A/N: I finished this yesterday, but I couldn't upload it because my only free time was during the site's downtime. So this is a late update. This is a very late update. All I can say is this: I'm sorry! The holidays have kept me really busy. I hope everyone had a great holiday season. Now here is your last chapter of 2005! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Coolgirlc- The next chapter is here! Yay!

Love-is-everything- The Dodge Charger is a really nice American sports car that I could never afford. It was just a silly joke! I'm really happy with this chapter, so I hope you like it!

Trixie7- I like that too. I think that a story loses its meaning when characters are just suddenly like "Oh, I love you!" It takes away from the mystery. I'm glad you agree.

JKWilliams- Wow, thanks! Honestly, I was given a bit of trouble because this is a marriage law fic and that's a really popular genre. Thank you so much for still thinking about the originality of the plot itself instead of the genre.

Cappygal116- Ebony is just another word for black and by solid I just mean that his arm was completely covered in black. I'm not one to be 100 literal, so don't worry about things like that. You'll find out why it wants with Lavender in this chapter. As for what Ron was going to say, we may never know!

Quidditch7- I would never want to give you a heart attack! That would be cruel of me! Your questions about Lavender will be answered briefly in this chapter as well as some questions about what's after her. I love Ron and Hermione moments too. I won't give away what Ron was going to say, but you're on the right track. I will spoil this only for you- there is a VERY big Harry/Ginny moment in the next chapter.

Harrysmom- Ron and Hermione always dance around their feelings. All that matters now is how long they can manage to keep dancing around their feelings! Some of the mystery around Seamus' arm and the thing is revealed here, so enjoy!

Zarroc- I really am glad that you enjoy this so much. You'll see how Lavender and Seamus are in this chapter. You'll also see Ron and Hermione in action this time. You can only have so much fluff before it starts getting crazy!

Violet Snicket- Sorry, but I'm definitely holding back on what Ron was going to say. I think you have a good idea what it's about, but Ron's not going to get it all out for a while now! Still, there will be more R/H moments to enjoy!

The End of a New Life by MyKonstantine.

Chapter 8: The Department of Closets

"Fuck! What the hell is this?" Seamus' screams could be heard throughout the house. He had been furiously scrubbing his blackened appendage for the better part of an hour with Lavender wailing over his shoulder.

Everyone else was downstairs. Hermione sipped her bitter tea anxiously, wracking her mind for a solution.

There was no solution! They'd already tried everything! They had done cleaning spells, healing spells, and grooming spells. Nothing helped Seamus' condition.

"I shouldn't have fallen asleep!" Hermione could hear Lavender blubber from up the stairs. Guilt and sympathy shook through her. "If I wasn't vulnerable, you would have never gotten hurt!"

But Seamus wasn't hurt. He wasn't in any pain or discomfort. He was simply raving like a lunatic because the effects that the glowing light had on his arm. It just didn't make sense.

"That thing did tell Lavender that it would get her if she helped another part-muggle." Parvati sighed.

Dean rested his elbows down on the table. "And then she went and helped me. It's my fault."

In all her rage and confusion, Hermione slammed her teacup down on the table where she sat with everyone besides Seamus and Lavender. Scorching hot tea welled up over the side of the cup, splashing Hermione's hand. She winced, but never moved her hand.

"We have to go to the Ministry!"

Ron knitted his eyebrows, putting his own cup down slowly. "Are you joking?"

"I don't want to do this either, but we have to!" Hermione spoke urgently to the people around her. "We have to realize that we can't always try to handle everything on our own! We can't find this man! We need help!"

Dean shook his head. "You can't get wrapped up in this." He told Hermione. "You have too much to worry about. What about your appeal?"

Fuck. Hermione had completely forgotten about her appeal for the removal of the marriage law. There was no way she'd be able to fight the Ministry and co-operate with them at the same time. It was too complicated.

"I'll do it."

Hermione's head popped up. She caught Ron's eyes right after he spoke and gave him a warm smile. It was because of him that the day had been so lovely and so frustrating all at once. There he was again, helping her through the most grievous of times.

"If I'm able to get the report straight to Tonks or Kingsley, then maybe I won't have to deal with the rest of the Ministry." He shrugged casually and leaned back in his seat, not putting too much thought into it.

"Did Ron Weasley just volunteer to write a report for the Ministry of Magic?" Hermione couldn't tell if Harry was seriously questioning this or if he was joking around. Perhaps it was a bit of both.

