Sequel to Closed Ward- Chapter 88. Quick reminder about this one, Harry is still The Boy Who Lived, but he's American, the war happened in the States and he uses words like 'apartment', and he's an Obscurial.
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Closed Ward- The Sequel
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The pounding behind his eyes was only getting worse after each new form he pulled in front of him that needed to be filled out.
They should have thought of some other reason he was able to find her, but it had all happened so fast and they'd come up with the best that they could in the moment. It had made the most sense in the moment. How could they have known there would be so much paperwork that needed to be filled out.
He hadn't even gotten to the Ministry paperwork yet, this was all just hospital Human Resources paperwork that he was dealing with right now. Where he wished he could have been was in the conference room several doors down where the representative from the Human Resources department had pulled Gin into a one-on-one meeting to determine whether she felt like she'd been coerced through his authority or used anything relating to his position of her superior in the hospital to convince her that they were in a relationship. He wanted to hear the answers to those questions, and he wanted to know just how much emphasis or repetition there was to the questions; there could be the chance that they were doing a good job of using their position to convince her that he had been using his position to convince her to be in a relationship with him.
And he hadn't.
He may not have been given her express permission to kiss her like he had that first time but it had been clear to him that she had wanted it just as much as he had. And he'd backed off the second he heard the word 'no' from her. Granted, she hadn't meant 'no' as in 'stop', it was because they still had a comatose patient at their feet that needed seeing to.
The next form he pulled in front of him was questioning his ability to remain impartial should Gin continue to be on his service.
This was the most important document. He needed to get the wording just right on this form or it would affect her future as a Healer. Gin wanted to be working on the Closed Ward, she wanted to be in the place that she would make the most difference. He would need to check in with his other Residents and have them make a statement about whether they'd felt that she'd been given any special treatment due to their relationship.
Which she hadn't.
Because it was only a day old.
Technically.
What a day it had been too. Waking up to her in his bed that morning had been fantastic, and what followed had been incredible. It had been ages since he'd bedded anyone and considering he'd only lost control a little bit, causing minimal destruction, when he'd been that worked up, it meant that possibly they'd be able to do a repeat in a few different locations around his place.
Perhaps he should empty out the guest room and turn that into their room that was dedicated for sex?
Harry's mind began to wander and a haze formed in front of his eyes that alarmed him. He blinked a few times and checked his mental block, forcing himself to relax and add an extra layer of protection around his growing energy.
He needed to offload some of this energy soon. All day he'd been in his office dealing with paperwork. Gin had recommended that he wandlessly transfigure something repeatedly as a way of using up his magical supply and he'd completely forgotten to do that exercise with everything else going on. Looking to the corner of his desk he saw a paperweight that someone had left there for him when he took over the office; it was a glass ball with some kind of bubbles inside of it. He brought the paperweight closer and started tapping it with his left hand, changing it into different shapes with each tap while he continued to fill out the form.
By the time he had finished all of the HR paperwork there was a knock on his door.
"Come in," he called out as he reached for the stack of paperwork that the Ministry of Magic had sent over to him.
Gin came in, followed by the Human Resources woman that he believed was named Martha.
"I've just finished convincing them that you aren't abusing your position," Gin said glibly. "It's your turn now."
"Isn't that what all these forms were supposed to do for me?" he asked, dropping the Ministry forms in front of him and picking up the HR ones to hold out to Martha.
"Those are your written paperwork, now I need to hear it from your mouth," Martha told him.
He looked Martha directly in the eyes, "I did not force Gin to be with me. She is her own person and can walk away from me at anytime and it will not affect her place on my team nor will it influence her future as a Healer. It is my professional opinion that she stay working on the ward she is currently on; that ward just so happens to be under my supervision. Ask any of her team and none of them will be able to tell you of a single instance where I gave her preferential treatment."
"And when you were choosing the team to fall under your purview, that also had nothing to do with your attraction for her?" Martha pressed.
"No, it was entirely because she was the only person doing rounds the day I arrived that treated the patients like they were people, not props," he told her plainly. "Anything else?"
Martha nodded at him, then at Gin. "Until further notice any requests for time off," she said to Gin, "must be approved by Healer Brown. You can continue working as you were and we will be following up with your coworkers over the next three to six months to make sure there are still no signs of favoritism."
"Completely fair," Gin said eagerly.
Harry wasn't as eager to hear that as Gin was; it was all bureaucratic bullshit to him.
Before leaving his office Martha thumbed through the paperwork he'd handed her and then nodded again, confirming she had all the forms she needed, then left, leaving his door open. Probably on purpose.
Gin smirked at him, likely seeing the exasperation on his face, and closed the door herself before taking a seat. "I see you've been doing some exercises," she pointed to the paperweight that now looked like a glass flame.
"I'd forgotten for most of the day, it's only been an hour or so now that I've been messing around with it."
"And?"
"And what?"
She gave him an exasperated look. "And has it been helping at all?"
"Oh. Right." He paused on his train of thought and focused solely on his mental shields. His power level felt about the same as it did before, so that meant it hadn't been growing any. "It has potentially been helping," he offered her.
"Potentially, like a repeat of this morning could be possible… when exactly?" she grinned hopefully.
It certainly was a boost to his ego to hear her asking when they could have sex again like she was ready for another round as soon as possible. It made him wish he'd been expelling his magic as much as possible all day so he could take her on the desk right now.
