First off, thanks to everyone who responded to my little contest. By now the winners know who they are, so congrats to you all. The answers to my questions are as follows: Mr. Arkwright was from the show "Open All Hours" and was played by Ronnie Barker. Mrs. Slocum (or Slocumbe as is actually correct) was a character on the show "Are You Being Served?" and was played by Molly Sugden. Mrs. Brahms and her daughter Shirley, were names derived from the character Shirley Brahms (or Miss Brahms), also from "Are You Being Served?" and this character was played by Wendy Richard. Finally, the tough one: Mr. Drake. Mr. Drake was named for John Drake from the show "Danger Man" and was played by Patrick McGoohan. Depending upon who you ask, John Drake was also the real name of the character called Number Six on the show "The Prisoner", which also starred McGoohan and came after "Danger Man" went off the air. I have referred back to more outside sources for this chapter as well, but sorry, no contest this time. You will find another reference to "Are You Being Served?", as well as Hamlet and "Monty Python's Flying Circus". Oh, and as always, I do not own Harry Potter. Enjoy.
Auror Training…and Some Other Stuff
Harry began his auror training scarcely a few weeks before his eighteenth birthday. The first two weeks were hardly what he expected it would be. They were actually quite boring and much more akin to be being back at school. Before he was allowed to do anything else, he was required to pass the Ministry's standard Civil Service exam. All new Ministry employees, save the maintenance, secretarial, and other support staffs, were required to pass the exam before they could begin their jobs. As most government examinations tend to be, the Civil Service Exam was fairly easy, much easier than most of the tests Harry had taken even in his first year at Hogwarts. It covered things like the organization of the Ministry, relations with other wizarding governments in other countries, the function of its different offices, and the duties of various officials as well as a plethora of boring statistics. Harry scored pretty well on the exam, not the highest score ever, but more than adequate to pass the exam. After that, Harry's real training began.
Three years of training was condensed down into one, the bare essentials only. Dueling, Disguise and Concealment, Stealth and Tracking, and Auror Procedures were the only formal instruction that Harry would receive over the next year. The rest of it he would receive on the job, learning it all from a mentor. As he had already known, Professor Flitwick was the Dueling Master for this portion of the training. Since it was deemed "most important" in the Auror Training Manuel, Revised Edition, dueling was the only class Harry would take each and every day. Harry found Flitwick to be an incredible dueler, well-deserving of his Championship titles. Learning the art of dueling from him was a rewarding, if not painful experience. Professor Flitwick was not holding back, and for the first month, Harry had a consistently bruised posterior, not to mention ego, from landing on his backside so many times at the hands of his tiny instructor. But Harry learned quickly. He was soon able to adapt to different attacks, and how to improvise new ones of his own. He learned how to recognize an opening in his opponent's defenses, how to find their weaknesses, and most importantly, how to minimize or get rid of his own. By the end of his dueling training, Harry could more than hold his own against Professor Flitwick.
Disguise and Concealment training were held for two hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. The protective enchantments he, Ron, and Hermione had used for all those months to protect their different hiding places gave Harry a leg up in this part of the training. His invisibility cloak also came in quite handy but was not without its problems. As he already knew, the cloak could be cumbersome and restricting of movement. So, Harry learned to develop an excellent disillusionment charm, which made him almost completely invisible, so much so, that only if someone were paying very close attention there was an off chance that they might be able to notice him, providing he made some sort of sudden movement.
In addition to the Disillusionment Charm, Harry learned various physical transfiguration spells, just like the ones Hermione had done to Ron before their break in at Gringott's. His lightning shaped scar, however, tended to be a bit of a problem. Because of the cursed nature of the old wound it could never be fully hidden by those spells, and in some cases, it was made even more pronounced. The best Harry was able to do was lengthen his hair to cover it up. For this reason, Harry preferred to use the polyjuice potion, the brewing of which was another one of the skills that Harry procured during his training. Over time, Harry would begin to keep an ample supply of the potion along with hairs from a wide variety of different people that would enable him to transform himself into different men, women, children, or any one of the four members of a famous muggle rock band from Ireland that Hermione was quite fond of.
Two hours on Tuesdays and were dedicated to Stealth and Tracking training. On the stealth end of things, Harry's invisibility cloak again got some good use, and later on, as he became more and more proficient with it, so did his use of the disillusionment charm. He also learned a spell that could silence his footsteps, enabling him to follow someone in near silence even if he were stepping onto twigs and dried leaves. On the tracking side of things, Harry learned how to do spells that could detect when magic was being used to conceal something or someone, and a marvelous little tracking spell that could find any person who was marked with the spell for up to twenty four hours. The only real trick to it was actually hitting someone with the spell.
The last of his classes was Auror Procedures, held for two hours every Friday. This class was as it sounded, all about procedures of the auror department, which included proper investigation procedures, collecting and storing evidence, arrest procedures, interrogation procedures and conduct, and finally documentation procedures, which was really a technical way of saying paperwork.
