Disclaimer: Damn it, Janet. I love you.
Working Title: Auror Ron
Auror Thomas ignored the sounds of his rookie emptying his stomach as he examined the crime scene. It looked as if the perps had forced the door killed the father right off, then spent a few hours 'entertaining' themselves with the mother, the ten year old daughter, and the five year old son before putting the poor devils out of their misery. A dark mark hovered above the house, similar to the ones he'd seen in the old days but not identical.
"Don't say a word about what we found here, rookie," he ordered. It looked as if someone wanted to upset the balance, as if someone wanted to ignore the agreement, as if someone wanted to go back to the bad old days. Damn them!
IIIIIIIIII
Auror Sergeant Ronald Weasley stared at the Minister's door for a few moments before raising his fist to knock. It's been a while since he'd been summoned to the halls of power, he wondered what they wanted this time?
Before he could knock, the door sprung open to reveal the Minister's smiling face.
"Have a seat, Ron," the Minister said with a grin.
"Yes, sir," Ron agreed.
"Can't an old comrade at arms call me Shack?" the Minister laughed. "At least when it's just the two of us here?"
"What can I do for you, Shack?" Ron asked, wondering what the bastard's game was.
"You hear about what happened to that family up the coast?"
"Not a word," Ron replied.
"Good, we've been doing our best to keep it quiet." The Minister took a deep breath. "Looks like we have a Death Eater attack to deal with, nasty, only thing off about it is the Dark Mark a bit different."
"You want me to round up the usual suspects?"
"I've got other people keeping an eye on the likeliest and the investigation. I want you to find Potter." the Minister paused paused for the explosion that never came. "Well?"
"Imagine it's going to be hard to get him to agree what with the price you put on his head," Ron said dryly. "One hundred thousand galleons, dead or alive wasn't it?"
"I'm not going to rehash the argument about Potter," the Minister growled, "the other side demanded we throw him to the wolves or they wouldn't end the war. I did what I had to in order to keep the public safe, that's my job. If one or two people have to be sacrificed to keep the rest safe, so be it."
"He might see it differently," Ron said quietly, "you remember what happened to the men you sent to bring him in, don't you?"
"They were under orders not to harm him," Shack tried to muster a defense.
"You don't consider life in Azkaban to be harmful?" Ron suppressed a laugh. "You . . ." he bit his tongue, reminding himself of the family his pay supported.
"I insisted the Dementors be removed and cast into the veil first," Shack replied, "leaving aside the concerns regarding their loyalty to the Ministry, it was the least I could do for our greatest hero."
"I see." Ron decided to go straight to the point. "What do you want me to do?"
"Put out the word that all is forgiven, that we need Potter, that we have a new Dark Lord, and that we need his help to deal with him."
"And you think Harry will come?"
"It's your job to convince him that it will be in his best interests," Shack agreed, "I'm prepared to give him five hundred thousand reasons to forgive and forget should that prove necessary."
"And if he demands that we sacrifice a few pawns like the Death Eaters did?" Ron asked.
"Malfoy and his ilk are sure to be involved with the new Dark Lord, I'll cover for a reasonable amount of payback should Potter demand it."
"I see." He did and it disgusted him. "I'll need an expense account."
"I'll see that you get an extra ten thousand galleons a month."
"Fifteen and I want a one time payment of one hundred thousand to start out with," Ron demanded. That should be enough to get his wife and children some place safe.
"You can't expect . . ."
"Minister, with all due respect, I am the only man you have on the force that has a chance of being able to approach Harry Potter without getting cursed on sight. I am the only man you have that the old crowd is likely to speak with. Most importantly, I have a family to look after and if there's a new Dark Lord in England, I want them to be far away from here." Ron gave a bitter smile. "It'll be hard enough to look for Harry without spending every waking moment worrying about them."
"Done," Shack said sourly. "I'll expect results within the month."
"Only if Harry decides he wants to speak with me, you'll have a longer wait if he doesn't."
He strolled out of the Ministry building and spent the most of the remainder of the day arranging his family's escape from what he feared would soon be a war zone. Another hour was spent on his escape route leaving a short amount of time at the end of it to speak with his first contact. Someone he hadn't seen for a very long time, someone he'd once thought he'd spend the remainder of his life with.
