"Sir, you don't understand, this is important!" The man insisted, a stack of papers were clutched in his hands and his countenance was contoured to display his obvious frustration.

"Not, now Kirkland." Answered Gawain Robards, the head auror of the Ministry of Magic, and the same man who had the pleasure of being Arthur Kirkland's boss. Said wizard huffed angrily. He was used to being treated like a stepping stool too the other auror's, despite his pureblood heritage and hard work.

He sidestepped a witch scurrying past with a large stack of papers and pushed himself up to Robards' side. "You don't understand, this particular group has a long and profound history of smuggling dangerous and illegal creatures and objects between Britain and Russia, just under the ministry's nose. Not to mention twice they have illegally obliterated a muggle and their is one failed attempt at unprovoked manslaughter-"

"Yes, yes. When will you stop presenting me with false information and give me a real problem?" Robards shot icily, eyes narrowing at the younger wizard.

Arthur sputtered. Not a real problem? Just what other problems did the ministry have to deal with? The last big thing had been twenty years ago at the battle of Hogwarts, and where was the ministry then? As far as Arthur knew their biggest problem at the moment was a sudden influx in mandrake sales.

"Sir," he managed, "I would never dare present you with something false or irrelevant."

"Please, Kirkland." The tall man turned around, and this time Arthur didn't try to follow him. "Take a look at all the other reports you've presented to me." He smiled cooly. "I do not appreciate liars."

Robards very nearly disappeared round the nearest corner. Memories flashed before Arthur's eyes like one of those muggle films. He was reminded as to how he so typically was treated as only an errand boy, despite his title claiming him to be an auror. He'd worked just as hard as all the others, and he was a very powerful wizard, if he dare say it.

Taking a brave step forward he called out, his voice much steadier than he felt, "Three days!"

The auror stopped and turned, his countenance a mixture of confusion and amusement. "What?"

"If you give me three days to track down the group and return them to you with evidence," what was he even saying? He was most certainly about to be fired. "you have to acknowledge me as a real auror."

Robards raised an impressed eyebrow, spinning the idea in his mind carefully. "And if you don't?"

He gulped, obstinately keeping his green eyes trained to Robards deep brown. "You can fire me."

The head auror nodded thoughtfully, a twisted smile taking form. "You're a bold one. Stupid as well. Sure you weren't in Gryffindor?"

Arthur pushed down the anger and hopefulness blooming once in his gut. He'd never sunk so low before. Pride never called for it. But he was given a chance and he was not about to waste it.

"Slytherin, sir." he replied, not bothering to hide the forced pleasantries in his voice.

"Alright, Kirkland." he held out his hand and Arthur clasped it in his own. "You have a deal. Three days from now I expect you to have something to show me." Their hands fell, and Robards adjusted a few dials on his watch. "I'll be counting."

Arthur held his head high, watching as his boss disappeared behind a corner and let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding in.

There was a single thought radiating through Arthur's mind, loud and alone, it was plain and clear and entirely fitting for the present situation:

What have I done.

He'd packed away everything in his cramped office that he could think to bring case files, maps, a sneakoscope, omnioculars, documents, exploding drops, and auror tools he'd never really had a reason to use until now.

He slung his bag over his shoulder, hand hovering just above the door handle when he suddenly came to the realization that he had absolutely no idea what he was about to do nor any sort of plan. Sighing, he sat back down and began to carefully, but hurriedly, flip through the files and documents on the mysterious group.

They called themselves the Kontrabanda which quite roughly translated to "smugglers" in english. How fitting. Arthur was trying to get a grip on how many members were in the group, but could only come up with a brief estimate of around 13, but he had a good guess that there were many more than that.

Skimming through a document he stopped at a picture that appeared to be grainy security footage taken from a muggle wearhouse, just outside London. He could see members of the group loading packages and covered krates into enchanted trucks. Arthur tapped the picture with his wand, and watched as a single label shone out above the others, Transport Farm.

It didn't take long for Arthur to find an address before he apparated, conveniently right in front of the seemingly abandoned warehouse in east London.

One of the windows was cracked open, and all of them seemed to be covered by thick, black drapes from inside. The bricks on the outside were slightly stained, and a rusty drainage pipe leaked along the side, where a stray cat sipped at the puddle of water pooled under it.

