Disclaimer I don't own Harry Potter. All rights to the characters and universe the story belongs in belong to JK Rowling

Chapter 25 - Mole Hunting

'Dawlish is really getting on my nerves.' Seethed Harry as he sat down on the edge of Trott's desk.

Trott didn't bother looking up from her paperwork 'Just do your job and ignore him.'

'Hard to ignore when all he does is moan about your work.' Harry muttered.

'Is there a point to this visit?' She asked him pointedly 'I've got a lot of paperwork' she waved the report she was working on at him.

'Robards wants you to know that we have a meeting with the German and Italian ministries. They might have found a link between some of their kidnapping cases and want us to help check it out.'

'When's the meeting?'

'Next Tuesday, we're having it at the French Ministry.'

'I look forward to it. Now run along, I'm sure you've got some report to write up for Dawlish.' She smirked as he rolled his eyes. 'How did it go earlier anyway?'

'Went fine no injuries and we didn't let any of the dealers get away.'

'So, what's wrong with Dawlish then?'

'He was whinging because when I stunned a guy he ended up dropping and spilling some of the potions. He was complaining about the loss of evidence.' Said Harry furiously.

'I wouldn't worry, he's just mad because you've helped us get results on an operation he was botching.'

'Was he always like this?'

'No he wasn't.' Trott sighed 'Don't be too hard on him Harry, the war was tough as an Auror.' She pushed her report away. 'Come on let's go and grab a coffee.' They walked out of her office and made their way to the Ministry cafeteria.

'What you've got to understand Harry is that the years since Voldemort returned, we spent most of our time unable to do anything. We were encouraged to imprison almost anyone we could link to a case, however vaguely.' She told him as they sat down with their drinks.

'Why?'

'I'm surprised you don't know.' Trott said with a wry smile.

'I never claimed to be all knowing.'

'Still I would have thought if you don't know you could piece it together.'

'I've got an idea of what was going on. I would like to hear it from your point of view though seeing as you were actually here.'

Trott held her mug in both hands drawing heat from it. 'Well first of all there was Fudge's denial. He was having us pin cases on anyone as long as the trail didn't lead to Voldemort's return. If we found something that led to the Death Eaters we were told to arrest no one and close the case as unsolved.'

'Bloody hell.'

'I know, it was tough. Especially as Fudge started to try and pin everything on Dumbledore and even you.'

'Me? I know the dementor attack was a setup but I didn't think he had tried to come after me for anything else.'

'Oh yeah, when we heard about Mr Weasley being in hospital, Fudge tried to get us to prove you were out of Hogwarts early and you were the one who attacked him.' She gave him a sympathetic smile. 'We tried but there was no evidence, not even Umbridge could come up with anything. I guess Dumbledore confunded her.'

'Yeah he could have done. Me and the Weasley's were all sent to Grimmauld Place that night. I wondered why she never jumped on that. I can't believe they even tried though, it was a snake attack.'

'I know, if they could have proved you weren't at Hogwarts they were going to pin you with it because you are a Parselmouth.'

'Was.'

'Was?'

Harry nodded 'Since Voldemort died I can't speak it anymore.' Trott raised her eyes at him. 'That's a story for another time.'

'Fine keep your secrets.'

'I will.' Said Harry chuckling. 'I still can't believe they tried that and I didn't know. Good job, I would have lost it with them which I'm pretty sure wouldn't have helped.'

'Yeah well they were still branding you as this unstable kid.'

'At the time they probably weren't wrong. That was a tough year.' Trott reached across the table and squeezed his wrist compassionately. 'It was just, Voldemort was back and I kept having nightmares about the night Diggory died. I was left out the loop and no one would tell me what was happening. I felt abandoned. I was angry with the Ministry, my friends and most of all Dumbledore.'

'After everything they accused you of and sending those dementors after you it sounds pretty rough.'

'It was.'

Trott took her hand back. 'Well you were proved right in the end and then we had Scrimgeour. He was almost as bad. Instead of treating everything like Voldemort wasn't involved he went the other way. Everything was a Death Eater attack and then when we couldn't find any evidence, we would arrest anyone to make it look like we were doing something.'

She downed her coffee before continuing 'As I was saying Dawlish went through all of this and Voldemort's reign. You can understand why he's frustrated, you are being successful, when for the last few years he hasn't been able to do his job right regardless of how good he was.'

'I suppose I can understand that.'

'He's not a bad man or a bad Auror Harry. He'll come around.'

I hope you're right Leanne. I really do.

'Is there anything else bothering you? You've been off for the last few days.' Asked Trott.

Shit what do I tell her. 'I suppose I'm beating myself up a little bit. I worked out the blood trigger on the train OK, I should have spotted it on the map. Since we got back and settled back in after the New Year I've been giving it more thought. It's been playing on my mind.'

Trott didn't give any indication that she knew what he was getting at, however, he knew better than to think he had fooled her fully. 'Don't beat yourself up. There's a lot going on, it was easy to miss. We agreed we wouldn't have used it anyway.' Said Trott fairly.

