The World Has Turned and Left Me Here

Upon arriving at work in the morning, Teddy made his way through the various levels of security to get into the Auror office, coffee in one hand and balancing a stack of files with his other arm whilst presenting his wand for inspection in order to get through. He managed to make it to reception without dropping anything, but the files were starting to slip from his arm so he hurried up his last few steps, dumping them on the reception desk.

“Don’t tell me I have to file all this paperwork” the witch behind the desk said, looking unimpressed, while Teddy straightened up the stack and took a drink of his coffee.

“’Fraid so, Angela” Teddy replied with a sympathetic smile. “Well, someone in admin does anyway, I can take it down to the girls if you want.”

“It’ll only end up on my desk anyway” Angela countered, staring at him with a deadpan expression. Teddy knew that she wasn’t really that annoyed about it, because he did this on a pretty regular basis. She just didn’t want to let him pass without giving him some sort of hassle.

“That’s my backlog from the past three months, management have been up my arse to sort it all out” he told her.

“And that’s my problem because…?” she asked, but she slid the stack towards herself and began to flick through the papers.

“You’re a star” Teddy said, giving her a wide smile, which she grudgingly returned.

“Yeah, yeah…” she muttered, as Teddy walked away, into the office. He passed a few people that he said hi to on him way down the corridor. It was around the time that most of the aurors arrived to the office to start their day, so there were a lot of people milling about.                   

“Hey Teddy” one of his colleagues said as he walked past. “There’s doughnuts in the kitchen. Better get there quick!”

“Thanks for the intel” Teddy grinned, changing course and making a beeline for the kitchen. The department was big enough that it was pretty much always someone’s birthday, so people often brought in treats for the office. But with there being so many people, you had to get there quick because once word got out it would be gone within minutes. People were like vultures around here.

Teddy was pleased to find a decent amount of doughnuts left by the time he got there. He wasn’t especially hungry, but hey, free doughnuts were free doughnuts. He selected a simple glazed one for himself, and then stood there for a moment considering whether to pick one up for his new intern as well. He eventually decided that it might come off as a bit creepy to be giving his eighteen year old mentee treats the very first time they met, so he shuffled back out into the corridor and made his way to his office. He passed his line manager, Steve, on the way there.

“Doughnuts in the kitchen” Teddy passed on to him, holding up the one in his hand.

“Ah, excellent” Steve replied. “I missed breakfast. Have you done that paperwork yet?” he asked, suddenly stern. Teddy laughed.

“Dropped it off with Angela just now.”

“I bet she was thrilled about that.”

“Oh yeah” Teddy laughed. “Hey listen, I’ve got my new intern coming in today, so that Piccadilly case is probably going to get pushed back by a day or so.”

“Do the forensics team know about that?” Steve asked.

“Yep” Teddy replied easily. “Spoke to them yesterday. They actually sounded relieved to have another day to get all the evidence processed.”

“Sounds like you’ve got it handled then” Steve shrugged, passing Teddy and heading towards the kitchen. Teddy smiled with gratification as he continued towards his office. He was needing less and less input from his manager these days, and all of his cases at the moment were running like a well oiled machine. He took a triumphant swig of his coffee as he pushed his office door open. He really felt like things were going well for him. Just one more big case handled well would probably be enough for him to get that promotion to Senior Auror.

But as it was, he was dealing at the moment with a bunch of small bits and pieces here and there. There wasn’t much interesting about the Piccadilly case, it looked to Teddy like accidental manslaughter rather than murder. There had only been one body found in a back alley, bludgeoned to death on a Saturday night. Probably a bar fight gone too far. He also had a missing persons case and a possibly gang-related murder. That was the one he’d be letting the intern shadow him on, as it was the most interesting of the three. But it was still unlikely in Teddy’s experience for that to turn into anything bigger. The gang in question covered their tracks well and he was doubtful they’d be able to pin it on any one person. And a single death wasn’t enough to go after a whole gang for. Once he’d done all he could with it he’d hand it over to the organised crime unit for it to go in their portfolio.

Teddy sat down at his desk, not immediately noticing the post it note on top of the stack of papers in front of him, as he was busy clearing up all the crap that littered the floor around his chair. Scrunched up bits of paper, pens that had fallen off the desk, and a stack of books he hadn’t bothered to put back on the shelf. When turning his attention to what was actually on top of the desk, he saw the note written in what he recognised as Harry’s handwriting, telling Teddy to report to his office when he got in. Teddy frowned, he had thought that the intern wasn’t coming in until 10, he wanted more time to straighten up his office, which was a complete mess as usual. He resigned himself to taking another couple of minutes to put the books back on the bookcase and dump the stack of papers into the filing cabinet, before picking his coffee and doughnut back up and heading over to Harry’s office, eating along the way.

