Running a hand over her cheek, Willow glanced at her reflection in the mirror again.
The cuts marring her cheek weren't as noticeable as she thought they should be. That was one thing that could be said for magic healing, it worked.
Willow chuckled dryly as the moved to brush her teeth.
She'd been trapped in the apartment for less than a day, with Remus to keep her company, but her patience was already wearing thin. She was needed to help at the office, plus she didn't know the states of Moody and Frank.
It was fairly obvious that her babysitter hadn't just popped over like he'd pretended; her sister and Tara were trapping her in the house. As much as she loved them for their concern, the situation at work was fairly dire, so she had planned the perfect escape.
Setting her toothbrush down on the side, she allowed her eyes to drift over her face once again. It wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. For a moment she gripped the sink edge, as she clamped down on the memory of Frank's screams. Closing her eyes tightly, she tried to ignore the pain that flared up. Her memory of the wizarding world was shrouded in the war, and things had just gotten worse as soon as she left school.
With a quick shake of her head she rid herself of the morbid thoughts, it was never good to dwell on things that she couldn't really help,and with one final self-conscious glance into the mirror, Willow whirled on her heels and left the bathroom.
A smile played on her face as she noticed the absence of her baby sitter. Creeping back into her room, she scouted for a suitable coat to wear to work. Her normal one was coated with blood from the previous days adventure, a quick mental note to clean it flashed into her head as she grabbed the substitute black one. Glancing at her boots she judged how silent she could be in her escape of the apartment.
"I wouldn't if I were you." A voice behind her chuckled. Willow leapt a foot in the air and spun to face the intruder. Ignoring her swimming head and the rising nausea she glared at the tall man.
"Damn it Remus! Do not do that!" Brown eyes met hers and he laughed louder. Stomping over to him Willow prodded his chest in annoyance.
"Just where exactly are you planning to go?" Remus queried, a brown eyebrow cocked at her appearance. Shuffling nervously for a moment, Willow studied the wall over the werewolf's left shoulder.
"It's not what you think." She muttered feebly, wishing she'd just left out the window when she'd gotten a chance.
"Ah, so you're not sneaking out of the house alone to go into work, leaving me alone to be beaten to death by one incredibly angry blonde upon her return?" Remus grinned sarcastically.
Willow's brow lowered as she leveled the young man with another glare.
"And here I thought you were better than those hooligans you hang around with young man. See me not liking you anymore." Willow pouted as she attempted to push past him. His hand caught the redhead's upper arm as she attempted to make her escape.
"Ah, ah, ah, I may fear your wrath Willow, however, I fear our dear Tara's oh-so-much more. Behave." Lupin wagged a finger at the short woman hoping that she would get the idea that there was no leaving.
The red head stared at the finger in front of her face for a moment thinking, and the silence stretched on as she continued to think. It was now the man's turn to squirm; he knew that the older girl was undoubtedly coming up with a plan, one that he was certainly going to be unable to stop.
"I'm not allowed to be alone?" Willow smiled brightly, plowing on before he could answer. "Then along you must come." Whirling on her heel Willow marched to the front door without another word.
"Fine, fine!" Remus huffed as he followed on her heels "But we are only staying for 2 hours, and as soon as we get back you're taking your potion. Not to mentioning explaining to Miss Maclay that this is not my fault." Willow's answering grin was wide and smug as she shut the door, redoing the locks behind them.
"Uh huh, will do. To satisfy you even more we'll walk there. No floo or apparating, which would be bad for my head." Willow kept to herself the fact that her head was beginning to throb with a heavy disco beat.
"It's just lucky I don't have a job…" Lupin groused, as Willow started quickly for the stairs out of her building.
Central London was buzzing with activity, cars whizzed past the pair as they made their way to the public toilets situated nearby at Whitechapel. Remus' eyes flicked down to watch the petite redhead as a dark scowl painted itself across her face. He tried not to laugh as moments later her lower lip joined the rebellion in a pout.
Willow could feel the man's eyes on her, but didn't bother to change her expression, she hadn't thought the whole walking plan through entirely.
"I hate going through the toilets, so unhygienic." Willow pulled another horrible face, as she voiced her thoughts to the werewolf next to her. Ignoring his reaction she shoved him towards the male side.
Before he could protest, she raised a single red brow.
"Male. Female. Me not going to run. You go male. Me female."
Shaking a head at his momentary denseness, she followed the queue of other woman into the bathroom. Shutting the cubicle door behind her she repressed the urge to wretch as she stepped into the toilet bowl. With a single tug of the chain she was whisked into the Ministry of Magic.
The atrium was huge, as usual, and Willow repressed the urge to groan as she thought of the extra distance her and Lupin would have to cover to get across it.
Glancing towards the other sets of entrances, she spotted her companion. Attempting to hurry over to the tall figure, she got knocked to the floor by someone running out of the entrance next to hers. The breath rushed out of her lungs as she hit the hard marble floor and her head throbbed mercilessly at being jumbled around. Scooting onto her butt, she glanced up at the figure above her. The woman was well-dressed, with robes of a deep regal purple. Willow's brain, still attempting to regain its grip on time, didn't even register anything as the woman shoved past.
Blinking stupidly, Willow realized her position on the cold and slightly dirty floor. A hand appeared in her vision just as she was about to pull herself to her feet; following the arm up, Willow was met with a pair of navy blue eyes and a smile.
"On your ass again Miss Evans?" Amelia Bones laughed as she hauled the younger girl to her feet.
