Here we go, just like the title says...Thanks once again for the splendiferous work by Lady Starlight on
this chapter... And yeah, I still don't own anything really.
Chapter 41: An Unexpected Offer
****************************Ministry of Magic****************************
February 15, 1998
10:00 am.
Harry appeared silently in a trash-strewn alley next to a battered and broken phone box. Several panes of glass were missing from the graffiti-covered box, the receiver was dangling from a mostly severed cord, and the door seemed to be hanging by one hinge. Harry looked to his right as Hermione appeared next to him, soundlessly, and gave him a small, melancholy look. He waved her to the booth, and held the door open for her before he squeezed into it next to her. Under other circumstances...
I'm glad you didn't get such ideas fifth year, Hermione retorted with a tiny smile. Her expression faded as she realized what she had said. Harry just shook his head and squeezed her hand, before twisting enough to dial 6-2-4-4-2 on the ancient, rotary dial.
A soft, feminine voice filled the booth, "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your names and reasons for your visit."
"Harry Potter and Hermione...Granger," Harry replied into the receiver, catching himself in the nick of time, "Meeting with Auror Tonks."
Two badges fell from the change tray, "Please wear the badges at all times within the Ministry. All visitors are required to submit their wands for examination at the Security Desk at the end of the Atrium." The booth began to slowly lower into the ground, "Have a nice day and welcome to the Ministry of Magic."
The booth reached the Atrium and opened, and the two of them stepped out. Ron had not wanted to come, as he wanted to return to Quidditch practice for his game the next weekend. He was rather pleased as he had Ginny back to play, even though the majority of her housemates still refused to talk to her. She was taking the silence stoically. Ron had returned to Hogwarts with Ginny, Neville, Parvati and Lavender this morning. Remus had arrived moments later, taking Draco to wherever the Lycan had set up for the keeping of the ex-Slytherin. In the end, it had been decided that it would have been much less cruel to Kedavra Draco, than have him return to school, and Harry was adamant that Draco would not stay in Grimmauld if he were not there.
Hermione took his hand and allowed him to lead her past the Fountain of Magical Brethren, which she glared at, and towards the Security Desk. A sharp breath escaped from Harry's throat as he looked up and saw not only Tonks, who today, was in her 'natural' form, long black hair tied back in a tail, revealing multiply pierced ears, but another pair of familiar faces standing with her at the Security Desk, waiting for them. Her black eyes glittered softly as she glanced up at the tall, black wizard next to her, and then at a thin, balding red-haired man in simple black robes on her other side.
An old witch glowered at Harry and Hermione as they finished crossing the distance to Tonks, Kingsley and Arthur, muttering under her breath about 'Muggle-lovers'. A comment probably attendant to the fact that both teens were wearing jeans and t-shirts, a short white one in Hermione's case, and a black one with the WWW logo in Harry's case under armored Dragonhide jackets. Hermione glared at the old crone, the witch shut up, rapidly boarded a lift and vanished into the depths of the Ministry.
Harry gave Tonks a smile as he approached the desk. He started to draw his wand, "That won't be necessary, Eric," Arthur said quietly to the guard, "Mr. Potter and Miss Granger, are to have class A security access from now on, please log it." The guard turned and looked at the new Minister skeptically, but nodded and noted the order in the log. Hermione looked to Harry, her jaw hanging slightly slack, her eyes wide. Tonks and Kingsley did not seem surprised, however. They just nodded and turned towards the lifts as Arthur took a step towards Harry and Hermione. He frowned for an instant, before he reached out and pulled the two of them in for quick hug, "Come with me to my office, I would like to speak with you both."
Harry looked to Hermione, with a puzzled expression as they boarded the lift with the two Aurors and the Minister of Magic. Hermione reached over and brushed her fingers against his, Harry...Class A security clearance is the same as an active Auror...it entitles the bearer to skip the security checks in the Ministry. Harry's inquisitive look hardened and she shrugged, and waved towards Arthur.
