I stood in front of the door with my kit in my hand, heart pounding. I
wiped away a bead of sweat with the sleeve of my cloak and took a look
at my opponent. Hendricks stood in front of a similar door with just a
wand in his hand and a cocky sneer spread on his face.
"Okay, you both know the rules," said Auror Captain Johnson as he
looked directly at me, "You are coming to us with a severe handicap, Mr. Rickson. Casting spells is central in our line of
work. But an Auror's job is more than just spell-slinging and high-speed
broom chases. We are officers of the law and you must be able to do
everything an officer of the law must do. If you can prove yourself in
these tests against one of our best Aurors, then we shall consider your
application." He looked to both of us, Hendricks and I, and let loose a
deafening Bang! from his wand. "Begin."
My ears still ringing, I opened the door casually and without
thinking. Almost immediately, a blinding red light filled my vision.
Instinctively, I dropped to the ground and the spell flew wide. I pulled
myself back behind the wall as another Stunning spell flew out from the
room. I snuck a peek at Hendricks who still hadn't opened the door, but
instead was reading the assignment dossier.
"Dammit!" I swore to myself as I mentally kicked myself in the ass. Even if I
needed to beat Hendricks' time, I still needed to complete the task
first, not just charge blindly into the situation.
Unrolling the
parchment, I committed the task to memory before putting it into my kit.
"Your assignment is to break up an illegal gambling den and arrest
everyone in the room. Then proceed to the office and take down the
leader of the gambling den." So much for all that talk about an Auror needing
to do more than spell-sling, I thought to myself, seeing as how this
task was specifically meant for spell-slinging. Even though I'd made it
through Hogwarts, I've never been able to cast a spell. However, it
forced me to study even harder in all of the other classes. And, I
was especially talented in Potions.
But first I needed to know how many suspects were in there. I reached into my
pocket and tossed a tiny glass vial no bigger than my pinky finger high
into the ceiling of the next room. The vial shattered, releasing the
yellow powder stored within. I poked my head into the room just in time
to see one of them take notice of the yellow dust and his eyes widen. MolCarp's
Rave. Just a single speck as big as a grain of salt, when exposed to
open air, had all the lights and sounds of a standard firework. And I'd
just released over 100,000. I ducked back behind the wall while a sun
exploded on the other side.
In the confusion, I peeked inside again to see just 5 men. One orb
should be enough, I thought as I reached into my pocket and grabbed a
glass orb filled with green smoke, Hypnos' Lullabye. I tossed the orb
into the room and listened to it shatter. Even if the orb was no bigger
than a baseball, it was enough gas to take out a dozen men. I waited two
minutes for the gas to dissolve before going in.
The door behind me slammed shut as soon as I entered the room. I ran
to the opposite end of the room to find the other door locked as well.
"Okay, I need to find a way out, " I said to myself as I looked around
the room. I counted five men: four in ordinary black cloaks, but one in
bright purple one. On a hunch, I assumed he might not be a normal
gambler which meant that he might have some answers. Placing my kit on
the only table in the room, I pulled out a vial of Insta-solid and
poured it over the arms and legs of the "suspect." The gray liquid oozed
out and hardened, effectively pinning the man's arms and legs to the
floor. "Just as good as Petrificus Totalus," I said to myself.
Another vial, this one filled with an oily-brown liquid, I poured
down my suspect's mouth before I woke him up with a couple hard slaps.
Before he could speak, I covered his mouth. "As you know, Veritaserum is
very, very regulated by the Ministry. Personally, I would like to have
it on hand for situations like this, but instead I have to make due
with Pinocchio's Curse." I held the vial to his nose and let the
remnants of varnish and donkey fur fill his nose so he knew I wasn't
joking. "You know how this nasty stuff works, so choose your answers
wisely." I removed my hand and asked, "Who are you?"
The Suspect took a deep breath. "I am Auror Stevens," he said.
I sighed. "I meant, who are you in this whole scenario? Are you a
killer? Are you a gambler or do are you an associate of the gambling
boss?"
