July 25: The Morning After



When I opened my eyes the next morning, the first thing I noticed was the lack of haziness on the edges of my vision. I hadn't woken up without some form of a hangover in months; years, even. Then I remembered why I wasn't drunk the night before and grinned, jumping out of bed. Immediately, I fell over with a howl of pain and cursed the seductress that made my evening grin-worthy and found myself grinning all over again.

I managed to crawl to the living room, though this proved to be a fruitless endeavor seeing as I didn't have the nerve to go outside of my apartment in my current attire; or lack thereof, rather. So I crawled back to my room and, miraculously, dressed myself quite nicely. Struggling back to the living room, I made my way to the front door. I fumbled around for the door handle, seeing as I couldn't look to find it and crawled into the corridor.

Once at the stairwell, I saw feet on the lower landing.

I knew those feet.

"Neville! Help an old friend out!" I called.

"Harry?" he said, looking up the stairs at me with wide eyes.

"Got a bit of back problem," I explained as he came to my side. Luna appeared at the bottom of the stairs, snapping her gum. I was not ready for her yet this morning

"I must remember to commend Ginny are her ability to ground the almighty Harry Potter," she smirked, puffing on a cigarette. How she could chew gum and smoke at the same time was beyond me.

"You have a loose curl, Luna," I told her, as Neville took hold of me. The woman quickly ran into her apartment and I chuckled before letting off a string of curses as Neville pulled me upright.

"Sorry, Harry," the shorter man said, supporting me so I wouldn't fall over.

"Had to happen," I supposed, stretching a little and standing on my own. Neville hovered for a moment to make sure I was okay. "I'm fine, Neville, now that I'm standing."

He nodded, and I motioned for him to follow me back to my apartment, but stopped just as I made it to the door.

"Or are you busy downstairs?" I asked with a smirk. "I do remember the time she made me straighten you out."

He blushed a little and cleared his throat.

"She's learned when to quit before I hurt myself."

"Broads these days," I chuckled and sighed. "Not being able to move in the morning is half the fun."

"What can you do? Can't live with them; can't live without him."

"So true. Have a seat, pal," I offered, gesturing at the couch. He gladly accepted and cracked his neck. "Aha."

Neville looked at me with a faint smile, his head still tilted to one side.

"The floor?"

I nodded slowly and agreed, "The floor."

"I swear, they must coordinate their attacks," he grimaced, his head upright again.

"I think there's a scheduler somewhere that they refer to."

He laughed, "You should have warned me since Ginny got to you first."

"I would have but you weren't around when she left."

"Oh, yeah!" Neville tipped his newsboys hat back a little. "Finnegan."

I sat down behind the small desk along the back wall and grabbed a quill.

"Lay it on me, Neville."

"It took me a little time to find him after he left yours, but I saw him coming out of Serpensmordre ten minutes later."

"Surprise, surprise," I muttered, jotting this down.

"Then he went to talk to Albie. It was a little easier to keep my eyes and ears on him there, seeing as I had some things to do around the newspaper office."

"Do you think Seamus knew you were watching him?"

"No, he was too busy with the Russian on the corner bit."

I frowned.

"Why does he keep pointing the finger at that poor man?"

"If I remember your notes correctly, you said Draco didn't know about the flobberworms and they got into an altercation, right?"

"Right."

"If a guy's going to talk and start pointing fingers, you shut him up, right? And I'm sure we both know how Lucius 'shut him up'."

"This is true. But why the Russian on the corner?"

"He openly deals in flobberworms. He's probably just a random scapegoat; wrong place at the wrong time."

"All this over chocolate bubbly pop?"

Neville shook his head.

"Oh, by the way, Harry."

I looked up at him.

"I'm supposed to ask you if you heard anything or found out something about …"

"No. I haven't, sorry."

"No skin off my back."

Looking at the clock on my desk, I sighed and stood up.

"We'd best get to the office," I told him, going to my room to retrieve my hat. "Hermione will go nuts if we're late."

"We?"

Realization of what I said hit me as I walked back into the living room, but I just smiled.

"Yeah, we."

Neville seemed to swell with pride and followed me to the door.

"Do you want your trench coat, Harry?" he asked as I exited.

"No, it's too much of a hassle to carry around during the day," I explained as he stepped out behind me and I locked the door.

Ron and Hermione weren't there yet when we got to the office. I went to the window and called for Hedwig who promptly flew in and landed on my desk where I was scribbling a note to Dumbledore.

