Chapter 1

Rose stood still, as she propped herself against the brick wall that belonged to the abandoned warehouse, occasionally peeping her head up to see the cars as they buzzed by on the busy New York street.

It was always the moment before a big catch that was the most exciting for Rose, the pace of her heart racing her palms sweaty, the pure adrenalin that came from it. Rose breathed as she looked to her left, noticing as the brown haired man, Matt Carter, was crouched down behind several large trash cans peering through a slight gap between two. He watched while Don Fletcher innocently talked to a young muggle man who had been in the back of the warehouse waiting for Fletcher's shipment to arrive, needless to say the muggle was under the power of the imperious curse. Focusing his eyes back to Rose, he stared as she raised her fingers to her swoop some of her red bangs to the side, indicating that it was almost time.

Rose and Matt had been on Don Fletcher's trail close to four months now, they knew that he was a dark wizard but he was smart. He used muggles to do his dirty work, because to him they were invaluable and rarely traced by the ministry. The auror department knew that he was guilty, but they had to catch him in possession of the dark artifacts before they could take him into custody, something which was proving impossible to do.

That was until six weeks ago when Rose was caught following Fletcher by one of his minions. Rose was sure that they were busted, but in a stroke of genius she was able to convince the man that she was following Fletcher because she knew how to help him avoid the Ministry, saying that she had a brother who worked as an auror and could easily get information from. If Fletcher seemed suspicious at first he hide it well, and it was only a matter of weeks that Rose provided loads of tainted information from the ministry about the time and locations of shipments. Proving herself to be one of Fletchers most valuable minions working her way up the Dark Wizard food chain.

All was good, except for Rose, who was seriously starting to miss the warm comfy feeling of her own bed at night, had been forced to stay at Fletcher's home all the time.

Rose looked to the side again watching as the muggle man walked out of the ally with a confused look on his face. She carefully followed her eyes to the general direction of Matt, giving the slightest raise of eyebrow, indicating that he should get ready to run.

Until now Fletcher had sent only his men to retrieve the artifacts, not actually being there himself. However with the security that Rose had intentionally lead Fletcher to feel, his mind began to become a little full of himself, believing that he was untouchable. That was when Rose decided to make her move. She had convinced him that a shipment was coming in today that contained artifacts so valuable that he couldn't risk the chance of one of his men becoming a little too greedy.

She knew that she was probably flicking the wand a little too soon, but she wasn't sure how much longer she could hold out before he started to question her feelings in the relationship. Fletcher couldn't have been more than twenty eight, and he wasn't ugly, Rose already knew that he was curious as to why she would only let him kiss her on the cheek or why she insisted that she sleep on the couch, she played innocence well, but innocence could only take her so far.

"Carrie," she heard the man say, looking up to the fake name she smiled.

"Is it as good as I said it would be?" she asked in a fake American accent.

Fletcher ran to her and picking her up and swinging her around "So much better," he said holding her tight. Rose looked at Matt with annoyed eyes nodding her head now.

Quickly Rose raised her knee in between Fletcher's groin, causing him to drop her, turning around with a shocked look on his face, he saw as Matt came running toward them his wand out and armed. Raising his hand quickly Fletcher flung the trash cans in front of Matt's path turning on Rose.

Rose had her own wand in a fighting stance, as she gave an evil smirk, flicking her wrist, and watching as green spark shot towards the man, in attempt to knock him out. Ducking, Fletcher pulled out a large black rock letting drop to the ground and zapping it with his wand. A thick cloud of acid smoke began to fill the air. Rose and Matt quickly held their breath as Fletcher began swing his wand into any direction. The ground was starting to shake as large amounts of cement came flying off the building, and crashing to the ground.

Pushing through the dark mass, Matt grabbed Roses arm tugging her to follow him, sensing that Fletcher wasn't one to actually fight, but to run. There was a sliver of a second where they saw Fletcher turn the corner out of the ally, running directly onto the main side walk.

