Chapter Seven

Harry was certain he didn't use to hate this job so much. Sure, there were moments when he rather be at home or playing Quidditch but usually he felt the satisfaction of knowing he was doing the right thing for all the magical children in Britain, and the job didn't actually feel very boring even though most of the time he was signing stuff.

But with everything that had been going on lately, sitting there and doing what he was supposed to do as Head of Education felt like a waste of time, and indeed, very boring.

"I've been trying to schedule this meeting for ages now, Mr. Potter," Linda Webster from Interior told him. "I knew you were a difficult man to reach, but I didn't know just how much."

Harry attempted a sympathetic smile, but all he managed was small grimace.

As Linda went on and on about...Interior stuff, probably, Harry couldn't stop his mind from wandering. He kept thinking about the horcruxes and the different clues they had found. There had to be something they were missing, and for some reason Harry kept coming up with the names and faces of the Slytherins he knew from school, as if the fact that they were enemies from school meant they were still out to get him and fool him. He knew he was being ridiculous; childhood enemies weren't real enemies, and he had probably made the enemosity worst in his head than what it actually was. Only Malfoy had ever been some kind of threat to him, and so many years later he had already mentally forgiven Malfoy for getting himself in that situation.

Besides, it wasn't like the man was in any condition to be participating in an evil plot. He seemed genuinely miserable.

Harry was brought back to his surroundings by his mobile phone beeping. Linda was startled.

"Sorry." Harry's heart had sped up at the sound, and there was no way in hell he wasn't going to see what was happening, even though Hermione had told him it was rude to answer the phone while he was talking with someone.

It was a text from her. Hermione.

Come to the labs ASAP.

Harry had no idea what 'ASAP' meant, but if Hermione was telling him to go somewhere, he wasn't going to stop and think about anything else.

Harry stood up and threw his coat over his shoulder as he gathered his wand with his other hand, all the while forgetting that Linda was in front of him.

"Mr. Potter?"

Harry walked right past her and out of the door, but he regained some of his common sense along the way and stopped at his secretary's desk.

"Tell her I have an emergency, reschedule the meeting, and get her a coffee on me. Thanks."

Just like Linda, his secretary seemed very confused, but she nodded and Harry took off.

All sorts of scenarios kept running through his head. Maybe they had finally succeeded in communicating with the pen horcrux, or in getting the boy's soul out of the music box.

He shuddered. Horcruxes were fucked up.

Hermione met him after the first door, where Harry's security clearance wasn't enough and he needed someone to get him through. She seemed frazzled.

"There's another one," she said without any introduction and began dragging Harry through the security checkpoints. "It's down here with Padma, Ron sent it over with a portkey a few minutes ago. He's still at the scene."

Harry felt cold dread. "Is it…?"

Hermione shrugged. "It's got a big crack in the middle, but it feels...strong."

In effect, the horcrux sitting on the table in front of him, Hermione, and Padma, felt very much like the music box one.

Full.

It was a shield bearing a blue and yellow coat of arms Harry had never seen before, and what's more, the words didn't seem to be in english. The crack Hermione had mentioned ran through the middle, but it wasn't deep enough to break it. Harry wondered if this meant the object was a muggle object like the pocket watch and couldn't handle the magic, meaning the crack would grow bigger and bigger until it couldn't hold up anymore.

"It's from a German magical family," Padma explained, pointing at the words. "Silberbauer. They're one of the wealthiest, most politically influential families of the region."

Hermione nodded. "They're like the Malfoys a few generations ago."

Harry frowned. "So, worst case scenario."

"On the contrary," Padma said. "They're rich and known like the Malfoys, but not evil. They have constantly expressed their acceptance of muggles and muggle-borns, some of them have even married them."

Harry wasn't expecting that, but for some reason it didn't completely reassured him.

"Alright," he said and stepped closer to the horcrux. "Let's see what the German Malfoys got for us."

Ron was sweating from head to toe when he finally arrived to the Ministry. He hoped Harry, Hermione, and Ginny had gotten his text message about meeting him in the lobby of the Ministry, he didn't think he had the energy to go down to the labs right now.

"Ron!"

Ron was so relieved to hear his name he didn't stop to register the source, so he turned around and instead of his friends, he found Blaise there. Ron's heart was already racing, but it jumped unexpectedly and he was pretty sure his face reddened further. "Oh, hi," he said and waved awkwardly as Blaise approached. In another situation Ron wouldn't mind this, but he was in a rush and the others would be there any second now.

"I thought I'd run into you here," Blaise mentioned as he casually leaned in and kissed Ron once on each cheek. Ron tensed up considerably because he definitely didn't appreciate the fact that the first time Blaise did that was when he was dripping in sweat, but he smiled politely nonetheless. "I was about to go up to your office."

