Chapter 4 - Assess The Risk
Romilly padded out of her bathroom with wet hair and a towel wrapped around her. She hummed joyfully to herself as she made her way to the bedroom.
She had just finished her third day in the Auror office. So far, the days had been pretty uneventful; mainly made up of her scouring reports and familiarising herself with the processes.
Draco had, on occasion, popped out of his office to drop another stack of reports on her desk or ask her to collect and deliver mysterious looking packages to and from the Department of Mysteries, but other than that, she hadn't seen much of him.
Instead she mainly got the view of the top of his blonde head through the door of his office while he poured over documents and reports of his own.
Romilly's plan for this evening was to shower, change into something comfortable and curl up on the sofa with a book on wandless spell casting. However, someone had other plans for her.
She had just let her towel drop to the floor around her feet when a white glow filled the room, the light coming from behind her.
Romilly whipped around to find that the source of the light was an ethereal apparition of what appeared to be a peacock with a long and slender neck and plumage that fanned out behind it elegantly.
Romilly knew that this was a patronus but before she could ask herself who had sent it, the peacock's beak opened and a low, serious voice came from the depths of it.
"We're short on surveillance tonight." The voice began, and Romilly instantly recognised it as Draco's. With a squeal she reached down and hastily covered herself with her towel, despite knowing full well that Draco wasn't actually here to see her… it just felt weird.
The peacock continued. "I will need you to meet me on the corner of Knockturn Alley and Grunnit Lane at 11pm. Not sure how long I will need you for but you may as well come along. Don't be late."
The peacock faded into the atmosphere and the room dimmed once more.
Romilly's heart raced; she was finally out on a job and she couldn't wait. The fact that she had already worked a full day didn't bother her in the slightest as the excitement was enough to keep her buoyed up.
A few hours later, Romilly tucked her wand into the deep pockets of her wool coat and prepared to apparate to the meeting point. With a sharp crack that echoed around the room after she had left it, she was gone.
Draco was already on the corner when she arrived. His hands were pushed into his trouser pockets, causing his coat to fall open at the front. Romilly clocked a shiny silver belt buckle with a snake entwined around it.
"Hello." Said Romilly, trying to suppress the excitement in her voice.
Draco looked her up and down.
"I'm glad you're wearing a coat." He said. "We won't be moving around much so it can get cold."
Romilly cleared her throat. "Where are we going?"
"It's too public here to tell you, I'll explain when we get there." He held his arm out to her, his hands still in his pockets.
Romilly looked at his arm for a moment.
"You're going to have to take it if you want to come with me." Draco said, reaching his bent arm out further. Romilly quickly wrapped her hand around the crook of his arm. Before she knew it, they had twisted out of the alleyway and a different view spun into sight.
They were on a quiet residential street. The rows of houses stood dark and silent against the night sky, apart from a glow from the odd window or two. It looked like any other muggle street, with front gardens, cars parked on the driveways and recycling bins out on the curb side.
"Come on." Draco said, and set off further down the street. Romilly trotted along behind him, keeping up with his brisk strides.
Draco slipped behind the side of a van and ushered Romilly in closer. He looked over both shoulders to see if they were being watched.
"I'm going to put some protective charms over us, okay?"
"Sure." Romilly replied, hanging on to Draco's every word.
Draco hadn't waited for her response and was already silently casting a charm around them. Romilly could see the air ripple around them slightly, shimmering in the darkness where the protection ended.
"Just round here." He said once he was finished. "And take your wand out."
Romilly shoved her hand into her pocket, wrapping her first around it and pulling it out. She felt silly for not having it out before and wondered if Draco was judging her for it.
She followed Draco round the corner slightly, where they came to a bench. Opposite the bench on the other side of the road was a house with no sign of life inside at all. The front door looked worn and one of the windows was boarded up. The garden clearly hadn't been tended to for some time as the weeds and grass were almost waist high.
Draco tutted to himself. "Jacobs and Crawley didn't even wait for us. I keep telling them they have to wait for the next shift to arrive before they leave."
He sat himself down on the bench opposite the dark house. He looked up at Romilly still standing and nodded to the empty seat beside him. She sat herself down, making sure not to sit too close.
"Is this the house in Salisbury?" She asked. "The abandoned one?" Romilly remembered reading about a dilapidated house on the notice board in the office that was potentially being used as a base for dark wizards.
"Yes, well remembered." Draco responded.
A silence fell between them for a moment.
"What charm would I have cast around us just then?" Draco asked, testing her. He remained looking forward towards the house as he spoke.
Without hesitation, Romilly responded. "Cave inimicum."
Draco nodded. "Good." He said.
Silence again.
"What about a Muggle repelling charm, wouldn't we need to use one of those if we knew there was dark magic happening inside that house? To protect them?" Romilly asked.
"Not at this stage." Draco explained. "There are so few muggles around at this time of night so the risk is low, but if we were to repel muggles completely from such a built up street, whoever may be inside may notice the lack of activity and suspect that charms were involved, giving us away."
Romilly nodded. "I see."
"You need to assess the risk and make your decisions based on that."
"Noted." Romilly replied. "Assess the risk."
It turned out, surveillance wasn't all that exciting. The pair had been sitting there for about an hour and nothing had happened either inside or outside of the house across the street.
Although the pauses between conversation were quite awkward, Draco was passing some valuable information and pieces of advice onto Romilly, who was making sure to write mental notes until she could get home and write things down in her actual notebook. She feared that with all the wisdom he was giving her, she would forget something.
A church bell rang in the distance. It was midnight and the temperature was dropping. Romilly could see her breath in front of her face and felt her fingers go cold. She put her hands in her pockets and hunched her shoulders up round her ears.
