"Ní mhaireann solas na maidine don lá." // "No morning sun lasts all day."

One day, Tara had lazily made her way to the small office that the Ministry had provided for her. As it turned out, there was a small portion of her job that was in fact- pure paperwork. Something that she absolutely despised. 

She pushed the door open with one of her shoulders, only for her eyes to immediately land on the sight of her desk in complete and utter disarray.

“What the-”

Sitting there, right smack in the center of the table, was a stark, black raven. The creature was seemingly pilfering through the files that she had been slowly collecting, mainly pertaining to the Aurors and their missions, throwing pieces of parchment every which way.

“Hey! Get out! Get out!” Tara shouted, running over to her desk while waving her hands erratically. 

The raven turned its head to look at her, regarding her rather oddly for a moment. Then, as if suddenly remembering that it was supposed to at the very least act like a bird, it stretched out and flapped its wings, letting out a loud screech before flying out through the open window that surely had been its way in.

Tara cursed, quickly following its path in order to slam the windowpane shut behind it.

Spinning back around, she grumbled angrily to herself as she eyed the new mess she now had to deal with, quickly pulling out her wand in order to do so. When it was done, and she had tucked the thin piece of wood back behind her ear, that was when she finally noticed that there was still one, lone piece of parchment left on the top of her desk. It sat dead-center on the wooden surface, evidently unmoved by her magic.

With an eyebrow raised, she reached over to pick it and bring it closer to her face. There she found that it wasn’t just a piece of paper, but rather an envelope. Simple, unassuming, and without a name printed on the front. Instead, all that was depicted on the material was a small stamp.

A stamp of a bird. Whose countenance was eerily similar to the one she had just chased out of her office. 

Tara hesitated another second longer before flipping the envelope over. There she found a small, wax seal, which she promptly broke open. However, immediately upon her doing so, the envelope completely evaporated in her hands and was instead replaced by a small, half-sheet of parchment paper. Almost the size and look of a postcard.

Now even more apprehensive than before, her eyes carefully traced the scribbled lines of ink that were bunched in the center of the page.

“To the newest Director of Lawman Training,

A desk job is no place for a witch of your caliber. If you desire a new role, one better suited for your abilities, we would be a most welcome host.”

Printed below the unsigned message, was an address in London.

As she continued to stare down at the paper in her hands, utter confusion racking her brain, the letter suddenly caught fire. Almost as if knowing that she had read all she needed to. In a panic, she had dropped it haphazardly. But just as it fell from her hands, the flames were gone. 

All that remained, fluttering back down onto the wood below, was the small portion of the paper that held the address. 

Before Tara could dwell on the strangeness of the moment for any longer, there came a swift knock on the outside of her office door. Quickly, she swiped the sliver of parchment into her top-most desk drawer, slamming it shut with a purpose.

“So, hypothetically-” Tara had begun speaking as she scarfed down her lunch. Across the long table from her in the cantina, sat Leta. To their left, was a small collection of Auror’s who were also taking their designated hour break. “-if a wizard had a letter delivered to them by a raven, what could that mean?”

Leta immediately furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

“Ravens don’t deliver letters.”

“See that’s what I thought, but then-” Tara very quickly cut her own sentence short, biting down on the inside of her cheek in a way that was less than subtle.

Seeing this, Leta leaned forward across the table slightly.

“Does this have something to do with an Auror case?” she asked in a low, but clearly curious voice.

Tara gulped, but managed to shrug her shoulders as indifferently as she could manage.

“Yeah. Just something I heard.” she lied. “Don’t worry about it.”

The two witches quickly returned their attention back to their food.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ｡☆ﾟ.･ ───

On a particularly early morning the following week, Tara had made her way to her office in order to drop off her bag and coat for the day. She wasn’t meaning to be spending much time in that stuffy room, rather wanted to snoop around the Ministry as she had been doing more and more with each passing day. But once she shouldered her door open, she immediately was brought to a halt by the sight of another body standing behind her desk.

Hearing the door open, Theseus picked his eyes up from where they had been gazing down at what he was holding in his hands.

It was one of the only framed images that she kept in her workspace.  

Upon seeing her, the Auror held up the photo for her to see.

“So, when were you going to tell me you fought with the Irish Republican Army?” he asked flatly.

Tara instantly felt her face burn red hot, and whatever grogginess had plagued her body that morning was promptly expelled. 

“The hell, Scamander?!” she shouted, storming over to her desk. She ripped the frame out of his hands, causing him to take a single step back in surprise at the sheer veracity of her actions. “Did you go through all my stuff?”

Theseus didn’t answer right away, just watched her as she scanned over the documents on the top of her desk and searched through her drawers in order to determine if anything was missing. When nothing stood out to her, she slammed the last one shut, spinning back around to glare up at the Auror angrily.

“So, what? Do you raid the offices of all your colleagues, or am I just lucky?”

“I wasn’t-” he groaned. “You said that a bird got into your office, I was just checking-”

“First of all, I never said that.” she fired back. “And secondly, I don’t remember you being a part of any of my conversations over the past week. How many spies do you have on me, Scamander?”

Theseus curled a hand in front of his face in exasperation.

“Merlin, you are so aggravating!” he countered.

“Oh, I’m aggravating?” she fought back. “I don’t recall breaking into your office and digging up your past!”

Theseus’ scowl only deepened.

“Well, it’s not like it isn’t a potential concern to the Ministry. You were fighting against the British after all.”

Tara took a daring step forward, more definitively squaring up with the man.

“The Ministry doesn’t give a damn about Muffle affairs. That’s why I fought.” she all but growled, her eyes briefly tracking over his expression. “I would’ve thought you of all people would understand that.” she said, adding the last part through gritted teeth.

Theseus had fallen silent in response, causing Tara to let out an angry huff of air.

“No. Of course not.” she continued, her voice deadly calm now. “Because you got medals for your decisions. And I just got branded a terrorist.” she slammed the picture frame down onto the surface of her desk, the photo facing downwards. “Go on then. Run to the Minister. I’m sure he’d be just as glad to be rid of me as you would.”

Theseus immediately frowned at those last couple of words, as if they in particular had somehow offended him.

“I don’t want to get rid of you.” he countered. “I’m not spying on you. I don’t give a damn about your past, I-” the man sighed in frustration, clearly having a rough time collecting his thoughts. “Look. Believe what you want about me, but I am only trying to look out for you here.”

Tara’s expression hardened in confusion. 

For Theseus sounded completely serious.

The Auror took a step away from her desk, beginning to make for the front door of her office.

“You should know- the kinds of wizards that don’t use owls to deliver their messages? They’re the kinds of wizards that don’t want to be tracked.”

With that, Theseus disappeared. 

Tara continued to stand there dumbfounded, for a few moments after he had left. When she did eventually manage to shake herself back down to the present, she quickly scrambled for her the bottom drawer of her desk. Her fingers rooted around for the small piece of parchment that she had hidden there a week ago. 

Upon finding it, she let out a small breath of relief. But as her eyes danced across the letters and numbers again, the last words that Theseus had said to her simply would not leave her head.

Hurrying back down the hallway with a purpose, Theseus glanced over his shoulder once, then twice, before turning his attention down to his own arm. Rolling up his sleeve, he quickly made sure that the address he had scribbled onto his skin was still printed there.

Quickly rolling the fabric back down, the Head Auror made a b-line for his own office.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ｡☆ﾟ.･ ───