Brynja Dunstan had been working for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement since graduating from Hogwarts four years previously. She had started as a clerk for the Hit Wizard Squad and worked there for two years. The paper test for the Auror entrance examination had never been the problem. It wasn't even jinxes and counter curses that had tripped her up, as she had been a Ravenclaw at the top of her class (second only to her good friend Penelope Clearwater.) It was the physical part of the exam that she failed three times before finally passing it. She had taken up jogging and worked to build up her stamina. Spells were fine and dandy, but sometimes the job required a good-old-mundane foot chase.
She had just passed the Auror exam in June before the war (the results came in July), but her results were never made public. Rufus Scrimgeour was murdered, and the ministry fell. Brynja's job from then on was strictly off-the-books. She was still not used to the view from her little desk at the Auror office, so it wasn't that startling when—on Monday morning—that view suddenly included Harry Potter.
"Er—excuse me," he said. Harry Potter was dressed in a pair of new dress robes with creases still in them, and despite being clean-shaved and well-dressed, his hair stuck up in the back. He was a lot taller than Brynja remembered him. She had last seen him during his third year at Hogwarts, and most of her memories of the famous Harry Potter involved him being followed around by Oliver Wood as he talked about aerial maneuvers and attack formations for chasers. Brynja had to admit that she had been paying more attention to Oliver in those sightings than the gangly thirteen-year-old he was badgering.
"Oh," Brynja said, only mildly surprised to see the hero of the wizarding world standing in the Auror office. It made sense, didn't it? They had plenty of open positions and Harry Potter was more than qualified. "Hello. You're Harry Potter." Another man had walked in behind him. He was very tall, obviously a Weasley, and his shirt collar stuck out of the top of his equally new dress robes.
Brynja Dunstan was a tall, fit woman with dark brown hair and caramel colored skin. She had large almond-shaped eyes and a heart-shaped face. She wore plain black work robes over a fitted white blouse, gray trousers, and high-heeled boots. Harry knew he had seen her somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place her face. "And you're Weasley?"
"R-Ron," Ron sputtered.
"I'm Brynja Dunstan, Auror."
Harry rushed to shake her hand. Ron just wiped his sweaty hands on his robes. "I thought—you're new?" Harry asked.
"Very. You're looking for Mr. Robards, yes?"
Brynja lead Harry and Ron back to the office of Gawain Robards. It was very early, and with the exception of the head of the department and Brynja (who was a bit of a workaholic) nobody else had come in yet. She smiled reassuringly at them because the boys—the young men—looked very nervous. Then she returned to her desk where she had been looking at a list of missing wizards. It was her job to track down who had been taken or killed by Snatcher squads and who might still be hiding out in the countryside, unaware that the war was over.
Some time passed as she compared an appallingly fastidious list of executions overseen by the Death Eater Ministry with the list of missing persons. Here and there she was able to cross off names, but it still left a few dozen witches and wizards unaccounted for. These were the people whose families still had hope.
While she worked, Williamson and Dawlish came in. A few minutes later, Alauna Savage staggered through the door nursing a thermos of extra-strong tea. After half an hour, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley came out of Mr. Robards's office clutching a mountain of paperwork each and purple employee handbooks for the Ministry of Magic. Harry dumped his stack on the empty desk adjacent to Brynja, and Ron dumped his on the desk opposite Harry's.
"Harry Potter!" Williamson called from his desk. Dimitri Williamson was a pale wizard with a long brown ponytail. He wore a leather cape over his robes. He hopped out of his chair and crossed to shake Harry's hand. "Williamson," he said. "I was stationed—"
"You were at Hogwarts the night Dumbledore..."
"Yes," Williamson said, his tone sobering. "It was a very difficult night for all of us."
"Dawlish, right?" Harry asked, pointing to John Dawlish, a sandy-haired wizard with a chevron mustache and silver spectacles.
"Glad Kingsley got to you before the Quidditch league did."
"Excuse me?" Harry asked.
Williamson laughed. "People have been talking about your professional Quidditch prospects since you became the youngest house seeker in centuries. It's not an easy thing to buckle-down and do all that Auror studying when you have a natural gift for a job like that. You could have all the gold and women you want playing Seeker."
Harry was blinking and sputtering a lot now. "Yes, well, I have enough gold, and women. Woman. I mean—"
"He's always wanted to be an auror. Harry wouldn't say yes to any team," Ron said. "Except maybe Chudley, right Harry?"
Brynja quietly observed as Williamson and Dawlish welcomed Harry and Ron. Soon after Ashton Gray and Jason Proudfoot came in and met their new coworkers. It was hard to get any work done with all the noise in the office, and the socialization was only broken up when two members of the Hitwizard squad showed up with two grubby wizards frozen and floating behind them.
