Ten Days and Ten Nights

'Linda!'

No answer.

'LINDA!'

'Yes, Harry,' she said, popping a tired and worn-out looking head around the doorway which separated the tow of their offices.

'I need to see the third annual auditory report the DREM submitted to the International Federation of Warlocks in 1973.'

'I don't think they'll release that to me,' she said, stifling a yawn.

'They will if you ask nicely.'

'Can I tell them why?' she asked. Linda, who was normally quite a chirpy and cheery person, seemed very sullen this morning. After all, it was nearly three am, and she had been working for almost twenty hours.

'Tell them...' Harry paused for a moment, considering what to do. 'Tell them we're looking over all DREM related figures.'

'What if a journalist finds out?' she asked. Harry had to hand it to her- it was a fair question. If a journalist found this out they could be in trouble.

'On second thoughts,' he said, 'call the Lexicon. Have someone there call them. It'd be less suspicious that way.'

'Sure,' she said.

'Where would I be without you?' he asked.

'The Centaur Liaison Office, probably,' she said.

Harry laughed. Linda would never underestimate her own importance.

He went back to work for a while, reflecting on what had happened that morning. This had been the first real crisis the Greymalkin administration had had to deal with since assuming office. Harry had initially gone in to overdrive, shouting, snapping at everyone in the building, until, after about twenty minutes, he calmed down and things started moving. Anna Vyrubova could be seen at infrequent intervals dashing about the place with a train of National Security Officials in tow, running from office to office, keeping people abreast of the most recent developments. Melissa Muddy Duck had sent, literally, hundreds of owls to people all over the country, informing them of the situation and inviting them to various meetings and briefings, which would be taking place in the next few days. Instead of ripping heads off, as was her usual style, she was calm, cool and very, very organised, getting straight to the point of conversations and wasting no time at all dilly dallying. The Minister, meanwhile, had gone very quiet and stayed behind her desk working or meeting officials the whole time.

Harry had heard nothing from either Ron or Hermione, or anyone else outside the ministry, at all that morning, so he could only assume everything was okay.

Harry was sitting in his office, compiling notes for his press briefing at nine o'clock, in two hours, when the door burst open.

'Ah!' he cried, jumping from his seat.

'What the hell is this?' bawled Melissa Muddy Duck, throwing a copy of the Daily Prophet onto his desk.

'I can't be sure at the moment, but I'm pretty sure the Lab reports will confirm this is, in fact, a newspaper,' said Harry.

'Cut the smart arse crap!' shouted Melissa in retort, 'and tell me what the hell they are doing?'

Harry looked at her for a moment, as if doubting her sanity, before picking up the newspaper and reading. Melissa watched as the expression on his face changed from bewilderment to surprise to anger to bemusement.

'I think it could have gone worse,' he said, finally, placing it down on his desk.

'Worse?' she bawled. 'I quote, "The Greymalkin Administration should have seen this terrible thing coming, but they had, as usual, buried their heads in the sand..." End quote.'

'And I quote,' said Harry, '"The Greymalkin administration is hopeless, with the honourable exception of Harry Potter, who seems to be single handedly organizing everything in the Cloister." I think I came out of it pretty well.'

'Yes, you and only you!' fumed Melissa. 'The Minister is called a "pompous gas bag", which is pretty rich considering who her predecessor was, Anna is defamed as "a still clucking headless chicken", and as for myself, I, I am called "a whingeing hatchet face with a chip on my bra strap!" This is outrageous!'

'Oh, she wasn't entirely critical,' said Harry, smirking in a very self satisfied way. 'She accuses me of "running the whole show" and, oh, what's this, "Harry Potter is a demigod... He manipulates the system to the advantage of everyone in the Cloister." And what's this at the end, Melissa?'

Melissa Muddy Duck looked very much as if she were going to hex Harry Potter into oblivion.

'Ah, yes, "If only there were more people as talented and good looking as Harry Potter, the world would be a much better, more efficient place." What a nice thing to say!'

Melissa looked at him for a moment.

'You know I'm this close to beating you up,' she said, with ice in her voice.

'I love you too,' said Harry, smiling moronically.