Harry's training classes took place in the mornings. After that, he would have a quick lunch and shower, before embarking on the second part of his training, the on-the-job part. From the start, Harry was placed with a veteran auror who would be a sort of mentor to him. The purpose of this mentor was not only to teach Harry about things like investigation, interrogation, and seizure techniques, but to guide him and impart knowledge about being an auror that could never be gained in a classroom or from a manual.
Harry's mentor was Humphrey Wilberforce, or simply Willy to most everyone in the office. Willy was hardly the kind of person that anyone would have expected to be an auror to be. He was just over five and half feet tall, skinny, with a thin build, short white-blonde hair, and a prominent gap between his front two teeth. He also was always impeccably dressed and very well groomed, even quite dapper in his behavior. As it was with Professor Flitwick, when it came to Humphries, looks were also very deceiving. He was extremely intelligent and talented auror, skills which enabled the muggle-born auror to escape the clutches of the Death Eaters.
The only other aspect of his training for that immense amount of studying he had to do. Harry would never have gotten through any of it had it not been for Hermione. Whether it was helping him to work out a particularly difficult spell, serving as his practice guinea pig, or quizzing him for his exams, throughout all of his training, Hermione was always there to help him whenever he needed it. By the end of his formal training, Harry reckoned that Hermione had learned enough about being an auror that she could have gone right into service with him. The truth was, for that first year, it seemed to be that the only times Harry ever got to spend any time with Hermione was when she was helping him with his studies. His training and work schedule was so grueling that he rarely ever had any real free time. Later on, when Hermione started working at the Ministry, they would share a table at lunch every now and again, but outside of this and the sporadic Sunday dinners at the Burrow, studying together was about it.
Harry's only real break during this time was at Christmas, when the Ministry was closed for two weeks. Harry still had to put in a couple of days on the break because the Auror Office, along with the rest of the magical law enforcement departments, could never be fully closed. Christmas that year was celebrated at his house, making it the first time he had ever hosted anyone for any kind of social event. Ever since they had finished the house, Hermione had been pestering him to have some sort of house warming type of thing just to show off all that they had done. So, Harry finally relented and agreed to have everyone over for Christmas. It was a compromise decision, really. The Weasley's had expected him to come to the Burrow, something which Harry was not quite sure he was entirely ready for. There was now this kind of empty feeling whenever he was there which he felt would only be compounded by this particular holiday. Hermione, in turn, seemed quite set on Harry spending the holiday with her and her parents. Then, Andromeda Tonks had also dropped Harry an invitation to spend the holiday with her and little Teddy. So, the decision to have everyone over to Number Twelve seemed like the best way to make every one happy, or at least as happy as they could be. Even Willy, who, as a bachelor, had no real plans for the day, consented to attend.
All in all, it wasn't a bad day at all; a little down-beat and slightly depressed, which was to be expected, but not nearly so bad as anyone had it expected it to be. By and large, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
Hermione took to the role of hostess for the day. From the get go, she was in charge of the dinner, selecting the menu, making the place settings, coordinating the seating arrangements, giving everyone tours of the house, and above all making sure that everything went off without a hitch. Harry gladly let her take charge of everything figuring that she would be able to do a better job than he ever could and resigned himself to just doing whatever she told him to. More than once that day, he mistakenly dropped a sarcastic "Yes, dear," response a number of times to her various different orders and requests, which briefly reignited Fred and George's little jabs at their supposed romance. Mr. Weasley eventually took the twins aside for a moment. Harry was not sure what he said to his sons, but after that, all of the jokes stopped completely.
The twins took on the enormous task of keeping their mother out of the kitchen. Since Kreacher had insisted on preparing the entire dinner himself as a gift to his master, there was no reason for Mrs. Weasley to do anything at all except relax and enjoy herself. When she did finally give up on having anything to do with preparing the dinner, Mrs. Weasley ended up spending most of her time talking with Mrs. Tonks and holding little Teddy, that is when Harry wasn't helping him ride the toy broomstick he had gotten him for Christmas. Mr. Weasley peppered Mr. and Mrs. Granger with all sorts of questions on muggle life. At the same time, Mr. Granger seemed quite interested in talking to Willy about what it was like to be an auror. Apparently, Mr. Granger, who had a cousin in the muggle MI5, had a certain fascination with elite forms of law enforcement.
As for Fleur, well her pregnancy was progressing rather slowly. She had only just begun showing a few weeks before. This long length of time was actually quite expected. Pregnancies for normal, full-blooded veela usually lasted just over a year. So everyone knew Fleur's pregnancy would last longer than a normal human's would, but being that she was only half veela, no one was quite sure exactly how long it would be. The best guess any healer could give her was somewhere around ten to eleven months, which would put the birth somewhere around the following April or May.
When the holidays ended, Harry returned to his training, the formal part of which was brought to an end the following summer. Later on, he took an extension course in hand-to-hand combat because even in the magical world, the need to be able to fight without magic popped up from time to time. He was not deluded enough to believe that he knew everything. The rest of would come with time, especially with Willy's well-thought guidance. One little tidbit of advice that Harry's mentor passed onto him was that all people, wizards and muggles alike, are generally creatures of habit. They stick to what they know and are used to.
