Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Harry Potter Universe, and I am not getting paid for this.
Many, many, many thanks (and a pie sized cookie) to Aerileigh, especially considering the limited amount of time I gave her.
~~~~~~~~
The softness against her back lulled her into an almost comatose state. She could hear the rhythmic sound of the Muggle ceiling fan whirring above her, and the cool air caused her to snuggle under the luxuriously soft comforter. A small breathy sigh escaped her lips, and she turned on her side, eyes closed. The exhaustion of the day seemed to seep out of her, and she began to drift off into the land of dreams. She could almost smell the salt from the ocean and feel the sand beneath her toes. But just as she went to clench her toes into the soft, beige grains, she was pulled from her dream by a rapid beeping noise.
"That can't be right," she groaned miserably. "I set the alarm for four hours from now."
She rolled over and saw a glowing red coin on the table next to her. A code red meant that there was an emergency. A half-laugh, half-sob escaped her lips as she ran her hands through her red hair and sat up in bed. Her body felt impossibly heavy as she grudgingly got out of bed and crossed the room, shoving her hands through the sleeves of the closest article of clothing she could find. The long-sleeved shirt coupled with a pair of low-slung jogging pants left a small amount of skin showing, but the redhead was past caring. With a sigh, she shoved her feet into a pair of clunky boots, pulled on a jacket, and grabbed hold of the coin. She tapped her wand to the coin and held on as a familiar sucking feeling pulled at her navel. Moments later, she appeared in a darkened alley to find two people already there.
"Ginny, why do you look like you're going jogging to a motorcycle club?"
"It's lovely to see you too, Astoria." Ginny smoothed back her hair, which she had thrown into a haphazard ponytail, and eyed the blonde in front of her with a small amount of distaste. "We left headquarters not thirty minutes ago. I can't possibly be needed for another assignment."
Astoria made a small motion with her head, directing Ginny's attention to the other person standing in the alley. His immobilizing stare and imposing presence would make any wandering Muggle or Wizard cower in fear and run in the other direction, but Marcus Flint did not scare Ginny Weasley-not anymore at least. She clearly recalled one moment in her first year when she had been stuck alone in a hallway with him-she ran. But gone was the scared Ginny Weasley; the pissed-off Ginny had replaced her.
"He knows. I do not," Astoria said.
"I needed a decent three-man team, Weasley," Marcus snapped. "Now pull yourself together and let's go. If you don't dally, you can be home to your twin bed in no time."
"Did you just say dally?" Ginny said, snorting.
"How do you know she has a twin bed?" asked Astoria with a raised eyebrow.
Ginny wrinkled her nose, laughter gone. "Flint wishes."
In truth, he wasn't bad looking. His line of work had gotten him injured more than once, and after one particularly bad face injury he'd had to regrow all his teeth. Someone (Ginny strongly suspected it was Astoria) had told them not to set his teeth back to their original glory, and he woke up with straightened teeth. The girls who flocked towards him didn't seem to mind, and Flint wasn't the type of man to care what he looked like. Once his teeth were fixed, his handsomeness really showed. He wasn't overtly handsome, but he had good bone structure. He was well-built, and, more than once, Ginny had admired his large, muscular physique during training.
"Wandering Eyes Weasley," Marcus taunted.
"Oh shut up. That was one time, and I was extremely tired," Ginny said, unable to prevent the heat from rushing to her cheeks. "There was nothing for me to look at anyway."
"I have the sense of smell of a wolf-"
"I thought you said no one was in there," Astoria said scandalously, eyes drifting between Ginny and Marcus. "You get naked in the locker room, Marcus? We girls tend to wait until we get to the showers."
Ginny didn't want to think too much about that particular time. She hadn't meant to see that Marcus Flint was extremely well-endowed, and she couldn't help her physical reaction. She was female and perfectly in her rights to feel that way, especially considering that, at that time, the only male warming her bed was her cat, Jax. It was a normal reaction, and she didn't have any feelings whatsoever towards Flint, except for that of a fellow, respected team member.
"This is ridiculous," Ginny exclaimed, raising her hands in defeat when Astoria prodded her with questions. "Flint has large dick. I was a woman who hadn't been shagged in ages, and I was tired. I took a mental picture and walked out the room. Now can we please get to this assignment?"
