10 November 2011 @7pm
Old Brick, London


But first, Level Two…

It had been a rough couple days on Level Two for two trainees in particular. Fauna Blake’s first solo case - the case of the Pilfered Pilpher - had been fraught with drama and dead ends. Both Blake and first-year trainee Raine Almasy had performed with effort but the challenge had laid their shortcomings on display. It was potentially a watershed moment for both witches. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Ed Pratt to handle it. It as that she didn’t totally trust Ed Pratt to handle it.

Both trainees were working late, and she found them both poring over a massive stack of files. The tall Auror came up behind and between them and draped her arms over their shoulders.

“Hello, darlings. Get your stuff. Um, I think we need a … strategic meeting...” she said with a rare sly smile.

The last few days had been insane. November 7th, Figaro's smiling photo pasted on the crime board. November 8th, Figaro's neverending arrest and questioning. November 9th, Figaro's mother. Also his release from custody, thank Helga. November 10th, her performance review with Pratt.

November 10th wasn't over yet, even. It was today. Fauna had felt like a failure all day.

Technically, she had failed. She still didn't know who had burglarized Pilpher and Stride. Dead end. Obviously Figaro hadn't done it, but she'd wasted too much time just trying to get through the questioning with him. Mistake. She hadn't solved it, she'd gotten emotional, she'd said good night. Mistake, mistake, mistake. And yet, she was trying her very best. She showed up, she got along, and what if it still wasn't good enough? What if she was wasting three years of her young life just to get rejected from Level Two at the end?

I don't understand how they can expect you to solve murders and catch the bad guys fresh out of school, her mother had said many times. And don't say Harry Pilpher (Potter! Potter, mum). You're young. You should do something else and then come back to it when you're older.

No, mum! What if she never came back to it? What if time healed the reason why she cared?

Because everyone had a reason why. It didn't have to be personal, but sometimes it was, Fauna thought, glancing at Raine.

Everything was personal for Raine this week. Everything made her angry this month. And let's be honest, she'd been spiraling for the past few months, maybe even since she had joined.

Raine had time to reign in her temper, but Fauna worried. She wished she knew what to say, how to help, while she pretended like they were just two Auror trainees on the same level poring over files together in her cubicle, Fauna purposefully picking the wobbly chair to sit in and giving Raine the comfy one, Fauna offering her last granola bar, Fauna about to suggest they both head home, but thanks for staying.

Just yesterday, she'd had to pull authority in front of Figaro's mother.

What was better, Sir Pratt? Was it better to be all business, or to act like her friend?

Fauna knew it was late when she started having conversations with her boss in her own head. Stifling a yawn, she stood, opening the folder that detailed the missing unicorn blood vials stolen from the Ministry stock earlier that month. They'd found a Refraction enchantment at the scene, a spell used to conceal, and they'd also found the same one at Pilpher and Stride's. The spell sounded familiar to her, but she didn't know how, or why it jumped out[1].

Zora Roh to the rescue!

Fauna knew all about strategic meetings. Strategic meetings were for established badasses who left their files in Fauna's cubicle when she forgot to turn her lamp off, like right around now. Strategic meetings were for senior Aurors, expert pranksters, the cool kids.

A slow smile spread across Fauna's face. "Really?"

She looked hopefully at Raine. "Do you think we should? I mean, we should. Who else is going?" Fauna raised her eyebrows at Roh. Not Pratt. Please not Pratt!

1.	Refraction Enchantment

If any of her colleagues or friends had tread lightly with her this week, Raine remained somewhat oblivious. It had been one thing after another and Figaro Sellaphix getting arrested had been at the centre of her bad mood - even though neither he nor his mum had much really to do with her. They weren't related or particularly close friends. They existed, it felt, solely to irritate Raine.

Her eyes found themselves having to reread bits of paperwork now, too distracted to absorb everything at first.

She was tempted to confess to Fauna that she couldn't possibly concentrate tonight, not with her meeting with Miranda Storm the next day. Just thinking about that made the redhead feel a little anxious. Storms! Always bumping into Storms. Her sister would have found it funny, with a name like hers.

            "Hello, darlings."

Auror Roh was upon their desk before Raine could make up her mind to tell Fauna. Strategic meeting? She shut her folder and looked at Roh dubiously. Why would the older witch want them hanging around tonight? Waste a Friday night on two witches dripping with bad luck?

However.... Raine decided that she didn't dislike anyone on level two enough to turn down a night of not-thinking-about-certain-things, and she hopped on to the tail end of Fauna's hopeful query.

"We definitely should." Raine's voice was dry and her mouth had relaxed into a smile. "But we aren't going to the Leaky Cauldron, right?" she glanced back at the auror expectantly. "Diagon's getting to be a small world these days."

