Knock Knock

"Come in," a gravelly voice answered the quiet knock on the door. Hermione slipped in before closing it softly behind her.

"Jones," her voice cracked and she didn't look like she had slept much. "You're awake." Hermione looked over and saw Ron snoring in a pointedly uncomfortable chair between them. Harry, as she expected, was fast asleep in his bed.

"He crashed about two hours ago after I woke back up. I told him I'd stay awake and keep watch while he took a kip." Hemera lifted her chin instead of lifting her arm. "You look like a dragon took a dump on you."

"You're crass, as always, but you are accurate. I've been at the Ministry most of the night. I took that sample by George and he affirmed it was originally his but when he tested it, he said it was not his formula. Someone had tampered with it further, by adding distilled ethanol into it. That additional ingredient made it stronger, more potent. So what you thought that went into your drink wasn't in the drink. George said if you had the entire dosing of the potion, it would have poisoned you and killed you inside a minute. His theory and I agree is that a bare glossing on the lips would be enough for a dose, provided the poisoner was immune or protected."

"You mean when she kissed me that first time, that was enough?"

"He reckons so. I took the sample to the Ministry Potioneer to test. But you know that will probably take weeks to make a determination." Hermione glanced over at the two men, one in the bed and the other snoring even louder from his head thrown over the back of the chair. "When I write up the background for this case to present to my Director, I will have in it that you were dosed by a contaminated potion which caused you to be compromised by Carrington. I'm going to write up that, while compromised, it had no bearing on this case."

"You know as well as I do that it's no excuse. It means it's already in your head and you're acting on it, to hell with the consequences."

Hermione stole a glance at Ron. "I know that one all too well," Hermione said to herself. "We all make mistakes, Jones. I've made enough for a lifetime. All of us have."

"Give it another twenty years or so, Granger, and get back with me about it."

Hermione snorted. "Well, I'll give you that." She glanced back at the other two. "Since it's half three, I'll head home and have a kip. I have to be in at 8 am and speak with the director about the case involving junior Auror Carrington."

"Granger?"

Hermione stopped at the door. "Yes?"

"You don't like me. You never have. You were nothing but a pain in my arse the first year I knew you and you're still a pain in the ass. Why?"

Hermione sighed. "Do you want the abridged answer or long one?"

"Both." Stern witches looked at one another.

"Short answer, since you asked, is this: You're condescending. You irritate me to no end. There's something off about you that I can't figure out."

"It's because I'm gay."

"That's not it. Who and how you engage in carnal relations is irrelevant to me. Anyway, the long answer is that you're patronizing and I'm get upset when my researched suggestions on how to improve situations for your job are dismissed without given a second thought. So, you irritate me for being stupid. I don't trust anyone who won't listen when someone provides an alternative, even if it's rubbish. The only ones who can get away with it are asleep in this room. Furthermore, I don't know you so I don't trust you. Since we don't work directly together, I won't get to know you. But my husband and best friend swear that you're on the up and up and they trust you with their lives. I trust them with mine.

"It could be that we're knocking sparks.

"Every professional relationship we've had is where you are a supervisor or mentor, never a peer. You've never treated me as anywhere near your equal, much less those two who I love more than my own life. Merlin, I've worked my ass off to earn your respect and they have too. At some point, I hope to hell that you will respect them. I can deal with you being rude towards me."

The dark witch in the institutional white bed nodded. "It's nothing I didn't expect. Go on."

"While your dedication and work ethic is incredible, it's a façade and not who you really are. But I doubt at this point I'll ever know."

"Sorry Granger, but what you see is what you get."

"Then you're one hell of an actress because all I see is a rude crass witch. When I first met you, you were yet another face in line at Hogwarts, teaching things that I honestly didn't think were important. Yes, you had authority as a Professor at Hogwarts. You were there at the personal invitation of Professor McGonagall. Yes, I knew that you were there on a Mission for the Minister, while also keeping watch. I admit that I didn't handle your class well, especially giving cheek so often. But then I'd lived through probably the worst things in my entire life less than a year prior and I wasn't going to listen to someone tell me that what I went through was bullshit."

Hemera smirked.

"Yes, I cursed. I do that from time to time. Ron has rubbed off on me but sometimes the harshness of a particular word is necessary."

"Go on. I'm listening. I figure that after the last couple of days, I should listen to my mistakes so I can learn from them. You'll also not sugar coat anything for my benefit."

