The events in this story take place just after those in another of my stories, The Garden. If you haven't read that one, here's the situation: A few years have passed since the Battle of Hogwarts, and Harry and friends are in their early 20s. Lavender and Harry are married, and they live in her family home in north London, a large house with extensive gardens. Lavender runs a small primary school in the converted rear portion of the home. Parvati has a bakery a few blocks from their home, Hermione is a Professor at Hogwarts, and Padma is in training there as a Healer. Ron is an Auror, and Harry is in training in the Office of Muggle Protection. Angelina is also an Auror, at a higher rank than Ron. She and Ron and Harry suspect that there is a mole near the top of the Auror Force, in league with criminals. If you wish to know more about these matters, you will find them described in The Garden.
As always, sincere thanks to J.K. Rowling for providing such a rich universe to work with. Also, thanks (and apologies) to John Le LeCarré; any resemblance between this story and his masterpiece,"Tinker, Tailor, ..." is entirely NONcoincidental.
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It was another family gathering at the Burrow. With a family this large, such gatherings were frequent, but Percy's birthday on August 22 was always special. This was because he continued to maintain his tradition of apologizing to the family on his birthday for what he now called his years as a git. Or a prat; he was comfortable with both labels. The family had long since forgiven him for his awful behavior, but Percy felt that it was healthy to continue with this annual apology, if only as a reminder to himself of how wrong a person can be, and that it's never too late to open your eyes.
This year, Ron, Harry, and Angelina wanted to meet privately, to discuss problems at the Ministry, so they arrived an hour early. Their significant others, Hermione, Lavender, and George, would arrive later. After greeting Arthur and Molly, the three conspirators - they had grown comfortable with this label - retired to a table in the garden, and Ron spoke first: "Angelina, we don't have anything new. We watch and we listen, but the pattern doesn't seem to be clear enough to point to any one person. We just sense that the bad apple is somewhere near the top."
"Yes," replied Angelina, "it's been about the same for me. But I have some information of another kind, and it's not very pretty. Still, it may help us. I've been hearing rumblings among the higher-ups in the Department, and they're saying that Kingsley is cracking up. The story that's going around is that he's become erratic, that he doesn't trust or confide in anyone, and that he goes into a rage at the slightest provocation. They're blaming all of the security breaches and failed operations on him, generally with an air of false sympathy, saying that it's truly sad, but the old boy has lost his touch, and it just seems to be his time to putter off into the sunset.
"And my observation is that this kind of rumor-mongering takes the focus off everybody else, so it's very useful to the real culprit to have these stories circulating. A very tight cabal of naysayers has formed among some of the top people, and I can't help but think that the bad guy is one of them. You know, hiding among others who all have their own reasons to grouse. Some of them are itching for a promotion, others are just jealous of one thing or another, or they simply enjoy being an insider, and it all converges in a general feeling within this little group that things have gone wrong, that it's all Kingsley's fault, and that they're the only ones who can set things right."
Ron looked up and said, somewhat hesitantly, "Look, Angelina, I don't want to sound disloyal, but just for the sake of argument, are we sure that Kingsley isn't the mole?"
"Don't worry, Ron, it's reasonable and proper to ask that question, even if you don't really suspect him. But I'll tell you one more thing that I've heard. Kingsley has assigned someone from the Intelligence Office to work directly for him, so she's no longer answering to her normal Director. Of course, that gives Sam Haydon, the head of Intelligence, another thing to grouse about; he's part of the cabal. And they've been trotting out this story of Kingsley's personal investigator as part of the picture of how he's cracking up. The way they tell it is that Kingsley is conducting his own obsessive investigation of something or other, probably a trivial matter, rather than leaving investigation to the team that normally does these things, so he must be losing his marbles. But I think that Kingsley has the same suspicions we have, and that he's trying to get to the bottom of this on his own, without Haydon and the others being able to interfere. He doesn't trust Haydon, and frankly, I don't either.
"The person Kingsley has working for him is someone you guys may remember from school, Susan Bones; she's one of the best investigators in the department, and, going back to your question, Ron, if Kingsley was the mole, I don't think he'd want her snooping around in the records. Of course, I could also imagine the opposite, that by assigning her to this secret project of his, he could be preventing her from discovering evidence of his own malfeasance, in the course of her normal duties. This way he'd keeping a close watch on her, right? But that's not much of an argument, when you consider that the rest of the Intelligence team is still on the job, answering to Haydon. Another way to read it, if you were really suspicious, would be that Kingsley and Susan Bones are both moles, and working together. But if you know Susan, you'll probably agree that she would never become involved in a criminal conspiracy, right? I mean, anything is possible, but Kingsley and Susan are both unlikely, and the idea that the two of them could be working together on the side of the criminals just doesn't make sense to me."
"I agree," said Harry, "Susan was a member of Dumbledore's Army, and she has one of the most tragic histories of any of us. Almost her entire family was murdered by Voldemort and his people during the first war against him, and her Aunt Amelia was Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement when we were in school, and she was attacked and murdered in her home, apparently by Voldemort himself.
