A/N: I hate this chapter. It's very messy and not enough detail. It's kind of just a filler anyway. Still, you have to read it, but, eh, it's just explanations of what's going on at the Ministry and lead-ons to the next chapter. Definitely flame worthy, it's icky.

Chapter Two

Chaos At The Ministry

George Apparated amidst a large crowd in the middle of the Ministry. That was odd. He had been trying for as close to the Ministry as possible, but wasn't it impossible to Apperate directly into the Ministry? George had momentarily thrown caution to the wind, not really thinking about the fact that a Muggle may see him suddenly appear on the side of the road. All had, apparently worked out well. But things were not well at the Ministry.

The large crowd seemed to be generally of angry people who were yelling out things like "This is an outrage!" or "This is preposterous!" Well, whatever this was, George figured, he didn't need to get involved. He turned to get checke din as visitor, but instead saw a familiar face.

"Oh, George, hi," Lee Jordan said, looking a bit peaky. He seemed to be one of the people telling everyone what this was. George noticed that Angelina Johnson was next to him. She smiled at him lightly, but quickly looked away. "We heard," Lee continued, "about Fred. Really sorry, mate, you doing alright?"

"Fine, fine," George said, nodding. Lee gave him a look and George knew that, of course, he knew that was a lie. Anyone would have. But what was George supposed to do? Reminiscence about Fred in the middle of this protest thing? Hardly. "What's going on Lee?" George asked.

"It's the new Minister," Lee said, in a hushed tone. "Some weird stuff is happening. The entire Department of Mysteries has been disbanded." George went to say something but Lee shook his head. "No one knows why. Someone said it's because there were supposedly a bunch of Death Eaters in the group, but some of the workers weren't, they could have figured out who was and wasn't working for You-Know-Who. And then, get this, they're using Hippogriffs and Thestrals to guard Azkaban now, since the Dementors are gone. But nothing being done about the Dementors! They're just flying around Britain free as anything!"

"It's completely obscene," Angelina said, leaning over. "This guy has no fucking idea what he's doing."

"Who is it?" George asked, feeling in the dark about the whole thing.

Lee and Angelina looked at each other. Then Lee said, "Well, that's the thing. No one really knows. I suppose some of the Ministry workers do, but not even the Prophet knows. Of course, they're speculating left and right. Last I heard it was Barty Crouch."

"Well, I'll leave you guys to protesting," George said.

"Ah, here to see your dad?" Lee asked.

"Actually…yeah, my mum's been worried you know. Nothing to worry about we keep telling her, but that's mum for you," George said, completely lying. His dad wouldn't be going to back to work anytime soon as far as he knew. No one really expected him to, since many people weren't going back to work. It surprised George to see so many workers heading past the protestors, ignoring them and somehow going back to work. He left Lee with a quick good-bye and headed to the visitor's check in.

"Name?" said the bored looking wizard.

"George Weasley," George told him, in what he hoped was a bored sounding voice. Several people seemed to look over at him when he said his name, but George decided it was just his imagination.

"Here to see?" the wizard asked.

"Audrey Ryan," George said after a moment.

The wizard handed him a tag and went onto the next person. "Wait," George said. "Don't you have to see my wand or something? I remember-"

"That's been dropped for the time being. Too many people coming and going, Minister's orders," the wizard said in that same monotone. "Now, if you'll move on Mr. Weasley?" George opened his mouth, then thought better of it and headed away. It wa sonly then that he realized he had no idea where Audrey worked in the Ministry. It was obviously something to do with Magical Creatures, but who knew? Maybe things were getting sent to people that weren't quite qualified. After all, the Ministry must have thousands of things to do and not enough people to do them. So George stood in the middle of the Ministry of Magic quite unsure of what to do.

"George! Oi!" someone called out. George turned to see, of all luck, Audrey Ryan, smiling at him a few feet away. She hurried towards him. "Wh-wh-what are you doing here?" she asked, beginning the statement with a yawn, looking quite tired. She wore a large purple sweater and skinny jeans. She looked quite nice, but almost as if she was about to fall asleep.

George realized he was wearing the same clothes he had been wearing when Fred died. The same stupid green sweater and stupid jeans. His hair was probably crazy and he probably looked just as exhausted as Audrey. "I came to see you, actually," George admitted.

"Me?" Audrey said, her face flushed for a moment and then she laughed. "Well, alright. Here, we can go to my office." George raised his eyebrows as they entered one of the twelve lifts. "Well, okay, not my office, it's my boss's. But seeing as he's been away on assignment, I've kind of taken over. We on level six," she added, "Department of Control of Magical Creatures."

"I never knew you were good with that sort of thing," George said. Realizing, then, that he really didn't know Audrey very well. They had talked in the few select classes they shared, said hi to one another in the halls, known each other. But never really knew one another.

"Care of Magical Creatures was my best class," Audrey said as the lift reached the sixth level.

i Level Six, Department of Magical Creature Law Enforcement, Department of Control of Magical Creatures. /i

George and Audrey stepped off the lift and George followed her as she turned to the left. "Aren't those the same thing, really?" Law enforcement and control?"

Audrey laughed and looked back at George, shaking her head. "The two are in a serious battle over which is right. Law enforcement is the one who sets zones for where the Magical Creatures have to stay and then punishes them for breaking the zones and any other ridiculous laws they can think of. Control is for dangerous animals, making sure they don't hurt anyone, and reasoning with ones about to who are intelligent enough to understand. Basically, Law enforcement causes issues with magical Creatures, and Control handles the situations. If anything we're complete opposites."

They entered an area of cubicles. "Audrey! Hey, we got work on the centaurs in-oi, who's this?" A young wizard tripped over his own robes and stumbled up to Audrey and George, his face flushing, but managing a grin.