Astoria nudged Ginny with her arm. "Naughty, Ginny."
Marcus grinned with genuine amusement. "If I would have known, Weasley, I might have invited you in for a hot shower."
"Poke fun at the horny girl," Ginny said, hands on her hip. "Is this what you dragged me out of my extremely comfortable double bed?"
"It's a simple snatch and grab," Flint said casually.
"If it was simple, we would leave it to the Aurors," Astoria joked.
"Aurors don't like to get their hands dirty anymore, Astoria. We're the ones doing field work these days," Marcus said. "That's why we Hit Wizards are the ones with the hospital beds pre-reserved at St. Mungo's-"
"And the shit pay," Ginny said, causing Astoria to let out a short peal of laughter. "Back to the mission, I really hope you're not going to say-"
"We'll head back to headquarters and do a bit of paperwork when we're through," Marcus said, a small smirk on his face. "What were you hoping I wasn't going to say?"
"You know you're both going to saddle me with the paperwork. So let's not kid ourselves here," Ginny said, a tinge of disgust in her voice. "It's what I get for working with a bunch of Slytherins."
"No, Ginny, it's what you get for having decent handwriting," Astoria said, patting her gently on the back. "I'll bring you breakfast."
"Thanks, Astoria," Ginny replied sardonically. "The assignment?"
Marcus gave them the rundown of a routine assignment. Two men who had been suspected of Death Eater activity during the Second War were hiding out in a nearby warehouse. Usually, suspected Death Eaters were not high on their priority list, but these two men were dabbling in some illegal trading, which made them not only suspects, but criminals. The Aurors wanted to interview them in hopes of getting them to admit to their current crimes as well as squeeze out some information about any past crimes they may have committed. Under a new law passed by the new Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, any suspected Death Eaters could be questioned under Veritasserum. It had led them to many confirmations and incarcerations.
"Are we ready?" Marcus held up his wand to take down the wards that had been shielding them from view. "We should be in and out in less than ten minutes. Astoria tracked their signal here before we summoned you."
"Let's go," Ginny said tiredly.
She rubbed the heel of her palm against her right eye, hoping to rub the small amount of blurriness away. Ginny was both physically and mentally exhausted. The amount of work Hit Wizards had to take on in the current political climate led to a large workload, and Ginny found herself working long hours on assignments as well as behind a desk sorting out paperwork. It wasn't that the Aurors weren't working-they just weren't working on things that actually mattered. These days Hit Wizards didn't just capture criminals; they worked on tracking down dark wizards and apprehending them, a job that Aurors used to do. Hit Wizards were simply the net that caught the fish; they weren't supposed to be the fisherman planning the capture and picking the spot. Now though, things were different.
"Ginny!"
She snapped from her thoughts and inhaled the salty air of the dock. "I'm ready."
"Are you sure?" Marcus cocked an eyebrow, seemingly worried about her dazed state. "Maybe I should send you-"
"I'm here. I wouldn't have come if I couldn't take the assignment." Not entirely true, but she wasn't going to tell him she was lying. "Can we just get the bastards so I can at least go sit in a chair at the office?"
Marcus nodded and waved his wand in an intricate motion. Immediately, Ginny was assaulted by a strong gust of wind. She could now hear the sound of the water lapping against the boats in the harbor. They were by some Muggle docks, with a row of warehouses along the shore. They weaved their way through large metal containers, Marcus in front and Ginny in the back. Astoria was the middleman, the tracker. While they scoured the area, they protected Astoria, giving her time to do her job and track the magical trace of whoever they would be capturing. Ginny couldn't remember the names. Sometimes, they just weren't important.
A creaking sound caused Marcus to halt, and Ginny turned around, scanning the area for any sign of movement. There was nothing, and Marcus whispered that it must have been the wind. But Ginny didn't know if she believed him. Goosebumps were slowly rising on her arms, and she suddenly got the feeling that they were being watched by someone. As they walked away, the feeling got stronger, and her eyes danced from side to side, her body tense and ready to pounce at even the slightest movement.
