Chapter 32: First day on the job

-Tenebrius and Tonks' apartment-

Tonks didn't show up for noon, so I put the food I made in inventory for dinner, and just as I predicted, Nymphadora was late.

It was already dark outside, so I was putting the dishes on the table when I heard someone open the door.

"I'm here" I heard her scream and when I went to see her I saw how she had a bag on her shoulder, probably with an expansion spell.

"Welcome back home, come quickly to the table that dinner is served" I said.

"Great" she said then came over and put a hand on my shoulder "You're a good wife Red" then she continued on her way to her room.

"If it were, at least you would remember my name well and you wouldn't call me by another of the lovers you have out there" she yelled behind her back following her game while I laughed.

We ate the dinner I made for lunch and Tonks complimented me saying that I was improving. We talked about what he did while he was gone, he went to his parents' house and picked up some clothes, then went to Diagon Alley, nothing necessarily interesting, but we had something to talk about.

I also wonder if what the principal said was true, so I told him about the story of the troll in the girls' bathroom. She was very interested and asked for details, she also felt a little offended that being several years younger than her and a last minute addition, he has more experience than her in the matter of actual combat.

We finished our chat and I ended up doing the dishes, with magic clearly, since Tonks isn't necessarily one to know much about magic in everyday life, he's more of the easygoing type.

When it was time to sleep, we both went to our rooms, she to sleep and I to use the [Travel] skill to go back to Hogwarts and continue with my job of selling lost things. The good thing is that since this place is considered ours for the moment, I unlocked it as a teleport point, so I can leave at any time from here and come back without problems.

Early in the morning I went back to my room and when I came out I ran into Tonks who had just gotten up. We each agreed and headed off, she to the bathroom to get ready and I to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

After eating, we both made the final preparations and headed towards the chimneys where we passed two other Hogwarts students.

We arrived in good time and when we entered we could see how several Aurors who finished their night shift were leaving and some who had just started work were tidying up their desks.

We really didn't know where to go, so we stayed wandering around the place until a guy in a brown robe approached us.

"The new ones? Follow me, Kingsley warned us that if any of us found them we should guide them to his offices"

The Auror walked us to one of the outer offices. We entered an office that, unlike the others, was divided into two parts. It seemed that the second office had been spared due to the suddenness of my arrival. Each one had a desk and on them was a plate of those that are placed on clothing.

"These plates are their badges. As unofficial Aurors, they must use them at all times while they are working, except in particular situations or when it is strictly necessary. Once they are put on, a spell will be activated that will record each time they are removed, if they take it away during working hours then they will have to present a written explanation of the reason why they did it"

"One question, do we have to wear uniforms or something?" I asked and Tonks also looked at the auror waiting for her answer.

"Only at particular events do we wear a uniform to represent the Aurors or the ministry. Usually when we're in the office, it doesn't matter unless someone important is coming to visit; and when we're out in the field, we're usually doing undercover work, so what wearing a uniform would take away from the discreet you will see this in training this morning by the way in 20 minutes you will have to go to the training room you may be just practitioners but you will have to test your skills I'm leaving" He said goodbye and then left.

We were both alone in the office we shared for a moment, there wasn't much to do so we headed to the training ground in advance. When we got there an Auror in her 40s called out to us. Since we arrived earlier, she decided to start early to finish earlier, she gave us a light class and tests on enchantments, disguises, tracking, stealth, closed area combat, some basic rules and first aid.

All this took us a few hours and we ended up somewhat exhausted, since the tests were not so simple. When we got back to the office a bit tired we could see a mountain of papers on each of our desks. When we asked about them in the office next door we were surprised.

"It's back office work that they have to do" he said and then spoke in a whisper "in case you don't know, usually the ministry uses practitioners as free labor to do jobs like this that nobody wants to do, bad luck for you. By the way this will be recorded in their performance, so if they don't do it or they can't finish it within a certain time they will be in trouble" he told us and then went back to his work.

When we came back and saw the pair of mountains of more than a foot each made up of papal trees, we weren't a bit scared. We looked pityingly at each other and then each went to her desk.

The best thing, and for which I thank god or fate, is that when I started reading the first page and completed the first words of the report, I received a new ability which was [Write]. It was exactly the same as the [Read] skill only used for writing.

