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chapter thirty five
draco the alchemist
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The Department of Astrological Strategy and Innovation was located on level one—the Ministry of Magic's highest level.
There were four desks for the members of the department against each of the four walls. Loose pages of notes and star charts were perennially scattered over our tables along with tiny personal telescopes and astrolabes. We had an orrery that floated over our heads, the bright orange sun at the center was our only source of light in the room. It hung suspended over our main telescope which was enchanted to see the sky as though it was nighttime no matter the time of day.
I was the youngest person there by nearly ten years. One could make an argument for nepotism, admittedly. It had been so easy to get an internship in my father's department at the Ministry, it was literally his present to me for my eighteenth birthday.
I was also the only one who hadn't gone to an Astrology school. Wizards didn't have universities, but some careers in the wizarding world required graduating two- or three-year programs essentially equivalent to Muggle trade schools. It was technically required to work there but an exception had been made for me considering I was attending university for an astrophysics-focused Master of Physics degree.
Even though being the intern in the astrology department was a lot of work, to me it felt more like taking a break from school. After seven months at Oxford, I was still in the process of getting used to everything.
Before starting uni, the part I'd been dreading the most was having to make a whole new set of friends. In reality, that ended up being the least difficult part.
Mum insisted I stay in the dorms. I wasn't terribly sure why that was so important to her, considering I'd lived in a dorm for my last seven years of schooling, but I supposed that she wanted me to experience the contrast.
(Rest assured, there was a lot of contrast.)
I remembered how nervous I had been during my first few days at Hogwarts, desperately clinging to people like Justin Derhammer just because I didn't want to be alone. But, this time around, I wasn't so afraid or shy. Perhaps having to duel Death Eaters did that to a person.
Within the first few weeks, I'd met several people in my college and had gone out with them to pubs on the weekends often enough that I never really felt lonely or homesick. Of course, the ability to Apparate back home to visit with my parents at any time certainly helped.
But, by the second term that year, I'd begun to slowly settle into the swing of things. I would get up, attend my classes for the day, do homework, Apparate home in the late afternoon so I could use the fireplace to get to the Ministry, work into the night, and get back to my college to do more homework.
