The Dog and the Wolf

A week had passed since Bagnold was elected to be the new Minister of Magic. The euphoria was beginning to wear off, and real questions were starting to be asked about how she was going to handle Voldemort. Would she be more willing to listen then Minchum that there were Death Eaters running around the Ministry? Would she actually try to push back against all the anti-muggleborn propaganda?

Claudia was pondering all that while making a sleeping draught in the kitchen. Given what her sleep had been like, it was good to have a lot in reserve. Sirius was watching some event for the Order, providing sort of unofficial security as the Ministry did not deem it important enough.

She smiled to herself as she heard the key in the door. He was home.

"Claude!" Sirius screamed loudly as he run into the apartment. There was something odd about his voice. A tension that unnerved her, that signalled that something was wrong.

"Kitchen."

Before she could even turn around, Sirius was clutching her in his arms. "Thank fuck you're here," he sighed. "I was so worried."

Claudia turned to face him. His face was covered in soot and a small streak of blood was coming down his temple. "Are you alright?" she whispered urgently. "What happened?"

"They blew up the bookshop."

"What are you talking about? What bookshop?"

"That's where I was. There was a book-signing by a muggle-born author. Big crowd." Sirius released Claudia from the hug, picked up a glass from the counter, filled it with water and drained it. "Couple Death Eaters in their dumb masks turned up half-way through and threw a couple of bombs into the crowd." He reached for the tap again to refill his glass.

"Bombs?"

"Much more powerful than the Mundungus crap he tried to kill us with."

"Is everyone alright?"

Sirius froze, shut his eyes and slowly turned the tap off. "Let's go sit down," he whispered.

"Sirius, please!" Claudia said biting her lip in a useless attempt to stop her tears. "You're scaring me."

He took a deep breath and placed both of his hands on top of Claudia's shoulders. "About a half a dozen people died-" he paused and Claudia could practically hear her own heartbeat. "Your friend from the Minister's office was one of them…"

"Berenice?" Claudia whispered, her voice trembling.

"Yeah."

"Are you sure it was her?"

"Yeah… She was there with someone, who identified her right there. They were actually just walking past, shoe-shopping or something."

Claudia drew in a sob. She's seen death before. But this was different. This was incomprehensible.

Sirius pulled his girlfriend into another hug. "I'm so sorry."

"But she was so…" Claudia sobbed. "So innocent. All she wanted to do was gossip. She did not sign up for any of this."

Sirius drew her close to him and kissed her temple. "I'll make you tea."

Once she finished the mug, Claudia stopped crying. "What does this mean?" she mumbled, her head somewhat clearer.

"It means that when they lost the election, they lost their chance for a silent takeover… It's going to get bad. It's so easy for them… Just walk into a bookshop and murder half a dozen people without giving anyone a chance to even draw their wand." He stood up and started to pace. "This won't do anymore…"

"What are you talking about?"

"We got cocky with the enhanced security protocols. We should move."

"This is our home," Claudia whispered on a verge of tears again. "I don't want to move."

"We have to do something!" Sirius barked, then paused for a minute. "We can try to make it unplottable. My father did it to our family's house."

"Sounds good," Claudia mumbled staring into the fire. Her mind was elsewhere. The last time she spoke to Berenice- she bit her lip, suddenly overcome with guilt. She just used her to tell her things for the Order and then kicked her out… And now, she would never get to see her again.

Before Claudia really noticed what Sirius was up to, he took out all the charms books they had and spread them on the living room floor.

"It's bound to be here somewhere," he muttered.

Claudia drew a throw closer to her chest and watched him browsing the charms books until her eyes began to close. At least he was here, and he was safe.

She woke up in bed in the morning, having little idea how she got there. Full of breakfast and pleas to be careful, Claudia made her way to work.

With dread, she found herself in the Records Room again, but this time she did not have to wait long to find something interesting. She found a file about Buckling's death! Hundred questions started to swirl through her head. Why was there an investigation?

Scanning the cover page, she frowned. Why was it not linked to the Anderson file? Which incompetent arsehole…? She opened the file to see the auror responsible for the investigation.

Hugo Green. Her former Ravenclaw classmate.

It was time to pay him a visit. Claudia gripped the file and run through the Auror Office corridor to the office where Frank, and his trainee Green, worked.

