Thank you as always to my reviewers, I appreciate the lovely things people have said about my writing! Just another quick update for you all, will you find out here if Harry is really gone or not? Read on and find out, oh and don't forget to tell me what you think!!

Chapter 9

"Mrs Weasley, Mrs Potter," Alistor Drindle coughed uncomfortably, "Please take a seat," he indicated two chairs at the opposite side of his desk to where he himself now sat. Looking sympathetically in Ginny's direction he began to say what they had come hear. "Mrs Potter, please can I express my deepest regret at the loss of your husband, not only at the personal loss you have suffered but also our regret at having lost a truly talented and superior auror."

"Thank you," Ginny offered curtly, the darker haired witch beside her was beginning to fume inside already at the sheer nerve this older man had, regretting his own loss of an auror to the wife of the auror in question, she was amazed at Ginny's coolness about the comment but realised they had more important things to discuss.

Drindle continued, "I understand that you will have questions about what happened to Harry, and I will try to give you as much information as I can, however you must understand that the mission Harry was involved in was top secret and much of the information is classified, therefore there may be certain areas we cannot discuss with you." Ginny nodded without making any comment as Hermione found herself becoming more furious at every sentence that came out of the man's mouth.

"The mission appeared to be going well, Mrs Potter, Harry had managed to infiltrate the group he had been sent to investigate and the five aurors involved appeared to have been accepted, we were confident that they would collect the necessary information and return to the Ministry at their earliest convenience. However it seems that the evidence they were collecting was discovered by one of the members of the group shortly before a demonstration of their power was due to take place through the village where they were staying. They were captured and restrained in the shack where they had been staying, it appears that they attempted an escape but during the demonstration the building in which they were housed was set on fire and four people perished in the fire, these four severely burned bodies were recovered and taken back to the Romanian Ministry by aurors called in to tackle the demonstration.

"The two Romanian aurors accompanying Harry and his team on the mission were identified through dental records as was the body of our own auror, Croft. Throughout the mission Mr Potter was fully metamorphosed using a new and experimental branch of transfiguration magic, the fourth recovered body was of similar build and stature to the one your husband had taken on before leaving the Ministry, however as this persona does not have any wizarding records, dental or otherwise, we cannot officially conform that it is the body of your husband, though we can almost assure you that it is." He looked uncomfortably at his feet and Hermione used the pause to ask one of her pertinent questions. "But surely upon death Harry's body would have reverted back to its original form?"

"Unfortunately that is not known, Mrs Weasley, as I said this was a new and experimental branch of transfiguration magic, we do not know if the magic wears off upon death as Harry was the first person to die while under the metamorphose. In hindsight it would have been more sensible for us to create records on the metamorphed form that your husband took on before he left, but unfortunately we did not do this as it was only decided that he would use the magic on the morning that he left. The metamorph process was carried out by our trained aurors and could only be removed by them, unfortunately we do not know if it can be removed after death either."

"So the body could quite easily be that of someone else and not my husband?" Ginny asked fingering the stone around her neck which was hidden by a high necked jumper.

"Well," Drindle coughed again, "That is highly unlikely Mrs Potter."

"But not impossible Mr Drindle?"

"Mrs Potter I can assure you it is most improbable."

"But not impossible," Hermione interjected in a firm tone glaring into the eyes of the weak looking man sat before them, how he had ever made it to head of the auror office she would never know. He was a weedy looking man who appeared terrified to be having such a conversation with the two women in front of him.

"Well, no not impossible, I suppose it could theoretically be someone else, though I would not like you to get your hopes up, as I said the other bodies were confirmed as those of three other aurors involved in the mission and the Ministry have reported that the fourth is that of your husband. Unfortunately as we cannot officially confirm that the body is that of your husband we cannot officially declare him dead until he has been missing for seven years, I am afraid that that is wizarding law. However we have our own rules for accessing accounts and the funds set up for an auror's spouse can be tapped into immediately if they are presumed to be dead."

"Mr Drindle, I am not interested in money, I have what I need to live on and much more, what I am looking for is answers and in the long run, the body of my husband be it dead or alive, and until I see concrete proof that he is dead then I will not believe that it is so, whether seven years pass or seventy. What happened to Abery?"

"Sorry?" Drindle replied and Hermione felt the blood rise in her neck once more.

"Abery," Ginny continued using a calm and controlled voice, "You said only four bodies were recovered, I believe Abery was also assigned to Harry's team on this mission. That would make five aurors in total, what about his body?"

"We have been unable to locate Mr Abery at present, we have not recovered any more unidentified bodies and he is listed as missing in action, though we are doing everything within our power to locate him."

"And what exactly does that entail?" Hermione interjected, desperate to get as much information as possible.

"I am afraid that I am not at liberty to divulge such information to the general public. As soon as we locate Abery we shall see if he can shed any light on the matter and hopefully he will confirm whether the fourth body was indeed that of your husband, until we locate him I am afraid there is nothing more I can offer you." He looked uncomfortably at his shoes as he spoke, refusing to look either of them in the eyes, this gave Hermione the impression that he was hiding something.

