I couldn't leave you guys hanging for TOO long! I really am sorry about that horrible cliffie. I hope you'll forgive me.
As always, enjoy and review if you are so moved…
Harry clenched his fists on the hard, metal arms of his chair. He was staring stony-faced at the one-way mirror. Whoever was on the other side should be scared, because he felt like he could pull an 'X-Men' and rip the chair out of the floor and hurl it at the glass.
He knew there was someone in there. Probably several someones. It's not every day that the world-famous, award-winning, heroic do-gooder Harry Potter gets arrested. People would want to see this.
Arrested. He thought to himself bitterly. Arrested? For what? He knew what, technically. Conspiracy in the murder and kidnapping of Ginny Weasley. Hell no. He wanted to yell at these idiots. He wanted to kick and scream and assure them that if any of them ever had sex with Ginny, they'd know exactly why this was so ridiculous. A guy wanted to keep that feeling around for as long as possible.
Guaranteed to repel murder and kidnapping. A-one guaranteed.
He repressed a sigh and tried to stop himself from tapping his feet. He knew what the idiots on the other side of the glass were looking for. Jitters, twitches, other general signs of guilt or discomfort. But Harry blinked steadily ahead. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction.
Harry rattled off various facts and lists in his head. Worked hard to remember various passages from the officer's handbook. Anything to try and cool the blood boiling in his veins. Eventually, screwing up his face a bit in concentration, he tried to remember the patterns on the rug in Ginny's apartment. Was it blue square brown triangle? Or brown triangle and cream square? He jumped when he heard a muffled yell from the other side of the mirror.
He couldn't say he was surprised. There were a lot of people that wouldn't want him here. People, reasonable people, that could take one look at him and see that he'd never hurt a fly, let alone the woman he lov-
Nope. He thought, shaking his head roughly. Nope, I'm not going to go there while I'm chained to a table in an interrogation room.
He lifted his head as he heard the door squeak open. A familiar man stepped through. Harry willed his body to relax and slump back into his chair.
"Remus." He greeted the man, folding his hands over his stomach. "So you got the short straw?" Harry asked as Remus Lupin sat down across the table from him and smirked back softly.
"Coin toss, actually. No one wanted to touch this case."
Harry snorted. "I'm not surprised. Is Sirius here yet? I thought I heard yelling." Remus grimaced and opened a small file in front of him.
"Yeah, Sirius is here." Lupin shook his head and flipped calmly through the pages. "I've been friends with the man since we were eleven and he still threatened to break my fingers if I so much as thought about filing this paperwork wrong." The older man smiled up at Harry. "And Severus, of course. He's getting ready to knock heads together, mark my words. You've got a few advocates, Potter. Thank your lucky stars for that."
"I don't need luck, Remus. I didn't do anything." Harry replied. But Lupin just nodded and waved his fingers at him as he looked back down at the papers.
"Alright, so I'm here to do some exploratory work. We have to look into some things but this doesn't look extremely likely. And in any case, even if I do find anything, Snape is already pulling money out of the bank for your bail."
Harry frowned and flickered his eyes to the mirror where he knew the older agent would be standing and listening.
"Well, he really shouldn't be doing that." He said, raising his voice slightly and not taking his eyes off the mirror. There was a sharp rap on the glass and he had to keep from smiling. Yep. Snape was in there, all right.
"Harry?" Lupin got his attention and flipped to a clean page on a legal pad. "Let's start at the beginning. When was the first time you met Ginny Weasley?"
Harry nodded grimly and answered the questions. Back and forth they went for a long time, Harry didn't even know how long. "Where do you sleep in Miss Weasley's house? Would you say you're well acquainted with your charge? How often do you check her mail? Are you well acquainted with your charge's family? How often do you see outside visitors? Where were you on the night of…" On and on and on.
And Harry answered truthfully. It was the Cardinal Rule of Interrogation. If there's one thing that you learn as a cop, it's that lying gets you no where. The criminals and idiots that lied to the cops or tried to run and hide never, ever got a good deal. If you cooperate, there was no telling the amount of leniency you could get.
