A/N: I'm touched and a little overwhelmed at the response to the last chapter. I've always thought there was a little core following of a few people reading this and not many more - in this instance I'm happy to be wrong! And you all say such nice things about my writing. It's very humbling, so thank you, and please know how much I appreciate having such wonderful readers.


September 2002

"Fuck, Harry," Ron said.

Harry was pretty sure that Ron had said that at least three times now. Ron was sat on a bench outside the showers in the Ministry, waiting for Harry to finish scrubbing himself down.

"Fuck, Harry. You Stunned and incapacitated the Minister for Magic. The Minister."

"He asked me to," Harry called from in the shower.

"Yeah, but still. Fuck, Harry."

"Shut up, Ron."

He shut the water off, grabbed a towel and roughly dried his hair. After slipping his glasses back on he headed out to get changed. Ron didn't seem to care that he was bare-ass naked.

For what was supposed to be a closed-door testing, it sounded like there was hell of a lot of people in the viewing area. He wasn't aware, for example, that Ron and Hermione were there. But apparently they only turned up to watch Harry take on the Minister. Quite a few people turned up for that.

"When will I get the results?" Harry asked. "Do you know?"

"Not for sure," Ron said. "But it sounded good. Apparently you sailed through the second round. They thought you were reckless in the first round –"

"I'm always reckless," Harry said. "They've always known that."

"I know. But it depends if they'll hold it against you. The last bit was just for Kingsley's benefit. I heard someone say they wished Dumbledore was around. That would be one hell of a fight, mate."

"I reckon it would be close," Harry mused.

Ron snorted. "Modest."

"No, really. He would have the experience, but I've got the speed."

"What about…" Ron started, then stopped himself.

"No, say it," Harry insisted.

"What about You Know Who?" Ron said. "Now, I mean. You now against him back then."

Harry shook his head. "I beat him back then."

"I know."

"With what I know now, I would just beat him quicker."

Ron laughed. With Harry once again dressed, he dragged his best friend into a rough embrace.

"Thanks, mate. For being there today."

"No problem. Any time."

xXx

After he'd eaten in the Ministry canteen, with hundreds of people staring at him (good news sure did travel fast), he was led back into a smaller conference room with his head of department, Kingsley, Rosewarne and a few others.

"How are you, sir?" Harry asked, directing his question to Kingsley. It was cheeky, for sure, but he fancied his chances.

"I'm fine," Kingsley said. "My ego appears to be rather bruised, but other than that I'm fine. And you, Harry? How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling good, sir," he said. "Anxious to know what the results of the testing are."

A witch who was watching the exchange with interest gave a small cough, drawing attention to herself.

"You were forced to fight against your friends, and did so willingly," she said. The distaste in her voice made Harry instantly dislike her.

"But they weren't my friends," Harry countered. "They were Polyjuiced."

"They had been trained to act like your friends," she said. "They had studied their wand movements, their mannerisms…"

Harry rolled his eyes. "I've fought alongside these people for years," he said bluntly. "I know when it's them and when it's not. The only one who was halfway convincing was Neville."

Someone looked guilty.

"Ah fuck," Harry said and ran his hands over his face. "It was Nev, wasn't it? How is he?"

"Fine," Kingsley said. "He's just in the infirmary having his body parts returned to their normal size. He should be out shortly."

"He was the last one in," Harry said, feeling the need to explain. "I'd already established that the others were imposters, so I didn't look too closely at him."

"How could you tell?" Rosewarne asked.

"'Luna' cast the first spell," Harry said. "That gave them all away from the start. Luna would never, ever cast the first attack. She only defends, or attacks in self-defence. And the imposter used a spell that Luna would never use, too.

"The person who was 'Hermione' was studying out of date information," he continued. "When we were teenagers she was paced and thoughtful, now she's a fucking demon in a duel. She fights me and Ron all the time to keep herself up to speed." He shook his head. "Honestly, it looked amateurish."

"What about Mr Weasley?"

Harry cocked his head to the side. "At a guess, I'd say it was someone in the department. Someone who's watched him work, although maybe not worked with him. He was good, but not good enough."

Kingsley laughed uproariously and clapped his hands. "Spot on, Harry, spot on," he said. When Kingsley looked around the collected people at the table, he took control simply and with what looked like no effort at all.

"Colleagues, I am sure we can all agree that Mr Potter's physical, magical and emotional capabilities were thoroughly tested today and he has passed all of those tests with ease. I, for one, have no objections to him returning to the Auror force."

One by one, the witches and wizards around the table nodded their agreement. Despite Kingsley's words of support, Harry felt a little knot of tension in his chest release.

"Excellent," Kingsley said, pulling his files together and standing, clearly dismissing the room. "Harry, a full breakdown of your results will be available to you next week. We'll see you nine o'clock on Monday." He turned and gave Harry a little wink. "Don't be late."