September 2, 1997

"Lovely to see you this morning, Madam Umbridge." I said sweetly while I imagined hitting her over the head with a brick as I stepped into the elevator while arranging the documents I had decided to hand deliver per Yaxley's very specific orders. "How is everything?"

Umbridge replied with her usual false sweetness as she fiddled with her Selwyn family necklace and a wide froggish smile. "Oh, it's a wonderful morning."

"I'm glad you think so. How are you, Madam Hopkirk?"

"F-fine!"

I could see the figure of Mafalda Hopkirk pressing herself against the back wall of the elevator. She was a wispy woman, slight of frame and had very large eyes behind her glasses. She looked more like a librarian than someone who had been the second in command of an important law enforcement office only two months ago, but easy to bully by people like Umbridge and her new boss Travers. The death of her previous head of department had shocked her severely, as the murder of Scrimgeour had affected Percy and I. Per regulation, she would have become the Head of the Improper Use of Magic Office after the murder of her boss, Benjamin Hardtrap. Hardtrap was an elderly man who the Daily Prophet claimed had died of natural causes in his office, how odd that his death had occurred within the same timeframe as Scrimgeour's.

It did not take an investigator to put those pieces together.

Along with Mafalda's quick demotion to assistant due to the Office's need to 'alterations for improved progress'.

I did not imagine that the knowledge of what happened to her boss inspired much confidence or rebellion in her person.

"I heard from your secretary that you've barely been in your office from all of the trials you're overseeing," my mind was carefully laying out the metaphorical chessboard that I needed whenever I dealt with Umbridge. I had to be nice to her. She loved policies, policies designed on cruelty and oppression of those she viewed as weak or lesser, she would never trust or like me (Merlin forbid!), but if I could get her to slip, say something so stupid I could use it against her someday in a humanitarian trial at the ICW Headquarters, or whenever this government crumbled to something closer to democracy.

"Yes, I'm afraid that has been the case. I will finish shortly with this collection of miscreants soon and I can return to the more enjoyable parts of my job." She said this with such a gleeful smile while each word dripped with lies. She loved this part of her job, I was sure she loved the other part too, the thrill of the hunt, but the prosecution seemed to hold a special place in her dried out husk of heart.

"It must be such a burden for you," I said, struggling to maintain politeness as the elevator doors opened to the cold chill of the courtrooms below the heart of the Ministry. I could see a dementor lurking near the entrance at the end of the hall and a shiver ran down my spine as Mafalda gave a muffled high pitched gasp. I took a step out of the lift, leaving my foot in the doorway to hold the lift so I would not have to stay down here longer than necessary. I held out the papers that Yaxley wanted me to deliver. "These are for you, courtesy of the Law Enforcement Department."

Umbridge nodded for Mafalda Hopkirk to take the papers from me, I noted Mafalda's shaking hands as she almost dropped them to the floor.

Get it together, Hopkirk!

The desperate look that I shot at Mafalda could have made the reaper fumble his scythe. I could feel the force of it behind my eyes as I looked down at Mafalda, quietly begging her to keep her damn composure before she ended up like Hardtrap.

She at least needed to learn quickly to wear the mask she needed to not give these people satisfaction or make herself a target for visible sympathies or weakness of spirit in a place trying to suck it away.

"Always a pleasure to see you, but I have some other errands to finish." I smiled politely at the two women disappearing down the dementor guarded corridor and stepped back onto the lift with a chill shooting down my spine as I finally noticed my breath appearing white and wispy in front of me from the presence of the dementors even several yards away from where I was. It grew warmer as the lift rose up and took me away from the courtrooms.

I needed to grab this opportunity to speak with Susanna. She was sane and Lucinda said it was past time we formalized our little conspiracy, but finding Susanna outside the Department of Mysteries was always a chore, Susanna was hard to catch at the best of times and harder under these trying circumstances. There was a smarter way to not raise suspicions by being in a department I never had a reason to go to.

Wait.

I just had a brilliant idea.

Oo0Oo0

"Potter murdered Dumbledore!" The old man hissed. "Probably wants to be a Dark Lord greater than Grindelwald and You-Know-Who!" The old man moved back slightly with a stoney expression. "Best to take out the first real threat to his ambitions."

Albert Waldrope looked at the old man with a quizzical expression as he leaned against the doorway of his tiny office in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. "Really, Samson, that's ridiculous. "

"He talks to snakes! You remember that Skeeter article? Whole place was in an uproar!"

My eyes rolled back so hard I thought I saw the back of my skull.

Albert Waldrope saw me behind Samson and gave an easy smile. "Well, history will prove the truth of it all. I'm just a manager, what do I know of anything? I'm just a simple man, I get paid and go home to my amazing wife, I couldn't care less about anything else going on."

"Honestly Waldrope," Samson glanced around, "Really, your water off a duck's back philosophy sounds a lot like laziness."

Waldrope shrugged. "I'm not ambitious. People don't feel threatened by me. I don't see the problem. I do my work and go home, I don't care as long as I'm paid on time."

