I'm posting this chapter a little earlier than planned because I'm going to be out of town for a week and a half. I'll be back with more the second week of May!
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Ron's first thought of Australia was that it was definitely too hot. Having just left a frigid early November morning in England, the sudden blast of midday summer heat was frankly overwhelming. Picking himself up and looking at the two people standing in front of him he had his second thought about Australia, being that besides the weather, the people were definitely too hot as well. The two aurors waiting for him were good looking to an almost unnerving extent and looked more like models on a magazine than dark wizard catchers. Their bright turquoise robes appeared light and form fitting, unlike their English counterparts, and they both looked pristinely clean. Uncomfortable by this Ron halfheartedly started trying to brush the sand and debris off of his robes before extending his hand for them to shake.
Auror Daniels was an extremely tall blond woman with the whitest teeth Ron had ever seen. She smiled brightly when she shook his hand. Her partner, Auror Luggins, just waved in greeting, though he matched the same bright white smile back. He was tall, slightly taller than Ron even, and had matching colored hair to his partner with a weathered beach look that must have been magically styled. Ron quietly wondered while looking them over if the overly polished appearance was a requirement or not, though he amusingly noted with their height that it would be nice not to have to tower over his partners for once.
"Comfortable travel then?" Daniels asked, smile still fixed.
"Er… not really. I've never been much of a fan of portkeys."
"Ah they're not too bad, beats flying at least, eh?"
To that Ron could only blink in response. The likelihood of getting along with anyone in Australia during his time here was becoming more and more diminished by the minute.
"We're meant to apparate straight to where we're headquartered now that you've arrived. Apologies for the sudden drop by the beach, we just didn't want to risk anyone seeing you entering, given the circumstances" Luggins stated. He took a look at his watch and extended a well manicured hand to Ron, who merely nodded before reaching out. Next thing he knew, he was standing in what seemed to be an old warehouse based on the interior.
It was well lit, filled with several conference sized tables, most of which were covered with file boxes, coffee cups, and paperwork. Beyond this the main room was rather sparse, but there appeared to be several rooms in the back, as well as a rickety staircase that seemed to lead to an upper floor. Turning, he saw four others standing around him, all wearing the same turquoise robes. He was relieved to see that three out of the four of them looked like pretty normal folks, unlike the two fitness models they had sent to retrieve him. The fourth bloke though was undeniably attractive. Not in the weirdly refined way as his two escorts, but in a way that made Ron have to look elsewhere almost immediately after seeing him to avoid instantly blushing.
"You made it! Excellent!" Shouted the auror nearest to him, an older slightly filled out man with thinning grey hair. Ron assumed he must be leading the team as he had the look of a man who hadn't seen fighting in quite some time. "I'm Auror Hawley. We've heard quite a lot about you Ron, and your part in the British war. We're honored to have you here."
"Though we did hope they'd be sending Harry Potter down when they mentioned a big 'war hero'" the attractive new auror said.
Ron's jaw clenched. Of course. "Well Harry's more of a scrawny git than a 'big' anything, so I guess you're stuck with me instead."
Everyone froze, trying to tell whether or not Ron was joking. Then, the auror who made the initial comment burst into laughter. Surprised, and a little disconcerted, Ron chuckled back lightly, which encouraged the others to offer an equally uncomfortable laugh themselves.
"Yes, well. Don't mind Auror Farrow, he likes to push buttons wherever he can" Auror Hawley informed him with a slightly exasperated smile. Farrow just winked in return. "Now, to catch you up to speed. As you've been informed, we've been having an influx of Voldemort's former followers since the British war ended."
Ron noted with brief surprise that the use of Voldemort's name wasn't met with a single wince in the room. Though having long gotten past his own dread, most wizards in England still couldn't muster the courage to utter the word. Being as the war never extended as far as Australia, Ron supposed he couldn't be too surprised.
"Unfortunately many of them were allowed in without much questioning-" Hawley continued.
"What? Why?" Ron interrupted.
"Well… Our government up until recently had had a bit of sympathy to their plight" Hawley admitted with clear distaste. Ron merely stared back in surprise. He had assumed most of the fleeing death eaters had snuck their way into other countries, the idea that any were met with open arms was shocking to him.
"Yeah well, welcome to Australia" a short auburn haired female auror to Ron's right said bitterly. Ron noticed her biting on her lip as if to stop herself from saying something more colorful about the matter.
"Though I can assure you that it is not the view of anyone in this room, pureblood supremacy runs deep within our society" Hawley admitted carefully. "When the war ended, there were many in the ministry who felt that those who sided with Voldemort were perhaps misguided, but weren't entirely off course with their beliefs. Our country allowed many witches and wizards in five years ago as refugees as a result. Over time the opinion has began to sour however, and once the bombings started a few months ago" Hawley grimaced, "Well, needless to say British wizards aren't quite as popular as they once were."
"So just make sure to keep your mouth shut in the pubs, unless you think you can pull off American or something" Farrow smirked.
"Not much for accents unfortunately" Ron replied dryly. He was still taking in what he had been told and was trying to stifle his own anger. The idea that this ministry was so welcoming to the people who had caused the war in his own country, the people that caused the deaths of so many, including his friends and his own brother. It was enraging. Of course, he thought bitterly, it wasn't like the British ministry didn't do a piss poor job on handling everything themselves. Shaking his head and frustrations away, Ron turned back to the task at hand.
"So what do you know so far? I didn't exactly get a full rundown before getting sent down here."