After several moments of silence, broken only by the rumble and clatter of the elderly lift, the car stopped and the door opened. Harry and the rest followed Arthur through a large waiting room, past four uniformed agents on guard, an inordinately busy-looking secretary shuffling files and through a heavy oak door carved with the seal of the Ministry under an inscribed crown. Arthur waited until they had all entered before he closed the door, which Harry had noticed was several inches thick as he had passed. Arthur muttered a spell on the door; it sealed and closed with a loud squelch. The walls flashed white, then red, then white again, before fading to rich, dark oak paneling as Arthur seated himself behind an absolutely huge desk.
Behind the eldest Weasley, a false window showed a peaceful scene of the snow-covered woods outside of the Burrow, Harry knew it well as he, Ron and Hermione had played Quidditch in that very clearing. A large picture was set on a shelf under the window, the picture was several years old, and Harry bit back a sudden spike of emotion that snapped through him and Hermione as he saw that both of them were crowded together, in with the rest of the Weasley family, even Percy. Harry closed his eyes as he remembered that picture, it had been taken at the Burrow right before the beginning of fourth year, after the events of the World Cup, but they still thought, back then, that everything would be alright.
"Harry," Kingsley's deep voice rumbled from the side, Harry and Hermione looked up at him, waiting, "I...want to apologize...Albus trusted you, Alastor did as well, I shouldn't have doubted you." The huge man shrugged, his hands in his pockets as he looked down towards Harry.
Harry stood and walked to him, he held out his hand, and Kingsley took it, "Don't worry about it...I'm not always certain that they should have...we just have to do our best, and hope we live up to their standards."
"Well said, Harry," Arthur put in and waved towards the chairs facing his desk. Harry returned to the one next to Hermione. Arthur pulled a box from a drawer of his desk before leaning back and folding his hands in front of his face. "What I am about to say, does not leave this office, possibly not even to the ears of my youngest...natural son," they nodded at the implied question and waited as Minister Weasley sat gathering his thoughts. "To be perfectly honest, Harry, Hermione, I am in a precarious situation. I find myself the third Minister to fight the same war, with the least resources of all of them. Fudge squandered time and gold, trying to fit the facts to his own agenda; while my predecessor...he had problems of his own. He was, however, I think, about to turn the corner on his efforts, which is why He-Who-Can't-Be-Named, had him killed."
Harry and Hermione carefully did not look at each other, they had vowed to keep the youngest Weasley's, and by extension Draco's, involvement in the attempted assassination, secret. Draco had never admitted it in the questioning, but Harry had started to suspect that Draco had sabotaged that attempt himself, possibly to save Ginny from the Headsman, if it came to it.
"My problems are twofold, really," Arthur continued, "First, I was a compromise candidate, I'm heading what the Muggles call a 'coalition government', which basically means both parties screwed up enough, that everyone needs to stand/hang together to keep the citizens from throwing us all out on our ears. I have people from both sides, both the ones who deep down don't happen to think that Lord Thingy is so bad, and the others that think that the only good Death Eater is a dead one..." he shrugged as he stood and looked out the fake window to his home several hours north of here. "And that's not even going into the whole Muggle debate, and my known, shall we say, fondness for them." He turned back to them and gave Hermione a small smile, which she returned.
"What does all this have to do with us, Arthur?" Harry asked after a moment's silence.
Arthur sighed and looked to his two Aurors, Tonks walked around to stand next to the desk, "It's the other problem that the Ministry has," she commented, "Hermione, how many Aurors is the Ministry authorized to have on staff at any given time, go ahead and include MLE officers as well."
Hermione frowned slightly, thinking, "If the public records are correct, and if I remember the pamphlets correctly," she extemporized, "Somewhere around a thousand for the two services, not counting the other enforcement arms like the Dark Artifact branch," she put in, looking at Arthur.
"When we started this fight," Kingsley rumbled, "there were three hundred Aurors and maybe as many MLE officers both here and abroad in the protectorates such as Hong Kong. Now," he looked at Arthur, who nodded, "there are fewer than one hundred surviving Aurors in England, with another fifty or so abroad, and most of them we can't afford to bring home. The foreign Ministries are not going to commit forces, when they have already started to see attacks by the Dark Forces."
