"Tonight on Death Eater watch - were the attacks on a family of four in St Bartholomew's Green last week actually the result of Death Eater activity in the area? Our correspondent reports on new development from the Ministry's investigation.
"Last Saturday, as we - "
"Oh, shut that thing off," Harry snapped.
Anthony raised an eyebrow. "As future Aurors," he pointed out, "it's important we keep track of possible Death Eater activity, Harry. We need to be on our toes."
"This isn't being on our toes, though, this is looking for something to be paranoid about."
"Harry, don't get the wrong idea, I have a lot of respect for you, but - "
" - But you think I'm a nutter."
"Pretty much, yeah."
"Yeah."
"Hey, look on the bright side, no one thinks any less of Dumbledore and everyone knows he was off his rocker," Ron offered.
"See? You're in good company. Now shut up and let me listen to DE Watch."
DE Watch started about a week ago, and had already become the most popular programme on the Wireless Wizarding Network's programming schedule. Harry thought it was like people looked for reasons to be afraid. Looked to find the Death Eaters under their bed. The DE Watch did not bother too much with the facts, he had pointed out countless times to his friends during that week. On their first broadcast, they had reported a house in Bath as one that had been blown up by Death Eaters, while the incident had been determined by the Ministry to be a simple gas leak in the Muggle house next door. The next evening, they accidentally reported a criminal murder between Muggles as a death of a Muggle-born wizard by the same name at the hands of Death Eaters. "What Death Eater would kill another with a knife?" Harry wondered loudly after they interviewed the Muggle-born wizard of the same name as the victim, but no one paid him much attention.
And they paid him even less after the third night, when a Muggle-born wizard had been killed in his home by the Killing Curse, in what a short investigation by the Ministry had proved beyond doubt to be the work of a renegade Death Eater.
This time there was no denying it, as the Death Eater had been caught shortly after by Aurors. The Ministry hurried to publicise the arrest - as well as the method used to achieve it. The Death Eater, Jugson, had gone into hiding after the attack, staying at the house of his Slytherin relatives, the Davis family. The arrest had been made possible thanks to Will Jones's new measurement, he had told the Prophet proudly - charms had been put around houses of individuals who were singled out as possible allies of Death Eaters - "family members or people otherwise connected," he said mysteriously. The system worked much like the systems employed by Voldemort himself, detecting a person with a Dark Mark on their arm, and the charm broke, but instead of blocking or allowing entrance, it had alerted the Auror Office. Gawain Robards had then sent Aurors to arrest Jugson - and all other members of the Davis family.
Harry and the rest of the Auror trainees did not see Jugson's interrogation, but they were allowed to watch as Tracey Davis, Jugson's niece, was interrogated by the Ministry. Harry found it awkward - like many of the other Slytherins, he never really talked to Tracey, despite her being in his year at Hogwarts, and what little interaction he'd had with her had been unpleasant. But still it felt weird, to watch now as she was being interrogated. He knew her. She wasn't one of the Death Eaters who stood there, waiting in anticipation for Voldemort to murder him. She'd been in potions class with him for five years. They weren't in the same room with her, she couldn't see his face, but still, Harry felt uncomfortable watching her face.
Tracey, unaware she was being watched, was only looking at her interrogator. "Told you," she said stubbornly. "I don't know anything about Death Eaters. He just showed up at the door, said he came to say hello and see my mum, so I let him in."
Proudfoot, who had been given the task of questioning her, seemed less than impressed. "You know nothing about Death Eaters? He has spent most of your lifetime in Azkaban."
"Yeah, well, you know, people are released," she shrugged.
"Released?" Proudfoot spluttered. "Released? He broke out!"
"Well, I wouldn't know," she said, still apathetic. "I never really met him."
And on and on it continued. After two hours of this kind of dialogue, Harry thought banging his head against the wall would bring better results. Tracey Davis, it was clear to him, didn't actually know anything. Oh, she didn't say she didn't know anything. She seemed much too proud for it. But the little she did know she told them gladly. It was whenever she turned proud and arrogant that Harry felt she had no idea what to say, no idea how to reply.
He couldn't see any point in keeping her there. But obviously, the Aurors disagreed.
By the end of three hours, she'd had enough as well. Her arrogance was gone, her pride had gone, and her self-assurance was replaced in doubt - and even fear. "Please can we do this another day? I'm tired," she said more than once, but Proudfoot continued.
"Until we get the truth out of you, you're not going anywhere," he said angrily, waving again at her contradicting statements from the previous three hours.
"Learn anything today?" Dawlish walked into the room and waved his wand, causing the image to disappear.
"Yeah, how not to have a useful interrogation," Padma muttered. She and the others were just as tired as Tracey was by now.
"Death Eaters don't break in that easily," Dawlish smiled.
"Death Eaters? She's not a Death Eaters. She may be stupid, but not a Death Eater," Harry objected.
"Yes, she was too young to join them," Dawlish said, "but I think, based on this little demonstration, we can all be assured she would have joined, given the chance."
Harry opened his mouth to protest, but Ron stepped on his foot. "I want to get to dinner today, please," he whispered in Harry's ear.
He wasn't being too cautious - just the night before they were all thirty minutes late for dinner, because Harry decided to finally confront Dawlish about the Smith family, and his own announcement that night. After thirty minutes of argument, Dawlish cut Harry in the middle of a sentence and sent them all to dinner. "You need to wake up early," he grumbled, and left the room without another word.
