Pausing outside the wizard bank, the red robed figure stood to stare up at the oversized, grand wooden doors that secured the entrance to what was without a doubt the largest amount of money in one place in the entire of the UK. The doors protected this vast fortune from its very owners, the wizards that deposited their fortune within the vaults beneath Ed’s very feet. Well, the wizards with a fortune deposited it within the bank. The Pratt family’s vault had a few hundred galleons, lots of dust and a few very old, very sticky sweets left on the floor.

Alas here he was, stood above such fortune about to stroll in to demand an audience with some top goblin about the disappearance of a woman that perhaps should have remained disappeared. Edward had read things about Madam Analiza Snark and he hadn’t been so sure he wanted his oldest son being taught by a woman so eager to penalise werewolves, to shun them from a normal life. They still deserved to cling to normality. Frank deserved that.

Sucking in a breath and reminding himself that work was work, Eddie continued up the steps and entered the bank, robes sweeping behind him dramatically as his boots echoed on the marble flooring of the exuberantly decorated room. Green eyes scanned the interior and the witches and wizards milling around, going about their daily banking business. They briefly paused on each individual goblin at his tall desk, looming over each wizard and wizard, happily holding the power of the bank between his grubby little fingers.

Footsteps resumed as Eddie continued through the entrance towards the goblin at the back, at the information desk. There in the queue a flash of red caught the auror’s attention and he instantly quickened his pace to near the wearer of the same robes as his.

Having drawn close to her, a hand grabbed her shoulder and span her around. “What the bloody ‘ell are you doin’ ‘ere Roh? There ‘ent no muggles ‘ere to berate.”

Shite and mint jelly.   Zora thoughts were whiny.  Eddie Pratt was not the wizard she felt like interacting with today.

"Har har," she said as she looked away from Ed and back down at her notes.  The last thing in the world she wanted to be reminded of was all that muggle business.  She had questioned her role in that mess from day one, and it had only gotten worse as time went on. 

"I've got orders," she said, flatly, not really interested in show and tell.  The Headmistress of Hogwarts was officially missing now - a bonafide case with leads to follow, people to interview and very possibly a trip to Egypt in her future.  Her daughter was there now, on that summer trip.   Going to Gringotts was routine in this kinds of situations - see what, if any, activity was on the vault.  Routine or not, however, the goblins were never cooperative, and acted like they'd never heard of a thing called Auror before.  It was going to be a great deal of grovelling and posturing and Ed was only another headache right now.

She looked up at him again.  He was still there.

"What."

She'd expected him to rib her about the muggle, say something offensive and then get on with his own day - why was he standing around like that?

Goodness wasn’t auror Roh grumpy today! Well, she was one of the colleagues Ed had a feeling was in a constant grump. In reality he didn’t know her at all because first impressions told him avoiding her was probably one of the most sensible options. She appeared to be...temperamental, excitable and...sparky. It was safer to avoid such personality traits in normal situations.

Yet this was no normal situation. Roh was here with what she referred to as ‘orders’ and her face very much informed Ed that she was about to irritate and question some goblins before he got the chance to do the same, no doubt making his job tougher than it needed to be. Obviously Edward’s orders at this moment were far more important than any Zora Roh had. He was starting the preliminary groundwork needed for the search for the dearly beloved headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardary. Well...dearly beloved by a select few.

“I’ve got more pressing orders and I don’t want you windin’ up my goblins with yer ...” Green eyes scanned over Roh’s red robed clad figure before falling on a pair of dark brown eyes that were more often than not covered by a ridiculous pair of sunglasses that said ‘I’m an idiot, laugh at me’ “charismatic charm.” The smile twisting Ed’s lips was taut, forced.

The wizard stood up straighter, taller. “So take your orders and bugger off...please.”

Zora's face was one of superior astonishment and just the slightest tolerance for Ed Pratt's shenanigans.  Because that's what Pratt was about.  Stupid shenanigans.  Sure.  He was bloody hilarious and lit up the office to her own delight at least once a shift, but he did get tiresome, especially when whatever goof-off he was on made more work for anyone else. 

