Chapter 38
Employment
Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.
Severus Snape was not in a good mood, apart from Gringotts, he did not know where the other Horcruxes were, apart from Nagini, who was with Voldemort most of the time.
He wondered if Voldemort knew that one of his Horcruxes had gone or not, although he had hoped that the answer would be no.
He decided to go on another trip to Little Hangleton to see if he could find any more Horcruxes.
He knew that killing the Snake would not be an easy task, even if he had managed to kill it, if Voldemort was with the Snake, he would become more alerted about his Horcruxes.
He knew that asking the rest of the Hogwarts staff for help would be a foolish idea, and he didn't think that would have helped anyway even if they agreed to help him with the task.
He paced up and down in his office, just as another owl arrived, and it informed him about the fact that Ronald Weasley was in Malfoy Manor.
He chucked the Daily Prophet aside, although he was a bit surprised that Ron had put out a story that he was seriously ill with spattergroit, he knew that Ron had been exposed to the Death Eaters.
/Scene Break/
Ginny Weasley was not happy, not only because of the fact that Harry and Hermione got killed in Bathilda's house, but also the fact that she received another news saying that Ron had been taken to Malfoy Manor.
Such incidents, especially the fact that Ron had been captured, might also cause her whole family to be targeted by the Death Eaters.
She talked to her parents, just to see if it would be better to go somewhere else.
Molly was surprised when Ginny told her the idea to get to another country, and she suggested that while it was a good idea to get to another country, it wouldn't help the Wizarding Britain in any way, and she suggested that Ginny drop out of Hogwarts due to its state.
A moment later, Remus and Tonks arrived at the Burrow.
"Hi Remus, hi Tonks," Molly said.
"Hi Molly, bad news had happened," Remus said as he and Tonks went in.
"We know that Ron has been captured by the Death Eaters," Molly said.
"This place is no longer safe," Remus said, nodding. "Your family would be targeted soon enough."
Arthur was in a quandary as well, for one thing, he was not happy with the fact that Ron had left Harry and Hermione, for another, he knew that he would no longer be able to go back to work due to the fact that Ron had been uncovered, and he hoped that Bill had also received the message about this, too.
Bill and Fleur arrived a few moments later, and Arthur asked them whether or not they knew about the fact that Ron had been captured, and Bill said that he had received the news about this.
"I can't even go back to Hogwarts anymore," Ginny said. "If I do, I may be targeted."
"We know that," Fred said.
After lunch, Remus and Tonks suggest that they should just leave Britain.
"Not all of us should leave, though, or else how on earth would the war in the Wizarding Britain end?" Tonks asked.
"I know," Remus said.
/Scene Break/
Meanwhile, in Malfoy Manor, Ron had met Dean and Luna, and Luna was surprised to see him.
"Did either of you hear the news that Harry was dead?" Ron asked.
"We did," Luna said.
"Don't know what they are going to do to me now," Ron said.
"Are you worried that the rest of your family may be targeted?" asked Luna.
"Yes," Ron said. "Anyway, since when did you arrive here, Luna?"
"During the time when I was on the train back home for the school holidays," Luna answered.
Silence fell between them, and a moment later, Luna was speaking again.
"I thought you were together with Harry and Hermione," she said.
"I was," Ron confessed. "It is just that Harry does not know what he was doing, so I left him and Hermione."
"And what happened then?" Luna asked.
Ron dropped his voice and told Luna about what had happened, right from the time he left Harry and Hermione, and his meeting with the snatchers, and his escape from them, as well as what had happened afterwards.
"So when you heard that Harry and Hermione were dead, what did you do?" Luna asked.
"I felt that there's no more hope," Ron said, "and I decided to use Firewhiskey to drown my sorrows."
He paused for a moment.
"Tell me about Hogwarts," he said.
"It is not like Hogwarts anymore, Amycus was teaching what used to be Defense Against the Dark Arts, except now that it was just Dark Arts, and we were supposed to be using the Cruciatus Curse on anyone who earned detentions," Luna said. "Alecto was teaching Muggle Studies, and it was compulsory for everyone, she told us that Muggles were like animals, stupid and dirty, and how they drove Wizards into hiding by being vicious towards them, and how the natural order is being re-established."
Ron's heart sank as Luna finished speaking.
"This is crazy," he said, as he knew that Muggleborns were persecuted, and he didn't know what use it would be while Muggle Studies were in this state and all the Half blood and Pure blood students had to take it. On the other hand, he knew that only Slytherins would be using the Cruciatus Curse on other students, the Gryffindors, the Hufflepuffs, as well as the Ravenclaws would never dare using it even if they were forced to do so.
After the New Year's Holiday, Voldemort arrived at Malfoy Manor, and interrogated Ron under Veritaserum, and he discovered that Ron was after his Horcruxes.
"Ronald Weasley, I am going to give you a chance, either you return back to Hogwarts or you get killed," he said.