He knocked on Harry’s door as he got there, and waited for him to call ‘come in’ before opening the door. Harry was the only person in there, but there was a new addition to the room in the form of a large trunk, which was fastened shut with what Teddy considered a wholly unnecessary amount of thick metal chains wrapped around it.

“Hi Harry” Teddy greeted him. “Got your note.”

“Morning Teddy” Harry replied with a small smile. “How’s things?”

“Good” Teddy replied, truthfully. “Nothing much new to report. Me and James are thinking about getting a new couch.”

“Oh god” Harry said sympathetically. “If that’s half as painful of choosing our last sofa was with Ginny then I wish you luck.”

“Difference of opinion?” Teddy enquired, grinning.

“Let’s just say I never knew a person could have such strong opinions about different shades of brown” Harry told him, and Teddy laughed.

“So what’s your workload like at the minute?” Harry asked, without further chit chat.

“Oh, erm..” Teddy hadn’t been expecting that. So this wasn’t about the intern then. “Pretty light” he shrugged. “Couple of small cases. Nothing that’s going to turn into a long one, I don’t think.”

“Good” Harry nodded. “I might have something for you.”

“Has it got something to do with that?” Teddy asked gesturing to the trunk.

“As a matter of fact, it has” Harry replied, getting up from his desk and walking over to stand by Teddy’s side, looking at the trunk with him.

“What is it?” Teddy asked, uncertainly. Harry waved his wand at it, making the chains unravel themselves.

“Take a look” he said, gesturing at the trunk. Teddy did so, approaching the trunk and carefully lifting the lid. The moment he touched it however the lid started to lift of its own accord, revealing what looked like the mouth of some horrible creature, with long sharp teeth and a long, slender tongue that started poking out.

“FUCK” Teddy jumped back, dropping his coffee on the floor. The lid popped off of the cardboard cup and it spilled everywhere, but Harry didn’t seem particularly concerned about that. He lazily flicked his wand at the trunk, making the lid snap shut and the chains wrap themselves around it again.

“A heads up would have been nice!” Teddy shot at Harry, who looked greatly amused.

“It’s called a mimic” Harry told him. Teddy had never heard of one before.

“It’s not a creature, is it?” he asked.

“No, powerful curse” Harry replied. “Have you ever read the Monster Book of Monsters?” He added, and Teddy laughed.

“Yeah, it’s required reading for creatures at Hogwarts” he said. “Hagrid thinks it’s hilarious.”

“He did back in my day too” Harry smiled. “Anyway, this is the same sort of thing, but on a much bigger scale, obviously. We found it in a muggle antique shop.”

“Shouldn’t it be a mis-use of muggle artefacts case then?” Teddy asked, examining the trunk from a distance. From the outside there was nothing whatsoever to indicate that the object was magical.

“Well it would be” Harry said calmly, taking a seat at his desk again. “But it appears to have eaten several people.”

“Eaten?” Teddy repeated, wanting to make sure he had heard that correctly.

“Yes” Harry said calmly. “We’re not exactly sure what happens to the bodies. They might still be in there somewhere.” Teddy grimaced distastefully at that.

“I don’t have to keep it in my office, do I?” he asked, feeling mildly queasy at the thought.

“No” Harry replied, looking amused again. “It’s going down to forensics for dissection. Hopefully we’ll know more, after.”

“Alright then…” Teddy said, his brain buzzing. This was going to be an unusual case, for sure. He was going to have to quickly close out his other three while the thing was in forensics, so he could give this case his full attention when the lab report came back.

“I’ve got an intern this week” Teddy told Harry. That suddenly felt like very bad timing. Teddy wasn’t going to have a lot of time to spend with them now. “Kid from the training programme” he clarified. That complicated things even more. Having a newly qualified agent shadow you was one thing, but having someone from the academy follow you around was a lot more like babysitting. And the paperwork was extensive.

“You want me to get them transferred to someone else?” Harry asked. Teddy considered this for a moment. It would free up more of his time. But he had been quite looking forward to having an intern. He liked showing them the ropes, and he got a pretty good ego boost by being able to show off about how cool his job was.

“No, it’s alright” he decided. “I’ll handle it.”

“Alright” Harry shrugged, as though he wasn’t bothered one way or the other. “Shall I wait for them to get here before I send this down then?” he asked, gesturing to the trunk. “Let them have a look at it?”

“Yeah” Teddy replied, liking the idea of this being the first thing that the intern got to see. “So long as we don’t let them get eaten by it” he added. “I can’t deal with that amount of paperwork.” Harry laughed in response and Teddy smiled as he cleaned up the spilled coffee on the floor with his wand.

“Alright, well I’ll clear my plate then” Teddy told Harry. “Can we do a full briefing later?”