Hermione leaned against the door. "I don't know where you got the idea that we'd be friends from the first day. I don't know why you presumed that I would be so open and trusting with someone I didn't know. Not even Professor McGonagall can force that. But," Hermione stopped and she saw Hemera nodding, "But when you were teaching us, you were so bloody mental. You didn't listen to anything the survivors were telling you. Because you are an Auror, you taught the class like no one else had gone through anything worse than taking our OWLs. Everyone in your classroom of seventh-year students had been through hell, one way or another. Yet you treated us like first years that didn't deserve to be out from our Mum's apron strings."

"I had a task, Granger. The Minister wanted you in the Auror Corps and we needed the help. He thought you would be an amazing asset. I was also there to see if anyone else had the aptitude for it. When you're down to 12 Aurors from 100 because of the culling and the Coup, you take what might work."

Hemera winced while shifting in her bed. "But there was something else, something personal. Ron let it slip that you attacked him one time, with magic. He explained what happened when he was first assigned to me as a trainee. He tried to say he was responsible for it, and I know that's bullshit. But it caused a huge problem. Do you want to know what that was, and what happened as a result?" Hemera's eyes flashed. "No matter how hard I worked him, insulted him, belittled him, or humiliated him, he wouldn't raise his wand against me. An Auror who won't defend himself is useless to me and will probably get a whole team killed. No matter what I did to him, he wouldn't raise his wand against me. He'd have no problems with the other Seniors in training. But me, a woman? He said he couldn't do it, 'cause of what you did to him.

"Do you know how bloody long it took me to re-train Ron after that incident? It took a month of daily training; a month of wasted time, all because you got shirty he went and kissed another girl 'cause you couldn't pull your finger out and tell the bloke you fancied him."

"I couldn't afford to lose him as my best friend!" Hermione yelled. She looked and saw Harry roll over in his bed and Ron shift but went back to snoring. "I didn't know and you never said."

"I was too busy fixing your mistakes, mistakes you never bother to apologize for. Hell, even I can say I'm sorry and I'm as much of an arsehole as anyone. But you? Ron casually mentions off-hand that he has to back down while rowing with you, and apologize any time that you think he's wrong. The few times he's stood up to you and tried to tell you when he's feeling less than stellar you bite his bloody head off. Fuck, he has zero pride when it comes to standing up for himself, because you and Potter never once tell him that he is right about something."

"That's impossible. Ron never backs down from a fight, especially with me."

"Isn't it? You weren't there seeing him constantly being knocked on his arse because he wouldn't raise his wand in self-defense. When someone you love attacks you with magic it is a hard betrayal to overcome. But somehow he did but the consequences held him back until he pulled his head out of his arse and raised his wand to me and fought back like you finally did. It took me dropping my wand and telling him that he either raise his wand to me and fight back or I would personally kick his arse out of the program. I berated him in front of everyone and belittled him to the point he slugged me before walking out."

"Good for him," Hermione muttered. "I would have loved to slug you myself some of those days."

"Things would have gone swimmingly for you had you tried, Granger. You might have gotten over your fear and made something of yourself, for the Auror corps."

"And I am, but not in the way he envisioned. No, you tried your damnedest to get me to fall into that, risking life and limb like Ron and Harry." Hermione bit her lip and stared at her husband, sitting awkwardly in the chair, still snoring, while Harry had turned on his side, skewing his glasses, snoring softly in the dim light of the room. "We went through hell and saw too much. I still have nightmares, these years later." Her voice cracked on the last words. She took a big breath. "I couldn't cope with it as a job, not after seeing people I respected murdered before my very eyes." Hermione turned back and wiped her face with her hand, smearing the last of the minuscule make-up she deigned to wear. "You've seen people murdered in front of you, I presume, right?" Hemera nodded. "Have you ever been in the situation where you couldn't do a damn thing to save them, not when you had a greater task to accomplish? I did and witnessing that traumatized me. Those nightmares, of seeing him be killed right in front of our eyes, and I had to sit there and watch him bleed out, struggling to keep the blood from seeping from between his fingers and failing. I had to watch his last minute of life and not lift a finger to save him. I can still hear that scream, of fear and agony, in my nightmare. Sometimes I'm screaming. Sometimes it's Harry or Ron.

