Upon taking the role of Head Auror, Edward Pratt had insisted to his boss that this would not become a desk job where he lost a handle on duelling skills that had, for years, set him apart from his colleagues. As a regular auror, Pratt had always been commended on his skills in the field which included quick reflexes, great defensive strategies and a good reading on his opponents. He’d always been a proud and somewhat big headed wizard, but in this case, his confidence was just.

It had now been over a year in the Head Auror’s office and, unfortunately, Pratt had seen far less action than he’d have liked and he felt considerably as if he might lose his touch. As much as a good duel in the training room on Level 2 could wipe away the cobwebs in a safe environment, it was nothing compared to the adrenaline thrill and experience when thrown into the danger outside of the ministry walls.

By 3pm, sick of reading reports, Pratt threw his quill down and removed glasses, rubbing the eyes beneath. The wizard had been sat at his desk for hours, his coffee cup now empty and arse as numb as a hag’s face after wrinkle reduction potions. It was with a renewed energy that he pushed his chair back and stood. His glasses were replaced and he approached the open door to the office, eyes scanning the cubicles and staff milling about.

A trainee. That would do.

By the bulletin board, two stood. The red headed niece of the now deceased maniac and Blake, Flora Blake. without hesitation, Ed pulled his office door shut behind him and approached the girls.
“You two, with me.” There was no waiting for acknowledgement or agreement. Refusal wouldn’t be expected when their superior’s superior gave them an order. So, Ed didn’t even glance back as he weaved through the auror’s headquarters, down the short corridor and into the training room.

“Close the door.” Once done, the wizard turned and moved further into the room before his wand was out of his holster in less than a second and pointed at Blake. “Expelliarmus!”

Fauna lingered at the bulletin board, keeping an eye out for any commotion on Level Two. There were the obvious signs – a flurry of flying memos, a stampede of running assistants, and copious amounts of cussing. Always cussing. There were subtler signs as well that she was becoming attuned to. When an Auror stood and frowned down at a particular message, or shuffled their files hurriedly, for instance, there was Fauna standing nearby, pretending to stir her coffee. If she was lucky, the Auror would look up, and select her to help with something important. If she was unlucky, she got stuck filing. But you couldn’t win them all.

She smiled at Raine, using their chit chat as an excuse to move the Mandatory Team Building announcement to the corner of the board behind several fliers reminding the DMLE to ‘remain compliant with the safety regulations of the RCMC’. If she didn’t see the Team Building flier, it didn’t exist.

Fauna glanced at Radley as he stood from his desk. He stretched. He picked up his coffee mug and Fauna glanced away again, confident he was simply getting a refill for the fifth time that day. Eleor too, stood. He gave the trainees one of his devastating, heartbreaker smiles and moseyed down the aisle to talk to Trevelyan. Nothing new. There was Gamp. What was Gamp doing? Fixing her filing cabinet. Fauna gave the BA (Badass Auror) a mildly disappointed look.

Movement! Pratt had exited his den of disarray! He was closing the door! But it was still Pratt. Fauna fixed her face into a neutral expression and turned her head to study the board.

At his order, Fauna gave Raine a wide-eyed glance. Despite the fact it was Pratt, Fauna’s steps felt lighter, then faltered as she neared the training room. Pratt's steps were quick, his arms swinging. Was he annoyed, upset, bored?

Fauna followed through the door. She put her hand on the hilt of her wand, turned to the redhead next to her and said, “Be prepared for-“

“Expelliarmus!”

Her wand jerked out of her holster and skittered across the floor, coming to a stop between Fauna and Pratt.

Blast it! Her face flushed pink quicker than any spell.

Fauna prepared to dive for it, with a quick look at Raine that meant ‘cover me’!

Training on level two did not have the same sense of structure and discipline that Raine had become accustomed to while at Hogwarts. Schedules and assignations changed all the time. Routine was surrounded by unexpected tasks or duties, some of them involving little more than paperwork and others bound to result in aching bruises. It reminded the former Gryffindor of what it had been like to train with her aunt last year - but that was the sort of thing you kept to yourself when said aunt happened to also be a mass murderer of sorts.

At any rate, she had slipped her wand into the sleeve of her trainee robes as soon as Pratt had dragged her away from trying to make sense of what Fauna was hiding on the board. Raine liked Fauna. She was plucky in a different way than Raine imagined trainees were. Alarmingly so.