“Sure” Harry replied breezily. Teddy thanked him and exited the office, heading now to the kitchen to get a replacement coffee, since he’d just vanished his previous one from Harry’s office floor. While he walked he made a plan of action in his head. He’d have to have the intern follow him today while he worked, there wasn’t time now to do what he usually did on their first day which was take them on a tour of the ministry while telling them a bit about his day-to-day job in the Auror department. He’d also have to pay a visit to forensics to see if they could push the Piccadilly case through today after all, so he could close it out sooner rather than later. And he’d have to visit the Auror library, to read up on mimic curses, find out as much as he could.

-

It was about 8.30 by the time Teddy got back to his own office, so he had a solid hour and a half to work with before his intern arrived. He used it to get stuck into the missing persons case, which was the least far along of the three he was currently working on. He made a decent amount of progress, determining that the victim had no ties to any criminal activity or history of mental health issues, and that they appeared to have just disappeared off the face of the earth. That was frustrating in itself though, because these sorts of cases tended not to get solved. It was likely that the person was dead, the victim of a random crime, probably just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But Teddy couldn’t stop looking for them until it was declared a cold case, which wouldn’t be for another month. He was still working away, pushing brightly coloured pins into a map of Coventry where the victim had been sighted before their disappearance, when there was a knock on his door, which he had left ajar. It was Angela from admin, accompanied by a young man who looked rather nervous.

Teddy’s eyes shot to the clock on his wall. Ah, shit, it was twenty past ten. The intern must have been waiting for ages. Teddy made an apologetic face to them both.

“Sorry” he said earnestly. “I lost track of time.”

“This is Nick” Angela said a little irritably, pushing the intern into the room. “HR sent him down. Said you were supposed to pick him up half an hour ago.”

“Well that’s an exaggeration” Teddy told her. “But I was supposed to yes, sorry about that.”

“You’re creating a lot of extra work for me today” she replied flatly, before marching back towards reception, and Teddy sighed as he watched her go.

“Lesson number one” he said to Nick, who was stood by the door looking unsure of what to do with himself. “Try not to get on the wrong side of the admin girls. They can make things very difficult for you.”

“Oh yeah?” Nick asked hesitantly.

“Yeah” Teddy said, taking a seat at his desk and beckoning Nick over to join him. “She’s probably not going to file my paperwork until tomorrow now, which will earn me another stern memo from the higher-ups.” Teddy knew that there were no real consequences for this, Harry couldn’t give a shit about paperwork. But Teddy had a foot high stack of the red reminder memos in his inbox already, and his line manager was starting to get a bit narked about it. He was more concerned about Angela really. They normally had a good rapport, and he knew she had been half joking this morning about him dumping his paperwork on her, but she was clearly annoyed now. He pushed it to the back of his mind as he scrambled to work out what to do with Nick now. He should have earmarked some time to prepare.

“So, Nick” Teddy addressed him. “You just started in the academy? How are you finding it?”

“Um” Nick hesitated. “Yeah, it’s good. I like it” he said, entirely unconvincingly. Teddy laughed.

“It’s a slow start, I know” he said, and Nick visibly relaxed. “That’s sort of the point of this intern programme, to let you see what a qualified agent does. Show you what you’re working towards.”

“I’m really looking forward to it” Nick said, with much more enthusiasm. Teddy gave him a nod of approval.

“Well I think you’re going to have an interesting week” he told him. “Normally I’d ease you in but I just got a big case delegated to me so we’re going to hit the ground running. Sound good?”

“Sounds good” Nick echoed, and Teddy got to his feet.

“Right then, well, our first stop is Harry’s office” Teddy told him. “Got something for you to see. Ever heard of a mimic before?”

“No” Nick replied blankly, following Teddy out of his office. “When you say Harry, are you talking about Harry Potter?” he asked in awe. Teddy smiled. He often had to remind himself that for most people meeting Harry was a big deal.

“The one and only” he replied calmly, leading Nick up to Harry’s office.

“What…” Nick seemed to falter slightly, and Teddy looked at him encouragingly and he said in a quiet voice “what do I say to him?”

“Nothing” Teddy shrugged, and then backpedalled when he realised how that might have sounded. “I don’t mean that like, you can’t talk to him. But he won’t be expecting anything from you.” Nick nodded uncertainly. They passed the kitchen on the way, and Teddy was about to ask him if he’d like to get a tea or coffee first, but remembering how he’d dropped his own coffee earlier he decided it was best to wait until after they’d seen the thing for that.

“So a mimic is a cursed inanimate object” Teddy told him as they walked, figuring it was probably best to warn him about what he was about to see, lest he and Harry get in trouble from the minister for scaring the shit out of the interns. “It attacks you when you get too close to it.”

“Attacks, like how?” Nick asked warily.

“With teeth” Teddy supplied. “This one has been eating people.”