And now - oh now of all blessed moments - was not the time to toy with Auror Roh.

She narrowed her eyes and him and gave him the same strained smile of Aurors behaving well in public.  "Check yourself, Pratt."

She took a step backwards, towards the desk with her goblin at it.  "Because you don't want to mess with this today," she said, her tone still fake-friendly.  Still trying to be the adult of the two of them.

Zora flipped down her sunglasses from off the top of her head and held up her hands as if to say, 'tough cookies, got here first.'  As if that was the end of it.

Poor Zora.  It probably wasn't.

And there it was. The sunglasses were flipped down in such a manner that informed Eddie that she was more deserving of his surname than him. Anyone that wore sunglasses indoors that didn’t have a dreadful hangover was, by Edward Pratt’s standards, a moron. It was no doubt the aging witch’s attempt to look cool, to fit in more with a bunch of aurors that oozed cool from their very toenails. These were aurors that didn’t need to wear sunglasses inside to look cool.

Eddie frowned. He crossed his arms. He refused to move.

There was simply one explanation for this and before Eddie could censor his thoughts, his tongue ran away with him.

“The obvious fact that you’ve just started the blob should tell you that you are in no fit state to be pissin’ off my goblins and making my job any harder.” Instead Edward Pratt was going to make comments that could set the entirety of witching kind on a poor innocent wizard like himself. The auror scowled at his reflexion in the dark sunglasses that covered his colleague’s eyes. “The very way I’ve heard you handle muggles makes me die inside at the thought of having to question these folks after you’ve insulted them.”

Zora had already begun to shift her weight to walk off and get about her day, when Ed Pratt spoke.  She immediately closed the distance between them and was very nearly up in his face.  Her voice was tight as she clipped her words down to a volume that wouldn't draw too much attention in the busy bank lobby.

She was livid. 

"It was one muggle!" She stuck her index finger between them to emphasize the singular nature of the muggles-harassed count.  "ONE.  And you'd have done it just the same if you'd met her," she seethed then, suddenly she interrupted herself with a humorless laugh.

"Ha! Why am I even trying with you!? I don't have to explain myself to you, Pratt! You're an arsehole! I'm an Auror.  I'm a goddam professional.  Now wait your turn, little man.  I shan't be long..." She ended in a forced, cheerful sing-song tone.  Again, attempting to remain at least artificially nice lest she kill him.

‘Arsehole’ Edward could take as an insult; he’d been called it many a time before, usually coupled with the joke about how his name resembled his demeanour. It was an insult that came with the territory of being as arrogant and amazing as Edward Pratt knew he was. Nevertheless, it was an insult that was old and unoriginal.

‘Little man’ was, however, an entirely different story. If it hadn’t of been so inappropriate in the middle of the bank, Edward would have informed his grumpy counterpart that there was absolutely nothing little about this man. He did not however, and instead scowled at Auror Roh while debating his next move.

It looked like Roh was about to turn and try to leave him once more so without another pause, Edward dipped his hand into the pocket of his robes and thrust a piece of folded parchment toward her chest. “If your case is more high profile than that Roh, I’ll let you go first, no more said. If not, bugger off.”

There was a flicker of something on Zora's face (and oh, she's seen it many times on many people) that told her something she said had touched a nerve.   But instead of coming back at her in typical p/Pratt fashion, he whipped out some paperwork and shoved it at her.

She snatched it up, and even as he was finishing the challenge, she was getting her orders out too.  She shoved them likewise towards Ed with one hand, already retorting a comeback.

"Oh you want to play that? Yes, please, be my guest and then eat sh-," Zora stopped her shop-talk short.  "How did you get this..?"

She was staring at orders to interview high level Gringotts managers concerning any activity on the vault numbers listed below as being associated with Analiza Snark missing as of the below date... But those were her orders.  Exactly the same task assigned to the same Aurors?  Sure, the paperwork could be a mess on Level Two, but this never happened.  They knew what cases they were on. 

"These are the same orders," she declared, again lowering her voice to a more confidential volume.  "I don't know what's going on but-"

And then she had pause to stop again.  She looked up at Ed with a grin and shook her head.  "Oh you're funny, you are.  Really.  It's cute, Ed.  Raynor'll slice and dice you for messing with orders, though."

