Unsuspecting

Ginny arrived promptly at FPW headquarters, still fuming at Ron for being too protective of her. She headed straight towards where she thought the meeting would be held, and found Harry and Trojan sitting in the latter's office discussing Harry's findings from his watch of The Rogues. As she rounded the corner, she caught her name mentioned as a part of their conversation. She stopped for a moment to listen to what they had to say.

"It's not safe for her," she heard him say, concern leaking from his voice.

Trojan's voice cut in. "It may not be, Harry, but this is an assignment that needs to be done. The fate of our way of life may be resting in her hands."

"No, I can't let her do this, as a friend or as a supervisor."

At that moment, Ginny chose to make her entrance. She walked briskly into the office and glared menacingly at Harry.

'What did I do?' he defensively thought at her.

'I don't need you deciding what I can and can't do, what's safe and what's not! I'm perfectly capable of deciding that on my own thank you so very much! Gods, you're so much like my brother!' she thought back angrily.

'Of course I get to decide what's safe! And what does Ron have to do with this?'

'Harry, just stop! Quit being another big brother! I have enough!'

Trojan watched the telepathic exchange the two only shared at work with an amused expression that quickly turned into a visage of boredom. He loudly cleared his throat, interrupting their argument and getting their attention.

"Welcome back to reality," he smiled knowingly at them. "Now that I've got you both here, we can get down to business. Ginny, let me fill you in on Harry's findings."

He paused for a moment, allowing Ginny to find the time to lower herself into a chair. She pushed it as far away from Harry's as possible and glared at him. He glared back, upset that she was taking her anger out on him.

Trojan cleared his throat one more time, snapping them out of their reveries. "It appears that The Rogues have become more and more active since he started tracking their assemblage. They are more organized and have a highly praised yet highly feared leader who is said to be the next Voldemort. We don't know who he is, but I, personally, would like to find out," Trojan finished in a very business-like manner.

Harry cut in quickly, "If this person is anywhere near as powerful as they say he is, then it's much too dangerous for you and I refuse to let you put yourself in that position," he told Ginny in a defensive tone.

Her eyes flashed. She was still upset with her brother for being too overprotective; she didn't need this from Harry as well. "Who are you to tell me what positions I am allowed to put myself in?"

Harry looked shocked and fumbled for the right words. He stuttered while almost shouting, "I am your supervisor! It's part of my job to make sure you live through your assignments! Excuse me for caring!"

Trojan interrupted them once again. It was getting old quickly. He looked at Ginny and said, "In this case, I'm going to overrule Potter. As long as you are alright with going in, you will go in."

Ginny smirked at Harry. "When do I start?" she asked arrogantly.

"Find someone named Alfonso. He seemed brainless enough to bring you in. Go tonight and report back three days from now."

There was a small pop and he was gone.

"Be careful," Harry warned, sending her a sorrow-filled look.

"You know I will," she said reassuringly. They apparated out of the office at the same time.

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Back at the Orchards, Hermione stood over the stove in the kitchen, preparing one of Harry's favourite meals for his late return. She knew he would be exhausted once he got there so she wanted to make something special that would help him relax. Cooking was something she had found to be a relaxing experience. Trying out new recipes and improving them was more a hobby to her than the tedious job most women found it to be. This was where her job came in handy. Every new Muggle aristocrat would constantly place new and extravagant meals in front of her, and before leaving she'd sneak into the kitchen to beg for the recipe, a necessary tool to feed her continual thirst for knowledge.

She often felt that though she had left the constant life of learning and teaching and reading at Hogwarts, it shouldn't stop her from continuing to learn more. It was just as much a part of her as her love for Harry was and it was something that had been there since her life had begun.

Hermione looked back down at her recipe book out of habit. However, she cooked this meal so often, it seemed second nature, but there was always room for improvement.

Finishing all she could on the fettuccine alfredo for the moment, she left it to work on the sun-dried tomatoes and the broccoli. She cut and prepared the vegetables meticulously and stood aside to admire her work. It was then that she felt two strong arms capture her from behind, and was pulled into a strong, familiar chest.

Hermione let out a small, surprised gasp initially, but then succumbed to Harry's arms and scent. She turned in his arms and wrapped her own around his body.

"Welcome home," she said lovingly. She couldn't seem to wipe the smile off of her face whenever he was around. Unfortunately, right now it looked like Harry could do anything but smile right now.