“Eating?” Nick repeated, looking alarmed. Teddy smiled.

“Yeah, that was my reaction too” he said. “We’re sending it down to forensics for analysis, but we thought we’d let you take a look at it first.”

“Alright” Nick replied, looking unsure whether to be nervous or excited about that. They reached Harry’s office and Teddy knocked on the door, again waiting for Harry’s invitation before entering.

“Hey Harry” Teddy greeted him again. “This is Nick, my shadow for the week.”

“Nice to meet you” Harry offered, to which Nick didn’t say anything, looking rather star struck. Harry was used to this sort of thing by now and brushed easily past it.

“I’ve got the briefing notes for you on this” Harry addressed Teddy, handing him a thin file. “I suggest you have a read and then we’ll have a sit down later to go through it.”

“After lunch?” Teddy asked, opening the file to glance over the contents.

“What time do you reckon?” Harry asked. “I’m meeting Hermione for lunch today so I’ll be working my lunch hour around her schedule.”

“Um, I dunno” Teddy said distractedly, skim reading Harry’s notes on the antique shop that the mimic had been found in. “You can just come down to my office when you’re ready, if you want?”

“Sure, that works” Harry replied. He then said something to Nick which Teddy didn’t entirely hear because he was distracted by seeing in the notes the location of where the mimic had come from.

“Coventry?” Teddy said to Harry, looking back up at him. Harry looked momentarily confused, before realising what he was talking about.

“Oh right, yeah” he replied. “North side, near Corley.”

“I might have a missing persons case that links to this” Teddy told him. That was great news. Two birds with one stone.

“Well that’s good” Harry agreed. “Because we don’t have much to go on at the minute.”

“I’ll show you the case files up later” Teddy told him, and Harry nodded before turning his attention back to Nick.

“Right, let’s do this then” Harry said, waving his wand to release the chains from the trunk again.

“Slowly” Teddy warned him, as Nick approached it with a hand outstretched. He heeded this and very slowly lifted the lid by a fraction. The trunk reacted much more aggressively than it had to Teddy, and the lip snapped a couple of times revealing flashes of teeth, as the trunk itself hopped towards Nick, who let out a started noise and hastily stepped backwards. Harry pointed his wand at the trunk again, but instead of reinstating the chains he was holding the chest back in its place. It was still trying to hop towards Nick but it was hitting an invisible forcefield as it did. It opened its lid wide, as though snarling at them, and Teddy got a good look inside. Beyond the teeth was what looked like flayed red flesh. On the roof of the mouth there were distinctive scratch marks that looked to be from a human hand.

“It’s horrible” Nick said, sounding disgusted. Teddy couldn’t argue with that.

“It’s dangerous” Harry replied, making the chains snake back around the trunk forcing the lid to close again. “So we need to find out who put it there.”

“Is that what I’m going to be helping with?” Nick asked hopefully. Helping was probably a bit of a stretch, in Teddy’s opinion, there was a limited amount of work you could actually give to an unqualified intern, but he’d do his best to find the kid something to do.

“It is indeed” Teddy told him. “But I’ve got some other things to take care of this morning.” He turned to Harry. “I’ve got to go down to forensics anyway, so do you want me to take this while I’m at it?”

“No, I’ll do it” Harry replied. “There’s some specific things I want them to be looking for. We’ll go over it all later.”

“Alright then” Teddy shrugged. He turned back to Nick. “I don’t know about you but I could use a cuppa” he said, and Nick took this is his cue to follow Teddy out of the office. The second the door closed behind them, Nick started excitedly bombarding Teddy with questions as he led him back towards the kitchen.

“So are forensics going to take it apart? Will we get to see that?”

“Yes. And maybe, I’m not sure.”

“Am I coming with you later to the briefing with Mr Potter?”

“You can call him Harry. And yes, you’re following me everywhere this week.”

“Even to crime scenes?”

“You’ll have to fill in some health and safety forms first but yes, if I go to a crime scene you’re coming with me.”

“Wow” Nick looked like all his dreams had come true, and Teddy had to supress a laugh.

“You were talking to Harry like he’s your friend” Nick said to Teddy, sounding impressed. “Have you been working with him for a long time?”

“About six years” Teddy replied. “But I knew him before that.”

“How?” Nick asked with interest, and Teddy hesitated. The simplest answer was that Harry was his godfather, but Teddy was quite sure that he was going to mention James’s name at some point over the next week, and he didn’t want to get into that whole thing with an intern.

“He’s my boyfriend’s dad” Teddy told him after a pause, and Nick’s face went through a series of emotions in quick succession, including surprise and bewonderment.

“That’s amazing” Nick said in awe, and Teddy had to fight the urge to laugh again.

“I’m glad you think so” Teddy said in amusement as they reached the kitchen. “You might even get to meet him at some point, he works here. I mean, not in the auror office. He’s a curse breaker.”