"I wanted to talk to you about that," is what he said instead.
Her expression dropped. "Don't tell me you've changed your mind already? I've been sat in with her going over the differences between abuse and commitment for nearly two hours."
He held up his hand so she wouldn't start down a rabbit hole of questioning and doubt. "No! No, it's just that I was filling out those forms and having to write out again and again that I didn't force myself on you when, I kind of did."
"Yeah, finally," she pointed out. "If anyone is the victim here, it's you. I was the one that showed up to your office on Christmas, I was the one that convinced you to go away with me for a week to a secluded oasis, I've basically been marking you as mine since your first day here."
"I don't see it that way." He'd been physically attracted to her on first sight, her personality had been what won him over though. He found it hot that she was a bit stubborn.
"Yeah, well, Martha did a good job of making me question everything we've gotten up to. And I was the one that came up with the Protean Charmed jewelry too, had I not then we wouldn't have needed to go through all these hoops today."
"No, we wouldn't, because you would still be held hostage and I'd be ripping the country apart bit by bit to find you. Then I'd get deported and we'd never see each other again."
She chuckled at that. "So, you're saying I didn't seduce you against your will then?"
"And you're saying I didn't use my power of authority to 'get in your knickers'," he asked, failing horribly to use the British phrase for it.
"No, you didn't," she smiled. "Well, I'm glad you seem to be okay with this all, because it is quite fast for us to be going from co-workers to in a relationship that requires documentation of our commitment to each other."
"It is." He leaned back in his chair and removed his glasses so he could rub his eyes properly. "It would have taken less time for us to get hitched. If we had a marriage certificate we wouldn't have needed to do any of this crap."
"Tempting proposal, but I do have to draw the line somewhere. The paperwork and inquisition might be a nightmare, but my mother finding out that I'd eloped would be a forever issue." He heard her moving and opened his eyes to see that she was curious about the Ministry forms that he had to fill out next. "They're asking you to go into detail about what exactly happened."
He yawned. "Yeah, everything that I told Auror Kingsley yesterday I now get the opportunity to write down. Yay."
"Why do they only need you to go over it again? They didn't send me a form to fill out."
He shrugged. "Probably because I'm in charge of the ward that was infiltrated and where an Auror was killed on. Or maybe you brother was trying to be nice and made sure that you wouldn't have boring paperwork to fill out."
"Well, Percy does love his paperwork." She got up then and came around to his side of the desk. "Is it too inappropriate for the workplace if I give you a kiss before going to get some actual work done before my shift is over?"
He pushed his chair back to allow for space between him and his desk. "As your superior I highly recommend that you kiss me at every opportunity when we're alone at work." She bent down and gave him a soft kiss, then made to pull away, but he grasped her by her hips and pulled her down to sit in his lap so he could be closer to her for just a bit longer. He brushed her hair away from her neck and started kissing her there.
"Is this how you'd like me to be the next time I have to update you on my paper, boss?" She wriggled her hips when she called him boss.
He couldn't get too worked up right now though so he pulled back. "We've got a little bit to talk about before we can be properly alone again. You should go and check on your patients."
She looked down at him with a look that he could only translate as tenderness and gave him one more kiss before getting out of his lap and heading for the door.
The next few days that followed he made sure to expel as much of his magical energy as possible before heading into work and to keep transfiguring the paperweight on his desk every time he was stuck sitting at it for any length of time. Gin would come in to spend her lunch with him, usually it was to remind him that he needed to eat as well, and she would preform her brain scan on him, then give him a nice reward if the brain scan came back saying it was unlikely that he would make the office explode. Usually, the reward was her sitting in his lap and them attempting to catch up on all the missed opportunities from before the Flint Incident, but one time it wound up being the two of them in his two-piece bathroom with him kneeling on the floor and one of her legs over his shoulder while he went down on her.
That was a great motivator.
Also, over the next few days, every single morning, he would be greeted by a Ministry Owl with another form that they needed him to fill out about the incident. It was ridiculous. They were all the same forms over and over again. It was like they wanted to see if there were any changes to his story over time, any miniscule detail that he would mistakenly put out of place so they could call an inquisition.
His solution was to make a copy of each form and replicate it, then send in the copy after making the owl sit there for two to three hours. After week two of the same forms and owl he started making it wait longer. Week three he made it wait even longer.
"Hello Sisyphus," Gin cooed at the owl when she came into his office for lunch at the end of the third week. She had much more love for animals than he did and had given the bird that name in week one. It was an appropriate name for the thing.
"I've talked with a few of the other Chief Healers about the amount of paperwork the Ministry is hounding me for again and again," Harry told her. "And though they haven't had the exact same situation as we did, they can't recall ever needing to fill out as many forms, particularly not the same forms, this many times."
"It is odd. And a waste of time and energy. You could call Kingsley about it." She'd offered him that suggestion before.
"I am curious when it will stop on its own now. I've gotten used to seeing him," he gestured to the owl. "And I think those owl treats you brought in are better than what he gets at the Ministry Owlery because he doesn't appear to have any complaints."
"Then this has turned into a stubborn pissing contest then, has it?" she grinned. "You can at least ask Percy or Hermione about it at The Burrow tomorrow."
