Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling and Warner Brothers, not
me!
*
Precious Stones By Hermione Starise
* Chapter Two: In the Field * AN- Here is the second chapter; I had an empty hour or two today so I did this (and Basilisk Dreams no 5). Please R&R! *
He viewed the body with the resigned eyes of one who was used to such scenes. He had seen many a victim struck down for being in the way of a mad dark wizard. He had seen many a person suffer because they were simply in the way when a dark wizard came along.
Ron still felt uneasy about it though, this was not like the usual random killing of a crazed deatheater. Usually the body would be unmarked, killed with the quick thoughtfulness of an advada kadarva. This was different, the body was maimed, the throat cut.
He winced at the sight of blood spread everywhere and felt rather sick. This was not the usual sort of killing he had to deal with.
His partner, Harry was crouched down by the body.
"Here look," Harry said, prizing a silver trinket from the dead boy's hand.
Ron took it and examined it, it was a pocket watch, a muggle device that he had never seen before but read about. Above the clock face was a magnificent emerald encrusted in the silver. On the back was engraved the word: Emerald.
"Emerald," Ron said thoughtfully.
Harry fiddled with the image finder and eventually got it to emit a picture of what the boy would have looked like in life.
Handsome but no more than sixteen. Ron felt angry that such a young life should have been ended. Just a kid! He should have been in school! So why wasn't he?
The boy had been tall and muscular (quite an opponent in fight which was obviously what had gone on there). He had had light brown hair cut to the latest fashion and tanned skin. Obviously he had spent a lot of the time in the sun. Most startling where his eyes. Bright emerald green!
"Almost the same colour as Harry's" Ron thought, "Only a little brighter."
"Emerald!" Harry said, staring at the picture.
"Do you think that was his name then?" Ron asked.
"Could be, with the eyes and the engraving on the back of the watch." He replied thoughtfully.
They were standing in an old unused barn in southern France. The boy had probably just gone in thinking it was a place to get away from the heat of the midday sun and discovered it was some evil wizards hiding place.
After doing the test for magic, they discerned that he must have been a wizard, and suddenly it became more complicated. What would a sixteen year old wizard be doing in a dark wizard's hideout when he should have been at Beuxbatons? Had he been in league with the dark wizard and they had simply fought?
It was an unusual case and although Ron hated to think it, more up to the skills of an Investigate Auror. He found their job annoying. They were always considered the cleverest of the three divisions and got all the interesting cases.
They were never in as much danger as he and Harry were as Filed Aurors.
After looking around, they found evidence that there had indeed been someone hiding-out in the barn. Robes had been left and food. Like they left in a hurry. After performing the necessary spells they discovered that dark magic had indeed been used in the past few days.
"I don't know!" Harry said sighing heavily, "Something just doesn't seem right!"
The moment the words left his mouth an angry shout sounded.
"What are you doing here? Get out!" The voice screamed, in a sort of desperate rage Ron knew very well.
Ron swung round and found himself face to face with the dark wizard. Ron almost laughed, he was so pathetic! He was a good head shorter than Ron, a little scrawny scrap of a man. His hair was long and matted, so unclean that the blonde colour of it was barely recognizable. His robes were torn and his eyes were like large saucers on his skinny face. A weak blue colour: full of fright.
They knew him well; he was Manth Prebin, a dealer in illegal potions and leathul curses. Although feeble, he was very clever.
"You killed this boy?" Harry asked.
"What?" Manth asked confused, Ron stepped aside to show him the body.
"No games with us now Manth!" Harry said, "The evidence goes against you."
"I didn't, I've been gone three nights!" The ugly little man spat, fearing only his own safety. Not caring for the young boy who lay dead.
Ron looked at him; it didn't seem likely that this weak little man could have come off better in a fight than the young boy who lay dead.
"I'm afraid, you'll have t come with us," Ron said all the same. They could take no risks. Anyway Manth Prebin was notorious and the world was safer with him locked away. It was not long before Harry and Ron had him under control and ready to transport to the Field Auror Headquarters back in England.
*
A few hours later Ron emerged from the questioning room with a splitting headache. Manth had denied everything, every knowledge of the boy, Emerald and every knowledge of who killed him and when.
It seemed almost certain that Manth had not killed him, but maybe a hired hit man. Had Manth lured Emerald to that old barn? Had he payed someone to lie in wait and kill him?
This was a most unusual form of killing and Ron didn't know quite how to react to it. Murder Inquiry's of such sorts were usually handed over to the Investigative Auror Division but this one concerned Manth, someone who they'd been looking for, for months.