"C'mon, Harry," Lavender said later, when they were back in their dormitories, "there's a time and a place."
Harry's cards exploded with a bang. It was a sign of how distracted he was - usually, he was one of the fastest players of Exploding Snap. It was Friday evening, and for the first time this week, they didn't all fall to bed early, knowing they could sleep late the next day.
"I'm just saying - " Harry started, and was silenced loudly by ten people.
"We know what you're saying," Katie said, shuffling her cards.
"Yeah," Seamus piped in. "We've been hearing it all - week - " BANG - "long."
"I didn't know you liked Tracey Davis," Cho muttered, and managed to finish her turn without a single card exploding, a feat that had become more and more rare as the days grew longer and the trainees more tired.
"I didn't - I don't."
"Well, why do you care then?" Seamus said. "Her uncle's a Death Eater, she obviously doesn't care - "
" - but she didn't do anything herself - "
" - I mean, if my uncle was a Death Eater, I definitely wouldn't let him in - "
" - She shouldn't be punished because he's a Death Eater - "
" - You won't catch any Death Eaters in my house!"
BANG -
" - And we don't even know - "
"Oh, give it a rest," Neville spoke, and everyone looked in surprised. So far, Neville was the only one, apart from Ron, who hadn't told Harry off loudly. Harry wasn't sure whether this was because Neville agreed with him or because, after the DA and everything they went through, he didn't want to contradict Harry on these matters. From the look of things, Harry surmised gloomily, it was apparently the later.
"Look, Harry, I agree with you that not all Slytherins should be suspects, and I'm not thrilled about what the Ministry is doing either - "
" - Thank you!"
" - But Harry, Tracy knew her uncle was a Death Eater, she knew he escaped Azkaban, he was there at the Ministry when Sirius died, and he was there at Hogwarts, and she let him in. Stop fighting for her. And stop fighting for Malfoy, either."
"Malfoy?"
The cards around them started exploding in earnest, but no one was paying any attention to them anymore.
"What does Malfoy have to do with anything?"
"It was the same thing with Malfoy. He was a Death Eater, and you had to go there in his trial and talk in his favour."
"You weren't there at the Malfoy Manor, Neville." It didn't come out the way Harry meant it to. "I mean, I know, all the things you guys went through, but what I saw there wasn't someone who wanted to be a Death Eater."
"Perhaps. But on this one Ron and Hermione also think you're mad, and they were there in Malfoy Manor," Neville shrugged. "Just... stop defending them."
Harry didn't answer, and the room went back to playing Exploding Snap in complete silence, other than the odd explosion.
In fact, Harry didn't say a word to anyone that night, until he came out of the shower. Toothbrush in his mouth, he didn't notice someone had stopped next to him - Neville.
"Harry," he said, and Harry spat the toothpaste in his mouth to the basin and turned around. "Look, I'm sorry I came out at you like that today."
"It's alright," Harry said, slightly short tempered, but trying not to take it out on Neville. Of all people, Neville was one of those who least deserved it.
"It's just, every time you're talking for them, I'm thinking, what would have happened if Bellatrix lived."
Harry was taken aback. "I would never defend her, or anything she did. You know that, Neville! It's not just your parents - she killed Sirius! You think I could - "
"No, I don't," Neville said. "But you need to understand what you sound like. All these people, they've hurt others. You're the one responsible for me being here today - I never would have been able to get all those things if you hadn't taught us, and if you hadn't been there and stood up for what you believed when everyone told you you're wrong. You know I've always admired that."
"Yeah, I remember," Harry said quietly.
"And I know, when you told me to kill the snake, you were going..." Neville's voice trailed. "You've lived through much more than anyone else, Harry, and that's just another reason to admire you."
"I don't want you to admire me."
"I know you don't. It isn't up to you," Neville said stubbornly, and neither he nor Harry could help but laugh. And then Neville turned serious again. "But it's hard. Hearing you talking about the Slytherins like that. After everything they've done."
"Yeah..."
"Still friends?"
Harry could see the question really burned in Neville - really worried him. "Of course," he said simply, and Neville smiled in relief.
"Come on, time to go to sleep."
But the next day, they found themselves waking up early again. At 5 a.m., Dawlish showed up with one word. "Trouble."
Sleep deprived and exhausted, they got out of bed, dressed up as quickly as possible, and within five minutes met in the dining room. Dawlish created another Portkey, and they were gone.
The found themselves in a forest. The sun had just come out, but the forest was still dark - and cold. They could only see enough to make out groups of people, huddled in the forest. And next to them, someone was lying on the ground, unmoving.
"Lumos," Harry muttered, and his wand lit up and shone its light on the body. It was Proudfoot. His eyes were open wide, unseeing. His leg was bent in a strange angle. He was dead.
Lavender flicked her wand. A blanket appeared out of thin air, and covered the body. But none of them stopped looking at the blanket, thinking of the body beneath it.
They had seen the man not three days ago.
Gawain Robards approached the group, looked for a second at the blanket, and then at the anxious faces before him. "It's Rowle," he said shortly. "He's somewhere in this forest. We've put an Apparition stopping charm over the forest, but its range is limited. We need to catch Rowle before he manages to get out.
"Split into two groups. It's safer that way - one of you might be able to spot him before he spots you. Have no mistake - if he sees you, he will kill you. Safety in numbers. Remember - he can curse anyone he sees. You need to make sure it's not one of ours that you take down."
