May 10, 2001
A flash of yellow light went over head. It slammed into an oak tree. A mighty branch shattered. Splinters and shards burst outwards. A few slammed into a suddenly solid black cloak. The man underneath the cloak grunted. He raised his wand and muttered another protective charm and then he disillusioned himself. He ran from the low brick wall that had offered him some cover to a large rock fifteen yards away.
Another flash of light went over his head. It missed high and behind before slamming into a low rising knoll digging up dirt. The nearly invisible man found his cover and relived the image of his lover on top of him that morning telling him she loved him and needed him in her and her life in every way possible. A brilliant stag Patronus canted across the field. A few seconds later a steady stream of red wards erupted from the wand of his partners. More yellow and sputum green colored spells flashed in his direction. They were not close, but they were enough to force his head down.
He crawled forward, his wand out, eyes up and ass down. Progress was slow. He wanted his invisibility cloak but it was not with him today. Years of physical training was paying off as the eighty yard belly crawl was merely a light work-out instead of onerous activity. The Dark wizard had turned his attention to the red locking wards that his partner had been throwing in his direction for the past eight minutes. A few more yards through broken sticks and soft grass allowed him to brace his shoulder against an ash tree. He moved his arm slightly, lining up the Death Eater with the far edge of his wand. He paused for a moment and felt his magic flow through his body, down his arms and into his fingers as the thought "Petrificulus Totalus" erupted. An invisible wind push the first spell aside.
"Damn, the wizard still kept up rear facing wards." He shifted strategies and sent an array of stunners and shield breakers. The Death Eater now was being flanked. His attention was split as the other Auror started to advance as well. A rapid flick of the wrist sent a stream of angry hornets at the greatest threat to the criminal. The dirty Auror slashed back, transfiguring the the dew on the leaves into sticky paper before he sent a jelly leg jinx. The sophomoric jinx worked as it evaded some of the wards that were configured to protect against far more visibly dangerous curses and jinxes.
As the Death Eater's legs wobbled, his wand inadvertently pointed skyward. In under a second a trio of stunners struck him sending him to the ground. As Harry advanced, he muttered his favorite dueling spell - Expelliarmus - and the wand flew from his adversaries hand. Ropes soon bound the barely conscious prisoner. Harry was pawing through the robes of the prisoner while his partner sent an ox Patronus back to headquarters with notification that the target had been neutralized, captured and would be available for interrogation by dinner time.
As soon as the Patronus thundered away, half a dozen Aurors apparated into the park.
"Trainees Potter and Booth, report…."
Harry wiped the sweat from his eyes. He caught his breath and arranged his thoughts in half a second.
"Sir, prisoner has been apprehended. No Muggle casualties, no Auror casualties, no Unforgivables used, and minimal force used. Challenges with this exercise include surprising strength of omni-directional wards, and length of apprehension. Anti-apparition barriers were challenged and I believe would have failed if Trainee Booth had not been able to keep the prisoner fully occupied."
Senior Auror Proudfoot looked at the two dirty and sweaty trainees.
"All that is correct. I see one major error in procedure. The first communication to the rest of the Auror's office was twenty nine minutes after confirmation of the target's identity and forty eight minutes after potential sighting and thirty eight seconds after taking the suspect into custody. Potter, Booth, we are a team. Eight Aurors against one Dark Wizard is far more of an unfair fight than two Aurors against the same Dark Wizard. We don't need to give them a fair chance to kill us."
Harry was not expecting this critique. Aurors had spent centuries fighting against the darkness alone. It was only in the past few years that training material had been generated on the assumption that Aurors would frequently work in pairs. Proudfoot had stumbled multiple times in lectures and demonstrations whenever she had to go over the new material.
"Ma'am, this was a paired combat training exercise… I didn't think that we could call in the rest of the office…"
The older witch looked at her two young trainees with almost maternal tenderness. Sharpness had a role.
"You didn't think. That was the problem. We would have sent back a message saying that there were no available reinforcements but it would have been a sign that you were thinking instead of just doing. Think before do. "
Harry and Terry deflated. She was right. They had caught sight of the target, and they had used all of their training and innate skills to effect a capture but they were not thinking about the bigger picture. Their teacher saw the comprehension on their faces. She suppressed a smile as they needed to learn this lesson.
"Okay you two, get lunch, write up your initial report. We'll debrief at 3:00 and then I believe Dawlish owes you both a Butterbeer as this is the first time he's been taken down by trainees this cycle."