She said this with the air of it being another reminder that there was no way he would be able to back out of going to his first official Weasley get together. Gin had a big family and they liked getting together regularly, he'd already talked his way out of going to two of them. And it wasn't because he didn't want to meet her family, he just didn't want to meet them all at once. Percy hadn't been very receptive about the relationship so Harry had a hard time believing that the rest of her family was as eager to meet him as she insisted they were.
"And you swear that Hermione is more friendly than Percy? A lot less… stuck up?"
"Way less stuck up. And, by the way, you come off as pretty stuck up yourself upon first meetings," she pointed out. "You gave off a very unapproachable vibe when you started here."
"It was safer for everyone if conversations and interactions with me were kept to a minimum," he defended.
"I'm fully aware of that," she rolled her eyes. "Now then, are you planning on burning off a lot of energy when you're done wrapping up here today?"
The Ministry forms and Weasley lunch were forgotten with that question.
She was asking it because she wanted to sleep over at his place tonight.
()()()
She stared at the crack in the tile on the wall of the shower as she washed her hair, smiling at it. It was a nice reminder of two weeks ago when Harry had joined her in the shower and they'd gotten up to some kinky business. She'd been on her knees when he'd let go and accidentally cracked that tile.
It was amazing how much power always had, even after expelling as much of it as possible before they got up to any 'couplie' activities. Him needing to run off somewhere secluded before they could spend the night together might have added a chink in the flow of things when the moment was feeling right for her, but the end result was always the same; her being perfectly satisfied.
She didn't stay over at his flat too often, it was still a new relationship, regardless of how involved they were, and she couldn't expect him to completely exhaust himself all the time for her benefit. Well, their benefit. Either way you want to look at it, he might have the magical reserves of ten men, but that didn't mean it wasn't tiring for him to try and deplete the energy.
Right now he was off somewhere blasting apart a rock or something, then he was going to come home, shower, eat, then they were off to The Burrow, where he would hopefully remember to smile and not keep to himself.
She'd really needed to work on pulling him out of his shell, and she thought that so far she hadn't been too pushy or overbearing about it. He was almost at the point of naturally expressing his emotions on his face or showing them through his eyes.
The memory of how he was at the end of their stay in the oasis was the goal she was striving for; he'd been openly laughing and singing. She had been working with him to create a schedule for exercises to reduce his magic supply and happily accepted any notes or suggestions he had to offer.
What her paper on his condition was going to turn into she wasn't quite sure yet, and who knew if she would ever wind up publishing it. There was a whole world of options for what she could do with her research, but the idea that she was most keen on was coming up with a way to deplete his magic through a potion. This idea was potentially dangerous though, there were potions like that already out there and they essentially turned witches or wizards into half-crazed Muggles.
She couldn't risk doing that to Harry.
Months of being interested in him, followed by months of wanting him, now it had been weeks of falling for him; hard. It was a real Florence Nightingale story for them and she wanted to make sure that it was more than that before she could decide for sure if she was in love with him. And him meeting her family was part of the discovery of what their relationship could withstand.
She shut off the shower and stepped out to towel off. She had gotten dressed and was pouring herself another cup of tea when he got back, with a smile on his face.
She loved it when he had a smile on his face.
His shirt was drenched with sweat though so she backed away from him as he came towards her. "Oh no you don't! I've already showered and changed, time for you to do the same thing."
"Oh, come on now. Shouldn't we check and see if the only thing I break this time is the headboard?" he asked with a cheeky eyebrow lift.
"You are not shagging me minutes before meeting my parents!" He kept advancing though, so she held out her wand. "In the shower with you now or else I'll hose you down myself."
"Okay, okay," he pouted. "Can you at least make me a cup of coffee for when I'm ready please?"
"Uhuh, sure." Before starting on that she was focused more on getting a brain scan read on him while he was still in the room. "Wow, you burned off a lot of energy. It's no wonder you're drenched."
He started walking towards his bedroom and the ensuite. "Yeah, well you've told me enough stories about your brothers that I feel I need to be exhausted so that I don't accidentally blast them through a wall when they surprise me with whatever they have in store."
"Wise decision," she called out to him as he was now out of sight.
Judging from the expression on the twins faces it was a very wise decision. Not only did they start off their inquisition asking questions about their workplace dynamic, they also immediately offered Harry a tray of appetizers. Harry did well with them though, a well placed 'no, after you' from him and the twins backed off.
Percy stayed as much on the opposite side of the room from Harry as he could manage, Charlie was home for a visit and made a point of flexing his muscles in an attempt to intimidate Harry and that failed, Bill was completely polite, her father kept asking him things about America, her mother was just happy that he was there in his boyfriend capacity, and Ron asked Harry to play a game of chess, something Harry claimed he was half-way decent at.
So all was going well!
"He's holding his own really well," Hermione commented about Harry.
"I know! I tried to give him a fair warning about what he was going to be coming up against, but you'd think he didn't need any input at all."
"Yeah, he'll be an honorary Weasley by the end of the day, but I was talking about his chess game with Ron. They've been playing the same game for twenty minutes! I think that's a record."
They both chuckled at that.
"Hey, speaking of record breaking," Ginny brought up, "you've got your ear to the ground at the Ministry, what's with all the paperwork that Harry keeps getting about the Flint Incident? Every day, same forms on a loop. That Ministry owl is there in his office so often that I've christened him Sisyphus."
Hermione gave her a bewildered look. "What are you talking about? That happened weeks ago. What department are the forms coming from?"