They nodded, and split into two groups. Harry, Ron, Cho, Lavender and Neville were in one group, the others in the other.
They started walking into the forest. "Wands out," Harry whispered, and the rest followed. "Constant vigilance!" Ron muttered, and Cho giggled.
"Shh!" Harry whispered again, and they were silent. Quietly, they walked amongst the woods.
The forest was silent, dark and forbidding. Harry could barely hear his own footsteps on the leaves. Yesterday's rain had turned the earth wet and muddy, masking their footsteps - but also the footsteps of any possible enemy. And the deeper they got in, the darker it got, even though by now the sun must be getting high in the sky, lighting the world around them. Inside the forest, it could have been the middle of the night for all they knew, the middle of winter, as the chill and darkness closed in around them. Harry's breathing became faster, shallower. This forest reminded him another, walking here to find Rowle reminded him a different walk, a different purpose.
It's over, he told himself. It's all in the past. There are things to do, important things. Keep your eyes open. Keep your mind clear. Find him.
But there was nothing, nothing there, not at all. Not a sign. They could walk right next to Rowle, Harry knew, and never find him.
"Homenum Revelio," he muttered. The wand span uselessly in his hand.
"Well, it was worth a shot," Ron whispered.
And then Harry froze, and signalled the rest to do the same. He had heard something. They immediately stopped, waiting for him, waiting to hear what he heard or see what he saw. Cho was scanning the forest around them, the habit of a Seeker. Neville was fretting in his place. Lavender froze, her wand stretched out. And Ron looked around, then at Harry, then looked around again.
"Did you hear something?" he whispered.
"I think so... there?" Harry muttered, and pointed left. Ron took a couple of steps.
The forest was silent.
And then curses started raining on them. "Avada Kedavra!" Harry heard a shout and jumped at the last second. Lavender returned a green jet of fire in the same direction. Cho followed suit, while Neville's wand shot a sparkling red steam. Harry looked for a second at the onslaught - something red was coming at their direction, red and then green, purple and yellow.
"Stop!" he shouted. "Stop! It's us! Stop!" The four people behind him ducked, but stopped casting their spells at the unknown enemy. After a second or two, the curses stopped coming in their direction - and Dean showed up, his face white.
"Are you alright?" he demanded. "Harry? Are you alright?"
Harry looked for a second at the people behind him. They were all breathing heavily - but they were all breathing. "Yeah, yeah, we're fine. You guys?"
"I think Seamus got Disarmed," he said, "but other than that we're fine."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. And then anger engulfed Harry.
"What were you thinking?" he demanded. "You could have killed us! What were you using the Killing Curse for?"
Dean looked down. "You were so quiet. We were sure it was Rowle... I think Seamus panicked."
"Yeah, well, don't do it again," Harry said, and Dean nodded. The rest of the group had come out of behind their trees.
"What shall we do?" Dean whispered to Harry. "Should we split up again or join in with your group?"
"Maybe we should stay with you guys," Seamus said doubtfully. "I still feel like you're the only one who knows what he's doing."
"Yeah, Harry, you're definitely the one with the most experience. I think it'd be better if we stick together."
Harry looked at them, torn between the safety in bigger numbers - and people who aren't trying to attack him out of fear - and the need to cover more ground. "Okay," he nodded in the end. "Let's stick together."
The other six smiled in relief, and then - the curses came out of nowhere. One killing curse after the other, no warning, no sign of where they were coming from.
"Get down!" Harry shouted, and they all looked for cover behind trees.
"Expelliarmus," he shouted and pointed his wand somewhere behind him, behind the trees, where the curses were coming from. It didn't stop the spells.
"Avada - " someone started shouting, but Harry immediately shouted "No!" and whoever it was stopped. "It might be one of ours! Be careful with the spells!" he shouted at the others.
"Stupify!" Ron shouted next to him, aiming his wand with the same inefficient way as Harry did just seconds before.
"This isn't going to work," Harry breathed.
"I think this is Rowle, Harry," Ron whispered next to him. "He's not stopping and he's not identifying himself. He's had plenty of time to hear us shouting here. If he was one of the Aurors, he would have stopped."
Harry nodded - he had just reached the same conclusion himself.
"We need to locate him," he said and got out of the tree's defence for a second. A jet of green light crashed into the tree next to him.
"We need to distract him," Ron said wisely, "then we can talk about locating him."
Harry thought for a moment. "You think you can start casting spells at all directions?" he asked.
"Sure - hold on, Neville should be able to hear me. Oi! Neville!"
Slowly, they arranged their distraction with the rest of the group. When Harry shouted his signal, ten Disarming spells hit the forest in all directions, again and again and again. And from out of his tree, Harry started crawling, looking around.
A green jet - there! He located the source, and started crawling in its direction. Come on, come on, come on, he thought. Someone hit him. Someone get him. He couldn't cast a spell himself - it would only alert Rowle to the fact he was getting closer to him. He had to wait. But the green jets were getting closer. Somebody hit him! He though desperately, unsure how much further he'd be able to get.
And then - the green jets stopped. Harry froze for a moment, cautious of a trap. Maybe Rowle had realised he was getting closer - or maybe he had been Disarmed. Harry waited several seconds more and then, encouraged, started crawling again towards the last direction of the green jets. Just a bit more, just a bit - and he was there.
