Disclaimer: Harry Potter world belongs to J.K. Rowling, not me.

Rated T for language

A/N: Two chapters in one day!

Chapter 11

Percy was having, as Audrey would call it, a shitty day.

It had started out fine enough in the Ministry interrogation rooms and Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, but had been pulverized along with the already scarce optimism of the wizarding people. Now he was sitting in a charmed Ministry car, bouncing up and down as their inexperienced driver went uncertainly over the rough terrain toward the breached Ministry holding cells, the constant grating inside his stomach reminding him that he hadn't eaten all day and his lost hearing aide reminding him of painful explosion that had damaged his ears. Audrey had cast a Noise-Amplifying charm to hang near his ears, but it failed sporadically, making it necessary for everyone to shout at him to be heard.

George had been taken to St. Mungo's. It was strictly necessary but Percy had insisted and George was too weak to bother arguing. Percy was sure his Mum and Dad would be there soon—and so would a legion of Aurors. As soon as Percy had returned to the Ministry he'd heard the plans—every potential major target would be locked down and put under 24-hour protection in order to guard from future terrorist attacks. Personally, Percy believed this to be entirely unnecessary. With fifteen captured and their internal organization most likely in shambles, he doubted the Death Eaters would be regrouping any time soon.

Captured—that wasn't entirely correct, now, was it? Recaptured would be a more exact word. Five of them—five—had previously been in Ministry custody. A fact which Percy noticed had been kept out of the wireless reports about the attack.

Percy was torn from his dark thoughts when Audrey gently squeezed his hand. He could see the worry in her hazel eyes as she peered at him, and managed a hollow smile which he knew she would see through immediately. She didn't say anything about it, though, just clutched his hand tighter and didn't let go. Percy turned his head away from her and stared out the window, watching the gray-tinged fields fly by as they drove.

Frankly, he was surprised that Audrey hadn't been stopped from coming along on this excursion. But he supposed that she technically was an employee of the Ministry (or at least Shacklebolt had expressed an interest in hiring her) and, truthfully, the fact that no one had asked who she was made it easier to bring her along.

An ashen-faced, tight-lipped Auror was sitting across from them in the magically expanded backseat. Percy reckoned he was about Bill's age, but much shorter than his eldest brother and with short, shaggy brown hair that desperately needed a combing, in Percy's opinion. He had pale, pale blue eyes that almost looked yellow if the light was right. They were slightly unnerving in their own right, but Percy could feel his skin crawl as the eyes repeatedly darted to his face, over and over. Every time Percy tried to catch the Auror looking at him the young man's eyes flew back to the window… only to creep back to his face as soon as Percy averted his own gaze. Annoyance burning under his skin, Percy was about to shout the Auror down when the young man beat him to it.

"How'd you get those scars on your face?" the young man asked rudely, crossing his arms over his chest.

Percy's jaw tightened in anger. "We were just in a war, or didn't you notice?" he shot back in his ugliest voice, hating the blush rushing to his face and ears in embarrassment at the man's comment. Just stop putting up the charms, Bill had said. They must be a pain, and besides, girls love scars, he had added with a mischievous wink. Yes, girls might like the scars Bill had, but not the old burn marks that made Percy's cheek look like fleshy cornflakes. No, his scars were only an unwelcome conservation piece.

Scowling deeply, the Auror jerked his head away and stared back at the window. It occurred to Percy that the young man's rudeness was probably only a way to cover up his own fear and anxiety at the situation, and he felt slightly bad for snapping at him…but not really.

The car screeched to a stop and they all lurched forward. Percy hissed in pain as his aching back was jerked.

"I guess we're here," Audrey commented dryly. Percy watched as the Auror struggled to undo his seat belt—obviously, his father hadn't used any excuse to drive around in a muggle car. Percy shivered as he followed Audrey out into the cold, drizzly air. The other occupants of the car stepped out as well. The other Ministry employee and his Auror accompaniment grouped together on the wet grass as the driver, seemingly uncertain of what to do now that the car had stopped, awkwardly shut the car door as the engine still hummed. Percy sighed, watching as he joined the several men and women already milling around the fields, dressed in the bizarre assortment of clothing that indicated a magical person attempting to dress as a muggle. They were obviously the Auror guard around the holding cells. If only they had been there that morning, when the Death Eaters had escaped.

"Sorry about the non-magical transportation," said Auror Justinian as the younger Auror hurried up to stand behind him, trying to look imposing. Percy decided to take the opposite route and shifted as far away from the older Auror as possible. Percy couldn't help the bad taste that crept into his mouth every time he looked at Justinian; something about that man rubbed him wrong, ever since his comment about wanting to torture suspected Death Eaters. "But the holding cells are in a muggle saturated area, and we've already had to Confund enough of them who saw more magic than we'd like."