"I'm just arriving from a mission, actually, and I-" Ron was about to explain that he had to go when some familiar shapes caught his eye not too far away from Blaise. Hermione, Ginny, and Harry were already there, and he focused briefly on them. They stopped walking towards him when they realized who Ron was talking to, and for some inexplicable reason Ron felt as though he was being caught doing something he oughtn't be doing.

Blaise realized Ron was looking beyond him and looked over his shoulder. "Sorry, I didn't mean to keep you from any engagements," he said as he looked back at him. "I just wanted to see if you're still interested in visiting my other properties? Because I'm due for a routine check up and it would honestly be more interesting if an Auror was there trying to frame me for murder."

Ron couldn't help but chuckle. "That's not what I was doing," he defended and Blaise smirked. "But yes, I'm still interested."

Blaise beamed. "Brilliant! You've got one of these, right?" he pulled out a mobile phone from his breast pocket. It didn't surprise Ron at all that someone like him had one.

"Yeah." He fumbled trying to get it out of his robes. He saw that he had an answer from Hermione confirming that they'll meet him in the lobby, so he tried to make it go away so he could give Blaise his number or whatever it was.

Blaise must have noticed he was struggling, because he reached and caught Ron's hand in his own. "Here, let me help. I took a muggle technology seminar in Spain last winter."

He stepped in next to Ron, still cradling Ron's hand holding the phone in his own, and Ron just wished he wasn't still sweating because Blaise smelled like citrus and fresh flowers or whatever it was that they put in those perfumes and it somehow made him more embarrassed about his own state. "You go to contacts, add new, input my number…" Blaise typed in his number with one finger, and then below that his name.

"What's that?" Ron asked, pointing at a symbol Blaise had added next to his name.

"It's a winking face. Sideways." He winked and Ron stopped breathing. "You should really take that seminar next time."

He nodded.

Finally, Blaise stepped away. "So call me. Or text me soon. I'll let you know when we can take that trip."

Ron nodded again. His mouth was very dry. From the mission. From work.

With one last winning smile, Blaise turned around.

Ron took a second to breathe normally and then he walked over to Harry, Ginny, and Hermione. Ginny had a particularly nasty smile while Harry and Hermione shared a brief look and then tried to look innocent.

Ron cleared his throat. "So… This has been a total PR nightmare. The German press already knows, it won't be long until The Daily Prophet gets a hold of the story, and the family is threatening to send German aurors over to handle the case, which would monumentally suck."

"Were there… Bodies?" Harry asked with dread.

Ron sighed. "Two. Both dead needless to say, it was a bloodbath like the first one." He saw Hermione open her mouth and he interrupted her already knowing what she'll ask. "Yes, the creator was a Silberbauer. Youngest son, barely seventeen years old. And the other one was a muggle girl from a nearby town."

They all nodded gravely. "Okay Ron, we need all the details you can give us," Hermione said.

"Fine, but can we do it over lunch? I haven't eaten all day and I'm exhausted."

"I bet Zabini would buy you lunch." Ginny wiggled her eyebrows and grinned.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Shut up. We were just setting up a professional appointment."

Ginny scoffed. "Ron, you thick walnut. He was flirting with you!"

"No he wasn't." Ginny didn't understand. Blaise was just like that. He'd charm anybody if it got him out of trouble or into money.

"Just look at him!" Ginny said in an exasperated whisper and discreetly pointing behind Ron's back. Ron looked over his shoulder and saw that Blaise was still around, talking on his mobile phone like one of those businessmen in muggle movies. He caught Ron's eye and smiled. "He's still looking at you!"

"Can we go back to the important part, please?" Hermione asked and Ron could see that it was for his benefit too. "And go somewhere more private?"

"Yeah, let's just order in," Harry suggested. "Hermione, can we eat in your office? I don't wanna run into anyone I might have an appointment with."

"Sure."

Ginny looked hesitant. "I don't think I have time, I need to be somewhere." Before anyone could ask where, she continued. "But there's a great Italian place in the Ministry directory, you should look it up."

Ron, Harry, and Hermione frowned.

"Keep me updated, bye!" She waved and then ran away as if she was being chased.

With a strange look and a shrug, the three of them left for Hermione's office, and Ron certainly didn't turn back for one more look at Blaise.

Ginny had been on hold with the hotel for half an hour now. They had said that Luna was in their herb garden and they'd fetch her right away, but now Ginny guessed she wasn't really in the herb garden.

"Hi Gin!" Luna's head popped on the fireplace amongst the flames. "How are you?"

"Hey Luna! How was the herb garden?"

Luna shrugged. "They didn't have that many different things. I promised Neville I'd get him something Finnish but they don't really have any plants."