Almost from the moment Harry started at the Auror Department, he was thrust onto the Flying Squad, the unofficial name of the task force assigned to capturing ten fugitive Death Eaters who had remained on the run up to that point. Some of the more veteran aurors seemed a little grumpy about Harry's appointment to the Flying Squad, especially the ones who had been left off the squad in order to make room for Auror Trainee. Harry had to admit that on some level, they had every right to be slightly miffed. He had just started his training for heaven's sake. How could he hope to help capture ten Death Eaters? Even still, there was not much he or anyone else could do. The order for Harry's appointment to the Flying Squad had come from the Minister himself, and as Willy tried to point out, since there were no other dark witches or wizards trying to make any trouble at that moment, it would be the best training Harry could receive.
If anything, the best lesson Harry took out of those first couple of years on the Flying Squad was how not to lead. The auror put in charge of the Flying Squad was T.W. Mangrove. Mangrove, often called "Luxury Yacht" behind his back because he always seemed more interested in talking about sailing than the work at hand, had been one the aurors who had dutifully come out of retirement to help put the Department back on its feet and was put in charge of the Flying Squad because he was the most senior auror. He wasn't a bad auror, at least as far Harry could tell, just one that was inadequate for the task he had been given. Mangrove was disorganized and not very decisive. He never developed any kind of real strategy for capturing the Death Eaters, and seemed to prefer asking other Squad member's their opinion about what to do next, usually electing to choose the suggestion which involved the least amount of work. He would have been replaced earlier because of his ineffective leadership, but at that time there were few options for someone else to take charge.
It was also quite clear to Harry from the beginning that Mangrove only tolerated his presence on the team simply because there was no choice in the matter. He never once deferred to Harry for any suggestions or ideas. This actually suited Harry just fine. Instead of trying to force his ideas onto the rest of them, he took Willy's advice and sat back, listened, and learned all he could.
Under Mangrove's leadership, the better part of a year had passed before the Squad captured its first Death Eater, and that was only by sheer luck. One of the Flying Squad members happened to be visiting a relative in a small muggle village when, by happen-stance, spotted the Death Eater. He followed the Death Eater to a small cottage just outside of the village. Then summoning the rest of the Flying Squad, the cottage was raided and the Death Eater taken into custody. It was more than a year before the Flying Squad managed to get their hands on a second Death Eater, all thanks to Harry.
Harry had remembered what Willy had told him about people being creatures of habit. That got Harry to thinking about what sorts of habits the fugitive Death Eaters might have. He poured over all of the files about the fugitives over and over. These files contained every piece of information known about each of the Death Eaters; their dates of birth, parents, siblings, known hideouts and aliases, places they had lived, preferred choices for hexes and curses, and even personal habits. After searching for several hours, Harry found a clue that he thought he could use, and that clue was noodles.
There was One Death Eater who had a taste for dishes made with Chinese noodles. He was from small wizarding community within the city of Bath, and his childhood home, still occupied by his mother, was less than a block away from a Chinese take-away restaurant that had been in business for as long as anyone could remember. Of course, the house had already been searched and his mother interviewed, all to no avail. Not that this really meant anything as mothers tend not to be too inclined to give up their children to a long prison sentence no matter how bad of a person they might be. For whatever reason, no one thought it necessary to keep tabs on the mother or to even make occasional follow up interviews or searches of the home to see if the Death Eater might have return.
Harry had to admit that it wasn't much a lead but without anything else to go on, he had nothing to lose. So, he took his idea to Willy, knowing that Mangrove would be more accepting of the idea if it came from the more senior auror. Willy agreed with Harry that it wasn't much of a lead, but also said that it could not hurt to take a look. He mentioned the idea at the Flying Squad's daily meeting. Willy kept it vague just saying, "Young Harry found something that's a little interesting. It's not really much, but I think it's worth checking out, and it will give the lad a good training experience in any case." Mangrove asked no questions and just grunted his agreement.
Harry and Willy visited the Death Eater's childhood home again, questioned his mother once more, and did a cursory look around the house, mainly just looking at what was in plain sight on the ground floor. Neither of them made mention of it but both saw several empty boxes and take home tins from the Chinese take-away around the corner, many of which contained remnants of some kind of noodle or other. There were dozens of such containers lying all about the house, far too many for just one person to go through. Harry immediately performed the Homenum Revelio charm and discovered that another person was present in the house, hiding in one of the upstairs rooms. The two aurors rushed upstairs and found the Death Eater huddled in secret space behind one of the walls bedrooms. He put up a brief struggle, but a well-aimed stunning spell from Harry's wand dropped him quickly.
Initially, Harry and Willy's success at capturing was not looked upon as anything special. Mangrove considered it more of a happenstance of sheer luck than anything and refused to consider that Harry's tactic of finding the Death Eaters by targeting their habits had anything to do with his capture. More than likely, Mangrove was angry about being outshined by a rookie auror. So, the Flying Squad returned to its old, lethargic search for fugitives, although Harry was now much more accepted member of the task force. A few of its members even began asking him for suggestions on how the Squad should proceed from.