With now the [read] and [write] skills, my work speed improves a lot. At first it was at a slightly higher speed than normal, but it was improving up to three times the speed it would normally have. She did not stop reading and then thinking and writing quickly inside all these files, Tonks was even surprised at how she did it, when she just finished the fourth report, I was already about 15. I arrived at my best moment to work at 5 times my normal speed and I'm sure that the more I get used to it I can get even faster, which I don't think it will take long considering my [Learning] skill.

Tonks certainly felt pressured when I started, she thought maybe I was dumber than I thought as she couldn't understand how she made it look so easy, but when my speed increased drastically she realized it wasn't her that was wrong. But I wasn't normal.

We missed lunch because we wanted to get work done as fast as we could, but luckily there was something to eat in the break area, plus I offered Tonks a few things I had in stock, so we were able to fill up and move on.

The downside is that we can't use magic to fill out these reports faster, because to avoid fakes or other 'stuff' we are forced to use special enchanted pens in the office to complete the written work.

It was late afternoon by the time we realized it. I was almost done with my work, while Tonks had completed a third. It was at that moment that an auror came into our office.

"Hey, they have field work, they're going out during one of the patrols. In 10 minutes in front of the fireplaces" she told us before turning and leaving.

"Yes!" Tonks shouted enthusiastically, it seems that office work was torturing her, I think it's not her thing.

We arrived in front of the fireplace and there the Auror from before was waiting for us with two other people. They all had different appearances and clothing, all three were in their 30s and 40s.

"Okay, let's go to Diagon Alley" she said and then we went to one of the chimneys.

When we all crossed we were inside one of the rooms inside the Leaky Cauldron. There we all stopped to listen to our leader's plan.

"From here we will go to Knockturn Alley, there we will try to track down even a subject who poses as a distributor of alchemical and potion materials. He moves between the limits of Knockturn Alley and Diagon Alley selling it to the unwary, the problem is that the materials they sell are faulty, fake or out of date so St Mungo has been crowded these days because of them" He explained our objective "We don't have much information, we only know that he is a man of one meter seventy-five, between 20s and 30s, possibly Irish and usually covered by a hood which, like his clothing, is different each time, so you can tell he's not exactly a novice at this" he gave us the description he had written on a report he was reading "Now we will split up, Nymphadora going with Frederick and Tenebrius going with Megan. Any questions?"

"I" I said raising my hand "Can I go with Tonks?" I said causing those present to look at me badly, even Tonks.

"This is not child's play" Comment Frederick

"Yes, you can no longer be so dependent on your friends, in this job you have to learn to be alone" Megan reproached myself

"I put each one of them together with an experienced auror for any eventuality, it is so that they are safer" the leader told me somewhat dissatisfied.

"He didn't give it for that"

"Explain" Megan said trying to give me the opportunity to excuse myself.

"Tonks, can you take on the appearance of a sick old Asian woman?" I asked the disoriented Tonks.

"Ehh...y-yes" she said stammering nervously from her first mission.

"If we could make her transform into an old lady she could pretend to be my grandmother. If she acted sick, I could pretend to be her desperate grandson who is trying to find the medicines to heal her no matter where he gets them from. we can trick the scammer and track him down, if we go like this out of nowhere he might try to run away, or maybe never find him, since I don't think he's the only suspicious figure inside Knockturn Alley"

They got to thinking about what I said, it wasn't a bad plan and it could be very effective, more than just looking for someone who looks suspicious.

"I think it's fine, but there's no need for you to go alone putting yourself in danger. I'll pose as Tonks's daughter and we'll go through the same plan," Megan said.

"It wouldn't be so believable" Clarify "if it's me, I can appear to be young and witty, so it would be easier to 'trick him into tricking me', besides all of you are already recognized aurors and could be discovered, but I'm someone who is outside the system and no one could know who I am" Not even if they tried, since Tenebrius hasn't existed for more than a few days.

"But we can't leave them alone, it's too dangerous" The other auror said.

"We would not be alone, while two of you search another part of the alley, the other could be following us from a distance and when we find him he will signal to the others"

"I think it could work" our leader said after thinking about it a bit "Frederick, you are better at going unnoticed, you will be the one to follow them and remember that the lives of these two is more important than the mission itself, so protect them" he said then without waiting for a negative response "We'll change and go out one by one every 5 minutes, this will be the route for you two" he said taking out a map to show us how we would move.

Tonks and I change, hide our temporary Auror badge, and get ready for the show. She took the form of a hunchbacked old lady and practiced her sick cough, on the other hand, I tried to play someone on the verge of utter despair, which after having Pansy and Hermione as examples I did quite well.