Ron considered for a moment, and he didn't know what he should do. If he chose to go back to Hogwarts, he would be taught Dark Spells, as he had seen from the Daily Prophet that Amycus was a Death Eater, and he's teaching the Dark Arts, and he would also be forced to attend Muggle Studies and listen to Alecto's nonsense comments about Muggles. If he chose to not go back to Hogwarts, he would be killed, but he didn't want to go to the dark side.
"I am going to give you twenty four hours to think about this," Voldemort said. "I will leave now, and I will come back tomorrow."
Then he walked out of the room and disappeared.
Luna and Dean had heard part of the interrogation, and they didn't know what they should do.
A few moments later, Draco started to taunt Ron, and Ron would have loved to snap back but he didn't have a wand anymore since it was confiscated by the snatchers, and he feared that Draco might use spells on him if he snap back.
/Scene Break/
Harry and Hermione, meanwhile, were looking for jobs on the Wizarding newspaper.
"There are a few positions we can fill in Nesassino Wizarding Academy," Harry said.
"But that school is a boarding school, and if we are going to fill in those positions, we would have to stay in school until the school holidays," Hermione said.
"We will see if there are other options," Harry said.
They scanned the list, and found out that there are also healer jobs available in the St Reed Wizarding Hospital, as well as the Ministry of Magic.
"The Ministry need people who are willing to work for the Accidental Magic Resolution Squad," Harry said.
"You may have to do things such as repairing splinch damage in some occasions if you go on this route." Hermione said. "Besides, I don't know if they will be willing to allow someone who had just graduated from school to do such things. In other words, there may be age restrictions in this field."
"We have already learnt the spell to repair splinch damage, but are you not interested in this job?" Harry asked.
"Not quite," Hermione said.
"I am going for it," Harry said.
Hermione said nothing, and she scanned down the list.
"The Council of Magical Law need a few people as well," she said.
"I'll have a look at the Accidental Magic Resolution though," Harry said.
"And you will be in the Ministry all weekdays," Hermione said. "You only will start to do things when accidental magic happens."
"I'll consider the Council of Magical Law if the Accidental Magic Resolution does not fit me," Harry said.
"You should ask Sirius about this as well," Hermione said.
Harry nodded.
As soon as Sirius arrived back from work, Harry inquired him about this.
"I am sure that there are other options you can choose," Sirius said. "You could be someone who works in the Portkey office."
"Let me get the newspaper, and I will see if that vacancy is available," Harry said.
After he fetched the newspaper, he glanced at it, but it didn't say that anyone was needed in the Portkey office.
Then he looked up, and noticed that Sirius was standing in front of him.
"No vacancy on that field," Harry said.
"What about the Wizarding Court?" asked Sirius.
"Let's see," Harry said, and he scanned the list. "No, it didn't say anything."
That evening, Harry and Hermione sent a letter each to the Ministry of Magic, asking about the positions.
Two days later, they received a response each.
Harry glanced at his letter, it said.
Dear Mr Potter
Thank you for your interest in becoming a member of the Accidental Magic Resolution Squad.
Unfortunately, we do not hire any Witches or Wizards who are under the age of twenty into this field, and if you really want to get into this field, you will have to take some training courses anyway. You are allowed to take this type of training courses in the Ministry as long as you are seventeen or over.
If you decided to take the training courses for this field, let us know.
Regards
Eden Gillian
Head of Accidental Magic Resolution Squad
Harry was in a bit of a dilemma, he wondered why the newspaper didn't mention the requirements to apply for this job.
Hermione seemed to be elated.
"Yes!" she exclaimed. "They are going to interview me on the eighth of January."
"I had to write a letter for a different job," Harry said, then he showed his letter to Hermione.
"And I do not think it is a good idea for you to take training courses while I am working, even if those courses are free," Hermione said.
Harry glanced at the latest Wizarding newspaper, and he discovered that there are positions available in the Department of Futile Potions, which analyse whether a potion is actually useful or not.
"I'll try this one," he said.
He wrote a letter to the Ministry, and then he waited.
On the eighth of January, Hermione had been interviewed, and as she arrived back, she told Harry she was accepted, and would start work from the following Monday.
On the same day, Harry received a reply from the Ministry, saying that he will have an appointment on the eleventh of January to attend a meeting in the Ministry at ten o'clock in the morning, and he was required to bring his UWS results.
Sirius was happy that he had heard Harry and Hermione were both going to be working soon, and he congratulated them.
"Thanks Sirius," Harry said.
On the eleventh of January, Harry and Hermione went to the Ministry of Magic, and Harry was being greeted by a man.
"Hello Mr Potter, to what do I owe this pleasure?" he asked.
Harry handed the letter he received to the man.
"Hmm," the man said as he unfolded the letter and glanced at it. "My name is Jeffery Shaw."
Then Harry gave Jeffery his UWS results.
As soon as Jeffery observed it, he smiled.
"I see that you have an Outstanding in Potions, and an Exceeds Expectations in Herbology," he said. "There are a lot more Outstandings, which is quite impressive. We require at least Exceeds Expectations on both of these subjects, and you have fulfilled the requirements."
"Let me tell you what this job involves," he said.
