Chapter Four
Harry slammed his locker shut, relishing in the knowledge that another day of training was behind him. It wasn't so much because he was dripping with sweat and fatigue, but because Mackenzie had spent the better part of the day chewing him out for his dueling skills. She said his moves were too predicable, which would probably lead to getting himself and possibly his partner killed. She had nothing bad to say about Ron, who was even more over-aggressive than usual, that Harry had a hard time keeping up with him. He could already feel the bruises forming on his body from Ron's unrelenting attacks.
"Do you want to go down to the pub?" Ron asked, throwing his boots in his locker opposite Harry's and putting on his trainers.
The pub seemed to be the only place Ron wanted to go these days. "Not really, I'm tired."
Ron snorted. "So Mackenzie really got to you today, eh? Who the hell cares if you're lacking in creativity? You've done a good enough job of keeping yourself alive up until now."
"That's not it," said Harry, throwing his duffle bag over his shoulder.
"So you're just upset that I might actually be better than you at something?"
Harry glared at him. "I know the only reason you said that is because Hermione hasn't spoken to you all week. In case you haven't noticed, she's pissed at me too – and we deserve it."
Ron said nothing. He had been lashing out at Harry for days, and it wasn't fair. Harry might have been right about them getting what they deserved but he wouldn't admit it, because that would mean admitting that Hermione had every right to keep on giving him the silent treatment. He worried she would make good on her earlier threat about quitting her job and joining the Auror program.
He finally convinced Harry to go down to the pub with him, if only because they were working the night shift tomorrow. Moody had them back on these insane schedules. But first he wanted to go home and have a real shower and put on a change of clothes. It wasn't as if he would have to worry about running into Hermione there. She had purposely rearranged her work schedule to avoid seeing him as much as possible. Some nights she didn't even come home before eight or nine. When they were around each other it was horrible. The few times she would look at him made his gut tighten with guilt and wish there was some way he could fix everything.
"Why don't you just meet me back at my place?" Harry was saying, as they apparated in front of Lupin's. It was a rule that after the two months of training passed, all Aurors had to have their apparating license, otherwise they couldn't go out into the field.
"I'll be five minutes," Ron said, not understanding why Harry was against coming in with him. It wasn't like Hermione would be there – it was only six o'clock.
Harry still didn't look happy about going in with him, but he dropped the issue.
Ron pulled open the front door and was greeted with the wonderful aroma of what had to be roast beef and yorkshire pudding. Maybe the pub would have to wait after all.
Remus was standing in the kitchen, stirring gravy on the stove.
"Remus, that smells amazing," Ron said, his mouth practically watering.
"I'm afraid I can't take credit for it," said Lupin smiling. "Your mother made it. She's out back with Ginny right now." He looked over at Harry and said, "are you staying for dinner?"
"Well, Ron and I were gonna head down to the pub," Harry said to him.
"The pub can wait. I'm starved," Ron said, sitting down at the table.
"This came for you in the post today," Remus said, handing Ron a sealed envelope with the official Ministry seal on it.
"What is it?" Ron asked, tearing it open.
"I expect it's an invitation to the ball the Ministry's holding in your father's honour, to officially inaugurate him as the new Minister of Magic."
Ron gave the invitation a quick glance, before tossing it on the table. "Sounds exciting, but there's no way in hell I'm going."
"Oh, yes you are," a shrill voice rang from the doorway. Mrs. Weasley glared openly at her son. Ginny was standing right beside her. "Your father wants his family to be there. Of course you're invited as well, Harry," she said, turning towards him. "I'm sure your invitation is waiting for you at home."
"It's just a ruddy ball with a bunch of ruddy politicians, who will kissing dad's arse all night looking to get themselves a bit of power," said Ron.
"I don't like your attitude, Ronald," said Mrs. Weasley her face reddening with anger. "I can't believe you use that kind of language in front of your sister and Hermione. Maybe I should ask them what they think of your behaviour."
"I don't think Hermione cares much about him at all these days," Ginny muttered, but both Ron and Harry heard her clearly.
Ron shot her a deadly stare, which she matched.
"I'm going to shower," he growled, pushing Ginny aside when he got to the doorway.
"You're going," his mother said to his retreating back. "This is important to your father and his family is going to be there to support him. I want you to try on your dress robes and make sure they still fit!" She shouted up the stairs. Grumbling about ungrateful children, she went to set the table.
"That was mean, Gin," Harry said, from where he stood inside the kitchen doorway with her. "He's having a rough enough time as it is without you rubbing it in his face."
"Good because he deserves it," she said, lowering her voice so her mother and Remus wouldn't hear them. "I've had to listen to Hermione cry over him more times in a week than all of last year, and if Ron's looking for someone to blame for this mess he can start with himself. I guess that's why you haven't been coming around much lately."
