Based on characters created by JK Rowling

Chapter 11—It is What it Is

Harry and Ginny had two more weeks before they had to go back to England. Harry had taken a leave of absence with credit at Auror training. His superiors felt the experience he had in America would be positive and there was no need for him to forfeit credit during his absence. Ginny was more than ready to go home. She was dying in the heat. Her fair skin had burned, crisped, and burned again. The only thing that saved her was the sunburn balm that Charlie had got from his friends at the dragon preserve.

Harry trained new volunteers and came up with training for trainers, for those who would continue the training to new volunteers after Harry left. He set up a meeting with the Secretary of Magic to present the evidence that Miles had given him about dark magic activity. He couldn't guarantee any results, but it was worth a shot.

The day before they were scheduled to leave, Harry, Charlie, Ginny, and Travis made the meeting with Secretary Roundtree, and the deputy director of the Auror Division Collin Denton. Kenneth Fowler was unavailable to take the meeting. Without naming names, Harry presented the evidence he had. The deputy director dismissed the evidence out of hand. It was made up or doctored to make it appear somehow more sinister than it actually was. There was absolutely no proof of the existence of dark wizards acting out in America.

Harry was beginning to turn red with rage. What the bloody hell was wrong with this man?

"Mr. Denton," Harry began. "I know you have heard of Lord Voldemort."

"Of course," he said. "And I know that you killed him."

"He was an evil wizard, do you deny that?"

Charlie was about to believe that he was going to deny that Voldemort was a dark lord, but he nodded his head. "Of course, but when he was killed, didn't that release those who had been imperiused?"

"Imperiused, yes, but true followers, no." Harry said.

"But you rounded all of them up and sent them to prison, or executed them."

Charlie thought that was an odd way of describing the death eaters' fate. Denton sounded accusatory. He wanted to rattle him some more.

"The bastards got what they deserved. They should have used the cruciatus curse on all of them. Nobody was executed, but they should have been. There were more who weren't imperiused, but you might think they were because they were mindless morons. Can you imagine someone believing that Tom Riddle had any super powers? He got lucky with a few showy spells and the 'oooh, I-can-speak-to-snakes' trick."

Harry grinned behind his hand and he shook with silent laughter. Ginny coughed to hide her laugh. They looked at Denton who was actually turning purple.

Denton drummed his fingers on the table, clearly irritated. "The dark lord's so called 'showy spells' petrified a whole nation with fear," he said, making his point. "His followers were dedicated to his genius. They weren't morons, as you called them, and they certainly weren't mindless. They were like thinkers who revered his innovative clear thinking path for a future dominated by pureblood wizards."

"Well," said Charlie leaning back, having made his point. "You sound like you had a little hard-on for him. You did, didn't you? Come on; tell me, do you get a little chubby when you think about him? Did he talk to your snake, huh?" He said in a taunting voice.

Denton jumped up and had his wand pulled out aimed at Charlie before Roundtree could blink. He was outraged. His whole body was rigid and his face flushed. At the same moment Ginny, Harry, and Charlie jumped away from the table and had their wands drawn as well and they were in a old west gunfight stance before Roundtree had a chance to react. He sat stupefied, and his entourage of assistants and under assistants, frozen in place. No one said a word. Denton was breathing heavily, but he had the good sense to look around the room to see the horrified expressions of the wizards from the Department of Magic glued to their chairs, too shocked to move.

Denton closed his eyes and smiled nervously. He coughed and lowered his wand. Charlie, Harry, and Ginny did not lower their wands until he had put his away.

"I'm afraid this meeting is over for me," he said overly politely. "I have another conference." He started to walk out the door.

"Denton," Secretary Roundtree said, obviously recovered, "I think you should stay." His voice sounded cold, authoritarian. "Sit down."

Charlie grinned at Harry and Ginny. They still had their wands at the ready.

Roundtree turned to one of his assistants and whispered something. The assistant jumped up and ran out of the room.

Everyone was watching Denton cautiously. He was sitting very stiff. His expression was guarded, but he had a look of arrogance. Charlie was afraid that he would disapparate, but before he could even think about it, four security wizards rushed into the room and sent a stunning spell freezing Denton in place.

Roundtree walked up to Denton and looked at him closely. "We've suspected something was going on for a long time. We kept getting conflicting reports, but Fowler insisted that there was nothing to them. He was basing is response from what ever Denton told him. I suspect that he had him imperiused. We're going to having a little talk with Denton before we hand him over to the Department of Magical Prisons."

"Mr. Secretary," Harry began. "He's not going to talk."

Roundtree grinned. "Don't you worry about that, son," he said. "We've got things up our sleeves that make the cruciatus curse look like an amusement park ride at Wizard's World. Take him away, boys." He looked extremely pleased. "He'll give us the names of all the dark wizards working for the Department. We know there are some."

Roundtree looked at the folder of information Harry had given to him earlier. He turned to his assistant. "Get me Miles Allen and Gertrudis Guerro. Bring them here." The assistant disappeared out the door.

