A/N: Shorter chapter than I've recently been releasing. There are two more chapters after this and then an Epilogue. I'm really upset that its ending :'c(

Sorry if this chapter is boring, but it needed to be done. Oh, and not yet beta read, although I am slowly starting to replace some chapters that Vickie has betad for me. I just don't want to wait for each chapter to be betad because I want to have this finished before book 7 comes out :c)

Chapter 37

I always dreamed
that love would be effortless
like a petal falling to the ground
a dreamer following his dream

Where is your heart
Cause I don't really feel you
Where is your heart
What I really want is to believe you
Is it so hard to give me what i need
I want your heart to bleed
And that's all I'm asking for
Where is your heart?

Kelly Clarkson "Where is your Heart?"

"Alright Auror Weasley, I'd like you to open your mouth as wide as you can and say 'ah'," The medi-wizard mumbled, placing a compressor on her tongue as he looked at her throat and glands.

Ginny rolled her eyes as she struggled to make the noise that he had requested of her around the flat object in her mouth.

"Good," he said, throwing the compressor into the trash and pulling his wand from his pocket. "Lumos. Ok, now I'm going to shine this light in your eyes, try not to blink."

She was fine. She knew it and this Ministry doctor knew it, but the Board had signed her up for a full physical before her return to work and she was very anxious to return to her case.

The last week had been…well, boring. She slept a lot and read a lot. That was it. She hated being stuck at home when they were so close to solving this case. She wanted to get back as soon as possible and find out what Aurors Tonks and Ferguson had managed to uncover in her absence.

As the doctor tapped her knees, checking her reflexes, Ginny let her mind drift.

There was a lot to be done when she returned, and a new partner to deal with.

She sighed as she remembered the third day of her forced vacation when a Ministry owl had delivered a sealed envelope to her bed side.

With nervous fingers she had broken the seal and flipped open the top flap, sliding the small piece of parchment out from inside. There were only a few words written there and her eyes scanned them quickly as she looked for the name.

…your new partner, Taddeus Hayes.

Ginny walked down the halls to her office, her clean bill of health clutched tightly in her right hand as she moved towards her office. It was strange to be back after a week, most people smiled at her as usual but some looked at her disdainfully, as if she were the black sheep of a club that she never knew she was a part of. It wasn't as if she had willingly taken a vacation, she hadn't even gone anywhere interesting.

"Jealous buggers," she muttered under her breath as she reached her office door and pushed it open.

She swept her eyes over the room, as if it were an oasis in the desert. There, was her desk and chair, and there, were the ever-blooming roses that Harry had bought for her.

"They stink," she could almost hear Draco's voice vibrating in her ears and her eyes roved over to the other desk in the room.

The desk was cluttered, not neat like Draco always kept it, she slid her brown eyes over its surface, stopping when she saw two mud-covered shoes, one stacked over the other resting on top of the desk. Her eyes traveled north, connecting the shoes to jean clad legs and her eyes shot up to meet a haughty expression and eyes the color of swamp water.

"Tadd," she greeted, her eyes narrowing at her new partner.

Taddeus Hayes was a well seasoned Auror, he had been on the force ten years and loved to rub it in to anyone that would listen. However, his history as an Auror had afforded him no medals or promotions, a fact that he was not happy about. He had a reputation for making rash decisions during raids, trying to steal the lime light in the interest of boosting his standing in the realm of Wizarding Law enforcement.

Perhaps worst of all, was that he was a know-it-all, but had never had any actual proof to back up his claims. In short, he was a jack ass, a perpetual liar, and her new partner.

"Weasley," he nodded at her, tugging the tuft of hair that sat at his chin.

He was the type of guy that could never get a date because he tried to hard, he had grown his beard out into the perfect five o'clock shadow (only letting his goatee grow longer), and Ginny was fairly sure that he used a Glamour to thin and shape his eye brows.

Staring at him, Ginny found herself missing Draco's careless grace and beauty. Her heart ached at the thought.

Chin up, girl.