Two pairs of eyes widened slightly as they did the math, and Arthur shrugged once more, "From the records that we have managed to obtain, the ones that were not destroyed, it seems that during Fudge's reign, it wasn't that the Ministry couldn't find adequate candidates, but rather there were many who, for whatever reason, were deemed, unsuitable by this office."
"But why?" Harry asked, straightening in his chair, he looked over at Hermione to find an equally puzzled look on her face.
"Honestly," Kingsley replied from behind as he walked around to lean against a bookcase to the side, "those of us actually in the corps have wondered about that for years. There were always rumors that Fudge was...persuaded to keep the ranks low, so that certain situations would not be able to be investigated too ably."
"You mean, the Malfoy affairs wouldn't be," Tonks sniped.
Kingsley nodded, drew his wand and started to roll it between the palms of his hands. "Probably," he agreed, "and even with the best of intentions, Scrimgeour could not fix the shortfall in a year...it takes time, even with the current accelerated programs to fill the ranks-"
"And most rookies don't last that long," Tonks whispered.
Arthur returned to his chair and sat behind it, "Fudge's actions had another consequence. Scrimgeour was not the candidate that the Order wished to take the reigns. Originally, Albus wished for Amelia to run, but with the amount of discrediting Albus and you, Harry, were put through, there were still too many who didn't trust Albus' motives." Harry nodded, knowing that feeling all too well. "As a consequence, Scrimgeour was put forward and elected by a faction that did not trust Albus, especially the power base that they thought he was building. And as he and Scrimgeour had some history..." Arthur shook his head and put his hand on the box he had retrieved from his desk earlier.
He held his hand over the box, frowning and patting it lightly as he looked off into space. Over to the side, Tonks and Kingsley shared a look. Arthur nodded to himself, and looked over at Harry and Hermione. "What I plan on doing, right now, is of dubious legality, maybe, the barristers don't exactly agree on the breadth of my war-time powers, but honestly I do not care. I did not want this war," his light blue eyes hardened, as the tendons on the back of his hand as it tightened on the small, slightly larger than palm-sized box. "But I am bloody well going to win it, or die trying. The bastards have taken too much from all of us," he slid the box across his moderately cluttered desk to be stopped by Harry, "to be even contemplating not using every means at my disposal."
Harry opened the box...and froze. He handed it to Hermione; she reached in and withdrew a pair of badges. She shared a look with Harry, as she held the pair in the palm of her hand, both a deep, glossy black. She tilted her hand slightly; watching the light glint off the shield, each was imprinted with a small dragon holding a wand in its claws. A clear, faceted diamond served as the center of the badge with a line of runes that encircled it. The runes shimmered blue a moment then faded. "What?" Harry asked, befuddled.
Hermione did not look much better as she opened her mouth, closed it, and took a breath, "But we are still in school...we haven't taken our NEWTs..."
"You are the only weapon that can destroy V...Voldemort," Arthur countered softly. His eyes looked haunted as he watched their shocked expressions. "I do not know the particulars," he admitted, and gave Tonks an odd look, "and I doubt that even if you were working for the Ministry that you would admit just what you two and Ron have been up to this past summer and even before that. I know what it means to give your word...But I also believe that the papers are correct, even despite themselves, that you will be the one to end this if anyone can."
"Hermione's right," Harry whispered, "we are just..."
"What, Harry," Kingsley laughed bitterly, "kids..." he shook his head ruefully, "I said that once to Alastor, he about put me through a wall." He replaced his wand into a thigh holster and closed his long duster around his massive frame, "You and your partner there," he waved at Hermione, "along with several of your friends have as much as or more operational experience than many of the Aurors out there now. And you definitely have more so than the cadets and barely trained secondary personnel we are contemplating filling the ranks with."