The training room door shut behind them and the two trainees exchanged a glance.

"Be prepared for-"
                    "Expelliarmus!"

Raine ducked to the side, wand drawn and ready to distance herself from Fauna so that Pratt would have two targets to deal with from different directions. She acknowledged the other witch's look with a terse nod and immediately flung two hexes in their opponent's direction.

"Ustolo!" the redhead flicked her wand deftly before following it up with an unspoken Obsurdesco. Not that she thought she could land either on Pratt, but rather in the hope that it would distract him from their unarmed colleague.

There was no surprising in the fact that Trainee Flora Blake had failed to be prepared for the attack. Pratt swore that this particular auror cadet’s head was with the fairies more often than not. She was nice but nice didn’t save lives. Therefore, it was without a display of frustration that Ed’s eyes followed the wand spin from her grasp before the younger and less experienced trainee actually tried to get off a couple of shots. That was more like it.

Two possibly debilitating hexes were thrown in Ed’s direction by the redhead and he snapped his wrist quickly, a shielding spell deftly rebounding the first spell in the direction of his young opponent. A wordless hex from a teen, however, was not expected and such a lack of preparation left Ed with the need to quickly think on his feet.

“Sonorous!” Normally an amplifying charm, in response to the deafening hex coming his way, a near ear-splitting bang thundered through the training room, sparks of light shooting everywhere much like angry fireworks. In the distraction of the spell, Ed’s wand found Blake where he yelled “Extorqueo!” and shot an Infligo at the seemingly stronger duellist of the two.

“Think technique, ladies.” The auror calmly reinforced, wand carefully poised for the next possibly onslaught. These two needed to become better than him. Every auror needed to be better than the one before them and if they couldn’t duel, they were certainly in the wrong job. “There are two of you. Use your numbers.”

Well, this was a terrible start for Fauna.

Fauna felt a flash of pride for the younger trainee (combined with a tiny sting of jealousy she shoved right back down) and dove for her wand.

She winced, more at the thunderous noise overhead than the impact of her body on the tile floor. She could barely hear Pratt hollering, but Pratt hollering was never a good thing, and Fauna was already rolling into her fall as she grabbed her wand.

The purple light hit the floor mere inches from her shoulder.

Fauna let out a sigh of relief, stood, and continued moving.

If there was one thing she'd learned over the past few years, it was to ignore Pratt's disappointed face, dust herself off, and try, try again. Unfortunately, his disappointed face made a frequent appearance in her nightmares, so her subconscious still had some work to do, but here, now, she focused on Pratt's advice.

He was often correct. About dueling.

What did she know about Raine? Fauna already admired the girl's dry wit underneath her polite and respectful manner. She'd reacted to the sudden duel quickly and confidently. She seemed to prefer offense to defense, or it was her first inclination. She knew better than to wait to see if the first spell hit (which showed that she'd listened well to Professor Storm). Fauna even thought she'd noticed some nonverbal magic.

Fauna caught Raine's eye, moving around Eddie and keeping as much distance as she could between herself and Raine. She kept her wand pointed at the Head Auror, and gestured with her other hand, putting her index finger against her mouth for a moment, then putting two fingers in the air like a peace sign.

All in the span of a few moments, all easily missed signals, all very arbitrary. Fauna gave a slight shrug.

Accido! Fauna silently shot the trip jinx at Pratt. Let him think she was using beginner spells, perhaps his disappointment would distract him.

She took a deep breath and followed it with Angustio!

It was a more difficult spell for her to cast silently, but she put every ounce of feeling into it as she flicked her wrist. A few sparks of light still shimmered above their heads, and the hex that shot from her wand sparkled toward Eddie's back, happy to join the festivities.

What in Merlin's name was Blake trying to tell her?

Raine continued to move, side-stepping around the perimeter of the room and ready to break into a run should the need arise - but her colleague was making some sort of signal that she didn't recognise. Was it something only the older trainees knew? What could it mean.... on two? cast two hexes? only silent hexes? The possibilities bewildered her so much so that the hex Pratt sent her way almost reached its target without warning.