The wizarding world was like that. Sometimes she couldn't blame Ira for living in muggle London or for her constant travels on the continent.

"Just us, Old Brick. C'mon, humor an old lady," Zora said with her characteristic dryness. She was already backing away. These two were hard workers, but it can't be difficult to walk away from a stack of paperwork like that. Aurors were wix of action. And unhealthy coping mechanisms.

---

It took no more coaxing. Not twenty minutes later, Zora was waiting for the imminent arrival of the two juniors. She's changed out of her red robes into a smart bomber jacket and had let her curly hair down. A quick owl home to tell her bookworm wife Althea she was winding down with a couple or few.

She liked Old Brick; it was a remedy for Almasy's problem with the Leaky. Old Brick wasn't typically a Level Two haunt, just a cheap, cleaner-than-most magical dive with dangerous long island ice teas.

When the younger witches arrived, she lifted her chin in greeting. Seeing them out of context made them look their age. They were within a few years of her recently graduated daughter Waverley, who was currently Wandering Waverly. Her daughter's issues were more typical for a new adult; Blake and Almasy? They were dealing with something different entirely.

"You did it. Survived the week."

In her red wool coat with was embarrassingly similar in style to an Auror robe, Fauna walked into Old Brick and held the door behind her for Raine.

Fauna glanced around, easily spotting Zoh sitting at the bar. She was glad it wasn't as crowded as the Leaky Cauldron. Also glad it was just Zoh, instead of a bigger group of Aurors that might make her feel like she had to be professional while tipsy (impossible).

Was it her imagination, or was Zoh getting nicer over the years? Fauna had a theory, and the theory had to do with the women's loo, where the latest batch of trainees ranted to each other over the stalls, glowered in mirrors, ok yeah cried, ok yeah threw up due to Pratt's Vertiglio. An Auror had to have a heart of stone to overhear all that and not feel compassion.

"Um, did we? Is it Friday already?" Fauna smiled her dopey joking smile as she took a seat and shrugged off her coat. She wore a pale orange blouse with fanciful flying thestrals on it, because in her heart it was still Halloween.

She ordered a long island iced tea, because she wished it were actually Friday.

She had taken bites out of an overly sugary oat bar while changing clothes, on the off-chance that they had more drinks than planned tonight. Raine did not like to drink on an empty stomach. It made her sleepy and almost nice. Although, to be honest, she felt kindly towards level two in general as she arrived at Old Brick with Fauna, red curls braided into perfectly symmetrical pigtails.

            "Um, did we? Is it Friday already?" the older trainee took a seat and Raine slid on the stool next to her.

"It's technically my Friday," she confessed before ordering a gin and hogweed tonic. "But I've taken the Saturday shift, so, brief reprieve." A one day weekend wasn't really a weekend - not that she was going to complain.

Her attention shifted for a moment to Auror Roh, whose remark was both congratulatory and acknowledgement of a hellish few days. Why was she trying to be nice to them? Raine felt ridiculous for being suspicious of niceness. The proper aurors, they couldn't be horrible all the time, could they? 

Maybe just Pratt. Raine attempted a friendly smile in Roh's direction. "Do you ever get used to weeks like this?"

Raine and Fauna ordered their drinks, and Zora made sure the bartender knew the first round was on her.

"Oh, yea," Zora said with a performative cringe. "I was Pratt's partner for a year."

She took a drink from her beer and kicked the stools a bit to make room. "C'mon, sit."

While they did or didn't, Zora looked levelly between them, showing them each a long, silent consideration. After a minute, she nodded and sat back straighter and tucked her hair behind her ear.

"You two, I think you're going to make it. I mean, you could if you hold the right ends of your wands." Zora held up a hand in surrender.

"This isn't a trap. Didn't drag you out for a lecture, honestly," she raised her glass with a grin. "On my honor. But I'm not your boss, so this is, well, motherly advice. You know what I'm talking about?"

Did they, though? Did Fauna know? Did Raine?

Well, damn. Fauna had been hoping to relax and drink with coworkers this evening, but Roh kicked things off with some motherly advice. Fauna winced, glancing at Raine. Fauna knew from her own talks with her own mum that advice often turned into lectures and that 'come on over for dinner' meant 'listen to me critique your life choices over mashed potatoes, you should finish those potatoes by the way, why don't you like them, I made them for you'.

"Okaaaay," Fauna said without an ounce of enthusiasm.

She took a long sip of her drink, unable to hide her unease. The meeting this morning had chipped a chunk out of her confidence. Roh thought they were going to make it, and Fauna appreciated that, but she wasn't sure she wanted to hear whatever this was after a long day.

"Ok, so tell us," she straightened a bit in her seat. "How did you survive a whole year with Pratt? Or I mean, now that I think about it, you probably thrived? Somehow?"