"Hey, Green." She waved the file above her head.

But before Green registered her, an older auror chuckled. "Uh, oh. Poor Green's in trouble with Moody. He sent one of his attack dogs."

"Do you think she bites?" laughed another.

"Oh, fuck off," Claudia hissed. There was no sign of Frank and she could have really used a friendly face.

"Charming as the rest of them…" the older auror replied but Claudia ignored him.

"Green!" She threw the file on her startled classmate's desk. "Can you explain this?"

"Explain what?" Green replied looking around uncertainly.

"Why was this not part of the Anderson investigation? The healer treating a key witness is found dead. Don't tell me you thought it was a coincidence?"

"There was nothing in it," Green shrugged. "He was drunk, taking a muggle train and fell on the train tracks."

"It should still have been linked to the Anderson case. Someone working on that case should have checked it out. It's going to be completely cold now."

"Just leave me be. I don't care anymore," Green said quietly and averted his gaze.

"About what? Catching murderers?" she barked.

"Oh, go away."

"Moron," she hissed and stormed out of there to stifled laughs of Green's colleagues.

She was nearly at her office when Frank caught up with her.

"Don't be mad at him. He's been out of sorts."

"I didn't-" she stuttered. "I didn't know you were there.

"I was next door… But you were quite loud."

"Sorry," she said with a grimace. "But this is literally the first new lead I found in months! If you want to tell me off, go ahead-"

"Not why I wanted to talk to you about."

Claudia noticed the dark circles under Frank's eyes. He also looked like he had not shaved for days. "What's wrong?" she whispered.

"Someone tried to infiltrate our Floo, so we had to seal the fireplace. I worry-"

"You don't think they-" Claudia interrupted him and looked around. "You don't think they know about-" she swallowed. "You know what."

"Anything is possible. That's why we're moving. Somewhere safe, somewhere apparition distance from London."

Claudia took a deep breath, hoping with all her heart that the Death Eaters did not figure out who were the babies born at the end of July the previous year. "Sirius's been trying to make our flat unplottable. Maybe he can help you with yours."

"Thanks."

"Please stay safe."

The chat with Frank having put things in perspective, Claudia made her way back to the office to read the Buckling's file properly. It looked like Green may have been right after all. The file contained a testimony of Buckling's mistress saying that he's been drinking, and took the muggle train home in an attempt to conceal his whereabouts from his wife. She was almost feeling bad for shouting at Green, when she noticed something odd. The muggle police report was not attached to the file, like it would have normally been with a case that happened on muggle territory.

Claudia raised her head to see that the only person in the office was Adebayo. She slowly stood up and walked over to his desk.

"I don't know if the boss told you, but I'm putting in order some of this old files…" she mumbled.

"He told me," said Adebayo in a tone that left Claudia none wiser whether he knew what she was really up to.

"There is this linked case, but the muggle police report is missing. How do I request it again?" she asked, as casually as she could.

"You'll need to put a form through the Muggle Law Enforcement Liaison Office, and you need a signature of a senior auror or higher."

"Can you sign it?"

"Maybe…" Adebayo said slowly. "But I want to talk to you first. Sit."

Claudia slumped to the chair and crossed her arms against her chest.

Adebayo stared at her for a few seconds before speaking in a mellow tone. "I know you and Barraclough were close. I'm not trying to replace him-"

"I know that," she hissed, annoyed that Adebayo was treating her like a child.

"But I'm here to help. If you need anything, you should feel like you can come to me. I'm technically your supervisor."

Claudia sat up a little straighter. "You are?"

"I said technically. The boss made it clear you don't need much supervision."

"Did he really?" Claudia managed to raise a smile.

"He trusts you." Adebayo took a deep breath and sighed. "And I guess that's got to be good enough for me. Leave the form on my desk once you're done."

"Thank you."

"Although I'd bet my house that you're not just tidying up his old files," he smirked.

Claudia smiled back. "My lips are sealed."

"Moody taught you well."

As Claudia was filling out that form, a memo arrived. There was to be an all staff meeting of the Auror Office at 18.00 hours. And attendance was mandatory for all staff currently in HQ.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with gossip about what this all staff meeting was about. Was the new Minister going to speak to them? Have they revised guidelines on unforgiveable curses?

