HUGO VESLIN WAS A YOUNG WIZARD, HE HAD A THICK MESS OF BLACK HAIR AND A SCAR ALONG HIS CHEEK. He also was more than excited to poke at Leo for any type of response he could get. As soon as the aurors landed just outside the main entrance of the camp grounds that sat just outside of the Quidditch Pitch; the broadly built wizard clapped a hand firmly on Leo's shoulder— not in a very friendly manner either. It was as if he was trying to prove that Leo was no better than anyone there; with a name like Black and coming from the congress didn't make him any better.

But forget the fact that I was Head Auror for a year, he thought to himself.

"Ya sure ya can handle yerself, Black?" Veslin asked.

His partner, Robards; a scrawny man with thinking brown hair walked a step ahead of Veslin, Leo, and Lydia. "Not giving orders must be quite the change." he added as he chuckled.

"I guess we will have to find out, won't we, boys?" Lydia said quickly, looking Veslin and Robards over as they gathered in a small group as they waited for Kingsley.

Leo sighed heavily, biting his tongue to keep himself from saying anything else. Lydia offered him a small reassuring smile, as if to tell him that they wouldn't be so miserable to be around forever.

"Welcome to the Ministry, Black,"

Leo turned and looked over his shoulder as a man joined the group. He had dark skin, and had a scar on his chin. He wore a purple cloak that had a hat to match. And as he approached, he held a hand out to Leo.

"I've heard quite a bit about you from Hoode." he told Leo as Leo took his hand, "Good things of course. He would be happy with all you did at the Congress."

Leo smiled a bit, "Thank you..."

"Kingsley Shacklebolt."

Once introductions were done, Robards began to dish out roles for everyone. Kingsley would be joining the Minister of Magic in the Ministers' box during the match. The easy job as Lydia later called it. Veslin and Robards would be making laps around the backside of the campgrounds, while Leo and Lydia would be making rounds throughout the growing sea of tents. Basically, if there were any complaints— which he knew there would be, or an drunken disagreements— they would be dealing with that. Leo found it odd that it was just the five of them that were actively there— in the states, there was no doubt about the sudden spike in death eater recruitments. Even if it was just idiots who wanted to cause trouble. He assumed it was like that in Europe too, and if there was— if he had any say in it, there would have been at least another team of aurors there.

Leo watched as everyone made there way off to their own designated sector.

"Ready?" Lydia asked with a heavy sigh as she looked up at him.

Leo nodded, "Yeah," he paused, "after you." he said motioning to the camp grounds. "I'll follow you. I'm assuming Scrimgeour wants you to show me the ropes."

The sun was barely high enough to make it hot outside anymore. There was some people who were outside of their tents, enjoying the weather before the match. Most of them didn't have their preferred teams' colors on just yet. Seeing just how early it was for them was a painful reminder of how long this night could potentially be. Hell of a first day...

▪ ▫ ▪ ▫

Fireworks, smoke bombs, heated debates that involved yelling and the occasional use of ones wand were just a handful of the things that Lydia and Leo ended up dealing with during the game and more so afterwards. Before the match, most people were just so anxious for their team that they kept to themselves and their friends and families, or people supporting the same team even, and didn't make a huge deal about things. But after the game was a completely different story, everyone was sporting their preferred colors for the two teams— both of which Leo couldn't stand.

"Did you play Quidditch in school?" he asked after the two of them had separated two wizards and saw them both back to their own tents.

She shook her head, "No." she replied, "Did you?"

Leo shook his head, and as he was about to begin explaining that Ilvermorny had played Quadpot instead; he was cut short.

     Suddenly, the campgrounds were filled with rapid cracks and pops. And Leo had heard enough fireworks to know that the sound wasn't coming from any sort of firework. It was more like the sound that came from someone apperating to the campgrounds. There were dozens by the sound of it...and almost immediately the gleeful celebrations, and even those arguing— it all turned to shouting and yelling. Leo and Lydia shared a glance before they both took off running in the direction of the chaos with their wands gripped tightly in their hands.

When they got to the area of tents where they heard everyone come from, Leo stopped abruptly in his tracks— suddenly feeling sick to his stomach...

