Chapter 20
Hermione, Harry and Ginny arrived at the Ministry of Magic at quarter to eight. They walked through the Atrium to the golden gates at the other end. All but two of the lifts were available for use.
'Which floor are we going to?' Harry asked, having forgotten the information he had briefly read on his invitation before they left.
'Two below apparently,' Hermion replied.
She leant forward and pressed the button to call the lift.
'Have you ever been to that floor?' Harry asked Hermione.
'Nope,' she replied, 'you?'
'No.'
'Ok, then,' Ginny said, 'well I hope there's directions, otherwise you two'll probably get us lost for eternity down there.'
They all laughed and the lift doors opened. Harry pressed the button on the panel and the doors shut before the lift started to descend.
They emerged from the lift straight into a large room, not as large as Hogwarts' Great Hall but still very large. There were mirror balls hanging from the ceiling the length and breadth of the room and the tables that outlined the dance floor were covered with gold and silver tablecloths, and had a cluster of seven candles in the middle of each one.
Everyone was stood on the dance floor as if waiting for an announcement to tell them they could take their seats.
'Well I guess we don't need directions then!' Ginny said laughing. Harry and Hermione laughed.
The three of them stepped forward and took a champagne flute off the table that awaited them. Hermione looked at the crowd, trying to pick out the people she knew. She saw Cairo stood talking to Nick, he was wearing what looked like black robes, but as the light off a mirror ball passed over him she saw they were midnight navy. Cairo turned around and caught her eye. She waved at him and he walked over to them as Harry, Hermione and Ginny started to make their way to the group, weaving in between two tables to get there.
'Good evening Cairo how are you?' Hermione said.
'Hermione please call me Cai!' he replied.
Hermione giggled, 'Oops, sorry. I just don't seem to be able to remember to shorten it!'
Cairo smiled.
'Hi Harry, how are you?'
'I'm fine thanks, you know Ginny don't you?'
'Yeah I do, how's Healer training Gin?'
'Damn hard work, but I'm sure it'll be worth it in five years time!'
'Well, to be fair, you knew exactly what you were getting yourself in to, you have only yourself to blame!'
'Yes, thank you Cai, you don't have to rub it in! How are you finding Auror training?' she took a sip from her glass and grimaced at the taste
Cairo laughed at the look on her face. 'Nasty isn't it? Training's great, I'm really enjoying it. It's hard though, I just hope I'm good enough to be taken through to the higher training.'
'Well, I'm sure if you work hard, you'll do just that.'
'What's going on Cai? Why is everyone stood like they're waiting for a bus?' Harry asked.
'To be honest I don't know, I came in and everyone was stood there. We're not sure how we're being seated, whether it's a free-for-all or whether we have been placed at specific tables.'
'It's not that formal is it? It's not exactly a wedding reception!' Hermione replied.
'Come on,' Cairo said, 'let's see if they've figured anything else out.' He turned and started walking back towards the group, Hermione, Harry and Ginny followed.
The three new arrivals chatted easily with the others who had arrived before them, and did the same to the people who arrived and joined them in the middle of the hall. At eight o'clock the few lights that were on went out and a spotlight went on at the front of the hall. From what seemed like nowhere, which in fact turned out to be a group of Aurors huddled at the side of the room, emerged Rufus Scrimgeour.
'What the hell's he doing here? Maybe this thing is that formal!' Hermione whispered. She wasn't the only one to be doing so, frantic whispering had broken out across the whole of the congregation.
'Sonorus!' The Minister said, although it was hardly necessary as there wasn't a word being said by anyone in the entire hall.
'Welcome everyone to the first of what we hope we will many balls for our Auror trainees. It came as a surprise to many of the members of the Ministry of Magic when myself and the heads of the Auror office decided to increase the amount of people we recruited into the Auror training programme.
'The past couple of years have been extremely hard on everyone in the wizarding community, and because of the circumstances there was no one recruited to the programme. We simply could not afford to spend time training new recruits when there was so much death and destruction happening in not just our world but in the muggle world too.
'We hope with all out hearts-' Hermione noticed Harry snort in disbelief that the Minister actually had a heart, 'that past events will not repeat themselves, but we have made a conscious effort within the Ministry to prevent anything like that happening again, and that started with recruiting more witches and wizards than ever before to Auror training.
'As you were all told when you applied for the programme, all of you will be trained to the basic level required to become an Auror, but only a select few will be asked to carry on training to a higher level and become what we hope will be the next generation of extremely highly skilled crime-fighting wizards and witches. Regardless of whether you are selected, every single one of you will contribute to the Ministry of Magic in an extremely important way, and I wish you all the very best of luck.'
'I would like to finish by making a toast. Does everyone have a drink?' There was shuffling as a couple of people picked up their glasses they had stood on the tables around the hall.
'Well I have a glass with something inside it, I wouldn't exactly call it a drink!' Ginny said.
Harry, Hermione and Cairo all laughed quietly at her comment.
'Good,' Scrimgeour continued, 'I'd like you to all raise a glass in remembrance of those who were lost in the fight against the wizard we all feared. To those who fought bravely in the face of what, at one point felt like an impossible challenge to overcome. We thank them.'
Murmurs of 'we thank them' filled the hall and the crowd collectively drank from their glasses, a couple wincing at the taste of their drink like Ginny had. Cairo said the same words, but out of habit more than anything else, Harry, Hermione and Ginny said, 'They are remembered.'
