A/N: When I started this fic it was supposed to be a short series. Telling only Harry's and Draco's story, but now it seems to have a mind of its own. It's taking me elsewhere, so it won't only tell our favourite boys story, you'll get a bit of the war and I think it'll be less tiresome to read it this way. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Nothing Will Tear Us Apart – Part VII

Harry was taking his lunch in the Great Hall for the first time in a long while; Dumbledore had persuaded him into doing so. Personally he thought he was being right manipulated but if Dumbledore wanted to call it a little persuasion then persuasion it would be called. At least in the old fool's mind. He believed that people needed some kind of reassurance, the kind of reassurance that only came with his presence. Harry thought he brought forth much more fear than reassurance from the gasps he heard once he set foot on the Great Hall, but if Dumbledore once again wanted to tweak the words just a bit it was his calling.

He was sitting with most of the Weasley's, although Ginny seemed to have decided to change tables' right that day. She sat with Dean and old Gryffindors but Harry didn't pay much attention to her, or them. His nephew sat by his side and around him the clan that grew everyday. The family he had learned to call his own, he knew though that there wasn't any other place he belonged more than in Draco's arms and that Draco Malfoy was the only family Harry needed. But he wasn't there and the Boy Who Lived had to make do with what he had, which he realized was a lot.

"Harry dear would you pass me the asparagus?" That and other mindless questions were the only sounds he heard from everyone about the table. Apparently during such dark times talking didn't happen much around the table.

"I have to do some stuff around London, how'd you like to come with me mate?" Ron questioned just as dinner was coming to an end.

Harry thought, or rather he knew, it was a bad idea to leave the castle but he needed a change of scenery as badly as anything else and if he didn't intend to stay long certainly no one would mind. Ignoring Hermione's and Molly's cautious glares he nodded his consent at his best friend.

So that same afternoon not much before it was ought to get dark Harry and Ron Apparated to London to find a letter of sorts, as Ron had explained to him earlier. They boy wore black muggle clothing in order to blend in with the crowd and the darkness that would soon set on them. They had appeared in a deserted alley, ugly and dirty. Ron poked his head out and made his way calmly across the street and into a coffee shop.

"What exactly is this letter about Ron?" Harry had whispered once they had ordered a cup of tea and an espresso.

Ron leaned forward and looked around rapidly, then motioned for Harry to do the same. Harry particularly thought this motion was bound to seem more suspicious than anything else but he leaned in like his best friend asked. He desperately tried not to think of the muggle saying 'curiosity killed the cat'.

"There's an alley, not the one where we Apparated in, it another one, just down the street and my spy usually keeps his discoveries hidden behind a rubbish bin on a cardboard box and once a month I come down here to see if he's left anything new," Ron explained, as he sipped the tea that had just arrived.

"A spy, you're in contact with a Death Eater and know one saw fit to ever inform me?" Harry asked cautiously not wanting to set Ron off, his friend was known to have a temper worst than his after all.

"No, no, those kinds of spies Dumbledore deals with them himself, this one is spying on the ministry. You know we've been careful with the ministry, wanting to know who's on whose side; it's been hard finding this kind of information. But several members of the Order have spies inside the ministry or spy themselves as you well know."

Harry smiled briefly thinking of Tonks and many others that actually did do that.

"But you're telling me all this now?"

"Dumbledore asked me to actually," Ron explained looking sheepish. 'I don't know why, told me you'd better know what was going on around you now."

Harry leaned back on his chair and kept quiet mulling over all real possibilities as to why Dumbledore deemed important for him to know of this. He couldn't find many, other than the reason which Ron had given him. But perhaps it was something else, perhaps he wanted to accompany Ron to protect him, but that didn't seem right, because Dumbledore would never put the Boy-Who-Lived in danger just because his beast friend was.

"Ron do you know why Dumbledore really wanted me to know all this?"

"Not really, I suspect he was telling me the truth actually."

"Do you think you're in any kind of danger, Death Eater-like I mean?'' he asked curiously watching Ron closely for his reaction.

"Nah, I don't think so. The Death Eaters are much more worried in spying the Order than wanting information from inside the Ministry, after all they have more spies inside than we do," he explained and Harry could do nothing but agree. Voldemort certainly had plenty spies in the Ministry, he wouldn't worry about what the Order knew.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right mate."

They waited another half hour, ordering some muffins and more tea for Ron; and when dark enough they left to the Alley stealthily making their way through the shadows. It was dark and Harry couldn't see properly, but no one seemed to be around and he assumed that it would be safe to collect whatever they were there to collect, and leave for Hogwarts quickly.

Harry look around suspiciously once more, a can rolled out from the shadows and Harry trained his wand at the dark corner into a possible unseen enemy, but a cat ran out from where the can had left a second later and Harry was able to breathe again.

