It feels odd to be leaving Ginny and Lily home alone to return to work. Truthfully, I'd prefer to stay home longer with them, but Viktor Crabbe and Gustuv Goyle aren't going to wait for me to master the art of changing nappies. Besides the owlpost I received from that official ministry owl stated that if I didn't return today I risked disciplinary action due to me not filing the proper paperwork prior to taking my leave of absence.



This stinks of Dawlish's doing.

I keep getting odd stairs as I walk though the Ministry Atrium on my way to the lift, but that isn't anything unusual. Nor or the whispered conversations that follow in my wake. It is annoying how conversations always seem to end when I enter one of the lifts though. Still, it is best to ignore it and go on. I imagine confronting people with their rudeness would likely just spawn more of it and earn me another front page story in The Daily Prophet.

The lifts opens and I duck as a half-dozen memos flutter in, trading places with at least another half-dozen that are zooming to someone on Level Two. Apparently, I'm the only person exiting on this floor so I make my way alone to Headquarters. I wonder what kind of reception I'll receive?

As soon as I enter Tonks accosts me, "C'mon Greenhorn, you have all sorts of lovely welcome back gifts on your cubicle."

She frog marches me amid much heckling from the other Aurors. On my desk are about a dozen congratulation notes and a stack of interdepartmental memos. I sit down and begin with the congratulation notes whose contents from sincere to risque. The I start on the memos. Every single one is from Dawlish. Each is a reprimand for missing roll call for last week. The final is a notice that a mark will be put into my permanent record for missing an entire week of work without cause. The final memo is a scathing note from Dawlish explaining that anyone other than the famous Harry Potter would have been terminated over the incident, but that the higher ups feel that the danger of a scandal is too great at this time.

Scandal my arse!

Tonks taps me on the shoulder, "C'mon Greenhorn, we have our daily briefing, let's go."

I spend the entire briefing glaring daggers at the back of Dawlish's head and McClaggen's just for good measure. I don't hear a word of what Kingsley or Moody say and it is probably a good thing Tonks and I aren't on patrol today. When the briefing is over Tonks grabs my arm before I can confront Dawlish, "Get your lazy arse down to the duelling chamber, I'm going to mop the floor with you."

I blink at her and momentarily balk as I consider going to mop the floor with Dawlish's arse. Instead I allow Tonks to lead me to one of the duelling chambers in the onsite training facilities. We square off against one another and begin sparring.

Over the next hour we duel one another numerous times. The most recent ending with Tonks disarmed after a rather long drawn out duel that forced me to start using one of Master Wu's kata routines to gain an advantage.

"Blimey Harry!" Tonks wipes her face with a towl she conjured, "sometimes we duel and it's dead even, but then you start moving around and it's like you know what I'm casting before I do! Where'd you learn to do that?"

A rumbling bass from behind us answers, "I'd wager a student of one Master Wu, if I had to guess." We both turn to see Kingsley entering, dressed for a workout.

"Master Who?" Tonks questions.

I shake my head, "Master Wu, he's an old wizard who lives in Shangri-la in Tibet, sort of their version of Dumbledore." I turn my head to face Kingsley, "I learned directly from Master Wu himself."

Kingsley's eyes widen in amazement, "Really? I was taught the basics by an Chinese Auror... well their equivalent of Aurors who was here as part of an exchange." He turns to face Tonks who looks totally puzzled, "The movement is called a Kata, basically it is sort of a dance."

Tonks scratches her head, "but wouldn't someone be able to predict where you are moving to?"

I interrupt, "they would if the Katas were all the same."

Kingsley nods his agreement, before picking up the statement, "there are a few basic Katas that the Master teaches a student, then as the student becomes more comfortable the add their own personal touches, so that no two practitioners have an identical style."

Tonks for once is quiet as she absorbs all this, "So what you're saying boss man is you've been holding out on me all this time, because I've never seen you do anything like what I see Harry do." Before Kingsley responds she blurts out, "Of course I think that now I know I need to see the two of you duel. I want to be able to see the difference in styles."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Expelliarmus!!!!!"

Kingsley's spell comes sailing in towards me and I dodge left, but before I can cast a spell in response a second disarming spell slams into my chest and my wand goes sailing through the air towards the veteran Auror. He snatches it out of the air with a flourish.

Tonks cheers out, "That's three out of five, looks like you owe me lunch for the next week Greenhorn!"