Nodding weakly, Willow glanced around for Remus, who was bobbing through the surprisingly large crowd over to them. Amelia Bones worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and had helped Willow several times over the course of her time at the Ministry. Her brother was amongst the members in the Order. Willow had been delighted to hear that the woman was up for a very important promotion, Amelia was very good at her job and always unbiased.
"T-thanks." Willow stuttered, a light blush covering her cheeks. Amelia merely nodded and set off on her way.
Willow forced the blush down and moved towards the figure of Remus. Grinning up at the frowning man ,Willow patted him on the shoulder ignoring the plethora of questions on her health and fall, instead choosing to head straight to their destination.
The golden grated doors of the lift pinged merrily into the atrium, the lift itself filled with several people already. In the left-hand corner stood Arthur Weasley engrossed in a muggle manual of some sort. Tilting her head, Willow tried to read the cover to discover this week's fascination. Car manual, Willow managed to assess but was still unable to tell what model of car.
Willow didn't spare a glance to the others in the office as she entered and scurried towards the collection of shabby cubicles that were reserved for the senior aurors.
Popping her head round the corner of Moody's, she noted it was meticulously clean, papers stacked and complete on one end of the desk, with notes and stationary on the other. Willow's brows scrunched together at the lack of her superior.
Spinning on her heel she nearly collided with Lupin, but darting round him she headed to her desk. It was a jumble of pens, paperwork and personal touches, which contrasted greatly with both Moody's desk and most of the other tables within the offices.
There on top of the mess was a bright yellow note. Willow's eyes widened as she read it, before jamming it into her pocket. Spinning once again, she was about to take off at a run, but Lupin's hands gripped her forearms stopping all movement.
"Slow down before you collapse," He instructed firmly trying to push her into a chair. "Now what is happening?" Struggling out of his grip, she gestured wildly in the direction of the head of the Auror department's office.
"Meeting about the mission yesterday, I really should go help Mad Eye. You can stay here. I'll be back soon."
The call to enter sounded sharp, suppressing a wince, Willow pushed Rufus Scrimgeour's office door open. All the eyes in the office fell upon her.
"Ah Miss Evans, finely care to join us." Scrimgeour muttered sarcastically.
Moody's blue eye whizzed furiously at the snide comment made at his protégée, but that was the only outward sign of his annoyance. Willow crept over and perched on the chair that had been magically pulled out the moment she'd entered.
The men's attention was diverted away from her again, to continue their discussion of the meeting. Willow decided her best bet was to just sit quietly.
"Tell me Alastor, how two of our higher aurors and our 'prodigy'-" The sneer in his voice was obvious "were taken down, two are injured, one severely, and the majority of the targets got away?" Willow winced, when put that way it sounded bad.
"Ambushed. We were only sent to do recon. We may be able to hold our own against most death eaters, but being attacked because we were following the protocol of distance between aurors, is not our fault." Moody snapped at the head. Scrimgeour seemed to bristle at the mere mention that his system was wrong.
Willow kept her gaze fixed on her lap, where her fingers were furiously twisting themselves into knots. This wasn't going to be pretty and her head already hurt.
Willow rubbed her eyes as Moody shut the door to Scrimgeour's office behind them. Her skull felt as if it was soon going to explode, and the cuts on her face were stinging like mad. Glancing at Moody she saw the disapproving stare he was shooting her.
"I thought I told you and Miss Maclay, that you were on leave." Willow gritted her teeth and felt her hair rise in anger, as the man addressed her in a condescending tone.
"I already told you Mad-eye, darn it. No way am I sitting on my ass and letting you take the hit for all of our screw ups." For a moment the two squared up to each other, both glaring daggers. Lupin, who had seen them exit the office moments ago, intervened before their frayed nerves could get them into a fight.
"What actually happened, Willow was fuzzy on the details?" He asked brow creased with worry.
"Head wounds do that to you Remus." Willow muttered dryly, taking the seat at her desk and putting her head in her hands to block out the bright lights illuminating the offices.
"We were ambushed. Seven death eaters in total. Got a jump on us. I took down two, Mister Longbottom was in the process of taking down his first, when a few well placed curses hit him before I could stop them. Evans was already taking on Nott, after disposing of two, when she was injured. I stopped any more severe damage being done, but the one torturing Longbottom took off along with Nott." Moody spat in disgust at the mess of an operation.
"It was a huge failure." Willow groaned into her palms.
"But you took down the majority of them, getting several into ministry custody." Lupin frowned, not understanding how this was classed as a loss.
"We failed the objective. Nott got away, the bastard , and Frank got hurt." Willow growled dangerously, the pain of her head not making her at all forgiving now.
"How is Frank?" Lupin asked, concern coloring his voice. Green eyes peered blearily over the top of pale hands to query Moody as to the fate of their friend.
"He's bloody lucky," Moody grumbled. "The curses that hit him in the chest broke a couple of ribs. The unforgivable curse scrambled his brain a little. He's in shock and waiting on tests for Post Traumatic Stress. He'll be on leave for several weeks, lucky to get away with his sanity." Moody made to stomp away in the direction of his cubicle before pausing.
"Evans go home and take a weeks leave. Can't have our 'prodigy' over tired. And don't forget constant vigilance, maybe it will finally get through that thick skull." Willow grinned weakly as Moody disappeared.
Looking up at Lupin with hopeful green eyes, Willow finally reduced herself to begging.
"Home please? I want to get over the wrath of my roommate, possibly my sister and brother-in-law too, and just go to bed