Luna told Ginny all about the work she's been doing these past few weeks, and in turn, Ginny filled her in on the last developments of the horcrux case, including her adventure with polyjuice.

"Oh so you met Tracey! I like her, she's really nice to me."

"I could see that. Lavender was very nice too, and they got you a permit to go to Peru if you ever feel like it," Ginny chuckled. "But I wanted to ask you something."

Luna smiled. "Of course."

Ginny tried to choose her words carefully, because she wasn't entirely sure what the situation was here. "When I asked about Pansy Parkinson, Tracey said you didn't like to talk about her. Did something happen with her?"

Luna looked ever so slightly uncomfortable, it was almost imperceptible, but knowing her for so long Ginny had caught on these little things of hers. "I don't know her that well, but from what I could see she just wasn't very nice to Tracey. Or Lavender for that matter."

"But she didn't do or say anything to you, or did she?" Ginny was already hunting Pansy Parkinson, but if she had hurt Luna she would not only catch her but stuff her and display her next to her Quidditch trophies.

"No. But she was always taking advantage of Tracey because Tracey still has a soft spot for her, and Pansy knew it." Luna looked thoughtful. "Lavender knows it too, and we have tried to tell Tracey but she refuses to see it."

Ginny nodded. She wasn't surprised Parkinson would do something like that, even to her own friend. "She's such a bitch." She stopped at the look Luna gave her. "Sorry. I know you don't like that word."

"I just don't like to talk to Tracey about it anymore because I don't want to argue. But otherwise I have nothing against Pansy Parkinson."

"Alright, so have you heard anything else about her when you've been with Tracey?" Pansy asked. "Like what she does, where she usually travels or anything at all?"

Luna perked up. "Oh sure. She's usually in Milan, though sometimes she goes to Paris or New York. She's trying to start a clothing line."

Ginny blinked a few times. "How do you know all that? Also, why haven't you told me before?"

"I didn't know you wanted to know about Pansy Parkinson. I also know some things about Zacharias Smith of you're interested."

"No, no… Well maybe later." Ginny couldn't turn down gossip. "But do you know anything else about Pansy?"

Luna thought for a second. "Her company's name is Parks."

Ginny grinned, a plan already forming in her head. "That's all I need. Thank you Luna."

"I'm glad I could help!" She smiled warmly.

"Luna?" A foreign voice called out from Luna's end. "Oh there you are."

The voice belonged to a woman with a bit of an accent, and before Ginny could ask Luna if she had to go, another head popped into the fireplace, making a Ginny flinch.

"Ginny this is Eeva. She's the head of Magical Creatures at the University here," Luna explained.

"Oh hi," Ginny greeted and waved. "Nice to meet you."

"You too," Eeva replied with a bright smile. She had long and wavy blond hair and light blue eyes, more of less what Ginny would imagine when she thought of people from Finland. "Are you ready?" She directed the question at Luna.

Luna nodded. "She's taking me on a date tonight," she told Ginny. Eeva giggled.

Ginny stammered unexpectedly. "Oh, okay, that's… Good!" She forced herself to smile because she knew she wasn't doing it. "Have a good time then!"

"Thanks!" Luna and Eeva said at the same time, weirdly enough.

"Love you," Ginny added as an afterthought, but the connection was lost and she wasn't sure if Luna had heard before she was gone.

She shouldn't feel jealous. She certainly had no reason to be, she and Luna were just friends. If anything she should be jealous of Luna having enough time to date while she was too busy to even shower most days, let alone meet someone new.

Suddenly though, something inside her told her she didn't want anyone new anyway.

Ginny got up and dusted off her knees. She didn't have time to dwell on it. She had a plan to complete, a suitcase to pack, and a Pansy Parkinson to catch.

.

Hermione woke up with a terrible headache after a sleepless night. She spent most of it in the Ministry's labs with Padma and a couple other Unspeakables, one of them sent from Germany by the Silberbauers. They had jurisdiction over the shield, specially one belonging to such a renowned family, but once they heard this was about horcruxes, they agreed to let them keep working on it, as there was no doubt they had had more experience with that.

And the results were as bad as they had feared, because now they had another horcrux that by the looks of it was just as full as the other one, with no idea how to communicate with it, and apparently the perpetrator was now seeking international alliances and they were no closer to catching them. It was bad.

They needed to brainstorm and plan something as soon as possible before more horcruxes popped up and things got out of hand. After yesterday Harry had finally delegated all of his job responsibilities to someone and so had Hermione, so they could dedicate themselves entirely to the case. It was scary and worrying in more ways than one; she feared the kind of things that some people in her department would do in her absence, but she had definitely bigger fish to catch.

"Hey Gin." She waved her friend over when she spotted her waiting in the lobby of the Ministry. It felt like she lived there now.