Samson rolled his eyes, a slight sigh of affection slipping out for a moment as he checked his watch. "Stay out of trouble, Waldrope. Really. I'd hate to see something happen to you."

"Nothing ever happens to me. That's just how I like it."

Samson laughed quietly and turned with a quick farewell, sparing me a hard stare as he walked past me.

I really needed a new job.

"I remember you," Albert looked at me with a grin as I walked over and he led me into his office, closing the door behind me with a click. "You're Lucinda's niece and you work for my wife, but I've completely forgotten your name."

"Audrey Graves, good to see you again Mr. Waldrope." I stuck my hand out to shake, which Albert took with a firm, respectful grip.

"Please call me Albert, or Al if you like, Mr. Waldrope is my father." He released my hand and shoved his hands in his pockets, still smiling. "So, what brings you down to my terrible corner of the Ministry?"

"I need to talk to Susanna."

"Oh," Albert nodded, his graying brown hair catching the light and drawing attention to his warm brown eyes and slight smile lines around his mouth. He was aging rather well. "I don't imagine you want to go into the Department of Mysteries to try and find her?"

I shook my head. "I don't want to be held hostage by a giant plant for a week like Jimmy Dobson was back in June. I have better things to do with my time."

Albert grimaced, "Yeah, Dobson's been a bit weird since then." He glanced around and cast a few charms on the walls and the doors, his voice dropped to a whisper just in case something went wrong. "Susanna tells me everything. I know the secretarial department is in shambles from removing competent Muggle-borns and replacing them with nepotistic hires from other departments who have silly daughters who have nothing but blood purity nonsense between their ears. Whatever you need, I'm happy to help."

I nodded slowly. Susanna wore the pants, so to speak, in their relationship. If she found value in Lucinda's proposition, then Albert would follow behind her. What passed between us was an unspoken agreement and remembrance of things they had said at the Gala last year. I had a sudden feeling that the Waldropes had just been waiting for Lucinda to make a formal offer.

Albert smiled at me and resumed a passivity that I had to assume was his natural state, something unassuming and a bit listless in practice as he slid a piece of parchment along the desk towards me. It was a note in Susanna's handwriting that showed her schedule as Albert spoke in a voice barely over a whisper. "Wait by the door in the Atrium with the staircase that goes to the Department of Mysteries, Susie uses those because it comes out right next to her office."

I knew what door he was talking about. It was one kept for emergency evacuations from the Department of Mysteries in a small corner of the Atrium behind a door labeled for storage.

That could work and it was a perfect opportunity to do so.

"Thank you, Albert."

He winked at me and opened the door with a flick of his wand as I decided to buy a copy of the paper and take an early break.

Oo0Oo0

The false storage room that led into the Department of Mysteries was down a very short little hallway in the Atrium off the floo fireplaces. It was dark, a bit creepy, and exactly the kind of place the upper levels would put a storage closet because nobody wanted to see the help or any real sign that magic was not infallible, especially these days.

The posters that littered the walls of the Atrium watched me, Undesirable Number One was one Harry Potter and his bespeckled face followed me as I walked to the meeting place. If I had no idea what Potter had ever looked like before, I sure knew now. In ten years I would probably still be able to pick him out of a criminal line up.

I did not have to wait long for Susanna, she slunk along the walls very much looking the part of a preoccupied department head with her nose buried in a book about regulations and training and the peacock feather quill poking out of her pocket. I waited for a moment and followed Susanna down the short turn of the hallway.

"Susanna!"

She jumped, stands of her black, curly hair flying free of her bun as her book fell to the floor with a clunk. "Merlin, Graves! Don't do that!" Her hand was on her chest as she caught her breath. "You'll give someone a heart attack!"

"Sorry," I whispered as I glanced around. The Atrium was busy, bustling with people who had no desire to stay there any longer then they had too and I could not say I disagreed with the sentiment.

Susanna followed my gaze and looked back at me with a knowing glint in her eyes.

I pulled out a small book of poetry where I had carefully hidden a letter. "Here's the book I borrowed from you, I thought the fifth section was particularly interesting."

"It is, isn't it?" Susanna took the book from me carefully with a slight smile as she read the cover. "Very romantic, the kind of thing that speaks to the good in a person's soul."

I had never borrowed this book or any other from Susanna, but she was so apt at this little game that it felt as if we had been loaning each other books for ages.

Our little tête-à-tête was interrupted by a sudden roaring chaos behind me. I peeked around the corner and Susanna followed suit. There were wizards in the official robes of the floo regulations department clearing out the Atrium and sealing off the fireplaces. I peeked around the corner and Susanna followed suit.

"STOP!" Was that Runcorn? He was a zealot who spent his time looking for false family trees for the Ministry. Why were all of those people from the accused list standing behind him?

A balding wizard stepped forward, I could not quite hear what he was saying but Runcorn spoke and his voice was authoritative and loud by nature and echoed enough through the room.

"This lot need to leave before you seal the exits."

There was confusion from the small group of floo department staff. This was not normal.

