There were no other instructions, and Joel had Ron notify the other Aurors at each end of Knockturn Alley that they could return to Auror Headquarters too while he and Neville apparated away with Burke's body. When Ron returned to the shop, Harry was there, wandering around, after repairing both the back and front doors, though he'd left the rest of the place as it was.
"How long do you think we'll have to stand guard?" Ron asked, and Harry shrugged.
"From what Bill told us the other day about how backlogged the Curse Breakers are, it could be a while," he suggested, and Ron nodded.
"What do you think about what happened back there?"
"I think I understand a lot better now why there have been so many fatalities during these captures," Harry answered. "That killing curse was totally unwarranted. The guy knew we were covering the back, and should have known that we'd have clean shots at Borgin and Burke, since they weren't shielding their backs."
Ron nodded. "Did you see the look on his face?"
"Yeah. You know what Dumbledore told me about how killing someone tears your soul. I'd always thought about that in terms of the bad guys, but it stands to reason that it would happen to anyone - good guys or bad."
"But my mother killed..." Ron began to protest before trailing off, his face clouded with worry and uncertainty.
"Yes," Harry agreed, his eyes filled with compassion. "Your Mum will never be quite the same because of it, but she will be okay, because she's got all of us to love her and be there for her." He thought about it for a minute. "There is one difference between what the Death Eaters, or Riddle did, though, and that's the reason behind their actions. Your Mum fought Bellatrix to save Ginny and the others. That must have an impact too."
"If I forget when we get back to the Burrow, remind me to give my Mum an extra hug, mate," Ron said quietly.
"I'll do that," Harry promised, "and add one from me too."
Ron was quiet for a few minutes, going to look out the front window, but then turned back to Harry again. "Could you feel it happen?" he asked finally. "Do you think Mum did? How much did it hurt?"
Harry knew what Ron was getting at, and he shook his head. "I don't know, Ron. Riddle died because his own killing curse rebounded on him - I didn't kill him. If he hadn't chosen to do that, he would have still been alive." He could also see where Ron's mind was going with this, so he answered the real question. "We won't end up like him. It's going to take some time, but things are going to change, and we're going to help make that happen. This job isn't going to change us, or turn us hard and jaded like that guy has become."
"That's supposed to assure me?" Ron asked, smiling faintly. "You failed at Divination, mate."
Harry smiled too. "Let's just say that I have a dream."
Ron laughed. "You're really scary sometimes, Harry - seriously scary."
Their guard duty ended up being a rest of the day job, and it wasn't until late afternoon that Josh and Neville joined them again, bringing Bill and a small group of Goblins with them to do a first assessment of the store. He had Josh and three trainees stay for the hour or so that it took him, and the Goblins, to decide that the best thing to do for now was to seal the entire building and leave it until they had time to work on clearing out the huge inventory of Dark Arts and Cursed objects. When they were all outside, Bill took care of doing that, and then it was time for Harry and Ron to go back to Auror Headquarters to fill out their own reports, while Neville was allowed to head for home, and Josh went back to Auror Headquarters with Ron and Harry to do some work of his own.
Chapter 2: Revelation
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