Damn it! Raine tried to dodge but theinfligo caught her on the right shoulder, shoving it back into the wall. The witch yelled at the force of it. Luckily she bore her wand in the other hand.

"What?" she mouthed across at Fauna confusedly. In spite of not understanding what the more experienced girl was saying, Raine was quick to cast a hasty Singulto at the Head Auror to buy her a little time. He told them to use their numbers.

Two against one was always an advantage and both of them had backed off in different directions, respectively leaving a lot of space between them and Pratt. It was safer... and, she realised with a pang, the distance actually gave him more time to throw spells in either direction as well.

What if she tried to close in on him? She glanced at Fauna with a pointed look, hoping the other witch knew what she was trying to do.

"Sternumentum malefico!" Raine pushed herself off the wall, taking sure steps in their opponent's direction and forcing herself to prioritise the speed of her hexes over their effectiveness, "Retrorgenus!" she cast this final one twice, in speedy succession.

The pair may not have been the quickest off the block, Blake in particular, but they could swiftly defend themselves and shoot back counter curses. Good. They began to circle him, using the space given and their numbers. In truth, Ed’s mistake had been to not anticipate such a simple tripping hex to come from Blake and, too focused on moving to block the hexes from the witch he’d eyed as the stronger opponent, he was flung flat onto his front, legs dragged from beneath him unceremoniously and somewhat painfully landing on knees that had seen much wear in many duels.

Pratt reacted quickly to such, snapping his wand in Blake’s direction and rebounding her second curse. Following his instructions, the pair began to use their numbers, hexes flying at him at various speed from various directions and it took a great deal of effort to throw himself back onto his feet and deflect. These girls were giving him a run for his money which either meant that he was getting old or he’d spent too much time behind a bloody desk.

"Sternumentum malefico!" was yelled by Almasy and Ed, having only just shielded himself from a previous spell, threw himself to the right and aimed at a metal canister beside his opponent, his own yell of “Expulso” caused the metal to explode, gases within bursting into flames and consuming the localised area.

Taking the distraction of flames and heat, the Head Auror raised his wand above his head and began to swing it, muttering “Vertigio.” Under his breath. He always loved watching a desperately confident opponent buckle under the deeply unpleasant sensations of his favourite spell.

Fauna winced when the Infligo shoved Raine into the wall. She decided to use her words next time.

Aha! The trip jnx hit!

"Protego!" Fauna formed a shield at the last moment, distracted when Ed skillfully rebounded Angustio at her.

Merlin, he was quick. She and Raine weren't aurors, not yet, and duels like this one reminded her (often painfully) of that fact. She had so much to learn. Still, her embarrassment had faded and her face was now flushed from the physical effort of dodging all the shite Pratt flung at them, and the mental effort of figuring out what to throw at him next.

Fauna caught Raine's look and noticed her stepping forward, bombarding Pratt. If she tried to get closer as well...

She took a few steps forward, raised her wand, and yelled ever so helpfully and obviously, "Watch out!" as the metal can exploded and fire invaded the room. Fauna flinched, the heat pressing against her face and hands and warming the stiff fabric of her uniform.

Fauna thought fast.

"Clipeus Incendius![1]" She casted protection from the fire on Raine, and then herself.

As she felt her lungs clear and the shield spell wrap around her like a cool breeze, Fauna raised her wand again, intending on using the fire against Pratt. Push him back maybe, or circle around him.

But then her world turned upside down.

Vertigio.

The worst hex. The most terrible, most inconsiderate hex. Of course it was Pratt's favorite.

The fire, the smoke, the floor, and Pratt's face swirled and swirled in a ring around the trainee, blurring in a mass of orange flames and red robes. Fauna's stomach lurched. Her lunch - why had she eaten so much! - threatened to come right back up. She put a hand out, desperately searching for something to hang onto.

"Finite, finite!" She cried weakly, her arm moving strangely, her wand blurred before her eyes. Spewing Sally, the trainees had called her the first dozen times she'd thrown up on Level Two. There was a very good reason Fauna avoided playing Quidditch, and refused to even glance at the spinning teacups at muggle amusement parks.

Fauna paled and pressed a hand to her mouth, as her other hand - her hand still holding the wand - finally found something solid.

The floor.