"We've been told to seal all the exits and not let anyone-"

"Are you contradicting me?" Runcorn was a big towering man and he was quite terrifying on his own, even without the power of the Ministry behind him. He was not one to cross or disobey. "Would you like me to have your family examined, like I had Dirk Cresswell's?"

I remembered that. Cresswell had apparently gone on the run, disappearing from society entirely. It was among the first major acts of internal assault on Ministry staff that showed that no one was really safe from accusation and the fallout of it.

The balding wizards stuttered and sputtered a response.

"Their blood is pure," Runcorn's voice could have shook the hall and I pressed myself even further from sight as Susanna put her arm in front of me protectively. "Purer than many of yours, I daresay." He looked at the group behind him. "Off you go."

The crowd dispersed quickly in the still open fireplaces, a visible fear and relief on their faces as they vanished in pairs in flashes of green fire and smoke. Most of the floo department wizards looked very confused.

A pale, sickly looking man came out of a lift. "Mary!"

A man who appeared to be a healthier twin to the second man who had been standing near Runcorn and a witch who I recognized to be Mafalda Hopkirk began to swear.

The balding wizard seemed as confused as Susanna and I were. "Hey- what's going on? What is this?"

Yaxley came out of another lift as if he had been shot out of a No Maj cannon, "Seal the exit! SEAL IT!"

What the fresh hell was I seeing?

Susanna covered her mouth and cursed quietly.

Runcorn punched the floo department wizard he had been speaking with with such force he seemed to tumble back several feet from the impact to his face.

"He's been helping Muggle-borns escape, Yaxley!" Runcorn shouted, causing the other floo department wizards to protest and sling accusations to defend their manager.

A man grabbed a woman and disappeared in the nearest fireplace while his sickly twin yelled, "My wife! Who was that with my wife? What's going on?"

I saw Runcorn grab Mafalda's hand and barely avoid a curse from Yaxley, the force chipping the fireplace as it barely missed Runcorn's head.

Yaxley followed behind the pair screaming "POTTER!" before he leapt into the floo and disappeared in a flash of green fire and smoke.

Susanna was covering her mouth next to me, managing to suppress her malignant joy at Yaxley's misfortune. She looked at me with glimmering dark eyes as she nodded her head and quickly mouthed 'See you later,' and disappeared into the dimly lit staircase where I could hear the faint giggles of her laughter through the door until they faded into the dark depths of the Department of Mysteries.

I could not have been happier.

I turned away from the storm in the Atrium, pleased as punch about this new development. Potter had been here, he was fighting in some way and there could be a way to rally people to fight this regime.

But where would Potter strike next?

I quietly put a disillusionment charm on myself and slipped along the wall to get to the lift and back to my office while looking at the wizards from the floo department. A few wore angered expressions and a couple of them smirked at Yaxley's misfortune.

This might be a good day after all.

Oo0Oo0

I had gone to Thornell for a meeting immediately after work, telling Percy not to hold dinner for me and that I expected to be fed and a bit late coming back. He understood enough not to ask anymore questions on the matter. After Potter's escape, Yaxley had returned to the Ministry is a mood so foul that he was to be avoided

Albert and Susanna arrived right on time with warm smiles that brought a fresh energy to a tired house. Albert immediately set out to charm Kitty and Eleanor with candy he seemed to pull out of nowhere and winked at them mischievously at Lucinda's proclamation that he would spoil their supper, causing the first laugh I had heard from Kitty since the murder of her parents. Dinner itself was an affair of sandwiches and a nice salad, filling and carefully plated per Lucinda's standards. Afterwards, Susanna was quick to take Grace from Tavish's arms to bounce her kiss her little fat cheeks until Barry came down to claim it was her bedtime, the old house elf took Kitty up as well for a bath, she protested a bit but became delighted at the promise of what she called the fancy, smelly bubbles.

When the two younger children were out of the room, Tavish adjusted the dials on the radio (wireless, he called it, but I was refusing to adapt that way) before stopping on a static riddled station for an ear splitting moment before clearly stating the word, "Lightning!" as he tapped his wand once on the radio.

With Tavish's utterance, the static disappeared and we were greeted by a soothing voice.

"Evening folks and welcome to PotterWatch! I'm your host, River!"

I looked at Tavish incredulously as he shrugged in response. "I know a bloke."

Eleanor looked up at the radio as River began to speak, closing her copy of the Standard Book of Spells Year One that had been open in her lap.

"Folks, things are dark but we can confirm that one Boy-Who-Keeps-Living was spotted in the Ministry of Magic today freeing Muggle-borns from the Ministry's clutches!"

There was a surge of gasps from Lucinda and the Waldropes, Albert almost spilled a bottle of beer down himself as he sputtered, "That's what happened? Merlin's beard!"

Susanna grabbed his arm, a coil of her curly dark hair springing free from her carefully done hair, her full lips pulled back in a gleeful smile that showed her pearly white teeth. "That's why Yaxley was such a menace today! Potter outfoxed him! I saw the whole thing!"

"You could have told me!"