'HARRY!' shouted a voice through the door. Now it was Melissa's turn to smile.

'I think the Minister just saw the newspapers,' she said, looking like a Cheshire cat.

Harry gulped, and rose from the seat.

'HARRY!'

'Yes, Minister?'

'What in the name of God is this?'

She threw a copy of the Daily Prophet across the room at him, narrowly missing his ear.

'I think it's a newspaper, Minister,' said Harry, re using the same joke.

'I can see that for myself,' said Matilda. 'What I mean is, what the bloody hell is Rita Skeeter doing liking your ass and kicking all of ours at the same time?'

Harry smiled a little.

'I thought it was an excellent piece of journalism, minister. It reflected the truth of what goes on in the Cloister with no bias at all.'

'You would say it was very well rounded, would you?' Matilda was looking daggers at him.

'Yes I would. Especially the part where she compares me to Hercules. And, if I may quote, "Harry Potter is a truly wonderful human being in every sense of the word.". I also liked that bit very much.'

Every single person in the room looked as if they wanted to kill Harry right there.

'I've been saying it for months,' continued Harry. 'You don't appreciate me enough.'

'Get out,' said Matilda, her eyes narrowed. 'Get out before I do something I might regret.'

'I'll go somewhere where my talents are properly appreciated, shall I?' said Harry. 'I'll go and leave you lesser mortals to your menial work. Ciao!'

Chuckling, he left the room, and entered his office.

'Wow,' said Linda, as he sat down, not looking up from her copy of the Daily Prophet. 'Someone likes you.'

'Who can blame her,' said Harry.

'I thought she hated you, though. Isn't that why the Minister picked her to interview you, so it wouldn't look like Ron was always helping his friend out?'

'Yeah,' said Harry. 'Rita Skeeter had always slagged me off. Obviously she wants me to give her some information.'

'Do you think she's trying to bribe you?' asked Linda.

'Looks that way, doesn't it.'

'Will you give her information?' asked Linda.

'I don't know,' said Harry. 'If I do, then it looks like all you have to do is print something nice to me and bingo! I'll do whatever you want. But if I don't she'll come after us like never before.'

'What if you lie to her?' suggested Linda. 'You know she never checks her stories out.'

'Then she'll come after me with a vengeance,' said Harry. 'I might as well run for the hills if I did that.'

'Then what?' said Linda, frustrated. 'She's cornered you.'

'Not exactly,' said Harry. 'I could only tell her half a story.'

***

'HARRY!'

'Susan,' said Harry. He was standing at the podium in the press room, at the ten o'clock briefing. It was more packed than usual.

'Have there been any developments internally within the DREM that the Minister is worrying about?'

'Yes, the Minister is worried with all developments within the DREM and we're having them all checked out by the International Confederation. Next.'

'HARRY!'

'Jack.'

'Is the Minister worried about her own connections with the DREM?'

The room was silent as they waited for Harry's answer. He ran a hand through his black hair, and looked at the ceiling.

'I'm sorry?' He was playing for time.

'Does the Minister have any concerns regarding her own connections with the DREM?'

'I don't think the Minister has any difficulty distancing herself from Dark Magic, Jack, and I think we all know that. Next.'

'Sorry,' said Jack, butting back in. 'But does the Minister realise that under the Association Law that she passed she could be sent to Azkaban for fraternizing with Dark Wizards.

'You'll have to speak with the Minister's lawyer about that,' said Harry. 'I don't know the ins and outs of that law.'

'But you wrote it.'

'Co-wrote,' corrected Harry. He was seriously sweating here- this was difficult. He massaged the bridge of his nose.

'Is the Minister fit to make serious decisions about National Security when she could be facing a prison sentence?'

'I'm sorry,' said Harry, looking up. He didn't have a clue what to say.

'Is the Minister fit to make serious decisions about National Security when she could be facing a prison sentence?' repeated Jack.

'I think the Minister would rather focus on the matter in hand- the two items are not related.'

The press room was silent. Harry realised what he had just said.

'What I meant to say was...'

'The Minister's association with and the takeover of Dark wizards in Eastern Europe are not related?' asked Jack. 'I don't think that's the case.'