Ron stared at the bushy haired woman for a few minutes with a nostalgic smile. She was hunched over a desk, glaring at some forgotten manuscript trying to divine its secrets. Everyone had assumed that she'd go on to great things, to research, to politics, to the heights of business. Only he'd been unsurprised to learn that she'd taken a low level position at the British Library. To be surrounded by books had always been her chief ambition.
"Hello, Hermione," he said softly.
"Wha?" she looked up, a mixture of confusion and surprise on her face. "You!" it had always been impressive how much emotion she could pack into a single word. "What do you want?"
"I'm looking for Harry," he replied.
"Well I don't know and I wouldn't tell you if I did," she spat.
"Is that any way to talk to the man you almost married?" The sundering of their engagement had seemed like a the worst thing in the world at the time, several years had provided the necessary distance to learn that it had saved him from making the worst mistake of his life.
"Almost ruined my life with," she growled, "what girl likes to learn that her fiancé is fucking Lavender Brown."
"True in the first part, wrong in the second. Point of fact, I didn't start fucking Lavender Brown till after we went out separate ways."
"What?" she choked. "I know you . . ."
"In fact, I wasn't fucking anyone on the side, despite how hard up I was thanks to being engaged to a frigid prude." He took a deep calming breath. "Sorry. I was not seeing anyone on the side anymore than you were when we were together."
"But . . . I know you were cheating on me!" Hermione insisted.
"I knew you were cheating on me too," Ron said mildly.
"I wasn't."
"Nor was I," he agreed. "We were both petty jealous children. Marrying you would have been the worst mistake of my life, just as marrying me would have been the worst mistake in yours."
"Oh." She blinked her eyes a couple times and turned back to her book. "You can show yourself out, can't you?"
"That's all you have to say?"
"It is," she agreed. "I've decided that it doesn't matter if you're lying or telling the truth, not anymore. As for the reason you came, I do not know where Harry is."
"Fair enough," he agreed. He stared at her for a few seconds, hoping to make her blurt out a tidbit of information to shatter the uncomfortable silence that had arose. He grinned, it didn't work, she hadn't changed much from the old days. "How are you wards?"
"What?"
"Be sure to update them if you haven't lately, an upgrade would be a good idea also."
"Why?"
"Death Eater attack, wiped out a whole family, nasty." He cocked his head. "S'why the Ministry sent me out in search of Harry."
"They cast him into the cold and they expect him to come back to clean up their mess again?" She demanded, outraged by the notion.
"That's my read on the situation," Ron agreed.
She stared at him for a few minutes, shocked at the nonchalant way he'd agreed.
"Have a good life, Hermione."
"Have a good life, Ron," she echoed dumbly.
He found a comfortable place to watch and settled down for what could be a wrong wait. The girl he'd once considered the love of his life finished her day and went home for a quiet night of reading followed by an early bed. She woke up the next morning, ate breakfast, and went back to work. At no time did she send or receive any owls or, so far as he could tell, use any other forms of magical communication.
He jotted out a few quick notes on holes he saw in her wards, slipped it into her mailbox, and went home to an empty bed. It was rough sending his loved ones away, it would have been rougher still to lose them because he didn't.
He walked past Hermione's flat the next day and was pleased to see that she'd taken his suggestions seriously. He wasn't too worried about his friend's safety, there weren't many in the world stupid enough to go after one of Harry Potter's friends, not when he was still at large anyway, not after what he'd done the last time. Harry's reputation had protected Hermione from the Ministry and, assuming the Minister's suspicion that the new Death Eaters were controlled by the Malfoy family would certainly protect her from them. Still, never hurt to take chances.
Nodding to himself, Ron found a public floo connection and set about arranging his next meeting.
IIIIIIIIII
Ron kept his expression neutral as the burly secretary showed him into a richly paneled waiting room. The other man's face could have been carved from wood as he indicated that Ron should take a seat.
Ron wasn't alone more than two minutes before the door opened and a hand beckoned for him to enter.
"Thank you for meeting me, Mister Ambassador," Ron said as he walked into the opulent office.
"Please, we haff fought side by side. You may call me Vicky as you did in the old days." The other man motioned for Ron to take a seat.
"I didn't wish to presume," Ron said as he sunk into the chair. "A lot of our old friends from the old days don't want to speak with me anymore."
"They think that you have betrayed Harry. They think that you have become one of the Minister's dogs. They hear that even now you are hunting for our great friend and hero," Victor said, his accent falling away.
"And what do you think, Vicky?" Ron asked with a faint smile.
"I think I should ask you before deciding what to think," Victor replied. "So, please enlighten me."