There were whoops and hollers coming from the radio, probably the staff of this radio show.

"Yes, yes, well done!" River said, his lively voice cutting through a break in the muffled noise from whatever room he was in. "The mission of PotterWatch is to deliver the news the Daily Prophet won't, seeing as they're run by Death Eaters in the Ministry of Magic."

River began to go down a list of offenses committed by the Ministry and the Death Eaters since the takeover on August first, listing dates for each incident. The Snatcher kidnappings and murders, (Eleanor shrunk back at the mention), the free roaming of Dementors across the wild parts of the isle, the use of Dementors in the courtrooms of the Ministry of Magic (I was sure he had an inside source for that information, it was a little too detailed to be something he learned from a chain of rumor) before he finally got to the news from the train station.

"We do need to discuss the disturbing incident from yesterday at Platform Nine and Three Quarters."

I glanced at Eleanor who was sitting with her back against the couch while Tavish had leaned forward to put a hand on her shoulder. Lucinda and the Waldropes were staring at the radio with wide eyed expressions and barely concealed rage.

"For everyone who is reasonably not giving the Daily Prophet anymore money to help print their lies, here's what happened."

River delivered the news with such clarity of speech and obvious disgust I was immediately sucked in. Everything that I had heard as rumor whispered over the Ministry seemed to be true. There were dementors at the station alongside Ministry officials from the Law Enforcement Office and the Muggle-born Registration Commission, taking account of the new students who had been forced out of homeschooling and were now mandated to go to Hogwarts.

A teenage boy stood up to the Registration Commission, admitting he was a proud Muggle-born and no thief and proclaiming his support for Harry Potter and that the Dark Lord would fall.

The dementors had pounced upon him and left nothing behind but his shoes.

This episode was devoted to the memory of Devin McKinley and the Muggle-borns who were taken to the Ministry.

Tavish made the sign of the cross across his chest and bowed his head quietly, his lips moving in a soundless prayer. It was not something I had ever seen him do before.

PotterWatch was a glimpse of the world beyond the conspiracies and plotting at the core of my life and it laid bare everything that I was beginning to fight for. I was beginning to understand Alex, how he could disappear from my life so long, consumed with his work and the… the rush of adrenaline it offered. It was the pursuit of something that had no tangibility, but offered only the golden idol of ideals and the promise of standing on the right side of history.

There was something satisfying in this endeavor of conspiracy.

The show ended with final calls to action as River did a final sign off stating the password for the next show was 'Chess.'

Lucinda stood with a weary expression as she looked down at Eleanor. "You should get ready for bed."

"Yes, Lucinda!" Eleanor's eyes were like large saucers, as she clutched her book to her chest, "Goodnight everyone!"

There was warmth in our responses that made Eleanor give something close to a smile for the first time since she had arrived at Thornell before she ran up the stairs taking two at a time in running leaps. We waited in silence until the door closed quietly on the upper floor. I cast a repelling charm on the staircase that would keep nosy children away from anything they did not need to overhear. Eleanor and Kitty would eventually figure out what we were doing, that was inevitable, but we could shield them from whatever insanity was proposed during our meetings while we were still new and fledging.

Lucinda took a deep breath and summoned a map with a wave of her wand, the paper flying into the room from what I assumed to be one of her offices on the upper floors. She moved to the head of the table like a queen at court and spread the paper on the table with her usual hawkish expression.

"Come here, all of you." The rest of us moved as if under a spell, moving to empty seats at the table. I took in the determined set of Susanna's jaw, the calm look of her husband Albert and the ferocity that glimmered in Tavish's eyes.

"I believe we can skip the introductions and get to the point. I think we all know each other. None of us are happy with what's going on and we intend to do something about it." Lucinda paused to let the declaration sink in. "Now that we're all finally here, our aim is to help the Muggle-born children and orphans displaced by these policies and we need to decide how we can do that efficiently and not get our souls sucked out by the Ministry for treason."

"We need allies," Albert spoke first as he looked around the table. "I mean, this group looks great, but we have less people than a Quidditch team."

"I might know some people," I said, gripping the edge of the table tightly, "but they can't know the full extent of the mission. I'm afraid of them being compromised in some capacity because of their positions and too many people opens us to the same risks."

Tavish made a noise of agreement, "Agreed. We need people ta give us more information, but 'hey dun need ta know everything about why we need ta know."

"Agreed," Susanna's voice was calm and steady as she looked around the table. "We need to decide how we're going to do this."

"Simple." Lucinda tapped the blank paper in front of her revealing a map of the United Kingdom with various colored markers and a carefully sorted list of names. "I've color coded and marked the homes of known purist sympathizers and Death Eater affiliates, I've also marked those I suspect of leanings in either direction. Susanna, Albert and Audrey will help make a more conclusive map based on everything going on at the Ministry and gather information. I'll continue to run Thornell as a safe house for those we can rescue with help from the House Elves, using the money the Ministry is providing me for the use of my home for their parties to feed and hide anymore of the orphans we find."

