Stuck With You / drarry

Mr Mulpepper's

Harry was holding the Triwizard Cup, which was glowing gently in his hand. He was standing at a graveyard, but there was thick fog everywhere, hindering Harry from seeing anything clearly. He was filled with a sense of urgency and panic, there was something he had to do, and it was important. There were shadows moving just beyond Harry's line of vision, and he couldn't make out what they were, he tried to yell but when he opened his mouth there was no sound. Harry looked down and saw that his pant legs were wet in shallow water, the graveyard had disappeared, and he was now standing in the Black Lake. The Triwizard Cup in his hand had turned into a ring with an M on it, but Harry couldn't make out if it was the Malfoy or the Marigold family ring. He had trouble keeping his eyes open, as if there was a bright light shining from somewhere, and all around him he sensed that something was going on – he sensed people nearby, talking loudly, but Harry couldn't make out what they were saying, as if they were speaking gibberish. Suddenly he heard the words again, Kill the spare! and a green light flashed all around him. There was a splash, and when Harry looked down, it wasn't Cedric lying dead at Harry's feet, it was Malfoy.

***

Harry yawned so big it hurt his jaw. Over the weekend Kingsley had implemented small scale permission slips in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, which in practice meant that not only did Harry have to file for permission for everything from Kingsley, but now the people working in his department also had to file permits for Harry to approve. This caused dozens of memos to now find themselves on his desk, all hours of the day. It didn't help that Harry had slept poorly the previous night; every time he thought the nightmares had stopped, he woke up in cold sweat from one horrid dream or another.

Just when Harry thought he'd go mad from seeing one more parchment asking for permission to release someone from custody, a memo floated onto his desk and unfolded itself. It was a permission slip from Evergrey to arrest Dargan Ridgenorth, and it already featured Kingsley's signature. Before Harry could wonder what it meant, Patrick opened the door to Harry's office with a bang, already wearing his Ministry cloak. "So? Are you coming or what?"

Harry jumped up from his chair and went around his desk in such a rush that he hit his thigh on the corner of the table. "Ah, bollocks!" Harry swore and tried to shake off the aching feeling. He half-limped to his coat stand and flung his work cloak over his robes, following Patrick out in what was an awkward limping half-jog to reach him.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked, now striding just behind Patrick. He thought that they would have simply Apparated to wherever they needed to be. He was excited to go catch that son of a bitch Ridgenorth, he had been on the loose for too long.

"Mr Mulpepper's Apothecary," Patrick answered. Mr Mulpepper's Apothecary, that store had been in the Mulpepper family for nearly a millennium, Harry wasn't aware that it was even operational anymore, although it was unlikely that the Ministry would have shut it down. After all, the shop merely sold ingredients to potions that themselves could be completely innocent, but nevertheless it was probably on the watch-list of the Ministry. "The shopkeeper owled the ministry today to report that a man he didn't know had reserved an ingredient from him, a rare ingredient used in memory potions specifically, he thinks that it might be Ridgenorth. The man is coming to pick it up at 2pm."

"Alright, sounds like a solid lead," Harry replied after taking in the information he had just received, he was agitated to finally put Dargan behind bars, "but why aren't we just Apparating to Knockturn Alley?" Harry asked.

"Apparition would cause too much of a ruckus, so we're Flooing to their basement," Patrick explained.

Harry just nodded, and while they were heading towards the Atrium, more Aurors joined their way. The lot turned some heads striding through the lobby of the Ministry in their Auror robes. Eventually there were about ten of them standing in front of the outgoing fireplaces. Harry saw Blackburn, Rivers, McGallon, Buckthorn, Twigs, Crooker, and a few others. They were all wearing their Ministry cloaks, expressions tense, and eyes vigilant. They were the best of the best, everyone proven themselves time and again – if they wouldn't catch this bastard today, Harry would eat the memo granting this mission.