'Yeah I'm not so sure on that. Using their own transport system would have been a huge advantage, especially if we had the chance to scout out a place first to know what we were walking into. Being able to attack the Birmingham base for example would have been easier if we went through the map rather than the front door.'

'Maybe,' said Trott standing up 'maybe.'

The waves were crashing against the cliffs that Shell Cottage sat on when Harry arrived on Saturday morning. He walked over to Dobby's grave and spent a few minutes in peace there. Despite the rain and weathered gravestone the site hadn't lost any of its beauty.

Collecting his thoughts Harry walked up to the cottage where he knocked on the door. He was greeted by Fleur's smiling face 'Bonjour 'Arry, it's good to see you.' She said kissing him on each cheek as she ushered him inside.

'Hi Fleur, it's good to see you too. Morning Bill.'

'Morning Harry. Breakfast?'

'If it's no trouble?'

'Of course, it is no trouble.' Said Fleur sweeping past him towards the kitchen. 'We are just sitting down ourselves.'

Harry joined them at the table and Fleur slid a plate over to them. 'So Harry, what is it you wanted to talk about?' Asked Bill. Harry had sent him an owl asking if they could talk, he hadn't gone into detail though, call it paranoia but he was worried about the owl getting intercepted.

'Remember before Christmas, I was on that raid in Birmingham?'

'Yeah I remember you telling me about it.'

'Right, well we found a map afterwards which had a set of charms on it. Without looking into them I thought they had something to do with transportation.' Explained Harry 'My theory was confirmed when I found the same map in France and used it to escape the vampire coven back to the UK.'

'Yeah Ron told me about that.' Said Bill 'So what can I do to help?'

'I could do with you having a look at that map as if you don't know what it is.'

'Why? Do you think it could do anything else?'

'No it's just that as a curse breaker you'll be better at braking down the magic than me. I would like to know how quickly you think it would take a competent wizard to work it out.'

'I don't understand 'Arry, what are you trying to achieve?' Asked Fleur.

'We have a mole' said Harry bluntly 'We had a couple of people looking at that map for weeks and they didn't crack it.'

'What makes you think they should have?' Asked Bill.

'The trigger for the map is the same trigger used to call the carriages on the underground they built. If I was looking at something else these people built it's the first thing I would check for.'

Bill thought for a moment 'I agree with what your method would have been. You think one of those is the mole don't you?'

'Both of them is a possibility. That's worst-case scenario though, what I'm really hoping to find is that there is a confundus charm which was stopping them form working it out. Something that only a curse breaker or unspeakable would be able to spot.'

Bill studied him over clasped hands 'What do you know about the Aurors that were checking?'

'Only that I trust them.' Said Harry honestly 'I just need to rule them out and you're the only person I trust who can work out that map.'

'When do you want to go?'

'Whenever you're free, if it's possible outside of work time. I can still pay for your time.'

Bill laughed 'You don't need to pay me, I'll be glad to help.' He turned to Fleur 'Have we got anything planned today Fleur?'

'Non, mon cheri. 'Ave fun, I'm meeting wiz Amy and Bezzany later so don't worry if I'm out when you get back.'

'I won't, is that Ok with you Harry if we go now?'

'Yeah sure the sooner the better, I can side-along apparate you.'

Bill stood and kissed Fleur 'I'll see you later.'

'Oui, Au Revoir 'Arry.'

'Bye Fleur. Thanks for Breakfast.'

Harry took hold of Bill's arm and apparated the two of them to the society hideout in Birmingham. They made their way through to the map and Bill immediately set to work. Leaving the curse breaker to it Harry decided to have a wonder round so he wasn't looking over Bill's shoulder.

He was looking around the laboratory a couple of hours later when Bill came to find him. 'Harry can you come take a look at this?' Nodding Harry followed him back to where he was working.

'What have you found?' He asked apprehensively.

'You're right this map is a way of transportation, I was able to figure that out pretty quickly actually despite the confundus charm preventing me from concentrating on certain areas. I've removed that now if you would like to test it.'

Frowning Harry walked over to the spot in France where the coven was and found that he didn't get the same nauseous feeling as before. 'You're right it's gone, I can actually focus on it as well now and see what the map is showing us.'

'Now for the trigger that was a little trickier, a lot of blood magic is old and not frequently used, I only found it so quickly because of my work in Egypt.' He said seriously.

'So, you're saying that could be easily missed?'

'Yeah I checked the wards on the station for calling the carriage and it was a completely different style. Looking for something similar here wouldn't have worked and if you didn't know that much about this kind of magic you would have moved onto testing other methods.'

Harry's shoulders sagged in relief least that rules out O'Manda and Owens as the mole. 'So how are they different then?' He asked intrigued.

'The one on the station uses the blood as a kind of payment for the ward. Here it is what triggers the ward stone.' Bill Explained.

'There's ward stones in the map?'

'Yeah underneath, have you ever studied them?'

'No, I haven't although I wish I had taken Runes over divination.'

'Hindsight's a wonderful thing.' Bill chuckled.

Harry snorted 'You're not wrong. So how does the stone work then?'