"Hurry up with whatever it is your doing here Ron, I think we should better head back to Hogwarts," Harry whispered to his friend.

Ron nodded, warily looking at the dark corner where the can and cat had come out off and back to a small box tucked neatly behind one of the trash cans. Harry supposed it was where Ron's contact seemed to hide the information. The redhead nodded in some sort of confirmation to himself and Harry dreadfully wondered if whoever was Ron's contact could be trusted at all, because for Harry it certainly didn't seem that way.

Ron opened the lid carefully and did some sort of spell; Harry was certain he was checking for any kind of curses, well better safe than sorry. But then – CRACK!

Ron stood up and whirled around looking around him, with his wand drown out, Harry too whirled around looking the determined hero he was. They were surrounded. More wizards than they both could count formed a circle around the couple of them, all their wands drown out as well pointed to either Ron's or Harry's hearts. They were doomed, harry and Ron stood no chance against these white robbed figures. Their white robes –

"Aurors?" Harry questioned loudly, to no one in particular actually.

Ron threw him a pained look but said nothing. Aurors filled every corner of the small Alley, with their white robe uniforms and goggles and Harry wanted to ask any of them if they were expecting much fighting out of him and Ron. He could see Kingsley, Tonks and Moody (who had just returned to their ranks) in the front row of wizards that surrounded them. They all looked apologetic, apart from Kingsley who gave forth no emotion as always.

"What's going on here?" Harry questioned loudly. His voice commanded attention, or so Hermione would've told him, because Harry didn't quite understand that it did so.

"We are sorry you were caught up in the middle of this Mr. Potter," someone he did not know said to him. A petite girl, no more than thirty, was standing before them and Harry noticed her hand was shaking. "But we are under orders. Ronald Weasley you are under arrest for crimes against the Ministry of Magic and the Crown, within these accusations is spying and conspiring against aforementioned Ministry."

Ron paled considerably and Harry could barely see his freckles, he ogled his friend then ogled the Aurors. They had gone completely insane.

"WHAT?" he shouted outraged. "You should be out there fighting Voldemort – 'half the crowd flinched' – oh for heaven's sake you are Aurors you aren't supposed to be scared of him! And neither are you supposed to be imprisoning innocent ORDER MEMBERS!"

The girl who had spoke before quivered but stepped forward, apparently she had been chosen to speak for the group. Harry was sure they had picked sticks to choose the lucky spokesperson-auror, because she didn't seem too inclined in speaking and neither in approaching them.

"I'm sorry Mr. Potter but these are orders from the Head of the Department, Rufus Scrimgeour, we have to abide to them," she said and took another cautious step, but not towards Harry, towards Ron.

What he didn't understand though was why Ron being taken and not him, his eyes found Mad-Eye who certainly knew what was going on. But Moody's normal eye clearly told him not to address them because probably then he'd be in trouble as well. Harry assumed he wasn't being taken simply because he was Harry Potter the Boy-Who-Lived even if that hadn't stopped them a few years ago when he was only fifteen.

Ron was cuffed, with magical ropes Harry had never seen before, his wand taken and with another apologetic look from Tonks they all Disapparated together. The girl he had spoken too had stayed behind though, and she seemed intent on talking to him again, Harry didn't know if he wanted to kill her or if he felt sorry for her.

"You will be called to testify when we set a date for Mr. Weasley's trial," she said with a rush before collecting the box Ron had been holding and leaving as well, certainly wanting to get away from an irate Harry Potter as fast as she could.

He was confused and dazed, it all had happened in a blink of the eye but Harry still wasn't quite sure what had happened. He wasn't quite sure what he'd tell Hermione as well, but he knew she would freak, have a fit and storm to the Ministries holding cells in search of her husband afterwards. That thought made him want to ignore the nagging voice that told him to return to the castle.

The dark alley seemed darker and more frightening than it had before, now that Harry found himself alone. It was too dark, too deserted and strangely quiet, much to quiet. Before something happened to him as well, he Apparated to the earthy road that lead to Hogwarts and set in a trot towards the castle that had once been his school.

The walk through the muddy road had never been as depressing as before. He now had lost his friend too for this stupid war. First Draco and then Ron. Neither had died but worrying himself sick about what could be happening to either of them seemed even worse. He often wondered if he'd ever see Draco before all this was over, and now he started wondering about ever seeing Ron again too.

He had heard from Moody that this Rufus character was shifty; he was a good Head of Department but had captured ridiculously innocent people for sake of appearances. The lady who drove the food trolley at the Hogwarts Express had been sent to jail, he'd learned a while back, because she was suspected to Death Eater activity. The poor old woman could barely carry her trolley let alone join Voldemort. Everyone had been stunned when they had heard that news.