The Flying Squad's improvements did not improve any for the next three months. That is until Kingsley Shacklebolt became fed up with its performance. Shortly after his Harry's second anniversary as an auror, the Minister summarily dismissed the head of the Department and named Willy as his successor. As the new head of the Auror Department, Wilberforce Humphries immediately, and quietly, forced Mangrove back into retirement and named Harry as the new head of the Flying Squad.
Harry took to his new position with gusto. He reorganized the squad into teams, assigning each of them different Death Eaters to catch and ordering the teams to go over all of the files again to look for anything that might stand out. He also encouraged them to begin questioning former Death Eaters who were now serving time in Azkaban for their crimes on they hopes that they might be willing to turn on their former comrades in exchange for consideration with privileges or sentence reductions. Within the first month of Harry's tenure as head of the Flying Squad, they captured the third Death Eater, and the fourth would follow less than two months later.
After his formal training was completed, one of the nice little discoveries that Harry made was that he had more free time which actually afforded him a bit of a social life. As he usually worked most of his nights past the Ministry's closing time, so it wasn't much of a social life, but the important thing was that he started to have most of his weekends free. He was able to spend time with friends, start attending Sunday dinners at the Burrow more regularly, and he was able to start dating again.
Harry dated three women after he finished his training. The first two were ones that Hermione set him up with, friends from her department that she thought he might get on well with. They were attractive women with generally interesting personalities, but really not what he was looking for. He never made it past a second date with either of them.
He had slightly better luck with the third woman, Ophelia. She happened to be the reserve seeker for the Holyhead Harpies, so there was an instant connection between them. They met at a World Cup Test Match between England and Spain, where they happened to be seated next to one another. They struck up a rather pleasant conversation. Harry figured "Why not?" and asked her out. It went well with Ophelia, at first. They went out a few times, enjoyed each other's company, and did a small amount of snogging, but after a month or so, Harry began to realize that it wasn't going to work out between the two of them and called it quits. Like the other two women, there was something about Ophelia that was missing, something that he could never fully put his finger on. In the end, with a certain amount of convincing from Hermione, Harry concluded that he simply wasn't ready to start dating again, at least until he could figure out what he wanted. What Harry wanted had always right there in front of him.
Steadily, he and Hermione had begun spending more and more time together, doing things that friends would do. It started with a dinner here and there or a movie every once and a while. That advanced to taking ballroom dancing class (not Harry's idea) and weekend sight-seeing trips together. The more time they spent together, the closer it seemed they were becoming to each other. The resting of a head on the other's shoulder, many long conversations that went late into the night and often ended with Hermione staying the night, all of these were signs that either of them should have seen but chose to ignore.
Before he knew it, two years had passed and it was Christmas time again and that meant the Third Annual Minister's Christmas Benefit Gala. The first Gala was held to raise money to benefit displaced victims of the Death Eater War and was meant to be a one-time sort of thing. It ended up being so successful that the Minister decided to make it an annual event that would raise money for a different cause each year. Harry purchased a ticket for the event but managed to get out of going sighting his need to concentrate on his training. For the second Gala, he again purchased a ticket but came up with a reasonably good excuse to skive off that one as well. He had planned to do the same for the third one, which was expected to be the black tie event of the year and was, therefore, something he automatically wanted to avoid. However, when Kingsley Shacklebolt dropped him two tickets along with a note requesting that he represent the Auror Department at the Gala, Harry was pretty much stuck with having to go. Fortunately, Fred and George were going to be there, and they could always be counted on to liven up a party. Hermione, who had also gotten the same sort of invitation from the Minister as Harry, would also be there. So, the evening did not look to be a complete and utter bore.
The Gala was held in the Ministry's Atrium on the Saturday night before Christmas. That year, the proceeds were going towards the children's ward at St. Mungo's. Not terribly concerned about finding a date for the party, Harry went by himself. He even managed to purchase new dress robes without Hermione's assistance. His old bottle green set of robes, unfortunately, had not faired so well being stuff in Hermione's little beaded purse for the better part of a year. Sticking with what he was familiar with, Harry again went with green, only this time they were a much darker shade of green and trimmed in a deep red.
Harry entered the Atrium completely amazed by its transformation. When he had left work the day before, the atrium looked just it normally did. In just a day it had been transformed for the gala. Several hundred feet of garland and mistletoe lined the walls surrounding the atrium. More than a dozen round dining tables, each with decorated with elaborate, never melting ice sculpture centerpieces. The tables bordered three sides a large wooden dance floor. Immediately behind the dance floor was a twenty piece orchestra, and behind them was the largest Christmas tree Harry had ever seen. It easily outsized the ones Hagrid dragged into Hogwarts Castle for Christmas. The tree was decked out in the usual bobbles and ornaments and over a thousand real live fairies provided the twinkling lights. The atrium's fountain had been completely frozen over. Even its spewing jets of water had been frozen mid-spray forming into solid streams of ice. On one side of the room were a series of long tables set end to end. The tables held a series of different displays and items for the usual silent auction. Everything from tickets to the finals of next year's European Quidditch Cup Finals to a custom made fireworks display from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes were up for bidding. A bar was set up on the opposing side of the atrium, and the wait staff, all dressed in crisp and brilliant white top coats and pinnies, were flittering about the room, filling water glasses and making sure each table was set exactly so.
