Chapter Text
--- Potters’ Residence, 21st September 2026 ---
Lily was picking at her breakfast. Harry and Ginny were watching her, somewhat amused. She glanced at the kitchen clock.
“It’s 90 seconds since you last checked the time,” said Harry.
“I can’t be late on my first day,” Lily replied.
“Absolutely right,” said Harry, “it just wouldn’t do.”
“I suppose it’s just nerves,” Lily grimaced, “but it’s very real. I should check my things…”
“Again?” Harry asked, “they’ll be worn out before you start. I watched you check, you’ve got everything. Now, have another piece of toast, then have another cup of tea. After that, go into the garden and walk around until 7am. Then, back here, quick visit to the loo, and we’ll be on our way.”
“You’re not going to take me yourself? That would be weird.”
“No, you can go, and I’ll arrive well after you. Wouldn’t want to embarrass you.”
Lily ate her toast, drank her tea, then went outside.
“I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry,” Ginny said.
“Nerves is normal, remember when you started at the Prophet?”
“I was not that bad, surely?”
“Not too different, as I recollect.”
At 7:05am, Lily returned to the kitchen.
“I managed another five minutes.”
“Order of Merlin material,” joked Harry. “Now washroom.”
A few moments later, Lily re-entered the room.
“Here’s a hint,” Harry said. “Half a banana and half a glass of juice.”
Lily took the offered banana, ate about a third, then took the juice and managed a few mouthfuls.
“I’m ready.”
Harry and Ginny both gave her a hug.
“On your way then,” Harry said, “there’s no need to wish you luck; you’ll do well.”
Lily took a pinch of floo powder, “Ministry of Magic”, and vanished.
“I meant what I said, Ginny, she will do well.”
“I know, but it’s still a step. I can’t help worrying. What was that about the banana and juice?
“I just made that up to distract her.”
--- The Ministry of Magic – Atrium - 07:15 ---
Lily exited the floo. Shaking the soot off herself, she checked - for the 103rd time
- her bottomless bag - a gift from Aunt Hermione
- her robes - sober and clean
- the timetable
- her wand
- her hair, as tidy as her genetics allowed
All good.
She walked towards the lifts, desperately reminding herself not to skip with the joy and anticipation that she felt brewing up inside.
The atrium was nearly empty. She glanced around noticing the duty auror beside the Portkey point. He glanced in her direction, crooked his finger and beckoned her.
She pointed to herself and the auror nodded.
Approaching the desk, the auror smiled.
"Mornin', cadet, first day?"
"Yes, auror."
Glancing at her badge, he made a note on a piece of parchment.
"That's fine. Have a great day."
"Is that some sort of attendance list?"
"No, no, it's a sweepstake as to who'd be the earliest," a wide grin becoming evident.
"So it's me?"
"No, you're second, but there are three prizes. Off you go." he added. making shooing gestures.
"I hope to do better in the future."
"Next time, you'll be guessing who's first. Not saying if there are any more wagers on regarding today."
Lily tried not to laugh as she continued her journey to the lifts.
Looking around, she saw no other obvious cadets. Two other aurors exited the lift walking toward the Portkey point, one of them noticed her badge and nodded at her; she gave a hesitant smile back.
“7:15am,” she thought, “don’t rush, take it slow.”
There was a large flock of Interdepartmental memo paper-planes at the lifts, nearly obstructing the entrance.
It seemed like a long time before the lift gate rattled open.
She carefully to wriggled between the memos.
Shortly, the lift jerked into motion, stopping at each floor.
Soon Lily was on the DMLE floor and turned toward the reception desk. There were two other people in plain robes ahead of her. Lily heard them give their designation and be directed toward a lecture theatre.
“Auror Cadet Lily Potter, attending for the course commencement due at 7:30am.”
The wizard at the desk looked up at her.
“Good morning, cadet; the first group meeting is in Lecture Theatre Three. Here’s your schedule for the next month – be warned it may change – there are floor maps on the last few pages. The timetable you were given is now part of the schedule so you can lose it. Good luck and welcome.”
“Thank you, umm.”
The wizard smiled, “it’s ‘officer’. I am a member of the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol – we’re called ‘officers’ or ‘patrol officers’ to be more exact. Sometimes it’s an auror at this desk, sometimes one of us, other times a Wizengamot Support person, or rarely someone from another DMLE division. You may even take a turn in a few months. Now off you go. Have an ‘interesting’ day.”
“Thanks, officer.”
“Yet another new piece of information,” she thought. Flipping to the back of her schedule, she found the location of the lecture theatre.