Rowle was sprawled on his back, his eyes open. At first, Harry thought someone must have hit him with a body-bind curse, but as he got closer, he realised his mistake. Rowle was not Disarmed. He was not Stunned. He was dead. "Stop!" Harry shouted back, and the onslaught of spells had ceased.
And from in front of him, Gawain Robards emerged, wand in hand, smile on his face. "You provided quite the distraction, guys," he said, proud. "He would have realised I was getting closer if it weren't for all he noise you were making. Well done!"
Harry got up on his feet, looking at Robards, stunned. "He didn't realise you were coming," he said flatly.
"That's the best way to get them," Robards chuckled. "Minimum risk. Of course, I realise this was not minimum risk, not for you guys. That's why I had to take him out as soon as possible."
"You didn't have to kill him," Harry said.
"Safer that way," Robards shrugged. "Good job everyone!" he called out loud. "Search over."
And then he was gone, and Harry was left there, staring with his mouth half-open, trying to understand.
"It's just like last time." he muttered when Ron showed up next to him, beaming.
"What is?"
"This - all of this. Just like when Sirius got sent to Azkaban without a trial."
"Sirius - what are you on about?"
"Robards!" Harry almost shouted, then lowered his voice at the curious glances from the others. "He killed Rowle when he was busy with our spells."
"Good," Ron said.
"What?"
"Rowle was trying to kill us, Harry, in case you haven't noticed."
"I noticed," Harry said darkly.
"So? What's the problem? He tried to kill us, but Robards got there first. Serves him right."
"He could have Stunned him."
"Yeah, but why risk another fight when he recovers? And what in Merlin's name does that have to do with Sirius?"
"They did the same thing last time after Voldemort disappeared. Killing people when they could have arrested them. Sending people to Azkaban without a trial."
"Yeah, well, call me when they start doing that," Ron said, unsympathetic. "So far, we've had a severe lack in actually catching Death Eaters, dead or alive. So forgive me if I'm not going to mourn him."
"I didn't ask you to mourn him," Harry was now getting annoyed at Ron, as well as Robards.
"Well it sounds like it!" Ron blurted out. "Maybe you want to listen to Neville some more. That's exactly what he was trying to tell you last night. They're Death Eaters. As long as they're alive, they're trouble. And as long as they fight and try to kill us, I don't care what happens to them. Or by who."
Harry didn't continue the argument. He didn't want to have it, not with Ron. But it stayed with him, all through the morning, as they got back to the training facility, and later on when Ron and Cho showed up with a Quaffle and suggested a game of Quidditch.
Harry leaped on the suggestion. Despite the training, despite the morning, he had a lot of energy to burn - or rather, a lot of things he didn't want to think about. The argument with Ron had lasted long after they returned, and even though it all cooled up now, and Ron had suggested the Quidditch game in the most natural way, he seized the opportunity to do something that wasn't arguing. Ron himself didn't seem to care anymore about the argument, and perhaps it was all in Harry's head - but a game of Quidditch wouldn't hurt. And besides, he hadn't played Quidditch for ages. By now, they probably were already training at full force at Hogwarts, and above all, he missed the game.
It was a lucky streak that Anthony wasn't up for the game - "I'm rubbish," he said, "absolutely rubbish. And I'll be completely honest, I never liked it!" - and so they could split into two equal groups of five, with two chasers and one beater for each team, in addition to the keeper and seeker positions.
Harry and Cho played seekers, a decision that made Cho unable to hold her smile. "Looks like we'd be competing again, Harry," she smiled, and he smiled back. Ron raised an eyebrow, but Harry shrugged - Cho wasn't flirting with him. He knew Cho well enough to know when she was flirting with him, and this wasn't it. Just for a moment, she had the same image in her head as he did, going head-to-head in his third year, her fourth, playing the game when life was still easy.
And if he was calling his third year of Hogwarts easy now, with Sirius and Dementors and Wormtail, it had long been time for a friendly game of Quidditch.
The rest of the team worked out nicely. He had Ron as keeper for his team, who was much more calm about the whole prospect these days - and, Harry suspected, when not playing in front of the entire school. Lavender was playing chaser, which could be a problem, as Harry had no idea whether she could even play. But on the other hand, their other chaser was Katie, and as a beater, they had a very enthusiastic Seamus.
Lavender turned out to be not bad at all; Seamus a disaster. He had managed to send the single Bludger they were playing with three times in Harry's direction. And on the other team, Neville turned out to be a decent keeper and Padma and Dean more than decent chasers, but Lee was just as bad with the beater bat as Seamus.
They called it quits the third time Neville was knocked off his broom. After being saved the first time by Padma, and the second by Harry - a feat which earned him an irritated "Whose team are you on?" from Ron - no one saw Neville go down the third time and he hit the ground with a bang.
"Neville!" They all shouted and landed their brooms, checking if he was alright.
"I'm fine - really - I'm alright, I'm - " Neville tried to get on his feet, and fell. Holding hard to Seamus - after twice of horrible misaiming by Dean, it was Seamus's badly-directed Bludger that got Neville - he got to his feet again, this time succeeding.
"Did you break anything?"
"No, no, I'm fine," he said and limped to the grass, to sit next to Anthony, who said he preferred to just watch the game - but ended up reading the Prophet. He was reading the paper with such concentration, that he didn't realise the game was prematurely over until the rest of the group joined him and Neville on the grass.