"Hey, Dunstan. How's it going?" one asked. Brynja remembered that his name was Paul. "Moving on up, eh?"
"What have we got here, boys?" Gray asked, walking around the paralyzed captives. "Hey, I know that face."
"Picked 'em up trying to break into Ollivanders's shop this morning. Young Gary placed the floo call. Got him all bound up before we even arrived. But Alfie here recognized them from your list.
"Snatchers," Harry Potter said suddenly. He was staring at the man floating closest to the door and his lip was curled up in an almost snarl. "I know this one. He worked with Malfoy."
A wave of murmurs moved through the office.
"Oh yeah," Ron said. "With Greyback."
They didn't have time to hear Harry's story. Another visitor was pushing through the door, and it was the Minister of Magic himself.
"We're getting all kinds of guests today," Williamson said, helping to move the frozen prisoner out of Kingsley Shacklebolt's way.
"Harry," Kingsley said, flashing a charming smile. "Ron Weasley. Glad you could be convinced to leave your studies."
Ron snorted. "Not a hard choice...sir."
"I thought we'd head out for lunch a little early," he said, taking a gold pocket-watch out of his waistcoat and checking it. "Beat the crowd. Oh, and Ms. Dunstan, I wanted to have a word with you quickly about that execution list."
Brynja, Harry, and Ron squeezed past the crowd in the doorway and followed Kingsley Shacklebolt down the hall. At the far end of the row of ministry elevators, each emblazoned with the ministry seal and receiving a constant onslaught of folded flying memos, was a smaller elevator. There was an indentation next to the door, and Kingsley's ring, which Harry had seen before, fit nicely into the impression. The door opened, and Kingsley gestured for them all to step inside.
"You get your own lift?" Ron asked. "Excellent."
Kingsley smiled up at Ron. As tall and imposing as Minister Shacklebolt was, Ron was still taller.
"Miss Granger couldn't be convinced to join you?" he asked.
Ron shook his head. "It's mental. She's determined to finish Hogwarts. She says you can't be on the school board of governors if you don't finish Hogwarts."
"A lofty goal," Kingsley said.
"It doesn't stop there," Harry added.
There was silence in the elevator. After a cheerful chime, the doors opened. They were in a hallway that lead to a single door with the ministry seal emblazoned on it in purple. A desk in the hallway was manned by a frazzled looking receptionist who swatted at half a dozen memos as they rammed repeatedly into her temple, demanding to be read. Kingsley gestured for Harry, Ron, and Brynja to exit the lift first. "Ms. Dunstan, you've met Harry?"
"Briefly this morning," Harry said as he stepped out of the elevator.
"Good, you're going to have to get to know her pretty well. She's your primary witness for your first assignment."
Harry looked between Brynja and Kingsley, an eyebrow raised. Brynja knew exactly what this was about now, and she knew she wasn't actually going to need the file she was clutching in her hands.
Kingsley opened his office door with his ring and gestured to a row of chairs in front of his desk. It was a large room with purple and green drapes and an old walnut desk. As soon as the Aurors sat down, the receptionist, who was very near-sighted and wore coke-bottle glasses, pushed a cart of food into the room. It was piled high with sandwiches, biscuits, fruit, and a pitcher of ice water with lemons floating in it. Brynja's stomach grumbled at the sight of it because she hadn't eaten anything except an avocado after her morning run.
"Mr. Shacklebolt," the receptionist said. "We have memos from—"
"Is anything on fire, Ariel?"
"No sir."
"Then I'll take them after lunch. Thank you."
Ariel left and the door clicked shut behind her. Kingsley gestured to the cart, and everyone took turns filling a plate with food. Brynja took half an egg salad sandwich, half of a roast beef, and a tiny citrus fruit that she thought must be a clementine. Kingsley served himself last, but he didn't so much as nibble on his food as he watched them eat. Ron Weasley was another story; he shoveled in two roast beef, two egg salad, and three turkey and cranberry halves before Brynja had even eaten one whole sandwich. When Kingsley got down to the point of this meeting, Ron was devouring a banana with less than three bites.
"You boys know that I was head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement after Scrimgeour left to be minister. Robards was my second, which is why he has the job now."
"They sure like to pick Aurors for your job, eh?" Ron asked before washing down his last bite with a gulp of water.
"People like to feel protected," Kingsley said with a wry smile. "And just because Voldemort is finally dead, doesn't mean that job is over."
"You said he got the job because he was second," Ron said. "You mean he wasn't really qualified?"
Shacklebolt shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Don't get me wrong, Gawain is a fantastic wizard and investigator, it's just..."
"You don't trust him," Harry said.