'Well this is how it's different, the spell is actually just the simple transportation spell, reworked from the basis of a portkey. The stone that holds the spell is what requires the blood in this case. Ward stones like that are rare and extremely valuable. Whoever you are dealing with here knows what they're doing.'

'How many do you think there are in the world?' Harry asked.

'Not many outside of Egypt why?'

'Is there a way of tracking purchases of them?'

Bill thought for a moment 'I'm not sure. If you had some informants in the trade they might be able to tell you something, there's no register though if that's what you're thinking.'

'I was rather hoping yeah.' Said Harry disappointedly. 'These people just never seem to make a mistake.' He stalked over the map taking in the fresh detail on the spots where the confundus charm had been lifted.

He eventually looked back up to see Bill watching him with a concerned expression, instead of saying anything, Bill just walked over and clapped him on the shoulder. 'Come on I'm famished. I bet mom will cook us something up.'

The pair of them apparated to the Burrow and were instantly swept up in the always exuberant greetings of Molly as she told them how peaky they were looking since she last saw them the previous Sunday. She told them to sit down at the kitchen table, lunch would be served soon.

As the smell of her Oxtail soup started wafting up the stairs it didn't take Ron long to wander down and join them. He was immediately set the task of tracking down his father in the shed. They were all about to tuck in when George arrived in his usual whirlwind manner.

He returned his mom's hug in equal fashion doing his best to return the bone crushing quality, clouted Ron round the back of the head, pulled on Bill's ponytail, poked Harry in the ribs and finally turned to his father to practise his most recent Muggle card trick.

Smiling Molly laid out the Soup with mounds of white bread in the middle of the table and they all began to eat. 'I thought you would be at the shop George?' Asked Ron around mouthfuls of soup dipped bread.

'Well you see my dear Ronnekins I've had an important meeting in Hogsmeade with the owners of Zonkos.'

'Seriously?'

George nodded, his mouth too full to reply. Swallowing heavily he was just about able to answer 'Yeah, they want to sell up but still carry on working. I've arranged a deal where I get the shop and their line of products as well as selling our own. They are then going to run the store on a franchise basis taking a cut of the profits.'

'Sounds like win win.' Said Ron impressed.

'Yeah it is. One day I'll have to put my own management in when they retire, that shouldn't be too soon though.'

'Who's running the shop while you're out?' Asked Bill.

'Veritiy and Percy, you know me and Fred used to take the mick out of Percy for his lack of sense of Humour. I've got to give it to him though he's a dab hand at mixing the ingredients for the snack boxes and has come up with some great ideas himself.' Admitted George.

'I suppose all those NEWTs have got to count for something.' Grinned Bill. Ron snorted.

'What brings you two for lunch anyway?' Asked George.

'Harry asked me to take a look at something.' Bill told him.

'What?' Asked Ron a little taken a back that he wasn't invited to tag along.

'Just that map, I wanted to know how tough it was to work out how it worked without all the guess work.' Answered Harry.

'Oh, what do you think O'Manda and Owens didn't crack it on purpose?' he asked with his eyes raised.

'Yes and no' said Harry truthfully 'I don't think they would have meant not to crack it, I did wonder if they were confunded though.'

Ron nodded frowning slightly 'So what did you two find?'

'I found that the map used a ward stone rather than the same blood magic Harry found. I reckon only a curse breaker or unspeakable would have figured it out.' Said Bill.

'I did say we should have got him involved sooner.' Ron said to Harry in an I-told-you-so tone of voice.

Harry rolled his eyes at him. 'I know, we know for next time.'

Harry was sleeping peacefully on Monday night. It had been a long shift at work as he, Trott and O'Manda went through all of their reports linking to the society ready for the meeting the next day. He had told them about his findings on Saturday and they decided to ask the other Ministry officials if they could think of a way of tracking the stones.

Harry wasn't positive it would give them any results, at this point though a lead was a lead and they really needed to get ahead of the whoever was running the show. That meant following up on everything no matter how small, one tiny detail could be all it took to get the breakthrough they needed.

It was 2 O'Clock in the morning when a buzzer started going off in Harry's head, in his groggy state it took Harry a couple of minutes to process what had awoken him. What's that?... Oh shit it's the Hogsmeade alarm.

He jumped out of bed as the alarm started getting louder and roughly threw on a set of worn work robes. He raced out of the flat to the apparation point and apparated to the site in Hogsmeade that led to the Society's underground.

Seeing as the alarm was meant to trigger when someone had come through the barrier, apart from an Auror, Harry felt rather unnerved to find that he was alone. There was a soft pop to his left and he whirled round with his wand in hand to come face to face with Trott pointing her own wand back at him.

Her features visibly relax as they both lowered their wands. 'Where's everyone else?' Trott asked him urgently as she looked around for a sign of friend or foe.

'I don't know, none of the rest of the team are here and I can't see anyone that's come through the barrier.'

'Do you think we should have a look inside?'

'Let's go.' Walking forward tentatively Harry breached the barrier and came out the other side Trott close behind. It was dark inside with the usual illumination having been quashed.

'Ah you made it, we were beginning to worry.' Said a friendly familiar voice.

On hearing it the two relaxed so they were unprepared, as suddenly, their worlds turned black.