"What's up, guys?" he asked, surprised.
"Oh, you know. Seamus can't aim if his life depended on it," Cho said jokingly. "I just hope your spell casting skills are better than that."
Seamus said nothing, but just turned red, and tried to change the subject of the conversation.
"Anything interesting?" he asked Anthony, gesturing at the paper.
"Just our friend Will Jones. Man, he doesn't give up any excuse to get his name in the papers."
"What does it say?"
"It's about Rowle - they already heard about it," Anthony sneaked a glance at Harry, and when the outburst didn't appear to come, he read out loud.
"Aurors have been given permission to use deadly force, Will Jones has confirmed today after the news of the killing of Death Eater Thorfinn Rowle by Ministry Aurors. 'Our Aurors need to be able to defend themselves. And it is better that Death Eaters die than we allow them to get away with it.' Mr Jones is referring, perhaps, to Walden Macnair, the Death Eater who had died of a heart-attack earlier this week, before the verdict in his sentence could be given. Macnair, who had been a Ministry employee for thirty-five years, has sparked a new controversy in his death,when it turned out that he is eligible for a Ministry-sponsered funeral and death benefits for his family, in accordance with the standard contract between employees and the Ministry.
'They tell us we have to pay for the man to get buried,' Will Jones addressed the crowds yesterday at the courthouse. 'They tell us we have to pay for his family. We need to compensate a Death Eater's family! All because he died too soon! Well I say no! And I promise you, ladies and gentlemen, that the law will soon say no, too'."
Anthony finished reading the piece, and everyone was silent - until Seamus spoke. "What, Macnair died?" he asked, surprise in his voice - and everyone started laughing.
They had been so busy that week that most of their breakfasts had been interrupted, and that was the time they usually read the Prophet - or at least, someone did, and read aloud the interesting bits for the others to hear. But this week, they were all busy and tired, and none of them thought to read the paper.
But still, they expected to hear about things such as dead Death Eaters, even if their death came by natural causes.
Now they sat there, and thought about what they had just heard.
"They'll have to pay," Ron said. "There was this case about five years ago, the same happened with old Calvin - d'you remember?"
"No," said Harry and Anthony, at the same time as Cho and Neville said "Yes".
"Well, Calvin, he was working for the Ministry for years before he retired. In the Department of Magical Transportation," Ron explained. "Anyway, he was 120 and almost senile when Dad caught him bewitching his Muggle neighbours' dogs. Well - everyone said he was senile, but Dad said he knew exactly what he was doing."
"And then what happened?"
"They set a date for the trial, right, but then the old codger died on them. Dad was pissed off for days! And I remember him going on about exactly that, how the Ministry had to pay for the funeral and death benefits and all that, only because he died before they convicted him."
"Yeah, but, Ron, this is a Death Eater," Cho pointed out. "It's not like someone who was just bewitching some Muggle artefacts - or animals," she corrected herself. "He was one of the closest followers of Voldemort, wasn't he, Harry?"
Harry nodded. His last encounter with Walden Macnair was at the Battle of Hogwarts. And at the graveyard, years before. Macnair had been with Voldemort since the very beginning.
"They can't then," she said with an assured voice.
But it turned out Cho was wrong. On Tuesday, after a weekend full of deliberations and discussion with everyone in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Kingsley himself issued a statement, that since Macnair had not yet been convicted and therefore still defined as a suspect, and despite the weight of the testimonies against him, including Harry Potter's own account of Voldemort's actions, they could not deny his family the rights of a Ministry employee.
That day, a group of Muggle-born wizards had taken up signs and started picketing in front of the Visitors' Entrance to the Ministry of Magic. Nothing anyone said, including Kingsley, could convince them to leave. Only when Will Jones came out, and promised again to change the laws and Ministry policy, did they agree to leave.
It turned out the changes in Ministry policies came earlier than they thought. On Wednesday morning, when they came down to class after breakfast, the Auror Greg Savage was the one who waited for them, where Dawlish always did.
"What's up?" Asked Seamus. "Where's Dawlish?"
"I'll be your instructor for today," Savage said shortly, and assigned them the hardest Concealment and Disguise exercise yet, and nothing they did ever seemed enough for Savage. By lunchtime, Ron's nose grew to three times its normal size, Seamus's eyes seemed to be permanently stuck on purple, and Padma started wondering whether she should keep her hair green.
"I hope Dawlish gets back soon," Cho said over her pumpkin juice.
"Yeah, I never thought I'd miss Dawlish of all people," Anthony mused.
"Do you think Savage knows most of us didn't take our N.E.W.T.s?" Ron wondered loudly, hoping the query would get to Savage's ears.
"I don't think he cares, Ron," Dean answered, and earned groans of agreement from all around the table.
It wasn't until lunch was over that news started trickling to the trainees. Dawlish wasn't going to return - he had been fired by the Ministry.
"For staying in the Ministry after the Death Eaters took over," Neville finished telling the gossip he had heard from the cook. "They're firing everyone - with warnings."
"Warnings? What warnings?"
"That they might start investigations. You know, to see whether they should be put on trial."
"I thought there was already a committee that did all that," Padma said.
"Yeah, well, they've now started questioning the committee, saying that they should make sure everyone who cooperated, to whatever extent, should pay for it. They said the committee was thinking more about taking care of Ministry employees and keeping any embarrassing details quiet than justice."