Ginny shrugged, "I don't know, the Auror Department or Ministry Administrative Services or something. Wherever they are coming from, the people working there are woefully inadequate."
"What was that?" Percy appeared at Ginny's other side. "Did you just say someone in my department is inadequate?"
"If it's coming from your department, yeah," Ginny said turning to him. "Every day, same Ministry owl, same Ministry forms showing up at Harry's office. It's ridiculous."
Percy shook his head. "It couldn't be coming from my department then. The Auror's took over the case, it must be something to do with their department and staff. Maybe you should check in with Head Auror Shacklebolt," he said, pointing out Kingsley who was just coming through the door.
Ginny exchanged a look with Hermione then. "Just call him Kingsley, Perce, he'd been a family friend well longer than he's been Head Auror. And you're not at work!" Ginny made her way across the room to greet Kingsley with a hug. "Hey King, nice to see you. No Amir today?"
Kingsley gave her a hug back. "No, Amir has some gallery opening event that he had to go to and there is some collector that he wanted to use his plus one for. I wouldn't argue with that, I'd rather be here."
"Oh, you do flatter," Ginny's mum patted Kingsley's chest before heading back towards the kitchen.
"I see you've brought your new boyfriend around to meet the family. That's a big step," he commented approvingly. "Though, I suppose if he can handle you he can handle anything."
"Ha, freaking ha," she rolled her eyes.
"YES!" Ron called out in victory. "Oh, mate, that was the closest game I've ever played!"
Everyone's attention was now on Ron and Harry who were standing up and shaking hands over the chess board. Both Harry and Ron looked very satisfied over the way the game had played out.
"Any time you want to go again," Harry told him. "I spent a lot of time playing chess in my teen years and I'm a bit rusty."
"That was rusty?" Ron asked in surprise. "Let's go again right now then, we'll get those cobwebs dusted off your skills and maybe I can finally learn something from an opponent."
"Oh, Ron, don't monopolize him," Hermione told him.
Ginny caught Harry's eye and indicated with her eyes towards Kingsley so he would come over and greet him so they could know each other in a casual atmosphere.
"Head Auror Shacklebolt," Harry greeted.
"Kingsley is fine, Healer Potter."
Harry offered him an easy smile then, "then you can call me Harry here."
She couldn't tell if anyone else would be able to sense it, but Harry wasn't as relaxed as he had been when they'd shown up at The Burrow; it may have been because his reserves were building up again, or possibly because he had been needing to focus on the chess game, or it could be because he was reliving the last time he'd needed to interact with Kingsley. Either way, he looked like he could do with taking a break soon.
"I didn't know we'd be seeing you here today," Ginny started off. "I was just talking to Hermione and Percy about the number of duplicate forms that Harry keeps getting on behalf of the Ministry about Flint. How is that case going?"
Kingsley looked confused. "It was open and shut when it comes to the involvement of the hospital employees, including the two of you. What happened at the Flint Manor was considered acts of self defense so there was nothing more needed from you for the Auror department after the initial paperwork and statements were made. Have there been any Aurors or other Ministry representatives bothering you?"
"No," Harry shook his head, "just the same Ministry owl with the same Ministry paperwork showing up at the same time every day."
"And this has been going on since the incident?"
"Yes," she and Harry both said together.
He stayed quiet in thought for a moment. "My advice; don't fill out anymore forms. Just rip them up and send the owl back with a page from the Daily Prophet or something. If it isn't coming from Percy's department or my department, whoever it is that has been harassing you, they can come and talk to you in person if they're that dedicated to disrupting your life."
That gave her an idea, "can he lodge a formal complaint of harassment with you?"
"That's below my paygrade," Kingsley winked at her. "You can file a complaint with my department though."
"I like the idea of sending Sisyphus back with something other than the forms before getting to the stage of filing a report," Harry told them.
"That could be fun," she shrugged. "Has the rain let up?" she asked Kingsley.
"Yes, just bloody windy and cold."
"Good. I'm going to take Harry for a walk around the property. We'll be back shortly."
"The jacket I brought isn't really up to deal with this weather," Harry commented as she led him over to the door.
"You can borrow my dad's jacket then. He won't mind." She leaned closer to him. "It looks like you could use a break."
He didn't protest anymore and put on the jacket she offered then followed her outside. "It isn't like I wasn't enjoying myself," he said when they were out of hearing distance; the wind was strong enough to muffle them as soon as they were on the other side of the door.
"I know, I just wasn't sure if you needed to let off some energy or not."
"I can regulate myself," he nearly pouted.
"Believe me, I'm well aware. It's just that I've got a big family and they like to talk and make sudden loud noises. I've seen you in emergency situations before and while you are captivating and concise, you also look like you could lead an army and slay a man that dares to defy you. And since this is a situation where you need to smile and make nice, I thought a breather could help."
"And you sneaking your boyfriend out of the house won't seem suspicious?"
"No. The weather is too terrible for them to think we've gone off for a snog." She took his hand and intertwined their fingers. "Now then, do you need to let off some energy?"
"Yeah, I do."
"Okay then."
It turned out to be a very good time Harry had visiting her family home. After she'd brought him into a wooded area he expelled his energy by creating a little mini-tornado that pulled up all the strewn leaves and such he was able to smile and laugh and carry on wonderfully with her family. Her mum pulled her aside before they left to let her know how much she liked Harry and approved of the 'match'.