So Harry answered Lupin's questions honestly, no matter how many there were. He answered assuredly and quickly after they were asked, all the while keeping the Cardinal Interrogation rule in his head on repeat. Everything was going smoothly until…
"Harry?" Remus asked after a moment. Harry was staring at the mirror again. He felt like his brain had started buzzing and suddenly sweat broke out on his palms. "Harry," Remus repeated for a second time, "are you currently engaged in a sexual or romantic relationship with Miss Weasley?"
Harry swallowed and cleared his throat, trying not to picture the matching looks of horror on Snape and Sirius's faces behind the mirror when he said, "Yes, I am."
Lupin closed his eyes for a second and took a small breath. Yeah. Harry thought. That completely shoots my credibility to hell. Lupin made a note on his paper before turning back to Harry.
"Well, we'd suspected as much. We got two anonymous tips about some peculiar interactions between you two."
"Two?" Harry was shocked. One had to be Dawlish, but who was the other…?
Remus continued. "Then we got some information from Ron Weasley about a missing paper in his sister's file. He said he'd talked to you about it, but you didn't report it. Agent Finnegan did."
Harry frowned. Ok, that didn't do much for his credibility either.
"And to date, you've found a message from the stalker that slipped by the team of five officers that are filtering her mail. And you weren't present on the night of the second attack at the Rochester. And since those two incidents, the hate mail and threats have been coming more and more frequently.
"We also found this in the back of your car." Remus slid a receipt from the file and showed it to Harry. It was a receipt for a toy store in Harry's neighborhood. It only had one transaction on it and had been paid in cash. The print read "Ovrsz Doll".
"Oversized Doll." Harry murmured, having to stop his voice from catching.
Harry sat back in his chair, hard. Well, this wasn't good. Remus's mouth thinned into a thin line and he took a picture out of the back of the folder.
"Do you recognize this man?" He asked Harry, who leaned forward. Harry frowned.
"Yeah. He was a recruit in the year below me at Academy. I've never spoken to him, though. I don't even know his name, just saw him around the training yards."
"That's Michael Corner. The man who's missing from Ginny Weasley's file. Are you sure you never spoke to him, Harry?" Lupin's voice was strained from talking so much, but Harry could tell that he was searching for something, anything, to let Harry walk free. He nodded.
"Well, like I said, we're still looking into some things. It's fishy that all of this should come to the surface in the space of about twenty-four hours. And when we traced the tips they all came from an isolated payphone. All except for one, which was written."
Dawlish. Harry thought just as the door swung open to reveal a wild-eyed Sirius, followed by Seamus Finnegan. Remus opened his mouth, but Seamus cut him off.
"I wasn't the one who reported the Corner thing! It was…Well, I mean I was the one who submitted the inquiry, but Harry was the one who told me to do it! He felt bad because I'd had a fight with my-"
Sirius cut Seamus off. "And I can attest that Agent Potter is meticulous about his car. He never allows any trash to sit in it for more than about a minute. That's a character statement." He growled, shoving a tape under Remus's nose. "That's a security tape of Harry leaving his apartment three minutes after the incident at the Rochester, so he couldn't have been there."
"Latex." Harry muttered under his breath. Sirius sucked in an excited breath.
"And while Harry's fingerprints were on the stray threat on the magazine, there were also traces of latex, implying that someone else had handled it while wearing gloves. Trying to keep their fingerprints off of it."
Remus held up a hand. "I get it, Sirius. He's innocent." He lowered his voice and leaned in closer. "I know that, but that doesn't change the fact that I have to be thorough." He straightened. "Let me go confer. I'll be back."
With that, Harry's interrogator walked out and closed the door quietly, leaving him, Seamus and Sirius alone. Sirius clapped his back and sat in Lupin's recently vacated chair.
"They've got nothing." He told Harry.
"Nothing except the fact that I'm sleeping with her?" Harry asked, tipping his head back and allowing his eyes to close. Sirius scoffed.
"That's nothing. You're not the first. I researched it and there's a precedent case with an Agent in 1984, what happened-"
"How did you have time to look up other cases? I've only been here an hour." Harry interrupted. Seamus smiled down at them.