"They're over there." Astoria pointed her wand in the direction of the dirtiest warehouse along the row. It looked to be abandoned, but the glow of Astoria's wand showed it reeked of magic. "Are we going to burst into the front door?"
They approached the large warehouse, and Marcus motioned for them to scout out the building. Ginny walked to one side, checking for any sign of a door or a window and finding none. She reported back to Marcus, who informed them there was a smaller door at the back. That left the large loading doors and the smaller entrance door next to the loading doors.
"The loading doors will be the least likely escape route," Marcus whispered as they hid at the side of the building with no doors or windows. "But there is the smaller door to worry about at the front."
"I'll stay here. You and Ginny can burst through the back door," Astoria said simply. "The first place they would go is through the back."
"Right, they would expect people to come in from the front, not the back," Ginny added. "The back gives them access to boats and water. They could easily jump in the water, and we would never be able to find them in the dark."
"The back entrance is more important to protect," Astoria said firmly.
"You stay out here. When the coin heats up, count to three and burst in," Marcus ordered. "Got it?"
Astoria nodded. "Yes."
Ginny squeezed Astoria's arm, her wish of good luck, before following Marcus to the back of the warehouse. Ginny pointed at a window and snuck under it, slowly peeking inside the room. She ducked her head down as soon as she got a good look and nodded to Marcus to follow her to the door. There was no one on the docks, the entire area darkened, except the dim glow of a lamp further down the boardwalk.
"There are four men inside at a table in the center of the room. It looks like they're playing Exploding Snap," Ginny said with a slight grin.
"The game of criminals," Marcus said in an eerie voice.
She resisted the urge to laugh. "No perimeter guards that I could see."
"Let's do this then," Marcus said.
He rubbed the coin, and Ginny took a deep breath, waiting for him to make the move. No matter how simple the job, it always seemed nerve-wracking at the beginning. From experience, she knew her nerves would dissipate the minute they made their first move. The three seconds that Marcus counted down seemed to last for minutes, and she aimed her wand at the door, waiting with a steadied arm for him to say 'three.'
"Impedimenta!"
The spell shot from her wand, and the door blasted to pieces. She and Marcus ran inside and fired of quick stunning spells. Astoria stood at the front door, firing her own stunning spell at the sight of the four men. Before the criminals could even process what was happening, the three Hit Wizards had them stunned unconscious, with binding spells to ensure they would not escape. They did a check to make sure no one else was in the warehouse, and then their shoulders relaxed, knowing the job was complete.
"Quick and easy," Marcus said.
"Time to get them back to the Auror's office for questioning, and I shall do the paperwork," Ginny said somberly.
"I'll stay and help," Astoria said, looking at her watch. "It will be quicker with the two of us filling out the forms."
"I'm going home after we take them in," Marcus said, grinning when Ginny scowled at him. "You didn't expect anything less of me."
"You're right," Ginny agreed.
"I'll set up some wards to keep the place closed until Aurors come to inspect," Astoria said, walking around the room with her wand moving through the air. It only took her a minute before she came back to the center of the room and joined Ginny and Marcus to round up the men on the floor. "Time to go then."
"Get your Portkeys ready," Marcus said.
Marcus pulled the coin out of his pocket and tapped his wand to it, whispering a spell that Ginny knew all too well. It was the spell that would allow them to Portkey directly to the Ministry. He stooped down and grabbed two of the men, clenching the Portkey in one of his hands. Before Ginny could tell him that was a bad idea, he was gone from the room.
"Always hasty," Astoria said and grabbed the arm of the third man. "See you soon."
Ginny followed soon after, taking one last look around before disappearing, her mind falling back to the feeling of being watched she had gotten earlier. For some reason, she couldn't quite shake the feeling.
~~~~~~~~
"Bugger it all!" Astoria slammed her hand down on the parchments on her desk and dropped her head to the desk. "You would think they would have invented shorter paperwork by now."
"Or, at the very least, allowed Quick Quote Quills," Ginny mumbled, shuffling through the pile of parchment on her desk. "The stories might be less boring to read, too."
Astoria giggled, twisting the ends of her blonde hair and staring absently at the clock. "I'm supposed to be going on a date tonight. How am I going to go on a date with black circles under my eyes?"