'I'm sorry,' said Harry. 'That's all for now. There'll be another briefing at six this evening. Thank you.'

'Shit,' said Harry, as soon as the door to the press room closed. 'Shit!'

'Unrelated?' said Melissa, barging into the room. 'The Minister had been fraternizing with Dark Wizards and that's unrelated to the fact that they're staging a coup in Yugoslavia!'

'I know!' snapped Harry. 'Maybe I'm not that damn wonderful after all. Shit!' A jug of water on the table beside him exploded.

'It's all right,' said Linda. 'You were tired. You've been up all night. You made a mistake- everyone does.'

'No,' said Harry. 'I shouldn't make mistakes.'

***

Everyone in the Burdock Muldoon Room rose to their feet as the Minister entered the room.

'What's happening?' asked Matilda, as she sat down. This is what she said every time she came into the Burdock Muldoon Room. Harry sat down beside her, and looked around the table.

'Minister, we're going to need to take military action,' said Anna.

***

'Excuse me, but Harry Potter needs to speak to you for a few minutes,' said Linda to a woman in midnight blue and silver robes who was standing, talking to a photographer in the press room.'

'Ah yes, I though he might,' said Rita Skeeter, and she followed Linda into the Cloister.

'Good afternoon, Rita,' said Harry. 'How are you?'

'Splendid, Harry, splendid,' said the muscular woman, as she sat down. Her handbag, her nails, and her shoes were all highly reflective silver, and a vast, glittering array of diamantes and blue stones glittered from around her neck. 'I hope you found the article satisfactory.

'Oh, lovely, Rita, lovely,' said Harry.

'Nobody's really worried by your little gaffe in the press room earlier, though, Harry, so I wouldn't beat myself up by it if I were you.'

'Oh, thank you, Rita, but to tell you the truth I've been too busy all day to think about it much.'

'Really,' she asked. 'What with? Do tell!'

'Oh it would take to long,' said Harry, waving it aside airily with a sweep of his hand, 'but there's one thing I can tell you, sort of as a thank you for the lovely article.'

'What?' she asked greedily.

'You can identify me as a source from within the Cloister walls,' said Harry. 'The Minister has ordered the movement of the Auror Forces One and Three to the Macedonian Training Base.'

'Why?'

'I don't know, she won't tell any of us. All we can do is speculate.'

'Thanks,' she said, standing up. 'Is there anything else?'

'Just don't tell anyone else I told you this, and see you at the briefing.'

'Sure thing. Bye.'

Harry waited until he heard her leave until he popped his head around the doorway to the Cloister.

'It's done.'

'Great,' said Matilda. 'Now speak to Ron.'

'I'm about to leave.' Replied Harry as he swept his cloak around him.

'Good luck,' she called from behind her desk.

'I'll need it.'

***

'Can I have a red wine, please,' said Ron to the muggle waitress. He, Harry and Hermione had arranged to meet here, in this muggle restaurant, for lunch, but so far he was the only one who had arrived.

'Hi handsome,' said a voice behind him, and he felt a hand on his shoulder.

'I'm hoping that's not you, Harry,' he said, smiling. He looked behind him and saw Hermione standing, in a long black muslin dress, with a plain gold necklace around her neck.

'Hi,' she said.

'Hi, how are you?'

'With child,' she said, looking excited. 'I can't wait.'

'You'll love having children. You'll make an excellent mother.'

'Thanks, Ron,' she crinkled her eyes.

'How's Chris?' asked Ron.

'Oh, well, you know, he's loving it as well. We're moving house.'

'Oh really. Where to?'

'Still in the village, but we're buying a larger house further outside, with a massive garden.'

'Hi,' said a voice behind them, and Harry sat down.

'Hi, Harry,' said Hermione.

'Hi, Hermione,' replied Harry. 'Hello Ron.'

'I saw the article,' said Ron, raising his eyebrows.

'I know! What do you make of that?' said Harry, taking off his cloak.

'Rita Skeeter's up to no good again, I dare say,' said Hermione sniffily.