Harry's plan for that night was simple. He arrived early to keep from being forced to make a big entrance. After that he would shake a few hands and perhaps bid on an item or two in the silent auction. Then he would enjoy a nice meal and make a quiet exit shortly thereafter. Above all, he wanted to avoid the press as much as possible.
Plans, as they often do, have a way of going awry. Harry had been at the Minister's Gala barely ten minutes when his started to go wrong. He was perusing the various items for sale at the auction and was just about to fix a rather generous bid to the quidditch tickets when he heard a familiar and annoying voice say, "Well, Harry Potter as I live and breath." He turned to see Rita Skeeter standing just a few feet away from him with her pad out and Quick-Quotes-Quill poised and ready for action. "So wonderful to see you again."
"Ah, Rita, I wish I could say the same," Harry replied.
As she was quite accustomed to such insults being thrown at her, Rita did not even bat an eyelash. "So, Harry, when are we going to have that interview? Everyone's simply dying for you to be the subject of my next book about you, and let's face it you won't be this famous forever. We should strike now, while the iron is still hot. I promise, no Quick-Quotes-Quill," she said in her sweet, innocent voice that Harry was not buying for a second.
"I thought you preferred the subjects of your books to be deceased before you wrote about them, Rita. All the better so they can't defend themselves."
"Now, Harry, everything I wrote about your beloved Dumbledore was true."
"Yes, Rita, it was, and I'll admit that. I also can say that I can forgive him for it, as should we all, because he became a great man who did great things, and if he'd been alive when your book was published, he would have been the first to tell everyone that it was all true. You know what else: Dumbledore never would have tried to defend his actions, made excuses for what he had done, or even bothered to point out that he had dedicated his life for making up for those mistakes, something, I might add, he never once believed he ever accomplished. Now, if you will excuse me, I was about to make a bid on these quidditch tickets. Oh, and if you think about writing anything rather nasty about our discussion tonight, just remember that I know about your little secret. You might have had an agreement with Hermione, but you never had anything with me."
Rita laughed at that statement. "Don't worry about that Harry. Right now, I don't think anything I could write about you would do any damage, but just remember: there was a time when you weren't quite so loved by everyone. You needed me to help then, and there may come a time when you might need it again. I won't be able to that, if I'm in prison."
"If and when that happens, Rita, and as long as you can keep that poison quill of yours at home, I'll send you an owl. Until then, enjoy the party." Harry returned his attention back to the quidditch tickets, ending their conversation.
He angrily scribbled down a two hundred galleon bid for the tickets, and instantly wished he had not bid so much. However, after a few moments thought he decided that it would not last very long. The European Cup was one of the hottest quidditch events of the year, one that could command up to a thousand galleons a ticket and there were going to be some fairly wealthy witches and wizards at this shindig who would have no problem dropping large amounts of money for quidditch tickets. Besides, if he really wanted to go, he could probably finagle a couple of tickets through the Department of Magical Games and Sports.
With his bid in place, he headed to the bar and ordered a butter beer, which the bar tender quickly retrieved. "Harry," a familiar voice said a few moments later. He turned to see Fred Weasley.
"Fred. Good to see you."
"Barkeep, butter beer if you'd be so kind," Fred said as he sat down next to Harry at the bar. "Better beware, Harry, Rita Skeeter's here and she's on the prowl."
"Yeah, I know. She's already tried to get an interview out of me. Told her off about what she wrote about Dumbledore."
"Good show, Harry." Fred took a sip of his drink before speaking again. "So, no date tonight? I thought for sure you'd be here with Hermione."
"What, and give you and George some more ammunition. I don't think so," Harry said trying to be humorous.
"Sorry Harry. You know, George and I still feel pretty bad about all of that," Fred said glumly. "If we'd have known about you and Ginny, we'd have never cracked any of those jokes about you and Hermione."
"Yeah, well it serves you right; the both of you."
"Too right it does," Fred answered back before taking a long pull from his butter beer. "So, how are things on things with you on the romance front?"
"Non-existent," Harry soberly replied.
"Really. I thought you and what's her name, Ophelia was it?" Harry nodded. "I thought you two were got on alright."
"We did. She was smart, funny, obviously loved quidditch…"
"Sounds like the perfect woman to me."
"Yeah, well, there's more to it than that."
"There always is."
"Ophelia just wasn't the kind of woman that I wanted, I guess. Hermione thinks all of this is in my head; that I'm not ready to be out there dating yet."
"What do you think?"
"That she's probably right. I mean, she usually is." Harry paused a moment to take drink from his own beverage before changing the subject. "So, where's George tonight. I thought for sure he'd be here."
"Oh, he's on his way. At least I think he's on his way. Lately, he's been preoccupied with other matters," Fred responded with a knowing grin.
"Angelina's taking up most of his free time I take it."
"Yeah. She's got him wrapped up like a Christmas present. Oh, by the by, you're invited to the stag night festivities."
"So, they finally set a date then?"
"Not as such, but I've been planning this night since they announced their engagement. All I need to know is the date of the nuptials, and then I can put my plan into effect."
"Sounds like you've got something big in the works."