Harry didn't have to continue, because Seamus finished Harry's thought for him as he descended the stairs. "Fuck me, times have changed."

Hermione supposed that Harry would not have put it as crudely as Seamus had, but she had to admit, sometimes Seamus' obnoxious behavior was amusing.

Nobody made a comment on Seamus' black arm, but a few of them stared at it for a good long time. Seamus pretended not to notice. After looking for just a bit too long, Ron turned back to Hermione.

"I say that I leave right now." Ron leapt up and sent his chair screeching back into the table. Something seemed to be making him very uncomfortable. Maybe it was just the day as a whole. It had been so eventful that even Hermione had a difficult time processing it all.

"Yeah, sure." Hermione got up much more slowly than Ron. "I'll go with you. I need to do research on the Ministry's bylaws."

"You didn't already do that research?" Ginny seemed very confused as she looked up at Hermione. All Hermione could do was ignore her and follow Ron toward the fireplace.

Ron took a pinch of floo powder before offering the flowerpot the Finnegans kept their floo powder in to Hermione. She took barely enough to have the powder stay stuck in between her fingers. Ron stepped into the fire first and quickly vanished in a burst of emerald flame. The light startled Hermione every time.

Now it was her turn to step into the fireplace with her false pretenses in tow. She tossed the fine powder into the air and called out "The Ministry of Magic!" With that, she was shot through a whirlwind of light and sound before sliding out of a Ministry fireplace, only to be caught by Ron.

She felt dizzy, panicked, and enthralled all at once. Ron's grip sent a quick strike of pain through her arm, but it was easy to ignore.

Ron laughed at Hermione's disorientation for a moment, then his expression changed to something a little more serious.

"So why are you really here, Hermione? We all know you've memorized the Ministry bylaws that you need to know for the case by now."

Hermione sighed. "I want to do some research in the Department of Magical Transportation. I just didn't want to tell Seamus that."

"Why would you do that?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione was getting a little riled up. Why didn't anyone else notice the facts that stood right in front of them? "That thing is a wizard using some sort of portal! That's what the glowing hole was, a portal!"

"That doesn't mean it's a wizard, other magical creatures can use forms of magical transportation." Ron didn't look like he doubted Hermione, but she could tell that he needed more convincing.

"Seamus' arm went black because it went into the portal. If it worked on Seamus, it must work on all human beings! See? This person's entire body turned black because his entire body went into the portal! We both know that it certainly wasn't a muggle."

Ron stood in the main entrance to the Ministry, blinking rapidly and trying to take in all the information Hermione had just presented to him. After a few moments, he finally came back to reality.

"Lovely." He gulped down so hard Hermione feared he would swallow his Adam's apple. "What exactly should we do about that?"

"I'm going to find out what that portal is." Hermione replied in full confidence. "And I'm going to find out how to stop it from appearing."

Ron paled. "I'm glad I only have to fill out a report."

Hermione had the feeling that her scholarly behavior impressed Ron. Her confidence soared up into the sky, but she couldn't revel in it for too long. Time was scarce.

She began to walk away as coolly as she could, looking back at Ron simply to say "See you later, then."


Ron hadn't been in contact with the Ministry Aurors for ages. He had seen the Aurors that were in the Order of the Phoenix during friendly occasions, but he had never needed to ask them for help.

The last time he was here was just before the Ministry took Harry, Hermione, and himself for testing. A chill ran down his spine.

"Wotcher, Ron!" A voice called out to him from across the bustling office.

Ron's head swerved around until he finally caught a glimpse of Nymphadora Tonks walking toward him. She tripped over her own foot about halfway through, but quickly regained her footing and hurried along.

It was so hard not to stare. Ron couldn't understand why Tonks, a metamorphmagus, didn't choose to hide a particular feature… and what a very large feature it was.

"Tonks!" Ron's words were a bit shaky as he repeatedly told himself not to stare. "You've-"

"Gained weight?"

Tonks laughed. The sense that Tonks found her weight gain amusing scared Ron a bit.

"I don't mean that in a bad way!" Ron squeaked out even though he had never actually said anything aloud. "My mother is rather plump and she's lovely!"

Tonks continued to laugh as quietly as she could.

"Goodness, Ron! I haven't seen you in over a year, but I expected your mum would have told you!" Tonks ran a hand through the shoulder-length brown hair she'd selected to keep as her own a few years ago.