"And then there was the torture I went through. That was… I still live with the side-effects. Did Ron ever tell you of those? It's never fun being constantly cold, yet living with the nerve pain in my hands and strange tingling in my legs and feet. There are some days that a pain potion barely takes the edge off, much less lets me function. It's like a toxic neuropathy and there is no cure for it. It's also a bloody wonder that particular bit of information hasn't been sold to the highest bidder. But then you were pretty instrumental, I presume, in keeping that bit of information quiet while at school, too, right?

Hemera nodded, barely.

"And then there was that moment when I was faced with the person responsible for my torture and why I still have side-effects of it. There was no way in Hell I would let her hurt my friends. Even if I died, I wasn't going to stand aside. There was only one outcome, and it didn't include arresting her." Hermione motioned her wand and a chair slid over to her. She collapsed into it. "And that scares me, Hemera, and why I realized that I could never take Kingsley's offer to be an Auror. My fury overrode any good sense when I saw her blasting people left and right inside the Great Hall. I was so angry, watching her hurt kids. I promised that no one else would be hurt by her. When I went up against her, I had no intention of disarming her. No, when I faced her, I fully intended to kill her, if I could."

"But you didn't," Hemera spoke softly.

Hermione seemed to shrink down in the chair. "It wasn't for a lack of trying on all of our parts. I only realized later that Luna and Ginny were there with me dueling by my side. I didn't know Harry was alive until that powerful shield charm went up in front of Mrs. Weasley. Only he could do that. I wasn't in any condition to think beyond the next moment and it didn't include protecting her."

"How can you remember all of this, so many years later?"

"Oh, that? I have iconic and eidetic memory. I've been that way since I was a child. I can remember things easily but distilling information that is useful is hard."

"But I've seen you work your ass off. If you are so powerfully minded, why are you such a workaholic?"

"You know why," she replied quietly. "It's pretty obvious."

"You are paranoid that you don't belong, and that paranoia makes you a pain in the ass to those who know you. You have to be the best at everything, even if it hurts your friends. You're also afraid to fail."

Hermione nodded once. "I've been through hell, estrangement, and loss. I've suffered from insomnia that would drive most people around the twist after the nightmares were too much. I've survived things that drove some of the best Aurors to a complete mental breakdown. And after everything, including you riding my ass, I'm still afraid of failing, whatever that might be." Hermione glanced over at the other two men in the room and saw them both snoring away. She turned back to regard the witch in the bed. "After the whole thing with Mrs. Weasley and the rows I had with Ron, I had to step back and actually trust them. They can't always explain things to my satisfaction when the time is vital. But Ron's never let me down when it comes to doing his job the right way.

"The only thing I worry about now is how this job hurts him so much." Hermione rubbed her eyes again, smudging the eyeshadow just a bit more.

"Someone has to do the grotty work, Granger. It takes someone with integrity to do it without being corrupted quickly."

"And what about you?" Her bloodshot eyes were as hard as diamonds. "I might wonder if a pretty set of eyes can make you turn your head."

"You never pull a punch, do you?"

Hermione didn't smile. "I'm told it's one of my better qualities."

"Is this a Ministry endorsed interrogation?"

"No. This is me asking you if you've been corrupted. I won't have those two," she glanced behind her and saw Harry with his eyes barely open. If Harry was awake, Ron would be too. She turned back to Auror Jones. "I won't have them working with someone who can be bribed with sex to turn the other way or refuse to arrest someone they have had a dalliance with. I'll report you myself, even at the cost of upsetting them. I will do everything in my power to keep another coup from happening. And it starts with corruption."

"How dare you!" Hemera roared.

Hermione's voice was ice. "I dare because I love them more than my own life. I've proven it to them. You haven't. Answer me now or so help me – " Hermione pulled her wand and stared down the older witch in the bed.

"Enough. I'll answer." Hemera took a deep breath. "I did as required, informing Kingsley of what happened immediately. I also wrote it up for the Director and it's in my record, for when my fitness report comes up. It's only now that my partner found out and might throw me over the side. It might be that those who work for me, like you two sodding idiots, quit respecting me, for what happened." Hermione glanced over and saw both were wide awake. "But if the Director demands my credentials and I'm forced out for it, I'll accept it. If Aurora throws me aside for my indiscretion, I'll accept that too. Merlin knows I've cocked up my life enough these past few months to everyone's ire. Satisfied?"

Hermione dropped her wand and stowed it in the concealed holster on her left arm. "For now," she answered.

