James's Mission
“POTTER, RUN!” a voice yelled from up ahead, and James didn’t need telling twice as he sprinted towards it. One of the very first things he was taught in his training was that if someone told you to run, or duck, or move, you didn’t stop to look around and see for yourself what the threat was. You bloody well moved. The low rumbling sound that had started just seconds before James had been told to run was steadily increasing in volume, and was now being punctuated by the sound of breaking rocks behind him. This, combined with the fact that the air around him was becoming increasingly dusty as James ran, would seem to indicate that the cave he was in was collapsing in on itself. He felt his adrenaline levels rise at this realisation, which gave him a little bit of extra speed as he ran full pelt in the direction that the voice had come from, hoping that it was the right way and trusting one of his colleagues to let him know if that wasn’t the case. There was no way of knowing for sure, as the air was now thick with swirling sand. Not only that, but now the ceiling was starting to collapse in front of him as well, and James had to hold both arms over his head to protect himself from the small debris now raining down upon him, which sent the beam of light coming out of his wand in all directions, rather than lighting the way in front of him.
“POTTER” the voice called again, and James course corrected, veering slightly to the right. The voice sounded a little more panicked now, which James could hardly blame its owner for, because he couldn’t see a fucking thing so he could only assume that his crew had no idea where the hell he was. His throat felt like it was on fire, but he forced himself to breathe in the dusty air because if he started coughing now he might not be able to start breathing again, and he needed the oxygen to fuel his legs. Up ahead he could see some vaguely human-shaped figures through the thick fog and he redoubled his efforts to get to them as fast as possible. As he got closer the noise behind him started to fade out, but James knew not to stop running until he was told to.
“Whoa there!” a pair of hands grabbed him roughly as he reached the rest of his crew and, since no-one had yet told him otherwise, made no intent to stop. James’s momentum was such that the pair of them nearly went flying, and it was only by a third person catching him that he avoided going flat on his face. James didn’t get chance to see who it was however, as his lungs apparently decided they couldn’t take anymore and started trying to eject the large amount of airborne sand that he had just breathed in. He doubled over, coughing his guts up, only vaguely aware of the others around him now talking in harried and urgent voices.
“We’ve got to get into the next chamber, before we all suffocate!”
“What about beta team?”
“Well there’s no way of getting to them now, is there?”
“You, grab Potter and let’s move it!”
James felt someone seize him by the middle and start to drag him backwards. He managed to fight them off and turn around, coughing all the while, hunched over but upright at least. Whoever it was grabbed hold of him by the arm instead and steered him forwards at a brisk jog. James’s eyes were streaming and his throat on fire, but through all this he could see two bodies moving up ahead of him in the dim light of their wands - plus the person next to him, which meant that all four of alpha team had made it alright. Who knew what had happened to beta team though, they were supposed to be following close behind. James hoped that they were simply on the other side of the collapsed cavern, and not underneath it somewhere.
The air was rapidly becoming much clearer, and although James still couldn’t take in a breath without physical pain, he didn’t feel like he was choking anymore. He straightened up, his improved posture now allowing him to pick up some speed, as he and his partner were lagging a little behind the others. They had about managed to catch up with the other two as they passed through a narrow archway into a new cavern.
The rest of the team had stopped running, so James took the opportunity to have another good coughing fit, although this one significantly more controlled than the last. He heard the familiar squelching sound behind him of someone performing a colloportus on the doorway they had just entered through, stopping the veritable sand storm they had just left behind from following them through. The air in here was by no means fresh, but it was mercifully sediment-free. After a few good hacking coughs that didn’t really seem to get anything out of his lungs but did a decent job of getting some more clean air in there, James gave it up as a bad job and grabbed his water bottle, gurgling with it and spitting the water back out. While he did so, another member of his team increased the brightness of their lumos charm, giving them all a bit more visibility. The four of them were stood at one end of a long and narrow chamber. James couldn’t tell how far back it went.
“You alright, man?” James’s colleague Andrew asked him, looking concerned, shadows cast over his face as he held his wand light around waist height. James nodded, wiping the tears from his face and grimacing about the fact that his hand had a thick beige smear across it where he’d wiped the grime from his face.
“I’ll live” he rasped.
“The medic was with team beta” their trainee said nervously. James had only met her today, a young witch named Tara, part of this year’s fresh graduate intake from Hogwarts. This was her first ever field mission.
“The medics are always with the beta team” their team leader told Tara. A formidable wizard who James had worked with a few times called Bruce Taylor. “They’re support staff, they don’t go with the team leading the offensive.”
“But what about Potter?” Tara asked, shooting James a worried look. He gave her a comforting smile.
“I’m alright, Tara, really” he assured her. That might have been a bit more convincing if he didn’t sound like his throat was lined with sandpaper, but never mind. Before there was really time for anyone to argue to the point, a lioness patronus burst through the sealed door they had just come through.
“Team beta all safe” the lioness spoke with a calm woman’s voice. “Entry point collapsed so we intend to retreat. Please advise if team alpha sustained any casualties. Standing by.”
James breathed a sigh of relief that the supporting team were all OK. He looked to Taylor for instruction as to what they were going to do now, although he thought he already knew the answer.
“If team beta don’t need our help then we go on” Taylor said to the team calmly, but authoritatively. He gave James a nod as he said it, which could possibly have been interpreted as him asking James if he was up to it or not, but James had worked with him enough to know that what this nod meant was that James was going to suck it up and go on whether he felt up to it or not. He gave a curt nod back to indicate he was assenting to this, and took another swig of his water before stashing the bottle back on his utility belt. While he did so, Taylor cast his own patronus. It took the form of a rhino.
“No casualties, although Potter may need minor medical assistance upon our return. We will continue with the mission. Instigating solo team protocol” he said to the patronus, which disappeared back through the door, leaving the cave much darker in its wake.
“Once more unto the breach then” James said hoarsely, holding his wand up to show he was ready to go. Andrew grinned at him.
“Potter, I want you with the trainee” Taylor told him. “Davies” that was Andrew “you bring up the rear.” And with that, Taylor began proceeding further into the cavern ahead, lighting his wand and holding the beam of light aloft as the they plunged further into the darkness. They followed him in a diamond formation, with James and Tara side by side. This was how they had been advancing thus far, although previously with James bringing up the back. He and Andrew were quite close in levels of experience, Andrew had joined around the same time that James had, and they had been on countless missions together. They both shared the attitude that Taylor was a bit militant in his work ethic, and missions under his leadership were rarely fun. But no-one could ever say that he didn’t get the job done.
“It’s not unusual for the teams to get separated” James told Tara as they walked, who still looked a little worried. “Solo team protocol means we pull out if things are looking too dangerous.”
“Who decides what ‘too dangerous’ is?” she asked quietly, eyeing the back of Taylor up ahead of them. James could tell she was thinking of the collapsed cavern behind them and the fact that it hadn’t even ruffled Taylor’s feathers.
“Team leader” James replied calmly. “He knows what he’s doing.” Tara didn’t look entirely placated by this but she didn’t press the matter any further. The hierarchy within curse breaker teams was absolute, that was the best way to keep everyone alive. People got hurt when they started disobeying orders and deviating from the plan. And as much as James and Taylor differed in their attitudes, James knew that Taylor took this responsibility seriously. And the truth of the matter was that everyone on this excursion (except for Tara) had been in much closer scrapes than that before.
Up ahead, Taylor made an arm signal that meant they should all stop. James copied it for the benefit of Andrew behind him, and froze in place, listening carefully. Taylor seemed to be looking for something, and was casting his wand light around in front of him. The beam was quite narrow and it didn’t stay in one place for long enough for James to really see what was going on, but they had clearly found something, as the wand light seemed to be falling on objects scattered throughout the chamber in front of them. Taylor put out his wand light in order to cast another spell. He did so wordlessly, but none of them had to wait very long to find out what he was doing, as the effect was immediate.
