Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, Harry and Hermione would be married right now.
A/N: My take on the challenge "Secrecy" by reptilia, you can find the requirements here: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26369 . Hope you'll like it, and if you read, please review to let me know how I'm doing ok? Thanks!
Secret Wizards
Chapter Three: Seven Years Later
"Fine!" an enraged Ginny Potter shouted, slamming the door shut.
Harry rubbed his eyes wearily. It had become an habit that every time he and Ginny talked, they would end shouting at each other. He didn't know why, to be truthful, although he started to suspect it, and the thought was upsetting, to say the least.
But after all, he had witnessed the same thing roughly an year before.
Ron and Hermione's marriage had never been a quiet one, they had always been known by everyone as the "bickering couple" since their Hogwarts days, when many guessed their fights were a mere cover for their feelings for each other.
When the two of them had hooked up, many smugly thought they had been right all along, and their belief was strengthened by the wedding. Once married, Harry's two best mates didn't change much their way to deal with each other, but their families and friends were sued to it, so nobody was worried when they would find them fighting.
After some years, though, the fights had begun to escalate in length and strength. They would more often insult each other and end hurting their feelings. Thank Merlin they didn't have children, Harry mused, otherwise it wouldn't have been a pretty sight for the munchkins to witness their parents throwing insults at each other.
More than once Hermione had come to see him afterwards, as she always did when in school, and he had comforted her, silently starting to wonder if his two best friends did the right thing getting married in the first place. It was with no real surprise to him then, when one day he found out that Hermione had started wondering the same thing.
Ginny of course would side with her brother most of the time, which enraged Harry to no end. Of course, at times he sided with his best mate too, when he reckoned he was the one who was right, and tried to make Hermione see his point, with his notorious kindness and gentleness. He didn't always succeed, but he did fairly often.
However, the fact that Ginny could be so hostile to someone who was supposed to be her best female friend, led to fights of their own between Ginny and Harry, adding to the fights they often had about his job.
Ginny had never gotten over the fact that the topic was off limits, that he couldn't tell her a thing about it, and that he had often to be away from home for long periods, and didn't lose occasion to spit it in his face.
Another thing that annoyed the redhead to no end was that Harry was nowhere near to be ready to be a parent.
"It's been six years, Harry" she often reminded him. "Six years we have been married and we still are childless"
"I don't see Ron or Hermione fretting over it, though, and they have been married for longer than us" he had reasoned, till his best mates were still married. Ginny glared at him, stomping away muttering something about him always bringing Hermione into the mix. He shrugged.
Since the divorce, though, Ginny had been much more determined to "tie him down" with a baby. Probably she felt their own marriage drifting into dangerous waters and wanted to have something to keep it going, to not have it end like Ron and Hermione's.
Harry, though, thought that bringing a child into the world with those premises was plainly wrong. So, he always refused to approach the subject and when Ginny did, he coldly told her to stop pestering him about it.
Which led to her slamming the door of his study shut just moments before, walking away shouting at him.
Taking a look at his watch, he noticed he had no time to dwell on the matter. Their boss had summoned him and Hermione at ten o'clock, and he had just few spare minutes. He would deal with Ginny and her stubbornness once he was back.
Apparating away to the Ministry, he quickly made his way to the lifts.
"Good morning, Harry" a well known voice greeted him. Turning, he spotted Hermione, her hair collected in a ponytail, her usual work attire of white shirt, trousers and a sweater on. He grinned.
"Good morning, Mione" he said, and he swore he saw an hint of a blush creep to her cheeks as he realized he had been slightly staring at her. Which, of course, made him blush a bit himself.
Once they were alone, walking to the corridor of the Department of Mysteries their offices were located in, she spoke, safe that she wouldn't be overheard, or at least not by people who shouldn't know about the anti-terrorist group the two of them were part of.
"Wonder what Hanlemore was so worked up about" she said, casting a side glance at Harry, and noticing his face hardening.
"Whatever it is, it can't be good" he said. "The man seemed quite preoccupied"
They were soon sitting in front of the aforementioned man, who began pacing the room nervously.
"Secret Wizards Granger, Potter. We have some kind of emergency to assess. We have sure information that Ethan Frikplask, top of our list of suspected terrorists, is in Australia, precisely in the Sydney area. We do not know what he is planning to do there, but we know where he is staying. As you know, over the years since this group being founded, we have gained jurisdiction over all the world, being the only anti-terrorist Wizard force of this kind on Earth, so we will be able to prevent any harmful action he might be planning if we can capture him.
Problem is, we have no proof against him, so I need the two of you to go undercover to Australia, find dirt on the man and then arrest him. Possibly, without getting yourself killed" he added then, with a pointed stare to Harry, who had a certain tendency to dive head first in the line of danger.
The raven haired wizard had the decency to blush, knowing he was a bit reckless when it came to arrest dangerous wizards, or Muggles for that matter, as they had stopped more than a couple terrorist actions in the Muggle world too, over the years.
"I've prepared two files for you to learn the details of the mission, and I'd be grateful if the two of you settled to work on it immediately because we are on kind of a tight schedule here" their boss added.