"You know me. It wouldn't be a proper stag night if I didn't do something spectacular for George."
"And what, might I ask, do you have planned?"
"Ahh, well I'd like to tell you, Harry, but…"
"…then you'd have to kill me, or something like that."
"Precisely my good man. Like all of the great things the Weasley twins do, this too must remain top secret until such a time as it is ready to be revealed. All I will say is that it will be a night to remember."
"Until we have your stag night, that is. Speaking of that, how are things with that girl from the print shop?"
"Oh, Edwina. Things are coming along nicely with her," Fred said with a satisfied smile. "Couldn't bring her with me tonight of course."
"I take it that you still haven't told her you're a wizard yet."
"No. I don't think we're quite there yet. Mum likes her, though. She even bought me a book: So, Your In Love With a Muggle: A Wizard's Guide to Dating Women From Non-Magical Families, by J. Liman Stone. She even marked the chapter on marrying a Muggle."
"That's a strong message there."
"You're telling me. Just because Bill's done it and George is ready to take the plunge, Mum thinks I should be doing the same. She's the same way with Charlie, but he's living in Romania and only has to deal with her when he comes home for a visit…lucky bastard. So, I get to bear the brunt of it."
"What about Percy? Surely she must be giving him a hard time too?"
"Not really. Percy's the 'Prodigal Son'. Even after all this time, Mum's so happy that he's back with the family that she's not going ruin that by prodding him on to get married. Not yet anyways. I reckon he's got another year, if he's lucky, before she's on to him, and mark my words, Harry, you'll be in her sights soon enough."
"Hmph," Harry said. Fred was right, he knew that. At some point in the not too distant future, it seemed very likely that Molly would begin suggesting to him that it might be time to meet a girl, get married, and start a family. "How much time do you think I have?" he asked, hoping that Fred could give him some idea as to when she might Molly might begin mentioning Harry's romantic life.
"That's tough to say. Mum took the news about you and Ginny better than I would have if I'd have been in her place. Course, it helped that Fleur gave birth to Victoire on the same day. That made the day a lot happier for everyone, but you know, learning how you'd felt about Ginny, well, it still upset her. I think most of it was because she would have loved it if you'd been able to marry Ginny. You would really have been part of the family; not that you aren't now, mind you, but more officially, so to speak. Mum needs a bit of time getting past that little part, is all, and when she does, watch out."
"Thanks for the warning," Harry said.
"Speaking of Hermione; just to be clear, there really is nothing between you and her, right?"
"No," Harry answered, rather annoyed by having to answer this question yet again.
"Good. Then it won't bother you that she's brought a date tonight."
"What?"
"Over there," Fred said, gesturing towards the atrium's entrance. "They've just arrived."
Harry turned to find Hermione entering arm and arm with, of all people, Justin Finch-Fletchley. The fact that she had brought a date to the Gala was not the first thing that Harry noticed, however. His attention was firmly fixed on Hermione, unable to take his eyes away from her. It was almost like the night of the Yule Ball, when Hermione shocked everyone in the school, not only because she was accompanied by Viktor Krum, but also because she had been so unexpectedly beautiful. Just as it was on the night of the Yule Ball, Hermione was absolutely gorgeous on this night as well, but there was something far different about her that was not present on that other night during their fourth year of school. On this night, Hermione was also, for lack of a better word, sexy.
Unlike the fifteen year old girl, who was so obviously anxious on the night of Yule Ball, Hermione had an air of confidence about her tonight. She was smiling, open, and outgoing. The differences did not end with just her demeanor. From the look of things, she had brought out her bottle of Professor Sleekeasy's Hair Tonic and used it to tame her wild, bushy hair into soft, graceful curls that were pulled up to reveal the full length of her smooth neck.
But what Harry noticed more than anything else was Hermione's dress robes. They were so…un-Hermione-like and far different than the powder-blue ones she had worn at the Yule Ball. They were a made of deep red colored silk, and most notably, were strapless, allowing Harry to see the creamy white skin of her bare shoulders and top portion of her chest. The robes started just off her shoulders and ran all the way to the floor and were quite form-fitting; delicately hugging all of those very nice curves and accentuating all of those parts on Hermione's body that Harry had become quite fond of looking at.
That she was at the Minister's Gala with a date was actually somewhat of a surprise to Harry. Of course, he had thought about asking her to be his date for the Gala, but after all of the gossip surrounding them a couple of years before, he decided not to bring it up at all, figuring that Hermione would want to avoid even more of that unfounded speculation. Now, Harry actually found himself regretting the decision not to ask her. Regardless of this, he had not expected her to be here as someone else's date. He had not known that she was seeing anybody, a fact that he was sure she would have told him, seeing as how she always seemed quite interested in his dates with other women. He was certain she would have done the same with him. And now, she was walking into the Ministry on Justin Finch-Fletchley's arm. What was even more surprising to Harry, who had always gotten on well with Justin, was that he was now thinking what a pompous git his old schoolmate was.
