Chapter Four: The First Hunt…and a decision

Hermoine's words burrowed down deep into as the days went by. Nothing seemed to tempt Harry as a way of relieving them.

Even during his flights and investigations with the rest of the Aurors, Harry couldn't shake off on how much this was troubling him.

Why was it though? Why was this bothering him as much as he was allowing it?

There were truths to what Hermoine had said, Harry knew. Ginny having been accepted by the Holyhead Harpies and to be their new Chaser as soon as she had graduated from Hogwarts seemed to be the tip of the dagger.

Harry laughed. He remembered that not too long ago he was more concerned about Ginny's safety than as to what might happen when they went into their separate professions. So, why should this bother him? So, Ginny was going to be a professional Quidditch player and Harry was going to be preoccupied as an Auror; that doesn't mean that they weren't going to not see eachother anymore, right?

A thought then occurred to Harry, one that he had hoped would never intrude onto his thoughts.

"Should she meet someone else…"

Upon seeing some of their Hogwarts friends again, Ron came up with the idea that they should have a Dumbledor's Army Reunion Party at Harry's.

Harry thought it was brilliant and welcomed the idea of escaping from his muddled thoughts.

They arranged it to be on a Saturday so that even Ginny and Luna could attend. Surprisingly enough, they were the first to arrive.

Soon, more came. Neville came accompanied by Susan Bones and Anthony Goldstein. George then came by with Alicia as well as Oliver Wood and Katie Bell. Angelina Johnson and Lee Jordan arrived with Ernie Macmillan. The Patil twins came with Hannah and Lavender Brown (Ron made an excuse to go to the bathroom upon seeing her). Terry Boot and Michael Corner came and the last to arrive were Cho, Seamus, and Dean.

Kreacher had the entire dining hall lit with candles, the DA signature was on the napkins and table cloth. The place settings were surprisingly well done. Butterbeers, mini-cakes, pastries, and tarts were piled high on silver platters; it was truly breath taking.

Everyone marveled at their surroundings and then soon gave way to update and chatter as they ate and talked amongst their friends.

Harry, along with Seamus and Hannah; talked about their lives as Aurors.

Hermoine talked about all of the things she was learning in the Magical Law Enforcement while Ron and George talked about of all the money they were making off of Weasley Wizard Wheezes.

Others told of their recent dealings, some working at Gringotts, others in some mediocre departments of the Ministry.

Oliver, upon hearing of Ginny's recent enlistment with the Harpies, talked excitingly to her about life in the Quidditch Leagues.

Harry sat and listened to Oliver with a fit of envy. Already missing the life of Quidditch, Harry was feeling even more remorseful the fact that these two would be experiencing it together while Harry delt with fleeting Death Eaters.

"You're worried about her, aren't you?"

Harry turned to look right into the misty-eyes of Luna.

Harry smiled, "Saw right away, did you?"

She smiled, dazedly, as she took another drink of her Butterbeer.

"She's worried too, so you know. Sure she was excited at first, but now she's almost dreading it."

Harry looked back at Ginny. Even though she was smiling through her conversation with Wood, her eyes betrayed her false smile.

Harry sighed, this party wasn't going the way he hoped it would.

As if an answer to Harry's gloominess, a silver, Bear came in through the open window and startled half of those in the room. Looking around the room, it spotted Harry and then stood on its hindquarters and spoke.

"Will Mr. Potter, Mr. Finnigan, Mr. Thomas, and Misses Brown and Abbott; please report the Ministry."

The patronous then vanished.

Harry, along with Seamus, Dean, Lavender, and Hannah stood up and walked to the doorway, making apologies for their hasty retreat as they went.

Ginny had ran and engulfed Harry into a deep kiss before he could get to the doorway.

"Can we talk later?" She whispered into his ear.

Harry nodded, gave a departing hug, and then let go of her.

Upon arriving to the Ministry and getting off the lift, Seamus and the others talked all the way discussing as to what the urgency was.

Stepping into the Auror's office, Robards smiled upon seeing that everyone was finally there.

Harry and the others took their seat as Robards began.

"Thank you all for coming, on short notice; of course I wouldn't have expected less from Aurors. Now to the point, Walden McNair has been spotted along with Mulciber, just outside of Bristol. Rumor has it that they're trying to organize a large force by using the Imperius Curse on the muggles of a nearby village. On whose orders, this we're uncertain."

Everyone started whispering amongst themselves and their neighbors until Robards held up a hand.

"I'm needing everyone on this tonight, seeing as how there might be a lot of innocent people involved, on that note, we're going to be using stun spells ONLY."

The murmurs and the whispers continued, this time not everyone was on a happy note and it was mixed.

A man raised his hand.

"Yes, Gerden?" Robards replied.

A tall red haired man, who Harry thought could pass off as a Weasley family member, stood.

"You mean, we're not going to use any other spells? What if they attack us, if then could we use different spells?"