Chasing after him they had to be careful, they rushed past muggles who had confused and annoyed looks on their faces. Matt noticing that Fletcher was gripping his rather wand tightly to his side, "I think he's going to apparate," Matt said quickly getting his own wand ready.

"Matt," Rose said sternly, attempting to remind him that there were a ton of muggles around.

But it did little good, because the second that Fletcher apparated Matt looked up to the flash of light, that came from the fourth story window of another warehouse. Quickly Matt waved his exposed wand to follow Fletcher's trail.

Rose stood still, examining the horrified looks on the muggle's faces. Giving, what could only be considered an extremely awkward smile she slipped behind the building as discreetly as possible. Pulling down the fire escape ladder and starting to climb, her wand clamped between her teeth.

Blasting the lock off of the security panel door, Matt and Fletcher were already in a knockdown, drag out fight. Matt, whose nose was slightly tilted in an awkward direction, had Fletcher's head in his arms, squeezing it tightly so that Fletcher's face was the shade of her old school colors.

Fletcher weakly held onto his wand shaking it so a large net came flying out, entangling Matt. Fletcher must not have noticed Rose because the second that Matt's choke hole was lifted, he darted straight for the door.

Rose ran taking a large leap as she clung onto Fletchers back jabbing a finger in to his eye.

He began to shake wildly, forcing Rose to grasp on tighter. She felt Fletcher start to spin, slamming her against the wall, forcing the back of her head to smack the bricks hard enough to make a cracking sound, so sickening that it almost caused Rose to scream. Fletcher pushed the weight of his body against her, feeling as the abnormal strength in her arms was starting to weaken, and knock the breath out of her, but she refused to let go.

Matt finally free from the enchanted net, raised his wand watching as a large ball came speeding toward Fletcher, hitting him directly in the stomach forcing him to fall to his knees in pain.

Rose breathed deeply, rubbing her ribs noting the broken one on the left side. She hadn't expected for Fletcher to be such a challenge. Closing her eyes, she knew that Fletcher wasn't going anywhere from the strength of Matt's blaster curse.

"You alright?" Matt asked as he bent over Fletcher confiscating his wand and tightening the charmed handcuffs around his wrist, rendering the man powerless.

"I'm fine," Rose gasped opening her eyes, "What would make you think that I wasn't?"

"Well you are bleeding," Matt stated loudly.

Rose straightened her posture, her body rigid, almost a hundred percent certain that she knew where the blood was coming from. Slowly she raised her fingers to back of her head, feeling through the sticky strands of hair, where the warm blood was seeping out of the two folds of the scar she had gotten eight years ago.

Bringing her fingers down, she looked at the bright red blood staining the tips, raising her eye at Matt she asked "He's cuffed right?"

"Yeah, why?" Matt asked more concerned for Rose's health than Fletcher's ability to escape.

"No reason," Rose said sweetly, walking over to Fletcher and proceeding to kick him repeatedly in the stomach.

"That" she yelled "is for making me bleed." She watched as the man huddled over in more pain. Kicking him one more time in the gut, he groaned "And that's for reminding me of how I got that scar!"

"You bitch," Fletcher spat.

"I've been called worse." Rose stated tugging on the man to stand up, so they could take him to the auror office.

Matt looked at her "Everything good?"

"Everything's brilliant." She stated, leaving out the fact that the only times that scar bled, meant that her life was about to spin out of control.

Rose stared at the wall, just a few more seconds, she thought as the beads of sweat pooled on her forehead. She continued to run her eyes fixed directly on the wall, where a picture of her parent's sat neatly in a frame.

She looked down at the stop watch on her tread mill, the numbers slowly counting down, from five, to four, to three, to two, and finally to one. Ripping the safety cored out of its location she felt the treadmill slow and her body along with it. Taking deep breaths, she pulled the towel off the handle bar and began to blot herself with it.

Hopping off of the machine, she opened the bedroom door to her New York apartment. Walking to her kitchen she went to the refrigerator door, glancing around in it, making a mental note of the single egg, the bottle of water, and the carton of milk that was about a quarter full. In fact the more she thought about it she wasn't entirely sure how the egg got into her fridge, because eggs required cooking and she wouldn't have been senseless enough to buy something that actually needed cooking.

