All right, time to get rid of that cliffie ;)

7. Our Own Worst Enemies

"Take cover!"

Instinctively, Percy grabbed Ginny's arm and pulled her behind some barrels under an awning. He ducked in front of her, covering her with his body. Percy peeked from behind the barrel to see two Aurors, a man and a woman, duelling with a dishevelled, cloaked man, who was laughing madly. His face was hidden by the ragged cloak, but he appeared to be quite skinny. Despite that, he was certainly putting up a fight. He felt Ginny move beside him, and her head appeared next to his, trying to get a glimpse of the action. Percy gave her a sidelong glare. She only stuck her tongue out at him. Ginny never did listen.

As Percy averted his gaze back to the fight, he realized that he recognized one of the Aurors. It was the dark-haired woman from the queue at the Ministry in June. Audrey.

Suddenly, the man they were attacking was disarmed and knocked unconscious. The two Aurors ran up to him and bound him.

As the man picked up the cloaked figure. Audrey turned to the people in the streets. "Clear the way! Remain in the shops until we do a final sweep."

Audrey and the other Auror exchanged words, then the man apparated away with the cloaked figure, and Audrey began sweeping the alleyways. Percy turned to Ginny.

"Are you all right? Are you hurt?" he asked urgently.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ginny answered distractedly. "A little shaken, I'll admit."

Percy nodded. "I can't believe things like this are still happening."

"Some people just don't know when they're defeated," Ginny grumbled.

She was right, Percy realized. It seemed as if the war was still raging on, and Percy couldn't help but wonder if the Auror Office would ever be able to catch or snuff out every last Death Eater and pureblood supremacist. It appeared as if, at that point, there was no such thing as leaving the past behind.

"All clear here!" Audrey shouted as she came into view.

Another two Aurors approached her. Percy wasn't sure where they came from. "Same for us. We'll handle it from here, Callaghan. Halloway wants to speak with you. Urgently."

"Oh, I'm bloody excited for that." From what Percy could tell from her tone, Halloway wasn't an enjoyable presence.

Percy turned to Ginny as the two of them stood up from behind their hiding place. "Do you have everything?"

"Just a few more things," Ginny answered.

"All right. Let's get them and head home. I think this is enough excitement for the day."

"But... ice cream?"

"Ginny. Please."

Honestly, the girl had to get her priorities straight.

As soon as the warning to the public left her mouth, a disarmament spell shot from Audrey's wand. The man turned his sights on her and deflected it. He started shooting deadly hexes their way, and Audrey fought to deflect them. He was clearly much more practiced than the trainees that Audrey spent her days with.

"We need to catch him with his guard down," Jacob shouted over the sound of crates falling and people yelling.

"You say that as if it's going to be easy," Audrey replied.

Just as she said that, Jacob was wrenched upwards by an invisible force, one of his ankles suspended in the air. Audrey turned to look at their opponent, who had just cast another jinx. The young witch hardly deflected the spell before another came her way, and the duel quickly became an exhausting trade-off of sorts. Audrey could feel her arm weakening and her palms growing clammy. She wouldn't be able to keep this up for long, and the man was very good at keeping his guard up.

"Expelliarmus!"

Thanks to Jacob, who probably had not dropped his wand despite the sudden levicorpus jinx, the opponent's wand flew from his grasp just as he shot another hex Audrey's way. She quickly deflected the hex, and took the man's momentary shock to stun him.

"Stupefy!" Audrey shouted, and the man flew backwards, knocked unconscious.

After Audrey freed Jacob from the jinx, they ran up to the man and bound him. As Jacob picked him up, Audrey's face paled. She took in his appearance, and her eyes met Jacob's. They were filled with the same worry and urgency as hers.

"Put his hood back on," Audrey hissed. "Let no one see his face."

Audrey turned to the people that were starting to fill the streets. "Clear the way!" she shouted. "Remain in the shops until we do a final sweep."

Jacob nodded. "I'll take him to the office and send others to help you do a sweep."

With that, Jacob apparated away and Audrey began to search the alleyways, her wand gripped tightly in her hand and held in front of her. The alleyways were filthy, filled with rats, and a little smelly, but she could find no other danger.

As Audrey returned to the site of the duel, she noticed her heart was still racing from seeing the man's face. She hardly noticed the other two Aurors coming up to her.

"All clear here!" Audrey called to the two Aurors, as she finally took notice of their arrival.

"Same for us," one of them said. "We'll handle it from here, Callaghan. Halloway wants to speak with you. Urgently."

"Oh, I'm bloody excited for that," Audrey said with a groan.

Dreading the conversation Audrey was to have with her perpetually intimidating training supervisor, she reluctantly apparated away and back to the Ministry.