Hawley walked to a nearby table and picked up a few separate files.
"We've been doing our best to track the movements of Dolohov and his crew since he entered the country three years ago" Hawley said while handing the files to Ron, "though some in the ministry seemed unworried by our new death eater guests, I assembled this team to keep track of their movements lest we see anything similar to what happened in Britain brewing. Unfortunately this seems to be the case. A few months ago, we received reports of explosions on the outskirts of Adelaide. Initially these were mistaken as muggle related, but further inspection showed their origin as magical in nature."
Ron nodded as he looked at the pictures in the first file of the explosions. They looked similar to what he had seen in Sheffield.
Hawley continued on, "at first we were rather flummoxed. We could detect a magical element but there was nothing left to show for it. No debris was left from whatever they had used, the blasts seemed to have been made of pure magical energy, unlike anything we'd seen before. They didn't even need to be ignited with a spell. From what we could tell, they were simply left in place until an unsuspecting muggle would stumble upon one and, well…" Hawley expanded his hands outwards to indicate an explosion occurring. "It's quite ingenious when you consider it. The caster doesn't need to be anywhere nearby to set these things off, and they seem completely untraceable. Plus from what we've heard from other countries so far, no one has been able to find a spell to undo them since no one knows how they're made."
Ron looked up. "Other countries? You mean besides here and Britain?"
"Oh yes, not too long after our discovery here we became aware of similar explosions
happening all throughout Europe. England, France, Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria. There could be more, but those are the only other governments we were able to get confirmations from."
"But you're sure the first ones happened here?"
"From the information we've received, it appears so. Adelaide seems to be the origin of this, and our intelligence has also indicated that Dolohov and his new little group have been holed up not too far from there. It's too much of a coincidence not to look further into."
Ron looked at the team in front of him and asked the question that had been burning in his mind since agreeing to this mission mere hours ago. "So how do I fit into all of this then? Seems like you lot have been working on this case for a while now, what do you need outside help for?"
The other aurors looked at him in surprise. Hawley spared a brief look towards Daniels before responding. "Well, now that this seems to be an international matter, we realized we needed to bring someone in who's more familiar with these criminals and their patterns. An expert on bringing down death eaters, someone knowledgeable and experienced enough to enter into the group undetected to get to the bottom of whatever they're planning."
Ron's stomach dropped. 'Expert' and 'knowledgeable' were not words he would ever use to describe himself. 'Thick' and 'blundering' seemed more up his alley. Feeling as if there had clearly been some mistake, he looked back at the Australian team with obvious discomfort written on his face.
"And uh, you did say you were expecting me when I arrived, right?"
The auburn haired female auror who commented earlier beamed at him. "Well yes,
when we found out they were sending you of all people we were ecstatic. After everything you did in the war, we couldn't think of anyone better suited."
'Must not have thought too hard then' Ron mused to himself. Besides a few battles here and there Ron's memories of the war mostly consisted of starving in a tent and pacing around Grimmauld place, not taking down cells of death eaters left and right. The uncertainty he was feeling must have shown on his face, because at that moment Hawley clapped him on the back, shocking him back into the present.
"You mustn't be too modest. Like it or not you're more experienced in these matters than anyone in this room. We're lucky to have you."
Ron swallowed and nodded. "So I'm supposed to enter Dolohov's group then. What's the plan there?"
"We'll be sending you in next month, which will give us plenty of time to catch you up and prepare. Though your death should have already been announced at home" (Ron's stomach churned at this, still not wanting to think of the ramifications of that) "we still want to be careful enough not to send you in too soon. If you open the last file, you'll be able to see your new alias. I take it you've heard of the Polyjuice Potion before and know of its effect?"
Ron nodded with distaste. He was far too familiar with this supposedly rare potion at this point. He shuffled to the final file and turned the page. In it was a photo of a man he immediately recognized. It was one of the wizards that was arrested for the bombings in Sheffield.
"Hang on, I know this bloke. This is Stanson, he should be in Azkaban by now for the bombings. Won't they know he's there?"
"Well, he isn't actually locked up anywhere at the moment" Hawley stated, "Angus Stanson sustained massive injuries during his capture and was hospitalized as a result. The official story is he is currently undergoing treatment before being moved to Azkaban to await trial. The actual story is that Stanson died within hours of reaching the hospital. In three weeks, he will be 'fully recovered' and manage an escape from the hospital. Several days later, he, or rather you, will flee to Australia to meet up with his death eater mates."
Ron was impressed by the thoroughness, and a little disconcerted. It was hard not to wonder how much else the ministry had been hiding from him and his colleagues back home. He closed the file and turned back to Hawley.
"Seems a bit risky though. If Stanson's dead, won't that make using Polyjuice a bit of a problem? Robards said there's no telling how long this mission will take and, well, it's not like he's gonna keep growing new hair at this rate" Ron thought back to fourth year and poor Mad Eye being kept alive in a trunk for exactly this purpose.
Hawley looked unconcerned and responded lightly "Polyjuice doesn't require hair. Just a bit of the person you need to turn into. We'll manage." Ron shuddered at that and found himself oddly hoping Stanson's hair was a bit thicker than it looked. "Well, with that then, we'll show you to your quarters! Farrow, Benson, mind taking Ronald here up?"
The short female auror who had spoken earlier nodded and started towards the stairs in the back of the warehouse, quickly followed by Auror Farrow. Wondering just what the hell he had gotten himself into, and very aware there was no going back, Ron took a deep breath and followed.