Raylynx's POV

"Damn it." That was the catchphrase of the Auror office as well lately.

Savage spat on the clean marble floor of a grand mansion.

"There's no evidence," Dawlish said grimly. "At this rate, they'll be on trial, but with the amount of gold they're offering to give the Ministry, I don't see how they can possibly be convicted. And this search came up empty."

Shacklebolt rejoined us. "We must leave the premises now,'" he said. "They're threatening to sue if we stay any longer."

As we traipsed down the main stairs, I asked Shacklebolt quietly, "Do you think they were forewarned?"

"By someone within the Ministry?" Dawlish said, alarmed.

"Just a thought," I replied.

Shacklebolt nodded to acknowledge my thought. "I can't say for certain. But I've been having the same suspicions myself for a while now."

"There's no way their place would be as spotless as it is now without prior warning," I pointed out. "They were avid supporters of Voldemort, members of his inner circle."

"Can't believe we're letting them get away," Savage grumbled.

We left the Carrow premises unsatisfied.

When we returned to the inner hallways of Ministry, we saw Lucius Malfoy talking in low tones with Bartemius Crouch.

"And there goes another snake," Savage rolled his eyes and cursing under his breath, he walked away. It was true. Not only Malfoy and the Carrows, but Macnair, Yaxley, Avery, Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott were officially announced as innocent. They used their wealth, power, and influence very smartly to avoid punishment for their crimes. The day Yaxley was announced innocent, I felt as though I was in the Order again and that I had just been told that Marlene was dead. What is the point of all these laws and institutions and organizations, if they were going to be choked to death by their own rules?

But similar to the Order, there were good individuals within the Ministry too. Moody, Ahmed, Alice, Frank, and Shacklebolt were amazing Aurors, among many others. Thanks to them, in the span of another week, three more Death Eaters were tracked down. Alice and Frank managed to subdue Dolohov and drag him in. When Crouch read aloud his charges, which included thirty-two counts of murder and fifty-six counts of torture, he grinned savagely. He was disgusting. Moody cornered Rosier, but ended up killing him when he resisted arrest. Moody came back with a chunk of his nose missing. I felt the urge to ask him if it was a lack of "constant vigilance", but decided against pissing off the most famous Dark Wizard hunter in the world.

Then, there was that fateful day where Severus Snape came before the Wizengamot on his own, turning himself over for questioning and trial. Is this remorse? I wondered as I sat down to watch his trial.

The Wizengamot had gathered. We were all called to attention as Bartemius Crouch was called to preside. Then, I saw Dumbledore walk in. I expected him to sit down in the back row, his usual seat, but instead he strode past all the benches and sat in the front row. When the trial began, Crouch noted, "There is a witness for defense, in this case. Albus Dumbledore, please stand." Dumbledore stood.

A hush fell over the Wizengamot and the court. Kingsley furrowed his brow besides me. My breath caught. Witness for… defense?

"What testimony have you to offer, Albus?"

Testimony for Snape's defense? As if there could be any! I thought savagely. Dumbledore, you know that Snape is the one who overheard the prophecy that led to Lily and James' death! What could you possibly say to-

"Severus Snape was indeed a Death Eater," Dumbledore spoke quietly, but his voice rang out to the strained ears of the Wizengamot. "However, prior to Lord Voldemort's downfall, he turned spy for us at great personal risk. Without him, Lord Voldemort may yet be at large. I offer my full support to Severus Snape and testify in the hopes that the Wizengamot will hear the truth- that today, Severus Snape is no more a Death Eater than I am."

Fury blinded me. So what you're saying is that if Snape had never told Voldemort about the prophecy, Voldemort would never have gone after Harry, and he would never have been defeated. I stood up, shaking with anger.

"Ray," Alice whispered, tugging my sleeve. "What are you doing?"

"Thank you for your testimony, Albus."

That's no witness, I snarled in my own head. That's counsel.

I walked out of the trial, furious.

The verdict could not be plainer. Everybody bowed down to Dumbledore and somehow, Snape had managed to garner the favor of Dumbledore.

You defend Snape, but you don't even argue for a trial with Sirius.

I went back down to the office to see Savage lounging about.

"You're not at the trial?" I greeted him.

"No. I stopped going to those things a while back, unless Shacklebolt orders it. They're all pre-determined anyways," Savage snorted.

"Why aren't you at the trial?" he asked me.

"Along the same lines as you," I answered.