"I may have given Mr. Black a bit of a heads up before they came to take you in." He said, rocking bashfully on his heels. "I knew you didn't do anything. You couldn't! The way you look at her…" Seamus turned red around the ears and looked away. An awkward silence followed as the three sat and avoided each others' gaze.
Finally the door swung open. Remus poked his head inside. "Come with me. All of you." He said shortly and ducked back out. Harry made to stand and follow Seamus out, but was stopped short by his cuffs holding him to the chair. Which was nailed to the floor. An officer rushed into the room with keys.
"Longbottom." Harry greeted as the man unlocked his wrists.
"Agent Potter." The man was looking at the floor and turned pink. "I was just following-"
"Orders." Harry nodded sympathetically. "I'd feel bad if I arrested you, too. No hard feelings?" He asked over his shoulder, almost jogging to keep up with Sirius. They followed Lupin down a long hall and past dozens of cubicles.
At least it's night, so there aren't people here to stare. Harry thought as he crossed the threshold into Kingsley's office. His Captain looked up at him grimly.
"Agent Potter. I hereby remove you of your duties of protecting Miss Ginny Weasley. I also sentence you to three weeks of personal leave."
Harry blinked at him. "What?" He began, not sure what to do with such an abrupt order. Kingsley nodded and bent back to some papers.
"You're becoming too attached to the case again." He said, and Harry knew he meant that he'd become too attached to Ginny. "You've got a record with that, Potter. I don't mess around with the safety of my agents or my clients, understood?" Harry nodded, feeling suddenly tired.
What a bizarre night. It all seemed like a blur to him. Had it really been only this morning that he'd been laughing in bed with Ginny? That they'd talked in her office? He hadn't even had dinner yet…He glanced at the clock and saw it was close to midnight. Where's Ginny? Who's with her? He wanted to ask, but thought that it might come a bit close to the "too attached" conversation again.
So if he were here, then Kinglsey would know about his relationship with Ginny. Should I apologize? He wondered, but didn't even know where he would start. Sir, I apologize for getting intimate with my charge even though you basically told me to? No. Not a good plan. Instead, his mind derailed and began spinning over the past few hours, cataloguing all the evidence that had been brought against him.
If he could track it all down, maybe make some connections back to the source of the anonymous tips then maybe he could-
"Harry!" Sirius's exasperated voice brought him suddenly out of his stupor. Sirius glared at him and tipped his head towards Kingsley, who looked like he was holding back a sigh. Or a smile, Harry couldn't tell.
"I said, Agent Potter, that as your official leave of absence starts now, I'd appreciate it if you'd please vacate the station." His captain said. Harry blanched. Was he really in this much trouble? Surely this was only a temporary absence?
"Sir, I'm so sorry. I-" He started.
Kingsley held up a hand to halt Harry's stilted apology. "Please, Potter. It's been a long night. I've sent for someone to take you home." He sank down in the chair behind his desk and picked up the pen again.
"Please, sir. It's not a problem. I'm sure Sirius or Snape will-"
Sirius clapped a hand a bit too roughly on his back, shutting him up and guiding out of the room.
"Just go, Harry." He said through clenched teeth. They rounded the corner to the main lobby and Sirius barely had time to step out of the way before Ginny came hurtling into his arms.
She collided with him so hard that he had to step backwards to keep from falling, but grabbed her tightly all the same.
"Gin…" He said, feeling the tension release with a whoosh from his body. Did this mean that this horrible night was officially over? He peered over the top of her head and saw that Severus was standing in the lobby as well.
His mentor's hair was messy and greasier than usual, as if he'd been running his fingers through it a lot. He toyed with some car keys and spoke softly to Sirius. Snape had brought him Ginny.
Harry closed his eyes and buried his nose in her hair, pulling back to press a kiss to her forehead. She reached up to stroke her thumb over his face.
"Let's get out of here." She whispered and he nodded tiredly. They rode quietly, sitting in Snape's backseat and holding hands. Harry could barely remember entering his apartment, let alone laying down on the bed.
The last thing he was aware of was burying his face in Ginny's neck as she stroked his back.
He's home! But the case is just starting to heat up… Review if you wanna! I know I want ya to!