She looked towards the flowers that sat on her desk and had the sudden urge to throw the vase against the far wall.

"Ginny," someone murmured from the doorway and the redhead turned towards the voice.

"Tonks," she said with a half-hearted smile.

"We heard you were back…"

"Yeah, this is my clean bill of health," she said, trying to iron out the creases of the now crumbled piece of paper in her hands.

"Great! Kingsley will be happy to see it. I was actually sent down here to get you," she explained, ushering Ginny from the room and into the hall.

"Does he want to see me too?" Tadd asked desperately.

"No," Tonks answered succinctly, hiding a giggle as Tadd grunted angrily.

"I don't envy you, with that one," Tonks whispered into Ginny's ear as they walked down the hall.

Ginny groaned, "Why him? Couldn't you have found someone else?"

"Afraid not. He and Bear have been at each others throats for months, we had to separate them and when Draco asked to be moved…"

"Draco got Bear?" Ginny whined. Why couldn't I get Bear?

Tonks smiled cheekily at the redhead as she held the door open to Kinsley's office.

The first thing that Ginny noticed when she walked inside was that the room was full of board members. The second thing she noticed was a man, standing near the back with a humble expression on his face and shaggy, peppered hair.

He waved at her shyly and Ginny laughed, wrapping her arms around him in a warm hug.

"Remus!" she said pulling back with a smile. Her expression faded into a frown of confusion as she took in the serious lines of his face, "What are you doing here?" she asked plainly.

"Auror Weasley, there is a situation regarding your case that we need to discuss," Kingsley rumbled and Ginny turned to face him, "Mr. Lupin has been kind enough to lend us his assistance and council."

"What is it?" she asked, her eyes flaring with interest. Lupin's presence was confusing; they had Dark Arts experts working for the Ministry, what possible use would they have for her old professor?

Kingsley nodded at Tonks and she began to explain what had happened during their first questioning of Antonin Dolohov and the information that they had gathered.

"Werewolves," Ginny whispered to herself in shock. She looked around the room at the faces of her superiors and a realization over took her, "This isn't my case anymore is it? You know where he is—"

Auror Ferguson smiled at her, "We questioned Dolohov almost everyday. Some days we would gain information and other days he wouldn't say a word."

"This is still your case, Auror Weasley. We could not have come to this point if it were not for your, and Auror Malfoy's, efforts."

She squinted her eyes in thought. Lupin wasn't here to help with Defense, "You're already planning a raid," she whispered.

"Yes," Auror Douglas agreed, waving his wand so that a map stretched open on the wall. "According to Dolohov and our intelligence, Fenrir and his men are staked out in The Ochil Hills of Scotland. We've been fielding reports of 'beast sightings' in Stirling, Alloa, Kinross and Perth for a while now. At the time, we just thought that it was a lone werewolf, and since there didn't seem to be any attacks we never took the time to investigate," he said bitterly, tapping the map so that it zoomed in on a large range of hills. It was a wide plateau with deep seated ravines near its southern peaks that looked to be only passable by wooden walkways.

It would be the perfect hiding place and the setting of their future raid.

Ginny could feel excitement bubbling up in her chest; this would be the first raid, of its kind, that she had been on.

The people in the room continued to talk around her and her head began to spin as visuals of lines of attack were outlined in her mind.

"By our calculations, Greyback has around one hundred followers," said a black haired Head Auror that Ginny only knew as Auror Pickles.

"Less," Lupin interrupted, "If Dolohov's information is correct," he started, penning his thoughts out on paper as he spoke.

"…In all, 80 houses were attacked, and the 'unsuitable' muggles were turned into mindless slaves. The lists of the children leads us to believe that there would be a number of one-hundred followers, but Fenrir would have also gotten rid of the 'overly strong' ones. He is an alpha, and doesn't want to have to worry about being overthrown," he explained.

"Makes sense. What would happen to the 'overly strong'?" a voice called from the back, it was Auror Jenkiss, a female Board member.

"Cannibalism. Greyback is known for his…less than savory practices," Kingsley offered.