Behind Arthur, in the window showing a vision of the woods outside of the Burrow, a light snow started to fall and several deer wandered across the image. "Before Alastor...died," Arthur's soft voice cut across Kingsley's deep one, "he spoke to me, I was about to bring him back as Head Auror, give him what he needed to fight this war...He said that he wanted you two. So I do."
Hermione looked over to Harry, and several long conversations passed in a glance. She looked down at the badges still held loosely in her hand, "Why just us two, why not..."
Arthur sighed and looked at his hands, "You mean, why not Ron, why not any of the other DA? Several reasons, first, my wife would kill me," all five of them cracked a small smile, "but more so, that Ron is in this because...he's your brother, and even beyond that, he's a Weasley in the oldest sense of the word. We were with your great, great-grandfather when he smashed Napoleon's wizard corps, and we will be with you now." Arthur looked up at them, "Ron wanted to be an Auror because he thought it cool, he's learned differently now..."
"Hey, it is cool," Tonks, objected.
Arthur ignored her, "However, if Ron wants that path, I will do what I can for him. I won't use my position to get him a job, but if what I hear from Minerva," he smiled slightly with an almost dazzled look to his mien, as if he couldn't quite believe his own ears as they listened to the words coming from his mouth, "he should do rather well on his NEWTs. In fact, she said that you two could take them tomorrow. Actually she said, if I remember properly, 'Granger could have taken them fifth year, OWLs were just a quiz'," Hermione flushed slightly, "and that, she was pleased beyond all measure that Potter and Weasley had finally decided to stop pretending they were average at best and actually study." He looked up to Kingsley as the large Auror coughed slightly.
"The NEWTs, frankly, are the Ministry's way of weeding the wheat from the chaff, they usually serve to show us the ones who show the intelligence and dedication for the tasks," Kingsley explained as Tonks frowned, no doubt thinking back of her hours and hours of study over dusty books in the Library. "You two, however, have a resume that makes much of that irrelevant."
"So, what, exactly, are you asking of us?" Harry asked softly even as he could feel a tiny jolt of elation as one of his dreams seemed to be handing itself to him on a platter. He felt Hermione's eyes tracking in parallel to his, looking first at Arthur, then at Kingsley, towards Tonks, and then back to Arthur completing the circuit.
Arthur nodded to Kingsley, who due to the rapid implosion of the Auror Corp's numbers was actually, technically second or third in command of the force now, and since Arthur's election to Minister, head of his Security, his 'Captain of the Guard' for all intents and purposes. "Both you and Hermione are down as 'pre-Auror' candidates. Not that that technically matters as the standard process would allow anyone to apply if grades were sufficient. You will each hold the acting rank of Lieutenant, because of the forces you control if nothing else, until the war is over, one way or another. You have already been trained to fight a war. If we win, then you will be put through a much accelerated course at the Academy to pick up what you need for standard procedures, and more police related matters, a year, tops, faster if you pick it up."
Hermione twisted slightly, crooking an eyebrow slightly and giving Harry a look that more that amply stated that she thought that would not be an issue. You are going to have all of that down by Wednesday, aren't you? Harry asked, already knowing her answer. He looked to the Minister of Magic, his best friend's father, and a man that at times had served that same function to both him and Hermione, "We agree-with a few conditions," Harry replied firmly, Arthur gave a small wave, enjoining Harry to continue. Harry did, "First, there are there are still things that we must keep secret, certain...tasks, that we have to still complete, that we can't discuss the nature of at this time. I promise that we will do what we can, but that, quest, for lack of a better term, is paramount. We are independent, at least in this, as soon as Tom dies, we will be glad to report to... "
"We can't be going out on raids and such, unless it is a particularly dire need," Hermione continued, as Arthur seemed to show immediate understanding, "We are still in...school. It is not that both of us think that the Order, DA, and the Ministry should not be attacking the Death Eaters at every opportunity, but we need to concentrate on our, um, quest," she repeated Harry's term, finding it apt, "and getting ready to face Voldemort." No one in the room even flinched at the name, as Arthur stood and extended his hand across the desk.