Harry responded to her greeting only by burying his head into her shoulder. She looked mildly concerned but knew that he wasn't quite ready to talk about it so continued with, "I made fettuccine alfredo for you. It'll be done ready in about five minutes. How did the meeting go?"

Harry sighed. He turned, looked up into her eyes, and began to report on his failed defence at the meeting. Hermione appeared sympathetic for his sake but continued working on dinner. She knew he just needed to get it out of his system.

"You know, I tried to keep her out of trouble but she insisted against it. I had to let her go. Now she's headed straight into the hands of the Rogues and there's not a bloody thing I can do about it!" Harry rushed out in one frustrated breath.

Hermione stopped dead in her tracks, turned around, and stared at him worriedly. "What did you do?" she threateningly asked him.

"I didn't do anything. I tried to keep her here but she was just too persistent and Trojan let her go and I can't argue with him. Gods, what am I going to do?" he complained, throwing himself into a chair and hanging his head into his hands.

Hermione put a compassionate hand on his shoulder as only one's true love can do. "It's out of your hands now. You did all you could. She'll be fine, she's a strong woman."

"Don't I know it," he muttered.

They fell into a not-quite-uncomfortable silence and Harry had one of those moments where you realize how much you really need that refreshing someone at the end of a hard day. They both sighed and Hermione, after a brief kiss on his cheek, busied herself with final dinner preparations. Harry just sat there, contemplating what he could've done better to keep Ginny safe and how he was going to tell Ron what he'd done. Finally, he slowly pulled himself out of the chair and looked at Hermione. She nodded at him.

"Dinner's almost done, but go now. Get it off your chest. He should be in the backyard right now."

Harry grimly smiled at her, loving how she could so easily read his thoughts, then turned to go throw himself recklessly into the pit of his best friend's wrath.

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He was watching the scene before him with a feigned interest. In truth, he was getting entirely too bored with this.

'I'm not meant to be a leader,' he thought to himself.

The Rogues had found a new "playmate", a drop dead gorgeous brunette Muggle woman whom they had taken to torturing. He knew they would bring her to him eventually and he would be able to do whatever he wanted to her, with her. Tonight, however, he just wanted to be alone with his thoughts, thoughts that were now his own to think.

He was finally in his right mind, after countless days of their jurisdiction, but he couldn't let those "in control" of him know. They wanted his power, his skill, his youth for their own.

'They won't get it back,' he thought. 'I want the power. I have the power and now there is not a goddamn thing they can do about it. All these people worship me, believing that I am the next Lord Voldemort, that I will be giving them the same protection with the same amount of strength in return for their service. But I am not. I am who I am and I am far more powerful than Voldemort would have ever thought possible. I can choose to protect or not to protect, to torture or not to torture, to be powerful or powerless. I choose powerful. And it is my decision on how I want to use that power, not theirs.'

With one final glance at the tortured Muggle, he turned swiftly on his heel, cloak billowing in the wind, and retreated to his bedroom.

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Just as Hermione had said, Ron was in the backyard sitting in the gazebo. He was hunched over a small journal, furiously scribbling his thoughts onto the pages, and almost not bothering to re-ink his quill. Harry sighed before trudging towards him as slowly as possible, not wanting to disturb Ron's personal time with the news of his sister. In his head, he went over what he could say that would withdraw the least amount of anger from Ron.

"Harry! You're home so early!" Ron called, finally noticing he was there. "How'd your meeting go?"

"It was okay. Walk with me, we have to talk."

Ron looked curious and consented to the walk.

As they walked around the pool, Harry began recounting the events of the meeting for him after taking a deep breath.

"She was already furious when she walked in, I think it was at you. She got mad at me for a comment I had made and telepathically bit my head off. Trojan assigned her on a job.... a job infiltrating the Rogues."

Harry braced himself for the inevitable. Ron stopped dead in his tracks from the shock of hearing that word: Rogues. That word alone angered him.

He attempted to stop the anger coursing through his body, but at Harry's prompting question "Ron?" he drew back his fist and let it cleanly sail into Harry's worried face, sending him flying into the icy pool, and landing with a splash that echoed Ron's anguish. He surfaced with a steadily flowing trail of blood leading from his broken nose.

"You god damn motherfucking son of a bitch!" Ron raved. "How the hell could you let her do something so fucking stupid? You're her piece of shit supervisor for gods' sakes! You could've said no and stopped her!"