A number of flaming torches dotted around the walls of the cavern ahead of them lit up simultaneously. James blinked at the sudden unexpected influx of light into his retinas, blinking back flashing spots. However, when his eyes adjusted to the light, his jaw dropped open.
The cave in front of them was piled high with treasure. Literally piles upon piles of gold coins. It looked like the inside of a Gringotts vault, and for a second James looked at his watch to verify that they weren’t back in the UK somehow. His watch showed him that they weren’t, as it was still displaying local time as 5 hours ahead of UK time.
“We’re on the right track” Taylor announced, sounding pleased.
“I’ll say” Andrew’s mystified voice came from behind them. In their briefing they had been told that they would probably encounter some other treasure on their way to pick up the goblet, which was the real purpose of this mission, but James certainly hadn’t expected it to anywhere near this amount. And from the sounds of it neither had Andrew. This was more bounty than he’d ever retrieved on a single mission before. Probably more bounty than he’d ever picked up in a whole month’s worth of missions before.
“We’re not going to be able to portkey all this” James said, gesturing around at the veritable goldmine in front of them. They could conjure crates to pack it all up into, but they could only take through as many as they could physically touch at any one time, which was definitely no more than two each. There was probably about fifty crates worth of gold in here. “Should we call for a retrieval team?” he asked Taylor, who turned around looking mildly surprised.
“No” he replied simply. “We haven’t been cleared to transport this amount of treasure. We carry out the mission and report back to HQ.”
“You want to just leave it?” James countered incredulously. Collecting treasure was what they did, wasn’t it? He’d been sent into acromantula infested temples for much less.
“This isn’t the mission” Taylor replied firmly, now frowning at James for arguing with him.
“Yeah, but…” James gestured helplessly around again. Was Taylor really not seeing the amount of gold in here? Taylor merely raised an eyebrow at him, daring him to carry on questioning his authority. James knew there was no point. He frowned back at their team leader, shrugging in a way he hoped conveyed the message of ‘have it your bloody way, then.’
“Don’t touch anything” Taylor told the rest of them, before he began to advance through the cavern again, dodging his way through the piles of gold and beckoning for the others to follow. The instruction was really for Tara’s benefit, as both James and Andrew know not to lay a hand on any treasure without checking it for curses first. Tara, who had watched the whole exchange with rapt attention, looked sidelong at James as they walked and then flicked her eyes back forward to Taylor. James could tell that she was on his side on this one, but knew that she was in no position to get involved. James merely shrugged at her. With any luck he, Andrew and Tara would be allowed to come back and retrieve the gold at a later date, but for now there was nothing to be done about it.
As they worked their way towards the rear of the chamber, James could see that it was a dead end, so he began looking up at the ceiling and down at the ground, looking for some sort of hatch or opening that would lead them to the next destination. He hardly needed have bothered however, as they turned a corner around a particularly vast pile of coins and saw a roughly cut hole in the ground ahead of them. The hole was only really big enough for one person to get down at a time and they all stopped short of it, allowing Taylor to kneel at the edge and peer down it, lighting his wand again to try and see what was down there.
“Goes down a long way" he told the others, still squinting down the hole. “Can’t see the bottom, but there’s a ladder.”
“Goody" James heard Andrew mutter behind him, and he grinned. The two of them had long since learnt that ladders in places like this were usually several centuries old, held together with frayed rope and generally precarious as fuck.
“One at a time then, is it?” James asked. Taylor got to his feet again nodding.
“Doesn’t look like it will hold any more weight than that” he replied calmly. He put his wand in his mouth, gripping it between his teeth and he lowered himself carefully into the hole, suspending his weight between his arms on either side while his feet found the ladder. James lit his own wand and pointed it at Taylor as he descended the ladder, the top of his head gradually disappearing from view.
“See anything yet?” James called down. An echoing noise of dissent was the only response he got, so he Andrew and Tara continued to wait, the three of them still peering down the hole even though there was nothing to see. A few moments passed with no further response, before they heard Taylor's voice, sounding like it was a long way away.
“I’m at the bottom" he called. “No immediate threat.”
Well, that was good news at least. Before now James had had to hang onto a ladder with one hand while firing counter curses at a reanimated skeleton with the other.
“Alright" James called back to him, lowering down to sit on the edge of the opening, his legs dangling down into it. “I'm coming down now.” Before lowering himself any further, he turned back to Tara.
“You follow me down when I call back up to you" he told her. “This ladder is probably going to be sketchy as all hell, so take your time with it, alright? Only move one limb at a time.” She nodded in agreement, and James did the same thing that Taylor had, holding his wand in his mouth and reaching his foot out to find the ladder. He felt it land on a rung and tentatively put more weight on it. He felt the wood flex under the load, but it seemed to be holding steady, so James put his other foot on the rung below it, which was further down than he expected. From here he reached down to grab hold of the ladder with his hands, one at a time, until his full weight was now entirely supported by the thing, which was exactly as he’d expected, rickety and sketchy as hell. And apparently not really fixed back to anything, as the dangling ropes from which the old, splintering rungs were suspended moved and twisted around as he carefully climbed down the ladder.
The light above him where Andrew had been pointing his wand down the hole was becoming more distant as he descended. James reckoned he was about halfway down, because he could now see Taylor's wand light pointed up at him from below. He stepped down with one foot, feeling the wood flex under it as all the other rungs had, but this time the wood snapped in two, and James, who hadn’t been expecting it, dropped down onto the next one, which also broke on the impact. Fortunately, James reacted quickly, suspending his weight from his hands to stop him dropping any further and breaking any more of the treads. He took a moment to centre himself, letting his now hammering heart slow down before starting to ascend again, being more careful to try and distribute his weight evenly between his hands and feet.
He made it the rest of the way without incident, hopping off the ladder at the bottom and taking his wand back out of his mouth.
“Alright-" he began to call back up to Andrew and Tara, but his throat and lungs hadn’t entirely recovered from earlier and there was a jolt of pain in both as he did so, causing him to take a few more hacking coughs. Taylor thumped him on the back, which didn’t really help at all.
“I broke a couple of the rungs about half way down" he rasped to Taylor, who relayed this information back up to the others, telling them to watch their step. James thought that Tara would probably be fine, she certainly couldn’t weigh nearly as much as James. He was now a little concerned for Andrew though.
As it was, Tara made it down without incident. She had taken about twice as long as James had to get to the bottom, but James had no complaints about that so long as she did it safely. She called back up to Andrew, and the three of them trained their wand lights up at the top of the ladder, waiting for him to appear. They weren’t waiting for very long before they heard a snapping sound, and a piece of broken wood fell down from the ladder, landing on the floor next to the bottom with a loud clank.
“Davies!” Taylor called up sharply. They still couldn’t see him, which James supposed was a good thing, because it meant he still had hold of the ladder, wherever he was on it.
“Rrrttt" came the echoey response from Andrew, which must mean he still had his wand in his mouth. James interpreted this as ‘alright’, but kept his wand pointed at the top of the ladder on high alert, just in case. A few seconds later, he saw Andrew's outline high above them just starting to come into focus. There was another snap, and another piece of something fell, but this time it was Andrew’s wand, the beam of light flashing in all directions as the wand span as it fell through the air. James tried to catch it, but only succeeded in propelling it some distance away as it rebounded off his outstretched fingertips and flew off through the air, the light going out as it hit the ground. There was barely a second to process this however, as there was then a series of loud cracks in quick succession, and to James’s horror, Andrew’s body fell from the ladder, landing with a horrible hollow thump on the ground, and the distinctive sound of snapping bone.
Andrew made a noise that might have been a scream if he hadn’t clearly just had all the wind knocked out of him, which came out as a sort of muffled moan. James scrambled to roll him over onto his back to assess the damage and Taylor knelt on his other side, looking grave. Andrew was breathing quick and shallow breaths, his face screwed up in pain.
