Disclaimer: I just own what JK doesn't and I'm certainly making no money from this.

A/N: Ok so I can't really apologise enough for how late this is (like over a year!) but I honestly lost track of how long it had been since I updated. I have actually been writing in this time so I haven't been entirely useless. In response to my reviews for the last chapter thank you all so much! Thank you also to everyone who's been putting my stories on their favouraites list even while I've been so in active.

Chapter 16

It was an early December morning, crisp and cold but within the depths of the ministry you'd never know it. The heating was maintaining a pleasant temperature and the corridors remained well lit despite it still being dark outside.

Not many people had made it into work yet, it was not even six o'clock, but some things were best done early – the early bird catches the worm, or rather the early bird avoids getting caught themselves by ministry busybodies who might comment on their activities. So if you were going to pass information out from the ministry to the Dark Lord, and do it right under their noses, it was generally best to choose early mornings like these when all but the most dedicated, or the most unfortunate, were still comfortably in bed.

A lone figure yawned and emerged from an office, these early mornings weren't much fun, but some things were necessary and if you were clever you didn't keep the Dark Lord waiting. Not if you didn't have a death wish you didn't. Then of course there was the issue of not being caught by the ministry themselves as they might actually finally get a clue about what had been going on for months now.

The figure shook their head and smiled in amusement, it was really quite hilarious the way the ministry had not yet figured out quite where their information leak was coming from. Those monitoring spells on the fireplace had been a bit of a pest but they were easily disabled. Still, the ministry employed figure frowned, Druscilla Thornfield was becoming a total pain, her suspicions hit too close to the truth and if the monitoring spells hadn't been checked for meticulously they might have caused a world of trouble. It wasn't as though there wasn't enough to deal with, with keeping the floo regulation department in the dark but dealing with Thornfield as well was just ridiculous!

Druscilla Thornfield, who was quite sure of her adversary's idiocy, though who was, in her way, just as blind as she accused her adversary of being. This adversary was a person who did not like being seen as an idiot, even though it was necessary to act as one at present. Still, it wouldn't be forever and the Dark Lord would be in power to reward the faithful and then…well then everything would be as it should be.

A final smile and a glance around to see if anyone was there and the figure headed to an apparition point, deciding that a good breakfast in Diagon Alley was well and truly deserved after a hard morning's subterfuge. They had no idea that they would return in a few hours to events that could ruin all.

*******

Remus Lupin was beginning to regret volunteering his help to Druscilla Thornfield in tracking down the leak at the ministry. For more than a month now she had had Percy poring over books of old and often forgotten magic in search of a way to track past floo communications to their end destination using the residual magical signature left by them in the fireplace.

This was an unusual request, which Percy had exhausted several libraries in order to complete, but eventually, in an old book left half-forgotten in a dusty shop in Diagon Alley, he had come across what he wanted. At least he had come across part of it. The book could supply him with a spell to determine where floo communications had been directed to and perhaps even recover scraps of conversation but it could not trace the magical signature of who had been sending the communications. Still, it was better than they had previously had and Druscilla had put the spell through rigorous testing with her young employee before deciding to go ahead and try it on Stephen Meadow's fireplace.

This however had involved her asking Remus to help her. She had been fully aware that if it was discovered what they were doing and they had achieved no particular result Fudge would likely raise merry hell and, while her own reputation could withstand anything, Percy Weasley's career would likely have been ended by such another scandal and this time even she might prove unable to save him. Hence she had asked Remus Lupin, a man the Minister held no power over and who had no career prospects to begin with. Well, he was a werewolf she had reasoned, no one would employ him anyway. For some reason, he hadn't seemed to like that part of her logic.

The part of Druscilla's logic Remus liked even less though was the part that involved him being in the ministry for six o'clock in the morning. He couldn't help but agree with her though that it was imperative to perform the spell without getting caught and that doubtless this was the best time to do it. He passed few people in the ministry corridors and made it to the office of Stephen Meadows, Junior Assistant to the Minister for Magic, without any trouble.