--- Ministry of Magic, Lecture Theatre Three ---
Lily quickly found the lecture theatre and entered the room. It was approximately a third full. There were about thirty people in the room, the majority wearing Magical Law Enforcement Patrol robes. A few of those she recognised from school, nods and smiles were exchanged. There were two older looking wizards murmuring to each other. One seemed to be wearing professional robes though Lily could not see any markings to see which profession or his grade; the other was dressed in plain robes.
She glanced around, giving a little wave to those cadets that she had met before. She saw Birgit and moved towards her.
“Hello,” Birgit greeted her.
“Hello to you, Birgit. Did you have a good few days with your family?”
“Great, thanks. Although my brothers were arguing which of them should inherit my room. That made me feel really wanted.”
“You haven’t even moved out yet. Or did you find somewhere?”
“Not yet, I…”
At that moment, a short witch wearing MLEP robes entered the theatre. A few people rose but most just watched her.
“Good morning cadets and students,” she said in a carrying voice.
“Good morning,…” there was a mumble of greeting.
“I know that you have been told how to respond by whoever showed you your common room, so let’s try again. Good morning cadets and students.”
“Good morning, officer.” most replied.
“OK, let’s get started.
When a senior enters a room, particularly in an instructor role, the first person who sees them should call out the word ‘Attention’ loudly enough to heard over any background chatter. We use that in the sense of ‘Pay Attention’, not the military stance. Understood?”
There was another mumble.
“Come on, people, put a little effort into your response!”
“Yes, officer.”
“Better. Now when the person calls ‘Attention’, stand up and stop talking. Often, the instructor or whoever say ‘As you were’ which means you can sit again. Don’t start chatting.
If you are being taught and a senior enters, it’s for the instructor to respond or not. OK so far?”
“Yes, officer.”
"OK. Now I want you all to move from your comfortable seats to sit near someone that you don't know. Cadets mingle with students. Don't sit with your friends. This is a theme that will be reinforced for a couple of months until the instructors notice that you are doing this regularly. Recreate with friends is fine, but we want to get you mixing when in a professional setting."
There was much shuffling around and Lily found herself between two wizards, one she recognised from Hogwarts, the other not at all.
"OK, now introduce yourself to the person on your left then right."
"Lily Potter, Auror Cadet," she said quietly to the person on either side.
"Peter Wood, Patrol Student. Hi."
"Andre Bazin, Patrol Student. Hello. I'm from France in case my accent didn't give me away."
"It's detectable but, as usual, Europeans speak English at least as well as native Brits."
Andre smiled. "Do you speak French or any other languages?"
"I have learnt some very basic German, Birgit…" Lily pointed at her friend, "and I met up during the interviews. I also have some Gobbledegook."
"OK, settle down, I am, as we're into introductions, Senior Patrol Sergeant Aramina Woodhall. For those of you who have studied the rank structures, my rank is a personal rank similar to Auror Junior Supervisors, Wizengamot Under Secretaries, Ministerial Envoys etc. You'll come across these from time to time. Anyway, to complete the introductions, Master if you please," she inclined her head towards the pair of older wizards.
The one whose robes had been unidentifiable by Lily stood.
"Hello, my name is Charles Whitely. I work in the Department of Intoxicating Substances. I have a mastery in Potions and in Alchemy. I have worked there for years. The powers that be have decided that I need some fill-in general DMLE education for me to progress. I am not arguing, smaller departments can be very narrow. I will take part in some of your tuition as a student. Oh, and I'll likely be teaching some of it."
"Thanks you, master," said Sergeant Woodhall.
"Now, as you probably know, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is the largest division of the ministry. Bear in mind theat the terms department, division and the like are often used in a less than hierarchical or indeed logical manner.
The main parts are the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol, the Auror Corps and the Wizengamot Support Department which was previously known as Wizengamot Administration Services.
There are also sub-departments but with various responsibilities. The Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office; the Improper Use of Magic Office; the Administrative Registration Department; the Department of Intoxicating Substances. We’ll deal with these in the future.
The head of the DMLE is the director who may or may not have a deputy or deputies and an assistant or assistants. Currently the post is vacant and its function is carried out in rotation by the Chief Patrol Officer and the Chief Auror with heavy input from the Chief Administrator."
A flick of a wand and an outline figure on a chart unrolled behind her.
Another flick.
"Auror dress robes are red. Patrol dress robes are navy blue. Everyday robes are usually grey or black. The senior Wizengamot Administration officers often wear red day-to-day, the more junior wear black. The usage may vary. Don't be surprised at variations."
The Director wears the robe facings of the division that they came from."
Another flick.
"As you can see, there are four gold horizontal bars or stripes on the facings. They are known as 'broad' bars. Deputies and Assistants have one or more of those bars as thinner bars. You'll learn the different combinations if and when there are any of these ranks in post. Their dress robes are Wizengamot plum."
More flicks and the bars on the image changed, cycling through the variations.