Audrey reached Halloway's office and raised her hand to knock. As it did that first day in London, the door swung open before she could do so.

If there's anything that makes him less intimidating, it's his love for ridiculous theatrics, Audrey thought to herself with a small smirk.

As Audrey stepped into the office, she noticed Halloway was sitting down. That was a position in which she had never before seen the man. Jacob was standing on the other side of Halloway's desk, his arms at his side. He looked towards the door as Audrey walked in and stood next to him.

"Callaghan," Halloway started. "Do you have any idea who you caught?"

Audrey felt her mouth go dry and it seemed difficult to form the words. "Rodolphus Lestrange."

"Rodolphus bloody Lestrange!" Halloway roared, suddenly standing up and laughing. The action nearly shocked Audrey into next week. The man was just full of surprises that day. It unsettled Audrey. "The evasive twat finally meets his end. What a snake, that one!"

"It wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for Audrey's keen eye," Jacob started. Audrey looked at him, shocked that he would forfeit credit for the capture. "She's very observant. I know it's only been one shift, and you don't want our first evaluations until the fifth shift, but – "

"Then why are you talking?" Halloway interrupted. The smile had disappeared from his face, and his cold and shrewd tone returned. His voice was followed by heavy silence. "Callaghan got lucky, and you were likely distracted. Take your leave."

There was a pause before Jacob answered, "Yes, sir."

He left the office, and Audrey turned to follow. "Not so fast, Callaghan," Halloway said, stopping her in her tracks. "I'm not done speaking with you."

Audrey fought the urge to yell in frustration and turned back to face Halloway. She braced herself for what was to come.

"Do you think yourself a hero now?" Halloway asked.

"No," Audrey replied stiffly.

"I would hope not." The statement came out with a sense of finality. It was only followed by silent air. "Frankly, I don't trust you, Callaghan. Your family paraded themselves as having no qualms with any blood, yet they stuck to the same traditions as the rest of the purebloods. Do not think this has won you favour."

Audrey held back a biting reply that was sure to get her kicked out of training indefinitely. "No, sir," was her only answer.

Halloway nodded, clearly pleased with her obedience. "You are expected in the Wizengamot in January, as a witness."

"January?" Audrey couldn't imagine why they wouldn't rush the case of the madman.

"That will be all, Callaghan," Halloway said, his voice booming.

"I'm just glad you two are all right," Molly said with a concerned tone as Ginny explained what had happened.

Once Percy and Ginny had arrived home, they were attacked with questions from the family. Apparently, word had reached the Burrow far before the two of them. Now, they were sitting at the dinner table with warm plates of food, and Molly sending uncountable concerned glances their way.

"Yeah, that's great and all. It was really quite frightening," Ginny said airily. "But the Aurors certainly made it worth being there."

"Ginny!" Molly scolded. "Please, be less excited about this. You could've died."

"But I didn't die," Ginny reminded. "I've got to say - the Auror training programme is doing quite well."

"Well, riddle me curious," George said.

"They acted very quickly," Ginny explained. "The woman was something else, too. Pretty talented."

"No more of this!" Molly warned.

"Oh, come on, Mum!" George whined. "Aren't you interested to hear Percy's rendition? I sure am."

"I don't have a rendition," Percy said. "Ginny told it pretty well."

"Well, do you at least know the Aurors?" George asked. "I should like to thank them for saving your annoying arse."

Percy paused, thinking about what answer he wanted to give. He opted for a simple, "No."

It wasn't a lie. He didn't even recognize the man, and in retrospect, he knew next to nothing about Audrey.

Later in the evening of the attack in Diagon Alley, Percy headed back to the Ministry. The next day was bound to be busy, and he wanted to get a head start on it by cleaning up his work space. Besides, he still felt somewhat shaken by the encounter, and he needed something to take his mind off of it.

As he walked through the eerily empty Ministry, he couldn't help but think how starkly it contrasted itself during the day. The only sounds he heard now were the shuffling of papers, the occasional owl flapping its wings, and maybe a sharp command directed towards an overworked assistant. However, this was white noise, and if Percy really concentrated on something silent, such as the dozing portraits, he could imagine that the place was shrouded in silence.

As he walked down the halls of the second level, Percy's gaze was pulled away from examining the portraits on the walls to face ahead of him and notice another person in the hallway, heading in the opposite direction. As he got closer, he noticed it was Audrey. He stiffened as their eyes met, and they both stopped in their tracks. Just like the first time he met her, there seemed to be a perpetual sense of unease between the two of them.

"Didn't think anyone else would be here."

Sooo, there was going to be a lot of contact between Audrey and Percy in this next part of the story, and it only made sense for me to combine the chapters :)

Thanks for reading!