It's time to act, Tonks (Old Lady) and I walked down Diagon Alley for a while saying things like "We'll find it", "You'll get better" or "What is impossible to find anything in this damn alley? !". We repeated it, although not verbatim near each entrance to Knockturn Alley, and after a while, as it was getting dark, we began to do it further inland.

There were times where we met dangerous people, but the auror that followed us made sure that for one reason or another we moved away from them, since we couldn't get out of the role to defend ourselves.

After passing our second patrol point, from an alley, a hooded figure approaches us, if it is the scammer I mean that he is 5 centimeters shorter than in the report.

I stood in front of Tonks covering her as if he was trying to protect her but very nervous.

"Wh-Who are you? Stay away, we don't want any trouble" I said shakily as Tonks grabbed my arm as he coughed. Our synergy was very good because we already worked together more than once on a performance like this, so it came out very believable.

"Me neither..." He said raising both hands "He doesn't seem to be well, you need help"

"No, just leave us alone, we just want to buy some medicine supplies and we'll go" I said quickly as if afraid of him.

"There's no need to be so defensive, I'm not from here either, so I'm also a bit pressured by the place" he said with his voice that was a bit hoarse for someone so young "But I think we can help each other, I'm selling some products that may be the ones that interest you"

"What are you talking about?" I said hesitantly, so that the old woman next to me would pull on my clothes and speak to me.

"It's not necessary, let's go, I'm fine" she said very weak but worried.

"We can't leave, and if he has what we need, we can't risk losing this chance," she whispered to him, but she could clearly hear what she was saying.

"What do you have?" Ask with more confidence than the previous time.

"I have several materials that may be useful to you, come I will take you to see them" she made a sign with her hand.

"No! Since we know you don't want to take us to a secluded place to rob us or something worse. Show us something you're selling now as proof or we won't go" I said with some fear.

"Look," she said with a pleased smile as she opened part of her robe, revealing several vials tied within it that contained certain plant or magical beast materials.

When I saw that he was showing us some of the merchandise, with my hand that was on Tonks's back, I took out my wand from my inventory, I made signs with it to Frederick who was in the distance as we agreed.

Frederick tried to make a very discreet signal, but the scammer still seemed to notice, as he pushed past us and ran backwards down an alley.

"Damn" x3

The three of us started chasing after him, Tonks and I were ahead of Frederick, since we were facing the scammer when he started running.

It was rare to see old Tonks running like an athlete.

When the scammer noticed us he started casting spells on us like crazy without stopping his pace. As the closest people, we were affected by her attack, it's not like she hit us with any spell, but we got in the way of having to dodge it. We still tried to fire back, but he seemed very capable, as he dodged very well even if he was on his back.

The chase continued through alleys into Knockturn Alley and one of those spells we dodged collided with Frederick, who because we were ahead of him had prevented him from seeing us coming until very late. He was unable to continue and Tonks stopped for a moment when she saw him fall, but I didn't, I just took a look and kept running after our fugitive. She decided to follow me, but she had lost some distance by stopping.

The scammer was taking distance, he seemed well versed in the art of running away and even though I am in good physical shape, this body has structural flaws thanks to my modification, making it not as strong as my real body. But my salvation just appeared.

[Auras and Essences: Skill "Hunter's Essence" Obtained]

-When a 'hunt' is carried out on an individual recognized as 'prey', all attributes increase for the duration of the hunt. Not all individuals can always be recognized as prey

"BRILLIANT!" I said feeling that both my strength and my senses were strengthened.

My speed increased and my reflexes improved. He could tell, as he saw how he approached me and how his spells were easily avoided. He stopped shooting at me and concentrated on dodging, because now I had better accuracy and it became harder for him to get away unscathed. The roles had been reversed.

In desperation, as he passed a shop in a narrow alley, he cast a spell on the large banner hanging overhead, causing it to fall and lock between the two walls, forming a wall behind him.

When I saw it, I simply followed my new instinct that came up with the [Hunter Essence] and jumped by placing my hand on the upper edge of the sign that was blocking the way, pushing myself to go over it even though it was taller than me.

Tonks who was following me from behind was surprised, she couldn't do the same as me so she had to stop to magically remove the sign losing some time.