"Next we have the divisions. The Patrol uses light blue facings, rank markings being in black; the Aurors use maroon facings, the ranks being in gold; the Wizengamot Support use white facings with deep blue markings. Now, to add to the confusion, various sub departments use different colour schemes either as a border trim to their main colour or rarely the whole facing such as the legal section. Master Whitely's facings are green although they the precise shade seems to be difficult to pin down."
Flick.
"A Chief Officer wears three broad bars; a Deputy Chief wear two broad and a narrow one between; an Assistant Chief wears two narrow bars with a broad one between; a Superintendent wars three narrows bars."
Again the image cycled through the variations.
"Those grades are what we call command grade. They have duties and responsibilities that allow them a great deal of discretion. You'll learn more about this later.
Oblique bars are worn by other grades. Four for Supervisors and Senior Inspectors; three for Inspectors or Senior Aurors; two for Sergeants and some Aurors and one for all other Patrol Officers and Aurors. Again, you'll learn the Wizengamot Support variations later.
The other parts of the ministry uses different systems, or none at all.
Now don't ever assume that the absence of marking indicates a lack of rank, many people wear plain robes for day to day work.
Lastly, as the students already know, a black vertical stripe indicates a student patrol officer. A probationary officer will wear three stripes. The auror students will wear one silver stripe per year, starting at one and working up to three - hopefully."
"Lastly, you may notice others present at lectures. They may be monitoring the instructor or learning to be an instructor themselves. Assume they're observers and ignore them as much as you can. If they ask for your input, give as balanced response as possible.
Additionally I would remind you that typically when a speaker has left, there's ten minutes for visiting the conveniences. If you get caught short at other times just leave as unobtrusively as possible. You're adults.
OK, that's me unless there are any questions. This was meant to be a brief overview. Anything from today will be expanded over the next few days, weeks and months.
Anyone? No, well have a great day and I'll see most of you soon."
With that Sergeant Woodhall left the lecure theatre.
"Phew," said Lily, "that's some homework and we're just started."
"No one else in my family is in Law Enforcement," said Peter Wood, "haven't you ever seen your dad in full robes and the rest?"
"Once or twice a year for official occasions, but we never asked about the details, they were just sort of there as an interesting aspect of a regular dad."
"I suppose what kids notice is kind of random."
'Yeah, well excuse me, the conveniences call."
Lily made her way towards the door, passing Birgit was was in what seemed deep conversation with Neil Sinistra. Lily raised her eyebrows as she passed.
"Excuse me, Neil," Birgit said, " I should visit to 'loo' also."
Birgit followed Lily out and they maid their way to the euphemistically named conveniences.
"Made a new friend?" Lily asked, smiling.
"He seems nice enough, maybe a little intense."
"I've not heard anything bad about him at school, he doesn't have a reputation."
"Who knows, maybe he'll be fun," Birgit replied.
"My brother gave me a couple of addresses that he knows from his fellow students, want to come with me after work today?" Lily asked
"That would be great."
"OK, once more unto the breach…"
"What?"
"Shakespeare, I'll explain later."
--- Ministry of Magic, Lecture Theatre Three - little later ---
"Attention!" one of the Patrol students called, a little hesitantly.
Tessa Martin entered the theatre.
"Good morning students and cadets.
For those who don't know me, anyone wants to guess my rank from my robe and markings? No volunteers? You try it." she said, pointing to a student in the first row.
"Um, your facings a maroon, and you have one broad stripe and two narrow, so an Assistant Chief Auror."
"Correct. I am in fact Assistant Chief Auror Tessa Martin. My brother is Assistant Chief Auror Ben Martin, hence the use of first names. There are a few others that use that naming convention.
Now I am going to run through a very simplified description of the organisational structure. You may know some of this but bear with me.
You are students and cadets and, as such, do not have any legal powers. You may, from time to time, be temporarily warranted with restricted powers.
When and if you graduate, you will be warranted and thus able to regularly exercise the powers granted by the warrant.
You will start as basic Aurors or Patrol Officers. You will be supervised by Patrol Sergeants or Senior Aurors. They in turn will be supervised by Auror Supervisors or Patrol Inspectors. Again, their supervisors are Patrol Superintendents or Auror Superintendents; Assistant Chief Patrol Officers or Assistant Chief Aurors; Deputy Chief Patrol Officers or Deputy Chief Aurors; Chief Patrol Officer or Chief Auror. They answer to the Minister for Magic and the Wizengamot.
That's the simple part. What each grade does varies and can be quite complex. You'll be introduced to this when training. Even then it can be less than obvious.
When you get to Chief Auror or Chief Patrol Officer, from what I understand, they swan around taking the credit for their minions hard work.”
There was a gasp from the assembled students and cadets followed by hesitant laughter a few seconds later.