"And - full disclosure - I should mention, while we're on this subject, that I personally owe a lot to her Aunt Amelia; when I was put on trial by Cornelius Fudge for underage use of magic, after I defended myself and my cousin from two dementors who attacked us, she made sure that I received a fair trial, despite Fudge's machinations. And I should also tell you, Angelina, that Susan is a good friend of Lavender's, and we see her from time to time. Her parents were friends of Lavender's parents, so there's an old bond between them. Anyway, I might be biased in her favor, but I really can't believe that Susan would ever be involved in protecting criminals."
Ron nodded his agreement, and Angelina continued: "Well, Harry, maybe Susan could help us find out what's up with Kingsley. Do you think you can arrange something?"
Harry took a long breath and replied, "Before I answer, let me ask you something, Angelina: As I see it, the three of us are already renegades of a sort. Ron and I have had our share of working outside the law, but I don't think you have. So just to put all of this in a legal framework, I want to point out that the three of us, at this moment, are talking about making an unauthorized attempt to extract secrets from an official investigator in the Auror Department. I just want to be clear that if we proceed, if we even mention this to Susan, we're crossing a line. I know that we're doing this for a good cause, but there's no denying what's going on here. And on top of that, I want to know if you're saying that I can include Lavender in this conspiracy. The easiest way for me to talk to Susan would be in our home, and I don't even want to think about trying to talk to her about this without telling Lavender what's going on."
"Harry, I get what you're saying. If we do this, our careers, and more, are on the line. But I'd also like to know what Ron thinks about that."
Ron looked up, smiled ruefully, and said, "Outlaw justice, eh? Well, as Harry said, it wouldn't be the first time. But I think the time has come to do it again. If we really want to fix the problem, we have to go all in, or we'll never get anywhere."
Angelina nodded and said, "And that's how I feel too. Yes, I see that the best way to talk to Susan would be to involve Lavender; so a conspiracy of three becomes a conspiracy of five, right?"
Ron and Harry both nodded, and a few minutes later they returned to the party, as the rest of the extended Weasley family began to arrive for the birthday party.
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The next day, over breakfast, Harry began the conversation: "Lav, there's something important I have to tell you. You know that there are problems at the Ministry, and that I've been talking about these things with Ron and Angelina. It's really bad, and we made some decisions yesterday. One thing we decided was that it's time to tell you about it."
"Well, yes, I knew that something was wrong, but I understand that you can't tell me about everything at work." Lavender took one of Harry's hands in hers, as she often did when they spoke, and continued, "Harry, I have a secret too, and I don't feel good about it. It's been gnawing at me, so there's also something I want to tell you."
"You know I trust you, Lavender; whatever it is, I know you're doing the right thing."
"Well, I'm trying to ... but I think you should go first."
Harry then informed Lavender of the problems in the Auror Department, and the quiet agreement made by Angelina, Ron, and himself to watch and listen, and the manner in which events were now forcing them to either act, or stand by passively, and watch things get worse. Lastly, he described Kingsley's strange behavior, the rumors that were being spread about him, and his current reliance on Susan Bones to conduct a secretive investigation.
"Well, that all fits," mused Lavender. "Because my secret also concerns Susan. She has been visiting here a lot, and it's pretty clear that she's worried about something. Before she visits she always checks that you won't be here, ostensibly so she can talk with me about private matters, but when she does show up she doesn't say much. She worries and weeps, but she doesn't tell me what the problem is, and she refuses to accept any help from me. I've been thinking that she's under some kind of pressure at work, that she's afraid of something, and a couple of times, in frustration, I've come out and told her that I can't help her if I don't know anything. But that just gets her more agitated, and she says she can't tell me anything, but she needs me to listen. So I do.
"She hints at dark plots, and about fears she has about something that's going on at the Ministry, and one time she said that she's working on a special project for Kingsley. I've asked her point blank if Kingsley is part of the problem, and she swears that he's not. She says that he's the victim, that people are trying to frame him for something, and that she's trying to 'get to the bottom of things.' But I have no idea what those 'things' are. So I listen, and I sympathize, and I try to make it clear that I want to help."
"That fits with everything we've seen," said Harry. "It looks like she's trying to discover what's wrong in the Aurors, and that simply by working with Kingsley, she may feel that she's become a target as well. Ron and Angelina wanted me to tell you about this, because we're trying to find a way to talk to Susan. But we have no idea what she's actually doing, and we don't know if she would share anything with us. No matter how bad this is for her, she has a code of professional ethics, and she might feel that she can't tell us anything. But even if she feels honor bound to secrecy, it might help her just to know that she has friends."
"I think you're right, Harry. Based on the way she's been behaving, the best approach might be for me to meet with Susan, alone, and tell her some of what you three have been thinking. Then she can decide whether she wants to open up about this. You know, it's possible that the problem she's dealing with has nothing to do with your theories. But it does all look connected. Poor Kingsley ..."
That evening, Lavender sent an owl to Susan, with an invitation to come to tea the following weekend. Susan's acceptance of the invitation arrived later, but the planned meeting never took place.