Draco must have noticed the movement, because he looked over. Spotting that Romilly was visibly cold, he flicked his wand out casually in front of them. A small, blue ball of flames flickered and glowed before them and Romilly felt a rush of warmth over her face.
"Thank you." She said, reaching her hands out in front of the flame to warm them. "It's amazing that something so small could be so warm."
Draco chuckled. "I was never particularly good at those. I never really mind the cold but it's nice to have."
The ball of flames drifted over to them slightly and Draco poked it away again with the tip of his wand. Romilly thought that they must have looked like a funny pair, sat on that bench in the darkness. Draco was leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees, his legs spread wide in a confident stance, while Romilly was sitting with her knees pressed together, feeling conscious of the space between them.
Romilly looked at Draco and watched the flame reflected in his eyes, which were now glued on the house again. His hair almost glowed blue in the light of the flame. It almost looked as though his hair were strands of glass, she thought.
She suddenly heard a rustle of long grass, which made her head snap around towards the house. Draco leant forward on his knees in anticipation at the noise. All Romilly could hear was their breathing as they waited in silence for the source of the noise to emerge.
A black cat slunk it's way out of the grass and down the garden path, onto the road.
Draco tutted. "Bloody cats. I swear they're one of the main causes of disturbances, do you know how many times I've been called out for a damn cat?"
Romilly shook her head. "How many?"
"Well. I don't know exactly… but a lot." Draco responded.
Romilly smiled to herself.
Not a moment had passed, before another noise broke the silence of the night. It started far in the distance at first, but the sound of heeled boots on concrete echoing down the street was easily recognisable.
Draco put his hand out in front of Romilly, silently notifying her to stay quiet and still. They both watched in silence as a dark, hooded figure was walking towards them down the street.
Draco flicked his wand at the little blue flame, extinguishing it, and they were plunged into darkness. Despite the protective charms around them, he clearly didn't want to take any chances.
Romilly felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end as the figure, belonging to a man, came closer still. The man was finally parallel to the pair on the bench and Romilly was thankful for the charms hiding them as she was sure that the man would have been able to hear her breathing.
The man swept his cloak down the garden path to the front door of the abandoned house. He took out his wand. Hidden from view, Romilly could not see what he was doing but whatever it was clearly worked, as the door was unlocked from the inside and creaked open.
The man cast a look over his shoulder and slipped through the door and into the darkness of the house.
Romilly let out a big breath of air through pursed lips.
"Who was that?" She asked, her skin tingling.
"I don't know." Said Draco slowly. "But it's confirmed our suspicions; this is definitely being used as a meeting point of some sort. There could be all manner of wizards hiding in there and they've just given themselves away to us."
"What do we do now?" Romilly asked, her excitement bubbling.
"We do nothing."
"What?" She retorted. "We just sit here and watch?"
"What, do you want to go in there and see what the score is?" He laughed. "Be my guest."
Romilly blushed, aware that her excitement had clouded her better judgment.
"Good point." She said and folded her arms. "Can we have the fire back now please?"
Draco checked his watch. 1am. He looked over at Romilly sitting next to him, who was sitting with her arms folded and one leg crossed over the other. She was swinging the foot of the top leg slightly.
Draco hated surveillance: it was so boring and hardly anything ever happened. The same was the case with this house. Once the figure disappeared inside, there wasn't even a suggestion of anything else all this time.
"You don't have to stay." He said, feeling slightly bad that he had dragged her out on a cold night for some boring surveillance.
Romilly looked at him with those big brown eyes. Those bloody eyes, Draco thought. In the glow of the fire, her eyelashes casted a shadow across her brow bone, making them appear even longer. In this light he could see the perfect roundness of her head, which was exposed due to her thick hair being pulled up into a flippy ponytail. The back of her neck met her hair in a soft curve which disappeared down into the collar of her coat… Draco snapped himself out of it before she caught him looking at her.
"I can't leave you here on your own. Surveillance isn't allowed to be done alone." She replied, referencing the Auror handbook.
Draco's heart swelled in his chest slightly at her stubbornness, which he found incredibly attractive, but he didn't allude to it.
"How long until the next shift arrives?" Romilly continued.
"They'll be here at three."
"Well then I will stay until three." She said, and readjusted herself in her seat to make herself more comfortable.
Draco felt a tiny rush of happiness, but pushed it out of his mind as quickly as it had come.
Three o clock came, as did the arrival of the next surveillance shift. Although he couldn't see the Aurors that had arrived due to their own protective charms, the key in his trouser pocket began to vibrate. He took it out and held it up so that Romilly could see it.
"This key is connected to a network. It helps us signify to each other when we are in the area without detection." He brought it closer to her face. "All you have to do is rub this key and anyone within a certain radius will feel it."
"That's clever." Said Romilly, inspecting the key.
"Yeah, something Harry introduced a while back. We will get you a key when we're next in the office."
He closed his hand around the key and slipped it back into his pocket.
"Anyway." He continued. "Let's get home."
Romilly let out a yawn. "Good idea, I'm exhausted."
Draco chuckled. "You'll get used to that. I've learnt to run off minimal sleep."
"I love my bed." Romilly said. "I can't wait to get in it."
An image flashed in Draco's mind of a sleeping Romilly, cocooned in white bedsheets with her hair splayed out across the pillow. He shook the thought from his head.
"Well let's head back." He said, keen to distract himself from his thoughts. "Don't worry about when you come into the office, I probably won't be there until about midday anyway."
"Oh, thank you." Romilly said, holding her hand up to her mouth to cover another yawn.
"No problem, see you later, Romilly. You go first so I know you've gone."
Romilly gave a small smile and with a crack she was gone.