Chapter 3 – Oh darlin' don't you ever grow up
Kingsley had never been so busy in his entire life. His desk was overflowing. His office its own bathroom ensuite and kitchenette. He had a house elf, just for him. There was something which appeared to be a wardrobe but which transformed into a bedroom if he asked it to. He'd originally thought it ostentatious but he realised that he was so busy that if he didn't have all that, he probably would never eat or sleep.
Adjoining his chambers were Molly's and Aaron's as well as a waiting room with the receptionist who fielded most of the owls, if she couldn't make the problem go away, Rosie, his secretary usually sent it out to the relevant head of department or if it was really important, to Aaron or Molly. So he knew his workload wasn't probably even a tenth of what was coming through to him.
He'd written a list which resembled a spider web, of all the things that needed doing. It was how he'd solved crime back in the day, with the matters which were important and urgent in the middle, then those which were important, those which were urgent more at the edges, then the things which were neither urgent nor important out the outside. Then he linked the issues which were joined or flowed on to each other, then he put in dates in red of when the things needed attending to, in orange he circled the things that the wizarding population wanted him to focus on. Finally he wrote names, in green of who would be responsible for helping to address the problem. The brainstorm had taken him two hours, but it was necessary. He entered it into his time sheet.
In the centre of the brainstorm was ensuring stability and unity. The war had taken its toll on the muggle population, Voldemort had destroyed crops and waters and businesses, consequently food was in shorter supply and it would be a drain on the muggle world's ability to produce food and goods, which meant prices went up for everyone: muggle and magical. Infrastructure had also been hit badly which meant both governments would be spending money on rebuilding which meant fewer resources for promoting social welfare, which meant increased inequality and therefore instability which in turn meant unproductivity which meant fewer resources. It was a self-strengthening cycle. At first he'd thought the solution was to focus solely on ensuring people were secure and well fed. But that didn't work either because the infrastructure still needed to be built and commerce still needed to thrive, so that people would have jobs. If there was a magic bullet, he didn't know what it was. If he'd had hair, he would have pulled it out. He had been critical of former Ministers in the past, he'd had no idea how hard it was to focus on the bigger picture.
There was a gentle knock on the door.
"Come in" Kingsley said, grateful for the distraction.
Aaron entered, followed by Oliver Wood.
"Mr Wood, sir" Aaron said.
"Please have a seat, Mr Wood, oh and Aaron, you can stay for this as well."
Aaron masked his confusion and slight despair at being kept away from his growing inbox with a polite smile and sat down.
Kingsley wasn't one for small talk, and from what he'd learned, Oliver Wood wasn't either. He'd studied law at Yale while representing the States in Quidditch. Kingsley didn't understand the American system but many of the major universities had witches and wizards attending the same universities as muggles but in different but parallel classes. He wondered if that was something England could look into. It would solve a lot of funding problems and it would also solve a lot of prejudice problems. He quickly scribbled it onto his chaotic brainstorm.
"Mr Wood, it is good to see you back in the country. I heard wonders of your human rights work whilst in the States."
Oliver met Kingsley's eyes and gave a very brief smile. He despised compliments, they distracted him during his quidditch career and no one complimented you in law school, and you certainly didn't get compliments when you were a junior lawyer. He waited for Kingsley to continue.
Kingsley saw that Oliver was not in the mood to discuss his work. He knew the feeling, he only shared his experience as an auror with a select few. The memories were painful, and few people were able to understand.
"As you are aware, our country is going to be facing the unwelcome task of dealing with Death Eaters. The aurors are working on finding those who are missing and the trials of those who have pleaded not guilty are set to begin in eight months. The sentencing will take place for all of them at the same time, given the lack of precedents for this type of offending."
Oliver nodded, this was common knowledge. At least in legal circles.
"In about three hours I am going to offer the job of senior prosecutor for these trials to Simon Clark. He is about to take on the Ministry Warrant for UK prosecutions, so naturally his first big job will be to run the trials."
Oliver nodded, trying not to get too excited in case the Minister of Magic wasn't going to ask what he was expecting. He kept his face blank, a skill he'd learned by necessity in the courtroom.
