For all the times he had been chewed out over the last few months at work, he could instantly tell this time was going to be different. It was no secret amongst the auror department that Harry had willfully ignored Robards request to stay away from the bombings case, but for the most part everyone, including Robards himself, was willing to ignore this. It wasn't a surprise really, everyone knew Potter wasn't the type to let things go, and as long as he wasn't getting in the way or causing problems then trying to address him about it would simply be more trouble than it was worth.

Today though, things took a turn. Perhaps people could ignore the not-so-subtle questions he would ask to those assigned to the case, or the ever growing pile of papers and notes unrelated to his own assignments cluttering his desk. Punching the head auror assigned to Weasley's case in the middle of the office, however, was a lot harder to turn a blind eye to.

Harry tried to be civil during their talk, truly he had. He went into the conversation hoping to get a sense of whether the team had started to look towards international collaborators on the attack yet, and to maybe drop a few subtle hints to get them moved towards the right direction. Even if he wasn't Derricks' biggest fan (or a fan at all really) he still wanted him to succeed, they were working towards the same thing after all. Besides, he didn't have enough evidence to go to Robards on his suspicions about the attacks happening around the world, so anything Derricks' team managed to figure out would be an aid to his own investigation as well.

His attempt for subtly got him quickly nowhere though and he was forced to grit his teeth listening as Jared bloody Derricks of all people criticized him on his own work performance, recommending he immediately bugger off and leave the case alone. He would have managed to walk off with nothing but his pride having been injured, but when the man started blabbering about it being a 'copycat attack' and suggesting it was 'bad luck' that led to Ron 'getting himself killed,' the part of him always at breaking point lately snapped. When Robards stomped towards him after, red faced and bristling, Harry didn't even stop to listen as he immediately marched to the man's office that he knew he was being sent to anyway.

Very little time passed before Robards entered himself and closed the door heavily behind him. The older wizard briskly moved to his desk and sat down across from Harry, staring stiffly and wordlessly at him. Harry assumed the man must have been waiting for him to offer some sort of explanation for what had just occurred, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to offer anything that would be deemed acceptable by the auror, so he chose to merely sit in the uncomfortable silence that had encompassed the room instead. When it became increasingly clear that Harry would not be the one to speak first, Robards let out a dispirited sigh before running his hand through his thinning hair. The move surprised Harry enough that he felt himself dropping his own composure. He had become used to being shouted at by the older wizard under a number of circumstances, but this new silent resolve was completely out of character. Just as Harry was starting to feel himself squirm in his seat the man finally began to speak.

"I have tried to be accommodating with you, Potter. I know these last few months have been trying on you, and for that I have been willing to look the other way more often than I should have. But this cannot be overlooked. Do you have any explanation for why you decided to assault a fellow auror, in the middle of the office no less?"

"It wasn't like it was planned, I was trying to have a conversation with him and he just kept pushing me!"

Robards looked surprised, "he pushed you?"

"Well, not literally" Harry mumbled back.

The older man leaned back in his chair and gave Harry a long, appraising look.

"I believe I have been more than fair here. Despite the impression you seem to have, you are not the first person in this department to have lost someone they care about. It's time to move on, Potter. Let the people actually assigned to this case do their jobs."

A familiar sense of anger started to rise in Harry's chest. "How do you want me to move on when the case isn't even close to being solved? Derricks isn't even trying, going off about some mental theory about copycat attacks! I was just trying to help point him in the right direction-"

"And what direction is that?"

Harry bit his tongue and took a moment to think while Robards stared at him, eyes narrowed and body stiff. He had been hoping to have a concrete theory to share before going to his boss with his speculations as he didn't want to risk any roadblocks if his findings were dismissed. Based on the incident he had with Derricks though it was clear he was crashing right into a roadblock anyways, so might as well get everything out in the open.

"I don't think whoever did this is based in Britain. There's been these weird bombings happening everywhere around the world over the last year, but most of them haven't gotten much coverage. They've mostly been in muggle neighborhoods, and some of them have only been in the muggle press, but they're definitely all magical in origin."

Harry paused and looked up before continuing to gauge the reaction of his boss but the man's demeanor had not shifted an iota since he started speaking.

"From the articles I've seen there haven't been many arrests, but the ones that have happened all involved wizards that were foreign to the country. And the bombings have been increasing in frequency. There were two just in the last month. Whatever this is, it's bigger than what we're seeing here, I'm sure of it."

Robards seemed to be mulling over what he was told as he looked back at Harry. After a few moments he sat forward again and clasped his hands together on his desk.

"I appreciate you sharing this with me, Potter. I'll be sure to take this into consideration."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise. As he had just definitively admitted to blatantly ignoring his superior's orders to stay away from this case he had expected a very different kind of reaction.

