About all the weeks that came after that: I practiced the Patronus Charm on a daily basis, without success.

I went on my first order missions, where I partnered up with either Sirius, Peter or Dorcas and went spying on some Death Eaters, to see where they were going. Lucky for us, we were never noticed, so those spying sessions were pretty uneventful, too.

I went to the cinema with Aleya and kept exchanging letters with Valerie and Anna, but Lina never answered my owls, so I lost contact with her.

Lily and James actually announced their engagement, and the wedding was set in December. I had mixed feelings about it. I was really happy for them of course, especially James, because I knew how much this meant to him. But on the other side I felt down because I was envious, as much as I didn't want to be.

I wanted to have someone too.

Of course I visited Francisca and spent time with Sirius, who had recently moved into a flat close to the Potter Manor. But I didn't spent time with him as often as I would've liked to, since - of course- he spent a lot of time with Marlene.

I went back to stargazing. It was the only time of the day when I would take the Cheering Charm off me. Not because I was happy when I did it, but because I didn't want to live a fake life every hour of every day. And when I looked at the stars, I allowed myself to be weak. (I didn't want to imagine how I'd live without the effects of the charm, since it didn't even seem to make me happy. I think it just prevented me from breaking down on a daily basis.)

Actually, Peter had come to visit me quite often, too. I think it was a nice change for him to spend time with me, because we would just talk. I always listened and tried my best to cheer him up whenever he felt sad and discouraged. I liked to think that I helped him, and I was glad that I could at least be there for someone.

That I was still needed.

In my spare time, I'd turned to continue with studying Charms. There was so much more than what we'd learned at school. I even went as far as trying to create my own charms, and I'd already had success with a few little ones, such as getting one's hair braided very quickly, or cutting finger nails evenly- all of that really saved me a lot of time and frustration, and I was pretty proud of it.

Now, my daily routine was about to change. September had arrived, so my Auror Training would start, and I was pretty nervous about that.

I was excited about learning their ways, but I was also scared because it would be a new environment, full of new people. And I wasn't good at meeting new people.

I was really relieved when I found the place I had to go to without asking anyone for directions.

It was a pretty small room with four rows of chairs, some of which were already occupied.

I decided to sit down in the second row (the last and third one were already so full that I would have had to sit down next to a stranger, and I didn't want that), where only two other people were sitting.

I sat there, bobbing my foot up and down and waiting for it to begin. What exactly 'it' was, I didn't even know.

"Oh my Merlin," A girl sitting down next to me sighed out in relief, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw who it was.

"I'm so glad I know someone who's also signed up for September already!"

I swallowed. "Marlene."

She grinned. "Hi Frey. It's okay if I call you Frey, right? I've kind of gotten used to it, because Sirius calls you that."

Exactly. Frey was Sirius' nickname for me, and I felt as if someone took away a part of our bond when they used Sirius' nickname for me. "Sure," I still said.

My mouth tasted bitter.

This day had turned terrible before it had even started.

"Cool," Marlene continued cheerily. "You know, I knew that Dorcas and Alice want to become Aurors, too, but they've wanted a little more free time and only signed up for the November classes. And Frank has already signed up for classes last year, you know, so I was really nervous about not knowing anyone."

"Yeah, I know how it feels," I said.

"Have you seen anyone from our Hogwarts year?" She asked, twisting on her chair so that she could look around.

I did the same. "I haven't been looking."

"Time to start, then. Oh, look, there's Jeremy and Pascal from Hufflepuff. And... I think that's it already. Wait, no, there's your friend Lina!"

She was right. Lina was sitting in the last row. The tall girl with shiny black hair and dark green eyes was unmistakable.

If she was sitting in the last row, she'd been here before me, I just hadn't noticed her. My heart fluttered in excitement that one of my friends was here, too, but at the same time there was an unidentifiable feeling in my stomach because she hadn't told me that she'd be here as well. And why hadn't she been answering me when I'd written her about the start of my training? She could've told me that she'd signed up, too. We could've come here together.

But a loud noise in front of me made me turn my head aprubtly.

The talking stopped at once.

Alastor Moody had entered the room, barging through the door.

"Lesson number one!" He almost shouted in his growling voice, and I think everyone instinctively sat up straighter. "Constant vigilance!!!"

"Merlin, not this again," Marlene muttered from next to me, already used to his catchphrase from the order meetings.

I involuntarily smiled a little. So the grumpy Auror from the Order of the Phoenix was actually going to be our teacher. This would be interesting.

"You've all been cautious enough to not open the letter I sent you," Alastor Moody continued, pacing up and down in front of us. He was limping on his wooden leg, but was still really brisk and fast.

"That's why you're sitting here and why I've accepted your applications. In the following months, all of you will have to practice duelling and very advanced spells to use against the dark arts. I expect you all to give your best."

His bright blue magical eye skimmed all of us. "If your work and progress isn't good enough, you'll be taken out of this class. This is only for your own safety.

When we've done some lessons and you're prepared to fight in the real world, you'll go on smaller missions, parallel to the lessons here at the ministry. There will be final tests in your third year here, and then you're officially Aurors.

Any questions?"

Noone dared to ask.

"Alright," Moody said after less than three seconds. Someone on my left had just been about about to raise their hand, but quickly lowered it again when Moody took parchment and badges from a table in the corner of the room.

"These are your documents, so that you can enter the Ministry through the employee's entrance."

With a swish of his wand, the parchment and badges flew forward and each of us held their personal identification in their hands.

"Now that the formal stuff is done," Our teacher said, "We can start with the practical lessons. Each of you, take the person next to you. That'll be your duelling partner in the future."

I looked to my right, to where Marlene was sitting, nodding at me with shining eyes. "Alright. Let's do this."

I just managed to nod.

"Now, get up and demonstrate non-verbal spells, everyone!"

And with that, a very action and magic filled day with a lot of comments, warnings, shouting and criticism from our Auror trainer started.

I'm so impatient for getting more readers, its not even funny 😅🤦‍♀️

I want to see more people's reaction to this story (bc it's my baby, my very first original/own idea) 🥺

AND I'M PISSED AT MYSELF BC OF THIS BC I KNOW THAT THIS TAKES TIME, I'VE BEEN THROUGH IT BEFORE BUT STILL