"That's mad! What, they're going to fire everyone who stayed at their job now?"
"They already have."
"Everyone?"
"Everyone!"
Harry and Ron looked at each other, thinking the same thing - they can't have...
"Do you know," Harry started cautiously, realising Ron didn't really want to ask the question, "what they're doing with Ministry employees who were also members of the Order of the Phoenix?"
"How many of those were they?" Padma snorted, to which Ron burst angrily.
"My family!" he said.
"What, they kept on working with the Ministry?"
"Until Easter. Until the Ministry had proof I was with Harry, then they had to go underground."
"I'm sure they're not going to fire your family, Ron, come on. They know they were working on our side!" Dean tried to calm him down. "That would be ridiculous."
Ron was in a foul mood for the rest of the day, until he got an owl from his parents confirming that Arthur did not lose his job. He did get a dismissal letter at first, but after taking the matter to Kingsley, his dismissal was revoked.
"See? Told you everything would be alright," Harry said that evening.
But Ron was still unhappy. The very existence of the letter, even by mistaken, had upset him. And their training under Savage wasn't doing anything to lift his mood.
After the initial disastrous Concealment and Disguise class, they had an equally disastrous class in Stealth and Tracking, when they got themselves lost in Manchester for hours, looking for an object that had been concealed somewhere inside the city. Harry's patience finally ran out around 8, and he started asking Muggle passerbys for help. They had found the object - a wizard portrait - but Savage, displeased, told them they would have to repeat their exercise the next day. Without contacting Muggles, he stressed that last point, and looked at Harry in annoyance.
"Hey," Dean objected. "When we're Aurors, we can ask help from Muggles too, as long as we don't tell them anything about who we are!"
"You will not always have Muggles around," answered Savage, even more displeased at the unexpected opposition.
"Well, then, maybe we shouldn't be training inside a city," Ron muttered, but Savage ignored him. The next day, they repeated the exercise all through the morning and until lunch, abusing Savage all the while.
But instead of the transfiguration class they had scheduled for later, Savage showed up with a Portkey to class. Gawain Robards and the other Aurors had reason to believe they had finally found the hiding place of Amycus and Alecto Carrow, and wanted every possible person as back-up.
This time, they found themselves in the middle of London. It was immediately obvious why the Ministry wanted as many people as possible - they were at the centre of the city. Large buildings towered above them, full of offices, full of people coming and going, unaware of the wizards around them. On the other side - rows and rows of houses. It was the worst possible place for Aurors to act, in the midst of the Muggles.
The trainees immediately spread, as to not to arouse suspicion with the Muggles. Savage explained their role - like they had done with the Smith family, no one was expecting them to fight, not yet. They were just there to block any possible escape by the Carrows, to stop them from taking hostages or hurting Muggles.
"This will not be the first time a cornered Death Eater chooses to kill Muggles, just because they can," Savage spat, and Harry thought of Peter Pettigrew.
"They won't get the chance," he promised Savage, and the rest nodded. As with the forest, they didn't look to Savage for guidance - but to Harry. Harry quickly muttered a short plan, the places for the trainees to wait, how to spread, where to look - and what to do if the Carrows came running. They shouldn't be too afraid of using magic, he noted - there were Ministry wizards already at the scene, preparing their memory-modifying charms to use on any Muggle who saw anything. "But I guess it would be best to keep that stuff for minimum," he said, and the rest nodded.
And then, they waited.
The Aurors were taking their time. Perhaps as a result of the mess with the Smith family, perhaps trying to figure out a strategy, perhaps because there were now less of them and an unknown number of Death Eaters to face - but this time, they didn't storm into the building. They waited, argued, and planned, until they reached an agreement. Then, with a nod at Harry's group, the Aurors started walking in.
And as they walked in, Harry started scanning the building, until -
Here he was. Outside of the building, climbing out of the fire escape. Amycus Carrow.
Ron spotted him almost at the same time as Harry.
"Did you - "
"Yeah," Harry nodded.
"You think we should - "
"At this distance?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "We'd hit any Muggle between us. And we'd only alert him that we're here."
"So, what do we do?"
Harry thought for a moment. "I got my invisibility cloak," he said.
"Brilliant."
Harry nodded, then covered himself with the cloak, and started walking towards the building. Amycus, in the meantime, kept on climbing down. Harry assumed that, once again, the wizards had put an anti-Apparition spell on the area, but he had no way of knowing how large an area they had covered. It might be the building, it might be the entire neighbourhood. Better not find out.
He wouldn't need to, he realised. He got to the bottom of the building long before Amycus had finished climbing down the fire escape. And any minute now, he'd be off the building, and...
'Stupify!" Harry said quietly, and Amycus fell, a surprised look on his face. Ron rushed towards him, as did the other trainees - and half a dozen Ministry employees.
"Nice job, Potter," said one of them - and it was a nice job, Harry had to admit. He had cast the spell so softly, that none of the Muggles even realised. And now, the whole thing looked to them like a bunch of people rushing to help a man who had fallen from the fire escape, completely innocent.
"It's okay," Ron was already calming down the people around. "We'll be taking him to the hospital. He'll be fine. Don't worry."
Completely innocent - until the explosion rocked the seventh floor of the building. Everyone jumped. Sirens started working - the building's fire alarm had gone off, a moment too late.
