And So It Begins

Lee watched the company assembling, and he studied them.  Why was it that every great company needed to look, at first impressions, like a band of misfits all tossed together in a bag and shaken together?

But these--these men and women were being assembled, handpicked, to save their world.  Lee was not the chessmaster here, and he hoped there was wisdom behind the selections and the exclusive invitations to this training.

Some of them, he knew, had seemingly unbreakable wills and loyalties. Some of them had stellar dossiers but remained, to Lee, untried.  

He got up and looked at the band.

"Good morning," he said to them all. "Welcome to Colorado.  I hope you're all rested.  My name is Lee Shepherd, and I'm your host for this exercise.  For those of you who might not know me, I am, for all practical purposes, what you all would think of as America's Minister of Magic. I'd like to thank Brian Quinn and Khaat Lupin for the use of their home for this training.

"If you haven't eaten, please take the time to do so. The staff can provide you a full breakfast. If you'd like something hot to drink before we go out, then do that now, please.

"You've all been invited here because your skills are needed.  For the purposes of this exercise, you will need to empty your pockets, please, and place everything you brought with you on the table.

"You may keep your wands." He picked up a brown paper bag from the floor beside his chair, dumped out the bag, and the Swiss Army knives went skittering across the wood table. "And you may all have one of these. That will be your equipment unless you have a magical item that you normally would have with you. If you have something like that, ask now to have that along."

Winter training. Marcus absolutely hated the cold. But, he had to smile and impress for his first day as an auror. He had to pass, no matter what. He's one of the youngest, which is all the more reason why he should impress the older aurors. He usually doesn't care what others think of him, but first impressions are everything. Hopefully people would respect him.

Marcus stood outside of the nice looking house. His hand reached for the doorknob. But it didn't turn. For once in his life, he was nervous. Come on! Just go in, he thought to himself. But it really wasn't that easy. After a few minutes of anguish, he twisted the knob and entered.

Everyone was already standing around. "Hello everyone, I hope I'm not late," he said with a forced smile.

"Welcome back," Brian smiled, glad to see Dakota back. "You're just in time. We're just getting started."

He remembered working with Dakota not too long ago, and he was glad to see the fellow auror return. As the owner of the property, Brian knew the property better than anyone. As the trainer of the aurors, he had an inside knowledge of how Robert had trained his personal staff and knew how he had wanted these trainings to go.

And he intended to use his mentor's plans to test their mettle to help determine who was or was not ready for what Brian feared would lie ahead for
them all.

"He's asked us to empty our pockets and to start to gear up to do this," he told Dakota. "We get a wand and one of those." He pointed to the pocket knives.

Jack had eaten, but she would definitely ask for some more carbs and protein, to make sure she really got all she needed. With a small smirk, she withdrew her wand out of her pocket. She had wanted a challenge, and had even gone so far as to leave her knapsack back at home - something that rarely happened. She nodded to those who greeted her and approached the table, beginning to pick through the knives. She found the one that seemed to suit her best and flicked it open, tossed it between her hands, and then closed it, tucking it in her pocket.


Claire was beginning to regret this decision more and more and more and more. She glanced around, keeping a calm composure and keeping her face like stone. She began to empty her pockets, placing her schedule and her mobile and her pen and some other little trinkets that helped get her through her day. Nothing seemed useful enough to cling to, so she set them in her purse and tapped it with her wand, carefully sealing it. She stepped up to the table and stared at the knives, before picking up what looked like a lighter one.

Lee watched as Claire and Jack selected knives. Of the people there, Claire Bishop was one of them he had no doubts about. He knew her skills, and he was confident she might find all of this annoying but was certainly going to do well. After the ladies had selected, he watched Michael Tremaine come forward. Michael scanned the knives and picked up one of the large ones.

"What the hell is with this one? It looks like it must have 100 tools on it," Michael frowned.

"87," Lee said. "I figured one of you might be a tool jockey. Professor Tremaine, would you be so kind as to bring your rope, please?"

"I take it there might be climbing involved then?" Michael asked.

"Might be. Might not be. I've been asked to have you bring him along."

"Fine by me," Michael said. He put down the large knife and picked a standard issue one. 70 more toys wouldn't make a knife more useful, necessarily, than a good wand, Michael figured. He gave a loud whistle. A moment later, his sentient climbing rope, Hiss, slithered into the dining hall.

Hiss paused to snuggle Jack Dyllan's leg affectionately.

"Hey," Lee said. "He'll have to stop flirting, Tremaine."