Ignoring Zora’s immature remark, Ed unfolded the parchment she’d also thrust at him. Green eyes shot down to read it and dark blond brows knitted in confusion as the words jumped to life before him, imprinting them into his conscious.  They were the same words as in his orders and apparently Roh was realising this at the same time as the slightly taller auror. She voiced her opinion and Edward just stared at the parchment, blinking several times expecting it to change. Expecting the words to morph into something akin to “Had you there, mate!”

The words before him had to be a lie. He hadn’t even glanced at the top of the parchment before now. The experienced aurors rarely did with the amount of these that landed on their desk weekly. It was perfectly routine to receive one, read the mission and do it. One didn’t read the assignment numbers, the date or the auror names assigned because it was always obvious.

This hadn’t been obvious.

Suddenly the other auror sounded amused and Ed’s eyes shot up to meet hers. She was grinning, looking relieved. She thought this was a prank; that he’d decided to target her. Pratt shook his head slowly.

“I didn’t mess with the orders, Roh.” He lowered the parchment in his hand and spoke slowly, coldly. “Read the partner allocation.”

Pratt didn't crack a smile or begin to deny, deny, deny.  He told her to read again.  Still smiling, Zora look down again at the parchment, the one Eddie had carried into Gringotts.

AUROR(S) ALLOCATED:
Pratt & Roh

Usually is simply said "Roh".  It only said and when...

"We're not partners," she said with annoyance and hastily traded sheets with him, back the one she'd been handed.  It was the same.  Who'd fouled up?

"We're not partners," she said again, trying to convince Ed, herself, and the parchment.  "You're with Malone.  And I've got - well, had Dixon.  I was cleared for solo duty until... Oh bloody hell! I thought you were with Malone! Did I miss something?"

Zora just couldn't see how she would have missed that she'd been assigned a partner.  She hadn't requested a partner.  She'd requested solo duty. 

It was true. Ed’s own parchment said exactly the same as Roh’s had. Tamis Raynor was once again sat in her office playing with her auror pawns and having a giggle while she was at it. She seemed to enjoy throwing the poor blonde auror into partnerships he really would rather not be a part of. The partnerships that were going to send him grey and bald well before he had even contemplated the reality of reaching forty.

Ed’s eyebrows rose as he studied Roh. “Well ye obviously missed the fact that Frizzy transferred the other week leavin’ me on me lonesome.” The auror returned his orders to the right robe pocket and folded his arms over his chest. She definitely didn’t seem happy to be saddled with Eddie. To the point that she was informing her parchment of the fact they were not partners. Pratt wasn’t balled over with excitement at the prospect, but at least he wasn’t going crazy and addressing inanimate objects.

“I don’t need a partner, anyway.” He grumbled, glancing quickly at the awaiting goblin. “So you can just skip off to her indoors and tell her these pawns don’t wanna’ play. I’ll sort this vault stuff out while you have the girly chat wi’er. That’s partnership for yer, lass.” Arrogantly, the wizard winked at his newly allocated and hopefully soon to be unallocated partner. “So untwist yer knickers and off wi’ye.”

"Bollocks to that!" Zora protested and grabbed Ed's elbow to stop his marching away. 

"Me having to whine to Raynor while you've gone off and done your duty? I'm sure that'll go over well.  We'll do this together properly and speak with Raynor together properly," she said falling into a quick pace next to him. 

All her apparent frustration wasn't all on Eddie being her new partner, it was that she'd somehow been kept about of the loop.  Sure, some of it could be blamed on her own obliviousness to Malone transferring out - she recalled now, but some of it was most certainly the change in administration.  It was just a mess and Zora hated being caught unawares and also hated not getting her way.  She agreed with Ed - she didn't need a partner.  She wanted the freedom of some solo work.  Sure, the cases weren't as big and she knew she'd probably get tagged for supervising the Trainees from time to time, but it would have given her a little more time with the family before her daughter went off to school again, and with Iona while she was in the editing stage of her new book.