"This job involves handling useless potions, if any potion has caused problems to someone or if you see someone taking it but has no effect, you need to analyse the potions to see what effect they cause," he went on. "Just because a potion is useless doesn't mean it would not have any effect on anyone, it's just that if the effect would be of any use or not."
"Like Love Potions?" asked Harry.
"Precisely," Jeffrey nodded. "However, I should point out that just because a potion has been banned by the Ministry, it doesn't mean that no one would stop producing them and using them."
They talked until quarter to eleven, and then Jeffrey said that Harry can start working on Wednesday in the Ministry.
"Just come straight into this office on Wednesday morning at half past eight, Harry," he said.
As soon as Harry went home, Emma was sitting in the living room watching TV, since she didn't have any appointment until one in the afternoon.
/Scene Break/
Luna did not know what to do, Ron had already been killed, and she thought back in the afternoon on the fourth of January.
Flashback
Ron was sitting alone in silence, and his hands crossed against his chest.
Luna couldn't bear to see what would happen to Ron, and she felt just as hopeless as he was.
Twenty four hours had passed, and Voldemort appeared
He pointed his wand at Ron, who was securely bound, and he asked.
"Are you going to go back to Hogwarts?"
"No," Ron replied.
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort shouted, and Ron fell to the ground.
End Flashback
The scene of that memory had grieved her, and Dean said that he could not help to make a difference of what had happened.
/Scene Break/
Molly and Arthur were both dismayed when they had seen the Daily Prophet stating Ron's death about a fortnight ago.
Although they were not satisfied with the fact that Ron had left Harry and Hermione, they were still grieved about Ron's death. After all, Ron was their youngest son.
Arthur was sure that their family would be targeted next, and they were all living in Shell Cottage ever since they had heard about Ron's death.
Percy Weasley, who had reconciled with his family had decided that it would be best to just leave.
Arthur and Molly couldn't disagree with his idea, and so they planned.
"Let's just go to Romania," Charlie suggested.
"Right," Arthur said.
"What about France?" asked Ginny.
"You need to learn another language if this is the case," Arthur said.
/Scene Break/
Snape, meanwhile, began to consider the possible locations of the rest of the Horcruxes, and he was sure that there must be at least one Horcrux in Gringotts. After all, Gringotts was the safest place you could hide something, except perhaps for Hogwarts.
Perhaps if he persuaded the Lestranges, they could help him sneak in, but at the same time he didn't want to trigger suspicion from Voldemort, so he decided to leave Gringotts as his final location of searching the Horcruxes, as such he may have to use Veritaserum if needed.
He knew that he had to find the Horcruxes and destroy them before Voldemort could be killed, but he was frustrated to do this, since he didn't know if anyone, particularly Amycus and Alecto, would suspect him. He could of course ask the rest of the members of the Order of Phoenix for help, but he knew that they would most likely not trust him as they would have already been informed that he was the one who had ended Dumbledore's life.
/Scene Break/
Voldemort felt that he had won, and he began to kill Muggles, as well as destroying Muggle places in Britain.
From that time onwards, Wizards started to disappear every day. Remus and Tonks had decided to leave Britain, and the Weasleys had already arrived in Romania.
Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell were in hiding, and they had met Oliver Wood.
"This is mad," Alicia said. "I don't know how on earth the Wizarding Britain would be back to normal."
"The Ministry is so corrupt right now," Katie said.
"If nothing has been done about the state of the Wizarding Britain, it will never be back to normal," Angelina said.
"The Weasley twins must have left, since they were close to Harry," Oliver said.
"I've heard that Harry and Hermione died, but Ron died as well," Angelina said.
End of Chapter
A/N:
Originally I planned to have Ron to use the Deluminator that Dumbledore had given him to track the real Harry and Hermione down, but I realised that the Deluminator is not really a tracker. In canon, Ron managed to find Harry and Hermione because he wanted to go back to them after he left them, and Hermione had mentioned Ron's name, and her voice was heard by Ron through the Deluminator, and then the light appeared when Ron turned the Deluminator off, which guided Ron back to them.
Therefore, Ron could track the real Harry and Hermione only if he desperately wanted to go back to them, and plus that either Harry or Hermione had to mention Ron's name for the voice to be heard through the Deluminator, which would let the light appear to let Ron get back to them, but since the Daily Prophet had reported that Harry and Hermione had died (even though they were cloned), Ron wouldn't be thinking that there's another Harry and Hermione somewhere else, so all he could do would be blaming himself, which means the Deluminator wouldn't help Ron in this case.
I had wanted to put up a poll about what should happen after the fake Harry and Hermione dies, but I dismissed this idea since I had asked a few fanfic authors about if there are any legal consequences that Harry and Hermione had ran away from Britain and left an identical clone of themselves in Britain so that the Wizards in Britain would still think that they were there, and one of them told me that this sort of action is known as fraud, and it could result in legal consequences if the fake ones died and the real ones were discovered, from fines to prosecutions, etc. This caused me to think it is not a good idea for the real Harry and Hermione to be discovered, my options were narrowed down.