“Andrew!” James said frantically, examining him all over for any bones sticking out where they shouldn’t be, but his injuries weren’t immediately obvious.
“A-arm" Andrew choked out, cradling his left one in towards his chest, and at once Taylor waved his wand, putting the arm into a splint and making bandages appear out of thin air, which began wrapping themselves around it.
“Where else?” Taylor asked urgently, but Andrew shook his head, his breathing starting to slow down.
“No, nothing" he breathed. “Just the arm.”
“You sure?” James asked firmly. Andrew’s face was still contorted in pain, but the immediate shock of his injury seemed to be fading as his breathing slowed further and he nodded.
“Probably going to be one hell of a bruise on my arse" he replied quietly, one side of his mouth twitching momentarily into a smile, and James finally breathed out in relief. “And this feels broken" he nodded down at his arm, now fully bandaged from hand to elbow, held rigid by the splint underneath.
“Can you sit up?” Taylor asked him, his face lined with concern, studying Andrew's face carefully, probably looking for any sign of concussion.
“I think so" Andrew replied, holding up his uninjured arm for someone to help him. James carefully took his hand and helped Andrew heave himself into a seated position, being careful not to move the broken arm too much. When he was seated, Taylor conjured a sling around his neck that Andrew carefully placed the bandaged arm into, wincing as he rested it in the fabric.
“Are you alright?” Taylor asked, looking behind James, who suddenly remembered that Tara was there. He swivelled around and saw her frozen and wide eyed, looking horror struck. She swallowed nervously and nodded, looking a long way from alright in James’s opinion. Taylor didn’t seem immediately concerned by this however, and turned his attention back to James and Andrew.
“Potter, go and see if you can find his wand” Taylor told James, as he shined a narrow beam of wand light into Andrew’s eyes one by one, performing some sort of cursory medical assessment. All senior agents were trained in first aid and James knew that Taylor was doing his due diligence in making sure Andrew hadn’t sustained a serious head injury. James doubted that he had, because he would have said as much for a start, and he wasn’t slurring his speech or anything.
James tried a summoning charm on Andrew’s wand, without any real hope that it would work. Caves that contained treasure generally had a whole host of enchantments on them that were intended to prevent you from taking the treasure out of there. This included anti-apparition, anti-levitation and anti-summoning wards. Sure enough, nothing happened, so James cast his wand light into a wide beam, searching around on the floor as he headed over in the direction that Andrew’s wand had flown off. It was a pretty tall order to try and find it manually, James thought to himself, as the ground underfoot was some sort of loose granular material which looked like a mixture of sand and dirt. Given the lack of light they had to work with, James doubted he’d be able to spot a thin stick of wood on the floor unless he was right on top of it, and he had no real clue where it might have landed. He was thinking about asking Tara to come and help look when he heard Taylor behind him saying something about Andrew waiting here while they went on.
“You’re not serious?” James said, frowning, as he turned around to face the others. Taylor’s expression darkened the way it did whenever James questioned him as he stood back up.
“I’m dead serious” Taylor replied firmly. “Our target is only one chamber over, and there’s no immediate threat. It would be stupid to pull out now.”
“We’ve got an injured party” James countered incredulously gesturing to Andrew, who said nothing and merely looked to Taylor for a response.
“Which is why I said he should wait here” Taylor scowled.
“Without a wand?” James asked sceptically. “He’d be a sitting duck!”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe I just asked you to find his wand” Taylor said quietly, dangerously. James knew he was treading on thin ice. No-one was supposed to argue with the team leader, but it varied person to person how much input they would allow the junior members to have. Taylor was known for being at the low end of this scale, cracking down hard on anyone who dared try and tell him what to do.
“Needle in a fucking haystack” James replied, aggravated. “We could be here for hours looking for it.”
“Then that’s what you’ll do!” Taylor said loudly, his voice echoing in the cave. “Keep pushing, Potter. See where it gets you” he added warningly. James did indeed want to keep pushing him, but he knew he ought not to let this escalate any further and merely threw Taylor the filthiest look he could summon, before turning around to search for the wand some more.
“Tara, come help me, would you?” James called over irritably. There was a pause, and then he heard Taylor tell her this was OK. James clenched his fist and tried very hard not to shout back to Taylor to go and fuck himself. Taylor had ultimate control over the direction of the mission, but the trainee reported to all 3 of them. If James asked her to do something she didn’t have to get permission from Taylor to do it.
James put some more distance between himself and Taylor, still searching the floor for the wand but with his mind racing. This entire mission had been very poorly executed. He himself had nearly choked to death because someone had set off some sort of trap that had caused the cave to collapse, and then they had discovered enough gold to comfortably pay all of their wages for a year, but had abandoned it in search of this stupid fucking goblet that they were looking for. That Taylor even now after Andrew had become incapacitated was determined to retrieve. It better have some powerful fucking magic in it for it to be worth all this. But if that was the case it was presumably going to be protected by all sorts of enchantments that prevented them from touching it. Why hadn’t they been briefed on this? And Taylor. Fucking Taylor. What was he playing at, wanting to leave Andrew here while they went on? That went directly against solo team protocol. Granted, Taylor did have the authority to override protocol if the situation warranted it, but James couldn’t see how that applied here. If they hadn’t encountered any treasure yet that would be one thing, but there was a fucking gold mine right above their heads. Why not cut their losses and go back to the ministry? What was so damn important about this goblet that it merited risking Andrew’s life?
James glanced over at Tara, who was stood a few feet away from him scouring the ground in front of her. This shitshow was bad enough already, but on top of all that what kind of example were they setting for their trainee? This was her first mission and she’d seen two people get hurt, and twice now had to watch James call Taylor out for making questionable decisions. And now she was watching Taylor break protocol. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. He didn’t want her emulating any of this on her next mission. They couldn’t talk now, but he was going to have to sit her down for a serious chat when they got back to the office. His line manager too, come to think of it. He didn’t want to go around snitching on Taylor, but this wasn’t right.
“I’ve found it!” Tara declared triumphantly, bending over to pick something up. Sure enough, it was Andrew’s wand. She trotted back over to the others to hand it to him. James was both surprised and impressed, so much so that he even forgot to be angry for a second. He thought they’d be looking for much longer.
“Huh" he mused, as he walked over to join the others. “Are you a Hufflepuff, by any chance?” he asked Tara.
“Yeah, how did you know?” she replied, looking pleased.
“Good at finding things" James shrugged. Andrew laughed.
“I’ve never heard that” he said shaking his head. “Is that a thing?” James shrugged again.
“Dunno, it’s something my boyfriend says" James told them, grinning. “Probably just a superstition.”
“Alright, we don’t need to hear about your love life" Taylor cut in, coldly. James felt the smile wipe from his face as his annoyance and resentment kicked immediately back in. He knew he was in Taylor’s bad books for entirely unrelated reasons, but part of him couldn’t help but wonder if it would still be a problem if he were talking about a girlfriend.
“You stay here" Taylor said to Andrew carefully. “And shout if you need help. We’ll only be one chamber over.”
“Will do" Andrew replied, with a curt nod. He was still sat on the ground, and James didn’t like the idea of leaving him here like this at all, but there was nothing to be gained from arguing with Taylor any further.
“You two, with me" Taylor went on, pointing at James and Tara. “Intel says there’s a chest in the next chamber. That’s where our target is.”
“Any obstacles?” James asked.
“None known" Taylor replied simply.
“Which doesn’t mean there aren’t any" James clarified to Tara. “It means they’re hidden.” She nodded to show she understood, and the two of them followed Taylor further into the darkness, leaving Andrew behind. James cast a glance back at him just before they got too far away to be able to see anything, and Andrew made a hand gesture with a nod forwards to indicate that he was calling Taylor a wanker. James stifled a laugh and turned his attention back to the man himself in front of him.