"I was by Harry's side when we made the final push that took Voldemort. I don't remember much of that night, just flashes, snapshots, the faces of the men I killed. At some point, I got hit by a rather nasty hex or six," Ron sighed.
"And?" Victor prompted.
"And I woke up two weeks after the Ministry declared Harry outlaw and put a reward on his head. I was relearning how to walk and feel pain when Bulgaria declared him a national hero. They didn't even tell me about any of it till weeks later."
"And?"
"And then I found out that my first was on the way and I decided a steady paycheck to keep my wife and child fed was more valuable than all the pride in the world. I was willing to throw away every friend I had to in order to fill my child's stomach," Ron's voice was as hard as iron. "If there's one thing Harry understood, it's responsibility to one's loved ones. I think that he'd understand if no one else did."
"I too understand, my friend." Victor's face split into a grin. "I knew the man I fought beside could never turn into a Ministry toad. Is that why you wish to find Harry, to explain?"
"No, Harry knew me well enough that I don't think I'd have to. I'm looking for him because the Minister paid me a lot of gold to pass him a message. Enough to move my family far away from here." Ron sighed. "Actually, looking is the wrong term. I'm letting everyone know that I want to speak with him in hopes that word will reach him. Like I told the Minister, I'm not going to be able to find Harry if he doesn't want to be found."
"You are an Auror, is it not your job to find people?" Victor teased.
"It is," Ron agreed. "And I'm very very good at it. However, over the past ten years, Harry's managed to evade; Aurors, bounty hunters, and the best assassins that Malfoy's money can buy. He's a hundred times better at hiding than I am at finding."
"Why not simply take the Minister's money and run?"
"I took the Ministry's coin and I agreed to do the job to the best of my ability," Ron said stiffly. "People have rightfully called me many things over the years, but never a thief."
"Enough of this depressing talk. Let us remember the old days, the days in which I first came to your enchanting land."
"Bit dry to have such a long talk, don't you think, Vicky?" Ron prompted.
"The years have warn your face but your heart is the same!" Victor laughed. "You are right, my friend, our memories are best explored under the influence of strong drink."
Ron awoke from a rather nasty hangover the next morning. A quick wave of the wand cleared away the vomit and several more made him presentable enough for his next meeting. A potion cleared away the nausea and he slipped another for the headache into his pocket, deciding to wait until after his meeting to take it. Chances were he'd have needed another after it anyway.
He walked out of his cottage and took a left down the nearest alley, took another left, and then ran twenty paces before taking another down another alley. He counted a silent ten and stuck out his foot just in time to trip his tail. A grin appeared on his face as he put his foot at the center of the man's back and leaned forward.
"You're breaking my back," the man gasped.
"Tell Luna that I want a meeting," Ron said calmly.
"I don't know what you're . . ." the man howled as Ron ground his heal on one of his captive's vertebrae.
"I'm not going to say it again, tell Luna that I want a meeting. Do you understand?"
"I understand," the man groaned.
"I'll be at the coffee shop two blocks down from my house, tell her I expect to see her in fifteen minutes and that I know some things that she'd like to."
Ron removed his foot and began the short walk to his meeting place. He was a bit annoyed but not a bit surprised to see a familiar looking blonde sitting at his favorite table nibbling on a scone when he arrived.
"Have a seat, Ronald," Luna invited, "I've taken the liberty of ordering your favorite refreshments."
"Nicely done," Ron complimented the girl, enjoying her professionalism. "How hard was it to find a lackey that ham fisted?"
"Not very," Luna replied.
"Do you know why I wanted to speak with you?" Ron asked.
"I expect that you're working off a list of everyone Harry's ever shagged," Luna replied with a grin. "Are you going to speak with Ginny next?"
"Harry shagged Victor?" Ron choked.
"What?" Surprise hit Luna's silvery eyes.
"I talked to Hermione, Victor, and now you," Ron said.
"You're not angry that Harry shagged your ex-fiancée?" Luna prompted with a breezy smile, regaining her bearings.
"Good on 'em, another thing he accomplished that I never did, jest hope he took the opportunity to remove the stick while he was about it. Now about Harry and Victor . . ."
"To the best of my knowledge, they never shagged," Luna admitted, "and the fact that you attended a meeting that I knew nothing about says some uncomfortable things about my surveillance net."
"Or good things about my ability to evade it when necessary," Ron shot back.