“For Gringotts?” Nick asked, as Teddy got a mug out of the cupboard.

“The curse breaker department is jointly run by Gringotts and the ministry” Teddy told him. “It’s serve yourself here, by the way” he added to Nick, who was hovering by the doorway watching him. “We don’t have assistants who bring us tea. You just get one yourself, whenever you want”

“OK” Nick said, moving over to the coffee machine and examining it. Teddy went over to show him how to work it.

“The coffee here isn’t the best” he advised him, as he showed him how to navigate through the touchscreen menu. “I usually pick up a Starbucks on the way in.”

“Should I have a tea then?” Nick asked.

“I think it’s worth sampling the coffee at least once” Teddy relied casually. “So you can see for yourself how bad it is.” Nick laughed as he tapped the screen to pour himself what appeared to be some foamy type of coffee. He warily took a sip and looked relieved.

“It’s not that bad” he told Teddy.

“Try living off it while you’re pulling an all-nighter in here and then tell me if you still think that” Teddy told him wryly.

“Does that happen a lot?” Nick asked with interest.

“Not so much that it’s a problem” Teddy shrugged, sipping his tea and leaning against the counter. “Only when I’m at a critical point in a big case. And no-one is ever going to make you stay overnight. I do it because I care about the work and I want it to be done right.”

“I bet Harry recognises that though” Nick said.

“I don’t actually report directly to Harry unless we’re working on a case together” Teddy explained. “You’ll meet my line manager at some point. He’s the one who decides when I get promoted.”

Nick nodded, taking another sip of his coffee, and Teddy glanced at his watch. It was now eleven o’clock, this day was quickly getting away from him.

“We’d better get back to my office” Teddy told Nick, heading for the door. “I wanted to try and close out at least one of my cases before I start on this new one.” As they walked, Teddy briefly outlined his current three cases to Nick. The missing persons one they would run in parallel to the new one, given that it could be connected. The Piccadilly one needed the crime scene evidence to be processed before he could progress much further with it, they would go down to the lab after finishing their drinks and give forensics a prod on it. In the meantime that left the gang case to work on.

“This sort of thing is pretty common in London, unfortunately” Teddy told Nick, as he showed him the wall of his office on which he had stuck photos of the crime scene, as well as extracts from case files on similar incidents and some mugshots of suspects. “The organised crime unit spends years building cases against them. All we really do is collate the evidence of the individual incidents.”

“What’s left to do on this one?” Nick asked.

“Finding the perpetrator” Teddy said simply, pointing at the mugshots. “I’ve already cleared a couple of them, but we keep working our way through the list until we figure it out. Or until we clear all of them.”

“So what’s happens if we clear all of them?” Nick asked.

“I don’t think we will” Teddy told him. “Probably what will happen is we’ll work out who it was but we won’t be able to prove it. It’s frustrating, but that’s just how these gang cases go.” Truthfully Teddy would be glad just to clear it off his to-do list. There were more important things he could be doing with his time now.

-

Nick had been suitably impressed by the forensics lab, which Teddy had let him linger in for a while when they went down there. They weren’t especially happy about the rush job Teddy was asking them for, given that yesterday he had said it was low priority, but they pushed it through for him anyway, and the results were exactly what he’d been hoping for. Normally he would have done the arrest himself, but having Nick shadow him was a complication that Teddy didn’t have time for today, so he delegated it to another auror who was in between cases and looking for something to do. He thought vaguely about offloading the gang case onto them as well, but he figured it would be something for Nick to do while Teddy was getting stuck into the new mimic case, so he decided to keep hold of it for now.

He took Nick out to one of the nearby cafes for lunch and told him various anecdotes about past cases, notably the one he’d worked on with Harry a few years back tracking down the lost diadem of Ravenclaw. Nick had talked about the defence club he’d been in at Hogwarts – apparently the same one that had been first started by Harry back in his own school days. It was clear that Harry was something of a personal hero to the kid, and Teddy could see that it made his day just to be occupying the same office space as him.

Teddy quite liked Nick. His enthusiasm was obvious, which Teddy rather thought it ought to be for all of the auror candidates, but it was surprising how many interns he’d had in the past that had been apathetic about it. Being an auror was one of those jobs that invariably sort of took over your whole life, so why the hell would you do it if you weren’t passionate about it? But no-one could have accused Nick of that. His initial nerves from this morning seemed to have worn off, and he asked Teddy an almost constant stream of questions as they went about their day. Teddy might have found it annoying, if it wasn’t incredibly gratifying the way Nick looked at him like he was some sort of guru when he answered them.

It was late afternoon by the time Harry came down to Teddy’s office for the briefing, where Teddy and Nick were still working on the gang case, going through incident reports for the various gang members’ past convictions.