Ron doubted that some doddery old inspector from the Investigative Auror's division would be able to cope with him. No, he was certain that he had the Investigative Auror's leaguer sussed: a load of aging men who were more than ready to retire.
Ron was a Field Auror and they had become somewhat distanced from the other Auror divisions. There was a time, when they League had first been set up that they worked alongside each other, but the war among other things had changed all of that. The Field Auror's were quite estranged.
Ron thoroughly believed that it was the best way to be. The divisions merely got in each others way. As far as he was concerned the only thing connecting them was the word Auror.
He went up to his living space, a little flat within the Field Auror's Headquarters. Harry lived just next door. They didn't have a proper home and they weren't often in the tiny little excuse for a flat as most of their work took them abroad: into the deepest darkest, most dangerous places of the world.
"And I survived it too." Ron thought looking in the mirror, "With only a few scars to show it."
His musings were interrupted by a lot of banging on the door.
"Coming!" Ron shouted.
Kathryn Marsden stood there, looking very angry. Kathryn was a formidable woman in her late forties who was not one to be crossed. She also happened to be Ron's boss.
"Uh Hi Kathy," Ron said sheepishly.
"The 'Emerald case?" Kathryn asked, no, it was more like a statement than a question.
"Yes."
"Why hasn't it been handed straight over? This is IA work! We shouldn't be pussy footing around with a case that we aren't trained to solve!"
Kathryn had only just taken over the role of Head of Division and was working for changed in the way things were run. One of them being better relations between the divisions. Ron liked her well enough but found himself disagreeing with her ideas.
"But it involved Manth! Ron protested.
"But it's still more to their skills." Kathryn replied.
"I know. But I know Manth of old. I've had dealings with him before. Harry and me are more than able to get past this. At least let us keep the case until we've discovered Manth's involvement. If it gets to complicated we'll hand it over to the IAs"
Kathryn looked doubtful but never the less said, "Ok then, let's see how you get on."
"Thanks," Ron said.
"Slip once mind and it's going over to the IAs!" She warned, her hazel eyes snapping.
"I know, I know. Coffee?" He asked, changing the subject abruptly.
"No thanks," She said, "I'm going to a meeting with the IA division Head and some of his people. More of a social visit really. I'm sure you'd be welcome, and Harry."
"What and mingle with a group of doddery old men? No thanks, I'd rather catch up on my sleep." Ron said.
"Fine," Kathryn replied, "But you may find that your image of IAs to be completely right.
*
"So did you fall asleep last night?" Harry asked Kathryn the next morning, "I really pity you having to socialize with them."
"Was the Head twice your age, and in a wheelchair? That's how I've always imagined him." Ron sniggered.
Kathryn gave them a disapproving look, "Really you two are like a couple of school boys!"
Ron flinched, that was something SHE would have said.
"And as a matter of fact, Remus isn't much older than me. And rather handsome with it!" Kathryn said scathingly.
"Remus?" Harry asked, "Not Remus Lupin, surely?"
"The very same. Do you know him?" Kathryn asked.
"I'll say," Ron replied, "He's only the best Defence against the Dark Arts teacher we ever had at Hogwarts."
"And a close friend of my Dads," Harry added.
Kathryn frowned, "He said that he knew two of my people as boys. He said something about there nearly being a third too."
Ron visibly cringed at that.
"Hermione." Harry stated for him.
"Hermione eh?" Kathryn said, noticing the spasm of pain cross Ron's face and the regret on Harry's, "Spill the beans."
"Well she played a major role in me defeating Voldemort," Harry said slowly," And I mean major, she was one of our best friends back then."
"And something more for you Ron? Am I right?" Kathryn said, interrupting.
Ron nodded, and continued from where Harry had left off.
"In the aftermath of Voldemort's death, a certain slime ball called Draco Malfoy went around trying to get revenge for his master's death, and take over the position of Dark Lord himself."
"I was of course on the top of his list of people to kill." Harry said "So he put one of my trusted friends, Neville Longbottom under the Imperio curse, and told him to poison one of my drinks. It was a deteriorating potion he used. One that would have seen me growing weaker and weaker until I eventually just wasted away. It should have been me. But it wasn't me who drank it, poor Hermione picked up the wrong drink by mistake."
"At first we didn't know what was wrong with her," Ron continued for him, "She just grew weaker and weaker. The doctors just said that it was an after shock of fighting Voldemort, that she was doing it to herself. But that wasn't like her. We knew her, she was a fighter."