Grabbing the bottle of water, Rose slowly shut the door, only to be scared half to death by the figure that was standing on the other side of it. "Damn it Matt," She said to the tall man, who had a playful smirk on his face, only wearing the jeans that he had on last night, showing off his masculine build as he laughed.

"That's not funny." She said slapping the side of his arm, then walking around him to take a seat at the breakfast bar.

"I thought it was pretty funny," he mumbled, opening the fridge and grabbing the carton of milk.

"You know I'm going to start charging you rent if you keep staying over here like this," Matt laughed again louder, as he pulled out a bowl and some cereal from the pantry.

"You wouldn't do that to me," he said innocently. "I'm your partner."

"Better reason to," she said crossing her arms, "After the hell you put me through yesterday, I should charge you double."

Picking up his bowl of cereal he walked to the breakfast bar leaning his elbows on it facing Rose "I have saved your skinny little ass on several occasions,"

Rose rolled her eyes taking another sip of water, still not entirely forgiving "Yeah but you screwed up yesterday and now I have to spend my morning, with you, getting lectured by Cornell."

"If I hadn't apparated then that scumbag of a dark wizard would have gotten away, I didn't have a choice." Matt said defensively.

"I know, and let's just hope that Cornell will be willing to understand."

"There weren't that many muggles around,"

"Five is enough." Rose argued laying her towel on the bar.

Matt opened his mouth to take another large bite of cereal "Speaking of partners, you never finished telling me how you got that massive cut on your head."

"It's nothing," Rose said slowly, instinctively raising her hand to the tender area of skin. "I promise."

Matt was about to say something when, "Has any one seen my…" a female voice trailed off "Never mind I found it." The girl walked into the kitchen wearing what looked to be the shirt that Matt had on last night, along with a pair of shorts. "Good morning," she said brightly flipping her bright blond hair out of her face.

"Carla, seriously making me see him every day during work isn't enough, now you're forcing me to be around him in my free time as well." Rose said sarcastically.

"That's right," Carla's sweet voice sang, as she gave Matt the slightest peck on the cheek. Matt gave a smug look to Rose, knowing that she was joking. The two years before Matt and Carla had started dating; he was prone to crashing on her couch for weeks at a time, despising his own apartment, only going there to collect his mail, and make sure that the maid didn't steal anything that his mother would deem valuable, which was just about everything. Other than that, he was a permanent resident at Rose's, and she loved to give him crap about it, but Matt knew his partner, and she honestly couldn't have cared. In fact the one time he seriously offered to start paying rent, Rose looked him dead in the eye and asked why? As if it was the stupidest question she had ever heard in her life.

The expression falling from his face, the thoughts from the previous conversation coming to mind "Hey, don't change the subject," Matt said a little harshly to Rose.

"What's the big deal?" Rose asked innocently.

"The big deal is that we have been partners for nearly three years now and you never once bothered to tell me that you have this huge cut on your scalp before." Matt looked to Carla "Did you know about that scar?" he asked.

Carla got a weird look on her face "Scar, what scar?"

"She has this huge scar on the back of her head, go look at it," Matt stated.

Carla looked to see if Rose minded, before she walked over to her and slightly moved her hair out of the way to reveal the long bright pink strike of skin that ran along the back of her scalp. "Oh my word that thing is huge,"

"I know, and as her partner I feel that I should have known about it." He argued.

Rose couldn't exactly counter back, she knew the story behind every scar, every broken bone, and every lose tooth on Matt's body, and it would only be fair for him to question why he knew so little. "I'm sorry," she said sheepishly.

"Don't be sorry, I just want to know how you got it,"

"Yeah I'm curious too, I mean what could leave a scar that long." Carla added.

"It's nothing I promise. When I was fifteen I got into an argument with someone, and as a result I was flung into a mirror." She said casually.