We were just hanging about, until we ended up hanging up one of the older Daily Prophets with Voldemort's face and playing darts. We sat back in the office chairs with coffee and threw darts, laughing and making crude jokes.

Suddenly, the door opened and Shacklebolt and Dawlish walked in.

We both started. Savage jumped up and spilled coffee on himself. He cursed loudly. I hastily threw the darts under the desk and in my attempt to rip down our makeshift dartboard, tripped spectacularly. I still managed to tear it down while I fell, though.

"What the hell is going on here?" Shacklebolt said, half-angry, half-bemused.

"Nothing, er- sir," Savage feigned innocence as I hastily got back on my feet.

"Good, because we're being called for," Shacklebolt said. "Ahmed and Moody located two Death Eaters. They're shepherding them towards Darlington. We've been called for back-up."

"Great," Savage said. "A real mission, finally. Let's go."

"Yeah, we're ready," I added.

Shacklebolt arched his eyebrow at us as he said knowingly, "Oh, really? Are you sure you're not too busy playing darts?"

"You say that like we're not allowed to have any fun," I said, slightly sullen.

"If we manage to catch them both and they turn out to be real Death Eaters, drinks on me," Shacklebolt promised.

We all rushed out after that.

Shacklebolt sighed and shook his head. "Why are they motivated by all the wrong things?"


I could hear footsteps coming our way.

I pulled my hood low over my eyes and glimpsed around the building.

Through the light drizzle and fog, I could just make out two figures sprinting towards us.

I immediately pulled back with my back flat to the wall.

"They're coming?" Savage asked me.

"Yeah, two of them," I said. "Just as promised."

Across the street, Shacklebolt was lying in wait against the other wall. A bit further down the street was Dawlish, covering in case one of the Death Eaters decided to split off and run straight down the alleyway.

The footsteps came closer and soon we could hear breathing.

I held my hand up and slowly put up fingers. Savage watched me. One… Two… Three!

Savage and I leapt out of our hiding place.

"Stupefy!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

The Death Eaters cried out and managed to deflect our curses. One of them took off running- straight into Shacklebolt. Savage leapt into the fight. The other broke off and tried to make it down the street, but ran into Dawlish. I threw a spell at the Death Eater while he was dueling Dawlish and it caught him in the back. He keeled over in pain and Dawlish was quick to grab his collar and force him on his knees, jabbing his wand into his neck. By that time, Ahmed and Moody had caught up and it was game over.

It started to rain properly.

Shacklebolt and Savage dragged over an unconscious Death Eater. Moody ripped off his hood.

"Travers," Ahmed recognized.

We made our way to Dawlish, who was keeping the Death Eater on his knees, even as he tried his best to resist. His hood was thrown back.

"Karkaroff," I realized. My voice went dark with anger as I remembered Julian.

"I don't remember ever seeing his face," Savage murmured.

"You would if you paid attention to the papers," Moody growled.

Karkaroff tried to shift out of Dawlish's grasp, but I stepped on his cloak and put my wand against his temple.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," I said.

"Let's take them back to the Ministry," Dawlish suggested.

Moody nodded.

"Good job, you lot," Ahmed said to us.


We shuffled into the Three Broomsticks that night.

I offered to go get the drinks at the bar.

Rosmerta recognized me. A smile spread across her face as she said, "That's you, right, Raylynx Kingsley?"

"Yes, hello," I replied. "How are you, Rosmerta?"

"I'm doing all right! What would you like?"

I gave her my orders. She kept talking to me while she started making the drinks.

"I remember you used to come here with a whole group of people," she said. "I don't see them much anymore."

"No," I agreed. "Me neither."

She blinked and said softly, "Oh God. I'm so sorry, I-"

I shook my head quickly. "No, don't-" I breathed in shortly before sighing, "Don't feel bad." We were both quiet.

Then, Rosmerta said very quietly, "Do you know? I still have trouble believing it. Sirius Black being the traitor, I mean. I remember when he was a Hogwarts student… him and James…"

I looked up at her, torn by my desire to thank her for believing in Sirius and hatred that she was so stupid she couldn't put together the obvious facts in front of her. Sirius Black betrayed us. That's the truth. He killed Peter and turned Lily and James to Voldemort.

And yet, here was someone who shared that inkling of a feeling with me… that feeling that it couldn't be true.

Suddenly, somebody else shouted, "Rosmerta! Over here!"