"It's unfortunate, yes, but unavoidable." A tall but stooped wizard stepped out of the front seat of the car, brushing nonexistent dirt from his robes. Percy gritted his teeth—he disliked this man as much as Justinian. Lewis Diocletian was a recent addition to the Minister's Department. All of the employees that close to the Minister who had lasted throughout the war without being jailed or fleeing were now convicted of war crimes—except for Percy, of course. It was an uncomfortable feeling knowing that he was the only carryover from the Minister's Department. "Now," Diocletian continued, raising his voice. "Who is in charge here?" he demanded, as if expecting the person to materialize at his command.

At that moment, a harassed-looking witch appeared literally out of nowhere in front of them. Percy blinked in surprise. The holding cells were invisible?

"You're here!" The pudgy, blonde-haired witch cried out in a breathless voice. "We weren't expecting…well, we'd thought it would take longer for you to verify a Portkey…." She broke off, cheeks flushing bright red.

"We took a car," Diocletian responded, gesturing to their vehicle. It jerked slightly and let out a dark puff of smoke, causing them all (save Audrey) to jump in shock. "It is extremely important that we find out what happened here." Diocletian's voice had a hard, almost frightening edge to it.

The witch squirmed under Diocletian's intense gray gaze, the blush across her face darkening. "You—you have to understand. We've been doing the best we can under the circumstances!"

"I see," Justinian growled out, taking a step forward menacingly. The witch cowered slightly. "And your best involved letting eight confirmed Death Eaters to escape?"

"And attack Diagon Alley, destroy two shops and kill a person?" The younger Auror snapped, glancing sideways at Justinian as he said it, obviously trying to impress his boss. Percy felt a jolt of pain in his stomach, remembering the Apothecary owner who had refused to help the Death Eaters devise a potion to confer immunity to people against Veritaserum (which they had gotten anyway) during the war. The Apothecary owner who in his old age had been an easy target when he came out of hiding. The Apothecary owner who had been kind to Percy and had died for nothing.

Diocletian cast a warning look at the two Aurors, who quieted like scolded children, before turning back to the witch. "Just tell us what happened so that Weasley can conduct his incompetency investigation."

Percy started in shock as Diocletian gestured toward him, automatically standing up straight and readjusting his glasses as his superior glanced back at him.

Audrey nudged his side and whispered into the circumference of the charm that blasted noise into his ears, "You're doing an incompetency investigation?"

"Apparently," Percy muttered back, desperately searching his pockets for some parchment and a quill. He puffed out his chest a little, trying to appear more authoritative. Hell, at least Diocletian knew his name.

The witch paled as the word "incompetency" was spoken. With good reason—if she and her coworkers in charge of maintaining the holding cells were found liable for the Death Eater escape, her career would be over. And that was just to start. The witch's hand flew to her flyaway blonde hair, tugging on it restlessly. "Right, er, right this way…" she trilled in a high-pitched voice. The witch turned around and, head whipping back and forth as if searching for stray muggles, flicked her wand. A door popped up, visible on the inner side but transparent on the outer side. It revealed a dank staircase stretching down underground. The witch stumbled in, their small party following. The young Auror stopped in front of the door, crossing his arms and trying to look imposing.

Percy and Audrey followed Diocletian and Justinian down the stairs, deeper and deeper underground. Their clattering footsteps echoed in the dark passageway, and the sudden coldness made Percy shudder. As they reached the end of the stairs and stepped into a stone corridor dimly lit by floating candles, Percy finally managed to liberate a scrap of parchment from his robes. He quickly forgot about writing on it as his eyes fell on the scene before him.

Holding cells, more like pockets cut out of stone, lined the corridor, running down for nearly as far as Percy could see. At the very end of his vision, Percy could see a point where the corridor turned, curving to the side and deeper into the earth.

Instead of bars, shimmering walls of orange-red magical energy kept the cells secure. Inside each cell was an immobile figure—stunned and dumped unceremoniously on the flat stone floor.

"We've been keeping all the prisoners stunned since the breakout," the witch said quietly. Percy let the talk wash over him, trying to get his thoughts in order. Why couldn't they have told him before hand they he was doing an investigation? He seemed like a bloody idiot, with no prepared questions! Did no one respect him? "It's the best way to keep them under control, but…"

"But repeated and prolonged use of the stunning spell on a person had been proven to cause detrimental effects to the body," Audrey finished coldly. "You're giving them all permanent spell damage." Percy could hear a definite accusatory tone in her voice.

"What, do you feel sorry for them?" growled Justinian, rounding on Audrey. She took a slight step back as he towered over her, but held her ground. "They're Death Eaters!"