1.	Once I remember my wiki login I'll add the spell. I'm thinking that it shields specifically against fire and smoke, perhaps in situations when Aguamenti just isn't enough, or you need to rescue someone from a fire... a firefighting spell!

Raine threw herself to the ground as soon as she saw what the Head Auror had intended with Expulso, not above shooting the wizard a glare at this chaotic turn of events. But he was only doing what they were constantly being told in training: use your environment to your advantage. Having mostly been trained at school in controlled settings, this was both the hardest lesson to learn and the trickiest to anticipate. Luckily for her, Fauna was quick to cast a charm of protection on the both of them.

"Thanks!" the redhead called out, clambering back to her feet and putting distance between herself and the source of the flames - which she knew would die out eventually. 

Pratt was not through with them, however, and Raine had not heard the second spell he'd cast around him. That didn't mean she couldn't feel it. An odd, nauseating sensation dropped into her stomach almost as soon as she stood up. She immediately pushed herself back against the wall to rest her weight against it. Raine had spent too much time as Quidditch captain to have experienced vertigo recently but she recognised this feeling from her first experiences on a broom. The older trainees had told her that Pratt liked this hex.

It was a hex that could only be useful if you were outnumbered and alone, or you'd risk affecting other Aurors too.

Her gaze lifted across the room just in time to catch sight of Fauna falling. Oh, Merlin, she wanted to throw up. That felt too much like giving up. Raine wasn't ready to give up: and if Fauna was all the way on the floor (the floor looked so tempting, so easy right now) then anything she cast at eye level wouldn't hit her colleague if she missed Pratt.

Which she would. Because, in her dizziness, it looked a bit like there were two Pratts. Or three? Didn't matter. She exclaimed a vehement, "Capilliffindo!" at one of the Pratts and took a chance with the other two by throwing a silent Slug-vomitting Hex.

Perhaps it would have been prudent for Pratt to consider Flora Blake’s weak stomach and proclivity to vomiting at inopportune moments. Ash her world spun around her and she desperately tried stop his spell, she looked positively green, ready to wretch all over the clean stone floor of their training room. And not for the first time, the Head Auror presumed. It took no time at all for her to end up on the floor, greatly suffering and once more, Edward Pratt was disappointed.

Less disappointing, perhaps, was the red head (wouldn’t Paddy be happy!) who had yet to be floored. Merlin, didn’t she make Flora look like a useless flobberworm after 2 years of training. Had the murderous aunt had a hand in such skills? Pratt didn’t have time to really wonder on such things as a hair removal spell shot towards his head. Always the hair jokes! Always the ridicule for the poor man experiencing a mild receding hairline!

His arm snapped up quickly, misdirecting the spell which them sliced across his forearm, leaving a strip of hairless skin in its wake.
“Rude!” The head auror couldn’t help but comment. A second curse flew straight past him to whatever Almasy directed her wand at in her dizziness.

A quick swipe of Ed’s wand and the effects of his vertigio hex immediately ceased before he rose his hands in the air, a sign they were done.
“Stand up, Blake. Deep breaths. We don’t need yer stomach paintin’ the floor.” The Head Auror once more raised his wand, pointing it at the smoke and drawing circles. Slowly, it began to dissipate and the room started to clear.

“2 mistakes, name ‘em.”

The smoke cleared, but Fauna's head did not. Pratt put a stop to the Vertigio, hadn't he? Was it over? Still on the floor, Fauna groaned and put her weight on her palms, her head bent, hair spilling over her shoulders, hunched over like one of those ghosts in the movies who scuttled out of TV's and rasped warnings over the phone.

Seven days, Pratt. Seven days and then she would - buuuuurp.

She shot a humiliated glare at the Head Auror and attempted to stand, arms held out to keep balance. Fauna swayed, as if in a particularly challenging yoga pose, and wheeled her arms for a few moments.

What was he going on about? He had too many mouths and was making too many words.

"Lack of communication," Fauna croaked, giving Raine an apologetic look. If that was Raine. Her face blurred and danced around the room.

That was one. She could name a thousand things she'd done wrong on her own, but since Pratt had said two mistakes, she assumed he meant the both of them. Fauna knew that Pratt expected more of an answer, but she was in no state to give one. Slowly, she put her hands on her knees and breathed in and out.