Whether Roh planned to tell them, Fauna had to ask. She shot Raine a slight smile, then looked at Roh curiously.

The idea of someone being Pratt's partner was as funny as imagining him as a father to those terrible children who had terrorised them not long ago. Raine tried to imagine both him and Roh as younger people - her imagination painted them as almost charming people but it did not go any farther, halted by the phrase motherly advice. This made her sit a little straighter as their drinks were served.

Raine sipped her gin and tonic to hide her grimace. She didn't even take motherly advice from her actual mother, and now they'd been lured by the promise of drinks to listen to Roh hand it out. Fauna's expression, when they exchanged glances, told her that she felt the same.

"Adversity can do good things for the soul," she laughed when the other trainee asked Roh about thriving around Pratt, "and I can't think of anyone more adverse to work with than him."

There would no letting go of that absolutely unfair duelling session in the practice room. Just thinking about the nauseating spell made her want to eat ice-cream.

"And I... I think I know what you're talking about." Raine's smile faded slightly as she looked at the auror with a more sombre set of mind.  "I just didn't anticipate having to deal with people like Fig, when I started training. Merlin, I think I'm really starting to hate him."

Zora watched as the both of them seemed to flinch at her offer of advice. The older Auror sighed tolerantly.

"At ease, witches," she used the military phrase iconically.  "I'm not your boss, we aren't on Level Two, we've got drinks in our hands and we're bad-mouthing Eddie."

Even though they looked tense to Roh, at least they were humoring her.

"First, it wasn't easy because he's a damn cowboy. Constantly trying like he was my senior," she said looking at Blake.

"And if adversity's good for the soul, I'm a saint." She had to agree with Almasy there.

"Second," she said after a drink, "yes, Almasy, we definitely learned a thing or two about a hexed bludger, Merlin's teeth. That kid was a disaster. But I'm not going to get up your arse your for that."

"Here's my point: as witches in the Auror Corps we have to work twice as hard as the wizards to be taken seriously. You're young, things are better than they used to be, but we have to be fucking clever about it. Our successes are flukes, our mistakes are because we're witches. It's not fair. But that's the truth of it."

She set her glass down at watched them. There was a divide between witches Zora's age and the younger set. Zora remembers when it was worse. When she started in the 90s, she could count the number of witch Aurors on one hand. She was called 'lass' on a regular basis and had to sneak her way into the combat assignments. But now the sexism was a little more insidious, more under the table. A quiet undercurrent of double-standards. It was better now, but there wasn't full equity yet.

"I just mean, I don't want to see either of you fall through the cracks. You're both good."

After a moment, she gently waved a hand in the air. Maybe it wasn't possible to speak to these two, already so well trained in the chain of command, and get an unguarded discussion.

OOC: My intention with this is not to imply anything about the views of Carstairs or Pratt that their writers don't intend. Zora would be talking about whoever held those views, not necessarily our active characters.

Raine still hated Fig? Fauna's mouth formed a 'w', caught between 'what' and 'why'.

That was as far as she got before she snorted out a laugh, picturing Pratt as a cowboy and Fig as a hexed bludger.

The conversation took a turn, then. Fauna met Roh's eyes, then glanced at Raine, and back at Roh. She had noticed there were a greater number of young witches joining the corps these days, but they didn't really talk about it seriously. She spent a lot of time pretending there was no divide between gender or generation, reassuring herself, her mum and her family that all was well.

Fauna blinked, her brow furrowed. Her instinct was to pretend again, pretend to be a big bad tough Auror witch, and could they go back to drinking their feelings, please?

This from Fauna, feeler of feelings. She didn't feel very fucking clever today, or this month. She just needed to do better, that was all. Do better at her job, and next year she would finally earn her Auror badge.

"Uh, well, thank you?" Fauna donned her 'Dead Inside and Happy about it' face. She fiddled with the straw in her drink. Something like sadness and doubt bubbled up under the surface. If Roh had trouble at times, or had experienced trouble, and if Raine understood, then what did that mean for her?

"I don't think we have any plans to fall through the cracks. I've fallen in the river during training, but you know," she shrugged, reverting to self-deprecating wisecracks. "If Raine falls, I'll help her up."

Fauna looked at her friend, smirking the only way she knew how, with her mouth pressed into a crooked smile and a glint of amusement in her eye. That impromptu training! After suffering Vertigio, Fauna had helped Raine up, and they'd helped each other to the loo. It wouldn't be the last time. She tried not to think about Raine falling, or failing.

"You've done the same for us, Roh."

Her expression softened, an almost-vulnerability flickering over her face. Roh and several Aurors, several witches even, went out of their way to look out for the trainees, the witch trainees even, and that was all anyone could do, she thought.

