The Dangers (Brandon & Haley)

Brandon had a new traineé from Hogwarts, and he hadn't had someone from Hogwarts in almost two years now. This one was very keen it seemed, she wasn't even in her seventh year and she was already applying for the traineeship. They were here to do for her to sign the papers to say that anything that happened to her during the training was not the ministry's fault and she could back out of the traineeship at any time she found it to difficult.

Being an auror was NOT a career path - it was a way of life and the training to become one wasn't fun. It was getting up at 5am every morning and doing laps of the school that the student went to, then doing rigorous fighting exercises. These were all necessary to help build the students muscular weight and to teach them how to fight without the use of a wand. One did not always have a wand at handy.

He sat in his office and awaited the arrival of Miss Haley Smith, orphan. She better be a tough nut - though he wasn't sure if she would be really. She was a Hufflepuff and they were typically known to be mild-mannered, but sometimes people could grow out of their houses at Hogwarts.

Haley woke that day with the feeling that everything would change. She would start her life now. She would finally do something to be able to defeat the woman that killed her parents. She would finally be able to protect Britain from the Rebels, even though they were gone for the time being. Nothing was set in stone, rebellions could always return. And even the tainted relationship between Germany and Britain could crack at any given moment.

She quickly took on a pair of denim trousers and a white shirt and walked over to the fireplace the students were allowed to use when they were to travel by floo powder. She took a handful of the green dust and threw it into the fire. "The Ministry for Magic," she said firmly, her voice steady. She then stepped into the fire and the spinning began. Having traveled by floo powder before, she knew this and had closed her eyes, her mouth and jammed her elbows in the side of the fireplaces she swung by.

When the spinning finally stopped, she walked out of the fireplace and found herself in a huge room with a ton of people. She got herself through it and found the reception, asking for the auror's division. She was quickly given the directions and got there quicker than she had expected. She took a deep breath. This was it. Now or never. She nodded to herself and knocked on the door, her chin held high, her eyes calm.

Brandon ran his eyes over the file that he had collected on Miss Haley Vilde Smith. She was without parents, an orphan, her mother and father both murdered. She was very intelligent and excelled in a majority of her subjects. Her teacher's had nothing but good things to say about her, which was why he'd approved her application to become an auror. She was explained to be a tough nut and to not show she was under stress when piled with homework like the other students.

This was a good thing and he hoped that she could apply this to all area's of her life. Slowly lifting his eyes as there was a knock on the door he smiled to himself and then put on his business face for show. He had no pictures of the girl so he was curious to see what she looked like - to judge her physical state. If she was a scrawny little thing he'd have his work cut out for him and he always hated spending the years training them just to get to a healthy, well-built state.

"Enter." He called out, and once Haley had entered the room he studied her carefully, his eyes running up and down her body. She was dressed well, immaculate. He couldn't help but smile slightly as he saw she was wearing trousers. Girly girls wouldn't do here, either. He judged that her physical state was perfect, a little more muscle developing and then they could just work on her stamina and speed. His eyes moved to her face and were drawn to her sparkling blue eyes filled with raw determination. Her nose was perfectly sculpted, her skin a sun-kissed colour with perfectly proportioned cheekbones and thin eyebrows. Her jaw line looked as if the Gods had spent hours carving it themselves and her hair was possibly the most eye-capturing feature she held. Long, red waves that cascaded down her back like a fiery red ocean, burning bright. They looked so silky and soft that he found himself attracted to the girl. He blinked but showed none of his attraction to her on his face as he motioned to the seat in front of his desk. "Have a seat, Miss Smith."

When Haley heard someone say 'enter', she took a small second to wonder who she'd have as a mentor, if it would be an old man who was sickeningly stern or sexist, thinking that since she was a girl, she couldn't do the job, or if the person would be too slack and just say that 'yeah, that's enough training for today, let's go eat something'. She surely hoped not. She was here to work harder, even though she already did work really hard. Nothing was enough, so this traineeship had better work.

She then twisted the doorknob and entered the room, and in the next second, she took in the office, how it looked, where the desk was located and who sat behind the desk. She rose her eyebrows slightly when she saw that the guy behind the desk couldn't be older than twenty-five, if even that. She noticed how his eyes studied her, figuring he was deducing who he'd be working with, just like she was.

His muscles, which were easily detectable through his shirt, told her that he didn't slack off. The way he looked so calmly at her told her that he didn't let others slack off. His posture by the desk told her he would train her to become more than just stronger; she knew, instantly, that just by looking at him, he would make her become an auror. And a bloody brilliant one.