If she didn't feel like throwing up right this second, Raine would have laughed at how offended their Head Auror had been by her hex. She remained slumped against the wall and trying to get a hold of where she was in the room relative to the other two. They both had blurry doubles. Pratt cancelled the hex.... she thought. Probably. Didn't matter, they'd be dizzy for ages after anyway.

          "2 mistakes, name ‘em."

Was he trying to teach them in this state?! The redhead hiccuped abruptly, then groaned in irritation. That was the last thing she needed! Hiccups! Raine ignored the advice to stand, instead sliding to the floor and holding her head in her hands. Godric's socks! This was so annoying!

Lack of communication, Fauna was saying, and the younger witch looked up to squint at her colleague.

"Second! That was our second - hic! -mistake!" she covered her mouth, nose wrinkling as she tried to shoot a glare at Pratt. "Our first mistake was following - hic! - him into this -hic! - room." Raine liked it on the floor. The floor was stable. The floor wasn't going to abandon her like all the other laws of physics.

"Lack of communication," Flora barely managed, clearly unable to recover at speed. Almasy was fairly partially better, it at all. But she was able to give him more than a few words of response, actually thinking. Thinking, something Flora seemed to struggle with when it came to Pratt. Perhaps she was in awe, unable to function adequately in his presence. Such a problem wouldn’t do, even if Ed would understand her trouble.

“Bingo!” The Northerner replied loudly, boldly. “Ye didn’t question, only followed blindly. Then,” The wizard pointed his wand at a chair in the corner of the room, causing it to drag itself across the floor towards him. Gracefully lowering himself to sit, Ed spread his legs out, crossing them at the ankles. He was comfortable, even if his trainees weren’t. “Ye fought individually. There was no plan, and barely satisfactory cooperation because ye couldn’t be prepared. When ye go into t’field with a partner, ye need to know ‘em inside out. ‘ow do they fight? What’s their go to spell? Can ye support it?”

In truth, the girls had been doing ok. He’d been forced to keep alert, his own skills tested. He could have held off on the vertigio spell, given them a decent chance to take him down. But where was the fun in that?

“You weren’t terrible, at least.”

Fauna let out a chuckle at Raine's rebuttal to Pratt, then covered her mouth, regretting the way her stomach reacted. She remained standing with her arms out, and rolled her eyes up to the ceiling as Pratt told them that they shouldn't blindly follow him anywhere. Great lesson! He was their boss! If they couldn't follow him, who in Merlin's beard were they supposed to follow?

Trevelyan, Fauna decided. Trevelyan or Longbottom seemed like safer options.

Pratt sank down into a chair, and Fauna blinked at him, certain she was seeing things. How typical! He just hexed them, and felt like making himself at home.

"Huh!" Fauna let out an aggravated sound, then wobbled her way over toward Raine. Pratt was saying more words, too many words while she was nauseous, telling them that they needed to know their partner before they entered a duel.

Fauna looked down at Raine. It was a look of total commiseration. If Pratt's goal was to inspire them to work together against him in the future, it was working.

She extended a hand to help Raine up and kept the other hand against the wall for balance.

"Well," Fauna waited a moment for her stomach to settle. "These... not terrible... trainees are heading to the loo!"

Only the most terrible of bosses would say no to that. She hoped he was disgusted. He'd caused this. She was going to splash some water on her face, try not to throw up, and then sneak home!

She was right? Raine didn't have the stomach to feel proud of herself, and glared weakly at the Head Auror as he sat down. Her dizziness was somewhat receding, in that now she only saw doubles instead of triplicates. One day she might actually try to use that vertigo hex! At present, she could only feel sympathy for anyone under its odious effects.

            “You weren’t terrible, at least.”

"Small consolation." Raine grumbled, holding up a hand and pinching her fingers together demonstratively. "Very small." It did help to know they weren't a complete mess, she supposed.

Fauna had somehow managed to find it in herself to stand up, so Raine accepted her help to get back on her feet. The room swayed like a floating carousel. Except carousels were fun. She nodded in agreement with her senior trainee's intentions. Definitely the lavatory. Her stomach was making unwise movements.

"To the loo!" she repeated with vehemence, turning to Pratt to affect something like a respectful wave. "And-" she added to Fauna, unsteadily making their way out of the room. "- ice-cream when this is over."