"If that is settled then?" Arthur looked at each of them, they both nodded slowly, "Welcome aboard, Agents Potter and..."
Hermione coughed, "It's actually Potter and Potter," she said softly, Arthur's eyes widened and he chuckled, as Tonks sniggered and Kingsley rolled his eyes slightly.
"Very well," Arthur replied, "Fidelius?" Hermione nodded, biting her lip slightly. He stood from behind his desk and pointed his wand at a bookshelf. With the creak of ancient hinges, a hidden doorway opened ponderously, exposing a brightly-lit, spiraling staircase, with the stairs moving ever downward in a mirror to the stairs to the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts, "I think that the two of you would like to sit in on Lucius' interrogation?"
***************Somewhere under the Ministry of Magic, London*****************
2:00 pm
Hermione stood, cradling a fragrant cup of coffee between her hands, and looking through a slightly shimmering, crystal-clear pane at an exhausted-looking, pale, tall blonde wizard in dingy black and white striped robes. A single cup of water and a discarded crust of bread sat unattended on a battered steel table, in the room she was looking into.
She watched as Lucius started to pace, only to pause and look around wildly, before beginning again. She knew that he could not see her, that in fact he could only see four blank walls and a grey ceiling and floor, with no window nor door. Hermione shrugged slightly and put her right hand on her hip, one finger tapping lightly on her new badge, which was clipped to the waistband of her jeans. She glanced back to the table in her room, where Tonks and Harry were both seated at the table, looking over a file.
Hermione walked back to the table, moved her jacket to the back of a chair next to Harry and sat down, scooting her chair until it was touching Harry's so she could read the file as well. She took another sip from her mug and looked up at Kingsley, who was still watching, staring at Lucius. "This is good, Shack, almost worth working for the Ministry," she quipped, yawning slightly.
Harry and Tonks grinned slightly as Kingsley snorted, "Be glad, we used to have to drink utter drek, I get that from a friend of mine in the Columbian Embassy." Shacklebolt took a sip from his own drink, "We've kept him awake since you brought him in last night, Tonks, what do you think?"
She shrugged slightly, "Wotcher, I don't know...blimey, he could have had a great shag and a ten hour nap, right before we bagged him. It's only been eighteen hours or so," she looked at Hermione and shared a small, odd look, "this may not be affecting him as of yet, he's still got the energy to pace." Hermione nodded, while her and Harry might be still ignorant of some of the procedures of the Auror Corps, most of that was in pure investigative work, and things like the proper paperwork, mostly the paperwork truth be told. After all, their entire purpose until the last Horcrux and Voldemort were destroyed was, in many ways, solving a grand mystery. The same man who had taught both Kingsley and Tonks, and whom the man in the cell had gloated of killing, among others, had schooled them in interrogations as well.
"So," Harry said slowly as he stretched in his chair, "Another day of this? Or?"
Kingsley sighed and turned from the still pacing ex-Slytherin to watch the other three, "If he were a normal Dark Wizard," Shacklebolt began, "I would have him under a Veritaserum drip already...but after what happened to Rookwood..." He shook his head at Harry and Hermione's slightly blank faces, "We weren't entirely unsuccessful under Scrimgeour, we caught Rookwood and a half dozen of the Initiates right before Christmas, I think it was the night of the Ministry Ball, in fact. We were able to break the low-level ones easily enough, but they barely knew what day it was, they didn't know anything of importance. But Rookwood, he was a different story. I think that he was the highest we had caught since the breakout at Azkaban, all the other ones that could be considered in the 'Inner Circle' that had been stopped had been killed. You two took out Dolohov and Snape and I got Smythe outside of Edinburgh in September, but he was the first that we had taken alive..."
"I wasn't there," Tonks added as Kingsley shuddered slightly, and looked back to the cell, "I was teaching switching spells to first years at that hour. But from the reports, he went insane as soon as first dose touched him, tore out the IV and attacked the Interrogator, he had to be stunned by four Agents, and when he woke again he was gone, no mind at all left, freaky it was."
