𝐀 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐒𝐎 𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐒

Chapter 21

Chapter Number/Total: 21/44
Chapter Title: Calling Home

Days and weeks seemed to fly by quickly, and Harry was accepted into the Auror training program by mid-August. At first, he had not liked it in the slightest. He'd not wanted to leave Draco for such a large chunk of the day, and he'd even come close to panicking a few times. That had gone over really well with the Head Auror, an older witch named Norma Temmer. Her first impression of Harry had been of a jumpy young man with a big reputation that didn't seem to fit the reality of him. Harry had thought it was rather obvious she didn't care for him, or think much of his "heroics."

It also hadn't helped that his first days in the Ministry had been swarming with reporters and photographers – because of him, of course. It had annoyed a lot of the Department, and Auror Temmer the most. By that point, Harry had considered dropping out completely. Ron had talked him out of it.

He soon discovered that Temmer wasn't the only one who didn't like him. Auror Ahsen didn't like him, nor did Auror Dawlish. It wasn't as though they tried to make it obvious, he could just tell. And the Aurors weren't the only ones to look out for, either. There were, of course, other people besides Ron and Harry being trained as well. Most liked him just fine, and he knew a few of them. Roger Davies was in the program, and, to Harry's happy surprise, so was Angelina Johnson. But as with the higher-ranking Aurors, some of the students didn't like him either. Keelin O'Hara didn't try to hide her dislike, and he'd heard two men he hadn't known before – Mario De Luca and Reginald Stemp – laughing over his being too poncy for the program. It had taken all of Harry's self-control to not hex their bollocks off.

Where there was one extreme, there was the other. Auror Branson loved Harry, was rather in awe of him in fact, as was Auror Resh. He thought perhaps a girl named Danni Runner had a crush on him, and a bloke who had been in the program a little longer, Adam Penn, took Harry "under his wing".

Harry felt overwhelmed by it all. It was like being a first year again in a smaller school. He also worried about Draco constantly, even more than he might have usually. He was bloody pregnant for the love of Merlin, so Harry wasn't exactly at the top of his game. Honestly, he was lousy.

Eventually though, once he'd got a bit more used to it, it really wasn't too bad. There were more people that liked him than there were that didn't, and the fact that the training was basically advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts class, which Harry excelled at, made it better as well.

Soon enough, by the middle of September actually, Harry was shooting to the top of every field, helping other students with their wandwork, and even bettering the teaching methods of some of the Aurors doing the training. He wasn't trying to show off, even though some people took it that way. After some time, even Temmer had started to like him quite a bit.

Things got especially better when Harry learnt he could make Floo calls home during breaks, and he took full advantage of it. He checked on Draco several times a day. He thought it got on some peoples' nerves, but he didn't give a damn about them.

At the moment he was impatiently tapping his quill on his desk, listening to Dawlish drone on about the importance of the Statute of Secrecy. He was one instructor that wouldn't take any of Harry's advice. He reminded Harry of a watered-down, far less scary version of Snape – as far as his dislike went, anyway.

The clock read 12:13, and break was at 12:15. God, Harry wanted to hit Dawlish sometimes. He kept them until the very last second.

Ron shook his head at Harry from the seat next to him and Harry only rolled his eyes, still tapping his quill.

"Who is making that noise?" Dawlish snapped suddenly. Harry stopped tapping, but the man had already seen him.

"I realise, Potter," he said, "that you feel this is a waste of your time. I realise that you have things you need to 'check' on." Someone snickered. "But you could show some professionalism and wait until I tell you to leave."