CHAPTER 5

There was paperwork everywhere. Ginny sighed, leaning an elbow against her desk and resting her head in her hand as she looked down at the paperwork. Everything needed to be accounted for. Every detail of every case, completely filled out, and filed with the big wigs.

She scratched her cheek and grumbled incoherently, scribbling another sentence onto the report in front of her.

A light chuckle made her raise her head. Her eyes squinted in a glare as she looked at her partner. "What?" she snapped.

"You have ink on your cheek."

"Where?" She scowled, touching her cheek

"A little lower," he said seriously. She lowered her fingers, pulling them away, noting the ink on her fingers.

"I hate filling out these things," she said, stretching.

He smirked, his quill continuing its movement across his own set of reports before looking up at her. "Come on, Weasley. This report is a hell of a lot easier than the report for your first assignment."

She couldn't help but laugh at that. "Very true. I still don't know how we kept a straight face that day. Remember what they looked like?"

He snorted. "Stuck together? With parts in all the wrong places… they should've never tried to Apparate while drunk. Especially in front of so many Muggles"

She laughed, her shoulders shaking, as she remembered.

She had been so scared her first day, not sure how she would ever handle working with Malfoy, and terrified of what her first assignment would be like. When they had arrived on the scene, she had no idea what she was looking at, let alone that it was two people. They had to Obliviate the memories of twelve Muggles, all because two drunks tried to Side-Along-Apparate, splinching themselves together.

Six months, later, that day seemed so long ago. She had been on many assignments since then, some missions with just the two of them and others in teams. She was no longer green. Six months worth of experience had already hardened her.

She looked over at her partner, watching as he wrote down the events of their newest assignment, his hair shielding his face from view.

Their partnership had worked so far. He was hard, callous, and cold, but she had gone in knowing that. So when he said hurtful things, or was bullheaded, she wasn't surprised. They didn't like each other, not by any means, but they could stand each other now and even share jokes. Ginny trusted him, not as a person, but as a partner. They did work well together, as he had said her first day, and the higher-ups were beginning to take notice, placing them on more difficult missions.

She was brought out of her reverie when a crack sounded by her elbow. The elf held out a piece of paper for her and she smiled, taking it from the small creature. She opened it, perusing its contents.

"What's it say?" Draco asked, putting down his quill.

"We're being summoned to Tonks' office."

(((0))))

When Tonks opened the door to her office to let them in, Ginny's first thought had been that the newly metamorphed long aqua hair and more almond shaped eyes looked lovely. The second thought didn't hit until she noticed the other occupant in the room. 'We are in deep shit'

Tonks ushered the two Aurors to their seats in front of her desk before taking a seat herself. There, in Tonks' normal seat, sat Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Auror Weasley, Auror Malfoy, it is good to see you both." He spoke in his usual deep and calming timber.

Kingsley, after the war, had been appointed as the head of the Auror department. He was widely loved and respected, known for his soothing demeanor, as well as his quick casting and leadership skills.

"As you might have guessed, this meeting is not for tea."

Ginny nodded and noted that beside her, Draco, as always, looked bored and unconcerned.

"We have a new mission for you. It's different from the ones you have been doing lately. It's more involved and, perhaps more dangerous. It is not a simple 'in and out' operation. It will demand all of your time, from now until it is finished." He paused, letting his words penetrate. "Usually I would assign this mission to a team, but the Ministry wants as few people involved as possible."

"Why us, sir?" Draco asked. "Why not more experienced Aurors if this mission is so important?"

"The older Aurors are too cocky; they wouldn't take their time and evaluate everything completely. This mission needs to be dealt with the utmost care and discretion."

Ginny's heart was racing. An important mission? A long lasting mission? She would finally be able to escape the pit of 'go, do, and wrap up with loads of paper work.'

"I'm trusting you both with this mission. You have proved your mettle in recent months, and I trust you to handle your duties well." He eyed them closely, watching for any reaction that would tell him that they weren't ready. When no such expression showed itself, he let out a silent breath of relief.

He turned his attention to the thick folder in front of him. He placed his wand over the folder and tapped it three times before finally placing his wand aside and opening the folder.

Taking a deep breath, he pulled out two files, handing one to each of them. Ginny looked over it quickly. It was a list of names, a list of missing persons.

"As you can see, that is a list of missing persons. Muggles. All of the stories are the same; a Muggle family suddenly goes missing, their houses completely destroyed. It looks as if the houses were turned inside out and then demolished, with no how or why…"

Ginny flipped through her file, noticing that the missing families were from all over the United Kingdom. No set pattern could be seen.

"There are seventy-five people on that list. We have reason to believe that former Death Eaters are behind these attacks. The destruction of the houses is obviously done magically," he said, just as Ginny turned to a page with a picture of one of the destroyed houses.

It really did look as if it had been flipped inside out and then smashed into pieces. It reminded her of when her father had brought home a Muggle toy called 'Legos'. Her brothers would build tall structures from the pieces and then knock them over, breaking the pieces apart as the tower fell.

"Your mission..." Kingsley's deep voice started once more, "is to find out what has happened to these people and who is behind it. We want it stopped. In your files you will find a list of suspects and a general idea of where to start."

Ginny swallowed, her tongue feeling thick, as she nodded her acceptance of this new mission. Her Auror status just got a lot more interesting.