Chapter 11
Harry, Ron and Hermione were not greeted with the Ministry’s normal hustle and bustle as they stepped out of the floos, but the sound of about a hundred voices shouting their names and the clicking of cameras.
“They were waiting for us. Someone must have told them you were coming,” Ron complained as he stepped in front of Harry in a show of support.
Harry grit his teeth but said nothing as Hermione and Ron attempted to clear a path for him.
“Harry Potter. Are you going to become an Auror?” a reporter asked. “Will you marry me, Harry?” a middle-aged witch shouted. “What do you think of The Weird Sisters’ new album?” “Are you going to complete your NEWTs?” “Are you going to run for Minister?” “Do you think the death-eaters should be given the dementor’s kiss?”
The last question made Harry pause even as more things were shouted at him, but he could feel Hermione tighten her grip on his arm. Glancing up, he saw her shake minutely.
Turning to the group of people, which had somehow doubled since the last time he’d looked up, he cleared his throat. “I will not be answering any questions today. I’m at the Ministry to help the Minister and members of staff with their efforts to rebuild and reform wizarding society. I will be able to address your concerns at a later date,” Harry said, trying to sound confident.
Not waiting for them to respond, he spun around and walked towards the lifts with Hermione and Ron close on his heels, the doors closing before any of them could think to follow him. “Bloody hell,” Harry complained. “I’m apparating home.”
“Can’t apparate inside the Ministry, Harry,” Hermione reminded him gently, but she was looking a bit green too. “Maybe Kingsley will let us use his floo again.”
Ron clapped Harry on the back. “It went better than it could have,” he tried.
The lift chimed as they reached the second level, and an automated female voice declared, “Department of Magical Law Enforcement.”
In front of the doors to the Auror Department, a tall man with a deep scar on his left cheek was waiting for them. “Mr. Potter,” the man said gruffly, shaking his hand in greeting. “Gawain Robards.”
Harry nodded at him. “It’s nice to meet you. This is Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.”
Robards shook their hands, too, and lifted the corner of his mouth slightly. “Reckon it’d be hard to not know your three’s names,” he commented wryly. “Sorry about downstairs. They’ve been here all morning. Probably Ambarella’s doing. I’ll have a word with her.”
Lavina Ambarella was Kingsley’s junior undersecretary. Harry had only had the misfortune to interact with her twice, but that was more than enough for Harry to learn to stay well out of her way, lest he be dragged into another conversation about how he should take her out on a date so that she could be put ‘more in the public eye.’
“Come with me,” Robards said, leading them inside the Auror Headquarters, and into his large office at the end of a large room of cubicles. Several aurors glanced up at them and nodded, but quickly went back to great volumes of paperwork. “Please, have a seat,” Robards gestured to the three seats in front of the desk.
They did quietly. Harry was unsure how he wanted to address the topic of his employment, so he waited for the Head Auror to start. Robards eyed him for a moment with scrutiny. All of a sudden, Harry could feel a breach on his mental walls. Instead of looking away, he simply forced his walls up, and thought calmly ‘Please get out of my head.’
Robards raised an eyebrow. “Very good,” he said nonchalantly, although he looked impressed. Under the glass desk, Harry could see that he had his wand in his right hand. Harry silently allowed his wand to slide from its strap on his forearm into his palm. Robards flicked his wand, casting a wordless stinging hex, but Harry wordlessly cast a protection spell before the auror could finish the spell.
Ron and Hermione were both gripping their wands now, too. Robards sighed and placed his wand back in his pocket. “You can apparate?” he asked.
Harry nodded. He decided not to mention that he’d never technically passed the test.
Robards eyed him for a few more moments, and Harry could feel him still probing around in his head. “Stand up,” Robards said eventually, pulling back from his assault on Harry’s mind.
Harry did, taking off his cloak. He was fairly sure Robards was about to test him and didn’t need Malfoy’s stuffy clothes getting in the way.
“Impedimenta,” Robards cast. Harry batted it away with the elder wand and cast a strong knockback jinx instead, raising an eyebrow.