At exactly six o'clock, the wait was over, and all the aurors were assembled in one of the Ministry's ceremonial suites.

"Both the Minister and Crouch wanted to be here, but I thought I best deliver this news myself," the Head Auror began. "To give you the chance to ask questions without restrain."

Claudia swallowed. This could not have been good.

"I'm not going to sugar-coat this," the Head Auror continued. "Intelligence suggests this is all going to get very, very bad… The attack on the bookshop is a mere taste of what's coming."

Sudden wave of guilt washed over Claudia. She had nearly forgotten what happened to Berenice. Vowing to look for the condolence book the first chance she got, she made herself listen to her boss again.

The Head Auror started to pace up and down the front of the podium. "DMLE can no longer cope without us. So, the Minister took the decision that the Auror Office will be adding regular security to its responsibilities."

"What does that mean?" someone yelled from the crown.

"That means protection duty, combat missions. You are all trained in advanced duelling. You will get more tactical training, bringing you up to speed with the latest procedures."

Claudia looked around the room. Oscar and Ewan were stone-faced, watching the Head Auror with unyielding determination. Adebayo looked like he had a thousand questions. And Moody was missing. And then there was Green, who looked like he was going to vomit. At that moment, Claudia was glad for her experience in the Order. How different could this be from the missions she took with them?

"I almost forgot," the Head Auror added. "Trainees are exempt."

Claudia glanced at Green again to see visible signs of relief on his face. Maybe he could not count. They did not have that long left as trainees. A few months at best.

"Any questions?"

Someone at the front spoke first. "Why?"

"We're in an unprecedented situation," the Head Auror replied. "I discussed this personally with the Minister. The priority has to be protection of key people and institutions, rather than investigations and intelligence gathering."

"We are flying blind without intelligence!"

"What about all the open cases?"

The Head Auror did not seem bothered by the heckling. "Inspectors have been asked to prioritise ruthlessly. Also, I will be asking aurors not suited for active duty to backfill some of the investigative positions."

"How long is this going to last?"

"As long as necessary."

With that, the briefing was over, and Moody's team assembled back in the privacy of their office.

"So, this is it," Oscar grumbled. "They can do whatever they want with impunity now. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind doing a bit of dirty work. But who's going to do our job? Do we just not care if these people get brought to justice?"

"What's Crouch thinking?" Ewan sighed.

Claudia grimaced. "Crouch's thinking that if we kill them all in the field, we won't have to do any investigations."

"That's just great," Ewan mumbled and glanced at his watch. "We have to go. We're already way too late."

They left Adebayo behind and made their way to the meeting. They made it just after Dorcas and Frank, and just before Moody.

"What happened?" Dumbledore asked. "Cannot be good news if all the aurors are an hour late."

They briefed Dumbledore, and then the meeting moved on to the other changes Bagnold was introducing at the Ministry. Oscar talked about how she was correcting some of Minchum's mistakes. Fionulla, the press secretary who infiltrated the Daily Prophet, was indeed arrested and shipped off to Azkaban under cover of darkness.

"She's not afraid of making enemies," Bones interjected. "Everyone wanted her to give Malfoy a formal position, but she refused. And now she is under a lot of pressure to promote other prominent purebloods."

"Will she budge?" Dorcas asked.

Claudia supressed an eyeroll. Dorcas was supposed to know the answer to that question. It was literally her job!

"Only if she can find one she can trust," Bones replied.

"Sirius, isn't your father dead?" Benjy asked out of nowhere. "Making you Lord Black or whatever? Fancy a job at the Ministry?"

Sirius grimaced. "Paperwork hasn't come through. I suspect mother hired every lawyer in the country to stop me from inheriting."

Benjy laughed, making Claudia recoil on the inside, but the uplift in the mood was interrupted when Emmeline Vance cleared her throat.

"She did indeed," the witch mumbled.

"What?" Sirius gasped. "I was kidding. How do you know?"

"I work as a lawyer in Gringotts, remember? I think her lawyers will be in touch with you soon. I would expect some kind of a hearing…"

"Last fucking thing I need," Sirius grumbled. "Some dumb-"

But he did not get to the end of his sentence before the door flew open and Marlene run in, tears flowing down her cheeks. Everyone around Claudia jumped to their feet.

"What happened?" a few people said in unison.