Ginny knew what her mum meant by 'match' and managed to bite her tongue; neither she nor Harry were thinking that far ahead already.
()()()
"I've been invited to a Ministry function. A black tie event," he called out to Ginny from the kitchen.
"That sounds really boring," she called back.
He laughed at her response as he continued reading the invitation. All the Department Heads of the hospital had warned him this invite was coming and suggested he get his suit cleaned and brushed up on who was who in the England society. He didn't feel like he needed to do the research though, not if Ginny was going to be coming with him.
Currently she was working on her research paper in his little study; she was getting more use out of it than he had since moving in.
"Do you want to come and eat boring canapes with me?" he called back to her.
"Think my boss will be able to work the schedule to allow that to happen?"
Harry opened the junk drawer in the kitchen that he stuck his calendar in, where he updated the names of who was on shift when. "You're already off that night."
"Then sure. I've got exactly one dress that's swanky enough for a Ministry event. Can we eat before we go? Canapes won't cut it for me."
"I know, I've seen you eat."
"Shut up!"
He chuckled and leafed through the other letters that came in the morning's post. There was no sign of Sisyphus today, he normally only showed up at the office, which was appreciated.
It had been two months since he'd talked with Kingsley at The Burrow and he'd been taking up the tactic of sending the owl back to the Ministry with a different clipping from the Daily Prophet instead of the forms and so far no one had come from the Ministry to discuss with him his responses. In fact, he didn't mind the bird showing up anymore. It was nice to have the company of the owl through the day when he was in his office taking care of his paperwork. And lately, all the articles that he would send the owl off with at the end of the day were about how inept the Ministry Departments were run, and he found that amusing.
The progress that Ginny was making with giving him little tweaks to his regimen was helping his attitude a lot too. After mapping his brain so carefully over the last several months she got to wondering what a Muggle brain map looked like and if that might help find an idea of how to redirect his energy to other centers of his brain, so she'd reached out to her sister-in-law's parents (the only Muggles she knew somewhat well) and asked if they would be okay with her doing a brain scan on them. It took a bit of convincing that there would be no side effects, and when she was granted permission she saw how their brain mapping completely bypassed the area on a witch or wizards brain where their magical ability came from. Now she had completed a series of animal testing to find a way to rewrite the brain path in a safe way, after a month of that she showed him the progress; she now had a rat that couldn't smell very well, but it could go through a maze without hitting a dead end because she'd reconnected the pathway that connected to the oral factory and there was now a stronger pathway in it's brain that went to the memory center.
It was amazing.
And now he'd let her attempt that on him, it was a very slow progression, she'd only done the exercise with him three times, but his brain center that stored his magical energy now had some of that energy being syphoned off to his memory center as well and his work was showing it; he was remembering things from his studies textbooks that were essentially writing themselves down on his paperwork to fill out the reasons for his courses of treatments on patients.
Neither of them wanted to overdo it, so slow and steady was the approach to his brain remapping.
He'd needed to let off less magical energy with this treatment too, which meant more time burning that physical energy in other ways, also a big plus.
Even at the current stages of his treatment Ginny was going to be made world famous for her research when she was done with her paper.
Unfortunately, the next step in her research after they decided she'd done all she could safely do to remap his flow of energy, was to find another Obscurial.
And that was going to be difficult.
He was going to see what he could do to assist her, but in the meantime, they were not at work, they were at his apartment, which he was quickly beginning to think of as their apartment. Which is why he had a key made for her. It was more of a symbolic thing since she had access to the place whenever she wanted, but this was how he was going to ask her to move in. He wanted her to share his space and see his apartment slowly taken over by her things and really experience what it would be like to have little domestic squabbles about who's turn it was to wash the dishes and argue about the actual use of a throw pillow, because they were really just decorative; he didn't know anyone that didn't automatically remove them from the couch before sitting down, and he would bet that some of the throw pillows at her apartment were hers and not her roommates.
Harry stared down at the key in his hand and smiled to himself. He'd never felt as good before in his life as he did right now.
()
"Does this party make you uncomfortable?" he asked Ginny as she shifted around in her dress, she'd been twitchy for most of the evening.
"No, not the party, the dress. The spot where the zipper is on the back was designed poorly and it's super scratchy. I'm tempted to back myself up against a door jam and rub against it like a bear in the woods."
He tried not to laugh too loudly at that image. If anyone would have forgone socially acceptable behavior and do just that, it would be her. "Do you want me to apply a numbing charm to your back?"
"Oh Merlin, please, yes," she moaned.
He placed his hand just above the cut off of her dress on her back where her skin was exposed and applied the numbing charm.
"Oh, it tingles. Urgh, thank you, so much better."
"Glad I could help." He looked around the venue and nodded at a few people that were looking at him out of the side of their eyes. He and Ginny had gone around the room once and she introduced him to a few people she knew and steered him away from a few people that she knew of. Kingsley was here tonight with his husband and so was Percy, whose wife he much preferred to converse with. Ginny had a few friends and family friends sprinkled around the room that they'd had a quick chat with, and now the two of them were standing at a high-top table, him sipping on scotch and her drinking her second glass of wine, with a small plate of appetizers for them to share between them. It wasn't such a bad event, no one had come over to ask him questions about how he ended the war back home, so that was a win.