"Effective immediately you're suspended. One month. Without pay."

And there it was. "A full month?! Sir, I don't think-"

"I'm not interested in what you think about this," he bit out harshly, "you have repeatedly ignored instructions given to you by myself and your superiors for months now, and it's time for that to come to an end. You have a job here Potter, one that involves you working cases everyday to help others. Instead you have spent months focusing only on yourself. If you want to do that then do it on your own time, but I recommend you take these next few weeks to take a look at where your priorities lie instead of obsessing over newspaper clippings."

Harry's jaw clenched. There was a part of him that wanted to argue back that was fighting to take over, but he found himself unable to form a coherent response. To have all of his research dismissed so resolutely felt like a slap to the face, even if it wasn't surprising. So instead of unleashing the horde of insults and accusations that had been forming over the last few months in his mind he leaned into the part of him that was urging him to get away from the man in front of him as quickly as possible.

Wordlessly he stood up and left the room, barely sparing Robards a glance. As he stormed through the rest of the office he caught glimpses of all of his colleagues in his periphery looking resolutely anywhere but at him. It was a behavior he had gotten used to over the years but it did not help improve his mood in the slightest. He stopped just long enough at his own desk to grab his bag and shove some papers and personal items into it before bursting out of the room.

This rushed pace came to an immediate halt the moment he stepped out of the office into the darkened and quiet hall. He considered his options, now that he had nowhere to be. He could go fly for a bit, burn off some anger that way, or perhaps drown some sorrows out at the nearby muggle pub he'd been finding himself in more and more lately. He briefly considered reaching out to Ginny to let her know what had happened, but the idea quickly died before it could reach full steam in his head. Their communication had finally seemed to reach rock bottom, with their only contact recently having been during their polite exchange of pleasantries weekly at the burrow. This was something the rest of the family quickly picked up on, Mrs. Weasley being the exception. Her desire for a sense of normalness following her grief led to an impressive amount of ignorance towards any sign of disharmony in the family, and as a result she seemed blissfully unaware of the clear fact that her daughter and Harry barely looked at each other these days.

Realizing he didn't want his first attempt to reach out to Ginny in weeks to be an admittance of defeat directly related to the fight that pushed them apart to begin with, Harry instead began moving to the lift to reach another area in the ministry. It was barely nearing dawn but knowing his friend he wouldn't be surprised to find her in her office this early.

The ministry was eerily quiet, as it was prone to be at this time of day. It took little time for him to reach the correct department, and just as expected, he could see a dim light coming from the second office to the left. As Harry reached out to knock he grimaced a bit in preparation for the response he was sure to receive once he explained why he was there. When the door burst open though he couldn't help but smile at the familiar sight.

Hermione stood there looking exhausted as ever, her hair a tangled mess with the quill stuck behind her ear starting to be sucked in by the mane surrounding it. A dark blue smudge was highlighted by her reddened cheek leaving the distinct impression she had recently been lying on parchment with fresh ink.

"Hi. Did I wake you?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"Of course not. I've just been finishing up a report" she retorted testily as she crossed her arms.

"So you didn't sleep here last night then?"

"No, I was just about to head home actu- is that the time?" she asked aghast as she looked at the clock on the wall behind her. Shaking her head she redirected her attention back to Harry. "What are you doing here? Your shift doesn't end for a few more hours."

"I have some time off now. Quite a bit, actually," Harry started lightly, not missing Hermione's eyes continuing to narrow towards him. "Look it's a bit of a long story and I really don't feel like talking about it right now, ok? That's not why I'm here. Or not really at least."

Hermione looked torn and, perhaps due to his obvious discomfort or her own curiosity, she ultimately dropped it. "Then why are you here?"

Harry shifted uncomfortably. During the last few months he'd been avoiding talking to Hermione about any of this. He told himself this was due to not wanting to upset his friend any further over her loss when she was so busy with her own work, but another more selfish reason existed. From the very beginning he had felt that he needed to be the one to figure this out, that he somehow owed it to Ron to solve this case on his own. But it was becoming clearer by the day that he was reaching a dead end. His piss poor attempt to cozy up to Derricks had been evidence enough of that. Bringing Hermione into this was his last chance.

"I just want you to take a look at this," he said seriously as he pulled a pile of hastily folded documents consisting of newspapers, handwritten notes, and reports from his bag. "Sorry, I know it's a bit of a mess. I wasn't planning on dragging you into this but I know I'm missing something here. And I figured if anyone could help" he ended on a shrug as his friend started sorting through the stack he had handed her. Within moments he watched as her expression shifted from quizzical to surprised to mildly amused.