"You're a smart girl. You'll figure something out," Ginny said, only half-listening to Astoria. Her head was down and brows furrowed as her Self-Inking Quill moved rapidly across the parchment.
Astoria huffed and tossed a balled up piece of parchment at Ginny. "You're not even paying attention to my plight."
"Bloody hell, Astoria," Ginny cried as the parchment hit her on the head. "I'm trying to finish this so I can go home and go to bed. I'm fucking exhausted."
"No need for that language, Ginevra," Astoria scolded lightly.
"Go home," Ginny said coldly. "I'll work faster by myself."
"No, I-"
"Astoria, I outrank you. You cannot defy a direct order from a superior." Ginny pointed to the door. "Get out. You're not doing anything to help me, and I am going to hex you before the sun comes up. So leave."
"I don't think I care for your attitude," Astoria said with crossed arms.
"Astoria, leave. I've had enough of you for one night," Ginny said, trying to keep her temper in check. "All you're doing is complaining, and I'm going to have to check over all your work anyway. So it's better if I do it because I know I'll do it right the first time around."
Astoria stood up and grabbed her coat, glaring at Ginny. "You've only been here a few months longer than I have."
"I'm a better Hit Wizard for it, too," Ginny snapped.
Astoria dropped a pile of parchments on Ginny's desk and stormed out the office, not bothering to look at Ginny. For her part, the redhead simply shook her head and sorted through the parchment, tossing all the useless scrolls. She knew it was a bad idea to accept Astoria's offer of help. The blonde girl was far better in the field than she was behind the desk. It was well-known that she couldn't pass the written exams to become an Auror, so they stuck her down in the Hit Wizard department. In fact, that was how they got most of their employees. There were only two people in the department that had become Hit Wizards by choice: herself and Marcus Flint.
She brightened the lamp with a tap of her wand and bent over her desk once more. Ginny didn't waste any time stopping to stretch her aching neck muscles or massage her tired hand. She slogged through, answering the various questions as eloquently as she could at four in the morning. When the clock struck six, she dotted her last 'i' and dropped her quill onto the sheaves of parchment. She never understood why there was so much paperwork, especially about ethics. Even if anything was done unethically, no one would ever report it.
Ginny rubbed her eyes tiredly and stacked the papers into a neat pile. She slipped them into a heavy envelope and wrote the name of the case at the top. Once she was finished, she put her coat on and grabbed her wand and the envelope. The lights in the room extinguished with a wave of her wand, and she locked the office door behind her before walking down the hall to her superior's office. A slot in the window next to the door opened when she tapped her wand to it, and she slipped the file through, closing the slot after hearing the thud that signaled it was in the basket.
She walked to the lifts and nearly jumped when the doors slid open before she could press the button. She didn't expect to see a black-haired man coming off the elevator, his green eyes flashing with unconcealed anger. His face was twisted in a grimace, and Ginny couldn't decide if he was angry or in pain. Her eyes dropped to his clenched fists, which held a newspaper, and she knew that it was anger, not pain. She also knew that she wouldn't be going home.
"Hi, Harry," Ginny said, slightly sullen.
He looked her up and down, his grimace changing to a perplexed expression. "Why are you wearing that?"
"Because I'm going jogging to a motorcycle club," Ginny said dryly. "Now, I'm assuming you're not down here because of my attire, and I know you're not down here to see anyone other from me for obvious reasons."
Harry glanced towards the empty floor. "Have you seen today's Daily Prophet?"
"I've been here since three, so no." Ginny stuck her wand into the pocket in her jogging pants and reached for the paper. "I guess it's something bad."
"Didn't you guys check to see if you were being followed?" Harry placed the Prophet in her hand, raising his hand to rub his temples. "I don't even know where to begin on this one."
Ginny sighed when she saw the pictures gracing the front of the Daily Prophet. She hadn't been going insane when she felt someone watching her. There, on the front page, was a picture of her, Marcus and Astoria, creeping alongside the building. The figures weren't distinct, suggesting the picture was taken from far away. There were other pictures, most blurry, of Astoria bursting into the warehouse. The headline read 'Aurors Still Fighting Unneeded War!'
"We did things by the book, Harry. If anyone was in the area, Astoria would have picked it up." Ginny closed the Prophet, not bothering to read the article.