Robards put his hands together, "Should the situation arise, yes, but use stun spells for the time being. We want to capture McNair and Mulciber, alive; remember that, all of you."

There was certain grumbling. Apparently, a lot had answered to the post to kill Death Eaters. Harry assumed that a lot of the Aurors here had lost families due to the last onslaught.

Dean leaned over and whispered in Seamus' ear, "Bugger that. If one shoots at me, I'm willing to finish it."

Seamus grinned and nodded.

Hannah and Lavender, in the meantime, just looked dumbfounded as to the whole thing. Hannah leaned over to Harry.

"This is really happening? I mean, we're actually going to hunt these people down?"

Harry nodded.

She then turned back to Lavender and the two talked quietly about something.

Robards tapped his wand against the podium he was standing in front of, a large analog clock appeared behind him.

"We should leave in fifteen minutes, be ready by then or be left behind."

Fifteen minutes flew by fast and soon they were in the air on their broomsticks. The cold air, accompanied by the cold wind of the north, ripped at Harry's face as they flew along and looked down at a batch of forest that had a red-ish glow.

Landing in a clearing a couple of yards from it, Harry, amongst the others, some flew to the surrounding sides, landed and placed their broomsticks away in a corner.

They all moved quietly and some applied muffle spells to their feet as to avoid the sound of their movement.

Dweezil put a hovering spell to himself, lifting himself inches from the ground.

Harry and Seamus walked slowly as they made their way to the source of the light. The closer they came, they began to hear voices.

"What do you mean that he's not here, he was supposed to be here over an hour ago!" Said a gruff voice.

"You know Rookwood, likes to show off, doesn't he?" said another.

"Well, he'd better show up. I'm not going to that stinking cave again, I'll tell you that much."

Harry had wished the others were more curious as to listen to their conversation as he was, only they were more eager to catch the two.

The two men made a startled yell as they saw Savage approaching them, his wand held out in front of him.

"Devon Mulciber, Walden McNair; you two are hereby under arrest by the Ministry of magic and the Magical Law Enforcement. Please, throw your wands to the side and come along quietly."

Mulciber sneered at Savage.

"Is that what you want, filthy blood-traitor? Well, come and get it…"

McNair raised his wand above his head and sent up a showering spark into the air.

Savage narrowed his gaze. "I'll ask you once more to…"

There were certain shuffling sounds being made all around the area and Harry looked behind him and saw two men and a woman carrying large rocks over their heads, charging at Harry and Seamus.

Seamus saw it too and pointed his wand at one of them men's legs sending a spell that hit the man's knees and causing him to keel over.

To Harry's ears, he could tell that others had been met with similar circumstances. Harry, then, too pointed his wand at the group and send them knocking over one another.

Shouts rang out into the night and lights of different colors were being shot in every direction, as it seemed every Auror was being attacked by the mindless, muggle-drones.

One of them managed to hurl their rocks and hit Dweezil in the shoulder causing his shot to head off and hit a tree branch that then fell onto a young witch's head.

Harry looked over his shoulder and noticed, amongst the confusion, McNair and Mulciber had escaped.

However, none could worry about that now as the townspeople were still coming at them.

Harry, Seamus, and Dweezil managed to stun a lot of them and the others seemed to drive them off as well.

A few of the Aurors had already apparated away, leaving Harry and a few others still in the fray.

Seamus was cursing, mildly, as a group of muggle children started swinging little bags of rocks at him. Dean came to his rescue, only to have an elderly woman tackle him to the ground.

Hannah and Dweezil were having their problems as some men were throwing lit stalks of barley at them.

Harry backed off until he tripped over and found Lavender Brown's unconscience form lying on the ground. A lump the size of an apple resided on her forehead.

Harry turned to Seamus.

"OI! I think we need to get out of here, what say you?"

Seamus nodded as he was helping Dean to his feet, stunning the woman who tackled him in the process.

Dweezil nodded as well and he pulled Hannah's arm as the six of them started sprinting off into the woods and found themselves back at the fire spit where McNair and Mulciber had previously been.

Harry looked around and listened for others who may still be fighting. He heard nothing, but the approaching footsteps and saw the forms of other townspeople heading their way.

Savage suddenly appeared from behind a tree, a gash visible on his left cheek.

"Harry! Are you all alright?"

Harry nodded and then motioned down to Lavender who was in his arms.

"She's knocked out, though. Where's everyone else?"

"Gone." Said Savage quickly as he sent a series of stunning spells at a group of muggles that were charging at them.

"I think we need to retreat, Harry."

Harry nodded and waited until Seamus and Dean had finally arrived, before he turned to Savage.

"We're all here."

Savage nodded, "Alright, let's get back to the Ministry."

All at once, they apparated.

As Harry arrived back to Number 12 Grimmuald Place, he heaved a sigh of exhaustion as Kreacher took his blazer. The night had been awful.

