Harry and Neville were stationed in one of the first floor rooms. Tom's granddaughter, Aleera, had been good about the whole thing - they'd sent her the extendable ears in advance, and she had done a brilliant job of setting them up and camouflaging them. Now, they were sitting in comfortable chairs, sipping the tea that Aleera had provided, and listening to Seamus and Parvati talk to the young witch.

"It's good to meet you, Delarose," Parvati said softly. "Have you eaten today? We could order you something."

"N-no thanks," the little girl said. "I just want to go. Can you take me to the Home now?"

"Easy does it," Seamus said, kindly. "We're not allowed to just take kids to the Home when they ask. Can you tell us about yourself?"

"My...my family used to live up in Liverpool. We moved here to London about three years ago so my mum could take a job at the Ministry…."

Neville and Harry both tapped the notebooks they were holding with their wands. Terri and Oslo, another task force member, were back at the Ministry, ready to fact check what the kid was saying. They'd gotten the Mum's name - Carastrata McGuinness - and now they just needed to find out more about her.

"...what does your Mum do at the Ministry now?" Seamus was asking.

"She's a cleric in the Department of Magical Catastrophe Response."

Harry rolled his eyes and tapped the notebook again, sending the information to Oslo. After the War, that department was one of the biggest at the Ministry. This would take a while. He listened again.

"How did you make it through the War?" Parvati asked.

"We kept our heads down mostly. Mum's pureblood, and dad had already died in the Death Eaters' tunnel crash. They weren't bothered about our family. She never talked about it. Now she never talks at all."

Harry nudged Neville and pointed to the book, but something in the next room over distracted him. He motioned for one of the extra extendable ears, and put it to the wall. He could hear a rhythmic clicking...as though someone was….

"Nevile," he whispered, but the older man had already stood up and was waving frantically for him to come listen to the parlor conversation again.

"They caught her in a lie," he said. "She's panicking." He tapped the wall, and it became translucent, allowing them to see through, but remain obscured as long as they stayed relatively still.

The girl was ready to bolt, and the rest of the task force had appeared in the lobby.

Harry looked down to see where Oslo had written that there was no Carastrata McGuinness in the Ministry. Two more words had appeared - Witch Weekly.

Everything happened at once. The girl got up and tried to run, but Terri caught her. Harry and Neville strode back into the parlor, and Harry waved frantically at the door next to their room. Aleera obliged and unlocked it just as a woman was throwing her equipment into a bag. She had clearly realized that the girl's abrupt stop meant that the jig was up.

"Afternoon," Harry said, wand out.

The witch saw the commotion in the parlor and put both hands up. "You let her go," she demanded, pointing to Delarose. "She's my niece, and I put her up to this."

"Your mum's not neglectful," Seamus said. "She's the assistant editor for Witch Weekly. And your aunt is a reporter. What were you trying to do here?" he asked the older witch.

"Expose the Lupin House for what it is," she insisted. "A scheme to take kids away from their parents. To indoctrinate them with whatever hero-worshiping rhetoric Potter is putting forth. We all know he wants to be the next Minister for Magic!"

To everyone's surprise, Harry laughed.

"Lady," he said, "I'll be happy if Kingsley has the job for the rest of both our lives. I'm not explaining myself any more than I already have. You're a schemer - feeding off of people's fears and uncertainty to try and boost Witch Weekly's failing ratings. You could have put someone in real danger, you know? If that story had run," and here, Harry waved his wand and sent the transcript zooming from her purse to the nearby fireplace, "the biggest issue wouldn't be that we would have to answer for ourselves. No, it would be that kids who ARE being mistreated might be afraid to come forward. Or their parents might get scared and monitor them so closely that they wouldn't be able to reach out." Harry realized he was yelling and took a deep, shuddering breath. "You're part of the reason Voldemort got as powerful as he did."

The witch gasped and actually looked a little hurt. "How dare -"

"I dare because your magazine and others ran this trash about me for years. We could've been fighting him earlier, if any of you cared about truth as much as scandal. I'm done here," he said, turning to Terri.

"Get on out of here, Potter," she said. "You too, Parvati, Neville. We've got this."

Harry rang the doorbell to Ginny's flat, and held out the bouquet of fresh orchids when Ginny answered. "I hope you don't mind me stopping by," he said.

She smiled and stood aside so he could enter. "Of course not. The flowers are gorgeous."

"Neville smacked me when I said I was going to bring roses. I still need to work on my romance skills, apparently," Harry told her as they sat down on the sofa.

"Well as long as you know better than to propose in the middle of one of my Quidditch matches."

Harry's face went carefully blank.

"Potter…."

"I would never," he said smoothly, axing that idea from the list. "And anyway...I heard through the grapevine that that won't even be a possibility for about a year."

Ginny smiled as she put the flowers into the vase on the coffee table. "I'm going back to Hogwarts for my final year. I know it sounds stupid, but I… I want to finish what I started. Captain Horan is letting me go on reserve - so they'll only call me up if someone is injured. Then I'll make the regular squad next summer."

"That doesn't sound stupid at all," Harry said, kissing her cheek. "I think it sounds great. Plus, I'm sure Hermione and Luna will be happy to have you there this year."

"I can't believe Hermione's going back!" Ginny said, and then laughed at Harry's expression. "Okay, yes I can. It's just like Hermione to be a big shot in the Ministry and studying for NEWTs at the same time."

They lapsed into comfortable silence, and Ginny moved to rest against Harry's shoulder. He put an arm around her and kissed her forehead. It was like this for them - their tense moments always melted away with time, and physical closeness. Harry knew Ginny wasn't mad at him anymore, and he wasn't upset with her. One day both of them were going to have to learn how to actually apologize, but this was all that was needed for now.

"I took your advice," he said after a long moment.

"Er...which bit?" Ginny asked.

"All of it?" Harry said, trying to remember. "I got a flat out in Great Missenden. Close enough to the city, but I can take breaks when I need to get away from the Home for a little bit. And I talked to Malfoy. He's getting a few therapists on board to help with the kids."

"That's a great idea, Harry," Ginny said, sitting up. "Really. I'm glad you worked something out. Are you hungry at all? I was thinking of ordering a pizza."

"Sounds great to me, as long as you leave off the pineapple."