"My friend, George. Now what about the centaurs, Jennings?" Audrey said, in an authorities voice George wouldn't have imagined the petite girl to have.

"Oi, George Weasley?" Jennings said, his eyes growing wide. "The one in the paper, with the shop? You know him, Audrey?"

"Obviously, I do," Audrey said, sounding fed up. "Centaurs, Jennings? Focus."

Jennings once again flushed and shuffled through his papers, handing Audrey a select few. "It seems LO told them they were to have no contact with the Ministry because of lower intelligence. I guess they're only attacking Ministry officials. Hagrid, the Gamekeeper can approach them just fine."

"I suppose I'll have to go talk to them then. Darling isn't back yet?" Audrey groaned.

"He's still off looking for werewolves in Greenwich," Jennings said. "I'll go talk to the Minister then? She asked to be up to date on the centaur bit."

"Yes, well hurry up then," Audrey said. Jennings nodded and hurried off down the hall. "He's a brilliant kid, really," Audrey confided to George. "Just a bit clumsy and a lot scatterbrained. Reminds me of Luna Lovegood, if you know who she is?"

"Who doesn't know who Luna Lovegood is?" George said with a grin as he followed Audrey into an office in a corner, much darker than the cubicles outside. The room was filled with towering paperwork and several paper airplanes floated, several wobbling as their charm began to wear off.

"Touché," Audrey laughed. "Sorry about the mess. Darling may let us use his office while he's away, but forbid we touch anything." She smiled and cleared some papers off of two chairs, sat down, and motioned for him to do the same. George did and before he could say anything Audrey was talking again. "Why are you here, anyway, George? Is it because of the Prophet?"

"No…Ithe Prophet?" George asked, feeling utterly confused.

"You haven't seen it then?" Audrey said looking shocked. This morning's edition, sold out faster than any edition in history. Page 3, something about Weasley Woes and something?" She handed him a copy of The Daily Prophet. On the front was Harry smiling for some cameras, but looking awfully modest.

Turning to page three George saw the title and nearly died laughing. "Who wrote this?" he said, pointing at the title. Weasley Woes and Wins:It sounds like some sort of Muggle show."

"Rita Skeeter wrote it," Audrey said, pointing to the second paragraph. "That's where things get interesting. The first paragraph is all rubbish about how she knew You-Know-Who was going to come back all along. You know, bullshit. But here, see? 'Molly Weasley was not available for commenting on her attack on Bellatrix Lestrange, renowned Death Eater escapee. This may be because of the loss of her son Fred Weasley, of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. The store seems to be closed down, as the deceased's twin, who co-owned the store with him, has not been seen since the now infamous night at Hogwarts.'"

"What?" George said, incredulously. "What does she mean I Haven't been seen? It's been, like, a day! I'm just supposed to go back to work, am I? What is wrong with her?"

"I have no idea," Audrey said, setting the paper down on the desk. "I don't understand what she means by 'the now infamous night at Hogwarts.' She's planning something that's not going to work. She wants to change Harry from a hero to an antagonist, but it's not going to go well for her. The new Minister's obviously not pleased."

"Wait, you know who the new Minister is?" George asked, half surprised, although he had been expecting it somewhat.

Audrey flushed at letting this detail slip. "Oh," she said, "well, yeah. Darling knows since he's head of the Department and he decided to tell the rest of us. I'm really not supposed to tell, but, well, shit, I can't keep my mouth shut. It's Kingsley Shacklebolt."

"What?" George said, in such surprise he nearly jumped out of the chair. Of cours,e it made sense, Kingsley was such a good Auror and probably just as good a leader. And even a name that George would have consider. But, still, hearing that he was the Minister was quite more shocking than thinking about him being Minister.

"Yeah," Audrey said, "my reaction as well. I guess McGonagall is set to run Hogwarts but they're in need of new teachers. I was thinking about applying, but this job is more important, they don't enough staff spots filled. But, George, you never answered. Why are you here?"

"II don't really know, Audrey," George said. Not only talking to Audrey, but being truthful to himself as he spoke. "I guess, it's just, my mum, dad, brothers, my sister, everyone is so involved in it, right? Fred wasn't just my brother, he was close to them too. So they keep wanting to talk about it, or get me to talk about it. The whole time. After we left Hogwarts it was 'Oh, dear, George, are you all right?' I don't get why they expect me to be able to talk about it so easily, why they expect me to be able to just wave his name around like it doesn't hurt. I just need someone who's not attached to the situation like my family or close friends. I need to get my mind off of this whole thing."

Audrey seemed to contemplate this for a moment. Then she smiled at him. "I understand what you mean. Not really a comparison, but when my grandmum died I felt the same way. Your probably feeling about ten times worse since grandmum just went in her sleep, and, well, she wasn't my twin. But, if it makes you feel any better I kind of know what you're going through. I know I never really will, but it helps to know you're not alone completely, huh?"

"Yeah, it's just, not I have to go back, to the Burrow," George said, his voice full of pity for the situation. "With everyone trying to get me to talk. And you get to go to Hogwarts and talk to the Centaurs. While I'm stuck at my house, moping about-"

"George, shut up," Audrey said, a grin on her face as she grabbed a black bag from underneath the desk. "Honestly, if you want to come just ask. But since I get the point, you can come. First, though, we're going to have to sneak into my house. If we wake up my roommate, Cheryl we'll have hell to pay."

"Me? Come with you? Why, Audrey, what a brilliant idea, I do agree, although, of course, I have no idea where you would get such an idea," George said, with a quite pleased look on his face.

Audrey rolled her eyes. "Shut up and come on, you loser."

A/N: See? Ick. No more updates for about two weeks, but I promise updates then. R&R please, I know this chapter is going to be critized.