"He will need a junior. This person will need to have a ferocious work ethic, be incredibly intelligent, incredibly tough and needs to be seen as unbiased. You meet all of those criteria."
Oliver blushed. He couldn't quite believe the Minister for Magic was saying these things about him. "I'm not, sir. I'm nothing special, I am just lucky enough to be in a job I like, and I've had good mentors."
Kingsley smiled at the younger man. "A good answer, Mr Wood. Hold on to that humility. It will stand you in good stead. You are the ideal candidate for this role. You will have to work harder than you ever thought possible, you'll probably receive death threats, you'll also have to prosecute people who you suspect should not be prosecuted because they have had very difficult upbringings. Think carefully before accepting. Take until the end of the week."
Oliver knew what his answer was. He also knew he couldn't accept straight away. He didn't want to seem hasty.
"Thank you, sir. It is an honour to be asked. I will be in touch with you soon."
Kingsley nodded and Aaron showed Oliver out. After he'd closed the door behind Oliver, Aaron turned to Kingsley.
"Why did you want me there, sir?"
"I want Mr Wood to know how much I trust you, I want you to learn by observing, I want your self-confidence to increase because you have so much potential but you don't seem to be aware of it. Now, that's filled my soppiness quota for the week. Get back to work."
Aaron left, grinning from ear to ear as he left the room, wondering how he got such wonderful mentor.
XXX
Ron hated being back at Hogwarts. Well he liked being around lots of different people and seeing his friends, but he hated being reminded of Fred's death down every single corridor. And Lavender's for that matter, and Lupin's and the hundreds of others who should still be alive: too many of whom should have been at Hogwarts, who had died before their seventeenth birthday. He was also the centre of attention, almost to the same extent as Harry. He had no older brothers at school and he was now one of "The Golden Trio", the stupid nickname that had been given to Harry, Hermione, and himself. For the first time ever, he pitied Harry his fame.
"Chuck us the porridge, Harry?" He asked his best friend over the Gryffindor in the Great Hall. It was the third week of classes, and things were starting to pick up.
Harry obliged.
"You all good, mate?" Ron asked Harry, who was looking very pale. Harry didn't reply.
"Mate?"
"Yeah?"
"You ok?"
"Fine, Ron. Just tired" there was a hint of impatience in Harry's voice. Ron tried not to be upset. Harry had been distant over the past couple of weeks. He knew it probably had nothing to do with him, but it hurt nonetheless. He and Harry had been through so much together, but Harry would always be more important than him. Ron had overcome the unfairness of this, and he knew that it wasn't Harry's fault. But it was frustrating.
They ate in silence over breakfast. Hermione had eaten early. She'd always been an early riser and now, being Head Girl, she seldom joined them for breakfast. Ron missed Hermione, too. At least when they were in the forest, they were together.
They walked up to defence against the dark arts. Hermione joined the two of them, she had a big grin on her face. She was the only one of the three who really enjoyed being back at Hogwarts.
"Hey babe!" Ron smiled back and Hermione kissed him on the cheek.
"Morning Harry" she said brightly. Harry smiled in return.
"Harry what time do you want to head out for quidditch practice? We need to get ready for trials. Hermione, do you want to come watch? It will be a good break for you. What about Wednesday afternoon? Trials are on Friday."
"Oh Ron, sorry I thought I told you, I've got meetings with Minister Shacklebolt and Professor McGonagall and Neville on Wednesday, but I will try come on Friday, promise."
"Ok, cool. You on for Wednesday, Harry."
Harry paused. "Ron, I'm not sure if I'll have time for quidditch this year."
"Sorry, what?"
"Ron, look I've got a lot on my plate."
"No Harry, that's crap! You don't have a lot on your plate, you're not even Head Boy. What can you possibly be busy with?"
"Doesn't matter, Ron. Look I'll come along to trials and see how I go."
"No Harry, tell me! I know you're the freaking golden saviour and I'm just your loser friend who bailed on you but you've been secretive the past few weeks and since when do you not care about quidditch!? I think you owe me an explanation,"
Harry sighed and Hermione cast disillusionment charms and silence charms around them. Ron was annoyed that Hermione was so smart as to think of those.
