Zora held up her drink and kept it aloft to Fauna's challenge - she'd played on the Slytherin team in school. "Chaser and not half bad at that."

And the Pratt Brats! Zora cackled, dearly hoping the term had been used in Ed's presence. It was all he deserved making the minions babysit.

"Mmm!" he drank deep at Raine's challenge. "Loads, and oh, I was gutted every time. Hate losing! Nothing like an unhealthy sense of spite to keep at it. Don't lose much now, I'll tell you. I've splinched a man."

She said it matter-of-factly, as if she'd meant to do it. But in reality, it had been a rather gorey mistake she'd taken quite a beating for. Funny now, though.

"Alright, alright new one. Never have I ever pulled a shift more than 24 hours?"

Fauna nodded knowingly at Raine, glad she wasn't the only one with a crush on Warrington. Who could blame them? Every level at the Ministry had a Cepheus Gamp. Omari was Level Two's.

Raine! Fauna shook her head, giving her an offended, long-suffering look. "Just last week. It's either you or Cavanaugh."

She smiled ruefully. Just wait, Raine! Just wait for the new batch of trainees. She took a big sip of her drink, and almost choked. Roh had splinched a man?

Her expression sealed it. I've splinched a man, get outta my way before ya dead nao.

Fauna glanced at Roh, then at Raine, fully appreciating that they were on her side and also her drinking buddies. It took her a moment to mull over Roh's question. No, she hadn't ever been stuck on a shift that long, Pratt wasn't that diabolical, and oh wait...

She had.

"Oh wait!" She face-palmed, and laughed. "Ok, there was that one time. Once. I think."

Fauna took a very small sip of her drink, eyeing her Auror comrades, daring them to call her on it.

"The schedules were messed up. Or someone had messed with the schedules. No, someone was pranking me. My housemates!" Her eyes widened in realization. "It was them! It all makes sense now. Right, this was when we were all first-year trainees."

Fauna swirled her drink with her straw. "It was a weekend thing that no one wanted to do, and they'd been talking about it all day. Even the Aurors." She looked at Roh. Had the Aurors known? "Um so," she faltered. "I stuck it out because I thought it would impress everyone, but all that happened was my housemates went home, I fell asleep with a file stuck to my face, and Bailey walked in first thing Monday and was like, Blake, what are you still doing here. And I stood up and said something like, my job, really belligerently," she chuckled. "And he laughed and told me to go home."

She took another sip of her drink, forgetting she'd already taken one.

"Hm. Never have I ever pranked Carstairs."

Fauna highly doubted Raine had, but she looked curiously at Roh.

She laughed, easily picturing Fauna snapping at Bailey with her sleepy face. My job! As much as everyone teased Fauna, Raine thought she was extremely dedicated. Not all the aurors had to turn out like Roh or Pratt. There were many different kinds of dark wixes and therefore many different kinds of wixes on level two.

            ""Hm. Never have I ever pranked Carstairs."

"I wish!" Raine bit her lip, shaking her glass a little to hear the ice clinking. "I think I'm already on thin ice with Carstairs. He's just expecting me to slip up and do something Ira-esque." Or maybe that was just her imagination.

The last two questions didn't necessitate drinking but this was probably a good thing - better to be a touch more sober than more drunk around these two. Raine wasn't a wild drinker; at the most she would become very sleepy and end up having to be dragged back to Hiraeth with half-closed eyes.

"Never have I ever been hexed by a dark wizard," she turned slightly on her stool to face the other two, "at least not as a trainee anyway."

It was lucky that for the most part shifts longer than 12 hours were discouraged on Level Two. Most seemed to understand that fatigue was a killer. It wasn't completely uncommon for Aurors, Hitwizards, and MLE wix to kick each other out of the office if someone was putting in too many hours. There'd been exceptions. The Azkaban Prison Break, Zora didn't go home for more than an hour or two for three days.

"Hm. Never have I ever pranked Carstairs."