Carla and Matt looked at each other "She says this as if it was no big deal."

Rose smiled, in all honesty compared to all of the injuries that she had had that scar wasn't a big deal, but she kept her mouth shut, "Like I said it was a long time ago and I until yesterday I had honestly forgotten about it."

"Someone must have really hated you if they were mad enough to fling you into a mirror." Carla said

"Yes he did," Rose almost whispered, her mind lost for a minute, shaking her head of the memory she smiled "Speaking of hating me, do you?"

Carla laughed knowing where this was going. "So I'm assuming that your date didn't go as well as I had hoped," She paused "Noticed that you came home earlier than I had thought you would."

"Well you know, when a guy randomly shows up to take me out on the first night that I have been home in six weeks, my first instinct isn't exactly to sleep with them."

Carla's face scrunched up, "And what was wrong with Chris? He is such a cutie pie." Her southern roots peeking through during the last sentence.

"Well for starters he is boring."

Matt nearly choked on his cereal from laughing so hard "I told you she would hate him."

"Excuse me if I think I know my best friend better than you do." Carla stated.

Rose and Matt only stared at Carla with a deadpanned expression. Carla did know Rose pretty well and Rose loved her but, there was a bond between auror partners that couldn't be broken, your auror partner is forced to get to know you better than anyone else, because you have to trust them with your life.

Rose and Matt Carter were first paired up together when Rose came to New York three years ago. She still worked as an auror of foreign communications, filling in auror positions for different auror departments until they found someone to take the position permanently. She honestly loved that job, it gave her the chance to travel and see the world, however when she arrived in New York and she was partnered with Matt, something felt different. To her New York was the first place that she had ever even remotely considered to actually stay in, and as the days became months and her and Matt's partnership began to form into a true bond of trust and loyalty to one another, she couldn't even consider saying no when the head auror offered her the position permanently. Which Matt was over the moon about. "Oh don't give me that look." Carla said annoyed as she opened the fridge.

"I told you she's a prude," Matt responded. Rose raised an eyebrow crossing her arms "What it's true," he shrugged. Thinking he added "Have you ever even been in a serious relationship before?"

Rose smirked but didn't respond. Carla quickly shutting the fridge door asked "Where did the egg come from?"

"I've been trying to figure that out as well," Rose said slightly grateful for the change of subject, Rose's romantic life was a dead and largely debated subject among her friends, it was also a subject that she kept quiet about.

"I put it there." Matt said, getting two very confused looks from the girls. "What I like eggs," he stated as if that should make sense.

"But you can't microwave them," Carla stated

"Or eat them directly out of the box." Rose added

Matt leaned forward toward the direction of the girls "You know there's this thing called a stove, and it came with the apartment," he pointed his finger to the nice, unused stove that sat in between two counters.

Rose pretended to get a dumbfound look on her face "Is that what that bloody thing is for?" She gave a look to Carla, "Did you know that that thing was meant for cooking."

Carla walked over to Rose "I had no idea I thought that it was meant for storing shoes."

"Merlin," Matt mumbled, shaking his head "The things I put up with from you two,"

"Oh, but it's worth it," Carla said in an almost seductive tone, as she walked over to Matt and wrapped her arms around his waist, lightly kissing his back.

"Yes it is," Matt said weakly as he turned around and started to kiss Carla on the lips.

"That's my cue to go get ready for work," Rose said eager to get out of the room. "You know you two might want to consider doing the same thing, if you don't want to be late," she added closing the door to her bedroom behind her.

They walked to the abandoned looking police station, it wasn't safe to apparate in the city, because one never knew when someone might be around, and they couldn't risk exposure.

Walking into the run down building the inside was nice. The first floor being the lobby, Rose quickly walked by, paying attention to the fact that Matt had let go of Carla's hand and tensed up the slightest bit, he was worried about yesterday, they both were.

"We're going to be fine." Rose assured Matt as they made their way up the stairs to the largely populated room with maroon walls, wooden floors, and desk scattered around it.