Hary popped into the garden of his house at the end of the day. The debriefing went well. Overall, the exercise had been a success. He needed to trust his teammates more and that meant more communication. Hermione, if she had been allowed to hear about the debriefing, would have laughed. A moment before he walked up the steps and into his townhouse, he inhaled the roses. Ginny had insisted that a few square yards of the city be part of her country upbringing. Molly and Ginny had spent three weekends straight getting the rose bushes up to snuff. Her mother would spend the first ten minutes of any Teddy Lupin-less visit checking out the roses.
As soon as he stepped inside, a fiery ball of pride and noise hit him.
"Guess what guess what guess what….."
"What?"
"You're supposed to guess!" Ginny was on her toes bouncing. Her hair had been pulled back in a long braided pony tail. She filled out a tight, athletic shirt that was marred with sweat stains from a hard day of training. Her face was flush. Freckles were indistinct because of her excitement, well earned exhaustion and lactic acid discharges.
"Okay, you did not get accepted to Hogwarts as a guest lecture in Potions, nor have you found a house in the country…"
"Silly, what do I always talk about…" Ginny was wriggling around Harry, her arms going over his shoulders and clasping just underneath his firm pectorals. That was the biggest surprise about Harry in the past three years; regular food and regular training had added thirty five pounds of muscle on the frame that had always been under stress and under fed. He would never be as tall as her brother or as visibly muscled as Wood, but he was firm. She squeezed his nipples for the joy of the yelp he produced even as she continued to whisper in Harry's ear: "Still keep on guessing"
Harry paused. He was distracted as he felt his lover's hot breath in his ear and her firm breasts pressing against his back.
"Snogging me… that is always a good topic of conversation…" He did not move his head fast enough. Ginny nibbled on his ear and then as soon as she had the soft lobe firm between her teeth, she yanked.
"Ouch…"
"One track mind"
"Okay, snogging and shagging me"
"One track mind…"
"Like you're not trying to jump my bones every chance you have… may I remind you Ms. Weasley of this morning and how I barely could make it to work on time…"
Harry was playing with fire. Ginny's finger started to poke his ribs….
"Shagging you is just for my enjoyment love, not my obsession… so keep on guessing"
Harry turned and kissed Ginny. It was a quick kiss that could not lead to more as Ginny was laughing as she pushed him away into the kitchen.
"Keep on guessing instead of distracting me with a snog."
"The only thing that you obsess about is Quidditch, so it has to be Quidditch related… U-23s are supposed to get announced next week… did you hear?" Harry spoke the last three words in a whisper. He knew how hard Ginny had been training with the Harpies. She was their lead youngster, but professionals played a completely different game of the same name than Hogwarts house teams.
"I got a Floo today from the Guinevere Motheson, the national team director of player personnel. She asked if I could be in Dover next Tuesday morning for the announcement. They want me as a starting Chaser and reserve Seeker."
He picked her up and engulfed her in his arms. Her toes were off the ground and he spun her in joy and excitement. She had been working so hard for so long. His heart was bursting for her. After a short spin and a long, Kantian snog, he put her down.
"Let's call Ron and Hermione to celebrate." Harry walked over to the telephone and made the call. Ron was trying to use more Muggle technology in his day to day life, and he was thrilled to meet his little sister and best friend at the Copper Cauldron in an hour.
Hermione smiled.
She did that a lot more this week. Remembrance Day and the week leading up to it had barely gotten easier. Now that the public ceremonies were over, she could go back to being just Hermione instead of a part of the Golden Trio and a WAR HERO. Hermione was still busy being Hermione, she could be little else but that. Half of her time was spent in the Ministry working on sentient being rights. The other half of her time was dedicated to studying at the London School of Economics. Muggles had fractured themselves and broken their societies in civil wars and long transitions as they struggled to adjust the meaning of citizenship. Magical society was facing the same struggles but Hermione was determined to at least try to learn from what the Muggle world had shown could work.
She had turned in three papers today. Two were capstone projects for courses. Her favorite was a study of the economic integration and re-segregation of the African American population in Baltimore after 2nd Muggle World War. The other examined the role of truth and reconciliation commissions in South Africa. This was an ongoing evaluation of near current affairs and the literature was still immature and thin. The third paper was a summarization of a series of focus groups she had conducted with house elves and how they visualized their role and desires in the magical world. She had conducted those focus groups after her first effort on major elvish legislation had failed to gain enough sponsors.