"She's the only one he flirts with anyway, Shepherd," Michael said, snapping his fingers in Hiss's direction. "Come on, Boy. Work to be done." The rope obediently slid up Michael's leg and coiled itself around him.

Lee watched Brian and Angus each choose knives for themselves. Brian chose one of the blades that had a switchblade in it. Before Lee could say anything, Brian had found the switch and had sprung it, but the blade snapped out, facing the wrong direction, almost slicing his forearm.

Brian frowned at the thing. By what he had seen, it should have opened the other way. He thought he knew weapons fairly well, but he hadn't seen that coming.

"Oh, forgot to tell you about that," Lee said, as a means of apology. "That particular knife has an aggressiveness to it."

"Its backasswards," Brian scowled.

"Gives it a dandy kick, doesn't it?" Lee gave him a slight grin.

"Swell. If I have an enemy, I'll give it to him, then," Brian said.

"Hand it over if you can't handle big boy toys, Junior," Michael quipped.

"Why do I think having you along will make this a long week, Tremaine," Brian said, pocketing the knife.

To anyone who knew Fred Weasley, they'd think working even remotely connected to the Department of Law Enforcement was unsuited to him.

Of course, they would understand- to an extent. Understand the thrill and mystery and excitement, not to mention the scope for heroics, that the profession supplied, which might be irresistible to an ex-Gryffindor. Understand the image that Fred presented- of a laidback, almost indolent man. Understand even his professional image up to some extent- not fascination, but his absolute obsession with riddles and puzzles, his brain cracking away at the cases and archaic artifacts that came before the Unspeakables on a daily basis, his understanding of magic.

What they wouldn't understand.....obviously, were the parts that Fred himself kept hidden. It might seem strange, for a man as open and almost flamboyant and affable as Fred Weasley to hide things- but it was both deliberate and unintentional- as it were. They didn't see him during his training sessions, working out till practically blood ran as sweat. They didn't know his ....knack for weapons, as it was. They didn't know his.......no, not determination- unreasonable obstinacy, bent on doing what his mind decides. They saw only the roguish grin and assumed that he'd never make it in a survival camp with extreme conditions.

They assumed wrong, would be the only way to put it.

"Morning gentlemen." He wished, making his way through the assembled men and women, reaching the wooden table. Inclined his head towards Lee Shepherd slightly, his previous superior would always hold his respect, and Fred's days in the American Ministry had been punctuated by the man taking swift, effective decisions. Decisiveness was a trait hardly seen, and always appreciated. That out of the way, he began emptying his.......well, pockets would be a loose translation.

By the time Fred was done, there was one wand, a cell phone, two daggers, one knife that elongated on tapping to a rapier and a shrunk bow on the table. "Apologies." He smiled, while tugging the last, a Muggle semi-automatic pistol out of the strap on the back of his belt, and laid it on the table. "Hope my trinkets remain safe here. And...." Maybe not the last. Fred withdrew a small, almost innocuous looking dagger, serrated and curved at the tip in an almost Asian style from his left boot, and held it up to the air in his left, waving up his primary wand in his right. "I'd like to keep these, if you don't mind?"

The dagger was positively harmless looking as compared to the other weapons he had strewn down- almost ornamental. Didn't matter- if Fred had it, then he wouldn't need a Swiss knife. Regardless, his eyes scoped out the remaining instruments on the table, espying a short, thick looking one right at the corner.

Charlottle was annoyed.
Apperently she had to come here. And she was the Head of Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic in England!
Though she barely got out any more.
Paperwork was her life.
And this Lee Shepered guy she was having strange suspisions about.
As Lee anncouced the need to empty their pockets and bags Charlottle groaned.
She reached into her pants her arms dissipering into the pocket(she had done that enlarging spell or what not on it after all. And started pulling out objects.
A really long climbing rope, stoppers, climbing clip, gum, a book, extra clothes, her iphone, her computer, paperwork, files, and many other strange objects.
People stared at her.
"What!" She said. "I enlarged them and I put a feather light charm on them and carry so many things in them. It was more efficent I found." Charlottle smiled for what felt like the zillionth time that day and continued taking out other objects such as matches, and a gun.
How'd that get in there? Charlottle wondered, shrugged then continued on.
After emptying her pockets out, she went over to the swiss army knives to inspect them. She loved the standards.
But a couple extra tools would be handy.
Standard would be fine.
Better quality anyways.
So Charlottle grabbed a knife.
And headed over to a person named Lee.
"Excuse me!" Charlottle said. And tapped Lee on the sholder. And of course he turnned around.
"Yes?" He said. Looking rather trepidatious that she would be here.
"Hello. My name is Charlottle Morgan. I'm the new Head of the Department of Law Enforcement in England. And I just wanted to introduce myself. And I wanted to ask a question. Are we going to by any chance be visiting California? I love rock climbing and I havn't had time to visit Yosemite and clinb it yet. And I thought that we might be traveling around for a better trainning experience. And I also just wanted to clinb El Capitan."
Charlottle smiled and waited paciently for an awenser as Lee tried to come up with one.

