Chapter Thirty-Three

Work In Progress

Severus was dutifully watching the flag board when Harry arrived. He had just finished putting several new flags on the board, including Rummert and his former partners; they had all known about Rummert's part in Sludgebat's death, as well as his illegal potion experiments. Some of the other members were let off on much lesser charges. Many of them got a slap on the hand for not reporting the illegal activity... and yet none of them had objections about being put on the flag board, in hopes that the Aurors might be able to protect them. They were a spineless bunch, Severus couldn't help but thinking. Many of them wouldn't have acted alone. Perhaps some of them would learn from their experience, he hoped dubiously, watching as the flags began to move around on the board. He also hadn't missed the fact that Don Coventry's flag still seemed to be inactive.

When Harry walked into the room, Severus was watching the board so intently that Harry wasn't even sure whether or not Severus heard him come in.

"Hi," Harry greeted, taking off his cloak.

"Welcome back. How did it go with Sirius?" Severus asked without looking away.

"Better than I expected. He actually left with Conner," Harry informed him, getting a nod in return. "To be honest, I wasn't sure Sirius was ready yet. Then again, I wasn't sure he was ever going to be ready."

"Yes, I've heard my sister say the same thing on many occasions," Severus replied. "In fact, she was quite surprised that he even agreed to fill in for Carnegie once he heard that I made it a condition that he take a sobriety potion for the duration of his job. But I believe that deep down he has been wanting free of his alcoholism for some while now. He was finally beginning to realize that his 'cure' for his time in prison had become just another prison. The only difference was that it was of his own making," Severus said. "But even with that realization, he couldn't break out of it himself. He needed a firm line to cross that was not of his making, nor one from his family and friends, who were sometimes a little too understanding about his condition. Thus their surprise," he explained. Harry nodded somberly. "So, when he agreed to my conditions and took over as our caretaker, I knew he was ready. He was willing to take that first step, when he could have simply said 'no' to the job offer without anyone giving it a second thought. So this time, when his friends and family made a second line for him to cross, there was probably a lot less resistance than in the past... although I don't doubt he howled a bit before giving in," Severus sneered.

"You had to work in the dog joke, didn't you?" Harry commented. "No matter how true the statement was. Never mind, I'm just glad he's finally getting help."

"Everyone is," Severus agreed. "So how are the interviews going? Has there been any speculation from the members of Eclipse as to where they think Coventry may be holed up?"

"Not yet, but I have court approval to have Aurelius take over on Monday. Also, I am to tell you that Thomas has officially "requested" your assistance during the interviews as well."

"During the week? That will take some juggling," Severus scowled.

"He said he's willing to work nights and take the blame for your absence," Harry added.

"That's just what I need, for him to be at odds with Jennifer just before the Yule holiday," Severus grumbled. "Does he know that I also have to meet with Lunette Vallid about that property rights battle over Flammel's research this week?"

"Probably," Harry said with a shrug. "If you want to talk to him about scheduling now you can. I know he's working today, I can take over here for a bit. That way you can tell me about scheduling changes. I'll probably have to pair you with Aurelius for a couple of weeks until this is sorted out, since you're both going to be out of the picture."

"Fine, but don't team Coventry and Lupin up unless you have no other choice," Severus warned.

"No problem, I'll have Mike go with Jamie and Laura can go with me. Tonks can watch the board for a change. She doesn't mind it as much as she used to now that the desk is gone."

"Perhaps because there's nothing to trip over now," Severus smirked.

"Get out already, I'd like to get home at some time today," Harry said.

"Yes, I know the feeling," Severus said dryly as he left to speak to Thomas.

Jennifer was already glaring at the appointment journal when Severus came in Sunday night, with an expression as if she held the book partially to blame for what she was seeing.

"I hope you don't mind, but I came home before I picked up Quintin so we could have a chat first," Severus explained.

"A chat? About this?" Jennifer said in a crisp, dangerous tone, pointing at the book.

"Well you see, those appointments with Vallid..."

"Those I understand, as you know quite well. Witolf's notes need to be in the proper hands. But why does my Father have you working for the LE department every night for the next ten days? I thought the agreement was that you were only going to do this insane moonlighting on the weekends."

"I am helping with the follow up interviews with Eclipse, Jennifer. Thomas believes I may come up with questions that others may not think of, and perhaps it'll help us find out what happened to Donald. And for your information, I am technically joining them as Alex's informant, not that they can tell anyone that directly. Would you prefer I participate in the daytime instead?" Severus inquired.

"Of course not, you have reviews to give out and half-term is next week. I don't see why Alex can't do her own observations! She's clever about questioning as well, and that's her main job! Your main job to be here, and I think I've been doing more than my fair share in all of this, especially considering it was your idea for me to help Ivano with the Lycanthropy potions! I've had to split my time between that and watching the castle on weekends since the start of the term. How are we expected to make any progress when I can't devote my full attention to it at any given length of time?" Jennifer snapped.

"It's a valid complaint," Severus agreed. "But you both have been making progress nonetheless."