"Oh! There's Rolf Scamander!" Ginny whispered excitedly, then she drew in a gasp. "And that's Luna that he's got on his arm! That little bitch! She didn't tell me she was coming, let alone that she was dating someone!"
"Luna? As in your roommate that I haven't met yet?"
"That's the one." She pointed across the room to a tall man that Harry somewhat recognized, and the lovely looking blonde woman on his arm.
"That's Luna?" He'd seen pictures of her before, but she was usually dressed up in strange clothes and had a funny hat on, or they were close up still pictures of her making funny faces. He would have never guessed that this attractive woman coming towards them, essentially dragging her date over, was the Luna that shared an apartment with Ginny.
"You're here!" Luna said brightly and pulled Ginny into a hug.
"And you're here!" Ginny grinned at her.
"And I'm here!" Mr. Scamander said enthusiastically.
"As am I!" Harry joined in, in mock celebration.
"Should we hug too?" Mr. Scamander asked in jest.
Harry had just enough drink in him and was in the right mood to play along. "Of course, we should! It's been forever!" Then they both chuckled as they gave each other an awkward hug. "I'm Harry," he said when he pulled back and then held out his hand so they could shake and greet each other properly.
"Oh, I know. You can call me Rolf. Nice to know I'm not the only American here. You know how the Brit's can be about us ex-patriots."
"Ginny and I certainly aren't biased against you," Luna told him as she came around and gave Harry a hug that he wasn't expecting. "It's great to finally meet you. I've been away so much that I wondered whether we would ever get the chance to meet. I also thought there was a chance that you were a figment of Ginny's imagination; sort of a wishful thinking situation that might have been brought on by magic mushrooms."
Yes, this was the Luna that Ginny had described.
"I had to wonder the same about you, being that every time I saw her apartment you were never there."
"And now I suppose the flat will be empty for the majority of the time. I should probably just go back to living with my father, being that I'm always travelling and only really need a place to store my things I can't bare to part with."
"Are you saying the only reason you shared a flat with me was for my benefit?" Ginny asked.
"Yes," Luna shrugged. "You couldn't have afforded the rent on your own."
The way she was direct was refreshing, and judging from the way Rolf looked upon his date when she said it it was clear that was one of the things he liked about her.
"Well… thank you then."
"Ah! This looks to be the spot for the who's who of our foreign guests tonight!" a man said jovially as he interjected himself among them. Harry recognized him from the newspaper, it was the Minister of Magic. "Cornelius Fudge," he said proudly, holding a hand out to Rolf, then to Harry, completely ignoring their dates. "It's wonderful to meet the both of you. You know, Mr. Scamander, Mr. Potter here has taken a placement as a Chief Healer at our St. Mungo's Hospital, perhaps you might be persuaded to join our Magizooligists Department at the Ministry, eh? Your grandfather worked there for a time."
"I had heard that, yes," Rolf told him.
"As I understand it, Grandfather Newt didn't like it there much. There was too much bureaucratic nonsense. There were all those times he told us about that nearly made it so he could have wound up in Azkaban. Though, I've found ways to deal with it, so if you would like to consider it I can teach you about all the loopholes I've discovered," Luna told Rolf.
"Oh, do you work for the Ministry, Miss…" the Minister asked.
Ginny leaned over to Harry and whispered in his ear, "whatever the Minister says to you, if he tries to offer you anything, find a way to turn it down. He runs the ministry on 'favors'."
Harry nodded to her and missed most of what Luna had said as her reply. 'I want to dance,' was the part he did catch, then she and Rolf were gone and it was just he, Ginny and the Minister for Magic that were left standing there, and the lackey that was standing a few steps back from the Minister so he could be at his beck and call.
"How are you enjoying things at St. Mungo's? Not including that fiasco with the Dementor and Finch situation." He waved a dismissive hand as though it had been a minor inconvenience and not a 'fiasco' as he had just claimed.
"I am loving it," he answered truthfully. "There are some truly interesting cases and truly amazing Healers and nurses that I work with. And I owe it all to Griselda for talking me into applying for the position."
"Oh, have you seen her tonight?" Ginny asked. "I wanted to thank her as well."
"You dear?" The Minister gave her a confused look. "Are you friends with her also?" Harry could tell Fudge was trying to place Ginny in his mind and figure out how he might know her.
"Oh no, outside of my NEWT examinations we have only ever been in the same room when there is a hospital wide meeting that includes the board of governors. But, as H-Healer Potter said, she is the one we owe our thanks to about how well his department is running at St. Mungo's."
"Ah, you're a nurse!"
"No," Harry said tersely, "she happens to be one of the amazing Healer's at the hospital. I had still been unsure about following through on the position until Healer Weasley proved there were Healers in this country that could show the compassion for their patients that we usually only see from nurses. I have no doubt that one day she'll be the one whose name you remember while ignoring everyone else around her."
"Ignoring?" the Minister fumbled a bit, searching for a way to turn the conversation in his favor again. "My apologies, my dear," he said directly to Ginny. "I didn't mean to ignore you, if that is how you felt, I was simply eager to greet our Mr. Potter. He's been in the country for nearly a year now and I hadn't had the pleasure." The apology sounded just genuine enough that Harry's metaphorical hawk went down. "When I heard about the hospital bringing on a Chief Healer that was so young, it did sound like a questionable decision, even given your resume," he told Harry. "It is great to hear that the changes you've implemented have been helpful. In fact, I would like to hear more about them. Perhaps we could have a meeting sometime soon and you can tell me about what has worked and what needs to be worked on, successful cases and treatments that are part of your new approach, you know. And maybe you could bring along one of the Healers you work with that spent a year or two under the supervision of Healer Brown as well."
