Chapter 13

"I Don't Want to Be"

_THE FUCKING TRUTH_

Lee Jordan Radio Show

Good Morning London! Well actually good afternoon sorry I slept in. I know how you get when you can't start the day with my beautiful voice. In Ministry news the ballots for Minister of Magic have been counted and there is a splendid photo on the cover of the Daily Prophet…

Harry switched off the radio. He sat in front of the kitchen window waiting for Errol to come with the post. He usually didn't like when the mail came because along with it came the Daily Prophet and one of Rita Skeeter's notoriously untrue stories about him. At least a couple weeks ago when I saw her in Diagon Alley she could say she actually spoke to me, but everyday there seems to be a new article and I haven't seen her since. But that wasn't important right now he was waiting for his NEWT scores so he could hopefully enter the Auror training program.

"Waiting for Errol with the post," Ginny asked as she came into the kitchen and took a seat at the table

"Yes," he didn't look away from the window.

"He's not coming," she stated calmly.

"Why not," he said turning around quickly. A smile spread across his face.

Ginny smiled too, "because he already did," she was holding the mail and on top was a letter from the ministry addressed to Harry.

"How come you didn't tell me?"

"You didn't ask," she smiled at him seductively as she handed him the envelope and then unrolled the Daily Prophet.

"YES!" They screamed at the same time.

"What's going on?" Mr. Weasley came rushing into the kitchen looking concerned

"I didn't fail my NEWTS!" said Harry smiling brightly.

"Kingsley is Minister for Magic," said Ginny happily.

"That's great!" commented Harry forgetting about his scores.

Mr. Weasley happily took the paper from Ginny, on the cover was a picture of Kingsley being inducted as the official Minister for Magic, he began to read

SHACKLEBOLT REVOLUTIONIZES MINISTRY

Early this morning the votes of the Wizengamot were tabulated and Kingsley Shacklebolt was named Minister for Magic. He helped in the final battle against Lord Voldemort and was the senior Auror in charge of the search for Sirius Black. At the press conference after his induction he announced that he would be revolutionizing the ministry by advancing law enforcement and Auror training. It was also reported that he would be removing the dementors of Azkaban since they can't be trusted and like to attack the innocent. Shacklebolt states, "It's time for change! We must insure that our world is safe for us and our children to live in. That we do not have gaps in our security and communication so that darkness will never fall on us again. My first order of business is to weed out all the traitors who work here at the ministry starting with the arresting of Delores Jane Umbridge, it has been noted of her torturing students at Hogwarts, buying artifacts illegally to secure her bloodline during high security times, crimes against muggle borns, and allowing dementors to attack underage children. Of course she is not the only problem in the system but I can assure you that they will all be taken care of

Article continued on page 5

"That surely doesn't sound like something Skeeter would say," stated Harry.

"She didn't, this article was written by Hannah Abbott," sat down and continued to read the rest of the article to himself.

"Hannah's got a job at the Prophet," Ginny said surprised, "wow."

"That's cool and now I'm going to apply for a job as an Auror," Harry looked at to make sure his face was behind the paper, quickly gave Ginny a kiss on the lips and he and his scores left the house for the ministry.

"I hope you know I saw that," said without lowering the paper.

"I know," Ginny grabbed the Quidditch pages from the Prophet and took her tea and left the room.

_RON AND DRACO'S_

Ron had gotten off work a couple of hours ago and had just gotten comfortable in his bed and was ready to fall asleep. Late night food service careers were definitely not his choice of permanent jobs. He closed his eyes… They shot open.

There was banging on the door… it stopped. He closed his eyes and continued to drift.

"Who the fucking hell is banging on the door," Draco shouted angrily as he opened the door.

"Me!" Stated Hermione forcefully as she hit him in his chest as she walked in, "there is no need to use that language"

"My house, I will speak anyway I fucking please Granger," he said while closing the door. "Ron's in his room," Draco began back to his room.

"Actually I came to see you," she said looking down at the floor.

Draco stopped walking, why is she coming to see me, he turned, "What's up," he tried not to seem confused or intrigued.

She handed him a piece of paper.

"Brilliant! You received all your NEWTs!" he said excitedly, he cleared his throat and tried to sound impartial, "I mean that's nice. So umm… what are you going to do now?" He ran his hand nervously through his hair and looked everywhere but at her, hoping she wouldn't notice his mild pride.

She fidgeted nervously with the one strand of hair that managed to not get caught in her frizzed bushy ponytail, "I applied for a job in the Department of Regulation and control of Magical creatures."

"Why would you do that, to research Nargles?"

Hermione smiled, "so that I can improve the lives of house elves."