"No," Kingsley went on, nodding, "for now, it's either continue this, or rather start to play with his diurnal cycles, we'll start that tomorrow, or if the Legilimens gets here soon, we will try to have him see what he can get." He waved as Harry and Hermione started to speak, "I know that one or both of you could do it, but for now, just in case, I would rather that he not see either of you, here. You never know, and if he thinks that last night was purely an Order operation with one of their tame Aurors along for the ride," he nodded at Tonks, "he might let something slip. He still has moles in the Ministry, that's why we waited until Sunday to let you two come by, it's less crowded and we have a better idea on who is in the building."
A soft knock sounded on the door to the small room and Kingsley crossed to open it. A small, mousy-looking wizard stood there, looking up at Kingsley. "You asked for a Legilimens, sir," he said up to the tall Auror. He looked at Harry and Hermione oddly, but did not comment.
Kingsley looked at the wizard, then waved towards the clear wall, "If you're ready, see what you can glean from surface thoughts first, Edgar." The wizard left through the door he had entered, a moment later, the room where Lucius was kept seemed to spin rapidly in a circle. Lucius staggered, and a doorway quickly opened and closed in the otherwise featureless walls, allowing the Legilimens to step in.
He quickly cast a spell at the Death Eater, and Lucius froze. With another flick of his wand, Edgar and Lucius' eyes locked. For several instants nothing happened, a muscle ticked in Lucius' cheek and the Legilimens' foot tapped impatiently on the white stone floor. Harry turned to Kingsley, "This is a bit..."
A sudden, cloying presence filled the room, and beyond, Lucius' mouth opened in a silent scream. The Legilimens fell to his knees clawing at his eyes and screaming. Harry staggered, his eyes suddenly shining bright as Lucius' eyes turned to the clear wall, as if he knew where Harry was standing. A sudden spike of fear hammered though Harry before he ruthlessly beat it down as Lucius' eyes turned a sullen, fiery red. Lucius clawed at his left sleeve tearing it away to show blood pouring from the Dark Mark on his arm.
Harry staggered slightly, the pain in his scar suddenly overwhelming. He glanced over to Hermione as he felt it lessen, her lip was in her teeth, her eyes glowing and slightly unfocused as she reached out and grabbed his shoulder. The pair of them looked together towards the interrogation room.
On Lucius' arm, the mark came alive, the serpent rose from the skull, entwining his body in tight coils. A flare of emerald fire erupted from the Dark Mark, spreading over Lucius' body. Screams echoed off the walls as the Death Eaters' body was engulfed in a pillar of green fire.
The Legilimens continued to scream, clawing at his eyes as the flare of fire faded away leaving only a stained spot on the otherwise spotless floor.
Harry looked over to Kingsley as a doorway opened in the room beyond and several wizards in the white robes of Ministry staff healers rushed into the room. "What the bloody, fucking hell was that?" the Auror roared, a wild look in his eye as the Medi-Wizards conjured a stretcher and restrained the Legilimens to it, before forcing his throat open and pouring a vial of Dreamless Sleep potion down it.
"I'd say that Lucius failed his master a few times too many," Hermione replied softly, as she and Harry leaned together in a corner, panting slightly. "Probably put a failsafe ward of some sort in the Dark Mark, to prevent any of his inner circle from having their memories read."
"Or perhaps just him," Harry muttered, standing fully and moving slowly to the door, he looked at Tonks, "We should probably be getting back, I suppose," he said slowly, "seeing as there isn't much of anything to be doing here and all." His voice held no discernable emotion, but he already knew he would be seeing those flames tonight. "How are you going to explain his..."
Kingsley shrugged, "Since we had not yet admitted that he was in custody, we will probably plant some false story in the papers and modify Narcissa's memories and let her go, hope she leads us to the Death Eaters. What story is up this week, Tonks?"
"I always liked the rogue Hippogriff," she replied darkly. She looked to Harry, "But you are right, we should get to Hogwarts, let Minerva know what has happened."
There we go, next chapter the return of Draco, and several...conversations.