"Just a gambler," he said. Immediately, his nose doubled in size.
"What the hell, I said that I'm just a gambler." Again his nose size
doubled.
"Okay, so you're obviously not just a gambler so how about you just
tell me how to get through the door? Is there some sort of clue that I
need to find?"
"No there's no way through the door," he said as his nose doubled for a third time.
"Okay, so obviously the clue is in this room," I said, as I grabbed a
vial of sleeping potion and poured it down Steven's mouth, "and you're
not going to help me."
I rummaged through my case until I found the components I needed to
build Dragon's Snot. It was going to take time, but it was the fastest
way I knew. I didn't have time to go searching for clues with Fanigan's Dust. I mashed together the roots and herbs until it formed into a
red paste and smeared it onto the door. Then, I pulled out my lighter
and set it on fire. The paste burned hotter and hotter until it burned
completely through the door.
I counted to two and then peeked around the corner to see a Minotaur
barreling toward me. "Oh, what the fuck!" I shouted as I ducked back
around the corner. It didn't help as the minotaur smashed through the
wall and barrelled into me, sending me sprawling across the floor. I reached into my pockets for a potion only to stab my
hands on broken glass. "Shit!" I swore louder as I tore off my cloak and
tossed it aside, the smashed contents reacting unstably with each
other. I watched as my cloak melted, burned and grew tentacles almost
all at once.
The minotaur charged again, a smile on his face. Luckily,
there was one other trick I had. Concentrating on my form, I imagined a
giant snake, the biggest snake there ever was. And then I was one, a
Basilisk. After all, Animagus are made with potions, too. The minotaur
covered its eyes to avoid my gaze. But with my disability in casting
magic, I couldn't use the Basilisk's paralyzing gaze either. Instead, I
used its error to wrap myself around it and squeeze until it was
unconscious. Then, I turned back and walked out the door.
Hendricks was already waiting for me, as was the rest of the
department, mouths agape. "I take it that Hendricks beat me?" I asked
the captain.
He stood silent for another three seconds before replying, "Yeah,
but, umm, just show up tomorrow anyways. We'll have the Directors take
another look at your application."
So... more fan fiction. Truthfully, I've never written Harry Potter fan fiction before. Yeah, I've thought about it, but this surprisingly makes the first time I've committed it to page. Once again, I got the prompt from Reddit Writing Prompts: Graduating Hogwarts, you apply to become an Auror. Unfortunately in all your years, you could never manage a single wand spell. As a joke, they say beating their best Auror will earn you a place. What they don't know is just how good you are at making magical potions.... Also, if you didn't like this story but still need a Harry Potter fix, I'd like to recommend the other two stories submitted for this prompt, they're really good as well. My guess is that someone was watching the Harry Potter marathon Freeform. Before I begin with my usual critique of my own work, I'd like to say that I don't actually remember if becoming an Animagus required no magic spells. I thought it was just a potion, but it's been years since I've read Prisoner of Azkaban, and no, I'm not going to do research. And I know no one probably picked it up, but my favorite part of this whole thing was the flashbang MolCarp's Rave. A nod to my favorite Supernatural Detective and Urban Fantasy writer Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series: Dresden's apprentice Molly Carpenter's favorite spell basically creates a gigantic rave - flashing lights, blaring music, etc to confuse opponents. Okay, as for the story itself, I did have bigger ideas for it, but I was writing it around midnight and was already struggling to stay awake. For a guy whose read all of The Dresden Files books, all of the Greywalker books, all of the Nightside series books, watched many Supernatural episodes, all the Yuyu Hakusho episodes, and the short-lived Constantine TV show, I really should be a lot better at writing this kind of story and character. I really meant to have Rickson solve some sort of puzzle to get out of the room, but I just couldn't think of one. Once again, I'm gonna blame the time I was writing at. This idea of a Supernatural Detective without magical powers was a pretty interesting concept and I think I might continue it further, though outside the realm of Harry Potter. As for why this is probably going to be my only post this month, I've actually written a couple others (as well as trashed a couple other ones) but was just too lazy to give them their own post.