I shake my head in disbelief. Three in a row! I've never lost three practice duels to the same opponent in a row. The first two duels were very hard fought, but my speed and reflexes are just that much faster than Kingsley who's probably faster than anyone I've seen, save Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Master Wu. Both ended with me disarming him.

Tonks then changed it from best out of three to best out five and that is when things changed. Kingsley drew out a second wand fought the last three wands using both. Kingsley is fast with one wand, with two it's like trying to dodge a muggle machine gun.

"Where'd you learn to duel with two wands?" Perhaps I can learn from him.

His bass voice rumbles as he laughs, "it is just an extension of the Katas, didn't you know that the Grand Masters all duelled with two wands?"

No apparently Master Wu failed to mention that to me. I slump though when another thought hits me, "doesn't matter though, my backup wands are more or less rubbish in a fight. My mum's wand is excellent for doing Charm work and my dad's is great for Transfiguration, but I can't cast a hex, jinx, or curse with them consistently if my life depended on it."

Kingsley looks thoughtful as he hands me my Phoenix Core wand back, "Hmmm... have you tried using the wand of someone you've defeated for real, one of the Death Eaters you guys took down while searching last year... or better... You-Know-Who's wand?"

I'm rocked back on my heels, "Erm... no we never kept the wands, because usually we were just fleeing, as for Voldemort's wand," both Kingsley and Tonks give a bit of a jerk at the name, "I'm not sure where it is, the last I saw it, it was in his dead hand in Godric's Hollow."

Kingsley frowns, "well I know the Ministry cleaned up the area and disposed of his body. His wand should have gone to you. That's tradition in the Wizarding World, goes back to medieval times. Muggle knights would win one another's horses, spurs, and the like, for Wizards it was wands." He looks thoughtful, "if you really are having trouble finding a back-up wand that works then you really need to try that one, I'll ask Gawain about it later this afternoon, see if he knows what become of it."

~ *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Later on our way back the Ministry after lunch I finally pull my thoughts away from Voldemort's wand long enough to remember something very important. "Tonks, I spoke to Hermione last week, she's working on a spell for us. Hopefully, by next week we'll be able to figure out where Crabbe and Goyle are hiding."

She blows out a breath of relief, "Good, I don't know how much longer we are going to be able to placate the quill pushers with reports of no significant progress."

She glances at me, "if we take down those two, the even Dawlish won't be able to keep us from going after one of the big name Death Eaters like Aunt Bellatrix or Uncle Lucius... although I'm willing to bet Draco or Aunt Cissy probably know more about both of them than they are admitting."

"Hmmm... well maybe we ought to have lunch down at The Crystal Chamber next time we are patrolling Diagon Alley, although I'd probably make sure we both have bezoars." That is one thing that is troubling me in the post-Voldemort world, it seems that just about every Death Eater we are catching is being let off. So far Draco and Snape have gotten away with murder. Who's to say that when we do finally catch Lucius that Minister Smith won't let him just walk out with some claim of him being a Ministry spy all along or something?

Tonks morphs her hair so that it becomes an acid green, "well I suppose it wouldn't hurt to make life a bit difficult for Draco. I'm sure the little ferret is up to something. Maybe if we start putting a bit of pressure on him he'll crack and make a mistake." She the mutters something under her breath.

"What?"

"Then if we can put them all in Azkaban maybe my mum won't keep insisting on these large extended Black family gatherings."

My eyes boggle for a moment, "What?!!!"

She rolls her eyes, "yeah, Mum is all into reconnecting with Aunt Cissy and now is trying to push me to become friends with Draco." She pauses for a few moments, "at least Draco seem to be about as keen on the whole idea as I am. I swear that whole dinner was awful. At least Remus was there with me."

I give her grin, "you know maybe we ought to introduce your extended relations to mine, I'm sure the Malfoys and Dursleys would love one another." We both chuckle at the image. The sad thing is, even if they wouldn't admit it, the Malfoys and Dursleys are more alike than they realize.

By this time we are exiting the lift. As soon as we enter Headquarters Dawlish's voice thunders out, "Potter! Tonks! There's been a sighting of Viktor Crabbe near Birmingham, you two need to go check it out immediately."

I glance at Tonks and mouth, "Ms. McCreedy?" We seem to get a tip from Ms. McCreedy at least once a month and Dawlish delights on forcing the two of us to follow up on her tips which usually end up being an afternoon of listening to her regale us with tales of her cats. Oh well, it's better than paperwork.