Then, when she decided she was content with that, she noticed his muscles all over again, his piercing blue-greenish eyes, enhanced by his masculine eyebrows, his full lips, his stubbed chin. She suddenly wanted to test his abs out as well. She felt it get a bit hotter and thankfully managed to get herself together when he told her to sit down. Aaaaand his voice... Of course it has to be the voice of a Heathen God, she thought irritably. She walked over, deciding to put everything with looks and sounds to the back of her brains and think about that when she was done.

She sat down calmly, like she always did, glad that she wasn't one of the girls who straightened sickly up and did everything is a gracious way. Honestly, that took too much work to even think about for Haley. She gave a smile to him, a professional one, not one of those 'ah-gawd-you're-so-hot-and-I-want-you' smiles, but the 'I'm-here-to-get-stronger-so-you-better-give-me-something-to-work-with'. "Mr. Reynolds, then?" she said kindly, "Thanks for accepting my traineeship."

Despite his obvious attraction the redhead, he drew his mind away from those highly inappropriate thoughts and instead studied her as he should be - to see if she was as scrawny as most girls were when they applied for this job. This was not to say that Brandon generalised, nor was he sexist but a lot of the girls seemed to either be desperate for the job or just trying out to prove that girl weren't weak and pathetic.

Of course, the latter of the two groups that girls normally came in weren't exactly intelligent, for by half-heartedly trying to be an auror to prove they were strong, they normally just proved the opposite and they bailed once their male friend who had been teasing them gave up and admitted to their strength. He was often irritated with those girls for wasting his time.

Naturally, men were often the same. They thought that because of their gender they were big and tough and this was not always the case. But Haley? She had a strong, athletic, sturdy build that also looked flexible and though she was average height she was a little closer to small than she was tall meaning she could slide into small spaces too. She was basically the perfect build, they'd just need to work on her stamina, speed and endurance.

Her voice was soft like silk and sweet like honey. Damnit! Why was he given the most attractive woman who applied for the job? He'd SEEN the other girl who applied and she wasn't the prettiest thing to look at. But she also looked nerdy so he was glad to have Haley instead. Her smile could melt the heart of any man - and that could come in handy. "Please, Haley, call me Brandon. We're going to be working with each other constantly for the next few years and you might be partnered with me after your training so we should at least be on first name basis." He responded with a smile of his own.

"I must say that your application gave me high hopes and it is good to see that so far you haven't let me down. You have the perfect build, Haley, which is a definite plus. I've called you here today to go over the dangers of this job with you. Being an auror is not just a job, it's a way of life. Many do not make it past the first few weeks of training, and there is no guarantee that you won't be injured in the training sessions. We are trying to prepare you for how gruelling it is out there. You can back out now if need be and this won't affect you negatively in future jobs."

Haley continued to smile when he told her to call him Brandon. Such a nice name. Maybe, if what he said about being partners, came true, she'd start calling him 'Bran'. The thought of him being her partner, though. That had sent shivers down her spine, and she stepped on herself for it, very discreetly of course. She wasn't here to fantasize about her trainer, she was here to get stronger. Of course, that actually might be a good thing if she liked him a bit. It might push her to becoming even better than she would've if not.

Maybe feelings weren't totally useless after all. And when he then said she had a perfect build, she bit the inside of her cheek not to blush, something that might have been visible, the bite, not the blush. But she felt almost insulted when he told her that she could leave. She had written the application herself, not letting anyone tell her what to write (not that anyone had been there for her so she could write it). She had made bloody sure her feelings were clear on the aspect of how she'd put herself in danger, get hurt, possibly even killed. That didn't matter. She either had to get stronger, or nothing mattered at all.

"I know," she said in a kind voice nonetheless, "But I'm not here to simply get stronger. And though I've never been at a battlefield, I think I've taken a big bite out of the sour apple. I know what pain is, I know what hate is, and I sure know what death is. I'm not here to prove to myself that I can be stronger, or to simply become an auror. I am here to become stronger, be stronger, be an auror and fight to the bitter end for a world better than what the world has become now."

With not only a past war, rebellions or the like, but also the disease that had set loose, it was clear to Haley that someone had to take action. She couldn't do it by herself, but she'd be damned if she stayed one of the people who told themselves that alone she couldn't make a difference. Alone, she couldn't. But if everyone thought like that, there wouldn't even be the single person trying and the world would go to pot.