Marlene took a few deep breaths and wiped the tears from her face. "We were watching that hideout when they came down on us. Terry and Clara were both killed. I got knocked out." With those words, she collapsed into a chair.

Claudia leaned towards Sirius. "What mission was that?"

But he did not respond, just kept staring at Marlene. Her long, blond hair was covered in mud and blood, and her coat was soaked. Emmeline helped her up and led her towards the bathroom.

Claudia reached for her boyfriend's hand and swallowed. "You can go check on her. I don't mind."

"It's just Lily isn't here. And neither are any of her friends."

"I said I didn't mind."

"Alright," Sirius mumbled and followed Emmeline and Marlene out of the door. Claudia watched him, hating every second of it, but what else was she supposed to do? Get mad at him for caring about someone who nearly died? Cause a scene?

Moody looked like he was about to stand up too, but Dumbledore put his hand on the old auror's shoulder and forced him to sit back down. "I will speak to Miss Mckinnon after she's recovered a little. In the meantime-"

"In the meantime," Gideon interrupted. "We need to decide if we still go ahead with-"

"Later," Moody hissed.

"What? We need to decide whether it's still worth trying to."

"Gideon! That's enough!" Moody barked so loudly it took even Claudia by surprise.

Claudia and Oscar exchange a look. What was Moody playing at, not wanting to discuss the mission? Did he not trust them?

Without the usual discussion of upcoming missions, the Order run out of things to talk about, and the meeting was over.

Claudia was desperate to go find Sirius. There was a limit of how long her brain was able to control her jealousy, and she had reached it.

She found him, Marlene and Emmeline, sitting on the floor just outside the room where the meeting took place. Her stomach took a turn seeing them like that, but she managed to control herself and crouch in front of them. "I'm sorry about what happened," she whispered and tentatively put her hand on Marlene's shoulder.

Marlene looked up at her. "Thanks," she said; it was not entirely clear from her tone whether she believed Claudia was genuine. And to be honest, Claudia was not quite sure herself.

Before Claudia managed to recover her composure, Dumbledore was towering over them. "Miss Mckinnon, a word please."

Marlene stood up, smiled at both Claudia and Sirius. "Don't wait for me. I'll be alright."

They both watched Marlene leave, and once she did, Claudia squeezed Sirius' hand. "Do you want to stay?"

"No. Let's go home."

So, they did and spent the rest of the evening in near silence. It was only when their lights were off and they were lying in bed together, huddled under a warm duvet when-

"Claude," Sirius whispered. "You awake?"

"Yeah…"

"It feels different, doesn't it?"

"What feels different?"

"The attack, Marlene's mission, your new orders… It just feels different."

Claudia sighed. "I hope it's just a phase. Just random noise after the election. I can't face it being anything else…"

"I'll give anything for you to be right."

"Me too…"

Claudia did not know how long she ended up staring at the ceiling for before a tear rolled down her cheeks. Just the thought that this was what was coming. Attack after attack, death after death. How long before someone as dear to her as Aidan died again? What if- she drew a loud sob.

"We're going to be okay-" Sirius whispered in her ear and hugged her tighter. "Everyone is going to be okay."

Claudia knew that there was no way this was true. And she knew Sirius was fully aware of that too. But what else was he supposed say? That they are going to watch their friends die one by one? That death is going to take one of them?

"I don't know what I'd do without you," she mumbled.

"We can't think like this, Claude. We will win. We have to."

"Yeah, we have to."

Eventually, Claudia managed to fall asleep and even make it to work the following day without any more tears. The Auror Office was full of rumours following the announcement from the previous night. People started getting orders with their combat assignments, and reassigning their cases. But Moody was still pretending Claudia was frozen out, so she got neither new orders nor new cases. But she did not mind too much, she was dying to talk to him about the Order meeting. Eventually, in the afternoon, they found themselves alone.

"Boss, about yesterday," she mumbled as Moody hovered above her desk.

"What about yesterday?"

"You telling Gideon to shut up at the meeting."

Moody sighed and sat down on a chair in the corner of the room, just next to Claudia's desk. "Figured it out, eh?" Moody whispered.

"A mole…" she replied. "But are you sure? It could've been a coincidence."

"Not the first time something like this happened. We need to start being more careful. And if you hear anything suspicious, you tell me."