"Be right over!" she yelled back. She hurriedly put the drinks on the bar and said, "On the house, sweetie." Then, she rushed over to the other customer.

"Look who it is! Raylynx Kingsley!"

I turned around to see Zayne Finnigan, grinning at me.

We embraced and he said cheerfully, "I see you got your werewolf potion out on the market, though I notice you didn't put your name on it."

"Only because I didn't really do any of the hard work," I replied.

"You credited me, even," Zayne reminded me. He shook his head slightly and then asked, "Who did you come here with? You want to join us?"

I nodded at my table.

"But that's…. What, are you an Auror now?" Zayne said incredulously.

"Yeah."

"Bloody hell, is there anything you can't do?"

"I just got in on a friend's recommendation, honestly," I answered.

Zayne rolled his eyes. "Someday, you'll realize that it won't kill you to give yourself some credit."

He flicked my forehead. "Good to see you, Ray."

"Same."

"Hey, you know Harper and Riley are here somewhere, too," Zayne told me.

"I'll say hi if I get the chance," I responded and then magicked the drinks back to the table.

"I told you already, she's not a fucking Death Eater," Savage was saying impatiently. "She was Imperiused, definitely."

"How do you know?" Dawlish asked him.

"I just do," Savage responded. "You get a feel for these things after a while."

"Savage, may I remind you that you're still only in training," Shacklebolt said.

Savage half-smirked, half-scowled.

As I sat back, I contributed my bit to the conversation as well.

"I know I'm still in training, too. But I think we need to make searching out Imperiused people a priority only second to chasing down actual Death Eaters. After all, it only takes one Imperiused person to take down an entire family," I said grimly. We all grimaced as we thought of the family where an Imperiused young man had slaughtered his whole family before he managed to fight the Curse off.

"You always have to bring up that dark shit," Savage said to me. "Lay off a bit, won't you? We're at a pub."

"You were so much more fun playing darts," he sighed.

"We never played darts," I said flatly.

"What do you mean? Of course we did. We pasted up Voldemort's face and every-"

Shacklebolt coughed delicately.

Savage shot Shacklebolt a wide-eyed look and said, "Right, we never played darts."

"And I don't know if anyone ever made you aware of this but as Aurors, we go after Dark Wizards, Savage," I said. "So of course when we talk, I'm going to bring up 'dark shit'. That's the only thing we all have in common."

Dawlish chuckled and then downed half his glass of mead in one.

"You know, for being so quiet, you like to drink," Savage noted.

Dawlish just smiled sheepishly.

"Well, gentlemen and lady, don't stay out too late," Shacklebolt said, standing up. He had barely touched his drink.

"You're not leaving already?" I said.

"I'm afraid so," Shacklebolt responded, "Some documents that need my attention."

"You're always bloody working," Savage scowled.

"That's why I'm your boss," Shacklebolt quipped, and left quickly.

"Ouch, that's a burn if I ever saw one, Savage," Dawlish said.

"What did you say?" Savage said menacingly.

"Nothing," Dawlish said airily and occupied himself with his drink again.

A couple more Ministry workers and Aurors filtered in. One of them was Jasper Riley. They recognized us and came over.

"Hello again," Jasper greeted me, sitting beside me.

"Hello," I returned. "So you finished work for the day?"

"Just now, yes."

"What do you do for the Ministry?" I asked.

"I work for the Regulation of Magical Beasts," Jasper answered. "I'm sure you understand why that's suitable for me." He winked slyly.

Right, werewolf.

I hesitated, though. I had been in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, connected to Auror Headquarters when I had been unceremoniously removed from the Ministry. Jasper had spotted me there. What was he doing there if he worked for the Magical Beasts Department? I'd never seen any Ministry Worker except those from International Relations when missions threatened to impact other countries.

I decided just to ask. "What were you doing at Magical Law, then?"

"I was briefing a group of Aurors on werewolves. They were tracking the remaining few before they all disappeared underground."

It sounded perfectly sound and yet, I couldn't help but remember that that had been the very excuse I had used against Alice only a few days ago.

"I see," I said, a little warily.

Jasper must have sensed my skepticism, but he didn't press it.

A few more Aurors drifted in, and the table was getting rather crowded. I excused myself and gave up my chair for one of Savage's friends. I managed to find Zayne again, with Harper and Riley, and we had a brief reunion before I left the pub.


It was Neville's second birthday.

I showed up at Alice and Frank's with a cake.