Draco looked at her skeptically, "whatever you say." He lowered his head.

"Are you okay?"

Draco apparated from the Sighler to the roof of his flat, he climbed down the fire escape to his window where an owl was perched on the railing with a letter. He took the letter and the owl flew away. He climbed through the window and plopped down on the bed to read the letter.

Dear Mr. Draco Malfoy,

The Ministry of Magic has been informed of your involvement with Lord Voldemort and you are hereby required to submit to questioning on Tuesday, 3 September at 8am.

Sincerely

Pius Thicknesse

Reinstated Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Department

Ordered By

Kingsley Shacklebolt

Minister for Magic

"No I'm not, I got summoned to the Ministry for questioning," he said still looking at the floor he leaned against the wall.

"About your involvement with Voldemort," asked Hermione leaning next to him.

He nodded his head yes.

"You're not going to be convicted death eater," Hermione assured him.

He looked up at her and smirked, "oh you think so. Because I think that I will be convicted. How am I going to explain this," he showed Hermione the scar on his arm where the dark mark used to be, "and I let the death eaters into Hogwarts, my attempted murder of Dumbledore, Voldemort using my house as head quarters, oh! And let's not forget that incident in the room of requirement, remember that really big fire?"

Hermione contemplated this for a moment, "Well… at least you didn't start the fire?"

Draco chuckled and ran his hands over his face, "It doesn't matter I'll just go and see what happens."

"Best of luck," Hermione pushed off the wall and went to Ron's room. He was curled up in bed snoring as usual. She smiled at the sight of him and walked over and lay down next to him on the bed.

She moved a piece of his hair out of his face, "hi," she whispered.

Ron's eyes fluttered open, "Hey," he put his arm around her, "what's up."

"I missed you, I haven't seen you since our night of alcohol and debauchery," Ron chuckled,

"I'll go if you want to be alone."

"Two weeks is quite enough time," Hermione smiled and Ron's eyes fluttered closed, she curled up and Ron pulled her in tighter.

"I passed all my NEWTS," she whispered.

Ron grinned with his eyes still closed he pulled Hermione in and kissed her.

_MINISTRY OF MAGIC_

Harry stepped out of the visitor's entrance at the ministry. He made his way through the crowded atrium bustling with people. The Magic is Might monument had been taken down and was replaced with a new one. There was a witch, wizard, centaur, house elf, and a goblin standing in a circle with their arms stretched up holding up a world that had water flowing out of the top it creating arches going over each statues head. Harry walked over to read the base….

United We Stand, this statue is in honor of all those who fought and were lost in the war to bring peace to our nation. All coins placed in this fountain will be donated for the rebuilding and reconstruction of Hogwarts School of Witch Craft and Wizardry until the 1 September, then all donations shall continue to be given to St. Mungo's Hospital of Magical Maladies and Injuries.

"HARRY POTTER!"

Harry looked up from the fountain to see Amos Diggory rushing over to him excitedly.

"What a pleasant surprise," he shook Harry's hand vigorously, "to what does the Ministry owe this honor?"

"I'm just here signing up for Auror training."

"Excellent! You'll make a fine addition, must be off, running late for a meeting," he smiled at Harry and gave him a pat on the back and rushed off.

People were looking at him now… he turned and started to walk towards the reception desk, trying to keep his head down but it was no use people began to talk to him along the way.

"Nice to see you Mr. Potter"

"Thanks for saving us"

"We knew you could do it Mr. Potter"

There were two receptionist at the desk one was helping someone so he stepped up to the second. She was looking down.

"How may I help…" she looked up and smirked, "well if it isn't Harry Potter?" Pansy Parkinson leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Can you please tell me what level the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is?"

"Don't tell me, our hero has gotten himself into trouble again," she said not removing her evil smirk.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Can you please just tell me?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Its level 2,"said the other receptionist who had finished helping the other person.

Harry looked over to her, "Thank you," he paused, "What are you doing here?"

Romilda Vane smiled brightly at Harry, "just interning for the summer, it's nice seeing you again Harry."

"You too, have a good year at school," he smiled and walked over to the lifts.

"Level two Department of Magical Law Enforcement," a women's voice said over the loud speaker as Harry stepped out of the lift. He walked down the hall reading the signs on the door he stopped in front of the door that read Auror Headquarters. He took a deep breath and opened the door.

The room was filled with cubicles he could hear quills scratching away around the room and there were people walking quickly from cubical to cubical. There were parchment airplanes speeding in and out of the room. Harry walked over to the first cubicle and stuck his head in…

"Excuse me, can you tell me where I sign up for Auror training?"

They man was scribbling furiously away and didn't look up, "you want the Auror training office it's down the hall on the left."