Druscilla was already there, leaning against the wall as though she had been waiting for a considerable length of time when it fact it had barely been a minute.

"You're late, Remus," she teased, "Couldn't get out of bed?"

He failed to suppress a yawn, "You're way too cheerful for this hour."

She grinned, "Today's the day, Remus!"

The grin was a little too manic for Remus's liking, "What day?"

"The day I finally see the back of that annoying Meadows boy!"

Remus sighed, "You know if it turns out you're wrong about this I fully intend to indulge any urge I have to laugh at you."

Her grin never faltered, "Go right ahead, I'm not wrong."

"Well, let's go and find out rather than arguing about it," Remus said tiredly, following her into the office that he had tried not to see her enchanting the lock of.

The office gave little clue as to its occupant's personality, there were no photographs on the desk, or pictures on the wall, but the desk was laid out with military precision.

Druscilla headed straight for the fireplace, after a quick glance over the room and a rummage through the desk drawers that Remus deeply disapproved of but she had tried not to hear his comments about privacy. "If he wanted his privacy respecting he should have respected the privacy of ministry plans and documents!"

Remus sighed again, "Can we just get on with this?"

She nodded and took a book out of her bag, "I'm ready. You know what you're doing?"

Remus nodded, the spell was designed to be used by one person but Druscilla and Percy had found that by having two people cast it it produced better results and was more likely to reveal older communications.

He stood beside the tall woman and together they spoke the words of the ancient spell, the archaic language testament to just how old it was. For a moment after they had finished nothing happened.

"Did it work?" Remus asked.

Suddenly the fire burst into life causing Druscilla to jump back and almost knock Remus flying. "Ok," she said uncertainly, "It's never done that before! It must be because you're more powerful than Percy, we've never been able to see things before, we could only hear them."

A head appeared in the fireplace and they both quickly jumped out of it's line of sight, but as it began to speak it became clear it was merely an echo of an old conversation.

"Well, what information have you for us?"

There was a silence then the head, hidden by a black hood, spoke again. "That information may prove useful, you have done well, the Dark Lord will be most pleased, I will contact you again soon."

The head disappeared and the fire went out, leaving the room glowing a rich yellow.

Druscilla was silent for a moment, "That shouldn't have happened, we should have got a section of a conversation begun from this end! It looks like that was begun by someone outside the ministry."

Remus frowned, "Percy said you had adapted the spell slightly to detect dark magic in particular, perhaps it simply detected the darkest signature it could find."

"Very likely," she admitted and shook her head, suddenly all business, "I wasn't sure if that adaptation was going to work but clearly it did and from the colour this room is glowing it means the communication's been supposed to be untraceable."

"Can we not get a fix on it?"

Druscilla cast another spell and shook her head, "No, it's being blocked, but I can possibly get an idea of the general area." She conjured a map of the British Isles, "I'm going to take a wager that the communication came from within Britain and see if I can narrow it down from there."

Remus was now left to watch as she spent half an hour growing more and more frustrated as she tried various spells and incantations, refused all help he offered and eventually tried the spell he had first suggested she try. A soft glow suffused one small area of the map.

"The west coast of Scotland," Druscilla whispered, not acknowledging the fact it had been Remus's spell that had produced the desired result, "It came from somewhere in this area," she drew a circle around the glow as it began to fade. Suddenly she smiled, "We've finally got him!"

"It would seem so," Remus admitted, "There's no doubt that that was a death eater in the fireplace. Are you going to send some aurors to his house?"

"No need, we'll just wait until he comes into work, he won't suspect a thing until it's too late."

Remus couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortable at the look in her eyes as she said this, like a fox expecting a rabbit – a rabbit it really didn't like.

*******

Percy arrived into work early that morning, though late compared to his boss, to find Remus Lupin asleep in his office. He was still stood staring at the sleeping man when Druscilla Thornfield came in.

"I don't know," she shook her head, "Some men just have no stamina!"

Percy decided he didn't want to know what she meant by that. "Did you find anything out?" he asked eagerly.

