Here There and Everythere
Summary: Huge problems in Bulgaria. The Ministry of Magic has decided to help and the Auror Headquarters and the Department of International Cooperation are in charge of doing it. Ronald Weasey, who has been an Auror for two years now, can't imagine how much this situation will affect his life when he meets a certain witch again, after many years of being apart.
Hello there!
We, the Half Blood Princesses, hope you enjoy our story very much!
We must warn you, it contains some HBP spoilers.
Well, we'd also like to say that we don't own Harry, Ron, Hermione or this magical world, they are all a product of lovely JK Rowling's brilliant imagination. We just own a few characters and the plot, so don't steal or you'll regret it! Hehe.
Now please enjoy and review!
Chapter One: The situation in Bulgaria
The wind hit her face as she walked down the street to her parents' house. It was a chilly December afternoon and she really needed the tranquility being alone was bringing her. She felt a litte uneasy about meeting her parents, though. She played with a strand of her bushy brown hair as she crossed the street, wondering what their reaction would be. She had been away from England for two years now, working for the Department of International Cooperation. It had been a good opportunity for her to know many countries and a lot of new people. Most of them, very good wizards and witches.
However, that was not the entire reason why she had accepted the job...
She finally arrived at her parents' and rang the doorbell. She hadn't let them know she was back, she wanted to surprise them. Her mother was the one who opened the door and Hermione smiled at her.
It was beautiful to see her parents after so long, to feel the warmth they gave her, and the love that seemed to flow from deep their hearts to hers, specially in that moment of her life in which, after that much time, she still needed all the love she could get.
"Ron!" Harry called out, entering to his best-friend's cubicle in the Ministry. He and Ron had been Aurors for two years now and each day that went by, they were happier and prouder about it. "Ron!" he said again when he saw him sleeping with his head resting on a quite tall mount of papers and slapped him slightly in the head to wake him up.
Ron sat up with a start and looked at him, a paper sticked on his cheek.
"Good morning," Harry said sarcastically.
"Oh..." Ron groaned, putting the paper back on his desk and rubbing his eyes. "Sorry, Harry..."
"Really, Ron, it's not the first time this happens. You know you can't fall asleep at work with everything that's been happening..."
"Some news about Bulgaria?" Ron asked, as he waved his wand and produced a glass of Pumpkin Juice and started drinking.
"Yes, of course there are news about Bulgaria... there was a meeting an hour ago with Kingsley, remember?"
Ron grimaced, putting the glass back on the desk. "I totally forgot about it... bloody hell..."
"Yes, I know." Harry sighed. "Well, the thing is, everything's getting worse as we speak. The Aurors Headquarters and the Department of International Cooperation are working hard on this. They are going to send quite a few aurors and some people from the Department of International Cooperation over there. I heard they even called one of their best wizards to be a part of it. I think he has been abroad for quite some time now, but they need him to come back here to work on this."
Ron nodded. "And do you know who's going?"
"Well, kind of. I know for a fact that you and I are going, so it would have been nice if you had been there to hear the whole thing... I hope Kingsley doesn't find you anytime soon, he was fuming."
Ron rubbed his eyes , "I can't believe I missed the bloody meeting, Kingsley will send me to the Centaur Office any time soon…" he sighed.
Harry chuckled, "C'mon, mate, we have to meet the people from the Department of International Cooperation, freshen up a little bit, and off we go," he said, sitting down, as if he thought it'd take Ron quite a while make himself presentable.
Ron shook his head. "I'm fine, I'm fine, don't worry..." he stood up. "Let's go."
Harry and Ron got to the meeting five minutes later. It was about to get started, so they sat down and waited for Kingsley and Rupert Elphick, the heads of the Auror Headquarters and of the Department of International Cooperation respectively.
A few minutes later, both wizards entered the room and closed the door after them. They looked very worried and they surely had a reason. The situation in Bulgaria was very worrying and causing repercussions in many countries.
"Well, we'd better start with this..." Kingsley said. "Oh, Weasley! Good to see you here. I hope you don't mind we bothering you with this meeting as we did with the previous one," he was so sarcastic that Ron's ears turned red instantly.
"S… sorry, sir," he muttered, looking down at his hands, feeling like a schoolboy all over again.
Apparently, Kingsley didn't seem to find the matter important, because he went on with the news on the upcoming mission, "Alright, well, as you already know things in Bulgaria are not improving, and the national government has asked help from the countries that he believes to have experience in the field," he gave Harry a fleeting glance, "Three quarters of the personnel of each department, that is Department of International Cooperation, and Auror Headquarters, will be sent over to Bulgaria to work with their ministry employees. We believe this situation could spread to other countries as well, and we won't sit down and watch our fellow Bulgarian experience a situation unfortunately very alike the one we went through when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was, let us say, alive."
"Therefore," Elphick continued, "we expect all of you to give your best in order to controll this horrible situation. You are all fit for this task and we—"
There was a knock on the door that interrupted Elphick. Looking most disgusted, he huffed. "Yes?"
The door opened and a woman with bushy brown head appeared. "I'm sorry I'm late, Mr. Elphick."
Elphyck's expression changed suddenly. A fleeting smile appeared on his face as he looked at the witch wearing dark blue Ministry robes. "No problem, Miss Granger. Please sit down."
Hermione nodded, closing the door behind her and, without looking around, sat down with the people of her department.
Harry and Ron couldn't believe their eyes.
"Hermione?" Harry whispered to him.