The tents around them were in flames and torn, one was completely torn to shreds.

There were people running. Crowds of people were running, scattering all over the place.

Before them were at least a dozen death eaters. In the typical attire they wore when they wanted to make sure people who who they stood with and wanted to make a statement. At first he stood there, frozen in his tracks, before a rush of anger filled him— he couldn't help but be frozen in fear as the memory of his last encounter with witches and wizards like this...it had resulted in Hoode getting killed.

Stupefy, he repeated the word over and over in his head until the red and blue sparks flew from his wand towards the group of death eaters.

             However a masked death eater it would have hit quickly blocked it before shooting a green flame towards him. Leo watched as the green killing curse flew towards him, everything seemed to slow down— the sparks, the chaotic yelling and shouting people trying to escape the death eaters, everything slowed down. Until something like a rock hit Leo's side knocking him over just in time before the killing curse would have hit him.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Lydia shouted, directing her spell towards the same death eater, however missing him as soon as he disapperated. The other death eaters followed right behind him. "Come on, we need to find the others," Lydia said as she hurried towards Leo. "Kingsley is with the Minister, he's the one that has to summon them, he has the password." she reminded him.

           It took Leo a moment, a very brief one, to gather his thoughts as he quickly jumped up and caught up with Lydia...

"Good one, Black," Patrick Hoode chuckled, huffing for air as the two of them stopped in a no-maj ally way. "when we find him, bet he won't do well without that." he said, leaning against the building they were near and motioned to the snapped wand that Leo held.

"But he'll probably have some friends next time." Leo replied, catching his breath as well.

           Leo quickly shoved that day out of his mind— forcing himself to pay more attention to the campgrounds that was quickly turning into a unfair war zone.

           However they were both forced to stop in their tracks when two of the masked death eaters landed in front of them.

Petrificus Totalus, he repeated in his head; flinging the spell in their direction.

"Expelliarmus!" Lydia exclaimed, flinging the spell toward the same death eater who was already dealing with Leo's spell. The death eaters wand flew from his hand, and shot towards Lydia. Immediately afterwards the death eater disappeared with a crack.

          And as the two of them assumed that they now only had the one death eater to deal with— something hit Leo in his shoulder that was so excruciating that he fell to the ground. However as soon as the pain began to subside, he looked to see a death eater that was shorter than he was and a bit shorter than Lydia was. Then, as if to taunt him, they held up a wand and gave it a wave in front of their face and removed the mask— Elladora. As soon as his eyes landed on her face, she gave him a smirk and ran away, disappearing into the maze of tents. As soon as she was gone, the death eater that Lydia was fighting vanished with a loud crack.

"Leo," she said as she crouched down beside him, "are you alright?" she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder but quickly taking it away. "You're bleeding-"

"I'm fine," he said angrily as he began to hurry to push himself off the ground. "you go find the others, I'll find you guys-"

"You're hurt, Black. Scrimgeour says if anyone gets hurt they leave right away-" Lydia protested.

Leo looked at her, "Then don't tell him I'm hurt until afterwards-"

"That's not how it works, Black!" she shouted after him as he started running towards the death eater. "Black! Stop!"

"I'll find you guys, promise." he turned and assured her before continuing on his way to find Elladora.

          Leo didn't have to run far before his shoulder began to throb, sending stinging pains down his arm and deep into his shoulder blade. A spell of Elladora's own making during her seventh year at Ilvermorny. A spell that had the initial pain of the cruciatus curse, but had a residual pain that was possibly worse the longer it went untreated.

"Elladora!" he shouted, most of the shouting of the Quidditch fans had died down or was in the front end of the campgrounds as people tried to get out of the grounds or find their group members. "I know you can hear me!" he shouted, his hand tightening around his wand, his jaw was clenched as he tried his best to stay calm.

     For a moment he was by himself, surrounded by vacant tents with some bonfires that were still going just outside of them. But then Elladora, a woman with pale blonde hair that was just bellow her shoulders, and bright blue eyes that matched his own stepped into view.

"Did you enjoy the match, little brother?" she asked, here eyebrow arched sharply as she examined his shoulder. "You really should have listened to your new partner and left, Leo." she sighed, shaking her head. "But you never really listened to that Hoode, did you...maybe she'll have the same fate as he did?"