"I suppose I should have guessed you wouldn't be able to leave this alone" she finally said with a sad smile, "I was wondering if you were going to come talk to me about any of this at some point. Or anything at all. I mean really, Harry, you've barely spoken a word to me in months."

Harry shifted uncomfortably. It was true, after their conversation about seeing each other more after the funeral Harry hadn't lived up to his side of the agreement. To be fair though, he hadn't really been spending much time with anyone these last few months.

"I've been busy. And so have you" he mumbled back.

"Not too busy for you. Or for him," she looked back at the messy papers thoughtfully. "You know I've been waiting to hear something, anything about all of this. I had thought the aurors would have found something useful by now. I really did think about reaching out to you to ask how the investigation was going but I knew if you had found anything important you would have let me know. And truthfully," she added a little quieter, "I'm not sure I was ready to face this all again. It's like every time I think I'm moving on, it just comes back all over again."

Harry nodded. The neverending ups and downs of grief was something he understood better than most.

"I'll take a closer look at these later today."

Hermione went to set the documents down on her already overflowing desk but stopped herself at the last moment. Frowning, she shuffled through them again and started pulling out papers seemingly at random.

"What is it?" Harry asked, stepping forward to peer over her shoulder. She had grabbed out a cluster of articles Harry had included in the pile.

"I'm not sure. Maybe nothing," she said, still frowning. "It's just… have you heard anything yet about the International Confederation of Wizards?"

Harry searched his mind trying to recall if this was something that he had heard come up in the office recently, but nothing came to mind. He shook his head.

"Well, it was only just announced recently, and only amongst certain departments. It's been quite a few years since they last convened, but they're planning to come together again this October. I heard in a meeting with Mr. Mullins that they're planning to address an increase of attacks on muggles that have been worsening over the years. And I couldn't help but notice all the countries you included in here are part of the Confederation."

"Isn't every country in it though?" Harry asked, not sure where Hermione was headed with this.

"No, actually. The name is a complete misnomer. The voting body only consists of 36 countries, despite them imposing their rules over most other countries, something that's completely unjust" she added with an obvious judgment. "Regardless, all these attacks happened in voting countries. And it looks like all the attacks were in highly populated muggle areas." She indicated to the top article she was holding which referenced the hospital attack in Italy.

"I noticed that too. So what does that mean?" Harry asked, feeling a mixture of anxiety and excitement bubble in his chest.

"I have no idea. But I think your assumptions were right here, Harry. This seems like more than a strange coincidence, doesn't it? I'll try to look into it more later today. In the meantime try to enjoy your time off, ok? You look like you need it."

Harry knew she was right. He hadn't been taking the best care of himself lately, something that was noticeably reflected in the eyes of everyone who had recently seen him, though no one had bothered to be as direct as Hermione had been. For the first time in months rest didn't seem like a far off concept to him. Discussing this with Hermione, knowing she was going to help, and most importantly having someone listen to him about all of this without making him feel unhinged took a weight off his shoulders that he hardly knew he had been carrying. With more optimism than a man who had recently been suspended should likely have, Harry headed through to the atrium and apparated home to attempt to get in a full day's rest for once. He likely would have too, if he hadn't stopped for a glass of water in the kitchen first.

Sitting on the counter was a folded up note, and on top of it sat a ring. The ring he bought for Ginny all those months ago. Instead of grabbing the letter he simply got the water he had come for and walked upstairs to his bed. He didn't really need to read it, he had a pretty good idea of what it would say anyway.

Laying in bed he took some time to think about how he felt about this. He couldn't claim to feel surprised. If anything he was just shocked by how long it took her to finally ditch him with the way things had been going. He supposed he felt a bit of sadness, and perhaps some shame for how he had acted towards her all these months, avoiding her every attempt to fix things when he was too busy feeling broken himself. She certainly deserved better than that. The main feeling that crept through everything else though was relief. The uncertainty he had felt for their entire engagement had finally come to a close. Now though he was left with a whole other host of uncertain feelings that he had managed to bury while he still lived under the guise of a soon to be wedded man. Like why he found himself so much more devastated by the loss of his friend than his fiance, why when he went to bed every night he thought of Ron and never of Ginny, why the idea of seeing Ron again brought a warmth to him that Ginny never could, and more troubling, why all these feelings started to creep up long before Ron was even gone. The answer to this enigma seemed to be on the tip of his tongue, like something that had been shallowly buried and needed nothing more than a gentle prodding to unearth. The idea of looking any further into this at the moment caused his stomach to twist violently, so as he felt sleep starting to overtake him he instead allowed the answer to all this to remain buried, at least for now.