"You look awful," Ginny commented and straightened the collar of Hermione's shirt. "You know I'm in this case too, no? If you need me to take over some things you should tell me."

Hermione shrugged. "I know. Don't worry though, I'll let you know if it's too much."

Ginny smiled, looking not too refreshed herself. "Is Ron meeting us here or at Harry's?"

"Harry's," Hermione replied as they started heading to Harry's office. The four of them were going to meet to figure out what to do next. "I hope they're ready, I want to start as soon as possible."

As they entered the lift, Hermione noticed that Ginny seemed unusually thoughtful and quiet, even given the circumstances. "So how is it going? Anything new?"

Ginny looked up, distracted. "Well not much." She considered for a moment and then continued, "Although I did find out some interesting gossip if you're interested."

Hermione scoffed. "Do you ask everyone you tell gossip to if they're interested first?"

"Not really, but I know you look down on it."

"Only if it's damaging to the person!" Hermione was still a curious person. "Let's hear it."

"Alright," a Ginny spoke louder over the voice announcing the different floors. "Remember Tracey Davis? She was a Slytherin in your year." Hermione nodded. "She and Lavender Brown are a couple."

"Really? I had no idea Lavender liked girls."

Ginny frowned. "What? It was so obvious!"

"Okay… So how did you find out?" It would have never occurred to Hermione that such different people could have gotten together; though she didn't know much about Tracey Davis other than she was one of the girls in Pansy's gang.

"Luna's friends with them," Ginny explained. "Oh and apparently, Tracey used to be in love with Pansy."

Hermione was even more surprised by this. "Oh so Pansy likes women too?"

Ginny seemed to be considering this as if she hadn't thought about it at all before now. "I honestly have no idea. In any case she didn't love Tracey back."

Hermione nodded. "You got all of that from Luna? She's terrible at gossip."

"I know," Ginny laughed.

The lift stopped and they walked out into the department of education, when suddenly Hermione was struck with an idea. "But wait, Tracey might know where Pansy is, right?"

"Yeah, I thought about it," Ginny said unsure, looking down at the floor. Hermione rarely saw her so uncertain. "I might have a lead on her but I still need to look into it."

"I hope so, she's the only real suspect we have." Hermione sighed. "Jury's still out on Nott. I know he fits the description given to us but I really don't think it's him."

"I think we shouldn't dismiss him just because he seemed like a human disaster and physically incapable of hurting anyone."

It was true, Nott might have been lying, even if Hermione didn't feel at all like he was. "You're right. We should show up at his house again."

Ginny nodded. "Let's see what Harry and Ron think"

They turned the corner to the hall leading to Harry's office and at the end of the hall someone was leaning on Harry's door. But it wasn't Harry. And it wasn't Ron.

"Is that…" Ginny whispered and then stopped walking, but Hermione was moving even faster.

"Malfoy?"

Malfoy looked up and for a second he seemed to perk up before slumping back down against the door. "Oh it's you. Does Potter never come to work on time? I've been here since eight."

Ginny had caught up and Malfoy eyed her up and down with distaste.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked, too many possibilities running through her mind.

"None of your business. Well actually, it is your business too. I just thought it'd be more satisfying to rub it on Potter's face, but if he isn't coming…"

"Malfoy?" Harry's voice echoed across the hall as he and Ron appeared, each looking more surprised than the other.

Malfoy pushed himself off the wall again and stuffed his hands inside his pockets. Hermione was just now realizing that he was more put together than usual, with impeccable dress robes and not a hair out of place. It was just exactly the type of thing he'd do; dress as if he was going to attend an important business meeting when in reality he just wanted to mess with Harry. And with her as well, apparently.

"It figures," Malfoy said pedutanly. "The Golden Boy and his gang never really work around here, they just meet up and hang out while holding their nice, high-paying titles."

Hermione just rolled her eyes, but Harry and Ron stepped forward angrily. It was Ginny who spoke, though.

"Oh, shove it Malfoy. You know damn well I work, and meanwhile I've seen you at my games sitting in the VIP box drinking champagne at ten in the morning."

Malfoy glared at her for a brief second but otherwise ignored her.

"What do you want?" Harry asked, getting in front of Malfoy.

Malfoy smirked and Hermione could literally see how it angered Harry. "This isn't about what I want, Potter. This is about what you, and you lot," he nodded towards Hermione, Ginny, and Ron. "Want."

"What do we want, then?" Ron chimed in next to Harry.

Malfoy took his time to answer, looking over all of them as if enjoying immensely their attention, as if he wasn't at all afraid to be outnumbered or of pissing off Ministry officials at the Ministry.

Hermione was about to say something when Malfoy opened his mouth.

"Horcruxes."