Brynja and Kingsley both nodded. "There was a Death Eater in our ranks last summer when the Ministry fell. Sam Capper. He was a Hufflepuff, ironically. A young guy whose loyalties weren't to us."
"They were to his pureblooded family," Brynja supplied. "And his Slytherin father was very loyal to You-Know-You."
"But you think he wasn't the only one," Harry said. "Right?"
"Capper didn't have the clearance to know some of the things that got out," Kingsley explained. "In fact, only myself, Ms. Dunstan, and Gawain knew about one very important mission. I hope, Harry, that you trust me after all we've been through. Ms. Dunstan was the one who almost died as the result of the leak. That leaves Robards. I have to know he didn't leak before I can trust him to run the department. I know you and Ronald have plenty of experience looking into things you're supposed to be keeping your nose out of."
Ron blushed from neck to forehead. Harry chuckled. "You could say that."
"And you're sure nobody else knew?" Ron asked.
"Positive," Brynja said, breaking the silence she had kept since entering the room. "You see, I passed the Auror test right before the ministry fell. Minister Shacklebolt asked me to go under cover because he suspected Sa—Capper. My test scores were sealed and nobody even knew I had passed the exam."
"So you were asked to get in with Capper and find out who else was with him?" Harry asked.
Brynja didn't answered. She was sitting upright in her chair, her hands gripping the armrests, her jaw clenched.
Kingsley cut in. "Ms. Dunstan spent six months under cover in Voldemort's Ministry before Capper found out she was working for me. About a week before her cover was blown, I met with Robards to talk about smuggling some muggleborns to Australia. During that meeting, worried that Brynja might be wrongly convicted as a Death Eater if I died before the Ministry was reclaimed, I revealed her as one of my sources. I thought someone else should know. And I did trust him."
"So it's our job to confirm your suspicions," Harry said.
"Or clear his name, if that's the truth. But I need evidence before I do anything. I need you, Harry. And you, Ron. And I need to know if Robards and Capper are it or if my whole department is infected. I never was this suspicious before the war but—well, isn't it odd that so many Aurors survived the year?"
Harry frowned.
"I just figured you all were badasses," Ron said.
Brynja tried not to laugh.
"What about Veritaserum?" Ron asked. "Couldn't you just dose all of the aurors?"
Kingsley winced. He shook his head slowly. "I don't like the stuff, to be honest. Have you ever been controlled by the Imperius Curse?"
"I have," Harry said. "A few times. I've gotten real good at fighting it."
"Well, that's certainly a resume item for an auror," Shacklebolt said. "Then you know how to feels, to have someone in your head compelling you to act. Imagine a compulsion ten times stronger, only they can't make you do anything, just talk. You have no secrets. Your insides are out. You're exposed. It's still mind control. They're still taking away your choice."
Harry glanced at Ron, but it was clear neither of them knew what to say.
"They did it to Scrimgeour before they killed him. And maybe they did it to Robards and he was just ashamed. But I won't do it, not even to convicted death eaters. Fudge was a big fan, but it's a moral issue for me, Weasley. Veritas makes it sound noble and pure, but it's a violation."
Kingsley took a long sip of water and eyed his plate of food. He turned away from it, though, and spoke directly to Harry. "I chose you because I figure you're pretty much incorruptible. You're in charge of the task force. Officially Robards is going to give you whatever assignment he pleases, but you need to work outside of the office on this project. Brynja knows how to set up further meetings off Ministry grounds. Robards can't know we suspect him. If he did betray us, I want him brought to justice. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir," Harry said.
"Yes sir," Ron followed.
Kingsley Shacklebolt picked up a ham salad sandwich and examined it for an angle of attack. "Good then," he said. "I'm going to have lunch. Feel free to take as many sandwiches as you'd like back to your desk."
Brynja, Harry, and Ron slipped out the door, Ron carrying half a sandwich in each hand. Ariel let them into the minister's elevator and sent them back down to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. In the elevator, the silence was tense.
"So," Brynja said. "We need to set up a first meeting. Where are you two living?"
"Oh," Ron said. "It's very well hidden. You can't find it without a note from Albus Dumbledore."
"No," Harry said. "We're all the secret-keepers now, remember? We can tell anyone we want. It's just hidden from strangers. And Rita Skeeter."
"Skeeter? Brilliant!" Ron laughed. "A permanent refuge from that bat."
Brynja was more than a bit confused by all this. "Oh. Okay," she cut in. "Well, I have a better idea."
"Yeah?" Harry asked. "On how to meet in secret?"
"It'll be less suspicious if we're socializing outside of work if we go through a mutual friend, correct?"
Harry nodded.
"Good then," Brynja said as she stepped out of the elevator and into the hall before the Department of Magic Law Enforcement. "Then expect an owl from Oliver Wood."