"It's not much, really. Kingsley just wants me to work with the centaurs and the goblins to get them on the same page as wizards. And also he wants help liaising with muggles, he's asked Hermione as well to help with that. But I guess the other reason is that I'm tired, Ron and quidditch means being around a lot of people and I'm still jumpy and messed up."
Ron was half furious and half concerned. "Well thanks for telling me about these secret meetings guys. You're only my best mate and my girlfriend." Hundreds of memories of being overlooked, and memories of Harry and Hermione being close bombarded his brain.
Hermione put a hand on Ron's shoulder. "Ron…we didn't ask for these meetings. Just like none of us asked to be called the Golden Trio. But the country's in tatters and we are just trying to do our bit."
Ron hated Hermione for being the voice of reason. It was illogical, since it wasn't their fault for being chosen but it irked him that no one had bothered to ask him to join any committees.
"Well good for you, you're so important that you're obviously too busy for me. And what's wrong with me? Why didn't they ask me?!" He felt pathetic for losing his temper but he felt so useless.
He stormed off and didn't hear Hermione say softly:
"They didn't ask you because you've lost a brother and have a family who need you to support them, not like us."
Nor did he hear Harry say:
"Mate, I was going to tell McGonagall to make you quidditch captain."
Harry and Hermione looked at each other: "what should we do?" Harry asked his friend quietly.
"I don't know" Hermione said softly. There were times when she felt she didn't know Ron at all. Or perhaps she had changed too much and Ron didn't know her. She waived away the charms and she and Harry followed Ron to defence against the dark arts.
"Ron, wait" Hermione said, just before they entered.
"What?"
Hermione giggled "I need to take your disillusionment charm off. Unless you want detention for not showing up."
Ron laughed in spite of himself. "That would be depressing, getting detention for not going to class when you actually go. Let's see what this new teacher is like."
Hermione smiled. Ron's ability to get over arguments quickly was one of her favourite things about him.
XXX
Professor Griffin was a tall woman with strawberry blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. She spoke somewhat nervously and kept looking at the table where Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville were sitting. Harry was used to being looked at but for some reason she seemed most interested in Neville, although she never asked him a direct question.
"This course will be close to home for many of you" Professor Griffin told the class. "Some of you have seen more death than I have. This is a Gryffindor and Hufflepuff class. Most of your parents and yourselves, will have been fighting for the light. I want you to remember" she took a deep breath and looked as if she was holding back tears "I want you to remember, that there will be people here who will have to live knowing their parents fought for the dark. It is difficult for them, perhaps more than it is for you. I know it is an extremely difficult thing to forgive. But to not forgive is much worse."
Harry noticed that Hermione was watching Professor Griffin intently.
"Today we are covering shielding charms of others, from a distance. If we progress quickly, we will learn them non verbally. If you could put your books away and get your wands out."
Harry enjoyed the lesson. It was a useful spell, and more complex than a usual shield as it involved protecting someone away from the wand holder. Professor Griffin then made them practise the spells while moving around, and while objects were flying. It was one of the best lessons he'd ever had.
After the lesson Harry, Ron and Hermione walked down the hallway, happy about how the lesson had gone, Ron seemingly had forgotten the unpleasantness before. They stopped in Hermione's chambers for hot chocolate, sharing a quiet moment. After a while the door opened and Neville walked in.
"Neville, what did you think of Professor Griffin? That was such a good lesson, right?" Ron asked enthusiastically.
Neville looked as though he'd seen a ghost at the mention of the teacher's name. "Don't want to talk about it." He said before walking swiftly to his room.
A/N – Thanks for reading, as always let me know if you've got any suggestions! And let me know if you've got characters you want included that haven't been so far. I'm not sure if Oliver and Penelope and the Death Eater trials will fit into this story. There are so many characters in Harry Potter! So perhaps that will have to be another fic.
Also just FYI, this isn't a Ron bashing fiction. He's going to have his time to come into his own. He just takes a wee while to come to his senses.
