My Favorite Assignment

I haven't seen him since I graduated years ago. Well, no, that's not the full truth. I saw him when we went into training. I remember that day. We said our good lucks and good byes. Exchanged long embraces, he wiped away my tears. I must admit, I was scared that I'd never see him again. Even a small peck on the lips. That small gesture had so much behind it, and I was scared that we wouldn't be able to walk into the building without breaking down. He's strong though, I thought, I have to be strong, like Him, strong, ready to fight. Not a little scared girl. When we walked in to the building, people were everywhere. We grabbed each other's hand and walked until we had to let go. We found someone to quickly talk to and found that we had to go to separate rooms. One for the girls, one for the boys. Our embrace in front of the dividing line was so full of emotion, so full of love. I 'saw' everything that had happened since the first day we met. Terror was starting to take over and I felt like I was going to either run out of the building or throw up all over him. 'Hey,' he said, 'don't worry about a thing. This was made to be safe. Well, as safe as you can be in a place where you learn to battle to the death.' Of course he made me laugh. He's always been good at that, well, when he wants to be funny. ' Don't hurt yourself too much. I've sort of grown accustomed to seeing you all in one piece. Especially your gorgeous eyes.' I was flirting with him, and he knew it. I knew it. He just smiled his contagious smile, hugged me and looked into my eyes for what seemed an eternity. He looked at me with an expression that I've rarely ever seen with him before. It was either nerves or, dare I say, love. It must have been the latter because he put his hands on either side of my face and we slowly drifted together, until our foreheads were touching. We looked towards the rooms we were to go in. I don' know what made us do it. It was either someone giving us a 'final call' or fear.

Hands still clasped together we started to walk away. With one last squeeze of my hand he whispered, ' I love you'.

That was the last time I got a proper look at my best friend. I would see him occasionally during training. But we weren't allowed to talk to anyone but our bunk mates who happened to be of all the same gender.. During training I had to duel with him. Yeah. I had to duel with my best friend and the man I had fallen in love with. I don't remember the outcome. We knew all the same things, although I felt he was so much better than me. Well, he is so much better than me. Then, they had us learn hand to hand combat, for those times when you couldn't use magic against a muggle. They partnered us up for the first session of instruction. Needless to say, he's had a bit more experience at that sort of thing than I did.

I saw him when we completed our training. He felt so different, so distant to me. It's like, I didn't know where my best friend went. I mean, I saw him, standing there, but not his eyes. The thing that made him Him wasn't there. Something was wrong then. I just didn't know how to go about talking to someone I hadn't said a thing to in a year and a half. Sure, I still loved him, he was still my best friend, but the butterflies just got the better of me.

I was sitting in my cubicle in the Auror Division in the British Embassy in America when I got my new assignment. I looked over it, as I always do, and my mouth fell open when I saw who my partner was. If you think it's hard to mourn the dead, try talking/working with a friend who you haven't seen for three years. Get this though, the assignment requires us to be a couple about to be married, as in 30 days. But that's not all. The wife, has to be pregnant. Who the heck do they thing they're working with? What do they think they're working with? RABBITS?! I mean, come on. There's a limit to the kind of magic a witch can do!