"Understood," she paused. "But who would betray us? It's crazy-"

"Trust no one," Moody hissed instead of replying and vanished back into his office.

When she got home that evening, Sirius was packing.

"Where are you going?" Claudia asked, her throat closing with worry.

He smiled, kissed her and then led her to the sofa to sit down. "An Order mission for a couple of days. Remus and I are going to secure a safe house and then go pick up a muggle-born who's been getting death threats."

"When did you get the orders?"

Moody came here earlier to tell us. He's really getting paranoid. Even chucked Peter into the street before he told us."

Claudia sighed. "There was a moment at the Order meeting when you were out of the room. Moody stopped Gideon discussing details of a mission. It was almost as if he didn't trust the Order. Like he didn't want anyone to know details of what was being planned."

"Does he think the Order is leaking?"

"He does. He said so and asked me to keep my eyes peeled."

Sirius sighed. "James mentioned something, said he thought he was being followed." He rubbed the palm of his right hand for a second or two. "He thinks that someone blabbed about the prophecy."

Claudia could physically feel her chest clench. "Frank too. Someone tried to infiltrate their Floo."

"Fucking hell," Sirius sighed and dropped into the sofa.

"Be careful, please," Claudia pleaded with him.

"You too," he said and glanced at his watch. "I really need to go."

With that, Sirius pulled on his jacket and was gone. It was the very same evening that Claudia was glad she made all that sleeping draught earlier. She had no idea how she would have fallen asleep without it. But while the sleeping draught provided temporary relief from her alarming thoughts, it did absolutely nothing to improve her mood in the morning.

She was sick of following Inkwood around, she was sick of the Records Room. She needed to find something else to fixate on for the day. Anything to shut off her brain.

And then, it struck her. Her father's first marriage! She has been meaning to look into that. She could spend the day in the public archive, trying to find something about that!

The public archive was housed at one of the lower Ministry levels, containing information about every single birth, marriage, and death that has been registered with the Ministry. There was a leather volume upon leather volume, going back more than a century. Recent records were usually sealed to the public, but not off limits to a trainee auror.

And the public archive did not disappoint! There it was; a record of a marriage between Frederick Avery and Aurelia Macmillan in May 1952. Claudia smirked, of course her father would have married someone from the Sacred Twenty-Eight.

It took her a good hour or two to find the record of her father's divorce from Ms Macmillan. That took place in March 1957, a mere three weeks before he married Claudia's mother! And seven months before Marcus was born! She could not help but smirk. That was truly scandalous!

Claudia sped up to find the record of her father's second marriage. But when she did, it was not her parents or the date that caught her eye this time, it was the names of her mother's parents. The grandparents she had never met, never even heard anything about other than they were dead.

Mr Idmon and Samantha Trelawney (neé Jones).

There was nothing that could distract Claudia now, as she manically began to look for more information about her grandparents. She would still be sitting on the floor of the archive room, surrounded by ancient leather-bound volumes even if Voldemort blew off the Ministry's roof. That's how enthralling it was.

Claudia's jaw dropped when she found out the birth record of her grandmother. It took ages because she was only registered when she was eleven. And for a good reason. Her grandmother was a muggleborn! And she died in- Claudia flipped through the pages as fast as she could. She died in- she froze and stared at the page in complete disbelief. Her muggle-born grandmother died in August 1980. Just last year!

She snapped the book shut. How could her parents lie to her about this all these years? How could have they told her she was dead? Making her miss out on meeting a grandmother that likely was not a bigoted arsehole, as her own parents were muggles? What if she was actually nice? Someone Claudia could have talked to when growing up?

She threw the book back on the shelf, disgusted with the mere thought of her parents. Even this Aurelia Macmillan who must have been just as bad as everyone else… Besides, it was too early in the investigation to get in touch with her. What if she was a Death Eater too? She could have alerted Claudia's father.

Still angry, Claudia got home, fully expecting to down a double helping of sleeping draught the moment she got there to give her rage a break. But all that bitterness dissolved the moment she set foot in the flat and saw Sirius, huddled next to the fireplace still in his jacket and with a half-empty bottle of whiskey in his hand.

She hurried towards him and dropped to her knees at his side. "What happened? Are you alright?"