The Atrium steadily filled over the next half-hour as more and more of the guests began to arrive. As predicted, the Gala was indeed the social event of the year, and much to his surprise, Harry had a far better time than he had expected. Gwenog Jones was a bit full of herself, just Hermione had once said, but not terribly so. In fact, the team captain for Puddlemere United proved to have a far bigger ego than his quidditch rival; an ego which was stroked even further by the small crowd that had gathered around him to listen to the detailed account of his team's unexpected run to the British and Irish Quidditch Cup six years before.
By far, however, the most interesting people Harry met that night were the lead singer of the Weird Sisters and Celestina Warbeck. The two singers engaged in a somewhat long-winded, but nevertheless congenial discussion on their musical influences, many of which were muggle. Their conversation ended with the two singers agreeing to collaborate on a duet album together.
Harry spent most of the night trying to avoid Hermione and Justin, which was difficult to say the least. In the one, very brief, conversation he had had with them, she had called Justin her "escort" for the evening and not her date, something which should have made Harry feel better, and yet, it did not. He decided that it was just Hermione's very formal way of calling it a date. Whatever the case, Harry was jealous, although just as he had first done with Ginny, he to tell himself that he was just being protective of his closest friend. As such, he thought it best to just give them their space. After all, who Hermione dated was her business, not his. Then, he would see her across the atrium; see how absolutely amazing she looked, and Harry would think to himself, What the hell was she doing with Justin?
He did not have to wait long for the answer to that question.
Towards the end of the night, as the party was winding down, Harry decided that it was finally time to make the discreet exit. He had been invited to a number of after parties that night but respectfully declined the invitations using the excuse that the Auror Code of Professional Conduct and Responsibility prevented him from attending any such wild events. This wasn't exactly true. The A.C.P.C.R. actually only covered his conduct while on duty as an auror and did not prevent him from going to any sorts of parties whatsoever, but no one needed to know that. After all the hours he had been putting in since taking over the Flying Squad, Harry looked forward to nothing more than going home, relaxing, and sleeping in until late the next morning. Once again, his plans would go wrong.
He said the proper goodbyes to Arthur and Molly, as well as Fred, George, and Angelina, before deciding that he probably should say something to Hermione. After scanning the room and not finding her or Justin anywhere, Harry decided that they had probably already left, noting that she had done so without telling him goodbye. A sudden feeling guilt swept over him for behaving so childishly that night by ignoring Hermione and Justin. He should have been more supportive of his friend, no matter what kind of mistake he thought she was making.
So, Harry made his way outside of the Ministry where, much to his surprise, he found Hermione waiting without Justin. "Oh, I thought you'd gone already," was the only thing Harry could think of saying.
"No, I hadn't left yet," Hermione said back to him very coldly. "I was waiting for you because I just wanted to ask you why you were being such an ass tonight."
"I deserve that."
"You're damn right you do, Harry Potter. I cannot believe you would behave so horribly!"
"Listen, if you're going to shout at me, could we at least do it some place more private?" Harry asked, realizing that there were still people attending the party that could overhear them.
"Yes…Fine." Hermione held out her hand. "Take my hand…now, Harry!" Harry did as he was ordered and took her outstretched hand. She pulled him very close to her, and after that familiar pressing sensation, they were standing in an alley in what looked to be a muggle residential neighborhood. It wasn't exactly his idea of more private place, but it was certainly better than the front of the Ministry's entrance. Immediately, Hermione released his hand and held out her wand and said, "Muffliato. There, now I can shout at you all I want."
"You have every right to be angry at me, I know that."
"Yes, well exactly just what were you thinking?"
"I don't know. I just thought that it would be better if I didn't talk to you then I wouldn't be able to say what a big mistake you were making. I know, I should have acted differently, and I'm sorry that I ignored you tonight. I was a stupid way to do it."
"What mistake, may I ask, am I making?" Hermione asked, suddenly sounding not quite so angry.
"You know…dating Justin. He's not right for you, at all."
"For your information, Harry, I'm not dating Justin. I'm not even remotely interested in him, not that it's any of your business. I only asked him to come with me because I didn't want to go to that thing by myself. I kept waiting for you to ask me, but when it became obvious that you weren't even going to mention going to the Gala together, I asked Justin."
"Well, I didn't think you'd want to come with me. So, I never brought it up."
"What on earth would ever give you that idea?"
"After everything that happened, you know with everyone thinking we'd been going out together, I just figured you'd want to avoid giving anyone that sort of impression again."
"Yes…well…you have a valid point about that," she responded, realizing that Harry had put up a very good argument, but Hermione recovered quickly and said, "Still, that doesn't excuse you being such an ass tonight."
"No, it doesn't. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you Hermione. I know I should have handled it better. I'm really sorry, Hermione."
"Yes, you should have," Hermione said, her voice finally softening as she accepted Harry's apology. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."
"Yeah, well I deserved it. Let's just forget about it."
What followed next was the expected long and tight make-up hug. Harry could smell a scent of strawberries in her hair and something in his mind just clicked. He began to take in the sensations of her body pressed tightly against his. His mind was concentrating on the those tight-fitting dress robes that lay underneath the traveling cloak she was now wearing, and soon it went far beyond that to the flesh that was beneath them that had only once seen in its fullest but never took the time to appreciate.