"I do not know where Harry Potter is," Luna said with a cheery grin. "What was the information you had for me?"
"The Ministry knows that you're working for the muggles, terms like 'treason' were thrown around when they found out. They wanted me to arrest you."
"What did you do?"
"I pointed out that Voldemort had better security and it didn't save him from Harry and asked if they really wanted to give him that as a reason to come back to the magical world."
"I take it they didn't?" Luna giggled.
"Fairly sure a couple of the bastards went incontinent and I'd say Shack went grey but I can't prove it since the bastard's bald as an egg."
"Enough business," Luna demanded, "How are Lav and the girls?"
"As far away from here as I could get them," Ron replied with a grin. "Oldest'll be starting school fairly soon and . . ."
IIIIIIIIII
Ginny smiled when she found her brother on the other side of the door. The Weasleys were and remained a close knit family.
"Ron, Luna told me you were going to be here today," Ginny said. "Something about visiting everyone Harry ever shagged . . ."
"Number two on my list was our old pal Vicky," Ron shot back.
"Vic . . . you mean . . . urk." Ginny looked like a fresh caught carp. "Not . . . not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just . . . I never . . . in all the time we dated, I . . ."
"Luna was mistaken, I'm just talking with a few members of the old crew," Ron interjected. "Idea is to get the word out that I want to speak with Harry and why, figure that if no one on my list is still in contact that it's still possible that word of mouth will mean that he still gets the message eventually."
"An Auror of your caliber relying on the power of gossip?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Can you think of a quicker way to relay information?" Ron laughed. "Light's slow in comparison."
"True," Ginny giggled. "So what do you want Harry to know? I'm not going to admit to being in contact with him . . . more that I'm in contact with someone who may be, maybe . . . sort of, I think."
Here's how it could have ended . . .
Harry listened as Ron gave every bit of information he had on the latest Death Eater attack and laid out the Ministry's offer.
"What do you think I should do?" Harry asked.
"I think you should remember what happened the last time you did the Ministry a favor," Ron replied.
"True," Harry agreed, "on the other hand, this isn't something I can allow to let stand." He turned to his second in command. "Luna, deal with it," Harry ordered.
"Yes, Harry," Luna agreed. She turned to the gaping redhead. "Would you care to accompany me, Ronald?"
IIIIIIIIII
Draco's head lolled back and fourth as he tried force himself back to alertness.
"Wake up, cousin Draco," a voice said gently.
"Lvgd?" Draco slurred.
"Yep, it's me, Luna," the voice agreed as a pale face topped by a blonde mop wavered into focus.
"Ged otta m'hus," Draco's firm order dissolved into a confused mumble somewhere between his brain and his mouth.
"In time," she agreed. "You stand convicted of two dozen rapes and thirty two murders, do you have anything to say in your defense?" Her cheerful smile sharpened. "Not that there's any point in it, you were quite talkative when we had you under."
"Hwa?" Draco stared at the woman.
"Guess not." Luna straightened. "Take him."
Draco squealed as two sets of hands yanked him out of his chair and threw him face down onto his desk.
Luna hiked the hem of the struggling man's robe over his back, exposing his bare backside to the world.
"What are you doing?" Ron asked.
"One moment, Ronald," Luna requested. From her pocket she pulled a large bottle of vodka and undid the cap in a practiced motion. "You may wish to look away," Luna warned before jamming the neck of the now open bottle into Draco's unprotected posterior prompting a howl of pain at the unexpected and unprepared penetration.
"Tip him up," Luna ordered. Her minions tilted the struggling man's head down, allowing the bottle to empty itself into his bowels. "You had a question for me, Ronald?" she prompted.
"What are you doing to him?" Ron asked, trying to avoid looking at the spectacle.
"There's no chance of him vomiting it back up this way," Luna explained, "one more pureblood drinks himself to death and no one cares. We paint the walls with his blood and the Ministry will be up in arms, even if they find out why. Was only mudbloods he was killing, no need to take it that far," she finished with a touch of bitterness in his tone.
"Shack wanted Harry to take care of this." Ron held up his hand to silence the woman. "I'd think he'd keep the Ministry off your backs."
"Until the job was finished," Luna agreed. "He's much too pragmatic to loose the hounds before we've dealt with this latest threat to his regime." Luna smirked. "The second it's over, he's got two dozen wands on call to deal with Harry in a very permanent fashion."
"But . . ."
"Welcome to politics, Ron," Luna giggled, "bit like watching sausage get made, isn't it?"