Sirius did not even look at her. He slowly brought the whiskey to his mouth and took a sip. She watched his lips for any sign he was about to speak. Any sign that Remus was still alive. Any sign that this was not going to be like last time…

"Is Remus alright?" she whispered.

But Sirius just scoffed and took another sip.

Claudia bit her lip but there was nothing she could do to stop those tears. Remus was gone.

Finally, Sirius turned his head and looked at her. "He isn't dead," he sighed.

"Then what happened?"

"They knew we were coming. The moment we landed in front of the safe house, we were surrounded. I don't even know how I got out of there alive. Remus too, somehow. But the muggle-born is dead and so is his family."

"There is nothing you could have-"

"I know!" Sirius barked. "There was like fifteen of them. They were dead no matter what."

"You mustn't blame yourself."

"I don't!" He took another sip of firewhiskey. "I blame Remus."

"What? Why?"

Without warning, Sirius jumped to his feet and began to pace the living room. "Three people knew about the plan – me, Moody and Remus. I haven't told the Death Eaters and I'm pretty sure your boss hadn't either. So, it had to be Remus."

Claudia blinked. This was harder to process than if Remus had in fact died. Remus was not Voldemort's spy in the Order. That was outright impossible. "You are just in shock…"

"Don't tell me how I feel!" Sirius yelled and picked up pace. "I know what I know."

"I'm sorry. It's just hard to-"

"Hard to believe?" he barked. "Yeah. But I tracked over a fucking moor for five hours, looking for some kind of trail, and there is no other explanation.. That safe house was untraceable."

"Have you talked to him?"

"No!" Sirius stopped pacing and crouched in front of Claudia. "And you aren't going to talk to him either. Or anyone else. Do you understand?"

Claudia frowned. "You can't tell me what to do-"

A wave of anger crossed Sirius' face and she was expecting him to storm out, but instead, he dropped to his knees. "I didn't mean it that way," he sighed and reached for her hand. "But I'm shitting myself here. If he is a spy-"

"But-" Claudia tried to protest.

"Just listen," Sirius implored her. "If he is a spy and you tell him I suspect him. How long before we are both dead?"

"He wouldn't-"

"How do we know anymore? What else we're supposed to do? There is no other explanation, Claude!"

It was now Claudia's turn to squeeze his hands. "Sirius, please. Be reasonable. I at least want to understand what possible motive he could have?"

"He's been spending way too much time among werewolves…"

Claudia could barely resist rolling her eyes. "Is it this really what this comes down to? He must be the spy because he's a werewolf?"

"Not what I said… But neither of us has any idea what he gets up to. They could've turned him."

Claudia took a deep breath and reached for a parchment and a quill. "Tell me everything that happened. We're going to get to the bottom of this."

Sirius began recounting every detail of Moody's briefing and the fateful mission in excruciating detail. Neither of them got any sleep that night, but still were none wiser when the sun rose. The house was indeed untraceable and the only people who knew details of the mission were Moody, Sirius and Remus.

At six o'clock, just as they gave up and went to eat some breakfast, Claudia heard an owl screech from the street. She looked out of the window and saw it trying to peck its way into their garage.

"That's some confused owl."

"Good to know my enchantments are working," Sirius mumbled.

"You've done them already?"

"Some of them," he mumbled and pulled on his shoes to go get the letter. "That owl better be Remus with an explanation."

But it was not. Sirius was frowning even more when he came up squinting at a piece of parchment. "I need to go to fucking Gringotts for a tribunal about my fucking inheritance…"

"Are you going to go?"

"Of course I'm going to go!"

"Why? I didn't think you cared about any of that."

"Because it's mine, he barked. "Do you know how much good I could do with that money? If it's not me – it's just going to go to some arse to spend on the Death Eaters."

Realising Sirius was not in a mood to be argued with, Claudia changed tone. "Not your mother?" she whispered and gently took the piece of parchment from his hand.

"No, there is this weird inheritance law in my family." Sirius finally calmed down enough to sit. "The first-born male gets everything. And I'm in that illustrious line."

"Who would it go to if not you?"

Sirius thought for a moment. "The only other living male with Black blood in them is my uncle Cygnus. And he has three daughters – Andromeda and the two nightmares."

"Could they not inherit?"

"No. And neither could their husbands… But their sons, that might convince Gringotts."