"Thanks," Harry had to duck a few times to avoid speeding parchment planes as he left the office and walked back out into the hall. He wondered if he would be that busy when he became an Auror and thought about working with Ron and Malfoy at the Sighler.

He opened the door that read Auror Training Office and went inside. The back wall had two doors on it, one read IN and the other OUT. There were chairs around the perimeter of the room and a women sitting at a desk in the center, she looked extremely familiar.

"Angelina!" Harry smiled brightly as the girl looked up from her work.

"Hi Harry! How's it going?" she said happily.

"I'm pretty good, you work here," asked Harry.

"I'm getting ready to start my third year of Auror training, they make you do secretarial work and filing documents and stuff in between training sessions, basically the work no one wants to do but you have to pay your dues. So here I am." She smiled brightly at him.

"Sounds like fun," said Harry.

"Not really. Now what can I do for you," she asked.

"I wanted to sign up for training," he said proudly.

"Great! I need you to fill these out," she handed Harry a stack of paper and a quill, " You need to attach your NEWT scores and if you have in letters of recommendation or you can have them sent directly to Gawain Robards, the department head." She looked at Harry, "relax it's only ten pages and it's not a test just personal information and include the D.A they love stuff like that… well it's not like you need it your Harry Potter but I would do it anyway."

"Thanks," he sat down and began to fill out the paper work.

"So I hear your dating Ginny, how's that going?" asked Angelina as she continued working.

"It's going really good actually," he answered as he filled in the papers.

"I was talking to Lee the other day…"

"Is he still trying to get you to go out with him?"

She laughed, "no but he still brings up the fact that I never would, he was telling me that you guys went out and got wasted a couple weeks ago."

"You mean he got wasted, by the end of the night no one could stand beside me, Neville, Hermione, and Malfoy."

Angelina stopped working and looked up, "Malfoy was with you?"

"Yeah he and Goyle came with Hermione and Ron, they were actually okay, it was lots of fun."

She looked at him skeptically, "okay."

"We're going to do it again and you should join us," Harry said still scribbling away at his application.

"Maybe I will…" The door to the office opened and in walked Justin Finch-Fletchery.

"Hi Harry," said Justin as he walked over to Angelina's desk.

"Hi, you work here too?" He asked looking up.

"Yup in the department of mysteries," he pretended as if he was zipping his mouth shut, "I just came to pick up the files that Penelope requested," he handed Angelina a piece of parchment.

She looked at it, "okay," she got up and went into the door that said IN.

"Penelope Clearwater," asked Harry, Justin shook his head yes, "so do a lot of people from school work here?"

"Yeah, it's like Hogwarts all over again. There are a lot of positions open now since Voldemort murdered people and Kingsley is weeding out the traitors," said Justin simply.

"Everyone seems so busy."

"Almost every department is short staffed and we can't really afford to fill the requirements of every office because so much funding went into the repair of Hogwarts, but besides that Kingsley has made it a great environment to work in," he said. "Plus it's Eggplant Parmesan day in the commissary"

"Well other than the delicacies provided by food service who else works here? I saw Romilda at reception and I know Dean works in Games and Sports."

Justin looked up at the ceiling in contemplation, "Susan Bones works in transportation, if you ever need a portkey she's the one to see. Blaise is on the accidental magic reversal squad…"

"That's comforting," commented Harry sarcastically.

"What's comforting?" Asked Angelina as she reappeared through the OUT door and handing a stack of files to Justin.

"Blaise Zabini being on the Accidental Magical Reversal squad," laughed Harry.

"Actually it is, I heard he can unsplinch people in like under a second," Angelina said retaking her seat and continuing her work.

"I better get these back downstairs, it was nice talking to you, I'll see you around Harry, bye Angelina," She waved and Justin left the room.

Harry continued to finish filling out his forms and attached his scores. "Where do I put these?"

"I'll take that," she quickly flipped through all the pages and to make sure it was completely filled it out. She stamped the top page then initialed it and put it in the in box where it magically disappeared. "That's it. You'll get a letter stating if you're in or not."

"Great, it was good seeing you and I'm so sending you an invite to the next night out," said Harry walking to the door.

She smiled, "Ok, I hope to see you next week at training."

"Me too," Harry left the office and walked down the hall back to the lifts.

_RON AND DRACO'S_

(Later that night)

Ron rolled over and looked at the clock it read 9:30pm. He slowly got up trying not to wake Hermione. He quietly slipped out of the room to the bathroom to hop in the shower before work….

