welcome witch, ent I?” Now the wizard grinned and looked up to his mate. To Radley Ed didn’t need to explain his decision to go for this desk duty. Radley knew his responsibilities and he certainly had a good idea how broke Ed was. The Head Auror was at least a job that paid well even if it meant a new shackle to a bigger desk.

Now Ed turned to lean back on the desk.
“I’m gonna’ ‘ave to break the news to Roh. She’s gonna’ be ‘eartbroken.” Zora Roh would no doubt see this as a win and lose situation. She was free of Pratt as a partner but ended up with him as her boss. Some poor people could never win.

Archer rolled his eyes at the suggestion that Ed would need a welcome witch.  “As long as you’re not just staring at her, mate,” Archer added with a grin.  He knew how Eddie could be – it was evident by how many of the little ones he had running around (Archer was even a godfather to one of Pratt brood).  He grin tempered into a smirk as he sauntered farther into the office, since he was acknowledged.  “Unless you’d like to outdo Ray’s scandal and just get her pregnant by looking at her…” he shrugged and leaned against the wall of the office. 

“Granted, might be good to get some fresh blood in here.  Make sure she’s good with coffee,” he crossed his arms lazily.  “That’s good to put in the Prophet, right?  Neat handwriting, immune to pregnancy, and ace with a coffee pot.”  He nodded, liking the idea of this already. 

By all means, go ahead and hire some young witch to come in for that.  But, if she was bad at coffee she’d have to go.  Ed could probably do that right, if he wasn’t thinking with his eyes.

Another laugh was his reaction to the quip about Roh though.  “Maybe she’ll get paired with Bailey, eh?  He’ll have to console her.”¹.  That was vaguely cruel of Archer, since Roh wasn’t the bad sort at all – good worker, smart – but without a partner, it could be anyone’s game to fill in the spot. 

“Have you told the ex-missus?” he looked around the office again.  It was a little strange to not see Ray behind the desk.  “Or any of the mini-Pratts?”

Andromeda had not been back at work for very long from being injured. She was really bored of hospital though, and was eager to get back to work properly. Raynor's promotion was great news for the witch. She would make a great Head, but they would miss her. Andromeda could see Archer in the office as she approached.
"Yes, Radley's the new Raynor ... oo... my mistake." She saw the name on the door. "There is hope for us all then, Pratt." She raised her eyebrows and leaned against the doorframe, looking all over the office to see how empty it looked. "You sure he didn't just shotgun the office chair and is having us on?" She asked Archer and folded her arms.

“Unless you’d like to outdo Ray’s scandal and just get her pregnant by looking at her…” Pratt’s lips pressed together in distaste at this suggestion. Perhaps surprisingly, his distaste didn’t ensue from being accused of perhaps wanting a welcome witch in order to have something pretty to look at. Instead his thoughts had gone down the route to the possibility of even more children. That was never going to happen. He was quite broke enough as a divorced father of four. He didn’t need any more galleon suckers clinging onto his purse strings!

“She don’t deserve Bailey ye arse.” Ed eyed his friend for a moment until someone else arrived at the door. “You do, though.” He felt the need to add before he removed his attention from Radley and to Gamp who started off by very nearly congratulating the wrong auror. Ed’s eyebrow rose a smidgeon.

“Well ye know the rules, Gamp.” His lips twisted into a small smirk. “Shotgun is the law anyway.” How was he supposed to act with the other aurors now? Ed didn’t know if he should go down the route Raynor did. There was always a definitely line between her and the aurors. Excepting Radley of course. Those lines were far too blurred.
“Now ye get to see my ‘andsome face behind this desk every day. Lucky you eh?”

It was easy for Archer to interact with Eddie.  They’d been mates for ages and colleagues for just as long, it didn’t bother him a bit that Ed had been promoted and there certainly weren’t any harsh feelings or jealousies.  Of course, wounded feelings would come if he paired him with Bailey.  Archer shook his head, “you wouldn’t do that to me – would you, Pratt?” he raised his eyebrows at him.  Of course he would. But, didn’t mean Archer wouldn’t make a few… welcome additions to his office.

There was probably a way to get Hunter in here to make a cabinet a yeti… His thought was interrupted though, when Gamp came up and almost put him behind that desk, Archer couldn’t help but let out a bark of a laugh.  “No, not me,” he crossed his arms over his chest, “leaving this seat to Pratt here,” he removed one arm and motioned toward Eddie with a grin.  Honestly, not worth the trouble of the job – he liked to investigate; he liked being on active duty.  It was a lot easier for someone who didn’t have a bunch of rag tag mouths to feed to do that. 

There was zero intention of that changing either. 

“I think actually, that’s the best part of this whole thing,” he motioned to the office, “I don’t have to see your face out there – you get to hole up in here behind your mountains of paper and deal with the likes of Glass and the big wigs all day.”

She gave a thumbs up to Ed. He knew how to shotgun a chair. Now he had this one. It probably came with a big pay rise too.
"Oo Glass. Unlucky. Do you get to shine his bald head if you are good?" Andromeda asked. "Good choice, Radley." She raised a hand to give him a high-five. Best way to greet a new boss who was a colleague was to take the mickey out of them. Ed had a sense of humour. He would be ok.