"The Malfoys have a son."

Sirius growled almost as loudly as if he was in Padfoot form, and reached for a quill and piece of parchment.

"What are you doing?" Claudia asked.

"Writing a letter to Gringotts. I'm not letting some Malfoy infant take what's ours…"

Claudia kissed him on the cheek. "I have to go to work. Are you going to-"

"I'll be alright," he interrupted her. Then he turned and smiled. "I'm not just saying it. I know you worry I'm just going to self-destruct again, but I'm not. I'm much stronger than I ever was."

"Alright. Remember, I love you."

"I love you too."

But work did not provide Claudia with much break from the Order mission drama. Just before lunch, she heard a knock on the door and saw Remus smiling at her awkwardly.

"Do you want to get a cup of coffee?" he mumbled.

When they sat down in the cafeteria, it was clear to Claudia that Remus was being nervous. He was clutching his mug and staring at his fingers. Eventually, he summoned enough courage to speak. "Has Sirius been alright lately?"

"Well, the mission did little for his mood."

"I mean before the mission."

"Of course, he's been alright."

"Would you tell me?"

"What are you getting at?"

"Don't play stupid with me," Remus said with a frown. "You know exactly what I mean."

"Sirius is fine. He's really grown up lately, and-"

Remus scoffed. "I presume he told you about our mission."

"Yeah."

"It wasn't me."

"Remus. Don't be ridiculous. He would never-"

Remus sighed. "This was a bad idea. Shouldn't have come."

"You cannot think!" she hissed, feeling her anger rise up her chest.

But Remus was already on his way out. "Don't let your guard down. Don't let your love for him blind you again."

"AGAIN? WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?" she yelled so loud that heads turned.

Remus took few steps back and whispered. "That you never think clearly when it comes to Sirius. I don't even know what he'd have to do for you to see that."

Claudia's chest was rising up and down, and she had to use all her energy not to hex him there and then. "Fuck off, Remus."

"Think about what I said."

With that, Claudia was left alone in the middle of the Ministry cafeteria. She at there for a good hour – there had to be another explanation, just had to be. If those two idiots only talked about it. And she wasn't blind to Sirius' flaws. Remus was way out of line! There had to be another explanation…

"There you are!" her train of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by Moody towering over her. "Anything to tell me?" he dropped his voice into a low whisper. "About your boyfriend and the mission?"

"Look, I know what you're going to ask me," she hissed, still shaken by Remus' accusations. "He would never betray the Order. Ever. He hates them."

Moody hummed and stared at her for a good half a minute, his expression completely unreadable. "Anyway," he said finally and reached into his pocket to throw something round and gold on the table. "Congratulations."

Claudia picked it up and when she turned it, she saw it was her brand new auror badge. She was no longer a trainee. She was a fully-fledged auror now. "What about the exams?" she whispered.

"Cancelled. Apparently, there is a war on."

She could not help but raise a corner of her mouth. Moody's attempts at humour were something else. "So, they just promoted us all?"

Moody shrugged. "Well, technically, everyone was supposed to have a review with their inspector and someone from the central office. But I wasn't going to sit in a room for three hours, discussing your disciplinary record with some pratt from admin. So, I pulled some strings…"

"Thanks, I guess?"

"I didn't do it for you. Do you even know how much trouble you've caused since you've been here?"

Claudia grinned. "I really appreciate-"

"Don't get too excited. They just did it so they can send you all on combat missions."

"Thanks for ruining this for me," she smirked.

"I need you to keep working on-" he looked around, and seeing someone sitting rather close to them, continued- "cataloguing my old files. I'll be gone for a while, so you'll have to cope on your own."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to Paris, following up a lead about the trouble our esteemed ex-Minister got himself into."

"Why now?"

"Bagnold wants it looked into. She thinks he was set up; wants to know who not to trust."

"Can I come with you?" she hurled out without thinking.

"It's not a fucking holiday, Avery!"

"I know," she said with a slight eye-roll. "But Emmanuel works in Paris."

"Who?"

"My classmate, who used to work in St Mungo's. He looked after our coma guy. It's the only lead I have and he's been ignoring my letters!"

"You aren't going to stop nagging me until I say yes, are you?"

"Not a chance."

"Portkey leaves on Friday, six in the morning. Don't be late."