They advanced in silence a little further before Taylor halted in front of them and James and Tara joined his side. James wasn’t aware of them having passed through any sort of door, so the entryway into this chamber must have been pretty wide. Either that or the intel was wrong and they hadn’t left the same chamber the ladder had dropped down into. But either way, they had found what they were looking for – a dusty old wooden chest stood about ten feet in front of them. James had seen enough to know that they likely weren’t going to be able to take whatever was in the chest without a fight, so he raised his wand to chest height and assumed a defensive stance. Tara saw this and copied him, looking a little uncertain.
“I’m going to cast a spell to reveal any hidden traps" Taylor told her. “Which, if there are any, will probably set them off.”
“What sort of traps?” Tara asked. She didn’t sound scared, James gave her credit for that, but she was eyeing the chest warily.
“Could be anything" Taylor responded calmly. “Projectiles would be my best guess.”
“So be ready to duck" James told her.
“And given the incident upstairs we shouldn’t rule out structural collapse" Taylor added, almost as an afterthought.
“What do we do if that happens?” Tara asked, looking startled.
“Same as before, run like hell back to Andrew" James said.
“Once we retrieve the target we can activate the portkey" Taylor explained. “You ready?”
Both James and Tara made noises of assent, and Taylor flicked his wand at the chest. The effect was immediate, an ear splitting screeching sound filled the cave, echoing off the walls. James instinctively clamped the hand that wasn’t holding his wand over his ear, but it didn’t really help as the other one was still unprotected. Then, to his horror, the chest started to open up, revealing several rows of sharp, jagged teeth. As the chest opened wider a dark, fleshy mouth was revealed. A long, somewhat scaly looking tongue, purple in colour, emerged from the mouth towards them, extending much longer than any natural creature’s tongue should. At the same time, long tendrils sprouted from the base of the chest, also snaking towards them. James couldn’t tell if they were vines or limbs, as they were dark green in colour and looked a bit like plant stalks, but they were moving like tentacles and were as thick as James’s bicep.
“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!” James roared over the screeching. It didn’t look anything like any cave dwelling creature he had ever seen. The teeth were several inches long and looked yellow and slimy. The lid of the chest was bobbing up and down, as though the creature was laughing as the tendrils and tongue both reached out towards them, and Taylor began making slashing motions with his wand, trying to force it back. Gashes did indeed appear where the spells struck the monster, but no blood came out and the creature seemed entirely undisturbed by this.
“IT’S A MIMIC" Taylor yelled back, as James tried shooting fire at the tendrils that were advancing towards him, threatening to wrap themselves around his chest. The volume of the screeching increased as the tendrils retreated where the fire scorched them, the skin blackening.
“USE FIRE" James shouted to the others, who did so immediately, but the number of tendrils advancing on them was rapidly increasing, and while James was fighting several away from his arms one managed to wrap itself around his ankle and pull him to the ground. He mercifully managed to keep hold of his wand and shot more flames at the thick appendage now winding up his leg, burning himself in the process, but he couldn’t worry about that now.
“TARA!” James yelled, as he saw the tendrils overcome her and pull her to the ground. There were so many now that she was completely engulfed in seconds, her screaming muffled.
“TAYLOR" James yelled, as one of the vines sized his wand and wrestled it away from him. James was resigned to attempting to rip the tendrils with his bare hands, struggling to keep them from wrapping themselves around his neck. Taylor hadn’t responded to his call, but James could hardly blame him for that as he himself had the long, monstrous tongue wrapped around his waist, and appeared to be being pulled towards the chest by it. Strangely, he wasn’t fighting it, and was merely swatting away the tendrils trying to restrain him as he advanced towards the chest.
Of course, the chest! Fight the source! James lunged at the tendrils that had taken his wand, using brute strength and his full body weight to pin it down and snatch his wand back. He managed to seize it just in time to fire a spell at the chest at the same time that Taylor plunged his wand into the mouth of the creature, stabbing it in between the jaws, which snapped shut on him arm, the long teeth cutting through the flesh and blood leaking out.
Taylor’s yell of pain was drowned out by a high pitched scream that could only have come from the creature, and the vines all went still. James fought to push the now limp tendrils off of himself, no easy task since they had wound themselves in spirals around all of his limbs. He then crawled his way over to Tara, who’s head had reappeared above what was now a thick net of vines criss-crossing all over the floor. Taylor joined him to help free her, apparently paying no mind to the fact that his arm had huge puncture marks in it and was bleeding profusely.
“Are you hurt?” Taylor asked Tara hurriedly, pulling her out of the thicket.
“N-no" Tara replied hoarsely, massaging the sides of her neck which was very red from where the tendrils had clearly been wrapped around it.
“You sure?” James asked seriously. Taylor used his wand to start bandaging his own arm while James continued to study Tara for any sign of injury, but apart from having been strangled, she seemed unharmed.
“I’m alright" she said, clearing her throat. “What was that thing?”
“Yeah, Taylor" James turned to him. “What the hell is a mimic? I’ve got a NEWT in magical creatures and I’ve never even heard of that before. Shouldn’t intel have told us there was one down here?” he glanced back at the chest, which once again looked like an ordinary, inanimate object.
“It isn’t really a creature, so much as a cursed object" Taylor responded. “It isn’t sentient.”
“Sure as hell felt like it" James muttered.
“That’s the point" Taylor responded as he finished bandaging his arm and started to make his way back towards the chest, which did nothing as he approached. “You get distracted fighting the limbs, when what you really need to do is disintegrate the source.”
“And you couldn’t have told us that?!” James demanded.
“You were busy" Taylor responded absent-mindedly, as they reached the chest. “Only one of us needed to get through, to counter it.”
“Still would have been nice to have that information" James shot back irritably. He had enough experience now that he didn’t often feel out of his depth anymore, but this whole day had been nothing but surprises. He didn’t appreciate being made to feel like a trainee again. Not when he’d been doing this for three years now.
Taylor carefully opened the lid of the chest. James raised his wand, ready to attack if necessary, but there were thankfully no teeth this time. The wooden lid creaked as he opened it, revealing a plush red velvet cushion, on top of which sat a shining silver goblet.
“And there we have it" Taylor said quietly, sounding pleased. James shot him an annoyed look, rather feeling like he had no right to be pleased about the way anything had gone on this mission.
“That’s it?” Tara asked quizzically. James understood the confusion, after passing up maybe a hundred thousand galleons worth of gold coins in the chamber above, he once might have expected their actual target to be something much more impressive than a plain silver goblet. But he had long since learnt that powerful magical objects often didn’t display the grandeur you would expect them to at fist glance.
“What does it do?” James asked Taylor, as Taylor felt carefully around the edges of the chest, looking for further traps.
“What do you mean?” Taylor asked vaguely, continuing his search without looking at James.
“What magical powers does it have?” James asked. “There must be a reason Gringotts wants it.”
Taylor straightened up at this to look at James, his expression confused.
“It’s goblin made" he said, as if this should be obvious.
“Yeah, I can see that" James laughed. “But what makes it more valuable than that lot up there?”
“No-one said it was" Taylor replied, still looking as though he had no idea what James was talking about. “But it’s what we’ve been tasked to retrieve.”
“But...” James faltered. There had to be more to it than that. Had to be something that Taylor wasn’t telling him.
“That’s the only reason they want it?” Tara asked Taylor. “Because it’s goblin made?”
“You haven’t spent a lot of time with goblins, have you?” Taylor said in response to this.
“You’re serious" James said. It wasn’t a question. “That’s really all it is...”
“I don’t know what I’ve done today to make you think I’m not serious" Taylor replied flatly, turning his attention back to the chest. Before James had chance to digest this information, Taylor reached out and took hold of the goblet by the handle. The second he touched it, there was a distant rumbling sound, and James felt the floor start to vibrate underneath his feet. Just like it had upstairs.
“RUN!” he yelled, and all three of them started to sprint back the way they had come from. The rumbling was getting louder and dust and small bits of debris were starting to fall from the ceiling.