"I knew the bastard was dirty, but . . ." Ron trailed off.
"After the war, after what happened to Harry, a group of like minded individuals got together and decided that with a few exceptions, the wizarding world could go screw. One world down, only thing to do was join the other. We approached the muggles with an offer."
"They accepted and left Harry in charge," Ron finished.
"They handed us to Harry, seems he'd had the same thought a bit earlier," Luna corrected, "our mandate is to keep the problems of the magical world from spilling into ours by any means necessary and to get justice from people like Draco here." Luna nodded to her minions who released the last Malfoy. "We're done here."
"Why are you telling me all this?" Ron asked.
"Do you know where Harry is right now?" Luna asked, changing the subject. "Why he didn't come to deal with Malfoy personally, he wanted to."
"Why?" Ron asked dumbly.
"He's sending Shack a message. Our dear former comrade is going to wake up to find his security team incapacitated, his 'campaign contributions' missing, the worst sickness of his life, and a note written in steam on his bathroom mirror."
"Harry's work," Ron said.
"Afraid I'm not quite up to that level," Luna admitted.
"Harry always was a bit scary," Ron agreed.
"The point is, even after doing this for a few years, we're still a bit short on skilled magic users," Luna said with a raised eyebrow.
"Are you offering me a job?" Ron blurted.
"Are you accepting?"
Here's another way it could have ended . . .
Ron stiffened as he felt a wand poke to the back of the neck.
"My master told me not to kill you," a familiar voice hissed, "but I don't think the punishment will be too bad if I'm careful not to damage you too much."
"Draco," Ron said calmly. At least his family was safe. "I take it your master heard about my search for Harry?"
"He has," Draco agreed coldly. "I'm going to give you a portkey, I suggest that you don't drop it."
Ron felt something smooth get pressed into his palm seconds before he felt a tugging sensation.
"Where are we?" Ron demanded. The portkey had deposited them in a dark windowless room.
"Outside my master's office," Draco replied. He pushed his prisoner towards a blank section of wall. "Just walk towards it, it's like the entrance to the tracks."
It felt like crawling through jello, what he found on the other side shocked Ron to the bone.
"Hello, old friend," the man behind the desk said.
"Hello, Harry," Ron mumbled. "Didn't expect to see you here."
"I heard that you've been looking for me," Harry began. "Have a seat and we'll talk about it."
"One thing first," Ron demanded.
"Shoot," Harry agreed.
"The family that got killed, were you behind it?"
"What do you think?" Harry asked.
"I think that the Harry I grew up with wouldn't have been," Ron replied. "Unfortunately I'm also aware that people change and that I haven't seen you in a very long time . . . hell, the Harry I knew would never have had Malfoy as a minion."
"I haven't changed enough to be party to what happened," Harry assured his old friend.
"What are you doing here, Harry? Why does Draco call you master?"
"Fairly sure that's his sense of humor showing itself," Harry said thoughtfully. "As for what I'm doing . . . well, you've seen how rotted the Ministry is, haven't you?"
"It's the way it's always been," Ron mumbled.
"It is," Harry agreed. "I'm hoping to change that."
"By becoming a Dark Lord?"
"One man's freedom fighter is the Minister's Dark Lord," Harry said with a shrug. "Speaking of the Minister, I'm fairly sure it was him that was behind what happened. They needed an excuse to come after us, we didn't give them one so they provided their own."
"You know what the Minister wants?" Ron asked with a smirk.
"I do," Harry agreed. "Willing to do me a favor for old times sake?"
"Anything, Harry."
"You're planning to resign and join your family overseas?"
"I am," Ron agreed, "I'd like to stay and maybe even help you with this but . . ."
"But that's not what I'm asking you to do," Harry interrupted.
"What do you want?"
"Include a letter from me when you mail in your resignation to the Minister," Harry asked.
"What'll be in it?"
"I'm going to offer to set up a meeting to discuss my fee for taking care of the 'Dark Lord' that has him so frightened," Harry replied. "If he shows up, I'm going to kill him. Hopefully the deaths of the Minister and as many high ranking officials as I can coax to attend the meeting with him will give us the opening we need to knock down the old order."
"You're asking me to be an accessory to murder?"
"Yes," Harry agreed, "I am."
AN: Still in Antarctica, will be for the next six to eight months. That said, it's winter and I'll have wifi and my own room so I should hopefully get back to something resembling my old posting schedule.