"Weasley. Carter." She heard a voice yell before she even had a moment to lay her belongs on top of the desk. Rose sighed, Cornell wasn't a very pleasant man, if he said nothing at all it meant that he was pleased with the job someone had done.

Turning around, Rose watched as the middle aged, balding man glared at them through his office window. One wouldn't know it from looking at him, but he had actually been in the battle of Hogwarts, it didn't matter where a wizard was from. Many aurors traveled from all over the world to help defend the Wizarding community, and apparently Cornell had been impressive enough that his boss had promoted him to Captain of the New York department.

Rose took a deep breath and looked to Carla who mouthed "Good Luck," as she made her way to her own desk.

Rose lifted her head in confidence as she followed Matt into the office. Cornell had his back turned to them, as he stared out of his window onto the busy streets of the city.

"Sit down." The man spat, waving his wand for the door to slam shut behind them. From the back Rose could tell that his arms were crossed and his face was a bright red color. Slowly taking a seat they waited. The office was very grey, meant to intimidate, and it did the job well.

"Do you know the predicament that you have put me in?" the man enunciated each word carefully, to make sure that it couldn't be mistaken for something else, still not turning around.

Rose looked at Matt, his head bent towards the direction of the ground. She knew that what he had done was serious, however it was only a few muggles, and their memories could easily be altered, so she wasn't sure why Cornell was so worked up.

The man turned around with a hard look on his face and a file in his hand "Tell me something Carter, what was the first thing that you were taught when you started school?"

"Don't be seen," Matt said sheepishly.

Cornell leaned forward, the rage still plastered on his face "What was that? I didn't hear you."

"Don't be seen," Matt said again louder.

Cornell nodded his head "I thought that's what you said, so it is beyond me why you would intentionally apparate in front of muggles."

"Sir if I hadn't then…" but he was cut off by a file being slammed onto the desk in front of him, "Take a look at page two Carter."

Matt slid the folder to him as he timidly opened it, he wasn't sure why but something felt different. He had been in trouble before but the fact that Cornell still couldn't look him in the eye meant that this was more serious than he had thought. Reading the report on page two he heard Cornell say "You better be happy that you caught the guy, because my higher ups are pushing me to fire you."

The large man took a seat at his desk, his mustache fuming. Rose cleared her throat slightly confused "Excuse me Sir, but I'm not sure exactly what's going on, were the muggles memories not modified?" she questioned.

Cornell gave a slight huff in the direction of Carter "A muggle saw Fletcher apparate first, so he pulled out a cell phone and recorded me apparating after him," Matt answered closing the file. "The video went viral last night on a local news station." He finished.

Rose's jaw dropped, "What does this mean?" she asked slowly knowing that this was going to have some serious consequences.

"For starters suspension from the field for you Carter." Cornell said straightening his posture.

"Sir you can't be…" But Matt was cut off.

"We can modify a few muggles memories, however there is no telling how many people have seen that video by now, it's all over the internet." Cornell shook his head "Suspension from the field was the only way I could prevent from not firing you."

"For how long?" Rose asked, concerned about what this meant for her career.

"How does indefinitely sound?" Cornell asked raising an eyebrow. "For the time being it is too risky to take the chance of Carter being seen doing anything involving magic, until this blows over he will be on paper work duty." Matt groaned loudly "Well you shouldn't have been stupid enough to apparate in front of Muggles." Cornell stated "As for you Weasley I have put in a request for a transfer auror to come here and fill Carter's field position for the time being."

"What," Rose said astonished "Sir, that seems a bit unreasonable, it takes months for a bond to form between partners."

"Well at the rate that this video is being viewed, it may take months for this incident to die down." Cornell argued.

"But Sir, there must be another solution, I mean Matt is my partner, we stick together." Rose stated clearly, pointing to Matt.

"I understand that Weasley but I can't have two of my best aurors on paperwork duty, it's embarrassing enough to have one of them on it." He said giving Matt a glaring eye. "Besides, the transfer has already been accepted and the paperwork has been signed, there is little that I could do about it now."

