Level Two
Ministry of Magic
Just after 9 AM

“Reporting for duty, Lieutenant.” Tessa slapped Charlie Harris’s outstretched hand, as if tagging him out of a Quidditch match. “How’s it been?” she asked, dropping easily into the chair next to him.

The situation room on Level Two looked much the same as it had been when she’d left it just after half past three earlier that morning. The enormous map on the wall that tracked severe magical occurrences throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland was relatively peaceful. Place names were labeled in floating white text, which grew or shrank when one waved a wand in their direction.  Glowing lights showed the positions of the Ministry’s patrol teams, spread across the countryside. But there was no sign of active red sparks, no indication that anything else had gone seriously wrong overnight.

Her coworker shielded a yawn as he straightened in his seat.

“Quiet,” he said, glancing past her in the direction of their boss. “After the thing in Windermere, there’s been some sparks, but they were all false alarms.”

Tessa followed his gaze back across the room, where their boss was standing off to the side, talking quietly with the red-headed Auror from Level Two. The Head of the Werewolf Capture Unit was still clad in the silver and leather that he wore every full moon. Bagnold looked a little bleary-eyed, but otherwise none the worse for wear — a relatively good sign that not much else had happened after Tessa had gone home to sleep.

She settled into her chair as Harris gathered up his things, taking a moment to study the quiet map. The nice thing about having so much support from Level Two and the rest of the Ministry during the January full moon was that the Capture Unit could actually work patrols in shifts, allowing them to rotate out to get some sleep. Assuming the last day of their watch stayed as quiet as the previous two days and nights had been, Harris would get to head home and sleep through the last shift.

He looked like he was ready for some sleep now, barely stopping himself from yawning again as he climbed to his feet. “The bridge is yours, Commander,” he told her, executing a crisp salute as he turned away. “Make it so.”

Tessa returned his salute, though not nearly as practiced. Stretching her legs out under the table, she turned back towards the map and settled in to watch.

It was difficult to stay focused. All things considered, she would have much preferred to be out on patrol today, where at least the time always passed quickly. But it hadn’t escaped Tessa’s notice that she, Harris, and Blake had all mostly been assigned to desk duty this full moon. Blake made sense, as the Auror trainee was still recovering from the Magical Measles that had been sweeping the Ministry.  But for Tessa and Harris, there was no easy excuse.

It was unfair, Tessa thought, a little bitterly. None of them had done anything wrong last month, even if Bagnold apparently thought she had when she’d protested the vampire. And yet here they were, stuck in an office while the rest of their teammates were out actively helping to protect people, with nothing better to do than to stare at the wall.

Sighing, she crossed her arms petulantly and tried to remember to pay attention to the map.

It was a little less than ten minutes later, when she’d been stuck trying to find a city that started with the letter X to complete her first run through the alphabet, when a flicker of color caught her eye.

“Bagnold,” she called out suddenly, sitting up straight in her chair.

The Head of the Werewolf Capture Unit pivoted almost instantly.  Expression hard, he looked up at the board.

There, somewhere in the wilds of Scotland, floated the twinkling crimson lights that indicated that some unknown wix had fired off red sparks.

Automatically, Bagnold straightened and put a hand to his wand, and then checked the silver chain at his belt. Tessa knew her boss well enough to know what that meant; silently, she reached to touch her own wand, making sure it was still there, and then began to slip out of her cloak.  Wherever they were going would probably be cold, but she wouldn’t need its warmth once she transformed.

“I think that’s close to one of the safe houses,” Bagnold told the red-headed Auror, turning back towards the door. “I’ll take this one.”

The Auror slanted him what was probably a long-suffering look. “You sure about that, mate?” he asked. “The last shift’s coming on now. We can send a team with you.”

Bagnold shook his head impatiently, already halfway to the door. “If we don’t send up an all-clear within three minutes, you can send a team after us,” he said matter-of-factly.  “Fenneken, come on.”

Tessa didn’t need to be told twice. Already on her feet, she hurried out the door and down the hallway after the older wizard.