Andrew wasn’t very far behind them, and it took only seconds after James started running for Andrew’s wand light to come into focus again, but the collapse of the cave ceiling was happening much more quickly than it had done upstairs, and the rocks falling from the ceiling were now large enough to bludgeon someone if they hit them. James cast a shield charm over his head, shouting out to Tara to do the same, with no idea whether she could hear him or not. He could only hope that Taylor was keeping an eye on her, because now he was using his wand to hold the shield he had no light to work with, and could do nothing other than run towards Andrew, at constant risk of tripping over the huge hunks of rock now littering the floor around them. His shins were taking a battering as he kept stumbling into them, but he did his best to zig zag through.
He was now close enough to see that Andrew had gotten to his feet and was carefully making his way towards them, keeping his eyes on the ceiling so he could avoid the falling rocks. However before they reached each other there was an almighty crashing sound, and the ceiling right in front of James opened up, the rock disintegrating into debris and smashing down in front of him like a waterfall, leaving a loose wall of rubble separating him from Andrew on the other side.
“DAVIES" yelled Taylor, to James’s right. James moved parallel to the new rock wall, over towards the side of the cave where the collapse hadn’t been as bad. Taylor had taken off his pack which now lay on the floor at his feet, and was holding his wand in one hand, shining the light through a gap in the rock to Andrew on the other side. In the other hand he had the goblet, hanging by the handle off his fingers, and he was also holding a punctured football that he must have pulled out of his pack. Tara was by his side, with a gash on one side of her head that was dripping blood down her face.
“I’m here!” Andrew’s voice called out from the other side of the rocks, and a hand appeared by James’s side, through a small gap. James grabbed hold of his wrist tightly and reached out to Taylor with his wand hand, who began to activate the portkey. He moved closer to James as the football began to glow with a bright blue light, and James put Andrew’s hand on it, before grabbing hold of it himself. Just before his surroundings turned into swirling colours there was another deafening crash and Andrew’s hand went limp. James hastily held Andrew’s hand on the football, momentarily taking his own hand off of it to do so. His whole body jerked uncomfortably backwards as he did this and he instinctively grabbed the portkey with his other hand. In the process of fumbling to keep Andrew attached to it whilst holding onto it himself, he somehow dropped his wand.
“FUCK" he screamed, but there was no sound. They were travelling through the airwaves now, with nothing but roaring wind in his ears. James could do nothing but hold on, and hope to god that Andrew was still alive.
-
They arrived back in the landing bay in the curse breaker department of the ministry, and James vaguely registered that all four of them had made it more or less in one piece. The next ten minutes or so were a confusing mess of medics rushing all around them, tending to their various injuries. Andrew was unconscious but breathing – he appeared to have sustained a heavy blow to the head. The healers had mounted him onto a stretcher and taken him off to St Mungo's. James had asked them if Andrew was going to be ok, but he knew that they couldn’t really answer that until they’d assessed the damage. He wanted to go with them to the hospital, but the on-site medical team wouldn’t let him, and kept him in the landing bay while they treated his injuries.
Their immediate concern for James was the burn on his leg, which he’d barely even noticed in the chaos that had ensued. It wasn’t especially bad, it looked worse than it was because of where the fabric of his trousers had melted away, leaving blackened and crispy edges around a large hole in the knee. His skin underneath was a bit raw, but the healers had it good as new in no time. A much more unpleasant experience was the extraction of the large amount of sand he had breathed in, which was if anything even more painful coming out than it had been going in. Afterwards, the healer had told James to sit tight for a few minutes to let his inflamed airways settle down. As he sat there, he watched another healer work on Tara, who was staring into space looking shell-shocked. They had healed the wound on her head and were now patching up various scrapes she’d obtained, presumably from the falling rubble. They were checking her over much more carefully than they had James or Taylor, as per normal procedure. Trainees didn’t have as much healing expertise as more senior agents, so the ministry gave them much more thorough medical cover. James would be left to sort out his minor cuts and bruises himself. He had a decent bruise salve in his desk drawer, which he made a mental note to pick up before heading home. His shins were going to need it.
“Are you alright to head straight from here to the debrief?” Taylor asked as he approached James, looking rather grave. He was still holding the silver goblet and James’s eyes fixated on it. The thing that had caused so much trouble.
“Yeah" James replied simply. He didn’t particularly want to open a dialogue with Taylor right now. Taylor's tone was that of a man who knew he was about to face the consequences of some poor judgement, but James didn’t feel sorry for him. Not when it was his fault that Andrew had been taken to hospital and Tara was probably going to quit the programme after being through all that. The two of them waited side by side in silence until the medics released Tara, and she walked slowly over to them.
“Tara" James said quickly, before Taylor could say anything. “I want you to know that this was NOT a typical mission, alright? It’s not normal for people to get hurt like this.”
“Is Davies going to be alright?” she asked, looking back and forth between James and Taylor, apparently disregarding what James had said.
“We’ll know more soon" Taylor responded. “But the medics didn’t seem too worried.”
James didn’t know if he was lying to make Tara feel better or not, but even if he was James wasn’t about to call him out on it in front of her. They filed out of the landing bay through to the kit room, where James and Tara handed their packs back into inventory, and Taylor reported his as lost. The witch behind the counter gave him a form to fill in and James sank down into a seat on one of the benches lining the walls. His breathing still felt a bit laboured, which he supposed was to be expected since his windpipe had basically been scoured by grit, twice.
“What happens now?” Tara asked him quietly, furtively looking at Taylor as though she didn’t want him to hear. James sighed, running a hand through his hair.
“I’m not sure, to be honest" he replied truthfully. “I mean, I’ve had missions go wrong before but, fuck...” he shook his head. Tara sat down next to him.
“Are we in trouble?” she asked seriously.
“You’re not" James assured her. “But him" he nodded towards Taylor “probably.”
“What about you?” she asked, and James huffed a small laugh, in spite of the situation.
“Don’t you worry about me, I’ll be fine” he replied.
“You tried to tell him" she muttered, eyeing Taylor carefully, but he couldn’t hear them.
“Probably best not to mention that to our superiors though" James told her. “You’re not supposed to undermine the team leader. All hell can break loose if people don’t follow orders.”
“All hell broke loose today" she countered. “We were following orders. Should we not have?”
“No, we were right to do what he said" James told her firmly, sitting up straighter. He didn’t want her getting the wrong impression about this. “Things could have been much worse if we’d all gone off and done our own thing. You have to trust your team leader.” James’s eyes narrowed, as he watched Taylor filling in the form. “But they make bad calls sometimes. And we’re about to see what the consequences of that are going to be.”
“What’s going to happen?” Tara asked, sounding worried.
“We debrief to mission control” James replied. “And then, I don’t know. This will probably be escalated higher up in the department. I don’t know what will happen. But for you, probably nothing. Your next mission won’t be nearly as dramatic as this, I promise.”
“You’re not just saying that?” Tara asked, with a weak smile.
“I’m really not" James assured her. “Me and Andrew have been working here for three years, and neither of us have ever seen it go sideways like this.”
The smile dropped immediately from Tara’s face at the mention of Andrew’s name, but before James had chance to say anything reassuring Taylor was ushering them back out the door and through towards the office.
-
Mission debriefs were usually just to one person in the mission control team. At least, for successful missions that was the case. In the event that someone was mildly injured, there was usually also a person from the health and safety team there, who made sure that all the correct paperwork was filled out. The most disastrous mission James had ever been on before today had resulted in them losing their treasure to a gang of grindylows and James breaking his leg in two places. That time, they had debriefed to a panel of four. Today, they were reporting to a panel of seven. Two goblins, two people from health and safety, two from mission control and one senior director from the department. James, Tara and Taylor had been waiting around outside the meeting room for about half an hour, waiting for the panel to assemble. Every time that James thought they were ready to go someone or other said they needed to bring someone else in, so the panel kept growing and growing. Finally, they were ready to start.