Lee watched Ms. Morgan emptying her pockets. He was amused. He didn't say anything until she finished laying her things on the table. Then he motioned to one of the lodge staff members.

"Welcome, Ms. Morgan," he smiled warmly. "You're just in time. Thank you for emptying you pockets. I'll have your things secured while we're gone from the lodge and returned to you when we come back in. And the same goes for anyone else who has things they need stored until we come back inside.

"Bag up Ms. Morgan's things, please," he told the staff member. "Then lock them in the lodge safe for safe keeping until the camp is overwith. She won't be needing them. I presume you kept your wand, Ms. Morgan? Is there anything you need for dressing warmly? We will be outside for this training camp. This is a winter survival experience. You may dress warmly to go outside, but you may only take whatever clothing you are wearing when we leave. You cannot take any extra clothes along, and the only things you can take with you are your wand and that knife.

"As for your training experiences, I don't think we'll be going to California, but you will have plenty of time to get in a good workout. I don't want to spoil the surprises, but I'm sure you'll do just fine in whatever we do for the next few days. If we do any climbing, Professor Tremaine will supervise those exercises."

"And that does bring me to a good point that I should mention for those who perhaps arrived late," Lee said. "You will all notice that not everyone present on this training exercise is an auror. That has been deliberate. The citizens who have joined you were asked to do so because of their particular skills. You are to treat them as fellow teammates.

"So far, your community teammates are Professor Michael Tremaine and Ms. Jack Dyllan, and Mr. Fred Weasley. Welcome to you all. We're glad to have your knowledge with us."

Marcus greeted everyone in the room. Glad I got that over with. He wanted to come here, do what he had to do, and get back to England. The American cold was unbearable. He went over to the table and grabbed a Swiss Army Knife as instructed. What kind of task would they be doing? Hopefully he could keep his coat on.

Lee explained who the community teammates were. Any other time he would have questioned why they were here, but he decided it was a matter best left untouched. Marcus almost forgot to empty his pockets of possessions. The only thing that was in there was his cell phone that Arabella taught him how to use.

"Very well, then, Ladies and Gentlemen," Lee said. "Your collective task is this: survive in the wilderness with your wits, your wands, and each other. This is about teamwork, quick thinking, and skill.

"The obstacles you will face are designed to test your skills not just as wizards and witches but also as fighters. Some may test your physical abilities. Some may best your intellect. Some may test your speed or your willingness to help one of your teammates.

"Some obstacles will be merely illusion, and some may be very real indeed. For those of you who haven't been on one of these exercises before, a word of advice. Do not presume that the risks have been minimized because it is only a training exercise. If a challenge looks like it presents life threatening risk, its because it does.

"And here is your first task. There is a 'threat' on the grounds. The only background information you have is that livestock has been coming up missing from the grounds and is presumed dead. At 9 am yesterday morning, one of the gardeners was reported missing. She did not show up for her 7 am shift at the greenhouse on the grounds for work. No one has seen her or heard from her.

"Her name is Megan Wickersham. She's an herbologist, and she's 19. Here's a photo of her," Lee handed them each a small photograph of her. "She's been training here to advance her knowledge, and she's been living in the staff housing building. Oh--that's the large three story building that's west of the barn. And for those of you who haven't spotted it yet, the barn is west as well. Or--its that way." Lee pointed off in the direction behind him. "The greenhouse is south of the barn. Find the threat and see if you can determine what's happened to Ms. Wickersham

"A word about the estate. You are in the mountains, and the estate is very large indeed. There are paved trails--somewhere underneath all this snow. You'll find not merely deep woods, but quite a bit of rocky terrain, some caves, and there are several places where the land drops off into the gorge. Watch your step.

"You may use anything you can find as sources of survival, except from supplies form inside the buildings. Feel free to hunt, fish, scavage from the plantlife, build,...whatever you decide you need.

"When and if you complete this task, your next task will begin. Questions?"