Rose sighed "Do you at least have a name?"

Cornell shrugged "All I know is that he was the first person available for immediate transfer with no preferences on where he ended up, and that he will be leaving from London tonight."

Rose crossed her arms as she glared at the floor, Cornell leaned forward twiddling his fingers together. "Look I know the situation isn't ideal, believe me I wish we weren't in it," he said the last part loudly, glancing his eyes to Matt for a moment before he looked back at Rose "It's not permanent, six months tops," He paused "The man comes highly recommended from his superiors and chances are you might have met him, he is English."

Rose rolled her eyes "Oh well that's a relief because I know everyone that has an English accent" she said sarcastically "furthermore there is not a single person that I know from London who I would ever consider working with."

"Yeah she can be pretty picky," Matt added.

"Weasley drop the attitude, you chose an idiot for your partner," that wiped the grin off Matt's face "and unfortunately you have been dragged into the situation. I don't want to hear another word on the subject, you are going to suck it up and work with him whether you like it or not." Cornell looked at both Matt and Rose shaking his head "I'm sticking my neck out on the line by not firing you," he pointed a finger at Matt "Don't make me regret my decision." He almost shouted, taking a calming breath he added "Now the both of you get out of my office before I lose my mind."

Both Rose and Matt stood up quickly not willing to question Cornell. "Weasley," Cornell added when she was halfway out of the door, turning to look at him "Remember to try and play nice," he added noting about her temper.

Nodding her head Rose quickly shut the door and turned on Matt "Damn it Matt I could kill you," she said quickly as she rushed over to her desk grabbing her duffle bag full of her work out clothes.

"You know that accent of yours gets a whole lot sexier when you're mad." Matt joked.

Rose glared her eyes as she lifted her head "Your joking, you just got suspended and you think this is a perfect time to become a comedian, but then again I guess you can explore other career options because you don't still have your position."

"Jeez you seem more upset than I am about it," Matt said leaning against her desk.

"That's because it's not your just your life that is being screwed around with, it's mine." She said through gritted teeth.

"So how did it go?" Carla's sweet voice asked.

"Don't ask," Rose spat as she quickly walked past Carla gripping her duffle bag tightly.

"Where is she going," Carla asked, her eyebrows raised in confusion.

Matt sighed "To kick something." He stated not even having to think about it.

Carla's face went from concern to angry. Crossing her arms she glared at her boyfriend "What happened Matt?" She asked in a tone that a mother gets before she is about to yell at her kids.

Mat shook his head as he realized that he was not only in the dog house with Rose, but he was about to be in it with Carla as well. Having one of the two most important women in his life mad at him was one thing, but having both of them mad at him, was a living hell.

Rose lay still as she stared at her ceiling, the sun slowly streaming in. She rarely slept in past five, but today was an exception. She rolled over on her side as she attempted to shut her eyes again, as if that was supposed to make her magically fall asleep. She couldn't explain why but just knew that today was going to be a horrible day. Working with a new partner shouldn't upset her as much as it did, she had had several new partners when she was traveling for her old job, but a part of her supposed that the issue wasn't the fact that she was getting a new partner, but more that she'd gotten use to her life, comfortable with Matt.

She knew Matt's every move before he made it and he did hers. As a team they were great, admittedly he drove her up the wall mad sometimes, and not a day went by that she didn't want to curse him, but in the end they were always a team, and losing that, even if only for a few months, bothered her.

She reached over for her watch, checking the time. She had a half hour before she would officially be late for work, which prompted the question should she just owl in that she is sick. Dropping the watch back on her night stand she shook her head, not only was that entirely too suspicious, and rude to her new partner, but it was also irresponsible.

Slowly she dragged the warm shield of her blanket off of her and slipped out of bed. She had missed the opportunity for a shower, but she was scheduled to do physical training in the gym today at work, so she supposed she could always take a shower there when she was done.

