The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

You Are the Auror on the Case

James noticed Underhill seemed annoyed the next morning. But why, he didn't know.

Exhausted himself from a full moon night with the lads, James didn't have it in him to inquire much of his boss. He didn't reckon Underhill was the sort who would be into true confessions and braiding each other's hair, as Sirius would say, but James recognized later that he probably could've been more of a chum that morning.

"Sir, I'll be leaving office early today," he said, handing Underhill an owl that had just been delivered from the Ministry.

Underhill looked up sharply, "Under whose approval?"

"Erm; yours, sir. Last week. You said I could skive off this afternoon. I've got wedding stuff," James reminded him.

"Right. The wedding."

"Yeah." James nodded. "Only a bit better than a month away."

Underhill nodded gruffly. "Well if you've got the time to spare to go early, then go."

James blinked, confused, standing before Underhill awkwardly. "Sir?"

"I need the Marjorie Grant case solved before you go off on your honeymoon." Underhill looked up at him, his face stern.

"I'm working on it, sir," James said.

"You don't seem to understand the idea of urgency," Underhill said.

James felt defensive. "I'm doing the best I can, sir, I --"

"Potter. A little girl is missing, and you are in charge of finding her. She could've been killed several times over since you've been researching the case! Nearly two months! I happen to know you've hardy spoken to Longbottom about the case, and I don't know what you call working on it, but as far as I know you've only looked into one leas with Constance Merriweather."

"I've been --"

Underhill held up his hands to stop James from speaking. "I understand you are learning but this is a very serious job, being an auror. Peoples lives hang in balance every case you take. YOU are the auror on this case, boy. This isn't like when you were in school and you were trying to figure out things that the grown ups were also working on. When you are an auror, you are the only person working a case. You are the only hope that the person waiting for you has. YOU are IT, Potter. Do you understand? Albus Dumbledore won't be there to give you a time turner if you fuck it up."

James froze, staring at Underhill, and Underhill stared right back.

James felt positively gobsmacked. He didn't know what to say, or if there even was anything to say. Underhill was right. It had dragged on and on and he, James, hadn't really thought about the fact that this was real life, outside of Hogwarts. How many times had he and the lads complained that it seemed like the aurors at the ministry never seemed to get anything done? Well now he was the auror at the ministry not getting something done.

Furthermore, he'd mentioned the time turner. The time turner that Dumbledore specifically said nobody else could know about except the pair of them.

"Go on and do your wedding stuff, Potter. The little girl can wait." Underhill's voice was tired and dismissive.

James felt so numb by the talking down that he didn't argue, he just collected his things and left, his brain throbbingly deep in thought.

"What happened to you? You look like you got run over by a double decker?" Sirius was leaning against the World War Two Monument on the Embankment when James emerged from the tunnel. He had a cigarette between two fingers and his leather jacket on over a button down uniform shirt for the gnome removal service where he and Bilius worked.