Harry glanced toward Ginny. He saw no harm in having a sit down with the Minister, it wasn't really a favor being asked, it was the head of their Ministry asking for a lunch. Ginny hadn't spent much time with Healer Brown though, so it wouldn't be her coming along to the meeting.
From her expression, Ginny didn't see a way that he could politely decline the lunch.
"I don't see why not," Harry agreed. "Would it be alright if I invited Griselda along as well? She was the one that saw the problem at the hospital and its management in the first place."
"A splendid idea!" the Minister said, clapping his hands together once as though he had just won a prize. "I will send you an owl with a list of openings in my schedule, hopefully one of them will work for us all. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to make the rounds. Enjoy the rest of your evening."
"How long has he been the Minister of Magic?" Harry asked Ginny once the man was out of earshot.
"Too long. I think he's coming up on twenty years. I can't imagine he would be of any use at all if a serious situation came along like what you had to go through in America."
"And why do you suppose he actually wants me to have a lunch with him?"
"Isn't it obvious? He wants your autograph." She pointed across the floor to where there was a photographer, "and likely a photograph of the two of you to prove just how well connected he is."
"Bloody politics," he grumbled, glaring at the photographer that had his camera pointed in their direction.
"Don't they have newspapers in America?"
"Yes, but here they are on a whole other level. I can't catch a train without someone shoving some tabloid or another into my hands, they're aggressive. In the States they just stay in the newsstand or there's someone on the corner yelling about it and you approach them, if you want it. And they aren't just covered in pictures of people that are looking to stay relevant."
"Wow, what a peaceful existence."
He chuckled at her comment and took a sip of his drink. "Did you want to dance?"
Her eyes widened at him. "Do you know how to dance?"
"I've been watching what they've been doing," he tilted his head towards the dancefloor. "I think I can manage to take you for a turn or two around it and not make us both fall over."
"Okay," she grinned. "Just remember not to keep it to yourself if you feel we have to leave."
He took her hand and guided her over to the dancefloor, pulling her close. "I've told you how I'm feeling better now than I have in my entire life, right? And that's all your doing." Watching the blush spread across her cheeks and her eyes light up at the compliment was the main reason he said it. He wanted her to know how grateful he was for all she'd done for him, and he needed her to know it was because of her that he'd only needed to do his exercises once a day now to keep himself in check. He felt lighter than he ever had before and couldn't help but wonder if this was how normal people felt all the time. "I don't think I need anymore treatments. My memory is better than it ever was before and my exercises are something I easily keep as part of my daily activities. I don't want to push our luck." He took the opportunity to spin her out and spin her back to him, wrapping his arms around her when she returned. "I think you're ready to write your conclusion."
She bit her lip, worrying it for a moment. "I'll write it, but I won't be submitting anything until I hear of another and have success with that person as well. We can't let anyone know about you, it would completely change your life if word got out."
"I understand and I really like my life the way that it is." He dipped his head down and gave her a kiss. "Now how soon until I can get you back to our place?"
She smiled against his lips. "We need to have a drink with Luna and her date at least before we leave."
()()()
"Why did I let you talk me into having lunch with this man?" Della complained.
"Ms. Marchbanks, he's the Minister of Magic, shouldn't we be honored?" asked Healer Greg Carson, whom had been working at St. Mungo's on the Thickey ward for five years and Harry had invited along so he could give his own views on the changes that had been made in the last year.
"He's an idiot," she stated. "I remember grading him for his NEWTS and that swot was only just able to pass most of his subjects. He failed a few too. He's only got this position because he knows when to run his trap and who to run it to. If something serious were to occur in this country then we'd all be screwed. The man needs to take retirement and let someone who knows what they're doing take charge."
"That's essentially what Gin said," Harry nodded, watching the notes that were hovering above them in the lift, that were shaped into paper airplanes. He wondered why there were shaped like airplanes, it isn't like anyone at the Ministry used airplanes, and it wasn't like they needed the notes to be aerodynamic; they could have just been folded.
"Good. Then I like her. You need to invite me around for dinner so I can meet her officially," she ordered. "I remember grading a lot of the Weasley children, they have a lot of potential in that family."
"I agree," Greg told her. "Ginny is very bright, and the patients love her. I went to school with some of her brothers, they're all pretty impressive. I don't know about the youngest boy though."
"Ron?" Harry asked. "I can't say much about how smart he is at other things, but he is an incredible chess player. His wife is really bright too, so I know he makes great choices."
"Any idea how long the lunch is supposed to be?" Della asked him. "And why are we meeting him at his office? Surely we could have luncheoned at an actual restaurant. Oh, he probably is having something catered. A wonderful waste of tax money, stupid peacock," she muttered under her breath.
"Tell me how you really feel," Greg muttered for Harry's ears only.
The elevator dinged at the top floor and they finally got off, along with the remaining paper airplanes, then he and Greg followed Della, who was familiar with the place and moving at a quick pace for someone her age.
"How is it exactly that you are on such good terms with her?" Greg asked.
"She's like an aunt to me. Well, she's an aunt to one of the men that raised me and had come to visit them in the States a few times when I was in my teen years. She's basically the only kind of family type person that I have left."