She smirked, "Oh yes, and in roughly ten minutes Mr Meadows should be here and you can watch as we get it all from the horse's mouth." She waved a bottle of veritaserum in front of Percy, "We're finally going to know what's been going on around here."

*******

Percy soon realised however that things were not going to be as easy as his employer had hoped. A somewhat annoyed and finally scared Stephen Meadows was apprehended by the aurors only to claim under veritaserum that he knew nothing about any of it. Not Druscilla's icy attitude, nor Fudge's yells, nor Kingsley Shacklebolt's quieter and calmer questioning could produce the desired results.

Finally, Kingsley turned to Druscilla and said quietly, "He's testified under veritaserum that he had nothing to do with this, we're fast running out of reasons to hold him if you have no other evidence."

Druscilla sighed in frustration, "I'm going back to look at that fireplace, there must be something!" Then she stopped in her tracks and turned to look at the young man who had annoyed her for so long, "But not yet, you can hold him until sunset tomorrow, yes?"

Kingsley frowned, "Yes, after that we have to let him go if you don't find any more evidence."

"Then I'll re-examine the fireplace tomorrow, let's see if a night in Azkaban jogs his memory," she continued out of the cell-like room they were in.

"No!" Stephen cried out, looking desperately at Fudge who snorted and turned away from him.

Kingsley simply nodded his consent.

Percy couldn't hold back a wave of pity for the young man and mild horror at the lengths his boss was willing to go to, there were days when he just didn't seem to have the stomach for the, now wartime, ministry. He hurried out after his boss and protested quietly, "Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, what if he really is innocent? The veritaserum said he was telling the truth!"

"And if he were under an imperius curse and had had his memory tampered with then he wouldn't know that he was guilty so of course it wouldn't register that he was lying to us. Veritaserum doesn't give you the truth, it gives you the truth from one person's point of view," Druscilla explained.

"Surely if he was under the imperius curse then it's not his fault and you should hardly be putting him in Azkaban for it!" Percy exclaimed.

"Percy, we can't all be idealists all of the time!" Thornfield snapped, "You may be right, he may be innocent, but I don't believe he is hence the best place I can think of for him is in prison."

"Do you think he's guilty because you have damning evidence, or because you don't like him?" Percy asked calmly.

"That's enough, Percy!" Druscilla glared at him.

"I'm sorry, Professor, but surely you can understand my not being entirely convinced of your impartiality on this issue!"

Druscilla sighed heavily, "Percy, if I'm wrong then I'm wrong and we let him out and if I'm right then he stays there, it's not like I'm trying to execute him! We'll have to let him out tomorrow at sunset if we can't find further evidence and you should know that even if there were a way of holding him for longer I wouldn't do it. We have no right to hold him without further proof however we do have the right to a little time in which to investigate further so that he can't skip the country in the meantime."

"Why Azkaban?" Percy persisted, "They normally hold suspects here at the ministry if it's just for the night."

Druscilla gave a grim smile, "Frankly? Because, Dementors or no Dementors, that place strikes fear into the hearts of the bravest, which Mr Meadows is not, and if he's finding some way to lie to us then I want to ensure that the will to do so is scared right out of him."

"Well I find that morally repugnant!"

She shrugged, "It is, I just personally believe it to be necessary. When you're in charge you can do things differently, until then you accept my decisions. War is not pleasant and you can't fight one by being nice."

She walked off leaving Percy to stare at her back and call out weakly, "But I'm not convinced he's guilty!"

"Then prove he's not," Druscilla stopped in her tracks and turned to face him once more. "You're amongst the brightest your generation has to offer, so use that brain of yours and re-examine the evidence. I expect you'll reach the same conclusion I have, though you'll undoubtedly be giving him a little more benefit of the doubt, and if you reach a different conclusion then I will be genuinely interested to hear it." She carried on without waiting for him to reply.