She fell silent once the older woman began to talk about to be a witch in the Auror Corps. Raine had grown up in a family where women were leaders - a matriarch, cousins who took their mother's surnames, a general sense of acquiescence to sisters and aunts and grandmothers. The sexism faced in the Ministry was infuriating in a distant way; intellectually infuriating rather than emotionally, because she wasn't brought up in its atmosphere.

All the same, it felt nice to know Roh was looking out for them. Awkward, but nice.

           "If Raine falls, I'll help her up."

In spite of the discomfort Fauna emanated, the words made Raine's heart lighter. She smiled back at the other girl and nodded once. The nod itself was singular and serious. Like a promise: yes, I'll help you up too. Naturally.

"Yes. We don't give up easily," she added, gaze sliding from Fauna and back to Zora as she sipped her gin. "And we have each other, to ensure we don't believe in any of those lies. We know we aren't flukes. We'll work twice as hard and it'll only make us that much better than them."

Raine knew it was her competitiveness bleeding through in conversation. She couldn't help herself, few things made her work harder than being underestimated or being told how hard to road ahead was going to be. Carstairs and Pratt were their leaders and, yes, they were men, but they were only men.

Ira had outsmarted both of them, hadn't she? Raine turned away from that thought and raised her glass in a toast.

"To the witches of level two?"

Fauna and Raine, they really were good and it heartened and interested Zora to hear their reaction. It was odd - she'd have expected heart-pouring Fauna to come back with something personal somehow, but she seemed guarded. Which was fine. Zora remembered her first years in the Corps, oscilating and agonizing about how much she should be. In alternating phases she tried hard to be one-of-the-guys, gruff and rough; and then a stark version of herself who was more quiet and calculating. Neither seemed to work just right, not for a long time. Althea had offered that she wasn't able to conduct herself on her own terms, not until she'd truly earned the respect of her colleauges. Zora had to agree. She hoped Fauna would be able to get their sooner, find her balance.

And Raine. She was newer and Zora knew her less, although she certainly heard about her plenty. If Fauna was holding something kind at bay, Raine was holding back something a lot more intense. From what she'd heard, it wasn't that clear to Zora if she was being successful or not. Were Raine's combustions an ultimate catharsis or were they trickles of something worse. The former was easier to adjust, but the latter could very well be dangerous. Zora had seen it before, Aurors going to hard, hurting someone or washing out. Something ate at Raine; Zora hoped for Raine she figured out what it was.

True or not, that's what a night of release and wine was for!

"Hear hear!"

With that, Roh bent over the bar and got the bartender's attention. "Another three of these," she said, indicating her young companions. When the drinks arrived, Zora doled them out and lead the way to a table.

"Never Have I Ever," she declared. Stupid game, but maybe it would break some ice.

"Never have I ever cried at work."

Zora paused, had a wry grin, then took a drink.

As they took a seat at a table, Fauna was glad that Raine and Roh had her back just as she had theirs. They both exuded confidence, which was something she envied and admired. Were they drawn to Level Two because they fit the type so well, or because they'd evolved to embrace the tougher aspects of their personalities?

Fauna knew she had changed since joining the Auror corps, but months like these made her question if she was cut out for it. Had she screwed up - if she'd screwed up -due to the behaviors she'd been taught from a young age? Or her personality? Or expectations now?

She laughed a little too long at Roh's statement about crying at work, and took a sip, glancing at Roh in surprise but believing her all the same.

"Never have I ever," Fauna began, tapping her nails against her glass. Something lighthearted.

"Never have I ever played more than one Quidditch game," she smiled, well aware that the Ministry groups went barmy over that kind of thing, and also aware that Raine most certainly had.

She gave her friend a look of camaraderie, "Unless you count the quidditch match in the conference room with the Pratt Brats. Though I think I was both chaser and beater and at one point, seeker. Not sure who won. Maybe team Omari."[1]

Fauna shrugged one shoulder and took another sip of her drink.

1.	Here Come the Pratts

Upon finishing her first gin, she was surprised when Zora ordered another round. They really were getting into it, weren't they? There was surely enough liquor in this bar to help resolve a week's worth of auror problems, she hoped. Raine grinned into her fresh glass when the game started. Merlin help them!

Crying at work? "Mm, not yet," she wrinkled her nose. Something told her it was only a matter of time - and she wouldn't be surprise if someone was running a betting pool.

            "Never have I ever played more than one Quidditch game," Fauna's turn came up.

"Too easy!" Raine feigned protest but was quite delighted to taste her second drink, taking a healthy gulp. Oh, she missed quidditch. "And Team Omari always wins by the way. It's that smile..." she trailed off with a sigh. Definitely a member of level two's Warrington fan club. Good looks and competency!

The redhead leaned against the bar counter, aware that it was her go. "So, never have I ever... um..." she narrowed her gaze cattily at the other two. "Never have I ever lost a duel to somebody younger than me. And I'm counting months."