Brushing her dark red hair into their soft curls that touched just below her shoulders, she looked at the purple circles under her eyes. She still hadn't fully recovered from her last assignment yet, where she was forced to sleep with one eye open. Rose usually didn't go undercover, that was something that Matt would do if granted the opportunity. Biting her lip she washed her pale face with warm water, hoping that it might wake her up the slightest bit, or in the least make her appear as if she had made an effort to get ready.

Grabbing a pair of comfortable black pants, and a fitted black t-shirt with a slight v-neck, she changed, remembering to add a sports bra, work out pants, and her tennis shoes to her duffle bag for the afternoon.

The New York auror department had strict rules when it came to dress code, they believed that the less baggy clothes a person wore the better, because there wasn't as much for someone to grab ahold of, or to get hung up on. Also they believed that a auror should be physically fit, requiring every their staff to spend part of their day, if not working on an assignment, in their gym working on upper body strength, cardio, or wrestling. The reason being the scenario if one has lost a hold of their wand, they need to know how to protect themselves using their body. Also the New York auror department did a lot of running; Rose had to admit she had never run so much in her entire life until she arrived in New York. But Cornell had a point the city was just too populated to always apparate, even an abandoned ally was never really abandoned.

Although to Rose's shock she actually enjoyed her time in the gym. She was surprisingly strong for her thin body structure, which was a nice advantage in a fight because people underestimated her.

Leaving her apartment with her bag and coffee mug, Rose walked, reviewing what little she knew of Matt's replacement. She was given the file, that Cornell had received, yesterday and there wasn't much to it. He was top of his auror training class in London, he did attend Hogwarts, but that didn't mean a whole lot to Rose seeing as how just about every witch or wizard in London attended Hogwarts, also their wasn't a graduation year, so it could have literally been anyone. He apparently had some real skills with a wand and was a crafty potion maker, but so was she so she didn't feel too intimidated.

Taking a sip of her coffee, Rose couldn't help but feel a little cheated; the fact that the file department wouldn't give the person's name was a bit botched, even though she understood the reasoning behind it. Truth was that very little files on aurors contained names or pictures, they were protected by a charm that only the file keeper in the office would have. The idea was that if there was ever to be a security breach, the ministry of magic needed the names of their aurors protected. A lot of names were already well known among dark Wizards, but if they didn't have a face to connect to a name, all the auror would have to do is use a different name and the dark Wizard wouldn't know the difference.

She felt her stomach plummet as she nervously walked into the lobby, every single step becoming heavier. Climbing up the steps to the third floor she breathed slowly, noticing how nothing in the office seemed even close to different, but it all was.

Rose dropped her bag beside her desk, sitting down to attempt to focus her attention on anything else except for her current situation… It wasn't working much.

"Weasley!" a voice yelled shocking her attention back into reality. Jerking her head around, she saw Cornell standing in his doorway, waving a hand for her to come join him in his office.

Rose felt as her hands went sweaty, her breathing shaky and light. She just had to remain calm, and remind herself that this wasn't the end of the world. Making her way to Cornell's office she bit her lip, anticipating to see the face of her new partner, but when she looked around, the room was empty with the exception of Matt sitting in a chair in front of her. Cornell grunted a good morning to her and took a seat in his chair.

Cornell waved a hand to one of the wooden chairs in front of his desk. Taking the seat she looked at Matt to give her a sign of what was going on but he only shook his head, handing her the coffee cup that was in his hand. Rose looked at it for a second before she took a sip and handed it back to him.

"Thanks," she mumbled, grateful for the burst of caffeine, having finished her own cup on the walk to work.

"No problem," he whispered, taking a large gulp from the cup and looking at his watch.

The three of them had sat in silence as Cornell looked down to a folder, rifling through it, paying no attention to the pair in front of him. Suddenly the door behind them barged open, and following Cornell and Matt's lead Rose stood up to face the blond haired blue eyed man that was her new partner, and her heart stopped.

Alright I know there was no Scorpius/Rose action in this chapter but I think it was a good set up for Rose and where her life is at now. Thank you for reading and please review. What do you think will happen next.