Almost immediately Secretary Roundtree's assistant came back into the room followed by two nervous-looking Aurors. When Miles saw Charlie and Harry he relaxed and gave his partner, Gertrudis a sign that everything was going to be all right.

They were instructed to sit down, which they did, right in front of the Secretary. He looked at them for the longest time before he spoke. He tapped his finger on the surface of the desk, and then cleared this throat.

"There's a story my mama used to tell me when I was little," he began. "It seems there was a wizard village outside of Salem that enjoyed relative peace. They were well-protected from the muggles that surrounded them.

"One day, an evil wizard and his followers came in to the village. He gave the wizards one moon cycle to surrender all their babies ages one year and younger and give them to him to eat. The villagers were terrified, but for some reason couldn't use magic against him because the wizard had dark powers beyond their comprehension. They went to other wizard villages for help, but they were all too frightened to help.

"Finally, in desperation, the village elders went to the muggle village and begged them to take their children. They explained what they were facing and how dangerous it would be if the evil wizard found out that the muggles helped them. Still, despite the dangers, the muggles agreed and one night all the babies were secreted away into the muggle village. The elders of the village put a strong protective charm around the muggle village to hide them from the evil wizards.

"The evil wizard and his band became so angry when they learned what the wizards had done that they destroyed their entire village, killing every man, woman and child. Later, when the other wizards' villages found out what happened to the town, all the wizard towns banded together and killed the evil wizard and his followers. But the wizards didn't know anything about the babies and just assumed that no one had been spared.

"The muggles waited for the wizards to return for their children, but they never did. The muggles raised the babies as their own and protected them from strangers who came to town. They were afraid the strangers would see the children doing magic and think they were devils worshippers.

"Many years passed, and the children grew happy and healthy with their adoptive parents. One day a wizard from another village happened to come to the muggle village and discovered the magic children. He was amazed how much the children were loved and protected. He told the elders of the village that he wanted to take the children with him so they could be raised by wizards. The parents didn't trust the wizard and went to see the wizard village for themselves. They found the village full of wizards who were good and kind. Reluctantly, they gave the children to the wizards but made them promise that they could visit them from time to time and the wizards agreed.

"They were so sad to see their little children go, but they knew that they should be raised by their own kind.

"They established harvest festivals so that the muggles and the wizards could visit together and see their children. This practice went on for many, many years until all the wizard children grew old and died.

"The wizard village elders made a proclamation that because of the kindness and generosity that the muggles had shown with total disregard for their own safety, it was the wizards' creed to always help and protect muggles no matter what."

The Secretary let his words sink in. "For the record: We haven't been doing our job, our commitment to our muggle friends. I take total responsibility for that and I make this pledge to all of you here, I will not let that happen again. The Auror Division is now responsible for the protection of muggles as well as wizards, and with everything in my power, I will make sure that you have the resources to do that job. As of this moment, Kenneth Fowler is no longer the Director of the Auror Division. As of right now, I am appointing you, Miles Allen and Gertrudis Guerro as co-directors. You come under my direct authority and answer only to me. I want Fowler and his executive assistant gone by the time I get to their office."

Movement was instantaneous. Everyone seemed to jump up at once.

"I want to read all your reports, Trudy. Have them ready for me." Gertrudis and Miles jumped up and ran from the room, stopping long enough to shake the Secretary's hand, thanking him. Miles ran to Harry, Ginny, and Charlie and hugged them all. Harry, Ginny, and Charlie were grinning.

"Well done!" said Harry. He shook the Secretary's hand.

"Took me long enough." He said shaking his head. "What the hell was wrong with me? I didn't want to believe, but, it is what it is. We'll take care of it and set it right. I doubt we can wipe out the dark arts, but we sure as hell are going to clean up the Department of Magic.

"Gentlemen, lady, if you'll excuse me I've got work to do."

He told his assistant to contact the news media, he had an important announcement that he wanted to get got immediately. "Call that Diane Gentry reporter. She deserves an exclusive interview. And contact the muggle president and set up an appointment."

Harry, Ginny, and Charlie were happy to leave the Department of Magic under these circumstances. Disapparating in the conference room, they apparated to Travis's back door. Excitedly, they walked into the kitchen. Travis was cooking dinner and looked up in surprise.

"You're back earlier than I thought. How'd it go?"

"You're not going to believe what happened," Charlie said. The three of them started talking at once, telling an astounded Travis what happened at the Department of Magic.

"No shit?" he said, incredulously. "That's wonderful news. How'd it happen?"

"My big brother," Ginny said proudly. "He brought out the death eater in the deputy director of the Auror Division. He was incredible."

"He was pissing me off," Charlie said. "That's all."

"He was wonderful." Ginny insisted and Harry nodded his approval.

"He was brilliant." Harry agreed.

Charlie shook his head. He didn't want to take any credit for anything. Obviously the Secretary was already aware that something was wrong, he just got lucky.