"And rule one - that's the last time you speak to me that way.  I'm an Auror - same as you.  And if I hear word one again about 'girly this' or 'on the blob' that, I will drag you through harassment reports," she said in a lower voice.  It wasn't a threat - it as a gorram guarantee.  As a witch on the Auror Corps it was a sad truth that sexism was still alive and well among its ranks despite spellcasting having no actual proven proclivity towards witches or wizards.  She sometimes felt she had to act twice the badass just to be taken seriously with some of these people. 

She knew Ed wasn't a bad guy - he'd proven it many times.  But if she was going to work with him every day, she was going to curb his bad habit right in the bud.  Or kill him.  Either way, she'd have her peace and quite.

"You got that, Eddie?"

Well this was unexpected. As Zora spoke Edward found himself feeling very much like a young boy being reprimanded by an older, more authoritative relative. He felt his stomach sinking as he tried to even comprehend sitting through an interview with this witch beside him. The witch who had jumped on her high feminist broomstick and shackled him to the underside!

And no, as they walked Edward Pratt was not sulking!

He was thinking with his arms crossed and his face stern. He was thinking how to respond to such an...ambush. He was thinking about how much he already missed Frizzy Malone and her slightly nicer attitude and the friendship they’d built. He was thinking that Zora Roh or him would be dead behind Gringott’s bank after this interview.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have been so...forward about her sex. Some women didn’t appreciate that apparently. Roh was just actually touchy today. Well, she was touchy most days, he had a feeling. Harassment...Zora Roh had no idea of the meaning of the word. And if Eddie hadn’t have been trying to remain reserved at this moment in time, she would have heard it. There was a very large difference between a few misplaced comments and the terrifying realities of what harassment really was.
Dungan MacDuff had known how to harass people.
Edward Pratt just knew how to unknowingly piss women off.

The female auror even called him ‘Eddie’, taking a tone of an adult questioning a child. Pratt took a breath, consciously stopping himself from giving her what he thought. His fists balled up tighter.
“Yes, Auror Roh, Ma’am.”

"Oh, get over yourself," Roh mumbled as they finally seemed to be getting on with it.  He was clearly pissed off that she'd even dared demand his respect as an equal.  But let him sulk.  It was a hard truth to hear and he'd fall in line or she's nail him to the wall.  She would not tolerate any bullshit - to work on a team you had to feel totally safe and trusting with your partners.  Systematic, institutional degradation didn't go that far in meeting that goal.

"We've done this before," she said as they walked, referring to getting Gringotts to give up information on accounts.  "So you probably know that we won't get far the first time.  You want to start things off and then I'll try and close it up," she suggested.  "Looks like we're looking at two vaults, Snark's and then her... I can't read this."  She passed her copy over to Ed.  The type was too small and she didn't want to put on her glasses. 

"Whoever it is, we can't compel Gringotts to hand anything over yet, but we can try to get them to volunteer it.  Blightly gobos..." she grumbled. 

“They never will volunteer anything.” Ed responded in more of a grumble than normal speech. He hated dealing with goblins. Most witches and wizards did. They put their trust in goblins, in a bank run by the creatures that thought of themselves as far above wizarding kind and these goblins failed to co-operate on every occasion they had. Yet the aurors still had to show up and ask for help, ask to view vaults where almost every time the goblins refused. It greatly irritated Pratt and yet it was his job to follow the orders, to come to the bank and politely request to view the activity upon a vault. Perhaps it was a good thing in reality that Roh was there, they could stop one another getting too irate with the creatures that would happily to refuse to help their investigation in any capacity.

“Take literacy lessons then.” The auror mumbled as he took the sheet she handed to him and looked down at it, his eyes scanning the vault names and numbers. The frown already creasing Pratt’s features grew as he realised what a waste of time this was and how difficult their jobs were going to be as soon as they showed these numbers to the goblins.

“Snark’s vault and the Hogwarts Headmaster’s vault. It’s obvious already we’ll need a warrant for that one. Those unhelpful buggers aren’t going to let us even see paperwork on that without one.” He folded the parchment and once more pushed it back to Roh. “I’ll let you lead this one, Roh, can’t bloody stand these creatures.”