Percy was left feeling rather a fool, she was right that though he may not like her methods he couldn't fault her logic based on the evidence she was working from. But then, if he couldn't fault her conclusion based on the evidence they currently had then perhaps it was time he went looking for some more evidence, after all if the man was innocent then someone else was guilty and there had to be something that connected them to the scene of crime. Percy made his mind up to do exactly what his boss had challenged him to and not just re-examine the evidence but also look for any further evidence he could dig up. He had some time to spare the following morning and he determined to use it to search Meadows' office and question his secretary.

*******

Percy had been learning of late that things rarely went according to plan and the following day his morning passed in a haze of paperwork, dumped on him at the last moment by an especially vindictive member of Fudge's personal staff, so it was not until the early afternoon when he was able to find a spare minute to carry out his plan. He headed down to the office of the 'blonde bimbo secretary' as Thornfield had termed her, more officially known as Natalie Andrews – secretary to Stephen Meadows and therefore the person who should have had the best idea of what he was up to.

Percy arrived at Natalie Andrews' small office, next to the one Stephen Meadows had occupied, and knocked on the door. He received no answer and so checked the time, discovered that it had gone two and she certainly should not be on a lunch break still, and knocked again.

After having knocked several more times, Percy decided the time had passed for civility and simply opened the door. The young woman was in fact not there and he was about to search elsewhere for her when he was struck by the emptiness of the room. The desk had nothing on it, the walls were bare, the filing cabinet's drawers were open and clearly empty. He quickly pulled open the drawers in the desk to find them empty as well, there was nothing in the room except for the furniture it had in it. There was no trace of Natalie Andrews having ever been there.

Percy instantly knew something wasn't right and, throwing decorum aside, raced towards the lift, squeezed in just as the doors closed and pressed the override button which would take him straight up to his own floor (much to the disgruntlement of the others in the lift).

*******

Druscilla, having got used to the strange comings and goings at the ministry over the years she had worked there, barely batted an eyelid as her door was flung open and Percy Weasley charged through it panting, hair falling into his eyes and cloak hanging at an odd angle due to having slipped down over one of his shoulders.

"Yes, Percy?" Druscilla asked, patiently.

"She's gone! It was her! I'm sure it was, why else would she run off like this?!"

"What on earth are you talking about?" Druscilla asked calmly. She could quite easily see that her young assistant was rather worked up about something but she knew from experience that the best way to get a straight answer out of those in such a state was to remain calm herself.

"Natalie Andrews, Meadows' secretary, she's gone, her office is empty and I think we got the wrong person! If you think about it, she would have had just as easy access to Meadows' office as he did himself and she could easily have used his fireplace while he wasn't there. I think the dumb blonde act was just that, an act!"

Druscilla looked like she were trying to swallow a lemon and not enjoying it. "Are you sure?" she asked quietly, "Are you sure she's gone?"

"Her office had been completely cleared out."

"Oh hell!" Druscilla smacked her hand down on the desk, ignoring the shooting pains that travelled up her arm from the impact, "I should have known there was something off about her when Remus and I saw her down in the floo regulation department! She was talking to the man who kept the floo records and when we spoke to him he barely remembered her and I thought he might have been under a memory spell, but I never thought she was the one who might have put him under one!"

Percy stared in silence.

The woman took a deep breath, "Send out the aurors, track her down if possible, though I doubt we'll find any trace of her now. I'm going to go and re-examine that fireplace and see if I can come up with anything, get me Remus and then both of you meet me in Meadows' office."

Percy nodded and hurried out of her office and down the corridor, leaving his boss to smack her fist onto the desk once more.

*******

The next day no news of the discovery at the ministry had yet reached the students of Hogwarts and Ron ambled down to breakfast, late as ever, feeling that today was going to be a good day. When he reached the breakfast table though it was clear that Harry and Hermione and indeed much of the Great Hall did not agree with this.

"Woah, who died?" Ron grinned at his friends.

"Not funny, Ron." Hermione whispered shaking her head in shock.

The smile fell instantly from his face, "Shit, who died?!"