Though Harry knew Hermione was hacked off with him as well, that wasn't the only reason he was avoiding Lupin's. He had been trying to put as much distance between himself and Ginny, which was quickly evaporating as he stood there with her then.
"Tell Ron to come and get me before he goes out," he said to her.
"You're not staying?"
"No," he said and started walking away. "Say good bye to Remus and your mum for me."
He could see the confusion on her face at his abrupt departure, but he didn't offer any further explanations. He left through the front door, thinking that a good walk would clear his head.
"Moody sure knows how to pick fun places to patrol," said Ron sarcastically, for about the tenth time that night. Thankfully, their shift was finally winding down. As soon as the watch on his hand showed seven o'clock he would be out of there. He and Harry couldn't even go home and sleep right away, they would have to stop by the Auror office at the Ministry, check in and have a debriefing about the night's activities.
There had been no dark wizard activity. In fact, it was completely dead out, which made sense since they were in the middle of their third graveyard that shift. Ron had a feeling being there made Harry uneasy, as the last time he had been in a graveyard Cedric Diggory had been murdered.
Moody had them patrolling graveyards since they were prime spots for dark activity. There were loads of spells and dark magic that required the use of a dead body or certain parts of one that the Aurors did regular sweeps of all the graveyards in Britain.
"At least we only have to do this one night a week," said Harry, his voice sounding hollow.
"Look, why don't head back now? There's only twenty minutes left in our shift anyways," said Ron.
"A lot can happen in twenty minutes, Ron."
Ron cleared his throat, ignoring the impending awkwardness that would come with his next words. "I know it bothers you being out here. You know, after what happened in fourth year."
"Cedric died three years ago," said Harry, keeping his eyes straight ahead. "I'm passed it. Really, I'm fine." He didn't want to let on how much it bothered him being out there, though from the look of things it seemed fairly obvious to Ron. But if he couldn't handle being in a cemetery because he was haunted by a couple of horrific memories, then he had no business being an Auror. Three years seemed like such a long time ago, and yet the memory was as fresh in his mind as if Cedric had just been hit with the killing curse that night.
He and Ron did one final sweep through the area before apparating to the Ministry. It was still early enough that the Atrium wasn't filled people on their way to work. One of those early morning workers caught Ron's eye. She was just getting her wand back from being tested and weighed and was now on her way towards the lift.
Harry knew what Ron was thinking before he even opened his mouth.
"I'll meet you upstairs," Ron said to him and started walking off.
"Ron, we have to meet Mackenzie in five minutes," Harry called to him, hoping that would be enough to keep Ron from doing something he knew to be a bad idea.
But predictably, Ron ignored his friend's advice. He let the security wizard inspect his wand and then hurried to the nearest lift. The doors were just starting to close, but he stuck his hand out to open them again, startling the occupants inside. Hermione's eyes widened when she saw him there before quickly looking away. Ron stood at the front, with the two other wizards inside separating him from Hermione. The wizards got off on the sixth level, leaving an uncomfortably silent lift behind them.
"So are you going to the ball on Saturday?" He asked when it was just the two of them. He tried to make it sound like casual conversation instead of his first words to her in a week.
"I told your dad I would be there," she said, purposely keeping her eyes on the painfully slow pace at which the lift passed by each floor.
Ron slammed his hand down on the emergency stop button. "We haven't spoken in days and that's all you've got to say to me? I think I may actually prefer you yelling at me to the silence. At least then I know what you're thinking."
"Maybe you should have thought of that before you decided to become the over-possessive boyfriend who wanted to control my life," she snapped, and reached around him to start the lift up again.
Ron winced at her harsh words. He really had made a mess of things. He had thought that after some time apart she might have cooled down a bit, but obviously she hadn't.
"No witty comeback or insult? That's very uncharacteristic of you, Ron," she said, finally looking at him.
"I'm sorry," he said, shoving his hands in the pocket of his robes.
He thought he saw something in her expression soften, but she turned away before he could be sure.
"I can't do this with you right now," she said, fighting to keep her voice calm when she felt like she was breaking apart inside.
"I screwed up, I know that. If I could take back what I did I would, because I can't stand the way you look at me."
She couldn't tell if he was lying or not, but if he had been able to lie to her for months, what was to stop him from lying to her then? To tell her what she wanted to hear so she would forgive him and everything would go back to the way it was. No matter how badly she wanted that, she couldn't do it.
The lift opened to the floor that was her stop, and she walked out, but Ron's voice stopped her from going any further. "Hermione, I'll do anything to make things right between us. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it," he said, his voice desperate and pleading.