But right now she did not care. She had one more paper to complete. It just needed a formatted bibliography and a final read in the next seven days. Today she could celebrate her friend's joy. And to do that, she needed to grab three more ciders and a bitter at the bar as the single server was overwhelmed. The experienced blond immigrant was in the far corner delivering a pint to the older man Ginny had noticed last week. He was working on a crossword and content within his own world. A few dozen university students had arrived at the pub to celebrate the completion of a particularly atrocious final. They were loud, they were boisterous and they would soon be drunk.
As she was navigating back to the table, Ginny was trying to demonstrate a complex feint with hands, salt shakers and an empty bottle. To anyone else, she was talking like a fighter pilot going over a dogfight. Ron had been drafted to illustrate the position of the opposition Seeker and the Snitch while Harry had removed his arm from her shoulder so that she could move freely. A relaxed smile was on his face as he laughed at the play by the play. His eyes caught hers and he mouthed an offer of help. She nodded and he rose.
Harry was two steps away from grabbing two glasses when she was groped. Hermione stopped and stabilized the tray of drinks in one hand. With her other hand she slashed down in a short chop, spun and saw a drunk young man laughing at her. Her foot slammed into his toes drawing a gasp of pain.
"You fucking bitch, you frigid bitch…"
Harry by now had taken the drinks from Hermione's hands and placed them on a table. The pub crowd attention narrowed as it saw a commotion forming. He stepped in front of Hermione.
"Please apologize to my friend."
"Fuck off wanker, the bitch can't take a compliment…"
"That was not a compliment. It be best if you apologize and then go back to your drink…."
Harry eyed the man in front of him. The groper was larger than Harry and had the obvious muscles of a boy who spent too much time in a gym worrying about his biceps and triceps and not enough time squatting. One of the gropers' friends had come up and occupied the space right behind the asshole's left shoulder. He was trying to pull his friend back as he did not like the look in the eyes of the exceedingly fit and calm man in front of him.
That effort failed. The blond student pulled his chest back and chin up. His arms came up and then pushed forward looking to strike Harry in the chest as the start of a basic primate dominance display. Even before his hands cleared his elbows, Harry struck. His head came down across the bridge of the student's nose. One nostril was crushed. It was not the worst injury. Harry struck hard at the exposed leading knee. A foot crushed the side of the patella and dislocated it several inches out of place. The pub was split by a cry of pain as the amateur football career of the student disappeared. He crumpled to the ground and Harry was readying to drive his toe through his stomach when Hermione pulled him back.
"Harry - back down, we're safe Harry, we're safe…"
The world's speed came back to normal. In that half second, Harry had lived a lifetime. Everything was moving slowly and perfectly as he saw the muscles of the drunk flex and begin to move. The sloppy performative push had opened up his chest for a strike and he had been like a cobra seeing his prey exposed without cover so he struck fast and hard. His arms pushed the drunk's arms to the side and he neutralized the threat…
"Fuck, fuck fuck…."
The drunk's friend looked at the man who had taken his friend out in under a second and decided valor required discretion. He went to aid his friend on the floor who was screaming. Hermione saw the older man who had watched them last week hurry come up to the screaming boy. He grunted something at him. The drunk's friend wrapped him up tight as the older man slammed the dislocated kneecap back into the groove. The pain did not stop, it would not stop for months, but it decreased.
The older man turned and looked at Harry and Hermione. His eyes were not angry. They were alert and suspicious but not angry. His body was tense and anticipatory and then he relaxed before he spoke in a directed whisper to Harry.
"Soldier, you're safe. Let's figure out how to get you out of this heap of trouble…"
Harry looked at the Muggle in front of him. He was a stranger but his response to violence was familiar. He too had learned to react under danger. He too knew how to prioritize. He was someone new but familiar.
"May I?"
Harry nodded and the man put a very strong hand on his shoulder and led Harry to a bench. He guided him to sit and they waited in silence until the police and ambulance came. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny gathered protectively around Harry. As soon as the police came to question Harry, the older man spoke.
"This soldier was defending himself and his friend. He used minimum force to protect himself as soon as he was attacked. Look at the tape and ask the staff what they saw."
An hour later, Harry walked out of the pub with a summons from the police and a business card from the older man if he ever wanted a cup of tea to talk.