Earlier I said that doing Parkour at Hogwarts was very stimulating, but that was because I didn't know the addictive feeling that hunting gives. I can't stop smiling while chasing my prey, I can only say that I look like a ruthless lunatic right now.

When I could almost touch him I jumped on him knocking us to the ground, causing us to roll on the ground. We both got up quickly, since we knew we shouldn't give our opponent a chance.

He was about to point his wand at me, which was giving off light from his tip from the spell he was about to cast on me, but I collided my wand with his, deflecting his attack, and then shouldered him against the wall. The blow disoriented him, but he understood that it was now a melee fight.

I'd be sure I'd win with my original body, but Tenebrius has a fragile body due to things I changed to make him taller. When he lunged at me I had to pay special attention so that his attacks didn't hit me because if he didn't he would possibly be easily incapacitated.

Just as he dodged a blow and tried to fight back someone else got ahead of me.

"Stupefy" and a beam of red light shot out from a wand crashing into the scammer, causing his body to drop like a sack to the ground.

"Thanks Tonks" I relaxed and thanked the girl who showed up at a good time.

"Haaa...haaa...haaa...N...no...problem..." she gasped tiredly waving her hand with her wand while her other hand rested on her bed. her knee.

"Rest, soldier" I told her to which she simply collapsed on the floor, sitting against the wall to take a breather.

I approached the now unconscious criminal and transfigured some ropes with some of the garbage that was around here and tied his hands. Then, empowering my spells with my blood magic, he casts the "Stupefy" spell again and then "Petrificus Totalus" to make sure.

When I finished I could see how the three Aurors arrived, one of which had a bandage covering half of his head. Since they were already here I headed towards the scammer on the ground and kicked him.

"Why did you resist so much? You could have made it easier for everyone" I said to the petrified "You picked the wrong person to piss off BITCH" *jjj...Sputg* I spit at him, which surprised everyone there.

Was necessary? No, but there's one less thing to do on my list.

The aurors took me away from the body, since I didn't seem calm with what I had just done, so they put me next to Tonks who was standing up to see how our bosses arrived. After they checked on our target, they stopped to congratulate us and we headed back to the ministry.

It was already dark when we returned to our offices. Before separating from the aurors, our boss, who I never knew his name, congratulated us again.

"Great job! It was a very risky thing to do, but you have the courage and skill that this job requires. I will have this capture recognized as an achievement of yours, you deserve the recognition. Pretty good for day one, I think you will appreciate it." it will be fine here" he said, showing a satisfied smile before leaving.

Back in our offices we sat down to take a long breath. We still had some paperwork left, even though it wasn't for today, we still decided to get on with it to get it done as quickly as possible, so you can tell we put in overtime.

I finished what I had left in less than half an hour and seeing how Tonks struggled with hers I decided to help her, partly because she made her eyes grow so she could give me a 'big look' of pity and I couldn't resist, damn manipulator. With my help we moved pretty quickly and by half past eleven we had finished with half of the whole mountain of papers.

"Let's leave it until here, we'll continue tomorrow" I said looking at the time "don't worry, I'll help you finish it, the note says we have three days to finish it" I said as I picked up a pink note that was originally stuck to the mountain of papers .

"Okay, let's go" she said as she stretched.

If it weren't for the fact that we had to get up early tomorrow to go back to work, we might have continued until later.

As we passed the chimneys and started down the stone path toward the apartments, Tonks rested his head on my shoulder as we walked.

"Don't you want to stay here with me after we finish the internships? If my work as an auror involves so much paperwork, I would love to have you by my side to help me, if I don't think I'll die after the first month" he said again putting his gaze plaintive with her eyes widened.

"What's in it for me?"

"You can't just do it for a friend in need" she complained.

"Okay, but remember that being friends with me isn't necessarily a good thing, remember Hermione"

"You're right, maybe I should offer you something else" She shuddered a little remembering what she had done to my friend, understanding that she could be next.

"Too late, you already befriended me…" I told her as she put my arm around her head, hugging her neck, which I could do now that we were almost the same height "Now you're mine"

We ended up laughing the rest of the way. When we arrived we didn't even think about preparing dinner, it was late and we were tired and dirty, so we just went to shower and she went to sleep. Still tired, Tenebrius decided to take advantage of the rest of the main body, while he returned to Hogwarts for his night work.

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Sorry if the next few chapters seem like filler, but they are necessary for the future. These will be mainly:

*Network at Hogwarts developing relationships.

*Tonks and Tenebrius working as Aurors.