"Take this to Albie," I told my snowy owl. She nipped at my finger and left with a hoot. I stood in a corner of the office and contemplated the layout, tapping a finger on my lips. "Where to add a desk …"

Neville watched in awe as I took my wand from my jacket pocket and began moving mine and Ron's desks apart.

"What's this?" Ron asked as he came in with Hermione a few moments later.

"I'm giving Neville a desk," I answered, still unsure of where the third desk was going to go.

Hermione went to Neville and hugged him.

"I'm so happy for you. It'll be good to have a new face around here all the time."

"But he still works for the paper," Ron put in, frowning and standing in the new space between his desk and my own. Hedwig returned and I took her letter.

"Not anymore," I said, reading Dumbledore's reply.

"I don't?" Neville asked, coming to my side.

"Well, you do and you don't. It's up to you when you come in, either here or there. Dumbledore gives his congratulations."

Neville took the letter and slouched against the window ledge. I wrote out another letter to the furniture store down the block and sent Hedwig out again. Ron grabbed my arm and pulled me into the back room as Hermione called Neville to the front door.

"You couldn't even ask me before hiring new people?" he asked, shutting the door behind him.

"Last time I asked you before I hired someone new, you worked late for two weeks 'interviewing' her and 'showing her the ropes'."

Ron smiled, "Hermione's a little different than Neville. He's just an informant."

"He thinks quicker than I do," I replied.

"But I liked how our desks were. It gave me a sense of unity; toe-to-toe in the office, but side-by-side in the world, you know?"

I quirked an eyebrow.

"You're fussing because I separated our workstations? Oh, for the love of God, Ron, be a man," I scolded, stepping out of the office to find our desks back together and Neville arranging things on a new desk against the far wall.

"When did that get here?"

Ron took his place behind his desk, reached out and patted mine.

"Hedwig returned with it, shrunken and in a box tied to her leg. I used an engorging charm to make it usable," Hermione informed me.

"They're shrinking them now? They floated ours up the stairs, didn't they?" Ron asked, still admiring the closeness of our desks. I rolled my eyes and took my chair.

"Is it to your liking, Neville?" I asked.

"More so, even."

"I even added his name to the door," Hermione declared motioning at the frosted glass on the door. You could faintly make out a third name below mine and Ron's.

"I told her not to," Neville interjected suddenly. "I'm just an informant, not a detective."

"Come off it, Neville. You're more than an informant," Ron told him, spinning in his chair to look at our new coworker. I seemed to remember Ron saying the opposite only moments before, but smiled at his sudden change of opinion.

Neville smiled a little.

"Thanks, Ron."

Hermione looked at her husband proudly before picking up her handbag.

"Coffee?" she asked.

Three hands raised.

"Raising two hands will only get you one, Ron," Hermione laughed.

"You want anything, Neville?"

"I can get my own," he said quietly.

"Nonsense. I'm the secretary. It's my job to go get things for you."

I looked up at her, astonished.

"Don't even say it, Harry," Ron warned, shaking his head a little. Hermione smirked at me and turned back to Neville.

"Would you like something?"

"Coffee, black."

"All you private eyes are the same," she remarked, leaving.

Ron smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"Neville Longbottom, Private Eye … Nice ring to it, I think," the red-head commented.

Neville was positively beaming when he turned back to his desk.



"How do you know that Seamus is working for Lucius? Neville never said that," Ron cut in as the three of us spun lazily in our chairs.

I could pull a Dumbledore and be vague, but telling the truth didn't hurt me last night.

"Ginny told me," I answered.

Ron stopped spinning, eyebrow arched and making a face.

"When did she tell you this?"

"Last evening."

Neville smirked and continued to spin.

"Did you meet her somewhere?"

"She was waiting for me at my apartment when I got home."

Ron narrowed his eyes and Hermione looked up from her desk.

"Did she stay long?"

I was beginning to think that I was going to bleed again, but if today went as well as yesterday after I bled, I wouldn't mind so much. Stealing a glance at Neville, I saw him biting his lip to keep from smiling.

"A few hours, I'd say."

"You and Ginny were civil to one another long enough to have a conversation that lasted a few hours?"

I refused to smile.

"Five, actually."

Ron looked confused.

"Five? Hours or conversations?"

"Conversations."

Neville snorted and put his head down on his desk, shoulders shaking. Hermione gasped and went back to work. Understanding washed over his face and Ron leaned back far in his chair as he whistled long and low.

"She didn't stay overnight?"

"No. She is rather bound to a certain bubbly pop manufacturer."

"She left you for him. Why can't she leave him for you?"

"I'd never ask her to do that," I said quietly, picking up my quill and turning my focus to a piece of parchment on my desk. There was a 'clack' as Ron put his chair forward again to study me closely.

