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

Tara hated Paris.

The streets reeked of garbage, the people were rude, and it was just generally very hard to breathe wherever she went. 

The French Ministry of Magic had set them up with small accommodations that allowed them to extend their research and advise their Auror’s, but ultimately things were just as chaotic as they were back home, if not worse.

Watching wizards running about her with matching looks of worry, or even grave determination caused a flare of panic to begin rising within Tara’s chest.

So she found Leta first.

“You don’t have to stay here.” she had told her, knowing more than most the significance the country and city had to Leta’s bloodline. 

But the witch had shaken her head in response, her expression otherwise unreadable.

“I have to see this through.”

Tara clenched her jaw tightly, but relented.

“You come to me with anything, alright?”

Leta nodded.

Tara went to find the other British Auror’s next.

And when she did, she found them all standing in a huddle of sorts. Those who had been at Hogwarts were sharing their knowledge of what had been done and seen there. And there were overt talks and suggestions of hunting down the followers that they had located in the French city, some voicing some particularly bloodthirsty options. 

A few paces away from the circle itself, Tara saw Travers and Theseus engaged in a hushed conversation of their own, matching steely expressions on their faces. Occasionally, when they would hear some of the words being floated about by their subordinates, they would turn to each other, share a few more words and then nod in agreement. 

Tara’s heart dropped into her stomach.

Marching across the room, she purposefully came to a stop in front of the two wizards, making a point to keep her hands tightly hidden at her back. For she didn’t need either of them to see the way that they were shaking. 

“I would like to request a moment with the Head Auror if I could.” she asked officially. “We need to discuss the readiness of his force.”

Travers gave her a rather suspicious glare in response, her actions at Hogwarts surely not forgotten. But in the end, he begrudgingly nodded his head, more or less because Theseus had already made a move to walk away with her.

Tara had moved out of the meeting space with a purpose, forcing Theseus into a half-jog in order to catch up.

“What is it?” he asked once they turned down the corner of a distant hallway.

Tara was pointedly peering into each doorway that they passed by.

“We need to train.”

“Train? What are you talking about?”

Finally finding an adequately empty meeting room, Tara shouldered the door open, immediately using her wand to send a small cluster of tables careening into a distant corner. 

Shrugging off her coat, she absentmindedly tossed it to the side, walking out into the now-empty center of the room. As she turned back around she found herself facing a very confused-looking Theseus who was still loitering in the doorway.

Tara nodded her head.

“Now, Scamander.”

“Why are we doing this? We need to be out there getting ready for-”

“But you’re not ready, are you?” she quickly interjected. “None of you are ready for the type of danger Travers is seconds away from sending you into.”

“We don’t know that-”

“Don’t bullshit me, Scamander!” she spat, raising her wand slightly. “You know it better than most! Now fight me, and if you manage to win, I’ll take it back.”

Theseus let out an exasperated sigh, but reluctantly shed his overcoat, tossing it to the side just as she had moments before. He had only just barely pulled his wand out of his back pocket when Tara had shot her first spell forward. 

The wizard managed to duck out of the way, the curse instead scorching the wall behind his head. When he whirled back on her accusingly, he found her expression dangerously blank in nature. Clenching his jaw, Theseus fully gave into the challenge. 

He fired his own curse forward, and Tara quickly deflected it off to her right.

In the minutes that followed, neither of them spoke a word. The only sound that filled the meeting room were that of their spells and the combination of their labored breathing.

Tara seemingly hadn’t been ducking, or even so much as moving out of the way, and yet Theseus found himself missing close to every single shot at her that he took. And the very few that did hit, she seemed to absorb like a solid block of concrete. While on the contrary, he himself was taking countless hits to his shoulders and chest specifically, causing his opponent to grow frustrated with his performance.

“You’re not fighting me.” she growled.

Theseus scoffed, well out of breath by that point.

“Trust me, I am.” he coughed. “I just don’t see the point-”

Another curse hit his shoulder, sending him tumbling backwards as Tara quickly advanced on his position. 

“The point is you’re going to be thrown to the wolves out there, and I don’t think you’re ready. So prove to me. Prove to me that you are, Theseus!” she shouted, sending off another complex string of curses for him to dodge. 

Theseus attempted to jump out of the way after one of them nicked his back. He swung his arm back over his shoulder, firing a retaliation spell her way, one she blocked with a grunt.

They continued to go back and forth like that for a little while longer, but Tara was still seeing no sign of the progress that would make her feel better about their situation. Letting out a particularly loud and frustrated yell, she aimed her wand at his feet. And when a curse exploded there, it tripped the larger wizard up, sending him spiraling down to the ground in a heavy heap.

She marched directly up to him, still aiming her wand down at his crumpled form.

“Fight back, Scamander.” she demanded again.

Theseus pushed himself up slightly, but remained mostly on the floor. His wand clattered out of his hands and onto the ground as he let out a heavy breath of resignation. 

“I can’t.” he coughed out, shaking his head. “I can’t beat you.”

There was a long, brittle silence. 

“You said we wouldn’t let anyone else get hurt…” a shaky voice eventually whispered.

Her tone was strange, unnaturally so, prompting Theseus’ eyes to flicker upwards. And what he found there- shook him to his very core.

Tara was standing directly over him, her wand still aimed down at his face. But her entire body was shaking, and there were suddenly rivers of tears streaming down the sides of her face. 

When his eyes met hers, she quickly dropped her arm, turning and running out of the room completely, not even stopping to pick back up her jacket. 

In his stunned state, it had taken Theseus a moment longer to scramble up and onto his feet, also gunning for the doorway. But when he had finally spilled out into the hall, it was already too late. There was no trace of the witch who had just left him. 

The Head Auror let out a pained sigh, bracing his forehead up against the nearby wall with a grimace.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ｡☆ﾟ.･ ───