At Carstairs' name Zora smirked and shook her head. She'd known him back when he was an Auror; she'd been his junior than too. It was honestly hard to imagine anyone messing with him. Zora honestly doubted it would be any fun. But then, she was cold on him lately, as it was a month ago that she'd gotten taken down a notch for speaking her mind to the press.[1]

She shook her head. She kept it professional at work. A habit from her early days. She felt for Raine though, having to carry around the curse of her family name, tarnished by someone other than her.

"Nah. I'm a fun-hater."

"Never have I ever been hexed by a dark wizard," posed Raine.

Zora sat back and finished her drink. Time to get into it, eh.

"More than a few times. One more than that if you count Draco Malfoy..." She thought for a second.

"Right, so nearly lost my arm at the '04 Azkaban break-out. Knocked out cold pursuing Snatchers, trying to round them up after the Death Eaters got taken out. Was in Mungo's a few days for that. Executed a raid at Cravenditch got a nasty gash. It can get hair out there."

She didn't sound at all worried about it.

"What are you dreading the most?" she asked, momentarily forgetting the rules to the game.

1.	Oct 19 - Each on Their Own Strict Line

Fauna gave Raine a sympathetic look as she griped about Carstairs. She hadn't noticed any prejudice from him. He always seemed so professional to her, but Raine might have picked up on a look or gesture that seemed odd.

She took a moment to think about Raine's next question. Had she been hexed? Oh sure, by petty criminals or ordinary people making bad decisions. Not dark wixes. Not yet!

Unless...

There had been that one time with Kronos Malvivicus. But that barely counted as a hex! All she'd done was sidle up to Sasha and (unknown to her at the time) Kronos and she'd tried to make (awkward) conversation, and then Fergie had said hello, and before she knew it they were skipping arm and arm down Diagon Alley or wherever the hell they'd been, trapped by some cheering charm into singing together.[1]

Fauna laughed silently behind her drink and shook her head, holding up a hand to ward off questions. "Uh, no. Not as a trainee either."

Some things were too absurd to explain. And really, she didn't want to diminish the very real danger Roh had faced over the years. She sobered at the talk of Snatchers, and Azkaban jailbreaks. She glanced curiously at Roh, then at Raine - were they still playing the game? She didn't mind answering.

"Turning in friends," Fauna said with a rueful smile. She was sure they could understand why. "Or anyone I work with, if that situation ever comes up."

She remembered questioning Musgrave and how curiously he'd tried to offer her advice (no one could resist giving her advice about her job, it seemed). She'd wondered how his fellow Aurors had felt hunting him down.

Loyalties. It always circled back to loyalties. Fauna didn't fear getting herself killed or getting others killed. She didn't fear lack of social life, strained relationships, cynicism and burnout because she simply wasn't there yet. She feared faltering in her resolve, but she'd been tested with Greer and had arrested that whole unfortunate family.

But loyalties? This Hufflepuff already struggled.

1.	Yes, this happened

Fauna's response to her question made Raine a little curious - she filed that away for later reference, a question to be asked when they weren't around a real adult witch. Roh didn't have to know everything that passed through their minds.

            "What are you dreading the most?"

Her heart tripped over itself, and she drank her gin and tonic to avoid answering first. Because what do you say to a question like that? She hadn't even been a trainee for a year and there were so many  little things that worried her about being a fully fledged auror; things she knew would inevitably happen over the course of time.

Fauna's dread was definitely on the list. The redhead smiled at her friend, expression tinged with the same concern. There were people - likeable people, people who weren't Figaro - she didn't want to have to handle.

"Yeah. Having someone I know on the other side of the law," Raine turned to Zora, setting down her drink, "that would be hard. I don't think I would hesitate but..." she shrugged and looked back at Fauna. "The wizarding world's a lot smaller than we'd like, isn't it? Bound to happen."

And she wanted to be prepared, when it did. She owed that much.