Arthur took a few steps and found himself in front of one of the shabby garage doors. Carefully, he slipped his fingers underneath the crease, cringing when he felt his hand meet something sticky, and pulled.

After a few attempts his arms felt strained, and he'd barely lifted the door. Cursing, he realized he was gonna have to find another way in, he couldn't risk being seen with magic, even here.

"Need a hand?"

Arthur jumped, his hand snapping towards automatically his pocket. He stopped when he saw the man was merely a curious muggle. Sighing, he let his hand drop from his pocket. "No, thank you." He replied, and just to show he could, he went back to the door and tried once again to lift it.

Suddenly, it felt miraculously lighter and Arthur grinned as it was pushed high enough for a man to slip under. His grin fell when he looked to his left to find the muggle there, who nodded his head inside.

Arthur glared, but stepped inside anyways. The odd stranger followed him, and the garage door fell with a mighty crack, Arthur flinched at the noise and the dust it kicked up, the crack echoing through the empty warehouse before settling into a nearly eery silence.

"You're welcome." He turned to face the muggle, who was staring at him with startling blue eyes. The stranger was taller than himself, with a stronger build and corn-flour hair that shone in the stale rays of sunlight wafting through the blocked windows.

He ignored him, and quickly began in inspection. His hand itched back to his wand, he'd be in and out of here if he could only use it, but he managed to refrain himself. His feet crunched under discarded wrappers and dust. He could hear the muggle taking tentative steps around the large room as well.

"Hey," the man said, "would you look at that?"

Arthur whipped around to find the other holding up an impressively large feather, the color of flames. It glinted and caught the waves of light, sending orange shards dancing along the walls. He recognized it immediately.

"Phoenix feather." he breathed as he came to stand next to the muggle, gingerly taking it in his hands.

"Sorry, but phoniex feather? They don't exist. It's probably just a parrot or something-"

Arthur cursed, but carefully tucked the feather away. "Ah, yes my mistake." he replied, turning away. His senses seemed heightened all of a sudden. The feather had lifted his spirits, it meant he was on the right track.

A few minutes later Arthur had failed to find anything else hiding in the large room, he'd nearly forgotten the muggle was there he was so caught up when he spoke again, "I'm Alfred."

"Excuse me?"

"Alfred." he repeated. "Jones? It's my name."

"I think I can tell a name when I hear it." he remarked, turning to look at Alfred. "I'm Arthur. Afraid I can't tell you my last name." It was true. Odd ministry rules.

Alfred shifted uncomfortably, dirt crunching under his shoes. "Haha, alright." he paused for a moment before finding his voice once again. "I'm sorry, but why are you in here in the first place? It's sort of a dump."

Before Arthur could come up with some witty response to dodge the question, a clang echoed from somewhere above the duo. It sounded like metal on metal, and both men froze.

"It was probably just some old plumbing." Alfred said weekly, "If you don't mind I'm gonna go, I've got something with work I'm supposed to be at at noon." He got exactly three steps before Arthur tackled him, just as a sharp blast of green light exploded where Alfred had previously been standing.

"What the fuck?"

Arthur was off him in a moment, whipping his wand out of his pocket, he shot out an equally as damaging spell. It was useless, he wasn't even sure who he was firing at.

He climbed a rusty set of stairs, cursing slightly when he heard the confused muggle's steps behind him. Poor guy would probably need to be oblivated once this was all over.

Arthur's form was rigid as he approached the second landing. He stopped when his eyes fell on a witch, her eyes were the color of lilac but they screamed in a cold fiery. Silvery hair whipped around her shoulders, and a black lolita dress hung on her thin form.

Perhaps the only thing that scared Arthur more than the witch, was the creature in the cage her wand was currently pointed at.

He immediately recognized it as a wampus, which was one of the four beasts of Ilvermorny. Normally the cat was proud and majestic, but now it sat crouched and snarling in a cage much too small for the beast. It's irate yellow eyes bore into Arthur and he felt the sudden need to open the cage and free the depraved beast.

The witch snapped him out of it when words tumbled out of her mouth, coated in an accent Arthur couldn't quite place, "You turn and leave." She glanced back at Alfred. "Take the muggle with you."

"Excuse me, what did you just call me?" Alfred implored.