Robards nodded once at Harry’s challenge and began casting silently. They duelled silently for a while, both breaking out into a light sweat by the time Robards managed to expel Harry’s wand. The man smirked. Harry frowned but quickly cast a wandless and wordless revulsion jinx. Robards dropped his wand. He laughed in surprise, but summoned it back, and continued to send hexes and jinxes at Harry. Harry grinned fully now, and decided not to summon back his own wand, instead deciding to practice his wandless magic. He’d practised a lot right after the Battle whenever Teddy was asleep and didn’t need him. It took his mind off things. To be honest, Harry almost felt more comfortable casting wandlessly than with the Elder Wand.
“Alright, enough,” Robards called from the ceiling after Harry had cast a particularly powerful levicorpus. Harry let him down carefully and shook the auror’s hand. “Well done, Potter. That was some seriously impressive magic,” Robards said, returning to his seat.
Harry had a feeling Robards didn’t often give out compliments, so he nodded politely, summoning his wand back to its holster.
Robards poured them all a glass of water, and Harry took one gratefully. “How long can you hold out on Unforgivables?” the auror asked, waving at a QuickQuotes quill as it began to take notes.
Harry eyed it warily, reminded of Rita Skeeter. “I don’t know. I can resist the Imperius curse,” he said truthfully.
“For how long?” Robards asked.
Harry shrugged. “I don’t know. Barty Crouch Jr. tried it on me in fourth year. It took a while, but I shook it off eventually.”
Robards blinked. “Very good. How about Cruciatus?”
“It’s never been cast on me,” Harry said.
Robards sighed. “Okay. And we all know your track record with the Killing curse.”
Harry frowned, worried that Robards thought him some unkillable being. “I can die, you know,” he said. “I have died,” he added after a moment.
Robards raised an eyebrow. “But you own all three Hallows, correct?” At Harry’s nod, he continued. “I admit I don’t know much about it, but doesn’t that make you Master of Death?”
“Harry’s already died.” Hermione frowned. “I’m not sure it works more than once.”
Harry shuddered, remembering the train station and Voldemort’s creepy toddler body. “Yeah, not sure I want to risk it.”
Robards let out a chuckle. “Fair enough.” He glanced down at his notes, before nodding. “Alright, Potter, you can join the task force. I’m not a huge fan of your plan, but I think it’ll be our best chance at drawing them out. Come for training tomorrow and I’ll introduce you to the team,” Robards said, rising to shake Harry’s hand.
Harry grinned. “Thank you, sir. May we use your floo to depart? I don’t want to go downstairs again.” He asked politely.
Robards nodded, but Hermione coughed. “No, Harry, you need to go back down. If they don’t see you leave, they’ll stay all day and interfere with the people who work here,” she said.
“Fine,” Harry groaned. He shrugged on his cloak. “See you tomorrow,” he said to Robards as the three made for the door.
When they left the office, Hermione rounded on him. “I thought you were just joining the training team.”
Harry sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Hermione, I can’t sleep knowing their out there. I can’t let Teddy grow up in a world where there are bloody Death Eaters roaming around!”
“Well you can’t let Teddy grow up in a world where you’re not there to raise him!” Hermione ground out.
Harry sighed. “You saw me in there – Robards thinks I’m ready. He wouldn’t let me into the field if I wasn’t.”
“We will talk about this later,” Hermione growled, deciding against having a full-scale verbal spar outside the DMLE Headquarters.
Harry glanced at Ron, who was clearly on Harry’s side, but trying to look like a supportive boyfriend. He smiled softly at Hermione. “I know you don’t want me to get hurt, but I’m their target anyway. If I don’t do this, they’ll end up hurting me anyway,” he reasoned.
“I suppose you’re right,” Hermione sighed after a minute of deliberating. She jutted out her chin stubbornly. “I still don’t like it.”
Harry pulled her in for a hug, and, after a moment’s hesitation, pulled in Ron too. “Let’s get out of here, yeah?” he asked.
“You bet. I’m starved,” Ron joked.
They made the slow descent in the lift towards the atrium in silence. Bracing himself, Harry stepped through the doors with more confidence than he’d had earlier. The crowd seemed to sense it, too, as they all parted for him without him having to say anything. Nodding his thanks, he strode with confidence to the grate. Realising a lot of people were listening, he didn’t want them to know where he was going. He grabbed Hermione and Ron’s elbows, prayed to Merlin that his plan would work, and stepped into the flames, screaming ‘The Burrow’ in his mind.