"Precisely, he would have devoured them in hopes of becoming stronger himself," Remus said with a sickened sigh.

"Taking him down will be no easy task. He has managed to evade Azkaban for a very long time," Auror Ferguson said.

"That's why we do this my way," Lupin affirmed.

"Remus…." Tonks whispered, her voice pleading as she rested a hand on her husband's shoulder.

"Nymph, you know it's the only way. They're children."

"I know," she said, swallowing nervously.

"What do you propose, Mr. Lupin?" Kingsley's deep voice reached over the others.

"I propose that we take down Fenrir and save the children. They are werewolves, but not by choice. We could save them."

"How?" Auror Pickles asked.

Remus lifted his chin, "We would have to take down Fenrir, and I would replace him as Alpha. If I can defeat him, and take his place I can perform as the Alpha wolf. I could stop the fighting."

"That's a large risk."

"It is, and we might not succeed, but I'm willing to try."

Kingsley seemed to consider this for a moment, studying the man standing in front of him.

"Then so are we," he answered after a moment, "We will have to devise a back up plan, of course."

"Of course."

"I'm putting a lot of trust in your abilities, Lupin," he said, the man's last name was said with the same tones that someone would use to say 'friend' or 'brother'.

Remus smiled at the darker man, "I know, and you wouldn't do it if you didn't think that there was a chance at success."

Draco sat at his new desk, trying to focus on the papers in front of him when his partner walked in.

"Hey," the chocolate skinned man said, taking a seat across from him and attempting to smoother a soft smile.

"What is it?" Draco asked shortly, he could tell from the other man's expression that he was bursting to say something.

"Weasley's back," he said, watching the other man carefully.

Draco schooled his face into a look of indifference, "I. Don't. Care," he answered gruffly, wishing that it was the truth.

Of course Draco had known that she would be back today. He had counted the days of her vacation, dreading the moment that they would cross each other's path again.

The other man seemed to wilt at Draco's aloofness. There was a pool going around the office to find out why Draco and Ginny had changed partners. Bear had put money in the 'sexual frustration' bank and ever since he had become Draco's new partner, he had been trying to finagle information out of the tight-lipped man.

"You shouldn't hold your feeling insid—"

"Shut up, Bear," Draco interjected, glaring at his partner.

As far as Draco was concerned he had drawn the short straw when it came to the list of new partners. He had gotten stuck with 'Bear' otherwise known as Iksugandha Yadav Kapur. Bear was much easier to pronounce.

His partner was tall, lanky, and dark skinned. His nickname had more to do with his personality than his looks. He was the sensitive kind of man that women drooled over, a man that had turned 'expressing his feelings' into an art form. The type of person that would make a great camp counselor, AA sponsor, or big brother because he would sit with you and cry as you talked about hard times and hard knocks.

They had only been working together for a week, but Bear was already trying to get Draco to 'open up' about himself and his feelings.

Draco didn't do warm chats over cocoa. The one time he had tried to express his feelings had turned out to be a complete failure. Draco groaned at the thought.

It was much better to be a cold hearted.

Bear held his hands up in a hesitant gesture, "Sorry, I just think that you would feel better if you didn't keep everything locked up inside. You don't have to talk to me, but you should talk to someone. Trust me, you'll feel a lot lighter and then maybe you wouldn't scowl so much."

Draco folded his hands on top of his desk and stared icily at his partner, the corner of his mouth tugging upwards in a smirk.

"Are you hitting on me, Bear?"

"What?! No!"

"I'm flattered, really, but—"

A loud popping noise sounded in the room and the two men turned to look at the small Ministry elf that had entered their office.

"Aurors Malfie and Kapur is wanted in the main training room," she said, her large ears wobbling as she nodded at them before disapparating.

The two men looked at each other and Bear shrugged as they stood from their chairs.

"Just so we're clear, Malfoy," Bear muttered as they walked down the hall and to the elevators, "You're not my type."