“You alright to do this now?” Harry asked wearily. He looked like he had had a busy day.

“Sure thing” Teddy replied, closing the file he had been reading from and putting it back on top of the stack on the desk, gesturing for Harry to take a seat next to Nick, who was sat on the other side of the desk opposite him.

“I don’t think there’s a huge amount to discuss yet, beyond what’s in the briefing notes” Harry said, as he took a seat next to Nick, who looked thrilled about this arrangement.

“The thing was planted in a muggle antique shop” Teddy offered. “Intentionally targeting muggles, so we’ve got the motive.”

“To what end though?” Harry countered. “Could just be a bit of fun for a muggle-hating bigot, but that’s an ancient relic of a spell they used. And a powerful one at that. There’s easier ways to bait muggles.”

“You think there’s some deeper intention behind it?” Teddy asked.

“I think I’d have a better grasp on the motive if we knew what happens to the bodies” Harry replied. “If they’re gone without a trace then it could be a clever way of disappearing someone without leaving any evidence.”

“Could have been a specific target” Teddy agreed, mulling this over.

“Tell me about your missing persons” Harry asked. Teddy had the file ready, and handed it over to Harry.

“Kate Allburn” Teddy said, as Harry opened the file and looked at the picture of the missing person. “Aged 53, reported missing by her husband.”

“Interested in antiques?” Harry asked, flipping through the notes in the file.

“Don’t know” Teddy replied. “I’ll be making it a point to find out.” Harry gave a curt nod to this.

“Nothing else connecting them besides the location?” he asked.

“Not yet, but we weren’t exactly asking the right questions in the interview with the husband to connect it to this” Teddy told him. “I’ll arrange a follow up.”

“Soon as you can” Harry said, closing the file and handing it back to Teddy, who nodded in agreement.

“When are we expecting a report from forensics?” Teddy asked.

“I’ve asked for frequent updates, but we probably won’t get the full report for a couple of days” Harry replied.

“Is there precedent for this?” Teddy asked him. “Have you ever seen one of these before?” Teddy sure hadn’t.

“Yeah, I’ve come across mimics before” Harry said calmly. “But they’re usually protecting something. Never seen one used as a weapon before.”

“Protecting…” Teddy repeating, considering this. “Like treasure?”

“You thinking of the curse breakers?” Harry asked, following Teddy’s train of thought.

“It’s worth a conversation at least” Teddy shrugged.

“Alright, I’ll put some feelers out” Harry agreed. “You might as well ask James, see if he knows anything about them.” Teddy nodded.

“Alright, that’s the what and the why” he said. “Where are we on who and how? Any thoughts on where this thing came from?”

“Not yet” Harry admitted. The briefing notes had said that the shop owner denied ever having seen it before the day that the ministry retrieved it, but witness reports put the mimic at the scene several days before that. “All I know is that this spell has been out of circulation for several centuries. But the trunk itself isn’t that old, so whoever enchanted it is digging into very old branches of magic.”

“Historians?” Teddy suggested. “Researchers?”

“Best guess, as it stands” Harry agreed. “But that’s not much to go off.”

“Alright” Teddy nodded. “We’ve got some research of our own to do then.”

“And interviews” Harry added. “Someone, somewhere knows something about this.”

“Busy week ahead then” Teddy said, with a smile. He loved getting stuck into a nice big case like this. He glanced to Nick, who had been silent through this whole conversation, watching Harry and Teddy with rapt attention. “You up to the challenge?” Teddy asked him.

“Yes, sir” Nick replied dutifully. Harry laughed.

“I’ll leave you to it then, sir” he said to Teddy, getting up from the chair and heading back out into the corridor. Teddy waited until he had gone before turning to Nick with a bemused expression.

“Don’t call me sir” he said, simply.

-

The rest of the afternoon had been spent working on the new case. Teddy prepped for the interview with the missing woman’s husband, which he would do tomorrow morning. He also took Nick to the Auror library where checked out every book they could find with reference to mimics, which they spent a couple of hours poring over. Before Teddy knew it, his line manager was knocking on his office door telling him that it was 5.30.

“Thought I’d best let you know, because he might keep you here all night if someone doesn’t tell him to go home” Steve addressed Nick.

“New case” Teddy said to Steve by way of response. “Did Harry send you a memo about it?”

“Not yet, no” Steve replied. “But he mentioned it to me at the staff meeting earlier.” Ah, that was why Harry had looked tired. He’d been falling asleep in a meeting.

“It’s a big-un” Teddy told him.

“Doesn’t mean you can ignore child labour laws” Steve shot back, before walking off.

“Ignore him” Teddy told Nick, who was snickering. “He’s not wrong though, I meant to tell you you could go ages ago.”

“Oh, I don’t mind working late” Nick replied.

