Taste of Youth

When I was told that I would be seeing the Head of the Auror Healer department before school, I had no idea they meant it quite literally. School was going to start in three hours and I was sitting at a coffee shop miles from Hogwarts.The woman who sat in front of me sipped casually at her espresso double shot watching me over the rim of her cup. Years of being in a psychiatrists office told me that while she sipped her coffee she was sizing me up, dissecting every movement and every breath. That shouldn’t have made me nervous, since I had been through it and more, but it did. She didn’t tell me her name, only greeted me when I walked in to the coffee shop and told me she was the Head of her department.

I was biting at my cheek, my hands shaking so bad my coffee nearly slopped over my egg sandwich. I refocused letting my thoughts travel around the room, taking in the heavy mouthwatering scent of coffee and the chatter of people coming in and out of the door, the ding of the bell going off after every few seconds. The coffee was amazing and the food was good enough to stomach after the coffee burned your taste buds. It was the kind of place my brother would have loved. There were window seats to our right a bunch of bar stools, the windows and the faint lights behind the counter the only sources of light around. It was the kind of place Leon would have loved, he’d have sat on one of the ratty barstools in front of the windows and invented stories for each passerby

“I knew your brother.”

The sound of the Head’s voice catches me off guard, I turn to quickly and my coffee spills over the edge and onto the sleeve of my school shirt.

“I beg your pardon?” I took the napkin she offered and wiped at my sleeve warily.

“I knew Leon, your brother.” Her Scottish accent nearly made it hard to understand her.

I set my elbows on the table and linked my fingers together, “When he worked as an Auror?”

“Yes. He was one of the best, his name was mentioned in every offshoot of the department. People adored him.” Her dark eyes never wavered and I realized what she was doing.

She wasn’t only sizing me up; she was comparing me, she was trying to figure out what strings I had pulled for this.

“And you want to know if I used my brothers ‘fame’ to get this meeting. You want to know if I’m going to be like my brother or if I’m going to be completely incompetent.” I leaned away from the table and matched her body language.

“You’re smart, both book smart and intuitive, but that’s not going to cut it in this field.”

My eyes narrowed, “I never believed it would.”

“Did you know that your brother is being investigated for being part of a murderers organization?” She looked so calm saying that and it pissed me off more than the investigation did.

“With all due respect,” I ground out, “that has nothing to do with this meeting.”

“With all due respect, it does.” There was a flash in her eyes anger it looked like, “If your brother was part of that organization it changes your state of mind.”

“I wasn’t aware that being a Healer made you a psychiatrist.”I hissed at her.

“You see a lot of things on this job, Ms.Rein.” She dead panned the anger in her eyes brewing.

“And that doesn’t make you a psychiatrist either. My brother was a person who died protecting the people that the organization he is accused of being a part of murder on a daily basis. And this meeting is not about my brother or his possible affiliations. This meeting is for you to decide whether I should pursue this line of work so I can complete the correct courses and any extra training that might be needed.”

“The accusation seems to upset you.” She replied.

“Do your job.” I growled at her, “I have school to be at in an hour and a half.”

Amusement flickered across her features, “You’re not nearly as easy to push around as your brother. He’d have tried to rip my throat out if I had been talking about you like this.”

“I feel like I shouldn’t take that as a compliment.” I showed her my teeth, “I wouldn’t count on the self control for much longer either.”

“I can put you in hold up for that you know.”

“Go ahead and try.”

“Do you have a problem with authority, Ms.Rein?”

“I take it that you failed your course on interrogation.”

“That’s quite a tongue you have on and here you look like such sweet gal.”

“So I’m told.”

She smiled outright and leaned toward me, “Lena.”

“I take it that’s supposed to mean something to me.”

“It’s my name.” Lena said in a manner that told me she didn’t take well to my attitude.

“Okay.”

She snorted and tossed herself back into her seat, “You’re a brat.”

“Only to people whose first insult my family before they give their name.”

“Okay, I deserved that.” She turned her head toward me, “It’s part of the check.”

“A hazing is part of the check?” I crossed my arms.

Lena put up her hands, “I know but you are to put it nicely, you’re brother makes you suspicious.”

“Okay, I get it but I do have school in a little over half an hour.” I motioned to the small hovering clock above the cashier.

She smiled and conjured a notepad and a pen, “Twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday, you can Floo into my office at nine and I’ll take you to the training grounds. Under no circumstances are you to be even a second late. Understand?”

I nodded and she sighed frowning deeply, “This isn’t normal, Rein.”

“What’s not normal?”

“This meeting, putting you through training now. Everything. You’re schooling is insane, there isn’t a wizard alive that is capable of learning as much as you did in the small amount of time that you had. It’s not normal at all but your brother’s schooling and employment was not normal either. One has to wonder how this came about.”

I uncrossed my arms and sighed, “I don’t know, Lena. I was contacted by the Headmaster and he knew my brother, that’s how I got into Hogwarts. As for this job, I have no idea. I was told that my wand was a Healers wand. It got me curious so I asked Poppy Pomfrey, the school nurse for lack of a better term, to teach me. Professor Cormack had talked about branches of the Auror department and that is what lead me to this. Dumbledore set this up too. I don’t have anything else to enlighten you on.”

Lena nodded slowly and glanced at the clock, “It’s time to get you back then. Will Apparating you to the front gates be alright?”