"When do we leave?" Hermione asked, taking her file and passing Harry the other one.
"Tomorrow, at dawn"
Both looked at their boss as he was mad.
"You mean we have to learn everything about the people we are going to impersonate by heart, work on the details of the operation, and pack, all in twenty hours?" Harry blurted out.
When Hanlemore nodded, serious, Harry muttered, "That's a new record, even for this group"
"I agree, Potter. That's why I chose you and Granger for it. You will provide top teamwork, and I trust that you won't blow your cover up once there, leading to a successful arrest. You two are, after all, the best I've got" Hanlemore said, with a slight smile that was returned.
Once out of the room, Hermione started reading the info on their undercover selves, and gasped.
"Harry, we have to pose as a married couple!" she exclaimed.
He looked at her, then at the file in his hand, and there was the confirmation he needed.
They were to pose as Mr. and Mrs. Glenson, newlyweds. The fact that they were wizard and witch provided them with longer life, so to Muggles they would seem at most 25 years old, which went well for them posing as newlyweds. That was not what worried Harry.
He already had a wife, and in this assignment he would have to show physical affection for Hermione to keep the cover up, and lots of it since newlyweds were supposed to be madly in love with each other and barely able to keep their hands off each other.
Was it considered cheating?
He had no time to think about it. Thirty pages to learn by heart about the habits and life of Mr. John Glenson was no easy task.
He and Hermione stayed all day locked in his office, studying the files and taking turns in asking questions to each other, to test their knowledge of the part they had to play.
It was well after midnight when he got home, knackered. Luckily for him, Ginny was already asleep, which avoided him a round of questions on where had he been all day, why was he home so late, and such.
Crashing on the couch, his last coherent thought was that he would have to endure her shouts enough in the morning when he would tell her he was leaving.
And right he was, because her bellowing when he told her that over breakfast would have made Molly proud.
He finally had enough, so he set his mug of coffee in the sink, setting it to wash itself, then he left, ignoring her shouts, to pack something for the trip.
Considering that Australia was rather warm that part of the year, contrary to England where winter was just starting to settle, he packed all his summer clothes and swimming trunks too. The fact wasn't missed by Ginny, who had followed him into their bedroom.
"Going on a little vacation, are you?" she spitefully said. He glared at her and if looks could kill, Ginny would be dead.
"It's work. You know I can't tell you more so don't ask" he said, before she could even open her mouth. Then, he flung the bag over his shoulder, checked that he had his wand and everything he might need, and Apparated to the Ministry, leaving a fuming Ginny behind. He quickly made the trip to their boss' office, and found Hermione already there.
"You are early" he stated, taking in her appearance. She was wearing a simple pale blue shirt, and a pair of black trousers. A grey sweater completed the mix. However, as simple as her attire may be, he found that she was quite pretty.
She sheepishly grinned. "Was a bit excited" she admitted, looking down, and heard him chuckle. Looking up, she locked eyes with him, and grinned too.
"If you two are comfortable enough" their boss interjected entering the room, "this is your supply of potions for the mission. Improved Polyjuice, lasts ten hours instead of one, you have fifty vials of it each," he explained showing them the stacks of vials. "All of them are unbreakable so don't worry about bringing one or two around with you all time"
It was just obvious, Harry thought. They couldn't go as themselves, lest someone recognized them and blew their cover. However, he was impressed with the potion. It was ten times more efficient, and it wasn't an easy feat to obtain, the Ministry potion masters had to have worked very hard on it.
Their supply of potions was completed with Blood Replenishing, Never Tired and Confusing ones. There were also two vials of Veritaserum, one each.
Then, they were showed the surveillance devices they would have available. There were micro cameras, enhanced to work in magic environment, improved Extendable Ears which worked at up to a mile distance, without need for a cable to link the two ends, of course, this was a new feat from Fred and George who were their best suppliers with that kind of tricks, Peruvian Instant Blackness Powder in case they were in need of an hasty retreat, a special potion to allow them to see through the darkness of the powder, or any blackness to tell the truth, a cell phone that could be used as wand holster, so they would be able to shelter their wand inside it, and have it in their hands ready to shoot even if they were walking amongst Muggles, and, directly from the proud owners of WWW, Trust-Me bracelets. They had already inserted the info of their target into the identical bracelets, and when they wore them, Ethan Frikplask would be compelled to trust them, no matter what. Should be handy to enter his good graces and get close enough to spy on him, Fred and George reckoned. However the note told them to not overdo the bracelets because they were still in testing so there was no guarantee of how much workload they could go through before suddenly becoming ineffective.
Then, the twins had worked with the Ministry to develop some Portable Anti-Apparition, Anti-Floo and Anti-Portkey Wards. They just needed to throw the spheres on the ground or the building they wanted to ward. Last object was an Immediate Post Pit, a black cylinder that would allow them to send anything directly to their boss' table without having to rely on owls. Better for secrecy, and quicker.
Gathering everything and putting it in a purse like the one they used in the Horcrux hunt, Hermione finally stood, and smiled at Harry, who quickly dropped his shrunken Firebolt in the bag too.
"Shall we go then?"
He nodded and followed her out of the room, ready to start this adventure.
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