Ron erupted in laughter. "Merlin, you're as bad as I am." Ron chortled. He stood and stretched, showing off a small strip of skin and some ginger hairs along his navel. "Every time I cock up, I expect everyone to kick me out of the house," Ron smiled at Hermione, "Fire me from my job and get kicked in the shin by this git." Ron looked at Harry and smiled. "And you know what? It never happens, no matter how much the fuck up. You might get yelled at but that'll probably be the end of it."

Hermione pushed her chair aside and went to her husband. He bent down for a quick chaste kiss and stretched again. "Heading home or back to the Ministry?"

"I'm going home for a shower, a kip, something to eat. That order might be different. I'll be in my office around 8. I have to talk with my Director over what happened." Hermione tucked her purse under her elbow along with the sealed parcel of the contaminated potion and went for the door. "I'll leave the office around noon so we can have a little time together."

Ron and Hemera watched Hermione depart. Hemera shifted back into the bed, wincing. "I think I'm due for another dose of pain potion."

"It's only," Ron looked at his watch, as battered as it was, "four am. I thought you weren't due to get more 'til six."

"Nah. I got dosed at 10 pm. Though Merlin knows how little I've slept the last couple of days. I could use a few hours of being conked out on pain meds."

"When was the last time you slept more than four hours?"

"I dunno, maybe a week ago?"

"When the nurse comes in, ask her if she'd get a Healer to sign off on a dose of Dreamless sleep. Merlin knows when I'm too keyed I take a half dose and I'm out for twelve hours."

"A half dose?"

"Yeah, I'm sensitive to the ingredients. They work too well for me. Hermione, though, she takes a full dose, rarely but she will, and she might sleep for seven hours. Though if she sleeps that long, she's sore and sluggish and anxious, like she's afraid she missed something. But most nights she'll sleep about five. Her insomnia won't let her sleep any more."

"I'm impressed, Weasley. She's so protective of you, when she's a world class pain in the ass. But I can also tell that you are so very good for her. You interact like you've been married for years, not 2 of them. It's rare to have a partner willing to have a row with their supervisor."

"You know her as well as I do, frankly. But after the war, she did change. I like to think that my sister and Luna had a lot to do with it, about how she finally learned to appreciate things and quit knocking sparks over everything. When she left for Hogwarts was completely different than when she came home. I dunno what happened or how it happened, but she changed and it was for the better. Merlin, I sound like a ponce for saying this, to you of all people."

"I get it. I watched it slowly that year at Hogwarts. I'm not privy to what happened since I wasn't the Gryffindor Head of House, but I do know that the three of them were thick as thieves that year, along with that nice lad Dean Thomas. Sure I learned that he was having relations with Luna Lovegood – "

"Yeah, that threw all of us for a huge loop. But then they have a particularly special bond, the way Luna talks about it. But they seemed to help one another heal, or at least cope with their experiences in the war."

"Minerva never did tell me how Luna kept getting into the Gryffindor common room."

"Luna? I doubt the Fat Lady would keep Luna out since she was part of the group protecting the younger students. Then again she's pretty smart in her own ways, even if she seems a bit daft in others. She's sweet in her own wonky ways. I'd not trade her for much of anything. I'm sure she was able to access it whenever she wanted."

Ron pointed his wand at the door and quickly dropped it. A medi-witch came in with a tray of potions. "It's time for Auror Jones to receive her medications. I also have some for Auror Potter if he's awake."

Ron turned to see Harry and he was back snoring away. "You might be able to get him at 6."

Ron and Hemera watched the medi-witch document all of the potions she was taking and what doses. She inquired about having a dose of Dreamless sleep and received an approval for it, too. Eventually, everything was completed and Hemera was settled back into her bed after stepped gingerly to the Loo with the medi-witch and Ron's help.

"I can't believe you saw my arse. I've lived for forty years and today is the first time someone, not my Healer or lover or parent has seen my arse."

"Well, it did look rather fit," he cheeked.

Hemera yawned. "The potions seem to be working quickly."

"I'm on duty 'til six. If you wake after, I'm sure someone else will be here with you."

"You know that it's rubbish that we have an Auror on duty for anyone in the Hospital now. It seems like a waste of manpower, standing guard over sleeping patients." Hemera drifted off to sleep, leaving Ron smirking.

"Maybe so but if the Director says so, then I do so. But maybe we can start having Apprentice Aurors assigned that task." Ron went back to his chair and found a magazine to read while whittling away the hours of boredom remaining.