"Ray, thanks for coming! Oh wow, that looks delicious," Alice said, opening the door. She led me into the kitchen, where she was immediately ambushed by little Neville.

"Good to see you, Raylynx," Frank greeted me. "And with cake! Thanks, you can just set that on the counter there."

Augusta appeared then. She magicked a swirl of cream from my cake into the air and tasted it.

"Hmmph, fake cream," she said, unimpressed.

I smiled and said dryly, "Sorry, didn't have time to whip up some real cream between catching criminals."

Augusta looked at me sternly for a second before breaking out into an amused smile.

Several others showed up. It was amazing to see people interacting so freely again after a long time of people shutting themselves up in their own houses, too afraid to leave or invite anyone else in. Acquaintances from Hogwarts appeared: Hestia Jones, Evanna Weasley, William Darcy, Thomas Abbott, Sam Chang, George Bones, Aiden Thomas, and even Reginald and Mary Cattermole. Emmeline Vance also appeared. She smiled at me and hugged me warmly by way of greeting.

It was quite a merry gathering, but I couldn't help and feel weighed down by the absence of my closest friends.

I heard Savage in the back of my head, saying "Why you always got to bring up the dark shit?"

I shook my head and tried to focus on only pleasant feelings as we sang Happy Birthday for a confused-looking Neville, who looked unsure as to whether he should cry or smile until someone shoved a bit of cake in his mouth and he beamed happily.

After Neville's birthday party, I Apparated to the Dursley house and watched the silent, sleeping house in my cat form.

When the clock struck midnight, I softly mewed my "Happy Birthday" to Harry before I slunk past two of Mrs. Figg's cats roaming in the street and took off for the Magical Menagerie.

Alice's POV

Frank and I were taking out the trash bins after the party.

"You know, I caught your mum trying to scare magic out of Neville again," I said to Frank, half-laughing, half-chiding. "Can we please explain to her that Neville's not a Squib just because he can't cast a Patronus at age two?"

"I have explained it to her! Several times, in fact," Frank defended himself. Then, he chuckled as he shook his head. "She's just excited for him to grow up. She loves him and she's proud of him, that's all."

"I know," I reassured him. "I just find it funny."

They started to turn back towards the house, when Frank hesitated.

"What is it?" I asked, noticing Frank staring down the road. I looked, too, but saw nothing.

"Frank?"

"I thought I saw…" Frank's brow furrowed.

"Alice, go back to the house," he said, his voice suddenly stern.

"What about you-?"

Frank took off running down the street.

"Frank!" I shouted. Torn, I looked between him and the house, between Frank and Neville.

In a moment of desperation, I performed my best magic and managed to throw up all of the house's defenses in one wave.

Then, I chased after Frank, who was already far ahead of me.

I saw Frank turn the street and then I heard the unmistakable sounds of a scuffle.

"Frank!" I yelled, holding my wand out.

I finally turned the corner, only to find myself immersed in fog. The sudden fog in July sent shivers up my skin.

"Frank!" I shouted desperately. Suddenly, I sensed somebody behind me.

"Stupefy!" I shouted.

There was a hiss, and then a streak of light came out of the fog and hit me. I collapsed and fell unconscious.

When I came to, the fog had cleared. Groggily, I pushed myself back up onto my feet. It was dark and the stars were still out. There was nobody in sight. Frank…? Neville! Adrenaline kicked in and I rushed back to the house.

"Neville! Neville!" I shouted as I magicked the guards down and raced into the house.

To my relief, Neville was fast asleep in his crib.

"Oh thank Merlin!" I cried out. A plan formed in my mind and slowly, I steeled myself. I wrapped Neville in a blanket and took him to Augusta's. When Augusta showed up at the door, confused and irate, I shook my head and said softly, "There's no time to explain. But this is urgent. Please, look after him in case anything happens."

Augusta paused. My tone made her realize that this was serious. Augusta nodded and carefully took Neville from me.

I headed directly to the Ministry to alert the other Aurors, praying desperately in my mind that Frank was holding on. But as I walked down the street to its entrance, the same mist from last night suddenly enveloped the road. I turned and looked before the mist thickened, but the street was clearly empty. There was no one else out so late at night (or so early in the morning). I gripped my wand and steadied my trembling hand.

"Imperi-"

"Protego!" I shouted, and successfully deflected my opponent.

But at the next moment, three spells shot from three different directions.

I managed to deflect one and avoid another, but the last hit my shoulder and I dropped.