The Future Will Be Better Tomorrow

The Future Will Be Better Tomorrow: Chapter Fifteen

Adrian walked into the Department of Magical Transportation. There were a few openings for this department, he had sent in his CV a while ago, and was told to come down for an interview.

The head of the department was Mr. Basil, and upon seeing Adrian's surname asked if he was connected to the recently arrested Mr. Pucey. Adrian said that yes, he was his son, but he hadn't kept in contact with his family for a long while, as he had been working in Hogsmeade all the while.

Mr. Basil frowned in disdain, and asked him a few more questions. Adrian was hoping to get the position of Floo Network Watcher, which meant that he had to watch the Floo Network for any disruption, and if there was one, go to the site and resolve the issue. And he would be required to look out for any wanted criminal who was stupid enough to use the Floo network.

Adrian had managed to get Mr. Chamberlain and Professor Snape to write recommendation letters for him, and after some consideration, Mr. Basil told him to report for work next Monday.

Adrian thanked him, and left the office. Adrian Pucey, accidental Death Eater, but still a Death Eater, was going to work for the Ministry. He felt somewhat pleased at himself, for outsmarting them all.

Then he wondered if he could walk around the Ministry and spy a little, to see if he could get some information about the whereabouts of his father. After the debriefing last night, they called for a short meeting, and they were each told to spy on the Aurors and people from the Order of the Phoenix to find out where his father was.

While walking about in the Department for Magical Law Enforcement, he spotted Travers, with his features somewhat altered. Adrian walked about some more, and someone dragged him aside.

It was Percy Weasley.

"Listen, some well-known Ministry personnel are going on some fishing trip next Saturday to de-stress. Oh, and some Aurors will be there."

Adrian looked up at Percy. He was about to ask, "so what?" when it dawned on him what they could do.

"So um, what do you have in mind?" Adrian asked anyway.

"I'm assistant to the Head for my department. He asked me to go along with him, for some kind of bonding or whatever it was he said. So I was thinking, we uh, use Veritaserum on them and so on, to see if we could get any information out of them."

"We?" Adrian squeaked.

"Well, I don't know, but I can't do it alone."

"Why?" Adrian asked immediately, without thinking.

Percy gave him this slightly annoyed look, and did not answer him.

"Oh, I just got a job in the Ministry," Adrian said abruptly.

"Well, that's nice. Look, can we go somewhere else? To discuss further plans?"

Adrian nodded, and followed Percy to a café.

They decided that they would have to make the Veritaserum, and Adrian would tag along uder an Invisibility cloak.

*

And so Adrian, in the few days he had before he started work, brewed the potion at the headquarters. The kitchen in the headquarters was used for such purposes, and there was a very large store of potion ingredients thanks to Adrian's father. When they heard that he was caught, some of the Death Eaters hurriedly went to the shop to grab as much ingredients as they could before the Ministry personnel came down to inspect the shop. They had replaced the materials they stole with similar looking items or expired ones.

While he was brewing the potion, Antonin came into the headquarters, and refilled his supply of the potion that hid their Dark Marks. This was how Death Eaters could hold positions in the Ministry and not be suspected of being one.

Antonin asked him what he was doing, and Adrian told him of the plan. Antonin seemed rather amused, and wished him good luck. And then there always was plan B, 'Morsmordre'. Besides, there was no Azkaban now.

The Ministry was hopping mad, of course. The Death Eaters seemed to have attained some sort of new level of efficiency, and the Ministry had been unable to outsmart them for a number of very recent happenings. Some people were beginning to question Arthur Weasley's ability to govern, but really, Arthur could not be blamed. He did a very good job of dealing with the aftermath of all the incidents, and he was a very capable Minister. It was just that the Death Eaters were impossible to control.

The Ministry had tried to keep tabs on all the bailed-out Death Eaters, but there was nothing wrong with their behaviour. The Ministry would conduct raids in their houses, but nothing could be found. The Death Eaters were just beyond their reach.

*

On Monday, Adrian went to work, which he actually found quite enjoyable. He sat in front of this big screen that was a map of the entire Floo Network that would change every five minutes, and on a table they had several large pieces of parchment showing the Floo Network in busy places in more detail. If anything went wrong an alarm would go off, and they would zoom in to the erratic Floo grate and from the fireplace in their office, and some of them would head to the site of the problem to remedy it.

And he had lunch with Percy, who gave him a rather amusing unofficial introduction to the Ministry. Basically it involved all the sordid details, and oh, if they ever found out what their employees said about them.

It was politics, after all.

*

On Saturday they set off on their mini-mission. The Ministry bigwigs were in rather unfashionable outfits, and the colours clashed, Adrian noted, much to his amusement. And Percy was ordered about as usual, and while making tea he dropped some of the sleeping draught and Veritaserum into the tea.

When all the Ministry personnel had fallen asleep, Adrian removed the Invisibility Cloak and they woke them up one person at a time for interrogation.