"Don't talk about him," he said coldly raising his wand towards his sister. "what are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" she asked, unphased by the wand in her face.  "enjoying the World Cup."

Leo chuckled in disbelief, "I'm sure you are."

"Oh come on, Leo, get the wand out of my face." she said as she stepped closer to him. "Mother wouldn't be too happy to hear about this."

"Too bad she really wouldn't care, since her only daughter turned out to be completely insane." he said coldly. "Now what are you doing here?"

"Just expressing our political beliefs that the Minister shouldn't be asking a no-maj like Joseph Roberts to help him." she scowled.

Petrificus totalus, he thought and the spell struck Elladora beneath her chin before she could stop it and she fell to the ground— bound tightly.

▪ ▫ ▪ ▫

            Once Scrimgeour arrived along with other Auror's and Barty Crouch; the head of all of the magical law enforcement— Veslin, Robards, Kingsley, along with Lydia and Leo were sent back to the Ministry to get the initial reports finished. Two Auror's were then ordered by Crouch to bring Elladora to Azkaban until she could have her hearing to see if she would need a trial. Leo hoped she would, he'd gladly go to it. He'd even bring popcorn.

"That looks pretty nasty, mate," Veslin muttered as Leo slowly sat down at his desk before taking his jacket off to observe just how bad it was.

"If you knew my sister, you wouldn't be so surprised." Leo replied as he observed the shallow cut in his shoulder. However there was already painful stinging all over his shoulder and in his arm— it wasn't from the cut itself, but the spell was meant to just get into the victims veins and spread.

"Shouldn' ya go to St. Mungo's?"

Leo shook his head as he picked his wand up off his desk and gave it a wave over the cut, "Episkey," he mumbled and there was a sharp but quick pain as the cut sealed. "In a few hours it'll be over...long as the cuts sealed you're golden."

Veslin chuckled, "Well, good on ya, Black. Least ya caught her." he said as he walked past a empty desk and then to his own.

"Even though he went against one of Scrimgeour's first rules?" Lydia replied sharply, "You could have gotten yourself killed, Black. On your first day."

"But I didn't." Leo replied calmly, wincing a bit as he leaned back in his seat.

"Relax, Corner, he caught a death eater—" Veslin said, which surprised Leo. He had been one of the last people he expected to defend him.

"How many Auror's has Scrimgeour lost since he's been on office?" she asked, stopping him midsentence.

"None..." he replied.

"Exactly, because we follow rules here." she said looking back at Leo with a glare. "I know you may not understand the concept, Black."

"It ended alright," Leo said defensively, "so what, I waited to leave and deal with this."

"While we were looking for you, Black, we could have caught whoever set off the dark mark in the sky." Lydia scowled, "So what, you caught your sister. Now we have to find the main problem— whoever set off that mark."

"My money is on mad-dog Black," Veslin stated, "no offence, Black." he said looking at Leo.

"None taken,"

          Veslin and Leo clearly weren't going to change Lydia's mind on why Leo's rule bending was justified. So they decided to not even try as Robards sat down in front of Veslin, and Shacklebolt on his own. They each slowly began to begin their reports; where they were, what they heard and saw, and what happened...Leo was slow to work through it. But slowly, he did. He wrote about the loud cracking and popping that sounded nothing like fireworks, the mayhem that ensued, the near death experience he had...

"What spell was that you used to knock me out of the way of that killing curse?" he asked, looking up and across the desks at Lydia.

She looked up at him, "What?"

"You know, how did you knock me out of the way of the killing curse?" he asked a bit slower that time, "When we first saw the death eaters?"

She arched an eyebrow, "I thought you just hit the ground as soon as you saw them cast it." she said, voice was flat and matter of fact.

Leo stared at her, "You didn't use a spell or anything?"

She shook her head.

Maybe he did just hit the ground without thinking about it...

AUTHORS NOTE;
Y'all don't understand how much I love Leo. I love him so much, he deserves the world, okay?

anyway— how do you think Leo missed the killing curse? Any theories?

stay classy!
*edited 5/16*