Post-peace Chaos (Drarry)

Chapter 61

[Harry]

"Merlin, Merlin, Merlin, oh Merlin," Amira breathed under her breath, looking extremely pale. Harry reckoned he didn't look any better than her. He couldn't tell how Chris was doing, he had his face in his hands. Okay, maybe that said something.

The three of them were all in the same unfamiliar training room. Amira was pacing restlessly around a five-foot radius circle, Chris had been motionless since half an hour ago, and Harry was stuffing his face with take-out treacle tart. Eat, you'll feel better, as Remus always said.

It was the day of their first final Auror examinations. With some luck, they might be able to manage to not take the second one, but according to Tonks and Moody that was nearly impossible.

Their first test category was Concealment and Disguise, and they were already done with its written test. It was the subject Tonks had passed effortlessly. He always wondered whether Teddy would be interested in a career as an Auror.

The door opened with a bang and the trio jumped. A tall and plump woman walked briskly into the room. Given her size, she had an extremely fast pace. She adjusted her spectacles and peered at her clipboard.

"Ferox, Amira!" she barked.

Amira stumbled and quickly adjusted herself. Harry gave him a weak thumbs-up and Chris could only nod. She followed the woman out of the room.

"How long-"

"Don't," Chris said curtly with obvious effort. "Speak, puke," he managed to squeeze out.

Harry fell silent and stuffed his treacle tart wrappings into his robes. Their wands were confiscated at the moment so there wouldn't be any additional practicing or last-minute preparations.

The minutes ticked by. A good and extremely long half-hour was gone before the door was flung open again. "Paisible, Christopher!"

For a moment Chris looked like he really was going to puke. But he managed to follow the woman out of the room without any physical outbursts.

Harry was left alone in there. This was a training room they never used before. He wished Tonks was here to give him a little guidance, or better, somehow pass him her Metamorphmagus abilities.

Another eternity had passed before the door was swung open again. "Potter, Harry!"

Harry had to run to keep up with the woman. She wasn't only fast for her size.

She led him into the depths of the Auror headquarters, where the trainees seldom went. Finally, after a slightly sweat-inducing walk, they were in front of a blue door. The woman opened it and half-shoved him inside.

She tapped a cabinet beside him and a drawer shot out. "Your wand, Mr. Potter," she said, handing it to him. "Good luck."

Harry blinked. There were seven Aurors in the room, including the Head Auror. He swallowed.

The woman retreated to the far corner of the room. She cleared her throat. "Mr. Potter, you are now in an emergency and shall not be recognized. You have only a second to react. What do you do?"

Without hesitation, he directed his wand sharply at his own face and yelled, "Pungo!"

The stinging jinx hit himself in the face with a flash of light and he felt his face swell and burn. It worked. He thanked Hermione over and over again in his head.

Through his rapidly swelling eyelids, he vaguely made out the seven Aurors scribbling notes onto their documents.

"You may use the counter-spell."

He realized with a start he did not know the counter-spell. After panicking for a split second, he remembered his Healing classes and cast a series of Episkey and Vulnera Sanentur on his face and it transformed back to normal.

During the twenty-something minutes of the trial, Harry demonstrated changing his hair length and hair color, made his pupils grey, transfigured his robes into a heavy overcoat, cast a disillusionment charm on himself, and recited the steps to make Polyjuice potion under a very breathless minute.

He exited the room feeling slightly dizzy, following the tall woman back to the training room.

"Hey, Harry," Amira and Chris said weakly in unison.

He slumped onto a chair next to them. "What do we have next?"

"Poisons and Antidotes," Amira replied meekly.

The three days of examinations went by. He felt confident enough about Potions and Antidotes and thought he would be able to at least get an E.

During Stealth and Tracking, he performed a disillusionment charm on himself (again) and was almost tempted to summon his Invisibility Cloak but he knew it was against the rules. He figured he did fine, the magical dummy he was stalking only turned its head once because Harry sneezed. At least it was better than Tonks'.

He felt a bit wobbly at Magical Jurisprudence. After all, he did fail History of Magic. He prayed that he would at least scrape an A.

General Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration went by smoothly. He did accidentally forget the usage of Moonstones again and transfigured the pure white pillow into boxers (they were supposed to do rabbits) (Harry flushed crimson) and prayed the examiners would overlook them.

Dora beamed at him during the Healing test and he was sure he did more than good. The artificial arms and legs on the table all appeared unscathed and good as new when Harry left.

Lastly, came Practical Defense, which took a whole day. They tested his offense and defense abilities separately first, then moved onto general dueling. That was the most exciting but also tiring day ever. The examiners used magical dummies and the three trainees dueled each other as well. Harry felt obnoxiously proud when he managed to deflect Amira's attempt to slam him into a wall. He swore he saw Bardin smiling, too.

Finally, the examinations were over, and they all had a day off. The trio hugged one another and Amira almost cried.

"Mira, are you crying?" asked a flabbergasted Chris.

"No, you're crying!" was Amira's very choked-up and angry response.

He spent his day off at Draco's (cuddling and sleeping in in the morning, still in bed but definitely not sleeping during the afternoon, romantic dinner date at night). Draco kept telling him how proud he was and Harry kept blushing. It was a carefree and snuggly day.

But the next day wouldn't be. The examination results would be in.