She forced herself to look at him. "There's nothing you can do to change the fact that I don't trust you, Ron."
She saw the hurt look on his face a second before the lift doors shut, leaving her alone in the corridor.
Harry turned at the sound of a door opening. Ron walked in, and judging by the set of his jaw and his rigid posture, his conversation with Hermione had not gone well at all.
"Weasley, thanks for finally deciding to join us," Mackenzie remarked, giving him a reproachful stare.
Ron stared back unflinchingly and Harry prayed Mackenzie wouldn't push the matter because he had a gut feeling Ron wouldn't hold back if she set him off.
"As I was saying before the interruption," said Mackenzie, turning back to the group of Auror trainees. "I want your weekly reports on my desk or Moody's first thing Friday morning. Anyone's that isn't there by the time I walk in will find themselves working the graveyard shift for the next two weeks."
They all knew how serious she was with that last statement. Their Auror instructor had already followed through on several of her threats.
"Some new information has come to light about the attacks on muggle and wizarding communities last year," she continued. "We still have no evidence to show if these were random attacks or not – but after a thorough investigation done by the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, it looks like we may be able to pin several new Death Eaters to the crime, as well as a few of the ones we had suspected all along."
She unrolled a long piece of parchment onto the table in front of them. It turned out to be a map that had flashing dots and several points were highlighted for emphasis. "This is a map of the village outside Leeds from where it was attacked last November. The flashing dots represent Death Eaters, and the glowing areas are those that spots that were hit the hardest. Since no one who survived actually saw the Death Eaters until it was too late, means they had to have been using some sort of a concealment charm. Some of the cocky bastards thought they would remove their masks, and now we can identify them." She pulled from a stack of pictures on her desk and spread them out over the map. "Obviously, we're not asking you to go out and hunt them down more than anyone else. This is just to give you a heads up if you come across them, since there are a lot of new names and faces here. I won't waste my breath telling you how dangerous they are. The ones that are already deceased have that word stamped across their picture.
Out of the five that Harry recognized, one of them was deceased – Lucius Malfoy. He turned around looking from Ron but he was gone.
When Ron burst in the Auror locker room, it didn't matter that there was only one other occupant in the room. If there had been twenty he still would have done the same thing. He sought out his target, grabbed him by the scruff of his training robes and slammed him back against the closest locker.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing, Weasel?" Malfoy shouted in his face.
"Were you involved in that attack last year in Leeds?" Ron shouted back, his hands trembling with rage as he held the Slytherin in place.
Comprehension shone in Malfoy's eyes. "Was that where the mudblood's parents were hiding?"
"Your father was there," Ron continued, "did you know about the attack?"
"You're just hoping I'll say yes, aren't you? So you can kill me where I stand, the same way Potter did to my father?"
"Your father was a murderous bastard who got what was coming to him. And you're about to meet that same fate if I find out you had anything to do with what happened to Hermione's parents."
"Ron, back off!"
Ron could hear Harry's voice from behind him but he didn't let up. He looked expectantly at Malfoy, waiting for his answer.
"I wasn't involved," Malfoy stated unflinchingly.
"Liar!" Ron spat.
"You really haven't gotten any brighter, Weasley, if you think my father would waste time telling me about the Dark Lord's plans. I was at Hogwarts, how was I supposed to know anything?"
"Ron, let him go," Harry said, more forcibly from directly behind him.
"There's other ways he could have gotten in touch with you," Ron insisted.
Malfoy laughed bitterly. "I doubt very much he would have bothered with me while I was away at school. He had too many other important things to take care of."
Ron's hands suddenly flew off of Malfoy's robes, and he found himself flung back against the other group of lockers. Malfoy looked as startled by what had happened as Ron did.
When Malfoy recovered, he shot a venomous look at Ron. "Come after me again, Weasley, and you won't walk away from it." He shot passed Harry and stormed out of the locker room.
Harry looked at Ron apologetically. "Sorry, but it didn't look like you were going to back down."
Ron was livid. "You use your powers on me again and we're going to have a problem," he said in a dangerous voice.
Harry folded his arms across his chest. "Don't give me a reason to and I won't."
"Don't go all fucking righteous on me, Harry. I know you wanted to hurt him as badly as I did."
"The difference was I didn't act on what I was feeling."
"I guess that's where you and me are different. I feel everything, while you can just shut yourself off from all emotions. But does that really make you a better person than me?"
Ron left, not needing to hear an answer from Harry. He might not be the one who was always right – hell, he was probably wrong more than half the time – but he knew he was right about Harry then. His friend's inability to deny his accusation as he walked out of there only served to confirm that.