A/N: This story was written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, and as a seeker, (in the Little League) I had the task/prompt of: A work based friendship
Which is… interesting. So here it goes. The characters I used are Harry and Percy Weasly working in the Ministry of Magic together. (Also, if I spelled Weasly wrong, it's because I was too lazy to go to my shelf and get the book and find out how to spell it.) So, here we go…
Harry rushed down the hall, ready to start his day in the Auror's office as usual. He often sat at his desk, mulling over things and ruffling his hair at the beginning of the day and by the end had to send an owl from somewhere in the expanse of London to Ginny to tell her that he was going to be late for dinner. Now as he ran down the hall, he noticed that many people were crowded around a specific hallway, the hallway of the Minister of Magic. This man was standing outside his door, looking quite humble and nodding whenever someone asked him something. Harry could only nod to one of the reporters as he passed.
Once he reached his office, an owl was already there staring at him with a note in attached to it. Pulling off the note, Harry opened it and read as follows:
Harry,
Frank ran out this morning with a bad flu. He was going to cover a case down in Devonshire, but he couldn't make it, so if you could please head over there as soon as possible, we would all be eternally grateful.
Sincerely,
Martha Picker
Harry sighed, wrapped his cloak more tightly around him, and ran to the desk where he could Apparate to and from. He quickly did this, knowing exactly where in the countryside he was supposed to go, this was due to his family taking many vacations to that very village where he was supposed to be heading into. Once the tube-like feeling commenced and he gasped as he fell out of it, cold air greeting him, he headed down the little lane and went off to find the house whose address had been written in the bottom left of the page.
Here he stopped, and stared for a few minutes while trying to decide how he was going to approach this. A red headed blur brushed suddenly hit him, a man who was taller and older than Harry himself but who had ended up with his head down as he ran. He stood up, adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses, and looked at Harry, analyzing him. Harry realized it was Percy Weasly just in time to stumble backwards and analyze the older man.
"I-Why are you here?" asked Percy, not rudely but not too politely either. Harry knew that even after all this time, Percy was still getting over everything with the Ministry and stuff like that.
"Oh, Frank Green ran out this morning with a stomach flu or something." Harry replied. "I have to fill in for him. But really, why are you here? You are the minister's assistant, not a reporter or auror."
"Mr. Corfelus sent me out to get everything I could on this murder and stuff. I really need to escape the office, it's become extremely messy and everything in there." Percy nodded, brushing sweat off his brow. "Come on, let's go in."
Harry only had time to nod before they both set off at a fast pace, walking inside the house. He looked around for a few minutes before saying anything, as the place was pretty badly messed up inside.
"Looks like there was a struggle." he said.
"And a sword." added Percy.
"But wizards don't use swords, well, this would have been a knife, I know they don't, I've never seen a case where they have."
"Yes but there was one used by the looks of the walls. Most likely it was the victim."
"Maybe." Harry agreed, and walked into the back of the house. "Percy, come here, quick!"
The older male came running to Harry, and they stared at the back of the house where a body was lying. It was an old wizard with white hair and brown eyes. His eyes stared back at them, and Harry could only stare in horror as the man reached out for them, trying to reach for them, as if trying to get help. Even as an auror who saw plenty of horrible things in his life, this was truly terrifying. Percy weakly grabbed his arm as if he was trying to prevent himself from falling over and Harry didn't try and shove him off.
"Boys…help… I promise I will tell-tell you all…" the man groaned. Harry nodded at Percy, and they grabbed the man, helping him up.
The rest of the morning was spent helping the man recover and gaining information about everything that had happened to him from him. Harry only once glanced over at Percy while the man was telling to story, and that was to nod at him when the sentence about a knife being used came out of the man's mouth.
They took the man to St. Mungo's and returned to the ministry to sit at Harry's desk and ponder. Harry was amazed that Percy had managed to figure things out like that, he realized he had underestimated the guy for a long time. Percy had always seemed so snotty and all that Harry, up until a year or two ago, had never gotten to see a good side of him.
"So the knife was used, but I don't know why a wizard would use a knife." pondered Harry as he sat with his feet up on the desk.
"Neither do I. But the minister will want to hear all about it once I get back and all so I'm going to have to leave soon." said Percy. Harry nodded.
The older man left and Harry was alone for a while before he packed up and headed home. It took the ministry a long time to finally figure out the case, but when they did, Harry and Percy were stuck together again.
It was a dark night with harsh winds and rain whipping at their faces as they walked down the alleyway in the backstreets of London at about 9 on a Thursday night. Here, down in one of the darker alleys, was where the suspected murderer was. They headed into the house that the man was rumored to stay in and nearly busted down the front door, both attacking it with spells.
The man shot a killing curse at both of their heads when they entered, and Harry shot a few more spells back.
"We need to attack him, get him down! Stupefy!" Harry shouted to Percy, sending the spell in the direction of the man. Percy wasn't an auror so he didn't really know much about capturing people, but he tried to and failed each time.
Harry cried out "Stupefy!" one last time and managed to hit the man, a loud thud being heard as it hit the man and he came falling down. Both ran towards the sound and Harry caught a light switch as he ran by, the chandelier above lit up and both saw the body. The man was dark skinned with a thick grey beard, wild grey eyes, and appeared to be extremely dirty. Harry grabbed the man's wand and held it against his throat as he stared at both of the younger men.
"Are you Roland Richards?" Harry asked, stabbing the wand into the man's neck a bit harder.
"Y-Yes." gasped the man.
"Good." Harry replied, and turned to Percy. "Come on, we have to get him out of here and to the ministry as quickly as possible."
Both of them picked up Roland and dragged him to the door. Then they both Disapparated, Harry holding onto Roland and Percy letting go, and landed in the doorway of one of the ministry's rooms. Harry dragged Roland in and pushed him into the center of the courtroom where no one else sat. Chaining him down to the chair, he left the man sitting there, not caring what they did to him after that, only hoping they would find him guilty. Percy was waiting outside, and Harry smiled at him when he stepped outside, and bid the other goodbye and goodnight.
Even through the hazardous hard work that they were set through that whole time, they had become good friends. Harry often invited Percy home for dinner, Ginny didn't disagree and seemed quite happy that Harry had befriended her brother. Harry himself couldn't deny that he enjoyed working with Percy as it seemed both of their minds worked the same. They often agreed on what they thought was wrong or what had been used in an attack. Ron himself seemed more at ease now, and often times would be heard to remark: "Who would've thought that my once-jerk-of-a-brother is now agreeing on all terms with the one he used to disagree on everything with?"
A/N: Well, I hope you enjoyed (it might have seemed a bit rushed but it really needed to be in order to be turned in on time) and I would like reviews, I appreciate them so I can continue writing HP stories because this is my first.