James felt a great sense of foreboding as he took a seat facing the desk that they all sat behind, all in a row facing him. He felt like he was on trial. But as Tara nervously took a seat on his left and Taylor on his right, James reminded himself that if anyone were on trial here, it was the team leader, not him.
“You have the goblet?” One of the goblins addressed Taylor.
“Yes" he replied simply, standing up again to hand it over to them. The goblin examined it carefully, looking impressed, before handing it over to the other goblin next to him, who also looked at it appraisingly.
“Fine work" the goblin holding the goblet muttered, sounding pleased.
“So your mission was a success, then?” one of the wizards from mission control asked.
“We retrieved the target" Taylor responded calmly, sitting back down. “But the team sustained injuries. One of our agents was taken to hospital.”
“Andrew Davies?” a witch from the health and safety department asked sharply, looking down at a stack of papers in her hands and then back up to Taylor, over the rim of her glasses. “We received word from St Mungo’s just a moment ago that he sustained a broken arm and a head injury. No skull fractures but a severe concussion. He is expected to make a full recovery.”
James breathed out an audible sigh of relief, turning to Tara who smiled warmly back at him.
“How did this happen?” the other wizard from health and safety asked. “We understand that you were separated from team beta, and that there were minor injuries to the rest of team alpha.”
“Two of the caverns collapsed whilst we were in them" Taylor explained.
“Collapsed, you say?” a wizard from mission control asked, flicking through his notebook. “Of their own accord? There were no reports of that from the recon.”
“I’m not sure myself what triggered the first" Taylor offered. “But the second was set off when we retrieved the treasure.”
“Naturally" the other mission control wizard interjected. “But what prevented you from immediate retreat? I assume the injuries were sustained in the second collapse?”
“Largely, yes" Taylor replied. “But Davies was injured before that. He fell off a ladder so we left him in the entrance chamber while the three of us proceeded to the target.”
“He got the head injury from falling off the ladder?” the health and safety witch asked, scribbling notes.
“No, the broken arm was from the fall" Taylor told her. “The head injury from the cave collapse. We couldn’t retreat immediately as we had to return to Davies’s position before I could activate the portkey.”
“What were the circumstances of you leaving him behind?” one of the mission control wizards asked? “How severe was his injury?”
“I strapped the arm in a splint, and performed an assessment to check his cognitive function" Taylor told the panel. “He was fully lucid, and able to sit up.”
“How far away was the target from where you left him?” the wizard pressed.
“Only one chamber over. And there was no immediate threat at the time. No known threats from intel.”
The mission control wizard who was writing all this down made a face that suggested he thought this seemed quite reasonable.
“Why not take him with you, then?” the director cut in.
“I thought it unlikely there would be no threats once we retrieved the treasure" Taylor said. “And given the unknown nature of the threat I thought it best to keep the injured agent in a place of relative safety.”
“But he did sustain further injury" the health and safety witch countered. “And none of you did? The collapse occurred back in the entrance chamber?”
“The worst of it was there, yes” Taylor agreed. “But we had no way of knowing that was going to happen.”
“That’s not true" James interjected firmly. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The panel were asking all the wrong questions. Maybe it had only been one chamber over, but it was far enough that the time it had taken them to get back to Andrew had been long enough for the ceiling to cave in between them. And were they not even going to mention the fact that their trainee had been throttled by a mimic and then bludgeoned by falling debris? And why was no-one even remotely bothered that Taylor had gone directly against solo team protocol by proceeding with the mission after Andrew was injured? Taylor had knowingly led them into danger, and he had knowingly put Andrew’s life in danger. No way in hell was James going to sit idly by and let him get away with it.
“Sorry?” the witch asked vaguely, looking up from her notes confusedly.
“I said, that’s not true" James repeated angrily. “We knew there was risk of further structural collapse after what had happened earlier. YOU said so yourself" James addressed Taylor, who looked affronted.
“I accept responsibility as team leader for Davies’s injury" Taylor told the panel, before turning back to James. “But if you’re suggesting that it was due to negligence on my part-"
“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting” James replied, fuming. “You ignored solo team protocol, which clearly states that in the event that a team member is incapacitated-"
“Don’t you quote the handbook to me, kid!” Taylor bristled. “I’ve been doing this for longer than you’ve even been alive!”
“Then you should know to set a better example for the trainee!” James cried, gesturing to Tara who he saw flinch out of the corner of his eye. He felt bad for dragging her into this, but it needed to be said. “You led her into unnecessary danger today!”
“YOU’RE THE ONE SETTING A BAD EXAMPLE” Taylor yelled. “Arguing with me every step of the way! Thinking you know better!”
James was about to scream back ‘maybe I do!’, but the senior director stood up and cut across them both.
“ENOUGH" he roared. “Both of you are setting a bad example right now! This is NOT how we do things.”
James wasn’t done, not by a long shot, but even he wasn’t stupid enough to argue with one of the heads of the department. He shot a resentful look sideways at Taylor, but resigned himself to shutting up for the time being.
“Potter" the director went on sternly. “You’ll have your chance to speak, as will the trainee, but for now we want to hear from the team leader.”
James said nothing and merely glared back, but the wizard had turned his attention back to Taylor.
“So, in summary, you deduced the threat was minimal and you left your injured agent in the entrance cave while you went a short distance away to retrieve the target. Which you did successfully?”
“That’s correct” Taylor replied. James felt like his blood was boiling.
“Well, in that case I don’t know what you dragged me down here for, Ian" the director said, addressing one of the mission control wizards. “So long as the injury reports are satisfactory, I’d say we chalk this one up to bad luck.”
“Bad luck?!” James echoed, outraged. The director looked at him with a tired and annoyed expression.
“You disagree?” he asked flatly.
“Did you not hear anything I just said?” James asked, dumbfounded. “Andrew could have died!”
“So could you" the director replied calmly. “We all know the risks involved in the job. Including Davies”
“This went way beyond an acceptable level of risk" James countered. “We should have pulled out when Andrew fell off the ladder. He had a broken arm, solo team protocol clearly states that-"
“I know what solo team protocol is" the director cut across him, sounding bored. “But it’s at the team leader’s discretion, which appears to have been implemented with common sense, in this case.”
“So you think it was OK to risk Andrew’s life for the sake of a goblet, do you?” James demanded.
“Well since the goblet was retrieved successfully and your friend is going to make a full recovery, I would say the risk was acceptable, yes" the director said firmly. “If Taylor had done things your way we’d have nothing to show for it, would we? So we’d have had to send another team in there.”
“That’s not true either!” James cried. “He made us just walk past a cavern filled to the brim with gold. At least a hundred thousand galleons worth, just sitting there, he said it wasn’t the target. And we all could have died just trying to get this stupid thing!” he gestured wildly at the goblet, still being gripped by one of the goblins, who were passively watching this argument unfold.
“And he was right!” the director replied. “If we wanted gold then that’s what we would have sent you in for. But you were sent to retrieve a specific target.” The director was now frowning at James, looking something akin to disappointed. “I’ve heard your name come up a few times within this department, Potter, quite favourably. But I must say I’m not impressed by what I see here today. It seems like you still have a lot to learn.”
“I don’t believe this” James said incredulously. He felt like the only sane one in the room. “So you’re saying it’s fine to put the lives of your entire team at risk, so long as you’ve got something goblin made to bring back?” the director gave him a look that one might give a toddler throwing a tantrum over something ridiculous, and James lost it entirely.
“Really, that’s how it is? Because I thought the goal was to bring in treasure, to keep the bank flush and the economy and the currency strong, that’s what we’re taught in training, right? But fuck that, no, that’s a load of bollocks! Apparently we’re all just puppets tracking down goblin artefacts for no fucking reason other than some stupid sense of entitlement.”
“Who do you think you are talking to, boy?” one of the goblins said loudly, both of them looking outraged, but James wasn’t nearly done yet.
“And fuck Andrew, right? His life means jack fucking shit to you guys. Glad to know that if I were to die on a job none of you would even bat an eyelid, so long as we got the fucking target!”