"Dawlish said that he was taking care of him personally. I think he put him in his cellar."

Adrian looked up at Percy. So it was someone named Dawlish. And with that, they erased any memory of the interrogation, and they made a new pot of tea. Percy pretended to have fallen asleep too, and Adrian tugged at one of their fishing rods and left.

*

Saturday night there was a meeting, as Adrian had successfully managed to gather information on where Dawlish lived, through searching the Floo network. Dawlish lived with a wife and a daughter, who was currently studying in Hogwarts.

Their job now was to observe the daily routines of that family, and decide when it would be a good time to enter the house. Also, they had to be wary of any anti-burglary devices.

Mulciber came with more bad news. He told Adrian that his mother was missing too.

And Adrian couldn't shake off the feeling that they captured his mum too, for questioning or whatever it was.

*

It was decided that they would enter the house through the Floo network, and Adrian would have to make sure that they went in undetected.

The attack was on a Thursday, during office hours (although the Floo Network was monitored twenty-four hours a day). It would be during Adrian's shift, and Adrian had to come up with some way of preventing his colleagues from detecting them.

At any one time, there would be three people monitoring the network, and for this mission, Adrian timed the map on the large screen to show the Manchester Floo Network, which would give the Death Eaters enough time to enter Dawlish's house in Havering, London. Adrian would hog the smaller maps of London for that time being, and they would get his parents (for they suspected that his mother was there also) out of the place.

When his shift ended Adrian would go up to the headquarters to look for them.

Adrian watched them get into Dawlish's house and he became even more restless. There was no way for him to find out how his parents were until the end of his shift, and he watched the clock impatiently.

*

At around five-thirty Adrian burst into the headquarters, and froze on the spot.

He stared at all the Death Eaters seated around the room. Some tried to avoid his gaze, the others gave him grave looks in return. Mulciber was staring at the ground. Percy himself gave Adrian a guilty look.

And in the middle of the room there were two bodies, covered with some spare bed sheets, on stretchers placed on the ground.

Adrian continued to stare in shock, until Rodolphus spoke up.

"We're really sorry, we really are."

Adrian continued to stand there, paralysed with shock.

Then he suddenly whipped out his wand and turned towards the door.

Percy, being the nearest to the door because he just came in from work too, tried to restrain Adrian.

"I DON'T CARE! I'M GOING TO LOOK FOR THAT DAWLISH PERSON!"

"Adrian! Don't! Calm down!" Percy said, trying as hard as he could to prevent Adrian from going out of the door.

Adrian continued to scream hysterically that he didn't care, he had to look for Dawlish, and he didn't care hedidn'tcarehedidn'tcarehedidn'tcare, furiously trying to push Percy away.

"Calm down, Adrian," Percy repeated.

"WHY? WHY?"

Percy gripped Adrian on his shoulders and told him to calm down again, only to be met with Adrian's tear-filled eyes.

And Adrian collapsed, sobbing, on Percy's right shoulder.

*

Finally, Adrian managed to calm down enough, and they decided to bury his parents in a Muggle graveyard, to avoid getting caught by the Ministry while doing so. Adrian would occasionally sniff and wipe his eyes but he was a lot more stable now.

He stood next to Mulciber, who was just as sorrowful. Most of the Death Eaters didn't quite know how to deal with them, and decided that it would be better if they didn't try to interfere too much.

Seeing them so downcast made Marcus want to cry too. When it was all done they stood around for a while, until Adrian asked them to tell him what happened. And Marcus didn't know if he could handle the information. He looked around at the other Death Eaters, and they all looked at each other, not daring to tell him.

Adrian gave them this look, and said that he had a right to know.

And he did, but this wasn't exactly a very good time to tell him and he would never be able to deal with it; he just couldn't.

They stood around in more awkward silence, and then Rodolphus spoke up again.

"When we went there, they weren't really dead yet, and um, we got them out of there, and along the way they um, you know," he said apologetically.

And Rodolphus left out a lot of things, but Adrian didn't really need to know them. Or actually he did, but he just couldn't.

Like the fact that when they entered the cellar Mr. Pucey was bound to a chair with so many wounds all over his body, and Mrs. Pucey was lying, naked, on the ground. It wouldn't take much to guess what happened.

And really, what Marcus wished more than ever he could do now was to go look for Dawlish and kill him straight, but no, that wouldn't be enough. Of all the Death Eaters to pick on, why the most innocent?

And the world was as unfair as ever and Marcus wanted to scream and yell and do something, just do something, anything, SOMETHING, because there were so many things that happened to people who didn't deserve them.

*

Friday morning Adrian still had to go to work, but he felt so disconsolate he just wanted to stay home and cry and do nothing and cry. But he still had to; he had to because he needed the job to pay for his rent, his meals and his clothes.

And he just had to.

In the office he had to pretend nothing happened. In some ways it was comforting that his colleagues still treated him normally. At least this part of his life was still normal. Still, while staring at the diagrams on the wall Adrian couldn't help but think of all the times he had spent with his parents, too little, and all the things he should have said or done, but never did.