Cairo looked at Hermione with a puzzled expression on his face.
'I'll tell you later,' she whispered to him.
'Thank God that's over!' Harry said as the Minister drank deeply from his glass. He turned and glanced around the rest of the room.
'One final thing-' the Minister added,
'Crap!' Harry said quietly, Hermione and Ginny grinned.
'If we could all raise our glasses one more time to one man stood in this hall who we all owe a great deal.'
'Oh please no!' Harry said grimacing.
'You didn't think you'd get away with no public embarrassment tonight did you Harry?' Hermione asked her increasingly reddening housemate.
'I am talking of course about Harry Potter. To Harry!'
Another spotlight found Harry in the crowd on the floor, Ginny and Hermione automatically moved away from the light leaving him on his own in the white circle. He smiled the gracious smile he had had to perfect over the months.
'To Harry,' the group said, louder than they had made the first toast.
The light moved back to the Minister, who, apparently, still had not had enough of the spotlight.
'I would like to ask Harry to officially open the ball by leading the first dance tonight. Harry if you would take to the floor with your partner please.'
The light was back on Harry, the shocked look on his face illuminated for everyone to see. This time Hermione was too slow to react to the light and Scrimgeour noticed her standing next to Harry.
'Ah Miss. Granger is here as well! Marvellous! We all know how much you helped Harry so if you wouldn't mind joining Harry with your partner too.'
Harry turned towards Hermione and laughed. Her face wasn't too far off the colour of her dress robes. Cairo was also laughing.
'Oh big mistake Cai, big mistake!' she said.
Harry had started walking – reluctantly is has to be said – to the middle of the dance floor with Ginny in tow. Hermione turned towards Cairo and grabbed his hand.
'If I'm doing this then you're coming with me!' she said to a shocked Cairo.
'No way!' he replied.
They were both still stood in the spotlight and the slow waltz was starting up. The rest of the group had moved to the sides of the floor to make room for the dancers.
'This'll teach you not to laugh at the unfortunate, won't it?' she said with a glint in her eye, 'Come on!'
She pulled him towards the centre of the floor, at first he resisted but he didn't want to leave Hermione without a partner after she had been asked by the Minister of Magic to open the dancing.
The lights went up and the mirror balls sent light into every part of the room. Harry desperately tried to remember the steps Ginny had taught him at Bill and Fleur's wedding, but she took charge and managed to lead him without making it obvious to the onlookers.
'Do you know how to waltz?' Cairo asked Hermione.'
'Actually I do. That would be lesson one in the highly embarrassing country dancing lessons, last year of primary school.'
'You did those too?'
Hermione laughed.
'Basic waltz after three then?' she asked.
'Sounds good to me! One – Two – Three.'
The two of them started dancing and moving around the floor. Both couples looked graceful as they glided across the dance floor. A round of applause for them preceded other couples starting to dance along with them, some waltzing, others rotating on the spot.
When the slow waltz had finished a faster dance started up. Some people went to the bar, which Hermione noticed when they were dancing and some took the initiative and just sat where they wanted to.
Ginny and Harry walked up to Hermione and Cairo who had finished their dance.
'We're gonna get ourselves a table. You coming?' Ginny asked Hermione. Her and Harry started walking towards a table.
'Yep,' she answered. She turned to Cairo, 'Cai, do you want to sit with us?'
'Err…yeah if you don't mind. Can Michaela and Euan sit with us too?'
'Yeah sure. Just come over when you've found them.'
'Will do, see you in a bit.'
Hermione walked over to the table Harry and Ginny had claimed as theirs and took the seat next to Ginny.
'Is Cai sitting with us H?' Harry asked Hermione.
'Yeah he is, so are Michaela and Euan if that's ok.'
'They're in your group aren't they?'
'Yes. We're they in your year Ginny.'
'Erm…I think so, hang on let me think…yeah, Michaela was in Hufflepuff and Euan was in…oh! He was in Ravenclaw. I think they got together last year at school. Michaela can be a bit stuck when she wants to be but Euan's alright.'
'Yeah I've found that at work sometimes, but then again no one's perfect are they?'
'No they're not, and life would be pretty boring if everyone was wouldn't it?' Harry added.
'How very philosophical of you Harry, and you're right too!'
'Don't sound so surprised!' Harry exclaimed making Ginny and Hermione laugh.
'Can we please get something nice to drink, the person who tried to pass this off as champagne needs they're taste buds testing!'
'Not the best is it?' Hermione agreed, 'I'll go get everyone a drink.' What do you want?'
'The usual please H,' Harry replied.
'Gin?'
'No Hermione, you know I can't stand the stuff!'
Harry laughed at his own joke.
'Harry that was barely funny when you came up with it, never mind two years later,' Hermione retorted with a smile on her face.
'Why are you smiling then?'
'Have you looked at your girlfriend?'
Harry turned to face Ginny and saw she had put her fist in her mouth to stop her laughing out loud, she was shaking with laughter and tears were starting to form in her eyes. Harry started laughing at her. After a couple of minutes Harry and Ginny showed no sign of stopping their laughing fit.
'Right well I think I'll just go and get the drinks, otherwise I could be stood here all night. I'll be back in a few minutes.'
