Disclaimer: If you have to be told I don't own Harry Potter, then you're obviously too stupid to be reading fanfiction.
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Ron Weasley knew it was going to be a bad day from the moment that he'd received the assignment. What was that assignment, you ask? Why, to apprehend his former best friend, Harry James Potter. The last time he'd spoken to his friend, had been when he and Hermione had split for good. Harry had quite vehemently told him that he was sick of seeing Hermione in so much emotional turmoil because of him, and that he'd broken Hermione's heart for the last time. He'd then spirited her away into the Muggle world, behind some fairly impressive wards erected at her parents' house. Runic Wards that were created by Hermione, and powered by Harry.
Ron shivered at what that meant. Anything that was created by Hermione's scarily brilliant mind, and powered by Harry's freakish magical gift was sure to be something that even the best of Curse Breakers wanted no part of.
Bill had been practically conned into testing out the wards at the Granger home, and he'd returned paler than even a Veela's near transluscent skin tone. First of all, you couldn't get within 100 yards of the home without setting off an alarm that would alert all of the residents, and track your every movement within their range. The inner section surrounding the yard was even more horrible to most magicals. Crossing the ward line would see you stripped of your magic unless you were keyed in, and with the wards being Runic in design, that meant an engraved ward stone. This also meant that unless you got to the ward stone, then you couldn't safely bring them down without triggering some sort of trap, and the retaliative nature of the set they'd used meant there would be plenty. Bill had counted no less than two dozen visible traps ready for anyone attempting to crack the ward. His diagnostic spell had uncovered another dozen identifiable traps, and there were seven blank spots that his spell couldn't uncover.
A week after Bill's visit, he'd received a letter that basically amounted to him only needing to ask about the wards, even if they wouldn't give him any more details than his diagnostics told him. He didn't need to go skulking around. Unfortunately, there were some people who were still out to get Harry and by extension Hermione, and so had hired Ward Breakers to launch an attack. Those foolish attackers learned that Hermione Granger was a lot more clever and devious than she let on. While tied into the traps, the magic stripping ward was powered by a separate ward stone. This meant that while a truly skilled ward breaker like Bill, who was really worth their shit could dismantle the wards with some difficulty, it wouldn't effect the last line of defense: what Hermione affectionately called The Squibber. A week after that unfortunate visit, well unfortunate for the attackers anyway, the Ministry had received an owl from Harry saying that the Potter and Granger families no longer wanted anything to do with Magical Britain, and to leave them be.
The new Minister had been rather confused as to why the The Boy-Who-Lived would want to leave the magical world. Ron knew he wasn't the brightest person around, but even he'd cottoned on to the fact that Harry despised his fame, and more than anything hated being thought of as The Boy-Who-Lived. Really, it was no wonder why he up and left when everyone started to praise him, and when the Wizengamot tried to make him the poster boy for the new Ministry, it was almost a matter of when Harry would make his escape, rather than a question of if he would. Kingsley had vehemently advised against the directive, and it was part of the reason he'd resigned the Minister post after warning them of what Harry's likely response would be. What made it even worse, at least in the Minister's opinion, was that they couldn't use the Muggleborn's parents as leverage. They were protected by some kind of ward that made them a virtual deadzone for magic five meters in every direction.
The aurors that had made the attempt found every spell they cast fizzled out in that zone; and boy had that rankled Dawlish and his team. It certainly didn't help that Mr. and Mrs. Granger had unknowningly taken up some kind of self defense class during their sojourn in Oz...well, let's just say Dawlish didn't take kindly to getting smacked around by a woman he had almost a foot and over three stone on.
That had been five years ago. While Harry and Hermione still sometimes kept in touch via letters to their friends, no one had seen them since. He hated to admit that he hadn't received anything from them, but he couldn't say he didn't understand. Hermione had wanted nothing to do with him, and Harry was all about Hermione at the time. Now, they'd been spotted outside of the protection of their wards, and he'd been sent as part of the team to bring Potter in for 'questioning'. Ron shook his head. He didn't know how, but his gut told him that going after Harry and Hermione now would be a very bad idea. After all, it wasn't like this was the first time they'd been outside of the wards in five years...you had to be barmy to think that. What this was, according to Neville, was the first time that the pair had been willing to be, or uncaring if they were, found by the Ministry. That, more than anything, told him this was a bad idea.
It was at this thought that Ron made a snap decision. If things went south, he was going to surrender, or at least stay out of the fight that ensued. With that bastard Dawlish leading the team...it was almost a guarantee the Auror department was going to be short several members for duty. Whether that was temporary or permanent depended on several things.
First was if Harry's temper had calmed, because if it hadn't, there'd be bodies, and condolense letters to families. Second, was if Hermione still had as much calming influence over him as she had the last time they'd been around. Third, and most important, was if Hermione stayed unharmed. While he knew Harry wasn't a vicious fighter, if Hermione or her folks got hurt, all bets were off. That meant with Dawlish leading the team, this was going to be a disaster for the corps., he just knew it. Dawlish was the type to hold grudges, and he wouldn't have any problems targeting the source of his embarassment in the Auror pen; especially after his team made sure the entire department knew how he'd gotten manhandled by Mrs. Granger.