"Only because you put your oar in and helped with the recovery potion. The other potion has been running into obstacles," Jennifer brooded.

"Understandable. After all, it had taken years of trial and error but many different alchemists to even get that far, Jennifer, and no one has successfully improved upon it in decades."

"Probably because they don't all fit into the same profile. But even still, it'd be a lot easier to work on it if I could get a day off once in a while!" Jennifer pointed out.

"Yes, I know what you mean. You wouldn't believe how many people I have been hearing that from lately," Severus said, sincerely sympathetic but entirely unapologetic. Jennifer glared at him and crossed her arms, unable to think of anything else to say. It was evident, however, that her boiling anger had dulled down to a persistent simmer.

"I think I'll go get Quintin now and let you have a moment," Severus decided. Jennifer glared at him until he left. After he closed the doors, Jennifer chucked the appointment book at them.

Laura came in on Monday to find Tonks in the reception area, adding new flags to the board.

"Hi, Laura, Tonks said, glancing at the name on the next flag before adding it.

"Harry's Owl said there was a schedule change, but I'm surprised to see you in here," Laura ventured.

"Yeah, it's part of the deal," Tonk shrugged. "Harry's in his office."

"Okay," Laura said, more than a little curious. The door was open so she went straight in to find him going over the supply cabinet. "Hi Harry. How did you talk Tonks into taking a flag board shift?" Laura asked.

"She's going to be covering flag board shifts for a week or two for Aurelius, but afterwards, she's going to be taking over the Donald Coventry case," Harry explained.

"I thought Aurelius would get that," Laura said.

"I'd rather he concentrate on being a witness Truth-seeker right now. I don't want to risk any conflicts of interest," Harry explained. "But since he's busy helping the LE department and Severus was called in as an observer, I'm going to need you to partner with me until they get done with that."

"You? Can't I partner with Jamie?" Laura asked.

"No, Mike needed a partner too, remember, so I'm having the two of them team up. If you're worried me behing chained to this desk, don't be. With two Aurors down, we're going to have to do our fair share of captures," Harry assured her.

"Oh, alright," Laura said, immediately wishing she hadn't said anything. Fortunately, Harry hadn't taken it the wrong way, despite how she meant it. She really would have felt more comfortable with Jamie. Then again, it was better than Aurelius, who despite etiquette was certainly reading her thoughts most of the time. "So what's on the agenda today?"

"BELA has me looking into a string of robberies on Muggles that are using dark wizard tactics when they meet resistance. I think they may be part of the Grimshaw family."

"What? I thought you already put them in Azkaban already."

"Their parents, yeah. I suspect their sons are behind it," Harry said. "But right now, all I have is a hunch, so today we need to go down to the BELA office and go through the interviews they have with the different victims to see if we have more than just a hunch... especially any descriptions that point to them as being possible culprits."

"All right, but just being "possible" culprits isn't enough for an arrest, only enough for questioning, right? I don't see them cooperating if you put their parents in jail," Laura pointed out, and Harry nodded to her in agreement.

"True, but I happen to know that there's an LE warrant on them for causing some property damage to the Boar's Head and skipping out, so Thomas has agreed to handle their capture if I can give him enough evidence that they might be tied to this muggle robbery case," Harry explained.

"No problem. If there's information that needs finding, that's one thing I'm still good at," Laura said with certainty. "I'm good at digging into things."

"You are," Harry agreed, getting up. "You simply need to get better at digging yourself out, that's all. That's what those appointments with Conner are all about, so make sure you keep them up."

"I've been going," Laura protested. Harry gazed at her critically. "To most of them, at any rate," she amended ruefully. "Except when something comes up here, of course."

"If something happens here during your appointment time, consider yourself excused. I can always grab someone else to fill in. I have plenty of people I can call if I need backup. This job may be important, but taking care of yourself is even more important," Harry said. "Don't fret about the job. It'll get done whether you are available or not," he assured her, opening the office door. "Come on, let's get to work."

Laura frowned as they walked out of the office and down the corridor, barely acknowledging the large number of wizards who greeted Harry as they walked to the BELA department. What had he been trying to get at? Was she that expendable?

"I suppose you're right about the work being done," Laura said when they reached a quieter corridor. Harry glanced at her questioningly. "I mean, really, there isn't anything we do that the LE department couldn't do, is there? At least, that's true nowadays. We don't exactly have a force of dark wizards to contain anymore."

"Ah, that argument," Harry said, glancing straight ahead. "I wondered when it'd turn up again. The last time things got quiet enough that I heard that argument, Severus and I actually had a talk about it. He took it as a warning that society was getting complacent again."

"I don't think we're getting complacent. Perhaps it simply means that our society is changing for the better," Laura conjectured.