“THAT’S ENOUGH OUT OF YOU, POTTER" the director roared, and the room fell dead silent. James wasn’t sure at what point he had stood up, but he was now standing in the middle of the room with everyone in it staring at him, most of them looking concerned, but Taylor, the goblins and the director all looked furious.
“You’re suspended!” the director spat at him, and James reeled in shock. “And it’s only out of respect for your father that I don’t fire you on the spot! How dare you speak to your superiors like that?!”
James glared at him, his heart racing. There were about a thousand things that he wanted to say, most of them involving expletives. He didn’t even really care at this particular moment about what the consequences might be, but the thing that pulled him back to his senses was Tara very quietly clearing her throat behind him. James’s anger dissipated just enough for him to remember where he was, and how serious this was. Without further ado he turned on the spot and marched straight out of the room, not allowing himself to look at Tara but seeing in his peripheral vision that she looked terrified. He pushed the door open roughly and let it slam closed behind him, before reaching in his pocket for his wand to apparate home. He groped around for it for a few seconds before he remembered that he’d dropped it back when he was trying to keep Andrew on the portkey.
“FUCK!” he exclaimed, making everyone in the corridor jump and turn to stare at him. He ignored them and continued to stomp away from the meeting room, looking moodily down at the floor and heading towards the lifts where he could get to the atrium to floo home. He was going to have to go to Diagon Alley at some point for a new wand. Well, he mused, it’s not as though he didn’t have the time now he was suspended from his job.
He just couldn’t get over the injustice of it. He knew he had gone too far, insulting the goblins like that, but he wasn’t sorry for what he had said about Andrew. No-one even cared that he was lying in a hospital bed right now. They were all patting themselves on the back for a job well done. Once he had calmed down a bit James would have to go and visit Andrew in the hospital, make sure he was alright. Tell him what had happened. Christ knows what was going to happen to Tara. But at least she had heard everything that James had to say. At least she hadn’t had to sit there and listen to them all say that what had happened was fine, without anyone speaking up.
“James, there you are, I’ve been looking for you" a familiar voice cut through James’s train of thought and he looked up to see his uncle Bill leaning up against the reception desk. James didn’t stop, and continued his path towards the lifts just beyond reception, pressing the lift call button with much more force than he really intended to.
“You going somewhere?” Bill asked, following him over to the lifts. “I’ve got some recon reports I wanted you to help me go through.”
“You’ll have to find someone else to do it" James said as the lift door opened and he stepped inside, jabbing the lobby button. “I’ve just been suspended” he told him unceremoniously. The lift door started to close but Bill stuck his arm in to make them re-open, and got into the lift himself.
“You what?!”
“Suspended. Lucky I’m not fired after what I just said" James went on. “But I meant it, Bill. I fucking meant what I said.”
“Hang on, hang on" Bill said, shaking his head, clearly struggling to catch up. “What happened? I thought you were in India this morning?”
“I was!" James burst out. “Taylor led us into a cave that collapsed, TWICE. I inhaled half of the fucking desert and Andrew Davies nearly DIED. Oh and I lost my wand trying to get us both out of there alive, so now I have to go up to the fucking floo. FUCK this day.”
“Who nearly died?” Bill asked, his face lined with concern.
“Davies" James told him. “Same intake as me, you know him. Dark hair, Scottish.”
“Oh yeah” Bill nodded. “Is he going to be alright?”
“Yeah, they said he’ll make a full recovery” James said, waving dismissively. “That’s not the fucking point, though, it could so easily have been so much worse.”
“It’s part of the fucking point, pal" Bill said calmly. “How many times has your neck been on the line, but you’ve managed to get away by the skin of your teeth?”
“This was different" James said plainly as the lift doors opened into the Atrium and they got out. James started heading towards the fireplaces and Bill followed.
“Is that why you’re suspended?” Bill asked him. “You argued with Taylor about it?”
“Look" James said, stopping in his tracks and turning to face Bill, gesturing with both hands to convey the seriousness of the matter. “I know me and Taylor butt heads all the time, but I’m telling you, this was different. Andrew was already injured and he left him there. Dragged me and the trainee on to complete the mission. We were on solo team protocol.”
“Well" Bill frowned. “He shouldn’t have done that.” James huffed out a breathy laugh. He felt like he could scream with the vindication of finally having someone agree with him on this, but it didn’t really matter anymore. He patted Bill on the shoulder.
“Well, apparently you and me are in the minority on that one" James told him, and he turned around to continue walking towards the fireplaces. Bill continued to trot after him.
“Did the trainee get out alright?” Bill asked him. James shrugged.
“Alright is kind of a relative term" he replied darkly. “She got strangled by a mimic, then had her head cracked open by falling rubble. But she wasn’t sent to the hospital or anything" James stopped to heave out a defeated sigh. “I’ll be amazed if she stays in the programme after all that.”
“Did you say there was a mimic?” Bill asked, sounding taken aback.
“Yeah, you seen one before?” James asked.
“Once" Bill replied. “They’re rare, them.”
“You’re telling me” James said. “Never seen anything like it.”
“What was the treasure?” Bill asked in amazement. James shook his head in anger.
“That’s the thing Bill” James implored him. “It was fucking nothing. A single goblin made goblet. We passed a fortune in gold on the way in but we all nearly fucking died for this tiny little thing.”
“Taylor wouldn’t have let you die, James" Bill said seriously. “You have to know that.”
“I don’t know anything anymore" James said desperately. “Three years I’ve been working here. And apparently I don’t know a damn thing about the way this department is run.”
Bill merely gave him a grim smile in response. James stared back at him for a moment or two, unsure where to go from here.
“Come on" Bill said finally, stepping towards the fireplace and reaching for the pot of floo powder. “Let's go and get a drink.”
-
“Mead for me please” Bill told the barmaid, leaning calmly against the bar looking entirely at ease. James still wasn’t entirely sure what they were doing here.
“I don’t have my wallet” he muttered gruffly. “It’s back at the office. Didn’t exactly feel like stopping off at my desk on my way out.”
“Don’t be daft, this is on me” Bill said dismissively. “What’ll you have?”
“Don’t you need to get back to work?” James asked irritably. The last thing he felt like doing right now was getting a lecture from his uncle about work ethics.
“No, not really” Bill replied calmly. “Now if you don’t make a decision you’re getting a gillywater.”
“Fucking hell, alright, firewhisky then” James supplied moodily.
“This your son?” The barmaid asked Bill with an understanding smile while she poured James’s drink.
“Nephew” Bill replied jovially. “And mentee, for this afternoon.” He paid for the drinks and ushered James over to a table where they sat opposite each other. James put his drink down on the table in front of him and slumped back in his chair staring at Bill while he apparently settled in, shifting his weight on his own chair to get comfortable and taking a large sip of his mead, smacking his lips in appreciation.
“So, you said you’ve been working here about three years now?” Bill asked calmly.
“Yes" James replied stiffly. He had a feeling that Bill was about to tell him he hadn’t finished paying his dues, and whilst James appreciated that Bill had some thirty-odd years of experience over him, that didn’t mean that James didn’t know what he was doing.
"Yeah, sounds about right" Bill said, taking another sip of his drink. “That was about how long I’d been in the job before I started seeing things I didn’t agree with.”
James was surprised by this, and sat up straight in his chair, leaning forwards while Bill went on.
“As a trainee you’re just excited to get your feet wet, right?” Bill explained. “And then you get promoted to field agent, and that’s exciting because it’s new responsibility. But then that excitement wears off and you find yourself in this slump where you know what you’re talking about, but no-one listens to you, and the next promotion feels like a long way away.”
“Yeah" James agreed. “That about sums it up. I’d make a better team leader than Taylor anyway, but like fuck will he listen to me.”
“Well we all know Taylor is a particular kind of arsehole when it comes to that" Bill conceded, and James sniggered under his breath. “And yeah, you probably will be a better team leader than him, one day. But you’re not ready yet.”