'Oh, Rita's smarter than you'd think. "If only there were more people as talented and good looking as Harry Potter, the world would be a much better, more efficient place."'

'My sentiments precisely,' said Ron.

'Anyway, that's why I'm here. I'll have to dash away soon- you won't believe what the place has been like. You chose the right time to leave, Hermione.'

'Why, is it this DREM stuff?' asked Ron.

'Yes. The Minister has moved Auror Forces One, Three and Auror Special Command Units 8 and 11 out to the Training base in Macedonia. They'll be training for the next three weeks before moving across the borders and into hostile territory.'

'How many people are involved?'

'200 Aurors, 50 Special Forces Aurors, 150 Medics and Auxiliaries and 25 Staff. They'll be there for a week when they'll be joined, hopefully, by international support, but there's nothing definite. There are meetings at the moment between embassies and the Department of International Magical Co operation. Speak to Percy if you want more information on that, and there should be a press conference at their offices tomorrow morning and another later in the week.'

'Who should I say gave me this information?' said Ron.

'You can identify me as a Senior Staff Member within the Cloister with access to the Minister.'

'I did pick the right week to leave,' said Hermione.

'You sure did,' agreed Harry. 'But I don't want to talk about work just now. How's the bookshop coming on?'

'Oh, great,' said Hermione. 'We're hoping to open in two months. Ginny's a really good financial woman...

***

'HARRY!'

'Rita.'

'Will the Auror Forces who are going to Eastern Europe trained adequately at such short notice.'

'It'll be at least three weeks before the Auror Forces we've stationed in Macedonia are ready for action. When that time comes we'll let you know. Next.'

***

'The time is twenty two hundred hours, Minister. Shall I give the order to move forward?' Anna was sitting at the head of the table in the Burdock Muldoon Room. Everyone was waiting in silence- the Minister was about to give the command for two hundred and seventy five witches and wizards to move forward across Macedonian borders and start attacking DREM occupied Ministry Buildings.

'Yes,' said Matilda, looking slightly pale.

'We'll keep you informed of events as we hear about them, Minister,' said Anna.

'Thank you,' said Matilda, and rose from her seat.

Harry followed her out the room, as did several other members of the Executive Staff.

'I'm going up to the Private Quarters for a bit of sleep,' said Matilda. 'I don't know about you all, but I'm shattered. I'll have someone come and get you when we hear something, if you want to go for a lit of a snooze.'

***

'Harry,' said a voice. 'Harry.'

'Wha...'

'Come on.'

'What is it?' Harry opened his eyes. He had fallen asleep on the couch in his office. The sun was just breaking on the horizon.

'The Minister's in the Burdock Muldoon Room now, Harry,' said Linda. 'The Aurors were successful. We've regained Bosnia.'

'Excellent,' said Harry, smiling for the first time in what felt like weeks.

***

'HARRY!'

'Jack.'

'How successful were the attacks on DREM held buildings in Bosnia.'

'Well, there were no fatalities, no injuries, and the entire country is now back in the hands of their elected Minister. The DREM members are in a prison in Macedonia. Judge for yourself.'

'HARRY!'

'Ron.'

'So when you told us it would take three weeks, that would have been a complete lie?'

'Depends how you look at it, Ron. That's all for now, folks, see you this evening.'

Harry left the press room after the 10am briefing and walked into the anteroom.

'Linda, would you have Ron Weasley come see me in my office?' he said.

'Harry?'

'Ron.'

'You wanted to see me?'

'What was that question about?' asked Harry. 'Of course it was a lie.'

'Are you sure it's ethical to be telling bare faced lies to the public?'

'Yes I do, Ron! Yes I do! Because if I misdirected the DREM for even half a beat, then it was worth it- they will have been watching me. And if I didn't, and they weren't fooled, then it was worth a try.'

'Well, you're the press secretary. On your head be it.'

'Fine, Ron. That's fine. But don't ever accuse me or any other member of this administration of being a liar again, is that clear.'

'But you lied!'

'That's not the issue.'

'It's exactly the issue!' retorted Ron.

'I don't have time for this. I'll see you at the briefing at six o'clock. Goodbye.'

'Goodbye Harry.'

End of Chapter

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