"What about when the Ministry wants to use your property again?" I asked carefully as I looked over the map, seeing a collection of familiar names.

"I have a plan for that." Lucinda smiled. "It's not a kind plan, but Thornell is a very big property and the rich never pay much mind to the staff."

Tavish grinned, catching onto something that I was sure I was missing as the detail on the map absorbed my attention. Lucinda had also noted the rumored locations of Dementors and the various magical communities around Britain, Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, Hogsmeade, Godric's Hollow among others I was not familiar with that were smaller and more isolated little hamlets and wizarding villages that had not muggle equivalent and nonmagical community in the nearby vicinity.

"I wan' ta run missions," Tavish's voice was firm as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Not all o' us get ta be spies."

"I'll go with you," Albert said quickly. "Two is better than one."

"Me too!" My words escaped me before I could consider any other alternative.

"No." Lucinda's voice was firm and cut right through me. "I need you where you are and your accent is incredibly distinctive, you still sound as American as the day you arrived."

I blushed as Tavish reached over to ruffle my hair. "S'all rig't lass, ya jus' tell me where ta go."

I felt my head nod, suddenly feeling that spy work was going to be very difficult.

"If you two need me, let me know." Susanna's voice cut through my thoughts like the cut of a knife. "There is not a lot of spying I can do from the Department of Mysteries, and I intend to move out to the main floors to another department next week, but I am ready to crack a skull or two for the cause."

Albert looked at Susanna with an expression so lovestruck at her declaration, I would have been sick if I knew I had never looked at Percy with a similar look.

"Audrey," Lucinda started again, peering at me over the rims of her glasses. "If you can find people who hate this as much as we do who are trustworthy, send them my way. We need more than two men in the field."

"I can do that." An image of Percy flashed in my mind, but he needed to learn Occlumency and I had to teach him quickly. We could share the labor of spying and if one of us was removed from the office, we would not lose a stream of information, but I did not want to send him out to risk his life and in that way, I understood Lucinda's rejection of me joining Tavish in the field.

Lucinda nodded at my confident statement before returning to the task at hand. "Now, we're going to use the information we get to find those Muggle-borns before the Snatchers do." Lucinda pointed at the map with a long, boney finger. "I've heard a rumor that some of the kids who escaped the platform yesterday are somewhere in London." She looked at Tavish and Albert. "Your job is to find out where. Tavish has already been out making a menace of himself."

"A successful menace," Tavish clarified with a smirk. "I found a lead on a few already and 'tend to go back when we're done 'ere."

"Well done, Tavish!" Susanna clapped her hands together in excitement before it sunk in for the rest of us that we had our first success and a chorus of cheers went up from around the table.

"Don't say that 'til I grab'em."

"In a world of bad news, we'll take what we can get!" Albert exclaimed, clapping Tavish on the back. "Good show!"

"How old are these escapees?" Lucinda asked, "They must be older students to get away from the platform like that."

"Teenagers I think," Tavish affirmed. "Bit more streetsmart, less trustin'. Nothin' I can't 'andle."

"I better go with you." Albert stretched and smiled. "A big Scotsman coming out of the mists of London would make me jumpy."

"It's not my natural 'abitat."

"On that note, Audrey," Susanna looked at me with a mischievous grin. "I need to manage this mess of twits in our department. I''l be taking over for Moira while she's on maternity leave, lucky thing, Moira's assistants should be enough to handle everything down in the Department of Mysteries and it gets them away from the little nepotism hires that were forced upon me. I think it's past time I handled that personally. Rue actually called one a bitch. I heard it was quite exciting for Moira, but I need to get Rue out of there before she decides to come completely uncorked."

"Good idea," I said, picturing Rue Watson's pretty round face and soft expressions. Her father was a muggle dock worker, her mother worked at a shop in Diagon Alley. I never heard Rue say anything crass, crude or mean either in person or in passing, though I was sure she was familiar with the vocabulary if her father was like mine. If Rue had snapped like that, then it must be bad. "It sounds like you're going to send Vera with her?"

"Yes, Vera's going to stay on until she retires, she said this very bluntly to me a couple of weeks ago after our last meeting. I can get two people out to a department that essentially runs itself to make sure the Unspeakables follow policy in their reports."

"Why did you stay down there for so long?" I had wondered about this. Normally Susanna would have my position in the Minister's Office.

Susanna smiled grimly, "Unspeakables are remarkably smart, but they have no common sense. If you give them half a chance, they won't fill out their papers and funding requests properly. Sometimes people get attacked by the experiments and I have to make the arrangements for help from other departments to find that month's victim. It's madness. Also, since I got the department functional, it's given me a chance to focus on my responsibilities as a department head myself."

That made sense. If one of Susanna's people got eaten by a plant while trying to do their job, that was not something I believed she would be able to live with.

Tavish and Albert were discussing where they would be going in London tonight in low whispers with occasional input from Lucinda as she made notations on the map.

It had been a very good day.