They both ignored him as Arthur whipped out his ministry badge. "Look Love," he said calmly I'm afraid I'm going to have to arrest you, smuggling a Wampus is a strict personal offense-"

"You." she said icily. "Are stupid."

Before Arthur could react the cage flew open, and the Wampus bounded out, six strong legs and balanced tail propelled the cat forward as it leaped right at Alfred, the muggle's face became a mixture of horror and fascination before Arthur screamed a curse and the cat stopped midair, giving Alfred a moment to back away.

His attention was pulled back towards the witch, who appeared to be trying to gather up crates and boxes of animals and objects. There was no way she could leave without it, but no way she could disapparate with all of it either. Arthur fired another curse at the witch, and the crates and boxes hung over her head. Her gaze whipped over, and she fired her own spell, this one hitting Arthur square in the chest.

He felt a burst of pain as he slammed into the brick building, the breath fell from his chest and for a horrifying moment he was unable to move, their was only pain and the sound of a cat snarling, and a confused american accent calling his name.

It was the call, not the cat lunging towards him that snapped Arthur from his brief state of shock. He ducked away just in time to avoid the beast barreling into the wall, where he'd been crouched moments before.

Strong arms lifted him up and Arthur saw the muggle desperately trying to move him. He felt his leaden legs begin to return and he kicked at the ground before finding his footing, taking a vast amount of weight off the muggle.

The witch was gone, and so were the crates and trunks of illegal items. The Wampus seemed to be caught in some sort of odd state between high and blacked out. Arthur managed to grab his wand and fire a final stunning curse, the giant cat fell to the floor with a resonating thud.

The only sounds were the gasps of breath between the two men and the distant hum of traffic from outside. It seemed to take each of them a moment before they were able to find their voice.

Alfred spoke first, a confused and muddled declaration of "Holy cow."

Arthur turned and gave the muggle an odd look. "Please do not tell me that after having to fend off a Wampus, I will not also have to deal with a holy cow."

Alfred returned the odd and confused countenance. "Dude, it's an expression." he explained. "And what is a "Wampus" and who was that weird lady, and why are you shooting shit out of a stick?"

Arthur sighed, returning his wand to his coat pocket, barely sparing the bewildered american a second glance. "I'm sorry to part from you like this but I'm on a horribly tight schedule and the sooner we can obliviate you the better-"

Alfred's face melted from baffled to horrified and defensive. He took a few steps back from Arthur. "You're going to do what to me?"

"Wipe your memories of course, you can carry on with your life like none of this ever happened." The wizard explained.

But Alfred vigorously shook his head. "You're not gonna mess with my memories, and I don't want to forget what just happened. I have a feeling you're in some deep shit right now and I've never been one to abandon someone in need."

Arthur glared at the muggle. "I'm going to obliviate you, nor do I need your help. It would be best if you just sat still Mr. Jones and we'll both be on our way."

Alfred planted his feet firmly into the ground and gave one, clear command. "No."

"No?" He echoed.

"I forbid you." He said. Arthur was just about to tell him that he really was in no position to forbid Arthur from anything, when Alfred kept going. "Besides, you owe me for saving you back there."

Arthur fell silent. As much as he wanted to prove the muggle wrong, he knew he couldn't and the man had made a valid point. In many ways he knew that he now owed this total stranger now. He cursed the man for not being as dense as he first let on.

It was pride above anything that kept him from obliviating him right there. He knew he wouldn't be able to live with himself knowing if he never paid the man back.

He turned to find a smirk had taken over Alfred's face. They both knew he was right, and it seemed as it the muggle was not about to let Arthur live it down.

"Alright." He managed to ground out. "You can help me on one condition."

Alfred nodded eagerly, the smirk changing into a beaming smile that Arthur knew women probably found irresistible. "You do exactly as I tell you and you don't get in the way."

"Seems simple enough." Alfred agreed before he suddenly thrust out his hand. Arthur stared at it for a good moment before realizing Alfred wanted to shake on it. He shook, knowing know that there really was no going back. It may not be an unbreakable vow, but he wasn't about to inflict that on not only a muggle, but somehow he'd just met.

An:/ This is my first story posted here on ff. I've read quite a few fanfictions on here, many were amazing. I decided to give a crack at writing my own. I'm excited to see where this story goes and I hope you say the same. Also, criticism is welcome! I'm always open to suggestions.