When he had returned with the others to the Ministry. He found that a lot were wounded, one even had a fractured skull.

Robards asked to see Savage, Dawlish, and Proudfoot in private. When they immerged, Robards looked to everyone and told them not to be discouraged by tonight's events.

Harry, in turn, asked him about what they had witnessed with McNair waiting for Rookwood and if it was worth investigating.

Robards nodded and called the meeting to an end.

Lorna approached Harry afterwards and asked him if the two of them could investigate the McNair/Rookwood inquiry together, seeing as how she's been after Rookwood for sometime.

Harry acknowledged and the two planned to meet sometime in the week.

Harry was glad to be home.

The sudden chiming on the old grandfather clock proclaimed it to be a little after three in the morning, to Harry's surprise.

An intrusive reminder struck him. He was supposed to talk to Ginny tonight.

Cursing at himself, Harry made his way to the door but stopped.

Looking at the clock again, he knew she surly would be in bed at this hour and it wouldn't be good to awake her for what might be a short conversation.

Besides, Harry was tired. He could barley focus, he was that tired.

Forcing himself up the stairs and to Sirius' old bedroom, which Harry had made his own, Harry noticed that Kreacher had laid out his night clothes on the foot of the bed.

Slipping out and into the nightly garments, Harry slid into the warm, comfortable, covers of the bed; sleep giving off its siren's song.

However, sleep didn't come right away, as the thoughts of Ginny and the worries of earlier came into full play into Harry's mind.

The very next day, Harry had planned to meet Hermoine in Diagon alley for news and to see if she and Ron would like to go to the next Quidditch World Cup Finals.

Walking along the street, looking at all the shops (Ollivander's having recently reopened), Harry's eye caught a shop that he had never been to.

Miss Engle Fiytz's Shop of Trinkets and Jewels alike

Intrigued, and mildly curious, Harry went inside the shop.

Inside were only a few witches, mostly teenage girls looking at necklaces that had stones, which changed colors upon touching them. Several glas cases had lockets, pendants, brooches, rings, solid gold wands, silver wands, and some headdresses. There were also robes, the kind Harry had seen during Bill and Fluer's wedding.

A witch behind the counter spotted Harry and with a keen eye, seemed to spot his scar.

"Mr. Potter! Welcome!" She quickly rushed to him, her pointed hat, covered with buttons and slogans, fell lopsided to the side of her head as she adjusted it.

"I'm Glenda June and I'm so happy to finally meet you, Mr. Potter! Come, let me show you what we have in stock." The small Witch seized Harry by his hand and dragged him over to one of the display cases.

"Over here we have a lovely dragon scale encrusted watch, very nice, don't you think? Made in Bulgaria, interesting race. Oh, and over here we have our patented ever-glow rings! You'll never get lost in the dark and needn't ever reach for your wand again. And, let's see…"

Harry followed her and tried to remain respectful, he was starting to wish that curiosity hadn't led him to this store.

"We also have Goblin-made snuff boxes, but you don't look like the type, dear. We have a number of leather wand holders, they come in all different colors and come with a galleons-back guarantee. Over here…"

Harry stopped her as he stood in front of one of the display cases. Inside were rings, all had beautiful stones, encompassed on a golden band, and inside each stone a bewitchment had been performed to give a sort of illusion. One was a ruby and had a Hungarian Horntail strutting about, until it noticed Harry and blew fire, enveloping the entire inside of the stone a swirling red. Another was blue-tinted opal and had a Heron prodding in the water and then shaking water off of its wings. The last one was a white diamond. Inside the stone, clouds were rushing by and within them were the slightest hints of blue sky.

"Ah!" Said Glenda, taking Harry's look of the rings, "I see you've noticed our "Du Coeur" (From the Heart) collection. Imported from France. Unfortunately, they're very pricey and only one person has bought one, so far."

Harry's eyes were still transfixed upon the diamond ring, a thought sparked into his mind.

"Can I have this one, the diamond one."

As Glenda made her way around the counter to take the ring, Harry heard a tap at the glass, turned, and saw Hermoine smiling and waiving and was making her way inside.

"I'll also take a leather wand holder!" Harry said, hurriedly.

"What color?" asked Glenda, who, to Harry's relief, had already had the ring in a box and had it in a bag for him.

"Brown, I guess." Said Harry as Hermoine then came up to him at his side.

"Hi Harry!" Said Hermoine. "What'cha, buying?"

Glenda gave Harry a knowing wink as she put the leather wand holder in the bag and said, "Mr. Potter, are you sure I can't persuade you into anything else?"

Harry thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No, I think that'll do it."

Glenda rang up the items and said, "400 Galleons and four Knuts, please."

As Harry handed her the money, Hermoine looked at the wand holder, astounded.

"Harry! Do you really need a wand holder that badly? You've never need one before?"

Harry grinned at her, "You never know."

To be continued…