“I know” Teddy replied kindly. “But your contract hours are only until five, and it’s on my head if they think I’m forcing you to stay too far beyond that.”

“I won’t tell anyone” Nick assured him.

“I appreciate that” Teddy grinned. “But honestly, I’m heading home myself soon. Go on.” He nodded towards the door, and Nick put down the book he was holding and picked up his mug from Teddy’s desk to take back to the kitchen.

“So I’m coming in for nine tomorrow?” Nick checked with Teddy.

“Yeah” Teddy replied. “I’ll already be here by then, so you just come straight to my office.”

“OK” Nick agreed, and then paused by the door for a moment, looking like he wanted to say something. Teddy looked at him expectantly.

“Thank you, for everything” Nick said, looking a little bashful, and once again Teddy fought the urge to laugh, not wanting to seem condescending. “I think you do a really good job. I’m really glad to be learning from you.”

“Thanks” Teddy replied quietly, feeling quite touched by this. “You’re a good student. Seems like you really care.”

“I do.”

“It shows.”

They stared at each other somewhat awkwardly for a moment before Nick broke the silence again.

“Alright, well. See you tomorrow” he said quickly, before leaving. Teddy stared at the door for a minute after he’d gone.

“Good kid” he muttered to himself, smiling.

-

They had leftovers in the fridge for dinner, but Teddy was feeling in a celebratory mood so instead of apparating straight home he made a stop at the pizza shop near the flat and picked up a large one, as well as a case of beers, which he carried back to the flat in high spirits. He hoped that James was home already, so the pizza wouldn’t get cold.

“I come bearing gifts” he trilled, as he entered the flat and saw James sat on the sofa. He planted a quick kiss on the top of his head from behind the sofa as he passed him and continued on to put the pizza down on the table. “How was your day, babe?” he asked. “Because mine was great.”

“Oh yeah?” James replied quietly.

“Yeah” Teddy told him. “My intern is a great kid, it’s going to be fun having him around for the next week. And I got a new case. A nice juicy one, which is amazing after the shit I’ve been working on for the past-“ While he’d been talking Teddy had opened the box and pulled out a couple of beers. He went to hand one to James before he noticed that James wasn’t looking at him, and was staring into space, holding a glass of what looked like whisky in his hand.

“Are you alright?” Teddy asked him, warily, putting the beer he’d been offering to James on the table and twisting his own one open.

“I’ve had a not-so-great day” James told him flatly.

“Work?” Teddy asked seriously. He hoped it was work, and not personal.

“Yeah” James said. He stopped staring into space and gave Teddy a grim smile, before taking a swig of his whisky. “You’d better tell me about your day first though” he said. “Because you probably won’t want to anymore after I tell you about mine.”

“Well I’m not sure I want to now” Teddy frowned, moving around the coffee table to sit next to his boyfriend. “What’s happened?” he asked gently. James snorted at the question.

“Honestly, Ted, I don’t even know where to start” he said, looking down at his glass.

“Beginning is usually the best place” Teddy replied, nudging him in the ribs. “But whatever you’re feeling.” James huffed a small laugh and looked at Teddy. He looked like whatever had happened had put him through the wringer, but he was at least giving Teddy a smile.

“I got suspended” James told him. “That’s the end, not the beginning. Or maybe it’s the middle, I don’t know. But yeah. That’s what happened.”

“What?!” Teddy said, caught completely off guard. “Why?!”

“The short version is I got shafted one too many times on today’s mission and I mouthed off to the wrong person about it” James shrugged.

“And what’s the long version?” Teddy asked incredulously.

“I don’t know if I want to get into it now” James muttered. “I might, in a bit, but… I think I’m still processing. I was fuming when it happened, but now I’m just…” he sighed, looking hopeless.

“Have you talked to Harry about it?” Teddy asked, and James looked surprised by the question.

“What? No” he replied. “It’s not his problem.”

“He’s going to want to make it his problem when he finds out” Teddy told him. “You know that, right?”

“It’s not his department” James said stubbornly. “And I don’t need my dad bailing me out. I’m not even sure I want bailing out.”

“What does THAT mean?” Teddy asked warily.

“What do you think about moving abroad?” James asked, and Teddy was no longer sure that they were even having the same conversation.

“James, what are you talking about” Teddy asked him, now surveying him to work out how drunk he was.

“I know, I know” James replied, running a hand through his hair. “It’s been a bad day and I’m emotional, so now isn’t a good time to make big decisions. But just… hypothetically.”

“Hypothetically?” Teddy asked. “Do I want to move abroad?” James was looking dead serious, and Teddy didn’t know how to answer, other than truthfully.

“No, James” he said simply.

“No?” James asked, looking disappointed.