And he felt so guilty he wanted to burst out crying, but he couldn't, he couldn't or this part of his life would not be normal anymore. And he was glad that his colleagues didn't mention anything about the disappearance of his parents that was the headline of the day.

He had lunch with Percy, which was somewhat comforting too. They sat in silence for the most part, until Percy asked him if he had read the article and he replied that he couldn't bear to.

The Death Eaters were accused of releasing Adrian's parents, and they were accused of killing them too to prevent them from giving away any information about the Death Eaters.

And oh, of course. What would it matter to that person over there crossing the road? What would it matter to the person behind the counter?

Percy looked at him, and he looked back at Percy, and Percy confessed that he was an emotional handicap and he didn't know how to deal with situations like this.

And they looked at each other some more, until Adrian looked as if he wanted to cry again and Percy hurriedly grabbed the serviettes off neighbouring tables and handed them to Adrian, who stared at them for a while, then looked up at Percy and gave a little smile.

Percy looked somewhat confused for a moment, then Adrian burst into tears, and Percy found himself trying to wipe the tears off for Adrian, who was now half-bawling and half-grinning.

Eventually Adrian grabbed the serviettes from Percy and wiped his own tears, then laughed at himself for being so melodramatic then at Percy for being so awkward.

*

And a few weeks later, Adrian could at least smile and laugh again, much to Percy's relief. After work they would walk to the Tube station together, and well, normal conversation resumed.

Adrian thanked Percy for helping him, and there was this moment of awkward silence until Percy said, "I told you I was an emotional handicap".

And Adrian gave a little smile and no, he wasn't expecting any reaction. And they walked on for a while, and there was so much that Percy wanted to tell him, but he just didn't know what it was.

Adrian was wearing his musical hat, and he bopped along a little while walking, and Percy laughed and said, "Dance if you want to".

And Adrian claimed that he couldn't dance, but he did a series of odd steps anyway and Percy laughed all the more, and Adrian grinned at him and said, "I told you so".

And then he continued bopping along down the street.

And Percy looked at him and no-- he wasn't, no.

Or maybe he was.

No.

He couldn't.

But he was.

NO.

And Adrian looked up at him and grinned again, and yes, he was.

No, Percy couldn't believe it himself either.

*

Somehow, somehow, somehow they ended up having dinner together, and it was in this little restaurant.

And Adrian kept telling him to go on the dance floor.

It was a cosy little restaurant that had a live band playing, and the music was happy and sweet and light-hearted and warm and somewhat like Adrian.

And no, how many times do I have to tell you I can't dance?

Not that it mattered to Adrian. When he saw that Percy had finished his food he dragged Percy to the dance floor, which had a few couples dancing. Percy noted that they were well, rather elderly, and when he looked around the restaurant he noted that they must have been the youngest ones around.

Adrian was trying to get Percy to move, albeit unsuccessfully. Percy felt like a bumbling idiot, and maybe he was. And he felt so ridiculous standing around. Adrian was sort of bopping along to the music. No, Adrian couldn't dance either.

And so there they were, awkward as ever, when Percy suddenly got the idea of kissing Adrian. And Percy must have been drunk on something because he would never do something like that. And no, really, what was he thinking?

And (he must have been really drunk on something, because) Percy thought, "Who cares?" and grabbed Adrian in what must be the worst attempt to kiss a person ever.

Who crashed into him because of the force, and then because of inertia, they crashed into the couple behind them.

And they apologised profusely to the elderly couple that began to laugh at them and then they felt so stupid they laughed at themselves then they looked at each other and they felt even more embarrassed and laughed even more.

And when it was time to part, oh no, they couldn't bear to and they stood around for a while, until Adrian started to laugh again and Percy did too and they couldn't help it they really couldn't and then this girl decided that it was the best time to embarrass her mother.

"MUMMY! WHAT ARE THEY DOING?"

And no, Percy was not grinning to himself while he walked back home.

*

They were called for a brief meeting one day. This time it was because there was a Dementor who was causing trouble by being mutinous and all.

Actually, that Dementor wasn't fully a Dementor yet. It was someone who had received a Dementor's kiss, but hadn't fully turned into a Dementor. And maybe because of that it was mutinous, and was causing quite a bit of trouble.

Dementors aren't entirely natural beings; they don't reproduce in the normal way. Basically there are no 'born' Dementors, because Dementors are just extremely tortured forms of humans. When a Dementor kisses a person, that person would be unable to die, and will slowly transform to become a Dementor himself, due to the lack of happiness.

And basically there was this one that had to be dealt with, as it had been running around in broad daylight and giving away the hideouts of the Dementors to the Ministry.

No one was willing to deal with Dementor. How was one supposed to kill it anyway, if it couldn't die?

And so, evilly, they all volunteered Rodolphus and Bellatrix for the job, then ran away before either one of them could protest.