"We're going to have to do things by the books too, Gin. You know that," Harry said. He shot her a meaningful look and pushed his glasses up on his nose. "I don't want to, but Robards won't make it an option."
"You're going to open an investigation, aren't you?" Ginny crumpled the paper and tossed it into a nearby waste bin. "You know what this will do to the department, right? The few people who do wander down to work here are doing it because they failed the Auror exams. No one wants to be a Hit Wizard, especially not now."
"Ginny-"
"No, Harry," Ginny said, crossing his arms. "You and your blue-robed coworkers sit in your cubicles everyday and work on petty cases while we fight ex-Death Eaters and end up in St. Mungos. When was the last time that you've been to the hospital to visit an Auror, Harry?"
"I-"
"Not since you first signed up and one of the trainees got hit with one of your spells." Ginny leaned in and poked Harry in the chest. "Aurors don't lift a finger anymore. We're the ones dealing with the dark wizards while you handle petty criminals and hang your accolades on your cubicle wall. We don't get a single shred of recognition for all the things we do, and your department doesn't even help us when we need it. Oh, and let's not forget that your department is the umbrella that ours stands under, but you guys don't even stop by to check on us when we get hospitalized. Merlin's beard, Harry, we don't even get paid well. All the funding goes to getting Aurors new uniforms rather than giving us lowly denizens a fucking raise."
"It's not my decision, Ginny," Harry said, clearly constraining his anger. "Tell me what you would have me do?"
"I passed through the Auror trainee program like it was a first-year course at Hogwarts, Harry. But you don't see me dressing up and playing the part of a hero," Ginny snarled. "I'm not faking the fact that I'm out there every single day bringing in dark wizards and having the Aurors tell the press that they walked in of their own accord."
"You know what the people-"
"I don't want to hear about what the people think." Ginny shook her head. "People forget that if we give these ex-Death Eaters a chance to regroup, another dark lord will rise."
"Now you're being dramatic," Harry said, trying to lighten the mood.
Ginny snorted. "I'm going home. I'll see you in a few hours when Gumboil calls me in to sort out this mess."
"Can I buy you breakfast?" asked Harry, rubbing the back of his neck.
She stabbed the lift button violently with her finger and stepped on when the doors open. Before they could close, she glared at Harry and said, "You can't bring me news like this and expect you can charm your way into my knickers with some breakfast, Harry."
His cheeks flushed red. "I wasn't-I mean I didn't, not that it wouldn't be nice."
"Fuck off, Harry."
The lift doors shut, and she found herself hanging on as she spiraled to the Atrium. She stepped off the lift and Flooed to her small apartment, located in Muggle London. It was nothing more than one big room with a kitchen and bathroom attached, but she found that it was enough space for her. She didn't have much furniture: a bed, a side table, a sofa, a bookshelf and a stand for her wireless. Everything still looked as if it were new because she was rarely home to use it. If it hadn't been for the rumpled bed and clothes strewn across the room, it would look rather barren. A tiny Kneazle crawled out from under a pile of clothes when Ginny sank down onto her bed. It jumped onto her lap as she toed off her boots and tossed her jacket onto the floor.
"Hey there, Jax. What have you been up to while I was gone?" She carefully set him down on the bed and shimmied out of her pants before climbing underneath the covers. "I need some sleep, Jaxy-boy. Think you can manage to keep things uninteresting out in the world?"
The Kneazle curled up by her waist, and Ginny smiled, rubbing his spotted fur. She didn't bother to dwell on what had happened over the last few hours. Instead, she closed her eyes and tried to recall the dream she had been slipping into hours prior. The sand and calming water called to her as the fan above her whirled rhythmically. Soon, she was fast asleep, her breathing even with that of her sleeping Kneazle.
~~~~~~~~
Written for the Rags to Riches Ficathon on LJ. Prompts: St. Mungos/Aguamenti/Gloves
Author's Notes: I confess that I warred with this story (and my beta--well not warred, she said no and I agreed) because I wanted it to be full of details, but alas, it was not meant to be (mostly because of time). Secondly, the title is--well, it just is, and there's nothing else to say on the matter, except that titles are just one of my many weak points.