Ron felt like a complete arse. How had he ever missed out on his mother's gossip? "Actually I haven't seen my mum in a while." He lied, letting out a tiny cough of guilt.

"That's a shame." Tonks commented quickly. "Anyway, Remus and I are expecting a baby soon. I'm afraid it hasn't done much for my figure and you just can't transform something that fragile. Still, I can't complain. I've never been happier!"

Ron's eyes widened. "Blimey! I'm sorry about that! Congratulations!"

The words spewed from Ron's mouth faster than Tonks could take them in. Ron hadn't felt so foolish in a very long time. At the same time, he couldn't have been more excited for Tonks and Lupin.

"Yup!" Tonks chirped. "The only downside is that I'm never on duty anymore. It's all just paperwork."

"So would you be the person to file a report with?"

Tonks stared Ron down for a moment. If she hadn't thought something fishy was going on when Ron entered the office, she definitely thought so now. "I would be. Why do you ask?"

"There's been an issue."

"What kind of issue?" Tonks crossed her arms.

"Lavender Brown was attacked at her wedding and again today. It might have tried to attack Hermione too, but Hermione raised too much alarm and it ran off."

Tonks was at a loss for words.

"We think it was a wizard." Ron added.

Tonks uncrossed her arms, tapped her foot a few times, and crossed her arms again. She motioned for Ron to follow her, then scurried into a very small room away from everyone else.

As soon as Ron entered, Tonks slammed the door shut. "You think it was a wizard? You don't know?"

"Well, it travels through this portal that makes its body turn black. Seamus tried to go after it and when he put his arm in it turned black too. That must mean something. Plus, they both went hairless as well. I dunno all the details. Hermione's researching it all right now."

When Ron was done rattling all his information, he looked up at Tonks. She was a bright witch, but Ron could tell this was confusing her beyond belief.

"I know you think I'm completely off my rocker," Ron continued, "but other people saw it too! Harry, Hermione, Ginny and loads of other people saw it too!"

"Why didn't you lot inform me of this earlier?"

Ron let out a sigh. "All of this just came out today." He felt a little bad. He couldn't remember ever lying to Tonks this much.

"All right then." Tonks began to shuffle through the drawers of a desk, the only piece of furniture in the room. She hauled out a massive roll of parchment and a quill. "You'll need to fill all this out."

Ron's stomach lurched at the sight. "Why did I volunteered to do this?" A voice in his head groaned.

"To impress a girl." Another voice answered back quite simply.

With that, Ron leaned over the paperwork, knowing that the matter was settled.


Hermione hadn't been looking through the documents in the Department of Magical Transportation for more than an hour, but she felt like she had been there for days.

There were hundreds of files on apparation, the floo network, portkeys, and brooms, but there was barely anything on less popular forms of magical travel.

Hermione knew they were many different types of portals, but she also knew that they all went out of style a long time ago. The files on portals were now considered obsolete. They were damn near impossible to find.

Still, Hermione had as many files as she could handle piled up on the table before her. She found details in broom types, along-side apparation, splinching, how to connect to the floo network, how to make a portkey, but nothing special.

Finally, she opened up a document that looked promising.

"Alternate Forms of Travel: Ancient Methods." She read aloud to herself. She scanned the table of contents to find a section completely dedicated to the different types of portals. Her heart leapt as she flipped to the correct page and began looking through it.

It certainly wasn't a standard portal. It wasn't a public portal either, as it had appeared in Hermione's private residence.

For that matter, it couldn't have been a private residence portal, because a wizard needed to be authorized to travel between two homes even in ancient times.

And what of workplace portals? These transferred a wizard from a registered workplace to a private residence without any authorization and one of the side effects was the discoloration of the skin, but Hermione seriously doubted this beast of a man was getting to them through a registered workplace.

Despite the little information on it, the detection portal was the only type that made sense.

After all, the first line on detection portals read "These are the most damaging and dangerous of all portals." Hermione read on, trying to ignore how her hand trembled.

The detection portal was developed in Ancient times for emergency purposes. It allowed wizards to travel to a location without prior knowledge of where the area is or what the location looked like. However, this had devastating on the body and mind alike, temporarily darkening any body part it touched and causing violent mood swings after usage.

Over the years, the top-secret incantation used to open a detection portal had leaked out to darker forces. Hermione couldn't help but groan when she read the last line. "All files containing further detail were destroyed during the terrorism of the evil wizard Grindewald in the early 1940s."