“Says who?” James asked, angrily.
“Says me" Bill replied firmly. “And that’s coming from someone who thinks you’re one of the best junior field agents in the department.”
James didn’t have a comeback for that so he moodily took a swig of his drink instead.
"You said you came across a mimic today?” Bill asked, and James nodded. “And you didn’t know what it was? Did you know what to do?”
James didn’t answer that and Bill interpreted his silence correctly.
“But Taylor did, right?” he pressed. James didn’t answer that either. “And that’s all it boils down to, James. He’s got twenty years in the field. He’s just seen a lot more than you have.”
“So that’s all it is?” James asked, still annoyed. “The next twenty years of my career – just clocking up time?”
“Probably more like ten, before you’re running your own team" Bill countered. “But yeah, that’s what it is.”
“And in the meantime, I just follow orders? Even when those orders could get me killed?” James argued. Bill sighed.
“You were on track to make senior field agent in a couple of years" he told James. “But this suspension is going to set you back a way.”
“Junior agent, senior agent, what’s the fucking difference?” James said petulantly.
“More input into mission planning" Bill shrugged. “And authority over the juniors, as well as the trainees.”
“But I still answer to the team leader" James countered.
“Yes" Bill said plainly, and James shook his head.
“And suppose I do” James said, leaning further across the table and talking quietly, knowing what he was about to say was going to be controversial, to say the least. “I put in the time, and in ten years I’m running my own team. And mission control tells me the target is some useless piece of goblin junk, but I find a fortune in gold instead. If I bring back the gold instead of the target, I’m in the shit, right?”
“Well, that’s a separate conversation entirely” Bill replied seriously, matching James’s volume.
“Am I crazy?” James hissed. “That’s bullshit, right?”
Bill cast a furtive look around the empty pub before replying.
“You’re not crazy to recognise that it’s bullshit" Bill said carefully. “But you are if you think there’s anything that can be done to change that.”
James let that sink in for a moment, while Bill drank some more looking uneasy.
“Come on, James” he went on. “I know you worked with Goblin Liaison Office as a trainee, this can’t be a surprise to you that they have their own motives.”
“So no-one stands up to the goblins, is that what you’re telling me?” James demanded, and Bill looked alarmed.
“What are you trying to do, start a race war?” Bill replied forcefully, his voice low. “Historically wizards trying to wrestle power away from the goblins hasn’t exactly gone well.”
“Jesus, I’m not talking about overthrowing Gringotts" James said defensively. “But since we’re the ones actually retrieving the treasure don’t you think we should have at least some input on what treasure gets picked up?”
“That’s just not how things are done" Bill said flatly. “Never has been. Not in our lifetime, anyway.”
“Well that’s not what I signed up for" James stated angrily, taking a large swig of his drink and slamming the glass back down on the table. Bill watched him with a neutral expression.
“Are you done?” he asked flatly. James merely scowled at him. “Look" he went on. “Today has been a bad day. Maybe give it some time before you start making sweeping declarations like that. The departmental politics are shitty, I’ll grant you that. But there’s other parts of the job that make it worth sticking around for.”
James sighed, taking another drink. His glass was nearly empty now, and he wondered vaguely if they’d be staying for another.
“You said it’s a slump, right?” James asked Bill, defeatedly. “What got you through it?”
“Well" Bill mused. “Around the time I was starting to get disillusioned with the whole thing external factors came into play which made it seem like not such a big deal in comparison. I had some other pretty big things on my plate.” James stared blankly at him and he laughed. “The war, James" he clarified.
“Right" James replied vaguely. “Well what about after the war, when you went back to it?”
“Oh I had a family by then, so things were different" Bill replied, waving a hand airily. “That’s something you might want to consider as well. Your priorities change as you get older. Don’t forget that it’s just a job. It’s not the be all and end all of your whole life.”
“What do you mean?” James asked, confused. He had always thought that Bill was passionate about the job. He certainly talked about it like he loved it.
“I’m not saying you should put up with going to a job that you hate every day" Bill explained. “But you also can’t expect to love everything about it. At the end of the day it’s just a job. You don’t do it for fun, you do it to make money, so you can support your family.”
They both drank in silence for a minute while James tried to get his head around that. The thing was, he had never really thought of it as ‘just a job.’ To James, it was the thing that had given him direction in life. The thing that he had found his passion for. It meant so much more to him than ‘just a job’, and finding out that it wasn’t what he thought it was was a difficult thing to come to terms with.
“I am going to hate going to it every day though, if half of them turn out like this" James said miserably.
“It’s very rare for a day to end up like this" Bill replied reasonably. “This is your first one in three years, right?”
“But just knowing that any day has the potential to turn out like this...” James sighed heavily.
“Sleep on it" Bill advised him. “You’ll feel better about it tomorrow.”
“And what if I don’t?” James asked seriously. Bill looked at him appraisingly.
“Have you ever thought about working abroad?” he asked.
“I- what?” James asked, feeling wrong footed by the seemingly abrupt change in topic.
“If you can’t reconcile yourself with the way Gringotts run things" Bill said calmly. “They’re not the only bank in the world.”
“I... I haven’t really thought about it" James said truthfully. His immediate reaction to the idea of moving abroad somewhere for work was that he couldn’t. But he took a moment to probe that thought a bit further, and he realised there was no real reason at all why he couldn’t. There was nothing tying him here, not really.
“Well, packing in your job at the ministry isn’t something to be taken lightly" Bill warned him. “Not least because if you do it now with this suspension hanging in the air they’ll probably never take you back, if you did want to re-join. But if you were thinking about it, then looking for options abroad is something to consider.”
“You worked in Egypt, right?” James asked him thoughtfully. Bill talked about that at the office a lot. It was sort of a running joke that all of his colleagues were sick to death of him banging on about it.
“I did" Bill nodded. “I was working for Gringotts at the time, but I had to liaise with the local authority. Their operation was quite a bit different to ours.”
“Different how?” James asked with great interest.
“Team structure seemed a lot flatter" Bill shrugged. “Not so much a hierarchy like ours. That didn’t really work out too well for them though, truth be told. No-one ever listened to anyone else, their injury rate was much higher than any UK based organisation would ever consider acceptable.”
“Was it run by goblins?” James asked.
“No, Gringotts lay claim to most of the goblin owned treasure in the world" Bill told him. “Most other banks are run by wizards.”
“So I wouldn’t have to put up with half the shit I do here” James said in wonderment, but Bill shook his head.
“Maybe not, but you’d have to put up with a whole load of other shit entirely different to what you do here” Bill told him. “Don’t go thinking this is the answer to all your problems. There’s pros and cons to every organisation.”
“Yeah, I get that" James conceded, thinking about what Bill had said about the injury rate. He didn’t like the sound of that. But the rest of it... it sounded too good to be true.
“Give it some thought, anyway" Bill said. “But in the meantime, there’ll be a disciplinary hearing for you in the curse breaker department. I suggest we deal with that before anything else.”
“The decision might be made for me, anyway" James replied darkly. “The director said it was only because of my dad that I wasn’t fired on the spot.”
“Whatever you said, it must have been pretty bad" Bill said in response to this. James merely shrugged, not wanting to re-live it.
“Well Harry doesn’t have that much pull in our department, but I’ll see what I can do" Bill assured him.
“You don’t have to do that" James said dismissively.
“You’re a good agent, James, it’d be a shame to lose you" Bill replied earnestly.
“Thanks” James muttered. Bill gave him a curt nod and drained the remainder of his mead.
“Right, I’d better get back, so I can at least pretend like I’ve done some actual work today" Bill said with a smile.
“Yeah, sorry to have waylaid you" James said.
“No worries” Bill replied. “Now you go home and get drunk, vent to your boyfriend about your shitty day, and I guarantee you’ll feel better in the morning.”
“Alright" James laughed. “I'll do that.”