"Stay here!" Harry shouted, and rushed inside. He started climbing the stairs, as fast as he could, coughing from the green smoke that had spread all the way from above. Around him, panicked Muggles rushed outside, climbing down as fast as possible.
"What are you doing?" shouted one of them at him. Harry ignored him, and kept on climbing up, to the top of the building, to the seventh floor.
Through the door, into the corridor - he could see the office where the Death Eaters were hiding, the place they had converted into their hide-out flat. The wooden door was completely shattered, fires burning in purple and green all around.
Someone staggered out, coughing - Savage.
"Is there anyone inside?" Harry shouted at him. Savage didn't seem to even register him. "Is there anyone still there? Did anyone survive the explosion?" he asked, but Savage was still confused. Harry rushed inside, casting a few well-chosen spells, and the fires subsided.
There was at least one burnt body in front of him. Harry rushed inside, trying to see who it was, but didn't recognise the face. Then he continued - and ran into Gawain Robards himself, who was trapped in another fire. Harry quenched that fire too, and helped Robards on his feet. Robards clutched his shoulders, coughing.
"Is there anyone still inside?" Harry asked again, hoping to get a better answer from Robards than he got from Savage. Robards tried to say something - then started coughing again, and resorted to shaking his head. Only the three of them, then - Robards, Savage, and the unknown dead Auror.
"Come on, then," Harry said, and helped Robards out of the room. In the corridor, they saw Savage, fighting another fire. "Come on!" Harry shouted at him, and as Savage killed the last of the flames, the three of them climbed down the stairs, and into the fresh air.
The Ministry wizards were already hard at work. They couldn't make the Muggles forget about the explosion - but at least, they figured, they could make them forget about it burning in purple and green. The other Aurors, those who remained outside, were already covering Amycus, restraining him with magical ropes. Some rushed to Harry's help, calling a medi-wizard to check Savage and Robards.
And around him, the trainees looked at Harry with a mixture of admiration and exasperation.
"You could have been killed!" Ron was the first to say.
"I - " Harry coughed a bit, not realising until then how much smoke he inhaled. His cough caught the attention of a medi-wizard, who ordered Ron and the rest out of the way, and started checking Harry over.
"I'm fine, I'm fine, really," Harry tried to say, but all that came out were coughs.
"Another one for St Mungo's," the medi-wizard called over his shoulder.
"No, really," Harry insisted. "I'm okay, I wasn't hurt."
The medi-wizard didn't look impressed. "We'll be the judge of that, Mr Potter. Come on, to the hospital!"
St Mungo's were quick to release him, as they were with Savage and Robards. Smoke inhalation - even magical smoke - was not a dangerous thing in the magical world. All three were soon dismissed - and were met with Kingsley at the hospital's reception.
"Barkley is dead," he announced gravely the fate of the third Auror, and they nodded. They already knew. "And... I need your help. Harry, we're going to need you too."
Amycus Carrow was alone in the flat when he had set the explosion, but it was the base of more than one Death Eater, the headquarters for the various Death Eater attacks of the last weeks as well as a place to hide. At least his sister, Alecto, was known to have been there as well, and there were signs of at least two more Death Eaters. As a safe place, their disappearance could only be explained in one way.
"They must have planned something," Kingsley said, and the rest agreed. They had got there too late - the Death Eaters were already on their way to cause more death, destruction and havoc in the magical world.
But Amycus Carrow refused to say anything. In a small, dark room, where the oxygen felt stale and used, he was sat on a chair and chained, deep inside the Department of Mysteries, and all that time he had been looking at Kingsley and laughing. "You'll never catch them," he taunted the Aurors who had tried - and failed - to perform Legilimency on him.
Gawain Robards was the best Legilimens the ministry had. They arrived at the Ministry within seconds, and immediately Robards set on the task. Harry, Kingsley and Savage stood and watched anxiously as the war continued within the minds of Robards and Carrow. But after gruelling five minutes, Robards broke eye contact in resignation.
"I can't," he said. "Not when he's like that. He's too much in control."
Harry looked from Robards to Kingsley. Kingsley looked tired, more tired than ever Harry remembered him.
He then advanced towards Carrow. "You have one last chance," Kingsley said in that deep voice of his, but Amycus Carrow laughed. "Yeah? Or what?"
In response, Kingsley looked at Robards, and nodded.
"Crucio!" Robards aimed his wand at Amycus, who started screaming. "Someone hold his eyes open!" he called towards the three of them.
Savage obliged, he rushed towards Amycus, who was still screaming, and now started shaking all over. "I can't - would you - hold on!" Savage called, unable to hold the big Death Eater.
Kingsley averted his eyes in disgust from the sight, but said nothing. Harry kept on watching. He wanted to shout at them to stop, that this was wrong, but the sight of the shaking Death Eater, the way the Aurors tried to restrain him, mesmerised him. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, he kept on staring stupidly from Kingsley to Savage, from Amycus Carrow to Gawain Robards.
Finally, Robards had lifted the curse - not because of Carrow's shouts, but because Savage had shouted at him to. He could not get a hold at the Death Eater as long as he was shaking.
Carrow was now shivering in his chair, no longer laughing - no longer looking at Robards at all. Just shaking slightly, not struggling, not trying to move. Using the temporary calm, Savage caught his head, and forced his eyes open.
