Inell's Fanfiction Archive

They all think they’re so special, walking around like they own the place. Eric sits at his desk and watches them come and go with their fancy regulation robes and smug attitudes. Just because they’re Aurors, they think they’re special and invincible. It’s like a disease, really. They start off wide-eyed and hard-working, polite and friendly to everyone because they want to make a good impression, but then it strikes and eats away at them until they become arrogant and careless. He knows how it works from experience, after all.

He’s been at this desk for nearly twenty years now, and he’s lost count of how many security clearances are removed because they get too cocky for their own good and end up dead or permanently residing at St. Mungos. A limited few manage to avoid becoming infected by the superiority syndrome, and those he can overlook as an exception to the general rule. The others, though, are just waiting to fall. If they’re blessed, they’ll survive their failure with their mind still intact, but it will be the proof of their weaknesses that drives them slowly mad and makes them bitter, twisted shells of their former glory.

Eric watches Shacklebolt prance through the Atrium and scowls. It won’t be long, he thinks, before the shoulders slump and smirk becomes a sneer as self-disgust consumes the proud. Too conceited to see his shortcomings and be prepared to defend against his faults. He’ll be on an assignment soon, Eric knows, confident that he has everything under control and then it will happen in the blink of the eye. It will all be gone, and he’ll realize that he’s not so bloody special after all.

When it finally happens, if Shacklebolt is lucky, maybe there will be an opening for a Watchwizard. Eric looks away from the current favored Auror and checks the wand of a visiting French dignitary. It’s not the daring job that once had him considered the favored of the department, but it’s all he has left. He knows that peacock-blue robes aren’t as fancy as his old Auror robes. However, they can still be worn with pride.

End