"Not all of them," Audrey hissed back immediately, crossing her arms. "Some of them are still awaiting trial, could be innocent—" she broke off, shaking her head and clenching her jaw. Percy knew she was holding back a lot more anger than she was letting out. "Why couldn't you separate the ones who had already been proven guilty from the others?"

"They were," the witch put in quickly. "They were put in a different section, deeper underground."

"Forget a different section, why weren't they in a different building?" Audrey demanded with hostility.

Justinian scoffed. "Do you even work for the Ministry? Do you have any idea how difficult it was to find and fortify this one location?" The Auror took another step, almost threatening toward Audrey. Percy was suddenly very, very aware of which pocket he had put his wand in. Every instinct he had screamed at him to grab it. "How many criteria must be met for a Ministry prison for convicted criminals? How much security—"

"That's an excellent question," Percy interrupted, almost wincing at the emotionless tone in his own voice. He stared down his nose coldly at Justinian until the Auror backed away from Audrey. Triumph ran through him as he turned his gaze back to the witch. "How much security was in place at the time of the breakout…this morning, was it?" Percy reached into his pocket and touched his wand with two fingers, performing a familiar non-verbal charm that would record all her answers.

"Some…sometime this morning, yeah," she answered uneasily.

Percy raised an eyebrow coldly. "Am I to understand you don't know the exact time?"

"I wasn't there at the time," the witch responded, a dark blush spreading again over her face. "Only one person was."

Audrey sucked in a sharp gasp of shock. Percy wanted badly to follow suit, but struggled to keep his emotions in check. One person? Guarding nearly every prisoner the Ministry of Magic had?

The witch must have seen the disbelief in their faces, because tears began to fill her eyes. "You have to understand! We have so few resources! We've been doing the best we can. There are so few Aurors available, and we thought the cells were secure enough so that we didn't need an extensive wizard guard system—"

"More than one person is not extensive," Justinian spat. "If you had just contacted the Auror office, told them you needed mo—"

"And this person, where might I find him?" Percy interrupted loudly, taking a small amount of joy out of the furious look Justinian shot him.

"St. Mungo's," the witch said. "He had…awful curse damage from the escapees when I found him. He still hasn't regained consciousness, so we still don't know exactly what happened."

"His name?" Percy inquired sharply.

"Crane. Commodus Crane." Her gaze dropped to her feet for a moment, and then looked up, eyes bright with panic. "Is the Minister coming? One of the Aurors they sent said that this was being handled by the top of the Ministry."

"Minister Shacklebolt is doing…other things," Diocletian said. Percy almost could have smile at that—once an Auror, always an Auror. Kingsley had rushed the front lines immediately, dove into the aftermath of the battle to uncover victims and track down attackers as Percy and the other Ministry employees had hurried to their offices to prepare for the blowback. "I'm his Senior Undersecretary." Percy blinked in surprise. He hadn't known that. Of course, he himself didn't even work for the Minister's office any longer. No, he headed an unnamed, one-man Department with the sole responsibility of doing grunge work. And, apparently, incompetency inquiries.

"How many prisoners escaped?" Percy asked, bracing himself for the worst.

"Eight are unaccounted for," the witch said softly.

"They only captured five from the Diagon Alley attack who used to be in custody, Percy," Audrey said, a clipped edge of panic to her voice. Percy nodded. As if he needed reminding. Three escapees, loose on the wizarding world.

"We'll need a list," Justinian growled. "Of everyone who escaped, so we know who to look for."

"And their records, please. From before and after the war." Percy added.

The witch nodded. "Of course, of course. But their files will take a while to get." She began to bustle around, picking through piles of scraps and scrolls of parchment on a nearby desk.

"Were all the ones who escaped convicted Death Eaters?" Percy asked. The witch nodded. "Did you have more than eight such prisoners?" he asked, knowing the answer was most likely yes.

"Many more, and they've all been stunned and locked down in their cells. We kept the known Death Eaters in separate chambers, accessible only by specially authorized Floo. Eight cells per chamber, each with one convict in them."

"So only one chamber of prisoners escaped," Percy muttered to himself.

"They didn't make any attempt to free the other Death Eaters?" Justinian asked, sounding skeptical.

"Th-they might have," the witch answered, stumbling over her words. "I…I don't know, but it takes a special authorization to use the Floo into a secure chamber. They probably weren't able."

"Where was Crane discovered?" Percy inquired.

"Inside the secure chamber," the witch replied, furiously rubbing her eyes. "When I came in and couldn't find him, I checked everywhere. He, he was just…ly-lying there…" she broke off, tears beginning to flow freely down her cheeks.

The Wireless sitting on the desk suddenly crackled loudly, making them all jump. A harsh, klaxon-like noise burst from it before a voice took over.