Soundlessly, Hermione passed him the Daily Prophet. Ron took it gingerly, as though it could burn his suddenly trembling fingers, and forced himself to read past the headline of 'Further Death Eater Attacks, Death Toll Rises' to the article. There had been an attack on a wizarding household, just two inhabitants, both dead, a young woman and her muggleborn boyfriend. The man's name meant nothing to Ron but the woman's was instantly and awfully recognisable. Angelina Johnson, last time he'd seen her she had been celebrating having graduated and chattering excitedly with the others in her year about the future, a future that had just been cut short as far as she and her partner were concerned.

Ron dropped the paper, "Oh God."

Hermione pulled at his sleeve, signalling that he should sit down on the bench. Ron sat down mechanically. One look at Harry told him how his friend was taking the news, he was feeling guilty.

"Dumbledore already made an announcement, you missed it," Hermione said quietly.

Ron shrugged, "It's not like he could have said anything to make it better."

"Nothing can," Hermione murmured.

"No Hermione," Harry disagreed, "One thing can. I can kill Voldemort and his followers."

"More death to add to the losses already incurred can hardly make things better," Neville muttered softly at Harry's side.

Harry snorted, "Those people don't deserve to live."

"Yes they do," Neville said quietly, "They deserve to be punished for what they've done but they don't deserve to die. They're still people."

"And you really wouldn't want to see Bellatrix Lestrange writhing in the pain she put your parents in?" Harry said hotly.

Neville's face went cold, "You can kill her and every other Death Eater a thousand times over and it won't bring my parents back. And of course there's a part of me that wants to hurt her but that doesn't give me the right to."

"The fact she murdered your parents gives you the right to!"

"Oh yes, individual revenge masquerading as justice, well if we all follow that it'll all be fine I suppose!" Neville said sarcastically. "Look Harry, my life is not going to miraculously get better when you kill Voldemort, it's just going to stop the certainty of it getting worse! You're not everybody's saviour, you can't save those he's already killed, no one can and killing him won't make any difference to the fact they're dead!"

"You think I don't feel guilty for that?!"

"Oh grow up!" Neville snapped, uncharacteristically, "You know full well that you're not responsible for this, stop playing the guilt-ridden hero for two minutes and remember that you're sixteen, you're not even a fully trained wizard and most people thought you'd be dead by now! You're doing bloody well just to be alive, so stop trying to be tortured and deep and face the fact that you're as helpless as the rest of us to stop what's already happened!"

"True, but I can stop it happening again. And I will!"

"Ooh, scary, Potter! What you going to do, engage the Dark Lord in a duel and use the captain of an opposing quidditch team as a shield again?!" A mocking voice followed by a scattering of laughter burst out from the Slytherin table.

It was at this point the two boys became aware of how loud their argument had become, the whole hall was focused on them and Neville reddened quickly and ducked his head.

Harry however looked about ready to jump the table and attack whoever had yelled but Ron had a firm grip on him.

"Gentlemen," a quiet but deadly voice spoke from behind them, "If you're quite finished making a scene, you can come with me."

Harry looked about ready to start fighting with Snape as well but Ron and Hermione both kicked him hard in the leg as soon as he opened his mouth to speak.

The result of the following half hour that Harry spent being lectured at by Snape for creating a public disturbance and 'setting himself up as second only to God and even that was questionable' resulted in him acquiring yet more detentions and a threat that if he couldn't behave Snape would find a way to have him removed from the quidditch team.

Neville was also placed in detention but for less time and Snape said as they left, "Mr Longbottom, you must try not to let Potter provoke you – I know it's hard with all his posturing but if you learn to ignore him entirely it becomes less of a problem."

"God, that man hates you," Neville said as they left the dungeons.

"Yeah, he bloody does!" Harry snapped.

"I'm sorry I got you into trouble, Harry."

Harry blushed, not expecting such a quick apology, "Yeah, I'm sorry I argued with you quite so badly, I was worked up."

"We all were," Neville shrugged, "But I meant what I said, Angelina's death was not your fault and nor was Cedric's." He gave a brief sad smile before hurrying out of the main doors in the direction of his beloved greenhouses and his half finished herbology lesson.

*******

I will try and update again soon, and I really mean that. I'd love it if anyone's atill reading this so do try and review and let me know. :)