"Oh… sorry."
It didn't bother Harry as much as it bothered anyone else that would ask that question of him, not in the last several years anyhow, he'd gotten used to being alone. It was still hard around the holidays to think of the uncles and others that he'd lost, but he still had a life to live and they would have hated to find out that he had spent his life mourning their loss and not living the life they would have wanted for him.
"We've a meeting with Cornelius," Della told the first receptionist she came across.
Greg muffled an amused snort at how Della had used the Ministers first name and while Harry found it amusing too, he was looking around the large room that the secretaries were working in. There were a few open windows on the open second story of the room, likely there for owls to go in and out of. There were people walking around and papers flying in every direction above their heads, several closed doors around the perimeter of the room, and one of them was a double door made of dark wood that had no name plate on it but clearly was the entrance to the Minister's office.
There was a secretary posted outside of this office and a perch for an owl right beside it. And there was an owl on this perch that Harry recognized.
Right on the desk below this perch was a clipping from the most recent Quibbler about much needed restructuring at the Ministry; and Harry knew this because he had just sent it along with Sisyphus before he left the office ten minutes ago!
It was the Minister for Magic that had been bombarding him with the forms daily for weeks on end!
He recalled Gin telling him about how the Minster operated on people owing him favors, and he was likely hoping that Harry would request a favor today to make the requests stop coming, not realizing that it wouldn't take the littlest bit of effort on his part to end the badgering.
"No," Della said to the receptionist she was talking to. "Our appointment was for noon, not 12:15, not one in the afternoon, we will either be shown into the Ministers office right now or you can explain to him why you will have to rearrange his calendar."
"I'm so sorry, it's just, he was waiting on the reporter from the Daily Prophet as well and wanted five minutes with him before you were to be shown in," the young lady behind the desk apologized.
"Daily Prophet?" Harry asked. "And you're saying the reporter is supposed to be joining us?"
"Well… yes," she squeaked.
It was a set up.
His blood pressure was rising now.
Harry walked passed the reception desk and headed straight for the desk of the secretary outside of Fudge's office. He watched as the woman's eyes grew wide the closer he drew to her. Sisyphus looked over towards him too and gave him a little hoot.
"Is this owl assigned to you?" Harry asked her sharply.
"Er," she blanched. "We… we have a lot of owls at the Ministry that we use."
"And how often is this one in use by you and the Minister?" he asked her with an edge to his question.
She looked down at the papers in front of her and tried to search for something to delay her having to give a response. That was enough of an answer for him. He snatched up the Quibbler article that he had sent in minutes ago and walked with a heavy foot around the desk, then proceeded to use his magic to push open both doors to the office, thankfully not with enough force to break them.
"Do you want to explain this to me?" Harry asked the surprised Minister as he stormed through the room to slam the page down on his desk. "Are you the reporter?" Harry demanded of the man sitting in the chair to his left.
"Mister Potter," the Minister blinked.
"Yes," the other man said at the same time.
"Then maybe you would like to add to whatever article you're writing that the Minister for Magic has been harassing me every day for months with the exact same forms to fill out in an effort to get me to request a 'favor' from him in order to make the mysterious form requests go away. I've already checked with the Aurors, it wasn't them, Magical Accidents and Catastrophes as well, wasn't them either. I've checked with nearly every department I could think of to see what witless department it was that couldn't figure out how to properly file a form. The Finch 'Incident' as you called it," he pointed harshly at the Minster, "was nearly three months ago. I started sending in random clippings of articles so that some person might be inclined to present themselves, but there was no response other than for your owl to continue showing up every day. Well I've had ENOUGH. I do not now, nor will I ever owe you a favor. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if it was your idea to have Cassius Flint moved to my department in the hopes that his son would show up there. And if it was, then I hold you responsible for the death of that Auror."
"Mister Potter!" the Minister stood up abruptly. "That is a wild accusation!"
"Really? Because in my professional opinion, as a Healer, Mr. Flint could have easily been treated in any secure location by any Healer. There was no need for him to be stationed around so many other people when he should have been in hiding. Having an Auror stationed outside of my wing of the hospital is proof enough of that."
"Is this true, Minister?" the reporter asked.
"I… no, no, of course not," Fudge lied unconvincingly.
"It sounds exactly like something you would do." Harry turned around at the sound of Della's voice, she and Greg had followed him in, and every person on this floor of the Ministry looked to be peering into the office behind them to watch the show.
"Griselda Marchbanks," Harry asked while once more staring at the Minister, "may I suggest we gather the Board of Governors for St. Mungo's and see what we can do to implement a policy prohibiting Ministry interference?"
"You may," she said, sounding proud. "And you there, Mr. Harris, wasn't it?" she asked the reporter. "You heard it too. Feel free to print that and quote me on it. No funny business though, I know what your NEWT scores were and I'm not so high brow that I won't spread them around."
"Mr. Potter, come now, we don't want to blow all of this out of proportion. It must have simply been a clerical error," the Minister essentially begged.
"Save it," Harry cut him off. "This meeting isn't happening. You wanted your reporter to get a story, well, he's got one." He turned on his heel there and headed out, stopping at the receptionists desk to give Sisyphus a last pet. He was about to leave when he turned to the secretary instead, "is there some way that I can request to take ownership of this owl?"
He'd never owned a pet before.
()()()