"Thank Merlin for that," Draco snorted as he punched a button on the elevator's console.

The main training room was a rather large gymnasium with a wood paneled floor. The room was primarily used to train for partner combat and spell offense/defense but it also doubled as an auditorium of sorts. The room could easily hold five-hundred people and At the back of the large room was a small stage that was occasionally used for big announcements or medal ceremonies.

Draco and Bear entered the room slowly, noticing that many other Aurors were already there and that Kingsley Shacklebolt was standing on the stage, surrounded by Board members and his former DADA professor, Remus Lupin.

"What's going on?" Draco heard an Auror to his left ask her partner.

"I don't know, might be a raid," her partner answered.

"Why so many people?" Another person asked, and soon the whole room was filled with chatter as more people filed inside.

The doors closed by themselves when one last team of Aurors entered and everyone fell silent as Kingsley cleared his throat.

"Thirty of my best teams stand before me, thirty teams that will be sent out, to Scotland on a raid assignment," he started and some whispers began again at his words.

"Mr. Douglas and his team have uncovered the location of wanted werewolf, Fenrir Greyback. Over the last year, Greyback, along with other wizards at his disposal, has managed to attack eighty muggle homes. He is the master mind behind a black market muggle slave trade and has, in that time, amassed a small army of werewolves.

"His plan is a simple one. He intends to raise and breed his army, his ultimate goal is to create a united and strong force against muggles and wizarding kind. He is a mad man that must be taken down."

Kingsley paused, looking out among the faces before him, "This is not a search and destroy mission. With Remus Lupin's assistance, we hope to free the stolen children from Greyback's abusive leadership. We have two courses of action which, depending on the circumstances will be employed to guarantee our goals."

Draco took in the information as if he were a drowning man taking in water. It seemed unbelievable and he found his eyes searching the crowd to witness the reactions of the other Aurors around him.

His gaze flitted over familiar faces and determined stances. He slid his gaze over them, his attention being pulled back to the man on the stage, but stopping short as his silver eyes locked on deep brown irises.

Ginny stared back at him, her expression open and her eyes soft. The rest of the room seemed to become fuzzy around them as they looked at each other longingly.

He couldn't look away from her. She was his salvation and ultimate distraction. Desire tightened in his chest as her lips parted in a gasp.

She could see the weakness in his eyes, and her heart flip-flopped painfully. She gasped at the honesty of his expression, it made her want to run- but she was unsure of the direction her feet would carry her if she tried. The urge to rush into his arms was strong and she berated herself for her weakness.

He took an almost imperceptible step forward and Ginny tore her gaze away from him, relief flowing out of her as the intensity of their connection was broken.

It had only been a week since she had last been in his presence, since they had shared heated words and a passionate confession.

She glanced at him again, under long lashes. He was looking at the floor, his hands fisted at his sides and his teeth clenched tightly.

It hurt to see him acting this way and it was even more painful to not be standing beside him.

She wanted to fall into his embrace and apologize to him, but every time she tried to think of ways to talk to him, what to say, she lost her nerve.

Her feelings were too close to the surface, too raw. She was too fragile to try right now, she needed time and she hoped that he could be patient. She needed him to be patient.

"The raid will commence of the evening of the next full moon. That gives us one week to prepare," Kingsley concluded and Ginny snapped out of her thoughts, her eyes misting over as she looked down at her shoes.

There's something that I can't quite explain
I'm so in love with you
you'll never take that away

Blue October "Calling You"

A/N: ROFL her new partner's name was originally going to be 'Taylor Hayes' but something in me screamed for me to check google just incase it was the name of an actor or model. It sounded eerily familiar….yep, Taylor Hayes is a porn actress. Wow, needless to say I swiftly changed the name to Taddeus.

Orchil Hills info from Wikipedia. I may have taken some liberties with the landscape.

Thanks to my reviewers! Love you guys! When I first started writing this story I never expected it to be so long or that it would ever have over 400 reviews! You guys are amazing and have helped me to improve my writing and confidence with your gentle critiques and encouragement.