"So did you find out what happened?"
"We didn't find out that it was the deteriorating potion until Malfoy decided to stop using Neville, and we burst in on him ready to kill him." Harry said sadly, "Malfoy had done the typical bad guy routine and told Neville everything that he had done. Gloated before the game was over."
Kathryn nodded, she knew the type.
"By then it seemed too late. There was no counter potion but the doctors did what they could. She shouldn't have survived." Harry said.
"She did? I didn't think anyone survived a doze of deteriorating potion," Kathryn said, confused.
"Yes, it was a miracle. Nobody could understand it. How had she survived? The doctors put it down to her being a 'fighter."
"Weird," Kathryn said, spooked.
"By that time, we knew we wanted to be Field Auror's. I think at first Hermione did too. But she was still recovering when the time came for us to go to the academy."
"Too weak." Ron agreed wistfully.
"She wrote to us all the time, saying how much she wished she could be there. Then it changed, as we were about to qualify. She suddenly seemed against the idea and asked us not to join the division. She said friends and family were important and that e shouldn't abandon them, no matter what." Harry said puzzled.
"But we thought protecting the world was more important. We assumed she would follow us into the Division that the trio would remain. But no, I don't know what she chose to do." Ron said, his voice getting angry.
"Maybe she was right," Kathryn said quietly after a moment on tension that seemed to go on forever.
"Maybe she was," Harry agreed.
Ron shook his head, "No, she was clever, I'll give you that but that was stupid of her!"
"I don't know," Kathryn said, "Have you never regretted handing your whole life over to the division?"
"Well yes," Ron said unsurely, "But it's my job, it's what I do best at."
"But you can't afford to love." Kathryn said, "You have to leave all those you care about in the past."
"Is that what you're trying to change?" Harry asked, amazed. It was too dangerous for them to have contact with anyone outside the division.
"I don't know exactly," Kathryn admitted, "But that does seem like the right way to go. Times have calmed down. You know that and it wouldn't hurt. if the right security measures were in place."
Ron and Harry fell silent, neither of them could deny that they did not regret leaving home with no contact at all nor could they deny that they longed to involve those they loved in their life once again. But it would be so dangerous, wouldn't it?
* AN- So what do you think? Was the 'story' bit too boring? Please review and tell me your thoughts.
Precious Stones By Hermione Starise
* Chapter Two: In the Field * AN- Here is the second chapter; I had an empty hour or two today so I did this (and Basilisk Dreams no 5). Please R&R! *
He viewed the body with the resigned eyes of one who was used to such scenes. He had seen many a victim struck down for being in the way of a mad dark wizard. He had seen many a person suffer because they were simply in the way when a dark wizard came along.
Ron still felt uneasy about it though, this was not like the usual random killing of a crazed deatheater. Usually the body would be unmarked, killed with the quick thoughtfulness of an advada kadarva. This was different, the body was maimed, the throat cut.
He winced at the sight of blood spread everywhere and felt rather sick. This was not the usual sort of killing he had to deal with.
His partner, Harry was crouched down by the body.
"Here look," Harry said, prizing a silver trinket from the dead boy's hand.
Ron took it and examined it, it was a pocket watch, a muggle device that he had never seen before but read about. Above the clock face was a magnificent emerald encrusted in the silver. On the back was engraved the word: Emerald.
"Emerald," Ron said thoughtfully.
Harry fiddled with the image finder and eventually got it to emit a picture of what the boy would have looked like in life.
Handsome but no more than sixteen. Ron felt angry that such a young life should have been ended. Just a kid! He should have been in school! So why wasn't he?
The boy had been tall and muscular (quite an opponent in fight which was obviously what had gone on there). He had had light brown hair cut to the latest fashion and tanned skin. Obviously he had spent a lot of the time in the sun. Most startling where his eyes. Bright emerald green!
"Almost the same colour as Harry's" Ron thought, "Only a little brighter."
"Emerald!" Harry said, staring at the picture.
"Do you think that was his name then?" Ron asked.
"Could be, with the eyes and the engraving on the back of the watch." He replied thoughtfully.
They were standing in an old unused barn in southern France. The boy had probably just gone in thinking it was a place to get away from the heat of the midday sun and discovered it was some evil wizards hiding place.
After doing the test for magic, they discerned that he must have been a wizard, and suddenly it became more complicated. What would a sixteen year old wizard be doing in a dark wizard's hideout when he should have been at Beuxbatons? Had he been in league with the dark wizard and they had simply fought?