"What kind of time scale are you working on to find Abery? I am sure you are keen to have him back in the country to answer your questions as soon as possible." Hermione interjected once more.

"Again I am unable to divulge such information, but rest assured we are hoping it will happen as soon as possible." Hermione could feel the heat rising in the back of her neck once more as the weedy little man in front of them continued to deflect their questions, once again staring at his desk rather than at the two women sat in front of him, Hermione found this very insulting and thought he should at least have the decency to look into the face of the woman sat in front of him whom he was declaring a widow.

"I am sorry that I am unable to offer you anymore Mrs Potter, when you are ready for the funds you are entitled to I will personally make sure they are released to you, and as soon as we have any more news I will inform you and we can hold another meeting. Once again I express my regret at your loss and my deepest sympathies go out to you and your family." He rose from his seat behind the desk and offered his hand to Ginny, she shook it politely before turning to walk out of the office. At the office door she coughed and spun around to face the head auror once more, "May I clear out my husband's desk while I am here?"

"I am afraid that we cannot let you into his office, it is now closed and all of his things are being removed, we will send his personal items to your home at our earliest convenience. I am sure you understand that our records are in that room and many of the case files which Harry has worked on including his final mission, we cannot let members of the public have any access to these files at all." She nodded curtly in his direction and Hermione marvelled at the way she had kept her cool throughout the whole interaction, she on the other hand was ready to explode but kept herself in check for the sake of her friend.

"Thank you for your time," Ginny muttered as she walked out of the door, Ron was waiting for the two of them in the reception area and he stood up to greet them as they entered the room, "How did it go?" he asked softly. Hermione opened her mouth to speak but Ginny whispered, "Not here, let's go back to Grimmauld Place where we can discuss this in private." Her brother and his wife followed Ginny back to the atrium where they used the floo network to return to the kitchen of Ginny's home. Charlie was still sitting at the table reading the paper but he put it away as he saw the trio arrive one by one and take a seat at the table. Kreacher ran around getting them all drinks and sandwiches as the two girls shared their news with the red-headed boys.

"Something didn't add up there Gin," Hermione commented after they had told the two boys everything the head auror had told them, "The shifty way he acted when he was saying they were trying to locate Abery but couldn't tell us how long that might take, I didn't like him at all."

"I know, and why couldn't I go into Harry's office? I've been in there before when he's been away, in fact I went in a couple of days after he had left because he'd left some things in his desk drawer, Drindle didn't have a problem then, and you two have been in before, when I was taken by Lestrange I know Harry left you in his office while he went off searching for me, you could have looked at his case files any time you wanted to then."

"I think they're trying to cover something up," Hermione replied, "They know something about Abery, he had looked us in the eye for the entire conversation until we asked about him, and then it was shifty looks and staring at his desk until we left. There must be some of the case files in Harry's office, they probably won't have cleared everything out of them yet which is why they wouldn't have wanted you going in there, he's told me before that the cases stay open in the lead aurors desk until they are over, even if something happens to the leader. It seems a bit lax to me really but I bet there's some information in there that might tell us something." At these words Ginny rose from her chair and left the room in a whirl, the three Weasley's staring after her, "Have you been rubbing off on her?" Ron asked his wife who blushed and tapped him on the arm, "Well," he continued, "It is something you would do, go running off with an idea and tell us nothing," His wife glared at him as Ginny returned to the room carrying something which looked familiar to them all, Harry's invisibility cloak.

"He left this here in case I needed it as protection," Ginny informed them, "Could we use it to get into Harry's office and have a look around?"

"Wow Gin, you're getting scary, Hermione is definitely rubbing off on you!"

"And what is wrong with that?" Hermione spat indignantly glaring at her husband.

"Nothing," he implored holding up his hands, "It's a good thing!" Hermione smiled with embarrassment and allowed the conversation to turn to devising a strategic plan to get into the Ministry and hunt around Harry's office and as soon as possible.

By five o clock that afternoon the plan was ready to be executed they just had to wait until nightfall, when the Ministry would be empty, before they could enter unnoticed. Ginny had pleaded with them all to be allowed to join them but Hermione had finally convinced her not to by saying, "Gin if you won't protect yourself for Harry, then at least protect his baby, you need to take it easy, anything could happen at the Ministry and he won't thank you, or us, if anything happens to your child." Ginny had not been able to argue with that as her maternal instinct to protect her unborn offspring had kicked in, she would make sure that this baby was safe and looked after for when Harry returned.

After a hearty meal, made by Kreacher, of meat pie, roast potatoes and vegetables that could have put Molly's cooking to shame Ron and Hermione were ready to go to the Ministry and see what they could find in Harry's office, they would use the visitors entrance, covering themselves in the invisibility cloak so as not to be seen by any night watch wizards. The tricky part would be getting into Harry's office, but the likelihood that they had changed the passwords, which Ginny knew, was slim. It was a hassle changing them and as aurors were sworn to secrecy when entering the profession it was widely known that breaking and entering an aurors office would be almost impossible, however they did not bank on the fact that Harry Potter no longer kept anything from his wife, even, it seemed, the passwords into the aurors office.