Rufus seemed intent in putting people who worked with Dumbledore behind bars. Even if the entire wizarding community knew that if they had a chance in winning this war it was through Dumbledore and his Order. Rufus acted just as Crouch Senior did, back in the first part of this never ending war. He, like any others, thought the Ministry should take care of the war entirely on their own.

Suddenly the enchanted wooden doors were upon him and Harry dreaded going inside like he never had happened before. He dreaded what he'd meet behind those doors, he wondered if Tonks or the others had already managed to send word of what had happened in London. But scarcely twenty minutes had past by and Scrimgeour had certainly put them back to work straight away, once they had returned, wanting to catch another poor unsuspecting person who had nothing to do with Voldemort, or spying, or the war in general.

He slipped inside unnoticed and before heading to Ron's quarters he set off to find the headmaster. He needed to inform him what had transpired at the alley and inform him that the papers inside the box had been taken by the Aurors along with Ron. How a quiet night with his best friend in London had turned into his whole spectacle Harry did not know, but they had to fix it quite soon.

Ron was a master strategist, years of playing and winning at chess had made him so, and without him Harry wasn't sure if they could do much against Death Eaters. Of course Dumbledore, and even Snape, were extremely good at strategy too, but they had too much on their plates as it is. Dumbledore had too manage the whole Order, and Snape had too run about after old contacts of his.

Harry was in front of the Gargoyle's within minutes and knocking down Dumbledore's door not much after that. A weary voice called him inside, and Harry could see the tired worn face peering at him through his half-moon specs. Remus was occupying one of the other stuffed armchairs and so was Snape. Harry would've felt uncomfortable if he there hadn't been such a need to tell them what had happened.

"Albus I'm sorry to interrupt," he panted out holding onto his aching ribs.

"Yes well, at least you are aware that you've interrupted us," Snape snarled out in his usual Snape-ish way, Harry was all those used with his antics. "Now get on with it boy, we're in the middle of an important meeting."

"Ron's been captured!" he yelled in frustration, wanting to shut the man up.

As expected that caught everyone's attention in less than a nanosecond. Snape and Lupin practically jumped out of their chairs and stared at him as if they were hearing things. Dumbledore though, leaned back in his, closing his eyes and pinching his nose. Harry rarely saw him show so much emotion.

"And the package?" he questioned lightly.

"Package? My best friend's been captured and you're worried about a flimsy package!" Harry raged at the older man. Dumbledore gave him a rather tolerating look. "It's been taken with him." The older man was pinching his nose again.

"So Ron's been captured my Death Eaters," Remus said sitting once again, Snape started pacing around the room at this point.

Harry looked at him surprised; he had thought Remus knew that Ron had been doing before. Dumbledore opened him eyes then, and looked at Harry as if reading him. He probably did quite a thorough search, because Dumbledore could often read him like an open children's book. He turned to Remus with a perturbed smile on his wrinkled face.

"I'm afraid that Mr. Weasley has been captured by the Ministry of Magic."

"What?" Snape said in an outburst, returning to the conversation. "What in the world is the Ministry doing capturing Weasley for? Has Fudge gone mad?"

"I believe this doesn't seem like Fudge's work, he's rather afraid of Molly Weasley's temper; no, no, this seems like the works of Rufus Scrimgeour," Dumbledore said breathing heavily through his nose; apparently Dumbledore did not like the Head of Auror Department very much.

"Scrimgeour? Why of course, he's been going crazy since this all started, putting anyone he can in jail simply because he can. We have to do something Albus, we need Ron in the castle and imagine how Hermione will be when she finds out about this," Remus said looking pensive; Harry hoped he'd be able to find a solution.

"I was with him though, why didn't they capture me?"

Snape looked at him as if he were stupid. "Harry I'll take the obvious way on this question, you are Harry Potter the public would go mad if you were to be arrested," Remus said. Dumbledore nodded agreeing with him.

There was silence for the next ten minutes, each occupant of the room searching their minds for a solution. Ron was much needed, enough for even Snape to care where the man was. Dumbledore suddenly stood up with a rare bright smile gracing his features, he moved around the room looking for that special parchment he used to communicate with Order members and a feather of Fawkes' that he used to write in it. Harry knew about those because he had seen Dumbledore do it often, he had received a few letters written in said paper before as well.

He wrote hastily and Harry had to stop himself from craning his neck forward to be able to see what he was writing, knowing it was futile to do so because those words were spelled to read for only two people. Those were Dumbledore and whoever he sent the letter too, but Harry didn't know who that might be tonight.

With the letter finished and given to Fawkes' Albus turned his attention to the room's occupants once more. He opened his mouth to address them, but the door was thrown open before he could speak.

"Where is he? Where is Ron?"

Harry whirled around to face the door, his eyes wide and his feet rooted to the floor.

…tbc…

I ask you to review, your thoughts are always very important, it helps in writing the story actually.

The next chapter has already been written so you won't have to wait too long for it.