"Really? Then explain what happened with Rummert and Eclipse down in Arizona," Harry challenged her. Laura grew quiet. "As you know, that's why you're stuck with me right now. And yes, I suppose it's true that society has changed compared to how it was when I was young, but that's because of all the hard work that Snape, Craw, myself, and yes even Malfoy has done to get it there. Even with everyone's efforts, it's always two step forward and one step back. And every time we get it to the point where people are starting to get complacent, something like the Four Horsemen or this Eclipse thing happens and it sets us back again... not to mention the situation with Mike's brother."

"True, but then Don isn't as bad as all of that," Laura protested.

"Then why is Eclipse so scared of him?" Harry replied.

"Because of Bagman, I suppose," Laura conjectured.

"Perhaps, but that's another point, isn't it? He's still on the loose, and he knows a spell to wipe out entire families. So are things really getting better? Or have they simply gone underground again? I think the answer is pretty obvious, especially after what Rummert did," Harry concluded. "We may have had a lull recently, but a new Cat and Mouse game is about to begin. I need everyone working for me at their best when it starts, and completely ready for what is coming. So, if you plan to stay in the game, you still have some work ahead of you to get up to that level again."

"What do you mean 'if I want to stay in the game'?" Laura snapped. "We both know you're short-handed."

"It doesn't matter how many Aurors I have, really, we'll always be short-handed," Harry said with a shrug. "A dozen or five dozen, we're still out-numbered. There will always be more who want to break the law than who want to keep it. Because of that, the number doesn't matter so much as being able to count on all the Aurors to be at the top of their game, and doing the job for the right reasons and in the right frame of mind. That's way more important. In turn, it's more important for you to do what's best for you, whether that means stepping away from the job, or it means that you turn your focus on doing what's needed to get yourself back on track, including making all of your appointments."

"Fine," Laura said curtly, brooding the rest of the way. She was glad to get inside the BELA office, where Anna had set aside a pile of records for them to go through, as well as the use of one of their Wizardnet portals.

"Do you want the written records or the computer?" Harry inquired.

"Written," Laura said immediately. "Bookwork is definitely something I'm still good at."

"Right," Harry said with a nod, taking over the Wizardnet computer and the two of them got to work.

When Anna came in an hour later, they already had an impressive stack of papers, which Anna checked over, and then went to the Quill-copy, which had just inked out several things that Harry had found on the Wizardnet.

"So what do you think?" Harry asked her.

"You found quite a few parallels and correlations," Anna ventured.

"I wasn't expecting to find any direct evidence, just circumstantial," Harry agreed. "But what I want to know is if we've found enough that Craw will let us question him."

"I don't know. You know how much of a stickler he is... he doesn't want anybody brought in he can't immediately get a conviction on," Anna said, putting the Quill-copy with the other pile and looking it over.

"If we can get enough of a reason for question them, Aurelius will be able to provide the evidence," Harry said. "Or eliminate them as suspects, and either way that's progress. What would you do with what we got?"

"I'd bring them in for questioning, especially since the modus operandi matches. But I'm not Thomas, so good luck," Anna said.

"Maybe if you added a note and reasons for agreeing with us to the stack?" Harry suggested.

"I suppose it couldn't hurt... really, I want these guys caught as badly as you do, no matter who they turn out to be," Anna said, taking the stack with her to her office. "I suggest you go to lunch. This is going to take me a bit."

After lunch they were greeted by Hugh Wright, Anna's permanent secretary.

Hugh Writ was the BELA administrator that Harry and the Aurors dealt with the most; Hugh ran the department the majority of the time, carrying out the policies that Anna as department head wanted carried out. Hugh preferred it that way by in large, since he had none of the headaches that Anna had to go through when she wanted something changed, having to clear it with the Muggle Liason office and then very often going over their heads to the Ministry of Magical Accidents or even to the LE office or Minister Malfoy if she was really worked up over something she wanted changed. She, on the other hand, wasn't interested in the daily hands-on administration, especially since she had another job to contend with and a sometimes dramatic home life. So Hugh could comfortably manage the department cogs and wheels without too much trivialities getting in his way, but still knowing if there was a problem that Anna was a force to be reckoned with, making certain that their department concerns never went unnoticed.

"You're not here to stir the pot, I hope?" Hugh asked, only half-joking.

"No, just to get a case recommendation," Harry assured him.

"Ah, so that's what she's working on. I came in just before you for our weekly meeting and she told me she'd be another few minutes," Hugh explained. "Tea?"

"No thanks," Harry said, and Hugh nodded and went over to his desk to check his inbox. A few minutes later, Anna came back out, handing Hugh a copy of the recommendation on the way over.

"Here you go, I hope it's enough," Anna said, handing it to Harry.

"Thanks, Anna," Harry said, glancing at Laura. "Let's go drop this off at the LE Department on our way back," Harry said.

"Right," Laura said.

"See you later," Anna said, going back over to Hugh to discuss the week's business as Harry and Laura walked back out into the corridor.

"If Thomas approves this, we'll probably go hunt them down tomorrow. You have an appointment with Conner, right?" Harry said.

"Right," Laura said, a bit annoyed that he felt he had to remind her.

"We'll meet up at one then, and see if we can't track them down," Harry said, and Laura nodded in agreement.