Ron nodded, feeling as if someone had cast that old Half-Blood Prince's spell on him to glue his tongue to the roof of his mouth. Now, a question popped up in his head, how was he going to call her attention? But then, he realized that perhaps he didn't want to call her attention at all. Not after what had happened. He was in a huge dilemma.
Just then, and like she used to do every five seconds when they were at Hogwarts, Hermione raised her hand, "Excuse me, but what is it exactly what we will be doing in Bulgaria, sir?"
Kingsley Schacklebolt looked at her, "That's top secret, miss Granger," he smiled, "in fact, all we know is that we've been asked for help, and that's exactly what we're going to do: help, fight, and win."
By the look on Hermione's face, she was not thoroughly satisfied by the Auror's answer, but apparently chose not to say anything, because she just nodded.
"Well," Elphick said, "you'll find a report on your desks as soon as you get back to them for further information. The fact that you have to read, understand and memorize everything that is written on that report goes without saying. We will send memos to inform the different teams we are going to divide you into for this mission as well as the dates in which team is leaving for Bulgaria. The teams are not all leaving on the very same day for an obvious reason, we don't want to atract too much attention."
"That's right. Now please, let's all get back to work," Kingsley said. "You are dismissed."
Hermione disapparated instantly, as though she had many things to do and couldn't afford to lose important seconds of her life doing trivial things such as walking.
Harry turned to Ron, who was in such a shock, that he seemed to have seen Percy becoming Minister for Magic. He elbowed his friend quite rudely, bringing him back to Earth.
"Let's go, mate," Harry said, standing up.
They walked to Ron's cubicle and when they got there, Ron almost ran towards his chair and sat heavily on it. "Bloody hell, what is she doing here! I thought she was working abroad?"
Harry nodded. "She must be the person they were talking about. I told you, remember?"
"Yes, but you said it was a wizard!"
"Well... that's the first thing that popped into my mind... now that I think about it, nobody specified anything about that person's sex."
Ron put his hands over his face and groaned. "I can't believe this, how am I ever be able to work with her when I can't even look at her in the face?"
"C'mon, Ron, cheer up… perhaps you won't be teamed with her," Harry shrugged, "although we'd be lucky to be with her, she's a brilliant witch… and think about it, it'd be like in the old times..." he lowered his voice. "Remember? Chasing lost Horcruxes together and all that?"
"Of course I remember, how couldn't I?" Ron sighed. "No, nothing will be like in the old times, never again," he let out yet another sigh, and then added, "And I know she's brilliant."
Harry huffed, "Stop pitying yourself, mate, it's getting on my nerves, really."
Just then, they heard the sound of someone clearing their throat, and Viridiana Meadows entered the cubicle. She was a petite girl, with long, wavy, jet-black hair, and big eyes. She'd met Harry and Ron during the Auror training, and they had been amazed to find out that she was the daughter of Dorcas Meadows, a member of the early Order of the Phoenix, who was killed by Voldemort personally.
"Hello, boys, Shacklebolt's memo's just zoomed in, have a look," she handed Harry the memo.
Harry looked through it for a while. Ron looked very nervous, and his ears turned red in a matter of seconds. Viridiana looked at him and smiled. "What's wrong with you, Weasley?" she joked.
Ron looked at her and shook his head. "Nothing, nothing. So, Harry?"
Harry smiled and read aloud. "Team Stag. From the Auror Headquarters: Meadows, Viridiana – Potter, Harry – Tonks, Nymphadora – Weasley, Ronald. From the Department of International Cooperation: Alberich, Susannah – Circe, Markus – Cliodne, Phoebe -,he stopped himself and looked at Ron in the eye.
Ron groaned. "I knew it... come on, say it."
"Granger, Hermione," Harry added, handing the memo back to Viridiana.
Viridiana furrowed her brow as she took the memo in her hands, "Never been much of a 'Granger fan', Ron?"
"Quite the contrary," Harry said, looking at his friend with a worried expression on his face.
The girl raised an eyebrow, "Well, I don't get it, then…" she shrugged, "I could ask Shacklebolt to put you in the other Team, Ron, although let me tell you that would be a little bit un-professional, and with you usually cutting meetings, and all that, I would recommend—"
"Hold it there, Di," Ron raised a hand, at the moment, she reminded him intensely of Hermione.
Viridiana took it as a great offence, she hated being told to shut up. So she just looked at him and shrugged, "Whatever," she said, and then turned around and left.
Harry couldn't help laughing. "Ron, get a grip!"
"Yes, right... easier said than done!" Ron stood up and paced the floor for a while before asking, "was there something else on the memo?"
"Yes, that in about," he looked at his watch, "half an hour, we have to meet with our team. The leaders will fill us in with everything we need to know."
"Leaders?"
"Yes, well, each team has two leaders, according to the memo. An Auror and one from the Department of International Cooperation. Our leader is Tonks and—"
"Yes, I'm sure Hermione is the other leader, right? It seems everybody loves her here—"
"Zip it, Ron," Harry interrupted. "It's not Hermione. It's that Phoebe Cliodne woman."
Ron frowned. "Do you know her?"
Harry shook his head. "No, not really. But well... I guess we'll both meet her in a few minutes." He stood up, "Well, Ron, I'm going to my cubicle. It says on the memo that we have to read the report before the meeting, so I'd better hurry. See you."
Ron sat down on his chair and looked at the cover of his report. "Yeah... see ya."