It was an unusual case and although Ron hated to think it, more up to the skills of an Investigate Auror. He found their job annoying. They were always considered the cleverest of the three divisions and got all the interesting cases.
They were never in as much danger as he and Harry were as Filed Aurors.
After looking around, they found evidence that there had indeed been someone hiding-out in the barn. Robes had been left and food. Like they left in a hurry. After performing the necessary spells they discovered that dark magic had indeed been used in the past few days.
"I don't know!" Harry said sighing heavily, "Something just doesn't seem right!"
The moment the words left his mouth an angry shout sounded.
"What are you doing here? Get out!" The voice screamed, in a sort of desperate rage Ron knew very well.
Ron swung round and found himself face to face with the dark wizard. Ron almost laughed, he was so pathetic! He was a good head shorter than Ron, a little scrawny scrap of a man. His hair was long and matted, so unclean that the blonde colour of it was barely recognizable. His robes were torn and his eyes were like large saucers on his skinny face. A weak blue colour: full of fright.
They knew him well; he was Manth Prebin, a dealer in illegal potions and leathul curses. Although feeble, he was very clever.
"You killed this boy?" Harry asked.
"What?" Manth asked confused, Ron stepped aside to show him the body.
"No games with us now Manth!" Harry said, "The evidence goes against you."
"I didn't, I've been gone three nights!" The ugly little man spat, fearing only his own safety. Not caring for the young boy who lay dead.
Ron looked at him; it didn't seem likely that this weak little man could have come off better in a fight than the young boy who lay dead.
"I'm afraid, you'll have t come with us," Ron said all the same. They could take no risks. Anyway Manth Prebin was notorious and the world was safer with him locked away. It was not long before Harry and Ron had him under control and ready to transport to the Field Auror Headquarters back in England.
*
A few hours later Ron emerged from the questioning room with a splitting headache. Manth had denied everything, every knowledge of the boy, Emerald and every knowledge of who killed him and when.
It seemed almost certain that Manth had not killed him, but maybe a hired hit man. Had Manth lured Emerald to that old barn? Had he payed someone to lie in wait and kill him?
This was a most unusual form of killing and Ron didn't know quite how to react to it. Murder Inquiry's of such sorts were usually handed over to the Investigative Auror Division but this one concerned Manth, someone who they'd been looking for, for months.
Ron doubted that some doddery old inspector from the Investigative Auror's division would be able to cope with him. No, he was certain that he had the Investigative Auror's leaguer sussed: a load of aging men who were more than ready to retire.
Ron was a Field Auror and they had become somewhat distanced from the other Auror divisions. There was a time, when they League had first been set up that they worked alongside each other, but the war among other things had changed all of that. The Field Auror's were quite estranged.
Ron thoroughly believed that it was the best way to be. The divisions merely got in each others way. As far as he was concerned the only thing connecting them was the word Auror.
He went up to his living space, a little flat within the Field Auror's Headquarters. Harry lived just next door. They didn't have a proper home and they weren't often in the tiny little excuse for a flat as most of their work took them abroad: into the deepest darkest, most dangerous places of the world.
"And I survived it too." Ron thought looking in the mirror, "With only a few scars to show it."
His musings were interrupted by a lot of banging on the door.
"Coming!" Ron shouted.
Kathryn Marsden stood there, looking very angry. Kathryn was a formidable woman in her late forties who was not one to be crossed. She also happened to be Ron's boss.
"Uh Hi Kathy," Ron said sheepishly.
"The 'Emerald case?" Kathryn asked, no, it was more like a statement than a question.
"Yes."
"Why hasn't it been handed straight over? This is IA work! We shouldn't be pussy footing around with a case that we aren't trained to solve!"
Kathryn had only just taken over the role of Head of Division and was working for changed in the way things were run. One of them being better relations between the divisions. Ron liked her well enough but found himself disagreeing with her ideas.
"But it involved Manth! Ron protested.
"But it's still more to their skills." Kathryn replied.
"I know. But I know Manth of old. I've had dealings with him before. Harry and me are more than able to get past this. At least let us keep the case until we've discovered Manth's involvement. If it gets to complicated we'll hand it over to the IAs"
Kathryn looked doubtful but never the less said, "Ok then, let's see how you get on."
"Thanks," Ron said.
"Slip once mind and it's going over to the IAs!" She warned, her hazel eyes snapping.
"I know, I know. Coffee?" He asked, changing the subject abruptly.
"No thanks," She said, "I'm going to a meeting with the IA division Head and some of his people. More of a social visit really. I'm sure you'd be welcome, and Harry."