"There has been one confirmed fatality from the terrorist attack on Diagon Alley," the voice declared. Percy noted the use of the word "terrorist" instead of Death Eater. Trying to separate this as much as possible from the fear the wizarding world was beginning to recover from. As if people were that stupid. "The Ministry advises everyone to remain calm. Do not panic. There is no reason to expect this is anything other than an isolated incident. All Aurors report immediately to the Ministry for assignment. Again, do not panic. There has been one confirmed fatality from the terrorist attack on Diagon Alley. The Ministry advises everyone to remain calm…" As the message began to repeat, Diocletian reached over and flipped off the Wireless. His face was an impassive mask.

"It's not going to be an 'isolated incident' unless you catch those Death Eaters," Audrey said darkly.

Diocletian cleared his throat, pulling height up to his full height and drawing his robes tighter around himself. "Indeed," he mused, rubbing his chin.

"I should report to the Ministry," Justinian said. "A lot of inexperienced Aurors are being brought in; they're going to need as many veterans to coordinate as possible."

Diocletian nodded. "Of course. And Justinian," the Auror, who was just beginning to climb up the stairs, turned around. "I think it would be best if you kept what you learned here strictly confidential."

Justinian inclined his head slightly, eyes glinting. "Understood, sir." He disappeared up the flight of stairs, the echoing of his feet lingering long after he was last seen.

"That would go for all of you as well," Diocletian said slowly, gray eyes sweeping over Percy, Audrey and the witch. A frown passed over Audrey's face even as the witch nodded vigorously, looking relieved.

Percy blinked, confused. What did he mean by that? "Sir?"

Diocletian sighed. "I don't think now is the time for the public to lose faith in the Ministry. Surely you agree?"

Percy ran a hand through his hair, still baffled. "I'm afraid I still don't understand, sir."

A scowl passed over Audrey's face, and she let out an angry huff of breath. "He means he wants to cover up this particular bit of Ministry incompetence, Percy."

Percy felt a hot prickle of annoyance at her words. Why was she implying that the Ministry was rife with incompetence? People only concentrate on its failures, not its successes. It's not fair. "Well," he growled, trying to keep his temper in check. "I can see how this getting out could…discourage people's trust in the Ministry."

Audrey's face darkened. "You can't be serious!" she gasped, some of her anger giving way to disbelief.

Percy's skin was beginning to get uncomfortably hot. "I just mean that if people blamed the Diagon Alley attack on the Ministry because of the Death Eater escape, then it would make it a lot harder for us to do our jobs protecting people."

"So you want to lie to everyone to cover the Ministry's ass?" Audrey demanded, eyes locked on Percy and full of fury and…betrayal?

"That's not what this amounts to," Percy growled, acutely aware that the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister was watching him fight with his girlfriend. He felt the angry heat covering his entire body and seeping in deeper. What is she thinking? For Merlin's sake! "You have to understand the ramifications of—"

Audrey whipped around to face Diocletian. "Does Kingsley Shacklebolt know that you're trying to cover this up?"

"Kingsley Shacklebolt is an Auror, first and foremost," Diocletian replied smoothly, not looking the slightest bit perturbed. "His response to this whole affair proves that. He doesn't understand the finer points of politics. That's why he appointed me."

"So that makes it okay to lie to everyone about a Ministry fuck-up?" Audrey snarled.

Percy gritted his teeth in anger. He was part of the Ministry, didn't she understand that? How can she be so…so… "You don't understand the situation, Audrey," he forced out icily.

"People have been hurt, someone died!" Audrey ranted. "His family deserves to know the truth, and if that means that the Ministry looks bad, it serves them right for fucking up in the first place!" Audrey returned her furious gaze back to Percy. "Goddammit, Percy, I didn't expect this from you! I thought you'd learned something!"

Percy could feel the boiling feeling invading deeper and deeper into his body. What does she understand about how the Ministry works? How dare she judge me? Percy stared back into her anger-filled hazel eyes and hot fury gripped him even tighter, until it felt like his skin was burning. It was a tight, suffocating, bizarre feeling, something he had never felt before. He opened his mouth to let the blazing tide of rage spill out—

And then he remembered—there was a time in his past when he had felt this broiling fury. A time three years ago when he had come home and watched his chance at finally impressing his father crushed under the words "Fudge is using you".

Percy clamped his jaw shut and forced it to stay that way, staring stonily at Audrey and refusing to acknowledge her as she challenged him, practically begged him to lash out in retaliation to her anger-filled raving.

Finally, she spat out the words, "I can't believe how much I misjudged you," at his feet and stormed up the stairs with a string of curses that would put Ginny to shame.

Percy stared dully at the stone wall in silence for several long minutes before starting forward.

"Where are you going?" asked Diocletian, with nothing more than mild curiosity in his voice.

"St. Mungo's," Percy replied hollowly as he climbed up the stone steps toward the cloudy, rainy aboveground.