Oo0Oo0

My mood was one of jubilation and high spirits as I walked into my apartment to find Percy reviewing his collection of notes on occlumency and taking fresh notes on some of the books he had ordered on advanced charms that include discussion of the patronus charm. He moved to stand and help me with my cloak, but I was already out of it and kissed him on the cheek instead.

"How are things here?" I asked, examining the books and papers filled with careful handwriting and diagrams. "You've been busy."

"Very, nothing interesting I'm afraid. How's Lucinda?"

"She's fine. Preoccupied and stressed, but fine."

"Aren't we all?"

I stood on the tips of my toes to kiss Percy on the cheek again, he had turned his head to look at a diagram he had put on the end table causing me to miss my mark and kiss the corner of his mouth instead, making him chuckle quietly as he reached out to squeeze my hand.

We spent the next half hour working through exercises related to occlumency, I let Percy into the bare edges of my mind so he could examine how the labyrinth of my mind functioned as a defense as I seamlessly lead him through false memories of the two of us in places we had never been before. A trip to New York where I led him by the hand through Central Park. A terrible little apartment somewhere in a wizarding hamlet in the New York countryside. A life we could have had if we decided to run away last month. I could feel him grasping at everything I offered and almost believing it to be reality, the sights of magic being practiced freely in our magical district down a secret passage in Times Square that was carefully hidden from No-Maj eyes, street performers using glimmering spells to grab the attention of passersby and the temporary relief of seeing a community not ravaged by war and terror, mixing with the smells of food from street vendors were enticing to a mind looking for anything to grab onto in a desperate bid to hold firm to some reality as I led him through a combination of reality and fantasy.

Percy's guard went down and I caught a glimpse of something that was weighing on his mind. I recognized the lift in the Ministry and caught an image of Percy's father along with an awkward realization and the accompanying waves of embarrassment that rolled off of this memory as Percy left the lift on the wrong floor entirely.

There was silence as the living room flat came back into focus around me. Percy's face was flushed and his glasses were slightly crooked.

"Maybe we should take a break?" I said simply as I examined the notes on the table.

"Good idea!" Percy agreed quickly as he pulled out his wand and picked up a book that he had marked with a torn piece of parchment, opening it swiftly to a chapter about the patronus charm featuring silver shields and glimmering, ghostly animals moving silently across the page in a hauntingly beautiful manner as they chased back the shadows of lethifolds and dementors. "I was working on this while you were with your aunt."

Percy rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, getting comfortable in the role of teacher as he read off sections he had marked and underlined. That this was a difficult charm, many witches and wizards would never produce a fully formed assertive patronus, but would be able to produce a shield that would offer them some very strong protection.

"One's happiest thoughts or memories are what provides power to the charm-"

You. Birds in tiny hats.

I fiddled with my wand and tried to grab the images that danced behind my eyes to find something coherent to use as fuel for the spell.

Percy's voice fell to a quiet lull as he continued to read out the vague instructions and interesting things he had found in the book.

If we understood the instructions, we could work on the patronus charm between breaks in my occlumency lessons in the evenings. It was not really a break, but that focus on joy and senseless chanting to try and create a mist of joy could help us refocus on the more immediate thing I needed Percy to learn.

He was a good student, asking me about some obscure texts that I had borrowed on occlumency from Lucinda over a quick breakfast and how I had crafted the scapes in my own mind that he had caught momentary glimpses of during our first lessons.

"Expecto Patronum!" A thin, almost transparent wisp of white smoke emerged from my wand before disappearing in a matter of seconds. Okay. That was quite sad.

Percy gave me an encouraging smile and I took a deep breath.

I had a sad, miserable kind of life. What happy memories could I even draw from that?

Does it have to be a memory?

Can I just craft a false memory like I do in Occlumency? I gripped something I had created from my mind labyrinth and held onto it like it was a life ring in an ocean storm. Something about fresh apple pie while drinking nonalcoholic butterbeer with my roommates since alcohol of any sort was forbidden by law to those under twenty-one, if I focused, I could smell this imaginary pie and taste the virgin butterbeer on my tongue.

"Expecto Patronum!"

Another thin, sad wisp of smoke emerged from the tip of my wand in a hollow mockery. I peered over at Percy who seemed to be having a little more success, the smoke from his wand seemed thicker, a bit more luminescent, before it faded away to nothing. Maybe Grandpa Atticus was right and I should spend my time hiding behind a more competent wix? No. I learned Occlumency. A difficult, unique, obscure branch of magic, I was fully capable of learning a very advanced charm. It was just going to take time.

I was on a path to something. I was not sure what yet, but I hoped it was success because those Dementors were a menace and the more trials were in the old courtrooms, the more one could feel the misery slipping through the floor up to the offices.

"Do you want some help?" Percy glanced over at me and my face grew hot at being caught staring off into space.

"I would love some!"

He smiled at me and stepped forward to stand next to me and just a smidge behind me with a focused expression, straightening my shoulders with a guiding hand and nudging my feet apart with his. I glanced at him for a moment taking him in as he quoted something from the book with something he found helpful to get what results he had so far.