"Now!" he shouted, and Robards cast the curse again. Carrow started screaming again, shaking his chair violently. His shoulder started bleeding - he had hit it hard against the chair, his already limited movement made even more limited by Savage's grip. Blood started dripping from his lip - he had bitten himself, unable to move his head, unable to move his body, unable to shut his eyes, unable to get away from the curse.
Robards was smiling now. "Gotcha," he muttered, his words swallowed in Carrow's screams. But he didn't stop the curse. Carrow screamed and screamed, and Harry watched and watched, and next to him Kingsley watched, and finally he said 'enough', but his voice could not be heard above Carrow's screams, and still he screamed until Kingsley shouted "Enough!" and Robards looked at him in surprise.
Robards lifted the curse. The screaming stopped. Savage let go of Carrow's head, and the eyes that until then had been forced open rolled into the back of his skull, his head falling on his chest. He was breathing heavily - and Harry realised that so was he.
"They're trying to blow up The Three Broomsticks at Hogsmeade," Robards said, victorious. "We've got a couple more hours, they're getting ready in the woods nearby. We should be able to catch them if we go out now. It's Alecto and a couple of others, Mateland and Shepherd."
Kingsley nodded. "Go," he said shortly. "Take Brown with you."
Robards nodded, and he and Savage left the room.
Harry kept on staring at Amycus Carrow.
"I'm sorry you had to watch this, Harry," Kingsley said quietly. "This isn't how we do things here, not usually. We had no choice."
By the time Harry raised his eyes from Carrow to where Kingsley had been, the Minister of Magic was gone.
Harry left the room, wandering the corridors, not certain where to go, not certain what to do. Not certain how to feel, not certain how he was feeling. He felt numb, as if someone else had witnessed the interrogation, if that was the right word, somewhere else was now walking through the familiar corridors - too familiar. Without realising it, he found his way to the lift, to the Atrium.
"Mr Potter!" Will Jones showed up out of nowhere, rushing to shake Harry's hand. "I heard your contribution to today's events. Well done, Mr Potter! Well done! You are, indeed, a fine addition to the Ministry's Auror office - not that anyone ever thought differently, of course."
Harry stared at him, and opened his mouth to speak - but no words came out. He pulled his hand back, and continued walking. He had no idea where he was going. Only that he wanted to get as far away from the Ministry as possible.
"Harry!" he heard another voice calling his name. Kingsley. He didn't stop.
"Harry!" Kingsley called again.
Someone put a hand on his shoulder. He jumped. Getting away from the stranger's grip, he raised his eyes and saw Greg Savage. The Auror. His instructor. A trusted employee of the Ministry of Magic. Bile rose in his throat.
"The Minister called you," Savage said lightly. As if nothing had happened.
"Harry," Kingsley had caught up with them by now, his voice turned back to its normal tones. "Just wanted you to know. They stopped them."
"And quite a fight it was," Savage sighed. "We never get any breaks."
"They're dead," Harry stated, finding his voice again for the first time since it disappeared at the sight of the Cruciatus Curse.
"Yeah, well, you should have been there," Savage said. "Should have seen it! The bastards started throwing curses at us as soon as we Apparated - it was like they waited for us! But we got them," he smiled.
"Good job," Kingsley congratulated Savage.
"Come on, Harry, we need to go back," Savage put his hand again on Harry's shoulder. Harry moved from under his touch.
"Are you okay?" Savage asked Harry in a concerned voice. "Isn't he a bit pale?" he asked Kingsley.
"He'll be fine," Kingsley said shortly, not looking at Harry.
"Come on, then! Still got a class or two today," Savage laughed at his own joke. They left the Ministry together. Savage was in a good mood. It was the first time Harry had seen him laughing and joking since he became their instructor. Harry said nothing as they left the Ministry, into the street, and turned on the spot, appearing in the Manchester training facility.
"Well, you better go to the others, give them the good news," Savage said brightly, and left for his own quarters.
Harry walked towards the room, unaware of the corridors around him, unaware of the people, bile still in his throat, his hands shivering, the sound of Amycus Carrow's screams in his ears. His friends jumped when he entered the room, demanding answers, wanting to know where he had been, what he had been doing.
It took Ron one look at his face to tell everyone to shut up. "Later, guys, alright? I don't think he wants to talk now."
Harry had never felt so grateful towards Ron in his life.
He climbed up to his bunk, watching the room. The other ten trainees had resumed their chatter and their game of Exploding Snap. In the background, the latest Death Eater Watch radio programme was playing.
'...And these are the names of known Death Eaters whose whereabouts are still unknown. Antonin Dolohov, previously sentenced to a lifetime in Azkaban, wanted for the murder of war hero Remus Lupin; Lawrence Nott, previously sentenced to a lifetime in Azkaban; James Selwyn, wanted for the murder of Anna Jones and the imprisonment of Xenophilius Lovegood; Augustus Rookwood, previously sentenced to a lifetime in Azkaban, wanted for the murder of war hero Fred Weasley; Matilda Brixton, wanted for the murder of war hero Colin Creevey; Roy Harper, wanted for the torture and false imprisonment of many Muggle-borns; Bridget Jackson, wanted for the torture and false imprisonment of many Muggle-borns; David Burke, wanted for the torture and false imprisonment of many Muggle-borns. You have been listening to Death Eater Watch, and we will continue to broadcast until all Death Eaters are caught and brought to justice. Be careful, and goodnight."