“No” Teddy repeated seriously. “My job and my family are here. I don’t want to move away.” James sighed at this and looked back down at his drink. Teddy waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t.

“Jamie, you’re going to have to give me more than that” he said gently. “Why are we hypothetically talking about moving abroad?”

James hesitated, opening his mouth to speak but then not actually saying anything a couple of times, as though he knew what he wanted to say but just wasn’t sure if it was good idea or not to actually say it.

“You can tell me anything” Teddy told him. “You know that, right?”

“I don’t know if I have a future here” James blurted out, and Teddy’s shock must have shown on his face because James hastily added “career-wise.”

“Jesus, Jamie, what did you say to them?” Teddy asked. James was talking like he’d just been fired and never had any hope of working for the ministry again.

“It’s not just what I said” James said sounding frustrated, leaning forward to put his glass down on the table and then twisting around in his seat to face Teddy. “The department is run in a very specific way, right. And I just… today I kind of had my eyes opened to some shit. And I was talking to Bill about it and he said it’s never going to change, and that if I can’t deal with that…” he sighed again. “Then working abroad might be my only option.”

“Your only option?” Teddy asked, still not sure he entirely understood what James was talking about.

“There’s no jobs here for what I do, other than Gringotts” James replied miserably.

“And you’re sure you can’t work for Gringotts anymore?” Teddy asked, concerned.

“Bill told me to sleep on it” he shrugged. “He’s probably right.”

“Right…” Teddy agreed, his mind reeling. He stared blankly at James while he reached over to the table again. Teddy thought he was going to pick up his drink, but he pushed it aside, reaching for the pizza box instead. He lifted it open and took out a slice, gesturing for Teddy to do the same, but he was far too distracted now to think about food.

“But you do still have a job, right?” Teddy asked.

“Technically yes” James replied through a mouthful of pizza. “There’ll be a disciplinary hearing at some point, where they decide whether to fire me or not.”

“Do they have grounds to fire you?” Teddy asked, frowning.

“Yes” James replied simply. Teddy again waited for him to explain, starting to get annoyed now when he didn’t.

“Fucking hell, what did you DO?” he demanded. James returned his scowl.

“I told the debrief panel that our team leader fucked up the mission and nearly got us all killed” James said moodily. “Which he did, but I’m not really allowed to say it. And then I insulted the goblins, and I accused a senior director in my department of caring more about the treasure than the lives of his agents. Which is also true, but I’m not allowed to say that, either.”

“You nearly got killed today?” Teddy asked sharply, disregarding the rest of it and scanning James all over now for any sign of injury. “Fucking hell, lead with that next time, would you? Are you alright?”

“I’m alright” James said firmly, putting a hand out to Teddy’s cheek to stop him moving his head around, trying to examine James from all angles. He looked James in the face and saw his expression soften. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have been so dramatic with that phrasing” James added softly. “That is what I said to the panel though. And the other junior agent ISN’T alright, he’s in the hospital.”

“Fuck” Teddy said quietly, and James gave him a small smile.

“He’s going to be alright, but he has a severe concussion” James told him. “I went to see him before I came home. He didn’t remember what had happened.”

Teddy wanted to ask what HAD happened, but he was sick of asking the same question over and over. James clearly didn’t want to re-live it right now.

“The whole thing was just such a fucking mess” James sighed. “Oh, I lost my wand as well” he added that last part as though only just remembering. “Had to floo about all afternoon.”

“You lost your wand?” Teddy repeated. The mission must have gone extremely badly for that to have happened.

“Yup” James grunted. “Probably be about twenty fucking galleons for a new one…” They had the money, that wasn’t really an issue, but Teddy knew that it was the principle of the matter that he was annoyed about.

“You want me to take you to Diagon Alley tomorrow morning, before I head to work?” Teddy asked. “By side-along?”

“No, I have to go into the office anyway” James replied. “I left all my stuff there. Including my wallet.”

“I can get it for you” Teddy offered. “If you’d rather not.”

“Thanks, but that’s alright” James replied, giving him a warm smile. “I need to face up to my boss sooner or later.”

James continued to eat his pizza slice for a moment, before looking back at Teddy with an incredulous expression.

“Stop looking at me like that” he said firmly.

“Like what?” Teddy asked. He wasn’t aware of looking at James in any specific way.

“Like you’re worried about me” James said sternly. “Stop it.”

“Well, I am and I can’t” Teddy told him stubbornly, and James fought back a smile.

“You know I hate it when you look at me like that” he said, trying to keep his serious face on.

“Well, if I didn’t love you so damn much then it might not happen so often” Teddy shrugged. James responded with a deadpan look, that was undermined by the fact that he couldn’t quite supress his grin. He ate his pizza in dignified silence for a moment before replying.

“I love you too” he muttered quietly, and Teddy smiled warmly. They would be alright, he knew. In the end.