The professorial air and the rolled up shirt sleeves do something to me.

When he reached over to correct the grip I have on my wand to match what is in the book, literal chills go up and down my spine from the feel of his skin on mine in this manner that is purely professional and so different from the other times he touches me.

I do not need this knowledge about myself.

I need to bottle this up and never think about it again.

Percy's hand went back over my own again to move my wand in the correct pattern, which I had been doing myself earlier just fine but I was not going to say anything about it. I liked how warm his hands were and the way his voice was a low, encouraging hum over my head. The line between helpful teacher and aching need was a very thick line, but it was rapidly growing thinner in my own mind and I felt my breath quietly quicken under my breast.

When a thick white mist emerged from the tip of my wand, still shapeless but maintaining a presence as a shapeless blob that reminded me of an inkblot before fading as quickly as it arrived. I turned and threw my arms around Percy's neck to kiss him, half yanking him down to me before he smartened up and settled the difference by grabbing me by the waist to pull me upwards and close the distance between us, spinning me around slightly and causing my toes to skim the floor.

When I stopped thinking about the technicalities of kissing and managed to finally relax into it, the prolonged action became something I found myself enjoying immensely. Percy had an arm around my shoulders, my hands were caressing his neck and moving upwards to touch his hair. Which I would forever deny being a little obsessed with, he did not need to know.

The low crackle of embers from the fireplace was soothing and constant from magic, offering an illusion of heat even if magic ensured the room was cool for the summer months, though it was mostly our close proximity to one another that made me feel like I was set ablaze. Percy's glasses were pressing against my face and I was too invested to pay much mind to his quick removal of them, just the flash of embarrassment at the needy whine I made when he pulled away for that brief moment.

His long fingers were undoing my hair as he stepped back to the couch, guiding me along and pulling me down into his lap when we pulled apart to catch our breath for a moment before pressing ourselves back together. I was not sure how, but I managed to adjust myself so that I was straddling his lap.

"Hi."

"Hello."

I felt my hair finally come undone, falling down like a curtain as I looked into his eyes, separating us from the rest of the room and allowing us to focus entirely on each other while he ran his fingers through my hair before pulling me down to kiss me softly as my own fingers began unhooking the top buttons of his shirt and moving down so quickly I had some vague idea that I had missed a couple of buttons before pulling his shirt free of his pants, my hands sliding further down to undo his belt and I lost track entirely of what my hands were doing because the way Percy's teeth nipped at my bottom lip was so fascinating and enjoyable I could not pay my hands much mind. My hands moved upward when my mind had a momentary return to judgment and sanity, but lamented that his undershirt kept me from touching the expanse of skin I knew was there under thin cloth. Such a frustrating thing…!

Percy groaned quietly against my mouth as my hands returned to his chest and shoulders. I continued to melt at the way his hands tightened in my hair before releasing it entirely and moving slowly downward, tracing my sides in a way that made me giggle at the ticklish feeling before gasping as I felt him push my stockings down to my bent knees and his hands squeeze and caress the backs of my thighs. That was interesting. It became more interesting when they moved further up my skirt to rest on my hips, his thumbs tracing the top of my panties as his hands spanned outward on my hips to guide them down to press against him.

A noise somewhere between a shocked gasp and pleasured cry escaped me without a warning.

His hands tightened at my hips. "Alright, love?"

My mouth was not working. I settled for nodding my head.

Percy's hands slid down my legs, squeezing my bottom and my knees as his hands left my skirt. He moved his hands to my waist and drifted under my shirt, tracing the line of my spine up to the lace lining of my bra, the tips of his fingers sliding beneath it and moving as if looking for something. I leaned away from him slightly to see his face, giggling at the furrow on his brow and the pink of his cheeks as his fingers continued to look for the little hooks.

"It's in the front," I whispered as he looked at me with a questioning expression as he continued to feel around looking for the hooks.

"Ah, that makes sense."

"I'll ignore the sarcasm." I did not have much of a choice in that, the tips of his fingers were still beneath the band of my bra and now tracing the underside of my breasts while he looked for this illusive bra clasp.

"Do you want some help?"

"I think I'll manage," there was a brief sensation of my bra flying open, a brush of cold air on newly exposed skin and the sudden warmth of Percy's hands in a new and interesting place.

My hands moved to rest gently on his face to keep him steady as I kissed him again, one arm moving around his shoulders while the other resumed a preferred grip in his hair. It was a long lingering, messy kind of kiss that was focused less on romance and more on the ocean of lust and desire we were trying to drown in. It was all tongues and wandering hands, whispers of affection and love mixed in with-

A shout came from the fireplace.

Percy and I pulled apart with a wet noise as I flung myself out his lap with a scream, clutching my shirt closed as I made a mad dash for the kitchen to hide while I pulled myself back together.

"OLIVER!"

"Was that your secretary?!"

"OFFICE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT!"

"Oh! Hi Audrey!"

I chose to stay quiet and pretend I had not heard Oliver's Scottish brogue as I rehooked my bra.

"What didn't you tell me?"