Now she knew what type of portal it was, but she had no idea how to stop it! All the information on the subject had been destroyed.

It was a bookworm's worst nightmare.

Hermione plopped her forehead down on to the table for a moment as she tried to regain her sanity. It had come down to the point where she could do nothing more. She had to give up.

Figuring that Ron might have been able to get some information, she gathered all her belongings and made her way toward the exit.

She had only walked a few paces down the corridor when a passing wizard pummeled her to the ground. He didn't even apologize, but hastily moved toward a storage room to Hermione's right.

Hermione was livid. She wanted nothing more than to shout abuse at him, but when she looked up from where she sat, she couldn't say a word. The man was covered in thick robes that covered almost every inch of his body. The hood was tied tightly around his head.

The only piece of skin Hermione could see was his fingertips. They were black as midnight.

The man had entered the room before Hermione had managed to stand up again. She scurried toward the door and whipped it open carelessly. She could hear those familiar footsteps running through the room, but it was much larger than she had expected.

Hermione knew very well that it could be a trap. It was a maze of shelves covered in useless parchment and gadgets. She needed help.

She needed Ron.

Hermione slammed the door shut, wisely locked it with a strong charm she had learned during the war, and ran full speed toward the stairs. She didn't care who saw her. She had to get to the Aurors Department immediately.

She was huffing and puffing by the time she'd reached the correct floor, but she only did what was necessary. There was no way she could have wasted all that time on the lift. What if the wizard had broken out by then? What if he had broken out already?

The entrance was in plain sight now, but Hermione was still running as fast as she could. Her side cramped, but she kept moving.

Before she could actually move through the threshold, she slammed into someone who was exiting. Her speed and the force of the impact made her fall to the ground for the second time in a few short minutes.

"Merlin, Hermione!" Hermione breathlessly lifted her head to see that she had bumped into Ron himself. "What the hell are you doing?"

"The man who went through the portal…" Hermione's voice was raspy and she found it especially hard to speak. "He's here!"

Ron snatched his hand out of his back pocket and began pointing it in every direction. "Where is he?"

"I locked him in a storage closet on the second floor." Hermione coughed out. She outstretched her arm and Ron pulled her up with a single tug.

"How the fuck did you manage to lock him in a closet?" Ron said, looking absolutely baffled at the thought of Hermione simply taking such a devious wizard and locking him in a closet.

Hermione shrugged. Now was not the time to explain. She was about to take off again, but another voice delayed her.

"Hermione! How lovely to see you!" Hermione looked passed Ron to see Tonks waving cheerfully. "Is everything all right out here? I heard excited voices."

"Oh, well, you know us." Hermione snickered, receiving an odd look from Ron. "We're just debating. Nothing to worry about."

Tonks didn't seem to believe Hermione, but she accepted Hermione's excuse anyway. "All right then, just call for me if you need any help." Tonks pointed to her wand. "You know how."

Hermione knew Tonks was referring to the Order of the Phoenix's method of communicating through a patronus, but Hermione didn't have time to dwell on it.

As soon as Tonks was out of sight, Hermione began running once again with a flabbergasted Ron at her heels.

"Why is it that you didn't tell Tonks?" He questioned.

"What if there's a duel?" Hermione called out for everyone to hear as they ran along. Many people gave them awkward glances, but Hermione paid no mind to it. "It's too dangerous! She's pregnant, after all!"

Ron made a guttural noise of outrage. "You knew? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought you already knew!"

The rest of their race through the Ministry was silent. When they finally reached the door of the dreaded storage closet, Hermione carefully removed her charm.

She expected a plan to be laid out quickly before they entered, but nothing of the sort happened. Ron yanked the door open and moved in with his wand at the ready. Hermione clicked her tongue, but still followed suit.

The sight that lay beyond her wand was certainly not what she had expected.

The entire room had been torn apart. Almost all the shelves were knocked on to their sides. Ripped parchment covered almost every inch of the floor. Almost everything was broken.

Best of all, Hermione and Ron were pointing their wands at the Minister of Magic and his personal assistant.


Cliffhanger! Muahahaha!

Forgive me for being so evil. I love you all, truly!

Please review and let me know whether or not this chapter was effective! I'm interested to see what YOU think went on in the closet situation!

Next chapter: THE DATE! What will happen!