“Yes, that was humour, happily there’s a fair amount of it. On the other hand, I would advise caution outside of your common room until you learn to time and place.
I would ask you if you understood the description, but you don’t. The simple hierarchy might be easy to remember, but the intertwining of DMLE sections and non-DMLE departments is complex.
Now open your manuals and turn to the 'Administration' section. If you have a problem, go to Contents page and tap the tip of your wand on the word Administration. That should take you there.
For today, you will see a basic list of the DMLE, tap the Auror word twice and it will take you to a page with the Auror division organisation. You'll see my name. Tap that twice. Okay so far?
You can see my name with a multitude of areas of responsibility. be assured that tapping those twice will expand to another page. Not today. Now touch my name on the page and make this pulling gesture with your wands. You should go back to the previous page. OK so far?"
"OK, like this." Tessa Martin demonstrated. "Try again, good. Now go into my name and come out again."
"If you get lost, just close the manual, or turn a page, the diagram will reset. This evening practice doing this a little. There will be one-on-one tuition from other students tomorrow. They can show you some finer points.
This may sound complicated, it is and it isn’t. Muggle children have learnt their version from an early age. It just takes getting used to. But it’s an excellent way of not only storing information but retrieving it. You’ll use similar methods for writing up reports when you’re further along, for checking the wording of laws and regulations when your memory may be shaky.
The amount of access that you have is limited by your grade and experience.
Right, that’s all from me for today, unless there’s a question.
No? OK, I suggest a break in the Common Room. Don’t be late for the next lecture.”
With that, Tessa Martin left the room.
"The muggle kids do this? Wow!" someone muttered.
"It's like their computers" said Neil Sinistra, "My aunt has one for astronomy. They have to be shielded from magic or they don't work. Their version of our two-way mirrors are much more complex and they can talk around the world."
"Really?"
"Yes, it's weird but true."
"Common Room I think."
--- Ministry of Magic, Common Room - little later ---
"Hello everyone." Birgit called, "Lily and I are looking for people to share an apartment. We have to know how many so we can look for the right size. Let me know as soon as you can. Thanks."
"That's bold" said Lily.
"No really, just don't worry too much about others looking at you. Playing in a football team helped my with that."
"I'll get used to it, I'm sure."
"Finish your drink, we're due back for the next lecture."
--- Ministry of Magic, Lecture Theatre Three - later ---
Shortly after the cadets and students were seated, the door opened and a wizard wearing lime green scrubs entered the room.
“Attention!”, called one of the cadets.
“Please sit down, it’s fine. Hello, I’m Michael Gosforth, Trainee Healer. If you know our uniforms, you can see that I am a third-year trainee, see the three stripes on my scrubs,” he said indicating three horizontal stripes on right side of his upper chest. “If I were wearing robes, there would be three stripes in the facings.
I am tasked with teaching basics for the first part of the course.
To learn how to diagnose and treat injuries at any level, you have to know the normal.
OK, let’s start. I usually start at the smallest and work up.” He waved his wand and a large whiteboard unrolled from the ceiling. There was a diagram on it.
“So, the cell…”
Forty minutes passed.
“… OK. Any questions?”
“You mentioned DNA and the not being many differences between the great apes and humans. The mentioned that there were differences – although blurred – between different ethnicities. Can you tell the difference between magicals and muggles?” asked Ian Boot.
“Yes.” answered Michael. “There is a genetic component, two genes on chromosome four, three on chromosome fifteen and two on chromosome twenty two. Muggles don't have these or a reduced number. Sometimes, rarely, a fertilised cell can get a full set of magical genes. This can result in a true muggle-born magical. More often so called muggle-borns are from squibs who have nearly a full set anyway and get the missing genes from their partner, or a magical with a non-magical partner passing down all their genes. There's a lot of possible combinations. If anyone is really interested, I can recommend a book. However, be cautious. You'll be learning lots of new stuff. Save some of your curiosity until there's less you actually have to learn. I have a mental list of things to go back to later."
“And other magical beings, goblins and elves?” asked someone.
“This is sensitive ground, but there are similarities between goblins and elves from a DNA point of view. It’s not possible to say when their common ancestor was. It may be that we have misinterpreted the information. Their basic cells are the same as ours. Neither group is as interested as we are in the subject. They seem uncurious regarding this.”
“And centaurs?” someone else asked.
“We are concentrating on humans first; comparative anatomy will be another section of the course. Right, now the next lecture is in two days, please read up on the skeletal system and the muscular system. We’re not going into detailed anatomy, but rather how things work from a mechanical point of view. See you in a couple of days.
Oh, I am told that it's lunch time now. Be back here at 1pm.”
“Thank you, Instructor,” Ffion Crane said. The trainee healer gave a slight nod and smile as he left the room.
In progress