"You didn't need to know!"

I started trying to fix my hair, but my hands were shaking and it was difficult to put it back in a loose bun considering my hair tie was somewhere on the floor of the living room. I settled for brushing out the mess Percy had made of it with my fingers instead as I listened to the chaos in the room behind me.

"-Friends for ten years and you can't warn me I might floo call into-"

My face was so red it was almost painful as I tuned Oliver out.

I straightened my skirt, it was crooked and rumpled and I could still feel Percy's fingers on my skin climbing up my thighs. My stockings were wrinkled and had folded down just under my knees. The edge of my blouse was halfway pulled from the top of my skirt and- Sweet Merlin how did he manage to undo all of my buttons? When did that even happen?

How much did our impromptu guest see?

Oh by the Twelve!

"Glad you got over your hang ups Percy."

Huh? I'm the one with the hang ups in this relationship.

"I was just calling to check on you after that mess at the Ministry, but you seem to be doing better than I thought."

Morgana, strike me down so I don't have to remember this for the rest of my life!

"That's nice of you, Oliver." Percy's voice was testy.

"I know, I'm mostly a good friend."

"You're mostly unemployed."

"Low blow. Not my fault my coach got arrested for mouthing off to Magical Games and Sports. Anyway, I have a lot of free time now, since Quidditch has been indefinitely canceled." He sounded sincerely broken-hearted over that, Oliver seemed to brighten up considerably for his next question. "When can you reintroduce me to Flipper-girl?"

It was a moment of horrific remembrance. A vague image of being drunk in a bar and my wand in my hand as I treated an injured foot that was slowly turning into a flipper by my own spell.

Has he been calling me Flipper-girl for two years?

"I gotta make sure she's real and all that. Can't be too careful these days."

"You just saw her!"

"Yeah, but she disappeared so fast it could have been a figment of my imagination."

Percy made some sort of angry noise while I fixed the misholed buttons on my blouse..

"How about I come by tomorrow with a bit of alcohol as an apology?"

I responded before Percy could tell him no.

"Seven okay?"

"Perfect!"

I had a nice turtleneck I had been meaning to wear.

No, focus Audrey. This was one of the top ten most embarrassing moments of your life and you have more pressing issues at the moment. Such as why do we keep getting hot and heavy on the couch? That couch has no sexual brew, it's not even comfortable!

There was a whoosh from the fireplace implying that Oliver's head was out of our home and the sound of Percy's feet on the floor as he rushed into the room, sliding slightly on the tile floor as he came to a stop a couple of feet away from me.

"I am so sorry about that!"

"It's fine!" I had managed to make myself mostly presentable, my stockings were fixed, skirt straightened and shirt now buttoned as he looked me over carefully. "You didn't know he was going to call."

"No, you and Oliver are the only ones who know my floo password and he never calls this late." Percy ran his fingers through his hair. Now that the fog of lust had lifted from my mind I could fully take in how rumpled Percy was, his hair was a mess from both my hands and his own, flying out is several directions and slightly stiff from the small amount of hair gel he used, holding the askew hair in a few different wild directions. His ears and cheeks were flushed and pink, his mouth slightly swollen along with a couple of spots on his neck. My eyes moved down to take in his untucked and half unbuttoned shirt where I could see his undershirt and a few hairs on his chest. I did not remember undoing his belt, but I was vaguely aware that was something I was very responsible for. My eyes flew back up to his face when I finally noticed that the button on his pants was undone and his zipper was down.

Well… That was raunchy.

Okay, do we have to talk about this?

I was not sure I could have this talk when I could see his dark blue boxers and outline of everything they concealed.

"Um…" My eyes focused on a slight chip in the paint on the wall near Percy's head as I brushed several loose strands of hair out of my face.

Percy finally seemed to notice the state of himself and his clothing and began to apologize profusely as the distinctive clinks of his zipper and belt came back together.

The silence in the room was awkward and vaguely oppressive, full of words that I was not sure either of us could really say right now. Some part of me wanted to make a joke, but I could not think of anything to say.

"The poor thing's probably traumatized."

"I'm surprised he's not gone blind," breathy laughter pulled itself from my throat.

"Not Oliver, the couch."

I was laughing heartily at this point. It was so stupid. So ridiculous and it could only happen to the two of us.

"Maybe we need to find another piece of furniture to traumatize?" Percy's expression froze in a wide eyed shock at what had left his mouth seemingly without input or permission from his brain.

"Perhaps the bed?" I reached out and took Percy's hand, squeezing his fingers before he could correct himself back into the propriety we both found so easy. "It may have a stronger constitution."

Percy laughed quietly as he looked at me with darkened eyes as he guided my hand up to kiss the inside of my wrist, "Another time, I think. I'm afraid Oliver will come springing out of the wardrobe next."

With everything I had seen over the past few weeks, that would not surprise me.

Oo0Oo0

Author's Note: I think life is inherently funny. We're all going to suffer for this belief.

Lucinda has all the skills of a project manager and is deeply into it.

This chapter is 8000 words. Send help.