“i know we an’t stop you from w,” felix offered, “but we have leads on the ase we won’t stop until we’ve found her”
“thank you,” pansy offered him half a smile she gathered herself and stood to leave “i’m staying at the ashtyl please keep me updated”
“we will,” felix nodded
“ouh!” harry swatted ron’s hand off his shoulder
as soon as he’d smmed the door shut, ron’s fae flushed red “harry, mate what in godri’s name do you think you’re doing?”
“me?” harry ealed “i haven’t done anything! if you’d gotten my message, you’d know what hened”
“clearly i haven’t so you’re going to have to expin it to me” harry took a breath and then reounted the events of the st twenty four hours he left no detail out, exept the sene he’d witnessed on the fourteenth floor while it weighed on him, harry was sure whatever it was had no ren to any of the ases, let alone would it reassure ron, tehnially his handler, that all of harry’s mental faulties were still intat “so let me see if i uand this,” ron said finally “you’ve been fired from your job for walking in on marwan zivantus’ murder sene, only to somehow disover his missing daughter ter that night? and—” ron gazed around wildly, “—whilst you were off returning the kneazle and saw marwan’s daughter, someone killed your neighbor while they were in your ft, whih you and drao bloody malfoy had only just vaated”
“i know it sounds—”
“you’ve gotta dith eversworn,” ron interrupted
harry frowned “no, really, i an’t—he’s the only way into the hotel”
“there’s other ways, harry that fae is more a liability now than an asset”
harry wanted to objet but he knew ron was right “i swear malfoy knows more than he’s let on i think he trusts me, er, eversworn it might be the only way,” harry postuted ron shook his head and harry sighed “fine,” he relented the disoi of wasting eight months on something only to fail made him a bit sik he eyed a desk hair and pulled it forward when he sat, he shot ron a look of resignan the b teh who’d lied his harms said it would be more painful getting them removed than put on, and suddenly harry regretted giving in so easily
“this is going to hurt, isn’t it?” harry gulped
ron nodded and handed him a vial filled with a milky hartreuse pon harry downed it and waited his fae began to feel very hot, almost burning then the stinging sensan hit him and he squeezed his eyes losed it was as if thousands of pimples were being popped on his fae the brief agony of that was followed by something ool and light harry opened his eyes and realized the prosthetis had slid off his fae and onto the floor, and a old, naked sensan washed over him as the air kissed his real skin
“alright, harry?”
“yeah,” he ran his hands through his hair “rest in peae, arhie”
“more trouble than he was worth,” ron said
they exited the building at a brisk pae, harry eager to get away from the iigators and ron ompining about needing lunh they headed to a small afe that was out of the way of the more heavily traffiked wizard areas when harry finally felt the sun on his fae, the odd warmth made him shudder he was ertain he’d felt the sun on his fae with the harms, but somehow they’d left his skin feeling so inredibly old
“alright?” ron looked over as they walked
harry nodded “yeah, it’s just the harms wearing off i guess”
““ne said she thinks they need to put a time limit on them says she doesn’t trust that the harm won’t eventually bond to the person’s magi” ron stopped and grabbed harry’s shoulder “could you imagine, being stuk as arhie eversworn?”
the thought made harry sik or was it his stomah? harry hadn’t realized how hungry he was they finally reahed the afe and ordered sandwihes when harry asked after herne, ron’s fae went quite pale
“i’m not sure she started a projet for the department of mysteries and i haven’t seen muh of her sine”
harry nodded he knew from the two preus projets herne had worked on for the department of mysteries that ron’s statement was all he was going to get on the subjet merlin, that was probably all ron even knew and he was engaged to her “i saw gin made it on to the provinal nanal team,” harry said through a mouthful of ham sandwih
ron dropped his drink “what? where?”
“the prophet had it yesterday m”
“no they didn’t,” ron frowned “they’re announing the team tomorrow” harry wasn’t sure how he ould be mistaken “maybe it was a list of potentials,” ron finally offered
harry’s frown deepened and he stared at the table the artile was in his poket in his dirty pants bak at his ft “maybe”
something rept into his mind just then harry put down his sandwih and sat bak in his hair he ouldn’t stop himself from thinking something odd was hening to him, but he ouldn’t put his finger on what exatly it was ron interrupted his thoughts
“i know you’re worried about this zivantus ase, but you should leave it to the profesnals, harry”
the simple implian that harry wasn’t up to the task unspooled his anger “i am a profesnal! i’m an auror just like you, just like them” harry realized his voie had risen, and tried to rein himself bak in quietly, he pointed out, “besides, they’d rather hase down flimsy leads like arhie eversworn than atually try to solve their ase”
ron shoved a hip in his mouth “i spent a lot of time with them this m they’re not as daft as you’d think” harry sent him a look he hoped showed his disbelief “alright, harry why don’t we go to the hotel after lunh and hek it out? i have aess to the rime sene”
“no,” harry wined “there’s no reason we need to see that horrifi mess again”
“well is there anythin