Draco was sitting in the living room reading the Daily Prophet from that morning he lowered the paper when he heard a small scream…

Hermione sat straight up in the bed and let out a small scream, she was sweating. She looked around trying to figure out where she was. She quickly got out of the bed and went out into the hall…

Draco stepped into the hall he heard the shower running in the bathroom and Ron's door opened. Hermione stepped out she was sweating.

"Are you okay?" He asked slowly stepping forward.

"I'm fine, just a bad dream," she stepped back into Ron's room and closed the door. She rested her head against it.

Draco walked the rest of the way over to the door and put his head to it, "Granger?" He said in a low voice.

"What?" Draco was surprised that she heard him but thought she must be leaning against the door.

"What's going on?"

Hermione closed her eyes, "Why do you care?"

Draco closed his eyes, "I don't. Forget I asked." He shook his head in disbelief and went into his own room.

Hermione heard the door closed and opened her eyes. She backed away from the door slowly and sat down on the bed. A few minutes later Ron came in with just a towel wrapped around his waist and saw her silhouette sitting on the bed.

"Why are you sitting in the dark?" He turned on the lights and noticed that she had been crying, "What's wrong?"

She wiped away her tears and said sternly, "I need to find my parents… I have tried to find some kind of spell that would help me locate them but I can't. I'm supposed to be the cleverest witch in our year and I can't even find my parents!" She bent down and started to put her shoes on.

"We'll find them, you, me, and Harry will do one of our usual over analyzing, researching, trying things that don't work, whatever but we'll find them," Ron pulled Hermione into a hug as she stood up.

"Thank You."

He leaned down and kissed her lightly. He pulled back and looked into her brown eyes. They seemed endless as she stared back at him. He felt like he could look into them forever that no matter how long he looked at her she would forever be perfect. He smiled at the thought of this and leaned in and kissed her passionately.

The kiss was rough and sloppy but it took Hermione's breath away. She kissed him back with just as much force allowing his tongue to enter her mouth. They started walking backwards towards the bed. Ron was playing with the bottom of Hermione's shirt. He broke the kiss for a second and pulled it over her head. Ron lowered Hermione down onto the bed and climbed on top of her. His kisses left her lips and traveled down her neck. She arched her back and Ron unhooked her bra. He slowly moved his kisses down around her bare chest, as he moved them down to her stomach he caressed her chest with one hand. Hermione breathed in deeply and tilted her head back. When he got down to her belly button, he began to make his way back towards her lips. Hermione let her hands travel down Ron's sides. She ran his hands over his bare chest and felt him moan softly into her mouth… Ron never made it to work that night.

_THE BURROW_

"Why are you packing now, you don't leave until Sunday," asked Harry as he lay across Ginny's bed watching her fold her clothes and place them neatly into her trunk.

"Because I don't like waiting until the last minute," she said as she continued to put her things in the trunk.

"I think it's because you're in a hurry to leave me so you can run off and fall in love with some other bloke," said Harry frowning.

"Yes that's exactly it," she rolled her eyes.

Harry pouted and rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling. Ginny looked up at him from her position in front of her trunk on the floor. She got up off the floor and sat next to him on the bed.

"You thought I was serious," Ginny gazed down at him concerned.

Harry smiled, "No but while you were over there I couldn't do this." He pulled Ginny down onto the bed and rolled on top of her she started laughing. He learned in and kissed her passionately, she laughed through the whole thing. He pulled away from her and just stared at her. "I love you"

"I know," a huge grin appeared across Ginny's face. Harry started tickling her and she began to laugh and scream. "Stop it! We'll wake my parents," said Ginny trying to stop laughing.

With the thought of Mr. Weasley Harry immediately stopped and rolled off of her and was yet again lying on his back looking at the ceiling. Ginny got off the bed and put the last few things in her trunk and left the room. Harry rolled onto his stomach at the sound of the door closing. Did I do something? A few minutes later Ginny came back into the room in her pajamas and holding Harry's. She threw them across the room to him she grabbed her wand and began putting spells on the door.

"What are you doing," he asked changing into his Pajamas.

"You're spending the night with me and you can wipe that grin off your face right now, there will be no funny business." Harry couldn't stop grinning, he liked the way she could read him without even looking at him, "But there may be some fooling around," she said as she turned around placing her wand back on the dresser. "I've put the troll in your bed and turned his hair black. Put a silencing spell over the door so no one can hear anything and an ID charm so we'll know who's at the door. But it should be fine as long as you're out by six."

They stood on opposite sides of the room and just looked at each other.

"Are you going to kiss me or just stand there staring all night," Ginny asked crossing her arms.

Harry walked to the other side of the bed and stood in front of Ginny, "I think I'll stare."

She pushed him backwards onto the bed and climbed on top of him and began to snog him senseless.

"I Don't Want to Be" Gavin DeGraw