"What do you mean, you'd never ask her to do that?"

"Hermione was right. I can't give her what he can."

"But you'll screw around with her on the side?"

"Wouldn't dream of doing anything else," I smiled.

Ron and Hermione sighed and Neville laughed out loud, his head still resting on his forearm.

"Can we please discuss something other than Ginny?" I asked, clearing my throat and tapping the quill feather on the parchment.

There was a knock on the door. The four of us looked to the door to see the hazy outline of a fedora-capped man. Hermione stood and opened the door.

"Still stuck together at the hip, I see," Draco said, stepping into the room as he smoothed the front of his cobalt blue suit coat. "Though," he started, eyeing Neville, "I don't remember you being much more than an errand boy last time I came by."

"I don't remember you being conscious very long the last time you came by," Ron told him.

Draco sneered and took a step toward my desk.

"I have business to discuss with Potter. Is there somewhere we can talk?"

"Please, Draco, there's a couch in the back; have a seat," I offered, standing and following him into the back room. Ron started to stand, but I told him to stay where we was as I shut the door.

"My, my, Harry. Leather, even," the blond commented, sitting down gracefully. "And comfortable."

"Oh, yes, it's been a dear friend through the years," I smirked, pulling a chair over to sit across from him. "So what are we talking about this time, Malfoy, old pal?"

Draco quirked an eyebrow at me.

"You must understand that I would never come to you under normal circumstances, but I believe you may be the only one I can go to in this particular situation."

"It must be one hell of a situation."

"You haven't any clue."

"So clue me in, Draco. What's going on?"

My guest took off his shining white fedora and set it on the couch next to him, learning forward, elbows on his knees.

"I know you and I have had some … problems in the past."

"So let's leave them there," I interrupted, not wanting to discuss Ginny with him either.

He smiled faintly and went on.

"I think my father is trying to do me in."

Ah, I see.

"Physically or financially?"

"Both, if he can manage it."

Oh, really?

"Why are you coming to me?"

"Word is you've been visiting his place recently. He wouldn't suspect you, especially not on business from me."

This is true.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Well … before I saw that he'd been promoted, I wanted you to send Longbottom after him."

"He's still the best sneak on the streets," I said.

"That's good to know."

"If you wanted Neville, why do you need me?"

"I want you both. Neville can sneak better than you can. I want you to show yourself at Serpensmordre, and I want Longbottom to follow after him in the shadows. Hear the things that you can't. Father seems to think you've quite changed since … before."

"So what am I looking for?"

"I thought he was working with me, but I've found he's working against me. I don't have any kind of proof of this. That's what you're looking for. Find out who he's got working for him; what he's trying to get his hands on."

Ginny hadn't even told Draco what she knew. I almost smiled, but refrained.

"I don't work for free," I reminded him.

Draco leaned back in his chair and eyed me suspiciously.

"Maybe it's time to address those problems from our past."

"I'd rather not."

"I know for a fact Ginny came by here a couple days ago."

I nodded my assent.

"And that she had breakfast with you yesterday."

Again, I nodded.

He paused and thought for a moment.

"I'll pay you for your services. What would you say to 2,000 galleons to not see her again?"

I feigned contemplation.

"That sounds like a lot of money."

"5,000."

"That sounds better."

I smiled and we stood, exiting the room.

"I'll have that delivered sometime today," Draco said as he left.

"I'll be here all day."

Once the door was shut, three sets of eyes turned to me.

"What was that all about?" Ron wanted to know.

"We've got a job," was my answer.

"But we've got one already, don't we?" Neville asked.

"Now we've got one with pay," came the reply.

"How much?" Hermione inquired, though her question came as a result of keeping records.

"100 galleons a day, plus 5000 extra if I don't see Ginny ever again."

Ron choked on his coffee, Neville, who had bent to pick up a piece of parchment, fell out of his chair, and Hermione broke her quill.

"WHAT?!" echoed from all three of them.

"I kid you not," I informed them, sitting back in my chair. "What's interesting, is that he was actually coming more for Neville than me."

Ron seemed to be about to argue as Neville picked himself up and dusted off his trousers, replacing his hat on his head.

"Why me?"

"He'd heard of your ability to sneak. Needed keen ears in the shadows."

"That would be Neville," Ron agreed.

"Should I be somewhere then?" asked Neville.

"We don't start until he brings his down payment," I declared.

"Are you really not going to see Ginny?" Ron queried.

I scoffed, "Are you kidding me? Five thousand galleons isn't worth it."

Ron smiled at me.