"What and mingle with a group of doddery old men? No thanks, I'd rather catch up on my sleep." Ron said.
"Fine," Kathryn replied, "But you may find that your image of IAs to be completely right.
*
"So did you fall asleep last night?" Harry asked Kathryn the next morning, "I really pity you having to socialize with them."
"Was the Head twice your age, and in a wheelchair? That's how I've always imagined him." Ron sniggered.
Kathryn gave them a disapproving look, "Really you two are like a couple of school boys!"
Ron flinched, that was something SHE would have said.
"And as a matter of fact, Remus isn't much older than me. And rather handsome with it!" Kathryn said scathingly.
"Remus?" Harry asked, "Not Remus Lupin, surely?"
"The very same. Do you know him?" Kathryn asked.
"I'll say," Ron replied, "He's only the best Defence against the Dark Arts teacher we ever had at Hogwarts."
"And a close friend of my Dads," Harry added.
Kathryn frowned, "He said that he knew two of my people as boys. He said something about there nearly being a third too."
Ron visibly cringed at that.
"Hermione." Harry stated for him.
"Hermione eh?" Kathryn said, noticing the spasm of pain cross Ron's face and the regret on Harry's, "Spill the beans."
"Well she played a major role in me defeating Voldemort," Harry said slowly," And I mean major, she was one of our best friends back then."
"And something more for you Ron? Am I right?" Kathryn said, interrupting.
Ron nodded, and continued from where Harry had left off.
"In the aftermath of Voldemort's death, a certain slime ball called Draco Malfoy went around trying to get revenge for his master's death, and take over the position of Dark Lord himself."
"I was of course on the top of his list of people to kill." Harry said "So he put one of my trusted friends, Neville Longbottom under the Imperio curse, and told him to poison one of my drinks. It was a deteriorating potion he used. One that would have seen me growing weaker and weaker until I eventually just wasted away. It should have been me. But it wasn't me who drank it, poor Hermione picked up the wrong drink by mistake."
"At first we didn't know what was wrong with her," Ron continued for him, "She just grew weaker and weaker. The doctors just said that it was an after shock of fighting Voldemort, that she was doing it to herself. But that wasn't like her. We knew her, she was a fighter."
"So did you find out what happened?"
"We didn't find out that it was the deteriorating potion until Malfoy decided to stop using Neville, and we burst in on him ready to kill him." Harry said sadly, "Malfoy had done the typical bad guy routine and told Neville everything that he had done. Gloated before the game was over."
Kathryn nodded, she knew the type.
"By then it seemed too late. There was no counter potion but the doctors did what they could. She shouldn't have survived." Harry said.
"She did? I didn't think anyone survived a doze of deteriorating potion," Kathryn said, confused.
"Yes, it was a miracle. Nobody could understand it. How had she survived? The doctors put it down to her being a 'fighter."
"Weird," Kathryn said, spooked.
"By that time, we knew we wanted to be Field Auror's. I think at first Hermione did too. But she was still recovering when the time came for us to go to the academy."
"Too weak." Ron agreed wistfully.
"She wrote to us all the time, saying how much she wished she could be there. Then it changed, as we were about to qualify. She suddenly seemed against the idea and asked us not to join the division. She said friends and family were important and that e shouldn't abandon them, no matter what." Harry said puzzled.
"But we thought protecting the world was more important. We assumed she would follow us into the Division that the trio would remain. But no, I don't know what she chose to do." Ron said, his voice getting angry.
"Maybe she was right," Kathryn said quietly after a moment on tension that seemed to go on forever.
"Maybe she was," Harry agreed.
Ron shook his head, "No, she was clever, I'll give you that but that was stupid of her!"
"I don't know," Kathryn said, "Have you never regretted handing your whole life over to the division?"
"Well yes," Ron said unsurely, "But it's my job, it's what I do best at."
"But you can't afford to love." Kathryn said, "You have to leave all those you care about in the past."
"Is that what you're trying to change?" Harry asked, amazed. It was too dangerous for them to have contact with anyone outside the division.
"I don't know exactly," Kathryn admitted, "But that does seem like the right way to go. Times have calmed down. You know that and it wouldn't hurt. if the right security measures were in place."
Ron and Harry fell silent, neither of them could deny that they did not regret leaving home with no contact at all nor could they deny that they longed to involve those they loved in their life once again. But it would be so dangerous, wouldn't it?
* AN- So what do you think? Was the 'story' bit too boring? Please review and tell me your thoughts.