Harry knew better than to retort back angrily at his best friend. However, when Ron shouted, "Answer me, you motherfucking dick!" he lost it.

"What, do you think I just showed her the bloody door? Packed her fucking bag and let the screen hit her on the way out? How the hell could you think that of me?! If anything, I was the one insistent on her staying here so go punch Trojan in the fucking nose, damnit, and get the hell out of my face!"

He climbed the steps out of the pool as quickly as his sopping wet clothes would let him. Both he and Ron stormed towards the house. Hermione met the two of them at the back door, holding a bar of soap.

"Who gets to use it first?" she asked with a fake cheeriness used to mask the anger she felt because of their childish behaviour.

Harry stared at her incredulously. She stared back with a look that said, "I dare you."

"Ugh! You're fucking ridiculous! You're NOT my god damn mother!"

He stormed of towards the stairs. Hermione spun around to follow the raven-haired man who was pulling off his shirt as he ascended the stairs, leaving Ron alone in the kitchen, and growled at him.

"Fuck you, Harry Potter!"

Harry turned around on the middle stair and threw his shirt in her general direction.

"Not tonight!" he smirked sarcastically.

Near tears, Hermione let out an aggravated sigh and stormed across the room, snatching her keys up from the table next to the couch as she went. She proceeded to the front door, flinging it open, not bothering to shut it as she stormed out of sight.

As Ron stood there fuming by himself he heard the revving of and engine and the squeal of tires as she peeled out of the driveway. He stormed out onto the back porch, picking up his journal on the way, and flung himself onto the top step. He let out an angry and frustrated yell as he let the small book sail towards a distant tree. He continued to stare at the tree, almost daring it to fall over.

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Seamus watched the scene from the balcony overlooking the kitchen, at the top of the stairwell. He was torn between letting Ron deal with his own vices or going down to comfort him. So far, option number 1 was winning. He didn't know quite what the argument between the three of them had been about but he knew two things for sure: it was about Ginny and if Hermione came home tonight, Harry would be on the couch in a heartbeat.

His housemates did this kind of thing occasionally and he left it alone, seeing as his friendship with them was not as closely bonded as it was with just the trio. He knew that Ron loved him and Gods did he love Ron, but he knew that if there were to be a choice, Harry and Hermione would always come first in his heart. That did trouble him occasionally but most of the time, it was in his best interest to let it go.

He sighed, and gave one final glance at the sliding glass doors that framed his lover so perfectly. He walked heavily to his room and shut the door, waiting for Ron to come up and unload his troubles on him, as was custom in their relationship.

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Ginny arrived in her office after the meeting regretting the decision she made so hastily. The truth was, she didn't know that she was capable of handling this assignment on her own. What she did know is that there was no backing out now. Trojan had put a lot of pressure on her at the meeting.

She finished putting the necessary tools into her handbag and got ready to walk out the door. Alfonso, she had learned, was a frequent visitor to The Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade and spent most of his time drunk. For that reason alone, he would be easy to fool and she would get where she needed to be.

Before walking out the door, she used a glamour to change her hair to a deep brunette and hide her freckles, the two most obvious Weasley features.

For all intents and purposes, she would be under the name Morgan Conway. She had all forms of identification needed so that nobody would doubt she wasn't who she said she was.

With that thought finished, she apparated into Hogsmeade, almost landing on top of another person. She stood in front of the entrance to the Three Broomsticks and prepared herself. It was sink or swim time and she hoped to the Goddess above that she would be able to swim. She inhaled deeply and exhaled, letting a new, more confident air come over her face. She now seemed like a flirty, silly little girl to any onlooker. It was part of her plot to get to Alfonso, since she'd heard he was a womanizer.

She pushed the door open, and entered the room, giving off a certain and fun-loving vibe to anyone who might take notice of her. She walked over to the bar and ordered up a drink, then turned to scan the room. It didn't take her long to locate the fool she was searching for.

In the middle of the room, there was a large group of shady wizards. One of them was surrounded by everyone else. The crowd seemed to be egging him on to finish the gallon bucket of Firewhiskey sitting in front of him. There were three similar containers sitting around him. This idiot was obviously Alfonso, not only because he was drunk but because he matched the description and the pictures of him in her file.

'It's a miracle he hasn't died of alcohol poisoning,' Ginny thought to herself.