"Your wand is rattling, dear."

Ron heard the voice in the distance but he couldn't care.

"Ron, it's the office. They need you to come in."

"Sod'em," He muttered from his pillow.

"Well, yes, that is a normal response but this came from Kingsley himself."

"What time is it?"

"Noon."

"Fuck," He rolled over and found the bedroom entirely too bright, Hermione too awake, and the day way too early for his own good. "This better be bloody well important, waking me after 3 hours of sleep." He found his black trousers tossed haphazardly on the floor along with a vest and shirt. Deprecations erupted periodically from him, all while Hermione was intentionally not paying attention.

He went to the loo and splashed some water on his face and ran his wet fingers through his hair. He looked like an Inferius left in the bog entirely too long. Sod'em since they woke him after one of the worst days of his professional life.

"I'm going in. I have no idea when I'll be back." He stepped to the fireplace and stopped when he saw Hermione come up to him wearing one of his shirts. She had the sleeves rolled up halfway to her elbows and the tail ends covered all of the exciting and important bits. "See if they can give you a few of days off. You look like you need a break." She stretched up on her toes to give him a kiss and a squeeze of his bum. "That's your incentive to get back home as soon as possible."

"Bloody tease," He growled and got a handful of Floo powder. He barked the destination and was off in a swirl of green flames. Mere moments later he was standing in the lift at the Ministry, giving everyone a shirty glance to anyone who dared look at him. Fortunately it was Saturday and the Ministry wasn't crowded. The lift quickly dropped him at the proper floor and scurried off, like the lift was running from him. He stalked into the department and saw a few others at their desks, working on other assignments.

The Director's door was open as he expected. "Better be bollocks and I can get back to sleep," he said to himself.

Knock knock knock

"Enter," a gravelly voice barked through the door.

Ron stepped in and saw that the Minister was present, along with the Director and the Chief Mugwump for the Wizengamot, Ewan Purifoy. "Gentlemen," Ron affirmed everyone in the room before standing at the door.

"I apologize for calling you in but the Minister and the Head Warlock have some questions for you."

"Do I need my Ministry supplied Solicitor present?"

The Chief Mugwump spoke up. "No, this isn't a formal inquiry."

"Sure seems like it," Ron said under his breath. "How can I help?"

"Auror Weasley," the elderly warlock motioned for Ron to move to the chair next to the director's desk. Ron shuddered slightly, recalling how the chair of judgment was in chambers. "I asked because you're too tall and I can't keep my neck bent like that too long."

Ron chuckled. "Yes, sir." Ron sat down on the edge of the seat and fought his nerves, which tended to include bouncing on his toes and dry-washing his hands.

"Now, will you tell us about the events in the flat at Diagon Alley yesterday? Junior Auror Carrington was related to some other people on the Wizengamot and some are quite upset at what has been said about her in relation to the situation. I'm here to get clarification on this sordid situation."

"What's there to be upset about? She kidnapped two people to force her way into being an Auror. She heard a story from another Auror that in the older times, a Junior would have a Senior kidnapped and then mount a rescue. But when the Junior Auror realized that blackmail wouldn't work, nor the kidnapping scheme, she got desperate to receive the promotion.

"Thing is, had she just kept her head for another fortnight, she would have gotten it. Her actions in blackmailing Pierre Cavendish wouldn't have gotten out and she'd have gotten what she wanted."

"Why do you say that, Auror Weasley? I had someone pull her personnel file and she was a model apprentice. There is no documentation of any impropriety on her part, ever."

Ron sat up a little taller. "The department had some promotions recently and there were additional slots for promotion. She was in the top 4 already and while a bit aggressive in her ambition, she was capable of doing her job without cocking things up. But for some reason which we haven't found out yet, she was blackmailing Pierre Cavendish to get the promotion and when that didn't work, because of the change to require two senior Aurors to sign off on it, she tried to blackmail Senior Jones."

"So it was Miss Carrington who did all of those dreadful things? It wasn't someone who set her up, or committed these unspeakable crimes to frame her?"

Ron looked at the Chief Mugwump like he'd unscrewed the only bulb in his head. "Yes, sir. Senior Jones is in St. Mungo's right now with significant injuries from the ordeal, including a broken shoulder from me falling on her to shield her from further injury. Junior Carrington murdered another junior Auror that she kidnapped and another perished trying to save him. To abscond with the victims, she had to stun more than one Auror and used an Unforgivable Curse to incapacitate me. I dunno sir but the number of witnesses can confirm everything that happened."