Charlie was staying at the house with Ginny to wait for the Weasley couple to return, hopefully full of information, they could not have fitted a third person under the cloak had they wanted to especially, a tall Charlie Weasley. As it was Ron had to stoop in order to keep his feet hidden by the cloak and Hermione had to walk along clumsily behind her husband she could scarcely imagine now that they had once fitted all three of them under the cloak comfortably and it made her feel warm inside to think back on those wonderful days at school when the cloak was used for less dangerous missions than the one that lay ahead of them.

"Be careful you two," Charlie warned as Ron and Hermione prepared to leave via the front door of Grimmauld Place in order to apparate to the telephone box which housed the entrance to the Ministry of Magic.

"Charlie, mate, we've been in worse situations than this one, trust me, breaking into the auror office at the Ministry and collecting some kind of evidence is going to be a piece of cake," he chuckled though with a little trepidation in his voice. "It's just we usually have Harry with us too," he whispered to his wife so Charlie couldn't hear. He was thinking back to the last time they had tried to infiltrate the Ministry without being noticed and how it had ended up with them having to go on the run to keep Voldemort and his Ministry from finding them. However, he thought back on this other mission, they had succeeded in getting the horcrux that they had been looking for so maybe this mission would be as successful in getting information, even if they did somehow end up almost getting caught again.

They closed the front door behind them and the two Weasley siblings left on the inside of the house waited until they had heard two POPs before making their way back to the kitchen to wait, they had no idea how long it would take Ron and Hermione to get into the office and hopefully find something useful, so they prepared themselves for a long wait. Talking over insignificant things lasted about half an hour, a couple of games of wizard chess took them another hour until Charlie's indignation at losing to his sister twice in a row spoilt his mood and they decided to clear it away, "I take it you are used to winning?" he asked as they tidied up, Ginny chuckled as she replied, "Oh yes, Harry likes to pretend he is letting me win, but he is a dreadful player!" Charlie noticed the smile on her face and how her eyes lit up when she mentioned Harry's name, "It's good to see you smile Sis," he said, "I believe you are right about Harry and I hope we find something soon and get him home because that smile should always be on your face."

Ginny sighed, thinking of her husband could give her that smile but she was so worried about him, she absent mindedly fingered the stone around her neck again as the smile was replaced by those worry lines that Charlie was seeing more and more of. "Hermione's right though you know, you need to take care of yourself and that baby, Harry will not thank you if he comes home to an unhealthy wife and child, and we'd probably get the raw end of it as well!" She smiled again and they settled down into two comfortable chairs in front of the kitchen fire and spent the next hour or so sharing happy tales about Harry.

Charlie had not been around much since Harry had come into their lives, he was away in Romania working with dragons most of the time and before the war had only met Harry on a few very brief occasions. Everyone else in the family loved the dark haired boy married to his youngest sibling and it was easy to see why, he had precious few happy stories to share with his sister but enjoyed listening to her countless ones which momentarily put that light back in her eyes and the smile on her face. Ginny fell asleep at around ten o clock, being pregnant made her tire easily and she was constantly finding herself in bed much earlier than she had ever done before, Charlie covered her with a blanket and made himself a cup of tea, he was just about to sit back in the squashy armchair, which would have looked completely at home in Griffindor tower, when he heard a soft knock at the door. Dropping the tea on the table he hurried down the narrow passageway to the front door, he opened it to be greeted by the sight of no one but a soft rustling to his left and a brief draft told him that his brother and sister in law had just entered the building under cover of the invisibility cloak. Seconds later the two figures appeared in front of him as the silky material was cast aside and Ron made to stretch out his body which had obviously been in a stooped position for quite some time.

"Everything go alright?" Charlie asked and Hermione nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah," Ron answered at the same time, "But they had plenty of watch wizards on, took us an age to get through to the auror office, but getting into Harry's was easy, they hadn't changed any of the passwords! Plus Hermione was right the place was still full of all the files, including this one," he pulled a tatty looking brown folder out of his own cloak and waved it in front of his older sibling, "It's quite-"

"Illuminating," Hermione interjected, "Where's Gin?"

"Sleeping in the armchair by the fire, maybe this should wait until morning, she really should rest."

"That sound like a good idea, there's nothing we can do with this information tonight and plus we could do with some sleep, Ron and I will stay in a spare room and we'll look through all this tomorrow."

Hermione disappeared with the folder up the stairs to find a room to sleep in and Ron followed her up still stretching out his aching muscles, Charlie returned to the kitchen where he picked up the sleeping girl laid by the fire and took her to her own bed before retiring to his own room and thanking his lucky stars that his sister had friends like Hermione and a brother like Ron who would do anything for her and their other best friend.