Before his mind raced any further amongst thoughts he knew he should not have, Harry carefully broke the embrace, but rather than step back and put a small amount of space between himself and Hermione, he stayed close to her, keeping his hands around her waist while she held a firm grasp of his arms, as though she were afraid he would pull himself away from her. "You know Harry, I really did want to go with you tonight. I bought these dress robes because I thought you'd like them."
"They were a good choice, I'd say. You looked amazing tonight…not that you don't always look nice to me, but tonight, you have no idea how hard it was for me to look at you…" Harry stopped himself, realizing that he was about to say something that could very well ruin everything the two of them had done to keep their friendship alive, and yet, he had this sudden feeling that it was out of his hands altogether; that something was about to happen that would change everything. What was more, Harry did not care. Whatever was about to happen, he was tired of holding all of those thoughts in and rejecting them.
"I really don't think anyone would have talked about us, Harry. That all died down a long time ago. People know were just very close friends now. I mean, it's been ages since anyone ever asked me what it was like being your girlfriend."
"People actually asked you that?"
"Yes. Mainly, it was some of the girls in my office and such, and they mostly wanted to know what kind of kisser you were."
"Oh, did they? And what did you tell them?"
"That you were absolutely horrible; that it was all wet and slobbery and that you use far too much tongue," Hermione said with an almost devilish grin.
"Shush you," Harry said with a small grin at her little joke. "Do I need to remind you of what kind of a kisser you said I was?"
"Yes, Harry, I do think I should be reminded."
This was a moment in Harry's life that he would forever remember with such clarity, it was as though it were a movie he could watch again and again whenever he wanted to. He leaned forward slowly, cocking his head just slightly to the right as he did. It seemed as though time slowed down, as though it were moving like a snail trying to cross some vast expanse, until finally, Harry's lips touched Hermione's. When the kiss was finally brought to an end, Hermione whispered, "Yes, just as I remembered. Not at all slobbery, and just the right amount of tongue." Then she kissed him again, for an equally long amount of time.
That night, Harry had the dream again, which made for less than restful sleep, but when he woke very late the following morning, he found that this time Hermione had not run away. She was snuggled up next to him, her arm around him, and her head resting on his shoulder as she peacefully slept. Yes, he felt as though he had wrong Ginny and Ron again, and was ashamed of himself for giving in to all of those desires that he should never have had in the first place. At the same time, Harry also had an odd feeling of contentment that kept the rest of those emotions more subdued than what they should have been.
After Hermione woke up, they had the inevitable discussion about what had happened. According to her, having sex for a second time was something she expected to happen. Just like Harry, she had never been able to look at her friend in the same way since that night when they first slept together. She told him that she had suspected for sometime that he was having some impure thoughts about her, just from the way that he would look at her, which was very much like the way he used to look at Cho Chang, and later on, Ginny. Then, Hermione dropped a bomb when she said she was also having thoughts about him that were less than pure. With reddening cheeks, Hermione admitted that there were times when she just wanted Harry to just take her into his arms, kiss her passionately, and then have his way with her. With those kinds of thoughts running through both of their heads, Hermione was right, it was only a matter of time before they let them out.
Just as they had the first time this had all happened, they again decided that no one needed to know about this. They weren't dating. They weren't boyfriend and girlfriend. They were just friends and nothing more. To that extent, they agreed that they should try to keep there more intimate desires in check, an idea which Harry knew was going to be considerably harder now that they had already given into them. When he asked her what she thought should happen if they did give into those desires again, Hermione said, "Well, I think that we should let whatever happens to happen." When she saw the rather surprised look on his face, she explained her answer. "The way I see it, Harry, we could just chuck it all in now and go our separate ways. That way we'd never have worry about this ever happening again, but I don't think that's something either of us wants to do. If keeping our friendship going means having the occasional…shag together then I can accept it on those terms. Besides, the occasional shag isn't really a bad thing. This time was far better than the last."
The cold night air had stung Harry's face so much that he could no longer feel his nose or his cheeks. When flew across an open field, he angled his Cleansweep towards the earth and gently touched down a few moments later to give himself a chance warm up a bit before returning home.
He looked up into the sky, peering at the thousands of stars he could now clearly see, thinking about what Hermione had said about their second time around being much better. She had been completely right about that, although it had taken him time to figure out why it had been so much better. They hadn't done anything particularly different that night, although Hermione did that thing of hers twice, which was rather nice. It also had nothing to do with improved techniques or skill because, frankly, neither of them had a lot of experience to draw on. Eventually, Harry came to understand that the second time was better because they had done it out of desire rather than a deep-seeded need to feel something good after having borne so much pain. With time and more experience, having sex with Hermione only got better.
When he finally felt warm enough, Harry mounted his broom and placed his wand in the palm of his hand and said "Point me." The wand instantly spun in his hand until it pointed directly to the North. After stashing it in his pocket, he kicked of the ground and turned back to home. As he rose into the air, one part of the conversation they had had the morning after the Minister's Gala stood out in Harry's mind. Of all the things they said to each other that morning, it was something that neither of them said that seemed the most important: they never once said that sleeping together a second time was a mistake.