The group anxiously waited to hear from Diane after her interview. Charlie was sure that she would come over as soon as she could.

Amanda came by happily exclaiming the changes in the Department. She said she was volunteering for Auror and she was sure that the new director, her friend Miles would let her in. She was glad that she had received the training from Harry; that would give her the edge.

"How many dark wizards have they found at the Department? I guess it's too soon," Charlie said.

"No! That's the crazy part. Whatever the security branch used on Deputy Director Denton, really worked in a hurry. He sang like a bird. There were something like fifty wizards who were snatched up out of their desks, including some high officials. You know about the executive assistant to Fowler, right?"

They nodded. "Roundtree fired him." Harry said.

"Yeah, and it turns out he is a dark wizard, former death eater. He came over here when the Division was established. Apparently he was a spy for Voldemort. There was some big plan going on to infiltrate the Department so they could take over completely within 10 years. Voldemort was expecting to have a stronghold in America. Fortunately for us, he died before that could happen. But the dream is still alive, apparently." Amanda said.

Suddenly there were about a hundred owls swooped in and dropped off scrolls. All were addressed to Harry Potter, and they were requests for interviews from some the most prominent wizard newspapers.

"Now, they're interested," said Ginny dryly.

Harry spent the rest of the afternoon talking to the press. He was, as always polite, and answered there questions for the second time. He repeated the points he had made at his first press meet when he arrived in America a short time ago. He told them that he was confident that the Ministry of Magic would work closely with the Department of Magic with their new strategy. Yes, he was very pleased that the Secretary had reestablished the wizards' creed.

"Well," he said much later, after the reporters had gone, "I feel a lot better about us leaving soon. I don't feel like we're leaving anything hanging."

Ginny agreed. "It's been a great experience."

"Except for the sun burn, eh sis?" Charlie kidded.

"Absolutely. And is it always this damn hot?" she wondered aloud.

Travis, Charlie, and Amanda laughed and said together, "No, it gets hotter. Wait'll it warms up."

They celebrated that night. The two Tex's came over and so did all the witches and wizards Harry trained. It was a happy celebration.

Charlie was concerned about Diane. She had not gotten in touch with him, nor had she responded to his messages. She asked Amanda if she had seen her at the Department of Magic, and she replied that she saw her with the Secretary earlier in the evening. It was quite late when Charlie decided to go to her house and check up on her. Harry and Travis offered to go with him, but he turned them down. She was probably working on her story for the next day.

Charlie apparated at her front door. The lights around her apartment were off and there were no lights on in the apartment. He knocked on the door, and the door creaked open.

"Diane?" he called out. He pulled out his wand and pushed open the door further. "Lumos," he said, and the end of his wand became lit. Inside the house, there looked like there had been a struggle. Furniture was knocked over. It was eerily quiet.

Oh God, he thought, as he made his way into Diane's bedroom. "Diane?" he called out again, praying that she would answer him. But it was so quiet he could hear his shallow breathing.

"Hello, Charlie," said a seductive voice behind him. He turned around, wand at the ready, but it was knocked out of his hand. "It's been a long time."

He stood facing Muireann Angharad. "Charlie Weasley. Why do you always hurt the ones who love you?" she purred.

She was still beautiful, sexy and pure evil. "I remember the night we spent together. It was the best I ever had, and then you turned me over to the dementors. You were a very bad boy."

She slinked up to him and pressed her body into his. "But that's your little secret, isn't it? You never told them you had me so good. I still think about you. I admit when Ares makes love to me, sometimes I imagine it's you." She touched herself and smiled.

"Where's Diane?" Charlie asked. He was shaking. He didn't know if it was from anger or fear. They had Diane. She was going to punish him by hurting her.

"Don't worry your cute little ginger head about that now. We'll see her later. Ares has some big plans for her right now. He's a little pissed off about what she wrote about him. He always was the sensitive type. Me? I never did care what people thought. Except for you. You had me fooled. I'm trying to move past it, you know, get on with my life, but I have a few more things to do before I can totally forgive you." She caressed his cheek then felt his chest and her arms slid down to his crotch. She caressed him and moaned with pleasure.

"If you want to fuck, Muriann, I'm really not in the mood," he said flippantly.

She slapped him across the face. Hard.

"Been working out, I see." He rubbed his cheek.

"Forget about your girlfriend, Weasley?" she said bitterly. "You don't think for one moment that I'd let her live, do you? Besides the triplets are so looking forward for their turn."

That shut him up. He was angry now, not scared, but really pissed off. He was going to kill her, and he might even enjoy doing it. "Where is she?"

"I said later. Are you deaf?" she said, getting angry herself. "We'll go there in a minute. I just wanted to say hello before we joined the others. She pulled his head down to hers and kissed him. "That was nice wasn't it? See, we can be friends again."

Charlie was not going to play along. He knew she would kill him after she tortured him. She was going to make him watch whatever they decided to do to Diane. He was trapped. But he decided he wasn't going to die without a fight.