Jack stared at the intern. Jack had not been doing well with any of these interns thus far. Most of them were Squibs, drop outs, and well... idiots. A few showed promise, but if they did, they did not last as interns. They were usually offered a job, leaving all the rather useless interns for all the people that could actually use some help out.
This was her latest intern. She had been going through interns faster than pretty much anyone. It was to the point at any given time she had two or three because they would only last one or two days before they got scared- if she did not like them, she sort of liked to mess with them until they ran off. So far, none had lasted more than a week and a half and this one was pretty much due to quit any day now. Lenny was actually a year older than her but he was a terribly unequipped, untalented idiot. She stared at him.
“Go back,” she ordered. He glanced up and took a step back. “Thank you, Mr Literal. I was talking about the list. What did you say two bullet points ago?” He glanced down and up at her, mouthing like a trout out of water. “Speak,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Uh, uh… A Gytrash is going to be executed today. No one can deal with it and-“
Jack stood up. “Show me to him. Now.”
“B-but, Ms Dyllan, there is nothing that can be done, I-“
Jack heard a sigh and an intern who had been filing something turned around. “Lenny, shove it and go wash your socks. I can assist you Ms Dyllan, if you would follow me.”
Jack raised her eyebrows and nodded curtly, beginning to follow the young man, reaching out and taking the clipboard from Lenny and rubbing her knuckles against the top of his head.
The new intern glanced over and waited until Jack fell into step to show her the way to the Gytrash’s cell. She liked to work on her own, but she was pressed for time if she decided to stop the execution. She needed someone who would get her there as soon as possible. “That fool will be reassigned by tomorrow,” she muttered. “If he’s not, I’m slipping him some Canary Creams until he quits.”
“Lenny’s a moron, I’ve worked with him for a year. People sort of pity him and let him bumble about until he screws something up and then they get rid of him,” the intern said, rolling his eyes.
“You’re worked here a year?” Jack questioned. “You don’t look old enough.”
“I dropped out fifth year. Been working a bunch of places, but Lenny and both started interning here about a year ago. He hasn’t gotten a job yet because he’s stupid. I haven’t gotten a job yet because I’m too young and I get in trouble. I only just turned seventeen.”
Jack nodded. “Well, I’d prefer a kid to a manchild.”
The intern glanced at her. “Aren’t you sort of a kid?”
She raised her eyebrows and he pointed forward. “This is the Gytrash. Been here about a week. People don’t like dealing with it, so they put interns in charge of him. He sort of scares people. And being a sort of spectral being, he’s supposed to be put down. The only research they’ve done on the Gytrashes revealed them to be malicious.”
She peered inside the holding cell at the Gytrash, who was in the form of a hulking white dog, not one distinguishable breed. She glanced over at the intern. “Do you have the keys?”
“I can get them, “ was all he said, before he turned and walked off. Most of the other interns would have warned her against it but this was a different breed of intern. She had to only wait a minute before he approached, bending over the lock to unlock it and he stepped away.
She ignored the check in chart next to the door that she was supposed to time in to state she had handled the spectral hound and slipped inside. The dog’s head rose as he looked at her. He stood and shook himself and the two stared at each other. Suddenly, he began to change shape, assuming the form of a wolfhound.
Jack’s eyebrows twitched upwards. Her patronus. The white dog tilted his head and slowly began to shrink into a jackal, tilting his head even more, questioning. She shook her head. “Not anymore.” His nose twitched and he grew until he was a large St Bernard. Elliot’s patronus. Jack did not even question it. “Not him, either.”
The dog morphed into the wolfhound again and trotted forward, deep grey eyes staring at her. This is what frightened people, then? The eyes. Jack could see a soul in these eyes, they were deep but not depthless. Not like a certain pair of brown irises she was familiar with. She reached out a flat hand and his nose met her finger tips. She rotated and curled her hand, and the hound set his chin in her palm.
She heard voices and glanced behind her to see the intern locking the door behind her. A moment later, she saw the executioner and a shorter wizard begin to argue with the intern who continued to shake his head. Jack conjured a leather lead and clipped it to the metal collar they had fastened on the hound’s neck. He growled his discomfort and she loosened the metal collar, causing him to shake his coat gratefully.
She walked forward and opened the door, facing the executioner and the other wizard, a little fellow by the name of Benton. “Greetings. I regret to inform you there is no execution today.”
Benton immediately turned the red color he was legendary for. “Ms Dyllan, we have had this scheduled for some time now-“
“And now it’s been cancelled,” she replied fiercely. “If you wish to dispute it, talk to Ms Gould. We can have a nice group chat. However, my new intern-“ she glanced at the intern who gave her a look of confusion and then realized what she was saying, responded, “Theodore.” “-Theo, is going to see the hound to my office and at the end of the day, I will take the hound into my own care.” She handed over the lead to Danny who nodded, giving her the smallest of smiles, and walked off, leading the hound like an expert.
Benton and the executioner immediately began to bicker with her, but she ignored them, picking up the Gytrash’s chart and seeing that around the time he had been assigned to execution, his collar had been tightened and his food supply had been cut in half. “Tell me if I am wrong-“ she interrupted loudly. “But is Francesca Lutz your intern, Benton? And Courtweiler, I think that’s you. Is she either of yours?”
Benton turned red, “Aye, she’s mine.”
“Well, then, expect your suspension notice. I’m showing this to Ms Gould. It’s not protocol to decrease a beast’s standard of living for an execution. I don’t know what he showed you, Benton, that frightened you so, but your reaction is going to get a lot of attention. You may go now.” She shot them both a look and the two stumbled off, arguing loudly. She raised her eyebrows and watched after them. Lenny would be gone by tomorrow. And if she had a say in it, Benton would too.
by 