"Was he dead, Auror Weasley, the other junior Auror you mentioned?"

"I can't say for certain either way, sir. He wasn't moving but he could have been breathing or seriously injured. No one was able to determine his situation."

The elderly wizard turned to the Director and Minister Shacklebolt. "Gentlemen, this is most troubling, most troubling indeed. How will the others on the Wizengamot react to knowing that Angus McClaggen's great-niece was involved in this problem? Secondly, they aren't going to be happy that half of our upcoming Aurors were killed on a botched rescue mission."

"She's related to that idiot?" Ron exclaimed.

All three men turned to Ron and he turned aubergine. "Sorry, sir. My apologies."

"Do you have something to say, Mr. Weasley?" The elderly wizard's watery blue eyes bored into him.

Ron gulped. "No, sir. I was out of line. Please continue." Ron kept his eyes focused over Kingsley's shoulder to keep from shrinking down from all of the withering gazes.

The men turned back to Director Robards. "Gawain, let me ask this: Who came up with this bloody stupid idea? Everything I've read on the rescue mission seems like it's completely against procedures and risky, proving so with so many fatalities. Was it this idiot?"

Ron gulped but saw Robards shake his head slightly.

"No, it wasn't." The Director's gravelly voice betrayed no emotions. "Auror Jones and I discussed how to find the traitor in the department. If we had asked Weasley or Potter to be the bait, they would have done so. Neither of them has ever shirked their duty as Aurors from the first day as trainees. But Auror Jones mentioned that she thought Carrington was behind the unexplained deaths, because of the blackmail attempt in the fall. She offered to be the bait and trust Weasley and Potter to rescue her since the whole department knows that they are the best at rescues."

Ron flushed at the enormous compliment the director gave him, but kept quiet and listened.

"Auror Jones knew the risks and once Potter and Weasley were briefed they were on the plan. What we didn't anticipate was Carrington would kidnap Junior Auror Archer as well. He left a parcel in his desk containing information pertaining to Junior Carrington. He implicated her in various instances of lawbreaking, muggle and magical. There are additional instances of blackmail, going back from the first day she was an apprentice. All instances crossed the line from network to corruption.

"As for the rescue, like every single plan, it only lasts until the mission starts. Everything from there is adapt and overcome. While I did not approve of having two apprentice Aurors maintain a perimeter of the scene, it was what they had, given our limited manpower the last 3 days. The two in question are top of their class and followed procedure to the letter. Every other Auror was out on assignment or on Medical duty. The only ones immediately available were the junior Aurors present with Weasley and Potter."

"Why is it, Gawain, that anytime there is a problem with this department, I always hear the names Potter and Weasley? I never have a complaint from any of the other Aurors except those two blithering idiots."

Ron watched Director Robards face grow harder, somehow.

"Well, sir," frost floated in the room from those two little words, "I trust them to follow procedure until things go sideways and then adapt and overcome, with the least amount of complications. You'll also note that there was only one case up to now where the department Obliviators had to be called in to settle the situation and that was the case last year."

"The only one? I didn't know that."

"Yes, sir. They are very sensitive to muggle sensibilities and their explanations are easily accepted by the civilian population. Yes, they cock things up from time to time but they are excellent Aurors and a tremendous asset to the department."

"So you're saying this incompetent idiot isn't responsible for the death of three junior Aurors? I was told by a source that it was this stupid sod's idea."

"You're a idiot, Ewan. Weasley knows better than to go above my head and has since I busted him two years ago. Right, Weasley?" Ron nodded emphatically. "So no, sir. If anyone is responsible, I am. I'm the Director and any mission requires my authorization. Potter and Weasley do not go off a mission without approval. Isn't that right, Senior Auror Weasley?"

"Senior Auror? When the bloody hell did he receive a promotion? Why wasn't I notified?"

"Sir," Robards settled back into his chair. "While you are on the Wizengamot and Chief Mugwump, I have discretion on who earns promotions and who gets held back. Potter and Weasley earned their promotions, many times over. You, however, sir, were the one who demanded they be held back from it for the last 2 years, for some bloody reason I can't fathom. Every single time I requested their promotion, you rejected it. Well, this time, the Minister saw that my request was legitimate and approved it, overriding your veto."

