apples and scented candles • h.potter ✓

• thirty-nine •

While Corben got ready for the Ministry, Harry stood by his table and read the timetables he'd attached on the wall.

There were two. One was given by Audra which listed the topics they were to revise or the things they were to practise on a given day. It also showed the list of exams that Corben would have to sit for to finally become an Auror.

The timetable was not pretty. Now that his training session was drawing to an end, his schedule was filled to the brim. How he found time to eat every day was beyond Harry but he was pleased to see that Corben followed his dietician's routine to the t. Harry ensured every day that his lunchbox was full of everything his dietician had recommended so that Corben did not have to go to the Ministry cafe which, Harry had to admit, wasn't the healthiest of places. Corben always returned with his lunchbox empty.

Although he was still as skinny as he always has been, he was now far more energetic and could duel Harry for hours.

Within one month, Corben's exams would begin. The real ones. The exams Corben attended now were set by Audra to prepare for what he would be facing soon. Those exams would be set and overlooked by highly trained Ministry officials along with the head of the Auror department. These were the exams that would determine Corben's future and they would last two weeks.

The second timetable was made by Corben himself. It was written with pencil on a sheet of paper - Corben had been delighted when Harry had shown him he could erase his errors instead of having to dispose of the whole document - and it was altered every week. Here, he listed every task he would have to complete on the daily.

Sometimes, Harry scrawled tiny notes on the margins to encourage or congratulate Corben though he was unsure whether Corben has actually seen any of them.

"Why are you staring at those?"

Harry turned around. Corben has just come out of the shower, a towel draped around his lower body. His breath caught in his throat as Corben came by to stand beside him. His bare skin glistened with the light that rippled in through the window and fell on his shoulders and his back. Oblivious to the sudden somersaults Harry's heart carried out, Corben squinted at the sheets of paper which had initially been the subject of Harry's attention.

"Pitying my sad routine?" asked Corben.

Harry blinked and wrenched his eyes away. "Actually, I'd rather have had this routine than gone through a war."

Corben dropped a quick kiss on Harry's forehead and began to put on the clothes he'd chosen earlier and kept on the bed. "What are your plans for today?"

"I think I'm going to visit Teddy." He actually hadn't planned anything like that but came to the decision as soon as Corben asked. Yes, he would visit Teddy.

"Will you bring him here? I haven't seen him in so long."

Harry packed Corben's lunch for him as he got dressed for Ministry. He returned to the bedroom to find him staring at his reflection in the mirror, fully dressed in an immaculate blue shirt, dark pants, and a coat. He has stopped wearing robes quite recently, saying that muggle clothes were more convenient, especially when he was running across corridors or chasing bad guys.

"After a few months," said Harry, walking over and hugging him from behind, "you'll be standing here wearing your Auror robes."

Corben met his eyes through the mirror but didn't say anything for a while. "Those aren't mandatory, right?"

"Only for the first month. I guess to drive it in your mind that you really are an Auror."

Corben turned around to face him. "Well, there's no use talking about it," he said in an oddly chill voice. "I'm not Auror yet. And I don't know if I ever will be."