The old wizard scowled. "Don't take that tone with me, Gawain. I am still Chief Mugwump and the Wizengamot listens to my counsel. Your voice is small by comparison."

"They do, but you never explained to my satisfaction why you outright rejected their promotions when others before them received so for doing considerably less."

The Chief Mugwump turned to stare at Ron. "I don't trust a traitor, ever. There's only one of the bunch worth his wand is that Percival. The rest? These Weasleys were at the heart of it. This idiot was part of the coup – "

Ron jumped out of the chair, now towering over the doddering old man. "You're full of shit, sir. The coup was when Voldemort, using Pius Thicknesse as his puppet, ran the ministry, decimated the wizarding community using that completely mental fuckstrumpet Umbridge to do his dirty work, and had that criminal Yaxley destroy the Auror corps by preventing anyone who wasn't a pureblood from working in the department. Those who were left committed assassinations on behalf of the Death Eaters – or turned the other way when the same ones did the murders."

The elderly wizard waved his hand away, like brushing away an annoying biteme. "You still broke the laws, repeatedly, and caused the deaths of –"

"How the bloody fuck did you ever stay in the Ministry?" Ron could barely growl out his words. "Were you one of those cowards who stayed back, kept your head down but supported what the bastards were doing, killing Muggles and Muggleborns with impunity and demanding that all Half-bloods be subservient? You're a disgrace. No wonder why shit can't be fixed, not with a – "

"Get this bastard out of here," The Chief reached for his sleeve to pull his wand. "This arrogant piece of shit – "

Ron had his wand out and pointed at the chief in a heartbeat, while the other two were slower to intervene. "Don't raise your wand at me, sir." Ron bit off every word. "I will not allow you to harm me or anyone else in this room, including yourself. I don't understand why you are so hostile to me but I might ask the Director to -"

"Weasley, enough. Head home and get some sleep." Director Robards gave a hard look and Ron nodded. "You're off duty until Thursday when we will hold the debriefing. You aren't to discuss this case until the debriefing."

"Yes, sir." Ron stowed his wand and stalked to the door, slamming it behind him.

"The titmange wankstain," he muttered to himself. "Bastard kept us back because he despises us for being Muggle supporters. Asshole needs to be kicked out."

Ron picked up his ruck and made his way to the lifts. He was going to do as the Minister insist, taking off until Thursday. He could use some sleep, a decent meal, and some time with his wife, and if he was lucky, it wouldn't be in that order. He'd have to deal with the consequences of giving cheek to the Chief Mugwump but that will be for another day.

The lift doors opened and he stepped inside to find his brother Percy inside. "Another bloody Weasley and the only damn honest Weasley of the bunch." Ron snorted. "Well aren't you a sight for exhausted eyes."

Percy looked up from his stack of parchment. "Oh, hi Ron. What brings you in on a Saturday morning?"

"Case problems. Say, do you know the Chief Mugwump Purifoy?"

"I actually do. He's a remarkable man and a brilliant mind. Why?"

"The bastard accused me being part of the coup and – "

"Oh, yes, that." Percy's face fell. "He is addled minded when it comes to those who don't follow the law, regardless of whether it's morally right or not. Law and Order is his priority, regardless of who is administering the law or who is harmed."

"So when Umbridge was running things," Ron couldn't finish his thought.

"Yes, well, he supported her then too, because it was codified by fiat upon installation of Thicknesse as the Minister. It didn't matter that it was by fiat, only that it was codified. Don't worry, though. He gets bent at anyone who wasn't part of the law and order of the time. It's not just you."

"So he considers you a good ministry drone?"

Percy flushed.

"That's what I thought. Look, see if you can put a good word in his ear since he holds you in high esteem."

"Of course I will." Percy adjusted his glasses. The door lifts opened and the shorter redhead wearing half-moon glasses stepped forward, holding the gate. "He's wrong, you know, whatever he said. You did what the rest of us couldn't – keep Harry alive so we could have our way of life. I might be a stupid blithering idiot and blind to my own ambition but I also know how much you helped save all of us." Percy let the gate go and the interior doors closed. "See you tomorrow."

Ron waited for a hairbreadth and exhaled the breath he didn't know he was holding. "Merlin! First the Director and then my brother? What's going on? I must be going mental from insomnia."

The lift doors opened again and he stepped out, heading for the Floo and a sandwich, his wife, and his bed – all of which he needed immediately.

"Of course you're important. Pull your finger out, you twat."